Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Well, please remain standing, and
let's turn to another portion of God's word.
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Romans Eleven, Romans Eleven, verses
twenty five through thirty two. Romans
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eleven versus Verse Twenty Five. Lest
you be wise in your own sight,
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I want you to understand this mystery. Brothers, a partial hardening has come
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upon Israel until the fullness of the
gentiles has come in, and in this
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way all Israel will be saved.
As it is written, the deliverer will
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come from Zion, he will banish
on Godliness from Jacob, and this will
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be my covenant with them, when
I take away their sins. As regard
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the Goss, as regards the Gospel, they are enemies of God for your
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Sake, but as regards election they
are beloved for the sake of their forefathers,
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for the gifts and the calling of
God are irrevocable. For just as
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you were at one time disobedient to
God, but have now received mercy because
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of their disobedience, so they too
have now been disobedient in order that,
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by the mercy shown to you,
they also may now receive mercy. For
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God has consigned all to disobedience that
he may have mercy and all, may
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God bless his word to us,
please be seated. So, in addition
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to male and female relationships, there
are other kinds of diversity in the church,
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and one of them that we've been
spending a good amount of time on
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here at the and these last few
chapters of Romans, are the relationships between
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the Jews and the gentiles, Jews
being the original family of God, gentiles
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being those who are not part of
the family of God. All these non
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Jewish people from all over the world
now, as gentiles, being brought in
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to the church, grafted into God's
cultivated olive tree, so we considered last
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time. And he's giving us this
instruction. He's helping us to understand the
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particulars of our relationship with one another
in the church, Jews and gentiles,
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for several reasons. One of them, which will spend a little more time
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on later, is given right here
in the first verse, lest you be
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why, is in your own site. God doesn't want us to be conceded,
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and so he gives us this prophecy. How will we approach it?
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I think we should approach it with
humility. First of all, notice he
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says, unless you be wise in
your own site. The goal here is
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to humble us, and prophecy has
a way of doing them. Whenever God
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reminds us of his plans for our
lives, whenever he tells us about the
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future and way things will be,
it's a reminder of how little in control
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we are, how much in control
he is. God is good and he
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is in control of things. He's
revealing these things to us and we should
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be humbled by them. But humility
doesn't necessarily mean laziness or lack of interest.
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Well, it's the future, it's
a prophecy. I can't know everything
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about it, so I don't care
to know anything about it. That's,
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of course, a bad attitude.
I at as well. God is telling
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us something for a particular purpose.
He says, through his Apostle, I
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want you to understand this mystery.
Well, okay, yes, sir,
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here I am. I'm ready to
hear. God wants you to understand a
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mystery. A word here. This
word mystery is used at various places throughout
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the net new testament to describe something
that was once hidden but is now being
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revealed. Yield. God is revealing
something to us. It's why we call
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the Bible revelation he is revealing something
to us, he wants us to understand
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it. So that's how we approach
it. With a desire to understand,
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not with laziness but with interest,
if a desire to know, a desire
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to understand, but also with humility, knowing that God won't tell us everything
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that we want to know, knowing
that he is in control. So what
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does God reveal here in these verses? What does he tell us in verses
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twenty five through thirty two? Well, he reveals his plans concerning the gentiles
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and the Jews, and we might
sum them up this way, that God
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will one day remove the partial hardening
that is currently on Israel. He will
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do that by his mercy and he
will do it when the fullness of the
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gentiles come in. That's what he
says. It's very clear about that too,
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that God will remove this partial hardening
that is currently on Israel after the
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gentiles are brought in, and he
will do this because of his mercy.
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So first I want to talk with
you this morning about how we come to
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this conclusion, how we see this
in the passage, and then also why
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God wants us to know us.
Why is this important? Why should we
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pay attention and meditate on it and
think about it. So first, how
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do we come to this conclusion?
Well, the first thing we are considering
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is that this event will happen after
the gentiles are brought in. I'm you
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see this. In Verse Twenty Five. He says a partial hardening has come
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upon Israel until the fullness of the
gentiles has come in. This verse echoes
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what we also saw in verse eleven
and Verse Fourteen of this chapter. So
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if you look at a verse eleven, we see that Paul says I asked,
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did they, meaning the Jews,
stumble in order that they might fall?
