One of the worst mistakes a student of the Bible can make is to write off Israel or to blur the distinction which God has made between that Old Testament people and his New Testament people, the Church of Jesus Christ. It leads to a maze of confusion and contradictions in trying to understand what the Bible teaches. It is to really miss the mark as a Bible student to confuse Israel and the Church.
I heard recently about a husband and wife who were desperately trying to make a certain train and they rushed and rushed, got to the train station, onto the platform just in time to see the caboose disappear down the track. The husband, in a certain tone of voice that might be described as impatient, said to his wife, well if you had been on time we wouldn't have missed the train.
And she set her cases down on his toes and said to her, well if you hadn't rushed me so much we wouldn't be so early for the next one. Well there's a certain logic there I suppose. The point is that they missed the train. And if you want to miss the train of the Bible, just write off Israel. You say that God has finished with Israel, there's no future for it. On the other hand, if you want to make the train, realize that God has a future for his people Israel. The best is yet to come.
That is the theme of Romans chapter 11 that we've been looking at. Today we come to the final section of this chapter and actually also of this whole part of the book of Romans, chapters 9 through 11, which deal with the subject of the sovereignty of God. Our text today begins with verse 25. For I do not want you brethren to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And thus all Israel will be saved. Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is the covenant with them. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient in order that because of the mercy shown to you, they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience that he might show mercy to all. O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor, or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. In working out the ages of history, God has a purpose for the Jew as well as for the New Testament Christian. The Jew has now been set aside in judgment or in the terms of Romans 11. The natural branches have been broken off of their own olive tree.
The focus of God's present working in the world is the church, which is being called out from both Gentiles and Jews. But the day is coming, dear people, when national Israel will again be the focus of all his working in the world. For the Jew, the best truly is yet to come. Chapter 11 gives us six evidences of the fact that God still has a purpose for his people, Israel. We have looked at the first four.
They are the pattern of the apostles' conversion, the principle of the remnant, the purpose of the church, which is, as we saw last week, to stimulate or to provoke Jews that some of them may be saved. That is the purpose of the church at least in relation to Israel. Then the promise which God has given of continuity, a promise illustrated first by some dough. He says the first piece of dough, verse 16, is holy and so is also the lump.
The first piece of dough, the first fruit, refers to the patriarchs. God has set apart the patriarchs unto a special purpose. Part of that purpose was that his blessing would come upon not only them but their descendants. God says just as he has set apart the patriarchs for himself, they are holy, so also the lump is holy, set apart for himself. That is the nation as a whole. He describes it further as an olive tree which has presently lost its natural branches.
They have been pruned out and wild olive branches have been grafted in, referring to Gentiles who are saved in this age. But he clearly says that there is a continuance of those natural branches for just as God took them out, he is also able to graft them in again and he will. Now we come today to the fifth point on the outline you have before you. It is the fifth evidence of the truth that the best is yet to come for the Jews.
I state it this way, the prophecy of restoration found in verses 25 through 32. The apostle really points out two things here. First the future prediction and then the present condition of Israel. During this future prediction he uses a couple of interesting terms, the mystery and the fullness. This mystery that he speaks about in verse 25 is not the kind of mystery that Agatha Christie would write.
The mystery is, in the terms of the New Testament, something that was previously concealed but which is now revealed by God. It is a truth that is undiscoverable by man. It is a truth that was hidden in eternity but which God has chosen now to reveal in history for our understanding. Now the mystery that he talks about here is that of a partial hardening which has happened to Israel. It is the hardening of Israel during this age.
If you go back to the Old Testament and if you had only the Old Testament you would have difficulty seeing that. Now with the New Testament light that we have we can go back into the passages of the Old Testament and we see the hardening of Israel. We have further illumination with the New Testament revelation. But this is something that was not revealed before, that Israel would be hardened against God. However the apostle makes it clear that this hardening is one that is qualified.
It is limited. In the first place he says it is a partial hardening. That has to do with the extent of it. In other words not every Jew is hardened in this age. We have seen before that there is a remnant of Jewish people who truly believe in their Messiah and are saved. Not many of them but a few. We have but a handful in our own fellowship. Most of us are Gentiles in our ancestry. But there are a few who come here who are completed Jews as we use that term.
The hardening to Israel in this age is a partial one because there are some who see the truth of their Christ and receive him. But it is not only limited in its extent it is also limited in its duration. This hardening of Israel is not a permanent one. In the terms of verse 11, they have not fallen so as never to rise again. This hardening is a temporary one. He says until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. What does that phrase mean?
