Isaiah in the New Testament

Actually, as you know, last week we covered the setting and background and somewhat of the overview of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. And I know, I mentioned to you, that there were many different statements that you read out of the book of Isaiah that are talking about Jesus as the Messiah. You find a lot of those in chapter 52 and 53. And I'm pretty sure all of those are listed on the list that I gave to you right there at the beginning of the service. But I don't want to try to cover those today. Those are things that we often do go over during the time of the Passover, kind of in preparation for the Passover. But I do want to point out something that I thought was just amazing. I have been reading many of these verses out of Isaiah and how they are applied, how they are taught in the New Testament. And see, they are taught, they are a quote of Isaiah in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and in numbers of Paul's writings and in Peter's writings. And so the book of Isaiah is quoted throughout the entirety of the New Testament. I think there's a reference even to something in the book of Revelation. But the startling thing that I saw, or that I thought that I would focus on today as I was looking at all of these Scriptures, is just how important it is that we understand that God desires. See, whenever you read Isaiah, you're reading about either the house of Judah, which of course is Israel-itish, or maybe it's directed to the house of Jacob, being more Israel-itish, even Israel and Judah as well.

But what you find in the statements that he makes, he actually tells people they need to repent, they need to change, and if they don't, they're going to receive a punishment. They're going to go into captivity. But then he almost always follows that up with a section that you could say is filled with hope, filled with encouragement, filled with a restoration. So there's a kind of a pattern throughout it, and this is kind of something that I don't have the Scriptures written down, but it shows the warning to the people of God, and then how that other nations may come in and take them captive, but that they're going to revive. They're going to come back from that. And what that showed me, as I read many of these verses here in the New Testament, is just how much God desires, how much he wants for all men. Israelite and non-Israelite. See, it doesn't make any difference whether we can figure out whether physically we're Israelite or not. That is immaterial. That doesn't have anything to do with it. But what we read here in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, is a statement about God's desire. Here in 1 Timothy, and of course Paul was writing 1 Timothy to Timothy to give him instruction, help him to understand how it was that he should work within the framework of the Church of God. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 2, first of all, I urge that supplication and prayer and intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone and for kings and all who are in high positions so that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. See, he pointed out to him that we need to have a respect for others and certainly to pray that God would allow us to meet in peace. And he says in verse 3, this is right and is acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires, and this is what I wanted to focus on in verse 4, who God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. See, now this is a statement about the heart of God. It's a statement about the desire of God to have everyone come to an awareness or understanding of the truth and ultimately then receive salvation from him. And Paul goes on to say, for there is one God and there is also one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, himself, human, who gave himself a ransom for all. And in verse 7, for this, I was appointed a herald and an apostle. And I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. I am a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and in truth. Now, the churches that Timothy was going to be serving were made up of those who maybe formerly had been Jewish or Israelite-ish, but then also many who were Gentiles and who would not fit that category. And yet Paul wanted him to know that, well, God is desiring. He's desiring to have all men come to an understanding of the knowledge of the truth. And as I was reading many of these prophetic statements that you read from Isaiah, you have to think about, because they're talking about the people of God, the people of Israel, and how they ought to obey God. But since they didn't, well, then the Gentile nations are sent in by God to overthrow them.

But then, as I said, then there also is a section following that about a renewal, about a reviving, about a hope and a lifting up. Much of that talking about the time and the future, talking about when Jesus is going to return, and talking about even how it is.

He's going to set things up in the millennium, and how he's going to set up things beyond that, so that ultimately everyone would come to a knowledge of the truth and hopefully turn to God. See, ultimately everyone is going to submit to God. Everyone, every knee is going to bend, every head is going to bow. If they're going to be a part of God's family, if they're going to be a part of immortality, because that's what God is holding out before us, if we want to be a part of that, then we want to clearly be yielded to Jesus Christ. But when you see the verses where God is referring to Israel as His people, we have to ask the questions. Does God show preference to His nation, to His people, Israel? You can read that throughout the Old Testament, and essentially the Old Testament is a history of the people of Israel for the bulk of it. Does He show preference? Is He unjust? Is God show any injustice with Israel? And actually, we might ask as well, why does He extend mercy to some and not to others? See, the answer to many of these questions comes down to understanding what the plan of God is and how it is that He is doing things in a certain order. And that again is a primary thing for all of us to understand. And of course, we can also perhaps ask the same question as, why has He called us today? Why has He called us today to be a part of the Church of God? Well, He wants the work of God to be done, but He also wants us.

