Dale Partridge - Romans 11_1-6： Who is the True Israel？ with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 Good morning, family. It's good to be with you this morning. I mean, what a blessing it truly

00:00:05.900 is to be with you. If you've opened your Bibles, please stand as I read the Word of the Lord,

00:00:10.440 Romans 11, 1 through 6. I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means, for I myself

00:00:19.980 am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not

00:00:25.320 rejected to his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what scripture says of Elijah, how he

00:00:30.240 appeals to God against Israel? And the response from Elijah, Lord, they have killed your prophets,

00:00:36.440 they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is God's 0.88

00:00:41.880 reply to him? I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So to the 0.87

00:00:48.620 present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the

00:00:56.040 basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. This is the word of the Lord.

00:01:01.900 Do you know how hard it is to go from a diet of sugar to a diet of meat?

00:01:10.760 And it's pretty difficult, and I say that because there's a spiritual application to

00:01:18.180 that reality.

00:01:20.240 Many Christians in our generation have survived on spiritual sugar, this kind of pragmatic 0.83

00:01:28.860 pageantry Christianity. 0.84

00:01:32.440 And you're used to this rock band experience and the lights dimming and emotional appeal.

00:01:38.080 Your kids are out.

00:01:39.320 You don't have to focus on that.

00:01:40.760 And you come into a liturgical church that's reverent, and it feels like you've been deprived.

00:01:49.720 It feels like this is just going through the motions, it's just tradition, it just feels

00:01:55.540 empty, it feels dry.

00:01:57.500 Historically, this is how the church is gathered.

00:02:01.380 It's only the last 40 or 50 years that you have magic show Christianity, that we have

00:02:08.060 audience Christianity.

00:02:09.140 And I want to remind us of that, because honestly, I grew up in Southern California, megachurchianity

00:02:19.120 has become the laughingstock of many denominations.

00:02:26.620 There is a clear evidence of little reverence.

00:02:31.540 And that is one of the driving forces of why we ordered our service, our gathering, as we do.

00:02:39.880 And I just want to remind you of that.

00:02:41.700 I was sitting here and I was thinking, we're so used to being entertained

00:02:47.480 that when someone doesn't entertain us, it's so hard to even keep our focus.

00:02:53.520 And I want you guys to stay focused for today.

00:02:57.600 Today, we begin our journey through Romans 11.

00:03:04.980 As we know, Paul has been establishing a defense for God's sovereignty over salvation through the doctrine of election.

00:03:16.040 This is called Calvinism.

00:03:18.400 Some of you may have heard this term.

00:03:20.080 Paul spends three chapters defending this doctrine of God's sovereignty over salvation.

00:03:32.400 He doesn't call it Calvinism, obviously, but he is communicating the reality that God is

00:03:43.000 in control of who is and who is not saved.

00:03:50.080 Now, the first of these three sections started in chapter 8, verses 28 through 30.

00:03:57.220 Open up your Bibles.

00:03:58.720 I want you guys to go there.

00:03:59.600 Open up your phone.

00:04:01.140 If you don't have your Bible open and you're over the age of 10, I'll come talk to you after.

00:04:08.620 Okay?

00:04:09.400 Open up your Bible.

00:04:10.700 Follow along.

00:04:11.440 We are smart Bible interpreters.

00:04:12.860 so much heresy gets past the congregation

00:04:18.220 because the people in the flock don't check to see

00:04:24.400 if what the pastor is saying is actually in the Bible.

00:04:29.180 Okay, open up your Bibles.

00:04:30.260 We're going to read Romans 8, 28 through 30.

00:04:36.640 And this is important because this section

00:04:40.080 is the thesis for chapter 9, 10, and 11.

00:04:47.200 Okay, it says,

00:04:49.960 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good

00:04:58.160 to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

00:05:04.040 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

00:05:11.120 I have a small cut in my script, so you might see a skip here.

00:05:16.820 And these whom he predestined, he also called.

00:05:20.200 And these whom he called, he also justified.

00:05:23.460 And these whom he justified, he also glorified.

00:05:26.140 This is called the golden chain of salvation.

00:05:28.320 all of the secondary and tertiary elements are dependent upon the first link which is

00:05:40.120 whom he foreknew for those whom he foreknew he did x and y and z and ultimately leads into

00:05:48.640 salvation it shows the interconnected reality of redemption if you're foreknown you will be glorified

00:06:00.000 in heaven that's essentially what is being communicated in this passage of scripture

00:06:04.880 that god causes he actually causes all things to work together ephesians 1 11 talks about

00:06:15.920 the idea that god works all things together according to the counsel of his will all things

00:06:27.840 paul claimed that the essentially god had the ultimate authority or control over the salvation

00:06:35.200 of his people and this led to a very important question you make a claim like that and it leads

00:06:43.520 to a very important question and that question is answered in chapter 9 it's explained in chapter 10

00:06:53.360 and there's clarity brought in chapter 11. the question was okay if god really is sovereign

00:07:04.000 causing all things to work together for his people. 0.61

00:07:09.160 If that's true, then why did the vast majority of Jews

00:07:15.540 who are God's people reject Christ?

00:07:20.520 That doesn't make any sense, right?

00:07:23.320 If God is in control of his people,

00:07:27.060 but then the vast majority of them reject the Messiah,

00:07:31.600 what's the reason for this

00:07:35.980 in chapter 9

00:07:39.760 Paul answered this question by making a simple

00:07:43.140 but profound point he said not

00:07:47.080 all of Israel is actually Israel

00:07:51.060 essentially not all of Israel is elect 0.52

00:07:54.640 not everyone born of Abraham

00:07:59.060 is actually born of Abraham

00:08:00.820 Not everyone that's here is actually redeemed. 0.94

00:08:08.220 This is shocking information to a Jew who thought that physical lineage secured spiritual salvation. 0.98

00:08:24.460 That's a shock.

