Well, if you would remain standing and open your Bibles to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. This week we will pick up in verse 25 where we left off, and we are going to finish Romans chapter 11 this week. So, let's hear the Word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul to us this morning. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardiness come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 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 they too have now been disobedient 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 depth 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. Let's pray. Father, as we come today to Your Word, we ask that You would help us to see, to see this mystery of salvation, and to not only see, but to understand. We ask that You would open hearts to better understand the Gospel of Jesus. We ask that You would change us, that You would mold us, that You would make us more like our Lord Jesus. And Father, we ask that You would show Yourself to be high and exalted, to be one who is worthy of all of our praise and our glory. And we ask that You would do this today. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we've come to the end of Romans chapter 11. We've been in this letter to the church at Rome for almost two years. It'll be two years in the spring. So we're going to take a small break. As we do every year, we take some time to think about, reflect upon, and to look at the Advent season, and to look at different texts that reflect upon and point us towards the incarnation of Jesus. This year is no different than that. Our Advent series is going to span starting next week all the way through the 26th. We'll do, right after Christmas, we'll have our Lessons and Carols service on the 26th. And this year what we're going to do is we're going to look at the first chapter of John's Gospel. And we're going to see the way that the beloved disciple, as he calls himself, presents Jesus to us in those opening words of his gospel message. So as we move into this Advent season after Thanksgiving, let me encourage you to take some time in your own personal devotion in your own personal time with the Lord and reading scripture to dwell on the incarnation, the coming of Jesus in the flesh. And if you're not sure how to do that, I was made aware this past week of two new devotion books that have been put out that focus on Advent. Now I have not read either one of them. I have read the reviews that makes them seem promising. One of them in particular is interesting to me because we just had a Sunday school class where Sinclair Ferguson taught some of the content and he has released one of these devotional books and it looks very good. John Piper also has released one and I've read good things about it as well. So if you would like a resource to help you think about the Incarnation, those are two new ones that have been made known to me. Now, some of you also may want to do something with your family, and if you do, let me encourage you to do that. One thing that you can do, and some of us have done over the years here, is the Jesse Tree, where we walk through the story of Jesus starting in Genesis and walk all the way through to his incarnation. And as we tell the story, we hang ornaments on our Christmas tree to remind us of Jesus and to remind us of this great story. But no matter what you do, or how you go about it. In the coming weeks, let me encourage you to think about Christ and His incarnation and why we celebrate Christmas. Now after Christmas, we're going to continue our break from Romans for a very short amount of time. I'm going to take some weeks to preach through Jonah, and then we'll be back into Romans after that. So today is going to be, I tell you all that because today is going to be our last day in Romans for some weeks ahead. And I think this is just a fantastic place to take a break. And the reason I say that is because Over the past two years, what we've seen as we walk through this letter to Rome, we've seen the gospel presented, we've seen how we're all sinners, we've seen how we're saved by grace through faith. And then more recently, we've been dealing with the issue of Israel, the questions that the early church and many people have had to this day about Israel and God's promises to them. And today Paul finishes that letter, that section of his letter and also gives us as we're going to see a really a nice way to close up everything we've seen in Romans so far. Now today as we turn to the end of chapter 11, what we're going to see is Paul recounting or I will say unveiling the mystery of God's future plan of salvation for Israel. He's going to tell us again how to understand Israel and what to think about Israel. And we see this in three ways or three parts. The first part is we're going to see the mystery revealed. He's going to reveal it to us. He's talked about it in the chapters 9, 10, and 11. And now he's going to succinctly put it all together so we can see this mystery revealed. And secondly, he's going to tell us the method of this salvation, the mystery method, as I'll call it, the way that God is going to save Israel. And then lastly, we see the result of this mystery of salvation. We see this praise and the way that God is worthy of glory based on, not limited to, but in this section, based on the work that He has done. with his people. So we'll walk through it that way. As Paul unveils the mystery, we'll see the mystery unveiled, we'll see the method that God is going to use in this mystery, and then we're going to see the results of this mystery of salvation being praised. And we'll walk through it in that way. So let's just do that now. Let's pick up where we left off. We'll start in verse 25. Now, Paul has some interesting language here. He says it's a mystery that is being unveiled to us, that has been unpacked. And he's been telling us about how we should think about Israel and