Is It Time To Give Up On Israel? (Romans 11:1-6)

So we're looking at a message series, Romans chapter 11, and the title is, "Is it time to give up on Israel?" I love the title. I love it. I made it up. It was easy to make up. I'll tell you the reason why. Just turn on your media, turn on podcasts, turn on whoever, whatever, and you're going to find that this is a, this is a real question right now because there are people giving up on Israel. There are politicians who were, were pro-Israel throughout the world, and all of a sudden now they're against Israel. They have drank the, uh, media Kool-Aid that's out there today. Friends and family, listen up carefully. I'm not a prophet, but I'm going to make this announcement because I think any idiot can figure this out. COVID was a great test regarding the resolve of Christians and the church, and I believe this is the second one. Israel is the second one. This is a second test, and with each test, it's going to go a little bit deeper theologically. In other words, God is winnowing out those that are His and those that are not His. What is a real church and what is not a church? Because brothers and sisters, there's a lot of churches in the world and in America today that, according to the Bible, no longer qualify to be called a New Testament Church. Okay, so this is big stuff. So let's all stand for the reading of the word, and, uh, I'll begin in verse one. If you'll pick it up in the even-numbered verses. And so, um, I'm just so proud that you've made it here to chapter 11. It's been years. We need to issue degrees once you complete this book. Isn't it weird though, too? We started at the exact same time, uh, on Wednesday nights, where in Hebrews chapter 11. Isn't that weird? That has nothing to do with what we're doing right now, though.

Paul says, "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew." Or do you know, don't know what the scripture says? Pleads with God against Israel, saying, "Lord, they have killed Your prophets, torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." But what does the Divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." I love it. "Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work." Say, say verse six. Fast ten times.

Father God, we have gathered to exalt our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have come. In fact, it is His name that's brought us together today. One name, such a simple name, Jesus has united Your people for the last 2,000 years all around the world. We thank You, God, that we have the luxury and the freedom, right now anyway, to gather in a large gathering like this. All the, all day long, by the way. The first service, second is coming, third service is coming. And, and this has happened all over America. But God, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would literally come down and invade pulpits and possess pastors. And Lord, pour out Your water upon Your people, dear God. We live in a dry and thirsty land, and we need Your Spirit to move in our lives. And Lord, I'm asking, I'm begging of You, that You would just wash away the apathy that resides in our nation. May we wake up to, to the realization because things are more clear now than ever before. So Lord, speak to us, we pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, "Amen." You may be seated.

"Is it time to give up on Israel?" I, I mean, I know you know that, but so I want to read this verbatim because, um, it's important and it's, it's, it's, I, I wrote this down, but I want to give it to you, uh, and I don't want to miss it. So I'm going to do the, just the tedium of reading this. I was going to say without it, look, without it looking like I'm reading notes, but then I thought, no, no, that's ridiculous. I'd rather have you hear this clearly verbatim. And I was going to say this to you, I cannot stress enough that this moment, this, these little hours in which we are living, are of, well, see, I should have done it the way I was thinking, in which we are living, are of great end times significance. That they are of great end times significance. I think this is, without denial, it's here. We are in the 21st century talking about Israel. According to the Bible, Israel's promised salvation and its eventual inheritance of the promised land is of such biblically prophetic certainty that we stand in awe. To all the house of Israel, get ready because the veil of unbelief that has covered your eyes for so long is being lifted, or is to lift. Your salvation is on its way, and that is an absolute. Your salvation is on its way. You say, "But He's already come." Yeah, yeah, I know that. But right now, to the Jewish people of the earth today, God is speaking to them, saying, "Let me in." See, so many of us already know what it's like to have Christ within us by the Holy Spirit. We, being Gentile believers, some here are Jewish believers. That is, that we've, we've come to know that Jesus is Messiah. But listen, the Jewish people, and we're going to learn about this in detail, that, um, they don't know that yet. But we see enough evidence that the veil is beginning to lift. And this is important. Another verbatim statement: Israel is mentioned over 2,431 times in the Bible. Watch this. As you study the end times prophecy of the last days in the Bible, the frequency of Israel being mentioned only increases. Listen, Iran, Persia. It only increases. It doesn't go away. "We're going to annihilate them." No, you're not. By the way, you're going to destroy yourself trying. Whatever your opinion is of Israel, listen, that's your opinion. You should get God's word on Israel. I am not saying they're perfect. I'm not saying that they do everything right. That's irrelevant. Neither do you. Neither do we. Neither does America or any country. But there's only one chosen nation on earth, and we're not in it. It's Israel, according to the Bible. Listen to this. Jeremiah 31. Incredible. Awesome. But this is the covenant. Listen up, my Jewish friends. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. You should read the entire chapter, and you'll find out that after those days is when Christ begins His work with Israel in the last days to establish His kingdom, says the Lord. "I will put My law on their minds and write it on their hearts." That describes my life and your life right now, doesn't it? "And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, yes, when Christ comes back, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day and the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who, uh, disturbs the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. Of those ordinances, uh, if those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever." Wait, wait. Watch. Be, look. So Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever. In other words, if God doesn't complete His promises, the sun is going to set and it's never going to come back up. The moon will go down one day and never be seen again. If God doesn't keep His promise to Israel, all of the ordinances of nature are going to fly apart. How certain are we that God is going to keep His promises to Israel? God says, "Absolutely certain." We're going to see how much so in a moment. One more statement here. Is today's takeaway? What God has planned in the Bible was given by God with the intention that anyone, Jew or Gentile alike, are invited to take hold of His redemption. Remember that. Search out your Bible. Possess your Bible. Lay hold of your Bible. Seize upon your Bible. Fight to use your Bible. Know the word of God. Church, never like now would it benefit you more than to give up some things of this world and take that time and reinvest more in the Bible. I can't stress this enough. We are on the brink of so much going on. But one of those things, you guys, is what Paul the Apostle said to the believers. He said, "Nobody knows the day or the hour of the Lord's coming." But concerning the times and the seasons, you will have no need that I should write unto you. That is a huge statement. In other words, nobody knows the day or the hour. I'm glad, by the way. But Paul said, you're going to sense it. You're going to feel the season. Look, you know what's amazing? We're quite, in quite a surprise right now. Has it not felt like fall in Southern California lately? The end of the world is near. We have felt in SoCal fall. It's been cool. Paul says, you're going to sense the nearness of His coming. And my statement to you today is, we're sensing it. The nearness of His coming. Number one, it's our one and only point, but it's a whopper today. Church, take notes. Write it down. Is this, do we give up on Israel? No. How can we do that? Number one, how? When God has an eternal plan. Please write that down. God's plan is eternal. For clarity's sake, I'm talking about the God of the Bible. I am not talking about the God of the Quran. Two different gods. I'm not talking about the God of the cults. Different gods. There's only one God. He's found in the Bible. It's His book, and He reveals Himself in great detail. He's the one and only. And He says this regarding His word: "I have a plan, and it's eternal." The Bible says that regarding God's plan, it is a plan that was established by God before eternity, before time was ever revealed to us. I like that. I don't like things where we're making it up as we go along, especially when your life is on the line. Can you imagine a pilot turning back or getting on the microphone and tell, and speaking to the, the cabin, everybody, "Hey everybody, my first time out. Don't worry about it. I've flown little airplanes. I flew a kite a few times, uh, but welcome aboard. You can put your seatbelts on or not. It's, it's up to you, but we'll see how this goes. I'm going to be making our journey up as we go." I'm getting up and I'm walking out. No, no, no, no, no. God doesn't operate like that. And my friends, His plan is so absolutely, so absolutely eternal that when we ask this question, "Is it time to give up on Israel?" the number one response that you should have is, "Why are you kidding me? God's got a plan." And that plan is not your plan. It's not CNN's plan. It's not the United Nations' plan. It's not Fox's plan. It's not NBC's plan. It's not anybody's plan. It's not Trump's plan. It's not Kamala's plan. You know, we say Kamala now all the time, you know, but Biden is still the president, isn't he? What are weird things going on in our country? We don't even know who the president is right now. Wow. Yeah, I heard that and I agree. Anyway, wait, not going to repeat it. That's, that's the way it's been, by the way. But look at verse one. We'll get into this. So, uh, God's eternal plans are underway. There is no doubt about it. And Paul is going to prove it to us. Verse one says, "I say then, has God cast away His people?" He says, "Certainly not." And I got to tell you right now, take your pen or your highlighter and you got to highlight the word "I." In fact, in my notes, it says "I" and I say, "Okay, wait. We have to stop right here and address this. How far are we going to get in this Bible study today?" We may not get past the first word. The first word is "I." Number one, who's speaking? Church, Paul is speaking. Why is he speaking? I'm being sarcastic right now. What, Paul? Why Paul? Why are you talking right now when God is done with Israel? Think, think, Paul. What