Romans 11, E Pluribus Unum, Dr. John Carpenter

Romans chapter 11 hear the word of the Lord. I Asked him 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's by grace, it's 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 would not see in ears that would not hear down to this very day and David says let 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'm speaking to you

Gentiles and as much then as I'm 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 olive 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 might be grafted in. Well, that's true

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

So do not become proud but fear For if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you?

Note them the the kindness and the severity of God severity toward those who have 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 with their unbelief

Will be grafted in 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 and to 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 sight 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 regard 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

For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their

Disobedience so they too now have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you

They also may now receive mercy for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.

Oh the depth of the riches of 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 a gift to him that he might be repaid

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

Amen May the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word Well his ethnic pride wrong

No pride in as in yeah, I feel good about I'm not ashamed of I'm proud of my child's grades

Now I'm proud of my country. I'm my people. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to feel good about your ethnicity or nation?

You know, we just had the 4th of July in which we celebrate our country You may have noticed that we didn't do that here and no flag.

We have no patriotic songs That's because we're reformed part of what it means to be reformed by the way Is it okay to do that outside of church?

Well Americans may be patriotic, but we had a we have a very uncomfortable time feeling proud of Our ethnic group, whatever it may be one's ethnic group because we are a nation

That's not based on ethnicity and some other nations you can get citizenship automatically if you share their race

But in the US we are supposed to be united by by ideas or by deals

Rather than by ethnicity and so the motto included in the first American seal established in 1782 had the words

Latin e pluribus unum out of many one We were one nation created out of people from many other nations now sure

We can allow some ethnic groups to celebrate their own heritage You know the Irish Americans have st. Patrick's Day and a lot of people were green

Even if they're not Irish or the Italian Americans like to celebrate Columbus Day We can have special times like now lately

Juneteenth to remember the experiences of certain groups that act like African Americans we can still be one we think but allow for many of different kinds to be proud of their

Uniqueness, of course some other Americans usually people in the majority Dislike all these ethnic identities saying, you know, you shouldn't feel proud of your ethnicity.

Forget all of that. Just be playing American Likely they don't know what it's like to be a minority.

I lived in Singapore for five years where I was Calling it a minority is an exaggeration.

I say I mean, it's like there's hardly anyone like me at that time Anyway, but I went when

I was there I wanted to be reminded of my nation especially in there like the first couple years I want to be reminded of who

I am my people and so I celebrated July 4th and Thanksgiving even though no one around me Was Thanksgiving MIT going to Denny's and getting a turkey sandwich.

It's the best you could do I listened in before the Internet I listened to the Voice of America on shortwave radio and I eat at McDonald's and KFC Look forward every week to my favorite

TV show at least at that time America's Funniest Home Videos is on TV there in Singapore and I so love that half -hour.

They reminded me of home Now the majority there is the Chinese and like majorities almost everywhere.

They assume that their way is the way They don't think we do things Chinese way. They think this is just the way people do things, right?

Yeah, I once spoke with a Chinese Singaporean there who was planning on coming to America to study and I told him

You know you bite when you once you're here in America You may want to find a Chinese church and you'll feel comfortable there and he responded.

Oh, that's not necessary I I'll feel just as comfortable with the Americans and I looked at him and didn't say anything

But I looked at him and thought oh You'll see You'll see You'll crave the familiarity of your culture once you're a fish out of water you'll crave

To be back or what with your familiar you'll crave chopsticks and learning

Hearing Mandarin Chinese food people taking their shoes off at the door like civilized people do familiar ways

You don't realize I'm looking at him and you don't realize how Chinese you really are.

