To see everyone, our friends
from far away, and you from here at Todd's Road, how you know
how dear you are to me, but it ought never go unsaid how much
I appreciate you and love you and care for you. I appreciate
the invitation to be here. Pray, Lord, bless us richly.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11.
When Brother Todd called, asked if I would come preach. He said
he wanted everyone to think about this question, what is the gospel? I didn't know I was supposed
to title my message that. Duane, you can change it if you want.
But one of the first things I thought about that question, what is
the gospel? One of the first things that
came to my mind was the gospel declares a salvation that is
absolutely certain. I love the surety of the gospel. because of the success of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not, is not, is
not an attempt by God to save as many people as might decide
to accept Him. Salvation is not an attempt by
our Lord Jesus Christ to put away sin, make people feel sorry
for Him, and get people, because they do feel sorry for Him, to
accept Him as their personal Savior. is not an attempt at all, in
any way. Salvation is something that's
already been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
what we declare when we preach the gospel. Salvation's already
accomplished. The Father elected a people to
save. He gave those people to His Son.
The Son came to this earth, and He obeyed the law for those people.
He made them righteous through His obedience to the law that
He gave to them, And He suffered and died to put away the sin
of those people. And the Holy Spirit comes and
gives eternal life to those people. There's no possibility that any
of those people can perish. That's the gospel. There's no
possibility those people can perish because God cannot fail. That's why we can sing the song
we just sung, It Is Well With My Soul, because God cannot fail. So I've titled our message this
evening, All Israel Shall Be Saved. I got the title from verse
26, that's exactly what Paul says, under inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, so we know that this is an absolute true statement,
all Israel shall be saved. Now we know that this is not
talking about every Jew who descended from Abraham. We know that because
most of the Jews who left Egypt, what happened to them? They perished
in the wilderness, didn't they? Why? Because of unbelief. Judas Iscariot, he descended
from Abraham. He wasn't saved. Many other people
we read about in the New Testament. So this is not talking about
national Israel. This is talking about spiritual
Israel, spiritual people. I'll show you that back just
a few pages of Romans chapter two. Verse 28. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart and the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. Look over a few pages
of Romans chapter nine. Verse six, not as though the
word of God have taken none effect, For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of promise are counted for the seed. So this is, Paul's not
talking about being a national Jew, natural, he's talking about
spiritual Israel. And I wanted to point that out
at the very beginning, because this is good news for sinners. The gospel has good news for
sinners. God assures us in his word, all
Israel shall be saved. Sinners from every race, from
every generation, from every color, from every shape can be
saved by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
phrase here that Paul uses in verse 26 in our text, and so,
means that in the same manner, in this same manner, all Israel,
all of God's people, shall be saved." Well, what manner is
that? What manner is it that's common
to the salvation of all of God's people? Well, our texts give
us six things that are common to the salvation of all of God's
elect. This is the salvation that's declared in the gospel.
And the first one is this, the salvation of a sinner is a mystery. It's a mysterious thing. Verse
25, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits.
That blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in." Now, what a mystery is that?
Well, what is a mystery? Well, a mystery is something
that you cannot know until someone else gives you the answer. And
the illustration that Paul uses is the way that God's dealt with
the Jews. That's a mystery to us. Blindness in part has happened
to Israel so that the Gentiles can see? And Israel's going to
stay in that blindness until the fullness of the Gentiles
come in? Does that mean there's going to be a revival among the
Jews someday? I don't know. It's a mystery.
We won't know until God shows us. But this is what I do know. Brother Henry used to say, stick
to what we know. Here's what I know. If there's a revival
in Israel, I can tell you exactly how it's gonna happen. It's gonna
happen through the preaching of this gospel. That's how it's
gonna happen, because that's the only way God saves his people. But this salvation's a mystery
to the natural man. The natural man cannot know it
until God shows it to us. He's got to make it, he's got
to reveal the answer to us. Salvation can't really be explained. Now, I can tell you how it is
that that God saves sinners, but that can't really be explained.