are you doing writing to this church in Rome and these believers in the empire of Rome about Israel? Don't you know, Paul, that God replaced Israel with the church and Israel is no more? It's called replacement theology. Don't you know, Paul, that what you're talking about is, is ancient history, man? Because God washed His hands of Israel. Really? When Paul says, "I," I find it fascinating, and I need you to circle it for this reason. Jesus Christ had already lived, was crucified, died on the cross, rose again from the dead, and ascended back to heaven before Paul said, "I." It is Jesus Christ who met Paul on the Damascus Road as he was heading to Syria to kill Christians and arrest them. When Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, Paul said, "What would You have me to do, Lord?" It's Paul writing to the churches of the New Testament, and Christ had been in heaven now for some decades. I, Paul, am announcing right now that God's great eternal plan that is underway deals with, with God keeping His plan for the Jewish people, and that comes right from the mouth of Paul with this statement of "I." It's almost as though he's standing up with his right hand raised and he's saying, "I am testifying." And it's remarkable. Listen, replacement theology people, you need to realize this is a Jew speaking, and he is saying, "I got saved." When did he get saved? After Christ had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended back to heaven. What's the argument? "Oh, God has done with the Jews because how they treated Christ." Well, then how did Paul get saved? Are you hearing me? How did my friend Amir get saved? How did Marigat get saved? How did so many Jews in this era of our lifetime get saved? How is it that right now, Jews in Israel are getting saved, and drones right now, they're coming to Christ? How, how is that happening if God's done with the Jews? You see, are you listening? You, I thought you would have went, "Wow, that is so true." Yeah, isn't it? Wow, that's amazing. That's so great. And it is true. The word "cast away." Mark it down if you would. It's one word in the Greek language for our two words, "cast away," and it is this, "apoo," and it means this, that to thrust off or to thrust away from, to push away. The word means to reject, to, uh, repudiate, have nothing to do with it. So, has God now declared that He has nothing to do with the Jews? Has God cast them away from Himself? Has He pushed them away? The word means to wash your hands of, get, get rid of. And in our modern day, we could really justifiably use the word "cancel." Has God canceled Israel? That's the question. And, um, there's certain people out there, I'm not going to name them because they'll sue me, seriously, but there are people out there on their podcasts, they're very famous, that have gone nuts and flipped out over the issue of Israel in the last several weeks or months. They have gone, they've flipped. I don't mean flipped their view, they flipped their lid about Israel. We need to realize that the Bible says here in Romans 11:1, Paul, the Jew, is saying, "Yeah, hey, I'm a born-again follower of Christ. I'm a completed Jew. Here's the deal: If God saved me, a Jew, it proves that God's not done with Israel because I, Paul, being a Jew, am part of this entire conversation of Israel. He's not cast us off. He's not pushed us away." And this brings a question to us right now about God's faithfulness. Listen, don't say anything out loud. I just want to dramatically put it this way: Is the God of the Bible faithful? Does the God of the Bible show us His faithfulness? Can you trust the God of the Bible? And my question to you is, sarcastically, how do you know? The greatest place to start is how God dealt with Israel in the past. Why would I do that as a Gentile? Because His faithfulness to complete His plan, as given, that causes me, a Gentile, to know that He's going to complete His plan regarding my life, as given. That's why it's so important. If God fails to keep His plan with Israel, then He'll probably fail at keeping His plan for us. And that ain't going to happen. Hallelujah. Paul was, what we would say, a Messianic Jew. I want to be clear about this. He was a Jew, no doubt about it. But he was a Jew. Listen, he was a Jew who followed the Old Testament and had an encounter with Christ. And lo and behold, Paul was a great part of the bulk of the New Testament writing. Why am I saying this? Because Paul practiced Judaism until he met Jesus Christ. I'm going to get mail on this, but I'm going to get mail because people are not taking the time to listen. They're going to respond emotionally. Judaism, y'all heard about it. This Christianity, I don't even like saying the word Christianity anymore. It's just so loose. You know, I hope this church is a church full of Christ followers because Christianity, Christianity, the even the cults announce themselves as Christian these days. It's like, oh boy. But listen, if you're a follower of the Messiah and you're a Gentile, you are a Christ follower. Listen, if you are Jewish and you are a follower of the Messiah, you, you are a Messiah follower. You are a worshipper of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we are. And what is very powerful about this is that, for example, Islam is a set of religious practices that a Muslim will try to keep to try to earn, earn some form of acceptance from this very capricious and unknowable God, uh, called Allah. It's not the God of the Bible. It's the God of the Quran. Uh, you don't know what He, in Islam, what, what Allah does on Monday. You don't know what He's going to do on Tuesday. Our, our Muslim friends live in a constant