Israel & the Church Remain Distinct

Transcript

GR 1458
01/30/11
Israel and the Church Remain Distinct
Romans 11:16-18; Genesis 12-35
Gill Rugh

I'm sure all of you have been either watching the news or reading the newspaper and have been captivated by the turmoil that is taking place in Egypt and its impact potentially on the whole Middle East. Amazing what a week does. A week ago no one was thinking that the Middle East could potentially be thrown into turmoil, that a nation like Egypt would be in the process of probably overthrowing a 30-year dictator. In it all I'm amazed to think that God is sovereignly working His purposes and plans. You have to be impressed as you look at the news and they put up those color maps to show the Middle East, I'm sure you've seen them, they've been on several different news programs. And they show all the Muslim nations that are around Israel in one color, and then you have that little sliver called Israel right on the Mediterranean, then a little sliver of a different color right to the east of Israel called Jordan, then down in the south you have Egypt. And Jordan and Egypt have been somewhat more friendly toward Israel. And the commentators noted all this map with all these Muslim countries have one goal—to push Israel into the Sea, get rid of it. The only two Muslim nations that have had any friendship with Israel have been Egypt and Jordan. They were talking about that if these two countries go more radical in their Muslim identity, Israel will have no friends there but one solid united group desirous of destroying the nation Israel.

Couldn't help but think of a couple of verses. Go to Ezekiel 5, just God's perspective on this. Verse 5, the great prophet Ezekiel writing about 500 B.C. Thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have set her at the center of the nations with lands around her. Do you see how God looks at the world? Jerusalem is at the center, the land of Israel there around it. Everything else put in context. You look on a map and they show that little sliver of land, you wonder what is the issue? You have this huge expanse of territory and all those Muslim nations are saying, if we could just get rid of that little sliver, all our problems would be solved. You know what the real problem is? God has chosen Jerusalem and Israel for Himself. And so all those who are the enemies of the living God are the enemies of the people that God has chosen. Great verse for you to remember as you look at the news and see the turmoil. God says, this is Jerusalem, I have set her at the center of the nations. Most important place on the face of the earth is Jerusalem; most important place for the events of the world. What is significant in Egypt? Not the turmoil there. Do you know what is significant? The potential impact on Israel.

Come over to Ezekiel 38, and if you haven't read Ezekiel 38 recently, you ought to put your marker there and read it when you go home. It will tell you where all these Muslim nations are ultimately going as they will assemble and one day descend upon Jerusalem with the intention of destroying the nation Israel. It is on that occasion they will meet their own destruction. But I want you to look at verse 12. When these nations come down, nations identified earlier in the chapter, they come down, verse 12, to capture, spoil, seize, plunder, turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, against the people who are gathered from the nations—it's the people of Israel whom God has gathered back from other nations of the world where they were dispersed, the diaspora, now brought back to the land. Who have acquired cattle and goods. Now note this last statement—who live at the center of the world, literally the navel of the world. That's how God sees it. He looks at the world, there is the center. We hear a lot of talk about China and its power, influence and Russia and the United States. God says, here is the center of the world, because that's the focal point of what He is doing in the world. And everything else happening among the nations has as its focal point the nation Israel and the bringing to fulfillment God's purpose and plan for those people.

We're in Romans 11, come over there. We are going to look a little more broadly than Romans today. And really what we're studying in Romans 9-11 is of tremendous significance for what is transpiring in the world today, what is captivating the news today. What we're talking about in Romans 9-11 is God clarifying how His program and plan of salvation in the world today fits with the plan and program that He has unfolded throughout Old Testament history for the nation Israel. And particularly as we come to chapter 11 he zeros in to show that ultimately all the promises that He had given through the prophets to the nation Israel will be literally fulfilled. And there will come a time when the nation Israel will be established with glory. The nations of the earth will come to Jerusalem to worship the King of the Jews. Jerusalem will be the capital of the world. And as we have talked in a number of other studies, that is why it is the focal point and center of satanic opposition as Satan and his demonic hosts continually attempt to thwart the plan of God by destroying the nation Israel.

In Romans 11 as we have been studying, Paul has been addressing the issue, where does Israel fit in the plan of God? Has God replaced Israel with the church? Have the Jews been replaced with Gentiles? The church at Rome in these early years of the church can look and see that by and large the nation Israel has rejected their Messiah, has rejected the salvation offered by faith in Him. In contrast many Gentiles in different parts of the world, including Rome, have responded in faith to the message of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that we Gentiles have assumed the place of Israel?

