What is the olive tree of Romans chapter 11, the broken branches, the root. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we've got it all wrong. If we just read the front of the book, as I like to call it, we discover unbelievable and unprecedented prophecy built into Romans chapter 11. So stick with me. We're going to talk about it right after this. You all right, everyone. Jim Staley, passion for truth ministries and welcome to this week's broadcast, where we have been diving into the book of Romans, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, prophetic moment by prophetic moment, bridging the gap from first century Judaism to what Paul actually meant when he wrote this, to what we believe today in Western Christianity. The gap is huge, and we're trying to shrink it by getting back to doing Bible things in Bible ways, calling Bible things by Bible names, and really, quite frankly, understanding the culture, the context, the hebraisms and all of the idiomatic expressions that are found inside of first century Judaism that really are the dictionary, the encyclopedia, and it's our road map that we're looking for to properly understand what Paul's trying to say. Today we come to chapter 11, 910, and 11. They're kind of like the trinity of the book of Romans. As far as chapters go. They're all about Israel, the Gentiles, how they fit together. What does the law look like for both parties? And this week, we're diving into the olive tree, the branches, the root. What is that? And I'm telling you, we've got it all wrong. We've really misunderstood Paul as it relates to this, because we are unfamiliar with what I call the front of the book, the Old Testament, that totally defines all of the terms that we're reading here in Romans, chapter 11. And again, remember, Paul is a very high level student of the Torah. He is the he's more zealous than any of his peers. He says he studied under Gomel, the greatest rabbi in the first century, head of the Sanhedrin. God chose him for a purpose, he was able to take all of the Old Testament scriptures and weave them together in the most beautiful witnessing tapestry to the first century Jews, which, by extension, moved into the Gentile arena and brought them together as one, as we are about to see, in a most dramatic way you're going to discover in this broadcast that the Gentiles are not exactly what you think they are. There are two types of Gentiles that we're going to talk about. Paul is witnessing to both of them, and because he's so familiar with the house of Israel, the house of Judah, how they used to all be one tree, and how the tree was broken into two, this is going to be an exciting broadcast, if you can't tell I'm already stoked to bring it to you. Last week, we talked about Israel, how they were disobedient, and all these different things. And now when he talks about Israel in this context, he's specifically talking about the house of Judah, that is the only part of Israel that's left. Remember, under King Solomon, the two kingdoms were split, as you're seeing on your screen, the northern house of Israel, which consists of the 10 tribes under Solomon, and then Rehoboam, his son, got stripped from Solomon because of idolatry and some serious stuff that he did at the end of his life, 900 women might be part of that problem, and he allowed idolatry to creep into his house. God stripped those 10 tribes away from him, and then the two tribes in the South were called the House of Judah in 722, BC, the house of Israel, which is the northern 10 tribes. The Northern house, they got taken into captivity, into Assyria and spread to the then four corners of the earth, while the two tribes in the south in 586 called the House of Judah, went into captivity in Babylon for, as you know, 70 years, and then came back under King Cyrus, under the leadership of Nehemiah, that's where they were first called Jews. There's no such thing as Jews at the base of Mount Sinai. There was no such thing of Jews during the time of Saul or David or even Solomon. It was only when they went into captivity that the Babylonians called them this name. Ironically, it was a derogatory term that they that they called them, and it just stuck. And more ironically, this is exactly what happened in the New Testament, when a sect of Judaism called the way that was developing, and the way was those that believed in the Torah that followed Yeshua and adopted the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, into their life, they were also given a nickname by their pagan enemies, called christianos, you little Christ like person, you follower of Christ. That's what it meant. Is christianos was a Latin and a Greek word put together, and it was derogatory, and it also. Suck. And so in the first century, before we move any further into Romans, chapter 11, it's critical that you understand that the people that Paul is talking to are people that are from mainly the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites mixed in there. And that's why Paul is from the tribe of Benjamin. And inside of the first century, they called themselves Israel. So we see Paul talking about Israel in the first century. It's because the northern 10 tribes are not part of Israel. At this time, they assimilated into the nations and became, well, we'll find out. So let's go right now Romans, chapter 11. All right, so after talking about Israel in almost a negative way, He literally says this because he's anticipating what they are thinking. And he says this, I say, then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not for I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Now it's critical to understand that as we walk through here what the covenant looks like, and it's important for us believers in Christ to know we're not talking about salvation. There's more than one covenant. When God talks about covenant, Israel or my people, all right, for the sake of Abraham, there are promises and covenants that were made, an oath that God made to his people that have nothing to do with salvific favor have nothing to do with salvation. They were the people of God that were blessed if they kept his commandments and cursed if they didn't belief in God and then walking that out in faith by doing what he said, that is what caused them to actually be saved. And all throughout Israel's history, when we're talking about corporate Israel, we're not talking that all people in every single Israelite, even in the first century, that every single Jew was God's people. Paul made that clear when he said, not everyone is a Jew. Is a Jew, but only those who do the will of God, right? Just like today, not every Christian is actually a real Christian. It's only those who do the will of God. It's always been that way. There's a remnant within Christianity, and there's a remnant within Judaism, and so when we're talking about the this, this concept, all throughout chapter 11, of those he foreknew, and is He did, He predestined and the elect. All of this has to do with corporate concept. Okay, it's a corporate concept. So let me ask a question, Did God reject His people just because the majority