Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. And if you're new, let me just say, we're in a series on the Epistle of Romans. We have been for quite some time, and will be for quite some time. And we're going to do something a little different this morning. As we come to Romans 11, we're going to take the whole chapter in one message, which we don't typically do. But I'm doing that for a reason, which I will explain. It is a great chapter. It is, in many respects, one of the more technical chapters in the book of Romans. It is a chapter that, just to sum it up, deals with the future of the Jewish people and the future of the nation of Israel.
Now, just to give you a sense of where we're at in the book of Romans, for eight chapters, Paul's talked about salvation. And we, we've looked in detail at what God did in planning for our salvation, what God did the moment you and I were saved, how grace works in our life, how we're to understand being united with Christ and the advantage of that. We've talked about how there is no condemnation and why that's true, and how we've been adopted as, as children by God. It's glorious what God has done for us. And Paul pauses after chapter eight. And Paul, in chapters nine and ten and eleven, talks about God's plan specifically as it relates to the Jewish people. It's important not only for Jewish people to understand that, but it's important for Gentile people to understand that.
Romans chapter 9, we looked at the reason for Israel's rejection and in the midst of that, talked about one of the great doctrines of the New Testament, this doctrine of election. In fact, it's a great doctrine in the Bible that God chooses, and God chose us. And we're going to talk more about that today. Chapter 10, we saw Israel's responsibility and certainly related it to our own. That each one of us, though God makes a choice, that's one side of our salvation, God's election, His choice. The other side is our responsibility, our choice. And we looked at that, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And then this morning, we're going to look at Israel's restoration. What's going to happen in the future? And it will take us from today all the way to the time of the Lord's return.
Now, let me just say this. An understanding, at least in terms of the basics of Romans chapter 11, is very important for the following reasons. Number one, it helps us to understand, as best as is humanly possible, the mystery of God's election and our responsibility. Second, it forms a framework for understanding end-time theology. What's going to happen in the end time? What are we watching for? What, what will God be doing? The Bible's very clear on this. Number three, it affects how you and I, as Gentiles and as Christians, are to view both the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. If you don't understand Romans chapter nine, ten, and eleven, what will happen is you will buy into a theology known as replacement theology, which in essence says that all the promises that belong to Israel and God's working in Israel, all of that has been transferred to the church, and the church has replaced Israel as God's covenant people. The problem with that teaching is, and it is erroneous, is that that teaching then often becomes the bedrock to justify anti-Semitism, the persecution of Jewish people, and other terrible ideologies like white supremacy, British Israelism, these things that will deal with replacement theology as well. Let me just say this, these chapters are again a reminder for you and I of the magnificence of grace, of God's work of grace in the life of the believer, which is very important for you and I to understand.
So, what we're going to do, because I don't want you, by going verse by verse and chasing different doctrines and and aspects of theology that I would find, honestly, very interesting, I'm afraid we would lose sight of the greater goal of Paul in writing Romans 11. So, we're going to take a thirty-thousand-foot aerial view from Romans chapter 11, get the main understanding of it, and move on from there. As we do, I want to give you three themes. So, hopefully, you're taking notes and you're writing some things down you can reflect on, or you can go on the James River app, you can pull up the message. It's got the scriptures, it's got the points, got all that you need there. But the first thing I want you to notice is, I want you to notice the principle of the remnant. The principle of the remnant. That God has always preserved a group. God has always preserved a remnant. And that's where we pick it up.
