If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 11, Romans 11, and you can also follow
me in your bulletin. The outline is in your bulletin
as well. Romans chapter 11, as our elders
stated, there will be the Lord's table today for those who are
believers in Christ. You may partake if you have not
yet acknowledged him as sovereign Lord, please do not. We will
have our, Membership meeting at two o'clock precisely. It
won't be long and drawn out We would like for all members to
be there and it is a members only meeting Unless you are visiting
with friends and you are held hostage by their car then you
can join us Romans chapter 11 a wonderful wonderful place of
Contemplation. It's actually a transition that
the Apostle Paul is making from the heights and grandeurs of
theology relative to the gospel and his treaties as he has laid
it out over the last 10 chapters. And we saw last week that as
he opened up chapter 11, verses 1 through 11 of Romans, he gave
us a synopsis of the reason for which Israel failed as a nation
to obtain the righteousness that was always present with them
in pictures and patterns and in symbols and in types. That
they missed it because they pursued righteousness on the grounds
of their own performance and works, which pursuit in opposing
God's righteousness laid out in the person of Christ led them
to become persecutory or hostile towards the message of grace
which we drew out of that lesson two weeks ago and last week the
danger of one pursuing a right standing with God on the grounds
of your own personal obedience that you cannot hold simultaneously
in the one hand your own obedience and then the obedience of Christ
as being things that you can retain as a grounds for acceptance
with God. It's like two lovers. As Christ
said, you cannot love two masters. You cannot love the idea that
God will accept you on the grounds of what you do and then the idea
that God will accept you on the grounds of what Christ did. To
be a Christian is to be exclusively committed to the righteousness
of God in Christ alone. That's what it means to be a
Christian. To be a Christian is to be exclusively committed
to the full person and work of Jesus Christ as the grounds of
your acceptance before God. So that you never contemplate
your good works ever meriting favor with God as a standing
for justification. At the time that you do that,
you will begin to be hostile towards the gospel. And you will
oppose everyone who understands that the gospel is totally the
consequence of the grace of God alone. The reason why this short
narrative is needed is because Paul understood both in terms
of his awareness of the historical tenor of Israel in his opposition
to God's truth, killing the Lord Jesus, but Paul himself was also
an emissary of works religion opposing Christians everywhere
too. He understood that if we secretly
or privately hold to salvation by our performance, it will systematically
weed out any confidence in God's performance. And it will ultimately
lead to us persecuting those who are people of grace. Thus,
you have the themes running through scripture of Cain opposing who? Abel. Esau opposing who? And Ishmael opposing Isaac. And on and on through the scriptures,
the flesh opposing the spirit. And so we come to this grand
sort of finale of the apostle in Romans chapter 11 where he
knows that the Gentiles and the Gentiles are his audience as
we are his audience now. He knows that the Gentiles are
clearly privileged to be in the household of faith and to be
among the people of God and to be standing on grace, but he's
worried about the way they may begin to think and he's right.
See, there are three prideful things that you and I are always
trapped by. The pride of face, the pride
of race, and the pride of grace. We get trapped by how beautiful
we are. We still fighting over the superiority
of our ethnicity. And grace, though it ought not
to be, viewed as a thing to boast in, for you and I only stand
by grace. So when you properly understand
grace, you understand that there's no grounds for you and I to pop
our collars, or spread our peacock feathers, and act as if we're
better than anyone else. Because all grace is, is an access
to the mercy of God. And you and I are vessels of
mercy. Now because Paul knew that the Gentiles were no different
than the Jews naturally, we love taking what God gives us and
acting like he never gave it to us. As if we had it all along. As if we were uniquely qualified
to produce or possess such standards of righteousness. But he told
the Corinthian church and I tell you now, what do you have that
you didn't receive? And if you received it as a gift,
why are you boasting as if you didn't? Now, what's the reason
why I have to press this home is because Paul is going to shift
now the emphasis and weight of his argument Away from protecting
the Gentiles who were the object of the scorn of the Jews to now
protecting the Jews Of whom the Gentile church now is starting
to get a little bit hearty Because they see these stumbling and
error and fall of the Jews over and over again and you know You
and I can forget the pit from which we were dug and we can
forget the hole out of which God brought us And we can act
like we were never there But the moment you do that, you are
in danger. Now, what Paul does, which is
fascinating to me, I love Paul. He is my mentor after the Lord
Jesus Christ. He calls the attention of the
church at Rome to a purpose for which God allowed Israel to fall.
Now you and I do believe in purpose, right? We believe that nothing
happens by accident and everything is really shrouded in or undergirded
by God's purpose, right? So what he's doing now after
he affirms the fact that Israel has fallen, he's going to let
you and I know this, Israel's fall, they're stumbling. Their departure from the gospel
was in order that God would make room for you Gentiles to come
into the commonwealth of Israel. That's what he's saying. Their
fall is bad, it's horrible, it's awful, but God wasn't caught
by surprise, nor is this a plan B. I want to make sure you get
that. This is for my premillennial dispensational brethren. This
is not a plan B. This is a plan A. you will. Israel is like the big brother.
The Gentiles are like the little brother. They're both part of
the same family. The big brother gets to run the
show for a while but now he has to give way to little brother.
And by the way, little brother always seems to grow and be bigger
than big brother. Is that true? So in this context,
the Gentiles are large, the Jews are a little smaller. But the
real paradigm that I'm going to give you as a sort of Christocentric
interpretation is the relationship between Naomi and Ruth. Naomi is the Jewish church, Ruth
is the Gentile church. Both of them collaborate together
to produce a Boaz that leads to a Jesse that leads to a David
that leads to a Jesus. And so what Paul is teaching
is the harmony of the eternal covenant of grace that brings
the Gentiles into the blessings of the gospel so that there really
is no conflict. And certainly we are not talking
about two covenants, but one. as is the mystery that Paul taught
in Ephesians chapter 3. We'll get there in a moment.
