### Quotes for Outreach

1. "Do we show a life filled with the joy of the Lord? Do we show righteous devotion to His Word, purity of lifestyle and love for one another in such a fashion that that's going to be noticed by a spiritually sensitive Jew or anybody else for that matter and desire, they desire what we have. Are there people who watch us and the way we live and the way Christ has changed our lives and long for what we have? The point here is there ought to be." [12:56] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Anti-Semitism is the work of the devil in every age but true believers in Jesus Christ are to show the fruit that comes with the true Messiah so that others will desire the joy and the peace and the love that we have." [14:17] (14 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Our praise should flow from the realization of how far above us and beyond us our God is. Our hope for the future should flow from the infinite riches of the wisdom and the knowledge possessed, not by us, but by God, who is working in all things." [25:12] (16 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "It has been said that knowledge is the accumulation of information. But wisdom is knowing what to do with that information. And after all we learn about God and all we learn about his work, the Apostle Paul says, this is what wisdom looks like. Step back and turn it all to praise." [25:45] (18 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "Paul's point here is, however, even though they are rejecting Jesus, God has not categorically rejected them. The Jews have not been replaced by the church. They can and they will recover. And none of this is a surprise to God, because at the time of the writing of these words, when Paul is pending this letter, there is a believing remnant inside of the Jewish people." [08:28] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "There are consequences that come with a hardened heart. And there is called for a need for continual obedience if we will be the people of God. Ray Stedman used to say, we do not break God's laws, we only illustrate God's laws. Over and over again, we see God's laws. Over and over, the pattern of disobedience, they pay the price. But one day, they will be the example of God's grace, God's promises in action." [23:26] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "So all of this, chapters 9, 10, and 11, is a unit of thought for the Apostle Paul around the nation of Israel. Paul has spent time analyzing the work of God through history. He's spent time agonizing about his people's rejection. Now he is spending some time anticipating the future work of God among his people. And at the end of it all, he is so confident that God has shown him that a great work will take place among his people that all he does is step back and he ends the closing verses of chapter 11, he ends with praise." [23:58] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Because if God does not keep His promises to the Jews, how can we know that He will keep His promises to us? God keeps His promises, especially as we have just come through the first few chapters of the book of Romans, and in chapter 8, filled with promises, finally that one grand super promise, nothing can separate us from the love of God. If God's not going to keep His promises to the Jews, how do I know? He'll keep that promise, and I need that promise. But God is true to His promise." [22:56] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Paul is saying, God is going to do it again. When we look forward in history, we will see a great awakening of the nation Israel towards the Messiah, Jesus. And it will happen in the events of the end times yet to come." [11:21] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Take your Bible, please, and turn to Romans chapter 11. That's where we are today, Romans chapter 11. We're continuing our look through the book of Romans chapter by chapter. Here's the key concept for today: God still has plans for Israel. Still has plans for Israel.

While you're finding Romans chapter 11, the scars of World War II and the Holocaust are still very real in our world. It comes up on a regular basis, and we need to remember that it wasn't only German Jews or Polish Jews who were herded into the death camps by the Nazi regime. In 1943, German soldiers were rounding up Jews in Italy, but shockingly, in Rome itself, a deadly disease struck the Jewish community. It was labeled Syndrome K, and the symptoms started with a persistent cough and moved eventually to paralysis and death, and it was terribly contagious. It ran rampant through the Jews of Rome, so much so that in one hospital, over a hundred were quarantined in a particular ward.

When the German soldiers came to round up those Jews, the doctors explained this disease, and none of them dared to go into that ward to arrest those Jews. And they came to the conclusion, well, this just proves how bad the Jews are. God is giving them this dread disease. The thing was, it was all fake. None of it was real. Dr. Giovanni Baromeo, faced with the question in his own heart, what could he do to prevent Jews from being herded and sent to the death camps, he welcomed people into his hospitals and made up this disease. He filled out their charts declaring that they had Syndrome K, and he placed them in wards in a hospital for their protection, and he saved their lives.

Now, none of this was known until after World War II and after Dr. Baromeo's death. But since that time, he has posthumously been recognized by the Israeli government with the title, Righteous Among the Nations. I tell you that story because Dr. Baromeo, on a physical level, was struggling with the same idea that Paul is struggling with on a spiritual level: concern for the Jews.

Paul is writing the Christians in Rome, but we need to make sure we recognize that the Christians in Rome came from a mixed background. Some were converts from pagan backgrounds and some from Jewish backgrounds. And he's writing this letter to explain his doctrine, to explain his theology, to really introduce himself because he's not yet been to Rome at the stage of his writing. And he realizes that some of those Christians from a Jewish background are having the same nagging question in their minds and hearts that he is having, and that is a worry about his countrymen. They're asking the question, what about Israel?

