SCRIPTURE READING: Romans 11.

GOLDEN TEXT: Rom 11:2 (NKJV): "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew."

1. Has God completely rejected and cast away the tribes of Israel, so that they shall never receive salvation, as many teach today? Romans 11:1-2, (first part of latter verse).

2. The Apostle Paul continues to compare the condition to that in the days of Elijah, when he thought all of the millions in Israel had rejected God and bowed to Baal; but God showed him He had reserved 7,000 men who had not thus turned away. Was there a similar small portion of Israel in Paul's day who had accepted Christ and received grace? Romans 11:5.

3. What happened to the rest of Israel, in this dispensation of grace? Romans 11:7.

4. Who blinded them? Romans 11: 8. If BLINDED, by a blindness imposed by God, would they be able to SEE the Truth, so they could receive salvation?

5. Back in the days before God blinded Israel, what did He do? Ezekiel 20:10-11.

6. Besides giving Israel His Law, statutes and judgments, and entering into the Old Covenant relationship with them, what else did the Lord do with a certain one of the Commandments? Ezekiel 20:12.

7. After pleading in vain with rebellious Israel through succeeding generations to keep His laws, and hallow His Sabbaths, what did God finally do? Ezekiel 20:23. WHY? Ezekiel 20:24. Then what did He do? Ezekiel 20:25.

8. What happened, as a result of this blindness to Israel? Romans 11:11. Why did salvation come to the Gentiles? -- last phrase of same verse.

9. Was this blindness to last forever, or only UNTIL a certain time? Romans 11:25.

10. When that time comes, what shall happen to Israel? Romans 11:26. Answer (a) Who is the Deliverer to come? (b) Will not His coming be at the time when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in?

11. When Christ comes, and the blindness is removed from Israel's eyes, what does Isaiah say He will do? Isaiah 11:11. What does Ezekiel say He will then do? Ezekiel 20:33-38. What does Jeremiah say? Jeremiah 50:4-5.

12. Through whose help and mercy will this salvation finally come to Israel? Romans 11:31.

13. It is a known fact that at least two thirds of the Gentiles on earth today have NEVER HEARD the only name by which we may be saved. Will the people who never heard have a chance in the millennium along with blinded Israel? Isaiah 11:10, 66:15-16, 19; Micah 4:2.

14. Does the fact that those God blinded, and those who never heard, will be given their first chance in the millennium mean that we who have received the knowledge of the Truth, now, will have a SECOND CHANCE then? Hebrews 10:26-27. WHEN is the day of salvation for those who have received this knowledge? II Corinthians 6:2.

Israel's Rejection Not Total

(Rom 11 NKJV) "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. {2} God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, {3} "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? {4} But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." {5} Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. {6} And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. {7} What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. {8} Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day." {9} And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them. {10} Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always."

{11} I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. {12} Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! {13} For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, {14} if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. {15} For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? {16} For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. {17} And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, {18} do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. {19} You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." {20} Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. {21} For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. {22} Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. {23} And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. {24} For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? {25} For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. {26} And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; {27} For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." {28} Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. {29} For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. {30} For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, {31} even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. {32} For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. {33} Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! {34} "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?" {35} "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" {36} For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."

(Ezek 20:10-12 NKJV) ""Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. {11} "And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them.' {12} "Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them."

(Ezek 20:23-25 NKJV) ""Also I raised My hand in an oath to those in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries, {24} "because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers' idols. {25} "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live;"

(Isa 11:11 NKJV) "It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea."

(Ezek 20:33-38 NKJV) ""As I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. {34} "I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. {35} "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. {36} "Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord GOD. {37} "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; {38} "I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

(Jer 50:4-5 NKJV) ""In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "The children of Israel shall come, They and the children of Judah together; With continual weeping they shall come, And seek the LORD their God. {5} They shall ask the way to Zion, With their faces toward it, saying, 'Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD In a perpetual covenant That will not be forgotten.'"

(Isa 11:10 NKJV) ""And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.""

(Isa 66:15-16 NKJV) "For behold, the LORD will come with fire And with His chariots, like a whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire. {16} For by fire and by His sword The LORD will judge all flesh; And the slain of the LORD shall be many."

(Isa 66:19 NKJV) ""I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the nations: to Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles."

(Micah 4:2 NKJV) "Many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."

(Heb 10:26-27 NKJV) "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, {27} but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries."

(2 Cor 6:2 NKJV) "For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."