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we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Isn't that something to rejoice in? You know, when we see the kingdoms of men rise and fall, we have to be reminded that this is just man, this is the world, but we've received inheritance, a kingdom, and a Lord who reigns supreme, who's the King of kings and Lord of lords. And one day, all of that will be realized in fullness, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, amen? I'll ask you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 11. As we'll be continuing our expository series. Our focus today will be on Our focus today will be on verses 11 through 24, 11 through 24, but I'm gonna start reading in verse one, all right? I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they've killed your prophets, and they've demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is God's reply to him? I've kept for myself 7,000 men who've not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking? The elect obtained it. but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution for them, for their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. So I ask, and here's our passage for today, Did they stumble in order that they may fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation's come to the Gentiles. So as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness, full inclusion, mean? Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles in as much as Then, as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so 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 towards the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, well, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand fast through faith. Do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provide you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be granted in. for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before this passage today, a very rich, theologically rich passage O Lord, speaking about the nation of Israel and your plan for them. Father God, these are the depths of the wisdom and mystery and the knowledge of you. And as Lord, as we barely scratched the surface of this passage, I ask that you'd give us all divine wisdom and insight and more importantly, humility. that we would understand this passage before us and we would apply it appropriately. Lord Jesus, we thank you historically for how you have operated. We thank you that in your divine wisdom, you called out Abraham and you set apart his descendants and formed a nation. Oh Lord, and you revealed yourself through Israel for many centuries. And in your divine wisdom, O Lord, you've set Israel aside for now, although still saving a remnant, and have lavished the riches of your grace upon us Gentiles who, Lord, are naturally or unnatural to you, O Lord. We are wild olive shoots, O Father God, and we thank you for including us. We thank you for grafting us in. We thank you for your mercy that you've shown to us that we don't deserve. O Lord, we look forward to that day when you restore your kingdom, when you restore your people, Pray that you open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your law today. Give me grace, may your Holy Spirit anoint me in Jesus' name, amen. So today in our study, we're gonna continue looking at what God has to say for Israel. Now, as we get deeper into this text of chapter 11, the subject matter becomes more controversial. It becomes controversial because there's wide-ranging views on a lot of what we're going to be uncovering. A lot of debate. And some people are very passionate on their views. Passionate to the point that there can be no disagreement or room for seeing things differently. And as a result of that, we look at this passage with a sense of humility, with a sense of seeking God and wanting to shatter any preconceived notions we have and let the text speak to us clearly. And it really is about the nation of Israel. Last week when we were going through verses 1 through 11, it was established that God had at this time, the present time, verse 5, chosen a remnant by grace. The reason why there's only a small minority of Jews that are believing is because God is saving the remnant, as he's always been, going back even to the Old Testament, as we saw clearly pointed out with Elijah and his ministry, and 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And so throughout Israel's history, there's always been a sense where a majority of people are an apostasy and a minority. The faithful remnant are those chosen by God and set apart and saved. They experience the salvation of God, the salvation of Yahweh. And although the majority of the Jewish people have a sense of a covenant relationship with God through Israel and by virtue of the mediation of Moses and the Torah, in the new covenant now, God is mediating through the gospel, through Jesus Christ, his son. And there's a faithful remnant of which Paul is one. And what he says there in verse 7 is really clearly the launching pad of our sermon today. Verse 7 says, what then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking? He says, the elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. And so here we see that the majority of Israel is hardened at the present time. A judicial hardening. And when we get to verse 11, the question is raised, the next question in Paul's logic and flow here, He asks, did they stumble in order