Romans

If you like to sit down and and turn to your bibles in Romans chapter 11. If you're, using a church bible, it Page 1138, and Sarah is going to come and read, chapter 11 to us, and then Pete will open it up. The remnant of Israel. I asked then, did god reject his people by no means? I am an Israelite myself.

A descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appealed to god against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only 1 left, and they are trying to kill me.

And what was god's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7000 who have not bowed the need to bile. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace.

What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain? The elect among them did, but the others were hardened as it is written, god gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap? A stumbling block and a retribution for them.

May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever? Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery, not at all, rather because of their transgression, salvation has come to the gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the gentiles. How much greater riches will their full inclusion bring? I am talking to you gentiles.

In as much as I am the apostle to the gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. If the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.

Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do consider this You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, branches were broken off so that I could be granted dip, grafted in, granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief and you stand by faith do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if god did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of god.

Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be granted in. For god is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, How much more readily will these, the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery brothers and so that you may not be conceded. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. For god's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at 1 time disobedient to god, have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience. So they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of god's mercy to you.

For god has bound everyone over to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on them all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of god, how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out, who has known the mind of the lord, or who has been his counselor, who has ever given to god that god should repay them, for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever. Well, here we are, Romans 11. 1 of what most, people would say difficult passages in the whole of the Bible along with some other passages. This one's a tough 1 and we're here.

So if we can make uh-uh sense of this or if we can work our way through this then we can really do any part of the Bible. So that's that's good. Gordon is is kindness can open our eyes by his spirit. It's his word. Let's pray.

Father help us now with this renownedly difficult passage to see great truths that really touch our hearts and bring praise to you. In Jesus' name, amen. So keep that passage open. I'm gonna flick back to Romans chapter 9 in a minute, and I want you to look up these verses as we we as we go along. There's a very long and quite complicated in its language poem, but nevertheless it's got a friend tastic theme.

And some of you will know it. It's called the hound of heaven by Francis Thompson, the hound of heaven. And what I like about the poem is that there's this image of this person running frantically away from god. Just running from god and running from god's love as hard as, the runner can. But the person is followed and pursued by god.

So wherever the person runs, there's this sort of shadow and he's imaged as the hound of heaven. God, the hound of heaven, suing this person wherever they go. And this hound runs unhurriedly and unperturbed goes the poem. Here's here's a little bit of it. This is the easiest bits.

I fled him down the nights and down the days I fled him down the arches of the years. I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind and in the midst of tears. This runner fleeing from god, and then here's the footsteps. From those strong feet that followed, followed after, but with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, stick instancy. They beat and a voice beat more instant than the feet.

All things betray thee who betray us me. In other words, runner, you run after things, but all of the things that you run after will turn and betray you if you've already betrayed me. It's a wonderful picture of god relentlessly pursuing someone with his love who foolishly is running to his ruin. It's a wonderful picture of god not giving up even with all the twists and turns that the runner, goes through in order to reject and run away from god. God doesn't give up.

It's a wonderful picture of god not giving up on his plan to pursue and to save the 1 that's that's running away and not rejecting those who even reject him. It's a wonderful picture of that. And it's a good image for us to understand something what's going on in Romans chapter 9 to 11. So here's the question in chapter 11, the first verse. You see it verse 1, I asked then, did God reject his people?

Did god give up on his people? Now Paul is talking here about the Jews, the Jewish people here and they had clearly run away from god. They had clearly rejected god. They, as a nation, had handed over god's king, god's Messiah, god's rescuer, they had handed over Jesus to be executed under the Romans, to be crucified. They rejected god.

They ran away from him. They're the ones that we're told in chapter 9, go back to the beginning of chapter 9 that had all the promises and all the blessings of god and all the gifts of god. Look at chapter 9 verse 4. The people of Israel, he said, theirs is the adoption of sons, theirs is the divine glory, the covenants the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. There's are the patriarchs and from them is trace the human ancestry of the Messiah who is god overall forever praised our men.

By the way, it's just showing you that Jesus is god overall there. But you may not understand all of the blessings there, but god has given them and given them and given them grace and gift and the Messiah, and they reject all his love, they run away from all his gifts, and they kill his son. That's what they've done. They would not receive Jesus as the Messiah as the savior. He came to that which was his own we're told in John's gospel, but they would not receive him.

So at the end of Romans 9, look at it verse 30. What then shall we say? That the gentiles, that's all people that are non Jews. If you're a non jew, you're gentile that the gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, in other words, they didn't run away after their own rightness. They stopped and took God's love on board.