state of confusion and frankly, internal terror because they're never good enough. They never know if they're going to be accepted, able enough. There's no salvation for them, uh, like you enjoy. And there's not one word, "love," found in the Quran. Not once. The word "love" found in the Bible. It's not our love for God. The bulk, by far, is God's love for us. Listen, if you're a Muslim and you're searching for God or trying to find peace, you need to come on. You need to come home to where God lives. And God lives in the hearts and the lives of His people through the word of God. And you don't have that enjoyment. Your life is, your life is so. Oh, I had a woman, maybe you're here right now. I had a woman come up to me a couple of Sundays ago, and she says, "Pastor, beautiful accent, Pastor Jack, I'm Persian and I'm from, I was born and raised in Susan." And Chusan is where Nebuchadnezzar was from in the Bible. And she's the one that told me over 10,000 mosques in Iran have closed because people are not attending anymore because so many of the young generation are getting saved. Experts are debating, as I said this recently, between, it once was that the fastest-growing church in the world was in China, but now they think since COVID, it's been Iran. So, wow. Think about that. If there's so many Christians in Iran now, and according to Ezekiel 38, Iran and its invading armies are going to be destroyed, could the rapture take place before that happens? Is it possible that God might extract us and His people in Iran, the born-again believers, up and out of here? I don't know. I hate to wait that long. Be nice if it happened today. But wow, what is going on in the world? You know what? It's almost like there's a giant net that's going through the globe, and it's scooping up God's people, and they're coming to faith. What a remarkable thing. But to be a Christ follower, never, never, friends, underestimate God's ability to be faithful to His covenants. Please mark that down in your notetaking. God will keep, must keep, is bound to keep any and all of His covenants that He's given people. Everybody get pumped, excited about this. And if you're Jewish, you should sit up and take notice. If God gives a covenant from Genesis to Revelation, God's going to keep it. Not one of God's covenants that, that's given to man, is based upon man's performance. You think about that statement for a moment. God never gives a covenant and then it's upon you to finish the covenant. Oh, you may fumble the covenant. Did not Israel break the covenants? Did, did they not fumble the covenants? Of course. Listen, let's be honest. The New Testament is a covenant in the blood of Christ. Do you fumble this? Yes, you do. I'll admit that for you. Yes, you do. We do. Keep that in mind. If you're here for the first time, you should know this. The Bible tells us what God did for us. The Bible is not saying this is what you need to do for me. You need to do this, the other thing, you need to jump those hoops, do that 10 times, skip this thing, and cross that river, and, and, and make this thing happen, and then maybe I'll consider you being my friend. God says, "No way." God says, "My Son did it all on the cross for you. So come home. Come home to me." He's the Redeemer. And that's very, very important. God's devotion to His word is seen throughout all of human history. But most importantly, the star, the star factor in this is the nation of Israel, the Jew. Psalm 89:31. Get ready to write. Psalm 89:31. "If they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments, then I will punish their transgressions with the rod." This is God speaking to the nation of Israel. Do you read in verse 31 and verse 32 that if they break their covenants, He's going to abort them? That He's going to kill them? Nope. "And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. I love that. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have spoken by My holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed, the offspring of David, that's Israel, the Jew, shall endure forever, and His throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever, like the moon, even like the faithfulness or the faithful witness in the sky." This is the Bible. Psalm 89. This is what God is saying about what's happening in our world culture today. Isn't it amazing that you and I are living right now where you are having to consider if you should mention the word Jew or not? If you should have a Jewish flag on your car or in your house? I was in a church yesterday in Fresno, and they had a gigantic Israeli flag on top of that church. And I, I told the guy, I said, "Your building looks like a, the embassy." And I said, "Have you gotten any flak in Fresno regarding that?" He goes, "Not a bit." You know why? Those people up there, they're people of the earth, man. They're farmers and growers. They're smarter than the average bear. They, they know how this works. God throughout the Bible has said it's Israel. And friends, listen, to prove the point of what we're studying today, all of us know right now that in our atmosphere, we need to be very sensitive to the word Israel. Are you a supporter of Israel? I did a prayer, as you well know, in Washington D.C., and man, did I get fried. Listen, people today are protesting with Palestinian flags. I wouldn't take it too seriously, even though it breaks out into some violence. Most of the time, you say, "How dare you say that?" Because the bulk of the crowd doesn't even know what they're doing and why they're there. But the danger is the 10 or 15 people who do know why they're there. But we've got a 2,000-year-old document open on our laps right now, and you and I are watching on the news a passion and a vision to destroy the nation of Israel at all cost. And yet, God in the Bible, written thousand, that song we just read is 3,000 years old. Are you guys awake? 