Alright, this morning we're going
to be looking at Romans 11, and we're going to pick up at the
end of verse 12, and Lord willing, work our way through verse 16. So Romans 11, verses 12 through
16. Our Apostle, in the text today,
he's teaching the Church. He's teaching us that salvation
is always by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's apart
from man's works, and it's apart from man's natural lineage. In John 1, 13, it confirms this
truth, speaking of those that are saved by the grace of God,
He says that those who believe God, who believe Christ unto
salvation, were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. So that their birth is a
spiritual birth. And it's of God that we are born,
not by our works, not by our will, not by our lineage. So that in spite of what we naturally
think, in spite of what we naturally see or believe to be so, salvation
must and it will always come to the elect of God. Nothing's going to get in the
way of that. It's always going to come to the elect of God,
and of a truth only will come to the elect children of God. And this is true of both Jews
and Gentiles. Jew and Gentile. Every Jew, every
Gentile is saved one way, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
Paul's objective here in Romans 11, it helps us just to remember
this, that he's not teaching us end times theology here. That isn't his primary focus,
isn't to teach us the end times theology or eschatology, end
times. main focus here at all. We may
be able to glean some things, or think that we can glean some
things from it, but that's not his main focus. His focus is
that he would exalt and declare the grace of God and salvation,
and that we would rejoice in that. That's our rejoicing. And I titled this message, The
Case for Our Rejoicing. The Case for Our Rejoicing. And
so first we're going to see the fullness of the body of Christ. Now last week we closed looking
at verse 12, Romans 11-12. I'll read it. Now if the fall
of them, of the Jews, be the riches of the world, and the
diminishing, or the decay, the reduced number of them, the riches
of the Gentiles. Here's the phrase I want to look
at, how much more their fullness. How much more their fullness.
So that what Paul now says here in our text, it's describing
how much more their fullness. He's talking about everything
that he says now is thinking of the fullness of the Jews. Alright, so this passage is about
the ingathering of Christ's body and the glory of that which should
follow, the glory which should follow as a result of Christ
gathering in all his people into himself, into his body. And so
Paul says in verse 13, for I speak to you Gentiles." Inasmuch as
I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. I magnify mine office. Now, thinking of Paul's fervor,
of his desire to magnify his office to the Gentiles, that
the Jews would see it in like manner, we should be magnifying
our calling. We should all have a desire that
the Lord would save his people in our day, in our generation,
that he's called us to minister to and to declare the gospel
to. And so we should want every child
of God to hear the Gospel simply and plainly and clearly as possible,
praying that the Spirit would indeed call His people out of
darkness. That the Spirit of God would
reveal Christ in them. That He would reveal Christ in
His people, giving them spiritual life. Our prayer should be, as the
Lord taught us, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, even
as it is in heaven. That should be our prayer and
our desire that the Lord's will would be accomplished in the
hearts of his people. And so Paul, being the apostle
to the Gentiles, sought to magnify his office right, to fulfill
his calling by the Lord to the utmost, knowing, right, knowing
that how much more, he has full conviction, how much more the
fullness, how much more better would it be if the Jews who are
the elect of God would be called out of darkness and brought into
the kingdom? How much more their fullness,
so that he believes that the salvation of the elect Jews the
elect Jews, not just every Jew indiscriminately, but the elect
remnant seed being called out of darkness would actually be
a good thing for the church. That's what he's saying. It would
be a good thing for the body of Christ if the elect Jews were
called out of darkness as well. One thing for us to think about
here today is we ought not to despise the Jews or go out of
our way to speak evil of them. I know from my relationships
with Jews that many of them left countries where they were especially
persecuted simply because they are Jews. They were persecuted
just because they were Jews. And so coming from so-called
Christian lands, they weren't, but like in Russia, they were
persecuted and had fights and were called names and people
converted from being a Jew to the Greek Orthodox Church just
so they could get business deals and things like that because
there was this persecution for them being Jews and they were
called Christ killers. And so they were treated with
disdain and hatred simply because they looked at them as being
people who rejected Christ. And the reality is we're all
Christ-killers. Christ went to the cross to deliver
