Lesson 48b

Romans is a really exciting book. In terms of understanding the basics of what believers need to know, Believing 101, Romans is kind of that foundation for all that we need to understand. We set out months and months and months ago to build that foundation. Underneath all the identification truths is the salvation side of things.

Romans, as a book, makes that very, very clear and then all of a sudden you get to chapter 9, 10, and 11. And I think sometimes it may be thought of by believers as kind of like, what is Paul doing all of a sudden taking a detour in 9, 10, and 11? Do you think he took a detour to cover Israel? All of a sudden was he Like, hey, I just got this other notion, and I need to make it... Hey, on the side, you need to know this. And then we'll get back to those more critical identification truths for believers. I don't think he did. I think what's interesting is, so much of Romans has to do with who we are in Christ, and what Christ did on our behalf.

But you've got to remember that Israel, And the Jews were, not only was he a Jew, but they were a present race, right? You mentioned last time that you grew up in Manhattan for a while, or were in Manhattan for a while, and there was a presence of Jews in your life for a time. But, I mean, for me, I don't even know any Jews. I mean, me personally. Now, that's just because I have Catholics, Mormons that are surrounding me more so. It just happens to be our neighborhood. And I haven't spent much time around Jews, but knowing that Rome was... What was it like in Rome at the time of Paul? Tyrannical. What's that? Tyrannical. Tyrannical? Yeah, they were the power. They were the force to be reckoned with, right? And who were being persecuted? Christians and Jews. So you have a situation where Christians are enjoying something that Paul, a Jew, is talking about, and it's provoking the Jews to something, isn't it? What is it doing to them?

Making him jealous. Very, very jealous. We'll talk about that. But the point is that Paul didn't just take a detour to talk about what was going on. The more I studied this, it really... Who is he talking to in chapter 11? It was mentioned, I think, in maybe just a confusing way last week, that he's talking to Jews, but he's not talking to Jews. Who is he talking to? He's talking to Gentile believers. filling them in on some very important information.

I wrote down the question, where do we fit in God's plan? I think that these verses have a lot to do with where we fit. It's a big picture. God's plan can get very granular. We can talk about what's his plan for you as an individual believer. We know that he is working to transform, conform you to the image of Christ. We know that he is up to that. At a more corporate level, what is God up to? Because from the very beginning of the Abrahamic covenant, He was up to something corporately. Would you agree? Yeah? What was He up to? What did He say? Let's talk about it. Let's talk covenants for a bit. So we've got the Abrahamic covenant. What did God promise to Abraham?

The land, the seed, and the blessing. Land, seed, and blessing. So that's Genesis 12. One, two, three. So yeah, we got land, seed, and blessing. He establishes on this covenant three times. So then we move forward in the scripture and we get a land covenant in Deuteronomy. What that does, So we've got land, seed, and blessing here.

The Land Covenant establishes further on the original Abrahamic Covenant. Then we move a little bit further. Then we have the Davidic Covenant. What does that one have to do with? So we've got land, seed, and blessing. Blessing. So these three are established at the Abrahamic Covenant. Land Covenant comes along a little bit later, establishes on land, further establishes. Davidic Covenant comes along and establishes on what? Seed. And we get a new covenant. What does that one establish on? Blessing. So here we have land, seed, blessing. Who are these covenants made with? The Jews.

Now we've got a whole lot of grafting going on here. We're talking about trees, and we're talking about dough, and there's a couple different analogies that come out in chapter 11. But when it comes to these covenants, who are they made with? What type of covenants are they? They're made with God's chosen people, and it began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then to the 12 tribes, and there's also a new covenant with the Lord Jesus himself. So we know that there are recipients to each of these covenants.

Are you those recipients? You are not those recipients. That is being made very, very clear here. Now, is there a lot of Christian theology that says otherwise? Oh, yeah. Yeah? Like what? We're the new Israel, you know, and the kingdom is now. Yeah, the kingdom is now. Okay.

These are unilateral covenants, which means what? What is a unilateral covenant? doing all the work. It's up to him to fulfill it. If he doesn't fulfill it, he breaks the covenant. It's signed Yahweh. So when do these covenants get fulfilled in the scripture? In the millennium? Yeah. So each of these covenants get fulfilled in the kingdom.

With who? With Israel. So, let's look at the first question. With this in mind, I think it will help to kind of phrase some of the privilege and divine mercy and so forth that's going on here. When it comes to this chapter, 9, 10, 11, we're really talking about kind of as a further... God has a focus. His lens is focused at a particular group of people at a particular point in time, right? So we're also talking about another word that might be helpful is a channel through which He does things. A channel of people.

