Immediately after graduating
from high school, I started in college. I didn't wait for the
fall semester. I started in summer school and
I attended two of the most reputable, well-known, fundamentalist Bible
colleges in the nation. Both of them were very strongly
dispensational, premillennial schools. Now, if you don't know
what that means, you're just as well off not knowing. But
our textbook for theology really was the Schofield Reference Bible.
Not this old school field, but the new one. As our theology
professor would often say, they tightened up the loopholes in
the new school field to make the argument for dispensational
premillennial theology more acceptable and more airtight case for it. And it was argued in every class
all the time I was in school. The teaching was that the Lord
Jesus came into this world to be a king in Israel and to sit
on a throne in Palestine and make the Jewish nation his kingdom
by which he would rule over all the world. But the Jews wouldn't
have it. That was plan A. And so since
the Jews wouldn't accept him as their king, God went to plan
B. In plan B, he would allow the
Jews to crucify his son and he would send the gospel to the
Gentiles and then the Christ would come again before the tribulation
secretly and rapture his church out of the tribulation and there
would be seven years of great tribulation and the Jews as a
nation would turn back to God and Christ would come again publicly
and establish a thousand year reign and all the nation of Israel
would be saved. That was a doctrine stressed
so commonly, so forcefully by men who hated the gospel of God's
free grace that even as a young man, 18 years old, I understood
that can't be right. That can't be right. Well, what
do the scriptures teach concerning those things? What is God's purpose
for the Jews? Romans chapter 11 tells us plainly. Romans chapter 11. The title
of my message is God's Purpose for the Jew and for You. Our text will be the 11th chapter
of the Gospel of Romans. I want you to just hold your
Bibles open at Romans 11 and I'll show you God's purpose for
the Jew and for you as it is plainly spelled out for us in
these 36 verses. Paul has been telling us about
God's great, eternal, sovereign purpose of grace through Romans
chapters eight, nine, and 10. He continues with the very same
subject here in chapter 11. He is showing us God's purpose
of grace as it involves all men. Jews and Gentiles elect and reprobate
in all ages in all parts of the world throughout all the course
of history. Romans chapter 8 tells us about
assured grace. Romans 9 tells us about sovereign
grace. Romans 10 tells us about free
grace. Romans 11 tells us about purposed
grace. God's purpose of grace in predestination
and God's purpose of grace in providence are one. That which
God purposed in eternal predestination is exactly what God is accomplishing
in day by day providence. Providence is but the execution,
the outworking of divine predestination. Now knowing as he did, that election
and predestination are matters of divine revelation, which always
are horribly offensive to carnal men. Proud man hates the idea
of God being God. Proud religious men hate it more
than anybody. So Paul continues in this 11th
chapter by the inspiration of God the Holy Ghost to drive this
nail firmly so as to fix it in our minds. May God the Holy Ghost,
whose word we have before us, fix it in our hearts. God's purpose
of grace is sure. God's purpose of grace is sure
God Almighty never has to switch from plan a to plan B God Almighty
never has to change purposes God's purpose of grace is sure
it is being fulfilled today as always in the Jew in you and
In me, in all men, in all things, exactly according to schedule. Now let me show you that in these
36 verses of Holy Scripture. God's purpose for the Jew and
for you, as is given to us in Romans 11, involves these five
things. In verses 1 through 10, the grace
of God. In verses 11 through 18, the
grafting of God. In verses 19 through 24, the
goodness and severity of God. In verses 25 through 32, the
immutability of God. And in verses 33 through 36,
the glory of God. Now let's look at these five
things briefly as we just scan these 36 verses. First, God's
purpose of grace, of course, involves the grace of God. This chapter opens with a question. which Paul answers forcefully. And when Paul raises a question,
he always answers it forcefully. This was his normal way of reasoning
with men. When he was about to assert some
momentous point of gospel doctrine, he very commonly raised a question
which he knew men hearing him. He knew men to whom he was writing. By nature, being rebels would
raise taveling objections. And he raised the question and
answers the question dogmatically. Look at verse one. I say then,
hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. this
man Paul never soft-pedaled gospel doctrine to keep from offending
men who are offended by God. He never soft-pedaled truth to
keep from offending men who are offended by the God of truth.
