National Israel is Judicially Hardened

Well, good morning. So it is kind of a somber message today, but I want to go back and review what we did last week too. So we're going to talk about the national. Actually, you know, this is the thing you need to kind of get in your head. Paul talks about what man has labeled national Israel. And then he talks about the elect of Israel, if you will. So those two terms are kind of pushed around a bit.

So this is going to talk about God hardening the ones that weren't elected. And that kind of rubs everybody the wrong way. Election kind of seems like, how can God elect people? How can we choose him and elect him? Well, I mentioned last week, so I'm going to review it again. It's really important to understand that election and grace are compatible. election and foreknowledge are compatible. All these things are compatible. Maybe it's hard for us to see that, but scripture teaches us as being compatible. Okay, so I'm going to use the outline from Merriman from last week.

So basically he labels this section, the first 12 verses in chapter 11, as Israel is hardened nationally, there's that national term, but only temporarily. So we start with verse 1, so the issue here in verse 1 that God has not cast away or rejected His people Israel is kind of the major thrust of verse 1. And then we have examples right and actually 2-4 has some examples and goes on into verse 5. First example Paul by his very nature, he was a Jew by his very nature and he believed. Then Elijah and the 7,000 are part of this remnant. then Paul goes on to 5 and 6 which we are going to review here shortly that this remnant exists in Paul's day and Paul's day is the church age so Paul's day extends into our day if you will into the church age then we have this cool term election of grace and I kind of think the translators didn't do us any favors because the translators don't translate that very dramatically and it comes across in the King James better and also most of the commentators are good about pointing out about this election of grace and what does that mean?

So today, after we do the review, which is about half the message, so I like, and maybe you think, well, Roger's just trying to take a break here, right? He only has to work half the message, right? It gets to last week, but each week I keep stair-stepping, so hopefully I get enough work done here. Vani would say I work too much, and I do. Anyway, but I love to do it, and so does Mike. We just love to teach. And then the last part Mike's gonna be teaching next week's gonna start into 11 and 12 and maybe go a little bit farther. So this is the judicial hardening. We're gonna talk about hardening and then Mike's gonna pick up that theme even more.

Which is a hard concept to really get a hold of because it seems like God is in a way, how can you do this? Are you violating who you are? Are you not being a righteous God? Are you doing something that is, that man would do? but God is righteous in doing this, and we'll see that.

Okay, so that's the outline. So last week's verses, so in the same way, then, they also, there also comes to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. You see what I'm saying? It just says God's gracious choice. Sounds rather, this kind of flows, and I say, ooh, God's gracious choice. It's a little bit more, there's an oomph to that here, and we'll see it. But if by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Alright, so let's get into it here. So the first part I chose again to use interlinear. I'm going to talk about the first little phrase there. which I have underlined in the interlinear. But what I want to point out, I pointed out last week too, the subject of this clause, or clause, right? From English, a clause has a subject and a verb, right, Monty? Okay, so the subject is a remnant, and the verb is, has come into being. So let's take the first part and get ready for the subject and verb here.

Okay, so then, or thus also, so he's going to make a conclusion here. He's going to make a conclusion based upon what he said before. At the present time, at Paul's present time, there exists a remnant. And so it's gonna give us the time frame, because he says there's been a remnant that's come into being. He's gonna make that, point that out.

So it's come into being at the present time, and the present time, as I mentioned before, is a time of Paul's day, and Paul's day, the church age started then, and the church age still continues into today, right? Okay so that's the present time and the word for time here is this kairos there's kronos which is like the tick tock time on your watch this is kronos which is a duration a definite period of season so he said this is a season present time is a season a period of time So Weiss says here, the time to which Paul has referenced was a strategic one, one marked out by the inclusion of the Gentiles together with the Jews in one body of Christ. So we see that the remnant, as best we can understand from scripture, is part of the body of Christ. But Paul says there's no difference between Jew and Gentile.

So there seems to be a tension there. So Mike and I are thinking about this. I'm gonna let Mike, I'm gonna defer to Mike to some future day for that. Anyway, but both are true. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile, but Israel is distinct as we'll see in this teaching here. Okay, so here comes the subject and the verb. The subject is, I'm not gonna try to pronounce it, but it's a verb.

It comes from the idea to leave. So it's basically the leftovers, right? Like after Turkey and Thanksgiving, you have the leftovers. Thus a remnant is that which is left. The word refers to the group in Israel which was left, so to speak, out of the general apostasy.

And then Macaulay says it's the believing few. And we kind of see that true both in Jew and Gentile. Think about today, right? Is there a believing majority? No, there's a believing few. So it's that idea, man is man, whether he's Jew or Gentile. He has a sin nature, and unfortunately only few believe.

