Sermon Tone Analysis

May 30, 1999

Romans 11

 

Intro.

No message of Scripture is clearer or repeated more often than the unqualified declaration that God can be trusted.

He is the very source and measure of truth.

By definition, His divine Word is absolutely trustworthy.

Whatever He says is true and whatever He promises comes to pass.

The last verse of Romans 11 is the place where we begin.

(v.36)  *“ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever.

Amen.”*

* *

Shortly before his death, Joshua testified to Israel, “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed” (Josh.

23:14).

After Solomon prayed before the altar on behalf of his people, “he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant’ ” (1 Kings 8:55–56).[1]

No passage of Scripture articulates God’s truthfulness and trustworthiness more eloquently than chapters 9–11 of Romans.

As we have seen in an earlier chapter, Paul begins this remarkable section on the nation of Israel with the declaration that it is “Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises” (Rom.

9:4).

God had made clear and specific promises to His chosen nation Israel.

Some of those promises were conditional, dependent on Israel’s obedience.

But His greatest promises to His chosen people were unconditional and therefore were grounded solely in God’s righteous integrity.

Were God to fail in those promises, He would be less than righteous and just.

He would be what God cannot be.[2]

God’s first covenant with Israel was through Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, who became the nation of Israel.

Just before He commanded Abraham to proceed from Haran to Canaan, God promised, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen.

12:2–3).

Years later God instructed Abraham to cut certain prescribed animals in half, laying the two parts opposite each other.

Except as an observer, Abraham did not participate in the confirmation of that covenant.

Only the Lord passed between the pieces of the animals, signifying that He alone had dictated and would fulfill the covenant (see Gen. 15:8–21).[3]

And so, the question…(v.1)

*I.

**God’s Preservation of a Remnant in Israel (11:1-10)*

Three pieces of evidence:

A.      personal (1)

-himself; not only a believer but an apostle

 

B.

theological (v.2) foreknowing (loving)  and rejection are mutually incompatible

 

C.

Biblical (2b-7)

                                Ill.

The time of Elijah.

After his victory on Mt.

Carmel, the normally fearless Elijah fled from Queen Jezebel into the desert and later into a cave on Mount Horeb.

There Elijah appealed to God and said (v. 3,4)  Your math is wrong!

There is a remnant.

In the same way… (v.5)

During Elijah’s time…

                During Isaiah’s time…

                During Jesus’ time…

                During Paul’s day…

 

                God would see to the fulfilling of His promises by preserving a remnant according to His gracious choice.

Not on the basis of their works.

(v.6) Paul is a stickler for the meaning of words.

Grace is grace, and if God’s choosing was on the basis of worthiness in our actions then it is works and not grace.

Paul says that this is God’s gracious choice.

The election of grace.

What then?

(v.7)

That which Israel is “intensely seeking” for she has not obtained…

This is a judicial hardening.

A retribution.

God gives people up to their own stubbornness.

He hardens those hearts who, in rejecting His gracious offer of righteousness, harden themselves to His grace.

Then Paul quotes two Scriptures: (both dealing with closed eyes)

                Isa. 29:10 – like a drunkenness where things don’t really register

                The lights are on but nobody’s home.

Psalm 69 – the table is to be a place of safety, feasting and sustenance.

But the table of the ungodly will become a snare, and a trap and a stumbling block.

Perhaps it is the Law that Paul has in mind here as that was the place of spiritual sustenance.

But because of their unbelief, that Word became a judgment on them.

Ill.

With eyes darkened and backs bent suggesting the hunched over posture  in which blind peole sometimes walk as they grope their way on a path they cannot see that leads to a destination they do not seek.

Why has God allowed this and hardened His people in their rebellion?

*II.

God’s Purpose in the Rejection of Israel (11:11-15)*

...a chain of blessing (sequence of thoughts repeats throughout the chapter) 3 links

First, already through Israel’s fall salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Secondly, this Gentile salvation will make Israel envious and so lead to her restoration or fullness.

Thirdly, Israel’s fullness will bring yet much greater riches to the world.

The blessing ricochets back and forth from Israel to the Gentiles, from the Gentiles to Israel, and from Israel to the Gentiles again.

Israel’s rejection of God’s own son and His kingdom did not thwart God’s plan.

God’s temporarily setting Israel aside is not an afterthought.

God used that terrible transgression of His people to accomplish His own divine objective.

To bring salvation to the Gentiles and to the Jews.

“I say to you,” Jesus promised, “that many [Gentiles] shall come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom [unbelieving Jews] shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt.

8:11–12).**[4]**

The second link

Paul already had reminded his Jewish readers of God’s ancient revelation concerning His purpose for the Gentiles.

Through Moses He said, “I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you,” and through Isaiah said, “I was found by those who sought Me not, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me” (Rom.

10:19–20).[5]

0And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for /his/ only /son/, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for /his/ firstborn[6]

 

III.

God’s Power with Regard to Israel (11:16-25)

... an olive tree     

As always, Paul’s logic is irrefutable.*

If the first piece of dough be holy,* he points out, *the lump is also.*

*First piece of dough* translates the single Greek word /aparcheµ/, which literally means a firstfruit (as in the KJV) offering of any kind, animal as well as grain.

It refers to the first portion of an offering which was set aside specifically for the Lord.

Through Moses, God instructed His newly-delivered people: “When you eat of the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the Lord.

Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.

From the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord an offering throughout your generations” (Num.

15:19–21).

Those cakes, or loaves, were given to feed the priests, who served—and thereby represented—the Lord in their unique ministry in the tabernacle and later in the temple.

Therefore, before any bread would be eaten by a household, a special portion, *the first piece of dough,* was first consecrated and presented to the Lord.

Although only a portion of that special *piece of dough* represented the entire loaf (*the lump*), all of which was acknowledged as being from the Lord.

In other words, they were giving back to the Lord a representation of all He had provided for them.