Romans chapter 11, verse one. "I ask then," so this is Paul writing, "has God rejected his people? Has He rejected Israel? Is God not going to do anything more with Israel? Has God said, 'Nope, I don't, I don't need Israel because I got the church'?" You say, "Well, why would Paul even ask that?" Well, remember Romans chapter 10. He understands people could misunderstand where he's headed with the last verse in Romans 10. But of Israel, he says, "that's," he's quoting scripture, "all day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." So, if God is saying, "You know what? I've held out my hands to people who have not responded to me. The nation of Israel has not responded to Him in the way that He would have desired. They rejected Jesus as not only their Messiah, but their King, their Savior." So, some could conclude, "If they did that, God has no future plan for them." Look what Paul says. Paul says, "I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means." Heaven forbid. Absolutely not. That, that isn't even in God's mind. It's unthinkable. Because at stake is, God made a promise to Israel. He not only made a promise to Israel, He made a promise to Abraham back at the beginning. He's the father of our faith. He is the, he is the grandfather, if you will, the father of Israel. He made a promise to King David. He made promises to the nations, or the prophets. Will God walk away from His promise? No way. Because of that, we know He will fulfill His promises to the people of Israel. And Paul says that while the nation as a whole might nationally have rejected God's working in God's Messiah, God has always had a remnant. God has always had people that He's preserved. In fact, it would be interesting across the campuses and, and just by way of question, are there any people here today and you would say, "I'm of Jewish background. I'm Jewish." I know we've got some. So, few hands going up. People that are Jewish, you're part of a remnant. Paul was part of a remnant. Look at it. He writes this, "I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means. For I myself am an Israelite." Paul says, "Listen, and rejected the Jewish people because I'm a Jew. In fact, all the disciples are Jewish. We owe the gospel to a Jewish Savior who sent Jewish disciples who called a Jewish Paul to carry the gospel to a pagan Europe, to share the gospel." He says, "I'm, I'm an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." She says, "God hasn't rejected them. In fact, look at it, verse 2: 'God has not rejected his people whom He foreknew.'"
I want to take just a moment and remind you of this, because this, this word and an understanding of this word has much to do with our understanding of the doctrine of election, which we're going to talk about in just a few moments. Because it's important for us to grasp this doctrine, at least to understand what it teaches, to hold it in, in a, in a mysterious juxtaposition, if you will, to the doctrine of you and I choosing, but God choosing, and how all that works together. But we have to understand what foreknowledge is. When it says, "God foreknew," it's not just saying God is omniscient, though He is, and He knows everything. It's not just talking about God knew what, what would happen in the future, therefore God knew what individuals would do or what countries would do, therefore God purposed to act in a certain way because He knew people would do certain things. In other words, "God chose you because He knew you chose Him." That's the way a lot of people understand election, which is wrong. Because foreknowledge is not talking about what God foreknew and He positioned Himself accordingly, but rather, foreknowledge. To understand that the word "know" or "knew" in the Hebrew is more than just acquainted with facts. The word involves personal relationship, personal affection, and care. I mean, if we had time, we could go back to Genesis chapter 4, and there it says, "Cain knew his wife," and they, there was a son born. It's talking about the most intimate of human relationships happening is encompassed in that word. We could go to Amos chapter 3 and verse 2, where in the Old Testament, God says of Israel, "You only have I known." That doesn't mean God didn't know of any other country than Israel. It means, "You only, as a nation, that I have a personal affection in relationship with, of personal care." So, foreknowledge is not just foresight. We could think of it as, "fore-love." He fore-loved us.
Romans chapter 11, verse 2. "You could read it this way: 'Has, has not God rejected His people?' Our God has not, excuse me, rejected His people whom He foreloved?" Then Paul gives another explanation or example of a remnant. Let's bring it up here. Romans chapter 11, verse 2. "Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?" I mean, just kind of summarize, tell this story, because if you've never heard of Elijah, this will mean nothing to you. Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament, and he was prophesying during the days of one of the most wicked kings in the Old Testament, a king of Israel by the name of Ahab, who had a wife by the name of Jezebel. So, even today, in our side, we get somebody can be called a Jezebel. It's not a positive. Somebody calls you a Jezebel, that's not a good thing, okay? So, Jezebel was not, was not a good person. They worshiped not the true God. They worshiped a pagan god by the name of Baal. It was a fertility cult. And so, what happened was, Elijah challenged them about that, and had a showdown, if you will, challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown on a mountain called Carmel. And what they did is, they had, they had the pagan prophets of Baal, so there were 400 of them, and 450 of us. So, Baal and his consort, Ashtaroth, were the fertility goddess, God and goddess of the day. And then Elijah had his altar over here. And he said to the people of Israel, he said, "Okay, we'll both, they'll pray to their gods, I'll pray to the true God. Whichever God answers by fire, He's the real God." Okay? And the people are like, "Right on! We love this kind of thing. This is, this is our idea of great Sunday school." So, they, they pray. Elijah, obviously, the true God answers by fire. The other God doesn't even listen, because they aren't real gods at all. And the true God answers by fire. Elijah says, "The people, listen, these are false prophets. Kill them." So, they killed all of them. 850. Jezebel hears about this, and Jezebel, she's the queen, married to Ahab. She said to Elijah, "You're a dead man. I'm gonna get you." He flees, goes hundreds of miles away to Mount Sinai, and he's in a cave hiding. And he makes this complaint before God. He says, "Listen, I've served You faithfully, and now everybody's gone. I'm the only prophet left." And God says, "Listen, quit feeling sorry for yourself. I'm, I'm the God who preserves a remnant. And there's not, there's more than just you left. There's 7,000 people who have not bowed the knee to Baal." That's this story. God's reply to him, "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So, to now, this is Paul's point. "At the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace." There is a remnant chosen by grace. That is talking about God's electing, God's choosing by grace, people to be His own for all eternity. Now, you could write down Romans chapter 8, verses 29 through 30. You could get that message. We talked about election there. You could get the message from Romans chapter 9, and verses 6 through 18, where we talked about election there. But let me just give you a definition of election that will help you. Election, so one of the important doctrines in the Bible, election is the act of God before the creation of the world in which He chose certain people to be saved. Unless I miss my guess, for most people, if you're hearing that for the first time, you're like, "You want to blow your whistle. You want to throw the flag. You want to say, 'That's not fair.'" That's how we would view it, because we understand neither God, nor His work in people, nor really do we understand election. There is a mystery to this that I think all of us, if somebody says, "Well, I understand that totally," you have come up with an understanding that is extra-biblical. This is a mysterious thing. How can this be true? How can this work? How can God be just? How can God be fair and have this be true? Here's the fact: He is just. He is fair, and it is true. You say, "Well, I don't understand that." Welcome to the dimension of finite understanding, which is a part of the human condition. It's, it's where you and I live. Now, listen, you'll see this. You'll see this doctrine mentioned in other parts of the Bible. I don't have time to give them all to you, but I'll give you one. Ephesians chapter 1. Look at this: "For He (that's God) chose us in Him before the creation of the world. He chose to be holy and blameless in His sight in love." So, this is an act of God's great love. "He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and His will."
Now, back to Romans chapter 11. "So, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace." You say, "What's that saying?" In other words, back to understanding foreknowledge. A lot of people try to rationalize the doctrine of election by saying, "Well, the way it works is, God, you see, knows everything. So, God knew what people would do in advance, and God knew that so-and-so would open their heart to the gospel. So, God chose them because He knew they would choose Him." It's the way a lot of people explain it. It's absolutely wrong. You say, "Why is that?" Because of what this verse teaches. If God chose you or chose me because He knew I would choose Him, or you would choose Him, then He's choosing based on my works, and it is no longer grace. That's what Paul is saying there. The point that Paul is making is that your election, my election, is not based on anything we do. It's not based on God knowing the future and knowing you would respond, because then that's works. We're saved by grace, period. Listen to this in Ephesians chapter 2: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." It doesn't have anything to do with God sovereignly, unassisted by your behavior, before the world began, unassisted by the, what He knew to be your proclivities or lack of them spiritually speaking, said, "I'm going to take that person, that person, that person, that person, that person." Now, here's what people will do with that. People have a tendency then to move from the positive, because this is where scripture causes us to