rejected his son? Of course not. If the answer is yes, the next question becomes, will God reject the Christians because the majority of Gentiles don't accept Yeshua? You see, there's only two things. There's there is the Israelites, or the Jewish people in the first century, and then there's Gentiles. So if God rejected all of the Jews because some of the Jews rejected Jesus, then that means that he can reject the Christians, because the majority of the Gentile world didn't accept Yeshua, and doesn't accept him today either. So we've got to be very careful in doing this. So let's not parse out the scriptures. Let's read them accurately. All right, so let's go back to the Scriptures. We've got a lot to go through. Or do you not know what the Scriptures say of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed your prophets and tore down your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to him? I've reserved for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now that's where we gotta we kind of get a little stuck. Is these, these concepts that never existed in the first century of election, and this concept of election of grace, predestination, Arminianism, Calvinism, none of that existed in the first century. We have to define these terms the way Paul would have defined them, okay. And so the election of grace is the election of all of God's people. So all of 12 tribes were elected. Okay? Now there's only two left in the first century, and they were called the Jewish people. They were following the best they could, the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses and David, the Davidic Covenant, all of these covenants, the Adamic covenant, the Edenic Covenant, all of them that are layered on top of each other, they're doing their best to follow. At the end of the day, they failed in many, many ways, just like in many ways, Christianity fails in following God the white the way that we should be doing, that almost every believer on the planet, not every, almost every believer on the planet has failed, has fallen from grace, but we have been elected through the blood of Christ and by the incredible omniscience of God to fall into grace, and that is what grace is all about. You don't need it if you're not breaking God's law, but because we've all sinned, aka broken God's law, first, John, three, four and fallen short of the glory of God, we deserve death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. Amen our. Right? So, and if by grace, then it's no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it's by works, it's no longer grace. Otherwise, works is no longer work. All right, now let's talk about this for just a moment. And I know I'm talking fast, but I've got to get to the most important verse, verses down here that talk about the olive tree, because that's going to take a little bit of time. So now it's very important that you understand that when he says it's no longer by works, it's not that God had ever had salvation come through works. Never Did God ever set up a salvation formula that was obtained by works. What he's referring to here is not keeping the law of God, that God had some sort of formula for works for salvation, but the modern day Jewish thought in his time period was that keeping the works of the law, which we've already defined in previous broadcasts as halakah, it was the tradition and the doctrine of the elders. We know that because we have that same concept detailed out for us in the Dead Sea scrolls with the Essenes that we've gone over in the past. And so he's saying, Look, I know that you guys believe that club, Country Club membership comes by following the rabbis tradition and doctrine, and that self based righteousness, that egocentric righteousness of religiosity, which we still find in the majority of Christian churches today. People are so proud that they go to church. They're so proud they read their Bibles, but and then they live like the devil the rest of the week, or they leave God out of everything. They put them in a little bit of stuff. And we have all of our own traditions that we've adopted, and we're so proud of how we serve God, never thinking for a second or auditing our lives to go, Is God actually okay with everything that I do? Is he okay with this tradition? Is he okay with this tradition? We justify everything exactly the way the Pharisees did, and so in my eyes, I see really two sides of the same coin. We're both having issues, both Judaism and Christianity making the same mistakes on just two different sides of the coin. We're all stuck in tradition. So Paul knows this, and he says, That's why, look, you cannot earn your place in the kingdom through your works. It's not by works. It's always been by grace. That's why God gave you the Torah to begin with. The Torah itself is grace. You say, Jim, how could it be possibly grace? Because they were under judgment. And if you break God's law, and you don't know it, and he doesn't give you in detail, out for you his rules and regulations, then it would be kind of unfair for him to judge you, so the whole world would be guilty before God, and they would never know how to please Him. This is the problem that all the Egyptians had and all the other pagan religions. They never had any instructions from their gods. That's why they're constantly doing this sacrifice and this child sacrifice, trying to appease the gods, because they had no idea what was happening and why it was happening. But with the Israelites, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he gave them the law, which is grace, because it's the opportunity for them to choose whether or not they want life or death. And that's why he said, If you keep my commandments, there's blessing. If you don't, well, you know, see what happens. But this was a beautiful thing, and that's why he says, Look, it's never been by works. It's always been by grace. And so in verse seven, he says, What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks. Now he's obviously being generic, because there is a lot of people within Israel that did attain by faith, but he's talking majority of the religious society, the upper echelon, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded, just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear, to this very day. Now I'm going to leave this on the screen for just a moment, because it's important for you to understand that this is similar to what happened with Pharaoh of Egypt. God was not just blindly blinding Pharaoh's eyes, if you will, as if Pharaoh really wanted to serve God and let the people go. No, the word there harden in the Hebrew literally means to strengthen. It means to strengthen what's already there. And so God through His omniscience and his ability to be standing on top of the building and looking down on the street parade. He sees the beginning, the middle, the end of the parade. He knows that Pharaoh is going to has no intention of letting the Israelites go, so he simply says, Fine, you're not going to do that. I'm going to harden your heart, and I'm going to show you the power that I have when it all said and done in the