Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing—a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to live all your days under the right hand of God's favor. When times are hard, may God create a way in the wilderness for you. And when times are dry, may He provide rivers in the desert for you. Isaiah 43:19.
When times are uncertain. May God cover you with favor as with a shield, Psalm five twelve. When it's time for work, may the favor of the Lord our God be upon you and establish the work of your hands. That's Psalm ninety verse seventeen. And all of life, may you grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and people everywhere.
That's from Luke two. Verse fifty-two. That's today's blessing. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. Let the things that you don't understand about God call you into worship of God, who is so much bigger than our capacity to understand.
And sometimes you just behold. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in this series, "The Loved: A Study of Romans Chapters 9 through 11." It's presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina.
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Here is Allen Wright. Here, when he says the partial hardening has come upon Israel, he's speaking of ethnic Israel. And verse twenty-six. And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, and he'll banish ungodliness from Jacob. And what is a little bit confusing is verse twenty-six, as we've been talking about this, because we know that elsewhere Paul said that not all of Israel is truly Israel, and by that he meant that.
There is a spiritual Israel within ethnic Israel, believing Jews, and we've made plain. I hope that there is never a hint in the New Testament of there being two ways of being saved. There's not one way of being saved; it's because of your ethnicity, and another is because of faith in Jesus. It's all because of faith in Jesus, and even the Old Testament saints, we're told. We had not met Jesus.
We're still saved through the coming work of Jesus, because Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
So no one is ever saved because of their own righteousness, but anyone who is saved is saved by the righteousness of Jesus. And so then we come to this, and it says, "And all Israel will be saved." And so you're left wondering, "What's he talking about here?" In order to understand this. We need to think of four different times or seasons of time, or we might think of eras, or but think of kinds of time, right? Not necessarily chronology, but kinds of time. And the first is the time of Gentile—that's everybody that's not Jewish—disobedience, and this is when God let the nations go their own way.
We learned about this in our very opening chapter of Romans early this year, Romans one twenty one. Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and exchanged. And birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity and so forth.
So there we learned that this is the Gentile world. This is the world apart from the Jewish people that rebelled against God, should have been able to know God through the creation, but didn't honor God. And so, what God did, seeing all that disobedience, He had a sovereign, gracious plan, and He called a man named Abraham. And he said, "I'm going to make you into a nation." And he didn't call Abraham because Abraham was more righteous than others, but he wanted to put his own righteousness on display. For when Abraham believed God on these things, we're told God credited to him his righteousness.
And you're seeing the gospel in advance.
So God called this people unto Himself, and they became known as Israel. And they were not more. Righteous than anyone. In fact, what's highlighted in the Old Testament is their constant rebellion and idolatry. But they were God's people, elected unto God, and so in the Gentile disobedience, God called a people unto Himself.
So, in one sense, you could say because of the Gentile disobedience, God formed Israel. But then there is a second season that Paul is talking about here—a second kind of time, in which the Messiah comes, and we're told he came into his own, but his own did not receive him.
So Jesus was Jewish, thoroughly Jewish, and he was born into ethnic Israel, born into the Jewish people, but his own did not receive him.
Now it's very important to say when we say Israel rejected him, we don't mean every single Israelite, right? We don't mean every Jewish person rejected Jesus. In the same way, when we said that Gentiles were disobedient, we don't mean that all of them were. I mean, you look back through the Old Testament, you see people like Melchizedek, a mysterious king who was Gentile that is appears and is honored and is righteous. His name means King of Righteousness.
You see instances like where Jonah. Goes and preaches to the Nenavites, and many of them repent. Right, so they're Gentiles that, in the context of of the Gentiles that were mostly disobedient, there were some righteous ones. And in the context of the Jewish people who rejected Jesus, of course, there were numbers of them who did receive Jesus. Think of Apostle Paul himself, who was Jew of Jews.
So when he's talking about all the Gentiles were disobedient and all of Israel, it is I think here more of the kind of way we talk a figurative speech when you just say all of them rejected him.
Well, not all of them yet, which is going to lead us to some understanding about what we mean by all of Israel.
So that's the second season, this time of disobedience of Jewish people, who have rejected Jesus. But then there's a third time that Paul's talking about here, and that's when Christ's people rejected him. God, in His great mercy, began through Pentecost, and then the preaching of Paul and others began reaching to the Gentiles. Which was completely out of understanding for the Jewish people, who thought that they were God's special people, and God starts pouring out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh, and then we go into this era of millions and millions and millions of people who are not Jewish, who are, Paul says, engrafted into Israel as the true Israel, and who are the people of God. And so that's the third season of this.
