The Return of Israel After Temporary Rejection #1
Romans 11:25-27 · Mike Doyle · Jan 12, 2025
Romans (2022-25), No. 106
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261937586078

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay. You know, when you study verses like we're studying, like Romans 9, 10, and 11, especially chapter 11, you kind of go through it, and you have a couple of verses, and you expand it, and by the time you get to maybe the third or fourth time you're teaching some of the verses, you can finally see the whole picture. I marvel that John Darby used to say that he really wasn't good at a sermon until he had spoken it 45 times. I thought, boy, I'll never get that. But anyway, I finally this week saw what Paul was really talking about in 11. So your handouts are going to talk about that, and I'm going to go through that fairly quickly before we get to the So he raises a question in verse one, and this is really what the whole chapter is about.

Has God rejected his people permanently? Has he done that? Answer, no, he hasn't. And the next 28 verses have to do with that one question. Has God rejected his people? So as he permanently casts away Israel, Answered no and what first first response was because I Paul I'm a saved Israelite so I'm proof that he hasn't done it and Then he in question in verses 2 through 4. He says God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew has he and What's the response to him? which was was But he has reserved 7,000 men who have not bowed their knee to Baal.

Because in the Old Testament, there was a believing remnant. And he told Elijah, who was complaining about the fact that he was the only one left, the Lord said to him, no, there are 7,000 others that belong to me. And then in verse five it says, and there has come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. There's a remnant right now, Paul says, right now there's a remnant of believing Jews, and he illustrates it. Seven to 10, what then, that which Israel was seeking for was not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened. So the answer to the question is still no. Unbelieving Israel is only temporarily hardened or set aside. It's temporary.

And then 11, so did they stumble as so to fall? In other words, did they trip? Did they fall down and they're never gonna get up again? The answer, absolutely not, may never be. Their transgression opened the door to salvation for the Gentiles. And now if the transgression for the riches of the world and their failure be riches to the Gentiles, how much more would their fulfillment be? So the answer is no, because Israel has a fullness that's coming.

See that? So, last set. We'll say then some branches were broken off. Yeah, they were broken off of the olive tree. But the branches were broken off while you Gentile believers were grafted in. So the root of the tree of blessing never went away. We just got grafted in along with the Jews. So, and then it says in verse 23, and they also, meaning the Jews, if they do not continue in their unbelief, if they begin to believe, they'll be grafted in, for God's able to do that for them again. God is able to regraft them into their own root.

Verse 25, he says, for I don't want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery. lest ye be wise in your own estimation, and we'll expand on this verse later, that a partial, partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. So answer again, no, Israel's hardness is temporal. It will end when the fullness of the Gentiles is complete. Now, Why did I go through all that trouble to say no ten times?

I think it's a really important point today because reformed thinking says that God is totally through with Israel and has permanently rejected them and they have been replaced by the church. That's the prevailing thought in Reformed theology. And these next few quotes are going to be from Reformed theologians.

They say the book of Revelation is not about the second coming of Christ. It's about the destruction of Israel and Christ's victory over his enemies and the establishment of a new covenant temple, which means that the cross, in fact, we shall see the word coming, but never refers to the second coming of Christ. Well, if you've read the book of Revelation, it's all about the second coming of Christ. Revelation prophecies are about the judgment of God on apostate Israel, and when it briefly points to events beyond Israel's immediate concern, it is a wrap-up to show the ungodly will never prevail between Christ and his kingdom or Christ and his church.

Even if you read the Olivet Discourse, they're gonna say it's not about the second coming of Christ, it's about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. They believe that the tribulation was the destruction of Israel in 70 A.D. and that we're in it still. The great tribulation took place in the fall of Jerusalem and Israel and it will not be replaced and thus there's no future event for Israel. Israel in contrast to the eventual retirement of the Holy Spirit in the church, ethnic Israel was excommunicated for its apostasy and will never again be God's kingdom. Thus the Bible does not tell of any future plans for Israel as a nation.

Now you hear a lot about kingdom these days, but the church is now the new nation, which is why Christ destroyed the church of the Jewish state. We're all working for, if you heard this, we're working for the kingdom. Well, the kingdom they say is the church, not Israel, because Israel's gone. In destroying Israel, Christ transferred the blessing from Israel to a new people, the church. The church is the kingdom and the kingdom is the church. So I don't know how they can say that other than spiritualizing who Israel really is.