same way. Because the Israelites, especially the northern kingdom of Israel, as well as the southern kingdom, that's why they went into captivity as well. They they stopped celebrating the Sabbath, which is the why they were there for 70 years, because the Bible says that they had stopped celebrating the Sabbath for. 70 years. So God said, I'm getting all those Sabbaths back, and one way or another, you're going to rest, whether it's here or in jail. And I know a little bit about that. And so at the end of the day, he says, Look, because of your disobedience to me and the hardness of your heart, I'm going to give you a spirit of stupor. You're not going to see straight. And so that's why he says Israel did not talking about the religious Jews did not obtain what it sought. It sought the righteousness of God and could not find it because their hearts were already hardened. So he simply said, Well, I'm going to put you aside for just a moment, and I'm going to use your hardness of heart, just like I did with Pharaoh, to let my people go, I'm going to use your hardness of heart and your disobedience to bring in a whole other people. Watch how this plays out. And David says, Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a Recompense to them, let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always. And so David is being quoted here by Paul. Look, this is just amazing that Paul has all of this scripture memorized, that he can just pull it up like that. He didn't have only 27 books that most of us Christians study. Right? He had 39 books that were much larger than what we had, and he knew all of it. As a matter of fact, some scholars believe that in order for Paul to even be considered to sit under the feet of Gabriel, he had to have the entire Torah, the first five books of the Bible, memorized, word for word that's saying something. All right, here we go, verse 11, and this is where it starts to get interesting. I say, then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. Do you hear that? Let's just stop right there. He doesn't even say, fall. He says they've stumbled, but they're not going to fall. He says, No, but through their fall. Now that seems like a contradiction, because he just said, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not, but through their fall, talking about the stumble, they're stumbling as if they're about to fall, to provoke them to jealousy. Salvation has come to the Gentiles, and we're going to explain this verse by verse. So picture a man that stumbles, and he's stumbling and trying to hold on to himself, and he's stumbling for quite some time. He's not going to fall. That's really important, because in Christianity Today, we literally have created a concept of replacement theology that God has done with the Jewish people, and he's now made a covenant, a new covenant, with the Gentiles. But the problem is, is that's not what the Scriptures say. So let's go take a look at that real quick, just so you can see it. And I know we've shown you this before, but in Jeremiah 3131 is the only passage in the Torah, or, excuse me, the Old Testament that talks about the new covenant. And what's it say? Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with who the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their forefathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke. Nothing wrong with the covenant if they just happened to be breaking it. Though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with who the house of Israel after those days, the house of Israel, after those days, the house of Israel, very important that you understand that, because the house of Israel went into captivity, and then they were gone, they assimilated into the nations, and in the first century, they're just they have no opportunity to be in covenant with God because they were divorced. And the covenant restrictions and the Torah said that if a a husband divorced his wife and she went and married another husband, if that husband dies or divorces her, she can never go back to the original husband. So this is a problem, because the northern kingdom was divorced, but God says he's going to make a new covenant with her, and that's simply not possible according to his own rule, unless, and we'll get back to that in just a little bit. There is a provision. He says right here, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. Ladies and gentlemen, you hear what he just said? He said he's going to do a new covenant with the house of Israel, which, according to his own law, is not possible. And then secondly, he's going to be their God, and he's going to write the Torah on their hearts. How is it that New Testament Christianity says that God's going to do away with his law? It's a bondage, it's sinful, it's death. But God says, I'm going to write the Torah on your heart, meaning metaphorically, you're going to want to keep it that's what it means to be written on your heart. So this is an incredible thing that's happening because we have a massive contradiction within Christianity that says that the new covenant is only with the Gentiles, but there's. House of Gentiles. Here, no provision for Gentiles. It's only with the house of Israel. And so this is what Romans 11 is all about. So my friends, let's get back to the scriptures, because this, to me, is super exciting. All right. So he says, Now, if their fall is riches for the world and their failure, now, again, he's talking about stumbling, not falling. Their stumble is riches for the world. And their failure, riches for the Gentiles. How much more their fullness. So I want you to picture right now in your mind's eye, an Olympic race. And in this Olympic race, there are people, there are people that are running around the track, and Jews are in first place. They're there, but they go to jump over the hurdle, and they trip. They don't completely fall, but they trip so much so it slows them down. And all of the rest of the runners get to cross the line, and they all cross the line at the same time and take first place, and the Jew that is tripped and stumbling eventually crosses the line, but because he tripped, everyone else gets to cross the line and take first place. It's an incredible picture to realize that the race everyone wins that crosses the line, but nobody would have crossed the line in first place if it wasn't for the Jew that allowed that God allowed a trip so that the rest of the Gentile world could cross that line. So as we walk through here, we can see this, for I speak to you Gentiles in verse 13, as I am apostle to the Gentiles. I magnify my ministry, if by any means, I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. It's critical to understand Paul is not against his own people, like modern day, some modern day Christians and denominations that are against the Jewish people and believe that God has set them aside. May it never be. Paul said they're just stumbling, and he says, I'm going to give the good news to the Gentiles to make them jealous, and I'm going to suggest you that good news is not exactly what you think it is. It's way deeper than Jesus and him crucified, like