Divine Mystery: Israel's Blindness and Restoration

"I would like to call your attention this evening to verses 25 26 and 27 in the 11th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans for I would not Brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceits the blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my Covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." [00:01:10]

"Now blindness is the word here in the authorized version that is before me and in a sense it is quite an accurate and a good translation but the word that was used by the Apostle does not mean blindness in and of itself it means hardness it means obtuseness it means insensibility that's the root meaning and of course ultimately therefore it it does come to mean blindness if you're insensitive to truth you can't see it so they were quite justified in using the word blindness." [00:05:27]

"Now this is an idea that you get in the scriptures that the trouble with the children of Israel was a hardness that led to blindness and this according to statements in the scripture is ultimately the cause of unbelief take for instance the way in which the author of The epistle to the Hebrews puts it in the third chapter take verse 8 he says or he's quoting wherefore as the Holy Ghost says today if you will hear his voice Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of Temptation in the wilderness." [00:07:22]

"Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the blindness is not permanent it's not Everlasting it is a temporary blindness that's what me means by impart it is Blindness has happened to Israel until so it's a question of duration of the blindness and not the intensity of the blindness now you will see that when we come gather up all these points it will make the Expos position I think quite inevitable and my method of approach will be justified." [00:14:00]

"Now the way in other words of interpreting this is again to go back to chapter 9 and to read there what we read about God's dealings with Pharaoh verse 17 and so on for the scripture says un to Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my power in in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the Earth therefore have he Mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth." [00:15:41]

"Now this doesn't mean that God is the author of unbelief but what it does mean is this that because of their unbelief and their persistence in it he deliberately hardens them as he did with Pharaoh now all that has been stated already in verses 8 9 and 10 which I've already read to you this evening and of course you've got we've had it again in verses 11 and 12 I say then have they stumbled that they should fall God forbid but rather through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles for to provoke them the Jews to jealousy." [00:18:14]

"God has chosen to do this to them in order to bring in the Gentiles and ultimately to provoke them to jealousy but the point we are making therefore is this that a part of the mystery is this that God has inflicted upon the Jews as a whole as a nation and as a race this judicial blindness now let me show you how our blessed Lord himself really taught exactly the same thing do you remember what he says as it's recorded in The Gospel According to St Matthew in Chapter 13 as to why he spoke in Parables." [00:19:37]

"Now then here is the thing above all others about which there has been argumentation and there are three main views with regard to this the first is this one that all Israel means the total number of the elect both Jews and Gentiles all Israel means all the sav Jews all the saved Gentiles that's all Israel that was the view taught by St Augustine John Calvin Martin Luther and yet I make bold to reject it why do I do so well let me give you my reason." [00:34:52]

"Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the rich of the GLE how much more their fullness if it's like this now what will it be like then verse 15 same thing if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall the receive what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead now and then you've got the same thing in verses 23 and 24 he says they also if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in." [00:39:21]

"Now then here is the thing above all others about which there has been argumentation and there are three main views with regard to this the first is this one that all Israel means the total number of the elect both Jews and Gentiles all Israel means all the sav Jews all the saved Gentiles that's all Israel that was the view taught by St Augustine John Calvin Martin Luther and yet I make bold to reject it why do I do so well let me give you my reason." [00:34:52]

"Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the rich of the GLE how much more their fullness if it's like this now what will it be like then verse 15 same thing if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall the receive what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead now and then you've got the same thing in verses 23 and 24 he says they also if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in." [00:39:21]

"Now then here is the thing above all others about which there has been argumentation and there are three main views with regard to this the first is this one that all Israel means the total number of the elect both Jews and Gentiles all Israel means all the sav Jews all the saved Gentiles that's all Israel that was the view taught by St Augustine John Calvin Martin Luther and yet I make bold to reject it why do I do so well let me give you my reason." [00:34:52]