that they may fall? In other words, is this hardening that's come upon Israel, is this aspect where the majority of Jewish people have rejected Christ and are not part of the kingdom, is this a permanent situation? And the answer is, by no means. This is a typical response of Paul in his rhetorical device throughout the book of Romans. We've seen this time and time again. By no means. God has a plan for Israel. And he has a future for Israel. And that's what we're gonna be uncovering this week and then one more sermon when I return in two weeks. And so looking at this, I want to present two different extremes that we have seen in how the church, how Christianity views Israel, its future, and its place now. On one aspect, you have what I would call radical dispensationalism. Now when I say radical, I mean that dispensational has various camps and nuances, so it's hard to put all of dispensationalism into one camp. Generally speaking, all dispensationalists believe that there are two peoples of God. That there's a heavenly people, which are those who are believers in Jesus Christ, the Christians. And there are God's earthly people, the Jewish people. And that God simultaneously is having two covenants. He's working with two different peoples for two different purposes. And that although some Jews are being saved, that the Jewish covenant, the Mosaic covenant, has kind of been put on hold. And then in the end, he's going to restore that covenant. There's this idea that there are two parallel tracks, two parallel peoples. When I say radical, I mean radical in this sense. There are some who believe that Christians are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile, but on the other hand, that Jewish people today can still be saved and inherit eternal life if they simply keep the law, if they obey the Torah. Now, I just want to say something. If you've been with me now for a year, and we've gone through the Book of Romans, that is virtually impossible. The Apostle Paul, who is a Jew himself, has made a clandestine case that it is absolutely impossible to justify yourself by adherence to the law. The law does not justify. The law does not save. The law condemns. The law does not give life. The law gives death. One is justified by faith in Christ alone, through faith alone and by grace alone. That is how we are saved. That is how we are justified. There is no other way. There is no other way to be saved. You cannot have a relationship with God through law keeping. You cannot get to God by being a devout Jew. You cannot get to God by keeping the Ten Commandments. That's just a no-go. And so when you see certain preachers on television preaching that kind of stuff, They are preaching heresy. They are denying the very gospel. What did Paul say in Romans 1, 16? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe, both to the Jew and to the Gentile. There is only one plan of salvation for both the Jew and the Gentile, and that is through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus says, no one comes to the Father but by me. So that's one radical aspect of this, and so the radical dispensationists will say that Judaism will continue as a legitimate means of getting to God, and that in the end of the age, he's gonna reestablish a theocratic nation in which Christ will return to rule as Messiah. And there's various nuances of that here too, I'm not gonna get into that. This view has lent itself to a lot of sensationalism in the Christian church. Books like Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, how many of you have ever heard of that or read that? Big, popular, very popular in the 1980s. Hal Lindsey predicted the return of Christ and he was wrong, but he had a best-selling book and it was all built on this theology. What about Left Behind? Most of you probably have heard of Left Behind, the series in the 90s. Kirk Cameron made the movie. I think Nicolas Cage just made another one, right? You know, all of a sudden, everybody disappears, and you know, what happened? We've been left behind, and this whole seven-year tribulation, this all comes down to this theology. Sadly, it's led to many false prophecies. That's one extreme of it. The other extreme is what we call replacement theology. This is the other extreme. What is replacement theology? It's a view among evangelicals, and this happens primarily around Reformed Christians, that believe that Israel is no more, that there is no more plan for ethnic Israel, that in the New Covenant, God replaces Israel with the church. And so, therefore, there is no future restoration of Israel. That's it. God's done with Israel, ethnic Israel as a nation, and we can forget it. He's replaced Israel. The church is now the new Israel, and it's a spiritual Israel, and we should just forget that. That's another extreme. And there are various nuances and different degrees of thinking of that as well. I think it's safe to say that the right conclusion is somewhere in the middle. Both are extremes and we need not go and lean to any extreme, but find the middle position. God does have a plan for Israel, that is true, because we see that in our text today, but at the same time, We understand that God's plan in working through Christ in the new covenant is far different than it was in the old covenant. Christ is the fullness of who Israel is. Israel is the son of God, Jesus is the son of God. And it's through Jesus Christ, the true Israel, the true son of God, that we find unity