Romans 11:25-27

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Can you hear me okay? All right. I don't want to project too hard because I don't want to lose my voice.
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But we're still in chapter 11. Come towards the end of chapter 11 here.
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But we'll only be doing verses 25 through 27 today.
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And there's reason for that. There's a pretty decent chunk here that we're doing concerning the future salvation of Israel.
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It's a very hot topic, especially depending on who you talk to. But I've split it up into at least two, if not three, weeks here towards the end of chapter 11 so that we can move through it at a slow pace and take our time with it.
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It is important, though it is not worthy of controversy.
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And I'll explain why here in a minute. But starting in verse 1 of chapter 11, as we usually do so that we can keep the context of the chapter,
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Paul says, he begins with, I asked then, has God rejected his people by no means?
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For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
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God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elisha?
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How he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking 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 remnant chosen by grace.
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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.
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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?
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By no means. 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 for 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
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Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to somehow make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.
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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 first fruits 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 it 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. 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 he spare you.
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Note then the kindness and the 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 the 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, brothers.
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A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all
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Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
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And this will be my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.
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As I said before, we are now coming to the end of chapter 11, and to the mystery of Israel's salvation.
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As I said at the beginning of this chapter, I wanted us to take our time and consider that for many this chapter is very controversial.
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It is. It's very controversial regarding different eschatological views, in particular of reference to the future of the
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Jewish people. So while we don't want to mishandle the scriptures,
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I also don't want to harp on them too hard either. That will become clear later on.
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And while we do so, we must also remember the full context and content of the chapter, that every bit of this chapter is authoritative.
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There is not a single part of Scripture that is less authoritative than another. There is no part of Scripture that we are allowed to skip over, because we don't prefer it, and we are also not allowed to read into it what we want.
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But now that we have come to this section, as I said before, we're going to take our time with it.
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We're going to spend a couple weeks here. So I do apologize if you wanted a quick answer. Quick answer ain't coming.
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We're going to tarry here. But I'll start off by saying in the colossal amount of research and reading that I did for this section to prepare for this, and the new numerous theological giants that I read,
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I wanted to add this quote at the very beginning. This is Martin Lloyd -Jones, if you're familiar with him.
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Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones says, we must be careful that our proper interest in the content of this chapter does not become carnal excitement.
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There is more than one way of being excited. We can be excited intellectually as well as emotionally.
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I warn those who are keen to find out what is going to be said on this matter, or that, and particularly on the quote, so all
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Israel shall be saved, this attitude is quite inappropriate when one comes to study the
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Scriptures. Let us remind ourselves at the outset of two things which we find in this chapter.
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The first is that the Apostle refers in, sorry, the first is that the
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Apostle refers in it to a ministry. If therefore we think that we have this chapter all sorted out and tabulated, and that there can be no other view worth considering, we are already wrong.
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But the second is this way, or I'm sorry, but the second is the way in which the
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Apostle concludes this chapter. Having written it, he finds himself in a state of mind and heart in which he can think of and do nothing else but praise and worship
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God. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
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The consideration of this truth had that effect on him, so it should be on us and all who consider it, and that is what we begin to do now.
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So starting in verse 25, lest you be wise in your own sight.
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This phrase should sound quite familiar. Similar phrases are used throughout the
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Scriptures. What Paul means by this is, or lest you come to your own conceited conclusion out of your ignorance and arrogance.
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And this is how I know that that's what that means. In Judges 17 verse 6,
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God says, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
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And in Proverbs 12 verse 15, remember this one, The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
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There is not a place that I have found in Scripture where referring to one as being wise in their own eyes is a good thing.
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Every time it is referenced, it concerns foolishness.
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So Paul, not wanting the Greeks that he is speaking to about the
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Jews, about the future state of Israel, not wanting them to be foolish and come to their own conclusions in ignorance, is going to tell them what is going to happen.
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Unfortunately these days we do have quite a few people who are wise in their own sight, and they make no effort to quiet their own voices on the matter.
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They do not use Scripture as their guide, they do not seek counsel from eldership or from church history, rather they're wise in their own sight.
