Summer of Romans 2018 (Part 19): Future For Israel (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

The Wow of Romans 11:33 and the Question of Israel’s Future

Well it's almost July 4th and I love July 4th for lots of reasons, mainly the fireworks. Just to watch kids, no, to listen to them. And there's an explosion and it's kind of the muffled ooo, then it's a bigger explosion and a wonderful report and just a feast for the eyes, ooo, wow, ho, you kind of look over to the person you're seated next to in that lawn chair and you just think, that is amazing.

Now here's my question for you, you New Englanders, when's the last time you thought about God and read from His Word and responded with a verbal exclamation, ooo, that's amazing. When's the last time there was a sound out of your mouth that said, okay you could do it in your heart I guess, that's how we get out of it, I didn't really say it with my mouth but I just meant in my heart, wow, that is amazing.

Now there's a little letter, looks like a W for us but in Greek it's the omega and it means the last, you know the first and the last, alpha and omega, but if you put a little mark over it, it goes from the letter to the exclamation, wow, Romans chapter 11 verse 33.

Let's turn there and let's see what Paul talks about to put the wow, the exclamation point back in the Christian's heart. This is a fascinating passage in Romans chapter 11. As you know, we're going chapter by chapter through Romans, going faster than we normally do but I'm desirous of having you see the sweep of everything and so there are some details we could dig into at another time but for today, Romans 11 verses 1 through 33 dealing with this topic, Israel's salvation.

Is there a future for Israel? And friends, let's just put it bluntly, if Israel can lose her salvation, so can you. If Israel can lose her salvation, then so can you. The promises of God for Israel are inextricably linked to the promises of God for you.

Now how does that work? Go to chapter 8 with me if you would for just a quick review. Romans chapter 8 verse 31, it's amazing to think that God chose you in eternity past and in time called you and justified you and will glorify you.

He says that in verses 29 and 30 of Romans 8 but then he says, as we looked at a few weeks ago, what shall we say to these things? What do we say to things like this that before time began, God chose to love you?

What do you say to that? Does that move you? What do you say that God ahead of time in eternity past predestined you? What do you say to that? What do you say that one day you're walking this way off the precipice of hell almost and God by his spirit called you and regenerated you?

What do you say to that? What do you say that God, based on the work of his son, credited Christ's perfect life to your account, even though you're sinful, now God sees you as he sees his son, perfect and complete, and then God credited Jesus all your sins past, present, and future?

What do you say to that? What do you say the fact that, yep, our sound guy in the back just went, see that's the New England thing, we don't say it out loud, we just say it in our heart or sometimes with our lips.

What do you say to these things? And what does Paul say? If God is for us, who can be against us? If the omniscient creator, sovereign ruler of the universe is for us, by comparison there can be no foe.

Well, how do we know really he loves us though? How do we know he's for us? Oh, let me count the ways. Verse 32, specifically we know he's for us, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Then he goes on to say, doesn't he, in verse 33 with more of these questions, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? No one, because it's God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us?

And then he almost shouts out verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then he says in verse 38 and 39, for I am sure that neither death nor life nor anything else created will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And then the arm goes up, yes, but Israel, she had these promises too, Israel was promised all kinds of love of God and Israel now, where is she? She's in the tank. And if Israel's blessings are cut off by their disobedience, maybe my disobedience will cut me off from God's family as well.

If Israel can lose her salvation, so can you. The doctrine of eternal security stands and falls on the basis of Israel's future. Now here's what we'll do. Let me give you a quick overview of 9, 10 and 11 and then the outline.

Paul then moves to chapter 9 out of chapter 8 and basically says this, Israel did not believe ultimately for what reason? Because God's in charge, God's sovereign. Israel didn't believe in chapter 10 immediately because they had no faith, but the rejection of the Jews is not total, nor is it final.

Did God set aside a place for national ethnic Israel for rejecting Christ or is there a future for Israel? Israel's rejection total, no, it is not total, nor is it final. Let me give you three truths today, glorious truths about the future for national ethnic Israel.