He wants us to grow in a divine nature that will enable us to be His servants and servants of others as we go into the Millennium and beyond. And so when we think of these type of questions, I think it helps us to realize that it's really, as far as when you look at it from God's standpoint, it's all a matter of timing. It's a matter of His timing whenever He would choose to extend mercy and whenever He would choose to extend a calling. I want us to look at Matthew 13. I do want to read. I'm not going to go through near all of the Scriptures that I gave you on that sheet, but I do want to go through at least some of them. Because they point out how much Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament, but they point out a very important part of what I want to mention in the sermon today. Here in Matthew 13, you see in verse 10, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, why are You speaking in parables? You would have thought if God wanted everyone to understand the truth that Jesus would have made things as plain as You possibly could. But of course, that wasn't the case. They asked Him, why are You speaking in parables? He says in verse 11, the reason why I'm doing this is because to You, it has been given to know the secrets or the mysteries of the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not been given. Now there it surely looks like He is showing a certain amount of preference to one and not another.

If we drop on down to verse 13, He says, the reason I speak to them in parables is that seeing, they do not perceive, and hearing, they do not listen, nor do they understand. And with them, indeed, is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. This gives far more credibility to Isaiah than anything you could do when Jesus is quoting the book of Isaiah and saying, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled where it says, you will indeed listen, but never understand, you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes that they might not look with their eyes and listen with their ears and understand with their heart in turn, and I would heal them.

See, clearly, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 6. This, of course, is what Matthew wrote down, but it's what Jesus explained. See, whenever that statement was given to Isaiah, it was actually given to him to tell him, I'm sending you to give my warning. I'm sending you to tell people to repent. I'm sending you to teach them what the right way is, and tell them to repent, and they're not going to do it. That's what Isaiah was told. They're not going to listen. They're not going to pay attention. Now, that would be kind of a depressing job.

A depressing job, you know, to be preaching and preaching, and over a course of decades, which he was, to people who didn't want to know, who didn't want to pay attention, who didn't want to hear, didn't want to listen, and they just seemed oblivious to the message that God was extending. And yet, Jesus quotes this exact verse, in connection with people in his day.

And so we want to keep this in mind as we go forward. The point I want to make, or that I want to emphasize, is verse 16. Because after he points out how the parables are given in a certain way, for a certain reason, he says in verse 16, But blessed are your eyes. Blessed are your eyes for you see, and for your ears for you hear. See, now, who was he talking to? Well, he was telling his disciples. He was telling those that he was going to work with and cultivate and extend understanding to, and again, as we've studied and as we've went through the accounts of Jesus dealing with his disciples, sometimes they seem to get it pretty well, and other times they didn't seem to get it at all.

He said, that's okay. They'll understand it later. They'll understand it after I'm put to death and after I'm crucified, and then after they receive the Holy Spirit, they're going to be a changed group of people. They're going to be able to perceive what it is that God has done in sending me to the earth. And so, verse 16 says, our eyes and our ears have been blessed. And I think it's good for us to think about, you know, what is it that our eyes see? What is it that our ears hear? What is it that we perceive that makes us different?

Because he was writing this to his disciples, and we certainly want to fit into that category of being the disciples of Jesus Christ. So, what our eyes see is the hope of the Kingdom of God. See, that's actually what Isaiah wrote about. He wrote about that in numerous different chapters about the Kingdom of God and the rule of Christ on earth. Let's see, what we see is a hope in the Kingdom of God, and we see a hope in the rulership of Jesus Christ that's coming, but in his rulership and leadership in our lives today.

And I think it's important that we really respect the fact that God, in his timing, in his choosing, has allowed us to understand and to see and hear something that otherwise we wouldn't see and hear. Sometimes, as we labor with our own difficulties, and I realize all of us, we're subject to certain level of health difficulties, we're subject to numerous other problems, sometimes job or money, a lot of different difficulties.

