Transcription
Of course we’ve been looking at this series under the shadow of the Almighty, and, uh, we are in, officially, in verses 24 to 36 today. But we’re going to start at verse 19. You guys ready to read nice and loud? Okay, I’m going to need you guys to read loud, because you, you, you have to make up for how passive you were doing worship. I saw you. We were watching. No, a lot of you up front, you were a lot of the people on the back. Some of you guys had your hands up, some of you guys were clapping, some of you guys were like this. So we can see everything. And then we began to point out that there’s, that’s the Pentecostal visitors, there’s, there’s the Baptist over there, the Lutherans, they’re looking around saying, “What have I gotten myself into here?” But, uh, this is a non-denominational church, so you can tell, uh, when worship, uh, is happening, and you can also tell when we read. So come on first service, I’ll do verse 19, you pick it up in the evening. And that is this: “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I, the Gentile, might be grafted in.’” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, those are the Jews who should have believed and didn’t believe, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, that is the Jewish people, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
All of truth. For I do not desire, Brethren, that you should be ignorant or uninformed of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until—I love that word—until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Verse 27: “For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, the Gentile, they, that is the Jew, also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. 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! 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. Amen. Amen.
You may be seated, everybody. Amen.
For sure, “Under the Shadow of the Almighty” has been our theme, and it’s been a powerful one for sure. We’ve given it that title from the very outset of this chapter. Psalm 91:4 reminds us that He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. The presence of God in your life. God has promised to protect you. And all of these promises, remember, we’ve been grafted into these promises as Gentiles, but they were originally given to the Jewish people. Remember that. What I’m saying right now—apparently the International Criminal Court would say no to this. God doesn’t care. He can’t even hear them. Next verse is Psalm 63:7 and 8: “Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.” This is the promise given to the believer. Are you a believer this morning in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? You say, “Yeah, I think so. I’m a Gentile.” No, no. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave? That is the covenant that God would make with His people, and to all those who would trust in Him. So, does His shadow protect you? Do you dwell under the shadow of the Almighty? And of course we remember that Jesus—and I’ll paraphrase it, but you’ll see the reference—Jesus remarkably announces, as He rode on the back of that little donkey into Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” All of it is speaking about God’s promises and God’s blessing.
As we jump into this now, church, we are in now argument final argument number six. If you have been here, then you add this number six to the argument. There were five previous ones, but number six is this: we touched on it last time, and it is: “Under the shadow of the Almighty” is where God desires you and I to be growing as believers. We talked about the doctrine of abiding in verses, uh, 19 we started there, and that we are to be humble about growing in God’s Word. God’s Word in Romans chapter 11 ought to keep us and make us a humble people. By the way, I want to thank all of you—and I think I’ll say it formally at the end—but for those of you who started with us, uh, chapters, uh, 9, 10, and 11 of Romans, the entire book, 9, 10, and 11 is this special treatise on Israel, and, um, you started this with us, uh, chapter 9 in March of this year. March. If I finish today, you will have gone through three chapters since March. And, um, slow down, will you? But the Scripture says, look at verse 2: “For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these”—he is speaking of the Jewish people, who are natural branches. In other words, salvation came to them first. God sent Moses to them. God gave them Abraham. In fact, technically, Abraham was the first one, right? Remember that. All of these, the book, the promises—listen, we’re sitting through it right now today with these headlines. The age? Pick an age, any age, every age. God has been working since Genesis 1:1 in the establishment of His world and of His kingdom, of His redemption, all the way through to the Book of Revelation. God’s Word will never be thwarted; it will never be undone. “How much more,” it says, “will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?”