And in chapters 9, 10, and 11, this is the theme that he's talking about. Remember, this is a letter, and so you don't write letters with chapters, do you? These chapters are put in afterwards by editors of the scriptures, and so you need to think of chapters 9, 10, and 11 as a unit of thought, as Paul is worried about the Jews, and he's agonizing over what's going to happen among his people.

But he makes the points in chapters 9 and 10 that just because the gospel is moving primarily among Gentiles, it doesn't mean that God's purposes have failed or God's promises have failed for the Jews. He stated that what God is doing now is creating, in chapter 9, he talks about the children of promise. In other words, Abraham's children that come from both Gentile background and Jewish background now bound together by belief. We saw that clearly again in chapter 10. In verse 12, he said, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him."

So Paul's point is, God is doing something new now. He's developing for himself a new people, people who are no longer divided by ethnic lines, no longer divided by Jew or Gentile, but united in belief, and God is perfectly righteous in doing so. But Paul senses that nagging question in his own heart of hearts and the question that's plaguing the minds of the Jewish background Christians now in Rome: But what about the Jews as a people? What about the Jews as an ethnicity, as an ethnic group, the chosen people of God?

Paul sums up the questions in the first five verses of chapter 11. Let's read it there. It says this: "I ask then, did God reject His people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel? 'Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they're trying to kill me.' And what was God's answer to him? 'I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace."

We'll stop our reading there for a moment. Paul's talking about ethnic Israel there. He's talking about the nation Israel, as it has been over time, the centerpiece of God's working in the world. In a sense, you could say the nation Israel, the people, the Jews, were chosen as a missionary nation to be a light to the Gentiles, to be an example of God's blessing. In fact, part of their mission in the world was to be an example of what it looks like when you are a people blessed by God, an example of His grace, an example of His glory, so much so that the nations around would stand up, take notice, and want what the Jews have.

But of course, when we read the history, we come to understand that due to their own disobedience and apostasy from time to time, turning away from the faith over and over again, they did not perfectly serve that plan. But there was a second portion to that plan, and that another purpose of God, and that is that the Jews, that nation, would be the nation through which the Messiah would enter the human race. I talk about them incubating the Messiah for the entire world and bring redemption and hope because of His work on the cross for all who will believe.

And that work has been perfectly accomplished. But Paul looks around and he says, to his distress, the majority of the nation that incubated the Savior, the majority of them have rejected the one true Messiah. Paul's point here is, however, even though they are rejecting Jesus, God has not categorically rejected them. The Jews have not been replaced by the church. They can and they will recover. And none of this is a surprise to God, because at the time of the writing of these words, when Paul is penning this letter, there is a believing remnant inside of the Jewish people. Paul says, "I'm part of that remnant, part of what God is doing among the Jews."

Verse 1 again, he says, "I ask then, did God reject His people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin." Paul's saying, God did not categorically reject the Jews, because I am a Jew. And I am a believer. The fact that he speaks about his tribe emphasizes the fact that he's no longer speaking about the spiritual Israel of chapters 9 and 10, which includes both Jew and Gentile believer, but now he's focusing on the physical descendants of Abraham. He's saying to those with Jewish background, God has not given up on us.

In fact, Paul reminds them, we've been here before. We've been here before, where we were away from God, rebelling against God, in the days of Elijah, times of apostasy and unbelief. And it may be that Paul thinks of that example because he could have chosen many, but he thinks of that example maybe because he feels a little like Elijah, praying for things that his people aren't interested in, alone and somewhat put to the side, embattled, and praying against the things that his people are running after, just like Elijah.

But just like God kept a remnant of faithful people in Elijah's day, Paul is saying, God is doing that again, and I am part of what he's doing. And the Roman Christians from a Jewish background are part of that remnant as well. And that remnant is growing. In fact, in Acts chapter 21 verse 20, in Jerusalem, James and the leaders of the church refer to the believing Jews that they know of as many thousands. So the Roman Christians know this. They recognize that there is a remnant movement of believers among the Jews.

But their heart question is, is this going to continue, and will it grow? Will God see His people once again as honoring Him and following His way? And Paul's answer is, yes. Yes, they will. Remember, as we glance back over history, the history of Israel, we see times of apostasy in the past, times when the vast majority of the nation was worshiping idols, rejecting God. And the pattern of apostasy in the past was always this: a wandering away, and then a punishment that brought repentance and renewed faithfulness. Wandering away, punishment that brings repentance, and a renewed faithfulness.

This pattern is repeated over and over again in the life of the nation, so much so that by the time we get to the time of Nehemiah, which is the closing, chronologically the closing of the era of the Old Testament, and the nation is once again seeking after the one true God, in Nehemiah 9, the Levites have a prayer. And the prayer is a recollection of this cycle, and they speak to God this way. They say, "For many years you were patient with them. By your spirit you admonished them through your prophets, yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God."

