What about the Jews? 2

Romans 11 and the Question of God’s Plan for Israel

We'll open with a word of prayer and then we'll have our lesson. Our Father and our God, we come to You in Jesus' name. We thank You and we praise You that You have given us Your Word. And we pray that we would be convinced of its truth, that we would be convicted by its commands and that You would keep us from error, God, as we study together and particularly as I seek to give instruction tonight, I just pray, Lord, that You would keep me from error.

And, Lord, open the hearts of the people to the truth. We pray for understanding and, Lord, as we are going to be looking at a very difficult passage, one that has been interpreted and reinterpreted many times over, we just pray, Lord, for Your wisdom and we pray that we would have a peace and an understanding of what Your Word has for us to know.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you'll open up your Bibles to Romans chapter 11 and find your place at verse 11, one of the most difficult things, I think, particularly for men, and I'm going to tell on our agenda a little, one of the most difficult things for most men is to have to admit when they don't know something or when they don't understand something.

This is why, you know, a lot of men, the old joke is, you know, if the man and woman are driving together, the woman will say, well, why don't you pull over and get directions? Well, to a guy that's admitting defeat, I don't want to stop and get directions.

I can figure it out. I know where the sun is. I know where the moon is. I know where I'm going. And that's sort of the old joke is, you know, it's tough to find a man who will admit when he doesn't have all the answers, when he doesn't know something.

Well, I want to begin tonight with an admission, as I have examined the book of Romans probably more than any other book of the New Testament and spent time teaching it and talking about it and trying to plumb its depths in my few years in the ministry that I've had.

I want to go ahead and admit that Romans chapter 11, verses 11 and following, have been to me some of the most perplexing. And it is not necessarily that it is hard language. It's not necessarily that it's really hard to understand.

It is to me perplexing because there are so many differing opinions among respectable theologians about what this passage is talking about. We're going to walk through the passage tonight. We're going to talk about some of what it means.

But the first thing, as I said, I want to just tell you, there are some questions that I don't know the answers to. And as much as I have sought to seek the answers and listen and read godly men on this subject, there is so much divide because this is the question.

This is the question that has divided theologians on this particular passage. Is God right now working out a plan for the revival of national ethnic Israel? That's the question and that's the divide, because you have the dispensationalist camp that would argue absolutely.

God made promises in the Old Testament. Those promises were to ethnic Israel and that if God doesn't bring about those promises to ethnic Israel, then God has failed. And that means God didn't tell the truth and push that to its logical conclusion.

That means God lied. Right. So the dispensationalist can be very strong on that to say, well, if God doesn't have a future revival in view of for Israel, then God is a liar. And then you have on the other side, covenant theology and what some have built as replacement theology, who have said that the church has replaced Israel as the people of God and that Israel at AD 70, when God brought judgment on the people of Israel and on the nation of Israel and God took away the temple and destroyed everything through the instrument of Titus, the Roman leader.

That since then, God has only focused on the church and there is no desire among him, within him or about him to do anything with national Israel. Now, let's take a step back and let's let's let's look at how this affects us practically.

There's a big question because right now there are entire movements, both religiously and politically in our nation, which are for the lifting up of who national ethnic Israel. Where does that come from?

Well, it comes from a religious understanding. Israel owns the land. Israel was given the promises by God that that land is theirs. So we have to support them in their keeping of that land. And if you curse Israel, God's going to curse you.

If you bless Israel, God's going to bless you and so on and so forth. And that's the promise that a lot of people hold to. And generally that's coming from the dispensational view that God still has a plan for these people.

God's still working out his plan for them. And again, we look to this passage of Scripture because really when the conversation comes up, it is Romans 11 that really is the focus. And when the conversation about God's plan for future Israel or God's plan for Israel in the past, all these questions come up in relation to Romans 11, particularly verses 11 through 36.

So tonight we're going to read it from beginning to end starting. Well, starting at verse 11, we're going to read all the way to the end. Before I make any comment, I want us to hear it and read it together.

And then we're going to go back and we'll begin. I will give as best of exposition as I can. As I've already said, I don't know everything. And I'm sorry if that disappoints you.

Yes. Could there be some hope?

