Israel's Salvation and Our Sacrifice
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
This morning we are going to see some incredible truth about the salvation of Israel during the tribulation. And we are also going to get into one of the greatest doxologies in scripture. and close this morning with a sneak peak of chapter 12 and how we should live as Christians.
Recap:
Recap:
Last week we discussed whether or not God has rejected His people. The answer is absolutely not.
Whenever we want evidence of God’s work, we could and should look to our own lives as a testament to God’s faithfulness
God is and will remain faithful to Israel, right now through a remnant of the people. Paul uses the Elijah as an example. He thought he was the only one who was faithful to the Lord yet God told him about His remnant of 7,000 men who did not bend their knee to Baal.
God doesn’t choose the remnant on the basis of their works. God’s choice is based on His sovereign, electing grace.
God’s purpose in their stumbling was so that salvation might come to the Gentiles, and because of that provoking Israel to jealousy.
One of the most important lessons we looked at last week was the fact that we need to remain humble. If Israels disobedience allowed us to see Jesus, then what will their salvation bring?
We should not and cannot not allow ourselves to think that we are some how better then Israel because we are saved. It is all by the grace of God and through His death and resurrection.
God’s kindness and severity is revealed through this too. The kindness of God to the Gentiles, and His severity is manifested in the removal of Israel from being the primary tool that He uses.
vv 25-27) The promise
vv 25-27) The promise
Paul now reveals that the future of Israel is not only a possibility but an assured fact that will take place.
[25] As Christian we cannot take this lightly or flippantly. Because Paul starts off with, “Lest you be wise in your own sight.” That is a warning to take what he is say seriously. It can be so easy for us Gentile believers to look down on the Jews. But God has something wild in store for them.
Paul now tells us about the mystery- a truth hitherto unknown, a truth that could not be know by man’s unaided intellect, but a truth that has now been made known.
This mystery is as follows:
“A partial hardening has come upon Israel:” This hardening has not effected to entire nation, but only the unbelieving segment. This hardness is temporary. It will continue only until the fullness of the Gentiles arrives.
The fullness of the Gentiles refers to the time when the last member will be added to the church, and when the completed Body of Christ will be raptured.
You see at that time, God will once again turn the attention of His plan of the ages specifically on Israel again, so that all of Israel will be saved.
[26] The Israel talked about in this verse isn’t “spiritual Israel. There is a distinction between national/ ethnic Israel and spiritual Israel.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
Speaking of spiritual Israel. Nevertheless, God still has a purpose and a plan for ethnic Israel and will bring salvation to them. God has for the time being focused His saving mercies on the Gentiles primarily, but He will turn it back to Israel again.
This simple passage refutes those who insist that God is forever done with Israel as a people and that the Church is the New Israel and inherits every promise ever made to ethnic Israel.
Look at these two passages for further proof:
for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
While we see and rejoice in a continuity of God’s work throughout all His people through all ages, we also see a distinction between Israel and the Church- a distinction here between Israel and the Church- Paul is sensitive to it here.
God continues to work throughout all His people through all ages, and there is also a distinction between Israel and the church.
From our understanding that hardness will be removed at the time of the Rapture, that doesn’t mean that all Israel will be saved right away. Jews will be converted throughout the Tribulation Period, but the entire elect remnant will not be saved until Christ returns to earth as King of kings and Lord of lord.
What Paul says that all Israel will be saved, he means all believing Israel. The unbelieving portion of the nation will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ.
For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
In the whole land, declares the Lord,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.
And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
Only those who say “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” will be spared to enter the kingdom.
Paul is quoting:
“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
This is referring to the Redeemer, Christ, coming to Zion to banish ungodliness from Jacob. Notice what isn’t being stated here about Christ’s coming… It doesn’t say that Christ is coming to Bethlehem, but coming to Zion- that means this passage is talking about His Second Coming!
[27] Isaiah and Jeremiah both refer to this time, when God shall take away their sins under the terms of the New Covenant.
Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
and
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
vv 28-29) God’s enduring love for Israel
vv 28-29) God’s enduring love for Israel
We are able to see that during the time that Paul is writing this and we might be able to summarize Israel’s present status by saying first that as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.
Enemies is in the sense of being cast off, set aside, alienated from God’s favor so that the gospel might go forth to the Gentiles.
But that is only half the picture. In regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers- That is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Of course, they are loved for more than their forefathers but that by itself would be enough.
[29] The reason they are still beloved is that God’s gifts and calling are never rescinded. God does not take back His gifts. Once He has made an unconditional promise, He never goes back on it. He gave Israel the special privileges liked in:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
He called Israel to be His earthly people, separate from the rest of the nations.
“Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.
Nothing can change His purposes. This principle should comfort us far beyond its direct relevance to Israel. Because it means that god will not give up on us and He leave a path open to restoration. Like in the parable of the prodigal son, in our rebellion we going back to the Father. He is there waiting to meet us and restore us.
vv 30-32) So were we
vv 30-32) So were we
[30] The Gentiles were once an untamed, disobedient people, however when Israel turned their back on the Messiah and the gospel of salvation, God turned to the Gentiles in mercy.
Jesus’ parable in Luke perfectly sums this up:
16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
When we are talking about our salvation we must understand that we are saved because of the mercy and grace of God. We are not better, in fact in many ways we were worse, but again by the grace of God.
[31] If God used the disobedience of Israel for the Gentiles’ good, He can also use the mercy shown to the Gentiles for the mercy of Israel.
[32] When we first read this verse, we might get the idea that God arbitrarily condemned both Jews and Gentiles to unbelief, and that there was nothing they could do about it. But that isn’t the thought here.
The unbelief was their own doing, and what the verse is saying is this: having found both Jews and Gentiles disobedient, God is pictured as imprisoning them both in that condition, so that there would be no way out for them except on His terms.
The word consigned (Sygkleio) literally means to catch fish. It implicates a restriction or to bind, lock, be a prisoner.
Another thing to be mindful of is that this verse is not suggesting universal salvation. God has shown mercy to the Gentiles and will yet show mercy to the Jews too, but this does not insure the salvation of everyone.
Here it is mercy shown along national lines:
“God having tested both the Hebrew and the Gentile nations, and both having broken down under the test, He shut them up in unbelief so that, being manifestly without merit, and having by demonstration forfeited all claims and all rights to divine favor, He might, in the unsearchable riches of His grace, have mercy upon them all.” - George Williams
vv 33-36) Praise God for His plan!
vv 33-36) Praise God for His plan!
[33] This doxology looks back over everything that we have covered so far in the Epistle and the divine wonders that have been unfolded.
Doxology: A word ascribing glory to God.
Paul has brought us through the marvelous plan of salvation by which a just God can save ungodly sinners and still be just in doing so.
Also showing us how Christ’s work brought more glory to God and more blessing to men than Adam lost through his sin.
Explaining how grace produces holy living in a way that the law could never do.
Tracing the unbreakable chain of God’s purpose from foreknowledge to eventual glorification. Even setting for the doctrine of sovereign election and the companion doctrine of human responsibility .
Even the fact that the justice and harmony of God’s dispensational dealings with Israel and the nations.
Now nothing could be more appropriate than to burst forth with a word ascribing glory, praise, and worship to God.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
The riches of God! He is rich in mercy, love, grace, faithfulness, power, and goodness.
The wisdom of God! His wisdom is infinite, unsearchable, incomparable, and invincible.
The knowledge of God!
“God is omniscient, He knows everything: everything possible, everything actual; all events, all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future.” -A.W. Pink
His decisions are unsearchable: They are too deep for mortal minds to fully understand. The ways in which He arranges creation, history, redemption, and providence are beyond our limited comprehension.
[34] No created being can know the mind of the Lord, except to the extent that He chooses to reveal it. Let that sink in for a moment… And even then we see in a mirror, dimly:
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
No one is qualified to advise God. He doesn’t need our counsel, and wouldn’t profit by it anyways and Paul quotes:
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
[35] There hasn’t been a person that has ever made God obligated to him.
11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
What gift of ours would ever put the Eternal in a position where He had to repay?
[36] We have to come to terms with the Almighty is self-contained. He is the source of every good, He is the active Agent in sustaining and controlling the universe, and He is the Object for which everything has been created. Everything is designed to bring glory to Him.
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
The letter to the Romans can be broken into 3 segments.
Chapters 1-8 are really doing with the the gospel of God and teaching us doctrine.
secondly what we have just covered in chapters 9-11 pertains to the gospel and Israel and the dispensations of God.
And our final segment of the letter is found in chapter 12 and goes till the end in chapter 16. This section focuses on living out the gospel, dutifully.
You see the rest of Romans answers the question: “How should those who have been justified by grace respond in their everyday lives?”
What Paul is going to show us is how to live our lives for Christ pertaining to other believers, our communities, enemies, government, and our weakest brothers and sister.
vv 1-3) The foundation of Christian living
vv 1-3) The foundation of Christian living
The use of other bible translations can really have an impact on our understanding of a passage or even expand our understanding of it.
J.B. Phillips’ translation of verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12 is outstanding:
“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the Plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”