On God being faithful to his promises to Israel. If you look to reading God’s word, please join me in prayer. Father of all mercies, in your word, endless glory shine forth. Your word guides our steps. It gives discernment to those who seek you. We ask that you would grant that we would find new beauties in an ever-increasing light this day. Divine Instructor and gracious Lord, be forever near us. Teach us to love your sacred word and in these pages, to view our savior. In whose name we now pray. Amen. Beginning in verse 7, reading 7 to 18. What then? Israel failed to attain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. House, so as to make Israel jealous. But as some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishment root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
If You all remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. The word of the Lord. Thank you, God. It’s somewhat strange, one verse in chapter 11 often causes people to ignore Paul’s well-crafted argument over three chapters. Chapter 11 is one of those most debated and misunderstood passages in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Speculation and arguing is easier than walking in humility and loving others. There’s no sweet aroma of life in that, though. What is easily missed is Paul calls for Christians to be humble, to display God’s abundant mercy and kindness in their life. Now, we’ve all seen that person out there that makes us cringe because of their terrible behavior. You travel abroad, you recognize there’s a stereotype of the ugly American for a reason. Loud and demanding, always comparing what they see as inferior to where they come from, quick to argue, slow to listen, looking down on the customs of other nations. Nothing about that is inviting to others. And we’ve seen that we’ve been embarrassed by that. At times, in places, I’ve been around some of that, and I’ve wanted to tell people, I’m Canadian.
Because there is an embarrassment or a shame that comes from people behaving in such a way. This comes from an attitude that says, I am superior, I am entitled. And this is what Paul is warning about in Romans because it’s the same attitude that he’s addressing. Jewish Christians were looking down on their Gentile brothers and sisters. Gentile Christians were being dismissive of their Jewish brothers and sisters. All for men attitude of I’m superior or I’m entitled. And with this, we see the attractiveness of God’s grace is to be displayed through his people. And their bad attitudes towards one another was hardly commending the good news of Jesus. When we understand God’s grace, gratitude and humility ought to flow from us into the lives of other people. And because the Father attracts people to his Son through the beauty and the desirableness of his grace, our lives in Christ then are to be appealing to others. There’s no room for superiority. There’s only thankfulness for the Lord’s mercy and kindness. Because no one has earned their way in. It is all by grace. God has freely given to his people. We see the God who gives to his people is also the God who keeps his promises to his people.
The apostle Paul, he keeps all of this front and center as he is answering this question of how God has kept his word to the Jewish people if so many of them have actually rejected Jesus. And so he is answering that, and he does so speaking first of the dangers of a hard heart. Paul has already asked the question earlier, has God rejected his people? And without hesitation, he said, by no means. God has not rejected his people. A true remnant has been saved. And as Paul said earlier, not all of Israel is Israel. Biological descent does not make you a spiritual child of Abraham. Holding to the faith and the belief that Abraham held to, that makes you a child of Abraham, not just simply biology. And then he furthest explained. He says in verse 7, What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. But he qualifies that, The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave him a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day, his very day in his time. And Paul comes back then to his conversation about the hardening of heart and election.
