In his sermon, Steve Hopkins explores Romans chapter 11, focusing on the theme of 'All Israel shall be saved.' He examines Apostle Paul's doxology and reflects on the depth of God's wisdom and knowledge in His redemptive plan. Hopkins emphasizes that Israel's partial blindness is temporary and will remain until the 'fullness of the Gentiles' occurs, indicating a future time when Jews will be restored to God's grace. The sermon outlines the interconnectedness of Jewish and Gentile salvation, where the disobedience of Israel led to mercy for Gentiles, and this mercy is expected to be reciprocated. Various theologians are cited to support the interpretation that 'all Israel' refers broadly to a significant portion of the Jewish people rather than every individual. Hopkins underscores the irrevocable nature of God's promises and calls for reflection on the boundless nature of God's grace.

Good afternoon again. My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of Romans. We are returning to Romans chapter 11 And we're going to be standing together and I will be reading as the congregation stands for the reading of the word of the Lord verses 25 through the end of the chapter through 36.

If you would stand with me for the reading of the infallible, inerrant, all-sufficient Word of God. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. The blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written. The Deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, you have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, They might have mercy on all.

O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Let's pray.

Our gracious Lord, our gracious Heavenly Father, how unsearchable are your judgments and your ways past finding out. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your ways higher than our ways and your thoughts than our thoughts. In eternity, O God, will not be enough time for us to comprehend your essence, nor plumb the depths of the riches of your infinite wisdom and knowledge, nor fully comprehend the immeasurable wealth of the grace that you have shown us in Christ Jesus, your Son and our Lord and Savior. And so, Father, we come before you today to offer our praise and our thanksgiving for giving us your Son, to reconcile us to heaven by the blood of His cross, for Christ who redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us we come to thank you God for so great a Savior for Christ the power of God Christ the wisdom of God Christ the Lamb of God without blemish and without spot, who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And now we humbly ask, Lord, that you might be pleased, O Holy Father, once again, to give the Spirit and power to open our hearts and minds to the truth of your holy word, for we ask it in the most blessed and holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let's be seated. At the end of chapter 11, which we just read, the Apostle Paul breaks out into a doxology. All of us know what a doxology is. We sing it many times at the end of our service praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly hosts praise father son and Holy Ghost amen well here at the end of Chapter 11, the apostle Paul bursts forth in a doxology in praise to the Almighty as he considers the wisdom and sovereignty of God's grace, demonstrated in the outworking of His eternal plan of redemption and the promise of God for the final restoration of his Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh.

What we saw in our previous session of chapter 11 is the Almighty God in his infinite wisdom in the outworking of his redemptive plan decreed that through Israel's partial fall, salvation would come to the Gentiles. That was verse 11. And that this would in turn provoke the Jews to jealousy, which would in turn lead to their receiving back in again to their final restoration to a restoration that we read in verse 15 which would be like life from the dead Paul marvels at the unfathomable riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God in his eternal plan to show mercy on all in this way on both Jews and Gentiles and he breaks forth how unsearchable are God's judgments and his ways past finding out Paul says at the end of our last session on Romans we witnessed a solemn apostolic warning to Gentile believers A warning for them not to boast against the natural Jewish branches who were cut out of their own olive tree. That was verse 18. Understanding that it is not they that is the Gentile believers who support the root, the root being the patriarchs and the promises made to them, but it is the root that supports them.

And so Paul warned the Gentiles not to be high-minded, but to fear. He warned them to maintain a holy reverence here, understanding that the natural branches were lopped off for unbelief, and that they, the Gentile believers, stood by faith. But also to remember that if they are guilty of unbelief, they also will be cut off. And that if the natural branches continue not in unbelief, they'll be graft back in. For God is able to graft them in again.

God is able to restore them. And So we ended with verse 24 in our last session on Romans where the apostle Paul continued this line of reasoning with the Gentile believers. Remember he said, I'm speaking unto you Gentiles. And he says, if you were cut out of the olive tree, just he says, think on this. If you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, that is, if God took you Gentiles who were wild olive shoots and cut you out of a wild olive tree, and then contrary to nature, grafted you in to a good olive tree, the olive tree whose root is the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the covenant promises made to them.