Church family, this is so very important. Remember this: that when the gospel went out 2,000 years ago, it went out from Jerusalem being preached. Remember this: on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and empowered the believers, and on that day—you can read the book of Acts, the first three or four chapters of that—the Holy Spirit came down upon the handful of believers, and the church was born. The church, the real church, the New Testament church. And, uh, there’s churches all over the world today, but not all of them are New Testament churches. You can only be a New Testament church if you’re obeying New Testament doctrine. And today there’s churches that obey feelings; they obey, um, what’s ever trending. And God doesn’t do that. God gives you the truth. And Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and they’ll come to Me.” God doesn’t waver; He’s not vacillating left or right. God stands there. He’s the pure truth. He gives the gospel that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Who, what does “all” mean, church? All. Is that Jew? Yes. Is it Gentile? It’s all. And the remedy for all having sinned is that “For God so loved the world”—that would be the all—“that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever”—would be the all—“would not perish but have everlasting life.” Faith and trust in Him. That’s why the Bible tells us that regarding Jew and Gentile, God has washed away the division between the two. The Jew—listen, the Jew and the Gentile comes to salvation the exact same way. In Romans chapter 9, we talked about Israel’s past; in Romans chapter 10, Israel’s present. But the part that throws me to no end is that we are at the end, as it were, of Romans chapter 10, in the beginning of Romans 11, which we are, Lord willing, will finish today. We’re looking into the future. We’re peering into the future. As it started out in the beginning, the church was Jewish, and then Gentiles were converted, and then Gentiles took off with it, and it’s always had—that is the church—a DNA of Jewish blood in it. I love that. There are people here today that have Jewish blood in them, but they believe that Jesus is Messiah. Isn’t that awesome? Yes, amen. And that’s always been the case. But guess what? You’re about to see an end to that. Why? Oh, it’s going to take a big uptick. There’s going to be a big spike coming. God is going to be pouring out His Spirit upon His people, and I think He’s already started. I think all of these things that you’re watching in the news should warn you and alert you to the fact that God is about ready to move. When you watch NBC or CNN or BBC say what they say, just know this about Israel: God is about to move. That should excite you. Because if He’s going to move with Israel, it’s pretty clear from the Scripture we should, someday, take big time out and give the big arguments from Scripture as to why the church must be in heaven when God pours out His Spirit upon the nation of Israel. It’s a must. It’s found in the Old and New Testament, and we’ll have to look at that. You need to know that. Don’t ever mix the two. The nation of Israel is the nation of Israel, and God—you read it—God is going to save the nation of Israel. The Jews who believe—not all of them will believe, but those who are Jews who believe shall be saved, saved. And the church is predominantly, predominantly I say Gentiles in nature, not exclusively, but Gentile in nature. One will be caught up during the tribulation period; the other one will be developed during the tribulation period, and God will reestablish His nation on earth in His second coming. It’s absolutely amazing and awesome.
Mark this down if you would: John chapter 10:42 – John 10:42 – “And many of the Jews believed in Him,” that is Christ. That’s in your New Testament. John 11:45 – this is, uh, regarding Lazarus being raised from the dead – it says, “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary” – that’s Martha and Mary, their brother Lazarus – “and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.” Who is it that believed in Him? The Jews. Church, if it happened back then, and God promised it’s going to happen again, it’s going to happen again. And then John 12:9-11: “Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there, and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus” – that would be pretty cool, right? To see a guy that’s come back from the dead? What does he look like? What does he smell like? – “whom He had raised from the dead.” But here’s the problem. Look at it this way. Follow these words. I’m going to change it a little bit, but the chief priests, or those who led the nation – are you hearing me? Listen up, everybody. There are many Jews who believed in Jesus. Jews as individuals. The nation was being led by bad leadership. Sound familiar? Led by bad leadership. It’s those who plotted against Jesus. Nationally, the nation rejected Christ 2,000 years ago. But the chief priests, the custodians of the nation, plotted – I’m sorry, this is hilarious. Are you kidding me? The chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death. God, Jesus just raised him from the dead. “Where’s the guy? We’re going to kill that guy. Who is he? He’s right over there. Is that the guy that died and now he’s back to life? That’s the guy. Let’s kill him.” When are you going to learn this lesson? I’m convinced if they would have killed him, Jesus would have had him pop right back up again. [Applause] This is how blind prejudice can be. They were so angry at Jesus, they hated Him so much because He was infringing upon their control, that they were willing to kill Lazarus after Jesus had raised him from the dead. That is insane. And it says in verse 11, John 12, “Because on account of him, many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.” That’s awesome. See, listen, friends, listen. To believe in Jesus as Messiah is not a Gentile thing, and it’s not a Western world idea. We westerners, we have gravitated to what God has given from that little town of Bethlehem and all of the prophets of old. Christianity is not a western religion. Isn’t it amazing that our Messiah—I love it—our Messiah is not some blond-haired, surfer-looking guy on that, you know, all the Western photos—not photos, all the Western portrayals and