E Pluribus Unum, Romans 11, The True Israel

Romans chapter 11 starting in verse 1 hear the word of the Lord. I Asked then has

God rejected his people By no means for I myself. I'm an Israelite a descendant of Abraham a member of the tribe of Benjamin God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah 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 seek my life

But what is God's reply to him I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail so to at the present time

There is a remnant 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

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking the elect obtained it

But the rest were hardened as it is written God gave them a spirit of stupor eyes that they would not see and ears that they would not hear down to this very day and David says that their table become a snare and a trap a stumbling block and a retribution for them

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever So I asked did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means

Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous

Now if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles How much more will their full inclusion mean?

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles and as much then as I am an apostle to the

Gentiles I magnify my ministry in order that somehow to make my fellow 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 if The dough offered his first fruits is holy.

So is the whole lump and if the root is holy So are the branches? but if some of the branches were broken off and you though a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in The nourishing root of the tree do not be arrogant toward the branches if you are

Remember, it is not you who support the root but the root that supports you Then you will say branches were broken off so that I may be grafted in That is true.

They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith

So do not become proud but stand in awe For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you

Note, then the kindness and the severity of God Severity toward those who are fallen but God's kindness to you

Provided you continue in his kindness Otherwise you too will be cut off and even day if they do not continue in their unbelief

Will be grafted in for God has the power to graft them in again for if you were cut

For if you were cut 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 into their own olive tree? Lest you be wise in your own conceits

I want you to understand this mystery brothers a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the

Gentiles has come in and In this way all Israel will be saved as it is written.

The deliverer will come from Zion He will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when

I take away their sins as regards the gospel They are enemies of God for your sake but as regards election

They are beloved for the sake of their forefathers for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable

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 the that by the mercy shown to you

They may also now receive mercy for God has consigned all to disobedience

That he might have mercy on all oh The depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways

For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given to him that he might be repaid

For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever

Amen The Lord has blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well is ethnic pride wrong

Looking at see at least three races represented here is ethnic pride wrong Is it wrong to feel some enjoyment or some what he would call confidence?

some value in your ethnic heritage Now that's kind of a sticky question because first for Christians They're very uncomfortable the idea of pride and for good reason the

Apostle John tells us that the pride of life Is not from the father from the world pride is one of the things the

Lord hates But the problem is that we often use the word in English pride or like I say,

I am proud of to mean I feel good about I'm not ashamed of like I'm proud of my child's grades or I'm proud of the way my house looks and that's not necessarily bad

So as ethnic pride Bad, is it wrong to feel good about your race or nation?

Now that's an interesting question on Memorial Day weekend Americans would say yes to celebrating the nation

But America's have a very uncomfortable time with ethnic pride

Because we are a nation that's not based on race in some nations, you know You can get citizenship just automatically if you share their race

But in the u .s. We are supposed to be united by ideas by convictions ideals

Rather than by ethnicity now, so the motto included on the first American seal

Established in 1782 had the words e pluribus unum

Latin for out of many one We were one nation

Created out of people from many other nations now sure we can allow

Ethnic groups different ethnic groups to celebrate their own heritage, you know, we have the Irish Americans celebrate st

Patrick's Day their heritage and a lot of people wear green on that day Even if they're not really Irish or Italian Americans on Columbus Day Mexican Americans on Cinco de

Mayo We can establish special times to remember the contribution of certain groups, especially ones that were suppressed in the past like African -americans

We can still be one. I think most Americans agree, but allow for the many to be proud of their

Diversity, of course some Americans who are in the majority Dislike all this, you know almost any talk about ethnic identity saying, you know, you should feel proud of your ethnic

Heritage forget it all Just be American likely They just don't know what it's like to be a minority to feel different with a different culture different origin

It's easy for people who are in the majority To just assume that their culture is culture.

That's just everyone is that way they think That's the way everyone lives and acts like the way they do

That it's easy to it's easy to fit in It's easy for me to fit in should be easy for you to fit in right? It's easy to feel apart.

I feel apart Why shouldn't you feel apart? I lived in Singapore for five years and there I found I suddenly found myself

Raised as a majority one of the majority found myself a small minority and I wanted to be reminded of my nation.