But here's what Paul says in Romans chapter 11 that is so
critical for us to grasp that will help us contemplate the
title of our message and the burden of our message today.
He says in verse 11, I say then, have they stumbled that they
should fall? God forbid. but rather through
their fall is come unto the gentiles salvation come unto the gentiles
for to provoke them to what jealousy and then he says in verse 13
these interesting words in verse 14 13 and 14 for i speak to you
gentiles and as much as i am an apostle of the gentiles i
magnify my office Here's his reason if by any means I may
what provoke to emulation them which are of my flesh and might
save some This is why I love Paul because Paul was first and
foremost a lover of souls What I love about Paul was his primary
objective was going after the souls of sinners. I And here's
the title of our message derived from these two verses, verse
11 and verse 13 and 14. Do you have a gospel that makes
men jealous for God? Do you have a gospel that makes
men and women jealous for God? Does the God of your gospel so
manifest His glory in you and through you that it provokes
men and women to want to emulate your God. Does your gospel impact
men and women in a way that they want to come to know Christ?
Do you live out the gospel in a way that it makes lost sinners
jealous for your God? Isn't that good? Isn't that good? See, what he's talking about
at the heart of his topic right now is the gospel's power to
draw sinners to Christ. When men and women live the gospel
out like God is worthy of it. When he asks the question, when
we raise the question rather, does our God, our gospel provoke
men and women to jealousy? We're asking, does it have the
power of evangelism that it's designed to have? See, we're
really talking about evangelism. This is going to hurt some of
you today, I can already feel it. So before you take of the Lord's
table, repent. Because, you know, we actually think that the greatest
token and evidence of our gospel is that it offends people and
drives them away. And if that's what makes you
feel good and satisfies your soul, you are an anti-evangelical
Christian. If your gospel is such that all
it does is ever offend people and never causes a person to
inquire and to want to know and become interested in your God
and be drawn towards your Christ and be aware of their need of
your Christ, you have no evangelism in your gospel. None! and you and I are in trouble. The question then again deriving
from our text is does our gospel make anyone jealous? When someone comes to know that
you are a Christian because you say you are, does it make them
jealous? And what does it mean to make
someone jealous? To want what you have. To wanna
know what you have. to want to investigate what you
have to find out for themselves what is so attractive intriguing
alluring and needful about your gospel in fact this is the way
the gospel of john opens up and i won't take you through it i
will just share with you how powerful the evangelistic uh
manifestation of christ's glory was in john's gospel chapter
one and two as christ went forth preaching The disciples who were
part of john the baptist group saw christ because john the baptist
pointed said behold the lamb of god Which takes away the sin
of the world remember that and then all of a sudden andrew started
following christ And when he discovered that christ was the
christ of the scriptures, you know what he did. He ran back
and told peter He said, Peter, I think I found him. And then
Peter and Andrew went to see and then they ran back and guess
who they told? Nathaniel. And the next thing you know,
a track of brothers are coming to Christ because Christ's gospel
caused them to be jealous for what he had. That's what we're
talking about. That's what we're talking about.
Now, again, you may not be persuaded of this, but I certainly know
that the Apostle Paul is. Paul was one of whom the gospel
had come to him over many weeks and months and years, breaking
down all of his arguments, deconstructing all of his theological angst
against the person of Christ. And over time, as Christ even
told him in Acts chapter 9, Paul, it is hard for you to kick against
the gold. you're how on the one hand you're
trying to find a way to say now i don't believe that stuff i
don't like what he said i don't agree with what he said but your
soul is steadily moving towards it and that's the nature of evangelism
when it is operating under the power of the spirit to draw men
unto himself do we have a gospel to make one jealous when paul
says in verse 13 for i speak to you gentiles in as much as
I am an apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify my office. I make it
big. I make it big. I do everything
I can, he says, to augment my office to the Gentiles as God
had imposed that ministry to me so that if by any means I
might what? Provoke. Now we use that term
in the negative sense. But provoked to jealousy in our
context is actually one Greek word with a preposition and then
a verb. Parazolous. And it's the Greek
term that says to bring somebody alongside. Para is what we have
as a preposition to draw alongside of, like the word parable. When
he spoke a parable, he threw a parable alongside of his lesson. And the para means to come alongside
of. And this is why for the third
person, we call him the what? Paraclete. The paraclete is the
person that comes alongside of you and that individual calls
you and instructs you and teaches you in the gospel. Is that the
Holy Ghost job? To come alongside of you. And when you and I are
provoking people to jealousy, if we are, what's happening is
they're being drawn alongside of us. And as they're being drawn
alongside of us, something in our love for Christ, our desire
for Christ, our commitment to Christ, our devotion to Christ,
our knowledge of Christ begins to set them on fire. That's good, even though you
don't know it. Because to become zealous is
to be lit up for God. And that's what we ought to want
for everyone that we come in contact with. that they would
be drawn to us to listen to us and to be touched by the same
flame that you're touched by literally the term means to be
boiling over hot isn't that amazing to be boiling over hot i can
defend this statement that i'm making by the apostle paul being
the very tool that god used to bring the gentiles in Acts chapter
13 verses 46 through 48, Paul is preaching to the church, to
Jewish synagogues in the regions of Antioch, and the Jews are
opposing Paul, but the Gentiles are in that church, and the Gentiles
are hearing Paul explain the glories of Christ, and you know
what they say? Paul, we want to hear you. So
the next Sabbath day, all the Gentiles, the whole city comes
out to hear what the apostle has to say. Why? Because their
zeal for Christ is drawing those Gentiles to them. And while the
Jews were rejecting it, you know what the text says? The text
says the Gentiles were glad when they heard the message of redemption. And I'm simply saying that as
we are contemplating today's message, do we have a gospel
to make one jealous? Now, contentually, what the Apostle
Paul is actually desiring on the part of the Gentiles is for
them to understand this, that if they live the gospel outright,
God's larger objective as he closes out human history is to
draw elect Jews back to Christ through the obedience of the
Gentiles. Are you guys hearing me? To draw
elect jews as we learned last week god has an election according
to grace, right? And the rest fell away And so
this is paul's objective for the jews that the gentiles that
the gentiles would live out the gospel in such a way that it
would provoke God's elect among the Jews that they might be brought
in. Two more messages in Romans 11 after today, and we'll be
able to kind of tie this grand eschatological theology of Paul
around the final days and the consummation of the gospel age
up. But I want to call your attention
to five things briefly. The first is the apostles' larger
theses of Jew and Gentile under the same covenant. So we who
understand New Testament theology and understand Pauline theology,
we realize that Paul had no problem recognizing that from before
the foundation of the world, God had determined in purpose
to have a people for himself from every ethnic group, right?