Okay, so the remnant has come into being, and this is a word that Paul likes to use a lot, ginome, to come into a new state of being. It's a perfect tense, past completed action with abiding results. So you could say there was a remnant in the past that continues to be a remnant in the present and on into the future.

So we see that idea there's always been a remnant there always will be a remnant that's just a truth across the nation of Israel and the Gentiles as well you could say okay so now the next the cool part here here comes the kind of hidden the hidden gem I'll call it according to a selection of grace so you're going to see this this one Greek word translated about three different ways It's a word used for selection, or election, or choice. So here, now linear brings it across as according to a selection of grace. So this phrase is gonna tell us how this remnant came into being. How did God accomplish choosing this remnant? And it's according to Ketah. And Ketah has the idea of a normer standard. So then God's normer standard in this case was a selection of grace. Okay, and now we're gonna try to define that here. Selection is the word eclogai, eclogai, something like that, and hopefully that's close. It's a picking out, a choosing.

And the King James is the only version, I didn't do an exhaustive look at all this, but it's the only version I found easily that uses the word election. And most of the commentators talk in that domain, and I kind of like that too, so I kind of, I switched over to election here, so you'll see that as we go through this.

Okay, so I'm gonna have like three statements here, and most of them come from Merriman, about, so let's try to wrap our heads around what does election of grace mean? So grace is on the basis of selection or election. That's one way you could look at it.

Election is of grace. It's election that looks to grace. So three ways of saying approximately the same thing, but different words, so you have, Grace is the basis of election. Election is of grace. It's election that looks to grace. So grace and election, there's not a conflict between that.

And in some ways we think there is because it sounds like, well if God chooses, how can He just be gracious? But He can be gracious and elect us too. That's what he's saying. Okay? We'll keep going here. A few more thoughts on the election of grace. So here's a verse that adds another little wrinkle to God's dealings with man.

And Peter says, this is the beginning of Peter's book, 1 Peter, he says, and the King James Version, he says in the A part of that, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit. So it's elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. So that kind of says, so both grace and foreknowledge are involved in God's election of man. Both grace and foreknowledge are involved in his election in the remnant and also in every believer. Every believer is elect. And we all kind of, I'll tell you a personal struggle here in just a second about that. So here's some statements we can make based upon that.

Foreknowledge, and this is from Merriman, anticipates grace, you can look at it that way. knowledge knows the ones that will respond to God through faith and this hurts our head a bit so God knows who's gonna come to faith in Him. But the thing is, Scripture never says that God's foreknowledge forces a one to believe. He never says that. In fact, He says exactly the opposite of that.

He says, whosoever will may come. I'm not willing that any should, we just had the song, right? Whosoever will may come. That's absolutely true. That's the way every unbeliever would look at every unbeliever. My struggle is I have many unbelieving relatives.

It goes to my head, well, maybe they're not elect. I say, Roger, wait a minute. You're not looking at the Bible. The Bible says you don't worry about that election. That's my next point. Once a person believes the Bible is him, then he's elect. So how do we put that all together? I have another chart that hopefully adds a little more to that. But that's the mystery of God. That's just a mystery.

In eternity we'll understand it better. But God says, don't worry about election until you're a believer. Don't even go there. Don't worry about your relatives. Whosoever will may come. He's not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance. That's your mindset for every unbeliever, every family member you want to know Christ.

Okay. So now, he's gonna, verse six is gonna kind of be a, it's an adjunct to five, it's gonna kind of amplify some things, but it has a bunch of pronouns. You know, my funny, I said pronouns, pronouns are in the news a lot, or in the news a lot. I said, pronouns, oh my goodness, what a disaster we've made of pronouns. This is godly pronouns. None of that garbage pronouns you hear all over the place. I gotta think of a pronoun for myself today. Actually, along that line, this is totally off the subject, I said, pronouns, let me look at Genesis. So I go through Genesis, look in Genesis 27, Moses uses two pronouns, him and him. And him and something, I wrote it down. I actually didn't write it down. Down here, I didn't write it down.

But anyway, a couple of pronouns. And it refers back to male and female. Yes, those pronouns are correct. These other pronouns that people come up with are garbage. Anyway, so that's a side note. Okay, let's, pronouns are important. So now in verse six, Paul's going to elaborate on this selection or election of grace. Okay, but it is, He says, but, I'm sorry, but it is by grace.

So actually, you know what, they're not in the original. They've been supplied by the translator. But I think that, you know, they're trying to help us. They're trying to get us focused. So what is the, the is is pretty important. That's just a verb. They've added a verb, which is pretty common.