I Celebrated July 4th and Thanksgiving every time I came around Even though no one around me did and before the

Internet I listened to the voice of America on shortwave radio I wanted to hear what's going on in America. I ate at McDonald's in KFC And look forward every week to what was then my favorite

TV show America's funniest home videos Now not only was it funny, but for a half hour a week.

I could imagine I was back in America. I Crave that I was proud of my nation the majority there is

Chinese and like most majorities Anywhere, they just kind of assume their way is

The way I Once spoke to a Chinese Singaporean man who was there in there in Singapore planning on coming to America He's talking to me about what it was like It's just asking me questions and I told him that you know

Once you're there You may find a Chinese church that you would feel comfortable in and he responded all that won't be necessary I'll feel perfectly comfortable with the with the

Americans. I Didn't say anything Look at him You'll feel differently once you get to the u .s.

You will suddenly feel like such a stranger and you'll crave the familiarity of your culture

And even if you most the time even if you eat with forks, you'll want to see some chopsticks

You'll want to hear some Mandarin. You'll want some Chinese food Familiar ways you won't be around familiar ways of thinking of seeing things

You don't realize how Chinese you really are I Knew that because I didn't realize how

American I was until I left America The fact is almost you can ask what should you have ethnic pride?

The fact is almost everyone is proud of their ethnicity in some way

That's what is home to them. It's what you eat It's the way you eat it's what you value the way you treat people the way you see yourself

Your family your country your history. It's in the air you breathe

It's home and God stands over all the nations and the cultures and the ethnicities of the world and he sees perfectly all the

Strengths the weaknesses the sins the virtues of each one and out of them all

He is calling one people together. They can all bring in their languages

Their forks if they want their chopsticks that they like they can leave their shoes at the door They do that kind of thing or they could wear them in the house.

They can retain a lot about their native culture But that must not be

The center of who they are at their heart must be a faith in Jesus that attaches them to other people with that same faith from every nation in the world

Well here in Romans 11, we see Paul deal with that ethnic pride.

It's a pride that he was familiar with Because he shared it at least the good part of it

Himself if any group of people have something to feel proud about it's the Jews Sure, the

Americans have their Declaration of Independence, you know values of liberty and justice for all power and prosperity powerful military prosperous economy

The we have the bravery and the sacrifice of our troops that we remember a

Memorial Day Something we can rightly feel proud of There's so many people lay down their lives for this country and the

Chinese have their long history the wisdom of Confucius the Great Wall Inventions like gunpowder and the compass paper printing

But of but all of that Pales into comparison to what

Israel could be proud of you know, they have the fact God chose them

Of all the people in the world chose them God revealed himself to their forefathers

He led them powerfully out of Egypt. He gave them a law. He spoke to them through prophets

He raised up a king David to rule for God himself Now that's something you can feel proud of, you know, they regularly prayed.

This is one of that. This is one of their standard devotional daily prayers Blessed are you

Lord King of the universe for not having made me a Gentile so ethnic pride

Was a very part of their daily prayers and with that that kind of pride and our own place as non

Jews in God's people Paul deals with in this chapter and he deals with it in three parts

First the remnant in verses 1 to 10 and then second the tree in verses 11 to 24 and third

The mystery and verses 25 to 36 Well first the remnant

Earlier in Romans. He's he's shown that being right with God comes through faith

Because it comes through works. Does it come through ancestry just being born into it? He said in Romans chapter 2 verse 28 for no one is a

Jew who is merely one outwardly He Picked up this idea again

He just kind of dropped that like a bomb in chapter 2 and he but now he picks it up again in chapter 9

Where he said in verse 6 not all who are from Israel are of Israel Now that should sound very strange

Doesn't it you think about that? That's very strange thing to say. It would be strange to say no one is

Polish Who is merely one outwardly? Huh? Or not all who are from Japan are of Japan what?