I Left America Now here we see Paul deal with among other things ethnic pride a pride

He was familiar with because he shared it himself a good kind of ethnic pride Now if any group of people have something to be proud of it's the

Jews now sure Americans have their Declaration of Independence and their values of liberty and justice There are own, you know fighting for freedom and both world wars and the

Chinese have their long history The wisdom of Confucius and the Great Wall and inventions like gunpowder and the compass and paper and printing and many other nations have all

Kinds of things they can be proud of but of all all of that No matter what any other nation can be proud of all of that pales into comparison

To what Israel can be proud of what they can boast of They have the fact that God chose them revealed himself to their forefathers

Basically God founded them led them powerfully out of Egypt gave them the law spoke to them through prophets raised up a king

David to rule for God himself now, that's something you can really be proud of they regularly pray

This is a traditional Jewish prayer Blessed are you king of the universe? for not

Having made me a Gentile Paul deals with that in our place in God's people in this chapter in three parts first the remnant

Then the tree and then finally the mystery. Well first the remnant that's the leftovers

Earlier in Romans. He's he's shown that being right with God comes through faith not through works

Not through ancestry and he said in Romans chapter 2 verse 28 for no one is a

Jew who is merely one Outwardly and he picked that idea up again Starting with chapter 9 where he said in verse 6 not all who are from Israel are of Israel Now if you assume there's one very prominent

Evangelical preacher today. It says Israel always means Israel. It's just the ethnic group. That's what it always means

Well, if you assume that That that's what it always refers the word Israel always refers to the little ethnic group like assuming that the law always

Means the law Moses think how confused I make you going through Romans or the flesh always means the body

That sounds that statement Not all who are from Israel are of Israel Sounds very strange.

That wouldn't make any sense. Would it? It'd be like saying no one is Polish who is merely one outwardly what or or not all who are from Japan or of Japan Sure, you are if that's your ethnicity.

That's where your parents your ancestors are from that is what you are You inherit your ethnicity.

You're just born into it Indeed the modern Israeli right of return states just that in law any person with Jewish ancestry

That's either parent or even just a grandparent who is Jewish It's considered Jewish and therefore has a right by law to immigrate to Israel So if you have any

Jewish ancestry for any grandparent, you can just show up at Israel say I'm a citizen I'm let me move in the modern

Israeli law says that one is a Jew Who is merely one outwardly all who are from Israel according to them are of Israel All the inspired

Apostle Paul says no being one of God's people That's who the true Israel is who inherit the promises given to Abraham does not depend on being literally born from Abraham You don't have to have any descended from Abraham among your grandparents or anywhere in your ancestry

Your physical ethnicity does not make you one of God's people. What matters is

Safe now if that's the case then to begin chapter 11 has God rejected his people

I mean the Israelites he answers again emphatically Absolutely, not some our Jews some some some of those from Israel are indeed of Israel as Paul shows in four proofs first the personal in verse one.

Look at me. I Myself I'm an Israelite a descendant of Abraham, but God has saved me.

I am one believer out of the many Most of whom are not believers

Well second the theological in verse 2 God has not rejected his people whom he for knew

Now this should immediately remind us of the last time that Paul used the term the word For no when he spoke of God for knowing and Romans chapter 8 verse 29 for those whom he foreknew

Whom he decided beforehand to have a relationship with those he Predestined he called he justified and glorified

They are God's elect whom no one can condemn it is as good as done And so here has

God rejected every literal Israelite every ethnic Jew No, there's me and there's still others from among them whom he has foreknown the elect

Third the biblical some think the Old Testament is just for Israel just for the little

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 verse 2 and in Elijah's time Most of Israel was persecuting

God's true people the true Israel was killing them. They were killing the prophets They were demolishing

God's altars and Elijah at least he felt so alone That he thought he was the only one left of God's true people, but the

Lord said that he's kept for himself 7 ,000 men Those were the fateful few that was the remnant that faithful few the remnant was the true

Israel fourth The partial in verse 5. This is a lot in Elijah's day

So to Paul says so to at the present time right now There is a remnant

So that principle still continues that there's a small number of faithful few left. The question is has God rejected his people?

No, there is a part of Israel who are really his people who are the true

Israel They are not rejected, but it's only partial He's kept a remnant in Israel and then and now who are his people and they are chosen by grace in verse 6

He reminds us what grace is if it's by grace It's not by works. Grace has to be by itself.