So this is a prevailing view of Christendom. And this was adapted from a paper that Ron Merriman wrote. And so I quoted from his paper. He says, has the church replaced Israel in God's plan? Replacement theology, also known as supersessionism. I've never heard that term before. And my spell checker said, this isn't spelled right. Like, I've never seen it before. teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan.

Inherents of such most reformed theologians believe that Jews are no longer God's chosen people and that God has no specific future plans for the nation of Israel. Thus the prophecies in scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the promised land are spiritualized and allegorized into the promises of God's blessing to the church. Romans 9, 10, and 11 clearly teaches the opposite, which we've been studying the last several weeks.

The church is nowhere fair referred to therein. Israelites and Gentiles as people groups are referred to by name. They are not to be spiritualized. You know, we've talked the last couple of weeks about in Romans 11, the church is never referred to. It's either Jews or Gentiles. The understanding that Israel and the church are different is clearly taught throughout the New Testament. The terms church and Israel are never to be confused or used interchangeably. No, Replacement Theology is in direct conflict with the details of Romans 9, 10, and 11.

So that's the reason that I sort of took that side track. So, all that God commits to men seems to follow a downward course of declension. You ever notice that? It's true of Israel. It's declared even of Gentile authority, which began as gold and then went to iron and then went to clay feet.

It's true, likewise, of the professing church. Leaven, working in the pure meal, symbolizes the permeating power of certain forms of evil within the true church itself. Levin is universally the emblem of corruption, and it works subtly. And it means three things, really, I think. One, it goes towards formality. It certainly goes towards unbelief of the objective truth of God's word, and it invites worldliness into the church. The elect company of true believers is ever plagued with a tendency for formality, unbelief, and worldliness. That's true. You see it everywhere.

So verse 24 says, for if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more Will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? Who are the these? It's the Jews. The Gentiles are the wild olive branch grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree. Now, if this contrary to nature process has been accomplished by God, how much more? shall the natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

They will be. God's word has given express testimony to his purpose of recalling Israel in sovereign mercy after and in spite of all their sins, giving them in the end a thorough repentance. and using and turning their hearts towards their Messiah who they have for centuries rejected.

And it's important for us as members of the body of Christ to see that Paul in this chapter is not discussing church truth. He's not talking about church truth. We get hopelessly mired if we begin to think about that. Paul is not declaring here either the character calling, destiny, or present privilege and walk of the church, the assembly of God, the body of Christ, the present house of God, the bride for which the heavenly bridegroom is coming. It doesn't talk about any of these things.

Well the question in Romans 9, 10, 11 is one of reconciling God's special calling and promise of Israel, the earthly people, with the gospel which sets aside that distinction sets aside Israel's distinctive place for the present dispensation, where we live now, and places the Gentile in a place of direct divine blessing, once enjoyed by Israel the last two Sundays. That's really all we've talked about, that the Gentiles were put in a place of blessing that they never had before in all of their history.

So Gentile Christendom or I'm trying to think of organized church, has set up the Christian religion. And what has it done? It's settled down on the earth and has forgotten that it's heavenly. It's as if the church belonged here on the planet rather than in the heavenlies. And it's as if Christ might not come at any moment, because we're working on the kingdom here, which is, they say, the church. So if you fantasize in Christendom, like the church has continued in the grace and the goodness of God and giving his son to shed blood for sinners, just examining religious pronouncements in the media should change your mind. All you have to do is watch some of these Christian talking heads, and you'll see what I mean.

But God has taken care of his own testimony. He doesn't rely on the church to do it. He's taken care of it. And in doing so, and this is really interesting, we were talking about this this morning, in Sunday school. He does it by means of Bible conferences, Bible studies, small churches, gathering for prayer in private homes, more and more after the early church pattern. That's how he's doing it. That's how he's holding the truth in those that are called to be members of his body.