Sure you are if that's your ethnicity if that's where you come from where your parents come from that's where your ancestors were

Then that is who you are You know you inherit your ethnicity, you know the modern

Israeli in modern Israel They have a law called the right of return and it states just that in law any person from anywhere in the world

Who has Jewish ancestry? Okay, that means either parent doesn't have to be both parents eat mother or father or even just one grandparent out of your four grandparents

Who is Jewish is? Considered Jewish. It's considered a Jew and has a right

To immigrate to Israel become a citizen automatically you step off the plane You can prove that one of your grandparents is a

Jew you are a Jew You are a citizen of Israel as soon as you're there That's the modern Israeli law and it's saying one is a

Jew who is merely one Outwardly all who are from Israel are of Israel the law says

But the inspired Apostle Paul says No Being one of God's people

Which is the the most important meaning of what it means to be of Israel being one of God's people who inherit the promises given to Abraham does not depend on being literally

Born from Abraham your physical ethnicity does not make you one of God's people

What matters he's been he's been hammering on through Romans is faith Now if that's the case to be in chapter 11, he then he asked

Has God rejected his people? He answers again emphatically. Absolutely not

But let's be careful here Some people pointed that say see then you are of Israel if you are from Israel now

Let's be careful here to see who are his people that he's not rejected. They aren't just Israelites by birth but some who are from Israel are of Israel as Paul shows here and with four proofs first.

He says the personal Me look at me. I Myself and I'm Israelite of the descendant of Abraham, but God has saved me

I am one saved out of this many who will not believe second

The theological in verse 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew and That last word should ring a bell for new

This should immediately remind us of what the last time Paul spoke of God for knowing Which is in Romans chapter 8 verse 29 for those whom he foreknew whom he decided beforehand to have a relationship with with those whom he foreknew those

He predestined and called and justified and glorified

They are God's elect whom no one can condemn.

There's therefore no condemnation for those whom God foreknew It is as good as done.

So here has God rejected every literal Israelite has he no, there's me

Paul says the personal then there's those whom he has foreknown the elect

Third there's the biblical Something that the Old Testament, you know, it's assumed the Old Testament is for Israel.

It's not for us It's for Israel literal Jews But even the Old Testament shows us that not all who are from Israel are really of Israel Are really

God's people in Elijah's time. Most of Israel was persecuting

God's true people the ethnic People were persecuting the true people

Killing the prophets demolishing God's altars and Elijah felt so alone at one point.

He just cried out This I'm the only one left But the

Lord said that he's kept for himself 7 ,000 men who are still fateful to him. There are a fateful few

The Bible shows us well fourth. There's the partial in verse 5 just as an

Elijah's day So to Paul says so to at the present time there is a remnant a

Remnant just a few left over. The question is starting that he begins with has

God rejected his people No, there is a part a remnant of Israel who are really his people

They are not rejected, but it's only partial He's kept a remnant in Israel.

He's kept one then Kept one now who are his people and they are chosen he says

Because they're Israelites and all Israelites are God's people No They are chosen by grace not because they are better than the others have something to be proud of but purely by grace grace

He says that is dependent on something in us people Is it really grace at all is it?

In order for it to be grace. It has to depend on nothing in us on God alone

So as God rejected all Of Israel all the Jews Paul's own ethnic group that he feels, you know

Rightly so proud of that. He has such sympathy for yes, that's love for his own people, but they are not contrary to To what they think and to what they are wrongly proud of they are not right with God Simply because they are

Israelites Sure, some of them are saying some of them will be saying but that's not because they are

Israelites it's only because of God's Grace to them. So then in verse 7 he's echoing back to his previous question all the way back to chapter 9 verse 30

All the way just he dealt with all the way through chapter 10 Israel was seeking to be right with God all that law keeping they were seeking to be right with God, but they didn't get it

Why? Now sure with a few The remnant the elect they got it

He says there was a remnant by grace who got right with God, but he says but the rest were hardened

The reason the majority of the Israelites did not accept that Jesus was the

Messiah was because in verse 8 God gave them a spirit of stupor That's like when they hear the gospel, it's like they're asleep

They're unable to see it and I'm able to understand it. You ever try to talk to someone who's asleep.

