To view online, we now have the
phone plugged in so that way it won't die in between services. Yeah, I think we have another minute.
I'm not sure. I think wearing a watch or something
like that when I come on Sundays will help. Yeah, it was really nice. It's good to meet Norm and Nancy. It was really a great message. It was really great, really powerful. We were blessed. It's really
encouraging. And I wish we could have heard him again, but I'll
try and get him from sermon audio. Yeah. I know. Yeah, that's so good. Hannah. Hannah. Hannah. Hannah. Okay, sit over here. Alright, brethren, we're going
to begin our first service and our text is Romans 11. Romans
11 and we're going to look at verses 7 through 12. What we'll see here in this passage
is that the blindness which has come upon the nation of Israel
is exactly according to the scriptures. The scriptures, our Lord foretold
of this in his scriptures. And so this darkness has come
upon Israel for their rejection of the Messiah. Now we know that
spiritually, all men are already in darkness and already blind
to the things of God, and being blind, they rejected the Messiah,
and because they rejected the Messiah, darkness had come upon
them even more so. And a good way to think about,
well, how is that possible? What do you mean? Well, not only
did Israel, as we'll see, not only did Israel reject the Messiah,
but further darkness came upon them in the fact that they not
only didn't want to hear it themselves, but they didn't want the Gentiles
to hear it either. That's what I mean by further
darkness came upon them. You can see this wickedness. They didn't want it even to go
out to the Gentiles. They wanted that stopped as well.
And so we see that, but In all that, the Lord is showing us
here in Romans 11 that it's His design and purpose. It's according
to the design and purpose of God because the effect was that
with the Jews rejecting the Messiah and trying to stop it and persecuting
the church, it actually pushed the Gospel out to the Lord's
elect among the nations. It did actually flow out to the
Gentiles, and what we'll see, what I see that the Scriptures
are teaching us here in Romans 11, is that the salvation of
God by grace will return to the Jews. It will return to the Jews,
and then the Lord will come again. Then he'll return again right
there at that end. That's what I see in the Scriptures. That being said, however, we
must understand that the salvation that is coming to the Jews is
according to the election of grace. Don't ever forget that. Paul's been showing that so clearly
to us that salvation is by grace and it comes to the remnant according
to the election of grace. It's not the way man's religion
is popularly teaching salvation to the Jews, that just because
they're of the natural descendants of Abraham, that that's why they're
going to be saved. No, that's not what the Scriptures
are teaching here at all. It's not what Paul's saying.
He's just saying that there's a purpose that God has in blinding
the Jews, that the gospel would go out, and then in His glorious
power, as it pleases Him, He'll return it right back at the end
and salvation will come to the remnant that are of that nation,
the natural nation of Israel, the natural for Jews, I should
say. Alright? There's only one salvation. That salvation is Jesus Christ.
There's not two. forms of salvation. There's not
two ways to God or many ways. There's one way, and that way
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God saves all his saints
by grace shown to sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay,
that's not changing at all. Alright, so I've titled this
Stumbled but Not Fallen. Stumbled but Not Fallen. And first, we're going to look
at this seeking for righteousness here. In verse 7, we looked at
this a little bit last time, but I want to return back to
verse 7. And Paul asks, what then? And he says, he answers
it, Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. Israel's
not obtained that which he seeketh for. Well, what is Israel seeking
for? Well, we know that Israel they
were seeking for the acknowledgement of God, for God to justify them,
for holy God to say, you are righteous, well done, justify,
you are holy even as I am holy, you are righteous even as I am
righteous. And they understood that they
had to be righteous in order for God to justify them. That's
correct. We must be righteous if God's
going to justify us. The problem is they sought their
righteousness by yoking themselves with the law. They thought that
the law of Moses, in keeping the ceremonies and the law of
Moses, that that was their righteousness. and not faith which looks to
Jesus Christ. They thought that their righteousness
was in their works under the law. And so we see in Romans
9, look at Romans 9 verse 31, He says, but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, that's not the law of Moses,
but rather they understood that the law of righteousness says,
if you are righteous, God will justify you. If you are righteous,
God will justify you. But they've not attained to the
law of righteousness. They didn't hear God say, you're
justified. Why not? Verse 32. Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. And so that's not the righteousness
