Salvation of Israel, The Glory of God
Salvation Belongs to the Lord • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Introduction:
It seems that we are quickly winding down on our study of ; and we do so with a sense of completion, fulfillment and satisfaction.
And we want to begin to look at this very important final section on the eleventh chapter beginning in verse 25.
And we are going to discover in this section that the salvation of Israel; like every other thing imaginable, is for the glory of God.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
And what the prophet is saying is that God has an incomprehensible mind.
And that man, however astute, however intellectual, however spiritual, can fully plumb the depths of the infinite mind of God.
God indeed works in ways which are mysterious to man.
The story of Israel demonstrates to me the incomprehensibly wonderful mind of God, the wonder of God’s unique dealings with His people.
David saw the wonder of God’s working with Israel in .
He responded to God giving a great promise to him and the nation this way:
“And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord God, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. And this is the custom of man, O Lord God.
Ans what he meant by that is this is not the way that men do things, is it?
God so infinitely surpassed any design that David ever knew men might have in mind He had promised for His people.
How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
The infinite mind of God, no man can plumb its depths.
And we are going to see unfolding in this text the wonderful riches of the wisdom and glory of God.
And it will lead us, like it did Paul, to burst out in the praise of verse 33.
Now, remember that Paul has been dealing with the place of Israel in the saving plan of God.
He has been answering the questions that he anticipates will be asked by those who say, “Well, if the gospel is try and Jews have rejected it, aren’t they permanently set aside from God’s Plan?”
And you will remember in Chapter 9 he said, “The rejection of Israel is true but not contrary to God’s plan.”
God planned it all along, that is the message of Chapter 9.
Chapter 10 reminded us that Israel’s rejection was due to their own unbelief.
They were set aside because they were disobedient.
In other words, it is true that it was the plan of God; chapter 9, but it is also true that it was their own fault, chapter 10.
And then we came to Chapter 11 and we saw the blindness of Israel, through the hardness of the hearts of Israel, through their rejection of Jesus Christ, God is working out a marvelous plan which will lead to the salvation of Gentiles, ultimately to the salvation of the Jews and finally to the blessing of the world in the millennial Kingdom.
Now as we come to the last section, he tells us that Israel ultimately will be saved and God’s plan will come to fruition.
So the presentation reaches its climax right here in our beginning text in verse 25.
And I will just remind you of the main points that we have seen thus far.
I. The Setting Aside is Partial
I. The Setting Aside is Partial
II. The Setting Aside is Passing
II. The Setting Aside is Passing
And tonight we come to the final point:
III. The Setting Aside is Purposeful
III. The Setting Aside is Purposeful
God works everything to the ultimate blessing of world, as we will see, but the overall purpose of all these things is the Glory of God.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
The goal of everything that happens in the universe is the glory of God.
And the reason that God set out to redeem man, both Jews and Gentiles, and the bring the Kingdom that He promised was that He might be glorified.
The ultimate purpose os not salvation, that is only a means to be ultimate purpose which is the Glory of God.
The ultimate purpose is not the bringing in of the nation Israel, that is a means to the Glory of God.
It is not Gentiles come together in the Church, that is a means to the Glory of God.
The ultimate end of God’s redemptive plan is not the glory of the eternal Kingdom, that is only a means to His Glory.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
“The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people.
In other words, all that is created in the universe is for the glory of God.
Even the beasts of the field are for His glory.
And when the angelic hosts stood outside the place of the birth of the Savior on a Bethlehem hillside and made their great announcement, they gave glory to God in highest, because that is what angels do as well.
And we have been called to do the same thing.
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Cor.
The surpassing purpose of everything is the Glory of God.
So you have in the first eleven chapters of Romans an outline of the doctrine of redemption and how it relates to the Jews and the Gentiles.
And then the climax comes in that marvelous benediction from verses 33 to 36 which calls is to glorify God.
The Old Westminister catechism had it right when it said, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Now, what does it mean to glorify God?
There are two aspects to God’s glory.
