NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
ENGAGE
I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of you know a person who is a “know-it-all”? And again, I don’t need you to answer out loud, but how do you feel about people like that? Perhaps some of these quotes will hit home with you.
[Slide show of quotes about know-it-alls will run automatically]
TENSION
Unfortunately, Christianity is not free from know-it-alls either, and the problem with that is that most of those people are not only annoying, but they tend to cause unnecessary conflict within the body of Christ.
By nature, I am the kind of person who likes things to be explained in a very systematic, logical manner And my guess is that there are probably others here this morning like that, too. So a number of years ago when I picked up a book about the end times that contained this chart, it was right up my alley. I really liked how the author laid out all the significant events in the Book of Revelation on a timeline like that. And when I read the accompanying book, it seemed like the author was intelligent and had done a great job of using Scripture to support his conclusions.
But it wasn’t too long later until I was introduced to other, equally intelligent authors who had produced similar timelines, only theirs were quite different – different enough that they couldn’t possibly all be right. And unfortunately some of those people are so convinced that they are right and everyone else is wrong that it has led to warring “camps” within Christianity when it comes to the end times.
No doubt there are some things in the Bible that are absolutely clear that we ought to hang on to at all costs and which are worth fighting for:
• The Bible is clear that all men are sinners who deserving of God’s wrath and are incapable of earning favor with God by any human works that we can do.
• The Bible is clear that salvation is by faith in Jesus alone and that, as we sang earlier this morning, He is the way, and the truth and the life and that no one comes to God except through Him.
• The Bible is clear that those who choose to put their faith in Jesus will spend eternity with Him in a place of unimaginable beauty and that those who do not put their faith in Jesus will spend eternity separated from God in a place of torment and suffering.
But there are many other places where God has only given us a limited amount of information and left us with a certain degree of mystery. And it is in those areas where being a spiritual “know-it-all” causes needless controversy and conflict.
TRUTH
As we’ve been working our way through the book of Romans, and especially through the section that began in chapter 9 and concludes at the end of chapter 11 that we’re in right now, there is a lot that is pretty clear. But there is also a good amount of mystery. Certainly the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility fits into that category. While those two ideas might seem to be in conflict each other from our perspective, they are both clearly taught, not just here in Romans, but throughout the Bible. So even though we may not be able to reconcile them completely in our minds, we can nonetheless hold them both to be true.
And as we’ve seen in chapter 11 so far, there is certainly some mystery when it comes to God’s relationship with His chosen people, Israel. Last week, we saw how Paul revealed part of that mystery with the illustration of the olive tree. And as we continue in chapter 11, Paul is going to explain that mystery further. But, as we’re going to see, that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t some degree of mystery that remains even today. And so I want to use this passage to see what we can learn about why we don’t want to be spiritual “know-it-alls” when it comes to that kind of mystery and see if we can’t develop some steps we can take to avoid becoming a spiritual “know-it-all”.
[Read Romans 11:25-32]
Much of the content in this passage is further confirmation of what we learned last week about how God is dealing with both Israel and the Gentiles, and I’ll get to that in just a moment. But first, I want to spend some time looking at the first part of verse 25 that deals with the concept of spiritual “know-it-alls”.
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers…
Here is the idea that Paul is expressing with those words:
Paul is essentially warning his readers, against thinking that they have God and His plans all figured out based on their own human reasoning and logic. Because he knows that once they have that mindset, it actually prevents them from really getting to know and understand God. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in this section of Paul’s letter, both the Jews and the Gentiles there in Rome had developed that mindset. And unfortunately, it’s still a problem in our culture today.
The Jews had rejected the gospel because they completely misunderstood what it meant to be God’s chosen people. They mistakenly thought that the fact that God had chosen them made them superior to the Gentiles, even though God had consistently pointed out that He had chosen them even though they had absolutely nothing that made them worthy of that. And in spite of much evidence to the contrary throughout their history, they also believed that they could become righteous on their own through their efforts to observe the law. Two thousand years later, there are still a lot of people who make those very same mistakes and think that they have God all figured out or that they can somehow earn God’s favor through their own actions.
