Okay, this is Romans lecture number 23, Romans lecture number 23. We're on Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 has 36 verses. This speaks of, this chapter speaks of Israel's future. Reconciliation, they reconciled to God, their restoration, God restores them. to himself in the last days when they trust in Christ as their Messiah, when they trust in Jesus as their Messiah. Brief introduction, remember Romans chapter 9 dealt with Israel's past. election. They were elected by God. God's chosen nation. Israel's present, both present at the time of Paul and present today for us. The Israelites rejected Jesus as their Messiah and are living in a state of disbelief. That was Romans chapter 10. And now Romans 11, Israel's future. They will be reconciled to God, reconciliation. They will be restored, restoration. Now Romans chapter 11 verses 1 to 10 it focuses on the transition from Israel's present their state of disbelief and rejection of Christ Romans 11 verses 1 to 10 focuses on the transition from Israel's present to their future and now Paul in verses 1 to 5 of Romans 11 Answers the question has God rejected Israel. So take a look at verses 1 of 5. Take a look first at verse 1 Romans 11 verse 1. I say then God has not rejected his people has he? May it never be for I too am an Israelite a descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin so Paul says that God has not rejected Israel and And Paul gives us evidence that God has not rejected Israel. Paul says that I am saved. So Paul is saved. He says that he is a descendant of Abraham. Remember in Genesis 12, 1-3, the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant given to Abraham that his descendants would be the chosen nation, would be given the promised land, and would all nations on earth be blessed through them. Paul says, hey, I'm a descendant of Abraham. That makes me an Israelite. I was born of the tribe of Benjamin. See, what Paul is saying, Paul is saying, how can we say that God has totally rejected Israel, and isn't working through Israel at all, when there's at least one Jew who's saved? That's me. And of course there's other Jews who were saved, the apostles and many of the people in the early church were Jews themselves. So Paul's saying he's saved and he's an Israelite. That's also interesting to note, Paul called himself an Israelite. Okay? He called himself an Israelite but he said he was from the tribe of Benjamin. Now keep in mind, the tribe of Benjamin was with the tribe of Judah. And so when Judah and Israel, when Israel, the northern tribes split from Judah, and the northern tribes were called Israel and the southern tribes were called Judah, there are people today that still talk about the lost tribes of Israel and that type of thing. Well, Paul basically is calling himself both an Israelite and a Jew. he even comes right out and says that in a few passages sometimes he refers himself as a Jew I believe in Philippians chapter 3 other times he refers himself as an Israelite in other words after Israel the northern tribes were taken captive in 722 BC by the Assyrians and then the two southern tribes Judah and Benjamin were taken captive in 586 BC by the Babylonians once the Babylonians had taken control and had knocked off the Assyrians the Jews and the Israelites were once again gathered together so that when they came back under Nehemiah and Ezra they sacrificed I believe 12 animals one for each of the tribes that was represented so there are no lost tribes of Israel is the point I'm trying to get at that's a side note to that verse but Paul says God has not rejected Israel because Paul himself is saved. There are a remnant of believers among the Israelites. Paul himself is an Israelite and he is saved. Paul states that God's election is based on his foreknowledge. Look at verses 2-4. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have torn down thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what is the divine response to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And so God's election is based on his foreknowledge. I think I spelt Peter wrong in the notes there. But in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2. Peter there talks about the fact that God's election is based on his foreknowledge. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He says, "...by the sanctifying work of the Spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood, may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure." But he says there that they're chosen, they're elected according to God's foreknowledge. In other words, God's election is not unconditional which is what the five point Calvinist would say there's no condition I believe that God's in his foreknowledge he chooses to elect to salvation those he knew he knows would freely accept Christ given the right circumstances and then he predestines that those circumstances come about to persuade the person to accept Christ so foreknowledge is God's prior knowledge. And God's prior knowledge of what will occur does not fail. God knows the beginning from the end. Therefore, Paul is saying that God's promises for the nation of Israel will not fail. So, since God's election is based on His foreknowledge, God will not reject His people, His chosen elected people, whom He foreknew. Look at Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. verses 8 to 11. Remember this and be assured. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish my good pleasure, all my good pleasure. Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. So God says that his promises or his purposes will not fail and Paul is applying that same typo doctrine here that God's election, His election of the nation of Israel as His chosen nation was based on His foreknowledge. So there wasn't something that was going to happen that was going to trip up God and make Him change His mind. God knows the beginning from the end. His foreknowledge or His prior knowledge does not fail. His promises for the nation of Israel will not fail. and so then Paul argues that a remnant of Israel is saved he gives an example from 1st Kings chapter 19 an example from the prophet Elijah now Elijah had just defeated many of the prophets of the false Canaanite false god Baal and Ahab the king of Israel, which was Israel, the northern tribes, as opposed to Judah, the southern tribes, because there was a civil war back then. Ahab and Jezebel, his wife, sought to kill Elijah. Now Jezebel, the queen, had introduced Baal worship to Israel. Baal, again, was a Canaanite false god. and there were human sacrifices offered to him and gross immorality out of worship for this false god Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal but Elijah unfortunately thought that he was the only God fearing Israelite left He thought that there was no other Israelites who still believed at that point. And so in this passage, Paul quotes from 1 Kings chapter 19 where God responds to Elijah telling them that even though Elijah thought he was the only true, the only Israelites still faithful to God, there were still 7,000 believing Israelites left. And so Paul is saying, even when things look real bad, God still has a believing remnant that he preserves, that he keeps. And so in Paul's day, Paul is saying that a faithful remnant of Israelites, of Jews, still remains. Here the apostles and the Jerusalem church, many thousands of Jews in Jerusalem, had accepted Christ as their Savior and as the Messiah and so God has not left the Jews without a remnant even today in our day there are many Messianic Jews, Jews who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah and accept Him as God incarnate and the risen Savior of mankind Paul points out in verse 5 that God has chosen the remnant by His grace, the remnant There is a remnant of true believers among Israelites, but still they don't deserve to be saved. Verse 5, in the same way then there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. So God has chosen the remnant by His grace. So even the remnant do not deserve to be saved. God foreknew that they would accept his son, still the remnant, even though they choose to accept Christ under divine persuasion, still the remnant deserve the flames of hell. But Paul is arguing as well though, you cannot undo the grace of God. And God has chosen to keep a remnant of the nation of Israel. Now the question comes up, is God's choice by grace or is it by works? in verse 6. But if it is, God's gracious choice that is, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. So Paul argues that God's choice is by grace. The Greek word for grace is charis, it means unmerited favor. And God chose to save us even though we don't deserve it. We do not deserve to be saved. Now 2 Peter 3 9 tells us that God desires to save all men. He does not want any to perish. But He chooses to save all who will accept His grace under heavy divine persuasion. In other words, if God desires all men to be saved, but then we find out most men aren't saved, Then we see that it's not God's choice that they're not saved because God desires for all to be saved. Therefore, God has given man free will and the reason why most people don't get saved is not because God doesn't want to save them, it's because they choose not to accept God's Son. But God apparently chooses to save all who will accept His grace under every divine persuasion. None of us would seek after God None of us would draw near to God unless He first drew us. John chapter 12, around verse 32, Jesus said, if I be crucified, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto myself. Well, Jesus was crucified. He's drawing all men unto himself. But still in James, James tells us, in James chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. And so, and then He tells us to confess our sins. And so, God is drawing us to himself and we have to as he reveals his light to us then we have to decide of our own free will do we want to continue to move closer to the light so God draws us at first and then under divine persuasion we may choose to go closer to the light and under divine persuasion except Jesus Christ as our Savior. But Israel was God's chosen nation by grace, not by works. They didn't deserve to be God's chosen nation. They weren't any better than the other nations, but God chose them by His grace. And so God's gracious choice cannot fail. The promises God made to Israel will therefore not fail. So God's choice is by grace, therefore God's choice is not by works. The Greek word for works is ergon, and it emphasizes human effort. Paul is saying that man cannot earn salvation. All deserve the flames of hell. And so Israel did not earn God's favor, they were chosen by God's grace. Paul also mentions here that grace and works, in verse 6, grace and works are mutually exclusive. You see, works, by our works, work earns its wages. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So when you work for your boss, your boss determines how long you worked or how hard you worked, whatever it is, and he pays you your wages, he pays you what you earn. You get what you deserve. And then you can boast. However, if you're saved by grace, then you cannot boast. Ephesians 2.8.9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast. And so you can boast if you earn it through works, but if you receive it by grace, then you get what you don't deserve, and you have no reason to boast. So, work earns its wages, you get what you deserve, but grace freely provides. With grace, you get what you don't deserve. The Greek word for grace, again, is charis, on merit to favor. With grace, you get what you don't deserve. And the recipients of grace cannot boast. That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, 17, But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord. And so there's no conditions to grace. grace is freely offered to all men and no matter how horrible a sinner you are you can receive God's grace but God does give you the ability to say no to His grace and the ability to say yes to His grace but the fact of the matter is there's no conditions to it so long as a person will accept that grace so God's grace can be accepted or rejected look at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 29 Hebrews 10 verse 29 and that reads, how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace so here obviously you have someone who is rejected God's grace. Throughout the book of Hebrews 2 we'll find a passage that is quoted from the Psalms. Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And so I do not believe that God's grace is irresistible to those who accept it. We have the freedom to resist God's grace. We have free will which was given to us by God. God is sovereign but in his sovereignty he chose to make man free. Accepting God's grace We accept God's grace by accepting Christ as our Savior. We cannot work for God's grace. Salvation is a free gift. Yet most Jews at the time that Paul was writing this and even in our day today, most Jews were working for their salvation. They thought they deserved salvation. But the chosen remnant recognize their sinfulness and trust it in God's grace for salvation through faith in Jesus. So is God's choice by grace or by works? God's choice is definitely by grace and it is not by works. Even if a person freely accepts Christ as Savior, the fact of the matter is they still do not deserve to be saved it's still a gift, a free gift that is not deserved but a gift can be accepted or rejected and so Paul answers the question what is Israel's present state in verses 7 to 10 of Romans chapter 11 verses 7 to 10 what then That which Israel is seeking for it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not, and ears to hear not, down to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened to see not and bend their backs forever. So what is Israel's present state? Paul answers this by stating that God did not choose to save those who would choose to work for their own salvation. God chose instead to save those who would accept his grace. Now most Israelites at that time, and it continues to this day, most Israelites tried to save themselves by works and obviously they failed because we all fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. But the chosen remnant trusted in God's grace by accepting Jesus as their Messiah and their Savior and were saved. So God hardened the Israelites who rejected his grace. God gave them a spirit of stupor. In other words, their spiritual senses were dulled. God made them blind and deaf to spiritual truth. God turned their own devices against them. Such as that they had God's law, yet they misused God's law and they tried to use the law for salvation and that backfired because they were trying to save themselves by their works. God bent their backs forever and it's just an expression about hard work and from working too hard and these guys were obviously working too hard because they were trying to work to save themselves which is impossible for man to do. Now this hardening occurs to all who continue to oppose God's salvation. Just as the same sun melts ice, also hardens clay, so too when God reaches out to save those, those who are convinced that they can save themselves by works, the more salvation is offered to them as a free gift. If they are prideful and believe they're self-righteous, the more and more it will harden their hearts. And this is what is being spoken of here. I mean, when you look back at this passage that David was talking about, there are 12 quotes from, actually quotes from Deuteronomy and Isaiah and then he quotes from Psalm 69 and all of these passages He's already talking to people who are prideful and to people who have already Rejected the light that God has given to them. This is not the meant in the five-point Calvinist sense the hyper Calvinistic sense where God is forcing people not to believe and hardening them so that they won't believe. These are people who already decided not to believe and so God hardens them even more and blinds them even more so that they will not be allowed to even pick up any spiritual truth. So these are people who are already hardened. When man rejects God's way of salvation he becomes spiritually dull hardened, deaf, blind, and weary. And only the Holy Spirit can remove this hardening. There are several passages I want us to look at. John chapter 16, verse 13. This was really addressed to the apostles, but I believe you can apply it to us to a certain degree. John 16 and verse 13. For when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. And He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will disclose to you what is to come. There's even a better passage in John 16. It talks about, starting in verse 7, but I tell you the truth, It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold me. And concerning judgment, because the rule of this world has been judged. So Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit convicting non-believers because they don't believe in