WEBVTT 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:13.439 A lot of us have different postures when it comes to our relationship with Israel and our relationship with Jewish people, right? 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:19.039 We kind of read through the text, we might hear some little one-off verses or different things. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:25.039 Some of us are even wrapped up in this kind of inseparable reality of America and Israel. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:30.320 So even our politics and form, how we approach Israel and how we approach Jewish people. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:38.479 And then the kind of big question that Christians often ask at the end of the day is you know, what's going to happen to Jewish people? 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:51.200 And I think Paul does a very good job as uh as the spirit leading him to write uh uh inerrant text does to help us explain this and to help us navigate this. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:01:00.479 And so we're gonna dive right in because I said today's gonna be a little bit more teaching than preaching, and I'm trying to condense a lot of material into a short amount of time. 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:06.640 Uh so if we look at um the opening section of this text, uh here's what we have to understand. 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:14.879 In verses one through six, what Paul's trying to help us understand and see is this God doesn't reject his people. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:17.519 God does not reject his people. 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:18.959 We have to understand that clear. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:23.120 Uh, this is the rhetorical question that Paul is asking. 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.120 He's and he this is his writing style. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:44.480 He's gonna continuously write these rhetorical questions to help us understand how God uh is moving and working through redemptive history uh to bring the people who were not his people into a relationship and become his people and experience and receive the power of his salvation, right? 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:50.640 And so the question at the beginning that Paul's gonna start with is does God reject his people? 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.840 And the emphatic answer, by no means. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.200 This is the emphatic conclusion of that question. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:03.359 But the question begs us to wonder about some things, right? 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:20.240 So so here's Paul addressing these uh uh Jewish believers in Rome, at the church in Rome, and some Jewish non-believers uh in Christ, and he's addressing them, and he's been talking about how, you know, they they they searched for righteousness, but they did not find it. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:27.439 It was the elect, those who were not seeking the righteousness of God, who actually obtained it for themselves by grace through faith. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:40.319 But but we see this history, and he he actually magnifies this history of who the Jewish people are: the the beauty of God uh revealing himself to them, giving them his law and commandments, sending them prophets, all these different things, right? 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:48.960 But then there's this question of if not all of Israel will be saved, does that mean God rejects his people? 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.199 So here's some questions that that question begs for us to ponder. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.840 Does God truly accomplish his purposes in will? 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:04.960 Or does man's actions have an ability to thwart them? 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:11.280 Does God truly accomplish his purpose and will, or does man's actions have an ability to thwart them? 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:16.960 It also begs to wonder does God's plans and purposes change because of our sin? 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:27.360 Or does God have to settle for a lesser outcome due to man's inabilities and deficiencies? 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:33.680 In that short little statement, does God reject his people? 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.439 We really have to unpack it to ask some of these other questions. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:45.759 Is our God so powerful and sovereign that he accomplishes fully his purposes and will? 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:58.639 Or is at the end of time he having to settle for less because of our inabilities and deficiencies and our own sin nature? 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:05.520 And some, this is what the question is demanding an answer for. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:14.639 Has the people that God placed his steadfast love upon, chosen to be his own, and established by his grace, now being rejected? 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.240 And it's an emphatic by no means. 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.839 God does not reject his people. 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:25.279 God alone can be fully trusted. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:32.639 If there's anyone who is trustworthy in all of existence, it is God alone. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.720 He is trustworthy because his promises are yes and amen. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:45.439 The good pleasure of his will he accomplishes through his sovereign power, and his promises are ones we can stand upon. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:47.759 He alone is trustworthy. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:05:01.439 It is unthinkable to suggest, this is the Paul's emphatic answer by no means states this that it's unthinkable to suggest that he would choose a people and then turn around and reject them. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:03.360 Think about that. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:18.000 It is unthinkable for us to imagine a God who chooses a people, who calls them his own, and then because of their sin and shortcoming, he turns his back on them and rejects them. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:20.160 That's not the God that we serve. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:21.759 That's not the God of the Bible. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.399 That's not how he's revealed himself to be. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:26.720 And what would that do for us? 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:31.199 How many times do we in our relationship with God fear that very thing? 