Take your Bible and turn to Romans 11:25-36, Romans 11:25-36. Let’s take time to read God’s Word. Follow along. We’re in a sermon called Most Favored Nation. We’re in a series called Things to Come. We’re looking at the great tipping points and turning points of prophecy, as outlined in the Bible, and we have covered many subjects, from the signs leading up to Jesus’ coming, the Rapture of the church, the judgment seat of Christ. We have looked at that horrible, horrifying time called the Tribulation, we’ve looked at the man of sin, the antichrist, who will rise during that time, and last week we started a two-part sermon on the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel is God’s prophetic timepiece. If you want to know where we’re at in history, look at what God’s doing, or not doing, with regards to the Jewish people, and we’re coming to finish that this morning.
Romans 11:25. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown to you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall not be repaid to Him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Amen.
I like the story of the father who went to junior church to collect his son, and as they were heading back to the car, he asked them what Bible story he had heard, and the little boy said, “Well Dad, it was about Moses and the Israelites. They were trapped, with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians behind them.” And the father said, “Well, what happened next?” “Well, Dad, Moses sent some tanks back to face the Egyptians, then he radioed for air support from some warships anchored off in the Mediterranean Sea. And while the Navy bombers attacked Pharaoh’s troops and chariots, helicopters airlifted the Hebrews to the other side of the Red Sea.” The father laughed, looked at him, and said, “Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. And when I heard that story when I was a boy, I don’t remember it being told that way.” To which his son replied, “I know, Dad, but if I told you what really happened, you wouldn’t believe me.” I like that story.
The escape of the Israelites from Egypt is an amazing story of God’s power on display, and God’s providence at work, on behalf of Abraham and his descendants. And yet it’s just one of many stories of God’s miraculous care of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel within history. A care I believe, and our church believes, continues to this day, as we have witnessed in recent decades: 1948, the re-birth of the nation of Israel, just as God has promised; the re-gathering of the Jew to their ancient homeland, after being scattered for 2,000 years. But they have re-emerged with their national identity intact, in their homeland, speaking their ancient language, and following their God. The flourishing of that nation economically, technologically, agriculturally, politically, and militarily is, as Gary Frazier says, a “modern-day miracle by the Mediterranean”.
This nation’s footprint is out of proportion to its size. With a population of less than 8 million, and a landmass that’s comparable to the state of New Jersey, the fifth-smallest state in the United States, Israel’s role in the world should be relatively minor, but it’s not. And the reason it’s not is because it is a favored nation. It’s elect. According to Paul, it’s beloved by God. The history of the world is the storyline of the Jewish people. Let me say that again. The history of the world is the storyline of the Jewish people. Through Abraham’s descendants, “the nations would be blessed”, according to Genesis 12:1-3. Through Israel, the Messiah and the Deliverer and Savior of the world would come. In God’s world, Jerusalem is the capital city. In fact, according to the Bible, the last days of human history will center on the land of Israel, the Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem. We made reference to that last week. God has made Israel the center of the world.
In the comments I’m about to make, I’m indebted to James Merritt, a Southern Baptist pastor, who says this in his book, I’ve Got a Question for God, says this, “Israel is the geographical center of the world.” The ancient rabbis refer to Israel as the navel of the earth. This tiny nation serves as the crossroads where Europe, Asia, and Africa all meet. Draw a circle around Jerusalem, and a radius of just 900 miles, and the circle would include Athens, Istanbul, Antioch, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Alexandria, Cairo, and Mecca. The history of Western civilization is wrapped up in events that transpired in these 10 cities.
It’s not just a geographical center of the world, it’s the spiritual center of the world. It was in Israel that Jesus was born, king of the Jews, where He lived and died. It was there He was resurrected, and from there He ascended. And to there, He promises to return. The three major religions of the world, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, claim Jerusalem as their spiritual capital.
This nation’s significance is out of proportion to its size. It’s the geographical and the spiritual center of the world, and it is also the prophetical center of the world. If you want to know what time it is on God’s clock, look at Israel. If you want to know what day it is on God’s calendar, look at Israel. If you want to know what degree it is on God’s thermostat, look at Israel. The antichrist will reign from Jerusalem in Israel. Israel has to be regathered and reconstituted and the temple rebuilt for prophecy to be fulfilled. Gog and Magog will attack from the north of Israel in the last days. The battle of Armageddon will be fought in Israel. 144,000 witnesses, along with two witnesses, will focus on world evangelism from Israel as converted Jews, and Jesus Himself will return there.
