Israel’s Partial Hardening and Gentile Blessings

Transcript

GR 2251
10/04/2020
Israel’s Partial Hardening and Gentile Blessings
Romans 11:22-27
Gil Rugh

We’re going to the book of Romans in your bibles, Romans chapter 11. God’s salvation is all about His grace. The amazing thing which just reveals how sinful we are, sinful beings continue to reject that grace. What more could you do? You provide Your own Son to be the sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin, offer forgiveness, salvation, eternal life as a free gift to anyone who will receive it by faith, and the majority choose to reject it. That was Israel’s condition. That’s the condition of the world today. Paul is concerned about Israel in chapters 9, 10, and 11. Foundational to God’s work of salvation is what is sometimes called the first redemptive covenant in Scripture that provided for redemption in the Abrahamic Covenant. We looked in detail at some of the provisions of that covenant. Two key chapters on that are Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis chapter 17. We looked at the other references as well to that chapter. It’s what is included in and foundational to what we are talking about. We looked at verse 17 and following where you have branches broken off and grafted in and the rich root of the olive tree is the place of God’s favor. That’s provided for in the Abrahamic Covenant. The key people in that is the nation Israel, as a nation, the nation in that. The Jewish people, the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac through Jacob. But it also included a provision of the salvation of Gentiles. So, because of Jewish unbelief Gentiles have been grafted into that.

I have a slide as a review of verses 17-24, so let’s just walk through that review briefly. What Paul said in verses 17-24, this is founded on the fact that he is explaining God has not rejected His people Israel. They have stumbled, but it was not a fall that is fatal because God has a rescue plan for the nation Israel. So first we note here, and I have the verse there, verse 17. Salvation’s blessings center in God’s covenant with Abraham. Jew and Gentile alike share in the “rich root of the olive tree,” which takes us back to the Abrahamic Covenant where God did make His foundational promises to the nation Israel, but included also in that were promises for the salvation of Gentiles. We’ll be getting to that more fully in the section before us.

Secondly, Gentile believers must not be arrogant toward the Jews. We benefit from the promises given to Abraham, the Jew. He is the first, the founder, the father of the Jewish nation. It will be his grandson Jacob whose name is changed to Israel, but it’s those physical descendants that find the root in Abraham and the provision for salvation that in God’s grace reached out from the Jews. Because remember “…in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” So, we go back to that “rich root of the olive tree.” That was in verse 17.

Point three, and we have several points that we take out of verse 20. Let me just read that verse. “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear…” The Gentiles have been brought in because the Jews persisted in unbelief. So, their branches were broken off. It doesn’t mean every single Jew is excluded from salvation, but as a nation, the Jewish nation is no longer the center of God’s work in the world in salvation. It’s moved to Gentiles in what we call the Church. A reminder in verse 20 that the Jews were removed from the place of favor because of unbelief. That’s the issue. It’s always the issue, belief or unbelief. So, the Jews were removed because they didn’t believe.
Point four, still in verse 20, “…you stand by your faith.” Gentiles are in the place of favor because of their faith. They were broken off, verse 20, for unbelief. “…you stand by your faith,” so it’s not because Gentiles are better than Jews. The Jews refuse their opportunity. This is key. “…you stand by your faith.”

Point five, fear not conceit should characterize Gentile believers. “Do not be conceited, but fear...” Why? Verse 21, “…for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.” Now keep in mind he’s talking about national identities, the Jewish nation, he’s not talking about individual believers losing their salvation. That didn’t happen to Jews. It doesn’t happen to us today. But we’re talking about being in that place of favor where we have a unique opportunity. It was given to Israel and that’s true all the way through the gospels. Even though our gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John begin our New Testament, remember God’s program with focusing on Israel does not begin until we get into the book of Acts. Remember Jesus told His disciples when He sent them out, don’t go to the Samaritans which were mixed blood Jews, don’t go to the Gentiles. You go only to the Jews. When a non-Jewish woman came to Him for healing, He told her, I can’t give you the food, you’re a dog. That’s pretty strong language, but we’re still under the program of God with the nation Israel. What I am offering is primarily for the nation Israel. Obviously, she gets her request because she comes by faith. Israel will lose that. So, we Gentiles as a people, ought to realize the uniqueness of this time and because of unbelief this time will come to an end as he’s going to talk about in the verses before us.

Point six, God is both kind and severe. Verse 22, “Behold then the kindness and the severity of God...” His kindness is demonstrated toward unbelievers. His severity is demonstrated toward unbelievers. That’s the foundational issue. Not whether we think a person is a nice person, whether they think they’ve tried hard, whether they’ve been religious. We think, well, it’s not their fault, they were deceived. There’s no maneuvering here. God is gracious. “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.’” Isaiah recorded this in chapter 1, verse 18. That’s the gracious invitation. There’s no middle ground. There’s no negotiating in that sense. God calls us, here’s what I will do. I’ll cleanse you from your sins. It’s on My terms not yours. You reject My terms you will get the severity. You humble yourself, recognize your sin, place your faith in My provision, you’ll experience kindness. So, we have both. People want to say, oh, He’s the God of love. He wouldn’t send anyone to hell. As we noted we have to recognize both the kindness of God and the severity of God. These are serious issues.