If we labor with, sometimes if we labor with those difficulties, we may forget that God is working a great miracle, a great miracle in our lives. A miracle, not unlike the birth of Isaac. Now, think back. How was the birth of Isaac a miracle? Well, Abraham and Sarah were, of course, the parents of Isaac. And Sarah was barren, and she was way beyond the age of childbearing.

Abraham was older, and at this point they didn't have children together. And yet God said, you know, Isaac, or a son, would be born, and, of course, miraculously that did occur. See, that was a miracle that God brought about. Now, Abraham had already taken it into his own hands, and he had a son named Ishmael already. That's the son of Abraham. But see, God says, I'm going to work through the son of promise.

I'm going to work through Isaac that I miraculously caused to be born. And so, I think that we should think about the fact that God has begun to work in our lives as a great miracle, not unlike the birth of Isaac to Sarah and Abraham, and not unlike the choosing of Jacob. See, now, Isaac's wife, Rebecca, had twin boys, Jacob and Esau. And what do we see about those twins? God says, I'm going to work through Jacob. He says, I'm not going to work through Esau.

See, so you had, you know, descendants from Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. He chose to work through Isaac, and he had descendants through Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau. He was going to work through Jacob, and Jacob's sons would become the tribes of Israel, and they would make up the people of God that we read about in the Old Testament.

But Esau's, they certainly are the children of Jacob, but God was not directly working through them. See, we need to understand how important it is that God describes His miraculous way of working in people's lives.

I want us to turn to Acts 28. This is another one of the sections that involves a quoting of what we see in Isaiah. Again, this was Isaiah's mission as God told it to him. He says, I want you to go, I want you to preach, I want you to teach, I want you to tell them to repent, and they won't pay attention. They won't hear, they won't heed. And again, like I said, that surely must have been a discouraging job.

But here in Acts 28, you see an account of Paul pretty much toward the end of his life, toward the end of his ministry. And he was eventually to get to Rome. And you find this, starting in about verse 14, chapter 28, verse 14.

There we found, as Paul eventually, after his shipwreck, and finally got to Rome, verse 13, we found believers, excuse me, verse 14, we found believers and were invited to stay with them for seven days, and so we came to Rome. And the believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the forum of Apias and three taverns to meet us. And on seeing them, as Paul saw some of the believers, some who God had drawn and was working with and teaching or showing about the kingdom of God and showing about who Jesus actually was, Paul, you know, he was thrilled.

He said he thanked God, and he took courage. He was really picked up because, you know, he met the believers there. And down in verse 17, it says three days later, he called together the local leaders of the Jews. And so here he has a discussion with the Jews who were in Rome, and, you know, they had a certain reservation about Paul. They've heard a little bit about him. They've heard a little bit about the Church of God that they're going to call a sect here.

Whenever you get down to verse 22, whenever he was talking to them, they replied to him in verse 22, we would like to hear from you what you think, what you have to say. For with regard to this sect, again talking about the Church of God, talking about the group that Paul was representing, as he was said as an apostle to the Gentiles, for this regard, or we have heard, for this regard of this sect, we know everywhere it is spoken against. See, here he was talking to Jewish individuals, so they were Israelites, and they were not a part of the Church. And in verse 23, after he had set a day to meet with them, they came to him at his lodging in great numbers.

From morning until evening, he explained the matters to them. And so here we see Paul proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God. Here we see him telling them what they really needed to know. From morning until evening, he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God. And so that was certainly a part of what he told them about.

He told them about how the kingdom is coming, how the kingdom needs to be set up, how you need to look forward to that, how, as we read in Matthew 6, verse 33, to seek the kingdom of God and seek the righteousness of God. This is what God calls us to do. But he told them, he was testifying to the kingdom of God, and he was trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And so here Paul was teaching out of the Old Testament.

Now, of course, he was talking to Jews who were schooled in the Old Testament. They were familiar with the law, where you see statements about Jesus and information, that is to point out who the Messiah is and how he will come. But then also, out of the prophets, where there is a lot of information, not only in Isaiah but in numerous other of the prophets, about just how it is that Jesus would be the Messiah. And the effect of Paul's teaching to them is described here in verse 24. He says, some were convinced that what he had to say and others refused to believe.

