Romans 11:1-2 – A Work Not Finished – Bible study

Romans 11:2 A Work Not Finished This morning, I want us to consider two separate lines of thought. One deals with the question Paul asks in theses verses, "Hath God cast away His people?" Paul was speaking of Israel, and he was asking if God was finished with them. I want to answer that question but I cannot completely answer it this morning. I will have to come and finish the topic, if the Lord wills, next Sunday morning. However, not to leave you hanging, I will give you the short answer, "No. God is not finished with Israel." Part of the reason I will not be able to finish answering that question this morning is because I do not want to talk JUST about Israel, but I want to look at another topic at the same time. I want us to consider God. Our God is bigger than you and I can comprehend. He is an infinite God and we are finite beings. A finite being cannot understand an infinite Being. It is not possible. However, the task of trying is further complicated by the fact that we cannot sense God by our five senses. Without those senses, we humans have a very difficult time comprehending just how big He is. So this morning, lets learn about God by looking at what He has done, specifically by looking at what God has done with Israel. So this morning, lets consider two thoughts that we will not be able to complete. Lets consider Israel and our God. I. Israel, Supernatural in Their Origin A. Israel is a 4,000 year old nation, making it one of the oldest in the world, but the Bible records its beginning back to the first man and woman. Ge 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 1. The first man was Abraham and the first wife (although not mentioned in this text) was Sarah. 2. God was going to make a nation from these two people. B. The Bible lists some handicaps these two had in starting their own nation. Ge 12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 1. Abraham was older. 75. Most men are not having children at 75. 2. Sarah was older. She is 65. \#Ge 17:17\ tells us there were 10 years difference in Abraham and Sarahs age. 3. The fact that they were this age and childless indicates they had never been able to have children. There must have been a physical reason for that as well. C. It is for sure that if God is going to start a nation with these folks, He had better get started, right? Well, He didnt. 1. \#Ge 12:4\ Abraham was 75 when he promise was made. Ge 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? a. \#17\ Notice Abrahams age now, 100. b. 25 years have passed since the promise was given and still not children. c. Even Abraham doubts God. He laughed to himself when God reminded him of the promise. 2. But within a year, they will have a child. Gen 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. a. 25 years after the promise and our nation is comprised of three people, a hundred year old man, a ninety year old woman, and a new born! b. But things are going to get started now, right? Not really. 3. It would be 60 more years before Isaac had two sons. Ge 25:26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esaus heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. a. The good news, the nations male population almost doubled in size. b. The bad news is, its still just 5 people. (1) Abraham (Sarah had died) (2) Isaac and Rebekah (3) Jacob and Esau c. Well, we are going to really get started now, right? Not really. 4. \#Ge 26:34\ Esau was 40 when he took his first wife. a. Jacob and Esau were twins so that means Jacob is 40 as well and he has not yet made his trip back to Rebekahs homeland, Padan Aram, where he will find his wives, Leah and Rachael. b. At this time, Jacob still has to deceive his father, flee to Padan Aram, meet Rachael, and work for her for 7 years. c. That means Jacob will be at least 47 before he marries. Lets round that up to 50 years. d. So 135 years after God promised Abraham a nation and the population is still just 5! (1) By then, Abraham and Sarah had died. (2) By then it was evident that God was not going to use Esau in this nation. (3) Isaac and Rebekah = 2 (4) Jacob, Leah, and Rachel = 3 (5) This new nation just holding his own! D. I think we need to learn our first lesson about God right here. 1. God does not do things the quick, direct, and simple way. God usually does things the slower, the indirect, and the more difficult way. 2. I am not trying to be either funny or disrespectful, but if anyone tells us that God is easy to understand, just laugh in his face. 3. If God wanted to build a nation, there were a lot of quicker, easier ways to do it. a. He could have picked a nation and converted it. b. He could have picked a younger, fertile couple. c. He could have given each generation more children. 4. In truth, I am not sure that there was a more indirect or difficult way to do things. a. 135 years after the promise of a nation is given it we have 2 males and a total of 5 in the whole nation. b. Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, and Rachael c. Thats it. Thats the whole nation. 5. However, we must be careful not to confuse Gods indirect plan with indifference or to think Gods slow speed means He is not going to work at work, because God always keeps His word. a. \#Ge 31:38\ we learn that Jacob spend a total of 20 years with Laban. b. It is seven years before Jacob gets his wives but when he leaves Labans, Jacob has 11 of his 12 sons. c. Benjamin will be born after he gets back to the land of Canaan. d. Once Jacob leaves Laban, it only 25 years until the whole family moved to Egypt, where they will spend 400 years and come out a nation of 2.4 million people. e. After the 1st 135 years, they are a nation of 5. After another 400 years, they are a nation of 2.4 million. f. What happened? God stepped in and created a nation supernaturally! g. Israel, supernatural in its origins. II. Stubborn in Their Sin A. I will say that America, with all of her determination to sin against God, has not yet come up with a sin that Israel has not already practiced to excess. 