that God accepts. He doesn't accept us because
we're religious people. He doesn't accept us because
we partake in religious practices and judge others and justify
ourselves by what we say and do. That's not the righteousness
of God. That's all part of the false
idols that man makes up in religion to justify himself and quiet
his screaming conscience. That's what man is looking to. I like how Hebrews 10.4 sums
up the religion of man, which says, for it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. And you can apply that to anything
in religion that you're hoping in. It is not possible that getting
your name on a membership role in a church will take away your
sins. It's not possible that working
in a soup kitchen will take away sins. It's not possible that
being baptized as a believer will take away your sins. It's
not possible that being sprinkled as a baby will take away your
sins. It's not possible that because
I'm the preacher, it's going to take away my sins. Or that
being the preacher's wife will take away her sins. Right? It's not possible. It doesn't
matter what we do in religion, that takes away our sins. Just like it's not possible for
the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. There's only
one who takes away sins, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. Only He removes the stain and
the guilt of sin of His people. And so, what we have is the Lord's
revealing to us that man is utterly corrupt and dead in trespasses
and sins, even being fully religious, wildly, zealously religious,
he's dead in trespasses and sins and has no spiritual understanding
unless the Father has mercy and gives us of His Spirit and reveals
Christ in us, reveals faith in us, looking alone to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so Israel stands as an example
of a people that had many great outward benefits and understood
a lot of things of how they were to approach God and come before
him. But being overcome with darkness,
full of sin and death, enmity being in their very own hearts,
we're told that in Romans 10.3, they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And so we see this blindness
which has come upon natural, national Israel. And they continue in that darkness
and in that blindness to this day. And so they persecuted the
true worshippers of God, those who worshiped God by faith. They
persecuted them. And there remains, however, a
remnant, a remnant of the people of God, right? And so we see,
just looking at Romans 11, in verse 2, Paul tells us that God hath not
cast away his people, which he foreknew. That's how God saves his people.
He knew them, he loved them, and predestinated them, and called
them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse seven, Romans 11,
seven. But the election hath obtained
it, and the rest were blind. The election obtained it and
the rest were blinded. And then Romans 11 5, even so
then at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of greats. So don't forget that this is
how God saves. He has a people whom he foreknew,
and he predestinated them, and he calls them by his gospel,
by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't let that be lost in this,
because there are some verses here that we come up to where
People forget that. And they just think, oh, well,
Paul's saying that because they're Jews, they're going to be saved,
just because they're descendants of Abraham. And that's not what
Paul's saying. He never, don't lose sight of
that it's all by the election of grace. There's a remnant according
to the election of grace. And so that's what we're talking
about. All right, so let's look at this there in verse 7, where
it says, the election hath obtained it. And I want to specifically
look at the rest were blinded. The rest were blinded. So Paul
showed us that there was a remnant in his day, just as God always
had a remnant in Israel, a people for himself. And he makes this
point to say, there's a remnant, but all the rest were blinded. And then he proceeds to show
us that this is according to the scriptures. Now, the word
blinded there means hardened. They were made insensitive. They
were hard-hearted, they were blind to the things of God, and
they didn't understand them. And so, their eyes became dull,
and they couldn't see clearly. They couldn't see the simplicity
of the grace of God that He revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Here
they had some of the greatest preachers ever to walk the face
of the earth. And these men were raised up
faithful, faithful believers of Christ and faithful preachers
of Christ, who spoke the plainness of God simply to them, and yet
they would not hear it. they rejected the truth of God
because of the blindness that was over them. And so they refused
the gospel. And even when you sit in a service
and you hear a message and you know there's an unbeliever there
and you wonder, how is it that they could hear such glorious
truths so plainly and simply preached and yet refuse to hear
what God is saying. How is such a thing possible? But we know that such a thing
is possible because it's a spiritual matter. The Lord by His Spirit
has to reveal it to us and give us life to behold and to receive
and believe His Word in Christ. And so it's blindness. They had
