Tonight I'm going to be speaking
on this subject, what does faith do? What does faith do? The title
for the message this morning is who shall be saved? Who shall be saved? And that question is answered
in verse 26 of our text. And so all Israel shall be saved. That's who shall be saved. All
Israel shall be saved. Now, who is Israel? Israel is
Jacob. Turn with me for a moment to
Genesis chapter 32. This is when Jacob's name was
changed to Israel. And Jacob, verse 24 of Genesis
chapter 32, and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man
with him into the breaking of the day. And that man was nobody
less than the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he saw that he prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the
hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with
him. And he said, let me go for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what's
thy name? And he said, Jacob. You know what Jacob means? Heal,
deceiver, supplanter. And that's what Jacob was. Verse
28, And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel. For as a prince hast thou power
with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him
and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore
is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
the place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face
and my life is preserved. Now that's who Israel is. Israel
is Jacob. Now, sometimes Jacob is called
Jacob. Sometimes he's called Israel.
Sometimes both in the same sentence. Jacob represents the believer.
Jacob, the old man. Israel, the new man. So all of
Israel shall be saved. Everybody that's like Jacob shall
be saved. Now look in verse 25 of Romans
chapter 11. For I would not, brethren, that
you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in
your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel
and to the fullness of the Gentiles come in." Now, he said, I don't
want you to be ignorant of this mystery. The scriptures are filled
with mysteries. The gospel is called a mystery.
It's that which we would not have known unless God was pleased
to make it known. Now, We know, but it's because
God has made it known. The mysteries of the scripture,
the mystery he's speaking is of the blindness of Israel until
the fullness of the Gentiles come in. But I like the way he
says this. He says, I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery,
or you'll be wise in your own conceits. You'll have an inflated
view of yourself, which always is accompanied with a deflated
view of God. You know, here's two things that
go together real well. Pride and ignorance. If you're proud, if I'm proud,
it's because of an ignorance of the character of God and an
ignorance of my own character. For if I have any real view of
the character of the living God and my own character, One thing
I'll know is I have no room for pride. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, he says, I don't want you
to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be conceited, wise in
your own conceits. And what is that mystery? Well, he's talking about the
blindness of Israel. Look what he says in verse 25. He says
that blindness or hardness in part has happened to Israel until
the fullness of the Gentiles come in. Look back in verse seven
of this same chapter. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, talking about national Israel, but the
election hath obtained it. Those that are elect have obtained
it, but the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber. eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David
said, let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling
block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened
that they see not, and bow down their back always. Now, this
is God's judgment against national Israel. And this blindness has
happened to them, this majority of them actually, until the fullness
of the Gentiles come. You see, there was a time when
God only spoke to Israel, but now he speaks to me and you,
the Gentiles, and this is actually a great blessing that comes from
this, the fullness of the Gentiles. Now, after that, he says in verse
26, and some believe that this means that when the fullness of the Gentiles
come, then there will be a big revival among the Jews. It may
mean that. I don't know if it does. Great.
Whatever the Lord means by that is great. But look at this passage
of Scripture. It says in verse 26, And so all
Israel shall be saved. Now, He doesn't mean, and this
is the way most interpret this, after this, after the fullness
of the Gentiles, all Israel shall be saved. There'll be a big revival
among the Jews and the nation of Israel. The phrase, and so,
can also be translated, and quite often is translated, likewise. Even so. The word, even so, in the same
manner, likewise, all of Israel shall be saved. Now once again,
who's Israel? When the Bible is talking about
Israel, is it talking about the nation of Israel in the Middle
East? No. Let me show you that from the
very context of this passage of scripture. Look in Romans chapter
9. All Israel shall be saved. Verse 6, It's not as though the
word of God hath 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 the promise are counted for the seed. Now just because I'm
a national Jew from Israel doesn't mean I'm a true Jew. Who are
the true Israelites? Who are the true Jews? If I'm
a believer, I'm a Jew. Let me show you this. Turn to
Romans 2. A couple of scriptures. Verse 28. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. Look in Galatians chapter
6. It's important to establish this
from the scriptures so we can understand what he's talking
about when he says all Israel shall be saved. Who is Israel?
Well, look in Galatians chapter 6. Verse 16, and as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the
Israel of God. The Israel of God is the people
who walk according to this rule. What is the rule they walk according
to? Look in verse 14. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom? The world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
veils anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, as many as
walk according to this rule. Peace be on them in mercy and
upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God are those who
walk according to this rule. Glory in Christ. One other scripture.