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He answers that question in this way. By no means. Rather,
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through their trespass, salvation has come
to the gentiles so as to make Israel
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Jealous. He continues that thought and
repeats it. I should say that in
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the other reverse order. He repeats
it and continues or expands on that thought.
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In verse fourteen he says he's magnifies
his ministry the gentiles. Verse Fourteen,
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in order somehow to make my fellow
Jews Jealous and thus save some of
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them. Paul's not just aiming that
the Jews would be stirred up and wanting
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what the gentiles have in salvation,
but he wants them to not merely want
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it, but to obtain it themselves. That's the goal. Israel became disobedient
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so that the gentiles would be brought
in, so that Israel would be jealous
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and would be brought in as well. This is what Paul says when he
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is speaking in versus thirty and following. He says to the gentiles, for
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just as you were at one time
disobedient, but now I've received mercy because
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of their disobedience. That goes back
to their stumbling in order that the Jews,
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gentiles might be on be brought in. He says, so they they
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too have now been disobedient in order
that mercy might be shown to you,
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that they also may receive mercy.
He's setting up this chain or the domino
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effect. In other words, he's
saying that here's how the plan of God
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falls out, and that's what he
means by verse thirty two. This is
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all summed up there, where he
says, for God has consigned all to
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disobedience that he may have mercy on
all. This takes us all the way
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back to the beginning of Romans where
Paul points out how both Jews and gentiles,
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because of their sin and because of
the Law of God, are condemned
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by it. All are brought under
disobedience and even all are given over to
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their disobedience and the sinful plat passions
of their flesh. Why? So that
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God would have mercy on all of
them. God wants to demonstrate His mercy,
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and for the Jews this will come
in a full way after the gentiles
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come in. That's his point.
It's after the gentiles come in. Now,
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before we move on, I want
to just clarify a one thing.
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When Paul says the fullness of the
gentiles here, we don't we shouldn't think
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of him as meaning every single gentile, as though every single person on the
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earth or every single gentile in the
world, whoever was or ever will be,
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will be saved and then at that
moment the Jews come in. How
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do we know that he doesn't mean
that? Well, two reasons. One,
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we already know that many gentiles have
not believed. We also know that
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many gentiles will not believe. Another
reason is that sometimes this word in scripture,
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fullness is used in the sense of
a multitude, a completeness, when
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the fullness of this thing has happened, when it reaches its big measure,
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you might say. So this happens, for example, in Genesis Forty Eight,
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nineteen. I'll read this to you. In Genesis Forty Eight, verse
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nineteen, we read. But his
father refused and said I know my son,
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I know he also shall become a
people, and he also shall become
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great. Nevertheless, his younger brother
shall be greater than he and his offering
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shall become a multitude of nations.
This word multitude of nations literally, or
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it could literally be translated as fullness
of nations. The brother will become a
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fullness of nations, not and there. He doesn't mean every single nation,
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but a great number, a multitude. A similar phrase is used in Isaiah
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thirty one or in the ESV.
It's translated as a band of shepherds,
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but it just means a fullness,
or it could literally be translated a fullness
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of shepherds. Anyway, you get
the point. It just means multitude,
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that when the gentiles are brought in, it doesn't mean every single person,
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but a multitude, a great,
great number. When that happens, then
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the Jews will turn to the Lord. You can also put it in this
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way that God will remove the partial
and temporary hardening. Let's consider this part
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of the prophecy. What is the
hardening that God is speaking about here?
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On the Bible, hardening is referred
to as a lack of faith and obedience,
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a lack of faith and the lack
of the obedience that springs from faith.