We're also talking about favor. Right? So all of these concepts come up through Chapter 11. There's also two other concepts that I think come up as well, as a result of these. You have Divine Mercy. What's the other aspect? There's not only mercy here, but we see concepts are being cut off. What would you call that? We're going to talk about it, but for now we'll just say discipline, right?

So where do we fit in God's plan? Where is God's focus today? Where was it in the time of Paul? And is that still present? And if so, what's next? Maybe what was before it? That's the purpose of what he's talking about through these verses. He's giving us, as Gentiles, perspective on where he is working, where his focus is, what channel he is utilizing at a given point in time of people, of which to communicate himself, to bless. That might be another way of saying divine blessing. He's talking about where his favor lies and where his discipline is presently focused, right? That's what this whole thing is about.

What does that mean to you? It says in question 4, God says to the Gentile, but toward you goodness, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise you will also be cut off. Now, what is the goodness referred to here in verse 22? Is this just God's general goodness?

No, it's toward these people. and they need to respond to it. Okay. Who are these people? Well, we're kind of switched into Gentiles, I think. We are into Gentiles. Verse 22 is... The same also will become. Yep. So, where did God go to first? That's where he started, right?

So, in Matthew 10.5, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans. He says, go to the lost sheep of Israel. That's where he started. So God's focus starts here, right? What happened to these guys? God sent the promised Deliverer, The Messiah. And they rejected him. So then what happened? They not only rejected him, but ultimately what did they do? They killed him.

So God's focus changes, doesn't it? And we see in Mark, 16. It says, But when they had rejected and crucified him, the risen Lord said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. So where does God's focus change?

Gentiles. I'm going to say it this way. It's definitely Gentile, but does it include believing Jews? Yes. I'm not speaking corporately of Israel. And this is going to be important when we start looking at the tree in a minute. It says, go to whole creation. Well, you can't speak corporately of the Gentiles either. It's individuals from the Gentiles too. Yeah. It's the whole creation is what it says. Right. I think we can rest on that.

So, what does the Lord communicate as This is a focus, but what did that focus deliver? It was a gospel, right? What do we have? We have gospel of the kingdom here. It could have ushered in the kingdom, but they rejected it and killed him. So they switched to the gospel of what? Substitution. Substitution. I'll call it grace. But yes, it is substitution.

So the Holy Spirit, having been given at Pentecost, Peter is shortly sent to the house of the Gentile, Cornelius, who believes the simple gospel of Christ. And on all them that heard the word, the Holy Spirit fell. So I'm just going to read a little bit here. This is this transition focus, right? This is where we're getting into. Then Barnabas and Saul, Silas and Timothy and the rest go on to the Gentiles, turning the world upside down with the gospel of grace.

No need for a religion. Now they had Christ. And what was their religion? What was the religious environment of the Jews? You had two kind of, one leaning one way, one leaning another way. Sadducees and the Pharisees, remember those guys? One of them did what? They took the law, and they said, in order to protect the law that was given, all 613 commandments, the Pharisees did what? So we don't break these 613, let's add another 155. I don't know. Whatever it was. 3,155. Okay. 3,155.

So they said, you know what, we're going to add to God's Word in order to protect the actual laws that He gave us. Actually to make it easier. Huh? To make it easier to obey the laws. You know, so they had 3,000 other laws which are easier to obey, and essentially if they obey those, they're obeying 613. Yeah. It's a little bit of a game, but that's how they played it. And then the Sadducees came in, and what'd they do? They said, no and no. We'll do like, you know, 300. So they took away from God's Word. And that's, this process is what?

Religion. We talk about, we define religion often times as man's effort to get to God. You know, we go back to the Tower of Babel, that was where you see the first organized religion. Man trying to get to God, whereas the relationship that God talks about through grace is God coming to man.

He does the work. But not in this case. Work, even if it's a little work. on the Sadducees part. If it's a lot, work. So, we have this situation where Barnabas and Saul and Silas and Timothy are now turning this world upside down with the Gospel of Grace. It was radical. It was a radical thing for the Jews to hear. And especially to hear from Jews, the disciples. these guys that came and were raised and had the same upbringing, even if they were somewhere between the Sadducees and the Pharisees and focused on the 613, they were still rejecting the Messiah. Meaning, they still have work to do, right? And they still have it today. But here they are with this radical message, turning the world upside down, no religion, no law, now you have a person.