You have to disregard the false dreams that God is through with Israel forever because if you adopt that, premise, you make God a liar. So now since God had lodged the promises in Abraham and in his seed, which is Christ, Paul in all faithfulness must not only destroy the Jewish hopes based on natural descent, I'm not saved because my grandfather was a Jew, and refer all to God's sovereign grace, he must also tell us, us Gentiles, can you see? Oh good, something showed up here that isn't up there. He must also tell us Gentiles what the facts are. So what we must understand is that God did not make Israelites out of Gentiles.

He had a secret purpose and kept from the Jews for all ages until now. The giving of his son as a bride composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Believers who should be received as mere guilty sinners on purely a grace grounds, only by grace. and should have the highest calling of any creatures to be members of Christ himself, a thing never promised to Israel or never even talked about to Israel.

So Romans 9.11 is about the matter of sharing divine mercy and not of a Christian calling. So ask yourself a couple of questions. Did God once have a house on earth? Answer, yeah, he did. Where was it? It was in Jerusalem. Oops, he's doing it again. Our Lord at the beginning of his ministry called the temple my father's house.

And at the end of his ministry, he called it his house and finally said to the blind leaders of Israel, your house is left unto you desolate. So you have to ask yourself the next question, will God restore Israel's earthly house? Answer, he will, as we know, at Christ's coming back to earth. And we are told it will be at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. All you have to do is look at James prophecy in Acts 15, and he quotes from Amos 9, 11, and 12. But meanwhile, between the Lord's absence in heaven and his second coming, does he have a house on the earth? Answer, yes he does. Guess what? We're it. We're the house.

First Timothy 3.15 says, but in the case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church, of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. We're the house. Really cool to know that. And I don't need a building. The house of God is the church of the living God.

Here God, the Holy Spirit, dwells both in individual believers, Jews and Gentiles, and the gathering together of God's saints. He's right here, right now. One last question. Will the church or the assembly ever be connected with Israel? Answer, never, never. The father is now calling out Jews and Gentiles to be what? A bride for his son. And they are one new man, one new kind of a man in which there is no Jew or Gentile.

But where do these blessings originate from? Where did it all start? Guess where? It started with the promises to Abraham. That's where it started. Abraham was the root, and from the promise to him comes the fatness. And after the church has been taken to heaven, God will again bless Israel.

So 25, for I don't want you, brethren, to be uninformed of the mystery, lest you should be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in. We all know what a mystery is. It's just something God hadn't revealed up until this point. God had certain secrets, which he tells his saints, and of which they do not do well to be ignorant about. It's good to know what they are. So unfortunately, so many of us are ignorant of his mysteries. The times of the Gentiles must be distinguished from the fullness of the Gentiles. Understand the difference? The Bible talks about the times of the Gentiles, and over here it talks about the fullness of the Gentiles.

The first term refers to the time from probably Nebuchadnezzar's deportation of the dynasty of David to the defeat of the Antichrist at Armageddon during which the Gentile rules the Jew. Does the Gentile rule a Jew today? Sure they do. The Gentile world is in charge and has been since Nebuchadnezzar.

The second is, though, the second speaks of the completion of the body of Christ made up of Jews and Gentiles saved from Pentecost to the rapture. So what do we find? The hardening of Israel extends to the time when the last sinner elected to salvation from this age of grace by his introduction into the body of Christ, the last one in completes the body of Christ. What happens next? The rapture occurs.

I dare say that when the last saint comes in, the rapture will happen in a blink, because God will not tarry. And then the 70th week of Daniel comes in sometime after the rapture, which as a horrible time, and the second advent, and then the salvation of Israel.

There's a definite fullness of the Gentiles, the very number of which God knows to come in, and the word fullness, it's not spoken of as a privilege, but it's an election of grace. So all talk of Israel's national turning to the Lord until the Gentile fullness comes in is nonsense. It's not going to happen until the last human being comes into the body of Christ. The fearful days of Armageddon will have to come before Israel nationally turns to God and reads Zechariah 12 through 14. Israel's hardening is in part, for some, the remnant according to election of grace are now being saved. The national hardening is in view here. We see that now, how blind Jews are.

Verse 26, it says, then thus all Israel will be saved, all of them. Just as it is written, a deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. After this divinely revealed order, we read in verse 26, all Israel will be saved. This is the real elect spared nation of the future.

