All right, brethren, let's turn
to Romans chapter 11. Romans 11. I want you to know the truth. I
want you to know the truth. I want you to know the mystery
of God. Now Paul said here in verse 25,
I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. He's talking about the mystery
of God. And the mystery of God's known
only to those in whom God reveals it. We can only know this mystery
if God himself reveals it in our heart. It's the mystery of
how God purposed to save his people from before the foundation
of the world. His people are both Jew and Gentile,
not all Jews and not all Gentiles. He has an elect people among
them. And this is the mystery of God,
his purpose in saving his people. Sin has totally blinded us. Look over just a few pages to
your right to 1 Corinthians and look at chapter 2. I think it's
about 3 or 4 pages over. 1 Corinthians 2 and look here
in verse 7. We, as God's preacher, we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery. A mystery is a secret thing that
nobody knows unless God reveals it. We speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before
the world unto our glory or unto our salvation, which none of
the princes of this world knew. None of the kings knew this,
for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. No man knows God unless
God teaches him. Now watch. But God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. Divine revelation. For the Spirit
He says, the Spirit of God searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. He gives an illustration. What
man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which
is in him? I don't know what's in you. I don't know what you're
thinking unless you tell me, unless you reveal it to me. He
says, even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God. Now we've received not the Spirit
of the world but the Spirit which is of God. that we might know
the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which
the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
That simply means we preach the scriptures. Well, I don't get
up here and just try to tell you things from the way man would
speak things. I try to show you what God says
comparing scripture with scripture. But the natural man, that's how
we all come into this world, we're natural by nature, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. He not only will not receive
them, he can't receive them because they're spiritually discerned.
God has to reveal it. But he that's spiritual, he judgeth
or he discerneth all things. Yet he himself is discerned of
no man. He's judged of no man. No natural
man understands you or me when we preach the gospel. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord? That he may instruct him. But
we have the mind of Christ. When he reveals the gospel to
us, it's because he's given you the mind of Christ. Christ has
become our wisdom so that we understand the things that are
freely given. But you see that sin's blinded
us. We gotta have God to reveal it. And if God will be our teacher,
then this won't happen. Look back at Romans 11, 25. He says, I don't want you to
be ignorant of this mystery of God, lest you should be wise
in your own conceits. That is thinking yourself wise,
being puffed up with your own wisdom and prudence and thinking
you know something. Now when we come to verses 25
and 26, the majority of people in religion, even those who claim
to believe the doctrine of grace, they reveal by what they say
about verses 25 and 26 that they're wise in their own conceits. By what they believe concerning
verses 25 and 26, they reveal that they really believe God
is a respecter of persons. God taught the apostle Peter
that of a truth, God is no respecter of persons. God does not have
respect unto you because of where you were born or because of who
your mother and your father were or any other carnal distinction. God's not, we respect persons.
That makes a big deal to us if somebody's rich or poor, where
they were born or who their fathers are, but not God. God's no respecter
of persons. But when verse 25 and 26 comes
up, most in religion reveal that they believe that God saves because
of where they were born. that God actually regards men
being born in the political nation of Israel. They reveal they believe God
saved because their father was Abraham by nature. To think that
God saves by fleshly distinction such as that is to be wise in
our own conceits. It's the same as believing works. It's the same as believing we're
saved by our will. Nothing's more dangerous for
a sinner to be puffed up in pride and self-righteousness. That's
what keeps sinners from coming to Christ, thinking they are
righteous, thinking they are wise, thinking they know better.
So that's very dangerous. And so that's why Paul is saying,
I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be
wise in your own conceits. And that's what I say this morning.