The best understanding of it is the completion of the Church which is primarily Gentile. The fullness, the completion, the consummation of the Church. We saw last week in Acts 15 verse 14 that right now God is working in the world taking out a people for his name from among the Gentiles primarily. A few Jews but primarily Gentiles. That's why this is called the fullness of the Gentiles this age. This word fullness is used back in verse 12 of Israel.
There is a fullness of Israel that is yet to come. But right now God is working on the fullness of the Gentiles, the completion of the Church. This phrase needs to be kept distinct from another one that is found back in Luke. I would like for you to turn just to look at that one in Luke chapter 21 verse 24. Jesus is pronouncing here woe upon Jerusalem because the people have rejected.
And in verse 24 the last half of the verse he says and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Here the phrase is the times of the Gentiles that is not equivalent to the fullness of the Gentiles. Please keep that in mind. Actually the times of the Gentiles began 600 years before Jesus was born. In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar brought the armies of Babylon and raided Jerusalem. After plundering the city they took back captives to Babylon.
But from that time forward Jerusalem has been trodden under foot by Gentiles. About 20 years later he came back and completely destroyed the city. But the time began in 605 when he came the first time and took captive the city. Interestingly one of the young men who was taken as an exile back to Babylon at that time was Daniel. In the book that bears his name Daniel gives to us an outline of the times of the Gentiles. It occurs in two visions that are recorded in the book.
You'll recall that Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of a statue. He could not understand it nor could his wise men of Babylon interpret it. Therefore Daniel was called. And Daniel gave to him the interpretation. Later there was a vision about some fierce beasts. The two visions basically are parallel saying much the same thing. It's an outline of how the times of the Gentiles would fall out in history.
The statue was made of a gold head, a silver chest, thighs that were bronze, legs that were of iron and feet of a mixture of iron and clay. And Daniel by the Spirit of God gave the meaning of that statue. And he said to Nebuchadnezzar, you sir are the head of gold. In other words that represents Babylon. The chest of silver represents the kingdom, the empire that followed Babylon and which destroyed Babylon. Daniel is still living remember that night when it happened.
The Medes and the Persians are represented by that silver chest. And then the kingdom that followed the Medes and the Persians was the kingdom of Greece. In fact did you know in the book of Daniel there is a specific prophecy regarding Alexander the Great which was literally specifically fulfilled in him. And by the way that is the reason that liberals have such a hard time with the book of Daniel.
They keep wanting to change the date and make it later so that they say Daniel is recording history because they can't stand the fact that a prophet of God could predict ahead of time what was going to happen. But in fact we know that Daniel was written earlier than what they say. In the 500s the book of Daniel was written, not in the 300s. Greece then fell to the fourth world empire, the fourth Gentile power structure and that was Rome represented by the legs of iron.
And as you know if you're a student of history or even a casual reader of history Rome was never really destroyed but Rome simply decayed and fell apart. Finally there is one aspect of that statue that is yet to be fulfilled and that is the feet, the mixture of iron and clay and that represents what we call the revival of the Roman Empire, a European entity and power that will dominate the world in the tribulation period.
In the second vision, that of the beasts we see Antichrist arising within that power structure of the revived Roman Empire. And so Daniel, way back there 500 years and more before Christ, not only said there would be the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon but he then outlined for us what Jesus calls the times of the Gentiles and that time of the Gentiles will not end until Antichrist comes and is dealt with by the return of Jesus Christ and his kingdom is established on the earth.
When he establishes his kingdom in Israel, specifically in Jerusalem, that city will no longer be trodden underfoot by Gentile powers. In fact Jerusalem will become the glory of the whole earth. It will be the capital not only of Israel but of the world for Jesus Christ will reign there personally. That will be the end of the times of the Gentiles when he comes back. But my point is that that is not the same thing as what Paul is talking about in our text in Romans chapter 11.
When he speaks here about the fullness of the Gentiles, the apostle is talking about what God is doing right now in this age. The calling out of a basically Gentile church as a bride for Jesus Christ. That church began on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and indwelt believers permanently for the first time. And the church will be completed on that day I believe when the rapture occurs. Because essentially here is what is going to happen.
The very last person who has been chosen of God to be a part of the church of Jesus Christ will trust the Savior and at that moment this prophecy will be fulfilled. The pleroma, the fullness of the Gentiles will take place and the church will leave. And beginning at that point God will begin to deal again with the nation of Israel as his primary focal point. And so there is a prediction here regarding the future. Israel is hardened in part until the day when the church is completed.