Philippians chapter three. Verse three. For we are the circumcision. We're the true Jews. We're the
people who have truly been circumcised, which worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Now, we're the true Jews, which worship God for who He is. In
the Spirit. In God the Holy Spirit. The only
way I can worship God is in the Holy Spirit. Now, what is the
evidence that somebody worships God in the Holy Spirit? They
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Same word as glorying in the
cross. They glory in Christ Jesus. Here's all my salvations in Christ. And how do you know if you really
glory in Christ Jesus? You have no confidence in the
flesh. Absolutely none. All you have
confidence in is who Christ is and what He did. Now that is
the true Israel. and all of Israel shall be saved. Now, that's the promise. Who
will be saved? All of Israel will be saved.
Well, saved from what? What's that mean? Saved. What are you talking
about when you're talking about being saved? Somebody says, I
got saved. I hear people say that all the
time. What's that mean? Or, I've been saved. We ought to say,
the Lord saved me. We ought not say, I got saved.
We ought to say, the Lord saved me. There's a big difference.
But what is this thing of salvation? All of Israel shall be saved.
Turn to Matthew chapter 1. Verse 21, And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his
people from their sins. Salvation. is being saved from
my sins. Now, there's a lot of scriptural definition
of sin. Sin's the transgression of the
law. Any lack of perfect conformity to the Ten Commandments is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. To him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not, to him It is sin. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. The thought of foolishness is sin. I need saved from my
sins. I need rescued from my sins. And this is the promise. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. Now this means three things.
Here's how I need to be saved from my sins. Number one, I need
to be saved from the penalty against sin. I can't stand before God's justice
against sin. I need to be saved from the penalty.
I need to be saved from hell. I need to be saved from the wrath
of God. That's what he did in justification. He saved his people
from the penalty of sin and now there's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? God justified them. Now,
I must first of all be saved from the penalty of my sin, and
He did it. I'm never going to have to give
account for my sins. Never going to be punished. But
not only do I need to be saved from the penalty of my sins,
this is just as necessary, I need to be saved from the power of
sin. What's that mean? Well, there
was a time when sin had complete dominion, power, and control
over me. Have you ever seen an addict? That abuse has complete control
over them. complete. They cannot get out
from under it. An unbeliever is someone under
the complete dominion and control of sin. You know what that means?
That means you can't believe. You can't repent. You can't love. You can't do anything to contribute
to your own salvation. You're under the complete dominion
of sin. And the only way I can be delivered
from that is for God to give me a new heart, a regenerated
heart, a new heart that does believe. You know, it's only
the new heart, it's only the regenerated heart really that
understands what sin is. A lost man has no understanding
of what sin really is. He looks at everything as behavioral.
He doesn't understand the heart, the dead in sins. But oh, when
you're given a new heart, you're delivered from the dominion of
sin in that I can now do what I once couldn't do. I can believe,
I do believe. Now, I need delivered from the
condemnation of sin. I need to deliver from the dominion
of sin. You know, the Bible promises
sin shall not have dominion over you. Romans 6, 14, because you're
not under law. You're under grace. If you're
under law, sin's got complete dominion over you. You're under
grace. You've been delivered. But I
also need delivered from the presence of sin to where I don't
sin anymore. It wouldn't be a salvation if
it left me continuing in sin. That would not be salvation.
If they sinned up in heaven, it wouldn't be heaven anymore.
I need to be delivered from the actual commission of sin to where
I'm delivered from its presence. And here's one of the mysteries
of the scripture. Ephesians 2.6 says we're seated
together in the heavenlies in Christ. I'm already in heaven
in Christ Jesus. Is Christ delivered from sin?
Is it all put away? Yes. And I am too. Now this can't
be known by experience. This can only be known by faith.
But 1 John 4.17 says, As He is, so are we in this world. If He's completely delivered,
which He is, I am too. I'm already glorified. And as
a matter of fact, Romans 8 30 says that. So all Israel shall
be saved from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and
from the presence of sin. Now let's go on reading back
to Romans chapter 11. This is how this takes place. Verse 26, and so all Israel shall
be saved as it is written. Now, if I don't have an as it
is written to what I'm saying, there's no point in me saying
it because there's no reality to it. What does the Bible mean
to you? Is this precious to you, as it's
written? This is what you're looking to,
not what the preacher says. Is the preacher preaching from
the Word? Is there an as it is written? Now look, what is written? He quotes from Isaiah. As it
is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer. What a name for our Lord, the
Deliverer. And you could just as easily
call that the rescuer, because that's what it means. I need
somebody to rescue me, don't you? I mean, I need to be rescued. I need to be saved from my sin.