Paul said now, here's Romans 11, verse 25, He says, blindness
in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
become in. And so all Israel shall be saved. Now here's what most say. Here's
what most say. They say blindness in parts happened
to the political nation of Israel until God has called in the last
of the Gentiles and then, not and so, as the scripture says,
they say, and then God shall raise up Israel as a nation and
save all the Jews. Because they're born in the nation
of Israel, because their father is Abraham. This is the teaching
of most people on these two verses of scripture. Now brethren, if
that's true, that makes God a respecter of persons. That makes God to
save somebody because of the nation in which they were born. That's saying God saves because
of natural distinctions. When they read here and it says,
and so all Israel shall be saved, I actually read this, men said
this. They said this is not spiritual
Israel. This is Israel as a nation. They
said, this is not Israel that Paul spoke of over in Galatians
6. Well, let's go to Galatians 6.
Let's see what Israel he was talking about in Galatians 6.
Galatians 6 and look at verse 15. Men say this is not, it's
not the Israel he was talking about in Galatians 6. Here's
what he said in Galatians 6. He said, God forbid that I should
glory, verse 14, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything. Paul's saying
being a natural Jew, being born in the nation of Israel, having
Abraham for your father does not avail. That doesn't avail
anything. He says, nor uncircumcision. being a natural Jew, born in
the nation of the Jews, without the law, that does not avail.
What avails? A new creature. God saves His
elect by making us an entirely new creation, a new nation. He makes a new nation, a holy
nation, His spiritual nation, created in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now watch what Paul said. as
many as walk according to this rule. As many as walk understanding
that being a Jew doesn't matter, being a Gentile doesn't matter.
It's being made a new creature by Christ, by Christ's blood.
He says, as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them
and mercy and upon the Israel of God. He's saying, upon God's
elect Israel, upon God's spiritual Israel, those made up, that nation,
that holy nation made up of God's elect called out from among the
Jew and the Gentile. But men read our text back in
Romans 11 and when he says, and so all Israel shall be saved,
and they say, now he's not talking about that Israel there. He's
talking about the nation. That's what they say. He's talking
about the nation. In the end, God's going to turn and He's
going to raise up Israel as a nation and He's going to save all the
Jews in Israel after He's saved the Gentiles. Well, that's contrary
to Romans 9 and verse 6. We have to read Scripture in
light of Scripture and in a context with Scripture. Paul hadn't changed
subjects since Romans 9 and verse 6. There he said this. Look back
over at Romans 9 and verse 6. He said there, The Word of God,
it's not as though the Word of God is taken on effect. They
are not all Israel which are of Israel. Whoa, that's confusing
to a natural man. What's he saying? They're not
all the Israel of God. They're not all God's elect spiritual
Israel who are in that physical, political nation of Israel. And
now understand something here, brethren. The Israel Paul's talking
about, he's not the nation that's over there now. That nation was
created in the 1940s, 1,940 plus years after
Christ came. That nation was created. He's
talking about the Israel God created. And he said, and in
that political nation, not everybody in there was God's people. Now
look here at verse 7, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children. All the natural sons of Abraham
are not the sons of God. Look at verse 8, that is, they
which are the children of the flesh, they're not the children
of God, but the children of the promise, God's elect, those he
chose are counted for the seed. So you see, if this Israel we're
talking about is political Israel as a nation and everybody in
it, that flies in the face of what Paul said in Romans 9. Then
look at Romans 11 and look at the beginning of Romans 11 in
verse 2. He said, God hath not cast away his people which he
foreknew, that is, who he foreordained, who he chose before the foundation
of the world. God never cast them away. But
that's not everybody in Israel, any more than it's everybody
in the Gentile world. Only the children of promise
are counted for the seed. Only God's elect. So I want to
go back now to our text and I want to see what it means in light
of the scriptures leading up to these verses. What does it
mean? First of all, what and who does Paul mean when he says,
verse 25, that blindness in part has happened to Israel? Who's
he talking about? Well, God judicially blinded
that part of Israel who were only the physical, natural children
of Israel. He blinded them because they
refused to believe on Christ. He blinded that natural part,
the natural sons of Abraham, the natural part of Israel. He
blinded them because they refused to believe on Christ. But at
the same time that Paul wrote this, there was still, among
that physical nation of Israel, there was still some who were
God's elect people. They were the true Israel, his
elect. And yet, there were some of them still in darkness too,
because they were born in sin and they were blind at the time. And so there was a part of them
that didn't see. Some of that remnant were still
blind. God would give them sight, but at that time blindness had
happened to some of that part of God's elect Israel. And then
also at that time, some of God's elect among the Gentiles were
blind. Now, I'm convinced who he's talking
about here is his elect Israel. There were some elect who were
yet blind. But either way, whether he's
talking about the natural seed or the spiritual seed, whether
he's talking about the physical inhabitants of Israel or he's
talking about God's elect in Israel, there were still some
that were blind. And there were some Gentiles that were blind.