be, to say, "Are you serious? Get out of town. You mean the God of the universe chose me, knowing that I'm a sinner, knowing that I would fail Him, knowing God, He chose me? I can't believe it. Wow." What people do is, they'll go to the negative. "What do you mean God didn't choose that person?" Scripture doesn't go there. You don't go there. The issue is, God chose you. Now, don't worry about everybody else. You worry about you, because you're going to ultimately have to give account for you, right? Spiritually speaking. In eternity past, without respect to anything you would do, God chose you. That's grace upon grace. And I realize that creates a lot of questions, and that is where we have to be careful. Because two things can happen. Number one, people can try to harmonize it. They can kind of say, "Well, you know, it means is," and they can say, "Well, you know, really, it doesn't have anything to do with individual election. It has to do with corporate election. God chose a people." But you'd be hard-pressed to show that it doesn't apply individually in the Bible. Or people will say, "No, you know what? Because He knew what you would do, He chose you based on what He knew." Which again, violates the whole last thing. So, when you try to harmonize two seemingly contradictory theological truths, you have to be careful. Because invariably, when you try to harmonize them humanly, you will make them less than they are theologically, and you come up with something that's not biblical. Every great theological truth hits on this seeming paradox, this seeming contradiction. We give an example: Jesus was 100% God, right? He was 100% man, right? How can somebody be 100% of both? I don't know. It's called the mystery of the Incarnation, the God-man. I don't understand it. You don't either. If you think you understand it, I'm scared of you. I'm not going to be in your church, okay? The inspiration of scripture. Did Paul write Romans, or did the Holy Spirit write Romans? Both. How can it be both? It's both. At what point was it Paul? At what point was it the very? You say, "Well, I think over here." No, you don't know. I don't know. We rest in the mystery that is true. On it's true on one theological truth after another. Here's the problem: We can find ourselves, when we come to these theological truths that we don't fully grasp, we can find ourselves asking more questions than God, in His wisdom, has chosen to answer. And the danger is, if we're not careful, and we don't have a heart of humility, the danger is that our questions can turn into accusations. To that end, we have to accept some things. They're not everything is good for us to know this side of heaven. And therefore, God doesn't give us that information. There are some things that are just not good for us to know. And there are some things that you and I just cannot know, because we're not God, and we don't have the infinite capacity or the understanding of the dimension that is heaven. And we can't see some things, let alone comprehend them. At the same time, we have to accept this: there are some things that are good for us to know, even if we cannot fully understand them. It's good for us to know this. You say, "Well, okay, explain that and election." Why is it good for me to know this? Let me give you one, one reason why. One of the things that the doctrine of election does is it gives us the tests for measuring whether or not we have switched roles with God. You say, "What do you mean?" C.S. Lewis wrote an essay called "God in the Dock." And I want to explain that before we read it. When we're talking about the dock, not talking about God out on the fishing dock, you know, pulling his yacht into the, that's not the dock. The dock, C.S. Lewis's English, the dock in a court of law is where the defendant would sit. The defendant, unlike an American court of law where a defendant sits right next to the defense counsel, in an English court, you're in the dock. It's a cage where the accused sits, often with the guard. The judge is at a place called the bench, which we use that, we use that nomenclature today in our American judicial setting. "You may approach the bench." That's where the judge says. Here's what Lewis writes: "The ancient man approached God as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are reversed. He is the judge. God is in the dock." In other words, God is the accused. He, that's the man, is quite a kindly judge as long as God should have a reasonable defense for being the guy who permits war, poverty, and disease. I mean, how many times have you heard people say, "Well, you know, I just can't believe in a God that would allow war. I can't just believe in the God who'd do this. I, you know what they're doing there? The judge. God's on trial." This is, this is tremendous. This is our society. "The trial may even end in God's acquittal, but the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock." The doctrine of election causes us to discern where we're sitting. Are we calling God to account, or are we humbly accepting He is the judge of the whole earth, and He will do right, because He is loving, He is just, He is merciful, and none of those attributes work in contradiction. All that He does is loving, and all that He does is righteous, and all that He does is just.