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Hardness in the heart is refusing to
trust God in the salvation that he
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brings the Christ it's saying no to
God when God reveals himself and mercy when
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God calls us to obedience. Let's
look at a good example of this in
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Mark, chapter three, just a
few verses. First five verses or six
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verses. Here we're illustrating what is
a hard heart look like again. He
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entered the synagogue and a man was
there with a withered hand, and they
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watched Jesus to see whether he would
heal him on the sabbath. This is
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the Pharisees and other people leaders in
Israel. So there's a man there in
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the synagogue with a withered hand and
they watched Jesus to see whether he would
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heal them heal him on the sabbath. So that they might accuse him.
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You see, they're already their mind
is preset right. They're not looking to
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see. Did He heal him,
and should we give praise to God or
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should we just see what happens and
judge from that point? No, they
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want to see it so that they
might accuse him. And he said to
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the man with the withered hand,
come here. And he said to them
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is it lawful on the Sabbath to
do good or to do harm, to
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save life or to kill? But
they were silent and they looked around at
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them and he looked around at them
with anger, grieved at their hardness of
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heart, and he said to the
man, stretch out your hand. He
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stretched it out and his hand was
restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately
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held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. This is
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what a hard heart looks like.
God comes into the world with saving revelation,
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with Jesus Christ, the light shining
in the darkness, and he comes
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to bring light into the world,
restorate, restore broken relationships and to heal,
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to heal in our spiritual sense,
to heal in a physical sense.
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This is why God became men and
this is why he's here. And he
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sees this man with a withered hand
and he heals his hand. Stretch out
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your hand and immediately this withered,
shriveled up hand was healed. How do
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you respond to the saving, healing
revelation of God? Let me tell you
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how not to respond. Don't take
counsel with other people and how to destroy
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the one who brings the message.
Don't go against God when God reveals His
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mercy. That's real hardness, isn't
it? When God extends himself and says
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here's mercy, here's salvation, here's
healing, and you say, how can
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I kill that? How can I
destroy boy that? How can I accuse
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that? Well, this attitude that
we see in the Pharisees and the Herodians
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is what we see with many in
Israel, end among the gentiles too,
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and this hardening came on and has
come on the Jews as a whole,
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not of course, every single person, but as a whole, as a
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multitude, as a fullness. Israel
has been hardened and we see it in
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these kinds of actions. We see
it in the crucifixion of Jesus and we
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see in the following response. What
happened when God raised Jesus Christ from the
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dead. The rulers of Israel tried
to bury the fact. They tried to
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suppress the evidence and the witnesses.
They harmed and persecuted people who spoke about
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this good news. That's hardening,
isn't it? It's hardening that is on
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the people of God. But God
says it won't always be there. It's
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partial and it's temporary. It's partial
partly in the fact that it's not every
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single Israelite. So going back to
a Romans, you remember, back in
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the beginning of Romans, Romans Chapter
Two, twenty eight and twenty nine,
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we read this. For No one
is a Jew who is merely one outwardly.
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Nor is circumcision outward and physical,
but a Jew is one inwardly,
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and circumcision is a matter of the
heart. You see what he's saying there.
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He's saying it's possible to be a
Jew but also not a Jew at
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the same time. This means that
some people truly had believed, some people
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did believe. Paul himself is a
perfect example of this, and he points
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to himself as a way to show
that God has not rejected all Israel.
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He's pointed to David and to Abraham
and other people throughout Romans to say that
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God has kept his hand on these
people and all who turn in faith will
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be saved. But even though there
are examples of faithfulness and of faith in
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Israel, Paul is recognizing the fact
that that's not true of the vast number.
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But what is this prophecy saying?
It's saying that that will not always
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be the case, that one day
they will all come in here. When
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Paul says all, he means it
again in this sense of fullness or multitude,
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to quote Charles Hodge from his commentary, as their rejection, although national,
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did not include the rejection of every
individual, Paul being an example.
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So their restoration, though national,
need not include the salvation of every single
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Jew. Does that make sense?
He's saying that when they were rejected,
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it wasn't as though every single person
in Israel was rejected, but as a
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body, as a people, as
a covenant that had been broken, the
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people were rejected. The people were
hardened. So too, in their restoration,
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what should we expect? This is
the question I'm trying to answer.