The Gentiles, on the other hand, had come to believe that because God was pouring out His mercy on them as a people and that not many Jews at all were putting their faith in Jesus, that they were somehow now more favored by God than the Jews and that God was finished with Israel. As we talked about last week, although it may take a slightly different form in today’s culture, it is possible for us to do the very same thing. If we’re not careful we can think that we are God’s favorites and begin to look down on those who are not yet disciples of Jesus.
But Paul doesn’t just warn his readers agasint becoming spiritual “know-it-alls”, he provides them with the antidote. He offers to provide them with some further information about a “mystery” they thought they understood, but which God had not revealed to them up to this point.
I love a good mystery. When I was younger, I read every single Agatha Christie novel and I still really enjoy TV shows and movies where I can try to figure out who the perpetrator of a crime is right along with the police. But Paul, who uses that word frequently in his letters doesn’t use it in that sense. Rather than giving you my definition of “mystery”, I’m going to let Paul define it in his own words:
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—
(Romans 16:25–26 ESV)
According to Paul, this mystery is something that has been kept hidden in the past, and which is unknowable merely by human reason and logic that God has now chosen to reveal. Many of these mysteries had actually been revealed in the Old Testament, but they couldn’t be understood until they were more fully revealed by God, either through Jesus Himself or by God revealing them to Paul, so He could then pass them on to his readers, including us.
To at least some degree, everything that Paul writes in this section had been revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures, which is why Paul quotes from several passages from Isaiah, the Psalms and alludes to other passages from Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Zechariah. But the problem is that the Jews, and especially the religious leaders had taken what God had revealed and tried to figure out how God was going to fulfill those promises based on their own human intellect, reasoning and logic. They were spiritual “know-it-alls”. And as a result, they totally missed out on what God was doing right in their midst.
So the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and refused to place their faith in Him and the Gentiles became proud and arrogant because they were coming to faith in large numbers. But what neither group understood was that this was all part of God’s plan to ultimately bless the entire world.
So Paul is going to help them avoid being wise in their own sight by revealing this mystery to them. And the mystery he reveals here is exactly the same one we saw last week in the illustration of the olive tree. But here Paul makes it even simpler and clearer. Paul reveals here that there are…
FOUR HISTORICAL PERIODS WITHIN GOD’S PLAN FOR HIS PEOPLE:
Note: In this section, Paul is still writing to the Gentiles so he refers to the Gentiles with the pronouns “you” and “your” and refers to Israel with the pronouns “they” and “their”.
1) Gentile disobedience
“For just as you [Gentiles] were at one time disobedient to God…” (v. 30)
This is the period that is characterized by what Paul wrote back in chapter 1 where he described how God gave people over to their sin. During that time, Israel had also been disobedient, but not to the level of the Gentiles.
2) Jewish disobedience
”…because of their [Israel’s] disobedience…” (v. 30)
“…so they [Israel] too have now been disobedient…” (v. 31)
Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah and were hardened. So, as we saw last week, God cut them off from the olive tree because of their unbelief.
3) God’s mercy to the Gentiles
“…but now have received mercy… (v. 30)
“…that by the mercy shown to you [Gentiles]… (v. 31)
This is the period that Paul’s readers were living in at that moment and which still continues to this day. It is a time when God is showing His mercy to the Gentiles through the spread of the gospel and millions of Gentiles have come to faith in Jesus. Jesus refers to this period as the “times of the Gentiles” in Luke 21:24. During this period, God is grafting the wild olive branches into the olive tree.