3,000 years old. God was answering today's news. Israel ain't going anywhere. That's God's word. It's the word of God. What about this? Joshua 23:14. "Behold, the day I am going the way of the earth." Joshua's dying. He's saying goodbye to everybody. "And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that here it is, not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you." Oh, memorize that. Write it down for yourself. Because listen, God's dealing with Israel is a prototype for how you can know God will deal with you. God will never kick you out of the family. He may, he, listen, he may punish you. He may call you. He may send you to your room. He might say, "No dessert for you." That's what He does to our kids. In fact, the Bible tells us that if God doesn't discipline you as a child, I can't say the word in the Old, in the Old King James, the Old King James is the real word. If God, God does not punish you for your disobedience, then you are not a legitimate, I'll say the word, you are not a legitimate child of God. And you know that. You know the B word. The Old King James uses the B word. So what does that mean? That means God's kids get away with nothing. Look, if you think you can go out there and sin and get away with it, and you are, you, you don't belong to Him. One of God's kids, listen, you can even backslide. And, and it's, don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's sometimes beautiful when a Christian backslides. I like to watch them. So watch them. Want, watch this. Oh, right. It's like, and then you say, "How you doing?" "I'm doing fine." And his words, his face betray him. Look, if you can sin without any, any conviction, then you're not a child of God. But if you can go out there and sin, and you're, and, and you're just convicted, sick, and you need to come back home and get it right, it's because you belong to God. He won't let you continue like that. When you came to Christ, the next day, God began His work to change you. Every day closer to, closer to Jesus. God's devotion to His word, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. Next passage is this, you guys. It's Joshua 21:45. "21:45. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." That's for your encouragement. My Jewish friends, this is God's word. You need to read it. Here's a, here's a good Jew quoting a good Jew, I should say. Here's a good Jew quoting the great Jew. John 17:17. John is quoting Jesus. "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." Think of that for a moment. God will keep His word. And here we have Jesus in what's known as His high priestly prayer, praying for all believers, Jew and Gentile alike. Remember that. We need to remember that. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which we so often, and I get it, we so often think as, as believers, that's mine. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that's mine. You and I have been grafted into those truths. Did you know that? Say what? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were given to the Jews first. Everything in it promised to the Jew first. But you came in belief. You came trusting. You came searching. And the amazing thing about Paul being the great Christian and the author of what we're looking at is, and I'm going to put you through a little test right now. God, in His incredible sovereignty, uh, who approached who regarding Paul's conversion? Did Paul approach Christ, or did Christ approach Paul? He even got knocked off his donkey when Christ approached him. I don't think Paul was saying, "You know, this, gosh, you know, it's such a great day, and I've been these Christians that we've been killing and crucifying and arresting and dragging back to Rome for trial, they're just so nice. There's really something about them. I think I might be one." No, he's on his donkey, I can see him on his donkey with his rabbi gear on, because listen, he was a, he was a Pharisee, and his entourage, black robes, black donkeys, black glasses, and they're hunting Christians. And Jesus interrupts Paul's life. Boom. And he becomes a, not only a believer, but the most famous Christian that's ever lived. The power of God keeping His promises. In some ways, Paul is like a little picture of Israel. Should they believe? You know, God will not make Israel believe, just like He will not make you believe. A Jew is saved the same way a Gentile is saved. There's no other form of salvation. We must all be born again. You must understand that your sins, my sins, my sins alone, listen, Adam and Eve's sins alone put Christ on the cross. Did you know that? If Adam and Eve were the only humans ever made by God, Christ would have come and died on the cross for their sins to redeem them. This is a hard thing to believe, but it is true biblical theology. God saves individually. He's a personal God. He doesn't, he doesn't save like, uh, Costco bulk or, or a Groupon, you know that? And if you were in a theological course, it is 100% theological accurate to the nature of God and to the accuracy and the veracity of the Bible to write down, if the professor says, "How many people would have had to have sinned to warrant Christ's coming to the cross?" You got it. And you know that's true. One. That's why He says, "Whosoever will believe on Me and trust Me." Genesis chapter 13:14. "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift up your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.'" How long? "I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered." Guess