He calls this a mystery that was hidden in times past. Ages
beyond Ephesians chapter 3 look at Ephesians 3 verse 8 and 9
This is what he calls a mystery and this is what he is embarking
upon here in our text as well this very mystery Once we read
this this is what I want you to understand as Gentile Christians
Relative to the mysteries of God Mysteries are not things
that can be comprehended with the human intellect Neither are
mysteries those pagan Gnostic sort of esoteric teachings that
can only be unraveled by someone with super knowledge That's a
flawed understanding of mystery Mystery is God's unrevealed revelation
Revealed at a specific time by his sovereign hand so that those
who are caught into that mystery Might understand it. Did you
guys get that? In other words, a revelation of biblical mysteries
is the work of God, not the work of man. And while as yet a mystery
is not revealed, no one understands it. I don't care how knowledgeable
you are or privileged as a position. He says in verse 8, unto me who
am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable what? And again,
when you think about Paul's love and passion and intimacy of Christ,
that adjective he uses everywhere. The riches of Christ. It's something
that the Christian really needs to get to know. Because I think
we're poverty stricken when it comes to the riches of Christ.
I really do. But Paul talks about it a lot. He's going to talk
about it in his text as he argues that these riches have come to
you Gentiles. But look at verse 9. and to make
all men see. This is Paul's ministry. He says,
God has called me to make all men see what is the fellowship.
That's our Greek term, koineia, from which we get communion and
association, our common gathering. What is the fellowship of the
what? Mystery, which from the beginning of the world have been
hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Wonderful. This
is exactly what I was saying to you earlier. A mystery is
hid in God. And the only time that it can
be understood is when God reveals it. verse ten here it is look
at verse ten that to the intent the principalities and powers
in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold
wisdom of god look then up i went i went further than i want to
going back to ephesians three verse 5 and 6 this is where I
want you to see the Connection that Paul makes he says over
in verse 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men this mystery as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit verse 6 that the Gentiles should be
what fellow heirs and of the same what and partakers of the
promise in Christ by the what and Okay, so when you lift verse
6 out, here's what it says about the Gentiles. That the Gentiles
are actually fellow heirs. You know what that means? Equal
status. That they are partakers of the
same body. That means they are ontologically
the same. that they have been made to be
part of the blessed promises of Christ by the gospel now you
guys know that Paul has already treated this reality of the equality
of Jews and Gentiles in Romans our Ephesians chapter 2 right
when he says that God has broken down the middle wall of partition
and he has made of one man made of the two one new man even in
Christ so making peace that the Gentiles and that the Jews are
one in the person of Christ now follow this They are so one in
the person of Christ that you and I ought not to be thinking
that there is a distinction between Jew and Gentile in the church
of the living God. Or that God has a special plan
for the Jews over there. But here is the reality that
the gospel which has brought to pass immortality and life
through Christ is the final covenant manifestation of both Jew and
Gentile. What Paul is saying is this was
a mystery that you couldn't see in the Old Testament. Unless
you do what we do in the 21st century Read the gospel back
into the Old Testament and see how the Gentiles were always
in that line All the way up to Jesus. Am I telling the truth?
But the Jews couldn't see it at the time that it was unpacking
for us We know that God was always inserting Gentiles into the body
politic of Israel from the beginning. Is that true? Moses his wife
was a Gentile Joseph's wife was a Gentile Daddy Abraham was a
Gentile. Daddy Isaac, Daddy Jacob, they
were all Gentiles. So the Jew-Gentile mix has always
been the mystery in the Old Testament. Am I making some sense? But the
Jews lifting up their ethnicity, I told you three prides, right?
Pride of race, pride of faith, and pride of grace. Lifting up
their ethnicity, want to make their ethnic group superior to
any others, when in reality, They are an admixture of Jews
and Gentiles just like you are. I said this in the Friday study
a couple of weeks ago. The distinct races of which we
have built volumes and anthems and we do studies on and you
can get degrees in ethnic studies as if somehow there are real
categories to our ethnicity is nothing but a synthetic myth.