Now, all of that said, none of what I’ve said is lost on the Apostle Paul as he writes his letter to a mainly Gentile church in Rome. And in doing so, he reminds them that the church at large… He reminds them and the church at large that God is not finished with Israel. Her present state of unbelief and spiritual blindness toward the gospel is not her final condition. Yes, she’s been blinded, but only in part, and only temporarily, because when the fullness of the Gentiles are come in, God will go back to working with Israel, and by the time He’s finished at the end of the Tribulation period, all Israel will be saved, as the Deliverer from out of Zion returns to the nation. Israel has a national future after the church and apart from the church,
I like what James Montgomery Boice says about Romans 9:10-11. The idea is threaded back in 9:6, where Paul is wondering if God’s purposes in history may have failed, since so many Jews, God’s specially chosen people, rejected Jesus the Messiah. Where does that leave God’s purposes and plans? And so he argues throughout 9:10-11, and we’re at the end of his argument, that God’s purposes have not failed.
Let me quote James Montgomery Boice. God’s historical purposes have not failed, because all whom God has elected to salvation are and will be saved, chapter 9. God’s purposes have not failed, because God had previously revealed that not all Israel would be saved, and that some Gentiles would, chapter 9. God’s purposes have not failed, because the unbelief of the Jews was their own responsibility, not God’s, chapters 9 and 10. God has not failed, because some Jews, Paul himself is an example, have believed and have been saved, “a remnant according to grace”, chapter 11. God has not failed, because it’s always been the case that not all Jews but only a remnant have been saved, chapter 11. God’s plans have not failed, because the salvation of the Gentiles, which is now occurring, is meant to arouse Israel to envy and jealousy, and bring them to saving faith, chapter 11. And then where we are, finally, God’s historical purposes towards the Jewish nation have not failed, because in the end, all Israel will be saved, and God will honor His promises to the patriarchs within history and nationally. God has not failed. He has not failed Israel.
And so we pick up where we left off, we looked at the clarification, and that’s where we kind of got stuck. 11:25. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.” Paul does not want them one, ignorant, and Paul does not want them two, arrogant. He doesn’t want them ignorant or arrogant. He doesn’t want them ignorant concerning the length of Israel’s suspension and spiritual blindness. It is partial and it is temporary. God will yet save all Israel. And He doesn’t want them arrogant, conceited, wise in their own eyes regarding Israel being set aside. This is a predominantly Gentile church, and Paul is reminding them of their indebtedness to Israel, God’s covenant with Israel, and he’s telling them to cool their jets when it comes to the thought that God is done with Israel. Don’t be wise in your own eyes. He tells them in 11:18 not to “boast over the branches” that have been cut off, because the branches, it’s Israel, the vine that supports the wild olive branches, being grafted in.
And we went on a bit of a tangent, but I think it was worthwhile, I want to come back to finish it, because if I remember right, I covered four of five points in first service. And we reminded ourselves that one of the manifestations of a conceited attitude towards Israel is what we might call replacement theology. The idea that Christ is the new Israel, that Israel has been set aside permanently, that many of the Old Testament prophecies that were given given to Israel within its historical context are now to be allegorized and spiritualized and transferred to the church.
This is what Cranfield, the great commentator on Romans, calls the “ugly and unscriptural notion that God has cast off His people Israel and simply replaced it by the Christian Church.” Now, we’ve given several arguments against that. Number one, they are still elect and beloved. Number two, the church is never called the new Israel. Number three, the unconditional Abrahamic covenant stands. And number four, the promises cannot be spiritualized. You can’t get away with literalizing the curses and spiritualizing the promises.