All right, now, secondly, what and who is meant by this, the
second part? He says, until the fullness of
the Gentiles be brought in. Blindness in part has happened
to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be brought in.
It means this, until God finishes his threefold purpose. Do you
remember that purpose? We saw it earlier in the chapter.
Let's review just a minute. One, God purposed from eternity
when he sent the gospel to the Jews first. and they rejected
it. He used their unbelief to send
the gospel to the Gentiles. Remember that? That was all a
part of God's purpose. Look at verse 11. I say then,
have they, talking about God's elect among the Jews, have they
stumbled that they should fall? Have they stumbled that they're
gonna be cast out forever? God forbid. God never loses one
of his elect. So God forbid. They haven't stumbled
that they're gonna fall. but rather through their fall,
through their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles. That
was the first part of this threefold purpose. He used the Jews unbelief
to send the gospel to the Gentiles. Here's the second part of that
purpose. He used those believing Gentiles to call some of his
elect Jews. Look here in verse 11 again.
Through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles for
to provoke them, the elect among the Jews, to jealousy. Make sure
you get it now. Through them stumbling, God sent
the gospel to the Gentiles and saved some of His elect Gentiles. And then He used some of those
believing elect Gentiles to provoke His elect Jews to give an ear
and listen, and God saved some of those elect Jews. That was
part of his purpose. Now here's the third part of
his purpose. This is the final part. By calling his elect from
among the Jews, he would also call a greater number from the
Gentiles. Look at verse 12. Now if the
fall of God's elect Israel resulted in the riches of the elect Gentile
world, and the diminishing of God's elect Israel resulted in
the riches of the elect Gentile world, how much more their fullness? He's saying if God used the fall
and the diminishing of His elect in Israel to call out His elect
in the Gentiles, if He used the fall and the diminishing of them
to call His elect, He's saying how many more Gentiles will God
call when He increases His elect Jews? You get what he's saying
there? So God's purpose ends not with
him calling his elect out of Israel, but with him calling
his elect Gentiles. That's where his purpose ends.
He sent it first to Israel, they rejected it, and he sent it to
the Gentiles. This was his purpose. It wasn't
like he was failed, so he's having to switch course. He purposed
from the beginning. They're going to reject it, I'm
going to send it to the Gentiles. Then when I save some of the
Gentiles, I'm going to use their belief to provoke my elect in
Israel jealousy, and I'm going to save some of my elect in Israel.
And then by saving my elect in Israel, I'm going to save a whole
bunch more Gentiles. That was God's purpose. So it
ended with him calling out the Gentiles. You get that? You get
that? So Paul, in our text, he gives
the third part of God's purpose here, verse 25. He said, blindness
in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be brought in, until God completes that third part of his purpose.
And when he does that, his purpose will be finished. They'll all
be called. once he does that. Are you with
me? I want you to get this, because if you don't get it, you'll miss
the meaning here. Blindness in part is happening
to Israel until God finishes that third part of his purpose.
