From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I am going to read to you the words found in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans in chapter 11, verses 28 to 32. Verse 28 to verse 32 in the 11th chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all."

Now, I’ve read those verses because they do constitute, as we saw last Friday night, a little section in and of themselves. What the apostle is doing here is to explain and to expound the prophecy which he has uttered in the latter portion of verse 25 and the first part of verse 26, which is this: that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. That’s the prophecy, and then you remember he has supported that by quoting from a number of passages in the Old Testament in the latter portion of verse 26 and in verse 27. There he’s made his great statement. He has given a revelation of this great mystery. It wasn’t his idea; it had been revealed to him by God. He’s speaking as an apostle; he’s speaking as a prophet.

Then, I say, in order to help and in order that these Gentiles may not remain in ignorance or be wise in their own conceits and take the wrong view of all that is happening to Israel, he now expounds this prophecy still further. We saw last Friday night in verses 28 and 29 the first part of this explanation, and it’s this: that God has two ways of looking upon His people, upon the Jews. He says that when God looks at them in terms of the gospel and the gospel dispensation and the preaching of the gospel, He regards them as enemies. But then He looks at them also in terms of the election, His great original purpose of election which He had revealed especially through the fathers. As He looks at them in terms of the election, these same people whom He now regards as enemies, He regards as beloved. He regards them with affection for the fathers' sake.

Now, we must get rid of the notion that he’s talking here about any individuals. He is talking about the bulk of the race of the Jews, not about individuals, obviously not because that would involve ultimately a belief in a kind of universalism. He’s still continuing this great theme that he’s been handling right through the whole chapter. Now, this is a most important statement that we were looking at last Friday. It is indeed a part of this great mystery that God looks at the same people in two different ways. For the time being, He looks upon them as enemies, but He looks at them in an ultimate sense as beloved for the fathers' sake.

Now, this is a great principle, of course. You remember those well-known lines in the hymn of William Cowper: "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace." Why? Well, the answer is, "Behind a frowning providence, He hides a father’s face." In other words, he’s looking at it from the standpoint of the individual believer. Sometimes, he says, you look up into the face of God and you see nothing but a frown. But don't be misled by that, he says. That doesn't mean that God has finished with you. That doesn't mean that God hates you. Behind the frowning providence, He hides a father’s face.

This, of course, is something which we can well understand in human terms. It’s the typical action of a parent worthy of the name with a child. If the child is misbehaving, well, the parent worthy of the name doesn't smile upon the child. It shows its displeasure. It shows that it is displeased. It frowns upon the child, and the child, of course, jumps to the conclusion that the father or the mother, as the case may be, or perhaps even both, are hardhearted and that they’ve finished with him because of what he’s done. He may break his heart, or he may rebel and feel antagonism. That is because he doesn't realize that the frown, the look of displeasure, is temporary and that even while the parent is looking with displeasure upon the child, there is still in that parent’s heart great love for that child.

Now, that’s exactly what the apostle is saying: that the same parent, as it were, is looking at the same child, the same children, in two different ways at one and the same time. As concerning, as regards the gospel, they are regarded as enemies. But as regards the election and God’s ultimate purpose, they are beloved for the fathers' sake. Then you remember the explanation of all that, which is that the gifts and calling of God are without any regrets. God never regrets what He does, so that all His gifts and all His promises to the fathers and the great purpose of election is something that cannot be changed. This, of course, throws its great light upon the position of the Jews as outside the church, while the Gentiles are inside the church.

Now, to me, the only way to understand all this is to realize that he is, as I’ve been trying to show, regarding them as great blocks or great groups of people, not individuals. He’s taking this whole state of the Jews as a nation in general, which has been the theme, of course, from the beginning of chapter 9. Very well, now then, that leads us on to verses 30, 31, and 32. Here the apostle continues the same theme. In verses 30 and 31, he makes the thing still more explicit and plain, just stating in detail as plainly as it can ever be stated what exactly is happening and what is going to happen. Then in verse 32, in a tremendous statement, he gives the explanation of it all.