But the one we didn’t get to, and I just want to get to for a moment, is what I call the Lord Jesus sees a future for the nation. See, the argument with replacement theology is that Jesus is now the new Israel, and He has replaced Israel. He has kept the law, He is the fulfillment of Old Testament promise, and all those who are in union with Him, Jew and Gentile, inherit all the promises of the Old Testament, many of which now will not be fulfilled literally, but spiritually. What might we say about that? Well, we could spend weeks on it, but just quickly, Christ saw a future for Israel. He didn’t replace Israel, He never saw Himself replacing Israel. In fact, Isaiah 49 is maybe one of the best passages we can go to to make an argument against this idea that Jesus is now the new Israel, and ethnic and national Israel has no longer a corporate future.
Isaiah 49, verses 3, 5, and 6, and verse 8. Here’s what we read. “And He said to me,” that is God, “‘You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I’ve spent my strength for nothing in vain; yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, and my work with God.’ And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him, for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.”
“Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, to restore the preserved one of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, and you shall be my salvation to the ends of the earth.'” You can read here, “Thus says the Lord, ‘In an acceptable time, I’ve heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; I will preserve you and give you as the covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages.'”
Now, we could spend a lot of time unpacking that, but I’m going to keep it simple, and I think this is incontrovertible. Two people are being addressed by God in this context. One is called the servant, and He is described as Israel. And we believe that we’re in that section of Isaiah where we’re anticipating the prophecy of Jesus as the servant of the Lord, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. But you’ll notice that as God speaks to this servant, which we believe is a prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the servant’s ministry is to restore Jacob, to bless the nation of Israel, to restore its land. That’s all I’m going to say, because time doesn’t allow me to go into the depths of that.
But it would seem to me, if I’ve understood Isaiah 49 rightly, and I have a great number of commentators who read it that way, so you’ve got, in verse 3, “My servant, O Israel.” That’s Jesus, that’s the coming servant. And you’ll see that God is going to use that servant “to bring Jacob back to Him”, verse 5, and to gather Israel to Him. So, the simple deduction I’m taking is against replacement theology. Here’s a prophetic passage about the coming of Jesus, His incarnation, His life, His times, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His coming again, and Jesus will restore the fortunes of Jacob. Now, I’m not going to spiritualize that, because I don’t have a right to do that. And there’s a promise here of a restoration of the land, according to the covenant. What covenant? The Abrahamic covenant.
And then I would add this. Christ anticipates a future for national Israel in the New Testament, beyond His ministry on earth. Matthew 19:28, He says to His disciples in the restoration, they’re going to judge the 12 tribes of Israel. In the end, there’ll be a reconstituted nation, there’ll be the 12 tribes of Israel, and the apostles and the disciples of Jesus will reign over them. Jesus is anticipating a national revival and a national reconstitution beyond His time. Funny, the replacement theologians tell us that Jesus replaced Israel, and the church replaced Israel. What are we going to do with that?
And then the other one I would point to is Acts 1:6, when He’s about to ascend and go up to the right hand of God and make intercession for us. The disciples are going, “Lord, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” I would expect what a wonderful opportunity for Jesus to scold them. And He’s not behind doing that, because in Luke 24 He says, “Why are you slow of heart and unbelieving?” So, if the whole point of Jesus’ ministry was to replace the nation of Israel with the church, and to become the new Israel Himself, apart from old Israel, I would’ve expected, would you not, Jesus to say, “Guys, wrong again”? But He didn’t. What did He say? “It’s not for you to know the times and the seasons.” Seems to me, by implication, Jesus isn’t ruling out a restored kingdom attached to a national revival, which certainly was the hope of the prophets of the Old Testament.
Okay, there you have what we call the clarification. Number two, what we call the condemnation. The condemnation, that’s verse 25. The condemnation is this, that blindness, in part, has happened to Israel by the hand of God. Paul says that. Don’t be wise in your own opinion. “That blindness in part that has happened to Israel is only going to last until the fullness of the Gentiles.” But I do want you to notice, God has indeed set aside the nation. God has judged the nation. God has, for the most part, withdrawn His favor from the nation. They’re in a state of spiritual blindness. Their hearts have been hardened, because their hearts were hard.