And the last point, and key to where we are going now, God is able to save Israel. Verse 24, “For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree…” We were out of the place of favor. We weren’t included in the blessings God was giving to the nation Israel, in those promises. Those promises were there, but with what was known through the Old Testament, Gentiles could come to that by coming through Israel. How were you going to find out about God’s salvation if you were a Gentile in the Old Testament? You had to get it from the Jewish scripture, hear it from the Jewish God, if you will. God was revealing Himself in and through the nation Israel, through Jewish people like the prophets who brought God’s word.

So, the wild olive tree, God has now broken off the branches of the Jews, and He broke off branches from the wild olive tree out here that had nothing to do with the promises of God. And now He’s grafted them into the olive tree, Gentiles as Gentiles, dealing with Gentile nations. And if God did that, and you “…were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” Even as Gentiles today, we realize we have been grafted into blessings that come from and through the Jews. It goes back to the covenant made with Abraham and we find it in a Jewish Messiah. And this is the sad, strange, yet blessing for us, that we Gentiles here experience the salvation provided by the Jewish Messiah’s death on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and the Jews as a nation are missing it. But “…God is able to graft them in again.” And that shouldn’t be so hard to understand. That’s why and where we get so much of the theology among evangelicals that teaches God is done with Israel. The Church has replaced Israel. We call it “replacement theology.” What arrogance! And even some of the reformers like Luther were very anti-Semitic. Just confusion.


That’s going to lead us to where we’re going in verse 25. Paul’s going to explain something that could not be understood without further revelation from God. We see there was provision in the Abrahamic Covenant for Gentiles, “…in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” But as you come through the Old Testament even coming through the Gospels until after the resurrection of Christ, it’s a salvation directed to Israel. And it was understood that Gentiles that are saved will come into that because of identifying with the Jews. Not becoming Jews but identifying with the Jews and believing in the God of Israel. And there are Gentile converts in the Old Testament and we see some Gentile women even in the line of the Messiah, but by and large, it’s Jewish salvation. Where are we now? So, want the Gentiles to pick up. He warned them that we ought to hold our position with fear and appreciate the special times we are in, because God can and will break off the Gentiles and graft back in the nation Israel. Doesn’t mean that Gentiles won’t be saved any more than Jews are being saved today. Paul gave himself as the example of that. His rejection of the nation as a nation does not mean a rejection of all the Jews. And Paul said, I’m a Jew. And that’s how chapter 11 started.

In verses 25 through 27, the little piece we’re going to look at, Paul demonstrates that God is not only able to save, but grafts Israel in again. Pick that up in verse 23, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” Can anybody question God’s ability? God’s power? The word “able” related to the basic Greek word for power. He is able. He has the power to do it, to graft them in again. And He’s not only able to do it, it’s His plan to do it. Old Testament prophecy and the Abrahamic Covenant requires it because God has obligated Himself to do that very thing.

We’re moving toward the climax of history which includes the shutting down of Gentile privilege in the context of salvation and the restoration of Israel which culminates in Israel’s salvation, which brings about the return of Israel’s Messiah to establish the kingdom. Verse 25, “For I do not want you, brethren…” Fellow believers, but he’s primarily addressing Gentiles, as seen in verse 13, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles.” Understanding here that it’s God’s plan and program. “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery...” And this really, just to connect, is led into by verse 24, but it comes back all the way to verse 11, that whole section following from verses 11 to 24. Verse 11, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!” And we noted he said, “…by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” So now he’s focusing in. God has given opportunity now to the Gentiles, but inherent in that working with the Gentiles is to bring the Jews back to the place of favor so that they as a nation might enter into the salvation that God has prepared for them.

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed…” That kind of statement is to draw attention to the importance of what I’m saying here. Don’t want you to remain in ignorance here. Writing to you as brethren, fellow believers. You need to understand God’s program. “For I do not want you…to be uninformed of this mystery...” A mystery, as you are aware, is something that had not before been revealed with any clarity and could not be understood without further revelation. So, it’s not something, oh boy, this is mysterious. It’s something you don’t really understand. There’s no hope of understanding. This is why you could not understand by just reading the Old Testament what was God’s plan for the Church. Even though in the Abrahamic Covenant there was provision for Gentile salvation blessings. There is no way to see that. That will reach its fulfillment when God turns away from the nation Israel as the focus of His work of salvation to the Gentiles. You’re left in the Old Testament thinking Gentiles get the crumbs, as Jesus said to the Gentile woman who came to Him because she asked for the crumbs. Even the dogs get to eat the crumbs. Well, her faith is honored, but now we realize we have a full-blown program that’s put Israel as the nation in the background and put the Gentiles as the focus. It’s a mystery.

“…so that you will not be wise in your own estimation...” You need to understand this properly. Turn over to chapter 16, and you’ll see this word “mystery” explained. Verse 25 of chapter 16 of Romans. “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel…” It’s what we talked about in Jude. How we are to be built up in our “most holy faith” that we saw in Jude. Here, He is “…able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, (now note this) according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to the obedience of faith...” So, you are reminded this has been part of God’s plan. Sometimes dispensationalists are accused, oh God had to change His plan. That’s what dispensationalists think because Israel rejected Christ. God changed His plan and came up with a plan to the Gentiles. Just read the Scripture!

I’m going to read you a quote from a professor at an evangelical school who’s critiquing a book. But he says, “Scriptures are safer in the hands of the lay people in the pew than they are in the hands of these scholars.” That’s true! What does he say? God has revealed something here that has been kept secret for long ages past. He doesn’t say anything about that this is new to God, a change in God’s plan. It’s something God didn’t tell us before. Now it has been revealed by the Scriptures of the prophets, the New Testament prophets primarily here. Paul being a revealer, as in Ephesians 3, where he says the mystery of the Church got its full revelation in me, through me.

