Romans 11:1-36 - Not Finished With Israel
Intro: Romans
ch. 9-11 are dealing w/ several themes - One major theme is the Sovereignty Of
God in His dealings w/ the nation of Israel
A) In Chapter 9, Paul points to
God's past dealings with Israel and highlights the sovereignty of God.-seen in the faithfulness of God In Chapter 10,
he deals with God's present dealings with Israel, focus is his desire to see
them saved
Now in
Chapter 11. we come to God's future dealings with Israel, which show His sincerity - Promises
B) That is, God made certain
promises to the nation of Israel which He will fulfill. For even though they've
blown it badly, God has promised to see Israel through on the basis of His own sincerity and faithfulness.
C) These promises are centered
in Christ and will be fulfilled in their entirety when he returns .
1) Then the nation that
rejected Him will hail him as their Messiah & their Kinsmen redeemer.
D) Yet Paul sees in scripture
certain Prophecies concerning God’s move among the Gentiles .
1) So that in the later portion
of Ch. 10 he mentions some of those prophecies of how the Lord was going to
manifest himself to a people who didn’t seek Him.
E) But to Israel He said all day long have stretched out my hand to a
stiff-necked & disobedient people .
1) Now does this acceptance of
the Gentiles mean that God is finished w/ Israel ? Paul says definitely not twice in Ch. 11
Mistakes in
interpreting Romans ch. 11 can be avoided by realizing that the theme &
focus of the Chapter is on Israel & not the Church.
SO Paul shows in Ch. 11 that God deals w/ His people
based on fixed principles . And inter mingled w/in those fixed principles
is His grace
A) Paul begins w/ the question of has God given up
on Israel - Answer is no way!!!!!!
V.1 11:1
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am
an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
B) Those of You who are into Bible prophecy should
have this verse should be noted in your Bible,
1) because many people teach
that God is finished with Israel.
C) And that The Church is now
the recipient of the blessings that were promised to Israel
1) As a result they get the
whole prophetic picture confused.
D) There are those who try to
equate the 10 Anglo Saxon nations as Israel - talk about the 10 lost tribes.
1) But this has no scriptural
basis - the bible doesn’t refer to any lost tribes - but it does mention the
Lost sheep of the House of Israel
But they make
ref. To Denmark being Tribe of Dan - / term ish refers to man = Danish /
British / What it really is is foolish. A) Now some who believe that the Church is Israel do
so to try in order to make their case that the Church must go through the
Tribulation.
B) You see, the
post-tribulation theological viewpoint makes the Church synonymous with Israel
since that's the only way the post-rapturtist
1)can explain the fact that
although 144,000 Jews are seen in the
Tribulation period, the Church is never mentioned.
C) Thus. those who embrace a
post-trib viewpoint. always teach that God is through with Israel.
D) Yet Romans 11 deals a
death-blow to this mentality, as Paul asks,
'Has God cast away His people? No way.' And then he points to himself as an
example
Paul says I am
an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
God did not reject his people, whom he
foreknew. Look at me
A) Now, the point Paul's making
here is not only the fact that he's saved. but the way he was saved.
B) Paul was radical in his zeal for God !
Persecuting the Church. coming against Christianity, Yet God in His grace
reached out to Paul C) Paul had an
encounter Jesus Christ— and his eyes were opened (Acts 9
& met him on that road.
D) And Paul was simply a shadow
personally of what will happen to the entire nation prophetically
E) Paul points to himself and says 'Is God through with Israel? Consider me
and my conversion as an illustration of what will happen to Israel according to Bible Prophecy.
F) See it will be during a time
when the persecution will be coming down on Israel, when Jerusalem will be
surrounded & about to be annihilated in the Tribulation period.
G) Armies of the Arab nations
along w/ Russia will be drawn down into Israel to attack them. what will
happen"
H) Suddenly
the Lord will appear and. like Paul. Israel will realize they erred greatly,
and will turn to Him and be saved
(Zechariah 13}.
6
"And one will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your
arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my
friends.'
8 And it shall come to pass in all the
land," Says the LORD, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and
die, But one- third shall be left in it:
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire,
Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They
will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people';
And each one will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"
So Paul says
don’t just at my life ' 'but check out history. Remember Elijah?'
A)Don't you know what the Scripture says in the
passage about Elijah---how he appealed to God
against Israel: "Lord, they have killed
your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are
trying to kill me."
There was a time in the life of the prophet Elijah
when he thought he was the only one left.
It was after that tremendous encounter with the 400
priests of Baal, recorded in 1 Kings 18, / fire came down from heaven and wiped
out all the sacrifices.