paintings of Jesus looks like He just came out of 15th Street off the surfboard. Jesus was dark-skinned, probably had—listen, probably had blue or green eyes. A lot of Jews have blue or green eyes with olive complexion. Usually when we take trips to Israel, we always hear this. Every trip we hear people will say on our tour, “What’s the deal? Excuse me. What deal? Is everything okay? No, I guess everything’s fine. How is it that are all these people, uh, so beautiful? All the single women want to come home with a Jewish man, and vice versa. They’re just so beautiful. Olive complexion, usually curly dark hair, sometimes lighter colored, doesn’t matter, usually wavy, and then piercing green or blue eyes.” Did you know that Jesus put Jewish skin on? You know, there’s a reason for that, if you think of it. And you think about all of history—listen, and today prophetically—and the issue is Israel, isn’t it? The issue is the Jew. Anti-Semitism. Nations aligning themselves to destroy Israel and to arrest their prime minister, while Kim Jong-un goes free, while Xi Jinping of China—it doesn’t matter if he kills a million Muslims, it’s okay, it’s China, we need to buy their junk, we’re not going to sanction them, but we’ll sanction Israel. Isn’t that interesting? Why aren’t they going after the mayhem and the murdering in Venezuela and their leadership? You know why? Everybody, the answer is Israel. End time events, last days. You’re living it now. This is not a coincidence, and you’re living it. I’m thrilled about that. I’m thrilled to be living at a time like this.
We also remember this: verses 25 to 27 is that we need to be gracious about God’s goodness to graft us in to the salvation of Almighty God. He says in verse 25, “For I do not desire, Brethren”—Gentile believers, church—“that you should be uninformed.” The word “ignorant” there—He’s not insulting you. The word “ignorant” means—it is, by the way, we get the word “ignoramus”, uh, but it’s meant also to be uninformed. To be unin—I don’t want you to be uninformed. Listen what He says: “of this mystery.” Now church, I know I might bore you with this, but you ought to circle those words: “this mystery.” This “mysterion” in Greek means—this I don’t want you to be uninformed—in other words, allow me to elaborate this way: I’m Paul, you’re the Romans. I know you guys don’t have much of a Jewish background in our history and in our ways. I get that. You’re Gentiles, you’re in Rome, you’re in Italy. Here’s the deal: what you do need to know is from Old Testament prophets, they spoke of what we say in Greek as the “mysterion.” It is not a mystery to be solved. It is not a mystery that has been, uh, unearthed and never expected to pop up or to be there. It is that which God engineered—listen, it’s what God engineered from the beginning that at the right time would surface. It’s like archaeology. The object is in the ground. It is there. There’s no mystery; you just can’t see it. Are you hearing me? It’s in the ground until you put in a shovel. Listen, by putting in the shovel and bringing it up, does it make the artifact real? No, it makes it revealed. God has always said in the Scripture two key things: that “Israel is My people; they are My people, and they will be the light of salvation to the Gentiles.” That was true 2,000 years ago, and then it waned. God’s plan for Israel was for it to continue going, but the nation rejected their great mission.
Think about it. Roll back the hand of time 2,000 years ago. God’s job for Israel as a nation—can you imagine? A nation was to export the gospel to the ends of the earth. Listen, this is not in my notes, but you can go research this on your own. Did you know that our founding fathers understood that perfectly well? And so it was the genesis, it was the catalyst behind them crafting out, cutting out in our national budget the manufacturing of Bibles in the United States government to export it to other nations of the world. That was in the United States’ annual budget of this country until some time ago when we abolished it. Why did they do that? Why did our founding fathers and why did our forefathers want to get the Bible out to the ends of the earth? Because they—listen, go read them—they understood that was Israel’s job to get the word out. We are America; we’re not Israel, but we’re going to copy what was given to them. We’ll send the Bible out. And we did it. I got to hold in my hand a Bible that was given to a World War II soldier on D-Day heading into battle, and on the—listen—on the inside of it was a note. All the soldiers were given a note by Patton, General Patton. On one side it was a great statement of courage, and on the back side—can you believe Patton? Because you know you and I know Patton as being the cussing general, right? On the backside, Patton had given them the gospel right there. He wanted them to know the gospel. Why do we not know this in American history? Our nation saw what God gave Israel, and our nation did its best to reproduce that in an era long time ago. May we get back to God’s promises. You know, God can change any nation in a moment if that nation decides to come back to God. No government’s perfect; you understand that. They’re all messed up. King David: great guy, he’s a murderer. King David: great guy, he’s sleeping with his neighbor’s wife. King David: great guy, messed up family. Trump: crazy hair, but he’s currently just broke a record Friday: more women in a cabinet than any other previous presidency in the history of America. And you say, “Well, that’s not good; that’s DEI, that’s DEI.” Oh, DEI is dead. Um, Trump, if you look at the women that he just put in power—first of all, I don’t want to look at the women he just put in power because they’re so scary powerful. I’m afraid Pam Bondi might find out something about me that I don’t even know about me. Are you going to go up to a U.S. Air Force officer by the name of Tulsi Gabbard and give her the once-over? You know what? She’ll just send a little cruise missile right down your nose. By the way, both of those women, uh, were Democrats not too long ago. This is a political speech? No, it’s about Israel. It’s national commissioning by God, and it failed to commit itself in its leadership. But the Jewish people, many of them in every generation, have done the gospel.