And I'm going to give you these truths for a reason. They're designed to increase your trust in God's promises and to invoke your praise. Increase your trust and invoke your praise. All answering this one question in Romans 9, 6, for it is not as though the word of God has failed.

Is it that the word of God has failed? 9, 10 and 11 answer that one question. Now many times as a pastor, I have the privilege of helping people with assurance of salvation. When God saves you, you're objectively saved and nothing can take us out of the Father's hand.

But sometimes we don't feel saved and that's not the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or eternal security or preservation by God. It's the doctrine of assurance. I don't feel saved. Either you are saved or you aren't, but I just don't feel it.

And so what do I do if I meet somebody who doesn't feel saved? Sometimes they're dealing with sin in their life and when Christians are in sin, they don't get that joy of their salvation that they once experienced.

That's why David cried for it. Oh, let me just experience that joy of my salvation again. Most of the time I point them back to Christ objectively, see what Jesus did and are you trusting in God's word that what he did in the word is true?

Sometimes I'll say, you know, let's just look at your life a little bit. The first John test. Do you confess your sins? Do you confess Jesus as Lord? Do you love God? Do you love not the world? Do you love other Christians?

Those are some good subjective tests. But add another one to your test of assurance. How do I really feel when it comes to my salvation? Here's the third one, Israel. What do you think of Israel? Because that is related to eternal security.

I love the story of King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, and he had a chaplain and his chaplain was always trying to tell him the Bible's true and he said, you know what? I don't want any more of your large tomes and this is excursus on why the Bible's true.

Now the king was influenced by the French atheist Voltaire, so he said, you know what? Here's what I want. I want you to give me a one word answer, none of this long diatribe anymore. I want one word answer on give me proof of the inspiration of the Bible.

Your majesty, it is possible for me to answer your request literally. I can give you the proof you ask for in one word. The answer for the authenticity and inspiration and infallibility of the scripture that the chaplain gave Frederick the Great was Israel.

Israel, the continuing existence of Israel, distinct people. So let's go to the first truth about this national ethnic Israel. God is still saving the Jews, verses 1 through 10. God is still graciously saving the Jews.

Here's what Paul is doing in verses 1 to 10. God must not be done with the Jews if he's still saving Jews. If God was done with the Jews, no more Jews would get saved, but there's a little trickle. There's the ones and the twos and a remnant and Paul starts off with himself.

Verse 1, I ask then, has God rejected his people? No, he hasn't. By no means, God forbid, the strongest negation. I could ask it this way, has God rejected his people? My own people. Does God reject his people?

The answer is no, he doesn't, even though they've been disobedient, a direct denial. Paul says, you know what? God hasn't thrown overboard his people because he saved me. For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Wouldn't just one Jew being saved prove the faithfulness of God? Yes. Martin Luther said if God had rejected his own people, he surely would have rejected the apostle Paul. Although most Jews don't believe today, some do.

And foreknowledge demands it, verse 2. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. The ones that he loved ahead of time in eternity past, that's going to be changed based on people's performance.

We're going to see that can't be true because it's an election of grace anyway. The same word foreknow is used in Romans chapter 8. When God foreloves a sinner, he puts his love on them. He knows them ahead of time.

Abraham knew his wife. Adam knew his wife in a special, intimate way. God beforehand knows people, and he knew the Jews as well. That's why it's crazy for me to read Lorraine Bettner, even though I appreciate much of his work.

It may seem harsh to say that God is through with the Jews, but the fact of the matter is, he is through with them as a unified national group. You say, well, yeah, this is only one person though, only Paul.

Are there more? Yes. Take a look at the remnant. Even in a horrible time when King Ahab was around, Jezebel was there pushing Baal worship, God always has a remnant. And if God has a remnant, that means he's not done with the Jews.

He's got Paul. He's got a remnant. Verse 2 goes on to say, do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? Okay, I have to stop there just for a second. This is going to be a little pastoral preaching parlor trick right here.