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But what Paul is saying here is that rather than do that, I am going to reveal this to you so that you do not spend countless hours wondering about it instead of doing what you ought to be doing.
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As in, here you go, here's the answer, don't spend that much time on it.
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It is important, but it bears no importance compared to your commission.
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Next he says, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. Mystery, as in not something that is unsolved, but rather something that is difficult to discern from the
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Scriptures without proper guidance. Now there are unsolved mysteries that we confess are in Scripture, the
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Trinity being one of them. God is one. Also God is the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Explain how that works. We don't know.
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The best explanation of that is the is the Athanasian Creed, and yet when you read it, it doesn't tell you exactly how it works, rather it tells you what it isn't and what is true about it.
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So rather than have us be perplexed and concerned and come up with our own conclusions, Paul is going to give us the future.
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This is a partial hardening. Now I pause there for this reason. This is important, a partial hardening.
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What does he mean by a partial hardening? Does he mean that individually they are partially hardened?
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We know that this isn't particularly the case of how God hardens a people.
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It is a progressive process as he withdraws restraining grace from the people, but usually when he begins to withdraw restraining grace from a people, he doesn't stop.
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They become ripe for judgment. Thus is the case with Pharaoh, who
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Paul used just some chapters ago as an example. So if it's not a partial hardening individually of these people, then we must conclude that it is a partial hardening along with the rest of this chapter,
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Paul saying that there is a remnant, that it is a partial hardening of the people in its entirety.
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Part of them are hardened. If you don't remember from the beginning of the chapter,
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Romans 11 4 through 5, it says, but what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Paul.
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So at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. So if this partial hardening refers to the remnant, that not all of the
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Israelites are hardened, this is the conclusion that we come to. Now then he says has come upon Israel.
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Now there are two groups in that are referred to interchangeably as Israel. The first group here is ethnic
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Israel. The second group would be spiritual Israel. So which is it?
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Which one is he referring to here? Well, while he is talking about spirit, while he is talking to spiritual
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Israel, this is an epistle written to the Roman Church, while he is talking to spiritual
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Israel, or the church, which comprises both Jews and Gentiles, those who are in Christ, and would be considered the true people of God, or the spiritual children of Abraham.
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You remember from chapter 9 verse 8, it cannot be the saints.
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What other reference do we have in Scripture of God partially hardening the church, or his elect?
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This would be opposed to the modus operandi of the work of the Holy Spirit, would it not?
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Okay. So the other thing would be that he is talking about ethnic
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Israel, ethnic Jews. This fits within the context of the chapter and doesn't contradict the rest of Scripture.
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Okay. So we're talking about ethnic Israel, that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until, meaning it's finite, there is a point at which this partial hardening will be removed, and restraining grace will be restored, until the fullness or the complete number of, what fullness means, of the elect
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Gentiles has come in to the family of God. Okay.
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So there will be a time when the number of elect Gentiles is complete.
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You agree on that? Right. Time of the Gentiles ends.
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Something is gonna happen here that we're talking about, and then
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Christ returned. The number of the elect is finite. It says, until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in, and in this way, which we're fixing to get to, all
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Israel will be saved. Now I'm gonna pause and go back to all
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Israel. So let's quantify what Paul means by Israel.
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This is the phrase that Martin Lloyd -Jones puts emphasis on. Does he mean every single ethnic
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Jew that has ever existed? Well, it would be hard to prove that case considering that there is first death and then the judgment, right?
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So at the end of time before Christ's return, is he going to go into hell to all of the ethnic
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Jews who hated him and were condemned there, including the Pharisees and all those others, and redeem them because of their ethnicity?
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This would fly in the face of our Christian faith and everything that the
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Bible teaches. So we cannot come to that conclusion. Beyond that, it would be completely out of the context of the rest of this chapter.
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Does he mean every ethnic Jew alive? It is possible, however,
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I do believe this also would be out of context with the chapter and with the rest of Scripture.
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Jews aren't saved because they are Jews. Paul labors this point throughout
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Romans and throughout the last three chapters that we have been in. Jews aren't saved because they're
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Jews. They're saved because they're elect. Everyone is saved because they were elected by God before the foundation of the world.
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We cannot take one group and separate them out from the other and say that they are saved in some different manner.