It's got to be experienced in the heart before we can understand
it. Back in 1990, 1991, I was leading the singing for the group
there in Wheelersburg. We were meeting at that time
in the basement of this building. Brother Donnie Bell was there
preaching for us. There I sat on the front row,
and Donnie said, salvation is not an experience. but it sure
is an experience, isn't it, young friend? And you can't know what,
you can't understand what he did. That's a mystery to you,
unless God has revealed Christ the Savior to you. It's a mystery,
can't be explained. I can tell you how Christ put
away the sin of his people. He paid for the sin of his people
with his own precious blood. And he is all of our salvation. The salvation's not a thing.
Salvation's a person. I can tell you that. But you
can't understand it. You can't believe it. You can't
love it. It'll be a mystery to you until God reveals the answer
to you. And the answer is the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, everything about the gospel
from beginning to end is a mystery to the natural man. The Apostle
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 7, we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery. even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world under our glory. Now that wisdom
of God and salvation will always remain a mystery to us. It'll
remain hidden, won't it? Until God reveals the answer
to us. Now, if you're here tonight in the gospel, salvation is a
mystery to you. I hope you're wondering, I pray
God will make you wonder, how can I understand that mystery?
Oh, I want to know. How can I know? It's by listening,
doing what we're doing right now. It's by listening to the
gospel preached. God reveals this mystery of salvation
to the hearts of his people through the gospel preached. Paul said
to the church, Colossians chapter 1, verse 26, even the mystery,
which had been hid from ages and from generation, but now
is made manifest to his saints. How is that made manifest to
his saints? It's through the preaching of the gospel. We declare
unto you Christ the Savior. This is a mystery. Election. God's electing love. Isn't that
a mystery? Before time began, before God
created anything, He elected a people. He chose a people to
save. He put those people in His Son.
He gave them to His Son to be the surety for His people. The
only way we'll know anything about the mystery of God's electing
love is that God sent somebody to tell us about it. He gave
us faith to believe it. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself. When am I gonna know the answer
to this mystery? When it pleases God, that's when. How about the
mystery of Almighty God appearing in human flesh? Now, this is
a mystery. This is a mystery people love
to talk about this time of year. How about the mystery of the
eternal Father laying in a manger as a baby? What a mystery. Without
controversy, Paul told Timothy, great is the mystery of godliness,
that God was manifest in the flesh. And I hope I say this
right. It's not just that Christ appeared
in the flesh. That's a great mystery. but it's what he accomplished
when he appeared in the flesh. What did Christ accomplish because
he appeared in the flesh? What did he accomplish? He accomplished
the salvation of sinful men and women who are in the flesh. Since
Christ appeared in the flesh, he can be the sacrifice for and
the substitute for sinful men and women in the flesh. He came
and he accomplished their salvation, the new birth. What a mystery. Nobody can understand the new
birth until they've been born again. Then they understand Colossians
1, 27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of this,
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Christ in me? That's my hope
of glory. That's a mystery, isn't it? And
the answer to the mystery is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now salvation
is a mystery. You know what that means? This
is what the gospel declares. We are totally dependent on Almighty
God. We're totally dependent upon
Him. We can't know it until God reveals it to us, and that keeps
us from being proud of Oh, there's no reason, no reason for us to
be proud of grace if we know anything. And you gotta admit,
whatever it is you know, it ain't much, is it? Whatever we know,
it's because God's grace and His goodness, He revealed Christ
to us. Thank God He reveals this mystery
of salvation to all of spiritual history. All right, second, this
salvation, this is what the gospel declares. This salvation is the
result of the eternal purpose of Almighty God. Verse 26, and
so all Israel shall be saved as it's written. Now, Todd already
told us this, real salvation from sin. If you're gonna preach
the gospel, it must agree with all of the Old Testament scriptures.