Him. And so it's the Holy Spirit who is chipping away at these hearts and trying to bring people to Christ, but I still believe we have the free will to harden our hearts and say no. Again, in Hebrews where it says over and over again, today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. and verse 14 and it doesn't look like verse 14 might be 1 Corinthians chapter 2 no, it's not that either or am I in the wrong chapter altogether? oh yeah, it's 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14 I'll have to change that. It says, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. So man in his natural state cannot even understand the things of God. It takes the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. Now the five-point Calvinist would say that God just regenerates us against our will and then we begin to understand these things. But I think the Holy Spirit begins to reveal Jesus to us as being real, the real savior of mankind and then he persuades us, divine revelation, divine persuasion he begins to attempt to persuade us to accept Christ but we still can say no and Psalm 119 verse 18 Psalm 119 and verse 18 And that reads, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from thy law. So it takes the supernatural work of God to remove the blinding that is over us so that we can understand spiritual truth. 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 Verses 12 to 16, Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not as Moses, who used to put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away. because he knows that the glory of Christ was emanating from him, the brightness. Verse 14, but their minds were hardened for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So it says here that there is a veil over the hearts. The Jews have their hearts hardened. But if a man turns to the Lord, then that veil is removed. Look at the next chapter 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 3 & 4 and even if our gospel is veiled even if it is hidden it is veiled to those who are perishing non-believers in whose case the God of this world that's Lucifer has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the light of the gospel the glory of Christ who is the image of God so Satan has blinded all non-believers and only the Holy Spirit can remove that blinding but even when knowledge of God's truth gets through, we can still reject that witness of the Holy Spirit, and I think that's what the Bible refers to as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the only unforgivable sin according to Mark chapter 3, the perfect witness of the Holy Spirit, and that's why Hebrews, there's so many warnings about those who receive the knowledge of salvation through Jesus but rejected and turned from it and that there's no hope for those people. 2 Peter mentions them as well. And then look at James chapter 4. James chapter 4 and verses 6 to 10. James talking about God, he said, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts and double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. You see, I see free will jumping out of this. this passage here, that if a man draws near to God, God will draw near to him. That God is opposed to the proud, to the self-righteous, and He hardens their hearts, and He blinds them from receiving spiritual truth, so they don't even understand the gospel message, but God gives grace to the humble. And if we humble ourselves in God's presence, God will exalt us, God will give us the spiritual truth that we need so that we can accept it freely and come to Christ. So in conclusion from these first 10 verses of Romans 11, God did not reject Israel. Because God never breaks His promises. Therefore a remnant of Jews has remained loyal to Him. It was true in the day of Paul, it's true today. There are many Messianic Jews who are saved today. And so Israel is still God's chosen nation, even though most Jews are presently not saved. God's choice to save us is based on grace just like His choice to choose Israel as His chosen nation was based on grace. We don't deserve to be saved just as Israel did not deserve to be God's chosen nation. Still God saves all who accept Christ as Savior. In Israel's present state, most Jews are today, just as they were in the day of Paul, most Jews are working for their salvation. They're in a state of disbelief. They reject Jesus as their Messiah. Their hearts are hardened. But God is not through with Israel, and therefore we must pray for their salvation and their restoration. Jesus is the only way for man, whether Jew or Gentile, Jesus is the only way for man to be saved. Now we move to Romans 11, verses 11 to 24, and this passage is a rather complex passage in that it deals with God's position of favor and privilege. A lot of people look at this passage as teaching you can lose your salvation, but understood in its proper context, it is not talking about an individual salvation, It's talking about who, what group, whether the Jews or the Gentiles, either the Gentile church or the Jewish nation, which of those two is in God's favored position of privilege and blessing. And so we're going to look at that right now. Romans 11, verse 11 to 24, God's position of favor and privilege. Now God hardened the Jews' hearts due to their disbelief. And so the disbelieving Jews are blind to God's spiritual truths. Yet God has preserved a believing remnant among the Jews. And so Israel, God's chosen nation, is now mostly unsaved, and the gospel has been widely accepted by Gentiles today as it was in the time of Paul, and because of that the church was mainly Gentile. had just come about in Paul's day, but it's been, the church has been