Thank you for
the opportunity that Sean I had last week to be gone visiting our fam.
We had a great time.
I appreciate David being here and sharing.
Most of chapter ten with us.
It was good.
But I want to ask you this question.
What if you could know
God's cosmic plan
to save anybody who desire to be saved?
Well, what if you could know
how God chooses to respond to your disobedience?
Well, like if you could know God's cosmic plan
and how we respond to those who reject.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
If you could know not just his plan for your life,
but his cosmic plan for you?
Think about it.
Chapters nine and ten.
Sorry.
Nine through 11.
Tell us about God's cosmic plan and how he responds.
When people reject him and reject it.
The entire book of Romans is divided into four sections
the Wrath of God, chapters one, two, and three.
The Grace of God.
The last part of three all the way through chapter eight.
We just close that out.
And the the last little series.
And now we're in this section,
about the plan of God, chapters nine, ten, 11.
So so we're at the tail end of looking at God's plan.
That's why I asked if you could know God's cosmic plan.
Wouldn't that be awesome?
But we can.
It's chapters nine, ten, 11.
Next week we start the the fourth section of the Book of Romans,
which is about the will.
So the wrath of God.
The grace of God, the plan of God and the.
And the will of God.
Chapters 12
through 16 where it gets super practical.
But before we get to to when Paul says, look, this is
how now how you live in light of all this stuff,
we gotta finish out this one little section
about the plan of God.
Now, I want to encourage you with this,
that God has a plan and you're part of it.
So be encouraged.
But be humble
because God doesn't have to include you in it.
So be encouraged.
You're part of God's cosmic plan, but be humble
because God doesn't have to let you be a part of it.
You understand?
The heartbeat of Romans.
Is God's unstoppable
plan to save sinners by grace through faith.
That's the heartbeat of it.
And I would add to that statement this
our proper response as an act of worship and service.
That's the heartbeat of Romans.
His unstoppable plan to save anybody who needs saving.
And once that happens, our response in serving
and giving our lives as an act of worship, that's the proper response.
That's what Trump 316 is all about.
Now, last week, David did a good job of introducing
a Greek word that used four times in chapter ten, four times in 21 verses.
It comes from the Greek word, the root word sozo,
which means salvation or to be saved.
And the, the, the, the,
the study of soteriology is the study of salvation.
Who saved by what?
Like what they're saved from? And by whom?
Who does the saving?
So that's the study of soteriology.
Salvation from the Greek word sozo.
In chapters nine talks about Israel's past
and God's saving work.
Chapter ten talks about Israel's present and what he does
now, and chapter 11 talks about Israel's future.
And it all has to do with the saving of humanity.
So, so.
But here's what we have to understand.
And this is where it gets.
Even though chapters 9 to 11 is about Israel.
It has also to do with us.
And we have to understand the interplay
and the interconnection between Israel and us, because the truth
is, God's promises to Israel shape his promises to us.
Okay.
So God called the people out
and adopted them as his own, and he called them
Israel put his name on this people that were not a people.
And through Abraham created this.
People called Israel put his name on them.
We know them as the Jews.
Everybody follow me so far.
Okay, so he's saying them.
He chose them to be his own.
And his interaction with that people is all about their saving.
Now, as a nation,
they rejected the idea of the Messiah
who would be their Savior as a nation.
And so God then turned the invitation
of salvation to us non-Jews.
Bible calls him, calls us Gentiles.
So God said, I'm going to take this, people.
I'm going to give them my name.
I'm going to call him Israel.
They're going to be the Jewish people, and I.
I'm going to save them.
They rejected the Messiah, their Savior.
And so God said, fine, you reject my Savior, though not all of you.
There's always a remnant that has hasn't.
But as a nation.
So I'm going to turn my attention now to the Gentiles.
So God's promises to Israel shape his promises to us.
You follow. Okay.
Now, just because we have
those who have believed believe in this message of God,
his love for us is expression of his love for us through Jesus on the cross,
and call ourselves Christians.
We have to understand that Jesus was not a Christian.
You okay with that?
Okay, we call ourselves Christ followers and Christians,
but Jesus was never a Christian.
He was a Jew, a fully Jew,
circumcised on the eighth day,
bar mitzvah,
obeyed the laws and fulfilled the laws.
As a obedient Jew.
Jesus never became a Christian.
And he said, you don't have to.