the Gentiles and God's salvation of people. And now he speaks of it being a mystery. We read that same language this morning in Ephesians chapter one, this mystery of salvation. Now, when Paul speaks of a mystery, I want us to understand that he's not talking about a mystery that we need to solve, like a Scooby-Doo mystery for those of you that are my age and watch that growing up. Or maybe if you're also my age, or a Columbo mystery. That's not the mystery he's talking about. Or maybe some of you are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes books and movies, the mystery like that. That is not the mystery. that Paul is referring to. There's not anything for us to try to go figure out. It has been revealed to us. The mystery, this type of mystery, is something that we didn't understand previously. It was undisclosed to us, but now it is revealed. Not something we had to go try to solve, but something that God hid and He has now revealed to us. And that mystery is about how God is going to save His people. The mystery was about how God is going to save Israel and also about how God is going to save the Gentiles. Now, if we look back at chapter 9, what we find is that Paul reassures us that even though a large portion of Israel is not believing, that his promises, God's promises to Israel are still holding true. They are still true. And he says the reason that we know those promises have not and will not fail is because there's a remnant of Jews that believe, Paul being one of them. Paul tells us something very important in that passage. That the promises of God will not fail. They will not fail. God's promises to Israel will not fail, and God's promises to us today as Gentiles, as people who live far away from Israel, His promises to us about salvation will not fail. Then we've seen that God has grafted in Gentiles to come into His kingdom. This last section we come to now is a summary of all that he's been talking about, about the understanding of the gospel of Jesus in relation to Israel and to the Gentiles and how this works together. And so when we come to verse 25, we really have a summing up and a recap of what he's been explaining. So let's look at verse 25. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." A summary of the big picture. The purpose here is, in case you think there's something of your own doing or something good about yourself, you be wise in your own understanding. Paul says, I want you to understand this mystery. And here's the mystery. A partial hardiness come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And what we find here is a summary of the big picture of what God is doing in the world and how He is saving His people and is absolutely consistent with everything that comes before it in Scripture. And he helps us understand this in multiple parts. The first thing that we need to understand that he's saying here is that there is a partial hardening of Israel. This means in Paul's day and today, still true, there is a partial hardening of Israel. This means that many, most, of the nation of Israel. Most people who come from this lineage, this Jewish lineage, are harmed and don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They're still longing for a Messiah to come, although He's already come. Now, there's a purpose in God doing this. This is the second aspect of this that we see. The hardening of the Jews allows the Gentiles to be added into the kingdom. A partial hardening has come upon Israel. All right. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So God is allowing Gentiles to be added to the kingdom of God. And this hardening will continue until God has all of the Gentiles, the elect Gentiles, the fullness of them, come to salvation. Now the third aspect of this is one we have to deduce. This means that the current situation has an expiration date. God will not always harden Israel. God won't always be bringing Gentiles into the kingdom. There is a coming day when the fullness of the Gentiles will be complete and then no more. And when the fullness of the Gentiles is realized, God, by His word here, will bring unbelieving in Israel into the church. Now, weeks back we talked about how it appears the way Paul writes this, that this will happen very close to the time or when Jesus returns. Now, I think one of the reasons that Paul calls this mysterious, the way that God is saving His people throughout Paul's day and our own is this is not, although it is consistent, it is not the way that we anticipated God to work. When we read the Old Testament and we see God's work in Israel, we don't think that He's going to even allow Gentiles. At times, it looks like He's not going to save Gentiles, but He does. He does. And so what Paul is saying is that for this time, notice it's undefined, for an amount of time, God is going to harden Israel to allow the Gentiles to come in. And if we look back to verse 11, he's gonna use that to make Israel jealous and then use that to bring them to salvation. Now look at verse 26. He goes on, and in this way, Israel will be saved as it is written. And this is a quotation of what we read this morning in Isaiah 59. 