Now, but remember this, don't forget this now. As God worked
that first part of his purpose, he sent it to the Jews first,
some of them rejected it, so he sent it to the Gentiles. And
he starts calling his elect among the Gentiles. But as he's working
that purpose, he was also calling some of his elect Jews from out
of Israel, too. And then, as he worked that second
part of his purpose, as he was using his elect Gentiles to provoke
Israel to jealousy and was focusing on calling some of those elect
out of Israel, from among the Jews, he also was still calling
some of his elect Gentiles. And so when you get to this third
point here, when he's fulfilling this third part, and he's calling
his elect Gentiles, he's still calling some of his elect Jews
too. You get what I'm saying? It's not like he said, all right,
I'm gonna work the first part. Now I'm done with that. Now I'm
gonna just work the second part. I'm done with that. I'm gonna
just work the third part. No, he's working it. He's calling
Jew and Gentiles together in each part of this purpose. So Paul only gives this last
part, this last third part of this threefold purpose, and he's
saying blindness in part has happened to Israel until God
calls every last elect child, both Jew and Gentile. That third part will result in
God having finished calling all his elect, both Jew and Gentile. Well, why does he call them Gentiles? Why didn't he just say, when
the fullness of both Jew and Gentile has come in, why did
he just call them Gentiles? Go to Isaiah 11. In Paul's time,
you kind of have to look at this and understand the time in which
Paul's writing what had not come to pass and what would come to
pass. Now, let me tell you some things before I read this. In
Paul's time, in the time which Paul lived, the nation Israel,
the political nation Israel still existed. It still existed. God had done the first part of
his purpose. He had turned from Israel and
was calling out his elect Gentiles, and he was doing the second part.
He was using the elect Gentiles to call out some of his elect
in Israel. So he's working both parts of
that purpose while political Israel still existed. But in
our present time, that physical nation of Israel that God created,
I'm talking about the one that God created, it no longer exists. Not in our day and time. Paul
saw that coming. That's what he was talking about
at the beginning of Romans 9. He was saying, if I could switch places
with them, I would. Because that nation, God told
them he's going to destroy that nation completely. And in 70
AD, 70 years after Christ, he did destroy it completely. So
that was coming about, but it hadn't come about yet. But in
70 AD, when he did destroy that nation, he scattered the elect
Jews into all the Gentile When there was no elect Israel, I
mean when there was no political Israel anymore, that meant all
that existed then were Gentile nations. There was no Israel
at all. Not until, I can't remember,
was it 1942 or 44? There was no nation even called
Israel. It was nothing but Gentile nations.
So Paul's speaking scriptural language here. See, where we're
messed up is we keep thinking of Israel as this nation that
exists right now. Paul's not even looking at that
nation. He's talking about political Israel that God created. But
in 70 A.D., when he destroyed it, he scattered the Gentiles
into the four corners of the earth. And so God had said through
the prophets that he was going to gather his elect, Jew and
Gentile, out of the Gentile nations and make them one. He said this
all along. Now look here in Isaiah 11 and
look at verse 10. The whole first part of this chapter talks about
raising up Christ. He's the stem of Jesse, he's
the branch, and it's talking about him. And it says here in
verse 10, In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, that's Christ,
which shall stand for an ensign, for a banner, that's Christ,
of the people. He's talking about of God's elect
people. And he says, and to it, to that
banner, to that flag, to Christ our banner, Jehovah Nissi, to
him shall the Gentiles seek. See who he says? The Gentiles.
The Gentiles are gonna seek him. He's talking about God's elect
Jews and God's elect Gentiles. They're all scattered in those
nations. Let me show you this. And he says, and his rest shall
be glorious. Christ's rest is glorious. And
he said, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord
shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of his people which shall be left. That first time was when
he came to the Jews the first time. They didn't believe, so
he turned and began calling out the Gentiles. The second time
was when he started using the elect Gentiles that he had called
to faith to provoke his elect in Israel to jealousy, and he
began calling some of them out. And in the time that he's speaking
of here now, Israel's destroyed, and they're scattered in all
the world, in all the Gentile nations. How do you know that?
Let's see it. Look. I'm going to set my hand
a second time, and I'm going to recover the remnant of...