Let me read that again, that the gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained a righteousness that is by faith. But the people of Israel who pursued see the running word, who pursued the law, as the way of righteousness have not attained their goal. They're running. All the all things betray thee that betrayeth me. They hadn't attained their goal.

Why not? Because they pursued it, not by trusting in god, not by faith, But as if as if it were works and they stumbled over the stumbling stone. They're running the wrong way. They think they're running toward god. They're running away from god.

They're running away from god to their own works and their own achievements. They're running to prove themselves rather than stop and allowing the love of god to embrace them. They run. They flee. And it's so much harder.

It's so much harder work to run from god because It's very clear of what you have to do to be right with god. Look at chapter 10 now. Chapter 10 verses 11 and 30 to 13. As the scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentle the same lord is the lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved.

All you have to do is to stop running and call on the name of the lord, but they continued running. But god is the hound of heaven, and he runs after them. Look at the second half of verse 15 of chapter 10. As it is written. Here we are.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news beautiful, running, good news feet, pursuing. Do you see that? But still, they wouldn't listen to the good news feat. Look at verse 16 of chapter 10, but not all Israelites accepted the good news. So he's pursuing them running after them with his grace, with his good news, and still they won't accept.

But even then, the hound of heaven is still running, Even then, he doesn't give up. Look at the end of chapter 10. It's such a wonderful verse, verse 21. But concerning Israel, he says, All day long, I held out my hands. This is god speaking.

All day long, I held out my hands. To a disobedient and obstinate people. That brings me back to the question of verse 1 then of chapter 11. I asked then, did god reject his people, the Jews. Have they run too far?

Have they run too far? Will there now be no more Jewish people saved, embraced by god's love, have they just gone too far? Now before we see the answer of that, can I put my own race in this? Can I bring this home to my own race? British.

I'm British. You may not be, I, but I wanna just talk about my own race. I know this passage has particularly is is thinking of the nation of Israel for all kinds of reasons. I understand that. But I think the principles can apply to another nation, and I want to include Britain here.

What about British people? British people? If you talk to church leaders up and down the country, you'll find that most of the people that come to know the lord, g Christ in those congregations seem to be from other cultures. They're not British. Other cultures seem to want to come to Christ but the British seemed very, very hard.

Has god given up on them? Has god given up on the British particularly the white British has god given up on them. We as a nation have been so blessed if you know anything about our history. By god, revivals, the Bible in English, We've been so blessed by god. We've been a blessing to other nations.

I met an African last year who said to me, who was a Christian at university, was an an older student, mature student, and he said, what is wrong with your country? You sent people to my country to tell us about Jesus, but I come over here and no 1 wants to talk about Jesus. In fact, in my lectures at the Kingston University, I am not allowed to talk about Jesus. That you told me about. There's a anti Christian attitude in this country.

Have we gone too far? Have we rejected god too much that he now rejects us. Or let's not just think about nationalities now. What about you? You, you as a person, has god rejected you?

Have you run too far? You've heard too many sermons? You've never really responded. Is he still pursuing you? Well, let's have a look at chapter 11.

Here's the first thing I want you to see it, and you see it in the first 10 verses. Now I can't read all of those verses. We've read them already, so you have to glance at them. But the first thing I want you to see is the grace of god. The grace of god pursues people.

The grace of god. So here's the question then. I asked then, this is Paul asking, did god reject his people? That's the Jews? By no means, he says?

So you see the issue. Not many Jewish people in the first century were becoming Christians. That's what he's saying. There were more gentiles coming in than Jews. So has god reject the Jewish people?

Has god completely written off the Jews. Is it now impossible for any Jews to be saved? And his answer is No way. What are you talking about? By no means?

And then he gives a demonstration. He says, well, I've been saved and I was 1 of them. Look at me, here, my testimony. Look at verse 1. I ask you then, did god reject his people by no means?

I am an Israelite myself. A descendant of Abraham and from the tribe of Benjamin. Just don't you know my story of how the hound of heaven caught me up? I was running along the road to Damascus to get papers to have Christians put in prison and put to death. I had just seen and instigated the first martyrdom in Christianity.

I had Stephen stoned to death And that is a a violent execution of Stephen. And I ran from that murder to in a murderous way on a horse to Damascus running along, pursuing what I thought was rightness. To get more papers to have more Christians killed and put in prison. But god broke in. Jesus came to me.