So the chapter opened up with a question, I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? The response, may it never be. That cannot be, that would be impossible. The second question, and these two questions govern the chapter, verse 11, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be, that's not possible, that could not be. In other words even though Gentiles have come to be the focal point of God's work of salvation in the world, that should not be misunderstood and taken to signify that God now is done with the nation Israel. And what Paul has shown through this opening part of chapter 11 is that the unbelief of Israel has been part of the plan of God to open the door of salvation to Gentiles. But that's not the final word. So that the salvation of the Gentiles might ultimately be used in the plan of God to stir the nation Israel to jealousy so that they might turn to their Messiah. You understand we Gentiles are being saved by faith in the Jewish Messiah, the descendant of Abraham, the descendant of David, the One born King of the Jews who was crucified on the cross. We Gentiles are being saved by faith in Him. Someday God will open the eyes of the Jewish nation to realize the tragedy of their unbelief. And they will turn and be saved. That's where chapter 11 is going.

We've looked through the first 16 verses of this chapter and I want to pick up a couple of notes, then we have to look at some other material. Verse 15 talks about if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead. We'll keep that passage in mind from things we're going to look at in the Old Testament. Ultimate blessing for the world will come in its fullness when Israel receives the fullness of God's salvation because then the kingdom will be established on this earth and all wars, all conflict will be removed from the earth. The curse will be lifted from the creation.

Then he said in verse 16, if the first piece of dough is holy the lump is also, if the root is holy the branches are, too. This is where we ended our study and it forms a transition, verse 16, from what has gone before and leads into what follows. Because he's going to continue to talk about the branches and the olive tree. We noted the picture in verse 16, the first piece of dough, firstfruits. If that is holy, the lump is. If the root of the tree is holy, the branches are. When you come to Romans 11:28, from the standpoint of the gospel, they, referring to Israel, the Jews, are enemies for your sake. You Gentiles were benefiting from their coming under the judgment of God, as he explained in the first part of chapter 11. But from the standpoint of God's election, from the standpoint of election, translated in our Bibles God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. We noted the fathers refer back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's what is entailed and in view in verse 16 when he said the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is; if the root of the tree is holy, the branches are. It goes back to the root in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and God's calling of them, the covenant He established with Abraham and then reiterated with Isaac and then again with Jacob. That guarantees a line. That's what we're talking about here. We have to understand what is in view because he is going to pick up and talk about grafting in branches to the olive tree and replacing some branches. And it causes great confusion.

We've talked about the fact that some people believe that the church has replaced Israel, replacement theology, sometimes called supersessionism, meaning the church has superseded Israel. In other words God has replaced Israel with the church. It gets confusing as you read about this because they mix ideas and it causes confusion. One man from whom I am going to read, reflecting the view that I oppose, says there are only two real views—the view of dispensational premillennialist which we are, we believe in a distinction between Israel and the church and some other matters, but we'll focus on that since we're talking about that, and those who don't. And it does come down to that.

I want to warn you about one expression. If you read much in commentaries and theology you read the expression, there is one people of God. That is not true. They get to it logically, we are all saved by faith. Anyone who has ever been saved has been saved by faith. We are saved by faith in God and the promises and work that He has done. And therefore when we believe in Him we are saved by Him, and we belong to God. Therefore everyone who has ever been saved forms one people of God. That is faulty logic, it is not biblical truth. And so as soon as you see the expression one people of God, you ought to turn on a red light and stop and say, there is something wrong here.

I want to read you a couple of examples. This is from a commentary on Romans, very fine commentary, recent commentary, but the man is covenantal. He does not see a clear distinction between Israel and the church. He talks about this metaphor, this picture of the olive tree and drawing that metaphor. And he says, basic to the whole metaphor of the olive tree is the unity of God's people, a unity that crosses both historical and ethical boundaries. You see where he is going here. The unity of God's people, a unity that crosses historical and ethnic boundaries. In other words the distinction between Jew and Gentile now is going to be blurred. That's not going to be the significant thing. The olive tree represents the true people of God. That is not so, we're going to look at the olive tree in a little bit. The olive tree in the analogy here does not represent the true people of God. But see to incorporate your theology here, there is one people of God, a unity without distinctions that are historical or ethnic, and so now we're going to say the olive tree represents the people of God and we're going to come to there is only one people of God.