Rather, he confronted God's enemies head-on. Gospel preaching is
always confrontational. I can't tell you how many times
I have been told in the past 50 years, Don, don't you know
you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar?
And my response has been for 50 years, I'm not in the business
of catching flies. My business is the glory of God,
the gospel of God and the souls of men. And the way you deal
with God's enemies is to confront them head on with God's truth. You don't coddle folks and try
to get them to somehow or another come to agree with you and your
doctrine. You confront folks who hate God
and demand that they bow to God's revelation. You will be saved
when you bow to God not before. You may become a Calvinist, you
may become Reformed, you may become a Papist, you may become
a Methodist, you may become a Baptist, you may become a Presbyterian,
you may become an Arminian by argument and persuasion, but
you'll come to know God when you bow to God's revelation in
his word. So gospel preaching is always
confrontation. Those two words, God forbid,
expressed Paul's abhorrence of man's ridiculous objections to
God's sovereign purpose. God's sovereign purpose in casting
off the nation of Israel and thereby sending the gospel to
the Gentiles was not for the destruction of his chosen, but
for the certain absolute preservation and salvation of his chosen.
Though he cast away the physical nation of Israel, he did not
cast them all away. There are some Jews, like Paul
himself, who are Israelites indeed. Some of the physical nation of
Israel, who are of the spiritual nation of Israel, the Israel
of God, a part of that holy nation God chose to salvation before
the world began, an elect remnant who must and shall be saved.
These elect ones are God's true Israel, Abraham's true seed,
God's covenant people. Brother Todd and I were talking
about this at some length earlier this week. And I said to him,
or he to me, I forgot which it was, but both in agreement, the
nation of Israel, that physical political nation, existed only
as a type and a representation of God's church in the Old Testament
Scriptures. That's the only way they're used
in the Old Testament Scriptures, as a type and a picture of God's
church. They are used to preserve the
Word of God and the truth of God in their generation. And
they were used by God to be the instrument through which Christ
would come into this world. But it was never, never, never,
never God's intention to save Jews alone. And he made that
perfectly clear in all the Old Testament scriptures. Those who
are Abraham's spiritual seed, Abraham's spiritual people, Abraham's
spiritual sons and daughters, Abraham's sons and daughters
of promise, these are God's Israel. These are God's elect. These are God's covenant people.
These are the people the Lord Jesus Christ came to save from
their sins and they can never be cast away. They must and shall
be saved. This is the whole of Paul's doctrine
in Romans chapter 11. Every one of those given to Christ
before the world began was being gathered out of all nations among
whom God has scattered them in this time world. That's why God
made the world. He made it that in it he might
gather Israel out of it to the praise of the glory of his grace
in Christ. Elijah, like you and me, lived
in a day of horrid apostasy. It appeared to God's prophet
Elijah that he alone knew God. believed God, worshiped God,
and served God. He said, Lord, take me out of
this world. There's nobody I preach to. The whole nation has gone a-whoring
after other gods. There's nobody who knows you
but me. And of course, the Lord spoke
to Elijah in those days of darkness, in those very worst of times,
in that horrible time of apostasy, when he didn't know anybody else
who knew God. Imagine that, imagine that. He didn't know anybody else who
knew God. The Lord spoke to him and said,
Elijah, I still have 7,000 men who've not bowed the knee to
Baal or kissed the ungodly will worship idol that men have made. And then he took him down and
there's a fellow named Elisha. And Elijah cast his mantle over
him and said, come with me. And Elisha said, let me go say
goodbye to mama and daddy. And he killed his oxen and sacrificed
them to God, burned his bridges behind him and took off after
God's prophet. Elijah found Elisha and found
out indeed there are many who know God that I don't know. So
it is in our day. Look in Romans chapter 11 and
verse two. God hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew. What ye not what the scripture
saith of Elias? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets and
dig down thine altars, and I'm left alone, and they seek my
life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. I repeat, as it was
in Elijah's day, so it is in our day. God has many more people
in this world than the few that we know. many more who are already
gathered to Christ and many more perhaps who must yet be gathered
by His omnipotent grace unto Him. Our Savior said concerning
the Jewish fold standing before Him, that is the believers already
gathered out of the nation of Israel, He said, other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. There are many
described in verse five as a remnant according to the election of
grace. Even so, at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. I rarely ever look at the stats
page on the web pages that Brother Larry maintains. I don't need
to be reminded of the stats and I try not to look at them. But
occasionally I have someone ask me a question and I have to go
look at them. Last week, I was astonished when
I looked at the report from the downloaded sermons. I was astonished,
I was astonished. In the month of July, there were