That's the only scriptures, that's the only thing written while
Paul's writing here to the Church of Rome, were the Old Testament
scriptures. God Almighty purposed to save
a people in eternity, and His purpose was to save those people
through the doing and through the dying of His Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation is not you and me making
a decision to accept Jesus. No, sir. Salvation is a decision,
but it is a decision that God made before time began. God elected
a people to save, and He elected the Savior of those people, His
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And then God created the world
and He wrote the whole Old Testament to show us salvation in Christ
through the types and pictures we just heard sung about. Salvation,
the salvation of a sinner. It's got to be through the seed
of the woman, promised in Genesis chapter 3. It's got to be. The
Savior can't partake in Adam's sinful seed. He can't be born
from the seed of a man because Adam ruined us, didn't he? He
can't be born from that seed. He got to be born from the seed
of a woman, so he's the sinless Savior. We need a sinless Savior. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the seed of woman. Salvation's got to be through
the sacrifice of Christ, pictured in Abel's land. Salvation cannot
be by works, which are pictured from the offering that Cain brought. What offering did Cain bring
to God? He brought the fruit of the ground that grew from
a cursed ground. That's a picture of man's works. That'll never
save anybody. Salvation is not by works, is
it? It's by grace, through the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where salvation is. Salvation
has got to be in Christ our substitute. He's got to bear the punishment
that his people deserve as their substitute. That's what Noah's
Ark is all about. Noah was saved from drowning
in the flood, wasn't he? How was he saved? By being in the
ark. God's wrath still fell for Noah's
sin. The flood water still came for
Noah's sin, didn't they? But they didn't touch Noah. Noah
was in the ark. The ark bore that for Noah. Salvation
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if I could compel you to
do anything tonight, it's this. You run to Christ. Salvation's
in Him. Flee to Him. Salvation has got
to be in the blood of the Passover lamb. It's got to be. Justice
must be satisfied. that God's not going to overlook
justice in order to save the likes of you and me. Now He's
not going to do it. God's holy. Justice must be satisfied. That's why God said there's going
to be death in every home in Egypt. I'm coming. I'm coming
to kill the firstborn in every home in Egypt. But when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. God sees
the blood and He says, it's enough. Justice is satisfied. Salvation
must be in the blood of Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us.
Now, I know much of the Old Testament is taken up in the giving of
the law, but don't be mistaken by that. Salvation is not found
by you and me keeping the law written in the Old Testament.
You know why God wrote that law? He wrote that law to show us
I can't do that. I mean, it's just hopeless to
try to keep that law. I couldn't begin to remember
it, much less keep it all, can you? You know why God gave the
law? He gave the law for this one
purpose, to shut us up, to make our only hope, make it obvious
to us, our only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ who came to keep
the law for His people so that we'd run to Him. A salvation
that includes any work, any work on our part, is no salvation
at all. Salvation is all Christ. I have
them here in my notes, salvation is all of Christ, that's true,
but a more accurate statement is this, salvation is all Christ.
It's Christ. Go to Him. That's why the Lord
gave this commandment about building a stone altar. If you're going
to build an altar of stones, God said you take the stones
just like you find them laying there on the ground. Don't you
pick them up and put your tool to it. Because if you put your
tool to it, you know what we're doing? I'm trying to make that
altar look better, look more appealing to the flesh. God said,
don't you put your tool to it. Don't you put your works to it.
You take the stones just like you find them, you build an altar
and you offer a sacrifice to the Lord. But if you put your
tool to those stones to make it look more religious, to make
it look more appealing to the flesh, you've not only defiled
the altar, you defiled the sacrifice you offer on the altar. The sacrifice. You know why God said just take
the stones like you find them laying there? Because the sacrifice
for sin, the sacrifice that will put away sin, the sacrifice that
God will accept must be just exactly as God provided it without
any input from your me. Salvation's all Christ, isn't
it? And since salvation is all Christ, it's got nothing to do
with what we do or what we don't do. That's what's written. All Israel shall be saved. because that is God's eternal
purpose for them. And God never changes His mind. God never goes back on His promise.