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They didn't see that He Himself
is the Son of God speaking to them. And so no wonder that they
don't see Jesus in us or in the Word that we preach, except the
Spirit give it to His people. And when you think of Paul, when
the Lord saved Paul and revealed himself to Paul, we're told in
Acts 9 18, that immediately there fell from his eyes as it had
been scales. Scales. And he received sight
forthwith and arose and was baptized. And that's a picture. It's just
showing that we, by nature, have scales like a dragon that no
human sword can pierce the armor of that dragon. We're just in
blindness under the prince of the power of the air. We're just
another darkness until the spirit, the sword of the spirit of Christ,
the word of God, pierces that armor and removes those scales,
taking away the blindness and enabling us to behold and see
that Christ is our salvation. And so in verse 8, Paul draws
from the Old Testament and he packs in, there are a number
of scriptures which prophesy of this time here in the Gospel. And so he says in verse 8, it's
according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of
slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should
not hear unto this day. And so this is pulling from scriptures
in the Old Testament. For example, I'm not going to
read them all, but Deuteronomy 29 verse 4 says, Yet the Lord
hath not given you in heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and
ears to hear unto this day. And again in Isaiah 29 verse
10, for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep
sleep, and hath closed your eyes. The prophets and your rulers,
the seers, hath he covered. And in one sense, for some it's
that their prophets, their preachers, those that are speaking to them
in the churches, they're blind and aren't even declaring the
truth. And then there's others who are sitting under the truth
where the truth is being preached and yet they're blind so they
can't even perceive and understand the truth of God and what he's
saying. So all manner of people are under
this blindness and the Lord not allowing them to see the truth.
And this pattern is throughout. the history of Israel. All of
Israel has gone through this pattern. And yet, these words
here spoken, they were prophesying specifically, especially to the
time of the apostolic age, the gospel time when the gospels
began to be preached in the name of Jesus Christ, in the the mystery
of God being unmasked, revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, I mean, all of history you see
it, but there was never a time like there was in Israel when
they had the very Son of God. speaking to them, doing good
before them, working miracles that no man had ever seen. And
yet they took him and they crucified him, putting him to an open shame,
a death as though he were a criminal. And that's what the wickedness
and the hardness of man will do. To take he who is perfection
and holy and righteous and only did good to them and only spoke
the truth to them and they killed him for it. They wanted nothing
to do with them. And so then Paul in verses 9
and 10, Romans 11, 9 and 10, he's quoting from Psalm 69. And the psalm, you can see when
you read it, it's all of Christ. It's all Christ speaking. It's
all concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, as the scriptures are,
but it's so plain in Psalm 69. And so he says, and David saith,
let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block
and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that
they may not see and bow down their back always. And so this
is Christ praying against his enemies, enemies of the gospel,
enemies of the truth, who are not that remnant according to
the election of grace. Part of those who are of the
rest that were blinded and remained in that blindness and that death. there. So that word stumbling
block jumps out at me, verse 9, and I'm sure it does to you
because that's what the Jews did. They stumbled over that
stumbling stone. They stumbled over Christ. whereby any one who believes
on Christ shall be saved. Any who believes Christ, looking
to Him for righteousness, they shall receive remission, forgiveness
of sins, deliverance from the wrath of God. they shall never
be ashamed. But those who refuse and trust
in their own works of righteousness, they shall be ashamed. And so they stumbled because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works
of the law. And we see that there. in Romans 9, 32 and 33 where
Paul says, they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it's written,
behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And so, they stumbled over Christ,
even though they were a nation that outwardly had many blessings. They had the prophets, and the
law, and the revelation of God through His very word, and the
Messiah came to them. And yet, it all proved to be
a curse to those who had no ear to hear it, and had no eye to
see it, and no heart to believe it. It was just a curse to them. All right? So this is our last
point here. Does their stumble mean a complete
and utter fall forever? Is it a complete and utter fall
forever for the whole nation? All right? Well, look at verse
11. Are they eternally now cut off