We saw that in chapters 9 and 10. And in verses 7 to 10, he quotes from three different divisions of the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writing, Deuteronomy 29, Isaiah 29, and Psalm 69. All of these, he’s using as a comprehensive argument showing the hardness of heart that can be present in God’s people. These religious unbelievers, as it were, heard the external truth, but their internal hearts were unmoved. And this was also the in the ministry of Jesus. Even after seeing incredible miracles, just amazing things that Jesus was doing, many refused to believe. In Matthew 11, Jesus then declared, he said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. This was because of unbelief that Jesus said this, and it’s also because of unbelief that Jesus spoke in parables. In one sense, parables were a form of judgment. Jesus, he quotes from Isaiah 6 as well as Paul in the Acts 28. He says this in Matthew 13. He said, This is why I speak in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
You see, parables weren’t these nice stories that are easy to get. Parables were used because to understand, you had to press in. The disciples often didn’t get them. Now, we’ve heard them lots and had them explain lots. Well, that’s super simple. But they were like, Hey, Jesus, what do you mean by this? Because they didn’t understand. And that’s the nature of a disciple is you must press in. You must go and seek. A hard heart does not press in. A hard heart does not seek, it does not find. A hard heart does not call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. And Paul, like Jesus before him, he gave a clear warning about the dangers of unbelief. But this unbelief does not stop God’s grace from overflowing to others, nor did it permanently shut off his people from his grace. But it is a direct warning to us of not being a religious unbeliever. Then he goes on to speak this overflowing grace. Verse 11. So I asked, did they stumble or they might fall, meaning fall irreperably? He says, By no means, rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
Now, this Jealousy, he also mentions in verse 14. He hopes his ministry to the Gentiles would provoke his fellow Jews to believe in Jesus. In Acts 13, there it reads, The next Sabbath, the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of God was spoken first to you. Since you thrusted aside and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ‘ That’s how that got lived out in the ministry of Paul, going to the synagogs. And there were some who believed in some who heard, but many did not. And this going to the Gentiles provoked them. They did not want them to hear this good news. But even with this rejection, again, many came to the faith in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. God’s grace had overflow to others even while it was being rejected by some. Rejection is never the end of the story. One generation may close things down, and another generation may find an open door.
And this envy, as you well know, can often result in anger and hostility. Persecution come from this. I’m sure some of you have experienced that. Because of your faith in Christ, people not liking you, maybe losing a job, not getting a promotion, all because you’re a Christian, there’s a vindictiveness in getting back to you. But at the same time, this envy of faith can also produce a longing in people’s hearts. We’ve seen that, too. Someone might think to themselves, or they may even say, There’s something different about you. You have a peace that I don’t. You’re not crushed by adversity. You’re not filled with bitterness and unforgiveness. I don’t believe in all that religious stuff, but there’s something different about your life that I wish I had. It’s that type of envy that produces a longing, a desire. Seminary Professor Dan Doriani, he tells of a time when he was one of those terrible airline nightmares that I know we’ve all have experienced at some point. Canceled flights and long lines of angry people trying to get rerouted. This poor little girl was at the counter, taken lots of abuse with people just pouring out their frustration upon her.
And his turn came. And he’s there, and she keeps asking him questions about what he was doing, where he’s going, those things. And it got pointed. She was asking some pretty specific questions, and he was trying to be a bit incognito about all this because he wasn’t all that sure of how well he had behaved in the midst of all this. And he didn’t want to tell her that he had been a speaker at a Christian conference and was headed back to a seminary. She persisted. When she found out he was a Christian, she smileed bright and she said, I knew you had to be a Christian. There’s something about his response about he had done that separated himself from everyone else. And he felt bad that the bar was so low that not acting out in anger actually commended his Christian faith. But it had. Because the Holy spirit in us, uniting us to Christ, is shining out of us. There’s a realness to our faith. There’s a realness to the spirit dwelling in us that is visible in the lives of God’s people or is supposed to be. So connecting this back then to Paul, New Testament scholar, Christopher Ashton, I put it in your bulletin, and I believe that it’s a great summary of this.
And he said, It’s worth pausing to ask, while Israel should be made envious when Gentiles receive the gospel. This must mean there is some deep intrinsic attractiveness about a people shaped by grace so that when religious unbelievers see real grace transforming a church, some of them say to themselves, I really want what they got. And that’s what Paul wants for his fellow countrymen, that they would have a desire for this, to see in the lives of these Gentiles what God is doing in transforming them. And at the same time, he admonishes the Gentiles to not be full of yourselves. They didn’t do anything to earn it either. So he goes on in verse 20, he said, Do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, speaking of the Jewish people, will be grafted in, for God has a power to graft them in again.