He's the one that did it all. And requirements for being a part of the body of Christ was to simply what? Leave. That's radical. That's crazy. That's heresy. There's no need for a temple. The assembly were the temple of God, for as Stephen witnessed and was stoned for it, the Most High is not now dwelling in temples made by hands. That's radical. That's heretical stuff for these Jews. There was no need for a ritual. They had the Holy Spirit and worshipped by Him instead of forms. No need of a special priesthood. If you were a priest, how would you feel about that? Not too good. Not too... I'd be pretty upset. I mean, how much work have I done? How much blessing have I partook in because I'm of a special seed?

Of a lineage? You're going to take that all away from me and now tell me that everybody you know, that the priesthood is the priesthood of believers? All I have to do is believe, and now, I mean, but what about my priest garb? And all the special access I have in the temple? You're telling me that that's not the case anymore? It's just these average Joes that make up a priesthood of believers? All believers were alike priests, and drew near unto God by the shed blood, Christ himself, over the house of God, leading their worship, as the great high priest in heaven. No need for seeking merit.

That hurts. The law itself was... this stuff was special. Whether you added to it or took away from it, it was everything to you as a Jew. Your identity was based on the law itself. I mean, after all, God made these covenant promises to me, as a Jew, right?

He can't just not fulfill these things and just all of a sudden switch over to the Gentiles and forget about us. And the Gentiles, being a brand new believer, possibly even hostile in many ways, formerly, maybe even presently towards Jews, what were they thinking? What was their temptation? Well, it says here that God's changed His focus. What was their temptation? Look down on them? Isn't that what a lot of these warnings are about? No need for seeking merit, they were in Christ, already accepted in Him. Yea, made the very righteousness of God in Him. Now this was God's goodness towards the Gentile believers. And as for the Gentiles, all, they were no longer called dogs, as contrasted with the favored race of Israel. We're not dogs anymore. And Israel's like, no, you are dogs. Not anymore. You rejected and crucified.

The gospel changed to a gospel of substitution and made accessible to the entire creation. There was a complete change in the relationship of Gentiles as such toward God They were put into the place of privilege and opportunity, of divine blessing, an acceptable time, a day of salvation, and God's goodness was extended to them.

Why do you think God talks about this as divine goodness? Was he not good to the Gentiles before? Could Gentiles not have come to know of God's promises and become believers? We see Gentile believers in the Old Testament, but he wasn't focused on Gentiles, was he?

So the focus and the goodness has to do with where he shifts his attention. And all of a sudden that message of the Gospel of Grace is extended to the whole creation. Where are the Jews right now? Where do they fit into God's plan today? Same as the Gentiles. God's no longer looking at the nation, He's looking at individuals.

He is looking at the nation. Yes, he is. He's got something to deal with here. If he doesn't do this, A, he broke his promise, and that's enough right there. He hasn't rejected the nation, but he's just put them aside for a while. We call it cut off. They are in a state of divine discipline. How are they being disciplined? Well, those promises aren't being fulfilled until later, the one. Okay. That's very true. Until they do what? Accept their Messiah, their belief, until then the corporate nation returns its focus on the one true Messiah, these will not be fulfilled. And the Scripture talks about the fullness of the Gentiles. I was talking about that with Les. It's like, God has this number. I don't know what it is. It's a big number, but there's a fullness that must be reached.

And because He is focused on the Gentiles, the whole creation, right now, until that fullness is met, this stuff doesn't happen. The question number five, have the Gentiles continued in that goodness. How have they dealt with the goodness of God? Now, we're talking about goodness as a focus of the gospel of grace given to them who were formerly dogs and now have an opportunity, through grace, to be not only a believer, but to enjoy the blessings that come from God's focus. He's using the believers to do what? What is He using Gentile believers to do?

Make Israel jealous. It burns them. It burns these guys, right? And it's by grace that we get to be in this place, but that just ticks those guys off. That's what the Bible says. I mean, they are frustrated with that. It's a provoking of jealousy. But that jealousy has a result. What is the result? Salvation. Salvation. Some believe. Right? The remnant.

So, we move into this concept of the Gentiles continuing in goodness. How long did it take the Gentiles, after Paul said this, to start swaying away from the goodness that God had said that he had given to them? Are we still in the goodness? Are we continuing in it?

Maybe we are. Is Christianity as a whole Christendom? Let's think about the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, I want to start thinking about the Holocaust and on and on and on. It didn't take long, just like a hundred years before it got brutal again. What is that called? We call it anti-Semitism, right? Is that still a thing? Oh, yes. Why does that exist?