It's unearned or it's not grace Verse 6 that's kind of important point because some people have been teaching the past 2 ,000 years

This sure salvation is by grace But you got to do stuff to get the grace and we the church we have the stuff you got to do to get the

Grace, so you better be good to us or we won't give you the stuff to get the grace and it works like that So it's a pay up so you can get grace

Well, that's not grace if you have to do stuff to get it understand so God has not rejected all of Israel Paul's own ethnic group that he feels rightly proud of that He has sympathy and love for but they are not contrary to what they think and are so wrongly proud of Right with God simply because they are

Israelites now sure. Some of them are saying that's the remnant but it's not because they are

Israelites It's only because of God's grace So then in verse 7

Echoing back to this question in chapter 9 verse 30 Which is really has been dealing with from chapter into chapter 9 all the way through chapter 10 and now into chapter 11

I know you know Israel was seeking to be right with God, but they haven't gotten it

They haven't gotten righteousness why and these Gentiles were not seeking it and they did get it

Why now sure a few within Israel the remnant the elect they got it But the rest the rest of Israel were hardened

The reason the majority of the Israelites did not accept that Jesus was the Messiah was because in verse 8

God Notice he's in charge. He's still the Potter making vessels for honorable or dishonorable use

God gave them a Spirit of stupor like they were asleep unable to see and understand

God gave them eyes that they would not see and ears that they would not hear down to this very day

Paul wrote this about 55 ad is still just as true today in 2022 and then

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

They're enslaved for those who don't believe but there is it still a remnant out of Israel that God has

God is calling Some of them next second We see the tree and all of tree in verses 11 to 24

He has said that Israel most of the Jews have stumbled at the Word of Christ Remember the faith comes by hearing hearing about the

Word of Christ. They've most of these Israelites have stumbled over it that this preaching that being right with God is through believing in Jesus that it's offensive to them

And so they reject the message and so in verse 11 have they completely fallen no more to be considered

They're just done with it's over for them Again, he says absolutely not but because they didn't accept

Jesus the Word of Christ has gone out To the non

Jews Like a course of water hits an obstacle where it can't go It's channeled in a different direction and here is channeled away from the

Jews to other people So God used the sin of Israel. They're hardening to bring salvation to those in other ethnic groups to people like us

You see for most of the early Christians. This was a total surprise. It's it for us. We're talking back on this Why are you so Paul?

Why are you so you almost like you're belaboring the point to us and we're thinking why are you so? Surprised by this like it's new to you.

Well to them. It was surprising. It was shocking They expected the Jews to happily accept the news that Jesus was the

Messiah That he died for their sins and he rose again that he's their king and to accept that and to believe in him but time after time

Even though a few Jews would believe like Paul, of course Paul was called by Jesus himself That's what it took to get through to him you know that Damascus Road appointment, but a few

Jews would believe sure that most rejected the Word of Christ and so Christians then took the word they're getting a hard time from from the

Jews They take the word out to the non -jews to the Greeks and the Romans the Arabs the Egyptians the Ethiopians You know whoever else was around and many of them accepted it

If it had not been for the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, you know, if you're getting a good Response from them you just stick with them

But they weren't getting the other response that hadn't happened They may never have considered taking the gospel to those other people and so God used the rough reception

That the early Jew the early Christians got in synagogues from Jewish officials to steer them out

To the world to people like our ancestors because it was from them

Understand he is a people in all kinds of people and he's sending out messages to get his people spread all in all kinds of nations and so he says in verse 12 their

Trespass that the Israelites the Jews trespass the sin of the Jews and rejecting the gospel has meant riches for the world that is for the non -jewish people

Because we are getting the gospel as a result of Them rejecting the gospel.

And so he says if we're getting if we're getting rich by their failure How much better will be for us and for them if one day they stop resisting not as I will take it from us

You know the juice Did you start responding? He's gonna we'll give up on any of these people.

No, not as I will stop It'll be better for all of us How much better will it be if they stop resisting if they accept

Jesus as a Messiah It's an exclamation in verse 12 knows that verse 12 how much more how much greater will it be?

It's good now for us if it's riches now for us. How much better will it be for us when the Jews are included?

When they get there literally it says fullness They get their fullness. How much better?

How much greater will that be? And so even though Paul is is he says here the Apostle to the

Gentiles in verse 13 So that's his that's his calling from God to take it to the

Gentiles, but still he cares for his own people He has the good kind of ethnic pride

He wants to see his people saved too. And so he he magnifies that is he makes much of Magnifying glasses make something appear bigger

He makes his ministry appear bigger in hopes that if the Jews see non -jews people like you and me coming to God coming to the

Lord enjoying the blessings of God the benefits of the Covenant they thought were just for them and Now they see these other people these these formerly pagan people getting it.

Well, then They'll get jealous and more of them will be saved

Will come to the Lord said maybe this is right Maybe this is true, but they see it lived out by these non -jewish people because in verse 15 for other words because because of their rejection of the gospel means reconciliation of the world

Their rejection means reconciliation of the world now world here doesn't mean all people everywhere

It means people from all kinds of different nations doesn't mean all people it means all peoples

You know what? I mean all kinds every ethnic group not every individual People from all kinds of different nations out of every ethnic group are now being put in a good relationship with God.

They're being reconciled now formerly pagan people most of our ancestors for pagan people non -jewish

Sinful people if they're now being reconciled with God, they're coming into a good relationship with God.

What then will it mean? When the the fullness the full number of Jews they to finally accept

Jesus as the Messiah well that he says, ah That'll be a glorious day. That'll be like the resurrection

Like life from the dead probably implied that it will come closer to that time of the resurrection

There is still a he's called it a full number of them waiting to be brought in. I was gone as a quota

Although it's not Particular individuals. It's not just anyone can come once you get to a certain number

He is he has certain people he is called and in the meantime we should not use the rejection their their rejection of the gospel as an excuse to reject them and to treat them like animals like some people have even though only some of them are truly holy but selected by God like a

Pinch of dough in verse 16 offered as a sacrifice He's talking here about the Israelite the sacrifices in the

Old Testament a pinch of dough If you're gonna offer it is a sacrifice and the whole lump needs that it comes from needs to be holy

He's be set aside and special if the root like Abraham and David is holy. So are the branches It means that God will still draw people from them out of them and many other ethnic groups

God is making one people and that's pictured here is it is a tree an olive tree in verse 17

And that's kind of important is that there's one tree There's Notice, there's one tree in verse 17 not trees

It's not not a he's not planning a grove. He has one tree Representing the people of God, so there's not different trees and not one

Jewish tree and a non -jewish tree It's only not a white believers tree and a black believers tree and a Chinese believers tree

Now there's this one tree may have different branches But they're all attached to the same trunk and the same roots get the same sap

Now some of the natural branches were broken off natural There's an interesting word

Natural branches, that's the branches that that thought they deserve to be part of the trees

It were originally part that were were were cultivated as part of that tree that it's in their nature

They think and just because they were born into the right ethnic group And so they were proud of their attachment to the tree But and they were in they were indeed over history over time cultivated to be

Part of that tree. It's that's where they're from. But the problem is they thought it was there just by birthright

They kind of deserved it just by being born into it, but they are cut off now and others

From other cultures from from other trees wild trees You know not cultivated not influenced by the

Word of God They are grafted in to this one tree that is now formally pagan peoples

Like from us and we still probably have more pagan influence than we were of when we need to be transformed

We'll get into chapter 12 now He's formally pagan peoples from all kinds of other ethnic groups like from Americans or Europeans Africans Chinese are being attached to this tree and now they're absorbing

The nourishment of the sap and so out of many is being made one Lively is diverse many different kinds of branches, but united Tree now

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

Like the anti -semites and Nazis and other people like them think no, that is the arrogance

Toward the natural branches that Paul tells us not to have in verse 18. Don't do that Don't be anti -semitic look don't look down on them as though that they are inferior.

They're despicable. Don't do that Don't do that for three reasons. He says here first consider the root of our faith

That it is Abraham and David and the rest of the Old Testament It's the promises to them

That saved us The promises that saved us come from them. And so now we are attached to them

So remember it's one tree and that tree you want to give it a name. It's called Israel and so now if we're part of the tree

We are part of Israel So their history is our history. That's why a lot of time in churches.

We spend a lot of time learning the history of Israel because now it's our history and you're gonna be anti -semitic.