00:08:25.780 Wait, it's not just that I'm born of Abraham.

00:08:28.620 I actually need something else.

00:08:30.820 The apostle provided several Old Testament examples to prove his claim in chapter 9,

00:08:40.000 showing both Isaac and Ishmael are born of Abraham, but only one of them is elect.

00:08:47.540 Only one of them is elect. 0.53

00:08:50.160 Both Jacob and Esau are born of Isaac, but only one of them is elect.

00:08:58.180 Then he concluded chapter nine by quoting Isaiah, which says, though the number of the

00:09:04.340 sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.

00:09:12.840 Only a remnant.

00:09:13.840 In other words, it was always part of God's plan to save, pay attention to my words here,

00:09:25.680 a foreknown and predestined remnant of ethnic Israel, the nation of Israel.

00:09:35.180 He never intended to save every single person in that nation. 0.56

00:09:39.040 He intended to save a foreknown and predestined remnant of ethnic Israel. 0.79

00:09:48.860 This is important because it explained why so many Jews rejected Christ.

00:09:57.140 They rejected Christ because they were not part of the foreknown and predestined elect remnant.

00:10:07.760 Now regarding those Jews who were not elect, those where Jesus comes in John chapter 10 and says, 0.64

00:10:14.060 if you're the Messiah, the Pharisees say, tell us. And he says, I already told you.

00:10:22.840 The works that I do in my father's name, they testify of me.

00:10:26.780 But you do not believe me because you are not part of my sheep. Oof.

00:10:34.960 Right there. Jesus says it. You don't believe because you're not part of my sheep.

00:10:41.480 He says later in John, he talks about that God gives Christ a particular number of sheep,

00:10:50.200 and he will not forget any of them, that all of those will come to him.

00:11:00.940 Paul explained in chapter 10 why these Jews that were not elect were not redeemed.

00:11:07.960 He gave you the practical theological reality.

00:11:11.720 Verses 1 through 4, he explained that Christ's righteousness was rejected.

00:11:15.560 The Messiah's righteousness was rejected.

00:11:17.700 They tried to assume or they tried to gain righteousness by works, not by faith, not

00:11:26.940 by the perfect work of Christ.

00:11:31.020 They had a passion for God, but not according to the truth.

00:11:34.620 how many of you at some point in your life have tried to earn salvation by obedience

00:11:44.480 to think that God might love you more or that God might give you more security because you obey

00:11:52.560 that's not the gospel

00:11:54.920 no the reason you're saved is because of the perfect obedience of Christ not your obedience

00:12:03.340 It's Christ's obedience to the law in which he gives you his righteousness through faith.

00:12:15.220 The root of your salvation is by the righteousness of Christ, his obedience.

00:12:23.040 The fruit of your salvation is your works, your obedience.

00:12:30.220 You obey not to keep yourself saved or to become saved.

00:12:33.860 You obey because Christ obeyed and gave you that righteousness through faith.

00:12:42.540 The motive for your obedience is not to be saved or stay saved.

00:12:48.960 The motive of your obedience is gratitude and thankfulness and love for God saving you.

00:12:57.520 it totally shifts the way you'll live

00:13:03.020 because you're not going to disobey and think, oh, I'm lost.

00:13:08.420 You're not going to disobey and say, oh, God hates me now.

00:13:12.420 No.

00:13:15.100 No.

00:13:16.640 The reality is your salvation rests on the perfect obedience of Christ.

00:13:23.140 If it rests on your obedience, you'd lose your salvation every 15 minutes.

00:13:27.520 it rests on the perfect obedience of Christ.

00:13:35.080 In verses 6 through 9 of chapter 10,

00:13:37.040 it says that the gospel wasn't complex.

00:13:38.800 In fact, it was simple.

00:13:40.140 Believe in faith alone, or have faith alone in Christ alone.

00:13:43.360 It's not complex.

00:13:44.960 Verses 10 through 15, it clarified that the Jews,

00:13:48.320 it's not about that they didn't have understanding.

00:13:52.140 It's not that it wasn't delivered to them properly.

00:13:53.920 No, they had all the access, all the information.

00:13:57.520 verses 16 through 21 he explained that there could be no more clarity given to

00:14:06.520 the Jews they still rejected the gospel now why is this important you have you

00:14:13.600 have essentially God's people ethnic Israel

00:14:20.280 and they have everything every advantage to receive the Messiah they

00:14:31.560 have the covenants the fathers the scriptures the priesthood the temple

00:14:34.520 everything and the vast majority of them reject Christ and then the vast 0.55

00:14:43.520 majority of the gentiles who have nothing receive christ 0.97

00:14:50.720 it's to highlight the irony the sheer irony 0.78

00:14:55.600 that the gentiles who knew nothing about god received christ 0.88

00:15:00.640 and the jews who knew everything about god rejected christ 0.71

00:15:04.960 the only conclusion that you can arrive after that

00:15:08.960 is that god had to be involved how could this logically make sense

00:15:16.960 what's the logical explanation for such an ironic result

00:15:20.960 well it's that we saw in the scriptures over the past few weeks

00:15:24.320 god blinded the jews he literally says that in the scriptures

00:15:27.200 god blinded the jews and he opens the eyes of the gentiles 0.98

00:15:32.160 it essentially makes you realize the only explanation 0.96

00:15:36.640 is that god is in control of salvation of who will believe and who will not

00:15:44.080 because it doesn't make sense outside of the doctrine of election for the people who know

00:15:51.360 everything about god to reject christ and the people who know nothing about god to receive him

00:15:57.040 the only explanation is that god must have been the one blinding and opening the eyes of those

00:16:05.520 who will believe and so eight nine are questions answered ten is reasons explained eleven is

00:16:17.040 concerns clarified so we're going to jump into eleven and it's not i know it's a lot of text

00:16:22.320 but it's actually not a long sermon in chapter 11 we're going to see paul clarifying what divine

00:16:33.760 election means for the remnant of ethnic Israel. Now, I keep saying this term ethnic Israel because

00:16:41.520 I'm talking about the nation of Israel. We have some good theologians in here who understand that

00:16:48.260 Israel's got many meanings. And what I mean when I say ethnic Israel is the nation of Israel.