Verse 32 is a great general theological doctrinal principle which explains not only this immediate matter but the whole of God’s handling of mankind in this whole matter of redemption and of salvation. Very well, then, we must go on to consider this. Again, as we do so, I think it’ll become still clearer that the "all Israel" of verse 26 is not a reference to the total of the elect of Jews and Gentiles nor merely the total of the elect Jews. It is a statement about the bulk of the nation of the Jews, the Jews regarded as a whole as a kind of totality, not including every individual in it, but the Jews in general as a race.

Very well, let’s go on then and see what the apostle has got to say. Now, these two verses, 30 and 31, of course have got to be taken together. They form one statement with two subsidiary statements inside, involved. What is interesting, of course, is the balance of the statements, the parallelism. He’s drawing here a parallel. Listen: "As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." Now, this is, I say, carrying the explanation still further, putting it still more explicitly, stating bare, unvarnished facts.

The "ye," of course, refers to the Gentiles. They’re the people he’s addressing. They’re the people to whom he’s already referred when he said all the way back in verse 13, "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office." He’s been dealing with them right through from there on, and then in verse 25, "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits." This is still the Jews because these are the people whom he has warned not to lose their heads. He tells them, "Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."

These are the people whom he’s referred to as not being natural branches, the people who’ve been grafted in contrary to nature. All along, this is the Gentiles. So here when he says "ye," he is referring to the Gentiles. This is, of course, obviously important for the understanding of the entire statement. Now, he says, "as in times past," as it was once true of you Gentiles, that you did not believe God. Now, there is the first part of the statement. Now, take this word "believe," which he uses and "unbelief" in the same verse 30. As it goes on in verse 31, a better translation there would have been "obeyed."

"For as in times past you have not obeyed God, yet now have obtained mercy through their disobedience: even so have these also now not obeyed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." Now, we are familiar with this word "obeyed." You’ve had it in the very first chapter. He talks about the obedience of the gospel. We remember how he used the same thing again in verse 16 in chapter 10: "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." It’s interesting, an interesting word this. That’s why I turn aside to this. It reminds us, you see, that faith is not merely an intellectual belief. It involves action. It involves the will.

If a man truly believes in God, he submits to God. So "obeyed" is a better word. Actually, it carries this meaning: he says, "As you in times past did not allow yourselves to be persuaded by the truth of God." That’s what it means. There is this element of resistance involved in the word. You did not allow yourselves to be persuaded, and that, of course, in turn leads to unbelief and that leads in turn to disobedience. Now, what he’s telling these Gentiles is this: there was once a time when you were disobedient to God. When was that? Well, there’s no difficulty about this.

The apostle has told us all about it in the first chapter of this great epistle from verse 18 to the end of the chapter. That’s the whole meaning of that terrifying passage. He’s addressing the Gentiles and showing them how they lived this life which was quite godless in every way. Instead of worshipping the Creator, they worshipped the creature. Worshipped the creature instead of the great Creator, and how they made gods out of creeping things and wood and stone and so on. Now, he’s just referring to that. Until the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Gentiles were outside the kingdom of God.

This is something that’s stated everywhere, of course, in the whole Bible. Paul puts it perhaps particularly clearly in writing to the Ephesians in chapter 2. But until the coming of our Lord into this world, the Gentile races and nations were godless. They were strangers from the covenants of promise and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They were without God and without hope; they were in the world. That was their position. That was true of them as a whole. There was an occasional convert to Judaism, an occasional proselyte, but speaking of the Gentiles in general, they were in blind unbelief and ignorance and disobedience towards God.

Now, he’s just reminding them of that, that that was the position with regard to them. But, he says, "As ye in times past did not obey God, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief." What does that mean? Well, we ought to be in no trouble about this. You notice that he describes a Christian as a man who’s obtained mercy, and he’ll go on using this term, so we look at it now in particular. Mercy. Have obtained mercy. What’s this? Well, it is in a sense the pity of God. Were it not for the mercy of God, nobody’d ever be saved.