Those written in life, Daniel 12.1.

Isaiah 4.3 says, and it will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.

The salvation of national Israel is impossible except purely by grace, because the law system won't be what they'll do at that point. God has given them the law to reveal sin, but they really messed that up bad. Don't we all? And now comes the fullness of the Gentiles, the last one that goes in, but by grace, and so after that, and on the same grace line as were the Gentiles, all Israel will be saved by grace, not by adherence to the Mosaic system.

Most that earthly nation will perish under the divine judgment of the Antichrist and the Antichrist, but the remnant will be accounted as a generation. What I mean by that is that the Jewish nation that are in unbelief will be destroyed during during Armageddon and the week of Daniel, but in the end, there will be a remnant, and God will say, you, the remnant, are the real Israel, because you're the believers. Our Lord told his disciples that this present unbelieving generation of Israel would not pass away until all the terrible judgments he foretold about were to be fulfilled. But that generation, Israel after the flesh, will pass away, we know, and a believing generation will take their place.

Psalm 2230 reads, this shall be written for the generation to come, and a people which shall be created shall praise Jehovah. This is the real Israel of God on whom it is written, all Israel will be saved. Every one of those ones that come into the kingdom will be a believer and they will be saved. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

Three aspects here of this coming, Christ's second coming. First is the rapture of the church. The next one is the judgment of the nations. And the last one is the deliverance of Israel. The second phase is really what the Reformed people focus on and has been recognized through the centuries, almost to the exclusion of the first and the third aspect of the Lord's coming, judgment. But the creeds of Christendom have taught only one general judgment. There's more than one. And thus they are overlooked the two most essential things.

The first one is the relationship of Christ's coming to his church, real church, to take him out. And the third one, the relationship of his coming to the nation of Israel to elect, to the elect spared remnant of that nation, the real Israel. So now, the calling of the church and that of Israel are never to be confused in scripture. They're separate. Israel as a nation does not belong to heaven, but to the land which God has given them forever by a solemn covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The rapture or the catching away of the church up to Christ is a hope belonging to the church and not Israel. The third stage of our Lord's return is for the restoration of Israel to the divine favor connected with the new covenant and the national taking away of their sins.

It will no longer be a conditional covenant as Sinai was, but one of grace alone. It will not be according to the covenant that God made with their fathers. Blessing will not depend then on man's obedience. It will be sovereign mercy at last extended to the whole spared nation.

So, from the standpoint of the gospel, they are the enemies for your sake. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. Interesting verse. First thing is, as touching the gospel, they're enemies for your sake. They being the Jews who don't believe the gospel. So they're enemies. Second, as touching the election, they are beloved of the father.

And it's because of the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The attitude of God regarding Israel is determined by or with reference to the gospel and its rejection of it by Israel. In view of that rejection, he counts Israel as an enemy. The attitude of God towards Israel with reference to the elect remnant of that nation is that those whom he counts as enemies of his by reason of their rejection of the gospel, they're the blessed beloved ones. And for the sake of the fathers of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom he made an everlasting covenant, that's what makes them beloved.

And then the last verse, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Aren't we glad about that? For the gifts and the calling are not exchangeable by Him. Those words are a source of endless joy. I can't tell you how many Christians I've talked to over the years who think that they have changed God's gracious mind because they think they've sinned too much. and that God is angry with him. You can't change God's mind. You can't make him love you more than he already does, and you can't make him love you less than he already does, because he's the lover. We can trust a God who refuses to allow the utter failure of Israel, indeed the indolent wickedness and apostasy of Israel, to alter his determination of blessing them.

The gifts are such as are recited in chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. I think Roger covered those. The calling is that Israel is a holy nation unto God himself and he will see to it so not only in the coming kingdom but in the millennium. But in the new creation for as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall their seed and the name of Israel remain forever. So, in wrapping it up, I think what these verses have shown is the character of God, how he does things and how he doesn't change. And even though he gives us mysteries and shares them with us, they're not mysteries that caused him to change one iota. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And that's so heartwarming to us because we can trust him and we can depend on him to be faithful as close. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your person, that you are unchangeable, that you are a loving God, and that you have everything in absolute control based on your integrity. We thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.