That there is a sense in which he's speaking of the Jewish disobedience, rejection of the Savior, not receiving Him, and then there is this incredible worldwide move that's still going on of people coming to Jesus who are not Jewish. And I know in America we're discouraged sometimes, and we see reports of decline of church attendance and all of that. But you must think globally. Because globally, people are coming to Jesus, and especially the southern part of the globe, but in unbelievable numbers, and so it's continuing on. And then he's going to speak here of a fourth season or a fourth kind of time, and that is in which he says a time in which there's going to be a new and wonderful outpouring of mercy upon Israel.
And what's a little bit confusing here, I can't spend all of our time on this. Is that we know that Paul has spoken otherwise in Romans nine through eleven at times of the true Israel or the spiritual Israel, which is not speaking of all ethnic Israel. But remember, in verse twenty-five, he seems to be speaking of ethnic Israel, and so it seems like, and most scholars and interpreters, regardless of their end times theology. Agree that here, Paul, when he says all Israel will be saved, is most likely talking about ethnic Israel, and so what he seems to be talking about here is a time of mercy that is still to come, in which, because Israel, Jewish people, have seen grace, and the gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit amongst the Gentiles. That God is going to, in some way that we don't understand, is going to soften the hearts of many, many Jewish people who will come to saving faith in Jesus.
Not a different way of salvation, but a future time of, and which is a glorious thing to think of, right?
So.
So he has this to say of those four seasons, and you need to understand that those four seasons, those four kinds of times, are at play here. We get to verse twenty-eight. As regards the gospel, they, the Jewish people, are enemies for your sake, because he's he's writing to Gentiles here. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. And he's talking here about Jewish people, who look again at the first part of verse twenty-eight.
As regards the gospel, they're enemies. As regards the things of Jesus, they are like enemies to you. And and yet he says, if you look at the second part of that verse, but as regards election, they are beloved.
So what he's saying is that on the one hand, because of the Jewish rejection of Jesus, not all of them, but as a whole. They are like enemies of the gospel, but as regards election, they are beloved by God.
So, though Israel, on the whole, didn't accept Jesus, and thus are from a gospel perspective like enemies to Jesus to into to the Christian message, it hasn't changed God's love for them. Why? Because This is so important principle to understand about who our God is. God doesn't throw away people or things that don't work, and He doesn't let His promises fall empty to the ground. But look again at verse twenty nine.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. He's talking about the call to Abraham and the gifts of revelation and favor that God showed Israel. The gifts of his presence through a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, the gift of giving them the Ten Commandments and the law, revealing himself to Israel, the favor that he showed them through so many centuries, putting his mercy on display. Those gifts and the calling are irrevocable, and so what he's saying here is that Israel, my chosen people, disobeyed. By not following the law, but they ultimately disobey by not receiving my son.
So on the one hand they're like enemies, but at the same time there's something higher at work, and that is that they are beloved.
So Israel's disobedience doesn't have the final word, and in the mystery of God's design, what Paul is saying here is this all has a purpose. Look at verse thirty. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they may now receive mercy. Let's make sure we're clear about who we're talking about here. The pronouns.
If we look at this again, for just as you Gentiles were at one time disobedient to God, but have now received mercy. Because of their Jews disobedience, so they the Jews, who have now been disobedient, in order that by the mercy shown to you Gentiles, that they the Jews also may now receive mercy.
So when the Gentiles And all the nations were disobedient. God did something, and He brought forth Abraham, and He made a nation unto Himself. And when He sent Jesus, and the nation He made unto Himself did not, on the whole, receive Jesus, in their disobedience, God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles. And what he's saying is that in watching the Gentiles and the mercy that's shown them, that there is going to be a time in which many more Jews are going to come and receive that same mercy.
So, in His infinite wisdom, God is using all kind of disobedience to get more people saved. Wow, that's just glorious! I like a God who knows how to take our disobedience and use it up for the good and the saving of many people. And that's what he says at verse thirty-two. He says it plainly: God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.
So the aim of God in all of this is to show forth His mercy. That's don't miss the heart of God here. Look, look at verses thirty to thirty-two again. This time, just noticing the theme: for just as you were one time disobedient to God, but now I've received mercy because of their disobedience.
So they too have now been disobedient, in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have, say it with me, mercy on all. Mercy is the heart of God. Love, kindness, and grace is the heart. Of God, so in all of this, which is really kind of mind-bending.
Like, okay, Israel disobedient. Wait a minute. He says, "Lot of them going to be saved." Wait a minute. What's it? This?
What about predestination? What about election? What about this? What about our sin? What about the fact that he desires all to be saved?
What about the fact that he elected some? What about how can all this come together? How does this all work? And our minds are like, "Ah, what to do?" What does Paul do with this? Paul finally just comes to this, and what does he say?
Verse thirty-three. He comes to this, and did he go? Am I bogged down in confusion? Am I bogged down in frustration? No.