Paul's metaphor warns us not to view this transition as a transition from one people of God to another. The picture Paul sketches reveals the danger of the simple and popular notion that the church has “replaced” Israel. You think, maybe he is going to go where we are because he doesn't think you should talk about the church “replaced” Israel. Paul suggests that the church defined as the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ is simply the name for the people of God in this era of salvation history, as Israel was the name of that people in the previous age. Perhaps a better word to describe the movement from Old Testament Israel to New Testament church is the same word the New Testament so often uses to denote such relationship—fulfillment. It does not use fulfillment to talk about the church being a fulfillment of Israel. So he draws a parallel there that is not accurate, I do not believe.

We therefore capture the necessary note of continuity. The church is the continuation of Israel into the new age. And this continuity, the church and not Israel is now the locus of God's work in the world. And then he quotes a writer who is saying the same thing he is—the church is the true Israel if not the new Israel. So you'll note what he is saying here. Instead of saying we shouldn't call the church the replacement of Israel, the church is the true Israel. There is one people of God—they were called Israel in the Old Testament, they are called the church in the New Testament. But the crucial thing is not the national identity of Israel, it's the fact that they are the people of God. He feels the problem with replacement theology is that it identifies the church with the Gentiles. And really the church can be comprised of Jews and Gentiles alike. But the church as the church has replaced Israel. That's why the other man here says there are only two views. That was a covenantal premillenialist, if you are familiar with the terminology of post trib.

This is an amillennialist, he is really confusing. He starts out by saying dispensationalists, which we are, have been inaccurate in calling amillennialists replacement theologians or believing in supersessionism. He says I was an amillennialist for twenty-five years, I never heard those terms until I was studying for my PhD in a theological school. He must have had his head in the sand. Interestingly in his book, and he has another book that parallels this one attacking dispensationalism, he had to put an excursis in it because people wrote to him. He says no amillennialist calls himself a replacement theologian, that's dispensationalists trying to create something. Somebody wrote him and made him aware of all the amillennialists who refer to themselves as replacement theologians. So he had to do a special addendum to say they do. But it's not like dispensationalists who willy-nilly call us replacement theologians. That's his word, willy-nilly. So his problem is not whether they are replacement theologians or not, it's that we willy-nilly, whatever that is, call them ............

The chapter, Are Israel and the Church the Same. Now we must emphasize the differences and discontinuity between Israel and the church. We have been saying that the church is the new Israel, with the emphasis on the word Israel. Now we want to emphasize that the church is the new Israel with the emphasis on new. Though there is basic unity between the church and Israel, there is also the development, advancement and superiority of the church over Israel. The church may be considered as the true Israel and as such the continuation of the old covenant people. They may be considered the new Israel and as such a beginning by God. So you see you don't want to be called replacement because there is only one people of God and they have continued through Old Testament history and New Testament history. But we have a new beginning because God is not now dealing with a nation, He's dealing with the church. So we say, are you replacement or aren't you?

This statement, it is not that the church is the spiritual Israel but that it is reorganized Israel. But the fact is, it is Israel. When we call the church the new covenant Israel we are not allegorizing or spiritualizing the prophecies as some maintain. We are simply recognizing the historical fact of this reorganization, now listen to this, whereby the church in strict legality and in unbroken continuation took over the assets of the national Israel. Said assets being the promises of God, not some of them but all of them. I call that replacement theology. The church has taken over not some of the promises of God to Israel, but all of them. It took over the assets of Israel because it was for legal prophetic purposes Israel, the only group having a legitimate right to the promises of God for Israel.

You remember we had a President a number of years ago who got into trouble and in the question being asked him, he made the point that this all depends on how you define “is.” It depends on what “is” is. Well he says here Israel is always Israel. Of course, but that depends on what Israel is. This is why when you read this stuff you say, I'm not sure. I think, how can I share some of this with you and not throw you into confusion. I can't because it seems at times they are saying two things. He says I believe in historical grammatical interpretation. This is really what he says, I could read you the quote. By that I mean we should interpret historically, grammatically, theologically literary genre. Wait a minute, if you believe in historical grammatical interpretation, you believe in historical grammatical interpretation; if you believe in historical grammatical theological literary interpretation, you believe in historical grammatical literary .......... But he calls that true historical grammatical interpretation because he needs to add theological so he can redefine Israel and then of course literary genre enables him to say apocalyptic literature like Revelation should never be interpreted literally anyway.

