We continue to study the doctrine of the last things. We are looking at the big picture of what the Bible has revealed about history and the future. We saw that Jesus speaks of this age and the age to come, an age that will follow his second coming and follow the final judgment. In between Christ's first coming and second coming, we have already aspects of the kingdom. Christ inaugurated the messianic kingdom with his first coming. He will consummate that kingdom at his second coming. So we live in the time of the the already, but there are things that are yet to come. So we call that time the not yet that will follow His return. So we are in what the Bible calls the last days or the latter days. Days that the Old Testament prophets foretold. Great and glorious days of the Messiah bringing God's blessing upon a redeemed people. We were looking last time at the kingdom of God in both its present form and its future form. Tonight we want to wrap that up talking about the gospel of the kingdom, and then we will, God willing, look at the relationship between Israel and the church. So we need to understand that the gospel is sometimes termed the gospel of the kingdom. Please turn with me to Matthew 4, verse 23. One of the great themes in this first gospel is the kingdom of heaven, Messiah's kingdom. So many references to it in this book. In Matthew 4, verse 23, we have a summary statement of Jesus' ministry that says, and he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. What does that word gospel literally mean? You see, a friend, The good news, right, the good news. Jesus went about proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom. We also see this term in Matthew 24, verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. Jesus says this in the middle of the Olivet Discourse, speaking about things that were to come and are to come. And he tells us that this gospel of the kingdom that he began to preach, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then Christ will come again. So we live in this age, the gospel age, the time of the gospel of the kingdom being proclaimed to all the nations. Thus the proclamation of the gospel can be viewed as proclamation of the kingdom. I don't know if you've thought about that before. When you've thought about the gospel message, the message by which we've been saved, the message that we share with others in evangelism, it is a message that can be viewed as proclamation of the kingdom of God. I put some references in your notes to show you this. Acts 19, 8-9 speaks of Paul. It says he entered the Ephesian synagogue. and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus." He was reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. In other words, he was speaking with them about the gospel. He was praying that this proclamation would bring sinners into the kingdom of God. That through this message of the kingdom, sinners would be saved. We see something similar in chapter 28. I'm sorry, chapter 20, verses 24 and 25. In chapter 20, Paul is speaking with the Ephesian elders. And he says, But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. So he speaks of his message in two different ways. He speaks of the message as the gospel, the grace of God. He also speaks of the message as the message of the kingdom. And then in chapter 28 verses 23 and 24, this is at the end of the book, Paul is under house arrest in Rome. And you remember what he wrote prior to this time in Romans chapter 1. He was eager to go to Rome to preach the gospel there. And it says in this text, he lived there two whole years at his own expense. and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. So I trust that you see from those scriptures that the gospel by which we've been saved, the gospel that we are to proclaim, is good news of the kingdom. You see, the messianic kingdom of God is about God coming in the person of the messianic king, to overcome God's enemies, to redeem His people, and to bring the Messiah's lordship to bear on all areas of created reality. The kingdom is about the working of God, bringing people to bow the knee to King Jesus, to confess His lordship, and to exalt Him in every area of life. I have some passages of Scripture connected with this. Romans 10, verse 9. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. To enter the kingdom, you must confess that Jesus is the King of the kingdom, that He is the Lord. He's the Sovereign One who's sitting on the throne, reigning over all things. You must acknowledge Him. as Lord over all and Lord over your life. There's no such thing as a salvation that does not include confessing Jesus as Lord and bowing the knee before His Lordship. There was that whole controversy in the past over this issue. John MacArthur, from the midst of that controversy, wrote the book, The Gospel According to Jesus, to teach exactly what we're seeing here, that the gospel is about the kingdom. An entrance into the kingdom requires believing in Jesus Christ as Lord, confessing Him as Lord, bowing before Him as Lord. You can't have Him as Savior without having Him as the King of your life. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3 says, Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. He's talking about saying Jesus is Lord sincerely from the heart. Of course, people could just mouth those lips without truly knowing the Lord. And the only way that you're brought to this point of confessing Jesus as Lord is by the working of the Holy Spirit. And so when there is a genuine profession that Jesus is Lord, genuine, that is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. That's a mark of the Christian, that they acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 look at a different aspect of all of this. It says, "...therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." The kingdom of God is bigger than redemption. It's bigger than salvation. The kingdom of God involves Christ's rule. And as Christ fully consummates his rule at his second coming, He is going to cause all human beings to bow before Him and to acknowledge that He is Lord. Though the redeemed do so with joy from hearts that are transformed by the Holy Spirit. But as Christ establishes His kingdom, Through His power, through His sovereignty, everyone else who's not redeemed will have no choice but to fall down and acknowledge He is Lord. He's the King, the King of the kingdom of God. The heart of the gospel of the kingdom is the death and resurrection of the King. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4 tells us what the heart of the gospel is. Paul speaks of the heart of the message that he proclaimed to the Corinthians that they received, that they are that they stand in and it's the message that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins according to the Old Testament promises that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Old Testament promises. That's at the heart of the gospel of the kingdom. The only way to enter into the kingdom The only way to enter into the blessings of Messiah is through the cross of the Messiah. Only through having your guilt removed, your sins atoned for, that's the only way to enter into the kingdom. So this is at the heart of the whole message, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The results of the king's work are both already and not yet. Like we already saw last week, the kingdom is already and not yet. I have four examples of this. Number one, God has already disarmed Satan and triumphed over him at the cross, according to Colossians 2, yet Satan still prowls around. like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, according to 1 Peter 5. Christ has not yet thrown him into the lake of fire. So he's disarmed already, but not yet cast into that final judgment. Number two, Christ has already saved the believer from sin's dominion. We saw that in Romans 6. His dad preached that. We see that in Ephesians 2. Already saved from sin's dominion. Yet, the Christian still sins, 1 John 1.8. Christ has not yet made us to be like him, 1 John 3.2. So already saved from the dominion of sin, yet we still struggle with sin and its influence upon us. We're not yet like Christ. Number three, God through Christ has declared the believer righteous. Romans 5.1, we've been justified. Yet the believer has not yet been made righteous in all his behavior. We're waiting for that time. Four, Christ has already given the Christian eternal life, 1 John 5, 13, yet the Christian has yet to inherit the fullness of eternal life. We saw that before, Matthew 25, 46. So the already and the not yet is not just about the kingdom, it's also about the results of the work of the king. Right now, we have already tasted of some of the benefits, but we have yet to come into the fullness. So I hope this helps kind of tie together a lot of different scriptures for you, give you the big picture of history and where history is headed. Any questions about the kingdom of God? Yes, Ivers. I don't really understand what you meant by the kingdom of God being Oh, I didn't mean this to say greater. It was a mistake. It's wider encompasses more. Yeah. So yeah. So another way that you can look at that is. like the prophecy that Jesus begins to quote from Isaiah when he's in Nazareth, that the Messiah would proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, the prophecy also goes on that he's going to bring vengeance. So that the kingdom, as Christ establishes the kingdom, he establishes the kingdom through both redemption and judgment, as he judges his enemies and he redeems the elect and brings them into the kingdom. So in that sense, the kingdom is broader, encompasses more than redemption. It also involves something that affects those who are non-elect. Right, absolutely. Scratch the word greater from that. There's no place that we see the attributes of God so wonderfully displayed as in redemption. There you have both judgment of our sin and God's love and mercy and grace, all of it all together. That's good. Any other questions about the kingdom? Jose? There is no difference. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Well, I can't think of anywhere in scripture where it gives exactly, it boils it down exactly that way. The one place I know where it really gets to the heart of it is 1 Corinthians 15, and that's Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again. So we could say that's the heart of it. But we see there's much more connected to it than that. Certainly, his birth and his life are very important components of the wider gospel message. To make sense of his death and resurrection, you have to understand the incarnation and his holy, righteous life. And that's where our righteousness comes from is Christ, who in his life obeyed and in his death obeyed. Any other questions about the kingdom? Okay, let us now consider the relationship between Israel and the church in eschatology. The Old Testament promises of God's great redemptive blessings were given to Old Testament Israel. We talked at the beginning of our time last time about how the prophets foretold the latter days and the great blessings that Messiah would bring. Now I want to show you in your notes two passages that prophesy the New Covenant. I want you to see that, strictly speaking, these promises were given to Israel. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. So the prophecy of the new covenant in Jeremiah says that it will be a covenant the Lord will make with Israel and Judah. Then we have Ezekiel 36, 22 through 27. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. It's a wonderful prophecy of new covenant blessings. the gift of the Holy Spirit who come to dwell inside of us, who would take out the heart of stone and replace it with the heart of flesh. This is a prophecy of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Now, as I put in bold at the beginning, this was addressed to the house of Israel, a promise made to them. So the questions are, first of all, how is the New Testament church related to the fulfillment of the promises to Israel? Two, how is the nation of Israel related to the fulfillment of the promises? And three, in the time of fulfillment, in other words, the last days, how are Israel and the church related? Now the most extensive teaching on this subject is Romans chapters 9 through 11. So that's what I want to focus the rest of our time on in this study are those chapters. So please turn with me to Romans chapter 9. You have some other passages that speak to this, but no passage nearly as comprehensive and detailed as Romans 9 through 11. Paul even says here that he is revealing a mystery. We'll get to that at the end of this section. In this section, the first mention of Gentiles being saved is chapter 9 starting at verse 22. Look in chapter 9 starting at verse 22. What if God, desiring to show His wrath, and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." We'll just stop right there. He's talking here about election. Paul spoke at the beginning of how his heart's desire is that his fellow Jews would be saved. And he looked out and saw the vast majority of his kinsmen were rejecting the gospel. And so he addresses this, he says, does this mean that God's promises have failed? And he does speak about how God has always had an elect remnant chosen by grace who are the recipients of his promises of blessings. Jacob was loved by the Lord and received the promises, but Esau was hated. Esau did not receive the blessing. The promises do not come to every physical descendant of Abraham. Think about Abraham's sons. Isaac was the one who received the blessing. He was the son of the promise. He's been talking about these things. So he's going into election. And so in 22, what of God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. 23, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he's prepared beforehand for glory. So God has Before the foundation of the world, He elected some individuals unto salvation, and others He did not elect unto salvation. Those that were not elected by their very nature are objects of wrath, and God's wrath will be poured out. And against that backdrop, His mercy is so glorious that while we deserve what the majority receive, the judgment of God, what we would have head right into if God did not open our hearts. Against that backdrop, we have His magnificent mercy in election and in choosing some by His grace to be softened and to be brought into salvation. And so then it goes on in verse 24 and says, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. So here's the first reference in chapters 9 through 11 to the Gentiles. So God has called people unto salvation. Now unto Christ, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. There are Gentiles that the Lord, by his sovereign grace, is including along with elect Jews as recipients of his great promises of salvation. Then he goes on. in verse 25, as indeed he says in Hosea, throughout this book he loves to support the statements he makes by quoting from the Old Testament. And so he supports this statement that he just made about God calling, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. 25, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Now, when Hosea pens these words, it means something different than the application that Paul is making. In the book of Hosea, it's talking about how Israel was rejected for the most part, except for that small remnant chosen by grace, Israel was rejecting the Lord. They were committing spiritual adultery. But there's a promise that the Lord in the future would restore his people. He was rejecting them, he was calling them not my people, but he would restore them in the future and call them once again my people. Now Paul looks at that and says, what's happening with the inclusion of Gentiles? in salvation is the same sort of thing that Hosea was speaking of. It's really not all that different from a people who's rejected by God, who had the covenants, who had the promises, a people who's been rejected by God being restored, and brought into salvation. It's really not different from a Gentile who's outside of God's working, being brought into the people of God. And so, as he quotes Hosea, he's making it very clear that the Gentiles who are included, they are being called God's people just as believing Jews are called God's people. So that's the first mention of the Gentiles. As we continue through these chapters, we go into chapter 10, where we see the condition for participating in Messiah's blessings is the same for Jew and Gentile. That the way a person is saved is the same, regardless if you're Jew or Gentile. Look at chapter 10, verse 9. Chapter 10, starting at verse 9. It says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So he quotes, in verse 11, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 28. Back in chapter 9, verse 33, there was a fuller quotation from there. Now, in chapter 10, verse 11, he quotes that. The Scripture says, "...everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame." And then he makes it very clear, no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. So, the blessings that God had foretold in the Old Testament that come through Messiah are bestowed on Jew and Gentile. What the condition is, is confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, which is a quotation from the book of Joel, Then as you continue through chapter 10, we see that as prophesied, the majority of Israel has rejected Christ, while God has given the kingdom to others. Go down in chapter 10 to verse 16. In 16 he says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? He's bringing up how the majority of Jews were not obeying the gospel. They were not believing the gospel. And he sees this is right in line with what happened in the Old Testament. Isaiah in the Old Testament said, Lord who has believed what he has heard from us. The vast majority of Israelites in Isaiah's day did not believe. Yeah. To Abraham, you had the very beginning of the revelation of the gospel. Nothing yet about atonement, but you have a foundation laid there. And that continued to be, the gospel continued to be progressively revealed. You get to Isaiah 53 about the atonement in the New Testament. So God's been working all throughout history in the same direction. So here in verse 16, it's no different. In the Old Testament, Isaiah recognized very few Israelites believed what the Lord revealed to them. Going on to verse 17. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard, saying, Haven't the Jews heard? He says, indeed they have, for, and he quotes from Psalms, their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. The Psalm was speaking about the general revelation of God that goes out to all human beings, that leaves no one with an excuse before God for their sin and their rejection, their suppression of the truth of God. Verse 19, but I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. with a foolish nation, I will make you angry." So here he's quoting from Moses. There is a prophecy that the Lord would, in the future, make Israel jealous of others who are receiving God's benefits in place of Israel. I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. God will put his favor on others, making Israel jealous. This has been prophesied. Verse 20, then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. Here, Paul is applying this to Gentiles. Gentiles weren't out there seeking the Messiah, seeking salvation, seeking redemption, seeking the kingdom of God. They weren't doing that. But the prophecy is that those who were not seeking, the Gentiles, the Lord would show himself to them, to those who did not ask for him. Verse 21, but of Israel, he says, All day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. So all these quotations here in this section establishing that Israel as a nation largely reject, or we can say as a nation rejected the Messiah just as their nature was seen to be in the Old Testament. Well then we can go into chapter 11. And we see in spite of this, God is not finished with the nation of Israel. Look in chapter 11 at verse 11. At that point you could say, well, is there any future for Israel? Let's see what Paul says, verse 11. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? The word stumbling comes from the previous quotation in verses 9 and 10 where David said, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. They stumbled in the sense that they rejected the Word of God. They rejected the gospel. They rejected Christ. So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall? Is this permanent for the nation? This is by no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. So we see here God's sovereign purposes in history. We have here what God is doing in history. Through Israel's rejection of the Messiah, the gospel came forcefully to the Gentiles. There are many examples of this. I'll just give you one example from the book of Acts. We already saw it in Acts chapter 8. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were persecuting the early church. which was comprised of Jews, and what did that rejection from the Jewish leadership do? It caused the believers to spread out into the Gentile areas with the gospel. It brought the gospel to the Gentiles. This is one example of what Paul is talking about here. of through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. You see it in Paul's approach to ministry. In location after location, where he goes to plant the church, he first goes to the Jews at the synagogue, and he preaches the gospel to them. And then there comes a point of, for the most part, the Jews rejecting the gospel. And then Paul turns to the Gentiles. And in that way, it keeps going further and further to the Gentiles. So that's what Paul has in mind here. Through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. But now he's telling us God has a sovereign purpose in this. So as to make Israel jealous. He's using that word from the quotation we saw in chapter 10 from Moses. All right, this is in God's sovereign plan. The gospel is going to the Gentiles so as to arouse jealousy at some point within the nation of Israel that the nation would turn to Christ. He's gonna expand upon that as he goes along. Look at verse 12. Now, if their trespass, the trespass of the Jewish nation, if their trespass means riches for the world, thinking of, you know, the world's composed largely of Gentiles, if their trespass means riches for the world, the riches of salvation for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? So he's saying, the current state of things is not the final state of things. There's coming a day that he calls their full inclusion. He's going to expand upon that as he goes along here. The full inclusion. of Israel, how much more will that mean riches for the Gentiles? If the Jewish rejection of the Messiah brings riches to us, how much more will their reception of the blessings bring blessing to others, is the idea. Verse 13, now I am speaking to you Gentiles. There were both Gentiles and Jews in the church at Rome. Now he's speaking specifically to the Gentiles. And when he's writing this, there were temptations for both Jews and Gentiles in the church to boast in themselves over the other side. Jews to boast over the Gentiles, Gentiles to boast over the Jews. Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles. In as much then as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them." He's saying his purpose in his apostolic ministry matches God's sovereign purpose. that as he has done ministry, he has reached out to the Gentiles with the gospel, with the heart's desire that the reception of salvation by the Gentiles is going to arouse some of the Jews to jealousy and then to turn to Christ themselves. See, that's also my purpose. Verse 14, in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. So the jealousy, then is followed upon by salvation, of course, conversion, and thus save some of them. Verse 15, for if their rejection, that's the Jewish nation's rejection of Christ, if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, the Gentile world, if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? I think what he's getting at here, because of what he's gonna say later on, is this large scale conversion of Jews to Jesus Christ is going to be the event that will trigger the second coming of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ's second coming brings with it the resurrection, life from the dead. So he says, but if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Something great and glorious because life from the dead is going to follow upon their acceptance of the gospel. Verse 16, if the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it's not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. So we have a metaphor here. We have a tree. It's a fruit tree. It has branches. Some have been broken off, and then some other branches have been grafted in. It talks about the root. So the root has to do with the promises to Israel, the promises We can include in there the promises of the New Covenant that we already looked at, the promises of God, the salvific promises. The root has to do with that. Some of the branches were broken off. The Jews who rejected the gospel, have been broken off. They're not going to receive, as long as they remain in unbelief, they're not going to receive these promises. They're not going to receive the gift of the Spirit. They're not going to receive a heart of flesh. They're not going to receive atonement for their sins, forgiveness of sins. They're not going to receive these things. They've been broken off. Branches were broken off. But the purpose, God's sovereign purpose, He's sovereign in salvation. His sovereign purpose in breaking off branches. was so that another would be grafted in. Then you'll say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in, so that Gentiles will be grafted in. He's using metaphor to continue to talk about what he's already been talking about. The grafted in branches, these are the Gentiles brought into the tree, included as recipients of the promises, included in the people of God. They're grafted in. And he says, so there's no room therefore for boasting. He says, they were broken off because of their unbelief, verse 20, but you stand fast to your faith, so do not become proud, but fear. So don't speak like those words in verse 19, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. This has nothing to do with exalting man. It's just the opposite. God's purpose in all of this in history is to humble man and exalt his mercy. You can't boast about that. There's nothing here for man to boast about. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith, so do not become proud but fear. Back in 18, he said, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember, it's not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. It's the Jewish root that supports you. Gentiles, don't be arrogant. You are supported by promises that were not originally made to you. They were made to Abraham and his descendants. They were made to Israel. You're a beneficiary now, but you've just been grafted in. The root supports you. Let's go down to verse 21. And you in your boasting and your pride show that you're not genuinely believing in Christ. You're going to be broken off. It doesn't matter that you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You're going to be broken off. You're not going to, in the end, receive these benefits. Fear. Be careful. If God did not spare the natural branches, that's for unbelief, neither will He spare you for unbelief. 22, note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, broken off, they're rejected. not recipients of the promises, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. There must be perseverance. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. 23. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in again. God's rejection of the nation of Israel is not final. If any Jew repents of their sin and trusts in Jesus, they will be saved. They'll be brought right back in. They'll be grafted in as Gentiles have been grafted in. The rejection of the nation is not final. God has the power to graft them in again. Verse 24, for if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, How much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? He's saying this is what we would expect. Their natural branches, we expect them to be in the tree. How natural it will be for God to graft them back in as they turn to Christ. 25, lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers. He prefaces what he's about to say by calling it a mystery. A mystery in the Bible is something that God has not previously revealed. But now he is clearly revealing it. So Paul here is going beyond what Jesus said on this subject. He's going beyond what he previously said in his preaching and teaching, beyond what other apostles previously said. This is by the Spirit. He's revealing this mystery. He says, lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers, a partial hardening. has come upon Israel. He calls it partial, not final, not complete. There was still a remnant of Jews who believed. It's not final, as he makes clear here. Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, until all the Gentiles who were elected by God have come into the kingdom. 26, and in this way, This way refers to what he's just been talking about in the previous verses. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, and then he quotes from Isaiah, 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. So Paul says there were indications of this in the Old Testament, but it wasn't clear. Now it's being made clear. He's saying the gospel has gone from the Jews to the Gentiles. The Gentiles are receiving the gospel and God's sovereignty to make Israel jealous, and that will have its effect. There's coming a day when the vast number of Jews will be converted to Jesus Christ. He says, in this way, all Israel will be saved. Here will be fulfillment of what Isaiah talked about. He said, the deliverer will come from Zion. He'll banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. 