Well, that's where you'll see tonight that when we begin interpreting this passage is that there I think that there almost has to be some some truth. Obviously, I don't think the dispensationalists are 100 percent wrong.

I don't think the replacement theologians are 100 percent wrong. I think there's I think both of them have sort of grabbed certain things and ran with them. It's kind of like, you know, you can't ride you can't ride two horses in opposite directions.

It's going to tear you apart. You know, and that's the way that's what's happened is we have a divide in the theological realm. And you look at guys like, you know, R .C. Sproul has really tried to has really tried to to strike a balance.

John MacArthur, he calls himself a leaky dispensationalist because he has tried to strike the balance that Scripture strikes and tried to make sense of it. And that's obviously what we need to do. We need to try to find the answer that the Bible gives us and not be so dependent upon these overarching theological systems, because that's what happens is and this is bad for anybody, including Calvinists.

And I know a lot of people, you know, you hear Calvinism and stuff, anybody, reformed theologians, whatever. If you attach yourself to a system and you don't allow the scripture to guide your thinking and you begin to attach yourself to a system, no matter how good that system is, eventually you've become allegiance to the system rather than to the scripture.

You need to be biblical first. And if this and people out people, I used to have people because they asked me, are you a Calvinist? I said, no, because I don't agree with everything John Calvin said. I say this where John Calvin agreed with scripture.

I agree with him. And where John Calvin disagreed with scripture, I disagree with him.

People say, well, he was a great theologian.

How did he ever disagree with scripture? Because he did, because he was wrong. There were things he was wrong about. There's things I'm wrong about, as I've already conceded multiple times this evening.

Yes, ma 'am. Ethnic Israel. The only definition that I could give would be those who would consider themselves to be physical descendants of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob, I guess. Well, Jacob Fisk was. Yeah.

Well, if you here's an interesting point. All throughout the Old Testament, we have genealogy after genealogy after genealogy. Right. What what genealogy do we have in the New Testament? Only one. Well, we have two, but it's both the same person, Jesus.

That's the only genealogy we have in the New Testament. There is no genealogy outside of the Old Testament that that, you know, that we have in the New Testament recording for us who would be the Jews and who would not be.

However, there is among people who would consider themselves Jews, they seek out their heritage, seek out to find out who they are. I don't know how they do it, though. I can't give you the answer to how they would how they would stake a claim as a physical descendant of Jacob.

I guess she's asking, but what is the proof?

What is the. Yeah.

So let's again, let's begin reading at verse 11 and we'll read through verse 36. So I ask, did they talking about ethnic Israel, talking about Israel, 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, in as much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order 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 as 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, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.

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. 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's severity towards those who have fallen.

But God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you, too, will be cut off. And even they, 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 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 into their own olive tree?

Then verse 25 says, 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 Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, who will banish ungodliness from Jacob.

And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Verse 28 says, 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 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 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 depths of the riches and wisdom and 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 from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.

Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. That's a lot of text, and I know the common way that I would handle such a large block of text is I would take it and we would break it up and make it into 15, 16 sermons.

You know, that much text would take a long time. But as I said earlier, this is all one idea. And though we're going to probably have to break it into a couple of weeks, we're probably going to deal with some of the nuances of language.

I don't want us to miss the overarching idea because Paul is dealing with an important question, the question that, again, is still being dealt with today by God sending Jesus Christ and by establishing the church, has he told Israel, you're done?

That's it.

There is no more ethnic Israel. There is no more promises for ethnic Israel. Now, let's go back up to verses 11 through 12, and we'll look at those very quickly. Paul has already said he's already talked about starting, you know, just very quickly reminded what we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

He's already talked about verses one through five. He says, has God rejected his people? No, he hasn't. I'm an Israelite. And there are other Israelites who believed in Jesus. I'm proof positive God hasn't rejected everyone.

And that was his first argument is that God has to reject all Israelites because I am one of them. And then he goes on to say the difference between national ethnic Israel and the elect is that national Israel, most of them are trying to seek salvation as if it were by works.

They're trying to seek a self righteousness. But we have received grace and by grace, through faith, we have been saved. And it is that faith that we have that has brought about our relationship with God.

Just as Abraham believed God and is justified. So, too, we believe God and are justified. And it's by grace, not by works. And that's been his push, his argument. And he even goes on to say in verses eight through 10, he talks about the fact that God has hardened Israel.