And that's such a comfort. I find such comfort in that truth.
That is the eternal purpose of God. He'll never change His mind.
All right, thirdly, this is the salvation that the gospel declares.
Salvation is Christ saving His people from their sins. Christ
did not come to save His people from going to hell. Christ came
to save His people from sin. Verse 26, and so all Israel shall
be saved, as it's written. There shall come out of Zion
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Deliverer. He came to deliver His people
from the prison house of sin, didn't He? He came to deliver
them. And He delivered His people from sin. You know how He did
it? By being made sin for them. He
took their sin away, made it His, and paid for it with the
blood of His sacrifice. Christ delivered His people from
the curse of the law by being made a curse for them. Christ
saved His people from their sin by making their sin to not exist
anymore. Now, how successful is the sacrifice
of Christ? And that's not really up to you
and me. What did God say? God said, their sin and their
iniquity will I remember no more because of the blood of Christ.
All Israel shall be saved from sin. First of all, they will
be saved from the damning power of sin. There is therefore now
no condemnation. them which are in Christ Jesus,
because Christ our substitute, He already bore all the condemnation,
all the punishment, all the wrath that the sin of His people deserved.
There's none left. God has no wrath left for His
people. It was all poured out on His
Son, our substitute, our sacrifice. God's justice is satisfied with
the death of Christ, so He will never condemn anyone for whom
Christ died. Second, all Israel shall be saved
from the controlling power of sin. Sin should not have dominion
over you, for you're not under law, you're under grace. And
you might wonder, I still sin. I don't want to,
I try not to, but I do anyway. Seems to me, sin still has control
over me. Something happens, and I think,
I don't want to lose my anger, and I do. I lose my temper, and
I do. I sin. I can't stop it. Well, it's true. A believer still sins. I mean,
don't be mistaken into thinking suddenly you're going to have
a whole lot less problem with sin than you ever did. No. After God saves
you, you're going to have more problem with it than you ever
did, because now you've got a new man who sees what sin really
is. The believer still sins, but sin does not control him.
Let me see if I can make good on that. What is it that makes
us not able to believe God? It's our sin nature. That nature
cannot believe God. It will not believe God. It's
so stubborn, it's so hard, it's so cold, it's so dead, it cannot
believe God. By nature, we're deaf. So we
can't hear the gospel and believe it. I wish I could tell you How
many times as a boy growing up I heard the gospel, but didn't
hear it, didn't believe it. I couldn't. There were times,
sometimes, I tried. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. You will not, with the sin nature
that you're born with, will not beg God for mercy. You will not
submit yourself to his righteousness. You will not do it. You're too
full of pride. But now, you who believe, you
have to admit this is true. Now you do what one time you
could not do. Now you hear. When you hear the
gospel preached, you hear Christ the Savior. And you love it. You need it. You can't wait to
hear it again. Now, you beg for mercy every day. You beg for
mercy. You're not too proud to beg.
You fall at God's feet and beg him for mercy. You're his dog.
What happened? Grace reigns. Grace reigns over
sin. The sinful flesh is still there.
He's just as rotten and awful as he ever will be, and don't
ever think he's going to improve, because he's not. But that old
man of flesh and sin, depravity, cannot stop the new man from
believing Christ and loving Christ and hearing Christ and coming
to Christ. Because sin does not reign, grace
reigns. Righteousness reigns unto eternal
life. That's what the prophet means
here when he says the Deliverer will turn ungodliness away from
Jacob. Jacob's still Jacob, isn't he?
But Jacob's ungodliness is not going to reign anymore. Israel
reigns, Israel reigns because he's been delivered from the
controlling power of sin. And thirdly, one day Christ is
going to come back and he's going to deliver his people from the
very presence of sin. I try to think about that sometimes.