I need to be saved from myself. I need rescued. I need to be
saved from my circumstances. How many times have you had,
Lord, rescue me out of this? There shall come out of Zion
the deliverer. and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take
away their sins. There shall come out of Zion
the Deliverer. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 speaks of
even Jesus who delivered us or rescued us from the wrath to
come. You know, when we say, Lord,
save me, well, that's a prayer I pray all the time. Lord, save
me. Lord, it's already saved? I pray it every day. Lord, save
me. Are we not saying, Lord, rescue
me? If you don't rescue me, I'll
be irretrievably lost. Rescue me from my enemies. Rescue
me from my sins. Rescue me from myself. Oh, that's
continually what we're praying. Now in this rescue of our deliverer,
there are three things he said to do. Look what it says in verse
26. There shall come out of Zion
the deliverer that shall, number one, turn away ungodliness from
Jacob. Number two, this is my covenant
to them when I'll take away their sins. And number three is found
in verse 29, for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Now, this is how he saves Israel. First, it says he came to turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. And I love the way this is stated. Notice it doesn't say he'll turn
away Jacob from ungodliness. It said he'll turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. I like that order. I like the
way that's said, don't you? And I want the Lord to do that for
me. I want him to turn ungodliness from me. Now, what is ungodliness?
Well, the only way we can understand what ungodliness is is to understand
what godliness is. Godliness is the mind of Christ
in a believer. Paul said we have the mind of
Christ. Godliness is a Godward attitude. It's taken from the great mystery
of godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Godliness
is called in, as a matter of fact, turn to Titus chapter one
for a moment. Titus chapter one. Paul, verse 1, a servant of God,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. Now, here's what godliness is.
It's the acknowledging. It's the full embracing and love
of the truth. The truth of who God is. It's
having the mind of Christ. The truth of who God is, of who
Christ is, of who I am, of how He saves. This is godliness. It's the full embracing and acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. It's derived from
godliness and it leads to godliness. You can't embrace the truth and
not be godly. It's impossible. The embracing
of the truth is the acknowledging of godliness. So ungodliness
is the opposite. It's not a godward attitude,
it's a manward attitude. A manward attitude. It's a fleshly
attitude. It's the opposite of true godliness.
It's a rejection of the truth that leads to sinful actions. That's ungodliness. Now, the
blessing here is that God, through the Deliverer, will turn away
ungodliness from Jacob. And here's how he does it. Look
back in our text in Romans chapter 11. He'll turn away ungodliness from
Jacob. 4, verse 27. This is my covenant
unto them, Jacob, every Jacob, every believer, all of the elect,
all for whom Christ died, all who shall be saved. This is my
covenant with them when I shall take away their sins. I. He's the only one who can do
this. I. Hebrews 1.3 says he, by himself,
with no help whatsoever from me or you. I, he's the one who
does this. If you're gonna have your sins
taken away, it's gonna be him doing it. You can't do it. You
believe that? You can't do it. I, I love the
next word, shall. It's a thing of absolute certainty. I shall take away their sins. You see, it shall happen because
he willed it. I shall. When he wills something,
it's already done. The leper came to Christ and
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He said, I
will. That's why it's so certain. It's
derived from the sovereign will of God. I shall. Next word is take away. I shall take away their sins. It's not possible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins, but His blood made them
not in existence. You know what that means? Here's what it means real clearly.
When God looks at me right now, as conscious as I am of my own
personal sinfulness right now, when God looks at me, He doesn't
overlook my sins. He doesn't see them because they're
not there. They've been put away. They've been blotted out. They've
been canceled. They are gone. They can't be
brought back up because they're not. Listen to this scripture
from Numbers 23, 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. Now that means when
he looks at you, if you're a believer, he doesn't see any iniquity and
he doesn't see any perverseness. You see it. But he doesn't. But
here's the glorious thing. The way he sees things is the
way they really are. If he doesn't see any iniquity
in you, there's only one reason. There is no iniquity in you.
If he doesn't see perverseness in you, there's only one reason.
There's no perverseness in you. Listen to the rest of the Scripture.
We can understand why this can be true. He hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord
God is with him. The shout of a king is among
them. And you know what that shout
is? It is finished. And because it is finished, he
has not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 20,
In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And that's God searching for
it. And God, if there's anything to find, he's gonna find it,
isn't he? But there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve, their
sins. I shall take away their sins.