I didn't make any sense Does it because now you're part of that tree? The second that we stand by grace

Which is the greatest antidote to pride and third consider God's character its kindness and Sternness his gentleness and Severity Realize that if God cut off from his people

Those who were raised in believing the covenant promises pursuing righteousness by keeping the law, you know raised in the law

If he cut them off How much more easily Can he cut you off?

And so he says in verse 30 Stand in all verse 20 stand in all

So why have the old natural branch has been cut off because he says in verse 20 unbelief.

They didn't believe God Because they believed in themselves and that's what pride is definition of pride belief in yourself

And they particularly had ethnic pride. They didn't understand that they needed grace to stand before God They didn't understand the

God they were dealing with that he was both kind and Stern both merciful and severe now people today they like only to think about part of Who God is?

They like to think about the kindness and the mercy and the grace positive and encouraging

So because of that They stay arrogant They're trusting in their morality or their religion or their ethnic heritage what they're born into to make them right with God But here we're told to consider think about not only the kindness

Everyone loves to think about that now the kindness of God, but think about also meditate on his severity

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

God taken care of Because they think well, I'm not so bad God's gonna be good to me.

He's merciful and I'm not horrible So that'll they'll solve it that they belong they think they just deserve to belong to his olive tree

They they were after all they're born into a Christian nation or Christian family. They won't consider the severity of God and so they won't

Stand in all of him. So they're liable to be cut off by him

Faith attaches us to the one tree now. We lose it. We lose that faith. We will be

Cut off and if Israel will but stop unbelieving They will be grafted back in again

All they have to do is believe now be even easier for them to do So it should be the easiest for the

Jews to do so because their whole culture has been shaped by the Word of God You're for thousands of years longer than ours have been shaped by the laws and the

Proverbs and the prophets And so they are they are we call us natural branches and was being cultivated in God's culture

And all God has to do then Is to soften their heart? open their eyes

Wake them up from their spiritual stupor and they will believe

It will be easier for them to do so than for us You know with our barbaric culture gladiatorial games and Child sacrifice all that kind of stuff.

It's still part of our culture It's just that our culture. There's some naturally hostile naturally greedy individualistic or Culture where family is everything and we even worship our ancestors, you know, that kind of culture is is hard To break through that's unnatural to come to God Well, there's one tree into which branches are cut off and grafted in if the branches get proud and Think that they have a right to be part of the tree

The severe God breaks them off and then the kind God acting out of nothing but grace takes other branches wild and uncultivated pagan worshiping their ancestors chasing after money and connects them to the tree and Suddenly they change so there's a remnant a chosen people within the natural

People's chosen by grace. There is a tree one tree made up of many branches from other trees.

And finally there is a mystery third the mystery

Now this wasn't what Israel expected Israel expected that a

Messiah would come who would lead them in triumph over all their earthly enemies He would give them a kingdom, you know, give it to them to Israelites simply because it was theirs by right

Inherited by birth by ethnicity. They're just born into it. They prayed blessed are you for not making me a

Gentile? They weren't expected to be told that They had to believe to be one of God's people.

They had to be born again They thought being born the first time was good enough if you're born in the right nation Now they didn't expect that God would had a people made out of many and to which he is making one

That was the mystery hidden under the surface in the Old Testament Now in the

New Testament, you go back and see hints of it all over the place in the Old Testament It's a mystery there.

It's not fully revealed, but it's there now. It's fully out in the open in the New Testament they certainly weren't expecting that they could be cut off and The same thing could happen to us if we're conceited

If we allow our ethnic pride or our pride in our own works and our religion our morality To delude us into thinking that we have

God taking care of they will he just must be on our side He's our God. We inherited them after all

Besides e pluribus unum we put in God we trust in our money Isn't he impressed with that even if in reality?