It is a superficial fallacy to assert that you and I are different. We are all the same people. One blood has got made of all
nations. So the external distinctions
that you see have no real bearing on your nature or your destiny. Why do we love to make such differences
out of our ethnicity? Stupid. Yes. And this is where the gospel
offends us. This is where the gospel offends
us. Because when Christ came, he let his Jewish brethren know,
you're not superior to the Gentiles. There's one shepherd, there's
one foal, and I've got sheep from both sides and they must
be brought in. And I'll rule over them. And the Jews hated
him for that. And so we're fighting over that
mess today. But if you're going to be a purveyor of the gospel
of the grace of God, you've got to learn how to rise above your
ethnicity. You don't have to deny it. Whatever
it's worth, hold on to it. If you can retire with some of
the money, do so. You can have some influences on a local level,
fine. But understand, understand, it
will not get you in the glory. So Paul's theology in Romans
11 is to help the Gentiles understand the reason for which the Jews
are acting the way they do is because they don't understand
this mystery. That Christ is the center and core and foundation
of the unity of all people groups in him. But this is the most
offensive message in our world because we love keeping people
deceived by lies and buying into superficial distinctions to make
us feel good. They only create grounds of opposition
and fights don't they? He had all the time So then under
our first point so we can quickly move on the apostles larger theses
of jew and gentile under the same covenant seen in ephesians
chapter 2 8 3 8 9 2 11 through 19 is what paul is uh dealing
with in romans chapter 11 verses 25 a and 25 26 a go back there
romans 11 25 8 25 26 here's what he says in Romans
11 25 a listen to this. This is amazing for I would not
brethren that you should be ignorant of this What there is so what
I'm treating right now for your mind in mind in this Western
culture is the need for us to understand this mystery as the
reason for why God is doing what he's doing redemptively lest
you should be wise in your own what I that blindness in part
has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. Don't think you know what that means yet. Don't think
you know what that means yet. Wait till we get there. Somebody
has already sold you a bunch of books and DVDs and CDs that
I promise you are flawed. What I want you to consider is
25a. For I would not, brethren, have you to be ignorant of the
what? Mystery. and then 26a, and so
all Israel shall be saved as it is written. So Paul understands
a conclusio. He sees a conclusion to the Israel
of God. He sees that a certain point
all of Israel will be saved. He knows that all of Israel is
a combination of every ethnic group who are the Israel of God.
He knows that. He knows that what God is doing
and has been doing for the last 2,000 years bringing in the Gentiles,
but he's also been bringing in Jews, has he not? And that he's
going to have as an eclectic whole a body of believers called
the New Jerusalem, made of both of Jews and Gentiles. So all
Israel shall be what? Saved. That's his argument here.
Again, we'll develop that more fully next week when we eat a
little bit of bread and olive oil. Doesn't that sound good?
I'm looking forward to that message because you know I like eating,
right? So our next message is a little olive oil and a little
bread. That's the metaphor he's about to use to speak to the
unity of the people of God under the covenant Can't wait for him
to reveal to me the Constituent elements in the olive oil and
in the bread point number one the Apostles larger theses of
the Jew and Gentile the mystery of Christ Secondly pattern in
the Old Testament. I love this verse Exodus 1238.
This is one of the hints that I was talking about When God
pulled Israel out of Egypt, remember that? That's when he was gonna
separate his people and make them a distinct people group
and called them Hebrews Jews He did that when on in the third
month He established the law sprinkled them with blood and
they became his covenant people But do you know as they were
headed out of Egypt that night when God? Destroyed the firstborn
a whole bunch of Gentiles went out with them. I Mean a whole
bunch of Gentile. I mean a whole bunch of Gentile
look And a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks,
and herds, and very much cattle. You see the argument? Here's
the argument. A pure ethnic Judaism is a myth. A pure ethnic Hebrew
people is a myth. They didn't start out purely
Hebrews, purely Jews, and they didn't finish that way. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? So the exodus was a bringing
out of a people group from the dark kingdom. And that people
group is a model of the way God always saves Jew and Gentile. You see it? All right. So our
final sub point as we move forward is the law of faith was their
evidence. Galatians chapter 389. Let me
lock this in real quick. So we see that there was a mystery
that Paul understood when he read the scriptures that his
Jewish brethren didn't get who read their Bible because they
were stuck under law and not under grace. And when you're
under law, again, you will make superficial categories that don't
correspond to truth and then you try to defend those categories
and make yourself something when by nature you are nothing. We
see that the Bible is clear that they came out, but here's what
I want you to understand. When Israel and these Gentiles
were brought out of Egypt, into the wilderness to head toward
the promised land. They were not under law. They were under grace. Do you
hear me? Their leaving Egypt would have
to be an act of faith. When they left that night after
the Passover, after the blood on the doorpost and they headed
to the Red Sea and they stood there and wait until God separated
that Red Sea. Those folks, all three million
of them, were walking by what? And not by what? That's what
I'm getting at. The reason they walked out is
because they were a picture of the children of faithful Abraham.
As Abraham walked out of Ur of the Chaldees to head to the very
promised land that they're headed to, he walked by what? That's
exactly right. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through what? Preach before the
gospel unto Abraham saying in thee shall all Nations be what
I love it because see Our New Testament theology tells us without
faith. It's impossible what and that
the just shall live by what we lay this down all the time particularly
to oppose a law system because nobody in the Bible were ever
saved any other way than by believing God and No one. And then God would do something
like make sure he threw a bunch of Gentiles in the mix of the
Hebrew people so that no flesh would glory in his sight. What
we're doing as we are working with Paul and tracking in his
mind is understanding that what he's saying to his Jewish brethren
and his Gentile brothers in Romans chapter 11 is that you guys all
stand on the same ground. I'm going to show that to you.
Go back to Romans chapter 11. I love the way he puts this.