But what is it about? What is it referring to? So from the context, I believe, well, from the context, it's a selection of grace. or election of grace. So an election of grace is gracious. That's what that verse says, right? So if you put the words in there. So God's election is always by grace. Then it goes on to the next part, the B part.

Again, election of grace is no longer, and this is an adverb meaning no further, no more. and it's ek out of a source of so you put that together you could say election God's election is no longer out of work as a source so he's he that verse is telling us man is not to work you know he tells us over it man's not to work for his salvation that's not what salvation is about And here's some more, here's a verse that kind of speaks to that.

Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. By keeping even the Mosaic law, you cannot be justified. And the C part of this, otherwise, grace is no longer grace. And is, is ginome again? To become, come into a new state of being. Literally, grace has become Grace has become no longer grace, is literally what that's saying. And this is a couple of comments by Macaulay here, not Macaulay, I think it's Merriman.

If you mix grace and works, then grace is destroyed. Works is the destroyer of grace. If blessing is received on the basis of works, forget about grace. Okay, now this last chart, I have one more thing to say about this election of grace. And this is a chart that was in one of his books that Mike and I have from Merriman. And this is really good. The title of this page or section of his book here, he says, the two, grace and works, are incompatible and irreconcilable.

Okay, so let's start off. So we have two definitions to start off with. We're not going to use the Holly Hills approved definition. We're going to use Merriman's definition. I said this last week. And this is to point out that there's a difference between works and grace.

Under this definition, God acts sovereignly and compatibly with His essence, who He is, His holy and righteous character, without the merits of mankind in view. He doesn't look to mankind. He looks to Himself. This is God acting within Himself, His holy character. That's what His grace is about. Works, on the other hand, is man seeking blessing from God on the basis of human merit. Man is saying, I'm going to do something that's going to please you, God. And that's foolish.

And I think sometimes, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we say, well, I did this little thing. I feel pretty good because I'm sure God likes that. And that's okay. I guess it's okay. And I'm not saying that a particular work that you feel the Lord is guiding you is wrong.

I'm just saying that sometimes Maybe we do kind of silly little things saying, if I do this, I'm going to get extra blessing. Well, we're already blessed, right? We know that we're already blessed with all we can have. I think just remembering that is sufficient. Enough commentary on that.

Okay, so now this is, he calls this salvation, election, logic. I mentioned last week, if you ever took logic in school, maybe you never even heard about it in school, it's a math course. A plus B equals C and blah, blah, blah, you go on and get totally confused. You can prove black equals white if you keep going, right? Anyway, here we go.

First statement from verse 6, we just studied this. Election is compatible with grace, not works. We just went through several verses about that. Election is compatible with grace. Back in chapter four we saw faith is compatible with grace. Now check me out, make sure I'm right about that.

Faith is compatible with grace, not works. Therefore, faith is compatible with election. Faith is not a work. And that's where you're not working by exercising faith in the Lord Jesus, that's not a work. Faith is a non-meritorious response to God's grace. And this is interesting. This is from Merriman again. God desires or expects a faith response by human beings to his gospel message.

He's given out his gospel message about his son. My son died on the cross. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. That's the message that man needs to hear to come to faith in the Lord Jesus. That's what saves a person. When a person responds by faith to that, He's saved. He becomes a believer. So that's what God's about. He's not about any works, any good things we might do. And you know, there are good works for a believer to do, but that's after salvation. Okay, so now, today's verses.

The word hardening is going to be key in these passages here. So actually rather than reading all these, I'm just going to, so hardening is the key idea of all this and we're going to see, the first part kind of is going to define what hardening is and then the last part, 8, 9, 10 are going to show how God reluctantly I'll say, and we actually saw it in Micah this morning, God reluctantly hardens Israel. He doesn't do it, you know, It's amazing. We see it in Micah, we see it now, Paul's referring to it. He's hardening Israel, only because they didn't respond. He was very patient, beyond patient, and they didn't respond, so he hardened them.

We'll see about that. Okay, so let's get into it here. What then, or what shall we say, what shall we conclude? So Paul's used this expression before. It's kind of the same pattern. You have like two questions and then the result. He asks the first question, what then? And then he asks another question. He doesn't really answer that question by the second question. Then he makes a statement.

So the one example from back in Romans chapter six, what then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? May it never be. Now in our case, what then shall we conclude? What is Israel seeking? So that's his second, one question followed by another question. And he doesn't really answer the question. He goes off and he says something else. What is Israel seeking?