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:42.240 That because of your sin, because of your shortcomings, because of the things that you know you struggle with in your life, you fear God is going to turn his back on you and reject you. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:45.920 Don't act like you've never feared that if you're a Christian. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:49.600 If you have a pulse and you can think, right? 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:54.079 I think, therefore, I am in fear of such a thing. 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:59.040 Paul gives himself as an example of this reality. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.360 By no means will God reject his people. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:02.639 Do you want evidence of that? 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:05.759 Well, here Paul's gonna insert himself as evidence of that. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:07.600 He's an Israelite, he says. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:12.240 He's a blood descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:21.920 Yet Paul, in all of those things, has experienced and received the righteousness of God that comes by faith. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:25.439 He says, Do you want to see an evidence that God does not reject his people? 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:26.879 Just look at me. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:32.240 I'm an Israelite, I'm a descendant of Abraham, I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:34.480 God has not rejected. 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:53.040 Martin Luther, a pastor and theologian from the 1500s, the starter of the Reformation, suggests that Paul had so opposed the purposes of God to the point of even persecuting the church, that if any Israelite was to be rejected, it would have been him. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:59.920 The fact that Paul is a Christian is of great evidence that God has not rejected his people. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:10.879 Faced with this rhetorical question and its emphatic answer, we're then left to ask the question, who is God's people then? 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:11.519 Right? 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:20.560 If God has not rejected his people, that he is faithful to his promises, well then who is God's people? 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:28.720 Because Paul has said here and in previous chapters that not all of Israel is going to experience the salvation of the Lord. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:33.360 Israel, as we understand, a nation and a geopolitical people group. 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:46.879 If God's promises are yes and amen, if his purposes do not change, if his steadfast love endures, then who are the people that he has placed those things upon? 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.160 Paul says it's the people that he foreknew. 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.600 Let's head back to Romans 8 for just a moment. 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:57.199 Um Paul helped us walk through this a little bit already. 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:08.079 In Romans 8, 28 through 30, he says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:11.519 For those who are called according to his purpose. 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:13.040 That's key. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:22.240 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:30.399 And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.399 This text has some key structural parts to it that we need to navigate. 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:40.399 The first part, it says, uh, those who love God, all things work together for their good. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:47.600 So there's a qualifier for all things working together for good, and that it's those who love God, right? 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:55.759 So those who have affection for him, who are in relationship with him, those are the ones whom all things work together for their good. 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:03.759 Then it says, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:07.600 This is where we're getting this language of God's purposes. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:09.759 What is his plan of salvation? 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:11.600 What is his redemptive work? 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.440 Ultimately, what is his purpose in creation? 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.080 Part of that is to call a people unto himself. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:28.559 It's his glorious and sovereign purpose of salvation, the redemption of the cosmos. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:48.000 At sacred mission, this is something that we believe emphatically that we are entering into God's story of redemption, that we are joyful participants in what God is doing, but not just in us personally, not just in our community here in the Westchester Mason area, but what he's doing in the cosmos. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:56.240 All that we know and see and experience will be destroyed and made new as the new heavens and new earth are established. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:07.120 That way, God is restoring all things through this redemptive plan of salvation that we, as these little image bearers, get to joyfully participate in. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:09.120 This isn't our mission. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:10.879 This is God's mission. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:18.000 We are simply entering into it because he's effectively called us to be participants of it. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:32.159 You see, what purposes, what purposes his glorious and sovereign purpose of salvation, all beginning with this those whom he foreknew. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:46.480 When he starts what we call this golden chain of salvation in Romans 8, or the ordos salutis for the theological geeks, uh, this, what he's saying is that all of this started with those whom he foreknew. 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.120 It's those whom he intimately knew. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.000 It's the same language as Adam knew Eve. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:11:00.799 It's this intimacy of oneness that is experienced between him and his elect, and those whom he foreknew, he then predestined. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:02.320 Those whom he predestined, he called. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.480 Those whom he called, he justified. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:13.200 It's the foreknowledge of God that sets into trajectory his purpose of salvation. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:25.919 And understand this it's not the foreknowledge of action, whether it's belief or unbelief of the individual that determines his saving work. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.879 It's the foreknowledge of personhood. 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:33.759 It's those whom he determined to place his steadfast love upon. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:42.720 God was not swayed by looking into the corridor of time and wondering or understanding or seeing whether we would choose him or not. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:48.879 That's not what his foreknowledge is based upon, nor his cause of predestining us. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:52.000 But it's personhood. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:12:02.000 God, whomever he freely chooses to place his steadfast love upon, will for eternity experience the blessings of that steadfast love. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:08.159 Let's look at Psalm 139, verse 16. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:13.279 The psalmist David writes, Your eyes saw my unformed substance. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:21.039 In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:25.440 Look at the intimacy David is talking about between him and God. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.759 You knew me before I was formed. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.679 You wrote out my days before there was one even experienced in my life. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:40.399 The sovereignty of God that's communicated there, but the intimacy of God to David, that's written there also. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.360 We have to see and appreciate. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:57.440 In Isaiah 46, 10, Isaiah declares this, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.639 This is God declaring this through the prophet Isaiah. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:23.279 Those whom God foreknew, he also set forth his election, his promises, his steadfast love, his mercy, his grace, the blood of his son, the indwelling of his spirit, because God doesn't reject his people. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.480 You and I can be comforted in this reality. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:31.120 We can find joy in this. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:36.399 God will not reject those of whom he has placed his steadfast love upon. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:37.519 It's not possible. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:52.720 There's no amount of failing or sin or rebellion or stiff-neckedness that you can do that will ever cause God to remove that which he's placed upon you sovereignly before you even lived a day of your life. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:59.200 Paul then illustrates this through a story of Elijah. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:17.759 So we we're not gonna read two chapters of the Bible now, but I'll kind of summarize the story for you, right? 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.840 So uh Elijah is the last prophet left. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:26.480 And uh there's 450 prophets of Baal. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:28.799 Jezebel, you all heard that spirit of Jezebel. 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:33.440 If you lived in a Baptist church, you knew a young teenage girl that had the spirit of Jezebel. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:34.000 I don't know. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:35.279 Uh, I'm just joking. 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:37.519 That's serious, but we should not do that. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:55.519 Um Jezebel was this prophetess, uh, and this woman who seduced the king to try and persuade him to destroy uh the altars of God and to establish uh idolatry and the worship of false gods, predominantly this one named Baal. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.120 Uh and so there were these 450 prophets of Baal. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:06.080 Elijah was the last man standing, a prophet of God, and he calls out and he says, Okay, you want to see who is the real God? 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.399 Is it Baal or is it Yahweh? 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:09.600 Uh here's what we're gonna do. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:12.159 We're gonna, you're gonna build an altar, I'm gonna build an altar. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:21.279 We're you're gonna put a bull on it, I'm gonna put a bull on it, and then we're gonna pray and call down fire from heaven, and whoever God answers is the real God. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:30.399 So the prophets of Baal, 450 of them, gather around their altar and their sacrifice, and they cry out, nothing happens, right? 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:38.080 Uh they start cutting themselves uh to try and provoke Baal to actually uh move and awaken, nothing happens. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.159 And Elijah just starts mocking them. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.879 I love, I love this whole like part of the story. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.440 Because he goes and he says, uh, he says, Well, what's wrong with your God? 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.120 Is he relieving himself? 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:49.440 Right? 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.960 I can I can see Elijah going, oh, is your God going boom boom? 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:54.559 Is that is that what's happening? 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.720 He's he's not around, he's not waking from his slumber, is he asleep? 00:15:58.879 --> 00:15:59.840 Where is he? 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:04.240 And he says to the prophets, he says, Okay, you've had your shot. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:06.080 Let me have mine. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:11.600 Soak water all over this altar and this sacrifice, dig a trench around it. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:15.519 And it says the water started to fill the trench, it was so soaked. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.720 God called down, or Elijah called to God to bring fire down. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.200 Fire comes, consumes every bit of it. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:26.240 It it consumed the rock, the the the water that was in the trench dried up. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:28.000 Uh, God answered. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:37.440 And then this is like the most baller part of the story because Elijah takes the 450 prophets down to the river and slaughters them with a sword. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:39.600 No one's excited about that? 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:40.879 That's fine. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:46.639 I just love one, he was a chubby fat guy, Elijah was, so I relate. 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:51.440 And uh he slaughtered 450 false prophets with the sword, so that's cool. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.720 I still have masculinity ability inside of me. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:17:07.599 But uh then Jezebel says, I'm gonna kill Elijah to redeem or avenge the prophets of whom he slaughtered. 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:14.799 And so uh Elijah goes into hiding and he's in this cave and he's crying out to God, Do you do you even see me? 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:16.000 Is this my end? 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:18.400 I I fought for you, I stood for you. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:21.519 Uh is this, you're gonna just let me be killed? 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:26.880 Uh and um God answers Elijah with this statement. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:29.519 Paul reiterates it. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:33.680 Lord, they have killed your prophets. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.720 This is Elijah talking. 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:39.279 They have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.680 But what is God's reply to him? 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:48.400 I've kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.640 This is what God says to Paul or to Elijah. 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:54.880 This is what Paul is reminding his readers of. 00:17:55.119 --> 00:17:59.359 The crux of the point that Paul is trying to make through this illustration is this. 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:04.000 In asking the question, but what is God's reply to Elijah? 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:10.480 I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:17.440 It's the keeping power of God that causes the men to not bow the knee. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:22.480 It's not the fact that they didn't bow the knee that caused God to keep them. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:24.559 Let me say that again. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:33.519 It's the keeping power of God, first and foremost, that uh caused those men to not bow their knee to Baal. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:39.680 It is not the fact that those men did not bow their knee to Baal that God kept them. 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.880 It's his sovereign choosing. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:44.880 This is what Paul is trying to help us understand. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:48.559 Why is there 7,000 men who did not bow the knee to Baal? 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:59.359 Because in God's eternal good pleasure and purposes, he kept for himself a remnant, choosing them that they would have the backbone and strength to not bow their knee. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:05.359 And this was a remnant that God was going to preserve inside of this idolatrous nation. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:18.319 This is illustrating for us that out of the physical nation of Israel, God by his grace has chosen a remnant to be set apart and saved. 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:19.920 This is what Paul's getting to. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:21.759 Has God rejected his people? 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:23.039 By no means. 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:24.000 How so? 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:36.079 Well, he's got this remnant, he's got these ones of whom he has chosen by his grace to save and experience his righteousness in saving power. 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:41.039 It is by grace, not works, that some will be saved. 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:45.680 It is by grace, not nationality, that salvation will come. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:52.880 God has chosen the people by grace before the foundations of the world according to his eternal purpose. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:20:03.039 These people made of both Jew and Gentile, by that very grace, through faith, receive the righteousness of God and are saved. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.759 Let's look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4 through 5. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:17.519 It says this even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:25.279 In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to what? 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:28.240 The purpose of his will. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:31.039 Praise God. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:34.240 We can be confident of this truth. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:38.319 God does not reject his people. 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.279 Paul goes on in verses 7 through 10. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.640 We see God is sovereign even over our sin. 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:49.920 Think about how sovereign God is. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:55.440 He's sovereign over our salvation, but he's equally sovereign over our sin. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:08.559 Now Paul doubles down on the differentiation between Israel and the elect, the geopolitical nation and those whom God has chosen before the foundation of the world. 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:16.400 Paul's trying to separate these two people in trying to help us understand: does God reject his people? 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.640 We often use language when it comes to Israel of God's chosen people. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:21.920 You have you ever heard that? 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:23.839 Or maybe used it yourself, right? 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.480 And it's funny, here's something funny. 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:38.400 This is kind of a caveat, it's off subject, but what's funny is I'll meet people who are vehemently against election and predestination, the sovereignty of God over our salvation. 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:46.559 But somehow they have done some type of mental gymnastics to get to the point where God's gonna save Israel, all of them, because they're his chosen people. 