00:16:54.900 is god done with ethnic israel

00:17:00.940 i mean newspaper christianity would say no i mean man i'll tell you what i can't tell you

00:17:08.320 how many calvary chapel churches are talking about their eschatology conferences based off

00:17:11.920 of what's going on in israel right now okay so the question is god done with israel

00:17:18.620 ethnic Israel, I should say. What was God's purpose for only electing a remnant? 0.74

00:17:29.340 How should Gentile believers relate to ethnic Israel? These are all types of questions that

00:17:36.980 will be answered in chapter 11. So follow along with me here, and we're going to read

00:17:42.180 chapter 11, verses 1 through 2, and I'm going to stop midway through 2.

00:17:48.620 It says, I ask then, has God rejected his people?

00:17:54.180 By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe

00:18:03.200 of Benjamin.

00:18:04.880 God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew.

00:18:11.380 Okay. 1.00

00:18:11.700 having just spent an entire chapter showcasing the kind of obstinate nature of the Jews 0.60

00:18:19.340 he anticipates a misunderstanding

00:18:22.540 he wants to clarify he he asked this rhetorical question has God rejected his people

00:18:31.920 ethnic Israel has he rejected them and he answers by no means God forbid your version might say

00:18:41.700 And this is an important question to confront, because had God completely rejected His people,

00:18:50.460 what would that mean?

00:18:52.980 What would that mean?

00:18:54.000 Just think about that for a second.

00:18:54.860 Had God completely rejected all of ethnic Israel, what would that mean?

00:19:03.060 Well, if you're a Jew, you know the many Old Testament prophecies and statements 0.70

00:19:10.020 which would make God a liar.

00:19:14.280 If God had rejected all of Israel,

00:19:18.320 you'd have a problem with God's integrity and faithfulness.

00:19:24.600 Most Jews are familiar with passages like Isaiah 49, 15. 1.00

00:19:28.480 Can a mother forget the baby of her breast 0.78

00:19:30.600 and have no compassion on the child she has born?

00:19:33.980 Though she may forget, I will not forget you.

00:19:37.080 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

00:19:41.720 Your walls are ever before me.

00:19:45.340 Let's just say that you know that as a Jew.

00:19:51.500 And then all of a sudden, Paul says the Messiah came,

00:19:56.240 and everybody rejected him.

00:20:00.840 How do you deal with the tension between those two realities?

00:20:05.360 Most Jews are familiar with Psalm 94, 14.

00:20:08.380 For the Lord will not reject his people.

00:20:11.900 He will never forsake his inheritance.

00:20:16.340 Deuteronomy 7, 9.

00:20:18.260 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God and that he is a faithful God.

00:20:22.120 Keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations.

00:20:29.960 So think about this.

00:20:31.220 think about the tension

00:20:35.380 of knowing

00:20:37.180 these promises

00:20:39.880 and then hearing

00:20:41.980 Paul

00:20:42.520 say that the vast majority of Jews

00:20:45.780 have rejected

00:20:46.860 chapter 10 is brutal

00:20:49.840 on the Jews 1.00

00:20:50.480 it's a reasonable question 1.00

00:20:53.960 to say has God

00:20:55.440 rejected his people

00:20:57.400 the key question becomes who are truly his people who are truly his people

00:21:10.120 who is the true israel

00:21:14.460 now to be clear christ is the true israel at the core christ is the truest israel his body

00:21:23.440 is the true Israel, with him as the head. In these verses, Paul offers two pieces of evidence. He's

00:21:31.460 going to affirm that God has not completely cast off the Jews. He's going to use himself 1.00

00:21:34.860 as an example, and then he's going to use the Old Testament scriptures as an example. 0.81

00:21:40.920 So Paul was as Jewish as someone could be, a pureblood, an Israelite, seed of Abraham,

00:21:47.220 tribe of Benjamin. Absolute Israelite to the core. If God had rejected Israel, 0.94

00:22:01.080 then what do you say about Paul? He certainly saved Paul. What do you say about the other apostles? 0.76

00:22:12.320 But the next verse really brings clarity to the answer of the question, who is the true Israel?

00:22:17.220 And we'll get there.

00:22:19.060 You're going to be a little bouncing back and forth, so bear with me.

00:22:22.500 But look down at verse 2.

00:22:24.520 Look down at verse 2.

00:22:25.340 It says, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

00:22:34.540 Okay, if you want, you can flip back to Romans 8, 28 through 30.

00:22:39.100 I can read it for you in a second.

00:22:41.360 The verb foreknew is the key to unlocking the meaning of this text.

00:22:51.500 And every one of you should care about it because we care about theology.

00:22:56.360 Yeah, this is some deeper stuff.

00:23:00.220 Do we want to remain babies in the faith forever?

00:23:03.960 Or do you at some point want to grow into maturity

00:23:08.480 and have deeper conversations of the glorious nature of God?

00:23:15.560 Again, the thesis for this entire section,

00:23:21.880 that God is sovereign over salvation through election,

00:23:25.940 uses that exact verb, foreknew.