He says how much more shall these the natural branches, Paul says, the natural descendants of the patriarchs, the Jews, be grafted back into their own olive tree. How much more natural would that be? How much more shall these, the natural branches, the natural descendants of the patriarchs, the Jews, be grafted into their own olive tree. And as we pick up with verse 25, he's still speaking to the Gentile believers here. And he says, brothers, brothers, I don't want you to be unaware about what's going on here.

I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery. Look at your Bibles, verse 25. I don't want you to be unaware about what's going on here. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery. Look at your Bibles, verse 25.

I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, as KJV puts it, lest you be wise in your own conceits. Paul is very tender here. He's not he's not bringing the hammer down on their heads. He's being very tender. He's he's patient He's kind.

I don't want you to be wise in your own conceits. I don't want you to be wise in your own sight I want you to understand this mystery I want you to rest in God's revelation here in the Word of God and not in your own opinions. And then he says here it is, mystery revealed. Paul is saying here's what's going on. Blindness in part has happened to Israel.

A partial hardening has come upon them, but it isn't going to be forever blindness in part has happened to Israel Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in the word until is a is a time frame reference says sprawl It means up to a certain point in time. And such a time has a terminal dimension to it. Beyond it, something changes. When Paul says blindness has happened to ethnic Israel, to the Jews, he's saying it hasn't happened forever. It isn't going to be forever.

At the beginning of chapter 11 we saw that the state of apostasy into which the Jews had fallen was neither full nor final. Paul reminded us of his own Jewish ancestry as a way to show us that not all the ethnic Jews had fallen away from the covenant. Remember he said I'm of the tribe I'm an Israelite I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. Here he points out that the fall of Israel was not only not full, but also not final. It is not the end of the story.

The blindness that has come upon them, this is still sprawled, upon them has a historical limit to it, which is until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Presumably there is a point in history where God's extension of his salvific call to the Gentiles will reach its saturation point, after which God's relationship to ethnic Israel will change. And I want you to fasten on those words from the apostle Paul for just a minute. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Look at the text.

Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Does that sound familiar like it sounds like some other passage in scripture? In Luke 21, 24, Jesus used some similar words when he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which took place 37 years later. He said, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and they shall be led captive, away captive, into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

It's very similar language that Paul uses in our text this afternoon when he says, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Paul says this is the mystery revealed. Blindness in part has happened to Israel, and that blindness is going to continue up to a certain point until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and then the blinders are going to come off and what a day that will be. No one on earth knows when that day will be we only know that it will be. Before he died, Dr.

Sproul said he wondered at times if we were not on the final cusp of the roundup of the Gentiles. I found that rather a striking statement because he's not premillennial in his eschatology. He's a partial preterist which falls into the camp of post-millennialism. Found that rather interesting. I don't know.

It could be a hundred years from now, it could be a thousand years from now, but eventually the fullness of the Gentiles will come in and after that the blinders are going to come off for the Jews and then what? Verse 26 of our text. And so all Israel shall be saved. Blindness in part, Gentile conversion, saturation, followed by restoration. Now when the scripture uses the word all in contexts like this, it doesn't always mean all as in every single person.

Okay, like when John the Baptist was baptizing in the Jordan, it says, "'There went out to him all the land of Judea and they were all baptized But Herod and his soldiers weren't they're getting baptized, right? So it doesn't always mean all all in this context means it will be so vast the number that you would think the whole nation had been saved. I'm gonna read some quotes from reformed scholars and theologians of history from today going back 500 years. And just, you know, I don't wanna to, there's so many different eschatological viewpoints. I'm not saying, you know, I'm trying to just go verse by verse and say, here's what the scripture says.

I don't want to push my particular view. But I would like to show that down through history, we have this train, this chain, link of Reformed scholars who are all saying the same thing about this passage. And I couldn't put them all in here, but because there are too many. I mean, I have pages and pages and pages, but I wanted to read just a few of them. Princeton theologian Charles Hodge from the 1700s or from the 1800s, quote, from the context, Israel here must mean the Jewish people and all Israel, the whole nation.

