Romans 11 | Grace: God's Cosmic Plan

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.