we've always been taught. Paul is coming from the Torah. He's coming from the fact that the northern house of Israel was divorced, and they can't come back into covenant ever, and they became Gentiles, as we're going to discover in just a moment. So let's get back here. Verse 15, it says, For if they're being cast away, is reconciling of the world. What will their acceptance be? But life from the dead. God is all about resurrection, and this is going to happen. And is happening. It's happened ever since the first century that Jewish people have been coming to faith in Messiah, and he's been resurrecting them from the dead. This is not talking about some point in the future every single Jew is going to come to know Christ. That that's that's not even feasible. When he says, in the future here, all Israel is saved, he's talking corporately. Not every Jewish person is going to get saved, no different than every Gentile is going to get saved. It's just corporately, there's going to be a revival inside of modern day Israel, which consists of the Jewish people. Okay? So in verse 16, it says, For if the first fruit is holy, talking about the Jewish people, the lump is also holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. Because if you're in Christ, right, or if you're in covenant with God, you're holy, not by your own righteousness, but you're holy because the root itself is holy, because God is holy. All right, so before we move into verse 17, we need to discover what is the olive tree. We can't make up what the olive tree is based on our 21st century understanding. We need to find the dictionary that they used in the Old Testament. And unbelievably, in archeology, we've discovered a first century dictionary that has every single word and phrase in it that's found in the New Testament. And so we can open up this dictionary and know exactly what Paul was talking about. It's not a Strong's dictionary. It's way better than that. It's a first century dictionary. And you know what it is? It's the Tanakh. It's the Old Testament. That's the only scriptures that they had when he writes to Timothy and says, Hey, All scripture is worthy for doctrine and reproof and correction, the way of righteousness, the only scriptures they had, because there was no New Testament, was the Old Testament, and they used it for doctrine. Go figure, if you walk into any Christian church today and say that, hey, we need to use the Old Testament for doctrine, they would throw you out and call you a heretic. But the reality is, that's exactly what the New Testament disciples used, was the Old Testament. So we're going to do that right now. All right, so let's go over to Jeremy. CHAPTER 11 and discover what the olive tree is in the Bible all throughout the Old Testament, Jeremiah, 1116, says this, the Lord called your name green olive tree, lovely and of good fruit, with the noise of a great tumult, he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken. This is the passage that talks about Israel being an olive tree. And what happened was it got broken into two and it became two olive trees. The northern kingdom of Israel became one and became the wild olive tree because it was not any longer part of God's covenant. The Southern Kingdom became the manicured Kingdom. It was the one that God continued to have in covenant, and it became the natural olive tree. And that's going to be the subject in Romans chapter 11. We also see this in Zechariah 411, through 14. Read it with me. It says, Then I answered and said to him, What are these two olive trees at the right of the lamp stand and its left? And I further answered and said to him, What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains. Now, before I answer this question through the Scripture, understand that the picture here is this beautiful vision of a menorah that's in the center, flanked by two olive trees, which represent the two houses of Israel, the house of Israel on one side, in the house of Judah, the southern kingdom on the other side, and the Messiah is in the center, holding and connecting them together. The seven lamps represent the seven spirits of God, the seven continent on the seven continents on the earth, and the seven churches of Revelation. And it's really the tree of life, because on the branches, the branches are made out of almonds, there's almond blossoms and buds and bowls, and that goes all the way back to the rod of Aaron that budded. And what was it? It budded an almond branch, and that tree branch represents the tree of life. Why this is not in every Christian home, I will never know, really anti semitism, and we look at it as a Jewish thing, but it's in the temple of God that's in the heavenly realms that Moses built based on the template that he saw. So when we get to the shemaim to the heaven, we're going to see this heavenly tabernacle with the heavenly menorah in it. So why not actually have it now in our homes, and what a great witnessing opportunity it is. But here is the answer, he says in verse 13. Then he answered me and said, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord. So he said, these are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth. Why does he say the two anointed ones when they're trees? Because there's one from the northern kingdom, and there's one from the southern kingdom. This goes right into the book of Revelation, where you have the two witnesses at the end of time standing Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that get killed and come back to life. It's unbelievable. This is why Moses and Elijah on the Mount Transfiguration with Yeshua in the center, Moses was from the southern kingdom, and Elijah was from the northern kingdom. It is literally a human figure of what Zechariah saw in chapter four. It's incredible. If this doesn't excite you, then you need to check your pulse, because all of this, to me, is amazing, how God weaves all of this together. And there's one more scripture I want to show you in Ezekiel, chapter 37 it says this, as for you, Son of man, take the stick for yourself and write on it for Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions, then take another stick. And by the way, the word stick there in Hebrew is actually tree. But the translators it didn't make sense to have a tree on one hand and a tree on the other. So they translated it as stick. But the reality is, it's a tree and God's hand is big enough to hold it and write on it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim. So on one side it says, For the house of Israel, his companions then join them to one another for yourself into one stick, and they'll become one in your hand. So on one side we have the house of Ephraim. On one tree, we have the house of Judah, and they will be one in the hand of Messiah. So what the enemy split up through our sin, it caused us to split the two kingdoms of Israel. The entire context behind, by the way, the one new man is taking the two and putting them together. It is modern day Israel that is made up of the house of Judah in the South and the house of Israel in the north, that spread out throughout the known world