First, there is what is called His Intrinsic glory.
That glory that is His by nature, that which belongs to Him.
And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
Isa. 6:
And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
Isa. 6:
Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
In other words, His glory is that intrinsic holy character.
His glory to be equal to His attributes, or to His nature.
It is very essence of Who God is; He is glorious.
A man’s honor could be taken from Him.
Let me illustrate it this way: a naked king and a naked beggar are indistinguishable, because the king’s glory can be taken from him.
But God has a glory that cannot be stripped and so at all times He is the ever glorious God.
It is His essential being.
We cannot add to it and we cannot diminish it, we recognize it.
And when the Bible says, “Give glory to God,” it does not means add to His attributes, it means to recognize them.
That is His Intrinsic glory.
Then there is His extrinsic glory.
That is the honor that we give Him for His intrinsic worth.
And so when we glorify God it isn’t that we are adding to His character, it is that we are recognizing it, it is that we are affirming it, that we are praising it.
And there are a myriad of passages that call us to give honor to the one who intrinsically is worthy of our honor and of our praise.
Man’s chief duty indeed is to recognize the infinite holy majesty of God and to praise Him in everything.
Instead, so much of the time we pull Him down to our level and second guess Him or make demands on Hi.
But we are called to glorify Him.
In fact, I will say that to not glorify Him is the single greatest crime in the universe.
And hell is filled with beings who did basically one thing wrong, they failed to glorify God.
Heaven will be filled eternally with beings who have glory to God, that is the dividing point.
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
In other words, God’s condemning judgment falls on those who fall to give Him glory.
Give glory to the Lord your God, Before He brings darkness And before your feet stumble On the dusky mountains, And while you are hoping for light He makes it into deep darkness, And turns it into gloom.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In other words, give glory to God or else you will be judged.
Now, listen, the reason God will ultimately redeem Israel is the same reason He redeems us and that is that we might be to the praise of His glory.
“The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.
That is the redemptive purpose.
So we are not shocked when we come to the climax of this tremendous treaties on salvation that ends at the close of chapter 11, to find Paul call us to glorify God.
The whole amazing redemptive plan was to bring us to the point of giving glory to God.
Now, Paul has talked about so many things and he is now drawing this down to his conclusion; he wants us to glorify God.
So in order to do that he focuses on the character of God and gives four attributes of God is the conclusion of this section.
Four great qualities; God’s Sovereignty, God’s Integrity. God’s Generosity and God’s Incomprehensibility.
A. God’s Sovereignty (vs. 25)
A. God’s Sovereignty (vs. 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 is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Now remember that Paul just ended a warning.
He has been talking about the fact that Israel was set aside and Gentiles were grafted in to the tree of blessing.
But Gentiles, that is the Church, better no be proud, you better not boast, you are not to look down on the Jews.
It is a warning against pride and anti-Semitism.
And the warning is given because the day is coming when Israel is going to be back in the place of blessing and the church is going to be cut off.
So you better not boast.
We have not been grafted in because we are better than the Jews, but because we have believed and they have not believed.
That is the only difference.
Then Paul comes in verse 25 and calls on them “not to be ignorant of this mystery”; something that is hidden.
Do not be ignorant of it; certainly do not think too much of yourself.
The mystery God will reveal, do not be foolish and be ignorant about it.
And what is the mystery specifically?
It is given right here in the verse, the two part mystery, that blindness in part has happened to Israel.
The mystery is that the Jews would not believe.
The word that is sometimes translated “blindness” is the Greek word “πώρωσις” and should be better translated as “Hardness”.
The word literally means: “to be dull, to have no senses, to have obstinance. “
The sense of the noun is to be callous; to have a stubborn, unwillingness to learn.
But why does Paul say that their hardness was “in part?”
Well, because their hardness was partial; and that is what we have been saying all alone.
That does not mean that the individuals were partly hardened, it is not talking about the degree of hardness.
What it means is that the nation was partly hardened, that is were some who were not hardened, because there is always a remnant—a believing remnant.