You Gentiles don't have to become Jewish.
What God has done is said,
I want to adopt you into my family,
even though you were never part of my people.
You understand?
But it's not like Jesus converted
to Christianity.
And, but but here's here's some more.
Most people think that Jesus is a Christian.
And that's why America is so great.
Because America is a Christian nation following Jesus, right?
And we create American ism with Christianity
and assume that Jesus is a Christian.
So he's on our side.
You know, you understand this.
That's not how this works.
Though
Jesus was never a Christian, and though we never have to become Jewish.
God's made incredible promises to the Jewish people.
Those promises still stand, and those promises will still be fulfilled.
But God's promises to Israel shape
his promises to us.
And now what God has done.
And this is what chapter ten and 11 are about in Romans.
What God has done now is use Gentiles to make Jews
jealous that we get what was originally intended just for them.
Did you know that
God uses us Gentiles to make his people jealous?
That we get what was intended to them?
That's why I say God's promises to Israel shape his promises to us.
And this was God's intent.
Chapter ten and 11 are about the invitation
to us
by God to be a part of his family.
But it's also about God still fulfilling his promises
to his people as a nation.
These two chapters particular are so important
for us to talk about today because of this wave of unprecedented
in the last few generations of anti-Semitism
that have swept through social media and college campuses.
We're seeing it on a global level as never before.
Since the Holocaust.
This incredible wave of anti-Semitism
where both the, the, the, the unrepentant world
and oftentimes the evangelical world is turning against Israel
because of what
they're believing on the geopolitical scheme of the globe.
And it's horrific.
Christians.
And the church should love the Jews
because we are eternally indebted to them.
And church, I want to tell you to be very mindful
and very cautious and very intelligent
about this anti-Semitic wave
that is taking over every screen that you're on
and every campus.
That our kids attend.
God has made promises
to his people that will stand and will be fulfilled.
And the only reason we get to experience any of that is because God
has invited us to participate in his plan for his people.
He certainly isn't done with them.
And to set up chapter 11,
I want to go back to chapter ten,
verses 14 through the rest.
And I want to begin
with the purpose, God's purpose of this whole thing
and God's purpose for us in this world.
And he is the fact that he has turned his attention
to us, to make his people, the Jews, jealous.
So they will come back to him, and they will do.
But to set up chapter ten, verse four down and to go all over the Bible
doing that today. Okay.
You get your little fingers ready because I want you to like
follow along here in your Bibles.
But I want to start in first Peter 315
in our hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.
How do you do that?
How do you honor Jesus as holy?
Well, you're always prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you
for the reason for the hope that is in you.
How do you honor Jesus?
You're ready at the drop of a hat, to give a reason for the hope
that you have of forgiveness and salvation.
And when we have been adopted into God's family and understand
what he's done to adopt us as his own, though
we are not his original people.
And someone asks us about that hope
it is dishonoring to Christ and not be ready
to give a reason to understand.
Yes. You okay?
But when you when we open our mouths about this,
make sure that we do with gentleness and respect
and be belligerent about it.
There's enough about my life that's belligerent.
Like I don't need to add this, like, just be gentle when it comes to Jesus.
And in this message, we do it with gentleness and in respect to people.
For it is this everybody who says that they follow
Jesus has a responsibility and a command to be ready at the moment's notice.
So here's why I believe it.
Here's why I have hope.
And friends just
if you're not ready right now to give a reason
for the hope that you have to someone who has no hope.
The Bible says it is dishonoring to Christ.
So if you don't know how to do this and you're not ready,
you better learn.
Go to our app.
Go to Unfiltered and Uncensored.
And I've done an entire multi-hour thing
on how to share your faith in a way that's natural and fits you.
It's not difficult.
Because God has invited us who were not his, into his family.
Should we do the same thing to others on this family?
And this is what Paul's getting at.
In the last part of of Romans ten, I need to set this up
because it sets up 11.
And I want to dive in just a little bit.
How then what they call on him in whom they have not believed.
Remember God's cosmic plan to offer salvation to anybody who needs saving.
And so Paul's saying, well, he'll do it.
But how can they call on him if they've not believed in him?
And how can they believe in him if they've not heard about him?
And how can they hear without someone preaching
and how can they preach unless they're sent
as it's written?
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?
Let me make this point.
There is a
chain reaction in what we call salvation.
And the chain reaction is this
someone is sent to preach so someone can believe and receive.