00:23:28.760 It says, and we know that God

00:23:32.700 causes all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called according to

00:23:38.020 his purpose for those whom he foreknew

00:23:40.780 he predestined and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also

00:23:49.180 glorified the entire chain of salvation is dependent on the first reality of god for

00:24:00.860 knowing a particular person okay all of redemption cannot occur unless first God

00:24:12.500 knew you before the foundation of the world God wrote your name and the Lamb's

00:24:17.240 book of life written before the foundation of the world the God chose

00:24:22.040 you before the foundation of the world scripture after scripture after

00:24:25.820 scripture support that reality

00:24:30.860 essentially, the logic of this theological section is that if you are not foreknown,

00:24:35.720 you are not elect. If you are not foreknown, you are not elect. So what Paul is saying here is

00:24:43.880 God has not rejected his people whom he has elected. Foreknown really is not a knowledge

00:24:53.400 of the future because then you have a learning God. We'll talk about that in a minute. It is a

00:24:58.020 Adam and Eve knew each other.

00:25:02.320 It's an intimate knowing.

00:25:05.060 What does Jesus say?

00:25:06.100 Many will say these things in my name,

00:25:07.480 will cast out demons in my name,

00:25:09.020 will do many miracles in my name,

00:25:10.620 and I will say to them, I never knew you.

00:25:17.540 The question that you should ask yourself

00:25:21.200 is, does God know me?

00:25:24.860 am i known by god and we'll get into the details of that question in a bit

00:25:34.460 and so what paul is saying here is that god has not rejected his people whom he has elected

00:25:44.920 yes the vast majority of the jews rejected christ but do you know who hasn't rejected christ

00:25:51.700 the remnant. The remnant has not, the elect within the nation has not rejected Christ.

00:26:05.360 Now for the Jew and the Gentile, the clarity here, just theologically speaking, 0.88

00:26:11.520 is of epic proportions. And I hope that I can get it across, but this is a fork in the road 1.00

00:26:18.680 right here if you get into theology at some point in your life this is a fork in the road that'll

00:26:24.360 lead you into several different camps based on this understanding is who is israel

00:26:34.680 and me and john macarthur will have completely and radical different answers on it rc sproul

00:26:41.560 and Calvary Chapel will have radically different answers on that.

00:26:47.780 There's essentially two camps.

00:26:49.180 One is dispensationalism, and the other is covenant theology.

00:26:53.920 And without getting into too much of the weeds,

00:26:55.780 we're going to talk much more about that as this series through Romans 11 continues on.

00:27:03.240 What this means when you think that Israel is the elect of God,

00:27:11.560 is that the promises made to Israel in the Old Testament

00:27:16.360 were not to the nation of ethnic Israel,

00:27:20.880 but to the true Israel.

00:27:24.080 To you, to me, to our children.

00:27:29.760 In fact, it opens up the entire Old Testament.

00:27:32.820 Because if you read the Old Testament, 1.00

00:27:34.320 if it's just for a people that lives all the way in the Middle East

00:27:37.580 and it has nothing to do with you but only an ancient people,

00:27:39.920 you will read your Bible completely differently.

00:27:44.900 But if you view the scriptures,

00:27:47.900 that when God is talking of Israel,

00:27:51.720 he's talking about the people of God.

00:27:54.000 Yes, there's discernment and there's interpretation

00:27:56.760 of particular texts in this matter.

00:27:59.060 But generally speaking,

00:28:00.860 when you realize that we are the Israel of God,

00:28:07.140 the elect of God,

00:28:08.660 But it changes the way you'll read your Bible.

00:28:14.900 According to Paul, in Romans 9, 6-8, Romans 4, 11-12, Galatians 3, 29, Galatians 3, 7,

00:28:24.080 anyone who has saving faith is a true child of Abraham and a true Israelite. 0.84

00:28:31.840 Again, this is important, because the true Israel is not just made up of Jews, it's made

00:28:39.980 up of people from every tribe and nation and tongue.

00:28:46.200 That is the ecclesia, the church, the people of God, is the true Israel.

00:28:52.400 Let me read Galatians 3, 28-29, it says, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave 0.76

00:28:58.540 nor free nor male or female for you are all one in christ jesus if you belong to christ

00:29:08.140 then you are abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise

00:29:18.380 speaking to the gentiles in ephesus paul says consequently you are no longer foreigners and

00:29:25.820 strangers were no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with god's people

00:29:34.380 and also members of his household there's just one people of god

00:29:43.500 there's this very strange fascination with ethnic israel

00:29:49.900 the focus of history forward is not ethnic israel it's the church

00:30:01.240 the church who did jesus give the great commission to

00:30:06.200 the church who is the true israel go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing in

00:30:15.880 the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that

00:30:20.900 I have commanded you. Jesus says, hey, I know this used to be a localized reality, but now

00:30:27.620 it's a global reality. Go get the nations. Christianize the nations through the gospel.

00:30:35.600 and as we're going to see later in this chapter 0.98

00:30:43.040 is that the Gentiles

00:30:45.320 have now been in a sense 0.96

00:30:46.720 grafted in

00:30:48.000 to that original group of elect 0.99

00:30:50.840 Jews 0.92

00:30:51.700 we've been grafted in also you could say 0.56

00:30:55.000 to Christ who is the true 0.52

00:30:57.160 Israel

00:30:58.120 it'll also talk about how we should think

00:31:03.040 about

00:31:04.240 the elect Jews, how we should think about those Jews who have not yet been saved.

00:31:11.940 All that will be discussed over the next several weeks.

00:31:15.560 So the main point I want you to understand, and this isn't the close of the sermon, but I want

00:31:19.760 you to understand is that you can't understand the widespread rejection of the Jews until you

00:31:24.060 understand election. It doesn't make any sense until you understand election. We've been talking

00:31:32.520 for three and a half months about election.