So this is present tense. It's the idea of continuous action. So you could say, Israel is continually seeking, they're continually seeking this. Their whole history, they're continually seeking this by what they're doing. So Paul's going to explain what the seeking's about. Actually, he's not going to explain that. He's going to make a statement.

They were seeking and here's where the pronouns got kind of hard to handle here. In the New American Standard it has, it has not been obtained, but in the original, the least has it as the original has it, it has actually two pronouns, this it, this it did not obtain. And it's important to know what the pronouns are replacing, right?

So the this, I believe, is in this context, I have some verses to back it up, the context is God's righteousness, and the it is Israel. And they want to obtain Israel, so let's just go to the bottom line here. So God's righteousness Israel did not obtain. So that's where he asks two questions. What then? What is Israel seeking? Then he makes a statement. God's righteousness Israel did not obtain. They were seeking it, but by the wrong means. And we have, you know, there are many, many verses, as I pointed out, there are many, many passages that talk about Israel seeking God's righteousness.

And that Romans 3.20 says, I thought I wrote it down here. Yeah, it says, by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. So God, they, Israel was constantly trying to justify themselves by the works of the law. So here's a comment by Constable, and he makes an observation here that this verse, this verse seven, if you go back to 10, Romans 10, you'll see a connection.

For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. So Israel, what were they seeking? They were seeking God's righteousness, a good motive, a good focus, but they didn't focus it on God, on what he wanted. He wanted a response, and we're gonna see what response he wanted here very shortly.

But the elect obtained it. Again, another pronoun, God's righteousness in context. So we have, they were seeking God's righteousness, they did not obtain it, then he says, but the elect obtained it. So here's, remember we just went through election. Don't get me saying, oh, wait a minute, Roger, now you got these elect people and they're being elected. What about the people who didn't elect it? Well, kind of a bad story for them. Same word, to pick out, to choose, same as verse five we just studied. So God's elect did not obtain I'm sorry, I read that wrong. So God's elect did obtain his righteousness. That's the good news. So let's just talk about this a little bit again.

So we know from earlier in Romans, how did Abraham, you know, how did Abraham come to faith? Did he follow some rules? Did he do something like follow, you know? It says, for the promise to Abraham was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The righteousness comes by faith, trusting in what Christ has done. Again, election is compatible with faith.

And the rest were hardened. So the ones that were not elect were hardened. The rest of the remaining Israelites were hardened as the idea to make hard, callous, It's a one man's, it's man's heart. It's in the passive, passive voice. So the remaining Israelites receive God's action of hardening.

Not a very pretty picture. So let's, so I decided to look at, so I have a whole page here from Uist. So let's just kind of go through it. He talks about to harden. Uist on harden. Okay. So the Greek word we just saw for harden is purao. In the verse seven, we just studied here, it's not the same word, if you go way back to verse nine, maybe, how long that was, a long time ago, but that's a different word, and that word, back there in 918, was a picture of hardening, whereas this word is a little more intense, it's a little more, it's a hardening that results in the hardness rendering the person more difficult to get through to or reach from then on. It is so a callous builds up over the Israelites that made them less sensitive to God.

So now we go back to Pharaoh. He's kind of our gold standard for hardening, right? Mike went through it many times. We look back to Pharaoh, we say, how did God harden Pharaoh? We kind of get some ideas. So we says here, then God hardened Pharaoh's heart by forcing him to an issue which he did not want to meet.

He didn't want to let the people go. He didn't want to let them go. He was trying everything not to let them go. The more God demanded that he let Israel go, the more Pharaoh rebelled. And there was a sage there, right? Pharaoh was hardening his heart and then eventually at a point in time God started hardening Pharaoh's heart. The more he rebelled the harder his heart became.

So with Israel, Israel rejected his word, God's word, and the more it did so the harder his heart became. light-rejected blinds. And that's kind of a concept we'll see in different parts of Scripture and we'll see a lot in the Old Testament where God reveals something to Israel and then eventually over time they go on and on and on and on and they become blind to that and that's what happens in hardening unfortunately. Okay, so now So this section really is 8, 9, and 10 are the results of hardening. And it's not a really very pretty picture. It's kind of the nitty gritty, if you will, or the details of how He hardened a person, how He hardened the Israelites.

So just as it is written, perfect passive, so it was written in the past, into the present, on into the future. It's permanent. God gave. God is the cause of what's happening here. He's the cause of this hardening. He gave them this idea of the spirit of stupor. Not a pretty picture, and he's gonna give us the details of what does that spirit of stupor look like? First of all, the definition. It signifies a dulling of spiritual senses. God gave them a stupor because they failed to respond to the numerous blessings he bestowed on them. So here are the details. So now we have the details that describe this spirit of stupor. Eyes to see not, ears to hear not, down to this very day.

