Don't Be Ignorant of This Mystery (Walk Thru the Bible Week 49)

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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting

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book on the planet.

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It will transform your life one page at a time.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible

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to life.

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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.

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Well, hey there.

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You know, the book of Romans is considered to be the best, most concise presentation

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of the gospel in all the New Testament.

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Interesting, I think, that it includes the most thorough treatment of God's dealings

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with the people of Israel and how the church should relate to them.

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I wonder why the apostle Paul thought that was so fundamental to include in his book

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to Romans.

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Well, stick with me and we're going to learn why.

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So welcome to Walk Through the Bible.

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This is week 49.

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And this week we are reading in the daily Bible the dates of December the 3rd through

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the 9th, or that would be pages number 1546 to 1581.

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Now let's review where we are.

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Last week we talked about Paul's three missionary journeys.

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And on his third missionary journey, he spent a year and a half in Corinth and he longs

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to go to Rome one day.

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But in the meantime, he writes his longest letter in the New Testament to that early

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church in Rome.

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Now due to the very unique situation in Rome, he addresses and expounds on some fundamentals

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of the faith.

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So the book of Romans, the first 11 chapters you could say are doctrinal and the last five

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chapters are how to apply that.

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There's other ways you can divide the book into some subcategories, but that's basically

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the overall.

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These first 11 chapters being doctrinal.

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So the first eight chapters of Roman really lay out the presentation of the gospel.

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And you know, I would say that after we finish our walk through the entire New Testament,

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you might want to go back and study one book a little bit more.

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I would really recommend it be the book of Romans.

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It's phenomenal.

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And in fact, if I had to choose one book of the New Testament, that if we could only keep

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one book, what would that book be?

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And it would be a really hard toss up between a gospel because we want to read the story

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about Jesus' life and ministry.

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But in terms, in addition to a gospel, I would say the book of Romans.

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You can't get better than the book of Romans.

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And so the book of Romans actually contains such a great presentation of the gospel all

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in one book that it's called the Roman Road or the Romans Road.

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And this is a presentation of the gospel only using scriptures from this one book, which

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makes it easier when sharing with someone that you can just go through all in one book.

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So quickly, Romans one through eight presents this gospel.

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So Romans one through three starts with a description of how that we are all under condemnation,

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that we've all sinned.

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We've all fallen short of the glory of God.

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And he specifically talks about some groups of people, but the message is that we were

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all destined for hell.

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We're all condemned to die.

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And then in chapters four through five, he begins to talk about how that we are justified

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through Christ.

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And this is a little bit different.

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Justification is a little bit different than atonement that we had in the law.

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So in the law, you would sacrifice an animal and place the hands on it.

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And this sacrifice was like a covering for your sin.

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That was atonement is a covering for your sin.

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But Jesus's death didn't just cover the sin.

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It threw it away.

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It got rid of it.

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It was as though it had never happened.

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And that's justification.

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And once we are justified, that sin is gone.

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We are justified.

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Then we are in right standing with God, which means righteousness.

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So righteousness is right standing with God.

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And in that right standing, then, is because the justification of Christ.

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And then in chapters six through eight, he talks about sanctification.

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So therefore, because we've been justified, we are now right with God.

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We are in the right position.

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How do we now live this out?

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And so how are we sanctified?

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Sanctification is that process of living righteously.

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And so Paul explains that we must yield ourselves to God and obey Him.

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And here in Romans 8, we have that famous verse.

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We all know it.

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We all quote it.

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Romans 8, 28.

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And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have

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been called according to His purpose.

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So chapters one through eight, there is so much material there.

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There is so much we could talk about.

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But I'm going to keep moving on because this brings us to chapters nine through eleven.

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And I will say that there is very little teaching out there on Romans nine through eleven.

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And I find it astounding.

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But part of the problem is because this is some of the most complex theological chapters

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or verses in the entire New Testament.

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So it could be that that's why our pastors and teachers stay away from it.

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It is difficult.

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It's difficult to understand.

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And maybe though, there's a lack of interest.

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This is about the Jews and Israel.