But people don't believe and receive until someone has preached,
has spoken the good news.
And this is the point I want to make about this.
This is why we're so committed to church planting.
This is why we're so committed to the mission work that we do,
both in America and in other countries.
This is why we're so committed to it.
Did you know that there are that there are 200 pastors
in Ukraine right now who know that there
if things go as they go in, pretty soon they're going to die.
And there's a revival going on in Ukraine right now
of these people who want to plant churches because they know
that their countrymen are being killed.
I don't care what you believe about the political state of Russia and Ukraine.
The fact is, people are dying in real time
and there are Christians there who want to plant churches,
and they've asked us to step into that country
and train 200 to go out and plant churches. Why?
Because how can they believe unless they've heard?
How can they hear unless someone's pretty shocking someone, unless they've seen.
How beautiful is this that we get to do it?
Do you understand?
And I have the opportunity to get to be on the frontlines
and literally on the front lines.
How beautiful is that?
Why? Because this is God's global plan.
In Cuba.
Because we started this church planting movement there.
There's 120 churches that have started there because of what we've done,
and 100 pastors who have gone through the description of what we do or to plant
churches, because there's a revival going on in Cuba right now.
They have no food and no resources, but there's a spiritual revival
going on that that that little island is coming to faith.
It's amazing.
That's one of the churches
in Cuba that we helped put there,
completely packed.
With people are coming to faith.
That's Guatemala.
That's where
we have those five academies in that slum right there,
where they get food and education and love and medicine
and the gospel.
That's a picture of a of a church
that we're that we're helping fund and build in Guatemala.
Those are our lead pastors in Guatemala.
That are just absolute warriors
who are giving themselves and their families and their lives to church.
And because they know that, how can people believe
when I say, you're not going to hear some of those people are going to be
unless they're saying, guess what?
We're sending?
This is why we do what we do.
Excel
leadership networks out there to help lead 100 churches.
We started last year in the states, 100 more this year.
Because this is and guys this is part of
this is part of how you are part of God's cosmic plan.
We see all the time that you don't give to us.
You give through us.
We send a majority of our money
away, away from us.
Because this is so important.
This is God's cosmic plan to turn his attention to those of us
who are not Jews, to make the Jews jealous that they'll come back to him.
But we have to send people and we have to send people,
and we have to send people that.
That's why we're not threatened to start a church in Fresno.
We're not threatened to start
to help start a church in, in in Riverstone, right next door.
We're not threatened by it, by the proximity
of starting other churches and coaching other churches
and helping others who are threatened by that. It's all part of God's kingdom.
Most churches will
never start a church down the road because they're threatened by them.
The goal for the church next door if we need to like it.
Just part of God's plan.
I agree.
You understand what I'm saying?
We're headed to Mexico in a few weeks.
I'll be preaching a church there and building stuff there.
You you either need to go or you need a fund.
I'm just telling you right now.
It's part of God's plan.
You need to go or you need to fund.
We've had QR codes up to give you information.
If you haven't, take advantage of that.
That's that's that's your fault is not mine.
So so go figure that out.
Now. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
The only way to gain faith,
the only way to grow in maturity, is to learn and proclaim the Word of God.
You hear it, and you receive it, and they're responsible to share it.
Faith doesn't come by doing.
Faith doesn't come by singing.
Faith doesn't come by.
Faith comes by the Word of God.
We got it.
This is why this is so important.
That's why Paul just said this whole thing starts with preaching,
not just from the pulpit, but certainly from the pulpit,
but in your lives to the proclamation of God's Word, to people in your huddle,
those close to you who don't know Jesus, who are struggling,
the proclamation of His Word, and you better be ready at the drop of a
hat to give a reason for the hope that you have.
That's what Paul's saying. This is part of his plan.
Look at this receipt to follow with me on on the screen back there.
Look at 18, 19, 20.
But I asked, have they not heard?
Sure they've heard.
For the voice
has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
But I ask, did Israel not understand?
Just like, why didn't they believe?
Don't know.
First Moses says, I will make you jealous.
There's that word I'll make you.
He's talking to his own people.
I'll make you jealous of those who are not a nation with a foolish nation.
I'll make you angry.
Guess what? We are.
We're the nation.
He said, do my people not believe me in the promises I made?
Because they haven't heard? No. They've heard.
They're just. They're just.
They've ignored me.