what? You're not going to number the descendants of Abraham. Too great. And then you think about this. Let's, let's take a peek at this map real quick. The Bible tells us that you see the Euphrates River, you see Syria, you see Iraq. I, my laser pointer broke. I'm sorry. I had it. It broke. But do you see Israel way down there? Do you see where it says Africa? Okay. Do you see that body of water to the left, the Red Sea? See that? The Euphrates River flows from that body of water next, that's next to the A in Africa, down to the Mediterranean. Do you see that? The Bible says that God promised Abraham from the Nile all the way through to the Euphrates River, and up north to parts of a region of Turkey, all the way down through Lebanon, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia. God says, "Abra, when God says, 'I want you to do a 360.'" Abraham, when you read the scriptures, it, it tells you in detail what those boundaries are, and that is the size of it. Don't tell the UN about the size of Israel that's coming, because they'll have a heart attack. But when Christ returns, He's going to establish His kingdom, and that's going to be the parameters of His kingdom. Wow. When He sits on His throne, and it says it's going to be in Zion, in Jerusalem. And God says, "I've promised it, Abraham, to you and to your descendants." Now, when we say descendants, technically, it's the believing house of Israel. Remarkable and awesome and thrilling. Genesis 15. You guys, okay? Genesis 15:5 starts out by saying, "Then he brought him outside and said, 'This is Abraham.'" God takes Abraham outside, and He says, "Now look toward heaven, count the stars if you were able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Verse eight. "And he said, 'Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?'" So God said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." And then he brought all these to God, or to him, and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other. But he did not cut the birds in two. And then when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. "Get out of here, shoe, right now." When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham. This is not normal. And behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. And then He said to Abram, "No certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own or theirs." He's talking about Egypt. Eventually, they'll go into captivity in Egypt and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. "And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Now, as for you, this is now, as for you, Abram, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age." Verse 16. "But in the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." I'm going to keep reading, but friends, you can be an absolute atheist and do some serious history and find out that that statement was one, 100% fulfilled. And you can even go visit a museum and see the evidence of that. And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven. So this is a supernatural manifestation and a burning torch that passed between the pieces. On the same day, the Lord made the covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land." Oh, this is so good. Abraham's sleeping. He's out like a light. There's, there's the altar, there's the sacrifice, and God shows up. Abraham is out like a light, and God is basically speaking to Himself, but issuing a blessing upon Abraham. Love it. And so, "I have given this land, and from the river of Egypt, Nile, to the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenites, the, uh, Cadonites, the Hittites, Perizzites, the Rephaim, that's a scary group. Rephaim is the giants, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, Jebusites, the, the whole clan." He, he said, "I'm, I'm, I'm going to go before you. All the land that's occupied by these of the flesh, it's going to be yours." It's been promised to you. And that happened, friends. Listen, atheists, listen, unbelievers, listen, skeptics, listen. This is an ancient prophecy spoken to Abram. It's exactly what has happened. And it's, listen, the total fulfillment is on its way. When Christ returns in the great second coming, He will set that up. Listen to this. Romans 11:2. Verse 25 says, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery." So this is Paul speaking to the Romans. This is later on in our study, uh, in a few weeks. "Lest you should be wise in your own opinion." Hey, Gentile, don't be puffed up, man. This needs to be said today. So many Christian leaders right now are slamming Israel. Did you know that there, there is an Evangelical movement to support Kamala Harris because they said Trump will be the one who lets Israel be Israel? This is going on right now. This is a big deal. This is a big deal. I've been asked, listen, I've been asked to go on radio stations and media programs to discuss this, but I've said no because I, I don't think it's a fight that I need to fight in a public square like that because if somebody quotes, if some, they'll edit something. This is too big of a deal. I, I wouldn't even get past the word "evangelicals" for Kamala because they believe evangelicals that Israel is no more. You know, can't meet with such a, a meeting because I get, I can't get past the word "evangelical" in their dictionary. Forget about Israel. You're not evangelical. You're a Christ follower. Evangelical is to announce, I believe the Bible word for word. And if you deny the existence of Israel, you're denying the promises of God, and you're calling God a liar. But there are more and more church leaders signing up for this movement to make sure