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So why do we as the church need to grapple with this?

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And so it's overlooked.

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It's overlooked in seminaries.

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It's overlooked in Bible colleges.

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It's overlooked in sermons.

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And I can tell you, our organization does an annual pastors conference in Jerusalem.

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And one year I was helping to lead a pastor's tour from the United States that was in Israel

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and took place, took in that conference.

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And one of the conference speakers is a Christian leader that lives there in Israel.

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And he did a whole hour long teaching out of Romans 11.

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He just walked through Romans 11 from the first verse to the last verse.

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And after it was over, we were having lunch.

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And one of the American pastors that was traveling with us looked at me with these huge eyes.

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And he said, did you already know this?

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Because I've never heard it before.

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And I thought, how many of our leaders are that way because the seminaries didn't teach it?

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And Paul thought that Romans 9 through 11 was of fundamental importance.

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And he included it in Romans.

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So let's take a look at it.

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These verses 9 through 11 deal with Paul's view, his own view of his own people, the Jewish people,

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and of God's view of the Jewish people, God's unending love for the Jewish people.

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And the apostles' vision of harmony between Jews and Christians in the church, in Messiah.

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And so I said earlier that it's a very complex part of the New Testament.

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But a lot of the confusion comes because we try to read these chapters

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from the 21st century Western Christian perspective.

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We don't put ourselves in Paul's shoes and read it through the eyes of a Jewish apostle.

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Look, Paul was not just Jewish.

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He was of the zealous Jews.

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He had been trained in the law.

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He was a devout zealous follower of the God of Israel.

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But he was the apostle to the Gentiles and had been given this revelation

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of the way the Gentiles fit into this and how the two should work together.

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And so when we put ourselves in Paul's position and read what he's writing from where we think he stood,

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it begins to come together.

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And so I hope that our time together today will help clarify it for you.

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A little bit of background to the book of Romans to understand why Paul addressed this in chapter 9 through 11.

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So we think Paul wrote this book somewhere around 58 AD.

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And the emperor Claudius kicked all the Jews out of Rome in the last years of his life.

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So probably beginning around 53 AD, he died in 54 AD.

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So somewhere between 50, 54, the Jews were persecuted.

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They were kicked out.

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And then after his death, they were gradually able to begin returning.

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Well, as they read what happened here is the church in Rome

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that had been started by Jewish believers in Jesus that understood the Jewish scriptures, the Torah, the law.

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They understood all of this preparation for Jesus's coming.

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They understood who Jesus was.

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And then Gentiles had started joining the church.

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But then when the Jews were kicked out of Rome, all of a sudden the whole church is Gentile.

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They didn't have the benefit of that Jewish background to understand what this church was all about.

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They become the leaders of the church.

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And then after four or five years, Jewish believers in Jesus began trickling back to Rome and coming back into the church.

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So now these Jews are coming into a mainly Gentile church.

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Therefore, the Gentiles that were leading the church in Rome had come to the conclusion, it seems,

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that the Jews had been judged by God.

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And that's why they had been kicked out.

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That's why they were wandering.

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And that developed the belief that maybe the Jews had been replaced by the church in the plans of God.

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Now, when the Jews began returning now to Rome, they're treated as second-class citizens inside the church.

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And so this was a real problem.

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And when Paul found out about this, he felt the need to write and to address it.

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And so the early church in Rome started out Jewish, then became a mix of Jews with Gentiles,

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then became all Gentile, and now was becoming a mix of Gentile with a few Jews.

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So much of Romans is dealing with this, even in chapter one, much less chapter nine through eleven,

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and then even later in chapter fifteen, where he's focusing on convincing the Romans that the Jews are still called by God,

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that they can be grafted back into the olive tree, into the body of Christ.

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They are dearly beloved of the Lord, and that at the end time gathering, they're going to bring a world revival.

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So we're going to go over these scriptures.

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But this is why Paul was writing this to the Romans.

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So let's start now with Romans nine.

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Paul opens up how sorrowful he is for the sake of his people, and he wishes that they were saved.