00:31:37.480 Now, when you embrace election, 0.73

00:31:39.300 you can also see that while most of the Jews fell away,

00:31:41.780 God has not been unfaithful,

00:31:43.960 but he has been faithful, but to who?

00:31:46.760 The remnant, the elect and foreknown of God,

00:31:52.240 the true Israel.

00:31:54.860 Now, when you have this perspective 0.94

00:31:56.360 of this elect remnant, 0.68

00:31:59.240 his next point in verses two through four

00:32:01.620 are really easy to understand.

00:32:04.600 It says,

00:32:05.380 Do you not know what the scriptures say of Elisha?

00:32:12.260 How he appeals to God against Israel? 0.57

00:32:16.000 Lord, they have killed your prophets 0.86

00:32:18.620 and they have demolished your altars 0.87

00:32:20.200 and I alone and left.

00:32:22.320 And they seek my life.

00:32:25.540 Paul asks a question

00:32:26.920 because he assumes that people know their Bibles.

00:32:31.620 He says, but what is God's reply to him?

00:32:34.740 God says, I reserved for myself.

00:32:39.800 Just full stop for a second.

00:32:42.700 Who reserved?

00:32:46.660 God reserved for myself. 0.86

00:32:48.980 I reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 0.73

00:32:57.260 this is paul's second piece of evidence that god has not fully rejected categorically ethnic israel

00:33:07.000 he ref this is a reference from first kings uh chapter 19 jezebel and the the king of israel

00:33:15.400 were essentially bringing in all the altars of the false gods uh they were persecuting those

00:33:21.220 that were actually following the one true god there was the scene of of uh the people that

00:33:26.680 worship Baal and they're asking, you know, to light a fire. And Elijah is waiting for them to 0.81

00:33:34.300 call on their God to light the fire. He mocks them and says, hey, is your God on the bathroom

00:33:37.820 toilet right now? Where is he? Why can't he do this? He says, hey, watch my God. He floods

00:33:42.480 the altar with water to make sure that there's no logical explanation for the fact that it's

00:33:51.100 about to burst up in flames.

00:33:55.680 But people had been absolutely punished

00:33:58.780 and reduced in that generation 0.98

00:34:01.340 because of the wickedness of the rulers of Israel. 0.95

00:34:05.060 And Elijah says,

00:34:09.800 I'm the only one.

00:34:13.040 It feels like I'm the only one left. 0.98

00:34:14.880 and Elijah like many of the Jews in the years after the crucifixion of Messiah I'm assuming 1.00

00:34:25.860 Paul had to have felt like Elijah feel like I'm the only one all the Jews are trying to kill me 1.00

00:34:32.040 every time I go and preach the gospel I get stoned or I get dragged out of the synagogue

00:34:36.760 or I get chased or I get persecuted or I get you know pushed away or someone yells at me

00:34:43.520 He's got to feel like Elijah.

00:34:47.020 Many Jews at that time were in a situation similar to Elijah,

00:34:52.080 feeling that God had completely just abandoned his people.

00:34:55.360 I'm the only one that left.

00:34:59.840 But as we know, God has always reserved or elected a remnant.

00:35:07.040 A remnant.

00:35:09.040 In the time of Elijah, it was 7,000.

00:35:11.260 There was a massive apostasy.

00:35:15.420 It can sometimes feel like that in America.

00:35:17.660 Does anybody actually believe the real gospel?

00:35:21.620 It could feel like that.

00:35:24.400 I know a lot of people that get stuck into these kind of apostate denominations

00:35:28.200 and they feel, or missionaries, they go out in a world,

00:35:31.060 they feel like, Lord, am I the only one here?

00:35:35.160 No, you're not.

00:35:37.020 again i want you to notice who does the reserving who does the keeping look down

00:35:44.640 your bible this will make you a calvinist i promise this is the verse

00:35:48.060 i have reserved for myself

00:35:52.140 i have reserved for myself 7 000 men who reserved

00:35:58.540 how can you say a statement like that if man is in control of his salvation if i am the catalyst

00:36:06.280 if I'm the one of my own free will that chooses God

00:36:09.940 and I of my own free will can leave God,

00:36:13.080 how can God say that he reserved?

00:36:16.900 These are important questions.

00:36:20.360 Important questions to ask.

00:36:25.200 What Paul is trying to communicate is that

00:36:27.360 external measures,

00:36:31.000 external measures of God's faithfulness

00:36:33.840 are not always visible.

00:36:34.880 They're not always obvious. 1.00

00:36:37.160 Just because most of the Jews rejected God in Elijah's day

00:36:41.740 and most of the Jews rejected Christ in Paul's day

00:36:44.840 doesn't mean that God has been unfaithful. 0.84

00:36:47.340 It means that we're not seeing it right.

00:36:50.360 We're not seeing the remnant.

00:36:54.740 We can't see the elect.

00:36:56.940 When I preached to a crowd of a thousand people,

00:36:59.360 I preached to the whole crowd.

00:37:01.920 I don't know who was elect.

00:37:04.020 God tells me to go and get the nations to preach to everybody.

00:37:08.720 But I do know that when I preach the gospel

00:37:12.180 and God saves a person through the preaching of his word,

00:37:19.140 that that person was one of the sheep of Christ.

00:37:25.020 That's what I do know.

00:37:33.160 God has been faithful, but who has he been faithful to? 0.91

00:37:39.600 It's easy to say, well, God has not been faithful to ethnic Israel. 0.79

00:37:43.960 God has been faithful to elect Israel. 0.85

00:37:48.540 He never promised to be faithful to ethnic Israel.