So I don't make them jealous by.
By a bunch of fools.
So what kind of flip side is.
And so we are in Isaiah.
So bold to say,
have I been found by those who did not seek, or
I have been found by those who do not see me?
I have shown myself to those who didn't ask for me so I can look.
They weren't even looking for me and I showed myself to them.
You and I weren't looking for Jesus.
And he showed up.
Though
the majority of Israel has rejected the Messiah,
a remnant has always believed.
And even though the Spirit of God has turned his attention
to us non-Jews to make Israel jealous.
And the key to understanding chapter 11 that we're getting into right now
is that fact
that God is using us
to make Israel jealous because he wants his kids to come back home?
This is a deeply theological truth,
and we have to understand this.
If we're going to send the message of the of
of all of Scripture.
And I love verse 21 of chapter ten.
But of Israel he says, all day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient
and contrary people all day long.
Do you know he's done that for you and for me
all day long?
He's held out his hands
to an obstinate,
reluctant, difficult person like me.
And like you.
Because his cosmic plan
is for our salvation.
And he's not willing
to give up on any of us.
How long are you
and I going to resist the outstretched hand of God?
God constantly pursues those who are
disobedient,
obstinate, and contrary. Why?
Because grace is greater than disobedience.
His grace is greater.
And he wants to us to experience is undeserved
an unmerited favor and blessing, even for the disobedient.
And so chapter verse one of chapter 11, you.
We got to understand this principle of the preaching of the Good news
because he, God, is making his kids jealous
because we get to be included in his promises.
So then Paul says, I ask then because of that,
because of that deeply theological truth.
Has God rejected his people?
By no means.
Paul says, for I myself as an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,
a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
He said, we can't start thinking that because they've rejected the Messiah,
that God's done with them and done with his promises,
which is what some in the evangelical and the Christian American church think,
that God got so upset with his people
because they denied him that he gave all those, for he turned all his promises.
He hasn't, Paul said he hasn't rejected his people because I'm one of them.
If he rejected this, people would rejected me.
God hasn't rejected his people at all.
He's just included other people in the promise as well.
That's what he's saying.
And then he gives his example.
God has not rejected his people, whom he,
Oh, yeah.
Whom he foreknew.
Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah?
How he appeals to God against Israel?
Lord, they have killed your prophets.
They have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.
But what is God's reply to him?
I have kept for myself 7000 men who have not bowed
the knee to bear what he said.
He's drawing on Old Testament history.
He says, if you think God is getting this, people just remember Elijah.
Elijah, the prophet of God, goes up the mountain
to do the battle with, with, with the prophets of Baal.
And he does battle with them.
And God shows himself faithful in that.
And all these prophets of Baal, just in this battle, just get slaughtered.
And and in after that great victory,
Elijah goes to this great moment of, of just a down
to whenever there's a mountaintop, there's a valley after it, right?
He goes, this great mountain, top of the heat sinks down in this deep depression,
and he runs away in isolation.
Let me just say this, that that's part of the devil's plan for God's
people is to isolate us, because in isolation comes defeat
and isolation comes depression, and isolation comes frustration.
And we, when we silo ourselves and our isolated
away from God's people, it's very it's a very, very dark place.
And some of you understand this.
And so he's in
isolation and he's in despair and he cries out to God.
He's like, God, I'm the only one, sure, but I'm the only one on your team.
Everybody else is against you.
And God says you, what do you.
I got 7000 that you don't know about.
Don't tell me you're the only one.
You're not alone in this.
And yet what he says.
God hasn't rejected me. He's got a remnant.
Still, God hasn't rejected his people.
He's still faithful to his promises.
Look at verse five and six.
So to at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
They're God's not because they're Jews, not because they're obedient,
but by God's grace.
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
Otherwise your grace would no longer be grace.
God has an abandoned his people.
God has abandoned the Jewish nation, and he's included us in it all by grace,
not by works, nor by birth.
And if it's by works or by birth,
every one of us is doomed.
He's faithful to his people because he's a God that's full of grace.
And he's invited us into those promises because he is a God
full of grace.
To understand.
What then?
Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.
The elect attained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written.
Verse eight.
God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, and ears
that would not hear down to this very day.
And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.
What he's saying is, look, they chose to reject me.
And so I confirm that choice.
And this is what he does for us.
The more one says no to God,
the easier it is to say no to God.