in life in Jesus Christ. It's how we find our reconciliation to God. The people of God is not defined by our ethnicity. Paul makes that clear throughout the book of Romans. Being an Israelite isn't a matter of your DNA, it's a matter of your faith. It's not a matter of having the blood of Abraham, it's a matter of having the faith of Abraham. But at the same time as we see here, there's also that future expectation and promise that God has not done with national Israel. So then, we ask the question, is the situation permanent? Absolutely not. Let's explore and see what the text says. First of all, Paul says, did they stumble in order that they may fall? No, by no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. Now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion be? Now, let's look at a few things here, okay? First and foremost, we have to look at the backdrop of it, and the fact that previously Paul said Israel's temporarily hardened. Now, we know going back to Romans 9, we're taught that God unequivocally is sovereign over everything. God hardens whom He wills, He hardened Pharaoh, and God shows mercy to whom He wills. He says to Moses, I will show mercy and I will harden whom I will harden. God is sovereign. God can do whatever He wants. None of us dispute that, the text is clear, but I think what we also want to know is what's the purpose? What is God's plan in all this, right? Someone like Joseph, when he was sold by slavery into his brothers, knew deep in his heart that God is in control, God is sovereign, but when you're going through the trial, it's very difficult to understand what's God's purpose in this. How many of you go through the trial, you say, yes, I know God is sovereign, but you ask, why, Lord? Why is things happening the way they are? And of course, Paul, who is a Jew, who loves his Jewish brethren, is asking, why, Lord? Why are Jewish people not believing in you? What is the purpose here? Now, the interesting thing is, God usually doesn't tell us that. It's not until we come out of the trial we can see in hindsight what the purpose of the trial is, right? However, in this case, through divine inspiration, the Lord reveals his purpose in hardening Israel to Paul. This is not conjecture, this is not simply his opinion, but this is through divine inspiration. Paul has been building a theology here as precisely what the purpose and divine will of Yahweh, of God, is for Israel. And the temporary hardening that's taken place is for this reason, or two reasons. Number one, by hardening Israel, God is gonna save the Gentiles. He's been leading up to this, quoting from Hosea chapter one, quoting from Deuteronomy 32, demonstrating that he would make Israel jealous by a people who were not his people, by saving the nation who were not a nation. It was the whole idea that just as Israel had provoked God to jealousy with their idolatry, he was gonna provoke them to jealousy with a people that were not his, that were not Israel. And so it's kind of a twofold. It was to bring salvation to the Gentiles and to make the Jews envious. Now Paul can speak this way because it was his purpose and his call to minister to the Gentiles. Now I want you to think of this. Paul, going back as we've been looking at it, was a Jewish rabbi. He was a Pharisee. He was a very devout and orthodox Jew. And so devout and so zealous was he for then he persecuted Christians, he hated Christians, he was given orders by the Sanhedrin to arrest Christians and bring them in and even have them murdered, as we saw Stephen, who was martyred in Acts chapter seven, it was under the authority of Saul that that took place. And in Acts chapter nine, when Saul is on his way to persecute and arrest more Christians, Jesus Christ appears to him. and lays him low. He blinds him supernaturally. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who am I persecuting, Lord? Me, Jesus Christ. Paul's life forever changed. He was struck with blindness, and Ananias, who was a devout Christian, was called upon by the Lord to go heal Paul. He says, oh, amen, God. Paul's an enemy of the church. Why should I go to him? And what is God's answer to him? Acts 9.15, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Paul is God's chosen instrument to go to the Gentiles. And that's what he says in verse 13 here. He says, I am speaking to you Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. Paul has been sent by God to the Gentile people. It was his mission. The devout Jew, who before his conversion probably looked at Gentiles as the scum of the earth, was now sent to the scum of the earth to bring them to Christ. God has marvelous ways, confounding ways of doing his, bringing about his will and purpose, doesn't he? And so Paul, as you trace his missionary work throughout the book of Acts, has a model of ministry that is followed throughout the book of Acts. Every city he goes into is pretty much the same. He goes first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. He goes to the synagogue. Soon as he establishes himself in the city, the first thing he does, He goes to the synagogue, he recognizes to bring the message of the gospel, the message of Messiah to his Jewish brothers and sisters. And in each and every case, there are some who believe a remnant, and there are a great majority who oppose him. And this pattern repeats itself. And as it repeats itself, Jewish opposition becomes stronger and stronger to Paul, till eventually they have him