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Romans 11:11, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
I want to commend you for hanging in there as we’re working through Romans chapters 9-11. This is not easy going. But these chapters are crucial for us to see the sovereign hand of God in history, from Genesis through Revelation. I want to refresh your memory about this great epistle to the Romans. Remember, this is the King of the epistles (Ephesians is the Queen). Romans is the great cathedral of doctrine and practice. Romans has been prominent in every great movement of God in the history of the church. I just remind you that Luther’s discovery of justification by faith alone in Romans 1:16 launched the great Reformation in the 16th century which still affects us today!
Here is a simple outline for Romans: Sin (1-3), Salvation (3-5), Sanctification (6-8), Sovereignty (9-11), and Service (12-16). In Romans 11 we see the sovereignty of God over Israel, the Jews in the past, present, and future. Sovereignty means God is the living, personal, omnipotent God who not only created everything in six literal days, but who determined ahead of time based on His infinite wisdom exactly what would happen throughout the course of history with the infinite power to make it happen, all for His glory.
History is the big unfolding of God’s sovereign plan. God has His powerful hands on history, moving it along every day. When you come to Christ, you become interested in history. I began college at BJU as a Bible major, but a required freshman course was History of Civilization taught by my favorite teacher of all time, Dr. Edward Panosian, an Armenian (not Arminian). I soon switched from a Bible major to a history major and a Greek minor. I took Ancient history, the history of Greece, of Rome, the Renaissance, Reformation, history of England, and U. S. History. I never regretted that switch. Seminary, of course, included one full year of Church History. We’ve taught Church History on Saturday mornings in the past, maybe we’ll do it again. History is “His story,” God’s sovereign plan unfolding century after century. And while the world is completely oblivious to it, God’s major focus in our age is on the church and Israel. Christ is building His church, but what about Israel? That’s Paul’s main concern in these chapters.
This passage is going to teach us that God has a plan for Israel in the future. Back in Genesis 12, around 2000 BC, God made an unconditional covenant or promise to Abraham to give him a land, many descendants, and that through him all the nations will be blessed. For the next 2000 years God worked with this nation of Israel. God called Israel His chosen people, even though they were often rebellious and idolatrous. Jesus our Savior came to us through the line of David. He came destined to sit on David’s throne and rule over Israel and the whole world. He still will. But when He came the first time, Israel delivered Him over to the Gentiles to murder Him.
On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:23 Peter stood up and fired this salvo to the Jewish leaders: “This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” This was Israel’s transgression, their failure, their stumbling. Later in Acts on Paul’s missionary journeys through Asia Minor and Greece, he first went to the synagogues and a good many Jews believed. However, many hardened their hearts so that by Acts 28 Paul turns from the Jews to the Gentiles, and ever since the church has been made up mostly of Gentiles of all sorts. For the Jews it has been a rough 2000 years of being mistreated, rejected, and vilified wherever they went. But they have never lost their identity as Jews.
So where is God in all this? And what about these Jews? In a nutshell, God sovereignly planned Israel’s rejection of the Messiah for your blessing. We’ll try to break this down and apply some truths to our lives and leave here rejoicing in our sovereign and good God.
GOD KNOWS HOW TO BRING GOOD OUT OF EVIL.
Romans 11:11-12, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!
We arrived at the Joseph story this week in our church Scripture reading. What an example of God’s sovereignty and bringing good out of evil. His wicked brothers sell Joseph into slavery to Egypt. Exalted to the top of Egypt’s government, Joseph provides a haven for his people. When father Jacob dies, his brothers feared Joseph’s revenge. But what did Joseph say? “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” God has done exactly the same thing through Israel’s rejection of Christ. Israel stumbled badly. It was a horrible thing those Jews did to their Messiah. But did they stumble so as to fall into the abyss of historical oblivion? For the tenth and last time in Romans Paul cries out, “May it never be!” “Absolutely not.” Israel will always be God’s chosen people.