He revealed himself as lord. So, look, I'm a live in testimony. Has god given up on the Jews will he? I'm saved. So verse 2, god did not reject his people whom he foreknew.

Those god sets his love on, he will pursue until salvation, even if they're murderous in their religion. Even if they're a terrorist like Paul was, even if they were living out jihadiism, which he was. Paul is a Jew, and he's saved, and he's living proof that Jews can be born again. Even in their hard, hearted attitude against Jesus and his people. See, salvation is available to anyone that calls on the name of the lord, which Paul did.

But then he gives another illustration. Not only is it me? I'm just not just a 1 off. He he goes historically and he shows the people that were living in this prophet Elijah. He's in the old testament part of the Bible.

Elijah's day and Israel at that time in Elijah's Day were really, really hardhearted people. So look what he says in verse 2, second half of verse 2. Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah? He appealed to god against Israel Lord. They have killed your prophets and torn down your altars.

I am the only 1 left and they are trying to kill me. So here are the Israelites. They hate god's word. They're killing the prophets. They hate god's worship.

They were tearing down the altars and how you worship god. And now they're trying to kill Elijah. And what was god's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7000 who have not bowed the need to bail the full scot, 7000 that I take as a as a symbolic number of all of the people of god, the remnant of Israel, Israel within Israel. 7000, if you know what that means in the bible.

It's the complete number of god's people. So here is Elijah looking around and in the hard hearted Israel that are turning from god and turning to this false ugly god running from god and running for false gods. God says, look this, my people will come in. 7000 who won't bow the knee. And Israel within Israel, a people within in the people.

God has always saved from hardhearted Jewish people. He's done it in the past, says Paul, and he's doing it now amongst us. Those god sets his heart on, he will not give up on and he'll chase them down to salvation. The hound of heaven. And then, Paul underlines that all of this is god's grace, of course, look at verse 6 puts this in just to keep reminding us.

And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works If it were, grace would no longer be grace. It's not what you do that gets right with god. You don't get right with god that way. It's all of god's undeserved kindness. And therefore, if it's god's undeserved kindness, grace, then even the hardhearted bale worshipers can be brought in because it's all to do with god.

You see it? Elijah at the moment, you can't see the 7000, but I know that amongst those hardhearted false worshipers of false gods, I'll pursue some. I'll pursue the the people of god, the 7000. See that? That's what he's saying.

Because it's all of god's grace. If it's all of god's grace, then even those lot could come in if it's if if it's god's choice. You see that? But here we get something even more amazing. Now, come on.

We're dealing with a really tough chapter here, but get your head into it because so there's so many wonderful truths here. That's the great thing about tough passages. They take a bit of mind, but then you see some treasures. Now have a look at this. Because here's something even more amazing and it's it's that tiny little phrase at the end of verse 7 where it says the elect among them did, in other words, those that god chose, he pursued, and they came to know the grace of god.

The elective god did find the grace of god, god's rightness, But the others were hardened. The others were hardened. I think this is a significant little verse. So bear with me here. Are you ready?

From a human point of view or from elijah's point of view, because he's dealing with him, then it's very easy for him to see who are elect and who are not elect in his time as he looks out. Who are god's people and who are not a god's people because those who are god's people are not bowing the need to bail the full god anymore. So you can see it. Oh, not bay by not, bowing the need to bail. That must be 1 of god's elect.

Bought in by grace, not bowing the need to bail. That's 1 of god's you can see it. So you can see god's elect. There's god's elect. So as I look out here now, I can see those of you that are Christians and followers of the of Jesus and I can say, oh, look, I can there's the elect of God.

There they are. Look at you. There you are. There's the elect of god. And I know that you're an elect of god because you're not following bail, the false gods.

You've stopped running, after the false gods and god's embraced you and loved you and brought you into his kingdom. There you there's the elect of god. But those that don't follow god and don't listen to his word, I can then say, oh, bear the hardhearted people. They're the elective God, they're the hard hearted people. You can sort of see it.

Do you see what I mean? But it's here where we gotta be really careful. Because I can see it, I can see those who are embraced by god's love and grace, and I can see those who are running in hard hearted way away from god but just because I can see it, it doesn't mean jobs done. Doesn't mean job done. This is the bit I want you to get Let me let me try to illustrate it.

It's a bit like squeezing fruit. So you you take a load of grapes, and you crush them and you get the juice. Yeah? So the juice comes out of the grape. That's the juice is people that have are god's people.