1) 400 Prophets of Baal were
slain
Queen Jezebel mounted a persecution against all the
prophets of God, including Elijah, and brought Elijah to the place where he
felt that he was the only one left.
B) Note that : times of greatest trial often - follow times of greatest Victory.
C) Elijah’s Vision was tainted
however - He saw only one /but God saw 7000
v.4 "I have reserved for
myself 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
D) Elijah, like many of us,
made some mistakes. First, he forgot
about man's limited knowledge about any subject.
E) We don't see very clearly;
we don't understand all the issues. I do not think there is anything that we
know everything about. ( Limited )
F) God saw the big picture : Sees your situation / probably not as bad as
you think !
Second, Elijah
forgot about God's unlimited power. The situation is never as bad as it looks because God
is not weak ! Though at times we doubt
A) Sometimes we think that God must have lost the
battle, that the powers of darkness are so strong and violent and so in command
that God has given up.
B) But when we think that way,
we have forgotten what the Scriptures tell us again and again---
1) that God is using the very
opposition of the enemy that to bring about his purposes.
C) Never
forget that. God cannot lose because he uses the very opposition against him to
win. Elijah had no reason to despair.
So There was a
faithful remnant & God knew who they were & had them numbered .
A) And Paul points out that God
has always had His faithful remnant - those believers among the Jewish people
who recognized the true work of God
1)
Who have walked in fellowship w/ God.
V.5 Even so at the present time
there is a remnant chosen by grace(Now
.The Church in
the Beg. Was a Jewish Church ) And if by
grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be
grace.
V.6 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of
works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no
longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Paul says here that the believing remnant - was
according to Grace & not works - Where grace is works as a means for
salvation no longer exist
A) It is not of works - Grace
& works are mutually exclusive. If I am seeking for God to accept me by His
grace = undeserved favor.
1) Then there is no room for
works or trying to earn his favor.
B) If I am trying to earn God’s
favor through my efforts then there is no room for grace .
V.7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it
seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
A) What was Israel seeking
after ? They were seeking to be righteous before God - through their works
through keeping the law - impossible
B) But they didn’t obtain it -
They fell short! But continue to this
day still trying to obtain righteousness through their works
C) But the Jews are not alone
in this. Many churches today do the same thing.
D) One of the main reasons that
we need to be ministering in places like E. Europe & where Brian is in
London is because - church is dead or in Legalism
E) Burdens on the People -
follow these rules & keep these sacraments - do these varies things &
you can be saved.
1) Subo - Church - legalistic-
Heard word - grace - drawn.
So the Jews
did not - could not obtain what they were seeking because they insisted on
trying to obtain it through their own works
A) RESULT THEY
WERE HARDENED!
B) There is a remnant who have
ran to God but the majority are running away from God.
1) At this present time
there is a believing minority &
blinded majority
8 Just as it is written: "God has given
them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they
should not hear, To this very day."
9 And David says: "Let their table become
a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do
not see, and bow down their back always."
C) Paul quotes from 3 O.T.
scriptures Duet.29:4 / Isa. 29:10 / Psa. 69:22,23 to illustrate that Israel was
hardened as a Judgment for their unbelief.
D) The word blinded = hardened
or callused. This is a terrible
judgment, but one brought on by the Jews' own actions.
Everett Harrison, after carefully assessing these
Scriptures in their Old Testament contexts, says this:From an observation of the
setting of the quotations, it is clear that God did not give his people deaf
ears to mock them any more than he gave them blind eyes to taunt them. What was
involved was a judicial punishment for failure to use God-given faculties to
perceive His manifested power and to glorify Him.
C) In other words God only hardens those who want to be hardened . - Pharaoh is a good example of
this/ we read in the book of Ex.
1) That Pharaoh hardened his
heart - & also that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart -
D) what we
don’t see in our English versions is there are different words used there
speaking of this hardening & the words illustrate a progression of God
meeting Pharaoh right where he was at.
E) Pharaoh resisted - thus God
made his heart resist / Pharaoh made his heart - stiff - God made pharaoh’s
heart stiff.
1) Another miracle - Pharaoh
makes heart firm unmovable / God does the same until - Pharaohs heart was
heart.
F) God did virtually the same
thing - w/ Israel - for 1000’s of yrs He would use one method after another to
get His peoples attention -
G) but they continued to resist Him - rebel against
Him - harden their heart against Him - until finally He allowed them to go
their way & be blinded.
Hosea My
people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge Because they have rejected
Knowledge.
Now What Paul
says here about hardening should be sobering to both Jew and Gentile, for the
principle is universal:
if anyone
hears the truth and does not respond to it, the time can come in which he or
she will be incapable of responding.