You don't get very far They said they have eyes that they would not see ears that they would not hear and he says down to this very day and then

Condemnation the sentence against them that they would be trapped that they would stumble that they would be blinded that they would be enslaved

That's what comes upon Those who are from Israel who are not really of Israel who wouldn't believe

But there is a remnant They're out of Israel that God is calling some

Next we see the tree This is an illustration a tree an olive tree starting in verses 11 to 24

He said that Israel as most of the Jews have stumbled at what he conversed in chapter 10 The Word of Christ the preaching about Jesus That preaching that being right with God is through believing in Jesus what he did and so in verse 11

Have they completely fallen? No more to be considered these Jews.

Have they completely fallen again? Absolutely not But because they didn't accept

Jesus the Word of Christ has gone out to the non Jews so God used the sin of Israel God used their their hardening of heart to bring salvation to other ethnic groups to other nations you see

For most of the early Christians like Paul the Apostles. This was a total surprise

What what happened, you know, they they expected the Jews to happily accept the news of the

Messiah That Jesus was the Messiah that he rose from the dead about and now they should just simply believe him

They probably you know what happened on the day of Pentecost when so many about 3 ,000 believed it came They probably expected that just to continue and increase everywhere they went but time after time even though a few

Jews would believe here and there most rejected the Word of Christ and so They took then the gospel that that word out to the non -jews

To the Greeks to the Romans the Arabs the Egyptians the Ethiopians whoever else was around many of them accepted it and If it had not been for the rejection of the gospel by many of the

Jews, they may never have considered actively Taking the gospel to the others their hands may have been full for that matter

Just discipling and baptizing the all these Jewish converts that they expected to come in They just may never have had the time to go out to the

Gentiles So God used the this rough reception these closed doors.

They were getting everywhere when they went to the Jews He used that to get the

Christians out of the synagogues and into the marketplace of the Gentiles He used the rejection by the

Jewish officials to steer them out to the world to the people like our ancestors

Because it was from them our ancestors That he was now calling his people so he says in verse 12 their

Trespass that is the sin of the Jews in rejecting the gospel their trespass has meant riches for the world

That is for the non -jewish people because we that's us, right? We are getting the gospel as A direct result of them

Rejecting the gospel. So he says if we Non -jewish people if we're getting riches by their failure

How much better will it be? for us and for them if one day they stop resisting if they accept

Jesus as the Messiah if finally the full number of Jews that are supposed to believe if finally they will believe

It's an exclamation. How much more how much greater will it be

Paul says when that day comes? So even though Paul is he calls himself here the

Apostle to the Gentiles That is he is selected by the Lord Jesus himself to carry the word of the

Christ to non -jewish people like our ancestors He still cares for his own people

He is the good kind of ethnic pride He wants to see his people saved too.

So he hopes that if the Jews see non -jews like us

Enjoying the blessings of God You know getting the benefits of the covenant with God That the

Jews thought was just for them to see us getting the benefits of that then they will get jealous They'll say hey, there's something to this gospel after all

Paul's right and thus some of them will be saved So finally when that happens finally what he calls the full number

The full complement of them will be included among God's people because in verse 15 for in verse 15 for that is if their rejection which

I think he means that they have rejected the gospel if that means that they them having rejected the gospel means reconciliation for the world that is

People of all kinds of different nations like our ancestors About a many ethnic groups if they're now being put in a good relationship with God because they rejected it if formerly pagan non -jewish sinful often barbaric people especially as Westerners We're being reconciled with God What then will it mean?

He says when the full number of Jews finally accept Jesus of the Messiah, he says that will be a glorious day

Like the resurrection like life from the dead There is still he says a full number of Them of them waiting to be brought in So for us that means we should not use their rejection of the gospel as an excuse to reject them

To treat them like animals discriminate against them treat them Badly, even though only some of them are truly holy.

He says selected by God. It's like a pinch of dough I'm gonna make a big offering they take a pinch of it and give it as a sacrifice of firstfruits

But still that if that that that pinch is the the really holy thing that sacrifice. Well, so the whole lump in a way

Has some of that holiness Wear off on it if the root of the tree

Abraham and David is holy Some of the branches it doesn't mean now that doesn't mean that comparison

Well, they're and they're all holy and they're all saved. They're all related They're related to holy people.