With that clarity on your mind I want to take you back to Genesis. You know what? After reading a certain amount of this kind of theological writing, I find it refreshing to come just to the Bible and read what is clear and simple. And man has so confused and complicated things. I want to look at little bit at the covenant given with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I realize we have done this on a number of occasions, but it is crucial to understand this to understand what Paul is talking about in Romans 11. That Gentile church at Rome was expected and required to understand the truth of the covenant given to Abraham and his descendants. Otherwise they couldn't understand what Paul is saying.

In Genesis 12 you realize comes a major turning point in the books of the Bible. Here we have the covenant given to Abram. Abram's name will be changed to Abraham. In Genesis 12:1 you have the Abrahamic Covenant, foundational covenant given in scripture. The other covenants—the Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, the New Covenant—are developments of areas of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was an add-on later and added later and brought to fulfillment and completion with the coming of Christ.

Note how Genesis 12 begins. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father's house to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. There you have a basic summary of the Abrahamic Covenant. It is reiterated with different emphases in subsequent chapters, we'll look at that in a moment. We usually note three different aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant—land, seed and blessing. The land that Abraham is called to is promised to him and his descendants. He is promised a seed, descendants, and they will inherit the promises given in the covenant. And blessing. And the blessing here will come out from Israel to all nations. Verse 3, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. That's important, that's why you and I as Gentiles have gotten included into the Abrahamic Covenant. I want you to note, in the Abrahamic Covenant from its beginning it includes different aspects. And just because someone receives certain benefit from a part of the Abrahamic Covenant doesn't mean the Abrahamic Covenant can be fulfilled in them. The Abrahamic Covenant can only be fulfilled in the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We'll see that as we move along.

The covenant is reiterated in Genesis 13. Look at verse 14, the Lord said to Abram, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward. For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants, and descendants translates to the word seed, you probably have a note in your Bible, as the dust of the earth. So that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can be numbered. Arise, walk through the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you. So you'll note this emphases here as God reiterates the covenant with Abraham, He focuses on the land. And He's talking about a physical land. Abram, look around in all directions. Walk across it. Everywhere your feet walk, it's yours and your descendants. Forever, the end of verse 15 tells us. That's why 3,000 years after Abram, our present day, there is turmoil in the Middle East because of what God promised here. And they are the enemies of God who are the enemies of the nation God has chosen that would like to destroy them, wipe them off the face of the earth, claim that land for themselves.

Look in Genesis 15. There is a problem with the promises to Abraham if you remember, or Abram, call him both but his name is going to be changed to Abraham, it's still Abram. In verse 1 God came to Abram in a vision and said, do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you, your reward shall be very great. Abram has a problem. Lord, what will you give me? I am childless, I have no child. Whatever you give to me, it will pass to my servant, my chief servant Eleazer since I have no descendants. All my possessions will pass to another family and another line. You have given me no offspring, verse 3, no one born in my house is my heir. The Lord said to him, this man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. Now look toward the heavens, count the stars. If you are able to count them, then such will your descendants be, your seed be.

So you see now we elaborate. We said land, seed, blessing. He made clear the land belongs to you. Now the seed, I'm going to give you numerous physical descendants that you won't be able to count. Abram believed the Lord and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. Verse 7, He reiterates the land upon which his descendants will live. I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.

Come down to verse 17, it came about when the sun had set it was very dark and behold there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed through those pieces. What had happened, Abraham had been told to take certain animals and birds and divide them, split them in half. And you lay one half on one side, one half on the other with a path down the middle. That's why the Hebrew expression for making a covenant is literally to cut a covenant, because these animals are sacrificed and laid out. Then the two parties to the covenant walked between them. And just like we go through certain procedures to legally establish a covenant, this is the way you legally established a covenant. Verse 17 tells us that God passed through those pieces. But verse 12 has told us Abram is asleep, he doesn't go through. What that signifies is God has taken upon Himself the full responsibility for the fulfillment of all the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant. This is an agreement made between two parties, God and Abraham, but the full responsibility for fulfillment rests on one of the parties—God. So any failure on Abraham or his descendants can bring consequences, but it can never annihilate or change the covenant.