A) The most terrifying thing as
a pastor is seeing people who might sit in church on a weekly basis but are
dead to the word - resisted so long.
B) The Lord Jesus, speaking of this principle, said
in Matthew 13:12, "Whoever has will
be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what
he has will be taken from him.
C) That is
some Good insight into how we listen. " Then he went on to explain in verses 13-15:"This is why I speak to
them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not
hear or understand.' In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be
ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never
perceiving. For this people's heart has become callused; they hardly hear with
their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I
would heal them."'Some of the Pharisees could not understand what Jesus was saying
because they had not appropriated the truth of God they had already received.
Heb2:1 Therefore we
must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift
away.
2 For if the word spoken through angels proved
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward,
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
to us by those who heard Him,
Returning to Paul's overall point, God is not
through with Israel. The existence of a believing remnant today, just as in
Elijah's day, is evidence that God still has a plan for his people & that he has the power to bring it about.
Now Paul asked
a second question. 11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly
not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to
the Gentiles.
A) The Jews have stumbled
nationally speaking - but their fall - is not a permanent one.
B) But because of their fall the door has been
opened for the Gentiles to be saved. according to the grace of God.
1) One Purpose of our salvation
is to provoke the Jews to Jealousy.
Dr. Charles Feinberg. brilliant Jew, He was so
intelligent that he could continue lecturing to his class without missing a
syllable while writing a note to his secretary!
Dr. Feinberg graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the
University of Pittsburgh he lived in an Orthodox Jewish household. That
household had a "Sabbath Gentile," a Gentile woman who was hired to
serve them on the Sabbath.
Though Feinberg was not aware of it, this woman had
taken the rites of purification simply so she could bear witness in that home.(
Christian) Feinberg was attracted by the quality of this believer's life and
began to ask questions. Although the woman could not give him all the answers,
she took him to Dr. John Solomon, then resident head of the American Board of
the Mission to the Jews, and Dr. Feinberg was led to Christ.
He had been made thirsty—jealous so to speak, beautifully
jealous—by this cleaning woman.
The Church is to be a place where there is such love
for Christ and such love for each other that Jews and Gentiles become thirsty
for Christ.
We Christians ought to be so alive, so full of
Christ, and so full of love for one another that Jews and Gentiles say to
themselves, "They have something I
don't have, and I must have it."Now
Paul alludes to a coming blessing that will extend to all when Israel is
restored: 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world,
and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles;
inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy
those who are my flesh and save some of them.15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
A worldwide
spread of spiritual life will come when Israel is restored. When Christ comes
back again !
A) The difference will be so dramatic that it can
only be described as the difference between life and death.
B) Paul's argument is this: if
that kind of riches has come because of the Jews' rejection, what will it be
like in the day when Israel comes again into its proper position?
C) According to the prophets, that is the time when
the earth shall blossom like the rose, when there shall be no more war,
"nothing to hurt or destroy
D) Israel is the key. That is
why every Christian should keep his eye on that remarkable people and see what
is happening to them.
So Paul is
contrasting the lesser w/ the greater - if their fall or casting away brought
salvation just think what will happen- when their saved.
Paul pictures
the temporariness of the Jews' rejection and the certainty of their restoration
through two illustrations. The first is in verse 16: 16 For if the firstfruit is
holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
A) While we may wonder at what
is meant here, the Jews had no problem understanding it.
B) Paul is referring to Old
Testament offerings and sacrifices, and specifically the offering of the
firstfruits.
C) In that offering the priest
took some of the dough from the larger lump and offered it to God.
D) Paul reasoned that if the
lump offered to God was acceptable, the rest would naturally be as well.
1) The firstfruit was Abraham,
the father of the Jewish nation, and he was accepted before God.
E) Paul’s point is that Israel's origins make her
restoration the most natural thing!
In verses 17-24Paul extends this argument with the
illustration of grafting branches onto an olive tree.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off,
and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them
became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the branches. But if
you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports
you.
19 You will say then, "Branches were
broken off that I might be grafted in."
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were
broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural
branches, He may not spare you either. 22
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell,
severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise
you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in
unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24
For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and
were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more
will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
A) The normal practice was to
upgrade a wild olive tree by grafting healthy fruit-producing branches to it.
B) While grafting does not
affect the rest of the tree, the new branches become very productive.
1) But here Paul talks about
grafting wild, fruitless branches onto a good tree, something he knew was
"contrary to nature"
C) If you take a nectarine
branch and graft it into a peach tree, what does the branch grow from then
on---peaches or nectarines?