You talk about over your head. We can't fathom, I mean, we think
that's gonna be wonderful. We cannot fathom the thrill of
the soul to finally be made just like Christ, body and soul. Not to see him through a glass
door anymore, but face to face. Christ, our Deliverer, is going
to come back and deliver His people from the very presence
of sin. Alright, fourthly, this is the salvation that's declared
in the Gospel. Salvation is in God's covenant,
His covenant of grace. Verse 27, For this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins. Now, God is
a covenant God. You children and young people,
you hear preachers love to say that God's a covenant God. Do
you have any idea what that means? Do you have any idea what that
means? Tell you what it means. Covenant means promise. God will keep
His promise. That's exactly what that means.
Everything that God is doing right now, everything God ever
has done, everything God ever will do, is because He promised
He would do it before time began. God's not reacting to you and
me. No, what God is doing is He's
fulfilling His promise that He made before time began. Before
God created anything, He knew Adam would fall, He knew what
man would be, but God promised to save a people because He's
gracious. He's going to be gracious to
them because God keeps His promise. Nothing can make Him break His
promise. Verse 29 says, For the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. Nothing will make Him break His
promise. And then, in the fullness of time, because God promised
He'd be gracious to people, He promised to save them, in the
fullness of time, when nobody was expecting it, when it looked
like the house of David was completely gone, looked like the world had
gone to hell in a handbasket, God sent His Son into this world. You know why he did that? To
fulfill his promise of grace to his people. Christ came into
this world and the angels sang, glory to God in the highest,
peace is on earth. Grace and truth finally came
into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
came and he brought grace to God's elect by obeying the law
for them, doing for them what they could never do for themselves.
And then he suffered the penalty of the broken law for those people.
He suffered unspeakable agony, not just in his body, but in
his soul. He made a soul, an offering to
God. And he did that for a people
who didn't deserve it. I believe that's grace. Oh, salvation
is in God's covenant of grace. Salvation is not in the covenant
of the law. You know, false religion makes it sound like that grace
is conditional on us. The better you keep the law,
the more gracious God will be to you. But that's not grace. That's works. And salvation cannot
be by the covenant of the law. It must be by the covenant of
grace. And we give thanks. Look over
at Hebrews chapter 8. Let me show you this. You know, this thing of salvation,
the salvation of a soul, I don't want that in my hands, do you?
I don't want that to be a covenant I've got to keep. Well, thankfully,
it's not. It's not in the covenant of the
law. Look here, Hebrews 8 verse 6. But now, hath he obtained
a more excellent ministry? By how much more also he's the
mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better
promises. Now, he there is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He became the mediator of the covenant of God's grace. And this covenant is a better
covenant. You know why the covenant of
grace is called a better covenant? Because it's based upon God's
promise, not upon our obedience. That's a better covenant, isn't
it? God's promise of grace, his promise to forgive his people
is a whole lot better than me trying and failing to keep the
law. It's a better covenant. The covenant of grace is a better
covenant because it's based upon the glorious, sinless person
of the Lord Jesus Christ and not upon our sorry, sinful selves. It's a better covenant. And salvation
that's found in God's covenant of grace, his promise to save
sinners, gives hope of salvation to the worst of sinners, the
worst of sinners. Now, salvation by the covenant
of the law, that could only give hope to good people, couldn't
it? Only good people can keep the law. Well, the salvation
or the covenant of the law can't give hope to any of us, can it?
It can't give hope to any son of Adam because what does the
scripture say? There's none good. No, not one. So the covenant
of the law can't give us any hope. but the covenant of grace
can. God's promise of grace to his
people, all Israel shall be saved because God promised he would
save them by his grace. All right, fifthly, salvation
is the work of God alone. I shall take away their sins. I shall. Who takes sin away?