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What should we expect? What is
God wanting us to understand. He's not
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saying that every single Jewish person in
the world will be saved, just as
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he's not saying every single gentile in
the world will be saved. But what
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he is saying is that when no
great multitude and fullness of the gentiles come
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in, then Israel, in a
great comprehensive national sense, will also come
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in, and that's amazing. That's
an amazing thing to consider and to wonder
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at and to hope for and to
pray for. Well, the last thing
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I want to point out as we
think through what this prophecy means is that
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is the emphasis on mercy. God
is saying that these things will happen,
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that after the fullness of the gentiles
are brought in, then this partial and
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temper very hardness that is brought on
the Jewish people will be removed and they
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too will be grafted back into the
tree. They too will receive mercy.
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And that's this last point. It's
by mercy that these things will be done.
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John Flavel, Puritan Writer, says
writes this about delayed mercies. The
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delay of your mercies is really to
your advantage. The Foolish Child would pluck
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the apple whilst it is green,
but when it is ripe it drops of
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its own accord and it is more
pleasant and wholesome. This is a good
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reminder about the great sovereignty of God
and his perfect will, which is what
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he's revealing to us this morning.
He's telling us about his plan. He's
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telling us that there's a time when
the apple will be ripe, and we
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know that when it is it will
be perfect and sweeter and juicy or and
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more wonderful than we could have ever
imagined. It's hard when we're waiting.
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It's hard when we're in the moment
and the thing that is promised does not
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yet here, to say, why
is it not here? I see no
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reason why the Jews can't be saved
right now, and honestly, I see
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no reason in why the Jews can't
be saved right now. But I'm not
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God and neither are you, and
that's why God says, lest you be
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wise in your own sight, lest
you look at a green apple and said,
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yeah, green apples are the best, lest you preemptively decide to God
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when things will be and when things
will not be. He reveals to us
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and he says, I'm going to
reveal this mystery to you because I want
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you to trust me, I want
you to praise me. Here is why
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God tells us these things about his
mercy. There's many reasons, but one
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of them we read in the following
verses, versus I didn't read to you
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yet. Thirty three through thirty six, when Paul considers the great and ever
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wise plan of our sovereign God,
and when he considers that all of this
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is coming by His mercy, that
he's taking disobedience and sinful people and wrapping
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them up in his arms, for
giving their sins, washing away their sin,
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all because of this one who was
rejected, Jesus Christ, a stumbling
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stone to the Jews, who became
the great cornerstone of the Church in which
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belongs both Jew and gentile. When
Paul takes all of this and pull it
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together, and not only that,
but everything that he's been saying since chapter
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one, this is how he concludes
and it's how you, you should conclude.
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To Oh the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and knowledge of God,
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how unsearchable are his judgments and how
inscrutable his ways. Can't understand them,
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for who is come, for who
has known the mind of the Lord
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or who has been his counselor who
has given a gift to him that he
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might be repaid for. From him
and through him and to him are all
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things. To him be the glory
forever a men. When Paul considers who
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God is and what he said and
how he's revealed himself in Jesus, not
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only to the Jew but also to
the gentile and for them both, for
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the whole world, he doesn't say, okay, I've got it all now,
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I understand everything about you and all
of your ways. He doesn't say
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you're wrong and I'm going to accuse
you and I'm going to do whatever I
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can to break apart your plans,
to break the bonds between the Lord and
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as anointed. No, he says, oh, the depth and the riches
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and the wisdom and the knowledge of
God. It's not even a sentence,
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really, is it? He's just
naming things, he's just standing in wonder.
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Oh the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God. It's
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just an exclamation, right, he's
just praising God. How unsearchable are his
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judgments? How inscrutable are his ways? For from him and through him and
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to him, are all things to
him be the glory forever. O Men.
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God reveals his plan to us so
that we might be humbled and so
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that we might give him praise.
God tells us his plan not so that
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we can stand either as Jew or
gentile, over and against one another and
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sort it out, you know,
but so that we all might bow together
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before the throne of grace, maybe
never lose sight of God's mercy, maybe
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be humbled always by his sovereign will
and plan and salvation. Let's pray and
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as that God would make these things
so in our hearts.