1) It still grows nectarines.
The fruit is determined by the branch, not by the tree.
D) The peach tree will grow
nectarines on a nectarine branch, and plums on a plum branch, and so on. That
is what happens according to nature.
Now we are the
wild olive branches that have been grafted into the tree A) Following Paul's analogy
here, if we, a wild olive branch, were grafted into
a rich cultivated olive tree, the fruit that would
continue to grow would be the wild olives, bitter and shriveled that which we
already were producing.
B) But God does a miracle with
us. He changes us so that the fruit that comes forth is the fruit of the
Spirit, and we begin to produce rich, wonderful, fruit
C) So Paul
argues, if God can do that with bitter fruit such as we Gentile believers are,
how much more will he produce w/ the true branches?
D) Gentiles shouldn’t boast -
shouldn’t think we are better than they - it is all according to God’s grace.
1) You are standing by faith
according to the grace of God.
Throughout History - Church has had a poor
relationship w/ Israel -
A) Church has been responsible
for much of the persecution of the Jews
B) Catholic church - Luther
broke away still anti-Semitic - carried on by many protestant churches even
today - Chuck’s hate mail
C) Shouldn’t be ! Don’t get high minded ! Grace through faith
- just wild branches grafted in!
D) The Jews are still going to
have to exercise faith in Jesus Christ but God is going to give them some
special signs .
1) During the Trib. God’s
desire to save - big emphasis is on Israel. Angels / 2 witnesses / 144,000
Jewish Billy Grahams
E) All centers there &
around Jerusalem - and Israel - God isn’t finished w/ them - What is He waiting
for ! Paul tells us in v. 25 25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in
part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Now understand
that there are 2 things mentioned about the gentiles that are sig. To the last
days & God’s plan -
A) Times of the Gentiles - Luke 21 / and the fullness of the Gentiles that
Paul mentions here.
B) In Luke 21, Jesus said
Jerusalem would be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles' are fulfilled
. for close to 2000 yrs that was the case
1) Israel became a nation in
1948 - but Jerusalem was not in their possession - belonged to the Arabs .
B) But In 1967. Jerusalem was
recaptured by the Israeli Defense Forces, & I believe it was then that the
times of the Gentiles' were fulfilled.
C) So what does that mean for
us now today ! We are simply in overtime right now, due to God's goodness and
patience.
1) How many of you have been
saved since 1967? Aren't you glad He
took us into overtime?
So understand this: The time of the Gentiles (Luke 21), deals with
the recovering of Jerusalem but the Fullness of the Gentiles is a different
issue.A) The fullness of the Gentiles Is
when the full number of Gentiles are saved.
B) In other words there is a
Gentle somewhere on the earth that is the last one to be saved.
C)When that person acknowledges Jesus Christ as
Savior, that constitutes the fullness of the Gentiles, and consequently. at
that moment, we go up.
1) So if you re here tonight
and not yet saved—get saved. You could do us ad a great favor because you might
be the last one!.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is
written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away
ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, When I
take away their sins."
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for
your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the
fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable.
30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet
have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been
disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God has committed them all to
disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
the gifts and
the calling of God are irrevocable.
A) God has made special
promises to Israel & He is going to keep them
B) We might not know exactly
how but - that is what He says - and it is going to be glorious to see!
Finish v.33 Oh,
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 "For who has known the mind of the
LORD? Or who has become His counselor?"
35 "Or who has first given to Him And it
shall be repaid to him?"
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are
all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Quote from
John Phillips : If God were small enough to
figure out He wouldn’t be big enough to worship!
Augustine, the distinguished bishop of Hippo in
North Africa, was strolling the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea one morning,
engaged in deep thought. He was attempting to come to grips with the depths of
the doctrine of the Trinity.
He was
interrupted in his thoughts when he stopped to watch a little fellow running
toward the ocean with a bucket. He watched with amusement as the little guy
filled his pail with water and hurried back up the beach to pour it into a
little hole he had pawed into the sand. Within seconds the sea water soaked
into sun baked, thirsty sand.
Then the
bishop's eyes followed the little boy down to the ocean again, and then back up
to the hole. Once again the little guy poured the water into the hole, and once
again the sand swallowed it up greedily.
"What
are you trying to do?", asked Augustine with a smile.
The little boy, a little annoyed at being
interrupted in the middle of his busy task, replied, "I'm trying to put
the ocean into this hole."
Suddenly, it dawned on Augustine that he was
behaving much like this little fellow. He was trying to cram the ocean of God's
truth about Himself into his little box of brains and was having no more
success