So, that’s the mystery. It is the unfolding of something that was not made known with clarity before. “…so that you will not be wise in your own estimation...” The word of God and the understanding of the word of God is to produce humility in us. Fear, reverence, reverential fear, but don’t take the whole element of fear out of it. It does mean fear. You don’t really reverence God if you have no fear of disobeying Him, dishonoring Him. We reduce it to trite, just like one of your good friends. That’s not God. He’s the God who is our heavenly Father. It’s like in the human analogy, why He’s called our heavenly Father. I loved my father, he loved me, but I had a fear of disobeying him. There were certain consequences.

Here we are back in chapter 11, verse 25, and Paul wants us not to be proud, to have a humility as Gentiles who experience God’s salvation. Here’s what has happened. I want you to know “…that a partial hardening (and I have that underlined in my bible) has happened to Israel until (I’ve marked that word out as well)…” “…a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in...” That “partial hardening”, and that word hardening is from a Greek word meaning a callus and it’s used to mean a hardening, a dullness, something you’re insensitive to. This is Israel’s condition. This is the judgment of God. He’s withdrawn His grace. They continue to reject it, to rebel against it, so it is withdrawn like we saw in Romans 1 because of sin. This is the condition of the world generally. God turned them over to their sin. He didn’t cause them to sin. In their rejection of truth God withdraws the truth so they can pursue what they want. He doesn’t put the truth as an obstacle. They pursue their own sinful desires.

“…a partial hardening has happened to Israel….” This is the judgment of God and it will continue “…until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in...” So, we understand Israel’s spiritual condition today. It doesn’t mean we don’t offer the Gospel to Jews, but that’s not the focal point of evangelization today because God has hardened the nation of Israel. It doesn’t mean Jews aren’t being saved and Paul was one of them. But as a nation, this is where sometimes we feel in an awkward position[RG1]. Are we supportive of the Jews? Yes. But I want to be honest. The Jews are under the judgement of God. Their future, the short term, is very bleak. It is going to get much, much, much, much, much worse. All the peace treaties, all the attempts to get Israel restored to their land and help them against all their enemies, are putting band-aids on a fatal disease. God has hardened them. They will persist in their unbelief, and that will be until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. The time of Gentile salvation.

Again, we’ve seen in chapter 5, I’ve got the verse here but we’re not going to go back to it, Jews are saved today. Well, that’s God’s grace and not anything to be misunderstood, but as a nation under the judgement of God… They’re getting in the land, they’re having great defenses, they’re having the support of the western world. That is a false hope. Assumed God’s program with the Gentiles will be over, then we will get to the 70th week of Daniel. “…until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in…” You see, it is a temporary, a partial hardness, that there are Jews being saved. It is a temporary hardness, partial and temporary. “…a partial hardening…until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in…” The fullness of the Gentiles depicts God’s program of salvation as focused on the Gentiles. The Great Commission to go into all the world. That’s different than when He told His disciples during His earthly life, don’t go to the Samaritans. Don’t go to the Gentiles. Just go to the Jews.

The program changes with the death and resurrection of Christ. God’s plan and program doesn’t actually change; we enter into a new phase of God’s program, but it’s new because it hadn’t been revealed before. It will take some adjustment, as we’d seen in the study of the Book of Acts, for even the disciples to get a handle on this. It might look like, in the initial stages of the church, that this is the time of the restoration of Israel because what? You see thousands of Jews getting saved. You’ll see the opposition of the nation builds, and through the persecution, it will be an attempt to put it down. [RG2]In that, then Paul gets saved in chapter 9. Chapter 18, what does he have to do? Shake the dust off his feet and say, Alright, the Jews have rejected the truth. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

That’s the fullness of the Gentiles. For 2,000 years, this has been the fullness of the Gentiles. It’s only a partial hardening of Israel; Jews have been saved. But the church worldwide is overwhelmingly comprised of Gentiles wherever it is. This is the time of Gentile salvation, and that’s where the prime harvest in the world is, and where we focus our attention. We have ministries to Israel and that’s fine, but it has to be done in light of… I have a friend who is ministering to Jews in another city, but it’s a hard ministry. Everyone wants to establish a church with the Jews, but you ought to establish a church… A church needs to be established there, and then work to see some Jews saved to come into it, but there’s not a lot of hope in establishing just a Jewish church. That’s not what God is doing in the world today. We’re in the time of the fullness of the Gentiles, and the hardening will be there until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. That’s a warning to us Gentiles. You see what happens in the church, the continued decay, the continued departure from the truth, and a growing resistance and rebellion against truth. It’s always been going on, as we’ve been looking at the Book of Jude. But we keep moving more and more to the time when the Rapture will occur and the time of the fullness of the Gentiles.