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. Now this verse has caused all sorts of, we'll call it discussion. Maybe not discussion, maybe arguments. Alright? Heated, spirited debates. Good natured debates, generally. But lots of ways to try to figure out what Paul is saying here, okay? There's all kinds of questions. We want to know who is all Israel? We've talked about that in Romans. What will it look like when they are saved? When is that going to take place? In what manner? And how does this fit into my view of the millennium? This reign of Christ. I'll tell you some of those we'll answer today and other ones we can't because we can't see the future. I want to start, I think it will be helpful for us as we look at this, to address the words all Israel. Paul, and I've said this before, Paul is really good at doing plays on words and having phrases and being creative when he writes, especially if you're looking at the Greek, he's really good at that. But then it also can be difficult for us as we try to wade through some of his creative writing, who he's referring to. When we look at all Israel, who is Israel? Because sometimes Paul has spoken of Israel and he's meant a physical people, and other times when he's spoken of Israel, he's meant a spiritual people. So which one is, what is he talking, which group? Well, in this verse, I think it, I think it can be made clear to us that he's talking about a physical nation here as a whole, as a group of people, because he's contrasting two groups. He's contrasting, we're going to see, the way that the Gentiles are being brought in and saved, and then how Israel is being hardened. He's referring back not to those who are His true people spiritually, but to these two physical groups of people. Those who are Jewish and the Gentiles, everyone that's not. So how do we interpret a passage like this in verse 26, and in this way all Israel will be saved? How do we interpret that? Well one, I think we look at it and say in this context Israel is the physical people and then we have to understand the word all. How do we interpret all? Because even in our own day we use that differently. You could say something like, I went to my family reunion and all of my family was there. Does that mean every single person was there in your family? Not necessarily. We read in Scripture, all of a group of people came out. Well, there might have been somebody who stayed in their house. The idea of all is meant to mean it was as if everyone was there. It was so many people. Some have looked at this passage and suggested when Paul writes all Israel, he means that all people who are ethnically Jewish throughout all time in history will be saved. I think we can easily disregard that. that goes against the gospel message of repentance and faith in Jesus, and even what we see throughout the Old Testament, pointing towards Jesus. But then others have suggested that all Israel references all ethnic Jews that are alive at some future time, that the Lord will change their hearts, they will believe in Jesus, and maybe even when Christ returns, they will see Him and repent and believe and be saved. I think that's a legitimate way that you could look at that. But the way that Paul has been speaking throughout Romans, I'm not convinced that's what he means. I'm convinced that what he means is that sometime in the future, many, if most, of the majority of physical Israel, those who are ethnically Jewish, not spiritual Israel, all those that are physically Israel, many of them will repent and turn to Jesus. And it will seem as if all of them believe. It will seem as if they all believe, even though there may be some that don't. Now hold that loosely because I can't see the future. But what we do know is that God is going in the future to save his people as promised. Now secondly, I want to consider when he says, in this way, what he means. He's speaking about the manner in which he's going to save Israel. The manner. I think this is very important that we understand. In this verse, Paul is saying that this partial hardening has come over Israel, which allows the Gentiles to come in. At some point in the future, this hardening is going to end. By extension, the inclusion of the Gentiles is gonna end. I'll let that sink in for you that are Gentiles in just a moment. Just let that sit for a minute. And then at some point, all ethnic Israel is going to believe or a large majority of them. We can't divorce that text from everything else that Paul has said in Romans. The only way that people can be saved from God's wrath to come down upon them to be reconciled back to Him in humanity, regardless if you're Jew or you're Gentile, the only way to be saved is to have faith in Jesus. Is to repent and believe that Jesus is the Messiah. To believe that Jesus came and lived perfectly The only way to be saved is to believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he took the sins on the sins of his people and the wrath of God was poured out and that punishment that we're all due. God doesn't just forget about it. It has been paid. And then he went to the grave and then he came up again, alive, resurrected. And then one day he's going to return. That is the only way that Paul presents to us that people can be saved. So how is Israel going to be saved? Isaiah speaks of this. The deliverer will come from Zion, will banish all ungodliness from Jacob. The deliverer has come, Jesus has come, and He has banished sin when He paid for it on the cross, and it will be applied because they will have faith in Him. They will have faith in Him. This is the manner that God will use to save His people. It's not some secret or magical thing that we don't know about. No, they're going to be saved as everyone else that we know is saved by grace, through faith in Jesus. Through grace, I mean by grace, through faith. So how should we think about Israel now. That's part of this mystery being unveiled. He's told us there's a hardening. One day they will repent and believe. How do we understand Israel today? So how do we try to reconcile this in the future, but not yet thing? This is how we should look at verse 28 and 29. This is how we should think about Israel. Even today, as regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. In regards to the gospel, they don't believe. They don't believe. They are enemies of the gospel because they are unbelieving. But, but in regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. We understand Israel to be Those people that God called out of Exodus. I mean, in Exodus, He called out of Egypt that He saved, that He made His people, that He gave a land to, that rebelled and now don't believe. They don't believe in the gospel, but they are still God's people that