So this is a quotation from Deuteronomy 29.4 and Isaiah 29.10.

So Deuteronomy 29.4 says, Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

And then Isaiah 29.10 For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut the eyes of you, the prophets. He has covered the heads of you, seers.

So it's interesting how, and we notice this even in Micah, we're studying Micah. Micah will back up what he says by quoting other parts of scripture. And Paul does, that's a pattern almost throughout the whole Bible. Paul will quote other scriptures. God's word is eternal. So if God has said something in the past, that can be used, and people do use it. Prophets use it, Micah uses it as a prophet, Paul uses it, and we can use it too. We use God's word to justify understanding of other parts of his words.

That's what he's doing here. Okay, nine, I'm gonna get down to nine. Now this introduces an interesting thing I hadn't actually noticed that much before. So it says, David says, and what he says is nine and 10, I believe. So this quotation from David is in Psalm 69, 22, evidently refers to a table at which the Israelites were privileged to eat with Jehovah.

So let's just go to this chart, and I'm going to make a comment about this. So, let their table, and the reason the word let is there, that kind of brings across it's a command. With a let wasn't there, it wouldn't be a command. With a let there, it's a command. So he's commanding them. So table's the subject. Let it become, let it become, and it's gonna become a bad thing. It's gonna become a judgment, if you will.

For the table of the Israelites was connected by Jehovah with himself. Certain things Israelites could eat, could not eat, because the Israelites were a holy nation under Jehovah. So this idea of a table, I hadn't actually noticed this before, so I went and I did a little search. I only have like, there's probably maybe a hundred or so in Scripture. Here's like a page or so you can look through.

This idea of the table with the Lord. We know that we have the Lord's table, right? Every month we celebrate the Lord's table. And that's where we remember that He died on the cross for us and is buried. And we remember His death. But there's other aspects to the table that throughout the Old Testament it was a way of communion with God.

God told them about their diets, all kinds of things. The table is a much bigger concept than I realized before. And what He's going to do is God's going to judge them by making this table a problem in their life. It was a blessing to them having this interchange with God, but now it's become a judgment on them. Okay, so here's what's going to happen. So now Israelite's table becomes as follows.

A snare, this is the idea of a noose, a snare which a bird is entangled with. It refers to bringing peril or loss or destruction. That could be a trap, refers to a trap. Use in hunting of wild beasts to destroy them or preparing destruction for men. And actually, here's 69.22, I want to put that up at two. That's where these came from, a lot of these.

May their table, so he's kind of reapplying that verse in the context there to apply something he was judging Israel about then, Psalm 69.22. May their table before them become a snare, and when they are in peace, may it become a trap. Okay, then we go on. There's not only a snare, a trap, now it's a stumbling block. That's something that hinders you or causes you to fall by the way.

Then lastly, a retribution. The present condition of the Jewish nation is retaliatory effect of their transgression because that which was designed for a blessing, their table, has become a means of judgment. So God takes this wonderful relationship on a table with the Lord. He says, my table, and this list of so many I have here, they have the idea of my table, the Lord's table, David's table, the table of the Lord, they are all this intimate relationship. He takes that and He judges that and so they wind up with a snare, a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution.

And then verse 10, Let be darkened the eyes of them, not to see, and their backs of them continually let bend. So more about his judgment. So the eyes of them, let them be darkened not to see. And the idea is to be deprived of light, to make dark. It's of the mind, your mind becomes foggy, you can't understand things. And it comes from Psalm 69, 23a. May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see. And then the B part of this, and the back of them continually bend. So this is the idea, to bend together as of captives, who backs are bent over with burdens. And that comes from the B part of the verse. And may their loins be shaked continually.

Not exactly a match, but anyway, so this is God's judgment. This is the details of how he hardened the nation of Israel. So now I have a hopefully a upbeat final thought here. Even though as a whole Israel had the repeated fruits of her own stubbornness, even though as a whole Israel had repeated the fruits of her own stubbornness, rebellion against God, God called a remnant within the nation for salvation. The presence of his remnant shows that God has not cast his own chosen people completely, cast out, or been unfaithful to his promise. So pretty, not real uplifting thoughts, but God's a holy and righteous God, and this is the judgment that he brought on the nation of Israel, the ones that were not elected. Hard to take.

Okay, so let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in your Savior, Lord. We thank you that you're a holy and righteous God, and that your hardening was not inconsistent with who you are, but it shows that you're a holy God and you must judge sin. And we're thankful that we know you as Savior and we can trust you, and that you'll never leave us or forsake us. Thank you that we can trust you every moment of every day. In Christ's name.