You can look at the history of Israel in the Old Testament, and leading up in the intertestamental times, up until Jesus’ time and during Jesus’ ministry, the nation was marked by self-righteousness, unbelief, and ultimately they would reject Him as Messiah. And because of that, God afflicted them with spiritual stubbornness. This is the same word that’s used back in Romans 9:18 of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. When God confirmed Pharaoh in his rebellion and in his rejection. The nation of Israel stumbled over the stumbling block or the stumbling stone who was the Lord Jesus. Paul tells us that earlier in Romans 9:31-33.
So, this is the condemnation, a partial hardening. Now, we say partial because, in accordance in Romans 11:5, there is, among the nation, even presently during the church age, there are those “remnant according to the election of grace”. Many Jews are entering the church, with some gloriously among us this morning. And although the nation has spurned the love of God in Christ, thousands of individual Jews have and are coming to faith. Look at the Book of Acts: Acts 2:41, Acts 4:4, Acts 6:1. And you have a Jewish context, and you have hundreds and thousands of Jews responding to the gospel preached by the apostles. There is a remnant, even today, who are coming to faith in Christ and joining the church.
Joel Rosenberg, a prolific author of many books and a born again Jew living in Israel, writes in his Rosenberg Report November 2022, “A great spiritual awakening is underway in the Jewish community worldwide, but particularly in the United States.” I’m glad to hear that, and he’s better placed to know that than me. Rosenberg also reports in that same report, “A landmark study of LifeWay, the research branch of the Southern Baptist Convention, found that there are 871,000 Americans of Jewish descent who hold the same theological beliefs as evangelical Christians.” In another report from a magazine called Israel Today, “More than 25 prominent rabbis from Israel and abroad issued a statement calling for a renewed look at Jesus and the New Testament.” “There’s a remnant according to grace.” And God is stirring His people, even amidst their spiritual blindness and stubbornness.
This is a partial hardening, which means it’s temporary. You’ll notice it only lasts, according to our text, go back to verse 25, “until”. “The blindness in part… Happens until.” It finishes at a certain point, it comes to an end at a certain point. “Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Until means a specific period of time. The hardening is not permanent, the setting aside is not final, it will end with the fullness of the Gentiles coming in. Can my Reformed and my replacement theologian friends hear that? It’s not permanent. Israel has not been set aside permanently. That phrase, I believe, is a reference to the church age, and the end gathering of a multitude of Gentiles predominantly within the church. Is it Acts 15? Let me find it, the text that kind of reinforces this idea. Acts 15:14, where we read about what God is doing.
“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.” That’s what God is doing right now through the auspices of the church. God is calling out from among the Gentiles. As Israel has been set aside, although there’s “a remnant according to grace”, a vast majority of Gentiles. And once they’re called out, and once the last living stone is put into the edifice of the church and the church is raptured, then God will go back to fulfilling all of His promises to the physical and national seed of Abraham.
Oh, let me get a little pastoral, because I know this can be a little bit heavy. And Monday morning’s coming and you go, “That’s great. I’m all sold on the future of Israel, but boy, you don’t know what’s facing me tomorrow, pastor.” All right, let me help you a little bit here. I do like what Warren Wiersbe says about this. This idea of blindness, in part, has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles. Wiersbe says this, “Romans 11:25 is one of the several until verses in the Bible, all which are important. It is reassuring that God knows what time it is, and He is never late in fulfilling His will.” Amen?
Amen.
That’ll help you live this week, as you wait on an answer to prayer, as you wait, perhaps, on the parting of the waters, so to speak, because of an obstacle that’s in front of you, or you wait in God to fulfill a promise that you believe is for you, and you have an assurance in your spirit and conscience ratified by the Holy Spirit. God is perfect in His timing.
Can I remind you this morning, Ecclesiastes 3:1? That there’s a time, a season, and a purpose to everything under the sun? So, whatever your season you’re going through, whatever the challenge or the pressure or the problem, it’s a season God has determined, and just as He determined its start, He’ll determine its finish. There’ll be an until moment when the prayer will be answered, and the trouble will be lifted, and the sunshine will return. I love Psalm 31:15. “Our times are in His hands.” In fact, if you go back to Ecclesiastes 3:11, one of my favorites, God makes “everything beautiful in its time”. He does. God is never early, never late. With us, time is everything. With God, timing is everything. God always arrives at the right moment and at the right opportunity.