Here Paul was, as servant of God. He had been commissioned by God as an apostle. He had the good news. He had the gospel of the kingdom and of Jesus Christ as the king of that kingdom. But they disagreed, or some believed, but then others refused to believe. So they disagreed with each other in verse 25, and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement. And so as Paul had been talking to them, he'd been going over the Scriptures, he'd been discussing things, and we need to recall Paul was highly schooled in the law.

He was a Pharisee. He was an Israelite. He was thoroughly schooled in the Old Testament. And of course, that's what they had available at that point. Anyway, he tried to convince them that Jesus had come to the earth and that he had been put to death, and he was resurrected from the dead. And that you need to believe in him. And yet, since some didn't believe, they disagreed and they started to believe, and then Paul made one more statement.

He made a statement. He says, The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, Go to this people and say, you will indeed listen, but never understand. You will indeed look, but never perceive. For the people's hearts has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing. They have shut their eyes so that they might not look with their eyes and listen with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. Here, directly, Paul quotes what Isaiah 6, verse 9 and 10 says. This is exactly what God said would happen. And whenever he went to the Jews, and whenever he gave them the correct information, the information that would lead to eternal life, they didn't want to believe it.

They didn't want to accept who Jesus was. They didn't want to learn about the coming kingdom of God. And so in verse 28, he said, Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God, see the offering of God, to become a part of His divine family, to receive salvation, and the only way you can do that is through Jesus Christ.

He says the offering of this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, because they will listen. Again, he was telling them, in a sense, indicting them for the fact that they're continuing just as their ancestors had not paid attention to Isaiah, or not paying attention to the Apostle Paul. And so, I think it's, in a sense, it's exciting to see just how it is that Isaiah is used, but again, you see, I'm only focusing on one little section in Isaiah, because you see this quoted in Matthew, and in Mark, and in Luke, and in John, and in Acts, and later, as I'll get to, in Romans, because he explains it in much greater detail in the book of Romans.

I want us to look at John 12. John 12 is another, again, very good explanation of this. And of course, in John's account, he is explaining how it was that Jesus came to the people. And of course, you see this in chapter 1, verse 14, the Word became flesh, and He dwelled among us, and yet He was not received. He was not accepted, except by a very few. In verse 36, here of John 12, it says, Jesus had said thereafter He had said this, He departed and hid from them.

And although He had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him. And this was to fulfill the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He quotes Isaiah 53, verse 1, where he says, Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And so they wouldn't believe. They wouldn't believe because Isaiah also said, and here he quotes Isaiah 6, verse 10, He has blinded their eyes, He has hardened their heart, so that they might not look with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

See, here John is again verifying the validity not only of Isaiah and of what he had to write and how it was under the inspiration of God, but in talking about Jesus and not being accepted, not being believed. Because that's what Jesus said. You need to believe what I say. And yet in verse 41 it says, Isaiah said this, Isaiah said this because he, Isaiah, saw the glory, the glory of Jesus. He saw this in vision. He saw what was being presented. He saw His glory and He spoke about Him.

Again, another reference to how it was that Jesus was going to be taught and represented out of the book of Isaiah. And you even see when you go back to Acts 8, I won't take time to go into that account, but when the Ethiopian unit came to Philip, or Philip was brought to him, and he was reading a book. He was reading words that we find in Isaiah 53, verse 7 and 8. And he's reading those words and he asked the question, well, is this talking about the prophet or is this talking about someone else? And Philip started right there from that verse in Isaiah to start teaching him. He says, this is talking about the Messiah. This is talking about this whole section in Isaiah 52 and 53, is talking about the Messiah, the one who was going to come, who was sent from God, and who was the one that everyone needs to believe. And so, you know, you find this over and over when you go through many of these Scriptures that you have on the sheet that I gave you. And again, I'm not going to try to go through many of these, but I do want to go back to what Paul has to say in the book of Romans.