There will still be Gentiles saved. But the coming Tribulation, “…until the fullness of the Gentiles (we’re in the place of God’s blessing in salvation) …has come in…” Has come to an end. That’s what he’s talking about. That fullness of the Gentiles. He’s talking about the Gentile salvation, the time of their blessing. We want to note here, maybe come back to the gospel of Luke, then I want to look at the chart that we’ve looked at before. But go back to Luke 21. Some of you are studying the gospel of Luke in one of the classes. Others are studying other gospels. Foundational, but in Luke 21, you have an expression that’s similar, but different. Luke 21, verse 24. Here he’s talking about the Tribulation period, and Jesus said in verse 24, “…and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles (note this) until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The “times of the Gentiles” are not the same thing as the “fullness of the Gentiles”. The “times of the Gentiles” are characterized as he’s said here, with Jerusalem being trampled underfoot. That began with the Babylonian Captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, 605 B.C., and since that time, basically, Jerusalem has been under the domination of the Gentile nations. Even today, Israel survives, and they have their own captives, but they do it because of the protection of the Gentiles. Well, Jews have a great army in that, but if Russia decided, if China decided that they would pour their forces in to support the Arabs, Israel couldn’t stand. But because of western world support… They’re dominated by the Gentiles. That’s the times of the Gentiles. It goes from the Babylonian Captivity all the way down until the second coming of Christ.

The “fullness of the Gentiles” is the time of Gentile salvation, which begins with the establishing of the church in Acts chapter 2 and continues down to the Rapture of the Church. Put that chart up. We picked up on this chart at 444 B.C. because we pick up with the starting of the 70 weeks of Daniel and the unfolding of that, but you can see we’re in the tan age here, the highlighted age. That’s the fullness of the Gentiles. It begins after the resurrection of Christ, and it will end with the Rapture of the Church, and then we go back to Israel because that’s part of completing God’s program with Israel. 70 weeks. Seventy 7s, literally. Seven-year periods, not seven-day periods. When we think of a week, we think of 7 days. But it’s seventy 7s, and the context, as we’ve looked at on other occasions, indicates it’s a period of years. 70 times 7 is 490 years. We’ve had 69 of those weeks, 483, fulfilled. We have 7 to go. When we go back to those 7, we’ve turned back to God focusing on the nation Israel. What happens in those 7 years is God pouring out His judgement now, then on Gentiles for their unbelief, and on the nation, but His purpose on pouring it out on the nation is to bring them back to Him. So, He broke off dealing with them, if I can put it that way, and turned the saving attention to Gentiles. We have the Church. With the Rapture of the Church, its removal from earth, caught up to meet Christ in the air, we return back. The times of the Gentiles go all the way from the Babylonian Captivity to the end of the Tribulation. That’s a different time period, because Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot during the 7-year Tribulation. The Gentile domination of Jerusalem will continue. Remember in the midst of that 7 years, the Antichrist, the western world leader, will set up an image of himself in the temple of Jerusalem. So, Gentile domination. Don’t get those two confused.

The fullness of the Gentiles is the Church Age. That will come to an end with the Rapture of the Church. Let’s go back to what Paul says in Romans 11, verse 26. What happens after the fullness of the Gentiles? “…and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written…” So, this fits, this is part of the confusion. You need all of God’s revelation to put the picture together. We use an analogy like a puzzle, and if you’re missing pieces, the puzzle doesn’t fit. You have to put it together. You have some revelation; all the nations of the earth will be blessed in Abraham. Okay, I could see how that could happen. You’re going to have a Jewish kingdom, and you’ll have Gentiles saved. Naman the Assyrian got saved in the Old Testament. Naman? Sure, I can understand that, but you don’t understand the fullness of the Gentiles until you get to later revelation. Now we understand when He’s done with that, we’ll get back to what He promised in the Old Testament so clearly. Christ, this Messiah, will reign on the earth, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And you won’t need an evangelism program to carry the gospel to dark places of the world because they won’t exist. The world will blossom. That’s what we thought was going to happen with the first coming. This is where, when people don’t consistently interpret the Bible literally, they run into a problem.

The Old Testament talked about the suffering and death of Christ, talked about the death and resurrection of Christ, and the ruling and reigning. Remember Peter wrote in his letter, the prophets couldn’t understand how you could have both. It would take later revelation. Both were true, exactly as God said. What happens with, what we sometimes call Reformed Theology, Covenant Theology, where they say, “Well, since the Bible said Christ would rule and reign when He came, we must spiritualize the kingdom. It’s not literal because Christ came, and when He came, we have to have the kingdom. So, the kingdom started when He came. So, it’s a kingdom in our hearts.” We say wait a minute. Let’s just take additional revelation. It doesn’t change anything. He suffered and died and was raised from the dead, just like Scripture said. And now we know He’s coming again. Acts chapter 1, He’ll come again, just as you’ve seen Him in the clouds of heaven, and He will establish the kingdom. Oh, now I understand. Why don’t they understand? Some kind of fault settles in. It’s not complicated. You just have to take it step by step.

“…and so all Israel will be saved…” God finishes His program focusing on Gentiles when He turns back to Israel to bring about their salvation, and that will happen at the end of that 7-year period. Israel is stubborn in its sinfulness. Sinners are stubborn, we know that. We ourselves were there once. But Israel as a nation will persist because the first part of that 7-year period, the devil is working a program under the sovereign control of God to give Israel a false hope. We finally have a deliverer! When the leader of the western world powers, a revived Roman Empire, signs a peace agreement with Israel, that will mark the beginning of the 7-year period. The clock begins to go again. It’s like it stopped for Israel as a nation, and then God starts it again.