3,717 sermons downloaded off Free Grace Radio in Japan. God has his elect everywhere. Some called, some yet to be called. But don't ever imagine that God
has cast off or decided not to save any who be purposed to save
from eternity. Look at verse six. The inspired
writer seems never to miss an opportunity to say as he does
in verse six, salvation is of the Lord. It's by grace. If it's of works, then it's not
by grace. If it's of grace, then it's not
by works. Salvation is by the grace of
God alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. and works have absolutely
nothing to do with it before you're saved, in the process
of being saved, or after you're saved. Salvation is by grace
alone. But preacher, you can't say that. That'll cause folks to go out
and live like hell. Folks who wanna live like hell
gonna live like hell anyhow. I can say what God says. Salvation is by grace alone. Your good works, your contributions
have nothing to do with God's grace. It does not depend upon
you, not in the least. Look at verses seven through
10. Here Paul tells us that the casting away of national Israel
is exactly according to God's everlasting purpose of grace
toward his elect. He cast off that nation because
he purposed to do so from eternity. It is exactly according to the
revelation God had given to his prophets in the Old Testament
scriptures. Look at verse seven. What then? Israel, that is Israel as a whole,
as a whole nation, hath not obtained that which he seeketh after.
But the election, God's elect among the Jews, hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded. According as it is written in
Isaiah 29, verse 10, 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 David, that is the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we read in Psalm 69, two and three, said, let their
table be made a snare and a trap. and a stumbling block, and a
recompense unto them. The Lord Jesus, as he prays for
us, speaks concerning that nation who despised and rejected him,
and says, let their table, the table of showbread, be a snare,
and a stumbling block, and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened
that they may not see, and bow down their back always. If we
are saved, it's because of the grace of God and by the grace
of God. We're not saved by our deeds,
our birth, our works, or even our choice. But if we perish,
if we are at last cast off and reprobate, it is because like
Israel of old, we refuse to obey the gospel. Now here's the second
thing. God's purpose of grace involves
the grace of God. And second, it involves the grafting
of God, verses 11 through 18. God did not send blindness to
the Jews just to send blindness to the Jews. He did not send
darkness just to destroy them with darkness. He sent blindness
to them so that the light of the gospel might be sent to the
Gentiles to gather God's elect Christ's redeemed ones scattered
among the nations of the world. But even as he tells us this,
Paul reminds us that God will gather all the fullness of his
elect from Jews as well as Gentiles. Again, all God's elect must be
saved. All that Christ purchased with
his blood must be saved by his grace. That's the doctrine of
verses 11 through 16. I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? Did God put a stumbling block
in front of them just to kill them? Oh no, there's more to
it than that. God forbid, but rather through their fall, salvation
has come unto the Gentiles. You remember Paul said to Israel
when he preached to them and preached to them and preached
to them, they would not hear him. He says, I go to the Gentiles. God's cast you off. He destroyed
the nation in 70 AD, and Paul preached no more among them.
He's come to the Gentiles for to provoke them, the Jews, to
jealousy. Not jealousy in the sense of
a jealous lover, but jealousy in the sense of a fellow's just
mad, just angry. Verse 12, now if the fall of
them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the
riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness, For I speak
to you Gentiles in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify my office. If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of
them. 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? For if the first fruit, that
is Christ, he's the first fruit, be holy. The lump is also holy. That's God's elect, the church
of God. And if the root be holy, Christ,
so are the branches. Our Lord speaks of his people
as the branches in the true vine. God's servants, like the Apostle
Paul, magnify their office as gospel preachers. How do they
do that? They do it by preaching the gospel. They do it by preaching the gospel,
seeking the salvation of God's elect. It is a diminishing of
the office of any preacher to engage in anything else. God's
servants magnify their office by preaching the gospel. Salvation
is described here as a resurrection from the dead, as it is in Ezekiel
37, as it is in Ezekiel 16, as it is countless times in the
scriptures. This resurrection, called regeneration,
the new birth, is described in Revelation 20, verse six, as
the first resurrection. This first resurrection guarantees
our resurrection glory when Christ comes at the second advent. As
Christ the first fruit and root is holy, so his church the lump
and the branches is holy and shall be made perfectly holy
without sin in grace and in the resurrection glory. The Lord
Jesus Christ came to the nation of Israel and he presented himself
to them as the Christ of God. He came and declared himself
to be that one of whom the scriptures speak. The Jews, you'll remember
in John chapter 10, took up stones to stone him. And he said, for
what work do you stone me? For what good work have I done?