This is just a fundamental necessity for us to grasp. When he's talking
to his gentile brethren and his jewish brethren, this is what
he says in verse 32. I'm gonna come here again. He says for
god Have concluded them all in what? In order that he might
what have mercy upon all This gets into our final message not
next week, but the week after that we're from this statement
In order that he might have mercy upon all paul launches into the
deepest doxological expression of the goodness and wisdom of
God I have ever heard. He's praising God for being a
God of mercy to all. Do you hear that? You know what
that means? There's room for lost sinners
like you and me because God has concluded us all in unbelief
that he might have mercy upon us all. Do you know the only
reason you're in the kingdom, if you're in the kingdom, is
because he concluded you in unbelief in order that he might blanket
you with his mercy. And this is where this Jewish
man who knew that he had no ground to stand on is shouting hallelujah
in his soul because of the riches of God's goodness to him. Now
that's the way all Christians ought to be acting every day.
guarantee you you would draw a few more sinners to you if
you were talking to them like you're nothing but an object
of mercy finally then as we are dealing with the law of faith
was their evidence this is the only tender that the kingdom
of God will acknowledge what is that faith it's the only tender
the kingdom of God will acknowledge point number two then let's quickly
move on the fall of Israel has a redemptive what a We just looked
at that in verse 11. I say then have they stumbled
that they should fall God forbid rather though they're rather
through their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles For
to provoke them to jealousy Look carefully at verse 11 for a moment
before we move on Doesn't it sound contradictory? I? Say then have they stumbled that
they should fall God forbid but rather through their what Paul
fall and So either they fell or they didn't fall. I love logic,
don't you? Because your Bible is asking
you to think. And I told you, unless you understand sound doctrine
and the rules of biblical hermeneutics, you're going to get hit with
these apparent contradictions. And they're really not contradictions.
They're simply Charlie horses between your two ears. Right? Is that true? Because this is
a plain contradictory statement. Either they fell or they didn't.
And Paul just said they didn't fall. He said, God forbid. but
rather through their fall, right? Well, this is what we call a
grammar nuance issue, unfortunately. In your English Bible, the two
words, fall there, are two different terms. That becomes a problem. Hello, either they fell or they
didn't. Of course they fell. I mean, it's plain that we read
it over in verse 15, for if the casting away of them be the reconciling
of the world, were they cast away? Certainly they were. We
learned that last week, didn't they? Did God cast them away?
Did he take the kingdom from them and give it to others bearing
the fruits thereof? Were the children of the kingdom
cast out while others were enjoying the commonwealth with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob? Of course. But not all of them
were cast out. The elect were always preserved
and the rest were cast out. Look at verse 6, Romans chapter
11, 6. I'm just laying this foundation. actually verse 7 what then Israel
hath not obtained that which it seeks for it now what is Israel
seeking for Saints righteousness they didn't obtain it did they
because they fail because they were cast out but what the election
hath what and the rest were what very important Paul wants you
to take your time and work for him. See, now Paul's not speaking
to a 21st century audience where the sound bites in our generation.
You get the heebie-jeebies after five minutes of my talking. Paul
is saying, work with me syllogistically, proposition after proposition.
He says, Israel did not obtain righteousness by its own good
works. No man can. For it is evident that the just
shall live by what? That's right. Israel didn't obtain
it. But then he goes on to say, But the election has, is that
right? And therefore he's making a distinction between the nation
and God's elect in Israel. Y'all following me so far? Very
important for you to know, because that distinction is never heard
on the radio. Never heard on the radio. Ethnic
Israel is assumed to be the people of God. And you don't get that
in your Bible. Ethnic Israel is not the people
of God. The people of God are always
people who believe God. Now what's going on with ethnic
Israel? The last line. Are they blinded? 100%. But don't
get puffed up, Gentile. You were blind too. See, Israel
becomes for us a model of the fall. Remember when Adam fell? The whole human race fell in
him. But was that God's purpose? Did God redemptively work through
Adam's fall? Is he redemptively working through
Israel's fall? Are they a second paradigm of
the Son of God? And even Christ fell, whoa, purposely
as he took on my sin and hung on Calvary Street, he fell for
me. But even though a just man falls
seven times, yet shall he rise. And because Christ rose, I rose
in him. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So falls have purposes with God, don't they? The distinction
between these two terms is critical for me to help you work with
over in verse 11. They feel it says and I say then
have they stumbled now that greek term stumble is this term that's
used in romans chapter 10 where paul said plainly that israel
stumbled at the stumbling stone which was christ the idol of
stumbling is when you Are walking and you come across a stone in
the road and that stone trips you up and you start to fall
And what the bible is teaching is that that word stumbling is
the greek term scandalizo, which means you are offended by what's
in front of you Christ was an offense to the Jews. He caused
them to stumble, as Isaiah 28 says, God will put a stumbling
stone in Zion, a tridestone, and it will cause all religious
workmongers to stumble because that tridestone demands that
you give up your righteousness and trust in Christ. Y'all following
me so far? Now watch this now. So Israel
did stumble. then he says that they should
fall. Now the term there fall means
to utterly fall as to have a fall without a purpose. He says no
they did fall but it was not without purpose. And then when
he uses the word fall in the second line but rather through
their fall. See that word fall? That's literally
the Greek term transgression. through their transgression,
through their crossing over and going beyond Christ, God opens
the door for the Gentiles to come in. Y'all following me so
far? So, in their stumbling and falling, they simply open the
door for the Gentiles. Their present fall is a blindness
that hinders them from knowing the gospel as a nation. But there's
an elect among the Jewish people as there are among Gentiles.
who in the mystery of the gospel come to saving faith when the
gospel is preached. Is that true? Today we've got
radically Christocentric Jewish brethren who love Christ and
are doing everything to help their Jewish brethren understand
the fullness and sufficiency of Christ as the central theme
of scripture. But the nation as a whole is
utterly blinded, as is our own nation. as are many family members
that we have, as are many co-workers. Blindness is our natural state
until there's a revelation of God's glory. Is that true? So
all we're doing with Israel is holding them up as an object
lesson of the two categories of people, saved and unsaved.