We have an old clock, a grandfather clock with the old chimes from the 1800s, and Marilyn, when we get home tonight, she’ll get in there and she’ll wind it. If she doesn’t, it stops. When we go on vacation, you unhook the weights and it doesn’t run. Well, now God has started the clock again. The 70 Weeks of Daniel on hold, on pause. More current for you, you know, you “put it on pause,” you stop it, and then you start it again. That’s what God is doing with Israel. That agreement. It wasn’t the one just signed where the President sat there, but you can’t help but think of this. There’ll come a time when a leader of the western world will sit in such a place and all the world will see it, televised everywhere, and what a leader! He’s brought peace, he’s united the diverse. You know, everybody likes globalism. We’re going to get globalism under the devil’s authority when the Tribulation begins and unfolds. That is part of God’s program because that man the Antichrist will bring judgements on Israel with God raining down all of His judgements. We see in Revelation chapters 6 through 19 where they finally get severe and Israel realized, we have no hope. They cry out to God for their salvation.

“…and so all Israel will be saved…” He’s talking about the nation. That doesn’t mean every individual Jew will be saved. Because when Christ returns and we see in Matthew 25, there is a judgement of the Jews who were living at His second coming. And some of those aren’t going into the kingdom. Unless you’re born again, you’ll never see the kingdom, Jesus said to Nicodemus. That’s true of the Jewish nation. So, when he says all Israel will be saved, that doesn’t mean every individual Jew. Just like the partial hardening doesn’t mean no Jews are being saved today. We’re talking about a national identity, “all Israel”, and when we have Christ’s second coming and the judgement, and then the establishing of the kingdom, it will only be believing Jews who make up the nation Israel, for the establishing of the kingdom.

“…and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written…” We can go back and find this in the Old Testament. “‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’” Israel is going to get grafted back into the olive tree. They will be the center again. Now you understand, the kingdom is a Jewish centered kingdom. The Capitol of the world will be Jerusalem. The Messiah will reign. Jerusalem, the Jews, it will be Jewish centered, if you will. The nations of the earth will come up there. And we talked about that at the end of Revelation. So, we’re coming through here. You note how we go back and forth, Jews and Gentiles. They haven’t become blurred. Now in the Church, Jews and Gentiles are united as one people, but in the plan of God we’re back here. The Gentiles maintain their identity. The Jews maintain theirs. Now we recognize that. The quote here is from Isaiah’s prophecy. Why don’t you turn back there, it’s quoted here, but it’s sort of enjoyable to see it in the Old Testament itself.

Turn to Isaiah 59, verse 20. You love it because it opens talking about Israel’s sin. It closes with their redemption. Chapter 59 opens, verse 1, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Come down to verse 20, “‘A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ declares the Lord. ‘As for Me, this is My covenant with them…’” Remember I said back in Romans 11, verse 27, “‘And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’”

Look at verse 21, “‘ As for Me, this is My covenant with them,’ says the Lord: ‘My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,’ says the Lord, ‘from now and forever.’” We come now to the finalization for Israel and he focuses here on the physical descendants in Israel. They have offspring and offspring, but there is a permanent salvation for the nation here and the children born to those who go in and these Jewish people who go into the kingdom in their physical bodies because they were saved during that tribulation period. Their children will be faithful, and their children’s children will be faithful, because this is God’s work of salvation and is a final work. There will be a complete restoration.

Come back to Romans chapter 11. I want to make sure we get through these verses. Then I will take you back a little bit to maybe some other Old Testament verses. Some of the verses in the Psalms. Psalm 14, verse 7; Psalm 53, verse 6; Psalm 110, verse 2 talk about Christ ruling from Jerusalem. So, you have here the Deliverer will come from Zion because that’s where Christ will be centered when He establishes His kingdom. When Israel as a nation has experienced their salvation, their Deliverer will be there. He came to Israel. He came to His people, but His own people rejected Him as John’s Gospel starts out. He came to His own and His own didn’t receive Him, talking about His own people Israel. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become the children of God.”

So that’s what he’s talking about when “‘The Deliverer will come from Zion...’” Isaiah said, “‘A Redeemer will come to Zion…’” The point is, that’s where the focus will be. We’re getting the fulfillment of what is written. God’s work of salvation. “‘This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’” He said that. We read that in Isaiah 59, verse 21. My covenant I will make with them. I’ll put My Spirit in their heart. They’ll belong to Me and they’ll never depart again. And neither will their descendants depart ever again. This is a lasting salvation.

The New Covenant replaces the Mosaic Covenant. We talked about this when we did the Covenants. The Abrahamic Covenant is a permanent covenant, an unconditional covenant as we say. It is elaborated in subsequent covenants. The Mosaic Covenant is an add-on covenant, if you will. It was a conditional covenant requiring the agreement of Israel to its provisions. It was temporary until the Messiah would come. It was given until the Messiah we are told in Galatians. So, we have the New Covenant. When the New Covenant is instituted, we don’t need the Mosaic Covenant anymore. That’s what the book of Hebrews is about. So, what will happen and what has happened is the New Covenant has been established. Gentiles are experiencing salvation through the provisions of the New Covenant. But the New Covenant has its prime focus on the nation Israel. Jeremiah 31 is the covenant He’ll make with the nation Israel. The provisions go beyond just the salvation provisions. Our provisions as the Church aren’t primarily to inherit the land. We talk about inheriting the land in our subsequent session here shortly.

So, we’re seeing the salvation that comes. Maybe I’ll summarize these points and then we’ll be picking them up, so why don’t we go to the concluding summary points here. Sometimes I leave them go. I didn’t know whether I would leave these go for an introduction to the next time. I might use them the next time. Who knows how much I have, but these summarize verses 25 through 27. Let me run through these points and then I do want to talk to you about some matters that are related to this, but not directly part of Romans.