00:37:52.720 You've misunderstood and misapplied that reality.

00:37:56.040 He has always applied his promises to his elect people, to his church.

00:38:07.140 Now remember, Paul is eliminating an incorrect assumption that God planned to save the Israelites

00:38:16.760 strictly because of physical lineage.

00:38:19.440 He's got to get that ripped out of them. 0.98

00:38:22.500 You're not saved because you were born of the tribe of Benjamin. 1.00

00:38:26.600 You're not saved because you are part of ethnic Israel. 0.94

00:38:29.640 That's not what it takes.

00:38:33.180 In reality, he saves strictly because of spiritual lineage.

00:38:39.320 Spiritual lineage.

00:38:40.940 You have to have the same seed of faith that was given to Abraham.

00:38:47.720 Ultimately, Paul is trying to give us a lens for how we should view, again,

00:38:52.600 this mixed reality of ethnic israel and the elect of israel all in one reality one group of people

00:39:00.840 there are sheep and there are goats according to the new testament there are there is wheat

00:39:07.480 and there are tares in fact they are so close visually that god says in the parable

00:39:14.840 don't even try to rip out the tares in fact you might accidentally rip out some wheat

00:39:21.880 Wait until the end, and I will sort them out.

00:39:28.620 It says that in the end that he will put his sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left hand.

00:39:33.420 They are mixed together currently, and it is not always clear who is who.

00:39:38.260 Many people come to church and never come to Christ.

00:39:41.600 Many people have been baptized and are not actually born again.

00:39:46.340 Many people are in the covenant, but are not actually of the covenant.

00:39:51.880 That's what we have.

00:39:58.360 In other words, it's not that you're here that makes you saved.

00:40:05.800 It's not that you prayed the prayer, that you did the hand raising, or that you read your Bible.

00:40:13.560 It's not physical lineage.

00:40:15.220 It's not because you were born into a Christian family that you're saved.

00:40:18.320 It's not your infant baptism or your believer's baptism that makes you saved.

00:40:26.060 Many people are deceived, especially in America where we have been given an impotent gospel

00:40:35.380 with false assurance, pragmatism, and pageantry to create emotional experiences

00:40:46.400 that never actually resurrected the soul.

00:40:53.140 Faith and fruit are the only things

00:40:59.220 that can be viewed as evidence of a person's election.

00:41:07.060 What does Jesus say?

00:41:08.520 How will you know them?

00:41:09.520 How will you know who are,

00:41:10.840 how will we know who are saved?

00:41:13.380 Look at their fruit.

00:41:16.400 Look at their life.

00:41:18.400 I'm not talking about a one-month snapshot.

00:41:20.460 I'm talking about look at the life.

00:41:26.300 Do you actually trust in the righteousness of Christ

00:41:31.940 imputed to you by faith?

00:41:34.600 Is his righteousness your righteousness?

00:41:37.000 Do you say when you pray,

00:41:38.660 Lord, I have no righteousness of my own.

00:41:40.740 I need an alien righteousness.

00:41:42.440 I need your righteousness to make me righteous.

00:41:44.280 It is you who are righteous alone.

00:41:47.240 Do you pray that way?

00:41:48.960 Do you believe that all of your sin has been atoned for, laid on the cross, past, present, future?

00:41:58.000 And when you receive that reality, that God has paid for your sin, the blood price of your sin on the cross,

00:42:07.480 and gave you the righteousness that you so desperately need,

00:42:10.940 what does that make you do if you love me you'll keep my commandments

00:42:19.340 it makes you obey and you know what else it does

00:42:24.620 it bears fruit the holy spirit sanctifies the soul he cleans you

00:42:31.860 all of a sudden the things that you hated last year you or that you loved last year you hate now

00:42:38.120 All the things that you used to watch on TV 10 years ago,

00:42:40.640 you can't watch them now.

00:42:41.780 You're becoming more and more and more sensitive to the truth.

00:42:47.420 Forgiveness is not as difficult as it was five years ago.

00:42:52.520 Devotion is not as difficult as it was five years ago.

00:42:56.660 Your hatred has been cooled.

00:42:59.880 Your sorrow has been wiped away and filled with joy.

00:43:03.660 You're kind, you're bold, you love people.

00:43:14.580 When someone understands the gospel, communicates it clearly, eloquently,

00:43:19.820 and then actually has a life that reflects that,

00:43:24.600 from a place of pure conviction,

00:43:26.960 that is the unmistakable assurance of a saved person

00:43:37.300 examine yourself look at your life is that you i preach to christians all the time never assuming

00:43:50.040 that anyone's saved.

00:43:52.660 That's my M.O.

00:43:55.540 I would rather somebody question

00:43:59.220 someone who is saved question their salvation

00:44:03.260 than allow someone who thinks they're saved

00:44:07.880 to never be challenged.

00:44:10.700 I say this quote from Dr. Steve Lawson

00:44:12.760 who was my preaching professor.

00:44:14.520 He said,

00:44:14.820 the only thing worse than not having the assurance of salvation

00:44:21.520 is having a false assurance of salvation.

00:44:28.080 Having a false assurance of salvation

00:44:30.380 to think you're saved and you're not.

00:44:38.180 It's terrifying.

00:44:40.760 Paul often says, examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith.

00:44:44.820 Examine yourselves, flock.

00:44:50.180 Has the Lord done the heavy lifting in your heart?

00:44:55.340 Are you actually submitted to the Lordship of Christ?

00:44:59.080 Do you actually live in a way that Christ is king

00:45:04.780 over how you think, over how you live,

00:45:08.160 over how you manage your finances,

00:45:10.060 over what media enters into your house,

00:45:11.740 on how you educate your children,

00:45:13.240 on how you vote, on how you lead your business,

00:45:16.460 on how you treat women, on how you treat men,

00:45:19.700 on how you raise your children?