The Jews as a people are now rejected as a people they are going to be restored. Scottish theologian Robert Haldane, Israel's rejection continues until the fullness of the Gentiles have been grafted in, and then the people of Israel as a body will be brought to the faith of the Gospel. John Calvin, when the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith, and thus shall be completed the salvation." God's work of saving Jews and Gentiles. Charles Spurgeon. Clearly there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel.

Thither shall they go up. They shall come with weeping unto Zion and with supplications unto Jerusalem. May that happy day soon come. For when the Jews are restored, then the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in." Puritan Thomas Boston, representative of all the Puritan thinking on this. You can read a book by Ian Murray called The Puritan Hope which just details all of these Puritan thinking.

Thomas Boston, quote, there is a day coming when there shall be a national conversion of the Jews or Israelites. The now blinded and rejected Jews shall at length be converted into the faith of Christ and join themselves to the Christian church. Increase Mather, some of you will remember him, renowned pastor back in the 13 colonies, okay, at the founding of this country in the 1700s. Increase Mather, that there shall be a general conversion of the tribes of Israel is a truth which in some measure has been known and believed in all ages of the church of God since the apostles' days." End quote. Robert Murray McShane converted Israel, he declared, will give life to the dead world.

1700s Baptist expositor John Gill, and so all Israel shall be saved. He says, meaning not the mystical, spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, but the people of the Jews, the generality of them. The body of that nation called the fullness of them in Romans 11-12. It relates to the latter day when a nation of them shall be born again at once. He's saying this in the 1700s.

When their number being as the sand of the sea, they shall come up out of the lands where they are dispersed, and appoint them one head, Christ. And great shall be the day of Jezreel, when they as a body, even the far greater part of them, shall be in being, shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, speaking of Christ, shall acknowledge Jesus to be the true Messiah and shall look to him, believe on him, and be saved by him from the wrath to come." Close quote. Dr. Sproul. He does not mean every Jew that ever lived, all Israel shall be saved, but the nation of Israel.

Now why do I say that Israel in this phrase refers to the Jews? All through his discussion Paul is talking about Israel in part. Part of Israel has been blinded, Part of Israel has been cut away. Part of Israel has been stubborn. Part of Israel has been excluded from the kingdom of God and its blessings.

The Jews as a people are presently under judgment, but as there was a national judgment, so there will be a national restoration." Close quote. Matthew Henry, the Jews shall continue in blindness till God has performed His whole work among the Gentiles and then their turn will come next to be remembered. Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of the Great Awakening, Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews is in the 11th chapter Of Romans and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written the deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Paul takes parts of three passages in the Old Testament and puts them together here. If you want to jot down the references, they're from Psalm 14, 7, Isaiah 27, 9, and Isaiah 59, 20 through 21 to bring this passage here.

And you know, they say that the fastest way to get party factions in the church is to be dogmatic on your eschatology, right? As the study of future things. But listen, no matter what a person's eschatological view may be on these passages, one thing is certain, undeniable here, okay? Look at the text. The Deliverer is the Messiah, our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

And He will turn ungodliness from Jacob and His covenant with them will be fulfilled and He will take away all their sins. Jacob has broken covenant with God. Jacob whom God called Israel has been disobedient but God is going to turn them back to Him because He said He would. His covenant promise will not be set aside and His electing grace will not fail. God is not finished with the Jews.

He fulfills His word. God keeps His promises. And aren't you glad that He does? Aren't you glad personally that God does what He says He will do? That God keeps His promises?

Our Lord Jesus Christ, our wonderful Savior promised us in John 5 verse 24, He said, Whoever hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life, possesses everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. Oh, the promises of God. John 10, 27, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Eric read that passage earlier.

We didn't get together on this. Aren't you glad that God keeps His promises? Well, Paul says, blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, the blinders are going to come off and the words of the prophets will come to pass. They will be fulfilled.