Point one, God’s work of salvation for Gentiles as well as Jews is a mystery. It can only be known by divine revelation. That’s this period of time. When I say for Gentiles as well as Jews, I mean with Gentiles as the prime focus, but I don’t want to put it in a way that it sounds like no Jews can be saved. But God’s plan for the Jews right now is they’re hardened. I used to work for a Jewish boss when I lived on the east coast, Philadelphia, New Jersey. Mitch was his name. We’d go to coffee together. He was a practicing Jew and he’d talk about the Jewish holidays. If I’d say, Mitch, you have a problem. And I’d have the Old Testament and I’d read to him. You need the animal sacrifices and without the shedding of blood there’s no remission of sin. God hasn’t made any provision for you as a Jew to be saved because you’re not offering the sacrifices. He’d tell me how they’d grown up and they’d sit there at this feast and then he’d get up from the chair and go to the door and open it up. His father would say, is the Messiah coming? No, He’s not here yet and we’d have the empty chair for Him. Mitch that’s wonderful. That’s very interesting, but you’re in a hopeless position. Did your Dad ever offer an animal? Is the priestly system making an offering so you can go there and offer an animal and hope for salvation? And besides, you know Mitch, those animals could never take the place of a human being. I’d go through the gospel with him. I don’t know that he was ever saved, maybe at a later time. I hope the Lord used the gospel, but he’s in a state of hardness. Now Gentiles are hardened by their sin as well, but the Jews as a nation are experiencing this.

Point two, Israel’s hardening today is partial, not complete.

Point three, Israel’s hardening is temporary, not final. We want to keep these and not forget any of them.

Point four, the time of Gentile favor and blessing will end when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, when it comes to its end.

Point five, all Israel will be saved.

Point six, Israel’s salvation will happen in connection with the second coming of Christ. And I didn’t take you to the verses. We’ll look at them next time, Zechariah and so on. Part of what happens in that seven year tribulation, God allows Satan to pour out his attempt to destroy the nation Israel as a nation, so God’s kingdom can’t be established. The suffering that goes on, the problems he brings, brings Israel to its knees.

Point seven, Israel’s ungodliness and sin will be removed. So, there is hope for the nation but it’s not on, if I can say, the immediate horizon because even if the Rapture would occur tonight and the fullness of the Gentiles would be ended, we would just be ready to begin the seven year tribulation and God’s judgment there.

What a plan! Now you think the millenniums of time go by and look at all the confusion in the world and the different nations and all, and we’re exactly where God would have us at this exact moment of time. And that’s true every place in the world. How do we get our finite minds to comprehend such an awesome God? We don’t! We just believe by faith and we’ve experienced His power. But it is not possible for us grasp such an awesome God. He sets up rulers. He puts them down. Everyone at every level of government is there by His appointment, yet Satan is maneuvering to try to frustrate God’s plan. What a God we serve!

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your word. Thank You for the privilege we have to study it and the responsibility we have to know and understand it. We realize it’s a privilege that belongs to those who truly have placed their faith in Your Son as their savior, who have no other hope, no other trust. And Lord, we want to live with that as a characteristic of our lives. Thank You for this time. Bless our further discussion. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

I have received a couple of questions. What I’m going to do is collect those so I will take some time on an evening. But I want to talk a little bit this evening about something that relates to what we talked about this morning in Jude, and what we’re talking about in the book of Romans. What we just did.

I talked to you a little bit about “new creation” eschatology. There’s a book out, New Creation Eschatology and the Land. It was his doctoral dissertation, so he doesn’t hold that view, but he analyzes different views. He wouldn’t be exactly where we are as premillennial dispensationalists I don’t believe, from what I can tell in the book. Let me read you some sections and where they go. New creationists basically, if I can summarize, believe that there’ll come a time when Christ will come back, and the world will be a new creation. But they think it’s important that you understand it is the old world brought back like the Garden of Eden. So, they don’t believe that this world will be destroyed and then made new. There are evangelicals on both sides of that, but this is their view that it’s important that it be the restoration we talked about in Revelation. When you get to chapters 21 through 22 you have Jerusalem, you have the throne of God established on the earth. It’s a new heaven and a new earth. You get into new in the sense, and there’s always some parts of prophecy not yet revealed because we haven’t gotten there, but we don’t go as far as God has taken us. They’re confident that it is the old earth that we are living on, this one, just restored, renovated. That’s fine. Where they go with that, they don’t go consistently with literal interpretation of prophecy.

So, what I’m going to do, he takes several men that he classifies evangelicals, they’ll hold a little variation within them, and I’ll note that with you. Let me just read. Part of my concern and this is where I see it connected with Jude. What these men do, they talk about some things and we could say, well we agree with that, that God is going to finish the work of the original creation before sin entered in. And He’ll restore it to what it was, but they make connection here. Let me start out what he says. “The issues involved in recent dialogue include not only distinctions between the intermediate state and the final state of believers, but also the relationship between this world and the next.” And this is where we get some problems. They want to talk about the relationship of this world and what we do today and this coming new creation. They have ethical concerns regarding the impact of human activity in this world to life in the new earth. And that includes creation care, responsible stewardship of the earth, societal and cultural concerns, worldview, the built environment. Even emphasis on urban renewal.

Their point is since it’s this earth and this world that’s going to be restored, we have to take care of it. We must be socially responsible. We must care and build and be sure the environment is what it ought to be, even urban renewal. Now suddenly, I see we have a dichotomy. Somewhere along the line they want to take literal interpretation of the connection between the new heaven and new earth and the original creation before the fall. Then somewhere along the line it’s the same earth. Well, it’s the same but it’s made new. They have the idea that if you really believe that it’s going to be this earth, you have to take care of this earth. You have to have environmental concerns.