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:49.119 It's like, uh, that's election, brother. 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:55.519 I don't, it's bad, it's bad theology, but it's election if you really dwindle it down and distill it to understanding. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:59.440 So we'll use this language as God's chosen people. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.119 For Israel. 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:03.839 It's true in some sense. 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.400 God chose Israel. 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:07.839 God chose Israel. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:08.960 God blessed Israel. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:11.519 God fought for and protected Israel. 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:15.759 But here's the question I want to pose, and I think that Paul's trying to help us understand. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:19.839 Was God's choosing ultimately salvific? 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:27.279 Was God's choosing of Israel equal to the salvation of Israel? 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:30.559 I want to submit to you that the answer is no. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:37.200 God's choosing of Israel was to bring his revelation of himself through a people group. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:43.599 God's choosing of Israel was to reveal to us how we are in our relationship with God. 00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:48.480 God's choosing of Israel was to give us the prophets and the law and the psalm. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.119 His election is salvific. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:01.359 And his choosing of Israel was to accomplish his purposes. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:03.279 We also have to remember this. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:08.559 There's a lot of times where we look in the Bible and we see language that's used in different ways in different contexts. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:12.240 We have to understand, and here's what I want you to know before I say this. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:28.480 I'm not drawing a one-for-one here and trying to understand these two different things, but I'm hoping that we understand that God saying he chooses a people at times does not mean anything salvific at all. 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:38.160 So in the Old Testament, God chose the nation of Syria to bring judgment against his own people. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:51.119 So God in his sovereign power chose a wicked nation to come and overrule and usurp the power of Israel to bring judgment upon them. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:05.920 God is so sovereign that when he chooses people, it is ultimately to uh work out the perfect will of his good pleasure. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:10.400 So there's times when God chooses and it's not salvific. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:15.519 It's still God's power being demonstrated for the purpose of his will. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:21.440 Wicked nations that he chooses to judge Israel for the working of his purposes. 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:23.920 God chose Israel, yes. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:25.519 God blessed them, yes. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:32.160 But does this mean that he chose them as a nation and people group to receive his salvation? 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:35.599 Paul shows us that no. 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:41.759 It's not Israel who is or will be saved, but it is the elect. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:50.319 It is the elect which includes a remnant from among Israel and those of the Gentile people. 00:24:52.079 --> 00:25:01.119 And those who are not of God's elect among Israel have been sovereignly hardened against the righteousness and salvation of God. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:05.680 We have to understand something before we navigate what Paul's saying. 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:08.319 It's critical to understand this. 00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:18.880 When we say God sovereignly hardened them, what we're not saying is that God caused them to sin or that God put them in their sinful state. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:20.640 God did not do that. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:26.319 Man is fully responsible for their sin and the consequence and implications of it. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:37.680 They were already in a sinful state in nature, whereinby they had no desire to choose and serve God, nor ability to choose and serve God. 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:45.759 When God hardened them, he hardened them against being softened and coming near to him. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:48.480 It's critical to understand this. 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:56.960 God did not cause them to be sinful and far from him, yet God did sovereignly harden them against being softened and coming near to him. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:01.839 This first reference we encounter is from Isaiah 29, 10. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.480 This is an aspect of God's character that's revealed throughout the scripture and is even shown to us by Jesus. 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:17.839 If we look here at this passage in 7 through 10, he's gonna bring us into this excerpt in verse 8. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:26.480 As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day. 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:29.599 This is coming out of Isaiah 29, 10. 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:37.200 And I want to submit to you that this is this is an aspect of God's character and nature that's even exhibited by Jesus Himself. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:37.599 Right? 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:44.559 If we want to make an idol out of love and what we determine love is, then Jesus could never say these things. 00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:49.279 But they're written in red, so you do what you want with how you view the Bible and its inerrancy. 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:53.200 Uh but Mark 4, 11 through 12, Jesus says this. 00:26:53.359 --> 00:27:01.519 And he said to them, speaking of Jesus, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables. 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:02.640 Here's why. 