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Because they have this special place in God, and he describes this special place here in verses four through five.

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Speaking of the people of Israel, theirs is the adoption to sonship.

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There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship,

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and the promises.

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There's are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,

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who is God overall, for ever praised. Amen.

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So they have this special place.

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All of these things have been given to the Jewish people and through the Jewish people to the world and here to the early believer.

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So this is a very special place in God that they have.

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And he says, so whose fault is it that they're now finding themselves outside of the faith, the righteousness that comes by faith?

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He says, is it God's fault? Is it the Word's fault?

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And he says, no, because God has always worked with a remnant.

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And he goes through history and he shows how that God didn't always work through all of Israel,

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but a remnant of Israel.

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And he shows how that through Abraham, Abraham had many sons,

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but God chose to go to continue the line through Isaac.

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And then Isaac had two sons, but God chooses to continue the line through Jacob.

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And even in the time of Elijah, where Elijah says, Lord, am I the only one left?

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And God says, no, there's 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

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There's always this remnant of the holy ones.

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And so Paul is saying, it's no different now.

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And he says that it's God's right to show mercy on who he wants to show mercy on.

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It's God's right to withhold wrath, to give time, to actually be able to show mercy.

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And then he quotes the prophet Hosea to show something that is a key principle in Romans 9 through 11.

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Hosea 2, verse 23.

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Speaking here of the Jewish people, of course, God is saying,

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I will plant her for myself in the land.

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Clearly, this is how I met the Jewish people.

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I will show my love to the one I called not my loved one.

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I will say to those called not my people, you are my people, and they will say, you are my God.

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So this is saying that the people of God who had become rejected called not the people of God,

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that God had brought them back.

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And once again, they were the people of God.

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So this principle of the people of God becoming not the people of God

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and then being brought back to be once again the people of God.

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So Paul goes on to say, what shall we say?

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That the Gentiles found righteousness by faith, but the Jews didn't?

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He said, well, they stumbled over the cornerstone.

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And he quotes once again from Psalm 118 that they had rejected the chief cornerstone.

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Now keep going now into Romans 10.

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Don't stop. Don't stop the train of thought.

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It keeps going. He says, so it's not that the law was bad.

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It's the law pointed to Jesus.

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It's that the righteousness by faith in Jesus could not come from the law.

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And then another key verse here, chapter 10, verse 4,

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Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

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Now the word culmination here, some teachers have really taken this to mean something it doesn't mean,

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that Christ is the end of the law, that the law is done and finished and over with.

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That's not what it means.

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It's the Greek word telos, and it means that Christ was the focal point of the law.

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It was the purpose of the law.

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It was what the law was pointing to.

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It was the endpoint of the law.

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So the law, remember we talked last week, the law was our guardian.

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It was our teacher to keep us until Christ came.

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So here it's saying the law was to prepare us. It was to lead us to Christ.

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And so then he quotes some of the prophets of the Old Testament to show that God always intended to go to the Gentiles,

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that Gentiles would be brought in.

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And this brings us now to Romans 11 and once again, continue the thought.

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Don't stop it.

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So he says, so because God was going to go to the Gentiles,

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because of all of this, did God reject his people?

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By no means.

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God did not reject his people.

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And this is where he tells the story about Elijah, that there was always a remnant.

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And then in verse 5, so too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace.

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So what then Israel did not attain what she had sought?

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The remnant did, but the rest were hardened.

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And now we get into the core of what we need to talk about starting here with verse 11.

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So again, I asked, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?

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Not at all.

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He'd already said they stumbled over the stone that they had rejected, right?

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So he's asking here, so did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery?

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Absolutely not.

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Rather, because of their transgression, because of their stumble,

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salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

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But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles,

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how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring?

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For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be?

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But life from the dead.

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If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy.

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If the root is holy, so are the branches.

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Let's stop here.

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Paul is saying that their stumble caused the Gospel to go to the Gentiles.

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That that's why we have to stop and think about this for a minute.

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If the Jewish people had accepted Jesus as Messiah,

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then Christianity would have stayed as a sect of the Jewish religion.