We're actually trusting in our money We can be conceited if we forget the mystery understand the mystery starting in verse 25 to the end of the chapter the mystery a

Partial hardening has come upon Israel It's partial because still from the beginning of the gospel until now some

Jews indeed are being saved coming to believe in Jesus but not many this partial hardening is Until the fullness of the

Gentiles has come in So God is taking people from Gentile nations and when that's done

Well, there's an implication The hardening will be over Well that word until may imply that a full number of non -jewish people will come into the people of God they will be saved to be part of the olive tree and then

Israel will no more be hardened and then they will be a great revival among the Jews and many of them will accept

Jesus as the Messiah That's kind of implied into that maybe it's not clearly stated

So if you don't believe that wonder it's not clearly stated, but we can hope so what it clearly says

Is that now Israel is partially hardened while the Lord brings in people from all kinds of other ethnic groups

People people like us from the beginning of the church. The gospel has been spreading

Now not evenly not like epicenter in Jerusalem and it's kind of goes out evenly in all directions

That hasn't had it happen that way Sometimes it's been resisted by some nations Some nations are hard to crack in our day probably the

Buddhist nations are hardest like Nepal What Bhutan places like that Thailand some of the hardest to the gospel now?

Then sometimes the Lord does something on a national scale and then turns the hearts of a nation to himself first the gospel went southwest to Ethiopia then

Northwest of Turkey into Greece and Rome north to Armenia Armenia was the first nation to officially make

Christianity It's it's it's religion then into Europe through Europe It's spread to America and now it has been spreading both

West across the Pacific to the far West That's where East Asia is is actually in the far

West and South both Africa and South America Christianity has quadrupled in size

Over the last century some scoffers in America and Europe like that Christianity is dying. No, it's not it's been exploding over the last century

While it appears that perhaps now Europe has been hardened and cut off having become presumptuous and proud

Thinking that they are civilization. This is whole series about European art culture.

It's called civilization It's all their civilization. That's just pride And so they get cut off you get proud you get cut off and now

Europe has some of the highest percentages of Belief in atheism, but let's not be proud. Well, that's those

Europeans not us. We're much more faithful in America No, the same thing could happen here. It may have already begun

The part of the country that used to be the first Bible Belt, you know The Bible Belt began began in New England settled by fiery

Puritans and now that is the least Christian only 3 % of New Englanders go to an evangelical church

I was founded to be a home for evangelical churches And now only 3 % of the people there go and that can spread to the south but the

Lord hardens and cuts off some nations while softening and Adding others.

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

Protestant Christians in all of China zero Now there are an estimated 40 million

To as many as 150 million if you listen to the Sunday school lesson Piper said there's 150 million

Christians there now The the first Protestant Church wasn't planted in Korea until 1884 but within 100 years there were 30 ,000

Churches not 30 ,000 believers 30 ,000 churches and some of those churches are some of the largest in the world

But they're now being more Christians in South Korea Than Buddhists, which is their traditional religion

Meanwhile, the gospel has also spread wildly in Africa in the year 1900 There were only 9 million

Christians in the whole continent of Africa, but 100 years later in 2000. There were an estimated 380 million now it may be that before Jesus returns that every nation will have their time of being softened and grafted into the tree producing fruit as the

Lord reaps believers From among them he finds his sheep in those other sheep folds and brings them in the mystery hidden in the past But revealed now is that Israel is now hardened the fullness of the non -jews

All kinds of people in Chinese and Africans Europeans is coming in the full complement of believers from all kinds of ethnic groups all over the world at verse 26 says and in this way all

Israel will be saved But it's been a little time of verse 26 because I don't think it means what many people assume

It means notice that key conjunction in this way That connecting word.

Okay, that tells you something about what he's just talking about. It's this process

These people coming in Israel hardened and people coming in from different nations It's a connecting word that explains what comes before it now some assume it just means then like well then after all that Israel all

Israel will be saved First is all Israel gonna be safe like every single Israelite every single Jew when they don't know they don't mean that Well, what do you mean?

Something good to say means then all Israel will be saved There's about a time or a sequence and then it means first Israel is hardened and then

Gentiles are saved And then there's a revival at the end of all Israel, but that's not what it says It says so or in this way thus that is through What he's just described what we were just talking about this this first the remnant of the

Jews They're saved right? most the partial hardening, but there's still a remnant and then

There's this fullness of the Gentiles this full number people from every Gentile nation.