Romans chapter 11, verse 7. "What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened." Now, here's another part that's a part of this doctrine of election, the hardening of people. You say, "What do you mean? People who are exposed to the light but grow harder and harder. Is that their fault, or is that God's fault? Is that their work, or is that God's work?" It is, I would suggest to you, that there's, there's two factors. It is them, and it is God. I mean, you remember back when we were looking at Romans chapter 1, and we were talking about the wrath of God, we did a four-part series, and God turned them over because they chose not to acknowledge God as God. There was a darkening that isn't just part of, like, a natural consequence, though it is. But there is a divine agency in it. In that God turned them over. Here we have, "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, ears that would not hear—down to this very day.'" Let me just read you this, because I think this is helpful. John Piper writes, "This is what we see in the Bible: God is sovereign. Man is a responsible moral agent." Now, again, if God's sovereign and He can do anything, then how can man be responsible? Because God's sovereign, God's who's controlling everything. So, how is man responsible? That doesn't make sense. It's the contradiction of paradox. Look at what he says: "God is free and never ultimately bound by forces or actions or wills outside of Himself. On the other hand, we are morally responsible. We are guilty for our sinfulness and deserving of retribution and punishment. Therefore, we sum up God's hardening work like this: God so arranges all reality in His unsearchable wisdom so that many indeed experience ongoing rebellion and hardness against God. But He does this mysteriously in such a way that He is never unjust or blameworthy in what comes to pass, and we never cease to be morally accountable. When He draws us to Himself and opens our eyes so that we believe in Him and trust Him and love Him and treasure Him, it is owing to nothing in us. And we should be the humblest, most patient, kind, loving, tender-hearted, forgiving, courageous people on the earth. God has made us His own, and it was grace and grace alone that did it. And when He passes over others and leaves them to become hardened, rebellious, and unbelieving, He does them no injustice. We are as deserving of judgment as they. And it is sheer undeserved grace that we stand justified in faith." Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. It's grace. I don't understand all of that, and neither do you. And neither do the greatest minds in theology. There is more that could be said, but it would lead to a greater harmony of the paradox? Probably not by much. It's a mystery. And there, there comes a place, and you're going to see this at the end of the book of Romans, where we stand back and we say, "Lord, I don't understand. I only know You're a great God." You see, to the person who would say, "Well, John, that's not fair," and I believe God demands an answer. You sound a lot like Job. Remember the book of Job? Job lost all of his assets, lost his children, lost his health. In chapter after chapter, here's what Job says: "This isn't right. This isn't fair. And I want an audience with God. God owes me an explanation because I've lost everything, and I don't think I did anything wrong." By the end of the book, God appears to Job. And here's what God says: "Who is this who darkens my path with his counsel?" says Job. "Who do you think you are? Let me ask you some questions, and you answer them. And if you can answer my questions, I'll answer yours." What are the questions? God asks. God says, "Job, can you explain the hydrological cycles of the earth? Tell me about those. You're so smart. Tell me how the snow, tell me how the rain, tell me how the wind, tell me, tell me how the lightning, tell me how all the..." Oh, Joe, let's move on there to just nature. "Tell me about when the, when the doe gives birth to the fawn, and tell me about how this works, and how the birds, and how, how the biological cycles, you know, so much. Tell me. And tell me about the creatures of the deep, and tell me how they're made, and tell me how that happened, and tell me where they came. And tell me about all these things. Tell me about the sky. Tell me about how the, how all of the, or stars orbit, and where the galaxies." "You're so smart. You know all of this. You surely do." Here's what God is saying, Job: You can't understand the mysteries of the natural world, a world you can see. How would you ever understand the mysteries of the supernatural world, which you cannot see? Here's what Job says. Job says, "I had seen, I had heard of You, but now I have seen You. And I repent in sackcloth and ashes." Job says, "God, I had You in the dock. I got a little confused. I was sitting as Your judge. I'll get out. I'll step off the bench and get back in the dock. You're the judge. I repent in sackcloth and ashes, and I worship You." This is the heart of humility. This is the heart of faith. And this is the heart that's very difficult for Western civilization and for people who are raised in a proud, individualistic, know-it-all society to come to a place where they would admit that there's a Being that knows more than they do, and that does not, does not owe them an answer. So, can I just say that there's a place for humility in our faith where we seek to understand what the Bible reveals, but we accept what we don't understand by faith, knowing this, that someday I will. That someday, the Bible says, "I'll know fully, even as I am fully known." That someday, one second into heaven, I can promise you this: every injustice that you perceived, that you didn't understand, that you wanted an answer for, in that moment, you're going to find that God was, that He did even more than you would have done had you known the same thing as He. You will, you will say, "You are worthy. You are good. You are righteous. You are loving." And I worship You. And for the rest of eternity, you'll be magnifying the Lord. I'm just saying, this is the place that people of faith have to be. This is why I take time with this, because I fear that in our Western civilization, we are fast moving to the place where God is constantly being questioned and called to account in a way that is simply a product of pride and spiritual ignorance that has diminished God to the level, no, not the level of a man, beneath the man, and it is blasphemy.