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It would have never gone out to the nations, except through maybe the synagogues, as I said,

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that were spread throughout the Roman world.

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But it would have remained as a part of the Jewish religion.

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Because of their rejection, it now had gone out to the Gentile world.

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So you and I can be grateful for this.

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And this is the principle that Paul is describing here.

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And he's saying that if their rejection brought this great blessing to the Gentiles,

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and to the world, what is going to be the riches of their full inclusion?

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So this is the first inclination that actually there's a day in the future

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where the Jewish people are in full going to be included back into the believing body.

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So we'll come to that in just a minute.

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Now he's describing how about the branches and the tree,

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this takes us into verse 17.

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If some of the branches have been broken off,

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and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others,

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and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,

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do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches.

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If you do consider this, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

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You will say then branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in,

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granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief.

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And you stand by faith, though do not be arrogant, but tremble.

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For if God did not spare the natural branches,

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he will not spare you either.

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Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God,

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sternness to those who fail, but kindness to you,

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provided that you continue in His kindness.

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Otherwise you also will be cut off,

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and if they do not persist in unbelief,

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they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

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So Paul's message to the Gentiles and the Church of Rome is very clear.

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Do not be arrogant or haughty or superior to the Jewish people.

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You need to be more cognizant of the fact that they are supporting you,

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their root is supporting you,

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and that you are only being grafted into this tree because of faith.

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And so Paul then says something very interesting here

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about considering the kindness of God, and then he says,

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kindness to you, provided you continue in kindness.

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Otherwise you also will be cut off.

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My friends, this is a very interesting and clear warning

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that if we do not have kindness towards the Jewish people,

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the branches of this olive tree,

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that we could also be cut off.

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There is judgment, and that is very much in keeping

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with previous scriptures in the Old Testament.

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Genesis 12, that if he will curse those that curse,

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the descendants of Abraham.

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And so it's very in keeping with the requirements in the Old Testament.

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And here in this verse it says that,

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provided that you continue in his kindness,

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I just want to point out that in the original Greek,

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the word his is not there.

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So it's actually saying continue in kindness.

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You continue in kindness to them,

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so that you will not be cut off.

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And at this point Paul then begins to talk about the future.

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Verse 25, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery,

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brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited.

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Israel has experienced a hardening in part

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until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

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And in this way all Israel will be saved.

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Now I want to stop right here.

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This is another translation issue that changes the meaning of the verse.

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And so on the screen I have marked through

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in this way and I have written in, and so.

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The new international version that I'm using here

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says in this way, but it changes the meaning of the verse.

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The new King James version and most other versions say,

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and so all Israel will be saved.

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So what's the controversy here?

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Paul is saying that Israel has experienced a hardening in part

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until the full number of Gentiles has come in.

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And then all Israel will be saved, which means it started with

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Israel, some of them have been hardened, the Gentiles are coming in, and then

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when that's over the hardening will be lifted

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and all Israel will be saved and brought in.

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This agrees with this earlier verse about the full inclusion.

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But in the NIV they aborted it in such a way that it sounds like

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the church is Israel. It's a replacement theology.

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It says that there's a hardening in part to Israel

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until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

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And in this way all Israel is saved.

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Do you see the difference? That it's the Gentiles coming in.

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When that ends then it's over. All Israel has been saved.

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Paul, I believe, is talking about another step in the process.

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And so then all Israel will be saved because the hardening in part

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is temporary. He says it's only until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

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Then the hardening is over. It's gone and they're going to come in.

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And then he quotes the Old Testament to support what he's saying here.

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That the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn

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godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them.

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When I take their sins, I take away their sins. So

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Paul is saying, God has promised to take away the godlessness from Jacob, from the

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Jewish people. And this is his covenant with them that

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he will take away their sins. So therefore this

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and so all Israel will be saved is talking about

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Jacob when God removes the godlessness from Jacob.

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This is what Paul is saying clearly. It's very clear.

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And so I do not agree with the NIV translation here.

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Continuing on, as for the gospel is concerned,

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they are enemies for your sake. But as far as election is concerned,

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they are loved on account of the Patriarchs

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for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Now we started out today

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in Romans 9 where Paul talks about this special place

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that the Jewish people have, that they have been given

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the covenants, the promises, that they are of the Patriarchs, that they

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birth the Messiah. All this is a very special place and he confirms it here.

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That calling cannot be revoked. So if you've heard that God revoked the

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calling on the Jewish people, he's replaced them with the church,

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Paul is saying it can't be revoked. They still hold

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that special place. And he says, yes, in the large part they may be enemies of

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the gospel today, but they are loved on account of

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the Patriarchs, God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

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Moses, David, all of them. And therefore these gifts and this

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call is irrevocable. God is not going to go against his word, he's not going to

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go against his promises, he's not going to go against what he

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told the prophets, he's not going to do it, it's irrevocable.

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And then Paul wraps it up with this beautiful

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thought. He says, just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now

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received mercy as a result of their disobedience,

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so they too have now become disobedient in order

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that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you,

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for God has bound everyone over to disobedience

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so that he may have mercy on them all. So the point is this my friend,

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we were enemies of the gospel, he said so clearly in Romans chapter one through

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three. We were enemies, the enemies are the

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Jews, are now the enemies, it just puts us all in the same box

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so that God can have mercy on all of us. It puts us on equal footing. We have no

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right to be proud or arrogant or haughty, we were just as disobedient and just as

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much an enemy of the gospel as anyone. So God's putting us all on the same

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footing, we're all disobedient so that we can all receive

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his wonderful mercy. And at this point, at the end of chapter 11,

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the apostle Paul breaks out into praise and he praises the Lord for his mighty

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ways that are so far above our ways and his thoughts so far above

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ours. We should also break out into praise. So let me just summarize what we've

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read here and are reading this week.

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I first of all, I'm so thankful that this situation happened in Rome so that the

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apostle Paul had to write this epistle to Rome

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and explain this role between Jews and Christians because

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otherwise there's really nothing in the New Testament that explains it as

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clearly and as fully as this passage. Now this is a summary of the passage that

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the Jewish people have a special place in God

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and are loved on account of God's promises to the patriarchs and through

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the Hebrew prophets. They still have this place because the

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gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

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Today, now there is a holy remnant of the Jewish people that have followed

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Christ but the rest have been hardened and they may be seen as enemies of the

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gospel just as you and I were enemies of the gospel.

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But this just allowed the Gentiles to come to become a part of the people of

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God. It has put us all into the disobedient

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category so we can all receive mercy and put us on an equal footing

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because we already received of God's kindness.

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We should be kind to His people Israel because this hardening it's only in

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part and it is only until a certain day when the fullness of the Gentiles has

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come in. When that hardening lifts and all Israel

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is saved just as God has promised to do to remove

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godlessness from Jacob, it'll be for the world as life from the dead.

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We're talking about global revival, a global blessing as though it's

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life from the dead. This is the message of Romans 9 through 11 and it is

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fundamental to our faith to understand

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this role of Israel and the Jewish people and how we should relate to them

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because if we don't get it right the Apostle Paul warned us

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we could be cut off because of it. Now after the Apostle Paul has finished

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11 chapters of this magnificent presentation of the gospel

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and God's dealings with Israel and the Jewish people and the church

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he then says this,

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Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy

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to offer your bodies yourselves as a living sacrifice

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holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

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Now that you've read this in context you get the power of it

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and of course beginning here with chapter 12 the Apostle Paul begins to

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kind of summarize, wrap this up and apply it to our practical

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daily lives. So as you read through Romans this

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week I hope that you will enjoy it, that you'll be

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blessed by it and that you will not be ignorant

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of this mystery my friends so that you would be conceited.

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That Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the

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Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved as it

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00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:13,680
is written the Deliverer will come from Zion

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he will turn godlessness away from Jacob and this is my covenant with them

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when I take away their sin. That is a great day we look forward to it'll be a

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blessing to the whole world so may you be blessed this

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week as you read God's word and until I see you back here next week

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God bless.