And we have to address that. I know I'm going back before what we're getting to tonight, but I'm sort of just trying to set up the context because he does talk about the fact that God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, ears that would not hear down to this very day.

I remember one time somebody made this argument with me and it was in the well, doesn't matter what room of the church it was in, but it was only guys. And I was washing my hands. And one of the first in the church, he came up and he said, he said, we were having an argument Sunday school this morning.

It was about God hardening people. You don't believe God hardens people's hearts, do you, Pastor? And I said, well, the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh and that God hardened his heart. And the argument was, well, the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but only after Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

That was the argument that the person used. And I said, if you go back to Exodus and you remember the conversation that God had with the angel of the Lord in the bush. And the Bible says there in Exodus, the angel of the Lord said, speaking as God, he said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

That was before Pharaoh was ever even in the picture. There is a very real sense in which God hardens people's hearts. But what we have to understand is God never introduces evil into our hearts because God doesn't have to.

We are already evil. God doesn't cause us to be evil. God doesn't cause us to be unbelievers. However, if God removes his grace and everybody's under grace, everyone who is alive right now is alive because of grace.

We call it in theological terms common grace. The common grace of God is what keeps the earth spinning. It's what keeps the sun hot. It's what keeps your breath in your lungs. It's what keeps your heart beating inside your chest.

You're under the common grace of God. And part of what common grace does is not allow us to exercise our depravity to the full extent that we would if we could. Did you know government is part of God's common grace?

I mean, government's bad government is really bad, but it's worse without it. Government's bad, but it's worse to not have it. We saw that when Hurricane Katrina hit. For a day, people got to express their total depravity and it was horrible.

Right.

Government is a restraining force. We're going to talk about that when we get to Romans 13. And the point I'm trying to make in this situation is that when God lifts his restraint from the heart, our hearts grow cold and hard.

And that's the sense in which God hardens our heart. He doesn't introduce evil. He doesn't have to. It's already there. But when he removes the grace from our heart, when he lifts the restraint from our heart and allows us to exercise the depth of our depravity, then we see in ourselves what we truly are, sinful people.

And that's when it talks about God giving them a spirit of stupor, eyes that won't see. This is God's removing any grace. He's removing restraint. He's removing their ability to see the truth. And he had done that.

Israel had rebelled against him long before Christ came. If you read through the Old Testament and you read through the prophets, what did the prophets say to the people of God? You're unfaithful. You're unfaithful with your worship.

You're unfaithful with your idolatry. You're unfaithful with your ties. You're unfaithful with your children and how you're raising your children. You're unfaithful. And it was just that was the constant barrage of the Old Testament prophets was the unfaithfulness of Israel.

It didn't just happen when Christ came.

That had been going on since the time of Moses.

It didn't take Moses halfway up the hill before they were taking their earrings and things and they were making a golden calf because they had to have an idol to worship. So we understand that the faithlessness of the people of Israel is legendary.

And when it talks here about God giving them a spirit of super God, hurting their hearts. Yes, we've seen that throughout. But God has always kept for himself a remnant out of those hardened people. God has always kept for himself.

A genuine, faithful people.

So we get to verse 11 based on understanding that concept. Yes, the people have been hardened. But yes, there is also a remnant of faithful people. So he asked the question, so I ask that they stumble in order that they might fall.

Meganoid, by no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. I will grant that is a difficult concept to wrap our minds around because it seems like it wouldn't make any sense at all.

Why is it that God would have to hold something back from one group to give it to another group? Couldn't it just be given to all? But again, moving back to the issue of how Israel has behaved up until this point, God remember again, I mentioned this parable a few weeks ago.

Remember the parable of the. Excuse me, the parable of the vineyard, Jesus said there was a vineyard and they've been given to tenants and the tenants had been sent the servants of the master and they just kept on about kept on about kept on about.

And finally, the master said, what we got to give this over to other tenants. We've got to give this to somebody else who will behave properly. These tenants just have not behaved properly. And this is the point he's saying rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

And you say, oh, that seems like an interesting way that God would do that. But reading on, you begin to understand what he means because he says going down to verse 14 and we're going to go back up to verse 11.

