Romans 11 and verse 9 is where
we are this week, and I want to read a few verses together
here. Romans 11, 9, and David saith, let their table be made
a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. That's a key word. Of course,
every word in the scripture is important, but remember that
word recompense. And we know who he's talking about here because
of what we saw last week in verse eight. He's talking about Israel
in verse seven and eight. He's talking about Israel and
how God is dealing with them and how that at that present
time, there was a great darkness upon them. He said in another
place, the veil is still over their eyes when they open the
word of God, they can't see. And then he said in verse 10,
this is what David is saying by God's inspiration. Let their
eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back
all way. There's a lot of controversy
about what that bowing down their back all way means. I believe
that's under the yoke of the law. That's how their back was
bowed down. They were burdened under the
yoke of the law. But he said in verse 11, I say then, have
they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. That's the
strongest way to say no right there. Did you realize that?
God forbid. God forbid. No, but rather through
their fall, salvation has come. God's in the business of saving
his people. That's what's happening. Even
in what we call the bad things, that's what's happening. God's
saving his people. But rather through their fall,
salvation has come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. Now Paul, as he often does, and
we've seen quite a bit in this study in his writings, he anticipates
the response of those who will read what he's writing. You may
be thinking, he's saying in effect, have they stumbled that they
should fall? Is God's purpose just to condemn
the Jews? No, no. His purpose is a purpose
of grace. And we need to understand that.
Here he has the reader imagining evil against God. Second, guessing
God's purpose in the stumbling of the Jews. And our first lesson
there is we're never to presume to know why God has done something
unless he's clearly revealed the reason for it. We don't know
why. You can't say that that's the
purpose of this because God hadn't revealed that. Man in his fleshly
reasoning places evil motives upon God's dealings with men.
You remember in chapter 9, the same thing was done. How can
God find fault with us then? He made us the way we are, who
hath resisted His will. You're blaming your seeing on
God is all you're doing when you say things like that. And
Paul is calling them on it in the very letter that he writes.
Paul teaches here that all God does, everything He does, in
what we call the good things and what we call the bad things,
All that he does is for the ultimate purpose of saving his elect. That's what God's doing. You
see that in the text? Even the stumbling of some, even
the blindness of some, which is judicial and just because
of their sin. That word recompense. They're
getting what they deserve, right? If God left us alone in darkness
and we stumble and ultimately fell, whose fault would that
be? But even that, even this stumbling
of the Jews will result in mercy upon God's elect. This stumbling
of some is richly deserved by them. It is indeed a recompense. Turn to Psalm 69, verse 19. This is the scripture
that Paul is quoting here. And notice what comes before
it. Psalm 69, 19. Thou hast known my reproach and
my shame and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
thee. This is the son of God speaking
to his father. All of my enemies are before
you. You see them, you know them. Reproach hath broken my heart,
verse 20, and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for someone to take
pity, but there was none and for comforters, but I found none,
even the disciples forsook him and fled. They gave me also gall
for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."
No question about who this is and who he's speaking to. And
then notice here, this is the verse that Paul quoted. Let their
table become a snare before them, and that which should have been
their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened
that they see not and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. So you see why that word recompense
is there. The reason God has every right
and every reason to leave us in our darkness is we murdered
his son. We gave him vinegar to drink
and laughed at him after we had nailed him to a cross and watched
him bleed to death. and die the horrible death, the
most horrible death we could think of to inflict upon him.
That's why, he says, leave them in their darkness that they may
not see. The wonder of wonders is why didn't he leave us there?
We killed the Son of God just as surely as the ones who pounded
the nails in. This is the condemnation that
he, the light, came into the world and we loved our darkness
and hated the light and nailed him to a cross. That's our condemnation. But Paul is saying here, far
from the Jews' refusal of God's gospel being a thwarting of God's
purpose of grace, their unbelief will actually promote God's purpose
of grace upon his elect. It's going to cause the Gentiles
to hear what the Jews have rejected and rejoice. All things have
served that same purpose, as we've said so many times. Even
that which seems to us to be contrary to God's gracious purpose
toward His elect will prove to be just the opposite. Not only
has God's mysterious and sovereign workings in this resulted in
His love and favor being shed abroad upon the Gentiles for
the salvation of His elect among them, but it will also provoke
the Jews to jealousy, as we'll see in the next passage. and
result in the saving of his elect among them who before were blinded. May we once and for all learn
this lesson well. Everything that God does, everything
that happens in his world, as we said last week, if the sun
comes up tomorrow morning, it'll be because God has an elect people
that he has purpose to set. Everything happens toward that.
The Lord Jesus Christ came down here and lived and died on a
cross to save his elect. And everything that happens in
this world revolves around that. Everything, every situation,
every person, every contingency conforms to the accomplishment
of that. And may God teach us that. God's
going to save his people. That's what Paul said. That's
why the Jews have stumbled, because God's saving his people. That's
just the way he's doing it, by causing them to stumble and bringing
the Gentiles in, and then provoking the Jews to jealousy and bringing
some of them back in. His elect are going to be saved.