What he’s saying here is this: he’s reminding them, he’s driving home the point as he will especially in verse 32, that salvation is always the result of God’s mercy. It’s never due to anything in man at all. It’s entirely due to mercy. God has looked down from heaven in pity. If He didn't do that, nobody would ever be saved. It’s entirely the result of God’s mercy. So he brings it in at once. He says you were utterly disobedient, but you’ve obtained mercy. That has led to forgiveness, to your being grafted in, new life, and all the other things about which he has been speaking.

But it all comes out of the fount of mercy. God is the Father of mercies; for His mercies aye endure, ever faithful, ever sure. But again, you see, he reminds these Gentiles as to how this has ever happened to them. He says, "You have obtained mercy through their disobedience," as the result of, by means of, their disobedience. But of course, to those of us who’ve been working through this chapter quietly and in detail, there’s nothing new about this. This is a repetition. As I’ve informed you all along about this last section, he’s summing up here.

He’s not really saying anything new here at all. He is simply summing up what he’s already told us. Now, what he’s telling these Gentiles is this: you were outside, entirely outside the kingdom of God. But now you’re inside. How did you come in? Well, you came in because of God’s mercy. Well, how did God’s mercy operate in order to bring you in? Well, he says, He did it by using the unbelief of the Jews, the disobedience of the Jews. I say this is not new. Where have we found it? Well, we found it first in verse 11: "I say then, have they," that’s to say the Jews, spoken of as a whole, obviously not the elect Jews, not the Jews who were saved.

He’s talking about the bulk of the Jewish nation. Have they stumbled that they should fall? Fall away altogether and finally? No, no. It’s simply stumbling. God forbid; that’s unthinkable. "But rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles." It is through the falling of the bulk of the Jewish nation that salvation has come to the Gentiles. You remember how we expounded that in detail when we were dealing with it. But of course, he says it again in the 12th verse: "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles."

Their fall and diminishing has been a benefit to the Gentiles. He’s just saying that all over again, that the Gentiles have obtained mercy through the disobedience of the Jews. Again, he said it, of course, in verse 15: "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world," that’s it, their casting away has turned into the reconciling of the world, has been the means that God has used to reconcile the world. Of course, we are given an account in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles how exactly this happened.

Now, I read to you those first six verses of the 18th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles at the beginning in order to give you one illustration of that very thing. The apostle always started in the synagogue. But when they rejected the truth and blasphemed against it, the apostle says, "Your blood be on your own head. I turn to the Gentiles." There is no question about this. It was the refusal of the Jews to receive the gospel that made this apostle and others turn to the Gentiles. You’ve got a still better statement of it in Acts 13:45 to 49, what happened at Antioch in Pisidia.

It was again the jealousy and the rejection and the disobedience of the Jews that made the apostle turn as he did to the Gentiles and become eventually the great apostle to the Gentiles. There is no doubt about this at all. The evangelization of the Gentiles took place as quickly and as rapidly as it did because of the rejection and the disobedience of the Jewish nation. What he’s telling us once more is that God actually used that rejection on the part of the Jews in order to spread the gospel and to promote salvation amongst the Gentiles.

Very well, so we sum up this statement of verse 30 in this way: once you Gentiles were unbelievers, but you are now believers as the result of the unbelief of the Jews. There’s the statement. You were, you are because of. Then you see you go on to verse 31: "even so." He’s got a comparison here. There’s a parallelism. What is it? Well, he says "even so," in exactly the same way, as it were, these also. Now, here again, of course, you’re dealing with the Jews, the bulk of the Jews. "Even so have these also now not obeyed."