arrested. But in the light of that, God starts saving a massive amount of Gentiles. And Paul, through his own experience, through his own call, through the revelation of God, understands this. To give you a little example of how Paul's ministry went, you can look at Acts chapter 13, verse 42 through 46, and we read this. As they went out, the people begged, now this is after he went to the synagogue and preached the gospel, they begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath. Now if you look at the entirety of Acts chapter 13, we have one of the longest sermons of Paul recorded in the Bible. He goes into the synagogue and does a masterful job of expounding how Jesus is the Messiah through Old Testament passages. And so they say, they begged him, they literally begged him, come back next week, we wanna hear more. Look what verse 43 says. After the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. Not only were Jews becoming Christians, but Jewish converts, that means Gentiles who were converted to Judaism also came to faith in Christ and they followed Paul and Barnabas. And as they spoke with them, he urged them to continue in the grace of God. Now we get to the next Sabbath and almost the whole city gathers to hear the word of the Lord. This is great, verse 45. And when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him. That's exactly what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 11. He's saying this, that through the Jewish trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. Who are all these Gentiles coming? Who are these people coming into the church? And why should they have access to God? We've worked so hard. We've been so religious. Who are these people that they could come? And there was jealousy, and as a result, they began to insult Paul. In verse 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, that is, the Jewish people, but since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we're turning to the Gentiles. This was all part of God's plan. The plan is simply this. God is hardening Israel temporarily, bringing the Gentiles in, and by virtue of that, making them jealous. And the purpose of this jealousy is kind of twofold. In one sense, the jealousy is provocative. It is to incite a hardening, which is a judicial hardening. But notice what Paul says in verse 14 of Romans 11. He says, in order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. The jealousy is also designed to provoke a sense of jealousy, a righteous jealousy, saying, hey, I want what they have. I remember the person who led me to Christ over 20 years ago. The person who led me to Christ was a man who who had nothing in this life to really enjoy or to be prosperous of or to be proud of. He had a very difficult life, but he had something that I wanted. He had joy. He had a sense of peace and tranquility. And I remember every time I see him, I said, man, what is it with you? You've got everything wrong in your life. What are you happy about? And that's one day when he went ahead and shared the gospel with me. I wanted what he had. I was jealous. And that's what led me to salvation. Right? And that's what the gospel does, right? The whole idea is as we live out the gospel life and bear the fruits of the spirit, unbelievers see something and are attracted to it. They want it. More so in this case, God's purpose and plan is that through the salvation of the Gentiles, the hope is that some Jews would say, wow, the Gentiles are enjoying all the blessings and all the delight and all the promises that were given to our people in the Old Testament. We want that too. And so therefore, we see in verse 12, where Paul now brings this to a logical conclusion, verse 12 and verse 15 are parallel. I'm kind of jumping around here because I'm trying to tie it together. But if you look at verse 12 and verse 15, they're parallel statements. They're saying the same thing two different ways. In verse 12 he says, now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion be? And look at verse 15, for if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? You see the parallelism there? Paul is making the same logical argument in both verses. He's arguing from the lesser to the greater. And the lesser to the greater here is to show something. First, it's showing that through Israel's trespass, or their transgression, which is what? Rejecting Christ, we know that's clearly it. Through their failure, the word there in Greek is very interesting, it's the word hetema, hetema. It means a diminution, a decrease, or a defeat, right? Through their failure, through their defeat, through their decrease, through their diminution, and through their rejection, clearly speaking if God rejected them, as a result of those bad things that happened, good things have come to the world. The world has experienced, the Gentiles have experienced reconciliation to God. Ephesians 2 kind of explores this where Paul says that Gentiles at one time were without God and without hope, aliens to the citizenship of Israel. We were outsiders. And now we've been reconciled. Gentiles have come in and been part of the kingdom. And we've experienced the riches of God's grace. Now, if Israel's failure, if Israel's sin and Israel's rejection led to blessings like this for the Gentile world, how much more will their fullness be? Paul sees a future restoration at hand. Now the question is, what does he mean by fullness or full inclusion? In verse 12, he says they're