But then in verse 26 it says, and thus, and really the word should be and then because this is a temporal idea, a progressive idea, and then all Israel will be saved. When it says all Israel it doesn't mean that every Jew who has ever lived will be saved. It means the nation as it will be in that day will be converted as a whole. No longer will there be only a remnant with the majority hardening their hearts, but the nation he says will be saved.
He goes on to say, just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this is the covenant with them when I take away their sins. In other words, he's reminding us again of that truth that we saw in Zechariah several weeks ago when we saw that when Jesus comes a fountain will be opened in Jerusalem for the cleansing of that people and their sins the nation will be taken away.
And they will be restored by their deliverer who will come and rescue them from the hands of anti-Christ and the armies of the world which will be gathered together surrounding Jerusalem ready to destroy every Jew upon the face of the earth. The deliverer will come from Zion, the heavenly Zion, and will save them. And not only physically but in that day as I've said spiritually they will be converted to the Lord.
Now it's also good to keep in mind that after the church is taken out there will be 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, read about it, Revelation chapter 7, who will be saved by the Lord and sealed for ministry during the tribulation period. And they will go throughout the whole earth proclaiming the gospel. Sometimes you hear people say, in the gospel the kingdom must be proclaimed to the whole world and then shall the end come.
As though that is something that has to be fulfilled in this age. My friend God has not committed himself to the gospel being preached to every person on the face of the earth before Jesus Christ comes back for at the church. What it says there is that the gospel of the kingdom, the return of Jesus Christ that he's coming to establish his kingdom, that gospel will be preached to the ends of the earth by whom?
By the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who proclaim that word around the world and as a result of that there will be an untold multitude, especially of Gentiles, who will be saved. They're not a part of the church. It's after the church is completed and gone, but they will be saved. And we see them standing before the throne in Revelation.
What a marvelous scene that is as people from every part of the globe stand before the Savior having been saved during that tribulation period as a result of the preaching of the Jews. If we say that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to be preached to the whole world before Jesus can come, that destroys the eminency of Christ's return, that he could come at any moment. And as a matter of fact, that means we're even losing ground because of the population.
And actually what it means, he will never come. God has not said that every person will hear the gospel before Jesus comes in the rapture. Those who hear it, among those who hear it will be those that God has chosen to be a part of the church and they will be taken out when it's completed and then God will go on with his work in Israel. That's the prophecy that we see suggested here in Romans chapter 11.
Now he comes in verse 28 to their present condition and he looks at it from two vantage points. He says from the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies. The Jews are enemies for your sake. In other words, the Jews have constituted themselves enemies of the gospel.
When the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, the typical Jewish person will be vehemently opposed to that, will be angry and offended and will stumble at that message because the Jews as a nation have constituted themselves the enemies of the gospel. But he says from the standpoint of God's choice, God's election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the sake of the patriarchs, the ancestors of the Jews and God's choice of them and of the Jewish nation.
God loves them even though now they are enemies of the gospel. Really God's attitude toward the Jewish nation today is one of stretching out his arms to a disobedient and obstinate people. Read about the end of chapter 10. God loves the Jews and my friend, let me tell you something. There is no place at all among God's people for anti-Semitism. A Christian who is anti-Semitic is a Christian who is ignorant of the Bible. I would like to put that in stronger terms but I will censor myself.
God loves the Jewish people and we ought to love the Jewish people. He says the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. The gifts refers to chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. The special privileges that they had. And the calling of God refers to his choice of them, his effectual calling that we looked at several weeks ago now. He says all of that is irrevocable. God will not change it. He has chosen to do certain things to and through the Jews and he will do that.
He says for just as you once were disobedient to God but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience. In other words, the gospels come to the Gentiles because of the Jews disobedience. So he says in verse 31, these also now have been disobedient in order that because of the mercy shown to you, they also may now be shown mercy. One of the applications I see in that verse is that there ought to be a place in our hearts for Jewish evangelism.
There ought to be a burden in our heart to see the Jewish people converted to Jesus Christ. Now we recognize as a nation, they will not until a certain time, that we ought to be investing some of our missions dollars as well as some of our personal witness in Jewish people. He says because of the mercy that is shown to us now, that they may be shown mercy in their disobedience. Verse 32 summarizes, for God has shut up all in disobedience that he might show mercy to all.
Please do not read into that verse some kind of a universal salvation. That in the end, everybody is going to be saved. Everybody is going to be okay and get to heaven. That is not what that verse says. The all here refers to all without distinction, not to all every individual. In other words, God has shut up, that means taken in a net like fishing or shut up into a prison.