But he says, in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. The whole idea about making them jealous wasn't about making them angry. It was about demonstrating the glory of the gospel through the Gentiles so that those people who were Jewish people would look upon the glory of the gospel that was being spread about through the Gentiles and desire it, not that it was it's jealousy.

Well, we think about jealousy in the sense of like high school sweetheart jealousy type thing is, you know, God is a jealous God. He's a teenage boy that gets angry whenever we go out on a date with somebody else.

That's the kind of we always describe, we read back into these words, our definition of it. But the idea of jealousy here, it's not the teenage boy type jealousy. The idea is that the glory of God would be demonstrated through the Gentile people so that Israel, ethnic Israel, would look upon that which is happening in the Gentiles and would see among them the glory of God.

Picture in your mind the story of Cornelius. You remember the story of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and remember Peter came to him and preached the gospel to him and they received the Holy Spirit. And Peter said, who would forbid water that we could baptize these who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

And remember, the Jews looked upon them and were in awe that God has been gracious.

To the Gentiles. This demonstrates God's glory.

And as such, Peter was amazed that God had done this. And this is Paul's point here, he's saying that by God's giving the gospel to the Gentiles, yes, in one sense that there are going to be some Jews who are going to be angry about it, but in another sense entirely, there are going to be some who see it for what it is.

When God opens their heart to see this is a glorious thing and it's the truth that they want to be a part of. And it goes on to say this, it says, 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?

This is where it begins to get where some people have the question, well, does this mean that at some point in the future, God is going to take all of ethnic Israel and bring them to revival? Is that what the full inclusion is referring to here?

And there are later passages that seem to address that more clearly. So at this point, I just want to say he's using a linguistic, a linguistic, I'm trying to think something for you. Jesus said he was telling the story of the parable of the woman who went to the king for help.

The widow went to the king and he said, he said, this woman came to the king and asked for justice and the unrighteous king said no. And he kept telling her no, but she kept coming every day. And finally, he said, I'm going to give her justice just so that she'll leave me alone.

And he said, if that's the way an unrighteous judge behaves, how much more will a God who.

Loves us give us justice?

You know, that was Jesus's point.

How much more? Well, that's the same, the same linguistic tools being used here because he says now that their trespasses means riches for the world. What am I saying? If the fact that they have been hardened has made it so that the Gentiles could be saved, how much more would it be if they actually got saved along with them?

If by their hardness, something good happened for the Gentiles, how much better would it be if by seeing the Gentiles get saved, they, too, receive Christ? So we see that it's just using that same type of language, how much more, how much.

Better would it be?

Obviously, much better. Now, I am speaking to you Gentiles, who's the audience?

Gentiles.

OK, and that's important because the audience that Paul's addressing here, he's specifically letting us know I'm speaking to Gentiles as my audience because he's about to start talking about the fact that there is a divide among God's people.

There are those who are ethnically Jews and there are those who are not. We are all brought together as one in Christ, but we all start out separate. We start out as either Jew or Gentile, and that's why he said the gospel goes to where?

To the Jew first and then to the Greek, right? It goes to one. There are separate groups of people, but when we come together, we become one in Christ. He says, Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.

I magnify my ministry. I, I make everything I'm doing as obvious to them as possible, that through God the Gentiles are being saved, they're receiving the Holy Spirit. I make that as big a deal as possible so that the Jews will look upon it and also receive the gospel.

I magnify my ministry inasmuch as I am a, as much as I am a apostle to the Gentiles in order that somehow my fellow Jews may be jealous and thus get saved. I minister to the Gentiles. Remember, Paul did minister to the Jews first.

And you remember that point in later, later chapters of the book of Acts? He says, You know what?

I'm done with y 'all.

I'm going to the Gentiles again. That's a key standard version.

But that's basically what he said. He said, I'm done.

I'm going to the Gentiles. But here he tips his hand a little. He says the whole purpose in going out into the Gentiles is one, Christ told us to do this, but also because in doing so, the Jews see this, they see the work of God among the Gentiles and they, too, might also get saved.

And he goes on to say, 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.

Now, verse 16, he's beginning to make a word picture, and we need to kind of keep this in our mind because he's going to talk about this later. He says the root is holy and if the root is holy, so the branches.