God doesn't make one say no to him.
He just confirms the choice.
It's exactly what Paul referenced in the previous two chapters
about Pharaoh hardening in his heart and God hiding in after him.
Whatever decision you and I choose to make about
Jesus, God will confirm that choice.
And if you and I choose to close our eyes to the light of the gospel,
if we chose to close our minds to the truth, it close to choose
to close our hearts to the relation of it, God will confirm
that choice.
But conversely,
if we choose to open our eyes to the light of the message of Jesus,
if we choose to open our minds to the truth of that, open our hearts
to the relationship, God will also confirm of that choice.
You understand?
As a nation, the Jews chose to reject the Messiah God.
Confirm that choice, though there's always a remnant that chooses by grace
to believe,
and God is faithful
even to the disobedient.
Verse 11.
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall?
By no means rather, through their trespass,
salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.
There it is again.
They said, look, they they stumbled, but they didn't fall.
Here's a difference.
A stumble is a stumble is it a trip?
I'm okay.
Have you ever done that in public?
I've.
I it it's all right.
Right? It's different than the old lady.
I fall in and I can't get up.
And so look, you all going to stumble but a stumble in the fall.
A fall means that you're done.
And Israel's not done.
And God's promises to his nation is not done.
They've stumbled, but they've stumbled. Why?
But to say why?
So that we can be included in the promises.
So that Israel becomes jealous.
He's not done with them.
He's wooing them by being so good to me
and to you.
Now, if they're trespass, verse 12 means riches for the world.
And if they're future, riches.
And if their future means riches for the Gentiles,
how much more will our full inclusion mean?
What he's saying is this,
by their stumble, it meant riches for us.
How much better is the world going to be
by their inclusion again?
I mean, how great is that going to be?
Now watch this verse 13 through 15.
Now I'm speaking of the Gentiles.
So now he changes.
He's talking to us in as much then as I'm apostle to the Gentiles,
I magnify my ministry in order
somehow to make my fellow Jews what jealous.
So that what
saved some of them.
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance mean?
But life from the dead.
Here's what he's saying.
It is biblical to brag
about how good God is to you.
Not how good you are, not what you've done,
but how good God has been.
He says, I will magnify my ministry.
I'm going to brag about it because God has been so good.
And the more and,
The more that the world who has not experienced
the goodness and grace of God, hears about the goodness and grace of God.
It's intended to make them want to experience the
goodness and grace of God.
Our problem?
We don't have a problem. I'm bragging.
We don't have a problem highlighting.
Everything about us and my
kid and my business and my blah blah blah.
It's amazing.
Once a youth sports starts up,
parents turn into some of the most grandiose bragging in the am I right,
Andy?
Yeah, either
the most grandiose brag of the most grandiose complainers.
Okay, but.
We know how to do it.
We just do it about the wrong things.
And Paul saying, don't do it.
Just brag about God's grace.
Because it makes people want it.
Look at verse 17.
But if some of the branches were broken off, he's
the that the Jewish national symbol is an olive tree.
Okay.
That's the that's the national symbols on olive tree.
And, and and Paul is going to talk about this forming an analogy
when you cut off branches and graft new ones in.
Okay. So that's what that's what he's talking about here.
So the national the Jews are the net of the natural olive tree.
Gentiles are these wild offshoots that get grafted into it.
Look says,
but if some of the branches are broken off and you all the a wild olive shoot,
we're grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing
root of the olive tree.
Don't be ignorant towards those natural branches
right?
Then you will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
Well that's true, they were broken off because of their unbelief.
But you stand fast through faith, so don't become proud.
But fear for of God didn't spare the natural branches.
Neither will he spare you.
Here's what he's saying.
Like because we have, we have gained Christ, the Jewish Messiah,
and the promises of God intended for his people.
We can't say because God favors me.
He says if God was willing
to cut off his own natural branch
and gracious enough to graft you in so you get to partake of all this stuff,
don't you get pride in that powerful and prideful and arrogant
and think those stupid Jews.
Golly!
Because what if God is willing to break off his own branch?
What makes you wild? Shoot.
Think that he won't break you off to
because of your arrogance against his people?
This is true both personally,
politically, and nationally.
Do you understand?
This is why he's starting to be encouraged.
God's got a plan and we're part of it.
But be humble because he doesn't have to include us in it.
Pride cuts us off.
Grace graphs us in.