that Trump doesn't get elected. So, then, look, people, I'm not here promoting Trump, but I'll tell you what, there are those that are on his team, and there's still a remnant of Republicans who believe Israel is actually God's people. I can't find any of them in the Democrat Party. I can't find them. Big statement. Big words. Go look it up. See if it's not true. "For I do not want you, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." See, what does that verse mean? Okay, first of all, the Bible tells us in, uh, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that Satan has blinded the eyes of those who do not believe. There's a certain people group that Satan has not blinded their eyes. God did. Have you ever thought about this before? Never in the Bible does it say that Satan has blinded the eyes of the Jews who do not believe. The Bible says God has blinded them. Why would He do that? You'd say, "Because of His foreknowledge." He knows what's, and He's going to talk about that soon if I hurry up. Notice this. The gospel came to Israel. They were to preach it to the ends of the earth. The Judaism of the day, the professional religionist, would have nothing to do with it. And so, as a nation, the gospel goes to the Gentile world. That doesn't mean Jews didn't get saved. In fact, the church was made up predominantly of Jews. The nation blew Christ off in its leadership, and it suffered. But God says it's going to suffer until, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. You know what that word means? God has a number. This is awesome. God knows how many Gentiles are going to be in the church, in the church, the bride of Christ. There, He knows. He knows their names, and He knows what number you are. Can I wonder how close we are? Can you imagine? Can you imagine if we're like 200 people away in the whole world? It's like, hurry up. Listen, if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, you need to accept Him today. Listen, wait, wait, get, wait. Accept Him today. Right? That's the, that's the whole thrust. God is saying, "I'm working with the Gentiles." But that's going to expire. Because when, when that moment's done, my church is numbered. I got her. She's in heaven with me now. She's been raptured up into My presence. Then I'm going to pour out My Spirit upon the house of Israel. Then I'm going to go back to work with Israel. It's called a seven-year tribulation period, folks. It's awesome, horrible, terrible, yes. Out of it comes the remnant believing of Israel, and God establishes Israel as a believing nation under Christ's rule. It's going to be epic. It's going to be awesome. And then also this. Oh man, I didn't realize. Oh, I'm having too much fun here. Um, listen, listen to this. Romans chapter 9. We studied this a little while back, but listen to this warning. It's a serious warning to us at the expense of the Jews. Romans chapter 9:31. "But Israel, this is, listen, you're going to get the description of Judaism in a moment. Remember, God didn't invent Judaism. Man invented it. Are you with me? Think about that. That's a hard thing if you've never heard that before. That's like, what? Well, here it is. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, God's law, Ten Commandments, has not attained to the law of righteousness." Listen, I don't care if we go any further at this critical stage. Verse 31. Israel, they went about to pursue the law that God had given to obtain righteousness, but they never attained it. Why did they never attain? The Bible says righteousness because you can't show me in the Ten Commandments that they'll save you. Show me a man in the Ten Commandments. You don't have it. The Ten Commandments cannot save. But you know what happened? Professional religionists started to say to people, listen carefully, this may strike home to someone. They withheld the word from the people. They got all religious-looking, which is a disgusting thought. What does that look like? Then they said, "We'll tell you all about God. We'll instruct you in the things of God. We'll tell you what's needed." Didn't Eli, was it Eli's sons that prostituted the office of the ministry, and they wound up sleeping with the women who came to worship God, and they wound up stealing all of the prime or the best meat from the people for themselves, and they even robbed from God? What did they do? They did religion. Religion is man's concoction, and the goal is to establish righteousness for the adherents, but they never make it. They're never good enough. You can't, can't be good enough. That's why Jesus came to die in your place on the cross, and my place. Here's why the gospel came to you. Verse 31. "They pursued their own righteousness. They tried to make the law work for them, but they didn't obtain to it." Verse 32. "Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at the stumbling stone." As it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him." Notice the rock of offense, the stumbling stone, is a person. "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." Listen to this. You see verse 33? That is absolutely unacceptable to the cults. It's absolutely unacceptable to the legalist, and it's absolutely unacceptable to those who practice Judaism. Because listen, this puts all the righteousness on God, and it puts all the gifting of that righteousness from God to you. What do I have to do for it? Accept Him. Bring your sins to Him. He'll take away your sins and give you His righteousness. No, but what else do I do? Sorry, friend. There's nothing else to, to tell you. Well, that's not enough. I want to be involved in this. I got to do something. Then you might as well just be moving on because