He made promises to. And one day He's going to change that where they will believe because God's calling is irrevocable. My brothers and sisters, there's something in verse 29 for us that's very, very important. If God's calling, if his salvation, if his work in the life of Israel as a nation is irrevocable, you know what that means for us who believe in the gospel? That work of the gospel in our lives is irrevocable. Irrevocable. So let's review this mystery before we move on. The mystery that Paul has explained to us about Israel is this. The Jews, for a while, as a whole, are not believing, although there is a remnant. And that purpose is so he can bring in Gentiles into his kingdom and he can take two peoples and make them one. And there's going to be a day where God will change the hearts of the Jews and they will believe. They will repent and believe and come to know Jesus in the way that we know Him. And then they will no longer just be a physical nation of people who are God's people, but then they will be real spiritual children of God. What do you do with a text like that in 2021 in Kingwood, Texas? Seems like a lot of texts there that we can talk about people that would go into some eschatology argument. I think we should come to texts like this, and we should be thankful. For those of us that believe in Jesus, we should be thankful that God is allowing us, almost half a world away from Israel, we're a physical nation, half a world away. God is bringing us into His church. If you read Romans chapter 1, And you understand the state of man. None of us deserve to be in God's kingdom. Yet in His loving kindness, in His mercy, He has sent Jesus and He has brought us into His kingdom. And I think it should also drive our evangelism. This text indicates that one day this will no longer be the way that it is. There is an expiration date. There is a day when Jesus is returning and no more will there be an opportunity for us to tell others about Jesus. This should, I hope, give us a desire to tell others of this goodness that we know of our Savior. I also think this text should help us orient our thinking about God's promises to Israel and how we understand Israel today. I think texts like this help us to understand that we should think of Israel in terms of the gospel, in terms of salvation. They're not saved right now. Most Jews are not believing. So we should think in terms of wanting them to come to salvation and not in geopolitical terms. There are a lot of people who are really concerned about geopolitical Israel, which is fine if that's what a concern you want to have. I'm less concerned with the geopolitical Israel, I'm more concerned with the spiritual Israel. And those who are of this lineage, those who the promises of God have been given to, I'm more concerned with them knowing the Messiah that they long for. We should be concerned about their salvation. We should want to tell them about Jesus, knowing full well that it's going to offend many of them. Larry prayed this morning that we would even tell our Jewish friends about Jesus, knowing full well that they're not gonna like what we have to say, because we want them to know about this Savior. We want them to know that there's a day when this Messiah is coming back again. This text should make our evangelism, I think, more urgent. Let's have a look at this text in three parts. The first one is the most cumbersome part, because Paul is explaining to us this mystery. The mystery of salvation, that God is going to save His people. Now, the second part is the method. How is God going to do that? And we saw the manner of the other method a little bit in the previous text, but now starting in verse 30, Paul is really going to drive it home for us. So let's look at this pattern or this method of salvation. Just as you, he's now, remember he's speaking to the Gentile groups of the Romans. So just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient 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. What is God's method of saving people? He takes those that are disobedient, those who hate Him, those, we might say, a way of saying sinners, which we all were, we all are, and He pours His mercy out upon them. How is God going to save the Jews in the same way that He saved the Gentiles? He shows His mercy to them through the work of Jesus. Temporarily, the Jews are disobedient, so some Gentiles to come in. And then He's going to take that disobedient nation, and He's going to pour out and lavish on them the glory of Christ's work in the same way that He is doing that for those of us that believe today. And I think what is most beautiful about this passage All throughout Scripture we have two groups of people. Those who are God's people that are Jewish, in the Old Testament I mean, and then we have this group of people that are Gentiles, that are all manner of pagans as we read. But what God is doing through the work of Christ is He is making them into one family, one kingdom, one group of people, one church, with one King Jesus over them. The method that God is using is the pattern that He's used to save the Gentiles. Verse 32, they're all consigned to disobedience so that He may have mercy on all. Not every single person, but all people without distinction of their origins. Here's what Paul is telling us here. In verse 32, that all people are sinners. Even Israel. Sinners. You. Sinner. Me. Sinner. And every single one of us deserve to be punished by God. Because we have transgressed His holiness, we deserve His full eternal wrath poured out on us for all eternity without end. But then he tells us in verse 32 that he has mercy on all types of people. And by all, again, Jew and Gentile, he means that he has mercy on all sorts of sinners from all around this world. That mercy is the Lord Jesus' work that has been given to us. Mercy looks like Jesus paying for the sins on the cross, going to the grave and coming up again. Mercy looks like a