4) God’s mercy on Israel
“…they [Israel] also may now receive mercy…”
The hardening of Israel is not permanent. As Paul writes in verse 25, it is a “partial hardening” both in terms of scope and length. There had always been a remnant within Israel that had not been hardened and had received God’s mercy and responded in faith. And the hardening of the nation as a whole was not permanent. It is only going to last “until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in.”
Although there is not universal agreement on exactly what Paul means by that phrase, I agree with those who believe that when the number of Gentiles who have put their faith in Jesus reaches a certain number, a number known only to God, God will cause this last period to commence. And when that happens, Paul writes that “all Israel will be saved.”
Not surprisingly, there are a number of ideas about what Paul means by that phrase – “all Israel” - too. But if we consider in the context of the entire chapter and the rest of the Bible, I think it’s actually pretty easy to understand what Paul means here.
First, we know that in this section of his letter, Paul has been writing about the Israelites and the Gentiles as a people and not about individuals within those groups.
Second, the phrase “all Israel” is used frequently used in the Old Testament to describe the Israelites as a people and not to individuals. When that term was used, it rarely meant that every single individual within Israel took some action, but rather that they did that as a people.
Third, throughout his letter, when Paul uses the word “Israel”, it means “Israel”. He never uses it in a way that it could possibly mean all believers or the church.
This is the same event that Paul alluded to back in verse 24 when he wrote about a time when God was going to graft the natural branches back into their own olive tree.
So there is going to be a time in the future when Israel as a people will turn back to God, recognize Jesus and the Messiah, put their faith in Him, and be saved. That does not mean that every single Jew will be saved any more than every single Gentile is being saved today. But this is going to be an extraordinary event that God is going to bring about in a miraculous way.
And while there are those who claim to have figured out exactly how God is going to bring that about and can map it out on a timeline like the one I showed you earlier, I would suggest to you that Paul hasn’t revealed all of the mystery here and that while we can be assured that God is going to do what He promised here, we still don’t know exactly how or when He will do that. It does seem that there is a connection between the second coming of Jesus and the Jews as a people coming to faith in Him, but exactly how that is going to play out is still largely a mystery.
That was a trap that both the Jews and the Gentiles had fallen into, but we certainly don’t want to follow their example. So let’s close by looking at…
APPLICATION
HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A SPIRITUAL “KNOW-IT-ALL”
1. Focus on the Who, not the how
At the beginning of this year, I added a box to your sermon outline to encourage you to consider how God wants you to respond to the message each week. And you’ll notice that the first question I want you to consider is what you learned about God from the message.
One of reasons I’ve done that is because I’m convinced that one of the keys to applying the Scriptures in our personal lives is to focus on the nature and character of God. As we see demonstrated in today’s passage, when we get too wrapped up in trying to figure out how God accomplishes His purposes, it’s quite easy to think we have things all figured out and not know that we’re totally off base. But if we’ll focus more on God’s character and who He is, we’re much less like to get off track.
Let’s apply this principle to Paul’s audience. The Jews, and to a lesser extent, the Gentiles, were focused on the “how”.
The Jews had developed their own ideas about the kind of Messiah they should expect and they rejected Jesus because He didn’t fit their preconceived ideas. Not only that, because they wrongfully concluded that God wanted to only bless them and not the Gentiles, the fact that Gentiles were coming to Jesus in large numbers either meant that Jesus was not the Messiah or that God had defaulted on His promise to the Jews.
The Gentiles, on the other hand, observed all of their people that were putting their faith in Jesus and wrongly concluded that they were now God’s favored people and that God was therefore done with the Jews.
But let me call you attention to what Paul reveals about the nature of God here that would have kept both groups from reaching the wrong conclusions:
• In verse 29, Paul writes:
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
The gifts that Paul refers to here are almost certainly all the advantages God had given to the Israelites that he summarized back in Romans 9:4-5. And the calling refers back to the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 that He also reaffirmed to Isaac and Jacob.