Now, that cannot by any stretch of the imagination be a reference to the saved or the elect Jews because they had believed; they had obeyed. No, no. He’s referring to the bulk of the Jewish nation. I’m saying, I keep on saying this because I know that many of you are a little bit unhappy because in saying all this, I’m just having to contradict blankly the great John Calvin. Some people are made very unhappy by that always. Well, John Calvin is not perfect, you see, and he’s not a pope. But as I know that a number of you are unhappy, I have to go on just putting it like this for you to see how the greatest of men can sometimes make mistakes, how even a Homer nods occasionally.

So we go on emphasizing it. Now he comes: "even so." These also, these Jews through whom the Gentiles had come in. He’s just putting it again the other way around. Therefore, at the moment, their position is this: that they’ve not believed. But you see, he goes on with the rest of the statement. What’s happening here? Well, he says, that is their position now; it is one of disobedience, it is one of unbelief. But he doesn't stop there. He says they are in that position now in order that—that is the meaning of "that"—in order that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

You’ve obtained it; they’re going to obtain it. They’re going to obtain it through what’s happened to you. You see the parallel is complete. Gentiles were disobedient; they are now obedient through the position or the condition of the Jews. Now, here it’s the other way around. They are now the unbelievers, but they’re not going to remain like that. They are going to obtain mercy, as you have obtained mercy who once were unbelievers. As you once obtained your mercy through them, they’re going to obtain their mercy through you. That’s what he’s saying.

But let’s be clear about these particular statements. "These also have not now obeyed." Of course, he’s been telling us that right the way through. He summed it up particularly at the end of chapters 9 and 10. He reminds us, "What shall we say then?" he says in 9:30, "That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel," Israel, the nation as a whole, "which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefor? Well, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed."

But then you remember at the end of chapter 10, he came back to it again and said it once more. In verse 19, "But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." The contrast is between Israel and the Gentiles. "But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith," speaking of the nation as a whole, "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."

Very well, now then, so that when he refers to "these also," even so have these also now not believed, not obeyed, he is referring to the bulk of the nation of the Jews. Then he says that this is so in order that they also may obtain mercy. How? Well, through your mercy. There should be no difficulty about this. He’s not saying that it is the mercy of the Gentiles that is going to bring the Jews back, for the Gentiles haven’t got mercy, and if they had, they wouldn't have any power to save anybody else. No, no. It is God alone who has mercy.

He’s not saying that the Gentiles are going to save the Jews. When he says "your mercy," he means the mercy shown to you. The mercy which you have had. The mercy which has become yours as the result of the grace of God in the way that he has shown. So "your mercy" means God’s mercy shown towards you, the mercy that has operated in your case. Now, here again, of course, there is nothing new in what he’s saying. He’s said this also before. Where did he say this? Well, he said this again in verse 11: "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy," to provoke the Jews to jealousy.

In other words, the salvation of the Gentiles is going to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and that’s going to be the very way in which they’re going to obtain mercy. The fact that the Gentiles have obtained mercy is going to be the very thing that’s going to extend this mercy to the Jews themselves. That’s the way that God’s going to use it. Of course, he repeated that in verse 14. Having said that he speaks to you Gentiles inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: "If by any means I may provoke to emulation," same idea, provoke to jealousy, "them which are my flesh," that’s Jews, Jewish flesh, Jewish race, "and might save some of them."

Very well, so that "your mercy" is a reference to the mercy that has been given to the Gentiles and in which they’re now rejoicing. He says that it is through this mercy which God has shown to the Gentiles that eventually the Jews also are going to be brought within its realm and scope. They may or shall obtain mercy. This is a reference to something that is going to happen. Now, there is the statement. But again let me remind you and impress upon your minds the way in which he keeps on using this term "mercy." You see, it is always a matter of mercy, whether Jew or Gentile.