God has shut up all, whether Jew or Gentile, no distinction, in disobedience so that now he might show mercy to all, whether Jew or Gentile. That's the point. There's an application here my friend for each of us, and especially for you who may not have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because whoever you are, whether religious or irreligious, moral or immoral, a church member or today maybe the first time you've been inside a church, whoever you are, God declares that you, that all of us, are sinners. That in his holy eyes, there is none of us that is worthy to stand before him to be allowed entrance into heaven. Now why has God shut up all of us into that same cell? Why are all of us in the same net shut up into disobedience?
Is so that any of us may call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. And if you will call upon him today, you will be saved, whoever you are, whether Jew or Gentile. God can show mercy to you today because of the cross of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's come now to the final of the six evidences for the future of Israel. We have seen here that there is a prophecy of their restoration. There's going to be a day when the deliverer will come and then all Israel as a nation will be saved.
The final evidence is the person of God. This is not an argument as such, rather this is a hymn of unbroken praise. And yet it serves as a basis for all that has been argued to this point. Because you see whether or not Israel has a future depends upon whether God is wise enough and powerful enough to pull off what he says is going to happen. And so what is said here really is a basis for all of the arguments up to this point.
As we think about the praise that is offered to God here, I think W.H. Griffith Thomas has made an excellent statement in saying, the remarkable way in which the divine will is to be accomplished and evil, overruled and made subservient to God's purposes constrains him to this note of praise. The divine intention is to be realized, note this, in spite of and even by means of human disobedience. That is a profound thought. I don't have time to read it again.
What he's simply saying is that despite man's disobedience, indeed even because of man's disobedience, God is going to realize his purpose and be glorified. The hymn of praise that is offered up praises God first for his knowledge and wisdom and then for his power. God's knowledge is his divine intuition, says one writer, which foreknows the outcome of all the factors in history before they come to pass. In other words, it means that God knows everything.
God does not have a thought process like we do. God does not learn. God does not accumulate knowledge. God knows everything that can be known all the time, at every instant. He just knows it. Nothing passes his scrutiny. That's God's knowledge. God knows everything in history because he knows past, present, and future. There is no time involvement with him as an eternal being. It also means that God knows every possibility.
It means that God knows what would have happened if what did happen had not happened. Don't ask me to repeat that. But God knows all possibilities as well as all facts of history. But then it speaks about God's wisdom. God's wisdom has been defined as his designing of all the elements of his knowledge into a revealed purpose for mankind. In other words, knowledge is what God knows. His wisdom is how he designs what he knows to accomplish a specific purpose.
What is really being said here in these chapters is that God takes the free action of many and he transforms even those free actions into a means for accomplishing his own purpose. Warren Wiersbie has said that only God could take the fall of a nation and turn it into the salvation of the world. Now he describes God's wisdom, God's knowledge by calling them the depth of his riches. In other words, there is an inexhaustible fullness here. That's so difficult for us to identify with, isn't it?
Because there's always a bottom line to our checkbook. There's always such a thing as a moth in the pocketbook. We run out of our riches. But God's riches can never be overdrawn. They're inexhaustible. In chapter 10 verse 12 he speaks about the riches that he has and which abound for all who call upon him. He says regarding God's wisdom and knowledge that it makes his judgments unsearchable and his ways unfathomable. In other words, beyond tracing out, as the NIV puts it.
What God does defies human explanation as well as human understanding. And by the way, God doesn't owe any of us an explanation for anything he does. There is a gospel song that is sometimes sung which states that someday I'm going to get to heaven and ask God why. What a foolish, stupid idea. That little finite man is going to come before God someday and ask him that question. God doesn't owe us in time or in eternity an explanation for anything that he does. He is God, my friend.
And he is sovereign. And he does what pleases him. How unsearchable are his judgments, unfathomable his ways. He's independent of man. God is always the initiator, man is but the responder. He quotes from the Old Testament in verses 34 and 35 and he says, who has known the mind of the Lord? Who can stand up and say, let me share with you today what God's thoughts are in this matter?
Who can say, I have entered into the mind of God and here is what God thinks, except to the extent that God has told us what his mind is. We know that much, but that's all we know. He goes on to say, who became his counselor? Each of you is going to put up a shingle out here and say counselor and someday hear a knock at the door and God's going to come in and say, listen, I need some advice about the universe. Will you help me? Can you imagine God going to a psychiatrist?
God doesn't need man's advice. God doesn't need our counsel. Who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? In other words, who has loaned God something and now he comes to God and says, God, you owe me. God has not debtored any man. Anything that we possess is given to us of God, including the breath in our lungs. No one is given to God and has a claim on him. He's independent of man. He created man. Then he praises God for his power.