Because the book of Romans is, in a sense, a very unique book. It's a unique book. It's the longest book that Paul wrote, I believe. And he was writing to a group of Christians in Rome who were made up of a number of Jews, people who had a Jewish background and Israelite background, but then there were also a number of Gentiles who were a part of that congregation. And what do you think might happen when those two groups get together and they were pretty new to the truth? Well, they had conflicts. They were arguing, and the Jews were saying that they were better, and the Gentiles were saying they were better, because they were accustomed to the culture that they lived in there, and they had a certain sense of well-being in that. The Jews had their own culture. They had their own background, and they would argue back and forth. And of course, the whole book of Romans is showing them or telling them that, no, it's not a matter of being fighting among yourself or arguing with each other or trying to raise yourself up, but to realize that a miracle has taken place for any one of you, Jew or Gentile alike, to be here in the Israel of God. That's the way he later describes the church, the Israel of God. And Galatians 6, 16 is where it directly says that, but that's not where I'm going. I'm going to Romans 9, because in Romans 9, and 10, and 11, in this section, this actually only three short chapters here in the book of Romans, I go here because I think it's fascinating to see how that Paul quotes, it's actually almost the highest concentration in the entire New Testament of his quoting out of Isaiah and others of the prophets. He quotes Hosea, he quotes others of the prophets in just teaching or showing the church how that you need to be grateful for the calling from God that you've been given. You don't need to be trying to be puffed up. You don't need to be trying to be overbearing toward others. You need to understand it's according to God's calling, according to His timing. So let's take a look at this starting in Romans 9. 9, 10, and 11. This is actually kind of an inset in the book of Romans. You have the first eight books in the book of Romans. They're mostly about how it is that we are justified, how it is that we come to be yielded to God, how it is that we are then led by the Holy Spirit. That's what the first eight chapters are about. And then, chapter 9, 10, and 11 deal with the topic that we're discussing here is how is it that God would choose to deal with Jews and Gentiles and bring us together. And yet we are together because of our yieldedness to Jesus Christ. And if you read chapter 12 and then on to the end of the book, Romans 12 to 16, you find that's filled with Christian living statements of things we should be doing as we are led by the Spirit of God.

But in this section, Romans 9, Paul says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. He says, I would wish in verse 2 that I was accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred, according to the flesh. So here he's talking about Israelites. He says in verse 4, they are Israelites. Paul was deeply concerned about his heritage and his Jewish background because that's what he had grown up in. That, of course, he could do nothing about except, you know, he could continue to teach and preach the words of God. But he says, my fellow countrymen, my Israelite brethren, verse 4, they are brethren, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, the worship, and the promises. And to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is overall God-blessed forevermore. See, he can make a real case for the benefits that the Jews had been given. He can say they've been worked with by God a great deal.

And yet he also is going to point out how they also are blinded. Blinded to a very important issue. That issue is Jesus Christ as the king of the kingdom, and an understanding of how right now we are preparing to be a part of that kingdom. We are preparing for service in the kingdom of God. See, this, he says, is something that his countrymen didn't really understand. And I'm not going to read through the entirety of this. It would take too long, but I hope that you will.

I hope that with this background of what these three chapters are about, that you'll go back and read through. And like I said, there are over 30 references to either the book of Isaiah or one of the other prophets that Paul is quoting.

But here he's talking about the Israelites. And let me see, let me pick this up. Verse 10, he says something similar. He talks about Isaac being born. He says something similar happened to Rebekah when she conceived children by one husband, by her ancestor Isaac. And verse 11, even before they had been born and had done anything, good or bad. So that God's purpose of election might continue or stand, not by works, but simply by His call. She was told the elder would serve the younger.

And so as it is written, I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. See, God made a selection. He made a selection that His people, the people of Israel, come from Abraham through Isaac and then through Jacob. And then he backs it up in verse 14. He says, What shall we say? Is there unrighteousness? Or is there injustice with God on God's part in any way? And he answers that question as he does in numerous different places here in Romans, because in essence, he's making an argument.

He's putting forth a supposition and encouraging people to see what he's talking about. But he answers that question, Is God in just? He says, By no means. God is not in just. And then he goes ahead and describes in verse 15, he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whoever I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. He says, God is the one. So it depends in verse 16, not on human will or exertion, but on God, who shows mercy. And he uses the example of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh was hardened. Pharaoh was certainly disadvantaged. He was on the wrong side. He was leading Egypt in the wrong direction. He was an idolater. He was the whole land of Egypt was filled with idols that God, of course, put down whenever he drew Israel out of there. But in talking about Pharaoh, in verse 18, he says, I have raised you up, verse 17, for the very purpose of showing my power so that my name can be proclaimed in all the earth. So, in verse 18, then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

Again, see, this is beyond our ability, our ability and our level of selection. God is the one doing the selection here. Let's drop him down. He asks numbers of other questions, but I just want to point out some of the verses here, because some of them, he says in verse 22, What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels or the objects of wrath that are made for destruction?