You need to believe that this morning: the nation of Israel teaches you that. God was punctual at Bethlehem. “For in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son.” God was punctual at Calvary, Romans 5:6. “In due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” God was punctual at Pentecost in sending the Holy Spirit, because it says “when the day of Pentecost was fully come, God sent His Spirit.” I hope you’re willing to wait. And I don’t mean wait in a passive sense, but in an active sense, believing the promises of God, looking at the history of the nation of Israel, reading biography, reading church history, and you’ll see God is never late.
I like what Ian Macpherson says. “It is a supreme paradox of history that the eternal God is always in time. He who stands beyond the ordered sequence of temporal events pays the strictest attention to the march of the moments and plans. His interventions in terrestrial affairs are what look to us as interventions. For God is within His world as well as above it, eminent as well as transcendent, with the greatest possible care and precision.” He is punctual. You can see that in nature, as His bidding, night by night, the punctual stars come out in obedience to the operations of His inflexible and universal laws. The punctual tides ebb and flow by His immemorial commandment. The punctual flowers come forth at spring. See, in God’s Word, everything’s on time. You don’t think that. You’re looking at your watch this morning and go, “Still waiting.” Wait. The Lord is not a disappointment.
And we all understand the frustration of Phillips Brooks, who was once found pacing up and down his church office. And a friend asked him what the trouble was. He looked anxious and all wound up, and he exclaimed, “The trouble is I’m in a hurry, and God’s not.” He’s not in a hurry! Just like the universe around us, from the rising of the sun, to the coming in and out of the tides, to the beauty of flowers in spring, God’s got a moment for you. It still lies future. Don’t faint. “Believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Okay, that’s the clarification, that’s the condemnation. What about the conversion? This is verses 26 through 32. When “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” When God is done predominantly calling out from among the nations Gentiles into the church, the text teaches us that Israel is going to experience and enjoy a wholesale conversion to Christ, a wholesale conversion to Christ. When “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And” or then “so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I turn away their sins.'”
Jewish people alive at the end of the Tribulation will embrace their Messiah as one. According to Zechariah 12:10-14, they will turn in repentance and look on Him “whom they pierced”. And God will refine them during that time and bring them to restoration. Think about this, a whole living generation of Israelites will be saved right at the end. At the end, God will extend His grace to unbelieving Israel, just as He did it to the Gentiles. That’s the whole argument, isn’t it? In verses 30 to 32? “For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these who are now being disobedient, through the mercy shown to you will obtain mercy.” Kind of a boomerang effect. They were once in obedience, you were once in disobedience. They moved into disobedience, and you obtained mercy. But as you obtain mercy and they continue to be disobedient, believe, in a future day, they’re going to obtain mercy.
Now, there’s three things about this conversion, this national salvation of Israel. Number one, the promise. Why will this happen? I’ll tell you why. Because of a covenant. Verse 27. Because of Old Testament promises, verse 26 and 27. Those are verses straight out of Isaiah 59:20-21 and Isaiah 27:9. God has promised, in the Old Testament, God has made covenant with Abraham and his physical seed, to bless them, and to keep them, and to save them, and to give them a land as an everlasting possession. This act of love in redeeming the nation at the end of history, you’ll notice is for the fathers’ sake, verse 28. Oh, they’re enemies right now of the gospel, but according to God’s greater plan and purpose, they’re still beloved, they’re still elect. “For the sake of the fathers.”
It’s the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it is unconditional, and it is still real to this day, because according to verse 29, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. That’s in the context of talking about the fathers, of the patriarchs. The graces that God promised and the call that God made still is true today as it was yesterday and will be 10,000 years from now. God doesn’t go back on His Word, aren’t you glad? We’ll come back to that thought in a minute before we leave. Numbers 23:19. “God is not a man, that He should lie.” Don’t forget that God, in Genesis 15, told Abraham to cut the animal in two, and only God walked between the two pieces of the animal, which was a signal that He would keep the covenant with Abraham. It was not up to Abraham, it was up to God to keep that covenant.