full inclusion, the ESV. Other translations say fullness. That word is a very meaningful, it's a powerful word. It's the word pleroma in Greek. It literally means to be filled up, to be complete. Its original meaning, like going into its etymology, has to do with a boat, right? And in that boat you fill it up with sailors, you fill it up with oars, you fill it up with food, and it has the idea to fill the boat up to its fullness and completion. It has both a quantitative aspect and a qualitative aspect. And so what does Paul mean by their fullness, this future fullness? If now they're defeated, what does this future fullness mean? Well, there's two prevailing views. One is that the fullness is speaking of the full number of Jewish believers who make up the remnant in every generation through history. We've already seen this, that there's always been a faithful remnant that God saves, and God will always have a faithful remnant of Jewish people that he's going to save, and that at the end of the age, when that full number is complete, then God will bring great blessings to the world. And it'll lead to the end of the age. Now, there's an advantage to this view, and that is that it fits in well with the context. It gives us a sense that the remnants are God-elect, will be saved in each generation, and if you add that up, overall, of world history, it's gonna be a large number of Jewish people. The disadvantage of that, though, however, is anticlimactic. It doesn't really answer the question of what Paul's trying to say is that there is a future plan for Israel. And so therefore, the second prevailing view is that the fullness of Israel speaking of mass salvation of ethnic Jews at the end of history. This is probably the most popular understanding of this, and to better understand it, we have to see how it fits in with the greater context. The key to seeing this view is the antithesis that's presented in verse 12 and 15. It's defeat versus fullness. It's acceptance versus rejection. The argument from the lesser to the greater. If right now there's only a remnant saved and that represents defeat and it represents diminution, how much more of a blessing, how much more riches will come to the world when Israel experience a fullness? Furthermore, we should understand this way is because what does Paul say in verse 15 of this? What are these greater riches that will be experienced when the fullness of Israel comes in? Light from the dead. Now, that's another interesting term that's debated. There are some people who say, well, this is speaking of Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones. It's a prophecy when national Israel will be restored, and as a result, there'll be great blessings to the nations. And that could be true. It very much is true because national Israel will experience great revival. It will experience life from the dead. But I think it's speaking more climatically to the resurrection of the dead, namely when Christ returns. The decisive factor in understanding this is in verse 25 and 26. Look further down. And we'll be looking at this in two weeks, but look at verse 25 and 26. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. I want to stop there for a minute. There's something very important to see here. Paul is pretty much summing up his argument there and saying the same thing that we're looking at now. When the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then the fullness of Israel will come in, which is all Israel will be saved. that word fullness is used there again, and so therefore, in this temporary hardening of Israel, during this period of time when there's only a remnant being saved, God is having a great inclusion of Gentiles, but there comes a point when that fullness, when that measure is complete, and now God says, I'm going to bring the Jews greatly back in. To me, that is the decisive point there. to explain how this is speaking of a great revival and a great restoration of Israel in the end times. So what does it mean? It simply means this. God's plan right now is this. Number one, he has hardened the majority of national Israel so that Gentiles from all nations around the world may hear the gospel and be included into God's family. When that time of the Gentiles, when the fullness of Gentiles is complete, God is going to provoke Israel to jealousy, and there's going to be a great restoration, a revival, like nothing ever seen before in history. Now, when it says all Israel will be saved, and I don't wanna get too deep into this, and this is what we have to understand, it doesn't mean every single Jewish person will be saved without exception. That's not what it's saying. All Israel means a completion. And I would think that would mean all those who are elect in Christ Jesus will be saved. But I think you're gonna see a great revival, a great restoration take place in the end of the age where Jewish people from every nation, from all over the world are gonna be restored on a significant level. And I think it's important to point out here that I believe, and I think from the text, this is saying this will happen before the return of Christ. Because it's the revival of Israel, it's the restoration of Israel that will precede life from the dead. And life from the dead will only take place when Christ returns. Now I know this is very complex and some of you are saying, okay, what in the world did he just say? Let me just leave it this simple. The main point here is this. God