On that day, verse 18, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. The Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite, the Jebusite. Do you know what? It doesn't matter who was there first, don't have to go back and figure out the history to know whom the land belongs to. Do you know whom the land belongs to? God. Do you know whom He gave it to? Abraham and his descendants. Do you know who his descendants are to get the fulfillment of this? The Jews. It is settled, that's it, the debate is over except for those who refuse to believe God, who reject what God has said. That's part of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Come over to Genesis 17. Abraham is 99 years old, Sarah is 90 years old. And this is where his name is changed, verse 5, from Abram to Abraham. And then in verse 5 he says, I will make you a father of a multitude of nations, I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you and kings will come from you. Now note this, there are going to be numerous nations that physically descend from Abraham. But there is only one line, one nation with whom the covenant that God made with Abraham can be fulfilled. That's crucial. These other nations may get certain benefits and blessings because of a connection to Abraham, being a physical descendant of Abraham, but they are not in the line of the covenant that God gives with Abraham.

I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. I will give to you and your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. I will be their God. Verse 10, this is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you, the sign of circumcision given as a mark of the covenant for the Jews.

Come down to verse 15, Sarah, Abraham's wife's name was Sarai until this occasion. And then God says, I'm going to bless her and she is going to have a son, verse 16, and she'll be a mother of nations, kings will come from her. Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, will a child be born to a man 100 years old? Will Sarah who is 90 years old bear a child? And Abraham said to God, oh that Ishmael might live before you. You understand Abraham already has a son, not with Sarah but with Hagar. But even though Ishmael is the physical son of Abraham, he cannot fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant made between God and Abraham.

Now note what God says. For Ishmael I have heard you. I will bless him and make him fruitful, multiply him. He will become a father of twelve princes. But come back to verse 19. God said, no but Sarah your wife will bear a son and you will call his name Isaac. And I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. So there is clarity here. We've seen this in Romans 9, that the Abrahamic Covenant can only be fulfilled in a certain line from Abraham that comes from Abraham through Isaac and then through Jacob the son of Isaac. That's God's sovereign choice. Why not Ishmael? Why not one of the other sons of Abraham? When you get to Genesis 25 Sarah has died and Abraham now has Keturah as a wife and he fathers other sons. But none of them can fulfill the promises given in the Abrahamic Covenant. Verse 21, but My covenant I will establish with Isaac. That's it. Because God chose it. So you see the Abrahamic Covenant has specific requirements, a specific physical line.

Come over to Genesis 18, and we'll just pick up parts of this. God says concerning Abraham, verse 18, Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That does not mean that those nations can then usurp the Abrahamic Covenant. That's a provision in the Abrahamic Covenant, but the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant are focused on the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. The Gentiles will receive some blessings out of the Abrahamic Covenant. This is important because this will get back tot he root of the olive tree in Romans 11, that Gentiles are going to receive some blessings from. But that does not mean that the Gentile church or the church comprised of Jew and Gentile has now replaced or taken over the promises given to Israel. This has been part of the beginning, that there is a provision for blessings for non-physical descendants of Abraham. But there is much more. That's why the New Covenant which is an elaboration of the blessing promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, we benefit from it. But if you read Jeremiah 31 the New Covenant is made with Judah and Israel. But the salvation blessings of that spread out to include us as Gentiles because that's part of the original Abrahamic Covenant. Therefore the Abrahamic Covenant now doesn't find its fulfillment in the church. Nothing has changed.

Look in Genesis 22. And here is following where God has told Abraham to go and offer his only son Isaac, the one in whom all the promises center. With the death of Isaac we're dead ended again. And Abraham goes out, takes the knife up, is ready to slay Isaac and God stops him. And note what He says in verse 16, by Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord. Verse 17, indeed I will greatly bless you. Remember back when He walked through the sacrifices alone? Now He swears by Himself. I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore. And your see shall possess the gate of their enemies. Do you know who is going to win the war over there? I always like to read the last chapter in my books, as I have mentioned before. I've read the last chapter. It doesn't matter how big the map gets of the enemies of Israel. You know who wins—your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This is a repeated promise, it's part of the Abrahamic Covenant. It's not all there is to the Abrahamic Covenant. I read an example where a person said he believed in historical grammatical theological interpretation. Well they put in theological because their predetermined theology from one passage, they claim allows them to reinterpret other passages. So now that Christ has come we reinterpret christologically the Old Testament. And so there is not a literal land fulfillment for the Jews on a literal land in Palestine, but Christ is the fulfillment of the land. Because in Him all the promises of God are yea and amen. All of a sudden, Abraham got fooled. No, God means what He says. That's why when we get further in Romans 11, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