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I'll point to Romans 3 here, verses 22 through 25. It says, "...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom
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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith."
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Romans 3, 29 and 30. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the
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God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith.
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So if you say that Jews will be saved because they're Jews before Christ returns, your conclusion flies in the face of what
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Scripture just said. John 10, 14 and 16.
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I am the Good Shepherd. This is Christ speaking. I am the
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Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the
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Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
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I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.
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As I've stated before, as Paul has stated and labored throughout Romans, there is one flock and that is it.
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The separation is not Jew and Gentile, it is elect and reprobate. The other thing
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I want to point out here is the prime tenets of our Christian faith. The thing that separates us from Catholics and everyone else, who we refer to them as the solas.
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The Scripture alone is the authority in the church, and it says that by grace alone we are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.
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Friend, if you do not confess these five solas, you are not
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Christian. You can't be.
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You may be on your way there by the grace of God, but these are the first five truths that we confess of doctrine, beyond the gospel itself.
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It is faith, period, in Christ, period, and you cannot confess faith alone in Christ alone, and then also hold to some sort of ethnic salvation for Jews because of birthright.
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They are diametrically opposed. Going back to Romans 9, 10 and 13, and not only so, but also when
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Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger.
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As it is written, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. If it's an ethnic problem, then somebody better have a talk with Esau.
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But again I say this is the issue with reading into the text what you want and taking every single word literally.
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We have to draw from the context of the rest of Scripture. The only thing allowed to interpret
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Scripture is Scripture. So if you read
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Scripture and you're having trouble with it, keep reading. Eventually the
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Holy Spirit will open your heart and your mind to what it means. It's okay to say
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I don't know, but because we cannot read this passage out of context from the rest of Romans and the rest of Scripture, that no one is saved by any other method than faith alone in Christ alone, this leaves us with only a few conclusions that we can come to within the context of what
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Paul is talking about. Number one is that if all here regarding all
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Israel, if all is being used in a hyperbole and Israel is being used to refer to ethnic
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Jews, I'm going to pause for a second right here. Perhaps I should have done this before.
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I want you to understand that all is used over and over and over again in hyperbole in Scripture.
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I'm going to give you an example of that. We were here just last chapter where Paul says,
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But I ask, have they not heard, speaking of the Jews, have they not heard the gospel? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the world and their words to the ends of the world.
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This is hyperbole. Paul had not preached the gospel to every living thing from one end of the world to the other, and he knew that.
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It's a hyperbolic over -exaggeration to emphasize the work of the gospel.
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I'll also point you to 1 Kings 140, and I did have a whole lot more references in here, but I kind of backed off there towards the end.
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But in 1 Kings chapter 1 verse 40, it says, Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said,
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Long live King Solomon and Solomon. And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise.
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First of all, can we account for absolutely every person in the nation state of Israel that was there on that day?
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We can't. All meaning the greater multitude of the people of Israel.
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Also, I haven't checked the area in quite some time, but I'm pretty sure the earth is intact.
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Hyperbole. It's okay. It's not a lie. It's an over -exaggeration to prove a point.
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Mark 1 5 through 6, it says, John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
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Amen. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river
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Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt about his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
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I didn't need the last part, but I love the last part. Was all of Judea and all of Jerusalem going out to be baptized by John?
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No, because for that to happen, you would have to include all of the Pharisees, all of the Sadducees, the king, the king's court.
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For it to be the totality of Judea, you would have to include everyone who hated
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John. Hyperbole.
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But back to Romans, since we can conclude that all in this context can be used hyperbolically here in this passage, there's a definite possibility, or since we can conclude that it's being used hyperbolically in other passages, there is definitely a possibility that it's being used hyperbolically here.
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Now if all is being used hyperbolically, and Israel refers to ethnic
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Jews, and we take into account that Paul has been talking about the remnant of ethnic
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Jews, can't forget that part, that God has kept for himself, then we could conclude that it refers to the fullness of the elect
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Jews being complete. Then, not now, but then.
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This is a historical view that's been held in church history for a lot longer than a hundred years.