For if you are cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, in a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? Paul’s saying there’s a natural fittedness to the Jewish people accepting their Jewish Messiah, Jesus. And that is Paul’s prayer, and that is Paul’s hope. God’s grace overflowing into the lives of others. It’s never intended for one group group or one person alone. It’s always meant to be shared. And like pouring water into a bowl, if the bowl is turned over, water is going to still flow off of it to everything around it. And that’s what Paul is saying. If this bowl turned over is spilling onto the Gentiles and they’re receiving this grace. But the Lord can and will turn that bowl back around because it’s a vessel that has been made to contain his grace. And that’s Paul’s prayer. That they, too, his kinsmen, will be recipients of this grace. That even as it has been pouring over into the Gentiles and has gone out to them because of their own hard-heartedness, that they, too, will have an opportunity to respond to this goodness.
And many of them are. And that is the mystery of mercy. In verse 25, Paul says, Lest you wise in your own sight to the Gentiles. I don’t want you to be unaware of this mystery. Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, of all Israel will be saved. What exactly does that mean? Well, to start, Paul is speaking of something in the future. And like all attempts to speak of things in the future, it’s really only known fully after the fact. Jesus’ own disciples, they missed the prophetic fulfillments of Jesus until later. We want to know, how did they not understand? How they didn’t get it? Well, we’re in the same boat. It’s easy to see in hindsight. And once all the dots are connected, you can look back and go, Oh, that’s what it’s supposed to be. But before that, it’s a bit opaque. Kind of like in the detective shows and the murder mysteries and when all the things are revealed, like, Oh, well, that’s obvious. It wasn’t obvious until it all got solved. And that’s the way when you look forward into the future of these things.
It really only becomes completely clear on the other side of it. Now, there are two pieces here that often get separated. Christians tend to either look at salvation or vocation, but not both. I’ll explain that. There are some Jews and Gentiles that have been elected to salvation. Paul has spoken of this. Throughout history, we see men and women in many groups of people coming to faith in Christ. Paul has spoken of this when he refers to a remnant always being present. God has always preserved a remnant of his people. That’s election to salvation. Now, the second piece is that Israel has also been elected or chosen for a special vocation or calling as a people. When Paul speaks of Israel here, he means the ethnic group of his kinsmen. Now, to be clear, Jesus has fulfilled all that Israel failed to do. He is the true Israel of God, and all peoples must be grafted into Christ for salvation, Jew or Gentile. That is the issue of salvation. However, as to a special calling or vocation of Israel, that is a different matter. Paul, he seems to indicate there’s still something of this to look forward to.
He says in verse 28, as regards to the gospel, he’s kinsmen, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. This calling us particular people, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Now, I can’t think of any other ethnic group that has maintained this distinct identity for 4,000 years, and most of that, while while being completely displaced from their geographical center or nation. The story is told that King Frederick the Great asked his chaplain to give him proof of the existence of God, and his physician replied, The Jews. And what he meant was that the Jews’ existence is a miracle of history. How do you explain it? 4,000 years of this independent identity going through times and places and cultures and yet still distinct. That is an amazing thing that you do not see with any other ethnicity or culture. As to what it means, I’m not entirely sure. And in verse 26, And in this way, all Israel will be saved. Now, that has been a major source of disagreement among Christian interpreters. Is the process Paul is speaking of currently happening at the same time, or is it looking forward to a particular time in the future?
And as Paul has never given us a universal understanding of salvation, what does it mean that all Israel will be saved? Unfortunately, Paul’s overall message of hope and mercy, it It gets lost when we start arguing about interpretations that fit into beliefs about eschatology, which is just the Greek word for the last things, the last time, the end time, the events all surrounding the culmination of human history. It is the case in the last 100 years of American church history, there has developed a system of looking at the Bible and looking at current events that’s been called dispensational. It’s a A Pinch of Daniel, a dash of Ezequiel, sprinkle in some of the prophets. And you have this fairly elaborate interpretation system that you throw in whatever current events are into the hopper, you crank the machine, and it outcomes very specific dates about all of this. Now, it’s failed to be right, but it doesn’t stop people from doing it. It’s like, We’ll just keep adding the numbers. Somewhere, somewhere along the line, someone’s going to be right. And when Israel became a nation in 1948, made all this one on mass overdrive in America.