And what if he has done so in order, in verse 23, to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy? See, that's a very important phrase. That he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory. For the objects or vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory. See, brethren, what is it that we desire? What is it that we hope for? What is it we yearn to be a part of? Well, it's to be a part of God's kingdom and family, but to be glorified as Jesus is now glorified.

That's what he's talking about here. So he says, verse 23, What if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, including us whom he has called? Not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. Here he's pointing out to the church in Rome, you know, there are Jews and there are Gentiles, both, who have been drawn into the church, who have been drawn into the Israel of God, and who are to be converted. And they're going to be converted by their yieldedness to God and their submission to Jesus Christ.

Let's drop on down, verse 30. What then are we to say? Well, what we can say is that the Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it. They've attained the righteousness that comes through faith. But Israel, who did not strive for the law, did not succeed in fulfilling it. And why not? Well, in verse 32, because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as it is, it was based on works. So their understanding of righteousness, of what it is that God really wants, how He wants to completely transform our heart and our mind and give Him His righteousness.

That's what we want to seek. That's what we want to pray for, even as we know in Matthew 6, 33. Seek the kingdom of God, but seek the righteousness of God. That's what we really need. And He says about the Israelites, in verse 32, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone.

See, that's what we mentioned here several places here earlier in John and in Acts. They didn't want to listen to the one who had all the answers. They didn't want to know what Jesus had to offer. They didn't want to know how He could benefit their lives. And He goes ahead in verse 33, as it is written, See, I'm laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall. And whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. See, their rejection of Jesus Christ, they're not believing who He was. They're not accepting His rule. That was a part of the distress that they were in.

In chapter 10, I just want to go to one verse here. Again, there's a lot of information in here, and it would be good for us to study all of these. But I'm wanting to just cover the overview of this. Here in chapter 10, verse 12, in talking about the church, or even to back up in verse 11, the preacher says, no one who believes in Him will be put to shame.

See, that's actually referenced back up to the last verse in chapter 9. For there, it says in verse 12, there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on Him. See, that's what he was teaching the church in Rome, that the Jews didn't have something over the Gentiles, and the Gentiles didn't have something over the Jews, that they were all to be in subjection to Jesus Christ. So in chapter 11, he concludes this discussion. He says in verse 1, I ask then, has God rejected His people Israel? And he answers that question by no means.

He has not rejected them. But if we drop down to verse 5, he says, so too, talking about the church, so too, at the present time, there is a remnant. So there were some who had an Israelite background and who had been brought into the church of God.

He says, at the present time, there is a remnant that is chosen by grace. And he says in verse 7, Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, but the elect have obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see, ears that would not hear, down to this very day. See, he points in teaching the church. He wanted them to understand that the blindness that Israel suffered is overcome by yielding to the blessing that God would provide in opening eyes and ears and letting them, Jew and Gentile alike, become a part of the Israel of God.

So I ask in verse 11, have they stumbled, talking about Israel, have they stumbled so as to fall, again by no means, but through their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous? To hear God is working out His selection of Israel and then allowing them to decline, allowing them to be in a stupor, so to speak, so that He could draw whomever He chose to be a part of the spiritual Israel.

And He says in verse 20, starting in verse 13, He says, I'm now speaking to you Gentiles. So He had been speaking to Jews in one section and now He's speaking to Gentiles. And He says in verse 20, this is true, Israel was broken off, and He's talking about a grafting that is going on. They were broken off because of their unbelief.

But you stand, talking of the Gentiles in the church, you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps He will not spare you. But note then the kindness and the severity of God.

And so God is able and God is willing to deal with all of us, no matter what our background is, if we're able to yield and willing to yield to Him. And so He concludes this in verse 25, So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brethren, I want you to understand this mystery.