So they're all holy people that they can go to God to heaven their own way through their own covenant

We heard something about that in Sunday school No It means that God will still draw people from them down to this present day out of them and many other ethnic groups

God different trees for different every nation. No, there's one tree Representing all of God's people now some of the natural branches.

He says are broken off Natural branches that that is the branches that that thought they deserved to be part of that tree because they were just born

Into it. It's there You know, it's part of their ethnic identity to be part of that tree

They were proud of their attachment to the tree and thought it was theirs just by just by birthright But they are cut off Away from the tree.

Well other cultures Other ethnic groups who were not at all influenced by the Word of God, they're wild they're uncultivated

They're grafted in to this tree. That is now formally pagan people from all other kinds of ethnic groups

Like your ancestors our ancestors like Americans or even Chinese are being attached to this tree and now are absorbing

The nourishment of the sap from this one tree so out of many

Nations is being made one lively United diverse, but one tree now

Why were the old branches cut off the natural ones because God doesn't like Jews anymore, is that it?

You know like some anti Semites Nazis people like them want to want to think No, that's the arrogance fact.

He specifically warns us against this this kind of arrogance That we should not have

Paul tells us he warns us in verse 18. Don't think that way looking down on them as though they are inferior

Though we are they are just despicable. Don't do that and don't do that for three reasons first Consider the root he says

The root of our faith You know that is through Abraham Through David the rest of the

Old Testament the promises that saved us come through them

And so we're now we are we are attached to them. Remember it is one tree and we can call this tree

Israel If we're attached to the tree That means we're part of Israel Doesn't it?

Second Remember that we stand by grace Which is the greatest antidote to pride?

remember that third consider God's character that is specific particularly consider his kindness and severity his gentleness and his sternness

Realize that if God cut off people His own People who were raised believing in these covenant promises raised to think that they belong to God to keep the law

This with this with what we call the Old Testament just part of their culture and their upbringing if he cut them off Think how much more easily he'll cut you off So he says in verse 20 stand in awe so Why have those old branches been cut off because of he says in verse 20 unbelief

They didn't believe in God Because they believed in themselves And basically that's what pride is that's how you can define pride isn't it belief in Ourselves, they particularly had an ethnic pride.

They didn't understand that they needed grace to stand before God They didn't understand the God that they were dealing with That he was both kind and stern

Both merciful and severe People today like to think of only about about part of who

God is the kindness the mercy the grace You know the positive and the encouraging and so they stay arrogant

Trusting in their own morality or their own religion or their own ethnic heritage or just the fact that they're you know

On average they're about decent Not too much worse than what your average person Perhaps one of the favorite quotations of Jesus today after maybe second to judge

Not is he who is without sin cast the first stone Which they you know, they love the kindness of that Kindness often because they think that that means they can continue in sin

These other people don't get to criticize me Jesus He's taking my back. He's covering for me the kindness, but also the severity

His he's severe toward those who reject him who don't believe him who arrogantly assume that they have

God Taken care of because they aren't so bad that they belong to the olive tree by nature

That they belong to a Christian nation or to a Christian family They won't consider the severity of God and they and so they won't stand in awe of Him I'll just take him for granted

And in such a case, they're liable to be cut off by him

It is faith that attaches us to that one tree if we lose it

We presume on our membership and the people of God, it's just ours We will be cut off and if Israel will but stop unbelieving

Well, then they will be grafted in again All they have to do is believe and it would be easier for them to do so Because their whole culture is shaped by the

Word of God by the laws and the prophets and the Proverbs And so they are they are the natural branches all

God has to do Is soften their hearts? Open their eyes

Wake them up from this spiritual stupor and they will believe

It is easier for them to do so than it is for us our barbaric culture

No gladiatorial games leaving infant children out to die if we think there's something wrong with them or just the fact we're so hostile and aggressive or just greedy and materialistic

Individualistic or maybe we're thinking that family really is everything There is one tree and to which branches are

Off of which either branches are cut off or maybe into which they are grafted in if the branches get proud

And they think they have a right to be part of the tree Well, then the severe God breaks them off And then the kind God takes other branches wild uncultivated

Who know they have no right to be part of that tree and he'll connect them to it from God's side