The verse 22.
Note, then, the kindness and severity
of God severity toward those who have fallen.
But God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise you'll be cut off.
The kindness of God.
Listen, friends, we've been given
gifted and grafted.
We've been given the gift of salvation.
Not because we've earned it.
We've been grafted
into a relationship with him,
or gifted in the Holy Spirit in that relationship,
and grafted into his promises and into his family.
As long as we continue in faith.
Understanding.
That's by his grace.
I'm going to jump down to verse 25,
lest you be wise in your own sight.
I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery.
Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel
until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Let me explain that the mystery of God
other place is called the mystery of the gospel.
It's a Greek word mystery on and all it is.
It's a mystery that Gentiles would be included
in the Jewish faith saved by a Jewish Messiah.
That's a mystery that the Jews could never fully understand,
and that's why they rejected it.
The mystery of God
that he, in his grace, would include us.
Not asking us to become Jewish, not asking us to obey law,
but just simply by his grace.
The mystery that by his grace he has included us in his family.
You and I don't deserve it. You and I can't earn it.
It's simply by the grace of God, because grace is greater than you.
Fill in the blank.
And it says, until the full number of Gentiles has come in.
Listen, I can't explain this.
I can only tell you the fact of it.
There is an eternal ticker that God is watching
of non-Jews who are going to come to faith.
And when the last clicker clicks
and that number is complete,
then that will be the end times when the nation of Israel will come back
to Christ.
It's amazing.
And right now that ticker is ticking
till the full number of Gentiles has come in.
And this is why Paul's prayer
in Ephesians six is what it is.
Ephesians six, verses 19 and 20.
Talks about give me words and wisdom.
I may proclaim the mystery of the gospel and fiercely proclaim it as I should.
That's my prayer for myself every single morning that words
will be given me there fills your mouth on the mystery of the gospel.
Because I know there's an eternal clicker that's clicking.
And this is why it's so important for us to plant churches.
Because the moment that happens.
Listen, let me read 2020.
And as regards the gospel, they are enemies.
They're talking about Jews as regards the gospel.
They're enemies for your sake.
But as regards election, they're the beloved
for the sake of the forefathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
Here's what he's saying regarding salvation
and God's mystery to include us there.
Enemies of that, the Jews as a nation, their enemies so they don't get it.
But regarding God's choosing of them, they're beloved of God
because God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And God is always faithful to his promise.
For the the, the gifts
and coming of God are irrevocable.
They will come back.
The gifts and corner are.
He's not going to renege on his promises.
Here's why.
After God's promises are not seasonal, they're eternal.
And all Israel as a nation will be saved
when that final clicker clicks in the end times.
For just as you were at one time disobedient to God,
but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, they were disobedient.
So God turned his mercy towards us.
So they too
have now been disobedient, in order that by the mercy
shown to you, to us, they also may now receive mercy.
For God has consigned all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy on all he said.
Look, they were disobedient, so God can be merciful to us.
By his grace he was under his grace
is going to, and even our disobey is going to make God turn his mercy towards them.
We're all disobedient so that God can have
mercy on us all.
Let me let me explain this.
There will come a time
when God will save
and keep and fulfill all his promises to the nation of Israel,
and all the Jews will come to faith in the end times.
It's a promise. It's in the book of revelation.
But I want to understand something.
When God
talks about saving his nation, it's not being saved.
Diachronic.
That's a fancy word for saving all Jews from all time.
Since the beginning of time.
The Bible talks about saving Jews.
Synchrony.
Sin chronically, which means all Jews at the time.
So there will come a time when the Jews at that time
will all come to faith,
because God has turned his mercy and grace to us,
and because we have preached his word.
And that will make the Jews jealous
in the end times, and they will come back to faith.
This is all part of God's cosmic plan,
and you and I get to be a part of it
in humility, because he doesn't
have to use us to do it.
So that he may have mercy on us all.
This God's
mercy and grace are not his reward for my goodness.
They are his response to my need.
God's mercy and grace is not a response to your goodness.
It's a response to your need.
That's why he's merciful.
That's why he's gracious.
Not because we've earned it.
Because we need it.
Let me just wrap up with this.
It's been a lot of Bible today.
You okay?
I got three, like, three more verses. Yes.
And so in light of all this, this is this is, just imagine Paul,
we only have one description physically, of Paul,
and the description is of a short, bald man
with bow legs
and a big hooked nose
that the only description you have is not of an attractive man.