And God still is. He does not change. Paul is saying, God is going to do it again. When we look forward in history, we will see a great awakening of the nation Israel towards the Messiah, Jesus. And it will happen in the events of the end times yet to come. Look at verse 11 in our chapter. Paul says this: "Again I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them envious."

But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? I want you to see the great role reversal that has happened in history. Now it is the intention that God will use the Gentiles who are coming to the belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gentiles will be the example of what God is doing that makes the Jews envious and wanting what the Gentiles have. A role reversal, and because of that role reversal, a time of fullness is coming. A time of faith is coming. A fullness of hope and belief.

So today we exist, as Paul exists first century forward, in a period of time when the focus of the gospel's effectiveness is among primarily Gentiles. But as God views the sweep of history, His purpose is that Gentile joyful belief makes the Jews spiritually envious. And do you catch the challenge for us in that? The challenge is that we must ask ourselves, is there much about us in our walk with God that would provoke the Jew to spiritual envy?

Do we show a life filled with the joy of the Lord? Do we show righteous devotion to His Word, purity of lifestyle, and love for one another in such a fashion that that's going to be noticed by a spiritually sensitive Jew or anybody else for that matter and desire what we have? Are there people who watch us and the way we live and the way Christ has changed our lives and long for what we have? The point here is there ought to be. That ought to be what happens through the church into the world.

Also realize Satan can read these words just like we can read these words. And Satan, reading these words, has been working against this outcome, this prediction of Paul's all throughout history. Part of the inexplicable hatred that we see over the centuries and we still see today toward the Jews is Satan trying to interfere with this prediction. Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is the work of the devil in every age, but true believers in Jesus Christ are to show the fruit that comes with the true Messiah so that others will desire the joy and the peace and the love that we have.

The rejection of the gospel by the Jews has served to push the gospel to the Gentiles, and Paul's an example of that because he labels himself the apostle to the Gentiles. That was God's call upon his life, even though he had agony in his heart about his own people. And speaking to now the Gentiles in the Roman church and us, he says this: "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in."

The hardening is in part because there's a remnant that's turning to God through Jesus Christ. And that remnant will grow until the Gentile work is finished. God is watching over all of this, all of this foreseen in what he's doing. He still has plans for the Jews, and there's going to come a time when those plans come to fruition. And in verse 26 of our chapter, he tells us what the plans are.

Verse 26: "And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.'" Paul is quoting quotations both from Isaiah and Jeremiah and putting them together there to confirm the point that he's making. What does it mean?

Please understand that Paul is not using the term Israel the way he used it back in chapter 9. There he's talking about the combined people of God. Verse 6 of chapter 9 says this: "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." He's making the point that there is a spiritual Israel there in chapter 9, the spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham, the true believers. But here in chapter 11, his gaze has turned, and he's talking about ethnic Israel. And he says, "All Israel will be saved."

Now that raises a question, right? Is he saying that all Jews who ever lived will be saved? No, he's not saying that. He cannot be saying that. Because for him to be saying that, he would have to be presenting what we spoke against a few weeks ago, which is called a dual covenant theology. The idea that there's some other way other than Jesus for Jews to be saved and Gentiles have to accept Christ. That is a false doctrine, and that's not true. Neither is he talking about spiritual Israel. We covered that. He's not simply being redundant. That wouldn't answer the questions in the minds of the Jewish background Roman Christians.

But he's saying two things. He's saying in any given generation, there is a remnant of believing Jews. Paul is part of that remnant in his generation. And secondly, he's saying there is coming a day when the living generation of the Jews will in large numbers turn to the one true God through Jesus, the true Messiah, as their own. He is saying, God is not through with the Jews. Even though it seems, at least for a while, that the Jews have turned their back on the Messiah, God is not through with them. He is true to His promise.

And so, we can observe the structure of history as it relates to Israel in four stages. Number one, in the past, the Gentiles were away from God, but God was working within His chosen people, the Jews. And then the Jews moved away from God in their rejection of the one true Messiah. And thirdly, the message of hope that went out to the Gentiles as the gospel went out to the nations and is still going forth to the nations. And there will come a time in the future when Israel will receive mercy and forgiveness as they turn back to God, seeing what He's doing among the nations and wanting what they have.

But let's be clear. Israel will not be saved in any way other than the same way that Gentiles are saved: by grace through faith in the one true Messiah. So it raises a further question. And that is, well, how much is all? I think in this context, in this statement, we must say that all means most. And why do I say that? Because I look back into the history of the nation Israel.