What he’s saying is that God is going to use the mercy He has shown to the Gentiles to bring the Jews into a state of belief or of obedience. Now then, are we clear about the general statement? Let me sum it up once more, because people have so often been tripped by this. The whole picture is perfectly clear. This is where history is so important. Once, indeed, until the first coming of the Son of God into this world, the Gentiles were unbelievers. They were godless. They were outside the covenants of promise, outside the kingdom of God. As I say, an occasional Gentile might become a proselyte, but the bulk of them were out and they were dead, they were without hope, they were without God in the world.

The Jews were God’s people. They had the oracles of God, as the apostle has reminded us in the third chapter, and all the things that he reminds us of in the ninth chapter in verses 4 and 5. That was the position. But with the coming of the Son of God into this world, the position has been entirely reversed. That is where, of course, the four Gospels are so important. In the four Gospels, you see this tragedy taking place. You end your Old Testament with the Jewish nation looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, and they were the only people who were looking for His coming.

But in the four Gospels, you see them rejecting their own Messiah, proving to be utterly disobedient to the gospel. So that by when you come to the rest of the New Testament and look at the Christian church, this is what you find: that the bulk of the Jewish nation is outside and rejected, branches as it were torn out of their own olive tree. They’re bitter in their rejection of the Lord and of His truth and of His gospel, and they’re outside. Inside, you’ve got the gospel appealing to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles as it were crowding into the kingdom of God.

So that as you look at the New Testament church, it is mainly a Gentile church. The apostle here in writing to this church at Rome is obviously conscious that he’s writing in the main to Gentile believers. There were some Jews, but in the main it was Gentile. You see the position has become entirely reversed. Before, Jews with occasional Gentiles. Now, Gentiles with occasional Jews: Paul himself and the remnant according to the election of grace. But, and this is the thing you see that has been revealed to him, this is the mystery which had been hidden and which nothing but the revelation of God would ever have made clear even to the apostle Paul himself, that’s not the end of the story.

It’s still the truth, it’s the truth tonight. On April the 2nd, 1965, it is still the truth to say that the Christian church is mainly Gentile and the bulk of the Jewish nation is rejecting, it’s disobedient, it’s outside. But that’s not the end of the story. As God of old used the disobedience of the Jews to bring in the Gentiles, so He is going to use the belief of the Gentiles to bring in the Jews. He’s going to provoke them to jealousy. He’s going to provoke them to emulation. He’s going to use what He’s done and is doing to the Gentiles to open the eyes of the Jews and to bring them to a position of obedience and surrender and rejoicing in the gospel. This tremendous thing which when it takes place will have this effect upon the whole church: it will indeed be like life from the dead, so marvelous that nothing short of such an expression is adequate in order to describe it.

Very well, again I say that there is only one exposition of this passage which is in any sense of the word adequate. It’s the one I’ve just put to you. This is a reference to Israel as a whole and not merely to the total number of elect Jews and Gentiles. Really that doesn't explain anything at all, but I hope to go into that in yet greater detail when I take that up as an issue in and of itself. Very well, now then, there is our statement. But now in verse 32, the apostle gives us the ultimate explanation of all this.

This is an astonishing thing. You know, my friends, we are looking together here at one of the most remarkable things in the whole of scripture. Here we are really looking into the very center of God’s mind, as it were, and the great and eternal purpose. Take a broad view of history. Can't you see it? All those centuries, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews, and the Gentiles nowhere. Then suddenly this tremendous reversal, and now the Gentiles, the Gentiles, the Gentiles, and the Jews outside. This is a great fact of history, and this is the only explanation of it.

Here it is: "For," he’s going on, you see, he’s explaining, "for God hath concluded them all in unbelief, in order that he might have mercy upon all." Now then, let’s look at this. Here’s the great explanation. Take this word "concluded." It’s a bit unfortunate that we’ve got that word here still. Now, I’m reading out of the Authorized Translation, and the word "concluded" in 1611, when this Authorized Translation was made, conveyed an idea to people that it doesn't convey now. What does "concluded" mean?