Or what evil work have I done that you stone me? And they said,
we don't stone you for any work, but because you, being a man,
declare yourself God. They understood exactly what
he was saying. They said, you are telling us that you're the
Christ of God. We'll kill you for that. Look
at John chapter one. John chapter one. Our Lord came
and declared himself to be the Christ
of God and the Jews rejected him. And thus the door was opened
for the gospel to go to the Gentile nations of the world by him. So that sinners might come to
God by faith in him. God set them aside that he might
save us. Exactly as he purposed from eternity
John 1 verse 11 he came unto his own to his own people and
His own received him not But as many as received him to them
gave he power the right the authority the might the ability to become
the sons of God even to them that believe on his name and
which were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man. They weren't born of God because
of who they were, because of who their parents were, because
of what they chose to do, but rather of God. And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. Mark, they despised him and rejected
him because they never saw his glory. You receive him and embrace
him because you've seen his glory. That's what the scriptures are
telling us. Paul's reasoning here is magnificent. He's saying
if the Jew being cast off can be an instrument to bring sinners
of the Gentiles to Christ, what might the salvation of the Jew
do? 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? I have a dear friend, Brother
Jerry Salzberg. He was up in Trenton, New Jersey.
He's in the church in Oakland. Pawka, Florida, where Brother
Greg Elmquist is pastor now, and has been for a number of
years. Jerry and his wife, Mary Ann, listened to me for some
time on his own radio up in the Northeast, and God was pleased
to save him. Jerry's a Jew. Outwardly and now inwardly. He's an Israelite indeed. a true
child of God, a true Jew. And he has been, since the day
God saved him, committed to the gospel of Christ, supporting
the work of the ministry around the world by which God uses him
to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Next, the apostle tells us that
we who are believing Gentiles have been grafted into one body
with the believing Jews because we've been grafted into Christ.
Look at verse 17. And if some of the branches be
broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, work graft in among
them, and with them partakest of the root, partakest of Christ,
and the fatness, Christ, of the olive tree. Boast not against
the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but
the root thee. For one tree to be grafted into
another, both trees have to be cut and then bound together. This is how we are grafted into
Christ. Our Lord Jesus was wounded for
our transgressions by the sword of divine justice. And we were
wounded in our hearts, slain by the Spirit of God. And God
the Holy Ghost comes in marvelous grace and binds us to him in
a living union. So that the one grafted into
the original stock draws life perpetually from the original
stock. Here's the third thing. God's
purpose of grace involves his grace. It involves his grafting.
and it involves both the goodness and the severity of God. Verses
19 through 24. You might be asking, Pastor,
what's the point of all this to us? You and I must constantly
be reminded that we might constantly remember that we're saved because
of pure, free, sovereign grace in Jesus Christ alone. We have
nothing to brag about, nothing to be proud of. We have no reason
to pat ourselves on the back and talk about what we've done
for the Lord. The fact is we've done nothing. We all deserve to go to hell,
but God. God intervened and saved us by
his grace. That's the reason we're not in
hell. That's why we're saved. It's all the work of God's grace. So if we glory, let us glory
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us glory in the empty
tomb. Let us glory in our resurrected
Redeemer. Let us glory in the propitiation,
promises, and power of our great God who loved us and gave himself
for us at Calvary, verse 19. Thou wilt say then the branches
were broken off that I might be grafted. Paul speaking now
to Gentile believers. Because, well, because of unbelief,
they were broken off. And thou standest by faith. Don't
be too cocky. Don't be proud. Be not high-minded, but fear. Be reverent. For if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. On them
which fail, severity, but toward thee, goodness. If thou continue
in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they
also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted.