I see this connecting with Jude because this is how I see it, unbelievers, I’m not saying all these are unbelievers. I can’t tell quite frankly on some of them. I read some of what they write, and I don’t think a believer who understands the word of God properly could come to that, and even the man writing this book says some of them seem more concerned about the environment than they do salvation because you know what they want to do? They say we should move away from such a selective emphasis on individual salvation, because it has to be a combination of concern for the environment and concern for salvation. So, keep in mind that you see it, these are the things they include. “If this world is important and going to go on through eternity, we ought to have concern for creation care, responsible stewardship of the earth, societal and cultural concern, worldview, the built environment, urban renewal.” And I’m going to jump. I’m not going to tell you, I’ll go from writer to writer, but a number of these names you probably won’t recognize but I’m just reading excerpts here.

For Wright, he’s one of the promoters of the new creation and one of those I would question whether he is truly a believer, but he’s accepted in evangelicalism. “This material and earthly hope…” this material world and this earth, this earthly hope, a material earth, “…raises doubts as to whether individual salvation should be the center and driving feature of the hope for the future.” Now wait a minute. Now we’re at the heart of what is our responsibility. So, you see they come in as though we believe the Bible, but we just have a little different twist. And maybe we put too much emphasis on individual salvation and looking forward to the blessed hope and the appearing in glory of our great God and Savior. He doesn’t use that particular verse, but that’s what we are talking about in Jude where our focus ought to be. “Maybe this individual salvation, we put too much emphasis on the salvation of the individual. It ought to be broader. Corporate salvation and a world. Don’t be so selfish to just be talking about an individual salvation.” How did they get into evangelicalism? These are views of evangelicals. Two of these writers that he is evaluating are professors at Wheaton College. I need to be careful. Last time I criticized Wheaton College I got a letter from one of the board members about it.

Here Douglas Moo, who has a huge commentary on Romans. Very excellent. Probably the most thorough commentary there is right now on Romans, but he just wanders when he gets to anything connected to eschatology. Here’s what he writes, “While he seems to be more cautious than Wright in keeping the redemption of human beings at the heart of God’s plan…” I just read you a quote from Wright, he thinks we shouldn’t have the salvation of individuals at the center because that draws us away from the broader picture of the restoration of the earth. Well Moo doesn’t want to go that far. He is more cautious in keeping the redemption of human beings at the heart of God’s plan and evangelism as the church’s primary goal. However, Douglas Moo proposes that the attitude of an “either or” when it comes to evangelism and environmental concern is a false alternative. Moo, a professor at Wheaton College expresses concern, the lack of attention given to the cosmos. “So now you see what we do. Here I don’t think I go as far as my friend here, we agree on some of this, I don’t think we should put individual salvation on the back burner but I don’t think it ought to be the central feature either. It ought to be ‘both and’.”

And we are back to where John Stott who wouldn’t be aligned with him because he wasn’t a New Creationist, but there’s really two parts to the gospel, individual salvation and social action. He puts it as environmental action. So, he writes his magisterial commentary on Romans. He’s followed up with a light tome on the environment and cultural responsibility. Now I see these men are within evangelicalism. As Jude warns, somehow, they have crept in among us. Like I say, I can’t tell whether they are confused believers, but I know I have to stand against what they are teaching. Now you’ve moved away from the importance. The number one thing we have to do is carry the gospel to the lost. What did Paul say when he came to Corinth? I’ve got to clean up the city. I’ve got to help you understand how we need to renew the urban areas. I just “came to preach Christ crucified.” And they are saying, well, no that shouldn’t be. It’s just a wrong to have that emphasis is to go overboard, it ought to be “both and.” Well anytime you say it is both and, the Gospel and, you’ve departed from a biblical foundation.

Alright, I know you’re enjoying this. I’m doing your reading for you. Here’s what Moo says in a footnote in a book he’s recently published with his son. And it’s not a little book, I believe it has four hundred and some pages, I forget exactly. He likens this dichotomy to that of “…evangelism versus social concern during the 1960’s and 70’s and understands both to be profoundly out of keeping with the witness of Scripture.” And that is a big book, that was a quote from page 454 on social action. It’s profoundly making that distinction between social action and evangelism. We’re back with the modernist-fundamentalist controversies and the social gospel. But they want to say, oh no, no we’re not there. No that’s not what we’re talking about. And they disguise themselves. It troubles me greatly. He’s a professor at Wheaton College. People pay good money to send their Christian young people there to sit under these men and what did Jude talk about? How do you talk about it’s wrong to have a focus on individual salvation? How else does God save people today? Well, they want to broaden it. It’s a cosmic emphasis. Now Moo would say it includes individual salvation but it’s “both and” and you’re profoundly out of keeping with the testimony of Scripture if you don’t have both. I think he’s profoundly wrong.

Here’s another writer, his name is Snyder. I’m even more doubtful about his salvation. According to Snyder, “…the tendency to focus solely on individual’s sin and salvation and the tendency toward dualism have led to a devaluing of nonhuman creation.” Too much emphasis on the individual and the individual’s sin and you devalue the “nonhuman creation.” That fits the world’s thinking doesn’t it? We rescue the dogs and kill the babies. I guess the nonhuman creation, we start talking like this, and this is what the church is to be about? Seeing just as much value in the nonhuman creation, and he’s talking about this physical earth and the concerns for the environment as we have, for the saving of a soul who is going to spend eternity in hell. The whole creation groans in anticipation because the curse will be lifted from the creation, when what? The individuals have been saved according to God’s plan and that brings in the completion with the coming of Christ.