Well, there's a remnant. There's a pattern of restoration. I'm going to just move quickly through this. Romans chapter 11, and verse 11 says, "So I ask, that they stumble in order that they might fall?" In other words, "Are they out of this for good?" Is the way the message puts it? And I might suggest to you that when you're reading difficult passages and you don't know how to interpret them, to go to The Message is a great way to go and to kind of see, because it's a paraphrase written by a scholar who understands the Greek and the Hebrew and can give you the sense of it. He goes on to say this in verse 12: "So I ask, that they stop. Now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their inclusion mean?" Here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, "Listen, God's got a plan for Israel. He's not rejected them. In fact, if for this time they've not been, they've not received Christ, and it's resulted in all these Gentiles receiving Christ, and it was good. I mean, if it was great without Israel, Paul's point is, think how good it will be with Israel being saved." Verse 15: "This is what he says: 'Now if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?'" In other words, it will be fantastic when Jews and Gentiles are all fully saved. Paul then gives an illustration in verses 16 and following that basically says this: He views it as an olive tree. And he says, "You know, it was started, and, and what happened was, there were branches of unbelief that God cut off, and He grafted in Gentiles into this olive tree, into this, this spiritual plant. And He says, 'The fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches.'" In other words, what he's talking about is, how should you and I view Israel? How should you and I view the Jewish people? You know, here's the sad thing: through history, at times Christians have been some of the biggest persecutors of Israel and of Jewish people. "You rejected Jesus. You killed Christ." Paul says, "That is completely the wrong attitude. The right attitude is, you gave me a Messiah. You gave me the Word of God. You led me. Your people made it possible for me to know salvation." That's what he's talking about. "Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. It's certainly possible to say, 'Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in.' Well, well, and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root." So, in other words, you could say, "Well, but they didn't believe, and I did believe." Paul says, "Give that a rest. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft took when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So, don't get cocky and strut your branch. No branch strutting going on here, okay? Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you live and green. If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would He hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side of God." Again, gentle kindness, ruthless severity. How can God be gently kind and ruthlessly severe, both? And they exist without contradiction in the mind, the purpose, the will, and the working of God, even if we can't understand that. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there. Don't get the feeling of being superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. So, it's a warning to against anti-Semitism, against the kind of pride that says, "You know what? We believed. You reject." Listen, how do we approach Israel? How do we approach Jewish people? With the greatest kindness and humility, as people who belong to the chosen people of God, who brought us the gospel. And we pray for them that they too might someday know the Messiah. That this is God's plan.
Romans chapter 11, verse 25 says, "Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening, a partial hardening has come upon Israel." It's partial. The Message puts it this way: "I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of the insider, Israel, toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house." Do you know what Israel's hardness has resulted in? Inclusion of Gentiles. You're a Christian because there's been a temporary hardening. I don't understand all of that, how that works. But Paul says that's exactly what has happened. He set aside primarily reaching Israel to reach us. But there's coming a time when that time of reaching us is going to come to a close, and His sight will be set on Israel. Look at this in Luke 21: "Jerusalem misses Jesus will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Right now, we're in the times of the Gentiles, where God is reaching, where people from every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue are being gathered in. But there's going to come a time when that's fulfilled, and then God's going to begin working to reach Israel. Look at it in Romans chapter 11: "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." You say, "When will that happen?" It will happen when Jesus Christ returns. If we were to take time and read Zechariah, it would say, "God's going to send a spirit of prayer and supplication." Zechariah chapter 12: "I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication." There's grace. "And they will look on Me, the one they pierced." Who's that? Jesus. "And they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for her firstborn son." And then we read this in Zechariah chapter 13: "In the whole land," declares the Lord, "two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one-third shall be left alive." You say, "What's that talking about?" Well, in the tribulation, two-thirds of the Jewish people will perish under the persecution of Antichrist, and one-third will be left alive. "And they will call on My name. I will answer them. They will say, 'I will say, they are My people.' And they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'" All Israel will be saved in that moment when they see King Jesus. Look what else Zechariah says. It says, "On that day there shall be no light, cold frost. There'll be a unique day which is known to the Lord. They won't need the sun. The glory of the Lord will light up the earth when King Jesus reigns on earth." We're talking about the culmination of the second coming of Christ. Finally, it says this: "And the Lord will be king over all the earth." That's a bit of a jet tour through scripture. But Paul's saying, "Listen, at the end of time, all Israel is going to be saved. The time of the Gentiles will be over. In the meantime, as Gentiles, we have a humble, gracious, kind-hearted attitude toward the Jewish people and toward Israel." Everybody with me on that?