for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou were cut
off out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were graft
contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall
these, which be the natural branches, the blood kin of the Lord Jesus,
be graft into their own olive tree. Now this is what Paul tells
us We'll come back to it another day, Lord willing. God can take
away the light we have. He can take it away from us just
like He took it away from Israel. And when God takes away the light,
blind men think they're teachers of light. The Jews have been in darkness,
utter darkness. utterly ignorant of God for 2,000
years. And they still think they're
the only ones who have any light. I've seen it happen in church
after church after church in my lifetime and in history. God
takes away the light and folks think they're the only ones who
have any. God can take away the light just as he took it away
from Israel. So let us walk in the light,
cherish the light, spend our lives carrying the light to the
rest of the world. If it's despised, it'll be taken
away. Behold then the goodness and
severity of God. Oh, what goodness that God sends
light to sinners like you and me. goodness. What goodness. Do you ever stop to consider
that in this country, in the United States of America, there
are huge cities, huge cities, huge cities with no light from
God. God's established light in your
presence. In this insignificant, out of
the nowhere, meaningless place, there are nations in this world,
whole nations, with no light, and God's given you the light.
Behold, the goodness of God. Behold the goodness of God. I recall whatever years ago it
was, Jim and Susan moved to this area. When they finally located
us through the internet or somebody telling them to stay away, I
forgot which it was, they finally found us. They told me on more
than one occasion they visited every Baptist church they could
find. Every one of them before they
got here. And you'll get them to tell you sometime about what
they saw. Folks in Baptist churches lighting candles like they were
attending a papist church. Thinking they got lights. And
then God said, you're here. Behold the goodness of God. and behold his severity. Light
despised, God'll take away. Light despised, God'll send somewhere
else. All right, here's the fourth
thing. God's purpose, God's purpose of grace involves the immutability
of God. Look at verses 25 through 32. In these verses, the immutability
of God assures us first that God's elect, Jew and Gentile,
the whole Israel of God shall be saved. Verse 25, for I would
not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery.
It's a mystery hidden from the world. lest ye be wise in your
own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel,
not everybody, most of them, but not everybody, the natural
Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles come in, that is
until all God's elect in the Gentile world are saved. And
so all Israel, all God's true Israel, all God's elect, all
the Israel of God shall be saved as it is written. There shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob from God's elect. But preacher,
how can you say that, verse 26, and so all Israel shall be saved? It's talking about God's elect
among the Gentiles. You've got just two choices. You got just
two choices. Either verse 26 declares that
every person born of Abraham's seed, Every person born of Abraham's
seed will be saved. That includes Ishmael, and Korah,
and Dathan, and Abiram, and Judas Iscariot, and the multitudes
who perished in the wilderness. All Israel shall be saved. Or
it's talking about somebody else. It's talking about somebody else.
It's talking about the Israel of God, a spiritual people, a
spiritual people. God's elect scattered among the
nations of the Gentile world. All of them are the fullness
of the Gentiles, which must be saved. This is what our Lord
Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three, that text of scripture
that everybody likes to quote when they want to defend women's
rights or queer rights or the right to do whatever they want
to do or want to argue against the gospel of God's grace. For
God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. I'm sure Nicodemus concluded
from that, God loves everybody in the world. Nicodemus was a well-taught Jew.
He understood his Bible better than that. He didn't understand
anything spiritual concerning things of God, but he knew full
well God didn't love everybody. If God loves everybody in the
world, I got news for you. He has a mighty strange way of
showing it. He has a mighty strange way of showing it. No, no. Nicodemus,
son, you need to learn something. You need to learn something.