Here’s what he’s quoting one of these writers again. He says for this writer who is writing in defense of the new creationism, “John’s vision provide impetus for Christians to engage today’s global society effectively and redemptively at every level because every division of human society will be redeemed.” Well, that is true and it’s this sense that every part, this whole creation groans together, it will be redeemed but that doesn’t mean now we’re here to bring about that redemption. You see this merger of some truths with error. People think, oh well, the eschatological things we’ll leave with the Lord. They don’t, and you can’t do that. You see what they are doing with their eschatology? They bring it back. If your church is not about this, you “profoundly misunderstand the scripture.” If you have an emphasis on reaching out to try to save the lost, you have a distorted picture of what God wants you to do in the world. This is how churches get off track. We say, well yeah, we won’t give up the gospel. We do have to have this. You know we’re going to have the earth and the earth is important. And these are teachers in our schools, evangelical schools. They are writing quote “evangelical” literature. This is why it’s repeated through the scripture, why we studied Jude.

My concern is that people get off track. We have people leaving Indian Hills and are going to churches that promote this kind of stuff. You get frustrated. We have to have this fixed in our mind. Oh, you’ve always emphasized eschatology. Eschatology. Well, you see what happens when you have poor eschatology. You have poor present theology. Now you’ve backed your eschatology up and you think you should be doing things that have nothing to do with…part of the reason is they think the kingdom began when Christ came. But there is a realization of the kingdom that is yet future. But we are still doing kingdom things. Part of what I get paid is to read this for you.

This Snyder believes that “Premillennial dispensationalism…” that’s us, “…is partly to blame for the unbiblical worldview that the present heavens and earth will be destroyed. Premillennial dispensationalism undermines the biblical worldview by locating the renewal of creation exclusively after the return of Christ Jesus.” We do! Guilty as charged. So, we ought to understand he at least is clear. We have people who claim to be dispensational premillennialists that jump on the social reform bandwagon. We abandoned our theology. “Since the present world is headed for an inevitable destruction, any concern for saving it is a distraction from rescuing souls before Jesus returns.” That’s his criticism of us. “If you think this present world is going to be destroyed, whether you hold that it is going to be renovated or not, it’s going to undergo significant changes and it’s not going to happen until Jesus comes.” He thinks that’s bad because that distracts from your environmental concerns and the real concern about climate control. If you think Jesus is waiting His return until we get climate control, that’s going to be a problem for Him?

I mean that’s why I say they classify these men as evangelicals, how confused can you be and still be allowed to be considered? Whether they are or not, God judges their heart, their theology is completely unbiblical, and we are to have nothing to do with it. Well, they may be believers. Well, if they are, they ought to be rebuked. Their problem, and it gets later here. I have a quote, here’s another one, you can see what their problem is. This is one of these writers. They think the physical land is taken as a metaphor. “The New Testament writers…” this is a quote from one of these new creationists. “The New Testament writers showed no interest in a literal interpretation.” Any wonder they are all over the place. Their view is that writers of the New Testament didn’t have any interest at all in literal interpretation. Once you abandon that you’re free to make up what you want. So, their view is “two possibilities.” “Either the land promises to Israel,” and this is where you get this mixture that makes no sense. They believe this earth, the original creation, will be restored. But there’s no promise for Israel’s land because that got wiped out with the coming of Christ. Wait, are we going to take it literally? Well, you shouldn’t take it literally when you get to the New Testament. So, what happens? Remember in the Old Testament the Tabernacle and the Temple were in Israel. That was in the land that belonged to Israel. No problem there. And the land was promised to Israel, sure. But when Christ comes, now where do we meet God? “No man comes to the Father but by Me.” So, “Jesus is the new meeting place. The land of Israel is not relevant anymore because we don’t have the Old Testament system meeting God at the Tabernacle or in the Temple.” I say, I’ve got to read that again. I don’t think I’m following your reasoning here. Or it could be another possibility some of them say, “That the land promised to Israel just has been given a broad scope now that includes the whole world.”

I do this because we are going through this in Romans and seeing God’s promises to Israel. We are going through the book of Jude and here is a book written as a doctoral dissertation in an evangelical school. And he’s writing about evangelicals and this is what’s being pumped out. That evangelical publishers published, which is being taught in evangelical schools. Are these men believers or not? What can be said is what they are teaching is contrary to the Word. We have to be aware of it because it finds its ways making in.

I’m sometimes asked, well, couldn’t we do a little more in social things? As though we can make some kind of compromise? We have to be biblical! The Church is the pillar and support of the truth and you can see what they say. We’re misrepresenting the truth! So, they are not going to abandon their theology to come with us because they say we have a misunderstanding of the truth. We have to be true to theology as we understand it and if we take a consistent literal interpretation, we could all agree. And when you abandon that, there is no place for agreement.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for Your Word. Thank You, it is a sure word. Thank You, it’s given to us to understand. Lord, I pray that we would be diligent in the study of Scripture, that we would take it in. We would meditate on it. We would be careful to examine all things in light of Your Word. The devil is a deceptive enemy. His servants have the wisdom of the world. Lord, we must be careful to have the wisdom of Your Word. Bless the week before us. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.
[RG1]Here’s where I picked up. 24:36
[RG2]27:59