A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. Again, what we want to see from this is God's intervention in the minds, in the hearts, in the lives of whomever He chooses to extend mercy to. He goes on to say in verse 26, And so all of Israel will be saved, as it is written out of Zion, And will come a deliverer, and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.

And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins. See, now He's talking in part about the church, the church that He will be working with at the end time, but He's also talking even in the future. Because Israel is going to be set up in a sense as a model nation. It's going to be set up whenever we read about the apostles ruling over the tribes of Israel.

You know, that's in the future. That's talking about a beginning of the Kingdom of God being set up. And so much of what is being said here is yet to be. It's not solely. It is directly, or it is for the church as it applies to us, but then it goes beyond that. And He says, let's see, in verse 32, For God has imprisoned all, talking about all Jews, all Gentiles in disobedience, so that He may be merciful to all.

And He goes ahead to say, in verse 33, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For in verse 34, Who has known the mind of God?

Whenever you read these chapters and read through the entirety of all of them, you can see how that it points out God's selection, God's mercy, His compassion, Jew and Gentile alike, and how that appreciating His calling, appreciating His selection, or appreciating what it says here in chapter 9, verse 23 and verse 24. Because this is talking about vessels of mercy. Or, as the translation I'm using here, the new Revised Standard says, objects of mercy.

Now that's talking about all of us. That's talking about those of us who wish to yield to God today, who wish to repent of our sins and to be a recipient of the Holy Spirit and to yearn for Jesus Christ to come to the earth and establish the Kingdom of God. See, that's talking about those objects or vessels of mercy. As Paul goes ahead in verse 24 to say, Whether we're Jew or Gentile, we have been drawn and called to Jesus Christ. And so that, of course, gives us a great deal of reason to be respectful of God's timing, of His choosing, even of His forethought in calling us, and then truly to be thankful for the process that He has involved us in.

See, He's not just drawn us into the Church of God. He's drawn us into a transformation process. He needs to clean up our heart. He needs to change our nature. We've got to agree with that. I was talking to one of the men up in Fulton this morning, and one of the younger guys who was there, who's familiar with computers. We were discussing how it is that everyone is going to ultimately agree with God. Everybody is going to accept what God has to offer, because what He has to offer is eternal life. And this other man mentioned, well, yeah, it's kind of like when you have it on your computer and they're trying to, you know, almost any other program or anything that you're trying to buy, they have you read this, you know, of course, it goes on forever, and it says you either accept or decline. And we were saying, well, yeah, you've got to accept that. And yet this young man was saying, yeah, but a lot of times you don't read it. We have to read it. We have to understand it. We have to know what it is and then accept it. And I thought that was very good on his part, that he realized that, you know, it's not a matter of not knowing. It's a matter of truly appreciating what God has done in calling and in drawing us. And he teaches that out of Isaiah. He teaches that throughout the New Testament. And he wants all of us to embrace that. And again, as I said, we've had it mentioned earlier in the sermonette, in 1 Peter 4, verse 17, it says, judgment is to begin with the household of God. You know, that household of God is the church of God today. The household of God is individuals through whom God is performing the miracle of being transformed, to become like his glorious Son, to take on his divine nature, to no longer, you know, to be the way that we have been or we are, and that we want to repent of as we see things. And yet we want to take on that divine nature that comes from Jesus Christ. So I hope that in going over this, I hope this will encourage you to maybe read Romans 9, 10, and 11, but also to consider how much he writes about the book of Isaiah, and how it is out of that book that you see so much of the plan of God described. That's how Philip could teach that to those who came to him. That's how others are able to benefit from that. And so please take a look at that. I again have given you far more Scriptures on that page than we could easily go over now. But I hope that if we think about this, that we can truly appreciate God's timing in drawing us today. That isn't something that we just designed. That was something God allowed to happen. And he wants us to appreciate the fact that there are God's vessels or objects of mercy, and that's all of us. So we have a great deal to be thankful for, and certainly we wanted to be yielded to him in order to be able to be prepared and to be looking forward to whatever he is going to do throughout the millennium and beyond, throughout the entire work that he intends to do throughout eternity, because he's transforming us from being subject to death, from being mortal, from being very limited, from being, in many ways, very frail to being immortal. He's going to cause us to have immortality. He's going to cause us...we don't have that now. He holds out the help before us since we are his objects of mercy.