Verse 36, oh, these are tremendous words and we often read them quickly because we don't take time to think about how important prepositions are. For from him and through him and to him are all things. He praises God first for his power in creation. He says God is the source. God is the cause of all things. He praises God as creator. Back in Romans 417, we looked at this verse some time ago where it says, he calls into being that which does not exist. What an interesting idea.
When God wants something to exist, you know what he does? He doesn't go to a manual somewhere and look it up and say here's the process. Oh, that's how we do it. Turn the page? No. When God wants something to exist that doesn't exist, he says, exist. There it is. That's how matter got here in the beginning. That's how there's energy. God said exist and it did. When he got done, he wasn't tired either. From him and through him. Here he praises God for his power and providence.
In his government, in his administration of things, he praises God as the sustainer. As it says about Jesus in Hebrews 1-3, he upholds all things by the word of his power. In Colossians 1-17, in him all things hold together. This is not creation now. This is the sustaining of what God has created. Scientists try to figure out what in the world is it that holds the atom together? The only answer to that is theological.
Of course, scientists refuse that because they can't put theology in a test tube. It doesn't show the weakness of theology. It shows the weakness of science. I'll tell you what holds the atom together is Jesus Christ. It's the power of God. It is divine energy that holds together the very basic elements of the universe and which sustains God's creation. God decides where it's going to rain. He decides where it's going to be dry.
He decides when that dandelion is going to grow up or when that bird over there is going to get fed or those animals over there are going to get what they need. God takes care of all of that. There's a psalm that beautifully depicts God's providential care of his creation. And then he praises God thirdly for his power and judgment. He says, from him, through him, and to him are all things. In other words, this is the goal of history. All of time is moving in this direction to God.
Everything is moving toward the judgment. So he praises God as creator, as sustainer, and as judge. The apostle Paul stood before the pagan crowd in Athens and he said to them, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained. And he has given assurance of this to all men in that he has raised him from the dead. They all began to laugh and say, oh, come on, Paul. Resurrection? You've got to be kidding. That's the world's attitude.
Doesn't change a thing though. Because my friend, all of history is moving to the judgment bar of God. All of it. And that includes you. What has been said here regarding the creation can be said of the individual life. It finds its source in God. It lives by the resources of God and will return to God for a final accounting. And it makes no difference whether the person wants to admit that. He may deny God. He may refuse to believe that there is a God. That he will someday stand before.
But it does not change an iota of the fact of God's word. God says that even the breath that we have is from him and someday we will stand before him and give account for our lives. The books of our lives will be opened. Are you ready to stand before God and give account? Because you don't have a choice about that. Someday you must stand before God. There's another application here that's very wonderful for the Christian.
And that is that the God who planned the dispensations and who is wise enough and powerful enough to carry all of them out is wise enough and powerful enough to give your life direction and purpose to. Is he your Lord today? Is he your master? He closes with a doxology. He says to him be the glory forever. Amen. Bishop Mool said, the supreme son of the spiritual universe, the ultimate reason of everything in the world and the work of grace is the glory of God. Oh, that's a tremendous statement.
Everything that exists is for the glory of God. And that includes you. And my friend, in the end, whether lost or saved, you will bring glory to God. You have no choice about that. Because every knee is going to bow and confess Jesus Christ's lordship someday for one thing. And another thing, even those who must, because of their rejection of God's truth, spend their eternity in hell, in their suffering will be given glory to God because of his holiness.
Even as those of us who by the grace of God will be in heaven, through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, will bring glory to God because of his kindness and his mercy toward us. The objects of mercy. Every person someday, ultimately, will bring glory to God. How much better it is for us to be in step with God now. How wise is the person who doesn't miss the meaning of life. How wise is the Christian who is in step with God and whose life motto is 1 Corinthians 10 13.
Whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. What a great way to live. What a great way to die. The one who refuses to do that only suffers loss himself and faces ruin. What a privilege it is for us to live in harmony with all of God's creation and live for his glory. Because my friend, the animal creation, the material creation is all bringing glory to God. Yes, it has been subjected to futility, Romans chapter 8, because of man's fall.
But God is nonetheless glorified in his creation, whether it be in this world or out there in the stars of the heavens, they declare his glory. And my friend, the angels of heaven are giving God glory, praising him today. It's man who's in the middle. That's where the battleground is. Will you get in step with all the rest of creation and today give your life to Jesus Christ and begin bringing glory to God by every decision that you make? That's my challenge to you.
To him be the glory of your life, I pray, forever. Amen. Father, we are overcome as we ponder these truths. Our words cannot fashion phrases and sentences which are adequate to talk about these.