The word “irrevocable” that Paul uses there literally means “without regret” or “not to be repented of”. The idea here is that God isn’t going to change His mind about those things, which means that He is going to be faithful to carry out those promises even though Israel rejected Him over and over.
• In verse 32 Paul writes:
“For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.”
The key word here is obviously the word “consigned”. I don’t have time to go into this in detail, but the idea here is that God designed His creation so that when man sinned, he would be imprisoned by his sin. That does not in any way mean that God created evil or that He causes man to sin. But the fact that man is imprisoned by his sin means that God has an opportunity to extend His mercy to those who are completely incapable of freeing themselves from their slavery to sin.
Had both the Jews and the Gentiles known that about God, they would have rightfully concluded that it is God’s desire to extend His mercy to all men and not just to one group.
It is my contention that if both the Jews and the Gentiles had focused on those aspects of God’s character rather than looking at their circumstances, they would have been much less likely to become spiritual “know-it-alls”.
One way we can apply this principle practically is to intentionally look for what the Bible is teaching us about who God is as we spend time in His Word.
2. Be willing to consider other ideas
One of the best ways to become a spiritual “know-it-all” is to refuse to listen to the ideas of others, or even to just surround ourselves with voices that we know are going to agree with us. Not surprisingly, the Proverbs warn against that approach:
By insolence comes nothing but strife,
but with those who take advice is wisdom.
(Proverbs 13:10 ESV)
If, like me, you’re having a hard time figuring out how this verse applies, I think the Message paraphrase of that verse probably helps:
Arrogant know-it-alls stir up discord,
but wise men and women listen to each other's counsel.
(Proverbs 13:10 Message)
This actually demonstrates my point. While I usually stick to the ESV translation when I’m preaching, I’m not so committed to it that I won’t look at a number of other translations in order to try and get the sense of a passage.
And although I do have a few favorite commentators and resources that I trust, I intentionally consult resources that I know are going to present me with another point of view. And although I learned long ago the dangers of trying to preach someone else’s sermon, I do regularly look at other sermons to see if they might provide a different perspective on a passage.
Another way that I apply this principal is in the Monday morning Bible study where I get to listen to the ideas of others. And the Bible Roundtable after the service is another opportunity to get input from others.
Those are just some things that work for me. They are certainly not the only ways to consider other ideas. You’ll just have to find what works for you.
3. Leave room for mystery
God has revealed in His Word everything we need to know in order to enter into a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus and to live a life that is consistent with our faith. But that doesn’t mean He has revealed everything. There are still a lot of areas where God hasn’t revealed everything and where there is still some degree of mystery. And frankly that’s a good thing, because if we could know everything, we wouldn’t need God. So we need to learn to just be OK with a degree of mystery when it comes to how God is working.
Being a spiritual “know-it-all”
keeps me from knowing the One who knows it all
INSPIRATION
It’s my dream that Thornydale Family Church will be a place where we don’t create or contribute to the development of spiritual “know-it-alls”. I want this to be a place where people feel free to come and ask questions and engage in dialogue about God and the Bible without any fear that anyone is going to look down upon them or feel superior to them.
And every one of us can contribute to being that kind of a church by being open and transparent, by willing to say “I don’t know”, by being open-minded enough to consider the ideas of others, and by together seeking to know God better.
[Prayer]
ACTION
I want to remind you again to put into practice the things we’ve learned today by filling out the “Applying the Message” box on your sermon outline and then actually following through with whatever God puts on your heart.
Discussion questions for Bible Roundtable
1. Why do you think people have such a hard time leaving room for mystery when it comes to the things of God?
2. What are some examples of how spiritual “know-it-alls” cause unnecessary conflict in the church?
3. What are some topics/areas where God still leaves us with some mystery? How far should we go in trying to understand how God works in those areas?
4. What are some practical ways to make sure that I am listening to ideas other than just my own? What are some cautions to heed when I do that?
5. Is Paul teaching “universal salvation” in verse 32? Give some Biblical support for your answer.