there's nothing else left for you. Friends, please listen. In our Western world, under the guise of religion, there are very subtle hooks, weights that are assigned or laid upon you. Be aware of them. You, you might say, "I go to a great church, but we have to tithe a certain percent, and we have to give them our, our bank account number, actually, and they automatically take it out." You think I'm making this up? Why are you doing that? Well, they, it's a, it's a rule. Why is it a rule? Who made that one up? Oh, and when they hook it to your bank account and automatically deduct it without you making it an act of worship, is it really worship? I know we live in a technologically advanced age. I get it. I know that most of you give online or however you do that. I still write a check because I'm from the dinosaurs ruled the earth when I was born. But, but honestly, in this church, most giving is done electronically, and the danger is, is that if, if you don't make it a worshipful act, why would that matter? Because God doesn't need your money. He, frankly, He doesn't even need you. He doesn't need me. He wants you. He wants me. Look, God can cause money to, to fall out of the sky or to come up out of an oil well or to, I don't know what. He, He doesn't need that. But isn't it amazing? He wants your hearts. Yes. There's not much of a difference. Oh, I should probably get ready to leave the church for my own personal safety at this. Maybe they should start the car. And if you're in a legalistic relationship with God to keep the rules, and you're pretty happy about how good you keep those rules, even the ones that you don't keep, you just kind of fudge that over because, well, you know. How is that any different than picking up a prostitute and paying her $1,000 to tell you that she loves you? How is that any different? Does that shock you? It shouldn't. Because that's exactly how God sees it. Who would do that? Who would pick up a stranger and say, "Oh, by the way, as we are being here, it's a, it's a lie from the beginning. Here, here's $50. Uh, as we're being intimate together, is that intimacy? Come on. It's not. You're being fooled. You're lying to yourself, man. Oh, and by the way, can you tell me you love me? Uh, sure, for $50. I'll tell you, sure." If in that case, it's the prostitute that's got more logic than the person that's hired her. She's getting paid for what she knows. A joke. But the cultists are the religionists in Jesus's day and in Paul's day. Same applies. Instead of them saying, "We're going to trust God." Imagine today on Christian television. "Thank you for watching, friends. Hope you enjoyed this broadcast. And if you have, you know, right now, God is speaking to you to send us $1,000. For some of you, God is speaking to you to send $500. For some of you, $100. And for the rest of you, we don't need to hear anything from you at all. But if you send your money to this program, it will keep it on the air." And you probably do what I do. I, I yell at my TV. Don't send a dime. Let it rot. Let it dry up. Let it fall apart. There's no heart in that. Listen, we are to be people of faith. And if our God cannot, not provide for what He wants to do, think about how ridiculous this is. If God says to you, "Go out there and make disciples," and you go, "I'll obey You, Lord." And then He says to you, "And good luck. You need a new God." But if He says to you, "Study the past and My dealings with Israel. Not one word that I gave them failed. I was faithful all along, even to the point of disciplining them when they had done wrong, just as I told them. And because they didn't want Me as a nation, I pressed pause, and the gospel went to the ends of the earth." That time's almost up, church. 2,000 years. And there's indicators all around the globe that God is about ready to get back to work with Israel. That's why she's on the front page of the news. That's why she's the number one topic among governments. That's why the Jew is being attacked around the world. Satan is loose. He's got a very long chain. All of a sudden, people will say, "You know, he's bound." He's bound in hell. If he's bound in hell, he's got a very long chain. All this stuff that's going on is announcing to me that the Lord is near, and that you should put your faith and trust in Him.

Father God, we pray right now in Jesus' name that, Lord, if we have any friends right now that are watching in Iraq, and Iran, Israel, Turkey, Minnesota, Florida, Canada, Peru, dear God in heaven, You're the Lord of the nations. And Father, all nations at this very hour are becoming keenly aware that they're bankrupt, morally, financially, and there's a drought in the world of faith. And yet, You preserve and You have Your people. And God, we thank You today that for most of us here in this gathering, are mostly Gentile. Thank You for allowing us into the family. Thank You for grafting us in. But dear God in heaven, I pray that this house of Yours, this house of prayer, this house of worship, would be in a moment, as a great pump, when these doors do open up. May we be pumped out of these doors to be used by You to bring hope, salvation, joy, peace, eternal life to those that we come in contact with, because that's a divine appointment. But most importantly, Lord, give us hearts to reach out to the Jewish community and to tell them Your Messiah lives. Your Messiah, the one in the Old Testament, the one who died on the cross and rose again from the grave, He lives, and you can live forevermore with Him. Lord, we pray this. We thank You for all this. We glorify You, God. Now in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, "Amen." God bless you. Go tell the world. People.