Nothing makes him do it He does it by grace from our side what attaches us is faith so there's a remnant a

Chosen people within all the natural peoples of the world chosen by grace there's a tree one tree made up of many branches from other trees and finally, there is a mystery

Now this wasn't what I've been describing. This absolutely wasn't what Israel had expected

Israel Expected that a Messiah would come who would lead them in triumph over all their earthly enemies

They expected a God who was on their side on their army side who would give them victory and prosperity

Give it to them Israelites simply because it was theirs by right inherited by birth by ethnicity

And so they prayed Blessed be you for not making me a Gentile like the rest of those dogs they weren't expecting to be told that they had to believe it to be one of God's people that God had a

That God has a people made out of many Other peoples into which he is making them into one.

That was the mystery It was hidden under the surface in the

Old Testament now It's hinted at here and there like in Psalm 117. We read earlier praise the

Lord all nations extol him all peoples

It's a mystery Now fully revealed out in the open in the New Testament, but they weren't expecting it

They certainly weren't expecting that they would be cut off and the same thing could happen to us

If we get conceited We allow our ethnic pride Maybe our faith in our own works and our own morality our own religion to dilute us into thinking

We've we've got God taking care of that. He must be on our side after all besides e pluribus unum

We also put on our money in God. We trust Surely God appreciates that we do that for him.

Doesn't he even though if in fact we really trust in our money We can get conceded if we forget the mystery now understand the mystery

Okay, starting from verse 25 to the end of the chapter a partial hardening has come upon Israel It's partial because still you know from the beginning of the gospel until now some

Jews are being saved Okay, it's not an entire hardening still Some are being saved but not many a

Partial hardening he says then is until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in now that word until It may imply that a full number of non -jewish people will come into the people of God and when that number is complete that God has in his mind how many he is going to reap from the world and When he reaches that number, it's that to that quota when they are saved

They're made part of the olive tree then Israel will no more be heartened and then there will be a great revival among the

Jews and many of them will accept Jesus as the Messiah That's not clearly stated

But we can hope so What it does clearly say is that now

Israel is partially hardened While the Lord is bringing in people from all other kinds of ethnic groups

The Lord is right now was in Paul's day. It still is now reaching that full number of people from every other nation

From the beginning of the church. The gospel has been spreading actually been spreading mostly West you think of history not evenly but nation by nation

Sometimes resisted by some nations, but then sometimes the Lord does something on a national scale

Sovereignly and turns the hearts of a of a whole nation to himself for a time first The gospel spread southwest to Ethiopia then spread to what's what now called

Turkey to Greece to Rome through the Roman Empire Into Europe and through Europe it eventually spread with the

Europeans West to America and now it is spreading both still going west across the

Pacific and south To other places of the world while it while it appears perhaps now

Not only spreading but sometimes the hardening spreads to in different places that Europe has been hardened at least parts of it

Large parts of it Europe has been hardened and may perhaps cut off Having become presumptuous and proud

Thinking that they are Civilization where Europeans were civilized now

Europe has some of the highest percentages of a belief in atheism Especially in the east and the north

Eastern and northern Europe are some of the most atheistic parts of the world today But let us not

Americans not then become proud We have something that they don't the same thing could happen here indeed

It may have already begun the part of the country that used to be the first Bible Belt, New England You know settled by fiery

Puritans come to America to worship God according to his word that part of the country

New England is now the least Christian part of the u .s. Only three percent of New Englanders go into an evangelical church only three percent profess

Jesus to be their personal Lord and Savior only three percent. That's about the same level as those hard places in Europe now that could spread here to the south to the

Lord hardens and And and cuts off some nations while He also softens and he adds other nations.

The gospel has grown enormously in South Korea and China in 1800 there were no known

Protestant Christians in all of China Now there are an estimated 40 million some estimated that it's as high as 100 million

The first Protestant Church wasn't planted in Korea until year 1884

But within 100 years there were about 30 ,000 Churches not 30 ,000 believers 30 ,000 churches in South Korea some of them some of the largest churches in the world

With there now being today there are now more Christians in Korea Then there are believers in Buddhism or in traditional religion in Korea in other words in Korea now

Christianity is the the largest religion In just a little over a hundred years.