Okay? Like that juice all over the floor there. Good job. We're not Catholics because all of that was fallen on the floor. But the juice is squeezed out.

Yeah. It's squeezed out. And then you have the dry skins. So I could say, okay, there's the dry skin, there's the juice. But if I have a stronger juicer, I can chop up the dry skins and squash them even harder, and more juice will come out.

Right? Alright. Do do you get the illustration? I doubt it, because I'm having difficulty with it now. So god brings his elect.

I can see it, but there's this dry, hard stuff but just because it looks dry and hard doesn't mean that god can't crush it more and get more elect out. And that's what I think might be going on in verse 28. Just go down to verse 28. Now, if you've lost me, we'll come back in a minute. As far as the gospel is concerned, the good news of Jesus is concerned, they, that's the Jews, are enemies for your sake.

But far but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on the count of the patriarchs. In other words, their enemies to you right now, real, destructive enemies, but you don't know if those enemies amongst those enemies are going to be future family members. You see what he's saying? As far as the gospel is concerned, their enemies for your sake, their enemies at the moment, but they may well be elect amongst those enemies. That's why we as Christians pray for our enemies.

We love those who persecute us because we don't know that those hardhearted enemies that are showing all the signs of running after bail and running away from god aren't our brothers and sisters amongst them. We don't know that. So we pray for our enemies. We love those who persecute us. It's so different Christianity, isn't it?

We don't blow them up or shoot them. We pray for them because there might be elect amongst them. So let's be very careful before we give up on a hard-hearted people group because in that god might crush them more. And there might be more elect. Now, this is what's going on, I think.

So let's come to this hardening. You get it in verse 8. Look at verse 8. As it is written. God gave them now, I was talking about the Jews.

God gave them a spirit of stupor. In other words, their backs were bent and they weren't gonna up. Eyes that could not see ears that could not hear to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap In other words, all the good things that they enjoy at table are going to turn against them, a stumbling block and a trip, a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and their backs bent forever.

So here's the hardening of people. They're blind, they're deaf, their backs are bent, even the good things they have are trapping them. They don't see god. It's an awful, awful hardening, and god is giving them over, giving them over, hardening their hearts Now why is he doing that? Well, to crush them more, to harden them more, to squeeze the grapes more so that out of that, even hard heart, blind death, bent backs, not listening to god, even out of that group, he will save some.

Look at verse 11. Salvation comes to the gentiles. To make Israel envious. Or look at verse 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. Oh, look at verse 32.

This is an extraordinary verse. For god has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Isn't that extraordinary? He's hardening them, blinding them, making them deaf, their backs are are bending over, they're running from the hound of heaven, but the hound of heaven is running after them relentlessly. The grace of god committed to even these hard, hardhearted disobedient people so that he can show his grace His utter undeserved pursuing mercy, his relentless mercy.

I will have mercy says in chapter 9 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, even those hard, hearted disobedient blinded people. You see it? Verse 32 is staggering. I was blown away by this verse For god has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Think about your own life.

Let's try and bring it home a bit. Have you ever mapped out your run from god? Have you ever mapped out god, hardening your heart? To bring you to a position now so he can have mercy on you. It's extraordinary.

Have you ever asked yourself this? Why did god allow me to go down that road in my life. Why why did I marry that bloke? Why did I marry that bloke? He was a horror Why did god allow me in my hard heart to choose that bloke to marry?

He was a horror life with him was horrible. Why why why did it god so harden me as I ran away from the arms of the lord Jesus Christ, to marry him or her or to get in with that group of people. Why did why why did god harden my heart so I started taking those drugs doing that way of life. Why did why did god why didn't he stop me? Why did he in fact harden me to do that?

So that when I do stop running from him, we see how utterly gracious god is that he loves us right to the end of our disobedience. He's the hound of heaven. He will save. He relentlessly runs off to his own people that he has chosen. Salvation is his.

It's wonderful, isn't it? God will save even when you went down that road. Do you see it? There's another poem. It's a hymn, and, we should sing this.

It's a rebuke to us that we don't sing it. I've said it before, but we should sing it. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. Isn't that amazing? Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill.

He treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will blind unbelief is sure to and scan his work in vain. God in his his his own interpreter and he will make it plain. God uses even your blind unbelief to crush you to be 1 of his elect to show his mercy on you. That's the first point. Here's the second.

The grace of god, pursuing you. Hold it, but here's the graft of god. The graft of god. Now, graft means hard work, and it does mean that, but it also means that he's able to graft you in to his people, like you take a branch, and you do this a lot. In fact, if you go to most rose bushes, they have the root ball and then you graft in a a branch of a rose.