So the blindness in part happen to Israel.
The second mystery is given.
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 is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? Part 6
“Until” indicates time. “Fullness” indicates number of completion. And so, only until a certain time and a certain completion, therefore it’s only temporary. So the mystery was that Israel was set aside partially and temporarily.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? Part 6
Now it’s interesting to note to help us define what the fullness of the Gentiles means, some of the terms. As I said, “until” indicates time, “fullness” indicates a number of completion, and “be come in” or “enter in,” listen very carefully to this, is the standard term for entering the Kingdom. It’s basically the same term as entering in the Kingdom used by our Lord particularly in Matthew very frequently. It is the term used in regard to those who enter in through the narrow gate. It is those who come into the Kingdom of Matthew 5:20. It is used three times in Mark 9. It is used in Luke 13:34, John 3:5, Acts 14:22. It’s sort of the standard term for entering the Kingdom. So we conclude then that the Jews are partially set aside until the time when the number of Gentiles is complete that is intended to enter the Kingdom. Did you get that? It’s really not that difficult. Jewish unbelief will last only until that time when the complete number of Gentiles who are entering the Kingdom have come to know the Lord … the number of completion, the time of completion.
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Paul’s heart is filled with tremendous joy.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? Part 6
You know he wanted to say that. You know he longed to see that. And please, there is no way to interpret that other than as the nation Israel and be fair with the text … no way. It cannot refer to a Jewish remnant, it is set in contrast to the doctrine of the remnant which has already been given. What he is saying is there has always been a remnant and there’s always been a group of Jews redeemed but some day the nation will be redeemed. Any other viewpoint does terrible injustice to the text and it is not uncommon for amillennialists to say all you have in verse 26 is another remnant. It is not another remnant. It is set in contrast to that. And that’s why it says “all” as opposed to verse 25 where blindness in part is happened. The time will come when all the nation, not just some elect Jews from a future remnant, but all as opposed to not all. And the nation itself will be grafted back in. That’s the whole point of his analogy of the olive tree.
But I also want to hasten to say that when we say “all” we mean the nation of Israel but that does not mean every single individual Jew alive at the time will be saved.
There will be some rejectors.
But the great mass of them will believe and the small group will be those who refuse to believe.
Ans we know that because of the prophecy of Ezekial.
Ezek.
“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.
“I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out;
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
“As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God.
“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;
and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.
“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? Part 6
So in that day when God reaches out to redeem His regathered people, everyone will pass under the rod and the vast majority will believe and embrace the Messiah and be saved, but the rebels there will be and they will be purged out. So it is a thrilling thing to realize that the time of the salvation of the nation Israel in general is indeed coming to pass.
Jeremaih
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
“They shall be My people, and I will be their God;
and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
“I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.
“They shall be My people, and I will be their God;
“They shall be My people, and I will be their God;
and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? Part 6
You see, the difference between the new covenant and the old is the old was on outside the new is where? It’s on the inside, it’s salvation. He will redeem the nation. He will bring them to the place of blessing promised to them in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Now, the purpose of all of this is to say that God is sovereign.
God controls history.
He controls history totally.
Human history is moving unwaveringly and inexorably on a track that God established and it is moving to the salvation of the nation of Israel.
He controls human history in every detail at every juncture at every point, moving to work out His sovereign will with infinite power.
And so, Paul helps us to see that Israel is going to be saved and in so seeing that to know that God is the sovereign controller of history.
What a comforting thing that is and what cause it is to give Him glory.
God is no victim.
He is the Sovereign God.
God is not reacting to man’s acts, He is not adjusting to what happens in the world.
God is not replanting and rearing up the old drawings.
God is controlling history, He is the sovereign God.
And it is an understanding of God’s sovereignty in regard to the salvation of Israel which He is working to perfection that causes the Apostle to cry:
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
What an infinite mind to control history to this end.
B. God’s Integrity (vs. 26)
B. God’s Integrity (vs. 26)
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: