Series: Romans
Title: The Mystery of God
Text: Rom 11: 25-27
Date: August 4, 2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
I want you to know the truth. I
am like Paul in Romans 11: 25: For I would not, brethren, that ye should be
ignorant of this mystery…
The mystery of God is known only to those to whom God will reveal it. It is the mystery of how God purposed to save
his elect from among Jew and Gentile. His
people are not all Jews and not all Gentiles.
God’s people are his elect who he calls out from among Jew and Gentile. God must reveal this mystery to us because sin
has totally blinded us. Due to our sin the
mystery of God cannot be known except God reveal it in us.
1 Corinthians 2: 7: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even
the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9: But as it is written, Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10: But God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. 11: For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. 12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God. 13: Which things also we speak, not in the words
which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. 14: But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15: But he that is
spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16: For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ.
So God will have to be our teacher—Romans 11: 25…Lest ye should be
wise in your own conceits.
Concerning verses
25-26, the majority in religion—even those claiming to believe the doctrine of
grace—are wise in their own conceits.
By what they believe concerning vv25-26, they reveal that they
really believe God is a respecter of persons: God taught the apostle
Peter that “of a truth…God is no respecter of persons, but in EVERY NATION
he that feareth [God], and worketh righteousness, is accepted with [God]” (Acts
10:34-35). But most in religion
reveal that they believe God saves some because they were born in the political
nation Israel and because their father was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Please understand, to think God saves
because of fleshly distinctions is “being wise in our conceits”—that is the
same as saying God saves because of our works or our will. Nothing is more dangerous for a sinner than
pride and self-rigtheousness. That is
what it is to imagine God saves because of where I was born or who my father is
or anything else in my flesh.
Paul said concerning the mystery of God—Romans 11: 25…that blindness
in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26: And so all Israel shall be saved:
Here is what most say. They say blindness
in part is happened to the political nation of Israel, until God has
called in the last of the Gentiles. AND
THEN, God shall raise up Israel AS A NATION AND SAVE ALL THE JEWS because they
are born in the nation Israel and because their father is Abraham. Brethren, that makes God a respecter of
persons—that is saying God saves because of natural distinctions in us.
When they read “And
so all Israel shall be saved”—they say this is not spiritual Israel but
Israel as a nation. They say it is not the
Israel Paul spoke of in Galatians. But
let’s see what God said in Galatians 6: 15-16.
Paul said, “In Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.” He says being a natural Jew, a natural
son of Abraham, born under the law in the nation Israel does not avail. Nor does it avail to be a natural Gentile,
born outside of Israel, without Abraham as your natural father, and without law. He says what avails is being “a new
creature.” God saves his elect by making us his new
creation: God makes his people his new, holy nation—spiritual sons of Abraham—by
creating us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to Paul, “And as
many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the
Israel of God.” The Israel of God is
God’s elect, spiritual Israel which is made up of Jew and Gentile.
But men totally
contradict what Paul said. They say it does
avail to be born in physical Israel, it does avail to be a natural son
of Abraham. They contradict Paul by saying
that our text does not speak of the elect, spiritual Israel of God. They
say after God has brought in the fullness of the Gentiles then God will raise
up Israel as a pollical nation and save all Israel, meaning all the natural
sons of Abraham. So they speak contrary
to the context of the scriptures leading up to Romans 11. In Romans 9:6, speaking by the Spirit of God,
Paul said “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, Neither, because
they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children:…That is, They which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of
the promise are counted for the seed.” Men
speak contrary to Romans 11: 2 where Paul said, “God hath not cast away his
people which he foreknew”—his people which he foreordained to eternal life,
meaning his elect. So let’s see what our text means in light of the
scriptures leading up to it.
WHO IS ISRAEL TO WHOM
BLINDNESS HAS HAPPENED IN PART?
Who is this Israel to whom blindness in part has happened? It is the same Israel Paul speaks of in verse
26 when he says “And so all Israel shall be saved.” So who is this Israel to whom blindness
in part has happened?
It is true that God judicially blinded that part of Israel who are only
the physical, natural children of Abraham.
God blinded them because they willfully rejected Christ. So, indeed, blindness had happened to that
part of physical Israel.
But at the time Paul
wrote this, there was among that physical nation of Israel “a remnant
according to the election of grace” as Paul said earlier in the chapter. And some of that remnant were still blind. God
would give them spiritual sight. But at
the time blindness had happened to that part of God’s elect Israel. Also, at that time, some of God’s elect among
the Gentiles were still blind in their sin.
God would call them and given them spiritual sight. But at the time blindness had in part happened
to that part of God’s elect Israel.
Since, there are still some of God’s elect who have yet to be given
spiritual life, in our day we can still say that blindness has in part happened
to God’s elect spiritual Israel.
So blindness had happened
to part of physical Israel—they had been blinded judicially by God due
to their willful rejection of the gospel.
But also, blindness
had in part happened to God’s elect, spiritual Israel—Jew and Gentile—in
that they were born spiritually blind and were yet to be called to faith in
Christ. It is that spiritual, elect part
of God’s Israel that Paul speaks of in this verse. In context, Paul is speaking to Gentile believers. He speaking in particular about God’s elect
Jews who were yet in blindness. Paul is
encouraging Gentile believers not to be high minded at the fact that they were
Gentiles and believed on Christ while those who were Jews were yet in
blindness. He had just said that God is
able to graff in his elect from among the Jews if they abide not still in unbelief. So he is assuring Gentile believers in his
day, and us in ours, that we have no reason to be puffed up by the fact that we
believe and others do not. Paul assures
us that God shall not lose one of his elect.
So knowing God would call all his elect Jews, as well as all his elect
Gentiles, in our text, Paul says, “For I would not, brethren, have you
ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that
blindness in part is happened to [God’s elect Israel], until the fulness
of [God’s elect among] the Gentiles be come in; And so all [God’s
elect] Israel shall be saved.”
WHO ARE THE GENTILES
THAT SHALL BE FULLY BROUGHT IN?
Romans 11: 25: For I
would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness
in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in.
It means until God finishes
his three-fold purpose. Do you remember God’s
three-fold purpose? God calling in the
fulness of his elect Gentiles is the third and final part of that three-fold
purpose. Let’s review so we remember
this three-fold purpose of God.
One, God purposed
from eternity to use the Jew’s rejection of Christ to send the gospel to the
Gentiles—Romans 11: 11: I say then, Have they [God’s elect among the
Jews] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: [God never
loses an elect child] but rather through their fall salvation is come
unto the Gentiles.” According
to God’s eternal purpose, God’s elect Jews stumbled in that they
rejected Christ and his gospel. But God’s
elect Jews did not stumble that they should fall and be cast out by God
forever. It was God’s purpose to use his
elect Jew’s rejection of Christ to send the gospel to his elect among the
Gentiles and begin calling them to faith in Christ. That has begun in Paul’s day in that Paul was
the apostle to the Gentiles.
Two, God purposed from eternity to use his
elect, believing Gentiles to call his elect from among the Jews—Romans 11:
11…through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them
[the elect among the Jews] to jealousy. According to God’s
eternal purpose, God used his elect, believing Gentiles to provoke his elect
Jews to give ear to the gospel. Then God
began calling more of his elect remnant in Israel from among the Jews to faith
in Christ.
Three, God purposed
from eternity that by calling his elect remnant from among Jews, he would call
a greater number of his elect Gentiles until all were called to faith in Christ—Romans
11: 12: Now if the fall of [God’s elect Israel] be the riches of the [elect
Gentile] world, and the diminishing of [elect Israel resulted in] the
riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? Paul says if God first used the fall and
diminishing of his elect Jews to call his elect from among the Gentiles, how many
more elect Gentiles shall God call when he increases his elect Jews! This is the final part of God’s three-fold
purpose which Paul speaks of in our text.
So be sure to get
this: God’s purpose ends with God calling his elect from the Gentiles. That alone shows us that the religious world
is mistaken when they say our text means that after God calls his elect from
among the Gentiles then he shall turn and call all Israel. God’s purpose ends with God calling his elect
from among the Gentiles, not from among Israel.
Therefore, Paul gives the third part of God’s purpose in Romans 11:25,
saying, “blindness has in part happened to [God’s elect
Israel] until the fulness of [God’s elect from among] the Gentiles be
brought in. And so all [God’s elect] Israel shall be saved.”
But remember, as God worked the first part of
his purpose—diminishing the Jews to call his elect Gentiles—at the same
time, God also called some elect Jews.
Also, as God worked the second part of his purpose—using elect
Gentiles to call elect Jews—God also called some elect Gentiles. Likewise, as God fulfills this third part of
his purpose, God is calling in both his elect Jew and his elect Gentile at the
same time. Therefore, though Paul only
gives the last part of God’s three-fold purpose, when he speaks of God calling
the fulness of the Gentiles, he means God is calling every last elect child, both
Gentile and Jew.
In Paul’s time, the
nation Israel still existed. God had
done the first part of his purpose and was doing the second part. But in our present time, the physical nation
of Israel that God created no longer exists. In 70AD, God destroyed the
physical nation, scattering his elect Jews into the Gentile nations. But God said through his prophets that he would
gather his elect—Jew and Gentile—from the Gentile nations. That is what God is now doing. That is why Paul refers to all God’s elect as
Gentiles. We see this in Isaiah 11.
Note: the scripture is in bold type
and my comments in brackets in plain text in order to make it easier to distinguish
scripture from my comments.
Isaiah 11: 10: And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, [Christ] which
shall stand for an ensign [Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our Banner] of the
people [of God’s elect]; to it [to Christ our Banner] shall the Gentiles
seek: [meaning both God’s elect Jew and God’s elect Gentile. He calls them all Gentiles because God is
calling all from the Gentile nations] and his rest shall be glorious.
[Indeed, Christ’s rest is glorious!] 11: And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people which shall be left, [notice, the remnant of God’s
elect are all called from Gentile nations] from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea. [the first time that God set his hand is
when God sent the gospel to his elect in Israel; the second time God set his
hand is when God began gathering his elect scattered in the Gentile nations
which God has been doing since 70AD when he destroyed the political nation
Israel] 12: And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, [Christ is
the Banner set up in the preaching of the gospel for God’s elect scattered in
all the nations] and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. [God is
assembling his elect which he cast out of the political nation Israel when God
destroyed it in 70AD and God is gathering them from the Gentile nations, called
here, the four corners of the earth.]
So when Paul says “until
the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in” he simply means until God
finishes this third and final part of his eternal purpose. Paul calls God’s elect “Gentiles”—though he speaks
of both Jew and Gentile. He does so because
Paul knew God would destroy the physical, political nation Israel soon. Therefore, knowing that as God fulfilled that
third part of his purpose the political nation would not exist anymore, Paul
simply calls them Gentiles as did Isaiah. Since God destroyed that political nation in
70AD, before God, all God’s elect are simply Gentiles. In Isaiah, God called his elect Jews “the
outcasts of Israel” and the “dispersed of Judah” so that we know that
even though God destroyed the political nation, God will not lose one of his
elect from among the Jews. But God is
gathering them from the Gentile nations. Even the nation that we know as
Israel, which was created by men in the 1940’s, is not regarded by God as the
political nation Israel that God created in the scriptures. God may save some elect out of the nation that
we now know as Israel, but it is not because God even regards that nation as
Israel. He does not. God is calling his elect—Jew or Gentile—from among
the Gentile nations where they are scattered.
Therefore, Paul simply said “until the fulness of the Gentiles be
brought in.”
WHO IS ALL ISRAEL
THAT SHALL BE SAVED?
Romans 11: 26: And so
all Israel shall be saved:
Men mistakenly say “And
then” rather than “And so.” They
say after God has called the fulness of the Gentiles then God shall raise up
Israel as a nation and save all the physical seed of Abraham in physical
Israel.
Obviously, Paul is not
telling us that all Abraham’s natural descendants shall be saved. Multitudes of
them perished in the wilderness. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went to hell long
ago. Judas has been in hell for 2000 years. It is obvious he is not saying God
will end by saving physical Israel because God’s purpose was not to end with calling
his elect from the nation Israel, it was to end by calling his elect from the
Gentiles—meaning both Jew and Gentile. Paul
is talking about Abraham’s spiritual seed, all the host of God’s elect, who make
up the Israel of God.
The word “so” means
“after this manner”—“blindness in part has happened to [God’s
elect] Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles [God’s elect Jew
and Gentile] be brought in. And so [and after this
manner] all [God’s elect] Israel shall be saved.”
Christ told Nicodemus
“the manner” in which God loved the world.
The Spirit of God makes us to be born-again—“Ye must be born again.” This is done through the preaching of
Christ—"We preach that we do know and testify that which we have seen.” God makes us behold Christ crucified as all
our salvation and gives us faith to believe on him—"as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up; That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God SO [after
this manner] loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:
3-16).
Therefore, “blindness
in part has happened to [God’s elect] Israel, until the fulness
of the Gentiles [God’s elect Jew and Gentile] be brought in.
And so [and after this manner] all [God’s elect]
Israel shall be saved.”
WHO DOES THE SAVING?
Romans 11: 26…as it
is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this is
my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
This is quoted from
Isaiah 59: 20 with a few changes:
Isaiah 59:20: And the Redeemer shall come to
Zion, [Paul said, “Out of Zion] and unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob, saith the LORD. [Paul said he shall turn away transgression from his
Jacob’s] 21: As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; [Paul
does not quote this last part] My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I
have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, [speaking of his
elect regenerated by the Spirit] nor out of the mouth of thy seed, [the elect he
regenerates after us through our preaching] nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s
seed, [the elect after them who he regenerates through their preaching] saith
the LORD, from henceforth and forever.