He's going to recover the remnant of his people which shall be
left. He's going to call them from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathos, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shadar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. included
in this big ol' island we live on. And that's what he's talking
about. Those are all Gentile nations.
All those places are Gentile nations. Now watch. Watch this. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, for the Gentiles. That's Christ. And he shall assemble
the outcasts of Israel. his elect that were cast out
from Israel. They're in Gentile nations now.
He set back up the page. He's setting up this ensign for
the Gentiles. And the Gentiles are going to
seek it. And then he says, and amongst the Gentiles I'm calling
mine elect remnant from Israel. And so down here he says now,
and I'm gonna assemble the outcasts of Israel, and they'll gather
together to disperse from Judah from the four corners of the
earth, from all the Gentile nations. And so that's why in our text,
Paul says, until the fullness of the Gentiles be brought in.
He's not just talking about Gentile elect, he's talking about Jew
and Gentile elect. But because there's no Israel
in God's sight, it's just all Gentile nations. And God said,
I'm going to set Christ up for the Gentiles, talking about His
elect Jew and His elect Gentile, and I'm going to assemble them
all together. So now, go back to our text. So thirdly here,
what does Paul mean when he says, when he talks about what will
happen when God has finished that third part of His purpose?
He says, Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles be brought in. You can read it like this.
Until the fullness of all God's elect, Jew and Gentile, are called
in from the Gentile nations. So they're all called in. That
means there's not one elect left. They have all been called to
Christ. Now what happens? Verse 26. all Israel shall be saved. Now,
when men read this, they say, and then, because they're using
this until the Gentiles be called in, and then they say, and then,
God's gonna turn to Israel, and he's gonna raise up political
Israel, and he's gonna save all Israel. This word in so, Well,
let me say this first. Paul is obviously not telling
us that all Abram's natural descendants shall be saved. He's obviously
not saying that. Common sense tells you that.
Multitudes of them perished in the wilderness. Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram, they all went to hell long ago. And then Judas,
he's been in hell for 2,000 years. And Paul here is not talking
about the natural seed. He's not talking about all natural
men who call themselves Israel are going to be saved. That's
not what he's talking about. Before God, that nation Israel is not
even recognized as the political nation Israel. That's not the
nation God created in the scriptures. It's not. He's calling his people
from the Gentile nations. He might call some from that
nation. Maybe he will, but he's not calling them because they're
in that nation. They're just his elect, that's
why he's calling them. But now watch this. It's obvious he's
not gonna turn and say physical Israel. And here's why. This word so,
it's not and then, it's and so. And that word so, I've shown
you this before, that word means after this manner. That's what
it means. He's saying, and after this manner,
by God calling all his elect Jew and Gentile from the Gentile
nations, after this manner, all God's elect spiritual Israel
shall be saved. They'll all be saved. Christ
told Nicodemus, he told Nicodemus the manner in which God loves
the world. He said, he makes us to be born
again. You must be born again, he said.
And that's of the spirit. It's not of us, it's of the spirit.
He said, it's going to be through the preaching of Christ. He said,
we preach that which we do know and testify that which we have
seen. That's how God loves. He's going to make us be born
again through the preaching of the gospel. And He's gonna make
us behold Christ crucified as our all, and He's gonna make
us believe on Him. Christ said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And He said that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now listen,
John 3, 16. For God so, for God after this
manner loved the world. This is the manner in which God
saved. He makes you be born again through the preaching of the
gospel, beholding Christ as all, lifted up on the cross as Moses
lifted the serpent up in the wilderness. He does it through
God-given faith. Because after this manner, for
God after this manner loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. That word so in John 3 and 16
is the same word used here in Romans 11, 26. It means after
he's called all his elect, the fullness of his elect out of
the Gentile nations and assembled both Jew and Gentile in Christ.