God's purpose of grace is not limited to you and yours, just
to the Jews. God has a people called his elect,
the Israel of God, a holy nation. He will save out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. God's elect among the Jews must
be saved and God's elect among the Gentiles must be saved. When
all God's elect are saved, then all Israel shall be saved. All
God's elect are the Israel of God, the true seed of Abraham,
God's covenant people. God's immutability also assures
us. that the Lord God graciously
and wisely raised up Abraham, the physical seed, the Jews specifically
for the salvation of his spiritual seed, the Israel of God. And they have always served that
purpose and still do. Verse 28, God raised up the Jew
that he might be gracious to you who are Jews not outwardly
in the flesh, but inwardly in the spirit. As concerning the
gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. But as touching the
election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. Now look
at verse 29. The purpose of God never changes. It's never altered. It cannot
be hindered. God Almighty, now this comes
as a shock to most people. I know it does. I don't... Well,
I do know why it comes to shock, because they don't have any idea
who God is. Hear me now. God Almighty never changes His
mind about anything. He often appears to in Providence,
but God Almighty never changes His mind about anything. He says,
I am the Lord. I change not. the apostasy of
the nation of Israel, Abraham's physical seed, and God casting
them off in blindness that he might call out a people for himself
from the Gentiles might appear to the unbelieving mind that
God changed his mind, but that's not the case. He told the people
of old. By Moses, you can read it in
Romans 10, 19. By Hosea, you can read it in
Romans 9, 25 and 26. By Isaiah, Romans 9, 27 through
33. Again in chapter 10 and again
in Romans 11, eight. And he told it by David, Romans
11, verses nine through 11. God told the people of God, the
nation of Israel, by his prophets, by Moses, Hosea, Isaiah, and
David, that this elect people must be called out of all nations
because God's purpose is without repentance. God's promise is
without repentance. God's gifts of grace are without
repentance. God didn't give grace to Israel
as a nation. He gave opportunity to them.
God didn't give grace to Israel as a nation. He gave them the
light of his word and his prophets, but God didn't give grace except
to a chosen remnant in the nation. And God gives his grace to his
Israel wherever they're found in this world, out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and he never takes it away. God's
salvation is without repentance. God is not a man that he should
repent. Neither the son of man that he
should repent, or that he should lie, neither the son of man that
he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Here's a fourth thing, assured
to us by God's immutability. Our God's purpose in predestination,
regarding all things and all people, is his purpose of grace
toward his elect. The casting off of the Jews,
he used to send the gospel to the Gentiles, verse 30. And now
the Jews are saved by the Gentiles carrying the gospel to them,
verse 31. God shut the nation of Israel
up in unbelief that he might save all his elect, both from
among the Jews and from among the Gentiles, verse 32. Now let's
see if that's not exactly what it tells us. For as in time past
ye have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through
their unbelief. You mean the Jews not believing
caused the Gentiles to believe? Of course not. But the Jews not
believing sent the gospel to the Gentiles by which we believe. Verse 31, even so have these
also now not believed. that through your mercy, through
you carrying the gospel to them, they also may obtain mercy. Verse
32, for God hath concluded them, all the nation of Israel, in
unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all, all true Israelites,
Jew and Gentile, his elect. That's what Paul tells us in
Romans 8, 28 through 31. He says, he said, God does all
these things according to his purpose of grace for the saving
of his people whom he foreknew, whom he loved with an everlasting
love. In this present age, in this
time world, the Jew is the enemy of the gospel, the enemy of Christ,
and the enemy of God's church. But God's not forgotten about
them. He's not forgotten about his purpose for them. There is
still among them a remnant, according to the election of grace, who
must and shall be saved, who must yet obtain mercy. And so
all Israel shall be saved. Now if you still have one of
those Scofield reference Bibles with all of the heretical notes
written, there are more notes than there are verses of scripture
in it. But you will find that this is what they taught. The
Jews are lost now. When the Lord comes in the secret
rapture of the church, Bible never talks about that, but it's
invented by somebody, and they have a seven-year tribulation
period. Then after seven years of great tribulation, the time
of Jacob's trouble. That ain't talking about not
having corn and beans. That's not what it's talking
about. Time of Jacob's trouble, not talking about a seven-year
tribulation period. That's for another day. Then the Lord's
gonna come again. And you know what they say? This
is what they say. This is what they teach. When
they see Christ coming, then they'll all believe on Him. They
didn't the first time. What makes you think they will
the second time? Oh no, it is not seeing Christ with the physical
eye that saves anybody, but with the eye of faith that God gives
by the preaching of the gospel. And then the chapter concludes,
telling us that God's purpose of grace involves the greatness
and glory of our God, His greatness, His grace, and His glory. I'll
wrap it up just reading these verses. We'll come to them another
time. Will you read it with me? Verses 33 through 36, one of
the most blessed portions of scripture found in all the book
of inspiration. And let this be our benediction. the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out for who have known the mind
of the Lord or who have been his counselor or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him, and through
him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Now this is what I've got to
say to all that, and I hope you can too. Amen.