I think because God said it would. He said it would. And He permits it. He permits it. He doesn't cause it. But you're right. It's this divine discipline. And even through a state of sinful Gentile exercises like we've seen over the course of history, God has said that His goodness will end at some point for the Gentiles. How does verse 22 say it? Otherwise you too will be cut off and cut off. So Gentiles are going to get cut off at some point. And what's going to happen at that point? Rapture. So what is the rapture? God takes all the believers. Just Gentiles? Jews and Gentiles. And what happens next? Tribulation. What about this stuff? Still on hold. Still on hold through the tribulation.

So we know that there will be a divine discipline on the whole creation. Right? We know that that's coming. We also know that God is not done with Israel. And He is not forfeiting His covenant promises to His people. May it never be. That's verse 1. Right? Yeah. So, you know, the nation of Israel Israel has been cut off or put on hold for the time being, but I mean God's obviously still involved or preserving Israel. Why? So what's His involvement? Right. He has to preserve. And He also says that those who bless Israel, I will... Is that active today? I think so. I don't have any reason not to believe it isn't. I think that keeps our country going to some degree.

People can get really upset about that, even believers. Especially replacement theology, this idea that's very popular in reformed circles, which is more popular than what we're talking about here at Holly Hills, I can promise you that. Like 300 times more, right? dispensational or grace-based theological perspectives where you take the literal interpretation of the Word of God is not the popular belief system of Christianity. How many denominations do we have now? Even though you would put in, like, yeah, they're believers, they're just on this leaning side or this leaning side. I mean, I grew up Baptist, Les grew up Church of Christ.

We each had different things that were tacked on to the Gospel. We tack a lot on. That's what a denomination does. It tacks a little bit more on. So this idea of replacement theology is very, very popular in Christianity. It's the idea that the Church has done what? Taken all this stuff over. This is on us now. The Kingdom is now. This is being fulfilled currently.

Is Christ king right now? He is. Is he the Davidic throne king? No. No, he's not. Not physically here. No, because where does he have to physically be? In Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, on a physical what? Throne. Yeah, that's what this says. But if we can spiritualize all that away and just make the church the kingdom, then we've taken over Israel. Does that mean that I have to give a single care in the world towards those guys anymore? If I've replaced them, God, you rejected Him. And He came to us. And as a result, we took over everything. That's the popular belief system. Which means all this stuff is not physical promises on a physical space on the earth like he said it would be.

You have to do gymnastics with the scripture in order to get there, but most of Christianity does it. You have to cut out some scripture. You have to cut out these chapters. I mean, Paul makes a very clear distinction between Israel and Gentile believers.

So, is it fair to say that we are not continuing in the goodness? It's being extended to us presently. We know that's the case because we haven't had the rapture yet. I mean, when I was reading these verses, I know the rapture is a reality, right? We believe that.

But we kind of don't think about where we fit in that timeline that's this focus, this channel that God is working through. We don't really think about that coming to an end, the fullness of the Gentiles coming to an end, the rapture taking place, God's goodness towards the whole creation and the way that he is talking about it in chapter 11 ending. I don't know how often we think about that on a daily basis.

You're like me. It's there. It's a doctrine. It's truth. I think there's a crown for expecting the end and the Lord's return, right? There's a crown for that. I don't think I'm getting that one. But maybe you do. This is stuff that I have to be reminded of. I have to go back through, think through, and the question is, what does it do for me? What are these truths of God's divine mercy towards us today? How does that impact me?

Do you have the desire to share the gospel with anyone? Ever? Yeah, I hope you do. Do you see those that you'd love to have an opportunity to share the gospel of grace with? That's how you participate right now. Right? So it's, whether you're a missionary, full-time, or whether you're focused on communicating gospel truths to those that God's placed in your life, you are extending the goodness of what God has done in the Gentile believing world. Does that make sense? That's where you fit. Does that matter? It does.

And God's not going to end his goodness towards us until the fullness has come in and this stuff is ready to get fired off. This is reality. And for Paul, it was very important that the believing Gentiles understood where they fit in God's focus. So that they could understand that they were receiving divine blessing for the purposes of making the Jews jealous. He's not done with them. Even what he's doing with us has an effect on them still. And it brings some to salvation. So we think about this again.

Now you've got us, so I'm just going to say this is, so this is where we started. So we, being Gentile believers, started out with a relationship. It wasn't about physical temples. It wasn't about the religion, the work, the law. Everything was replaced with what? A relationship with Christ, God himself.

What did we do to that? Over time, we said that's not enough. We've got to add some stuff to it. Or we've got to take some stuff away. There's always that pendulum that swings. I'm not going to spell it, because I don't want to spell it. But on one side you have law. I can spell that one. On the other you have licentiousness. It's the adding to or taking away. Sorry, I can't spell that word. I'll butcher it. That's what the church did, right? It didn't take long for the relationship to turn into what?