And after this manner, all Israel, all God's spirits who will elect
Israel shall be saved. It will be finished. It will
be finished. Now, here's the sad thing about
this. I've spent 30 minutes trying
to declare this to you because this is the great deception of
the devil. He's got this, our nation acts
like Israel over there is a lucky rabbit's foot and we've got to
protect them at all costs if we want God's blessing. That
ain't going to happen. That's not the Israel. of God. The Israel of God says elect
people. It says elect people. We're not looking for a nation
to be raised up. But here's what we miss in all this. Look at
the next thing. Romans 11, 26. As it is written,
they shall come out of Zion, the deliverer, and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto
them when I shall take away their sin. He's quoting Isaiah 59,
20. It says the Redeemer shall come
to Zion. Paul said out of Zion. And he
said, unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. Paul
said he shall turn his Jacobs from transgression. As for me,
this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. And Paul doesn't
even quote the last part of the verse. Christ is the Deliverer. He's the Redeemer. Christ alone. This is what ought to be the
whole focus of this passage. It's Christ. Christ. Christ. He's the Deliverer. He's the
Redeemer. He came to earthly Zion out of
heavenly Zion. And He came there when He came
to this earth the first time, and now as He sends His preachers
with this gospel, He's coming out of Zion. and he's coming
to his people preaching the gospel to us by his preachers. And he shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. And this is where men go. They
consider Jacob to just be the Jews. If you're a believer sitting
here today, a Gentile believer, you're Jacob. You're Jacob, and
I'm Jacob. Jacob is the name God uses for
his elect in the scriptures when he's speaking of us in our sins
and what we are in ourselves. Jacob was a supplanter, a sinner,
and that's what we are by nature. But he says here he's going to
come and turn away ungodliness from all his Jacobs. That's who
he's doing it for. He turned away ungodliness from
his elect when he paid our sin debt on the cross. And he turns
away ungodliness from his people whenever he comes and experimentally
purges our conscience from dead works and makes us cast all our
care on Christ. And here's why he does it. For
this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their
sins. Paul, all through Romans 11, has been talking about God's
eternal purpose. This is his purpose. This is his everlasting
covenant of grace. He's saying in Isaiah, the covenant's
this. This is what Paul didn't quote.
But in Isaiah, he says, my spirit, the Holy Spirit, that is upon
thee, talking about his elect, And my words which I put in your
mouth, by creating you anew, making you a new creature, shall
not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed."
Who's that? The seed means out of the mouth
of your children. He's talking about out of the mouth of his
elect that's going to be born later. Those are our children.
or that'll be born through our gospel. Those are our children.
He says, nor will I take it out of the mouth of thy seed seed.
That's those that'll be born through them preaching the gospel.
You get what I'm saying? It's you who are the elect. The
elect is gonna save through you preaching. The elect is gonna
save through their preaching. In other words, I'm gonna put
my spirit in the mouth of all my elect, and I'm not gonna take
it from them. They're gonna know me from the least to the greatest,
from one generation to the next. And he says here, he says, when
I shall take away their sins, when Christ went to the cross
judicially before the law, he took away the sins of all his
elect. He didn't die for everybody. He died for the sins of his people.
He said, I laid down my life for the sheep. And because he
took away the sins of all his elect, That means it's justly
necessary, it's a must that he sends this spirit into the heart
of every one of his elect and make us experience it experimentally,
makes us experience faith in Christ and see what Christ has
done for us because the justice of God demands that not one can
be lost for whom Christ died. All of this tells us, brethren,
he can't be talking about political Israel. You see how bad it is
if you talk about God raising up a political nation and saving
these people just because they're born in that nation, just because
their father was Abraham? That destroys the doctrine of
election. It destroys the doctrine of particular redemption. It
destroys the doctrine of effectual calling. Everything that is the
gospel, that is all our hope, it's all worked by Christ. He
did it all. And there's what this whole thing's
about, is destroying Christ. I'm not saying the people that
believe that are necessarily going around consciously trying
to rip these things out of the pages of God's Word. I don't
think they probably even understand what they're doing, because they're
blind. But the devil knows what they're doing, and that's what
he wants. But see, Christ is gonna have the glory, and God's
gonna make certain He has it. I know I'm going long on this
hour. I'll try to go a lot shorter next hour, but I do wanna show
you this. I want you to go over to Genesis 9, and I just wanna
show you this. We're talking about this being
God's eternal purpose. This has always been God's purpose,
and I think this will be a blessing to you, and I'll end with this.