00:45:21.260 Is it an absolute totalizing reality in your life?

00:45:27.560 Because I'll tell you what, when people met Christ,

00:45:31.660 when the disciples met Christ,

00:45:35.060 it radically changed them.

00:45:36.820 if you're continuing to live in a way

00:45:42.660 that's just

00:45:43.560 really like the world 0.78

00:45:46.000 with the veneer of churchianity

00:45:48.700 on it be afraid

00:45:50.600 be afraid

00:45:52.480 faith

00:45:58.760 and fruit are the primary

00:46:00.860 evidences

00:46:01.420 for assurance

00:46:04.020 now what i believe paul is trying to get across here is that you cannot believe in sovereign

00:46:15.480 reservation sovereign reservation from elijah and reject the preservation of the saints

00:46:25.740 these are two important doctrines that get together here that they operate on the same

00:46:31.120 truth. God saves and God secures his people. You know what? If you're saved, you will never lose

00:46:39.060 your salvation. Isn't that wonderful? You know why? Because your salvation isn't dependent on you.

00:46:43.400 If it was dependent on you, I would have no way to say that. No, but Jesus promises

00:46:48.820 that your salvation is secure. And where do we know that? John chapter 10.

00:46:54.640 He says, my sheep, they know me, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life.

00:47:01.460 And he says, and they will never perish, never perish.

00:47:08.460 What an amazing thing to realize that your salvation cannot be lost because it's not

00:47:14.780 dependent on you.

00:47:16.800 Your faith cannot be lost.

00:47:18.460 You know why?

00:47:18.860 Because Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith.

00:47:22.560 Paul says in Philippians, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

00:47:32.460 I can see verse after verse after verse.

00:47:39.520 My sermon's longer than I thought, sorry. Verses five and six. It says, so too at the present time

00:47:45.940 there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works,

00:47:50.460 otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Oh, I wish I could spend three weeks preaching on that

00:47:55.560 verse. Paul says, if God elected his people, then, if God elected his people, then preserving 7,000

00:48:07.940 people, then he certainly does it now. So too, it's a conclusion. So too, at the present time,

00:48:17.420 talking about now there is a remnant just like there was a remnant then there's also a remnant 0.80

00:48:22.060 now how chosen by grace who did the choosing okay it's not like the dumb baptism shirts that say

00:48:31.660 i have decided or i have chosen i have chosen to follow jesus no god is the one who is sovereign

00:48:39.900 over choosing you didn't choose god god chose you jesus literally says this to his disciples

00:48:45.740 you did not choose me i chose you it's amazing that people will still fight for their free will

00:48:56.540 again we've talked over and over i've beat the free will card to death it's under this table

00:49:01.980 right now okay you can go back and listen to sermon after sermon about

00:49:07.020 the doctrine of free will if you're trying to grasp what that means

00:49:10.700 means. The present apostasy of ethnic Israel does not mean that God has abandoned his people,

00:49:20.400 is what Paul is saying. It means that he has chosen only to preserve some, a remnant. Now,

00:49:25.560 to be clear, Paul is not applying this remnant mindset to the Gentiles. Now, this is, okay, 0.87

00:49:31.960 we live in pessimistic Christianity. It's only going to get worse. We don't polish brass on a

00:49:37.140 sinking ship. There's going to be less and less Christians as time goes on. Man, it's so terrible. 1.00

00:49:41.680 My Amazon package got stolen off my porch yesterday. And look, it's just getting worse.

00:49:46.940 Okay. That is so common. To apply the remnant mindset that we're just a small little remnant

00:49:56.280 tucked away in the corner. We're just waiting for Jesus to come back and mop up this mess.

00:50:01.180 Okay, that is not biblical Christianity. 0.98

00:50:04.360 No, that is applied to ethnic Israel.

00:50:08.060 The remnant is not applied to the mass of the Gentiles.

00:50:13.080 Right now, 36% of the world's population profess Christ.

00:50:18.400 Yes, that's an inflated number.

00:50:19.580 I know not everybody's actually regenerate.

00:50:21.800 But I'm talking, it has continued to grow by the millions

00:50:26.340 as the gospel goes out.

00:50:28.860 But I think that Christ is going to Christianize this town over the next two centuries.

00:50:36.040 I don't think it's going to get smaller.

00:50:38.120 I don't think the church is going to get smaller in Prescott.

00:50:40.460 I think the church is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:50:43.840 Why?

00:50:45.780 Well, Christ is victorious.

00:50:51.740 And what I mean by that is this.

00:50:52.800 Can Christ lose and the body, or sorry, can the church lose and the head win?

00:51:02.680 Think about this for a second.

00:51:04.400 Can the church lose and the head win?

00:51:09.100 No.

00:51:10.920 The body and the head rise and fall together.

00:51:14.300 If the church is going to get smaller around the world, then that means Christ is getting smaller around the world.

00:51:20.880 Christ is losing.

00:51:22.800 Now, if the church is going to win, it makes sense, it's congruent with the theology of

00:51:29.460 Christ, it's congruent with the Great Commission, it's congruent with church history.

00:51:34.560 The church has only gotten bigger, only gotten bigger.

00:51:40.220 And so we have to get out of this pessimistic mindset and into an optimistic eschatology

00:51:44.680 that Christ is actually continuing to build His church.

00:51:49.440 conquering his enemies through conversion. How are you here? You were, according to Ephesians 2,

00:51:57.640 an enemy of Christ. How are you here? Christ conquered you. And how did he conquer you?