1. LGBTQ+ – Homosexuality, gay, queer – The names may have changed, but the sin is the same. Men with men and women with women working that which is unseemly. 2. Violence a. On Friday, five killed and another five police officers shot before the killer, a fired employee, was himself killed. https://news.yahoo.com/factory-shooting-rampage-victims-hr- 185908953.html b. The day before that 3 dead, two injured in murder/ suicide in Jacksonville, Florida. https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/3-dead-2-injured- in-murder-suicide-Jacksonville-police-say c. Three days before that, an infant, the two parents, and two grandparents found shot to death in Livingston, TX. https://patch.com/texas/across-tx/polk-county-shooting-leaves-5- dead-report d. And it keeps going and going and going. e. Israel had that too. Hosea 4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3. Addictions – We may have some new drugs, but it is the same old habit and addiction. 4. Abortion – We cut the babies out of the womb. They waited until they were born and threw them off the clefts or burned them alive on an altar or just perhaps hacked them alive on their altars. Different tortures, but still the same sin. B. Yet the worst sin of all was Israel, a nation that knew the One and the only true God, turned from Him. Jeremiah 2:11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 1. Israel WAS the only nation to ever abandon God. 2. Now there America has as well. C. Learn another lesson about God – God is merciful! 1. God is the most merciful Being. 2. In recent years, I have heard people mock and blaspheme God, His mercy, and His salvation. a. They make the statement, "God is only offering to save you from a punishment He created in the first place." b. Their idea is that if God hadnt created the punishment, we wouldnt need His salvation. c. Of course, this slaps at Gods justice and His mercy. 3. People who say that dont understand how great the gifts are that God has offered. They are many but let me just list three. a. Life b. Choice c. His Son 4. When you consider these gifts, especially His Son, hell is not an unjust punishment at all! 5. Friend, you think what you like but God has, is, and will always be mercifuleven to those who are cast into hell. III. Severe in Their Judgment A. It was their sins which caused their judgment, and their judgments were severe. 1. It began with God giving them into the hands of their neighbors. a. The Amorites were the first \#Judges 1:34\. b. The king of Mesopotamia is specifically mentioned next \#Judges 3:4\. c. Then Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, and others. 2. Then God moved up to using bigger nations, Syria and Assyria. 3. Then the huge kingdoms Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome. 4. Then God cast them out of their land altogether. For 1800 years, Israel did not even exist as a nation. B. But even that did not stop Gods continued judgment. Wherever Jews attempted to congregate during those 1800 years, God sent judgements. Dr. W. A. Criswell in a Sunday morning message preached on March 16, 1969, said: In England one year after the Crusade was launched, in 1097 AD, in England every Jew was killed, all of them. The last bastion was in the city of York, and the five hundred Jews that remained in the city of York were shut up in the York castle with their rabbi. And there in a hopeless besieging each one slew the other one, and only the rabbi was left, and he died in the final confrontation. And for four hundred years there were no Jews in England. And the persecution of the Jew in Germany has been atrocious and unspeakable, indescribable. In Strasburg for example they took the entire Jewish community of two thousand souls, built an enormous scaffold, put those two thousand souls on that scaffold and burned them alive, all of them. And in your day and in your lifetime in a so-called Christian nation, Germany, Adolph Hitler murdered them by the millions and millions. One of the most memorable, indelible scenes Ive ever looked on with my eyes was in 1947, soon after the war, in Dachau (Daak-how) just on the outskirts of Munich. And I walked into the furnace room. And thats the first time I ever saw a furnace decorated with innumerable sprays of flowers and wreaths, where fathers, and mothers, and aunts, and uncles, and friends, and people, and families had been incinerated, burned in that awesome furnace. https://www.wacriswell.com/sermons/1969/hath-god-cast-away-his- people-2/ C. You say, "Preacher, what can I learn about God form this?" 1. We can all learn that the wages of sin is death and the interest on sin is pain and suffering. 2. Someone says, "God is mean and cruel." No. God is just. a. He gives boundaries. b. He sets rules. c. He shows mercy – even while Israel has been scattered and hunted, God has continued to call out to them, to offer them salvation and forgiveness. d. But if His mercy continues to be rejected, the wages of sin do come. Now, I am not finished with this message. In fact, I have only gotten to the place where Paul asked the question of Romans 11:1-2, "Has God cast off His people forever?" But the answer will have to wait.