Title: Mercy Unto All
Text: Romans 11: 28-32
Date: August 11, 2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
In Romans 11, Paul is
speaking to Gentile believers—Romans 11: 13: For I speak to you Gentiles. Paul is admonishing God’s elect, believing
Gentiles not to be high minded because they believed and the majority of the Jews
did not. He reminded them that the only
reason they believed on Christ was by God’s grace. And he reminded them that God is able—and
would—bring his elect among the Jews to faith in Christ, even though at that
time they were in unbelief.
Then in verses 25-27, Paul wrote of God’s eternal
purpose. He reminded them that it has always
been God’s eternal purpose to save his elect Israel by calling each of his
elect from among Jew and Gentile by Christ our Deliverer. Verses 25-27 is a sort of parenthesis in the
midst of his admonition concerning God’s eternal purpose for his elect Israel. He declared that the mystery of God—God’s
eternal purpose—is to save all his elect from among the Jew and the Gentile. And when God has fulfilled the third and
final part of his purpose—by calling all his elect Jew and Gentile from the
Gentile nations. “And so”—and after this manner—"all
God’s elect Israel shall be saved.”
Christ is the Deliver who shall not fail to turn
ungodliness from each and every one of his elect Jacob’s—Jew and
Gentile—because Christ redeemed us with his precious blood. God’s everlasting covenant is only to his
elect—Jew and Gentile—only to the spiritual Israel of God. Christ shall send the Holy Spirit and regenerate
to faith each one who Christ redeemed with his precious blood.
Then in verse 28, Paul goes back to the admonition he was
giving before. He sums up his admonition
to Gentile believers concerning God’s elect among the Jews—
Romans 11: 28: As concerning the gospel, they [God’s elect Jews yet in unbelief] are
enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for
the fathers’ sakes [for the sakes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob due to God’s
everlasting covenant promise to our father’s.] 29: For the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. 30: For as ye [elect Gentiles] in
times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
unbelief: 31: Even so have these [God’s elect Jews] also now not
believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32: For God hath
concluded them all [or us all] in unbelief, that he might have mercy
upon all.
Proposition: All
who God saves, are sinners saved by God’s mercy alone.
Title: Mercy Upon All
Divisions: 1) A word about sinners 2) A word about God’s love 3) A
word about God’s promise
SINNERS
Romans 11: 28: As
concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching
the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
The second part of
the verse shows us who Paul means in the first part—“the election or the
elect.” Paul is writing to believing
Gentiles regarding God’s elect Jews who were yet in unbelief. He is not speaking of every person in the
nation Israel, only God’s elect among them.
But be sure to get the truth he states, all sinners while
dead in sins are enmity against God, including God’s elect—"As
concerning the gospel [God’s elect among the Jews] are enemies for your sakes.” Whether Jew or Gentile—all sinners while dead
in sins hate God—concerning the gospel they are enemies of God’s
believing people.
Romans 8: 7: Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. 8: So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God.
While dead in sins, the elect Jews were enemies in their
minds by wicked works: enemies to God, to his Christ, to his gospel and to all
who believed. And the same is true of
elect Gentiles while dead in sins. All
sinners hate God while dead in sins
GOD’S LOVE
Romans 11: 28:…But as touching the election, they are
beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29: For the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance.
While dead in sins, God’s elect are still beloved of
God. Even while the elect Jews were
enemies, concerning the gospel—they were beloved by God—here is
why—"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
God’s elect were chosen by God in Christ by God’s grace,
not based on anything in us. Therefore,
our fall in Adam did not change God’s love toward his elect. Our being born in sin with a carnal nature which
was enmity against God did not change God’s love toward his elect—"For
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God does not change his mind and take
away his gifts and calling.
What are the gifts and calling of God? The gifts and
calling of God include the blessings God gave his elect in Christ before the
foundation of the world.
Romans 8: 29: For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30: Moreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31: What shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against
us?
The gift and calling of God include God’s unspeakable
gift, his own Son who laid down his life and justified all his elect.
Romans 8: 32: He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? 33: Who shall lay any thing to the charge
of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34: Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Therefore, because
all these gifts and calling of God is by grace in Christ they are forever—God never
repents and takes them back. That is why
Paul said,
Romans 8: 35: Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36: As
it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. 37: Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us. 38: For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, 39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
GOD’S PROMISE
Romans 11: 28:…beloved for the father’s sakes.
God always fulfills his everlasting covenant
promise. God’s elect among the Jews—the
very same as God’s elect among the Gentiles—are beloved for the sakes of our
father Abraham, and our father Isaac and our father Jacob.
He means for the sake of the promises that God made to our father’s—Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. I will give you two examples
out of many. Be sure your bible reads “seed”
not “children.”
Genesis 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the
stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Genesis 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the
earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north,
and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed.
The problem is that without spiritual discernment no man
understands who Abrahams’ seed is of whom God spoke.
First, Abraham’s seed is Christ—he came through the
lineage of Abraham—so, according to the flesh Christ is Abraham’s seed.
Galatians 3: 16: Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as
of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17: And this I say, that
the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was
four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect. 18: For if the inheritance be of the law, it
is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Secondly, all God’s elect chosen in Christ are Abraham’s
seed, Abraham’s true children. This was
typified when God told Abraham “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Paul tells us this plainly.
Romans 9: 6: Not as
though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all [God’s
true elect spiritual] Israel, which are of [natural, political, national] Israel:
7: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children:
but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8: That is, They which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the
promise are counted for the seed.
Galatians 3: 28: There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s
seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Romans 2: 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly;
neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in
the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Please get this and it will help you when reading old
testament prophecy: every everlasting promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob concerning Israel—is concerning God’s elect Israel—made up of Jew and
Gentile. Those promises are spiritual
promises described in natural pictures and types. God’s Israel has always been his royal, holy
nation made up of those Christ make kings and priests unto God by his precious
blood, long before he made national Israel.
When he destroyed national Israel in 70AD the spiritual Israel of God
was still his royal, holy nation as it was from eternity and will always be.
So Paul reminded the elect, believing Gentiles that some
of those in natural Israel who regarded them as enemies concerning the gospel, were
God’s elect, beloved of God, and would be saved according to God’s promise to
the fathers—the same as God had saved them—For the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance.
APPLICATION
One, brethren, remember when you encounter someone who is
an enemy concerning the gospel do not be highminded and puffed up—you only believe
by God’s grace. They may be God’s elect,
beloved of God, a true child of Abraham like you are. The only special people in this world are God’s
elect Israel—and God saves all his elect Israel by his mercy—"For God
hath concluded them all [or us all] in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon
all.”
Two, rejoice that it is impossible to sin away grace—"For
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
Amen!