We have to go to Genesis 26. Because there are two dimensions. The line begins with Abraham but Abraham had other sons. But the Abrahamic Covenant can only be fulfilled through the son of Abraham, Isaac. So you come to Genesis 26. Abraham dies in Genesis 25, and now God is going to appear to Isaac. Verse 2, the Lord appeared to him, to Isaac, and said, do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands. And I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, give your descendants all these lands. By your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And we receive blessings through the Jewish Messiah as we have already seen in Romans, and ultimately remember if the rejection of Israel has brought blessing to the Gentiles, the salvation we are receiving today, what will the restoration of Israel be but life from the dead? We the Gentiles, then, are in to the fullness of the blessings of the Messianic reign over all the earth with Jerusalem as the capital and the Jews as the leading people. And peace is brought to the earth. So you see what happens. He reiterates the covenant He gave to Abraham, tCome over to Genesis 28. Jacob is the son of Isaac, and we studied about Isaac, Jacob and Esau in Romans 9 and remember Jacob is a twin. The older twin is his brother Esau. But God chose Jacob to be the recipient with his descendants of the promises of the covenant made to Abraham. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. So here God meets Jacob, verse 12. Jacob had a dream and behold a ladder was set upon the earth with its top reaching to heaven. And behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac. See the progression? You say, well God is the God of the earth. Yes, but in special covenant relationship He is the God of Abraham and then the God of Isaac. Now I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. The line is going to come from Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, you will spread out to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south. In you and in your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed. That gets repeated. That provision for our salvation was there from the beginning. The Abrahamic Covenant was not touched, it was not changed. We have to keep that in mind when we come to Romans 11. And while branches, Gentiles, are grafted in to receive from the rich fat root of the olive tree, there is no change in that sense from what God had said He would do. Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. And I will not leave you until I do what I have promised.

Look over in Genesis 35, I promise this is the last one. It's important because Jacob's name is changed here. Verse 9, then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. God said to him, your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. He called him Israel. A reminder of a unique relationship that Israel has from God. Every time you hear on the news Israel, we're going to interview the ambassador from Israel, the ambassador to Israel, you ought to think of this. Israel. That was Jacob. That was given when God reiterated to Jacob His promises and He gave him a new name to identify this people in this special way with God.

God also said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, kings shall come forth from you. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, I will give the land to your descendants after you. We're going to have the twelve sons of Jacob, form the twelve tribes. And you see the physical line is absolutely essential. You cannot replace Israel with the church, you cannot just blend Israel into the church and have the church become the fulfillment of Israel and say Israel still will benefit but now is part of the church. And make some kind of mixture here. No, Israel is Israel; the church is the church.

Come back to Romans 11, now with that short introduction. Just a couple of comments here to tie what we just did to where we are in Romans and we'll pick up here. You see what we talk about in verse 16, then, this transition. The first piece of dough is holy, the firstfruits when they brought it in. And we noted that. Consecrated to God. Indicated what followed belonged to God also. Or the root of a tree is holy, that means the branches that are produced by the root. Going back to the covenant made with Abraham, reiterated with Isaac, reiterated with Jacob. That these would be God's people. That provision is there.

So verse 17, if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them, and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. The olive tree is not the one people of God. The root is the promise, the covenant given to Abraham. Now the natural branches are the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jews, the Jewish nation. Because of sin, unbelief, they have been broken off. So he says but if some of the branches were broken off. So of course that is an understatement, he has already made clear there is only a small remnant at the present time. But that has happened in the past as well. And that small remnant of believing Jews is a constant reminder. Even though, as Paul, they are part of the church now, they are a reminder that God has not let go of Israel. And all His promises, it's focused of course in His salvation, will be fulfilled in Israel.