Isaiah 43:21 says: “This people”—it’s the Jewish nation—“I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.” That was the purpose of Israel. If anybody ever asked you what was the purpose of Israel, that’s it right there: Isaiah 43:21. Now let me ask you: don’t you want to be like that in the United States? Don’t you want to be like that? Listen, if you’re Cuba, if you’re smart, don’t you want to be like that? If you’re smart, Trudeau north of us in Canada—this is what being smart is: adopt the policies of God and institute the principles of the Almighty, and watch what He does with your nation. Instead of attacking the nation that was attacked. You know why Israel’s in trouble in the world court today? Because she’s defending herself from annihilation. Anybody siding with those nations to destroy Israel are siding to abolish the Jewish state and people. They are the epitome of anti-Semitism, and they’re playing ball in the wrong camp. God has always kept a remnant. Why a remnant? Because Satan has always sought to destroy God’s chosen people. If your attitude today is, “Well, I can live without it; it doesn’t matter to you,” better read your Bible carefully. It’s no laughing matter, and it’s not—again, it’s not even a political matter. It’s remarkable.
This is very, very powerful, church. “For I do not desire, Brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery that’s been unearthed. It’s there to see; it’s always been, but now you can see it. Lest you should be wise in your own opinion.” Don’t be cocky, church. Don’t be uppity. Don’t think that you’ve replaced Israel. That’s a fool’s errand. And God even explains it: “that blindness in part”—listen to the beauty of this. “Blindness in part.” Did He say blindness in totality? “The Jews are done; it’s over”? No. He said, “in part has happened to Israel.” Is the notice He didn’t say “a Jew,” did He? He said “to Israel.” “Until”—that’s another time stamp or statement. “In part” is a time statement. “Until” is a time statement. “Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” That’s how we know that we’re living in just such an amazing age. The church has had its glory days, everybody. The church is waning. The church is becoming very, very small and insignificant and seemingly, uh, you know, not effective. The church is more woke and more weird now in the world than anything else. There’s pastors and priests and there’s pontiffs and evangelists, and there are people in robes and people in anything; they have a place of religious power and position, and they undermine the authority of the Scripture. They do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. They’ll tell you, “Well, those are types and similitudes; those are, uh, symbols that you don’t need to pay attention to. Let me tell you what it really means.” Church, this is absolutely happening everywhere, and I want to believe that’s why you’re at this church: to avoid all that stuff. If you’re in a place like that, you need to get up out of there and dust off the dust of your shoes and run, run to truth. Because these are very critical times. But we need to be gracious about it. We should be saying, “God, thank You. Thank You for allowing me to come into the family of God.” We need to be humbled.