00:52:03.620 By converting you. You have submitted to the Lordship of Christ. Why? How? Because Christ

00:52:11.720 came and changed your heart. We have no reason to believe the kingdom parables say

00:52:19.380 that it starts off small, like a mustard seed.

00:52:21.440 It's the smallest of the garden plants.

00:52:22.800 And all of a sudden, it becomes the biggest plant of the garden plants,

00:52:27.460 the biggest kingdom of the kingdoms.

00:52:30.420 But the kingdom of God starts small, like leaven.

00:52:32.720 And what does it do?

00:52:33.360 It leavens the entire lump.

00:52:38.220 Over and over again, we can see that the gospel will continue to permeate this culture 0.93

00:52:45.080 and Christianize society.

00:52:49.380 He gives us, and this is my last point here, the rationale for God's preservation of election. 0.51

00:52:59.780 He says, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.

00:53:02.720 Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

00:53:05.160 Okay, people who reject the doctrines of grace, Calvinism, whatever you want to call it,

00:53:10.860 they often claim that God chooses who to elect.

00:53:18.020 Pay attention to my wording here, okay?

00:53:19.380 They claim that God chooses who to elect by looking into the future to see who will choose

00:53:26.920 to put their faith in Christ, and then he elects them based on that decision. 0.98

00:53:32.680 Okay, we should all have dumb faces on right now because it's a very dumb idea, okay? 0.99

00:53:36.760 The idea is absurd. 0.99

00:53:39.520 It's unsystematic.

00:53:40.440 It's theologically incoherent.

00:53:43.060 Not only does it make God a learning God, an all-knowing God, a learning God.

00:53:47.720 God, according to their view, looks down the corridors of time and learns who will choose

00:53:57.480 Christ of their own free will, and then goes back and elects that individual, that doesn't

00:54:04.160 make any sense.

00:54:06.280 That is a very individualistic, Americanized, autonomous, spirit of independence way to

00:54:12.880 think about theology.

00:54:13.660 it also makes man the catalyst of his own election it is completely flawed

00:54:22.980 god did not look down and say oh dale's gonna choose me i'm gonna elect him no it actually

00:54:33.620 was the exact opposite i love dale and he won't choose me so i'm gonna save him that's the gospel

00:54:43.360 you won't choose god that's what makes it so wonderful it makes it so wonderful that 0.64

00:54:52.520 god saved you because you were in a place where you were completely disinterested blind deaf

00:54:58.680 lost does the sheep find the shepherd or does the shepherd find the sheep

00:55:07.640 the source of election is not information

00:55:16.140 the source of election

00:55:18.460 is grace

00:55:19.200 and if election is based on

00:55:22.500 the independent

00:55:24.340 and free will decision of man to choose

00:55:26.380 Christ then election is not of grace

00:55:28.100 it's a reward

00:55:30.200 for a correct response and action

00:55:32.340 it's not grace

00:55:34.020 you give yourself a pat on the back

00:55:36.300 because you chose it and you didn't.

00:55:38.920 This person made the better decision.

00:55:40.300 You didn't.

00:55:41.680 You have some reason to boast.

00:55:43.080 You're smarter.

00:55:43.760 You're wiser than that person.

00:55:47.280 Why is this all important?

00:55:50.640 Because when we rightly understand

00:55:52.540 how we have been saved,

00:55:57.860 that the catalyst of our redemption

00:55:59.580 is not something that we initiated,

00:56:01.600 but that God graciously granted.

00:56:03.720 It allows us to respond properly with praise and worship.

00:56:11.160 Do you want to know why your worship is maybe weak?

00:56:15.660 It's because you don't realize how terrible you are and how good Christ is.

00:56:21.120 That is the problem.

00:56:24.320 And our worship will only go as high as our theology is deep.

00:56:27.980 And the more you learn about yourself,

00:56:29.980 and the more you learn about what God rescued you from,

00:56:33.720 And the more you learn about what Christ has for us,

00:56:36.900 the greater your worship and devotion will be.

00:56:41.260 People have weak worship and weak devotion

00:56:44.380 because they are theologically illiterate. 0.99

00:56:49.880 And that is why it is so important at this church

00:56:52.780 to make sure that you know the deep, beautiful truths of the gospel.

00:57:00.740 Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

00:57:02.460 Father we thank you

00:57:05.320 for the deep truth

00:57:10.220 of the doctrines of grace

00:57:11.480 Lord I ask that you would help us

00:57:16.060 to understand these truths

00:57:17.060 Lord that you would provide

00:57:18.080 articles and podcasts

00:57:19.960 and sermons and books

00:57:21.080 and whatever possible information

00:57:22.600 this flock needs this week

00:57:23.660 to affirm them in the truth

00:57:24.820 Lord that by your Holy Spirit

00:57:28.900 you would illuminate

00:57:29.660 as they're reading the scriptures

00:57:30.620 that you would give them

00:57:31.280 a new passion

00:57:32.060 to understand the beauty of the gospel.

00:57:37.400 Lord, we know that saved people

00:57:39.100 love talking about their Savior.

00:57:41.660 Lord, reignite that reality in our hearts.

00:57:47.240 Give us the words.

00:57:49.220 Give us the understanding.

00:57:51.140 Lord, we cannot bring people

00:57:52.500 to a place that we've never been.

00:57:54.180 Bring us there.

00:57:55.800 Bring this people there

00:57:56.800 that we might grow in this town,

00:57:58.880 that we might be used for your kingdom

00:58:00.680 and for your glory.

00:58:02.060 and that many in this town would come to Christ.

00:58:06.960 We pray all these things in your son Jesus' name.

00:58:10.020 Amen.

Dale Partridge - September 09, 2024

Romans 11_1-6： Who is the True Israel？ with Dale Partridge

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