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Now if we say that all is being used literally, as in all ethnic
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Jews, they're alive at the time, and Israel refers to spiritual
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Israel, not ethnic Israel, okay, then we could conclude that he is still speaking about the remnant that he has been talking about, and really the only difference is the number of elect.
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Neither of the two things that I said has discounted anything about the elect. Did you notice that?
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These are two views that have historically been held in the church. There are many, many, many other views and nuances within those views.
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You cannot read a commentary and one exactly be the same as the other on the manner in which all
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Israel will be saved and what that means, which is why Martin Lloyd -Jones said what he said at the beginning.
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If we want to conclude that when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, the gospel will then go again.
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God will remove that partial hardening on Israel, and the gospel goes again to Israel, and the remnant that will still be there becomes rather a remnant, but a multitude of ethnic
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Jews. Hallelujah, praise God, they're elect.
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If we want to conclude that when the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in, and the gospel goes again to an unhardened people, and the number of the remnant stays the same and is completed, and then
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Christ returns. Hallelujah, God be praised, the gospel went forth, but we're not done yet.
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Next, he says all Israel will, in this manner, all Israel will be saved as it is written.
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The deliverer will come from Zion, meaning Jesus, who is an ethnic
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Jew. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
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Well, Jacob is an ethnic
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Jew. He doesn't say Abraham, does he? It would be easier to conclude that he's talking about all the saints if he said
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Abraham, but he says Jacob, who we just talked about not too long ago, him versus Esau.
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Jacob being the originator. So we have another clue here that Paul is referring to, and it is a clue, is referring to ethnic
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Israel. So it would indeed make sense that because he is in this chapter, in the context of chapter 11, he is talking to Gentiles about ethnic
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Jews, that he is not referring to all saints, both
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Jew and Gentile, rather he was referring to the remnant that he has been talking about. But hold on a moment.
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Don't conclude yet. In 27, he says this and this will be my covenant with them when
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I take away their sins. This is the defining statement.
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This is the one that I want you to focus on. When I take away their sins.
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If you decide to conclude that in the fullness of the Gentiles, the gospel goes again, as I said before, in any manner of the remnant of ethnic
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Jews is saved, they will be saved by no other means than because Christ took away their sins.
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We aren't done, but I'm gonna pause here until next week when
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Paul gives us many more context clues as to what he is referring.
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But here's the thing I want you to focus on till we get there. I don't want you to go home and draw lines in your
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Bible connecting this scripture to that scripture to kind of jump ahead and try to figure out what
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Paul has to say. I don't want you to draw a map. I don't want you to do anything but read it.
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Because in reading it, you are vastly less likely to interject what you want to be there.
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And I want you to remember what Paul said at the beginning. Lest you be wise in your own sight,
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I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. Paul has explained and is going to continue to explain this to us so that we do not worry about it.
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That is his whole point in telling us this. Also so that we're not conceited.
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As he just said several verses ago, if the number of the elect, as I said before, at the end of time is this many, or if it's this many, praise
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God the elect were saved. And I want to ask you this.
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Let me ask you a question. I seriously want you to consider your answer to this question. You don't have to answer. It's rhetorical, but think about the answer.
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If God and his divine providence hardened every single Gentile tomorrow, would that change the way that you share the gospel?
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Would it change who you share it to? How would you know?
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Are we not supposed to share it to those who are hardened? I'll point you back to something else that Paul said, and he's going to reference it later next week.
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Be ready, as were some of you. So as Paul said before, don't be arrogant.
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God does not favor us Gentiles over the Jews, nor them over us.
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Collectively we are one flock, and our commission is to go forth and make disciples of all people in all the world, and by all
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I mean literally all, until his return.
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We do not get an end to the Great Commission until the sky splits open and he comes back, up to the very second.
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So any knowledge of anything that is revealed to you in Scripture should never ever change the way that you share the gospel, unless it makes you share it more because you are so grateful that it was shared with you.
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God and Paul wants to rid us Gentiles of our arrogance toward the
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Jews, toward anyone else, that our general attitude ought to be one of thankfulness.
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So let the Word and let the Holy Spirit rid you of the arrogance that you have, myself included.
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God is not done with them, and he is not done with us, and what we need to focus on is the gospel.