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:12.480 So that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:14.559 That's some harsh words by Jesus. 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:19.039 For a guy who's like, you know, if you can just be kind and nice to everyone, everybody will be good. 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:21.119 That's a harsh language. 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:24.720 And what's something we have to understand in this passage? 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:29.599 He's speaking to his disciples, and he says, Here, you want to know why you understand what I'm saying? 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:36.559 Because there's a transcendent power beyond yourself that has given you the ability to understand. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:41.680 To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, he says. 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:50.960 This is why you understand, because the Spirit of God has empowered and enlightened your ability to actually understand the words of life that come out of my mouth. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:28:05.279 But for those who are not of my flock uh flock, not of my fold, he's blinded their eyes lest they see, he's deafened their ears, lest they hear, lest they turn and be forgiven. 00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:08.559 This is what Jesus is saying. 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:18.720 None of this ability to understand or perceive the truths of the kingdom have come from an inner knowledge, uh, wisdom or intelligence. 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:27.279 Jesus' intentionality in speaking in parables is for some around him to remain in their spirit of stupor. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:27.759 Right? 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:32.960 That's what Isaiah 29 says that Paul is referring to, to remain in their spirit of stupor. 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:40.799 Let's look at a longer passage in John chapter 12, verse uh 36b through 43 will be on the screen if you want to follow along. 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:45.039 It says, When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:54.079 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:59.279 Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the armor of the Lord been revealed? 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:01.200 Therefore they could not believe. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:11.039 For again Isaiah says, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:14.640 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:28.480 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities did believe in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:30.400 Here's what he's saying. 00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.839 He did all these signs and wonders among these people. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:39.200 But there's a reality where they saw but didn't believe, right? 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:45.759 How many of you, if you saw some of the signs and wonders in the Bible, you say, Oh, I would definitely believe, right? 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:47.200 Maybe some of you are waiting for that. 00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:48.720 God, you maybe prayed that prayer. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:52.480 God, if you will do this, I will believe. 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:54.160 Wrong. 00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:58.000 That's a poverty spiritual mentality. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:05.759 God, there, and this demonstrates that Jesus Himself walked the earth, performed many signs and wonders, and there were still those who did not believe. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:06.480 Why? 00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:19.119 The Bible says, so that the prophecy of Isaiah would be fulfilled, that they would see the hand of God outstretched and perform miracles and still be hardened in heart. 00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:21.359 That they would not believe. 00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:21.839 Why? 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:26.640 Because the sovereign working of God even over their very sin. 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:33.119 In this text, we see that unbelief of the people was so that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled. 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:33.920 What word? 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:38.559 That the Lord had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. 00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:44.720 What we have to stress here is that the Lord did not cause them to be to sin. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:49.599 That has to be emphatically clear, or be in their sinful state. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:52.079 The Lord did not cause those things. 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.599 This is something also, hear me when I say this. 00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:03.359 The Lord also did not harden a people who desired to repent and believe, and he cut them off. 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:06.079 That's not how God works. 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:07.599 That's not how we work. 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:12.400 The reality of our sinfulness is that none of us desire to come close to God. 00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:23.759 It is God's steadfast love who relentlessly chases us down and calls us to himself that we might be saved and reconciled to him. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:33.599 God never cut off or hardened a people who desired to repent, but he wouldn't allow it. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:44.640 He calls them to be solidified in their very chosen desired state and not be enabled to turn and believe. 00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:49.759 The second reference Paul gives us is from Psalm 69, 22 through 23. 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:56.720 And here King David's referring to the table where they feast, being a snare and a trap. 00:31:56.960 --> 00:32:01.599 Perhaps Paul's speaking about the word of God being set upon the table, right? 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:03.359 Because this is something that we feast on. 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:05.440 Your word is delicious to us. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:08.799 It tastes sweet, like honey on our lips. 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.839 This feasting of God's word that is the word of life. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:18.319 And so these people are set to the table and they see God's word placed upon them, but it becomes a snare and a trap. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:26.319 This is the exact same language Paul used earlier when he talked about that they pursued righteousness through the law, but it was a stumbling block to them. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:29.519 It was a snare in their pursuit of self-righteousness. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:38.559 Because at the end of the law, at the end of God's revelation of who he is, they should have experienced the beauty and the wonder of Jesus Himself. 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:40.000 But that's not what they saw. 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:45.519 In their sinfulness, they saw self-righteousness and they pursued that instead. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:49.039 Instead of the righteousness which comes by God through faith. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:50.079 Faith in who? 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.559 Faith in Jesus the Messiah. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:58.960 This seems to be a case Paul's been making in these previous chapters. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:02.240 The law and the prophets should have pointed them to Jesus. 00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:08.799 They had allowed the scriptures, though, to point them to self-righteousness and a works-based salvation. 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:20.000 Now their backs will be bent over forever, bearing the weight of the self-righteousness they have pursued, and for eternity unable to get out from the weight of it. 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:27.920 God is not only sovereign over our election church, he's sovereign over our sin. 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:36.480 Nothing, nothing in all creation is outside of his claim as mine. 00:33:37.519 --> 00:33:38.880 Not even our sin. 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:44.960 And we ultimately see the sovereignty of God over our sin in the crushing of his son. 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:49.359 There was nothing that was going to thwart the plan of God. 00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:54.240 To have Jesus climb Calvary and stand in our place. 00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:56.880 Nothing was going to stop that. 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:10.480 It was the good pleasure and purposes of God to have his son crushed under the weight of his wrath in our place that we might receive and experience the blessed communion and union with the Father. 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:12.800 Nothing was going to thwart that. 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:29.519 He says this: God did not just overcome evil at the cross. 00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:34.159 He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:39.840 He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil. 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:42.960 Look at God's power in that. 00:34:43.119 --> 00:34:45.039 Look at God's sovereignty of that. 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:58.320 That he even sovereignly was over the wickedness and evil of his people to accomplish the apex of his salvific work, Christ crucified. 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.400 Church, God will accomplish his purposes. 00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:13.519 He'll accomplish it through the merciful salvation of his elect and through the just hardening of those he has sovereignly passed over. 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:19.519 Our main idea this morning is this that God's people are chosen by grace. 00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:23.199 God's people are chosen by grace. 00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:26.000 So let us come back to the question. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:29.760 Has God rejected his people through not saving all of Israel? 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:31.280 By no means. 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:32.559 How so? 00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:36.000 Because God's people are chosen by grace. 00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:39.840 This is how the purposes of God has always been. 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:47.039 As we saw in Ephesians 1 earlier, that it is before the foundation of the world that we've been chosen in him. 00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:52.400 It is by grace we have been chosen and called to receive the salvation of the Lord. 00:35:52.639 --> 00:36:05.920 We saw in chapter 4 of Romans that Abraham was justified through by God through faith, not because of who he was, but by grace through faith, Abraham was justified. 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:16.320 It was Abraham, a pagan, idol-worshiping Canaanite, unto that God called unto himself and made him a people out of no people. 00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:20.559 Anytime I talk about election and predestination, I ask these simple questions. 00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:23.360 Number one, did Adam ask to be created? 00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:23.920 No. 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:26.639 God said, I'm going to create man out of the dust, and he did it. 00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:27.920 Who chose who? 00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:30.639 Did God choose Abraham or did Abraham choose God? 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:31.840 God chose Abraham. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:32.719 Who chose who? 00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:33.760 Noah or God? 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:34.880 David or God? 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:36.239 Joseph or God? 00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:37.679 You or God? 00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:44.800 God chose Abraham, an idol-worshiping pagan Canaanite. 00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:53.519 And he said, Though you are not my people, I am going to make you my people, and through you, I am going to bless the nations. 00:36:55.119 --> 00:37:54.880 And in his affair, God would bless the world through a people of his own possession was not made to the descendants of Abraham, but to the singular Messiah who would come through his bloodline. 00:37:56.159 --> 00:37:58.400 Jesus is the true Israel. 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:16.400 We even see this in Hosea 11:1, as Hosea's prophesying, and he's giving this messianic prophecy, and he refers to Israel as a singular person. 00:38:16.639 --> 00:38:22.639 Hosea 11, verse uh chapter 11, verse 1 says, When Israel was a child, I loved him. 00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:25.199