Now, some of you may have come from that background. Others are like, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. If you know the Left Behind series, How Lindsay, those sorts of things, this is all a part of that, and you’ve only understood this from that perspective. But it’s a perspective. There have been lots of different ways that people have understood the end in Christian history. And on this particular issue, there hasn’t been a a uniformly accepted position of what Paul is saying here, reformed or otherwise, not to these specific details of when these things will take place. Well, first, all of Israel being saved does not mean every numerical one of them. Paul is not a Universalist. All Israel is an expression referring to the whole. Just like in Matthew 2, when we read, All Jerusalem was troubled at the coming of the Magi, it speak of the whole city was being in turmoil. Surely a baby or two was sleeping peacefully away while this was happening. It’s not meant to be numerical. The whole. And because of this, we also know that faith in Christ is the only means of salvation. There’s not a plan A and B different for Jews and Gentiles.
Everyone must come through Jesus. And it does seem clear when Paul uses the word Israel here, he’s speaking of his kinsmen, not the elect of Gentiles and Jews. Otherwise, he’d be saying that all the saved will be saved. And that’s obvious. And Paul expresses this deep longing and desire in his prayer and his expectation for his kinsmen to turn to the gospel. I like how one author puts it. He says, Sort of like a circular stairway that’s ascending. Throughout history, just like in the Gentile world, there have been Jewish people coming to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It isn’t simply linear, like this will happen, and this will happen, then this will happen, this will happen, this will happen. It’s been happening because God loves saving his people, Jews and Gentiles. Throughout history, this has been occurring. And with that, it does seem that Paul is speaking of a crescendoing into a major revival of some kind near the end, that this circular stairway is going to a moment, even while we see it in reality all all through history. He’s not ignoring for 2,000 years any Jewish person being saved. There are many who are coming to faith in Christ.
How wonderful that will be. That makes Israel not some MacGuffin to move the plot forward for a hope of what’s going to happen for us. Rather, we’re excited that men, women, and children coming to faith in Jesus is what we’re looking for because that’s amazing. The message of Jesus has gone into the world. The Father has set a precise time when his son will return, when these things will come to their culmination. The Father knows a time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Will this be accentuated with a major revival of the Jewish people? I hope so. That would be great. Will it be accentuated by the revival of lots of people everywhere? I sure hope so, because that would be great. We ought to be looking forward to the good news of Jesus being received and accepted, even while Jesus would return. But to the specifics of that, I’m not really sure. And we’re not called to rampant speculation. It’s not his intent. Paul’s point has been, Gentiles, don’t be conceded and puffed up. Don’t neglect and don’t think that somehow God has done away with his promises.
Even as he’s already told the Jewish Christians, Stop looking down on your Gentile brothers and sisters as second class citizens. Both of you, you are saved by grace. And then he brings us together in verse 32, For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. None of you are going to stand before the Lord on your own merit. It’s entirely beg grace. And again, historically, how all this is going to work out, he’s not telling us to get consumed with it. How easy it is to be consumed with things you cannot control while avoiding the things that are full within your power. And all of this leads Paul to this beautiful doxology at the end. We’ll look at later in greater detail. But verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgment? How inscrutable are his ways? Chapters 9 through 11 has shown us God’s faithfulness to his promises. It has shown us that God’s mercy comes through his son, Jesus. That God finds a way to lost people. That God finds a way to lost people. Lost people do not find a way to God.