for the rest of their history? Are they eternally cut off? Well,
Paul says in verse 11, I say that. I say that. Well, wait
a minute. We've heard those three words
before. Look at verse 1. In Romans 11, 1, he said, I say
that. Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. So Paul, we saw the
last time we were here, Paul showed that God's rejection of
the nation of Israel was not every single individual, right? He had an election a remnant
according to the election of grace as was Paul. Paul was an example. All the
apostles were examples that God had a remnant according to the
election of grace. So God hadn't cast off every
single individual Jew, every single one, but he had a people
still there. He still had a people there,
and so we see how Paul worded it there. No, God hasn't cast
off His people, that is, every single person, just because they're
a Jew. And in the same logic, the same
force, He says in verse 11 now, I say then, have they stumbled,
have they sinned so that they should fall, that is, be utterly
ruined, the whole lot of them be utterly ruined. God forbid. Now you see why I say what I'm
saying? He's saying the same thing. God
forbid they haven't all been so utterly lost as a nation that
there's no hope for them. Don't even bother preaching the
gospel to them because there's no hope. No, that's not what
he's saying. He says, God forbid, but rather,
and here's the blessing that we see, through their fall, through
their sin and stumbling, salvation is come unto the Gentiles for
to provoke them to jealousy, right? Not to jealousy and leave
them there in utter darkness for the rest of mankind, but
rather to provoke them to jealousy because there's a people, a remnant
that he's going to save at some point when they are made jealous
and brought to see, oh, Christ is the Messiah sent of God. I don't know who that is, when
that is, but we just preach the gospel of Christ faithfully knowing
that he's going to save his remnant and it looks as though at some
point there will even be some Jews who will hear and and being
that remnant according to the lesson of grace are going to
hear and believe and be brought out of this darkness and and
and delivered from this fall all right so The nation isn't
eternally ruined, meaning that just because you're a child of
Abraham, you're now cut off forever. It wasn't the case with Paul
and the apostles and early believers. And there's no reason for us
to believe that that's how it's always going to be, even though
what we see now, they're just utterly dead in darkness and
don't believe the Christ. But we do. It's the time of the
Gentiles. We hear and believe the truth of God. All right,
so verse 11, rather than it being for a forever fall, Paul says,
rather through their fall, salvation is coming to the Gentiles, for
to provoke them to jealousy. So what the Lord is doing in
his wisdom, when you just step back and look what he was doing,
and you see some of these scriptures that we're gonna look at, in
order to send forth the simplicity of the gospel, right, to keep
the gospel pure and without being tainted with all manner of ceremony
and religious nonsense and junk. he blinded the Jews. He blinded
the Jews so that it didn't get corrupted and polluted, but that
it would go forth in power with utter simplicity. He was purifying,
he was cleansing that gospel word and removing away all the
ceremony and the stuff that people were stumbling over in religion. As we see, it began with Stephen
being stoned. right? Their stumbling is an
occasion to facilitate that gospel flowing out freely. And beginning
with Stephen at his stoning, we're told there in Acts 8 verse
1, Acts 8 verse 1, So this is after Stephen was stoned. At
that time, there was a great persecution against the church,
which was at Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad throughout
the regions of Judea and Samaria. Now verse four, therefore they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
So God used, he began by having them, the Jews hating the word
so much that they persecuted the believers and it pushed that
gospel out from Jerusalem, out into the rest of Judea and into
Samaria. And everywhere they went, having
the spirit, they were faithfully preaching the gospel word to
all who would listen. All right, then over in Acts
13, go to Acts 13, and let's pick up in verse 44. This is
where Paul and Barnabas are preaching to the Jews in Antioch in Pisidia,
or Pisidia, I guess it is, in Antioch there. And so they're
preaching to the Jews in the synagogue, and they're preaching
the gospel. But the Gentiles, or the proselytes, who converted
from their false religion into being Jews, and being circumcised,
and practicing the baptisms of couches, and things, and all
this stuff, and all their tithing of men, and all caught up in
this religion here, they're hearing the simplicity of Christ, and
they're saying, we want to hear more of this. And it says in
verse 44, The next Sabbath day came, and when it came, the whole
city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews
saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against
those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. When it was just to them, they
were okay to just kinda go along and listen to it for a while.