As we look back through the Old Testament and we see those periods of faithfulness when God was being worshiped, and the people were united around that worship. Then we see periods of apostasy and then periods of faithfulness. Even in those periods of faithfulness, there were dissenters in the nation. Even in those periods of faithfulness, there were some who were disobedient, even though the nation was characterized as following God in those periods of time. And I think that's the pattern that will continue.

See, not every single Jewish individual has to be saved in order for this Scripture to be fulfilled. And I think that's going to be true. But what he's saying is that there will be such a powerful gospel movement among the Jews that the nation will be categorized and Christianized to the point that they'll be known as followers of Jesus as the Messiah.

So when will this happen? It must be associated with the events of the end times. If you read through the book of Revelation and you go to Revelation chapter 7, you read about 144,000 ethnic Jews identified by tribe, 12,000 from each tribe. And John the Apostle writes that they are sealed by the Almighty. It means that they have an indication of God's ownership. They are the followers of the one true God in those future events.

Now that's interpreted two different ways. There are some who interpret that as symbolic numbers indicating the fulfillment of what Paul is predicting here: a mass movement of the Jews towards worshiping the true God. Others look at those numbers and say, no, they are actual numbers from the tribes of Israel. But then they are mobilized by God. This is all during the tribulation period. Mobilized by God to represent the true Messiah to their people. They're, in a sense, the evangelists.

No matter how you interpret that particular passage, it is the completion of what Paul is predicting here: a mass movement of the Jews towards Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, in the Old Testament, we see hints of that. Zechariah 12 says this: "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

John MacArthur, in his study Bible notes, calls our attention to the phrase, "the one that they have pierced." And he says, Israel's repentance will come because they look to Jesus, the one who was rejected, who was crucified, who was pierced.

So you may say to yourself, okay, fine, I've been listening for quite some time now, and why does all of this matter? How does this affect us? Most of us are not background Jewish, so why does this come into our thinking? Why this all matters is this: Because if God does not keep His promises to the Jews, how can we know that He will keep His promises to us? God keeps His promises, especially as we have just come through the first few chapters of the book of Romans, and in chapter 8, filled with promises, finally that one grand super promise: nothing can separate us from the love of God.

If God's not going to keep His promises to the Jews, how do I know He'll keep that promise? And I need that promise. But God is true to His promise. And also, it matters to us because there are parallels in the way we see God working in the nation and the way He works in individual lives. And those parallels are this: There are consequences that come with a hardened heart. And there is a call for a need for continual obedience if we will be the people of God.

Ray Stedman used to say, we do not break God's laws; we only illustrate God's laws. Over and over again, we see God's laws. Over and over, the pattern of disobedience, they pay the price. But one day, they will be the example of God's grace, God's promises in action.

So all of this, chapters 9, 10, and 11, is a unit of thought for the Apostle Paul around the nation of Israel. Paul has spent time analyzing the work of God through history. He's spent time agonizing about his people's rejection. Now he is spending some time anticipating the future work of God among his people. And at the end of it all, he is so confident that God has shown him that a great work will take place among his people that all he does is step back, and he ends the closing verses of chapter 11 with praise.

Let's read it. "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever."

Look at verse 34. "Who has known the mind of God? Who has been his counselor?" Our praise should flow from the realization of how far above us and beyond us our God is. Our hope for the future should flow from the infinite riches of the wisdom and the knowledge possessed, not by us, but by God, who is working in all things.

We may look at the pattern of history and say to ourselves in our flesh, well, it seems kind of arbitrary. But Paul says, this is what God is up to, and you don't get to advise God. There are many God advisors in the world today. Proud sinners who think that they can tell God how to run the universe. And if you don't do it my way, I'm just not going to believe in you. Guess what? That never works out well. You don't get to advise God. But you do get to glorify Him.

And it has been said that knowledge is the accumulation of information. But wisdom is knowing what to do with that information. And after all we learn about God and all we learn about His work, the Apostle Paul says, this is what wisdom looks like: step back and turn it all to praise. Because the praise point is this: God will keep His promises to Israel, and God will keep His promises to you.

Let's pray.

Lord, we rejoice in that truth. We hate to think what it would be like if we could not depend on you. If one day you would wake up and get out of the wrong side of the bed and just be grouchy towards us, oh, it would be awful. But what we see in you is constant love, constant mercy, constant grace. And Lord, we pray that we are able to live in ways that bring you glory. Help us rely on the promises. We pray for the gospel work happening among Jews and Gentiles alike right now. We pray that we can be part of it. And we pray that we would live lives that would so exemplify grace in action that people around us would want what we have. Help us represent you in that way, we pray. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

In a moment, we're going to leave this place. If you have a prayer burden, the prayer counselors will be by the organ waiting for you.