God does. This goes back to what I was
saying a minute ago. Salvation is the work of God. And we don't
contribute one work to it. Ever. Ever. We don't contribute
a work to it before conversion so that we somehow make ourselves
a candidate for God to be nice to us because we did something
good. No. Salvation's in God's grace. We
don't contribute anything to our salvation, keeping our salvation. It's all being kept in his mighty
hand. Salvation is the work of God alone. And all Israel shall
be saved. This thing is so sure, it's so
certain it can never fail because of who does all the work of salvation. God does. Now if that's a, if
that depends upon me to do one thing, it's gonna fail and I'm
gonna go to hell. But all Israel shall be saved,
because God did all the work of their salvation, and everything
God does is perfect, isn't it? So no one he saves can ever perish. All right, lastly, this is the
gospel. Salvation is sure, because God's
merciful. Verse 30, for as ye in time past
have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
unbelief, even so have these also. Now not believed that through
your mercy they also may obtain mercy. Now this is both the content
of our gospel and it's the manner in which we preach the gospel.
It's mercy. The content of the gospel is
God's mercy is sovereign mercy. It's sovereign. He grants that
salvation, that mercy to whom he will, when he will. And it's
his right to do it because he's God. It's sovereign mercy. And
God grants the sovereign mercy to his people through the preaching
of the gospel. The gospel came into the Gentile
world. We're all Gentiles here. We have
this gospel in the Gentile world because God said the Jews rejected
it, so he sent it to the Gentile world. Why did God do it that
way? Well, I don't know, because God's
sovereign. That's the only answer. He does
what He will, and He doesn't give any account of His matters
to you or me. God does what He does because He's God. So when
God shows mercy, it must be sovereign mercy to whom He will. I know
you know this, but look back a page, because every time I
read these verses, I love to read it. Romans 9, verse 15. For He saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but this whole thing is of God
that showeth mercy. Now, is there any hope for someone
who does not believe Christ right now? You might be here tonight,
and you do not believe. Is there any hope? Is there any
hope for you? Yes, there is. There is. Your
hope is God's softened mercy. It's the only hope a sinner has.
We can't hope that God will save us because our works are good
enough. Because they're not. They never will be. We'll certainly
be damned if we trust in our works. But we will be saved. A sinner shall be saved if God's
merciful to them. And you know where that puts
us? Right back where we started in
that first point. We are totally dependent upon God. We're totally
dependent upon Him. Then wouldn't it be wise to beg
God for mercy? It's His to give. It's His to
give. If you're here tonight and you're
lost and you know it, you know you don't know the Lord. Let
me ask you this question. Have you ever asked God to forgive
you? Have you ever asked for mercy? Salvation is found in
God's mercy. I believe we'd be wise to ask
him for it, don't you? Well, the content of the gospel
is sovereign mercy. That's the only way a sinner
can be saved. But let me give you this. Here's our attitude
in preaching the gospel. It's mercy. If the laws obtain
mercy, it's gonna be through hearing the gospel preached.
That's what Paul says and means here in verse 31. Even so, if
these also now not believe that through your mercy, they also
may obtain mercy. Now, you know the lost aren't
gonna be saved because we're merciful. And aren't you glad?
Aren't you glad because we wouldn't be merciful? God is, but God
is, he's merciful. But if these who are lost, these
who are up to this very moment have rejected the gospel, If
they are going to believe the gospel, it's going to be because
of God's sovereign mercy. If they believe in Christ, they
will be saved because God's merciful. Then doesn't that mean that we
ought to be kind enough, that we ought to be merciful enough
to go preach the gospel when God gives us the chance? Somebody did that for you. I told Paul last week, I think
of your dad every single day. He had merciful enough, kind
enough to preach the gospel to me when I was a rebel and he
knew it. I pray God give us some understanding. We ought to understand the lost.
We ought to understand the dead, not be mad at them because they're
dead. They can't help it, they're dead. Let's be kind enough to
preach the gospel to them, to preach the gospel of God's sovereign
mercy to them. May the Lord be pleased to grant
us faith to believe it and make us kind enough to preach it.
All right. Lord bless you.