his people for their sin. And he was put there according
to the determined will of God by those who hated the truth
as well. So everyone is guilty in some
manner of being the cause why Christ himself went to the cross. And so we're not to go out of
our way or accuse any of some crime that we ourselves are also
guilty of. And we shouldn't persecute them. For every race, for every kindred,
and tongue, and tribe, and nation, every people, we know and understand
the Lord has his people among all peoples. And we're to remember
that. and not to hate another group
or to be cruel to them, knowing that this could be a brother
of Christ, a sister of Christ that we're demeaning and putting
down. We don't know who they are. And
that was Paul's mind. I mean, Paul was a Hebrew of
Hebrews, and yet he was called to minister to the Gentiles. And he did that faithfully, knowing,
Lord, you're going to save your people. And you're going to use
this to call your people out of darkness the light. And so, Paul's reminding us that
there's a remnant, there's a seed among that. Even the Jews, to
this day, there's a remnant whom the Lord will call out of darkness
into light as it pleases God in His appointed time for them,
right? And so, in that light, we should
also discharge our duty, right, with the ministry we're called
to here, in this generation, in this hour, as faithfully as
we can, knowing that the Lord is calling out His people into
Christ. And so Paul says, I want to save
as many Gentiles as possible in the hopes that it's actually
going to provoke my own countrymen, the Jews, to flee to Christ,
that they're going to also see this and become desirous to emulate
that, to want that for themselves as well, to see the kingdom of
God departing from them In truth and going to the gentiles that
they would say wait a minute. Why why are we being left behind? And why are we being forgotten
too? We want the gospel. We want to hear that as well.
What I mean? Wow, look at our rich history,
but We don't even know the truth. Let us have that truth as as
well and that's what He's saying, he says verse 14, Romans 11,
14, If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my
flesh, it might save some of them. And emulation means to
incite to imitation. He wants them to be provoked
or incited to imitate, to want that same thing for the Jews.
to be equal or more than what the Jews have. He wants them
to emulate what they see occurring among the Gentiles concerning
the Kingdom of God. Now he says, that he might save
some, that he would see some saved. And I only point this
out to remind us that he's speaking of the elect. He understands. He's not going to provoke anyone
who isn't called of God, who wasn't chosen of God unto salvation. He's not going to change God's
mind. He understands it's the elect.
And he wants to see the elect called. into into the light of
Christ. And so while we, you know, as
Gentile believers, we may not be thinking of the Jews, you
know, and then specifically being called out. However, there's
still there's still lessons for us in that in the sense that
we should be desirous of the people we know and and and in
our neighborhood, people in Christian County and And in Greene County
and other areas surrounding, we should desire that the Lord
would use us in this dark part of the world as well, in calling
His people out of darkness. And so we understand that, right? There are times where we understand
it more than at other times, so that our prayers go up to
the Lord. We pray, Lord, Bless the word. Lord, put your spirit upon us
that we hear the word and that we receive it. And it works in
us that which you intended it to work for us. And so we give
of our resources, time, and money. We think of it in our actions.
And the things that we do out in the world, we're mindful that
our actions and our words have an impact on people, and either
for good or for bad. And so, as the Lord makes us mindful
of that, our eye is on it, is on the fact that I do hope that
the Lord would use me today to minister to his people and call
out those that are yet in darkness, that are his people, into the
light. Paul would say this, He would
say to Timothy, so at the end of his life, 2 Timothy 2.10 and
11, probably one of the last letters, if not the last letter
that he wrote, he said to Timothy, I endure all things for the elect's
sake. For their sakes, I'm enduring
all things that they may also obtain the salvation which is
in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then he goes on, and
I'm going to quote this because I think it's relevant to the
text here. He says, it's a faithful saying,
for if we be dead with Christ, if we be dead with Him, we shall
also live with Him. And I say that because it's a
reminder that all our laboring and ministering in this life
and in this world, we're pressing toward the mark, right? We want
to get to the end goal, to be forever with the Lord, to begin
to enjoy life with Him, free of the corruption, free of the
weakness and the frailty of our mind and our thoughts and our
actions and all the inconsistencies, the sin and the failings and
the fallings that we know and seem to be so prevalent in us.