God knows how to bring good out of evil. Those Jews meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. It is through Israel’s rejection that gospel riches were launched out to the Gentiles. For the last 2000 years this world has been enriched with gospel blessings. Through Israel’s transgression Christianity has gone out to tame the wild hearts of godless people. Hopefully you’re one of them. The gospel transforms lives. Look at verse 12 – riches for the world, riches for the Gentiles. It’s hard to imagine a world without these gospel riches. Church history is full of wild and pagan lives brought to Christ with the result that they end up clothed and in their right minds. From the Middle East to Africa to Europe to India to Japan and China, Russia, England, South America, the gospel riches have been proclaimed.
America has been especially blessed with this gospel wealth as a nation. America’s greatness didn’t come through Mohammed. Christianity brought hospitals, orphanages, compassion and are for all people including unborn infants. It brought concern for education of the masses so they could read their Bibles. Harvard University was founded in 1636 for this reason, “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, and therefore lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning!” These are just a few of the riches of the world because of Israel’s transgression.
Christ brings the riches of eternal life, forgiveness, hope beyond the grave. He brings new hearts that learn to love and forgive and heal marriages. He gives self-control and power to overcome life-dominating addictions and habits. Only biblical Christianity gives true value and purpose to life. Without Christianity this would be a very different world. When Marxism, communism, atheistic evolution, secularism, humanism, materialism gain the ascendancy, people go pagan, murdering, raping, lying under oath, committing genocide. Sadly, we are turning neo-pagan with arrogance, pride, cruelty, rampant selfishness, uncontrolled sexual abandon, perversions of all sorts available to everyone in an instant on their phones.
No one can tell us Christianity isn’t the greatest blessing this world ever experienced. Personal responsibility to God, a good work ethic, commitment to God’s standards for marriage and parenting, desiring to please God in every area of life. A man lives selfishly and irresponsibly and then comes to Christ. He begins to care for his family, leading them, praying for them. We love to see Christian young people in high school and college unashamedly stand up for Christ and live a godly life. We love to see an athlete like Coco Gauf unashamedly praying after her victory at the U.S. Open – “I was just saying thank you!” That’s vs. 12, “riches for the world.”
Now look at the end of verse 12. “What will their fulfillment be?” If the gospel has so enriched the world where it has flourished, imagine this world when Israel finally comes to Christ as a nation and declares Christ Lord of Lords and King of Kings. What if suddenly Netanyahu and all those Jews over in Israel confessed their blindness and hardness and guilt of rejecting their Messiah and cried out to Jesus Christ to save them. What would the media do with that? What if all the Jews in Brooklyn (600,000), Philadelphia, Miami, Hollywood, what if suddenly they all came to Christ, including Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin? Whoa! In the tribulation 144,000 will turn to Christ (Rev. 7). God knows how to bring good out of evil.
GOD’S RICHES IN YOUR LIFE SHOULD HAVE INFLUENCE WITH OTHERS.
Romans 11:13-14, But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.
God gave Paul the mission to take the gospel to the Gentiles and that’s what he ended up doing in every city. First to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, but he loved his fellow Jews and wanted to somehow get their attention and draw them to Christ. Throughout the history of the church the Gentile church hasn’t done a very good job of moving Jews to jealousy. Some extremely hateful actions and words have been thrown at Jews even from professing Christians throughout the centuries. If that’s what Christ does for you, they probably thought, He’s the last thing we want. There’s a bumper sticker, “Dear Jesus, save us from your followers.”
But along with Paul, we too should have a good influence on lost people all around us. We want people to know that Christ is everything to us. There is nothing better. We are faithful and obedient to Him. He is worth living for. He brings love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, right? He helps us handle trials. Our goal is not to please ourselves, but God. Like Paul, we need to magnify our ministry, our Christian lives, no matter what we do day in and day out. We want to move unbelievers to jealousy. We want our local church to be so filled with the Spirit that people notice, God is certainly among you! If someone followed you around for the last week, would they want what you have? I’ve heard people say that about the influence of other believers. That is one of the highest compliments someone could make about a believer. Or would they say, “Man, stay away from me. Whatever it is you’re living for, I don’t want it.”
GOD’S SAVING PLAN STARTED WITH ISRAEL SO DON’T BE ARROGANT.