I want to throw up a little checklist that we have right here. Um, yet at this very hour, Israel’s national sins are upon her. That’s a fact. Israel’s national sins right now—listen, are you guys listening? Yes. If a Jew repents and accepts Christ right now, will that Jew be forgiven? Absolutely, just like you. But as a nation, that’s a different thing. America, America still needs to turn from its national sins. God’s not happy with America. We have hope because people got involved and good things happen—that’s called righteousness, by the way. But let’s keep praying that God might move in America. Because look, our borders are going to get sealed up. They’re already, it’s already starting to happen, thank God. And, uh, bad people are getting arrested, dangerous, horrible criminals are getting arrested already. But listen, what about us as a church in America? The church in America, those great things have nothing to do with the health of the church. The church has got to get back to the Word. So Israel and the Jews have no temple right now. Listen up: they’ve got no temple right now. Remember, Romans chapter 11. You’re living today right now at this moment. Israel and the Jews have no temple. That’s important because the Bible says in the future they will have a temple. Number two: they have no sacrifice. My Jewish friends, listen: apart from Jesus, Israel, listen, apart from Jesus, what sacrifice of blood do you have to offer up every year for your sins? If you’re Jewish today, listen up, my friends, I love you, you know we love you, but what are you doing about your sins? The Bible, Moses says you got to have blood. And I know what you say; you tell me, “But I do good works, I do good works.” Unacceptable to God. Number three: what or who does Israel have as an atonement? Technically nobody right now. I mean they do and they don’t, right? But look, you could be a Gentile here today, and I want to ask you the same: who is your atonement? There’s only one answer. Number four: they have no revelation because they refuse to seek Him. How is it that today the people of the book—that we are commanded to love and to reach them with the gospel, their gospel—how is it that they fail to seek Him? Because they will not pick up the Word and read it for themselves. And this is true for all, but so much more so for the Jewish people. They were the custodians of the book; they brought us, as it were, history.
Now, four of these, uh, insights: I would say everything that a physical temple represented—Yeshua, Jesus, said, “I am He.” Jesus said, “Tear down this temple, and in three days I’ll raise it up.” Is that a radical statement? He’s the “I AM.” By the way, the word “I AM,” Jesus said it seven times. That’s a very serious number to the Jewish mind. He said it seven times, and every time He said it, it’s the name of the Eternal God. For those of you who say—or people who tell you Jesus never claimed to be God—they’re lying; they don’t know what they’re talking about. Number two: everything that a physical sacrifice represented—Yeshua said, “I am He. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself, all mankind to Me. I’m the epicenter of forgiveness,” Jesus announced. Number three: everything that a physical atonement represents—Yeshua, Jesus, said, “I am He.” Everything that a physical revelation represented—Jesus said, “I am He.” Proof positive? Book of Revelation. But let’s mark these down. Write small, right, fast. Are you ready? Are you guys okay? I know that in a church service, this is Sunday mornings, it’s more like a college classroom, but I hope—I you know, well, I’m very insecure right now. I have to tell you, very insecure. No, no, nope. You know what I did while I was sick? I was sick this last week, and I, you know what I did? I binge-watched sermons by Erwin Lutzer. I told Lisa, “I quit.” The guy walks up to the podium, and he’s anointed; he never looks down; he just gives this incredible sermon. Go to—I don’t even know what his website is—just Google, go to YouTube, Erwin Lutzer, and just listen. And so I’ll be resigning today. Oh my gosh, so rich. But this, uh, I’ll cut myself some slack; this is more of a class. It’s a class.
Isaiah 59:20—we’re going to run through these, but I hope you see the correlation: “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” that’s Israel, says the Lord. Next verse: John 12:32: “And I, if I am lifted up”—Jesus signified crucifixion—“if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples” (the word can be put “ethnos” or “nations”) “to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die. Jesus announced in advance, “Oh, by the way, I’m going to be crucified.” Why did He say that? It hadn’t been determined yet. Because of Psalm 22: 1,000 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Psalm 22 said He would be pierced in His hands and His feet. That is called awesome. Next verse: John 10:14: “I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep, and I am known by My own. Do you know Him? As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep”—you are verse 16, by the way—“and other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.” I’ll leave that on the screen. I don’t want to push this too far, ’cause you don’t want to push a thought a possibility too far; you just put it out and you let it lie. Verse 16, you want to study that and ask yourself, “Who is He talking about?” Well, first of all, who was He talking to? Number one, He was talking to His disciples. Were they Gentiles or were they Jews? Jews, Jews. When He tells them, “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold,” I believe He’s referring to you and me, the Gentile sheep. I don’t know the difference, but He does. We’re His sheep. Therefore verse 17: “My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.” That’s a prophecy: “I’m going to raise Myself up.” Can you imagine hearing this for the first time in your life? You’re watching this guy that—there’s all kinds of controversy surrounding His life; there’s all kinds of news; there’s all kinds of stuff going on—and then He says, “This is My life; this is who I am. And, uh, by the way, I’m going to bring My life back when the time is right.” And then they’re going to be thinking, “What’s He talking about?” And I’m sure a lot of it was puzzling until it all happened. Can you imagine five minutes after the resurrection, you got to be thinking, “Oh my gosh, He said that stuff!” That’s why others said, uh, “They hit him someplace; somebody stole the body.” It just could not be true, because if He was really risen from the dead, then everything He said was true. “You destroy this temple, three days it’ll be back.” Verse 18: “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.” Absolutely awesome. What power!