28. As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. He's speaking about the nation of Israel. As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. So saying that God in his love and mercy, he cast his love upon the nation. Right now they're enemies for your sake, for your salvation. But there's election of the nation, they're beloved for the sake of their forefathers, because of God's grace, because of his promises to the forefathers. 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so too they have now been disobedient, that is to the gospel, in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive Mercy, for God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. As he unfolds this mystery, as he reveals this mystery, as he reveals this plan of God for history, It moves him to doxology. It moves him to worship because he sees how in God's wisdom, he has been operating all throughout history and he will continue to operate in such a way that those who receive his promises, who actually receive salvation, those who enter the kingdom, they receive it in such a way that there's no way for them to boast in themselves. Gentiles today cannot boast in ourselves. According to this passage, the Gospels come to us because Israel rejected it. The promises were not originally made to Gentiles, they were made to Jews. We can't boast in ourselves, we're Gentiles. At the same time, the Jews who were saved couldn't boast in themselves because ancestry didn't mean entrance into the kingdom. The vast majority were hardened and did not enter into the kingdom. And those Jews who will be saved in the future, at this time when he says all Israel will be saved, there's nothing that they'll be able to boast about because it's obvious that they were in stubborn unbelief until God opened their eyes. Their history shows that they had no inclination to believe. So all of this magnifies the mercy of God and removes any reason that we might have in our mind for boasting in ourself when it comes to receiving God's salvation blessings. All of this brings glory to God. It glorifies His mercy, it glorifies His wisdom, it glorifies His grace, and it glorifies His justice. Now, Romans 11, I believe, as I have exposited to you, foretells a day soon before Christ's return, when God will remove the hardening from the great majority of Jews living at the time, and they will be converted to Jesus Christ. And this way will be fulfilled, the promise that all Israel will be saved. Now this interpretation that I'm giving you today is not some strange interpretation when you look at church history. This interpretation has been the majority interpretation of this throughout church history. It's been taught by men of the 5th century. I put some of their names there for you. The Middle Ages, the years following the Reformation, the 19th century, and the present. It's been taught by Presbyterians. I give you names there of preeminent Presbyterian scholars, Baptists, and Independents. Most of the highly respected exegetical commentaries on Romans interpret this passage this way. Modern day pastors known for their detailed expositions of Romans have interpreted it this way, give you some names. Highly respected books on New Testament theology interpret it this way, give you some titles or some authors there. The well-known Reformed Study Bibles, the Reformation Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible interpret it this way. So, let us come back to conclude to those questions that I started this section with and see if we can answer those questions according to what we've seen here in Romans 11. First question, how is the New Testament church related to the fulfillment of the promises to Israel? The passage we've looked at teaches that the New Testament church receives the fulfillment of the promises. Members of the church have been grafted in. Next question. What I mean by that is the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How is the nation of Israel related to the fulfillment of the promises? Our passage of scripture teaches the great majority of the nation of Israel alive soon before Christ's return will be grafted back in through conversion to Christ and will receive the fulfillment of the promises. And our last question, in the time of fulfillment, in the last days, how are Israel and the church related? Our text indicates the church and believing Israel will compose one people of God into all eternity. I hope that's helpful for you as you seek to bring different portions of Scripture together and understand the big picture. This will be important as we continue on in eschatology to look at next week the Great Tribulation, then the return of Christ with the Rapture, then the Millennial Kingdom, and so forth. Unfortunately, we are out of time for questions. If you have questions or comments, please bring them to me after our prayer time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your magnificent mercy and grace in salvation. Lord, it is by your mercy and your grace that we as believers have been included in your covenants, been included in your promises of atonement for sins, the promise of the Spirit, the promise of a new heart. Oh Lord, we're not entitled to any of your blessings. We are, in and of ourselves, we are entitled to your judgment, your wrath. But in your mercy and grace, you chose a people for yourself before the foundation of the world, a people for yourself that includes both Jews and Gentiles. Oh Lord, may you make us in awe of your salvation, your grace, your mercy, your sovereignty, and may we see your glory in your plan that you are working out. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.