So, as Paul thinks about this, now we're on to the last point here. This is exciting. So, Paul's thinking about theology. He's thinking about election, God's purpose, the mystery of that, the partial hardening, how some people are saved, some people aren't, how God has called him. He's thinking about God's plan for Israel, how God has opened the door for the Gentiles, but there's coming a day when He'll, God will once again focus almost exclusively on Israel. Miss Paul begins to think of this. You know what it does to Paul? It does what it ought to do to every single believer. As Paul begins to think of the matchless wisdom of God, she begins to think of the incredible plan of God. As he begins to realize how great this God is, who could do all these things, you know what? Rather than calling God to account and saying, "God, I demand an answer for that which I do not understand," Paul knows God is God. Paul knows that there's no way a finite human being can comprehend an infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-wise God. And Paul begins to think about salvation. It begins to think about God's working. And it erupts in what I would call the third theme in Romans 11: this praise of the redeemed. Paul begins to think about this. He says, "Wow, this is unbelievable. Look what he writes, verse 33: 'Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God?'" You said, "Was that that God had loved a sinner like you and I? That God would reach out and adopt you as His son, as His daughter, and say, 'I'm going to give you all the riches of heaven for all time?'" That God did that long before you were ever born, before you were ever thinking of Him, God was thinking of you. God was planning for your creation. God was planning for your salvation. God was planning for your glorification. God was planning for eternity before you were even born, and planning to bless you beyond what you can imagine. "Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God? Have you ever come to anything like that?" I mean, if I told you after church, "I am going to, the first person that can get up here, I'm going to bless you with a million dollars a day for the rest of your life." He said, "All that's holy Duras, it's not happening." But you would think it was amazing. Oh, the generosity, the extravagance, the amazing things God has planned for you and I. It will blow your mind. I mean, one second into having you be like, "Huh, I can't believe this." And for the next, however billion, many billion years, you'll be praising God. "This deep wisdom and generosity, it's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out." Paul says, "In this life, you're never going to figure out His generosity, His wisdom, His majesty." Look at it in verse 34: "Anyone's smart enough to tell Him what to do?" There's a lot of people who think they are. "Well, I just like to tell God what I think." Well, you know what? Save it. You don't, you don't know what you're doing. It'd be bad for the world if God listened to you. Verse 35: "Anyone who has done Him such a huge favor that God has to ask His advice?" And that funny, right? You do, Sally. You took dinner to that family. Not you, no Sally. I really appreciated that. You, you, that was a big favor. I mean, that was one more, one less miracle for me to perform. And so, Sally, I was just wondering, I've got this big problem in the universe. Can you? I mean, really? That's never going to happen. He doesn't need Sally, Tom, John, Nancy. He knows what He's going to do, and what He does is absolutely perfect. You will never, in heaven, find fault with one thing He ever did. You will only say, "You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power and praise." Paul thinks about the wisdom of God. Listen to this in verse 36: "Everything comes from Him, and everything happens through Him, and everything ends up in Him." Everything ends up in Him. It's all wrapped up in Him. And it's always glorious. Always praise. "Yes, yes, yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. All things are in You, and through You, and to You be the glory and the honor and the praise forever and ever. Amen." Listen, the appropriate response to the mysteries, theologically, of God, it's not long to ask questions, as long as we don't hurl accusations. It's not, not wrong to wonder. But we have to be careful in our wondering about what God does. We never lose our awe of who God is. Ultimately, we bow to Him and we say, "You're worthy. You're God. I'm not. And I don't understand everything. I'm just finite. There's a limit to my understanding. But there is no limit to You. There's no limit to Your wisdom. There's no limit to Your awesomeness. There's no limit to Your love. There's no limit to Your mercy. There's no limit to Your grace. There's no limit to Your goodness. Oh God, I love You." And it's in worshipping Him that we discover a, a freedom and a release, and we really come to understanding our place. And that's the place of greatest joy, when we realize He's God, we're not.