that time, and they became as Gentiles. So that is the house of Israel, and we'll come to that here in just a few minutes. So bear with me if you've never heard that message. As a matter of fact, if you've not heard this concept before, you really need to watch the teaching that I have on this. It is an extensive teaching going into detail of this. It's called identity crisis. You can find the link in the description millions of people. Around the world has watched this in multiple languages, and it will show you how the front of the book and the back of the book fit together, and who the people of God are, and what our responsibilities are as being in covenant with God. All right, so now, now that we know what the tree is, we need to discover what is the root, because we're not going to understand this in Romans 11, if we don't know these things. So we want to turn over to Isaiah, chapter 11, verse one for that, it says, Thou shalt come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Now Jesse, of course, is the father of King David. A branch will grow out of his roots, and then we discover what that branch actually is in Revelation, 2216 it says, I Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the Branch. He's quoting right out of Isaiah, chapter 11, the bright and morning star. So we know that he is the root. He is the root. So what's fascinating is in the prophets, it says that King David and Abraham and the patriarchs are the root, and then out of that stump comes another branch, and that's the Messiah. What's incredibly fascinating is that the Messiah is actually before them. So he is both the branch, the human branch that comes out of the lineage of David, but he's also not of this world. He predates this world as the word of God, John, one, one. And so he is the original spiritual root from which all of the patriarchs and the prophets come from. So he's the original root, and he's also the branch, which is amazing. All right, so now that we know what the root is, we can discover what grafting in actually is. But before we do, let's find out who the branches are, and for that, we go over to John, chapter 15, verse five, read it with me. I Jesus. Yeshua is talking. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me, you can do nothing. So now that we know that the olive tree is Israel, we know that the root is the Messiah, and we know that we, or people, are the branches, individual branches, by the way, not the tree. The tree itself is Israel. This is so important, as you can see from the graphic on your screen, that the tree itself is Israel. The root is the Messiah. The branches are individual people. And that is going to be critical as we understand this scripture. So speaking of Scripture, let's go back to it. Here we go. Now, with that background and knowledge, we can properly understand verse 17, and it says this, And if some of the branches it didn't say all, it says 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. Do not boast against the branches, but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you, my friends, I cannot describe to you how important it is to define these words properly, or we will radically miss this word picture, because most of us grew up thinking that this scripture means God got rid of the branches, meaning all of the branches and all of Jews, and now we are grafted in To the olive tree. The problem is, is that the olive tree is Israel, which is exactly why it says in Ephesians chapter two, and let's go there real quick. It says, Therefore, remember, he's talking to Gentiles, that you once Gentiles in the flesh who were called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ. You were without a doorway to God, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. What did we define commonwealth of Israel? Is the olive tree. They were not allowed to come in to Israel. This is not about starting a new religion. This is about coming in and being grafted into Israel. Which is the tree? You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from all the covenants that God gave them, the covenants of promise, having no hope, because they're not in Israel and without God in the world, because God is only god of those that are in covenant with him, and in covenant is to be part of that tree. But now in Christ, Jesus, the doorway that's been made to the Holy of Holies, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. What does it mean to be far off? It is literally quoting a scripture where it says that the house of Israel, because they were broken off and divorced, they became far off. Off. They were a wild olive tree. They were still an olive tree because the olive tree is only Israel. Gentiles are not an olive tree. Okay? They are other trees in Scripture, cedars of Lebanon and the pagan Gentiles, but the olive tree is reserved for only one group, and that is Israel. And he says, You've now been brought near by the blood of Christ. Now you can be grafted in to the olive tree. So when we go back to Romans, what we discover is, he says, And if some of the branches, not all, so there are some branches on this olive tree called Israel that are still in covenant with God. All right, they're still in covenant. And he says some of them were broken off because they were they were dead. So God didn't just take them and no gardener comes up to a tree and literally cuts off branches that are living. He only cuts off branches that are dead. So God is not predestining These, these Jewish branches, and just cutting them off so that, so that Gentiles can find some room on the tree. No, they're already dead, just like Pharaoh, just like the high priest, Caiaphas, just like Herod, just like all of the Pharisees and Sadducees that were so stuck on themselves that didn't really have real faith in God, they were just proud of their works. Those were dead, and he cut them off, and it made room for the Gentiles. And we're going to find out exactly how much room and what that looked like as we move forward. So he says, now they were grafted in among them, so the Jews are still there on the tree, and the Gentiles get to be grafted in with them. So now there's Jew and there are Gentiles grafted in together. These Jewish believers and these now Gentile believers are grafted in together. So not everybody is cut off, only the ones that were already dead. And he says, and with them, they became partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, the fatness of what the fatness of Israel? Because remember, the root is Messiah, the fat is, is, is like when the high priest was given instructions to put the fat on the altar. It means the best part, the best part of that animal. And so at the end of this scripture, the point that Paul's trying to make is Israel is fat with blessings. And now that the Gentiles are grafted in, they can actually partake in those blessings, because remember, God says, If you keep my commandments, you're blessed. If you don't, you're cursed. They were cursed. Now by being grafted into Israel, they can come into covenant. They discover exactly what God requires. They do by faith what they believe. So