And we have this image here. I don't know whether you to sit in verses 11 to 24. You can scan down and see it. It's the image of the olive tree. Branch is a broken off the olive tree, and other branches are grafted into the olive tree.

Yeah? So it's an olive tree. It's a picture. Now that olive tree, if you know anything about the Bible, that's the people of god. That's Israel, if you like.

The real people of god. And many branches are broken off, and in their place, wild olive branches. Are brought in. Yeah? From other trees are brought in.

And he's saying that the natural branches that are broken off. That's Israel. That's the Jews. Yeah. And the wild olive So are taken from another plant and grafted in, that's the gentile nations.

That's everybody that isn't a Jew. That believes in Jesus, but the way you're grafted in is by trusting what Jesus has done for you. That's the way you're grafted in. It's faith. That's the way you're grafted in.

If you're a branch that says I'm here because I'm a good person or I'm religious or I'm a Jew, you will be broken off. Because the only way you're in the olive tree is by trusting in what Jesus has done. It it has to be broken off. It's like a diseased branch. You gotta get rid The only way that a branch flourishes on the root ball is by trusting in Jesus.

That that's that's it. Yeah? So what's happened here is Israel has run away from god and they've been broken off. They're trusting in their own religion and works rather than in what Jesus has done and they put they want didn't want anything to do with Jesus. So they're broken off, but you gentiles that are engrafted, you must remember not to boast.

Don't you dare boast? Because if you boast, you're not trusting that it's all to do with Jesus. You're starting to say, oh, yeah, I'm not a Jew. That's why am I in. You're starting to use your nationality as if you're better than the Jews.

Well, you start thinking like that and you'll be broken off because you're only in by trusting in what Jesus has done. And you gentiles, he says, you've gotta realize your gate crashers. You're the last ones to the party in in in many ways. Your gate crashes, your gate crashes into all the promises of Israel. You gentiles now become Israel by faith.

And if you start thinking cockily, Oh, that's the end of the Jewish nation. We're in there out. Be careful you're not broken off. What qualifies someone in the olive tree is trusting Jesus. So have a look at verse 17.

You'll see all that worked out. If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing sap from the olive root Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do consider this, You do not support the root but the root supports you. You gentiles have come into the Israel into Israel, the people of god. Verse 19, you will say then branches were broken off so that we could be grafted and granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief and you stand by faith do not be arrogant but tremble.

For if god will not spare the natural branches, he'll not spare you either. If you start going down the route of not faith, but you deserve to be here, you'll be broken off. You see it? Do you see that? In other words, The way you're in the olive tree, which is a beautiful picture of god's fruitful tree, god's people, is you're engrafted by faith.

Now, Because here's the argument, get it in your head, because it's all of grace that you wild olive branch are grass it in because it's all of grace and not to do with you. So stop boasting. Because it's all of grace you that the wild olive branch could be grafted in. Surely, if god chooses, he can graft in the natural branches that were broken off, he can bring them back in. Do you see do you see his argument?

Because it's all of faith. If the natural branch that was broken off, because it didn't faith has faith, it can be brought back in. You see, Simon? It's complicated, isn't it? Verse 23.

Look at it. And if they do not persist in unbelief, They will be grafted in. For god is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature and contrary to the nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree How much more readily will these the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree if they have faith? That's what he's saying.

Now there's amazing grace in that because god is the grafter. You are grafted in by faith. Now then he goes on to say none of god's elect will be lost. Look at verse 25. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery brothers and sisters.

So that you may not be conceded. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of gentiles come in And in this way, all Israel will be saved. All Israel, all the elect will be saved. The gospel, the power of god, the pursuing mercy and grace of god will never fail All 7000 will be brought in. All Israel will be brought into the olive branch, whether it's a Jew or whether it's gentile, every member of god's elect will be saved.

However, hard hearted they are at the moment. God will pursue them, Jews, and gentiles, and they'll make up this olive tree called the new Israel they will make up this all Israel will be saved. Everyone, God won't let 1 go. 7000, the precise number. That's a symbolic number of all of the people that god has chosen.

But hold it. Here's another thing. I hope you're with me. This is so amazing. Remember, this is a if you can get through this, we can get through any chapter in the Bible.

Okay. Are you ready? But notice how God does it with the Jews. It's astonishing. You ready?