That's amazing Meanwhile, the gospel is also spread wildly in Africa in the year 1900

There were only nine million Christians in the whole continent of Africa, but a hundred years later year 2000.

There were an estimated 380 million It may be that before Jesus returns that every nation on the face of the earth every ethnic group will have its time of being softened and Grafted into the tree as the

Lord reaps believers from among them the mystery Hidden in the past but revealed now out in the open now is that Israel is hardened

The fullness that's the full number the number that God has set in his mind that he is going to take from the world the full complement of believers from all kinds of ethnic groups is now coming in and in verse 26 says

And this is important. Look at that verse 26 and in this way All Israel will be saved

Now notice that that key conjunction Okay, the connecting words there that explain the relationship of ideas explain what comes before it here notice the word in this way

In verse 26 now some Assume that that means then

All Israel be saved Israel's hardened full number of Gentiles come in then after that's done

All Israel all the Jews they think will be saved that it's about it's about time.

It's about sequence That it means first Israel hardened and then you know this all ethnic

Israel of being finally converted But really that's not what it says the word there is very particular and it's specific

I mean so properly translated here in the SV in this way are thus that is

Through this full number of these Gentiles coming in all kinds of other Nations ethnic groups being saved in this manner like this

All Israel will be saved And that tells us what it all Israel there means in verse 26 all

Israel then Okay, if all Israel first 25 There's a remnant in Israel, but most of its hardened

It's just partial and there's a full number from the Gentiles coming in to this one tree and like this in this way all

Israel is saved. So all Israel therefore is The remnant from literal

Israel the Jews combined with the believers from every nation that he is drawing in that's

All Israel in this way. God is adding to his one people which we can call

You can call it Israel. You can call it the church is symbolized by the one tree

The remnant you say it again This is different from what many of you may have been raised to think the remnant in ethnic

Israel these people plus believers from every nation in this way

Come out of the world to form one people of God e pluribus unum

So the deliverer Christ Because of his work in Zion will create one holy people

Banishing ungodliness Making a covenant with him taking away their sins So even though the

Jews are now hardened at least partially while God gathers believers from other nations the

Jews are still beloved God is still saving some from the

Jews today But you know, we may be tempted to scoff and to think well, they're just being disobedient to the gospel

They refuse to believe but so were we At one time and we received mercy the kind God softened us and Grafted us in to his people.

He's going around the world This kind God is to every nation bringing them in Because in verse 32

God has charged it says all what's it mean all who all every individual

Well, it means all Meaning every ethnic group. He's charged every nation with disobedience so that he might have mercy on Everyone every individual know every ethnic group every nation by finding a remnant in everyone saving believers out of Everyone That's the mystery

They didn't expect that They expected like a lot of us that God in history is all about us

If not individually at least at least nationally like our Ethnic pride it's about our ethnic group

But God's plan is much bigger than any one nation or culture or race

It's about his grace his grace and his glory The mystery along with the severity and the mercy

He says should make us stand in awe And that's what he does at the end of chapter 11 himself odd by what

God has done Oh the exclamation at the end of verse at the beginning of verse 32 the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God oh

Who would have thought to make one people out of many United by one faith that God could do something so much greater than just exalting one nation

He says how in searchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways

You know you think about it a God with a small G probably Who's just for our nation an

American God maybe a Chinese God Singaporean God just for us Who's bound to protect us our little pet is bound to prosper us and people like us a religion that is always in favor of our armies and our emperors and presidents

That's really not remarkable at all. There's nothing astounding about that But a

God who seeks out by grace People from every nation who have nothing else in common

Except faith in Jesus and that he draws the hearts of people from every culture to him.

That's Unthinkable who would have imagined such a thing so he says who has known the mind of the

Lord Who of us? Thought of a plan like that The reason each of us here who was truly saved any of us is truly saved

Has a relationship with God is because of this mystery

That God did not confine his mercy to one ethnic group that he planned this

From the beginning remember he told Abraham. I will make you a blessing to Not just his own children his own descendants

To the nations That through Christ he would attach people of all kinds to himself