God s Restoration of Israel: Part 1 Romans 11:1-15 (NKJV)

God s Restoration of Israel: Part 1 Romans 11:1-15 (NKJV) Division 1 (Chapters 1-8) - the principles of salvation Division 2 (Chapters 9-11) - the problems with salvation: Chapter 9 - the rejection of Israel Chapter 10 - the reception of the Gentiles Chapter 11 - the restoration of Israel Division 3 (Chapters 12-16) - the practice of salvation Last week, we looked at the how the rejection of Israel opened the door to a work among the Gentiles. In the next two weeks we will answer the following questions: what is the future of Israel? Is there a plan for Israel in the future? Or has God cast them away because of unbelief, never to work with them again? Notice Paul anticipates this question Vs. 1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul s question here is what he intends the Jewish reader to be asking. If Israel s rejection of the Gospel is consistent with God s eternal plan, and also connected with Israel s own choosing, then does this mean the fate of Israel is settled? Paul would say, Certainly not! Despite their present state, Israel is not permanently cast away they might be missing out presently, but God is still working on them and will one day do a great work once again with them. And then Paul gives some evidence he will actually give 5 witnesses in this chapter. We will look at three today 1. Paul s life is a picture presently and prophetically God isn t through with the Israelites. Paul is saying, Look at me I am saved and I am Jewish, from the tribe of Benjamin Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 1

He is saying, If God was through with the Israelites, then I would not be saved. The evidence that He is not through is my present salvation. Whenever someone asks us for evidence of God s work, we should be able to point to our own lives first our changed lives are one of the greatest evidences of God s grace. Paul s life was a living example that God was still reaching out to the Jewish people. Just as our lives are an example that He is reaching out to the Gentiles, Paul could say However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. 1 Timothy 1:16 (NKJV) In other words, if you think that Christ won t forgive you, then look at my life and you ll find evidence that He can. Paul went from being a persecutor of the Gospel to a preacher of the Gospel. Paul s changed life presently was an example to anyone that might think that God was not working among the Jewish people, that He had cast them away. Paul was also an example prophetically. Not only was Paul s life an example presently of how the Lord was working in the believing Jewish community, but the way that the Lord saved Paul is an example prophetically of how the Lord will one day save the Jewish community. In Acts 9, when Paul was on the way to Damascus, continuing in his persecution of the church, he had an audible and tangible experience with Jesus Christ. We read that his eyes were opened to who he was persecuting, that he was persecuting Jesus, whom he was really at war with it was Jesus. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, supernaturally, and he would repent of his sin. Remember what he said after Jesus revealed Himself he said, Lord, what do You want me to do? Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 2

At that moment he was converted. So too, at the time when persecution will come against Israel during the Great Tribulation, suddenly the Lord will appear, and like Paul, they will realize they were wrong that they were off when it came to their Messiah. In Zechariah 13, we are told that Israel, as a nation, will turn to Him and be saved. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. Zechariah 12:10 & 13:1 (NKJV) And when they see Jesus they will ask And one will say to him, What are these wounds between your arms? Then he will answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friend. I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, This is My people ; and each one will say, The Lord is my God. Zechariah 13:6 & 9 (NKJV) There will come a day when the nation of Israel will see Him as their Messiah and repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ. The One they wounded will save them from their sins, just as it was for the Apostle Paul. He was wounding not just the Body of Christ but ultimately, he was wounding Christ Himself. And then he was apprehended by Jesus he had an audible and tangible experience with Jesus and his eyes were opened. In other words, Paul is not only saying that I am an example for the Jew who would believe today, but I am also an example for future Israel. Paul s conversion was simply a shadow of what was to come to Israel prophetically. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 3

So to answer the question, Is God through with Israel, the answer is certainly not! Paul was saying, Just look at my life currently and prophetically as an illustration of what God can do and what God will do. And then he uses another illustration, he points to Elijah the prophet... Vs. 2-5 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life? But what does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 2. Elijah the prophet is a picture historically Just as God has always worked in times past, Paul points to Elijah as an example. After Elijah had defeated and taken out the prophets of Baal, a woman by the name of Jezebel wants to take his life. So he flees into the wilderness and it was there he prayed against his own people. Elijah basically says, Lord, they have killed Your prophets, torn down Your altars, and now they want to kill me and I am all alone I am the only one left! I bet Paul probably felt a kinship with Elijah. That s exactly what many of the Jewish people wanted to do with Paul. But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him; and now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you. Acts 23:21 (NKJV) Paul knew what it was like to have his own people want him dead, to feel all alone. Elijah thought that he was all alone and that the nation of Israel had been cast off by the Lord. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 4