But we want to get to that goal, that end point, which is life.
with our Savior. And I'll even say here what our
Lord said in Matthew 16, 25. He said, for whosoever will save
his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. And so we see again this contrast
between death and life. If we be dead with him, we shall
also live with him. Now I brought that in to set
us up to see what's in the next verse of our text, Romans 11,
15. He says, for if the casting away
of them, those Jews, be the reconciling of the world, what shall the
receiving of them be but life from the dead? And so what I
see here, what I see Paul saying here is that I'm looking to hasten
the coming of the Lord. I want to see all the Lord's
people say that our Savior, our Lord, would hasten His coming
and receive us, that we might live forever with Him. We know
that we're now seated with Him in heavenly places, but we want
to experience that ourselves. We want to be there in the presence
of of the Lord and delivered from this body of death. And so I see he's saying, I think
he's saying there that the end is near when the Lord returns
in such a manner so as to deliver many of his people, among the
Jews, that that would signify a nearing of the end. Now, not
every commentator agrees with me. Some say, well, if he was
talking about that the resurrection of the dead would happen then,
he would have used the word resurrection. And I agree, I think he would
have used the word resurrection. He doesn't say that, he just
says, he says, but life from the dead, that's not the resurrection. But I do think he is saying there
that it's bringing about the nearness of the end. The end
is upon us when we see that great, you know, a great number of the
Jews, where that comes back to the elect Jews and delivers them
out of that debt. So that we'd be nearer to the
end goal, that end point from which we can be gathered up together,
the whole body up to be with the Lord. Now he'll say here
in Romans 13, go over to Romans 13 and look at verse 11 and 12. He says, that knowing the time,
that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent,
the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light." So
that the sooner this work of the Lord is done, because He's
purposed to do a short work on the earth, the sooner it's done,
the sooner we can get to being with the Lord as the whole body
brought to Him. Now, I'm not saying that the
Lord's gonna save all the Jews because they're of the lineage
of Abraham, but again, it's just to those elect Jews that are
His, that are His people that He chose that He'll bring to
be with them, that He'll bring to a knowledge, a saving knowledge
of Christ. All right, now, let's go on. Paul here intends for his audience
and for us to know that and understand that the Lord's will is to save
his body, to save all his people, all believers, Jew and Gentile,
and to bring them together in the body of Christ. Those that
were once enemies are going to be brought to the knowledge of
Christ. Now, I would encourage, if you
read Ephesians, 2, from verse 11 sometime today or this week,
but Ephesians 2.11 all the way up through chapter 3 of Ephesians. What you'll notice there is that
he's speaking of the mystery of Christ as it concerns the
Gentiles. He's speaking of the mystery
of Christ as it concerns the Gentile believers, whereas in
Romans 11, he seems to be speaking of that same mystery of Christ,
but as it concerns the Jews, as it concerns them. But in Ephesians
2.16, he says in that Christ might or God might reconcile
or Christ might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross
having slain the enmity thereby so that our Savior is calling
in the Jews into his body and he's calling in the Gentiles
into his body but in all cases There's no difference of them
in all cases. He's slain the enmity that we
were by nature, by sons of Adam, the enmity that we had against
God, as well as the enmity that exists between Jew and Gentile,
that separation. He's slain that enmity. He's
put it to death in one body. And so the middle wall of partition
is taken away in Christ. And that's why we don't believe
that there's, you know, as there's a popular teaching in the church
today, what they call dispensationalism, that somehow there's gonna be
a bringing back of the temple, and sacrifices, and animal sacrifices,
and the law is gonna come back, and there's all sorts of foolish
teachings and ideas about the end times, and all Paul is saying
is, no, every one of us is saved by grace, by the blood of Christ. There on that cross when he died
for his people, whether Jew or Gentile, and they're all saved
that one way. There's not going to be some
future Millennial kingdom where the Jews are ruling on the earth,
and there's the temple and Killing of animals that's not what he's
teaching here at all He's just saying that the Lord has his
people and he's going to provoke His people to well he's gonna
bring in all his people and it would appear that he's saying
of the Jews there will be a provocation To jealousy in which many more
will come in at the end all right, but not to some weird view like
like what you see among the Jews you know there's messianic Jews
today and I look sometimes to see well what is it that they're
here a lot of it some of the not a lot of it is the nonsense