It's only that we believe that God has a plan for a remnant
of Israel toward the end, not the nation, a remnant. which
will be taught in the next two weeks. Point number two then,
sub point number two, is that it is only in part and not in
what? Right, so then we look at verse
seven, as it has stated, what then? Israel has not obtained
that which he seeks after, but the election has, and the rest
were what? Blinded. And then we read over
again in verse 26, where it says these words, Concerning concerning
the Gentiles are verse 25 for I would brethren that you should
not be ignorant of this mystery Lest you should be wise in your
own conceit that blindness blindness in part. It's happened to Israel
see it Until the fullness of the Gentiles become in Now this is enough for people
to still be mad at God Let's go to point number three. What
do I mean by they can still be mad at God? God is owning the
sovereign right to blind people who reject the gospel. I taught
you this as we work through Romans chapter 1 through 9. We talked
about this last week. Romans 11 is a composite in verses
1 through 11 of God's right to reprobate men and women who reject
the gospel. That's Romans 1 18, right? The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. Does God
have a right to blind you when you hear the gospel claims and
then you say no to those claims and then you try to cover those
claims up with evolution or humanism or good works? God has a right
to blind you. Is that true? So we've already
learned that there are consequences for the truth coming to you.
and then you using all of your intellectual skills and prowess
to oppose that truth. God will blind you. As he did
Simon Magnus in Acts chapter 8, remember? Peter told him,
the Lord is going to bring his judgment upon you because you
are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity thinking
you can buy the Holy Ghost. Let blindness be upon you for
a season. So God does blind when you reject
the claims of the gospel. But it's only in part for Israel,
not in whole. And then as I'm stating in point
number three, all of humanity is signified in Israel's blindness.
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. Ephesians 2, 1. Here's your
condition and mine before we're saved. Are you ready? Listen
to it. And you, I love that phrase, don't you? First person pluriform,
second person pluriform. And you, and you all, talking
to the church, happy what? Right? That's not in the original,
but it's good. And you who were dead. Do you see? You and I were dead in the same
way Israel died. When Israel trespassed, they
died. Now, if you're dead, you can't
see. That means you're blind. And
if you're dead, you can't hear. That means you're deaf. And if
you're dead, you can't act. because you're dead. So when
we are spiritually dead, we are despondent to God. Are you hearing
me? And that's the condition of the
whole human race until God quickens us. Look at verse two. We're in time past, you walked.
You know how you guys like watching that movie, The Walking Dead?
They got it from right there. Verse one dead, verse two walking.
Got it? We're in past time, you walk.
I know, I know. according to the course of this world. How
do I know I'm dead? When this world system governs me. When
it dictates my priorities. When it determines my value system.
When it rules my time. When it shapes me over in its
own image. When I look like it because it's
my idol. And whatever your idol is, you
are going to become. That's how you know you are being
governed by the world. According to the prince of the
power of the air, that's the devil, the spirit that now works in
the children of what? How do I know I'm governed by
this world system? Because I'm disobedient to the
gospel. That Greek term there means not able to hear. What
is disobedience? Not hearing. You know how we
used to tell our children? Boy, you didn't hear me. That's
why I'm getting my belt. Right? They're going to get a
whooping because they didn't hear. Isn't that what we tell
them? We plainly told them what to do. They didn't do it. Now
I got to go get my belt. Daddy, why you? Because you weren't
listening. You weren't listening. And so what the Bible says is,
while as yet we are unsaved, we do not listen to God. We don't listen to him. Children
of what? Verse three. Among whom also
we all had our lifestyle and time passed in the lust of our
flesh. Can I get a witness? Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of what? even
as others. Do you know what it means to
be outside of Christ? It means to be under his wrath.
This is why when you share the gospel with people, you got to
let them know, dude, sister, you in trouble. One of the fundamental principles
of the gospel is that you are under the wrath of God. You can
tell people how much God loves you all you want, but as long
as you're outside of Christ, you're under the wrath of God.
That's the part of the gospel people don't like. Now, what
I'm talking about right now, this is the part people don't
like. This is the part that got Jesus killed. Because I'm actually
quoting Christ right now. Read it yourself, John chapter
3, verse 19. Okay? Men love darkness rather
than light. They won't come to the light
because if they do, their deeds will be manifested. That is not
in the truth. The wrath of God abides upon
those who walk in darkness. That's Christ's teaching, not
mine. Although I'll I'll claim it. Give me grace lord. I'll
tell him because you have to be told the bad news before the
good news becomes good news So then under our second point as
we are working it through the fall of israel Redemptively purposely
all of humanity is signified in israel's present stupor and
blindness and ignorance point number three the humility of
our election and salvation through it. So now what paul wants us
to do saints And this is, I don't even know if this can be done.
I'm just going to tell you what he wants to do, but I don't know
if it can be done. I got to use my country voice
with this one because it just, I don't, I don't even know. I
don't even know this can be done y'all. I ain't, I ain't feeling
this. Okay. So we're going to see, he says
in verse 28, these words as concerning the gospel, Israel are enemies
for your sake. Do you see it? concerning the
gospel Israel are enemies for your sake it's a wonderful reality
again humbling but as touching the election they are beloved
for the Father's sake in other words the elect among Israel
are elect because of the fathers who are the fathers Abraham Isaac
and Jacob God promised them a seed and because he promised them
a seed there is an elect that God is preserving that will come
to faith at some time between now and the end of the world.