heart that is changed. Mercy looks like faith given to a people who don't deserve it. Mercy to me looks like a church that is full of all sorts of people. that left to their own devices, the left in sin, would be divided. Divided by language, skin color, political views, socioeconomic standing, age, and just about any other way that you could imagine that we would be divided. But when I look about churches, when I look about here, you know what I see? I see mercy. I see Jesus' blood poured out on all types of people. And every single one of those people did not deserve it. But God found it good. to make a way for us to be reconciled back to Him. He made a way for us to be saved by placing our faith in Jesus. And as we saw this morning, this beautiful picture of baptism, this picture of the gospel message, when we trust in Jesus, that judgment, that wrath has been extinguished by Jesus. And He went under those waters of judgment and came out. What we do is we get His work. That death and that burial becomes our own. We become one of God's people when we trust in Him. That is the way that God saves all or everyone. All types of people around this world. No one will ever be brought into to God's kingdom any other way except by His grace and through faith. You see, some people would say all paths of religion do not lead to salvation, and I would say, no, they don't. Even those who claim to be God's people but really didn't believe in Him weren't saved. There's only one way to be saved, and that is through Jesus. So we've seen this mystery unveiled. We've seen the method or the manner in which God is going to save people. Now we get to the results. What's the result of the mysterious work of Christ in salvation for His people? It's praise. It's praise. The fancy word we use sometimes is doxology, which is a praise to God. The last verses, fall into that pattern exactly what they are. Let's look at them starting in verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom of knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and 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. These verses, they function as a conclusion to the last few chapters, starting in chapter nine and working through to where we are. What's the results? What's the results of God bringing in the Gentiles and then bringing in the Jews? Praise. Glory to His great name. These verses, they also function as a conclusion to the last entire 11 chapters as well. We've seen through those 11 chapters, the state of man, Jew and Gentile being sinners. And how there's only one way to be saved by faith, through faith, in Jesus. We've seen the depths of the riches of Christ that he can save a pagan Gentile like me. We've seen the depths of Christ through this Paul's explanations of how he can save even the wayward Israelite like Paul. Brothers and sisters, the riches and wisdom, the knowledge of God are deeper than you and I can ever fathom. His judgments, His plans, His ways of bringing the people to salvation are unsearchable. That means that His ways are so immense, so infinite, that we can never know, we can never understand Him in His full depth. Paul quotes Isaiah to help us understand this. Look at Isaiah's words in verse 34, who can know the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? God does not have an equal or a superior who can counsel him. Look at Job's words in verse 35, who has given him a gift that might be repaid. God cannot be repaid for what he's done in salvation. Paul is trying to paint for us here a big picture of who God is. A God that is holy and high and exalted. And this God had every right to punish humanity for sin. But He doesn't do that. He brings people in and He saves them through the work of Jesus. And that should result in our praise. This text, this section of the letter, this entire letter should bring us to praise God for His work of salvation. It should cause us to cry out to Him, be glory forever and ever because of our salvation. This letter should bring us to praise God because it tells us of this amazing work. It tells us That God's work includes Jews and Gentiles. It tells us that God's promises are irrevocable. It tells us that God's promises have not failed. And it points us to and helps us see God for who He is. And I think this text should also cause us to praise because it hints at a day to come. It hints at a day to come that will be far more glorious than anything that we have experienced. Christ is going to return and those who have faith in Him will be like Him and will live with Him forever without sin. That is going to be a glorious day. That is a day that is worthy for us to cry out to God and praise Him and for Him to have glory forever. Now as we leave our time in Romans, for the next few months. Let me encourage you to reflect back. Look forward to Advent, but also reflect back on the good news of the gospel. Think back as you're considering Jesus' incarnation. Also think back on what that means, what God is doing through bringing Christ to us. Reflect on how the mystery has been revealed that God has found it good to bring Those of us that are halfway around the world into His people, into His kingdom. Rejoice in the goodness of the gospel. Rejoice in the goodness of God and who He is. Let's pray. Father, we praise You for the gospel of Jesus. We praise You that You did not leave us to our own devices. We praise you that you have found a good to save your people and that you have made a way for us through faith in Jesus. Now, we ask that you would help us to see Christ high and exalted and to see our sin and to see the immensity of Christ's work paying for that sin. And as we enter into this Advent season, we ask that you would help keep us focused on Jesus. Help us to remember that He has come and also long for the day for His return where we, those who believe in Jesus, get to be with Him and like Him. We ask that you would do this work. We pray this in His name. Amen.