we hear about free willism right and their own will in salvation
and others of it is what they're hearing in the Messianic Jews,
which is about the law. And they're looking to aspects
of the law that they don't think were fulfilled by Christ yet. And so they're still practicing
these things. And what we saw what Paul was
speaking of earlier was that the Lord diminished the Jews
to take us out of that corrupt, that corrupt teaching through
the concision that professed Christ, but added in things like
circumcision and law, parts of the law and things like that,
and it was corrupting the purity of the gospel. And that's why
the Jews were diminished as well, because it allowed the gospel
to go forth in purity without all that law teaching and all
that other stuff that man was bringing into the teaching, which
the Jews were still bringing in. Those which came from James,
Paul said, they infected Peter, so that Peter left the Jews and
stopped sitting with them and left the Gentiles and went and
sat with other Jews instead. And so we see that in the Lord's
wisdom, that was brought to nothing so that we might know that it's
all by His grace. And so anyone that's saved is
going to know that it's by the grace of God. It's not with our
works and this idea of the law returning. But what Paul does
here now in verse 16 is he says, if the first fruit be holy, the
lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. And so he gives us two figures
here in verse 16. Two figures. Now the first one
if the first group be holy, the lump is also holy, it recalls
to our mind, this is speaking of the patriarch Abraham, right? In type, it's speaking of Abraham
here. And we know that when we read
the Old Testament, we can see how God is always remembering
his covenant with Abraham, so that when the children would
rebel, when the physical children, that lineage of Abraham would
rebel through Isaac and Jacob, When they went into idolatry,
God never destroyed them because he had purposed that the seed
should come through Abraham's lineage, that seed being Christ,
by whom he would save his people in shedding his blood and going
to the cross and dying in their place, all right? So Exodus 2.24,
we see things like this, Exodus 2.24 and 25, God heard their
groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel,
and God had respect unto them. And so, we see He had respect
to them, because that's where the seed was coming from, and
so He preserved them as a nation then, because the seed would
come through them. But, our God delighted in Abraham
because of Christ and because he was his elect child. He foreknew
Abraham. He was of the remnant of God
whom he foreknew of the children of grace, of the elect according
to grace. It's just, if you go back to
the beginning of chapter 11, Romans 11, he said, verse two,
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. So anyone
that God saves, it's one that he loves. according to his foreknowledge. Verse 5 says, even so then at
this present time also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. In Romans 11 we see how he's
talking about the Jews more so, but it's a truth, which is then
detailed more so from the Gentiles perspective over in Ephesians
2 and 3. Romans 11 7, so the election
hath obtained it and the rest were blind. Again, he's mostly
speaking of the Jews here, but that's true of us all. And so with the Jews even, we
know and are assured, and we can't forget that when we look
here, that God is only saving those whom He elected and chose
unto salvation, those that are that remnant seed according to
the election of grace. And that's all that Paul is saying
here. And we can't forget, as you go
through and maybe you get clouded in some of the language, but
he's never departing from the fact that it's only always according
to the election of grace. There's not two salvations. There's not two ways that God
saves or two different types of people. Everything in the
Word of God is showing us how he's bringing it all together
as one body. As one body. To me, it appears he'll bring
it back, that there will be an in-gathering from the Jews. But
I could be wrong on that. I could be wrong on that. Maybe
it is, as some say, where it's just, no, when the Gentiles are
done, that's it. But I'm certainly not saying,
even though I see that, I think he is saying that there will
be a great number of Jews that will come out of that law and
death and dead religion to Christ. and that he'll do it as it pleases
him according to the election of grace. They'll be jealous
and they'll hear the truth, not that dead religion that they're
still trusting in to this day, and they'll be brought in and
then he'll come and wrap it up. He'll wrap it all up. That's
what I see. Either way, we know that there's
one people saved one way by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going
to be as it pleases Him when it pleases Him. He's going to
do it His way. But what Christ is showing us
here, what He's teaching us here in this passage is that all His
body, all Christ's body, His seed was in Him. And that's how we're saved, so
that when our Savior was on the cross, we were. We that believed
Him, that now have been called out of darkness, we know that
we were in Him, that our old man was crucified with Him, and
that when He died on the cross, we died on the cross with Him.