has a specific number of elect Gentiles, and he has a specific number of elect Jews. Remember in the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the 99 sheep? He leaves the 99 to go after the one that's lost. You know what that shows us? God has a specific number of people that he plans to save, and he will save every last soul who he intends to save. God will save every Gentile he intends to save, he will save every ethnic Jew he intends to save, and nothing will thwart the plan of God. None will be lost. Now let's look at the illustration of this. In verse 16 through 23, based on this now, Paul has an application. There's a purpose in explaining this. Because I think that one of the results of this, what does he say in verse 13? I'm speaking to you Gentiles. Paul is writing the letter of Romans. a letter to the Romans in the Roman church, and he's speaking to them. He's speaking to Gentile Christians here. And there's something he wants them to know. He wants them to know that yes, while right now the Jews may be a very small minority in the church, there's a plan and purpose for God's people. There's a purpose and plan for ethnic Israel. And in verses 16 through 23, it's a warning of having pride. or arrogance or looking down or having an anti-semitic attitude towards Jewish people. That's what we're looking at in verses 16 through 23. And in verse 16, Paul starts with this, and it's a transitional verse. He says, if the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. Now, there's two illustrations there. First, the dough offering as firstfruits, that's going back to Numbers 15, in that Israel was commanded at the harvest to give God the firstfruits, a lump of dough from the firstfruits of grain, as to consecrate it unto the Lord, as an offering and to give him the best of the best. And that, by nature, Paul is saying, by virtue of that, consecrates the rest of the dough. If the lump is holy, the rest is holy. The same principle is seen in 1 Corinthians 5, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. It's the idea that the origin carries through with the rest, and so he says, with the root, also the branches are holy. There's imagery here which he's trying to show us. Now we have to look back to the source, we have to look back to the origin of our Christian faith, and it goes far back more than we can imagine. Verse 17 then picks up the illustration and the purpose. He says, if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now sharing the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root who supports you. Well, who is the root? That's the question. What does the root symbolize? There's various explanations. Some say ethnic Israel. Some say Christ, but the majority of scholars, and I think would be accurate to say that the root is Abraham and the patriarchs. It was Abraham whom God called out of the world, who was a pagan himself, and he set apart, and it was the faith of Abraham that justified him, and it was through Abraham's seed that he was going to bring blessings to the world. And so Abraham and the patriarchs being the root, now we get to the olive tree and the olive tree is going to be the natural descendants of Abraham. And so the olive tree represents Israel, national Israel, ethnic Israel. And the idea is this, is that the natural branches belong to Abraham. They're his seed, they're his people. And in the Old Testament, the olive tree is often used symbolically to refer to God's people. It was quoted during worship, Psalm 52, or Zechariah 4.3, and even in the book of Revelation, in chapter 11, verse four, the idea of the two olive trees representing the people of God. And so what Paul is seeking to do here in this imagery is remind us, and remind Gentile Christians, you're not natural branches. You come from wild olive trees. And the imagery would have been very familiar to people living in the Mediterranean in the first century. There's nothing more common than an olive tree. Whether you lived in Italy, or you lived in Israel, or you lived in Greece, you are more than likely to have olive trees in your backyard. There were two kinds of olive trees. There were cultivated olive trees and there were wild olive trees, right? Right? You know the difference. If you plant an apple tree in your backyard, it's an apple tree that you hope to cultivate and prune and take good care of so you can eat the fruits, right? If you're walking through the woods and you see a wild apple tree and you don't know what kind of apples they are, they could be poisonous apples. They can kill you. And it may be very dirty, and it may have worms in it, and it could have the fact that squirrels eat them, and it's wild. It's fruitless. And in the same way, in the ancient world, there were two types, a cultivated olive tree and a wild olive tree. And what Paul is saying here in his imagery of the branches is saying, there's a natural olive tree, and some of those branches of the natural tree were broken off. That's referring to ethnic Jews who didn't believe in Christ. They were cut off. And you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in. That's Gentiles. We're contrary in nature. We don't belong in the tree. We're wild, we're outside, and God takes the Gentile and grafts them into the natural tree. What's ironic here is that in the ancient world, this was something, this was practiced the opposite way. In the ancient world, in order to get a wild olive tree and make it fruitful, you would