But it's not based on their works, it's based on God's promise to
the fathers. Just like your salvation is based
upon God's promise to the Son. See the parallel? Only reason
you're saved is because of Jesus. so what Paul is setting the Gentiles
up is to understand this verse 29 and following for the gifts
and callings of God are without repentance for as in time past
you didn't believe yet have now obtained what through their what
even so have these also now not believed that through your self-righteousness
they also may obtain mercy is that what it says you see Paul's
argument See his argument? He's saying, get down. Get down. Go down, Christian. Go down. Go down, Christian. Get down. Get your head down, Christian.
Is that what he's saying? Get your head down, Christian.
Get your head down. The only reason you're in the camp is
because of a sovereign act of an inscrutable God who made room
for you by the fall of another. I'm going to milk this for a
moment. So in the practical world, People end up having problems
with their job and they end up losing their job. And because
they lose their job, they're in danger of losing their home.
And now their home goes on the market. And the dude down the
street has an opportunity for that home now. You got that? And that dude never had the opportunity,
but the house is upside down. They got a short seller. It's
going to be sold for little or nothing. Now that dude gets to
get in there. Is that true? Now you got the
house. You popping your suspenders.
Why? You got it on the fall of a neighbor. Hold on now. The same event that
happened to him can happen to you. Why you gonna pop your suspenders
as if you bought the house for what is really valued? and you
actually put some real money down for it, you took advantage
of another person's fall. You better walk humble before
the Lord your God. And if I was you, I really wouldn't
say anything to anybody about it. Because that's not real good
money, to tell you the truth. The best money is earned money.
not opportunistic money, but that's all right. God does that
sometimes because he wants you to be a vessel of mercy. Now, if you are a vessel of mercy,
act like it's mercy, not self-righteousness. Because that's what we do. Children
of God, that's what we do. We act like we walk up there
like our Chinese brothers. with big old suitcases full of
money and just threw $500,000 on the table. Can I buy that
house? $500,000. I want to buy that
house. Now we got three houses and we acting like we paid for
them in cash. You know you struggling to pay
those notes. You know it. Walk humble. Let me transfer
that to the gospel right now, just so you can get it. I feel
good right now. There was a man who entered into calamity at
a level that's indescribable and made room for you. That's
the only reason you're in. An indescribable calamity fell
upon a man named Jesus. Do you understand that? An indescribable
calamity. That's the only reason you're
in. because he took what you deserved
and much, much more. Do you know you and I will never,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever experience any of what he experienced
to save your naked, wretched soul? Do you understand that?
Both in your having been saved in the past, if you've been saved
for five minutes, and your present salvation status in this church
and all the sin that you're going to commit between now and when
you die. He endured the wrath of God for all that. Did you
get that? Calamity fell upon. There you
go. Let him know. Let him know. Let him know. Let him know. Let him know. He endured all
that so you could be brought in brought in as an object of
mercy. I'm at the table as an object
of mercy. My name is Mephibosheth. Yours
is too. You understand that? This is
what Paul is saying as he's talking to his Gentile brethren, that
they also may obtain mercy. I don't want to deal with that
now because I'll push over into my message, but something about
the salvation of the Gentiles. Paul understands it's prerequisite
to the salvation of God's elect among the Jews. You need to know
it, I need to know it. Let's go on working through our
other points so we can close it down. The humility of our
election and salvation through him. Point A, therefore our salvation,
our riches and our reconciliation. Is that true? Listen to the adjectives
that he uses to describe our salvation. I won't unpack it,
I just want you to see it. When you talk about being saved,
you know that you are rich. When you talk about being saved,
do you know that you've been reconciled? And that reconciliation
came at a magnificent price? Redemption! The only reason you're
reconciled is because of redemption! And you've been reconciled into
the riches, the glorious, inexhaustible riches of Christ. Verse 12 and
13, here it is. Now if the fall of them be the
what of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles,
how much more so their fullness? And then he goes on to say it
over in verse 15, for if the casting away of them be the reconciling
of the world, what shall the receiving of them be what? But
life from the dead. See his argument? Here's what
he says. Their fall, verse 11, led to
your salvation. Their fall, verse 12, led to
the riches of the world. Their fall, verse 15, casting
away, led to your reconciliation. See it? Children of God, you
are in a great place. But it was a consequence of a
fall. Do you hear me? It was a consequence of a fall.
And I think it was the proverb who said it like this. Rejoice
not when your enemy falleth. Lest the Lord see it. Lest the
Lord see it. And he the Lord. And then raise
your enemy right back up. You got that? The essence of
what we're dealing with is the need for us to understand that
we're in only by grace we are object to mercy let me move to
the fourth point because i really want to grab grab this and actually
it's a second sub point quickly our privilege is one of mercy
we already dealt with that point number four our responsibility
to love god and christ to their what yeah So I'm under an ethic
as I work through this with Paul, even though I don't run across
Jewish brothers that much, those in the flesh do know a few, not
a whole lot, but a lot of people do. They're in different pockets
sprinkled around America, as you know. And as a Christian,
I'm obligated to live in such a way before God that when a
Jew observes my life, I am to provoke him to jealousy. You
got that? I'm not to pop my suspenders
or act like I'm the true Jew and he's not. I'm to provoke
him to jealousy. I'm to live in such a way that
brings him to a kind of shame for being a partaker of a lineage
of men and women who had the commonwealth and spurned it.
Are you hearing me? Pastor, what does that look like?
So I'm just going to talk this through and close. What it would
look like According to Luke chapter 7 verse 9 don't go there There's
a woman who was notorious as a harlot who met Jesus and sold
all she had to purchase an alabaster box And she found that Jesus
was in a men's study Which means women ain't supposed to be there
Arthur hint hint But she busted the men's study
anyway. And Christ was in the middle.