What he says is, "Oh, the depth." Of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and inscrutable his ways. Paul has just, by the unction of the Holy Spirit, penned holy Scripture that will come as close we could ever come to understanding the mystery of the plan of salvation for both Jew and Gentile. And yet we come to the very edge of our understanding, and we finally go, we can't piece it all together. And Paul.
Is just mesmerized and wrapped in wonder by it, and says, "Oh, I spent a better part of a day in those early verses of this text. You know, they're kind of hard to understand, aren't they?" And like, how can I explain this? I mean, it's like my brain was freezing up on me, and I was—I read what everybody said. I'm reading what do the premillennialists say, and the amillennialists, and what the postmillennialists have to say about it, and what what does this what does what does this interpreter say about it, and everything. And I was like, I finally got to end of it, and after six hours of studying it, my brain was just hurting, and I hadn't had a single blessing out of it.
And I said, "Lord, I gotta, I gotta, I'm supposed to bring a blessing to the people." I said, "I hadn't found a, I hadn't found a nugget of nourishment yet." And that's when I realized, for Paul, when he thought about these things that he ultimately the mind can't understand about God, it led him into worship. One of the sermons that impacted me today is a great sermon by Sam Storms, who said the most important word in Romans eleven thirty three to thirty six isn't riches or wisdom or knowledge or glory or even God. It is perhaps the least likely word to attract your attention, yet it is rich and powerful and radically life changing. It's the first word in verse thirty three. Oh, it's a single Greek letter, omega, just an interjection.
An exclamation of wonder and joy! Oh, the depth! He's thinking about how bottomless, how unfathomable, how unreachable is the very depth of the riches. This is about this is about wealth in God of wisdom and knowledge that. And unscrutable, verse thirty-three, unsearchable.
He's using superlatives. He's using words to talk about where our mind leaves off. And the more that he thinks about it, the more he just praises God. And so he gets to verse thirty-four, and he quotes references from Isaiah and Job. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor, or who has been given, who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?
These three questions: Who, who's known the mind of the Lord? This is the same Paul that says we have a share in the mind of Christ. But here he's talking about where the things of God that we can't—they're just some things that are beyond us. These different times, God, why? Why did He wait?
As long as he waited to bring Jesus in the world, I don't know. He had good reason. I don't know. It was the fullness of time. I could give you some ideas of why it was the fullness of time, but I just had a good reason.
I remember one time when Bennett was little and he wanted to see a certain movie, and I didn't want him to see it because I knew it was in it and I knew it wouldn't be good for his little mind. I said, "You can't see that movie." He's like, "Well, well, why?" And I got ready to try to give him an answer, and I thought, "Well, if I give him the answer, then I'll be revealing the very content I don't want him thinking about." So I kind of stumbled, and he looked at me, and and one of the sweetest parenting moments I remember. He just looked at me. He said, "Never mind. You must have a good reason.
Sometimes God just has a good reason. I don't understand it yet. And what that does for us is." It leads us when we're under the Holy Spirit. It leads us to wonder and worship the things that the devil would like to take where our mind don't understand God and take us to doubt and confusion. The Holy Spirit takes us to worship.
Oh, the depths! And yes, another question: Who's been His counselor? Who around here has been given any advice to God lately? Yes. And a third question, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
Who here has added something to God's godness so that God really owes us this amazing design of God, this amazing plan of God, this amazing mercy of God? Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Everything that Paul has been teaching in Romans leads to this moment, right here at the end of chapter eleven. Before next week, we turn to chapter twelve and we start learning about how all of this gospel power infuses us and changes the way we live. How then shall we live based on all of this?
But here he ends with just this doxology, with just this cry of praise to God: the O, the O, the depths of the riches of God. And I think what this means for us is of great practical importance. John Piper says that this is utterly practical. Because he says the reason that our society is so awash in things like lust is that our lives quote are intellectually and emotionally disconnected from infinite soul staggering grandeur. I agree, Alan Wright.
Today's good news message titled "Oh God" in our series "Beloved." It's a study of Romans, and Pastor Alan is back with us here in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Alan Wright Ministries is more than just a daily radio broadcast. Here are Daniel and Pastor Alan explaining another layer. You know, Pastor Alan, through this radio ministry, it's often been said that this is a friend, a friend in time of need. It's a friendly voice.
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Again, that's pastorallen dot org. Back here with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day. And Pastor Alan, I imagine someone listening and and it's resonating with them. They're just like Pastor Alan. Say more.
Tell me something else about this. Yeah. I bless your your. I bless the O. That is down in your soul.
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom. Oh, it all belongs to Him. Oh, there is so much beauty and so much for our souls to be wrapped with in awe and admiration, and the glow of the gospel's light. And when that happens, beloved, the darkness just loses its appeal, doesn't it? If you're so fascinated with the goodness of God.
Then the the the lesser delights of this world, the the things of the flesh, they begin to mean less and less to you. And so may your soul just be wrapped with wonder at the beauty, majesty, and goodness of God. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