Religion. Here, where's our citizenship? We're a heavenly people. But with religion, what do we try to do? Let's get back down to earth, guys. Get your heads out of the clouds. Religion makes you earthly. Here we have law. And what's going to happen as a result of this transition? What does verse 22 say about us? What's up here? This was grace. It still is. We just pervert it. Are we cut off? Here? No. It's goodness. This is the process.

By and large, the Gentile world will move to this and this will be the result. And then he comes all the way back over here, and picks up where he left off. So that the Gentiles will be cut off from the place of divine privilege, which they now have, and which Israel nationally has lost, and Israel will be restored to the privileged place as before. Thus, instead of continuing God's goodness, Gentile Christendom has set up the Christian religion and has settled down upon earth as if the church belonged here and as if Christ might not come at any moment. If you dream Christendom has continued in the humble gospel of grace and the goodness of God in giving his son to shed his blood for lost sinners, just examine the religious pronouncements in the press. Does this cutting off, question number six, does this cutting off mean an individual Gentile cannot be saved?

I don't think so. Is anything in here individual? All of this has to do with God's focus and channel of who he's... where his focus is on a group of people. We know that there are Jewish believers. We know that there are Gentile believers. And that's a process that's called grafting.

I don't know how much work... So have you ever seen a...has anybody ever grafted a branch into a tree? I have not. No? Okay. So we have a cultivated olive tree. Okay? And you split the end, split the tip of it, and you sharpen the tip of the other...the branch that you want to graft in. So it kind of fits in like that. olive branches, right? And then what you do is you take grafting tape, you insert the sharp end into the split end of the receiving tree, and then you graft that in with a grafting tape. And over time, the nourishment from the cultivated olive tree keeps alive the wild branch, is what the scripture says here.

Now what's interesting about that is the scripture has it backwards, but for a good reason. Typically, you don't graft a wild branch into a cultivated olive tree. You do it the other way. That's backwards. Huh? That's backwards. Yeah, you would graft a cultivated branch into a wild olive tree. That's horticulture. But, that's not what Paul said. So who's the wild branch? Gentiles. And who's the cultivated?

Olive tree. The Jews. What part of the Jews? Believing Jews. Because who got cut off? The larger nation of Israel, right? The unbelieving Jews, the ones that did this. So he's grafting us into the believing Jews and he says that we, as a result, enjoy the promise. What was the promise? What's the source of this tree? It all starts with the covenants. Here's the thing.

We don't take over the covenants. We don't overtake. We're grafted in. We are now partakers, not overtakers. What do we partake in of these covenants? They're not made to us specifically, but we get grafted in, and all of a sudden we get to partake in something. What is that?

This worldwide blessing. We partake in that. Through who? Through the Lord Jesus. Because we're grafted in, we partake in the worldwide blessing. That is a part, that's where we fit into this. We are blessed through, was Jesus a Jew? He was. He was the Messiah. We believe in the Messiah, and guess what? We are part of that promised worldwide blessing. God said, through you, I will make worldwide blessing through your seed. Was Jesus that seed?

He was. And is He your Savior? Yeah. So you're not an overtaker of the covenants, but you're a partaker. And you partake through the Lord Jesus, and the result of that is a blessing to you and to all Gentiles until that time has come and that branch will be cut off. Does that make sense?

Verse 7 says, who are they in verse 23? I'll read the verse. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. Who's they? The Jews, I think. Yep. Alright, my time's up. Israel, he said, I can graft these guys in. I cut them off, I can graft them in again. And he has to. Because he's got promises to deliver. Okay, so I don't know about question eight. I think I kind of covered this already. Maybe question nine is left for next week. Let's pray.

Father, how we thank you for the truths of Romans and even these here in chapter 11. Lord, I'm just so thankful that you had the desire to graft us in and while we realize that we are provoking the Jews towards jealousy. It is, it is our desire that they recognize your gospel of grace and come to a believing part of the body of Christ, that being the church Lord. And we know that you will, you have a plan and we know where we fit in it. And we know that you will pick up with the nation Israel when the fullness of the Gentiles has reached its, its limit. And Lord, we just are so thankful that we experienced your grace in this time. Uh, for the gospel of substitution, um, and that we are partakers of worldwide blessing through, um, through you, Lord. I just pray that we would recognize that and even contemplate further, um, what these, uh, these passages, uh, have to do with our place in, in your, in your larger plan. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.