Well, it’s a word that is made up of two Latin words: *con*, which means "together"; *claudere*, which means "to shut up." So "concluded" means "shut up together." Shut up together. You’ve got examples of this elsewhere in the scripture. If I remember rightly, there is one in Galatians 3:22: "But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Exactly the same use of the word "concluded." It means shut up together. Most interesting, most interesting word. To shut up on all sides, to enclose, to coop up, to shut up completely.

Let’s read it like that: for God hath shut them all up completely, shut them in entirely with no way of escape, if you like. That’s what it means. Well then, to whom does this "all" refer? "God hath shut them all in completely," all of them in disobedience, unbelief, in order that He might have mercy upon all. To whom does this "all" refer? What’s its meaning and connotation here? Well, it cannot, of course, mean everybody who’s ever lived or ever shall live. It doesn't mean "all" in a universalistic sense. Why? Well, because then the teaching of this verse would mean that everybody eventually is going to be saved.

There are people who believe that, of course. They’re called universalists. But anybody who believes the Bible cannot believe that. Why? Well, because the Bible divides up people into the saved and the lost. That’s the great distinction. Saved and lost. Preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it is the power of God. Saved and lost. The whole Bible divides up the world into the saved and the lost, and the last book of the Bible shows us that some will go to everlasting perdition.

This is the Bible here everywhere. Our Lord Himself does it, the straight and the narrow gate. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Therefore, the "all" cannot mean everybody. It’s impossible; otherwise the only conclusion you can come to is universalism, and that simply does havoc everywhere with the plain teaching of the Bible. Well, what does the "all" mean?

Well, let the context rule you. If you only listen to the context, it’ll avoid many, many problems. The apostle has been talking for some time about Jews and Gentiles. You can divide up the world into Jews and Gentiles. These are the two great groups, the great blocks of mankind: Jews, Gentiles. The apostle says God has included Jews and Gentiles. That’s "all." Jews and Gentiles, the two groups, all the divisions of mankind are included, concluded in this way. Not every individual in the group, obviously, or otherwise nobody’d be saved.

No, no, he means every type and kind. Now, this is something that we’ve already had the apostle saying in chapter 10. Listen to him in verses 12 and 13, or take indeed verse 11: "For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." Not to everybody in the universe, but to all who call upon Him. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That’s exactly the same thing.

Then you’ve got an illustration of it, of course, in the famous statement in the first Epistle to Timothy and in the second chapter, and in verses 4, 5, and 6 or thereabouts. Listen: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." That doesn't mean every single individual who’s ever lived or will live, otherwise everybody’d be saved. Again you’re contradicting your scripture. What’s he talking about, "all"? Well, listen to the context: "I therefore exhort that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."

He says, "all groups and kinds of men." There was a tendency on the part of some of the first Christians to have almost communistic ideas, and they were against kings and all who were in authority. The apostle has to remind them, no, that’s wrong. It’s possible even for such people to be saved, and you must pray for them. In any case, pray that you may be enabled to live a quiet and a peaceable mind. God is interested in all groups and divisions of mankind. Well now, that’s exactly the position of the meaning of this word "all" in this 32nd verse.

So what he’s saying is this: not that God has shut up the Jews and the Gentiles together, but that rather He has shut up in unbelief all types and kinds of mankind that are to be saved, particularly Jews and Gentiles. He is saying God has shut up the Gentiles in unbelief; God has shut up the Jews in unbelief. That’s what he means. God hath concluded, shut up that they can't escape, Jews and Gentiles in this unbelief and disobedience. Why? Well, in order that He might have mercy upon the two groups in exactly the same way.

In other words, you see, he is simply putting in this great statement what he’s just been saying. There at one time were the Gentiles, shut up in unbelief. But God showed mercy to them. Here now are the Jews, shut up in unbelief in exactly the same way in order that God may show His mercy to them. Notice the emphasis is always upon what God has done, not upon man. He, God, God has concluded them, shut them up in unbelief. It’s God who does it. Why does He do this? Well, you see His object in both cases is to show mercy.