I'm going to try to really convict you, but instead of me saying it, I'll quote somebody else because it really gives you a lick if you're not careful. So, S. Louis Johnson said this to the congregation.

He was pastoring because he's more courageous than I am. Notice the text, it says, do you not know, do you not know, do you not know? S. Louis Johnson said, the reason why we have problems with Romans 9, 10, and 11, and most of the other passages in the Bible, is we don't read our Bibles.

We don't read our Bibles. We're going to look at passages here in Romans 11. Who are the first fruits? Who are the branches? Who is the olive tree? Friends, when you dive into the Old Testament, may I make a plea this week based on the substitutionary death of Christ, read your Old Testament.

Because here, 9, 10, and 11, it's one verse after another, Deuteronomy 29, Isaiah 29, Psalm 69, it's just a bombarding of Old Testament passages. And if we don't know the Old Testament, no wonder we don't know what's going on in Romans 9 to 11.

Paul's readers knew this story. And here's the good news. You know this story too. This is one story we do know. What Scripture says of Elijah and how he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they've killed your prophets.

They've demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is God's reply to him? We know God's not done with the Jews because even in Elijah's day, I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

And the Holy Spirit here adds in to 1 Kings the words, for myself, not found in the Hebrew, not found in the Septuagint, added in. I've kept for myself. Now, notice he doesn't say, there are 7 ,000 who have not bowed, putting the stress on responsibility.

He says instead, I kept for myself. I made sure I have this remnant here. God would have been faithful to only have one person believe. He wouldn't be done with the Jews, but he's got a remnant, 7 ,000.

God isn't done with the Jews. Look at history. They still believe. Not a lot, but they still are believing. Verse 5, so too at the present time. So you've got Elijah's time, and now you've got Paul's time, and we could say even today it's true, there is a remnant.

We have people in the congregation here who are Jewish in their background, and they believe. There's a remnant, not because they're good, not because we're good either as Gentiles, but chosen by grace.

And if it's by grace, you can't undo grace. If it's by grace, it's not with the works at all, verse 6. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

I find it interesting that some of my friends who are the most sincere, and adamant, and correct about the eternal security of the believer aren't so sure about the eternal security of Israel, but God is still graciously saving Jews.

Verse 7, what then? Nothing shocking here. Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. Remember, because they did it by works, Romans 10. The elect obtained it. Literally, this is neat, the election obtained it.

The ones who were carved out by God, the elect ones obtained it, but the rest were judicially hardened. The ones that God was involved with, oh, they believed. As it is written, verses 8, 9, and 10, we have quotes from Isaiah 29, Deuteronomy 29, and Psalm 69.

Think about it. Deuteronomy, Torah, Isaiah, the prophets, and Psalms, the writings. All of Scripture testifies to this judicial blinding. 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.

David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution for them. Lest their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. There's still a future for Israel because God is still saving Jews.

God’s Sovereign Plan in the Present: Gentile Salvation and Jewish Jealousy

Truth number two, God has an all-wise, sovereign plan for the present. How do we explain the present with the Jews saying no to Christ, for the most part, found in verses 11 through 24? The rejection of the Jews to time is not final.

By the way, if you're a Gentile, you're really going to like this because God had the Jews not believe, so you Gentiles would believe, so then the Jews would be envious of you Gentiles and then come to believe.

Verse 11 is just like verse 1 almost as it asks. Verse 1 says, I ask. Verse 11 says, so I ask. That'd be a good way to outline the chapter if you'd like. So I ask, so I ask. Did they stumble in order that they might fall?

That they might fall forever? Was it just a temporary fall or was it a forever fall? Paul is dealing now with the national purposes of Israel. No longer individual purposes, but national purposes. There's a plan to all this.

He says, did they stumble in order that they might fall? Here's the word again, two Greek words. It's the most demonstrable negative out there. By no means. Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

You remember this story, don't you? In Acts chapter 18, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted, the Jews did.