they're looking into the perfect law of liberty, like James says, they're being doers of the word, not hearers only. Like Paul says that those that are hearers of the of the Torah are not justified, but the doers of the law are justified, and now they get to do it by faith, not legalism, not the halakha - tradition of the elders, but by faith, and they get to be blessed. That's where we find ourselves in Romans chapter 11, and that's why he says in verse 18, don't boast against the branches. Don't boast against the branches that are there, because if you do boast, remember that that will cause death in you, because Pride goeth before the fall. Pride cometh before the acts, if you will. So if they can be cut off for their pride, don't be prideful. You can be cut off too. And this kills the concept of once saved, always saved, that just because you accept Jesus when you're seven years old doesn't mean that God can't cut you off. He prunes those he loves that are doing their best, that are trying, but he cuts off the pride. He cuts off those that are dead. So if you deny Christ, or you stop following him, and you consistently and persistently reject him, like Israel did, he divorced the entire 10 Tribes northern kingdom. He can do the same in our lives. So the whole concept of one saved, always saves falls short right here. That's just how I see it. You can tell me what you think in the comments. All right, let's get back to verse 19. Here we go. You will say, then branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well said, Paul says, because of unbelief, they were broken off. You see, God didn't just break them off because he wanted to break them off. It was their unbelief, and it was their their disobedience to the Word of God. They were already dead. So he says, They were broken off. And you stand by faith. Do not be haughty by fear, For if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either, as we've already discussed. Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God. You see that the juxtaposition here consider the goodness and the severity of God. God doesn't deal with pride very. Well, he literally cuts it off. Pride always causes man to fall. Almost every sin known to man falls underneath the category of pride. As a matter of fact, if you struggle with pride in your life right now, I encourage you to write in the comments of prayer and say, God, please deliver me of my pride. And honestly, every single person watching this broadcast should do that, because every one of us struggle with pride. Every time you do something selfish, it's pride. Every time that you want to get back at somebody, it's pride. Every time your feelings are hurt, quite frankly, it's because of pride we're not seeing the hurt in the other person, not giving them the benefit of the doubt, so on and so forth. Pride is what causes us to fall. All right, here we go as we continue verse 22 on those who fell severity, but towards you goodness, if you continue in his goodness. Now, good. Now, listen, he's talking about goodness, both for the Jew and the Gentile. Everybody that's on that tree. The goodness of God is accessible. The grace of God is accessible. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in again. Listen, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature, into the cultivated olive tree, how much more will those who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? Listen, verse 25 very important verse, I 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, the house of Judah at the time, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it's written, THE DELIVERER WILL come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Now, what's absolutely phenomenal, my friends, is we cannot take this out of context. I'm going to leave this scripture up on the screen, because this is not referencing pagan Gentiles. How do we know that? Because he's using phraseology that are very specific to our dictionary in the front of the book, like fullness of the Gentiles that meloha goyim is coming right out of when Jacob crossed his hands and put it over Ephraim, and blessed Ephraim. He said, You will be the fullness of the nations. Okay, so he's basically saying, Ephraim, you're going to be a Gentile. You're going to be out of covenant, because the fullness of the Gentiles is not good. He should have been. You'd be the fullness of Israel, but to be the fullness of the Gentiles is to say that your, your your progeny, the generations after you are going to be out of covenant. And although it sounds like a good thing, it ends up not being a good thing. As a matter of fact, in the book of Revelation, we find Ephraim missing. In the 12 tribes, Dan is missing and Ephraim is missing. As the 12,000 from each tribe go the 144,000 enter into Jerusalem through the 12 gates and Ephraim is missing. Why? Because Ephraim was the tribe, unfortunately, in the north that was the leader that caused all of the house of Israel to fall into idolatry and build the fake idols. The false idols worship centers in Bethel and Dan. And Dan also was an idolater, which is why he likely is not part of the end times 12 tribes as well. So this is not a good thing, my friend, even though the entire northern kingdom of Israel was called the House of Ephraim. Ephraim doesn't make it because he becomes as Gentiles. They're out of covenant, okay, so the moment you've been waiting for. So who are these Gentiles, really? So when Paul is talking to Gentiles, all right, the term Gentile goy, or in the plural, goyim, in the Hebrew it means of the nations, which, by default, means they're out of covenant. So if you're in covenant, you're called Israel. Covenant. Israel, period. That's it. If you're out of covenant, you're a Gentile. That's just how simple it is, right? So when Paul is going around and giving the gospel, first to the Jew inside the synagogue and then second to the Gentiles that are in the area. It's very interesting to know that these are not just pagan Gentiles. He's a very smart guy. He goes directly to his Jewish counterparts, the house of Judah in the synagogues, and then he's going to the Gentiles that used to be in covenant as covenant Israel, the house of Israel, the 10 northern tribes that became Gentiles. Let me show you what this looks like. Let's go over to Amos, chapter nine, verse nine, and we'll read it very carefully. It says this, For surely I will command and sift the house of Israel among the Gentiles, which is what that word there in. Nations is among the nations as grain is sifted in sieve, yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. So in Amos, there is a prophecy that says that the house of Israel. Now remember, if you not familiar with this, there are two houses, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. He's specifically calling out the house of Israel. Why? Because they were divorced and sent into all the known world. He's going to call them back by faith, and they're going to be mixed amongst the Gentiles. Let's go over to Hosea, chapter seven, verse eight. It says this, Ephraim, talking about the northern house of Israel, has mixed himself