If some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them. Alva J. McLain who was a horticulturist by training said, let me give you a lesson in grafting. When you graft a branch off a pear tree into an apple tree, that grafted pear branch does not begin to produce apples. The sap from the tree will help it produce pears, but it doesn't change its character. And that's true through this whole section. The wild olive branch remains a wild olive branch, the natural branches are the natural branches. The tree is the place of favor in the plan of God, the root of it is the Abrahamic Covenant. Now that Abrahamic Covenant included blessings for the wild branches. How that would be accomplished remained to be seen, but it was there as we saw from the beginning. How many times was it reiterated, in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. But that's only one provision of the Abrahamic Covenant. Ishmael got blessings because he is a descendant of Abraham. I will honor your prayer, I will bless Ishmael, I will make him twelve princes. But that doesn't mean the covenant therefore is fulfilled in Ishmael. No. But the covenant is fulfilled in Isaac. We're getting blessings by virtue of what God promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. That does not mean now the church has become the center and fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. This provision for the wild olive branches was there from the beginning. Changes nothing about the land, changes nothing about the salvation of the true branches.

So the point is in verse 18, Gentiles ought not to be arrogant about Jews. Arrogance creeps in, even as believers it's easy. We look around and we see people sinning and doing certain things and we say, how could they do that. That's disgusting. You realize we were disgusting, too. Right? We were just like them, the Bible says, in the sight of God until God's grace intervened. But it's easy for spiritual pride and arrogance to creep in. I don't even like to be around them, as though we are some kind of superior person. Jesus could fellowship with sinners because He was there to bring them the message of life and call sinners to repentance.

This was happening in the church at Rome. That's why he started out talking about Gentiles and then Jews. It's going to come up when we get to Romans 14-15 because the Gentiles are sneering at the Jews because they are still observing some of their ritualistic food laws. And the Gentiles are thinking, you don't understand anything at all, you are so immature. We Gentiles know grace.

So he is dealing with this, he's telling them, don't be arrogant. Do not be arrogant toward the branches, the natural branches. Remember you are a wild olive branch. Nothing has changed. If you are arrogant, remember it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You understand Abraham is the first Jew. We get blessings through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that covenant. Jacob is Israel. We're getting blessings and benefits because of a Jew, a Jewish Messiah and a covenant made with the father of the Jewish nation. It's not you who supports the root, the root supports you. Nothing more of an oxymoron than arrogant Gentile believers looking down on Jewish believers. It's not you who supports the root, the root supports you.

So you see you have to go back and understand the Abrahamic Covenant. And yes we're getting blessings because what God promised Abraham. But you understand that's only one part. In you all nations of the earth will be blessed. But He has also promised them a seed, and that's expanded in the Davidic Covenant, with a King who will rule over the earth with the physical descendants being the central people of the world, the kingdom of the Messiah. And they also get the land. So don't be arrogant over the Jews, we are receiving benefits from that rich fat root, the Abrahamic Covenant. But we're not the natural branches, we are the wild olive branches. And he's going to show there will come a time when God will graft back in the natural branches. And if He will, He will remove the wild olive branches. This tree is the place of favor in the plan of God. The root, the firstfruit is the Abrahamic Covenant. And being in the place of God's favor in His work of salvation is what is going on in the tree. Right now the Gentiles are in the place of favor, receiving the salvation benefits. But there will come a time when the Gentiles as Gentiles will be removed and the Jews will be placed back in. That's the picture that is going on today.

So good time to bow and be saved. This is a day of salvation, God is being gracious. That day will come to an end.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, that you are sovereign. Lord, how amazing it is in our day, in our country, in our world when so much of the world's attention has been quickly captivated again by what is going on in what we call the Middle East. It all centers on your people. Lord, we see you working your perfect plan. Lord, what a blessing it is to be reminded of the covenant you made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Lord the provision in grace that you made for the salvation of those that were so undeserving, outside the physical people that you have chosen for yourself. Yet you graciously made provision that we Gentiles, wild olive branches to be grafted in to the place of favor, experience the salvation you promised and assured the provision of in that Abrahamic Covenant. Lord, we are given confidence to know that your gifts and calling are irrevocable, nothing changes. You fulfill your word exactly as you gave it. We look forward to the time when Israel will be reestablished, they will experience the wonder of your salvation and the change will be brought to this earth with the coming of our Lord and Savior who is the Messiah of Israel. We pray in His name, amen.