They're getting saved in this manner All Israel will be saved through this process

So what is all Israel all Israel is the remnant? from the literal Jews Combined with the believers from every nation that he is drawing again

You want to think of it mathematically this use math terms? remnant of the believing

Jews plus plus sign fullness of the

Gentiles the full number of the Gentiles plus equals all

Israel That's the definition of all Israel The Jewish remnant plus the believing non -jews add them together

You get all Israel in this way God is adding to his one people

Israel the church Church this means assembly the gathering he gathers them together what they call this gathering

Israel symbolized by the tree It's a complete number of Gentiles from every ethnicity to make all

Israel Understand I'm almost running out of ways different ways to say it

I'm trying to say it every single way I can because there's a lot of misinformation about this verse But the remnant in ethnic

Israel plus believers from every nation in this way out of many become one

II pluribus unum So the deliverer

Christ because of his work in Zion will create one holy people Banishing ungodliness.

He makes a covenant with them He takes away our sins So even though the

Jews are now hardened while God gathers people from all the other nations the Jews are still beloved

You know, God is still saving some from the Jews We may be tempted to scoff and think that they are disobedient to the gospel that they refuse to believe

Well, so were we at one point we receive mercy the kind God Softened us and grafted us into his people and now he's going around the world to every nation bringing them in as For the

Jews in verse 28, even if many of them now are enemies of God they are that way for He says for our sake for your sake

To get the gospel to us That's why that God hardened them to bring the gospel to you

They were they still are the elect nation the nation chosen out of all the world for God to work through and that call in That gift that can't be revoked

God's I'm gonna undo it God's I'm gonna start over with a new nation and that means that they'll always be people from from them being saved

The the covenants God made through them to Abraham and to David are eternal and they're fulfilled by Christ And that's why

I ever thought about it why is Israel of all the nations of the world You know, you read list of nations from like two three thousand years ago

Most of them have disappeared. I'm a hard to pronounce. Who are they? Where are they? I don't care but Israel is one of those few that still last

Out of a handful of nations. They survived thousands of years. They're mostly unbelieving short They're disobedient to the gospel

God commands them to believe they don't and now so the gospel because of that the gospel goes to other nations because of verse 32

God has charged all Meaning every ethnic group with disobedience so that he might have mercy on Everyone not every individual but on every ethnic group on every nation by finding a remnant

Chosen people out of everyone saving believers out of them all that's the mystery and That they did not expect

They expected like a lot of us expect that God in history Is all about us

If not individually at least nationally You know about our ethnic group the world history is about America or China or whatever

It's about us, but God's plan is much larger than any one nation or culture or race. It's about his grace and glory

The mystery along with the severity and the mercy should make us Stand in awe

Oh Exclamation of amazement in verse 32. Oh The the depth of the riches of and the wisdom and the knowledge of God to make one people

United by faith one people out of many that God could do something so much greater than just exalting

One nation just being at one nations God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways

You know a God just for our nation our national God like a national emblem

National bird we have a national God that kind of God bound to protect us and prosper us our kind of people

Have a legion that's always in favor of our armies and our emperors or presidents That's not remarkable

That's not astounding. Not all inspiring. That's just a tribal God Every little pagan nation has one of those

But a God who seeks out by grace people from every nation who draws the hearts of people from every culture from every race that's

Unthinkable Who has known the mind of the Lord who could have conceived it?

Who would have thought of a plan like that the reason each of us here who is truly saved has a relationship with God is

Because of this mystery that God did not confine his mercy to one ethnic group to one nation that he planned from the beginning when he told

Abraham I will make of you a Blessing to the nations that through Christ he would attach all kinds of people to himself

Well, so now we've reached the end of this long journey from the pits of depravity

We started in Romans chapter 1 where the wrath of God is being revealed against our sin even the moral of the religious had no had no way out some thought that their way out was

Was because of the nation that they were born into that Abraham or Isaac and Jacob there David and would give them a way out

But he has demolished that illusion and he showed it to be nothing but pride in the worst sense of the word and God is severe to that But he is merciful

To those he chooses that mercy on we believe

He has grace How could we? Who are attached by grace to his people?

Repay him for what he has done For from him and through him and to him are all things

To him be the glory forever Amen What can we give a