Romans 11:15-20, For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;
Paul is looking to the end times here when God will bring spiritual regeneration to the nation of Israel. Their acceptance of Christ as their Messiah as a nation will be life from the dead. Paul calls it “life from the dead” because Israel as a nation was stone cold dead spiritually all those many centuries. How could they possibly be saved? Do you remember the story of the leg bone connected to the knee bone? That’s from Ezekiel 37. God gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley filled with dry old skeleton bones, dry bones – utterly lifeless. Here’s a bit of it.
Ezekiel 37:3-10, He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ 5 “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”‘” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
This deadness is true of every soul who needs the Spirit of God to breathe life into them through the gospel, but here it is on a national scale for Israel! God promises Israel…
Ezekiel 37:14, “I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.'”
This has never happened. This will be a stupendous manifestation of the power of God on the souls of men right there in the middle of the awful judgments of the tribulation period. Haldane notes God “is able to make the dry bones live and to restore the severed branches of the Jewish nation.”
Let me summarize what this next section is about. The dough and the root of the Olive tree is speaking of Abraham and his descendants. In their unbelief God broke off the natural branches and grafted us wild branches into the tree of God’s saving plan. Now for 2000 years God’s been working on saving Gentiles and grafting us wild Gentiles into the tree of promise.
Now hear this in verse 18 – we Gentiles have nothing to be proud of. Don’t be arrogant. It’s not like God thought we were better than the Jews. Remember the Canaanite woman with a demon-infested daughter begging Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus said, “I’ve come only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It’s not good to throw the children’s food to the dogs” (which is what the Jews considered the Gentiles). She quickly and humbly replied, “Yes, Lord, but even the little puppies (kunaria) eat scraps from the master’s table.”
That’s what we are. Just Gentile puppies who have been brought into the tree representing God’s saving promises to Israel. We have no reason to think we’re better than the Jews. In fact, we are humbled and just thankful for God’s sovereign grace that reached down to our little lives and changed us for all eternity. So don’t be conceited but fear, live in reverent gratitude!
GOD’S CHARACTER ASSURES YOU THAT YOUR FAITH OR LACK OF IT WILL HAVE INESCAPABLE CONSEQUENCES.
Romans 11:20-24, Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. 22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
Paul is not teaching that we can lose our salvation. That is impossible. Paul is warning us, though, don’t think you’re better than Israel. Just as God broke Israel off the tree of salvation promise as a nation, He can do the same to us Gentiles. God removes gospel blessings when a people turn away from Him. You see it in those seven churches in Revelation 2-3. “I’ll remove your lampstand if you don’t repent.” So, this can happen as a nation, as a church denomination, as a religious organization. It will happen to a counterfeit so-called Christian who turns away from Christ. First John 2:19 warns, “They went out from us because they weren’t of us.” I think of all these people who are deconstructing their faith. God is kind to His true believers. But there is always the problem of tares in the church that God will remove.
The history of Christianity is this continual tendency toward apostasy or falling away from the faith and God cutting off branches. That’s exactly what Paul told us in Acts 20:29-30, “Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” And it’s happened throughout Church history. It’s like a historical pendulum, starting off humbly following Christ, believing the gospel, holding firmly to the faith. But over time the pendulum swings to unbelief, liberalism, turning away from the Scripture as the God-breathed book and the gospel as the only means of salvation. You see it in mainline denominations where the gospel is no longer preached, and some churches led by lesbian pastors. Princeton seminary began solid in the faith but drifted into unbelief and apostasy and God cut it as a gospel branch. And then God raises up people to take a strong stand and bring that pendulum back.
There’s always this fight for the faith. The culture washes into the church and erodes the biblical underpinnings. MacArthur somewhere said, “This is not a time for weak churches with weak pastors preaching weak sermons.” This is a time for great humble strength, courageous compassion, and fearless proclamation of God’s truth into all this God-forsaken darkness. Like Joshua, be strong and courageous. As we go into our world, shake that salt and shine that gospel light. If someone, Jew or Gentile, follows you around this week, what will they see? Will they see someone who esteems Christ and His Word above all else? Walk in such a way that they might say, “That person has something I don’t have. I need to find out what it is.”