It’s all on the Father’s initiative. It’s all by grace, not by works. This grace is real in our lives. It is a sweet aroma of life to those who are being saved. We show honor and gratitude to Jesus when our lives in them live a deep intrinsic attractiveness about a people shaped by grace. Now, with that, as I mentioned, persecution can come. There are people who hate this. But there’s also a longing that comes. Where people see and they recognize that, I don’t have what you have. There’s something about how you live and about the peace in your life or the joy. I don’t have it and I want it. And even at times When people, they’re not even sure if any of this is real, the start of that process. I think all this religious stuff, I don’t know, I think it’s all made up, but man, I wish it were true. I wish it were true because of what I see in you. How else can you get that? And that begins a process of the Holy spirit working in somebody’s heart and life that we get to be a part of, not because of something great, intrinsic in us.
It’s something great and intrinsic in God. That our lives are a accommodation of the gospel. We don’t want to be aiona. Jona, the prophet, sent to those pagans. It was a series in Nineveh. He didn’t want to go. He wanted nothing to do with him. When he went, he just said, God’s going to destroy you in 40 days, and huffed out of the city and watched with glee that it would take place. And woe and behold, the people of Nineveh, they repented, and they turned to God through this terrible representation of grace and mercy. And Jonas is mad about it. He’s angry about their response. God overcame that because God is interested in bringing his people to salvation, even through a terrible person and moment. How much better? We We don’t need to be Jonas in this. Well, God will work anyways. How much better and attractive is when that good news comes adorned with the mercy and the kindness of God? That a little gal at a desk being heaped abuse upon for hours by people, notices someone just being quiet and kind. And immediately when you do this, all of us are going to be brought to moments like, Oh, my goodness, I’ve done terrible things and said terrible things, and I’ve been that person.
Yes. And it calls us to repentance. We’re called then to ask God that he would forgive us, where we have misrepresented Jesus in us to others. That is first and foremost. But it doesn’t stop there. We then get to go and be that commendation. That there’s really something different about Jesus in you. That there should be a boldness and a desire to go and to share that. Because, again, it’s not about you. You are presenting people to the greatness and the Majesty of a savior who has come to them, who has died for their sins, that while they were still sinners, he died for them. And so you’re just a conduit to point up. And the joy of that is the same as grace being poured into you is what the vessel that you were intended to be, it seems to be a principle of the kingdom. That as grace is poured into receptive recipients, their capacity grows. You may start out as a demitasse cup. And the process of God’s grace in your life, you’re a quart, you’re a gallon. Because it’s God who softening you. God is expanding you. Your ability to worship him, your ability to love others, it grows as his grace overflows.
But know, too, that if you turn that over, like a Jona, and his grace is pouring off of you, spilling out to other people. God will still reach his people, but it’ll be in spite of you rather than through you. And Paul is saying, I hope that many will come to faith through me. Not as some form of pride, but it’s saying, I want people to know the Jesus I know. I want to be able to reflect the radiance and the brightness of my savior so that they see him. That’s the point that Paul has been getting through in Romans 9:11. It’s not speculation about what’s going to happen when and how this is going to be, and we can argue about it. It’s how can I be a commendation of the good news of Jesus to my neighbors? How in doing that will God produce a longing in their heart to come to faith in Christ? And even as Paul wants so much for his own people, we’re like, yes and amen, may it be. May it be happening now. May it continue to happen. May that be happening not only in Israel, but in Germany, South America, Japan, the world.
And this is the part that you and I get to play. To commend Jesus because his spirit in us, producing a longing and a desire to know what it is that we have received by grace alone. Pray with me. Father, as we come before you, all of us, first and foremost, we just ask for your forgiveness. Lord, we have blown it so many times. Father, we have lived lives at times that make Jona look good. And Lord, we ask that you would forgive us for our own hard-heartedness, our own unbelief. And Lord, that it would please you to use us as your people to bring this message of hope and mercy and your kindness to the world around us. We pray, Father, that you would open eyes to see, ears to hear, that you would, Father, bring honor and glory to our savior, Jesus, that you would grant him the reward of his own suffering. We pray and ask this all in his name. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.