The path? The path is this. Israel will face trouble during the Tribulation. We kind of touched on that when we looked at that. Jeremiah 30:7 tells us, you could actually look at the Tribulation, and you could narrow it down to this. It’s Jacob’s trouble. God’s focused on Israel. The events of the Tribulation center on the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, and the ancient people of God. And God will use that time of extra demonic activity and unbridled human wickedness and the pouring out of divine wrath to purge Israel of her rebels. God promises in Ezekiel 20:35-38 to purge Israel of her rebels, and He will.
And it will be brutal, because during that unparalleled time of terror and horror, according to Zechariah 13:8, leading up to the moment when Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives, two thirds of the nation will be obliterated. There’s a future holocaust that will come upon the nation in a day to come. Two thirds of that people will die, wiped off the face of the earth. The remnant left will become a believing remnant. Those who see and survive those terrible days will, in an act of God’s sheer and sovereign mercy, be saved, perhaps through the witness of the 144,000, Revelation 7 and 14, the two witnesses, Revelation 11, and the angel, Revelation 14. That third that remains, who have now been humbled, and the nation has been purged of rebels, and that part of the nation that remains comprises the all Israel of Romans 11:25. The third that remains, according to Zechariah 13:9, will be saved, purged, and refined. And as Jesus returns to earth in power and glory with the saints, they will indeed meet a nation of believers in Christ, ready for the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah.
The period? When does this happen? The mention is of the Deliverer who will come out of Zion. Clearly, that’s a reference to Christ. Mention of the Deliverer points to Christ. And since we’re reading this in the letter to the Romans, and it speaks of a mass salvation event in the nation, that’s still future. We’re not dealing with Christ’s first coming, we’re dealing with Christ’s second coming. I think those are clear deductions from this passage, and you can go to Zechariah 12:10 and Zechariah 14:1-4, and you will see, indeed, that it is Christ returning at the end of history that brings about their redemption and their restoration. That’s the conversion.
Now, before I leave it and get to my last point, the celebration, again, I want to try and make this a little bit more pastoral and practical, and it would be this. As I read several books, more than several, a little phrase kept appearing that I loved, and I want you to think about this, write it down and memorize it. And it is this: Israel is the church’s best insurance policy. Israel is the church’s best insurance policy.
What do we mean by that? If I’ve interpreted the Scriptures right, I’ve come to this conclusion. God’s faithfulness to them assures me of God’s faithfulness to me. The God of Israel keeps His promises. Read it in Psalm 105:8 and 10, and Psalm 106:44-45. Remember how this section begins in chapter 11? Has God cast off His people? Is He done? Has He set them aside permanently? Is He done fulfilling His promises to them? And no, God forbid, never. That comes out of Psalm 94:14. No, God keeps His covenant. Think of verse 27, when “The Deliverer comes out of Zion” and all Israel is saved, “this is my covenant with them.” More than likely the new covenant, when He will change their stony hearts into hearts of flesh, and He redeems and restores the nation. God’s a promise keeper. Amen?
Amen.
Joshua 23:14, write it down. Write down 1 Kings 8:15. There’s a little phrase in there: “not one” good promise of His “has failed.” That’s the kind of God we have. Not one good promise of His fails. God’s holiness will not allow Him to lie. God’s omniscience will not allow Him to forget. God’s immutability will not allow Him to change. God’s power will not allow Him to under-deliver and over-promise. Amen?
Amen.
See, remember what we said last week? I got this from my friend Pastor Steve Kreloff, who pastors in Florida, converted and fulfilled Jew himself. He says remember the genesis, partly the genesis of 9:10-11, is Romans 8. “Nothing will separate us from the love of God.” Now, if you’re sitting in Rome and you’re a Jew sitting among most of your gentile brethren, you’re going, “Hey, I get the impression that God’s done with Israel. They’ve been set aside, they’ve rejected the Messiah.” And you know what? If that’s true, then how can I believe that if He doesn’t keep His promise to Israel, if He doesn’t fulfill what He promised to the fathers, the covenant and the covenants, then, as a New Testament, new covenant believer, how can I believe that nothing will separate me from His love? Because it seems that many things have separated Israel from His love. And maybe some conceited Gentile within that congregation was giving him the impression God is done with Israel.