Who is the root of Israel? Well, you could go back all the way to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You could say the root of Israel is the patriarchs and then from them are the 12 tribes and from the 12 tribes comes Moses and from the 12 tribes comes David and from the 12 tribes comes all of the rest of the Old Testament godly people, the Old Testament saints.

But ultimately, the root in discussion here is Israel. Israel is the root, and when he says the root is holy, he's not talking about the individual Israelites, because as we know, even at the time of Christ, even the time before Christ has already noted, many of the Israelites were not holy, but Israel was given a calling by God.

Israel was given promises by God. Israel was given God's word, God's will, God's promises. That's what's holy.

That's the root.

Israel itself, not individual Israelites, but Israel itself is the root. You go back to Romans nine. What does Paul say? Not everyone who is born of Israel is Israel. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees when he discussed with them?

And they said, hey, we're of our father, Abraham. And Jesus said, no, no, no, you're of your father, the devil. If you were of Abraham, you would believe my words. Abraham longed to see my words.

Remember this?

So even Jesus made the point that you've got you've got true Israel, which is the root, but not everyone born ethnically is of that true Israel. So we're talking about the holy lump. We're talking about the holy root.

We're talking about Israel and the branches off of that. The branches are the faithful ones. Those who are truly of Israel, the ones who are coming off the branches. Now, that's kind of cheesy to do this.

An unfaithful, unbelieving person, just because they were born of the seed of Abraham, is not a part of this. And this is where he begins the issue of the wild olive branch, because we're going to draw a little picture here.

He says, but if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches.

All right. So what do you say? He says some branches were broken off and others were grafted in. So drawing the picture. OK, there are physical, physical branches from Israel that were broken off. In what sense?

They weren't truly Israel. So like I said before, they don't share in this. They're over here. These are physical Israelites. Physical by nature, attached to the root, but by faith, not. And he said they've been cut off.

They are not a part.

However, you are born off a different tree, Gentiles, which is holy, Israel. There were genuine, faithful people. We call these the remnant of Israel. There are many unfaithful people.

They have been cut off.

They are not a part.

But you who were not born into this have been grafted over to where now that's the word picture he's giving them, drew it for you. I don't know if that was necessary or helpful, but maybe to give you a picture as he goes on to say this.

But if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches.

I like that because this is what he's saying.

Once we get in here, we can't look at these guys over here and say, ha ha, we made it and you didn't. We can't look to these guys over here and say, ha ha, we're in and.

You're out. Why?

Because the only reason we're here is by grace, you are born into this. The only reason they're here is by grace, because they didn't deserve it either. All of this is by grace. And if you look at them and say, ha ha, we're here, you're not.

You don't understand grace. I'm sorry. Yes, the and we're going to get we're going to get to Christ in a moment, and I'm hopefully going to bring the full understanding of what I'm saying. I have not forgotten Christ, I promise.

But no, that's a good question, because when I talk about the grace, all of this is by grace, but I'm going to I'm going to try to bring it to a full understanding in just in just a second. But I'm trying to paint the picture for you.

Now, we're probably not going to get very much further. What's our time? Oh, yeah, I got plenty of time. Says, do not be arrogant towards 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, by the way, that little section there, that you might say it arrogantly, that's what you might say. Arrogantly, branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in like I was saying before.

Look at me. I've been brought in. They were put out. That is true. They might be excuse me, they were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.

That's the key. If you're here, if you're among this group, if you're in the believing, if you become attached to the root by faith, don't dare stand there proud of what you've done. Stand in awe that God cared enough to save you out of your sin because he.

Didn't have to stand in awe.

And then he goes on to give a warning, if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. This this might be a good place to end and just wax eloquently about this issue, because it's important because because there are some people who make the argument, obviously, that you can become a saved person and then become a damned person.

And we talk about losing salvation. Obviously, I don't believe that that's what the Bible teaches as a whole. But there are some portions of scripture like this one here, which talks about being removed once you've been added.

And that can be somewhat frightening because it sort of it might knock us out of our tulip bulb, you know, we're in the tulip bulb with our with our with our five points of form theology and we get that last and perseverance of the saints.

We might want to be careful not to become too complacent because the point is. There are people who think they're here. But they're not. What do you mean, Pastor? I mean, there are people who have made confessions of faith, but don't have genuine faith.