When He was buried, we were buried. When He rose from the dead, we
were raised from the dead. Even so, when our Savior was
raised up to heaven, when He ascended up to the heaven to
the Father, all His seed was in Him. All His seed, every one
of His people were in Him, so that when He was received of
the Father, we were received of the Father. Now I say that
because that's what the second half of that verse 16 is speaking
of. If the root be holy, so are the
branches. We saw the first in Abraham how
the Lord preserved the people in Abraham's seed to bring about
the seed, Christ, and now Christ is that root in whom we all the
branches, Jew and Gentile, are connected to Him, if we're His
people, so that out of that root we draw the fatness and the life
and the joy and the gifts and the peace of God from the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so, that's what Paul was
saying even in Ephesians 1-4, as He had chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without
blame before Him in love and so we're received only in the
Lord Jesus Christ and we're in Him, we're His seed in Him even
as Levi was in Abraham's loins when he met Melchizedek and gave
tithes unto Melchizedek. And it was accounted unto him
for what he had done. And the same thing, we're of
the seed of Christ and what he accomplished, it's accounted
unto us that we did those things, all in Christ, so that we're
righteous in Christ and we're the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isaiah 59, 21, says this is my covenant with
them, saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee and my words
which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth
nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seed's
seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. So, we see how the
Lord does this, and he's the one who puts that word in our
own mouths, whereby we speak and declare the grace of God
and rejoice in him. And, what he's teaching us here,
too, again, it's often missed because people are just so focused
on end-times theology, what he's saying there is that in Christ
we're all sanctified of him. As he's holy, so we are holy.
as he sanctified himself unto the Father, we too in him are
sanctified. Hebrews 2.11 For both he that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So, what we are, we are in Christ. And that's true of all His people. By one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. So, we're sanctified of the Lord.
We're His people. And all those that will come
to knowledge of the Lord, come to knowledge of the Lord It's by Him and by His work that
we are brought to this knowledge of Christ. We're all brothers
in Christ. There's not going to be two people,
two separate salvations, two separate bodies, but rather the
word teaches there's one body in Christ and all who are saved
must come through the blood of Christ and are born of his spirit
and will rejoice in his salvation and confess that we are what
we are by the grace of God and not by our works or things that
we ourselves have done. All right? That's something that
we can rejoice in, right? Knowing that our God saves His
people. And remember what Paul said in verse 15, Romans 11-15,
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world,
what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? So whatever you do, do it with
an eye towards the hastening of Christ's return. Do it with
a desire that Lord Help me to serve you and to do what you've
called me to do because I want to see your return. It would
be wonderful for the Lord to return in our lifetime. Let the
Lord come and let Him save all His people and use us as He would
use us for that very thing. I want to see the Gospel go forth
in purity and in clarity, not with works or tainted with man's
ideas or thoughts. If the Lord still has a work
to do among the Jews, let Him do it. I don't mind. bother me
or affect me if the Lord does return back to the Jews to call
them out. But it's going to be in grace.
It's going to be in salvation. It's going to be by the blood
of Christ apart from man's works. And if it's the return, that's
how it's going to return to them. And if they're to be saved, that's
how they're going to be saved. It's by that pure gospel. So let us continue that work
like Paul and say, well, let's just keep this gospel pure as
possible. Let us not have it tainted with
twisting it, or turning it, or adding our works, or thinking
anything like that, because if they're going to be saved, it's
going to be saved by grace, apart from works. So I pray the Lord
will bless that word, and cause you to rejoice in what
Christ has done in grace. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank you for your word of grace. Father, we
ask that you would help us to rejoice in the gospel of our
salvation. Lord, not looking to man or trusting
in the thoughts of man, but in your word, Lord, seeing your
power of grace for your people, your your work in your Son Jesus
Christ to redeem your people and to save us out of darkness
and bring us into the light of our God and Savior in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would
bless us this day, that you would cause your gospel to come into
our ears, cause us to hear it, and to receive it, and believe
it. It's in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that
we pray this. Lord, and ask that you be with
your people that are sick, that you would heal them, and help
them, and keep us, Lord. It's in Christ's name we pray,
amen.