take a branch from a cultivated tree and put it into the wild tree, and thus make it bear fruit. Paul reverses it here, and I think there's a reason for it, because he's showing that we as Gentiles were fruitless, and in order to have life, we must be cultivated into the tree of life, the fruitful tree of life, into God's people, Israel. Now, there are three important implications we can draw from this passage. Number one, The imagery of the olive tree symbolizes and represents the true people of God. Abraham and the patriarchs are the root, the Jewish people are the natural branches, and the Gentiles are grafted in. Do you know what this teaches us? There is only one people of God. Just one. There are not two peoples of God. That completely undermines the radical dispensational view. There is only one people of God, there is one tree, and both the natural branches and the wild branches are part of that tree. You know why Abraham is the root? Because it's the faith of Abraham that produces the fruit of the tree. That's the whole point Paul has been making from Romans 2 and 3 to Romans 4 to Romans 9. Being a descendant of Abraham is based on the faith of Abraham. And whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, we're included in that. So that completely obliterates also replacement theology. Because the idea that God has replaced Israel is false. God never replaced Israel. Israel always existed. The natural tree still exists. We are part of Israel. This is Israel. There's no replacement. Israel finds its fullness in Jesus Christ. And so they're all who are included into that tree are Israelites, spiritual Israelites. The idea is not that there's going to be another tree planted, but rather, as we look at verse 23 and 24, go down a little bit. And even if they do not continue in their unbelief, who's that speaking of? Ethnic Jews, will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in again. God has the power to regraft the natural branches. It's not going to be a separate olive tree, but they come back in. For if you were cut off 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 in into their own olive tree? This is definitive. God can and God will regraft the natural branches back into the tree. And so this confirms everything we've been seeing, that there's going to come a time where Jewish people, where national Israel will experience a great awakening, where God is gonna open their eyes, and they're gonna see that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And there's gonna be massive conversions worldwide. And God can and will regraft Jewish people back into the tree. Amen? But there's also a warning here. It's a warning to Gentile Christians. Remember verse 13, and as much as I, Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, speak to you Gentiles, what does he say? Verse 19, or verse 18, do not be arrogant towards the branches. Do not be arrogant towards the branches. That's a very stern warning. It's very easy as a Gentile, as a Gentile Christian, to look down upon unbelieving Jews and say, don't be arrogant. If you are, remember, it's not you who support the root, but the root supports you. Then you'll say, well, branches were broken off so that I may be grafted in. That is true, Paul says. They were broken off, why? Because of unbelief. But you stand fast through faith. Do not become proud, but fear. Note then, verse 22, it's one of the most powerful verses in the Bible, the kindness and severity of God. Severity towards those who form a kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you will be cut off too. There is a warning here to Gentile Christians. It's very easy to see yourself in a position of favor, and as a result of God's grace, become proud and arrogant, just as Israel became proud and arrogant. It was pride and arrogance that led to national Israel's fall. It will be pride and arrogance that could lead to the Gentile church's fall. We have to remember something, that God has not cut off his own people. He is still including the remnant in, and we are just part of that. We've been included. The root supports us. We don't support the root. We've been grafted into Israel. We're not natural branches. We're contrary to nature. And just as Israel had presumed upon God's grace and became blinded by their spiritual pride, leading to their hardening, the warning is, don't follow in their footsteps. And how true this is. Look at our churches today, and you've heard me speak of this, but I can't help to see the parallel application in our current day of age, where how many churches are apostate. But it's an individual one, too. We should never become proud or arrogant, but always continue in the kindness of God. Remember, we stand in faith, not in works. Does this mean you could lose your salvation? No. Those who are predestined will be called. Those who are called are justified. Those who are justified will be glorified. But it is a warning. You see, until we cross the finish line, we don't know who the elect are. Many people think they're the elect, but we won't cross the finish line, and they'll hear one day, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. That's why the Bible tells us those who persevere to the end will be saved. We are to persevere, we're to endure, we're to fight unbelief. Unbelief is our enemy and unbelief always creeps into our hearts. And we have to be warned against pride and arrogance and unbelief. The Bible gives us these warnings so that