And so Paul writes 9:10-11 to say has God cast away His people? No, He’s a promise keeper. He’s a covenant-keeping God. And therefore, Israel is our best insurance policy. I have found that in my four or five visits to Israel that, when I leave, there’s many things happens to me when I leave, when I go there and experience it and then leave it. One is I come back refreshed, with a confidence in the Word of God and a belief that God is faithful. That God keeps His promises.
What is it, what do people say? The best thing a father can do is love a child’s mother? What do we mean by that? The best thing a father can do is love a child’s mother. Because, you see, when the child sees the love the husband has for the wife, unconditional, patient, persevering, sacrificial, that gives the child a sense of security, that gives the child a sense that, “When my dad says something, he means it, and he’ll keep it, because I see it.” And that’s kind of, by analogy, that’s what we’re talking about here. Why do I, as a New Testament believer, have a confidence in God? Because I have looked to the God of the Old Testament, and I see how He has loved Israel with an everlasting love, and that gives me confidence, that gives me security.
All right, let’s get to the last thought, the celebration. I debated whether to add this part of the chapter onto my sermon, but I want to. It deserves a standalone sermon and exposition, but we’ve got to add it. We’ve looked at the clarification, the condemnation, the conversion of Israel, now the celebration. We come to one of the great doxologies of the Bible; Paul’s theology of God’s sovereign mercy toward Israel and the Jew, and His everlasting commitment to that people. It’s a cause for celebration. Paul’s theology produces doxology.
Warren Wiersbe said at a Moody Pastors’ Conference that I was present in, “Don’t trust the theologian that doesn’t sing.” We love theology, and we love theologians because we love theology, but always be frightened of a theologian who’s dry, and all curled up, and snarly, and who teaches the Bible like he’s reading a telephone book. No! Theology warms the heart, as well as expands the mind. Don’t trust a theologian who doesn’t sing.
John Piper said to us at the Master’s Seminary one day at chapel, he taught us what he calls expository exaltation; that we need to, as we preach, we need to preach as an act of worship. And I’ve told you before, at that particular moment, he pointed his finger to us all and he said, “If you don’t sing in your sermon, get out of the ministry.” Paul would appreciate that, because he’s gone into some deep stuff, 9:10-11.
But he finishes with, “Oh,” wow, look at “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways that are past finding out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor?’ For of Him and to Him and through Him are all things.” As Paul looked back on the election of tiny Israel, the grafting in of the wild Gentiles, and the promise of an end time regathering and restoration of the nation of Israel, the chamber of his heart flooded with praise and adoration.
As Paul peers into the wisdom of God and seeks to fall in the depth of the knowledge of God, he marvels at how God could conceive a plan that turns the disobedience of Israel to the good of the Gentiles, and then the obedience of the Gentiles turns the disobedience of Israel back to obedience. Only a God as wise and wonderful as our God could take the disobedience of man and the fall of Israel, and merge them into a plan to save the world. God’s plans are beyond human imagination, investigation, and His ways prove unsearchable. God knows us completely, but we do not understand Him fully.
Can I just give you a little piece of advice, when it comes to something that God is doing that leaves you scratching your head? Feel free not to have an opinion. Feel free not to have an opinion. Just say, “I’m going to have to give that to the Lord, and wait on Him, either this life or the next, for an explanation.” Because you see, I live at ground level, and I look at life, in all of its complexity and scope, I look at it through a little keyhole. I only see a little bit of the parade of history going by. But God has been up to something across the ages that’s inscrutable and marvelous. The God we worship and serve this morning is a God who rules and overrules. That’s your God. That’s your God. He rules and He overrules. God did not allow… Israel, sorry, did not allow Him to rule them, but He overruled them, to the benefit of the Gentiles.
God is wise and sovereign, and His plans and purposes cannot be thwarted by a man or a demon or an antichrist. All comes from Him, all lives in Him, and all ends with Him. God is the first cause, the effective cause, and the ultimate cause of absolutely everything that’s going on at this very moment. “He’s working all things after the council of His own will.” Ephesians 1:11. John Piper says, “When one event happens, He not only sees it, but He sees the eternal chain of effects that flow from it, and from all the billions of events that are unleashed by every other event. He knows all this without the slightest strain on His mind. That’s what it means for Him to be God.”