Sprawl again. Jacob has turned away in consistent disobedience, but God is going to turn them back. Why will God do this? He will turn them back because of His covenant promise and electing grace. Paul goes on in verse 28, concerning the gospel, they, speaking of the Jews, are enemies for your sake.

But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. You notice something here that the Jews are both enemies and beloved at the same time. Some people leave, some pastors and ministers leave out that last part, right? They're both enemies and beloved at the same time. If a teacher or preacher leaves either part out, he misses the point.

As far as the gospel goes, the Jews were enemies. But that was for the sake of the Gentiles, of us Gentiles. Because it was God's means by which the gospel was taken to you, he was saying, because he's speaking to the Gentiles here. The gospel, it was God's means by which the gospel was taken to you, he was saying, because he's speaking to the Gentiles here. The gospel, it was God's means by which the gospel was taken to you.

But as concerning the election, in the words of Charles Hodge, they were still regarded as the peculiar people of God on account of their connection to the patriarchs. I was listening to a pastor preach on this verse a couple of days ago and he got to this verse concerning the election there beloved, this part, and he didn't go further either. Can't leave out any part of this or you come up with something different? He got to this verse and he said concerning the election they are beloved and then he stopped. He didn't finish out the passage and then he went on to try to make the case that Paul was talking about the election to eternal life here but he left out they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

Which of course changes the whole meaning of the passage and the specific election Paul is talking about here. Okay, the late John Murray theologian, God has not suspended or rescinded his relation to Israel as his chosen people in terms of the covenant made with the fathers. Unfaithful as Israel has been and broken off for that reason, yet God still sustains his peculiar relation to them. A relation that will be demonstrated and vindicated in the restoration. All those train of men we just read from, John Murray saying the same thing.

Why verse 29 for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Revocable means not not able to be changed or reversed. KJV says they are without repentance. In other words, God is not going to change his mind.

For as Jews speaking to the Gentiles still, were once disobedient. Look at these passages here and be instructed. Let's not be unaware, let's not be ignorant here. For as you, speaking to the Gentiles still, were once disobedient to God, you would have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, through disobedience of the Jews. Even so, these also, the Jews, have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you you Gentiles they also may obtain mercy who could come up with that who could come up with that is judgments are just right we can't We can't even hardly get our minds around how God would do this.

Paul says, just as you Gentiles were once disobedient, but have now obtained mercy through Israel's disobedience, so Israel has now become disobedient, so through the mercy extended to you, they too may obtain mercy. I feel like I've got a Rubik's Cube, you know, or whatever. But it's beautiful, it all comes, the colors are all on all sides. Brothers and sisters, only the wisdom of God could come up with so wonderful a plan of redemption, of the unfolding of redemption. God committed both Jew and Gentile alike to disobedience so that he could have mercy on both.

Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How Unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. As we close, Paul, who at one time entered the third heaven, we can't even comprehend this, we don't even really know what that means fully. We just know, wow, he entered the third heaven, Paul, and heard things that were not to be spoken on earth. He couldn't come back and repeat some of those things on earth.

This Paul wades into the waters of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge in redeeming grace and finds no bottom on which to place His foot. O, the unfathomable riches of God's wisdom and sovereign grace! How unsearchable are his judgments in his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord and who's become his counselor or who's first given to him and it shall be repaid to him, Paul says. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, fountain of overflowing grace, Father, the only response we could have to the wonders of your grace and your goodness and your love and your mercy and your kindness shown us in Christ is adoration and praise and thanksgiving. We cannot begin to plumb the depths of the riches of your infinite wisdom and knowledge. Like the Apostle Paul when we wade into the waters we find no bottom on which to place our foot.

How unsearchable, O God, are Your judgments and Your ways past finding out. All we can do is adore You. All we can do is just wonder. All we can do is just praise you, O God, lost in wonder, love, and praise. We thank you for giving us your Son and including us in Your wonderful, incomprehensible plan of redemption through Him.

We thank You for giving us Your Son, our Lord Jesus, joy of heaven to earth come down, and for the free grace and eternal salvation Given us in him who died for our sins and rose again Amen you