And when the Jews blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to the Jews, your blood be on your own heads. I am clean, for now I shall go to the Gentiles. Verse 12, when you see the word there in the ESV, the nation as a whole, Israel.

Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, and does it ever, how much more will their full inclusion mean? The fall of Israel meant blessings to the Gentiles.

What about her restoration? What will that mean for Gentiles? Now, as you can tell from the way I'm speaking and the way I'm delivering this, that I'm a pre-millennial person. I believe there's a future for Israel.

Now while I have a lot of respect for covenant theologians, I'm kind of in the middle of the world between the two because I believe that God has things structured covenantally, covenant of redemption, covenant of grace, covenant of works.

But I don't buy the party line, as one man said, covenant theology as a system doesn't find its origin in heaven, rather in Holland. But that's just a side note. I just have to take what the Scriptures take.

There's a covenantal system in Scripture, yet there's a future for Israel. And of course, my amillennial friends wouldn't believe that, and neither would my postmillennial friends believe that. But it's amazing when pre-mill, amill, and postmill look at Romans chapter 11, almost all of them talk like pre-millennial because they read in here the future for Israel.

John Murray said, yes, John Murray, postmillennialist. Here's what he said about this verse. Hence, nothing less than a restoration of Israel as a people to faith, privilege, and blessing can satisfy the terms of this passage.

I love that. By the way, if I was amill, I'd try to prove it without going to Romans chapter 11, is what I would try to do. Charles Hodge, the postmillennialist, the conversion of the Jews will be accompanied by the most glorious consequences for the whole world.

Verse 13, now I'm speaking to you Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles. I magnify my ministry. Why? Why does Paul do what he does? In order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.

That's one of Paul's motivations for preaching to the Gentiles. Yes, for the glory of God. Yes, for the Gentile salvation. But to provoke the Jews to jealousy. God isn't finished with the Jews. If God wants them to be jealous through Paul's preaching, there must be a future for Israel.

Verse 15, the conclusion then. He introduces this from the greater to the lesser. If the reception means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? In other words, the casting off is only temporary.

God's purpose extends beyond today in Gentile conversion. Now I have forgotten how mad the Jews would get when you would preach the gospel to Gentiles. Do you know how mad Jews got when you preached the gospel to Gentiles so they would get saved?

I forgot until I just read it the other day. Paul said, and Jesus said to me, go for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Acts 22. Up to this word they listened to Paul. Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

To offer salvation, Yahweh, to the Gentiles. Kill him. They were shouting, throwing up their cloaks, flinging dust into the air. But if the Gentiles could be blessed because of the Jews' unbelief, what about when the Jews believe?

Verse 16. Now here's when you're going to need some of your Old Testament stuff. I don't have much time to go through every little detail here, but if you think Old Testament, you're going to get it. If you're thinking what is first contributes to the quality of what's later, you're going to get it.

But if the dough offered as first fruits is holy, well, so is the whole lump. And you know what he's talking about here? He's talking about the Abrahamic covenant. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If that is a first fruit, then isn't there going to be later fruits, later people believing? So the whole lump. And if the root is holy, same thing. The second illustration to show the patriarchs are represented by the root.

Abraham and his covenant. The root is holy. So also are the branches. And then he says, you know, I want to guard you against being prideful and arrogant Gentiles. He does this in the next seven verses, eight verses.

Verse 17, for if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, Paul switches things around according to the horticulturist, but he does it for a reason because this goes against nature.

Chapter 11, verse 24, normally you cultivate an olive tree, grafted into a wild olive tree, but it does the opposite. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, Abrahamic covenant blessings, do not be arrogant towards the branches.

If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. So think about it. What do we have here? The branches broken off, verse 17, unbelieving Israel. If some of the branches, unbelieving Israel, were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, you Gentiles, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, that is to say, God's covenant with Abraham, don't be arrogant towards the branches, towards those broken branches, Israel.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroff is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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