Gentile for such a long time now. And so Paul, right now the Gentiles and the Gentile church, they are in the position, we are in the position of favor and blessing. In other words, where is God doing, in the Old Testament, God was doing most of his work through the nation of Israel. Today, where is God doing most of his work? Well, through the Gentile church. but now so Paul does not want the Gentiles to repeat the mistake of Israel and because of pride think that we're too big for our britches. So Paul warns the Gentiles in this passage, don't become prideful due to your present position of privilege. Don't repeat Israel's mistake. They became prideful due to their position of privilege and thought they were saved just because they were Israelites. Today we have many people who think they're saved just because they grew up in Christian families. In the past, the Jews were God's favored ones. They were God's chosen nation. That's where God was working. And they became prideful. They began to think of themselves as self-righteous. They looked down on the Gentiles as pagans who weren't worth being saved. Now in the present it's the Gentiles who are God's favored ones and Paul fears that the Gentiles might become prideful just like the Jews did and might begin to look down on the Jews. And so Paul's warning to the Gentiles in this passage in Romans 11 is that the Gentile church can be removed from God's position of favor just as the Jews were previously removed from God's position of favor. So it's a warning to the church that the church not apostatize as Israel apostatized. Verses 11 to 15, Paul talks about God's plan to bring the Jews back. God's plan to bring the Jews back, verses 11 to 15. Look first at verses 11 and 12. Paul says that the Jews did not stumble as to Paul. Look at verses 11 and 12. I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be? And so Paul says that the Jews did not stumble at the fall. The Jews are down, just put it in boxing terminology, the Jews are down but they're not counted out. The hardening of their hearts is partial and it's temporary. Now it's partial because not all Jews are hardened. Paul, the apostles, and many of the people in the Jerusalem church were Jewish believers. So it's a partial hardening, not to the entire nation of Israel. There were some saved Jews, so it's a partial hardening. And it's a temporary hardening, because the day is going to come, Paul's going to say a little later, when all Israel is going to be saved. So God allowed the Jews to stumble, so that the gospel would be spread to the Gentiles. This would make the Jews jealous. Now the Jewish transgression that is spoken about here is the fact that they rejected their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Jews' failure, their rejection of the Messiah, ended up bringing riches to the Gentiles. Look at verses 13 and 14. Paul says, but I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. And as much then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. So the failure of the Jews brought riches to the Gentiles. The riches here speak of the abundant blessings of salvation. and the blessings also of being in the favored position of God. It came to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected the gospel due to their pride and their attitude of self-righteousness and their believing that they could save themselves through their own obedience of the law through human effort. Because the Jews rejected the gospel, the apostles, all the apostles, but especially Paul, but the apostles turned to the Gentiles. You study the history of the apostles, you will find that all the apostles went out and preached among the Gentiles. And so this Jewish loss is the gain of the whole world. They rejected the gospel, so the gospel went to the Gentiles and throughout the Roman Empire and throughout the Gentile world. But yet Paul says that when God blesses Israel in the last days, when all Israel is saved, it will be an even greater blessing to the whole world. Because then that will usher in a millennial kingdom, the thousand year reign of Christ, where there will be peace and joy on earth. And so now the Jews become jealous because Gentiles claim to cash in on their supposed Messiah. And so Paul longed for the conversion of his people, Israel, even if it's jealousy that drives him to Christ. But Paul longed for the conversion of his people, the nation of Israel. Paul says he's an apostle of the Gentiles. Actually, he's the apostle of the Gentiles, still the Jewish converts. would only magnify his ministry. So he's saying, my main ministry is to the Gentiles, but if I can bring in some Jews and lead some Jews to Christ, that would just multiply or magnify my ministry. It's ironic, but when Paul used to preach in cities, in different cities he would actually go to the synagogues first and preach to the Jews first and once they rejected the message then he would go to the Gentiles so even though he felt he was an apostle to the Gentiles he still recognized the gospel first came to the Jews and I must give them the message first and he tried to persuade them from the scriptures once they rejected in the synagogues, rejected the gospel message then he would go into the marketplaces and debate through philosophy and the wisdom of the world, he would debate, put up the wisdom of God against the wisdom of the world and through natural theology based on natural revelation try to persuade the Gentiles to come to Christ. And so Paul longed for the conversion of his people, the nation of Israel, even if it was jealousy that drives them to Christ. Paul then gives the illustration of life from the dead in verse 15. For