we may make our calling and election sure. Well, let me conclude by saying this. We cannot be certain of all the details of the events of the climax of history. but there are certain things we can be certain of. I am certain that in the end of the age, before Christ's return, there's gonna be a reversal in Israel's current state. I believe that we can expect a great revival and restoration of the branches, the natural branches being put back in, of the fullness of Israel be coming in, and all Israel will be saved. Someone asked me once, how significant is Israel becoming a nation in 1948? I don't know. And I don't think we should speak too dogmatically. But I'll say this, Israel, it is amazing, on one end, it is amazing after 2,000 or 2,500 years of being without a nation, our nation today. One can't help to think that there's something amazing about that. One can't help but to see the hand of God in that. One can't help to think that although the Jewish people suffered greatly in the Nazi Holocaust, God blessed them with a nation after that world war was ended. On the other hand, national Israel still is, by and large, apostate. In the nation of Israel today, most Israelis, the majority of Israelis, are atheists, are secular progressives. Maybe 5% or 10% of the Jewish population in Israel are devout Jews, religious Jews, and even less than that are Christians. That is not the restoration that we're talking about here. There is still yet to come a spiritual revival that we have not seen yet. And we should pray to that end. We should pray for Israel. we should pray that God open their eyes because when all Israel is saved, we know Christ's return is right at hand. There's a second application I wanna bring to this. We owe a lot to the Jewish people. They support us, we don't support them. When you see Jewish people, we should pray for them and love them and share the gospel with them if we can, remembering that it's because of the Jewish faith and the nation of Israel, we have the Old Testament, we have the covenants, we have the law, we have the patriarchs, and we have our blessed Lord, the Messiah, who indeed was Jewish too. We can't forget who the root is. We should never have a condescending attitude towards Jewish people, but pray for them and seek their salvation. As Romans 11, 28 says, as regards to the gospel, they're enemies for your sake, but as regards to election, they're beloved for the sake of the forefathers. And with that said, let me say this, to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-Christ. You can't hate a Jewish person, you can't be anti-Semitic and love Jesus, it's impossible. And I think when you look at all the Jewish people suffered, when you look at the Nazi Holocaust, but it's not just the Nazi Holocaust. It's the anti-Semitism that they experienced throughout history, that they experienced here in our country. I mean, you have racist groups that absolutely hate Jewish people. I mean, you see synagogues where swastikas are spray painted. We saw a shooting in Pittsburgh. And you know, you just have to realize that the Jewish people have suffered so much in history, and that should spur us to love them for the sake of our forefathers, for the sake of the patriarchs, for the sake of the root, for the sake of Yahweh, we should pray for and love the Jewish people. And it means we should support Jewish people. We should support the nation of Israel Do I say that national Israel is righteous in all their ways? Absolutely not. But if you look at Israel as a nation, the Middle East, compared to all the other nations that surround it, let's put it this way, I would much rather live in Israel than I would rather live in Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Iran or Syria. I'd much rather live in the state of Israel than an Islamic Sharia law state. God has planted his people in the midst of surrounding her by enemies. And I can't imagine how any Christian could support an anti-Israel platform in any way, shape, or form. I can't imagine that. Finally, God's plan to save his elect will never be thwarted. This is the most important thing. Those whom God predestined to salvation will be saved. Nothing, not unbelief, nor apostasy, nor failure of preaching can thwart God's plan in saving his elect. God will save the fullness of Gentiles and he will save the fullness of Jews. God will save all his people and nothing could stop that. If the great apostasy in Elijah's time would not prevent the nation of Israel from being broken off from God, then their current apostasy will not cut them off from God. God is faithful to his promises, and he will keep them. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you so much for this time. I pray that you would help us to cultivate a love for the Jewish people. I thank you for this study, I know There might be some here who disagree with what I've preached. And Lord, if anything I preach was not of you, I pray that you would make that clear, although I'm fully convinced that this is the accurate translation of your word. Lord, forgive us. Forgive everyone here if we've had a negative attitude towards Jewish people. I pray, Father, that we would have a loving, humble heart, and that we'd seek the salvation, that we pray for the salvation of the Jew. In Christ's name, amen.
Israel's Restoration
系列 The Book of Romans
讲道编号 | 218191837446020 |
期间 | 56:02 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周日服务 |
圣经文本 | 使徒保羅與羅馬輩書 11:11-24 |
语言 | 英语 |