So that's why I identify so well with him.
I mean, there is
the short bald guy, bald and a big no.
He just.
And I imagine Paul, he's writing all this down.
And then at the end of this understanding God's cosmic plan for his people
and then turning that plan to us Gentiles, though always leaving a remnant
that is faithful to him.
And ultimately, one day when the clicker clicks
and all his people come back to him, Paul can do nothing is really oh,
the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgment, how inscrutable his ways,
his amazing.
And he's drawing on the truth of Isaiah 55,
that God's ways are higher and far above yours.
And my thoughts, his ways are far above.
How incredible is this in light of all of this God, you know what you're doing.
If you left after me, I'd have done it different.
I'm so glad you didn't leave it up to me.
Your ways are right.
Your ways are higher.
Your ways are profound.
I can't even understand them. But I know they're right.
And then he ends with this.
For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
I love how he writes this, because notice what he says, for from him
and through him and to him are all things,
all one syllable words.
In essence, he's making it as simple as possible.
If you can utter a one syllable word, you know the truth of the gospel,
for from him and through him and to him are all things.
Some of you right now don't believe in your Savior.
It isn't really one syllable.
Right?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
How much more simple can it be?
Oh, God, you are so great and your plan is so inscrutable.
I can't understand it,
but at the end of the day, I am so overwhelmed with who you are.
Jesus
forth from you
and through you and to you are all things.
To him be glory forever.
Amen.
Like he's so wrapped up in this thing. Why?
Because God's cosmic plan
is not just for salvation of anybody who needs to be saved.
It's also his cosmic plan for the glorification of his son.
And that's how Paul ends this section of Romans and the glorification of the son.
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To God be the glory forever.
Amen,
Amen.
And the fact that you and I,
in spite of ourselves,
get to be adopted into this.
What that means about you.
You know, means about God.
I don't know about you.
This makes me walk around with a little bit straighter back and higher head.
Because I know it's not anything I've done.
It's not because of the grace of God.
Because grace
is greater.
Praise be to God,
father.
Thank you.
You didn't have to,
but you chose to in your mercy and by your grace,
turn your attention and your promises to people like me
and people like us.
Thank you.
Thank you that you're not done with your people.
Thank you that you're not done with your nation.
And thank you that we get to be supporters of your people and of your nation.
What an honor that is for us.
Thank you
for the honor you've given us to invest our lives
and our money in planting churches.
To accomplish your global plan,
your cosmic plan of the saving of many.
Thank you for the responsibility
you've given us to give a reason for the hope that we have.
That others may step into your cosmic plan
of being saved.
For. For you and through you.
And to you are all things.
You to be glorified forever.
Friends, in this moment,
I want to give you a chance to align your life
with the cosmic plan of God
with the life of His Son,
and step into the reality and the destiny
that he has intended for you.
By faith.
Because of God's grace.
I invite you of this moment to say, God, I'm yours.
It's real simple.
You simple words, God, I'm yours.
I receive
what Jesus did for me on the cross.
I accept that work
of forgiveness in my life and I step into.
Both my
present and my destiny.
To glorify and magnify the name of your son.
Help me in this moment.
Learn and know what I must now do.
Because of what you've done.
To follow you more faithfully,
more purposefully, with great humility
and thanksgiving.
God, you are a good God.
Thank you for your word that speaks so clearly
in your name.
I pray now
listen.
You all have been through three weeks of
deeply theological and doctrinal truths from Romans nine 1011. It.
Yeah, those are some tough chapters.
Most people don't preach on that and most people don't read it.
I'm proud of you. Great job.
I would encourage you to go back and read 1911 again with some new eyes.
Read chapter 12. Chapter 12 is a lot of fun.
It's going to get a lot of fun now as we go finish this book out.
Now, here's the other thing.
I ask those little cards in front of you.
You made some decision.
You want to talk with a staff person?
Fill that out, please.
Put it in the little box on the, on the on the wall back there.
Take it by the start.
Here, booth, stop by the welcome center.
Like, communicate with us.
I'd love to talk to you, Jeff.
Love to talk to you, Ali.
Love talk to like any of would like to communicate with us.
That's why we stand around after service
and let other people clean up so we can just get.
Listen
for him, through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever.
Amen.
Stand up and let's sing it like we believe it.