But what was God s answer to him? There were 7,000 men that had not bowed to Baal! What would that be like 7,000 men in our fellowship that had not bowed the knee to the temporal kingdom, but instead were living for the eternal kingdom? I have told our men s pastor that when I pray for our men, I believe that God has given me a vision that one day we will have a men s ministry of 1,000 men. I totally believe that God is going to bring that to pass, that we will see 1,000 men not just attending men s ministry, but 1,000 men who are surrendering their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, that are standing in the Lord, standing up for the Lord, that are not bowing down to the riches or the cares of this world, but as Pastor Scott would say, they are all in. Men, that starts with you, right here, right now. And as you set the pace, it will draw your sons who will one day be adults, and then your grandsons who will one day follow after the Lord. Think about how powerful that would be! You see, when the men of the home are seeking and serving Jesus, most often, the family follows. And we also see it makes its way into the place we work, and into the community that we live in. Imagine, 1,000 men in this valley seeking and serving Jesus. I might even have my number off; maybe it s too small it could be 7,000 I have been off before! Now 7,000 would be a large group of men in our fellowship, but 7,000 men in all the nation of Israel was not all that large. This is a reminder that God doesn t need a large group of people to do a great work often it starts with a small group of committed believers. God often works through a small group. Look back at the early church. The Gospel message was given by one man, Peter, and 3,000 people came to faith and the number continued to grow daily. Look at Phillip, making his way to Samaria, many gave their lives to Christ; so many that it was said that the whole city was full of joy. When the unbelieving community looked Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 5

in at the work of the Gospel through the disciples, they said, This is that group of men that is turning the world upside down! I was listening to an interview of one of the two brothers, Stephen and Alex Kendrick, the producers and directors of Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and their latest movie, Courageous. It began with a vision these two brothers and their local church had. It started with the first movie, Flywheel, as an outreach for Easter. It never made the box office but they ended up selling over 500,000 DVDs, all on a $20,000 budget. Then came Facing the Giants with a budget of $100,000 and they had over 10 million people watch it in the box office. Fireproof followed with a budget of $500,000 and 33 million attended the box office. Their most recent movie, Courageous, had a $2 million budget and 33 million attended the box office. It all started with two brothers and a church that had a vision to reach people for Easter and then it turned into reaching the world with their message. Elijah saw God work in a powerful way in his generation, not because of numbers, but because of God s grace. God can use small groups of people to do great things. It s a great reminder of how God is more interested in our availability rather than our ability. Remember what Jesus said to the disciples, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. What was the key to becoming a fisher of men? One thing the willingness to follow. Jesus would do the training, the empowering, the gifting, but He would do that in the hearts of the willing. Paul is reminding the Jewish people that there has always been a remnant of believing Jews, and notice the remnant are not saved because they keep the law, but because of grace. Vs. 6-10 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 6

Just as it is written: God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day. And David says: Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always. Paul pointed out in verse 5 that the remnant was chosen according to the election of grace. If it s based on grace then it can t be on works, and if it s based on works then it can t be grace it can t be both. Grace, by definition, is a free gift and something to be received, not worked for or earned. Have you ever had someone do something for you, or gift you with something that was so amazing, it brought you to tears? If you tried to pay them back or tried to even throw a little bit of money towards it, it would be insulting, or it would ruin the whole gift of grace. And so you just had to stand back and be blessed by the grace just receive it. If it s worked for, then it s no longer grace. It moves into the realm of performance of the one receiving it, not the kindness of the one giving it. Paul points out that it was the elect that received and the rest were rejected because of the hardness of their hearts. The Lord knew that they would receive and thus, based on His foreknowledge, He elected them. Those who would reject, He knew that they would harden their hearts, and so He allows for a spirit of stupor to fall on them. What s a spirit of stupor? an attitude of deadness towards spiritual things. Morris They had a heart to reject, they had a heart to rebel, so God allows for a spirit of stupor, an attitude of deadness towards spiritual things to fall upon them. Those who wanted to know Him and embrace His plan of grace received, and those who hardened and rebelled, He allowed them to stay in the effects of their decision. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 7

It s no different than what you see when the children of Israel rebelled and did not want to go into the Promised Land. They kept saying, The Lord brought us here to die, which was not His heart for them, but eventually they had said it so much that He gave them what they asked for they wanted the wilderness, so He gave them the wilderness. It wasn t until that generation left the scene that the new generation would inherit the Promised Land by faith. They received the gift of grace by faith when the generation before them decided to reject the gift of grace; thus, they lost out. It s what Paul pointed out in chapter 9 with pharaoh his heart was hardened because he resisted the truth. Vs. 11-15 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 3. God s working with the Gentiles currently One of the three ways that God shows He s working with Israel is by working with the Gentile people currently. Israel s stumbling over the Messiah, stumbling over the grace of God, has opened up a door for God to work among the Gentiles. It was always His plan, as we read in Romans 9 As He says also in Hosea: I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. Romans 9:25-26 (NKJV) It may have always been His plan but Israel did not see it. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 8

The plan of God in reaching out to the Gentiles, in part, is that it might stir in the hearts of the Jewish community a jealousy. It might, as verse 14 says, provoke them to jealousy. That s why Paul says in verse 13, I magnify my ministry, because he knew that his ministry to the Gentile people not only would affect Gentiles, but it would also stir in the Jewish people a jealousy. Let me ask you, it s a good question to ask ourselves, if a Jew were to look in at your life, what would they see? What would any non-believer see? Would they see enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Would they see you not working for God s favor, but working because of God s favor, would they see performance out of guilt and pressure, or would they see you serving because of the joy that you have in knowing you re saved? Whether it s a non-believing Jew who is working for salvation or a non-believing Gentile who has no idea of salvation, it s the same. God wants for you and I to be the fragrance of Christ and that fragrance is grace. And we do so until He returns. Verse 25 says, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, until the Lord is satisfied that those who are going to receive have done so. Let s commit ourselves to sharing the Gospel until that door closes. Copyright 2012 Chris Fraley 9