Why then? Well, this is the answer: it is in order to show that salvation is always, only as the result of the mercy of God. Why does he put this in the summing up? I’ll tell you why. He’s been showing us in the body of the chapter how both the Jews and the Gentiles had failed to see this. The Jews tended to say, "We are all right. We are God’s people because we come down as lineal descendants. We are all right." The answer is, "No, you’re not." Then the Gentiles have been brought in, and they say, "Oh, we’ve been brought in because we are such wonderful people. We are better people than those Jews."

"No, you’re not," says the apostle. There is nothing to recommend anybody in the sight of God. The Gentiles and the Jews are exactly the same, and they’re both equally ridiculous in their boasting. They’ve nothing to boast of, neither the Jews nor the Gentiles. Now, God, says the apostle, has shown this perfectly clearly on the very realm and field of history. History demonstrates this. Jews and Gentiles are shown to be absolutely hopeless, and the only conclusion you can come to then is that salvation is solely and entirely the result of God’s mercy.

The Gentiles were once hopeless, but God showed mercy to them. The Jews are now hopeless, but God will show mercy to them also in the way that he’s been explaining. In other words, the apostle’s statement in this 32nd verse is this: that God has deliberately emphasized the hopelessness and the helplessness of both Jews and Gentiles in order to glorify His own great and eternal name and show that everything is the result of His grace and mercy and compassion. That’s what he’s saying. God hath concluded them in this.

Look at those Gentiles before Christ came into the world. You can't imagine anything more hopeless. How did they ever come into the church? They’d got no background; they’d got nothing. How did they ever come in? There’s only one answer: the mercy of God. Could anything appear more hopeless tonight than the position of the Jews as a race and as a nation with respect to the gospel? It seems unthinkable that they’d ever come in. They’re going to come in, and as there was only one thing that could bring in the Gentiles, there is still only one thing that can ever bring in the Jews: it is the mercy of God.

That’s the statement. God hath concluded them. He’s put them there into complete helplessness, shut them in so that there’s no way out at all. That is how God saves. In other words, the apostle is saying here precisely the same thing as our blessed Lord is recorded as having said in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew in chapter 11, verses 25 to 27. Listen: "I thank, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things, hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him."

Shut up. Made impossible. No man can ever save himself. That’s the statement. It’s exactly the same in 1 Corinthians 1, and that’s why I read it to you at the beginning. God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Why? Well, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Of course He has. He shut them up in unbelief. Everybody’s shut up in unbelief, and whenever a single soul is saved, it is all only because of the mercy of God. Nobody could ever get out of that. We are all born dead in trespasses and sins, lifeless, can't do anything. "Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him." Well, how can he believe then? He cannot believe. He’s shut up in unbelief.

And God has shut up Jews and Gentiles in unbelief in order to show that nothing matters but His mercy. And His mercy can save Jews; His mercy can save Gentiles. It has saved Gentiles; it’s going to save Jews, speaking in the bulk of the whole. Now, here is this tremendous statement, then, with which the apostle winds up this tremendous mystery, prophecy that he has been revealing to them. Very well, I fear we’ve got to leave it at that tonight. But of course, we are still left before this tremendous proclamation, this staggering statement. And God willing, we’ll proceed to look at it more theologically and doctrinally next Friday evening. Let us pray.

Oh, Lord our God, we come again to Thee, and we thank Thee humbly once more that Thou hast been pleased to share these things with us. Oh God, that Thou hast stooped so low as to open something of Thy great and eternal mind to us and to allow us to have a glimpse into the marvel and the perfection of Thy ways. Oh God, grant us we pray Thee Thy Spirit that we may lay hold on these things with our minds and apprehensions and that we may so see them as to be filled with a sense of admiration and of glory. Hear us, O Lord, and now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us, now this night throughout the remainder of this short and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage and evermore. Amen.