among the peoples, among the Gentiles. Ephraim is a cake unturned. She's wild. She's a wild olive tree because she was broken off. That's Jeremiah 11 that we talked about, Hosea, chapter eight. One chapter later, it says this in verse eight, Israel is swallowed up now they are among the Gentiles, talking about the house of Israel like a vessel in which there is no pleasure. So over and over again, we see that Israel, the house of Israel are Gentiles. Now take a look at this chart here, and I want to show you the difference between a cultivated olive tree and a wild olive tree, because this is quite incredible. So under a cultivated olive tree, the growth and appearance is they are carefully nurtured. They have strong branches, and they're well formed. They produce very large, high quality olives. They're well developed. They have very deep roots, and we know that the root is Christ. So those that are cultivated, they're deep in their roots. They require pruning, watering and care, and that's why the Bible says correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction in the New Testament, because it's so critical that we get pruned. If you're going to actually produce the great greatest amount of fruit, God must prune you. And you know how he often does that through trials and tribulation. So if you're going through a trial or tribulation right now, that means that you're cultivated. That means that God is the gardener. That means he's doing incredible things in your life. So write in the comments right now, God, thank you for pruning me. Thank you for pruning me. Thank you for watering me. Sometimes you might feel like you're drowning because he's raining on you, because he believes in getting water to the root to stimulate the root growth, which is Yeshua in your life, let the spirit man come alive, and he does that, typically through tribulation. On contrary, look at the wild olive tree. It grows randomly. It's twisted and it's often thorny. Do you guys know any people out there? Have you ever met anybody that is a random person that kind of does their own thing? They're not really following God. They just they don't really like authority. They don't like anybody speaking into their life. They get offended easily. They take everything personally, twisted. Means that they're eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They compromise. They're taking the Word of God, and then they're living what they want to do. But then, you know, on Sunday, or whenever they go to church, they put on that nice Christian suit, but then they're living like they want to live throughout the rest of the week, and they're often thorny. You touch these type of people, you're going to absolutely get burned. It's going to hurt. Also, they produce small, inferior or even inedible olives. This is fascinating, because when you are it's this, it's this, is the deception. If you've never been around someone that is cultivated, that's producing great amount of fruit, and you only hang around wild olive trees that produce small fruit. It can deceive you into thinking that you're actually profitable for the kingdom because you're producing fruit, but it's so small, it's not kidding your full potential. They're also very weak. They give in to compromise very easily. And their roots are very shallow. Their root connection to Christ is not as strong that it needs to be. And lastly, it grows on its own, without cultivation. These are the type of people that they don't seem to actually grow through trials or tribulations. God is not pruning them, or he tries to prune them, but they refuse to be pruned. Those are the people that things happen to, and they blame God. They get mad at God. They get angry at God because they don't understand the pruning process. We as believers in Christ, we want to be a cultivated olive tree. You are a cultivated Israel. That's what you are. If you are a believer in Christ. I'm sorry, Christian is a term that is not going to be used in the kingdom, although I consider myself a Christ follower now, but in the biblical context, we are called Israel. All right. So as that relates all back to the text, the amazing part, and the conclusion of all of this is the reality is that Paul is going out. He is looking for those of the diaspora, the dispersion, the northern house of Israel, that became Gentiles. And he's giving them the incredible good news, which is you used to not be able to be in covenant because your forefathers were divorced. That's what caused you to go in the nations. That's why you took on the Greek culture and became Hellenized. And you said, Hey, what the heck with it? If I can't be part of Israel, I'm just going to be a part of the nations and do what I want to do. But here's the good news, says Paul that husband has died. According to Torah Deuteronomy chapter 24 if the husband dies, then the wife is free to remarry. This is the beauty, and the entire story of the teaching called Identity crisis is that the husband, Jesus, Yeshua, God Himself, who is the husband of Israel, he dies. He frees his bride from the law of adultery, raises from the dead as an eligible bachelor and says, Pick Me. Come back into covenant. Come back and be my bride. You can now come back. So these Israelite Gentiles, who you can't tell any difference, because they're all Middle Eastern, they begin to come back into covenant by the 1000s, because they know their heritage, and then, alongside of them, because they're friends with the pagan Greeks, those Romans and Greeks, they begin to come back with the Israelites, just like the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt join Israel. And God said, I will have one law for the native born and for the sojourner. That's Exodus. Chapter 12, verse 49 I believe, and that is what's happening in the first century. So the gospel invitation is happening again. He gives the invitation to all of Pharaoh's household and all of the Egyptians, but very few people took the invitation. But there were some branches that came out of Egypt broke off. The Egyptian tree came in, and God grafted them into Israel, and they became native born Israelites. They weren't Gentiles. They were native, born according to the Word of God, the Gentiles, whether they be Israelite Gentiles that became Gentiles or pagan Gentiles, doesn't matter. They're all coming in to covenant with God into the fullness and the fat of the tree of Israel. And so as we finish this up, it becomes very exciting, because when you read this scripture again over here in verse 26 and 27 it says this, and this comes right out of Psalms. SAYS THE DELIVERER WILL come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant with them when I will take away their sins. Do you see this, my friends? This is not about the Jewish people all becoming saved. That's not the prophecy. This is a corporate prophetic proclamation here that Judah is going to come back into covenant. Ephraim is going to come back into covenant with pagan Gentiles. And this is the all Israel will be saved. This is the one new man of Ephesians. This is the the bones of Joseph coming alive in Ezekiel chapter 37 this is the two sticks, the two trees, coming together in the hand of the Messiah. This is the two trees with the menorah. This is amazing. The whole story from Genesis to Revelation is all about Israel. That's why, even on the Sermon on the Mount. We have 12 baskets of food left over. It's all about feeding God's people. So let's finish this up real quick, because we're running out of time concerning the gospel. They are enemies. They're not enemies only concerning the gospel. That's because they're against it. The majority of the people in that first century were against the gospel, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. What does he mean by election? God elected Israel to be the captains of the team. It doesn't mean that God is looking out ahead of time, and he elected some to be saved, and some not know. He elected all of Israel to be on the team. But not everybody heard that call. That's why Jesus said that the road is narrow. Everybody goes down the ride road, but the road is narrow. For the remnant, he calls out, but not everybody takes that call, and that's what's happening right here. So he says, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, the promises that he gave to Abraham irrevocable. Not talking about salvation. He's talking about the promises of God, that if you keep my commandments, you'll be blessed that I've given you the land, I've given you the priesthood, I've given you all the foreshadowing. I'm gonna be with you to the very end, and I hope that you choose me so that you can get eternal life. But if you don't, you'll be like those that are in the wilderness that never get to go into the Promised Land. You see the two tribes, Joshua and Caleb, went into the promised land. But it doesn't mean that the rest God didn't love they just couldn't go. They were blessed in the desert. They built their castles in the sand, but they couldn't go into the Promised Land. So he says for you verse 30, were once disobedient to God, talking to the Gentiles, yet you have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so these also have now been disobedient, that though through the mercy shown to you, they will also obtain mercy. It's going to go in one big cycle. The Jewish people, by and large, rejected Messiah, and so the gospel began to go into the other bride and bring the other bride back and make. Them one, and that jealousy will bring in the Jewish people to come back to God themselves. And can I ask a question real quickly, when ever will the Jewish people be jealous of mainstream Christianity that is doing not doing Bible things in Bible ways? From the perspective of ancient Christianity in the first century, we're not keeping the feast days. We're keeping pagan, Roman feast days, and then we're justifying it, saying, well, it's not what it means to me, and we can kind of do what we want. We have our own traditions in holidays. We've put aside the commandment of God for our own traditions, just like Jesus said to his to the Pharisees in Mark chapter seven, right? We disdain the Torah. We believe that it's done away with, and it's dead when the Messiah and the prophets, the prophets foretell the Messiah coming back to teach his people how to keep the Torah. And so the Jews cannot be jealous of Christianity, because Christianity doesn't look anything like what it did in the first century. But when we as believers begin the process of coming back to our root, back to the Yeshua, Jewish root of our faith, the Christian, the true Christian roots of our faith. What we will discover is we will be walking in fullness of the olive tree, the fullness of our calling. The two sticks will become one, and the power of the living God will come alive. Someone type, amen in the comment section, this is the moment where we need to put aside our childish ways and begin to take up the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah. We need to put on the multicolored coat of Joseph, which is directly connected to the 10 northern tribes. And the multicolor coat represents the symbolism of all the nations that he would find himself in that we need to come back. We don't need to tell the Jewish people, they need to convert to Christianity. You can't convert to Christianity if you're a Jew. You simply believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. You're already in the tree, but now you'll be grafted in with the Messiah, the root of the tree, Messiah, Yeshua. It's so exciting, my friends, as we move towards the end of this, how deep is the riches? Let's read it together. 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. Paul is as excited as I am, he's like, look, this is brilliant. God is not mad. He's brilliant. This is a strategy by Elohim Yahweh God himself to save everyone. He knew that if he divorced the northern kingdom, they would find their ways to every continent, in every tribe, in every tongue, and then he would call out to them. They would have no idea who they are 2000 years later, but they would be connected to the other Gentiles, and through Israel, the world would be saved. It's an incredible story, my friend, you're not a Gentile. You are part of Israel. That's who you are. We're not replacing Israel. We get to be part of this tree, amen For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him for of Him and through Him, and to Him, are all things to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen, my friends, I don't even want to end this broadcast, because I'm so excited about what Paul is saying here, the world becomes saved. The all of Israel comes back, not every single person, but there is a huge majority that are going to come to knowledge in the Messiah in these last days. And it depends on us. Let me say it more personally. It depends on you. Are you going to follow God the way that he originally intended, by looking into his commandments, by looking into the Shabbat, the Sabbath, and learning to follow him his ways, and looking into the feast days and honor them. They're all about Christ. The first coming is the spring feast days. The Second Coming is the fall feast days. We need to learn these things so my friend, I better calm down, because my blood pressure is riding, it rising in an exciting way. Well, if this message blessed you, I pray that you just hit like right now. Subscribe to our channel. If you're not already, tell us what you what this ministry means to you. In the in the comment section, we read every single one of these and do us a favor. Please pray for us every single day. And lastly, because we take this broadcast around the nation and we want around the nations, I should say around the Gentiles, around the globe, we need your support to do that. Would you go to passionfor truth.com right now and just give a small donation every small bit helps. We need you to partner with us so that we can accomplish what God has put in our hearts to do, let us together, reach out and blow the heavenly shofar so that people from around the world can begin to come back to the root, and that root is Messiah. I'm Jim Staley with Passion For Truth Ministries. I'll see you in the next video. You.