Israel will not obtain that which he seeks for, but the election
will obtain it. They have obtained it, and they will. And the rest
are going to be blinded. People look at God's providential
workings and they begin to deduce things and reason things. If
we do not conform our thoughts to the Word of God, we will err. Not by sight will we understand
God's purposes, not by experience. You can't figure out what God
is doing based on sight and experience. Many saw the Son of God dying
for sinners and counted Him a failure based on what they saw. How wrong
were they? How can death be victory? If
you knew God's word, you wouldn't have been confused about that.
Paul anticipates that those who would read his letter would consider
the stumbling of the Jews a setback in the purpose and promises of
God. No, it is and was the very accomplishment
of them. He works in mysterious ways his
wonders to perform. Don't be confused by circumstance.
Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't believe it unless God has
clearly revealed it. And then if he has, believe his
word implicitly. That's our lesson there this
morning in that. And then look at verse 12. Now,
if the fall of them be the riches of the world, if God, by means
of the stumbling of the Jews, has enriched the whole world
with his gospel. Because the Jews rejected, his
preachers are going to say, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And
that's what they did. It means 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 mine
office. if by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of
them. Now you think about this. In
verses six through 11, Paul has been showing God's dealings with
the nations and how those dealings work together for and result
in the salvation of his elect among all of the nations. Now,
notice how Paul's personal aspirations are defined by God's revealed
purpose. He's saying, here's what God
is doing, and here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I do,
because of what God's doing. Seeing that God is sovereignly
doing what He is doing, namely, revealing Himself to His people
through the preaching of the Gospel, what shall we do? What
was the first thing Paul said he did there? How much more their
fullness? Verse 13, I speak. That's what we do. God is saving. He's giving light. You see those
key words in the context? He's giving light and darkness.
He's saving. He's bringing salvation. And
what are we doing? Speaking. That's how he accomplishes
it. Through the speaking. This is
our business. Go and preach. And the result
Paul was looking for is exactly what he just said God had purposed. Why are you speaking, Paul? For
the same reason God caused the Jews to stumble and sent light
to the Gentiles, everything that God, the same reason, the salvation
of God's elect, because that's how he's going to save them,
through the preaching of the gospel. Now this is an important lesson.
Religion speaks of doing God's will. They all have a mission
from God, you know. God told me to build a bunch
of buildings and God told me to ask you for money and all
this and that and the other thing. But what they're doing and saying
is at odds with what God has revealed that he's doing. God's
not in the business of begging sinners to do anything for him.
God's not in the fundraising business. He is not. He's just simply not. You'd think
so by looking at him and listening to him. God's not not begging sinners
to do anything. God's in the business of saving
sinners who are begging him for mercy. And he's going to bring
them down to the place where they're going to beg him for
mercy and then he's going to save them. He's going to give it to them.
You're not in the business of building a religious empire.
I know that's what everybody's talking about in religion. Financed
by the millions given to the fleshly motivational fundraisers.
His kingdom is not of this world. He's in the business of saving
his elect in this world by the preaching of Christ and him crucified. We're not fundraisers. If you
want to hear me speak, then we'll have to pay the light bill. unless
we're going to speak somewhere else where we don't need to pay
a light bill. But you see what I'm saying?
It's about the speaking. Paul said, I speak. I don't raise
money. I don't build buildings. I speak.
That's what we do. That's what accomplishes the
purposes of God that he's just laid out for us. That's how God
does it. By the speaking of his truth. The office that Paul occupied,
he said, I magnify my office. It must be magnified, not the
man. We don't magnify the man. There's
nothing about me or any other preacher that's worth magnifying,
but the office must be magnified. It's Christ and his gospel. We
preach Christ. Through the glorious means of
the preaching of Christ, His precious blood that we just read
about in Psalm 69. His spotless, perfect righteousness
that He lived for us. His glory. We preach the glories
of Christ. His love and His mercy, all of
His attributes. God is pleased to save sinners
out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven.
The Jews, the Gentiles, and these circumstances that played out
with the stumbling of the Gentiles and the bringing in of the stumbling
of the Jews, the bringing in of the Gentiles, and then the
jealousy of the Jews, it all conforms to what Christ did on
that cross. It's for the salvation of those
he died for there, those he redeemed there. And our business in that scheme,
in that perfect purpose of God is to preach that gospel. And all of God's people have
a part in the ministry of Christ in this world to that glorious
end. That end toward which God manipulated
entire nations and still does. And that end is accomplished
also in what we're doing this morning. Is that a blessing to
you? Just to be in on that. That God
would let us in on that. That's a blessing to me. Thank
God for that. Let us never take it for granted
or ever stray from our purpose in it. What he's given us to
do. Go and preach. Paul said, I speak. God will
accomplish with you and me or without us. His eternal, invincible
purpose of grace toward his elect. And it's being played out before
our very eyes, just like Paul said it was theirs. Right there
in our text. If you and I are interested in
being used of God, and by His grace I am, then we must follow Paul's example
here and find out what God's doing and do what He gave us to do
by His grace. Without Him, we can do nothing.
May he use us for his glory in the preaching of this gospel. Let's pray together.