<H3>Chapter # 11  Paragraph # 5  Study # 7<BR />June 16, 2019<BR />Humble, Texas<BR /><a href="https://www.biblical-thinking.org/DOC-Ro3/audio.php?name=Rom190616.mp3">(Download Audio)</a></H3>

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Thesis:&nbsp;&nbsp;  God's "inalterable" commitments to the "gifts" and "calling" is rooted in both His integrity and His Larger Plan.

Introduction:&nbsp;&nbsp;  We began this series in September of 2017 and I set it forth as a study of Paul's clarification of God's larger plan.  Now, as we draw near to the end, we find that Paul's argument for a shift in God's plan to bring a "mystery" to pass is, in effect, rooted in a long-established pattern of divine behavior.  The "mystery" was defined in <b>11:25</b> as a "blinding of the larger part of Israel" so that a group out of the "Nations" (Gentiles) could be developed.
Paul revealed this "mystery" to combat the creeping turn by the Gentiles from Grace.  In his explanation, he argued for another "mystery" of sorts:  God's deliberate use of "jealousy" to draw the "rejected" to Himself.  We need to keep this in mind as we look as what he says in our current text because the language, without this understanding, is confusing.
This evening we are going to look into Paul's argument and we shall see that it destroys the currently popular "theology" that rejects any future for "Israel" by claiming that the "Church" <u><b><i>is</u></b></i> "Israel".  Paul's entire argument falls to the ground as soon as that heresy is embraced.
So, let's look at his argument.

<ul><li>I. First, He Declared That the "Gifts" and "Calling" of God Are Irrevocable. 
	<ul><li>A. He acknowledged that, if they were not, God would have rejected "Israel" by generating another group that did not have "Israel's" attitudes. 
	<li>B. But, since they are, God remains committed to "Israel" <u><b><i>while</u></b></i> generating another group for another purpose. 
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<li>II. Second, He Is Now Giving His Rationale For His Previous Declaration. 
	<ul><li>A. The "For" of <b>11:30</b> tells us that he is doing this, just as the "For" of <b>11:29</b> told us why "Israel" continues to be "beloved". 
	<li>B. The rationale is that there is a "Just as...so also" declaration of a pattern established and repeated. 
		<ul><li>1. Just as "you" (Gentiles) formerly found yourselves "alienated" from God... . 
			<ul><li>a. I chose the concept of "alienation" because of Paul's emphasis upon that idea as a description of the condition of the Gentiles prior to the coming of the Gospel in <b>Ephesians 2:12</b>; <b>4:18</b>; and <b>Colossians 1:21</b>. 
			<li>b. In our current text, the manifestation of the alienation is summed up by the phrase "...you once were disobedient to God..." (NASB). 
				<ul><li>1) However, the translation "disobedient" hides a most necessary truth. 
					<ul><li>a) The word so translated is translated by the Authorized Version as "...you...have not believed God...". 
					<li>b) The reason for this difference is that the Authorized Version is focused upon the actual issue, and the NASB is focused upon the automatic consequence of that actual issue. 
					<li>c) Paul's grammar indicates that he considers the Gentiles' former state as most fundamentally a result of "not being persuaded by God". 
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				<li>2) The history of this "Gentile development" is given in Genesis. 
					<ul><li>a) God began His post-fall labors in respect to men by dealing with "Gentiles" (at that point, there were no "Jews"). 
					<li>b) But those "Gentiles" were notable for their bondage to their own depravity in spite of God's Spirit "striving" with them for their repentance so that God sent the world-wide flood upon the earth to completely wipe out all of the Gentiles except for eight. 
					<li>c) However, the disastrous judgment of that flood did nothing to "persuade" humanity so that within a relatively brief period of time they came under judgment again in the form of "enforced" separation from one another. 
					<li>d) At that point, God rejected the Gentiles and turned to one man to whom He gave extraordinary promises that encompassed the entire history of humankind as it was to develop. 
						<ul><li>i. At this point, the Gentiles were officially "not My people" and Abram and his seed became "My people". 
						<li>ii. Thus, a "pattern" began to be revealed:  a rejection of people for their refusal to accept "persuasion" and a turn to another people in order to eventually bring the "rejected" back to God. 
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			<li>c. Thus, before the arrival of the Gospel to the Gentiles, those Gentiles found themselves in the condition of being "alienated from God". 
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		<li>2. But, now you have been shown mercy in regard to their "unwillingness to be persuaded". 
			<ul><li>a. The argument runs like this:  Abram and Israel got their position before God as "believers" (the persuaded) because the Gentiles were intransigent, but now the Gentiles have been "gifted and called" by God because, as time went on, the seed of Abram became just as "unwilling to be persuaded" as had been the original Gentiles. 
			<li>b. This means that God has been revealing a "pattern":  when a group gets "too hardened" to be persuaded, God turns from them to another group with a long-range plan to entice their return to Him. 
				<ul><li>1) His reasoning was revealed by Paul earlier in the "provocation to jealousy" thesis that when the blessing of God is rescinded the loss will eventually make reconciliation attractive to those who lost it. 
				<li>2) Thus, God's turn to Abram had the Gentiles in mind. 
				<li>3) And, now God has turned back to the Gentiles with "Israel" in mind. 
					<ul><li>a) Over the centuries, the Gentiles languished in their loss in alienation. 
					<li>b) And while they languished, Israel gradually drifted into their hardened attitudes. 
					<li>c) Thus, God "flipped" the situation back to the Gentiles abandoned at Babel and Israel became "rejected" at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. 
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		<li>3. So also, the presently "rejected" because of their drift into "hardened disbelief", will eventually be shown mercy just as the Gentiles were eventually shown mercy in spite of their "hardened disbelief". 
			<ul><li>a. The major point is this:  Israel will come back into the favor of God when "the fulness of the Gentiles has come" (<b>11:25</b>). 
			<li>b. Thus, the "pattern" is consistent:  a cyclical process of "bringing many sons to glory" as both "Israel" and the "Church". 
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<li>III. Paul's Own Summary. 
	<ul><li>A. God confined "the whole" in the prison of "unpersuasion" so that He might show mercy to the whole. 
	<li>B. Paul's understanding is that there has always been "A Larger Plan" that brings "Israel" to its realization of His promises to them and that brings the "Gentiles" into their realization of His promises to them in the Gospel. 
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