if their rejection, if the Jews, if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? So, in this verse Paul says that God's rejection of the Jews ended up in reconciliation for the Gentiles. God's rejection of the Jews reconciled many Gentiles to God. Because the Jews rejected the Gospel message, the Gospel message was proclaimed to non-Jews, the Gentiles, and many of them came to God. And so, God's future acceptance of the Jews, Paul here again points out that the rejection of the Jews is partial because not all Jews were non-believers, some did believe, and it's temporary because the day is going to come when all of Israel is going to be saved. But God's future acceptance of the Jews, when the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, he likens it to life from the dead. This speaks of the Jewish spiritual awakening. Now, the life from the dead can be taken two ways. It can be, because at the second coming of Christ, there's also going to be the first resurrection, the resurrection of all those who believe in Christ. Revelation 20 verses 1 to 4. But I think more specifically it seems to be talking about Ezekiel 37 verses 11 to 14, actually Ezekiel 37 the first 14 verses with the division of the dry bones. That the dry bones come together and then skin and muscles and flesh comes on them and it comes to life and the vision is explained that Israel will be scattered throughout the nations but in the last days will be regathered in the nation of Israel and then God's spirit will breathe into them and there will be a spiritual awakening among the Jews and the Jews basically accepting their Messiah. But today many Jews have returned to Israel still most are spiritually dead so that prophecy is being fulfilled But at this point there is not that massive conversion. I don't think that's going to happen until the sun is dark and the moon doesn't give its light and the stars fall from the sky. But again, life from the dead, it could speak of the spiritual awakening of the Jews when they accept Jesus as their Savior, or it could speak about the fact that when the Jews turn back to Christ and accept Him as their Savior, that's the point of the second coming of Christ, when the first resurrection, the resurrection of believers occurs, the dead will be raised, those who believe in Christ will reign with Christ for a thousand years, Revelation chapter 20 and verses 1 to 4. Now when most Jews rejected Christ, Israel temporarily lost its favored position before God. The gospel was then preached to the Gentiles and Paul is saying that hopefully the Jews will now become jealous and then be saved. Paul says that God's rejection of the Jews is temporary because when Christ returns, the Jews will return to their favored position. And so now Paul talks about in verses 16 to 24 God's tree of favor and privilege. God's tree of favor and privilege. Look at verse 16. And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also. And if the root be holy, the branches are too. The word for holy there speaks about being set apart from sin for God's purposes, being set apart for God's holy purposes. The first piece of dough or the root are both symbolic of Abraham. Genesis 12, 1 to 3, the Abrahamic covenant. That was the root. And God chose Abraham and his descendants would be the chosen nation. And Israel was set aside, not all Jews, because there is a partial hardening, and not for all time, because this hardening is temporary. There will be a day when all Israel will be saved. So Paul is saying, Israel was set aside temporarily, but God will eventually fulfill his promises to Israel. Take a look at verse 17. Verse 17 of chapter 11. But as some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree. It stops at a little sentence, but we'll try to pick up this point here. The root again is Abraham. The olive tree is symbolic of the place of privilege and favor. Remember the Old Testament, the Jews as God's chosen nation, they were the ones that God, the God of Israel was kind of the main title of the true God. The natural branches that grew out of the olive tree, out of God's place of privilege and favor were the Jews. But the wild branches were the Gentile believers. And they're grafted in, verse 24 says they're grafted in contrary to nature. You see, you usually graft a cultivated branch into a wild or a common tree. and it's unnatural therefore to graft a wild branch into a cultivated tree. See the wild branch is symbolic of the pagan Gentiles who were brought into the church, led to Christ, brought into the church and received God's new favor, God's position of favor. So while God is working to bring the Jews back, He is presently saving Gentiles and grafting into the olive tree the place of privilege and favor, wild branches, these Gentile believers whereas the natural branches, the Jews, are being broken off. Verse 18, verse 18 reads, Do not be arrogant toward the branches, but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. So we Gentile believers should not be arrogant. Pride leads to disbelief, and it leads to a self-righteous type religion, a work salvation, the idea that we can save ourselves and that we're better than others. Pride caused the Jews to fall. John 4.9 says that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. They looked down upon them as dogs. And so Christians should not look down upon the Jews. The root, the Jews themselves, the root supports us. We are saved through God's covenant with Abraham. God said that all nations on earth would be blessed through Abraham's seed, through the Jewish Messiah, who himself was an Israelite. So salvation of the Gentiles depends on the Jews. The Messiah was Jewish.