And if that’s the case, couple of little pieces of advice to you as we wrap up, number one, retain a lofty view of God, would you? Retain a lofty view of God. Let Him sit on a throne. Let Him do whatever He pleases. Remember, He is indeed “working all things after the council of His own will.” Number two, let’s leave the unanswered questions about life with God. Just leave them with Him. Trust Him to give an answer. Trust Him to prove Himself true.
I like what Paul Smith says in his book on Romans 8:28. “There is a problem with standing in judgment over God. He Himself is the standard by which all things are judged. We do not know good apart from God. His actions are the very definition of good. To complain that God has done something that He ought not to have done is rather like complaining that the sun come up too late to start the day. The day is defined by the rising of the sun, even as good is defined by the actions of God. Where could we find another standard by which to judge the actions of God? To presume that we can judge God is to place ourselves over Him.”
It is God that defines life. It is God that defines good. So, how can you judge Him, since He’s the standard? Let’s retain a lofty view of God, let’s leave the unanswered questions with God, and let’s submit to and trust in His sovereignty. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” He’s working all things together for good. That phrase, “working together”, it was used of the craft of weaving. You’ve heard the phrase, the warp and the woof, sorry, of daily life? And that’s a reference to this art of weaving. The warp are the long vertical threads, and the woof are the brightly colored horizontal threads that must be curvily and craftily woven into the warp, and tightly overlap so that the vertical threads disappear, and only the horizontal threads are visible, in such a precise combination that they form the final picture.
Let me finish with this. Handley Moule, some of you might have his books. He was a well-known English pastor and bishop, Bishop of Durham at one point. And he was in his office one day when the horns blasted to let him know that there was a disaster at the mine. The Durham area in England was a mining area, and so he grabbed his Bible, and he ran down, anticipating the worst. Some collapse, some explosion. He got there with the mothers and the children that were at the mine-head, waiting for some news. And he asked God to help him say something that would comfort those who were fearing the worst.
And so he opened his Bible, somewhat randomly, and as he did it, a bookmark fell out. It was a bookmark he’d had in his Bible for many years. It was an embroidered bookmark. So, on one side of the bookmark were all these tangled threads going in a hundred different directions, making no sense whatsoever. But on the other side of the bookmark were the words “God is love” in beautiful colors. And he took that as from the Lord, and he held up the one side of the bookmark. And as he spoke into the faces of mothers and wives, he said, “Right now, this is what our moment seems like. We have no idea of the outcome. We’re not sure why God would allow this. There seems to be no good rhyme or reason or purpose to these kind of tragedies.” And then he turned it. But he says, “In it all, we need to believe that God is love, and He is lovingly carrying out His purposes and plans for us all.”
Lord, we thank you for this section of Romans. And we haven’t probably done it justice, but we thank you for this passage. We thank you for the reminder that you’re not done with Israel. We thank you for a reminder that your purposes have not failed. When we see the nation reject the Messiah, when we see Israel exist, even to this day, in a state of partial hardening and spiritual stubbornness, we thank you you’re a promise-keeping God, we thank you that you’ll fulfill that promise in your perfect timing. And we thank you that Jesus will return, and the nation alive at that moment will look on Him whom they pierced, and they will mourn, and yet turn to you and be saved, and enter the millennial kingdom to enjoy peace and prosperity and progress, according to all the promises of the Old Testament.
Lord, we celebrate you in all your glory, wisdom, and sovereignty. And we pray that we would quieten our hearts this morning, amidst the hustle and bustle of life, amidst the things that are pulling out our peace, amidst the things that are troubling our soul. We have learned today, Israel is our best insurance policy. We’ve learned today that you keep your promises. We’ve learned today that your timing is perfect. We’ve learned today that you’re working all things together for good. We thank you for this day, and we thank you for this text. And we pray for missions among the Jewish people, that that would continue, that you would continue even in their unbelief, that you would bring about “a remnant according to the election of grace”. And that we would hear, again and again, and more and more, of rabbis and Jewish people coming to see the one of Isaiah 3, the one of Psalm 22, the one who has promised to restore the fortunes of this favored nation. And these things we ask and pray in His name. Amen.