“There shall come out
of Sion the Deliverer”—Christ is the Deliverer, the Redeemer, who alone delivers
his elect alone! He came to
earthly Zion out of heavenly Zion, to earthly Jerusalem out of
heavenly Jerusalem. Christ
came when he came to this earth the first time and he comes now as he sends his
preachers with his gospel.
“And shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob”—Jacob is all his elect, both Jew and Gentile. We are Jacob in ourselves meaning we are sinners. Jacob was Jacob’s name by his first
birth. God changed his name to
Israel. It is interesting to note that that
was his name before as yet God even formed the nation Israel. So Jacob is the name God uses to refer to his
elect—Jew and Gentile—when speaking of the sinners we are by birth. Christ turned away ungodliness from his elect
Jacobs when he paid our sin debt on the cross.
He ungodliness from his elect Jacob’s when he sends the Holy Spirit to
regenerate us and gives us repentance from trusting ourselves and brings us to
faith in Christ.
“For this is my
covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins”—as we have seen, all
this is according to God’s eternal purpose—his everlasting covenant of grace—which
is between God the Father and Christ his Son and freely made with us. Christ fulfilled the terms of the covenant
for us—fulfilling the law on behalf of his elect—so that their remains nothing
for us to do except believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved for
all eternity.
In Isaiah the
covenant is “My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in
thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and
forever.” It means since Christ took
away the sins of his people, judicially, on the cross when he satisfied justice
for us, therefore, he must and shall take away our sins, experimentally,
when he purges our conscience from dead works to serve the true and living God.
Christ shall send the Spirit to each
one he justified and the Spirit shall regenerate each elect, redeemed child and
give us faith in Christ. And the Spirit
shall never be taken from his elect.
Beholding that Christ
is the Deliverer who has, is and shall save all God’s elect it should put an
end to any one with spiritual discernment imagining that God will show respect
to any natural Jew due to them being born in political Israel as a natural son
of Abraham. God’s grace is only toward
those he chose freely and foreordained to eternal life. It is God’s elect Christ delivered on the cross;
it is God’s elect Christ delivers in regeneration. We are saved—Jew and Gentile—because the
grace of God made us to differ—not because of anything in us or by us.
Now, one last
illustration to show you that the saving of God’s elect Jew and Gentile has
always been God’s eternal purpose. It
has always been God’s eternal purpose to call his elect from among the Gentiles
together with his elect among the Jews and make us his one, holy nation. God
used Noah to declare it.
Noah came out of the
flood along with his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. All mankind, as we know it, came from those
three sons. Spiritually, they represent
all men in the earth. Ham was the son who
exposed his father’s sin and nakedness and was cursed; Shem and Japheth walked
backwards and covered their father’s nakedness and were blessed.
Ham is literally the
father of Canaan, Babylon. Spiritually Ham
represents all the children of the devil who are cursed forever as he was. Shem is literally the father of the Jews. Spiritually, Shem represents God’s elect
among the Jews. Japheth is literally the father of the Gentiles. Spiritually, Japheth represents God’s elect
among the Gentiles.
Way back there, right after the flood, God declared
through Noah that he would unite his elect from among Jew and his elect from
among the Gentiles. Speaking the word of
God, Noah said, “God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents
of Shem” (Gen 9:27) It has always
been God’s purpose to enlarge Japheth, his elect from among the Gentiles, and
make us dwell together as one people with Shem, God’s elect from among the Jews. This God does by his free and sovereign
grace, choosing whom he will, redeeming us by Christ’s blood and regenerating
us by the Holy Spirit.
So be sure to get
this! We are not looking for a day in the future when God will raise up a
political nation called Israel made up of all the natural sons of Abraham. We are not expecting to go to that earthly
nation in an earthly city in an earthly temple and worship Christ. Christ is making his people a new
creation. As he has been doing since he
came, Christ is raising up his holy, spiritual nation, the Israel of God, the
true seed of Abraham. God is calling his
elect Jew and Gentile from the Gentile nations through the preaching of Christ
our Ensign! If you believe on Christ
then are you sons of Abraham and the Israel of God! We are looking for the city
Abraham was looking for—“whose builder and maker is God”—heavenly
Jerusalem where we will worship Christ in his true Tabernacle.
Galatians 3: 26: For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. 27: For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. 28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29: And
if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to
the promise.
Amen!