How is god gonna get the Jews who have been broken off because they won't believe in Jesus? Yeah. How is he get gonna get them to have faith and being grafted in? Do you know what he uses? It's the least thing you would imagine Did you see it?

Envy and jealousy. Envy and jealousy. Look at verse 11, the second half. Salvation has come to the gentiles to make Israel envious. God is about making them envious.

It's extraordinary, isn't it? Or look at verse 14. In the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. God even uses envy and jealousy to bring people to their senses. How does that work?

How does a self righteous Jew stop running away from god to look at a group of people and be envious on them. How does someone who says I've got all of the rightness of god in my running pursuit of the religion. How do they stop running? And turn around and say, wow, look at what they've got because a grace society is amazing. Because to know that you're right with god through Christ means you can stop running to prove yourself and rest in him.

It's exhausting trying to prove yourself. It's wonderfully beautifully rest full. It's like a sabbath day to trust in the lord Jesus Christ because he's done all the stuff for you paid for. You don't have to worry about payment. All your debt gone.

And when religious people see people like that, it stops them. Wow. I wish I had that. I wish I had your faith. Ever heard anyone say that?

I wish I had your faith. They're envious. I wish I knew god like you saying you know god, When people who are running after bail and false gods and all of false promises see us being able to forgive each other and love each other and living in a grace family in the olive tree. It's so beautiful, so attractive And all these different cultures, not just 1 group, or rather everybody trying to be a saint. That's why Islam is so horrible.

Everybody has to live like a sixth century Muslim. It's so so 1 culture. You have to wear clothes like they wore in the sixth century. But now there's engrafted people from Ireland, people from Scotland in, people from England. Yeah?

We don't have to divide any more over a funny shape or live, but we've grafted in. Yeah? People from Wales, people from India and Pakistan, and all over the place. Grafted in. What a tree?

All by faith in Jesus. Grace makes people envious, and that leads me onto my last point. I'm sorry. I'm I'm trying to do it. The grace of god, the graft of god, the glory of god.

When Paul understands this, in just writing this explaining it. He bursts into praise. He has to write fast with his pen Oh, the depths look at verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of god. How unsearchable are his judgments and his powers beyond tracing out.

His plans are so wonderful. He can use envy and jealousy and hardheartedness and people who are blind and deaf. He pursues them. His powers are beyond tracing out. How did he run all down those unbelief lanes?

Like a hound of heaven seeking and giving his grace, extraordinary. Listen to the testimonies in this church. How god hounded us and brought us into sin sometimes so that we saw that we were sinners and cried out to god have mercy on me. I see now I am a sinner. Why did I run down that road?

Why did I go so far into sin Why did god allow me because I see what a rotten sinner I am and I cannot do it on my own. Help me. Help me. By your mercy, by your grace, and the hound of heaven takes us up and engrafts us into the into the olive tree of god. How wonderful look what he says in verse 34 Who has known the mind of the lord?

Or who is this council? Anybody advised him? If we advised him, we'd say, there's people like me that should be in. You know? If we advised him, we'd say it's people like me that shouldn't be in, but he doesn't take our advice who has ever given to god.

That god should repay them. It's all of grace, him giving, him giving no one's given to god for from him and through him and for him all things are are all things to him be glory forever and ever. This is glorious. This is a glorious thing. So if you're running now from god, stop it stop running.

Stop running right now. If you're running after the false god bail, who promises you, all kinds of things in your life stop running and resting God. If you're running after your own religious righteousness, stop running and resting price. God so love the world that he gave his 1 and only son. See what he's done for you.

If you're running, stop running, and what an amazing pursuit. He runs and shews you and allows you a hardhearted way of life so that you can see you so need him and what a him he is. The hound of heaven, and don't start thinking you're better than other people. Don't start looking out saying, well, we're better than them. You all know better.

You're only grafted in because you trust in what god has done for you. So don't stop looking down at the Jews or anybody else and say, oh, look at them. And church. The people of god, the olive tree, the place of grace, is meant to be the envy of the world. We so love each other.

We're so committed to each other. We're so forgiving We're so prepared to start again and put up with each other's difficulties that it's a grace culture and people look in and say, wow. Well, I envy you that. Have you got that many friends? How come at your parties?

There are so many young people from your church. You're you're an old woman. How come there's so many? What what what where are you? What are you going to?

You're an old woman. You've got all these young people helping you and loving you and wow. I'm envious of that. The grace culture. Lord help us see these truths and wallow in them in Jesus' name, amen.