But now they're seeing God gathering together this whole multitude
of Gentiles who were listening. Then, because they were now contradicting
and blaspheming what Paul and Barnabas were saying, Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you. but seeing ye
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life, believed." Alright, so we see how the Lord did this,
and so even those Jews that professed faith in Christ, what did they
do when Peter came back from preaching to Cornelius and having
baptized Cornelius and a household of Gentiles? What did they do?
They were upset with him, right? They met him when he came up
to Jerusalem, and they that were of the circumcision contended
with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and didst
eat with them. They weren't happy about this
word going out to the Gentiles. And if you notice, it was the
circumcision that contended with them. Those people that professed
to believe Christ, but were all weighed down with that ceremony
of religion. And that's exactly what would
have happened with the Gentiles. They would have been weighed
down with this, oh, wait a minute, you've got to be circumcised
now, and you've got to do this now, and think about it. As that
gospel was flowing out, it would have hit this slew of despond,
this big mud puddle, and would have just slowed down, and people
would have said, wait a minute, I don't know if I want to be
part of that. Like, I got to do all this now
and get all involved in this religion and whatnot just to
believe, just to hope in Christ. What happened to faith? And so
it was getting all buried and so you can see how the Lord was
just stripping it down. Blindness came upon them and
they had no part in Christ. Now, I mean, the thing that I
see now is that for 2,000 years, what happened? The simplicity
of the gospel went out, and then man got hold of it and immediately
started putting on all kinds of religion and creating whole
sects of churches where they're just loaded down with religion. and stuff just like the Jews
were doing. They have a whole priesthood, and there's all kinds
of sacrifices going on, and candles, and statues, and stations, and
all these things you gotta do and partake of just to be considered
a Christian, right? The simplicity's gone, which
tells me, at some point, The Gentiles are just going to be,
that time's going to end and they're going to be left in darkness
except for a remnant according to the election of grace. And
that's when I would see, going back to the Jews, who will hear
just that simple message. Because the rest of it's just
no different than what they were in anyway. It's just circumcision
of another nature. It's just another cutting of
the flesh. And they'll see that's not the truth. And they'll hear
the simplicity of the gospel and believe on Christ. I'll just read you 1 Thessalonians
2, 14 through 16. You can see it again. Paul said,
for ye brethren became followers of the churches of God which
are in Judea, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. Not that
concision church, but those that are in Christ Jesus. You're following
them who are following the simplicity of the gospel. For ye also have
suffered like things of your own countrymen even as they have
of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own
prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God,
and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins
always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."
And so we see they were jealous. They didn't want to believe it
or hear it, but they certainly didn't want the Gentiles. to
hear it and believe it either. And so the Lord's saying, I'm
provoking them to jealousy. They're going to see what I'm
doing. I'm sending that word out in simplicity to the Gentiles,
the younger brother, the new man. I'm going to put it out
there. They're going to be jealous and angry. And then when it's
my appointed time, I'll bring that word back to them. grace
and in spirit and power and save them out and then the end will
come but it's not because they're they're sons of Abraham but because
they must be of the remnant of the remnant according to the
election of grace and so that's what I see here and I'll just
close with verse 12 Romans 11 12 and Now if the fall of them
be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, or that
small number who believe be the riches of the Gentiles, how much
more their falls." See, so that's why I say what I said. It sounds to me like there will
be a return in simplicity that they'll hear and believe there
at the end when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. And so
I pray the Lord will bless that and to your hearts and not to
delight in the natural nation of Israel, but to delight in
our God who saves by the simplicity of Christ. So I pray you bless
that word to your heart. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace to us. Lord,
we pray and ask that you would Keep your words simple to our
hearts that you would exalt Christ and strip away the ceremony and
religion of man and make us to see that our hope of righteousness
is found in none other but Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask that you
would bless this word to our hearts and bless your people
this day. We ask that your spirit be upon
us and with us, help us to hear, and especially, Lord, help us
to believe and trust in none other but Jesus Christ, your
salvation. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren. So we'll be dismissed for until
about 11.03, we'll come back and get started, 11.03. I'm gonna shut off the phone,
but then turn it right back on, so just refresh if you're on
Facebook, just refresh it, welcome these people here. Okay.