But in Genesis 9, God declared this back in Noah,
in Noah's day, he declared this. All the way back in Noah's day,
this is showing us, I'm just using this to show you, this
has always been God's purpose. Alright, when Noah comes out
of the ark, Noah had three sons that came out of that ark with
him, three sons. And these three sons, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, three boys, they are the fathers of all mankind
as we know it. Everybody in this world, as we
know it, came from them three boys right there. They were the
only ones that existed on the face of the earth at the time,
and their wives. Now, spiritually, they represent
all men in this earth, too. Ham was that son that, you know,
Noah comes out of the ark, he grows a vineyard, and he got
drunk, and he's laying in his tent naked. And Ham is the one
that exposed his father's nakedness and was laughing about it and
calling everybody to look on his father in that sinful state. And God cursed him. God cursed
him. Shem and Japheth are the two
boys that put the blanket between them and walked backwards and
wouldn't even look on their father's nakedness and covered him up.
and God blessed them, both of those boys. Ham, literally, was
the father of the Canaanites, who ended up being the father
of Babylon. He's the father of Babylon, which
in scriptures always represents those who are cursed, the world
who is cursed, the sons of the devil, the children of the devil.
And then you have Shem, and literally, he's the father of the Jews.
He's the father of the Jews. Before Abraham was Shem, back
there after the flood. All the Jews came from Shem.
Spiritually, he represents God's elect among the Jews. And then
you have Japheth. He literally was the father of
all the Gentiles, of all the other nations. And spiritually,
he represents God's elect among the Gentiles. Alright? Way back
there, right after the flood, God declared through Noah that
He was going to unite His elect from among Jew and Gentile. Look
here in Genesis 9, verse 27. He said, He said, verse 27, God shall
enlarge Japheth. He shall enlarge Japheth. Spiritually,
He represents God's elect Gentiles. and he shall dwell in the tents
of Shem. Shem represents God's elect Jews. He says, I'm gonna bless Japheth,
and he's gonna dwell together with Shem in the same tent. Way
back there, God's saying God's elect Gentiles shall dwell together
with God's elect Jews. He's gonna bring them together
and make them one, and they'll be one. All the way back there,
he declared this. And that's what Paul's declaring
in Romans 11. He may just say until the fullness of the Gentiles
come in, but he's talking about until the fullness of Japheth
is brought in and united with Shem, his elect Gentiles and
his elect Jews, and when that's happened, all Israel will be
saved. They'll all be in one tent. they'll
be in one house dwelling together and salvation will be finished.
That's why we're not looking for God to raise up a political
nation over there. We're not looking for an earthly
city in an earthly temple and us all go over there in the sand
and worship Christ. No. We're looking for what Abraham
looked for, a city whose builder and maker is God, a spiritual
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, comprised of all his
elect, adorned as a bride for her husband in the righteousness
of Christ, where we'll worship Christ in a new heavens and a
new earth forever and ever. That's what he's talking about.
I hope that was a lesson to you and I hope I didn't confuse you
more on it. So let's stand together and we'll take a break. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray you bless it now and truly be our teacher. Don't
let us be ignorant of this mystery. We pray you reveal it in the
hearts of your people. Cause us to see what you're doing
and how that you're saving Jew and Gentile right now. Not one
elect child's gonna be lost and you're doing it according to
your eternal purpose. Don't leave us to our own understanding,
Father. Make us see this is for the glory of Christ and bring
us to His feet. We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.