And she took that oil and broke it over his head. And she started
anointing the master with her hair and her tears, wiping his
feet. You guys remember that? And the
whole room was overcome by the fragrance of her sacrifice and
her obvious love for Christ. Do you see it? That's what we
mean by provoking them. You got that? That's what we
mean by provoking them. Loving Christ to that degree.
It happened again in Matthew chapter 15 verse 28. You remember
that Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was sick? And she went
to the master. Master, Syrophoenician. Master, my daughter's sick. What
did the master say? Uh-uh. Listen, we don't give
our bread, we don't give our food to the dogs. She said, but
even the dogs. eat the crumbs from under the
master's table. Is that low or what? Is that
low or what? Is that low or what? And see,
I'm gonna tell you, low gets in. Our master turns to the other
Jews and says, did you see what she just said? She got her blessing,
didn't she? And she's talked about everywhere
that she goes. John chapter 4, 39, you had to
go there? My sister, she's a half breed, half black, half white. No, she's a Samaritan. But you
understand what I'm getting at. When you mix, you're in conflict.
And so she's a Jew. She's a Samaritan. She's all
jacked up. Her religion is jacked up. She
can't go to the well in the morning with the other women because
they'll dog her out. So she had to go at noonday when everybody
gone. But guess who met her at the well? A brother who is a
better lover than any lover could be. And he tapped on her shoulders
and said, Sister, can I have a drink? And the conversation
started. Did it start? And the conversation
started. And by the time it was over,
she was telling everybody about this man who told her all things.
What did it do? It drew the whole city to Jesus. That's the kind of love we're
talking about. provoking people, provoking people, provoking love. And then again, our brother in
Luke 8, 39, this is what I call my crazy brother. And I got a
bunch of them at Grace, my crazy brothers. I got a bunch of them. I told my wife the other day,
I said, Lord, we starting to, our people starting to get crazy.
Are y'all noticing what I'm noticing? Are y'all noticing that we getting
a little crazy? Can I get a hand? Is it just me? We getting a little
crazy. Aren't we getting a little crazy?
They're just a little bit twisted. But God saves crazy people. Did you know that? He saves crazy
people. So this brother here, uh, Legion,
this brother here was a mess. He was so bad. Nobody could hang
out with him. In fact, the only company he
liked was dead folks. Remember that? And even then
he got tired of them talking to him. the way he started cutting
himself. You know you got issues when
you cut, right? This is what we're going to be talking about
in our Women's Theology class, our Daughters of Grace class
in the next three weeks. Low self-esteem because of a
lack of identity in Christ. You need to be there. But brothers
have the same problem. Am I telling the truth? Brothers
have the same struggles with identity, don't they? As do our
sisters. You know you're in trouble when
you're cutting yourself because you're arguing with dead people, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ crossed the sea to meet this man. And as he's climbing off the
boat, legion is coming to him and falling down before him and
begging him to depart. And Christ in absolute sovereign
authority said to the demons, get out. And he had a conversation
with that poor, wretched, crazy sinner. And next thing we know,
he's got clothes on. I think America could use some
of that, don't you? Clothes on. When you get saved,
put your clothes on. Don't take them off when you
get saved. Put them on. Put your clothes on. What are
the evidences of my salvation is I put clothes on now. You
don't take them off. And then, He was clothed in his
right mind. And he threatened all the people
in the city because he was in his right mind. But he wanted
to stay with Christ. And this is how you know you're
saved. You want to stay with the one who saved you. And yet
the master sent him back. He says, now, my crazy servant,
I need to send you back. Now, you know, if sanctification
is what we believe, God has to grow us and mature. Is that true?
Does he have to grow us and mature us? Does he have to grow us and
mature us? Now, you know Legion wasn't all
the way straight. Because some of us ain't all
the way straight. We are a work in progress. Is
that true? But every now and then, you know,
the little tweet comes out. Every now and then, a little
tweet comes out. You know, every now and then. And watch this. It doesn't stop
God from using such people to draw sinners to themselves. Do
you know why? Because when they see the grace
of God in their life, they clearly know that it's God's grace and
not that person's comportment or frame of being. It's only
God's grace that no flesh should glory in his sight. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? That no flesh should glory in
his sight. And finally, point number five, Let me just wrap
this up with a very clear, crystal-centric argument for our responsibility
to love God and Christ to their shame. Christ died for his God,
didn't he? And in Christ dying for his God,
did he not provoke us to jealousy? When we hear about the gospel
of the God-man Jesus Christ, do not our hearts fill with wonder
Are we not amazed at how much Christ loved His Father and served
His Father and obeyed His Father? Are we not amazed at that? Are
we not amazed at all the hell He went through? And if we were
there, we would have dumped it on him too. Aren't we amazed
at how committed he was to Jehovah? So much so that he laid down
his life. What wondrous love of this. Does
it not draw us to him? Does not the death of Christ
draw us to God? Did not the death of Christ cause
us to come to God? If I be lifted up, If I be lifted
up, if I be lifted up, I will draw men unto me. All men will become jealous of
my God because of my love for my God. And greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. That's the message that Paul
is trying to get across to you and me. If we're going to influence
our children, our relatives, our loved ones, our lost ones,
and even Jews. To Christ, we've got to have
this kind of grace working in our life. You guys hear what
I'm saying? This is the kind of grace that
has to be working in your life. Listen carefully to me. What's going
to cause men and women to shut their mouth is not your perfect
obedience, which you ain't got none, but your continual love for Christ. That's the mystery that a sinner
like us could have pumping in the veins of our soul, the love
of God that keeps raising us every day up, up, up to pursue
Christ and to love him and tell men and women about Christ. And
that becomes the means by which people want to come to know our
Savior too. And so again, the question I will pose as we get
ready to take the table is, do you have a gospel that makes
people jealous for Christ? Amen.