They're all taken away. They're canceled. You know what? I'm trying to
preach on this, and I'm thinking if any of us had any idea what
this really meant, we'd be doing flips. We'd be so happy, we'd
be so rejoicing, we'd be... Sin taken away. I fear that quite often we don't
much believe what we say we believe, but we believe something, don't
we? Sin taken away. This is the covenant that I will
make with them when I shall take away their sins. Romans 11 verse 28, now as concerning
the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. This is talking
about the unbelieving Jews, but as touching the election, they
are beloved for the Father's sake. And this could only be
talking about the Jews who will be saved. They may be enemies
right now. They may not have any love for
what you believe right now, but they will. They will. their beloved
for the Father's sake. And then he closes with this
statement in verse 29. Four, the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. God never changes his mind. He's not a man that he should
repent. The gifts The gifts. Don't you love that word gift?
You know, this word gift here in our text is derived from the
word grace. It means a free gift of grace. A free, you know, that sounds
redundant, doesn't it? If it's free, it's a gift. If it's a gift,
if it's a grace, yeah, I know, but it's a glorious redundancy.
The free gift of grace. And you know, so many times I've
said grace is God's unmerited favor. You said it too, but it's
more than that. It's not so much God's unmerited favor. It's God's
demerited favor. We've demerited any kind of favor
from him, but he gives it anyway. Oh, the free gift of his grace. Christ, is called, in 2 Corinthians,
the unspeakable gift of God. When the Lord was looking at
that woman at the well, looking for physical water, he said,
if you knew the gift, the gracious, free gift of God myself, If you knew the gift of God,
and who it was that saith to thee, give me to drink, you would
have asked him, and he would have given thee living water. If you knew, you'd ask, and he'd give. Now let's think of this thing
of gifts, the free gift, the gracious gift, the unmerited,
the demerited gift of His grace. We read in the scriptures in
Romans chapter 5 of the gift of righteousness. Now, that's
a hard thing for us to get hold of, righteousness being given
to me as a gift, because we think of righteousness as being some
way we are. But the Bible calls righteousness His gift, the gift
of righteousness, the free gift. If you ask God for this gift,
now listen to me, if you ask God for this gift, He'll give
it to you. Ain't ever been anybody who's ever asked God for a free
gift that He said no to. Now you say, well, I've asked
and He didn't give it to me. You weren't asking, you were bargaining.
You were saying, if you do this, I'll do that. But anybody that
comes on the ground of only grace, give me this gift of righteousness,
you'll have it. We read of the gift of eternal
life. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. You come to God for this gift,
you'll have it. It's free. We read of the gift of grace. You want God's grace? It's a
gift. Free. Nothing you have to pay
for it. Nothing you have to do to earn it. You come empty handed,
it's yours. I'm interested in God's gifts,
aren't you? We read of the gift of faith. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says,
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the, what? Gift of God. Now, you face a
gift, you can have it. If you have to come up with it,
you're in trouble. But if it's a free gift, you
can have it. Lord, give me this faith. Repentance
is even called a gift. Him hath God anointed for to
give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins, or the
remission of sins. Lord, give me this gift. God
hath granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. See, it's
His free gift. All these things that come from
God are free gifts. There's no reason why me and
you can't have them. If I don't have them, it's because I didn't
ask them for them. You have not because you ask not. Everyone that asks, receives. Now, do you believe what God
says? Do you believe Christ's Word? Everyone that asks, receives. Now, the remission of sins is
His gift and God never takes back His gifts. The gifts and
the calling of God are without repentance. Paul said in Romans
8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to them
who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And he never changes his purpose.
Galatians 1, 15, Paul said, when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me. that I might preach him among
the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world are the things which
are despised, hath God chosen. Yea, and the things which are
not, which are nothing. You know, it's hard to even describe
nothing, isn't it? They're not a word. To bring to nothing the things that
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now, who shall be
saved? All Israel shall be saved. Who is Israel? Every Jacob. Every Jacob. Jacob was a weak,
sinful, in many ways a deceitful and disgusting man. If you read
his history, not much could be said about Jacob, but what God
said. God said, you're in Israel. You're
a prince with God and you've prevailed. Jacob is, Israel is
every Jacob. They have two names that go by,
Jacob and Israel. Jacob's my name in the flesh.
Israel's my name in Christ. All Israel shall be saved. And
here's why they'll be saved. God, the Deliverer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, will turn ungodliness from men. He'll take away their
sins. He already did it. And all of
His gifts and his callings are without repentance. God never
goes back on his word. God never changes his mind. Consequently, all Israel shall
be saved, saved from their sins. Let's pray.