Next verse: Jeremiah 29:13: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations, from all the places where I have driven you,” says the Lord, “and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.” There’s no answer but Israel. Hosea chapter 6, verse 1: “Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.” The third day from Hosea. What about Zechariah 12, verse 10? Zechariah 12:10 says: “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” Wow, from the prophet Zechariah. Isaiah 66:8: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord. Verse 15: “For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword the Lord will judge all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many.” Wow. Revelation 19:1—notice the correlation. If you’re writing all of these down, study them later. For those of us who are old enough, remember the overhead projector, and you’d put the vellum on one on top of the other? I don’t know what that is in the computer world; I don’t use—I don’t know that stuff—but one over one, legend over the other, until you have this full Technicolor picture. “Now I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns.” That’s total authority. “He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.” Isn’t that interesting? We’re going to find out what that name is. He’s got a name that’s never been known to man before. “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” God. “And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.” Yikes. “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them”—rule who, rule what?—“the nations with a rod of iron.” This is the Millennium. “He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” How awesome is that?
Revelation 1, verse 4: and I see it this way. There’s a camera, so imagine you’re over on camera one. Can you imagine? Ready, everybody? First take. Revelation 1:4, roll camera one: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead” – takes you back to Zechariah – “and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” – can I say His atoning blood? – “and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Switch to camera two, please: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him.” That’s the second coming; that’s not the rapture. You get that right; you’ll get a lot right. “Every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.” Oh, Psalm 22, Zechariah again. “And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.” The all nations, all the people of the world will not be thrilled over what’s about to happen; they know they got caught with their faith down, and they will mourn because of Him. Even so, amen. Verse 8, back to camera one: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” That’s who He is. That’s the one. Absolutely awesome. Should we just keep going? Yes, we’ll see.
Mark this down: verses 28-32, and that is confident, because we dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, and we are growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. We can be confident about it. Confident because God is faithful. That’s our confidence. In verse 28, the Scripture here says: “Concerning the gospel, they”—the Jewish people, remember, not knowing, not understanding—“they are enemies for your sake; but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.” Right now the Jews think we’re nuts. They think, “What are those Gentiles? They look crazy. Gentiles reading our Bible, they’re reading our book, and they think they’re forgiven. Look how happy they are. They’re crazy. They walk around saying ‘Praise the Lord, Hallelujah.’ They tell that Jesus has found in the Old Testament. What do they know? They’re Gentiles.” Paul says to us, “They’re enemies.” But the reality is, don’t panic about it. “Concerning the election” – that means God knows those who are His that have yet to see; they’re going to see. That’s awesome. So when somebody comes up to you and says, “I’m Jewish, and I think you’re nuts for studying my book,” well, why don’t you study your book? Study your book and then tell me what your book says. “No, I’m not going to read it.” Well, then I’m going to read it. “You can’t, you’re a Gentile.” I’m going to, you can’t do that. “It’s our book.” Then you read it. “Not going to read it.” Well, let’s read it together. I encourage you to do that. You have a Jewish friend, I have a Jewish family, you have a Jewish family. Oof, you’ve got some heavy lifting in your life. That’s a great field of harvest, though. Great, great opportunity. Because listen, for you and for us, you must be able to argue that Jesus is Messiah using the Old Testament only, the Jewish Scriptures. Technically, the New Testament’s Jewish Scriptures too; it’s written by a bunch of Jews. They’re just the Jews who believed that the events were being fulfilled. Build from the Old.
Confident. Verse 29: this is a church, this is over the top. “For the gifts” – what kind of gifts? Is salvation a gift? Is God’s grace? Is God’s the working of the Holy Spirit? Is that a gift? It’s all a gift. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” What are you saying? Friends, listen up. Theologians, hello. What God said He will do – it doesn’t matter on the faithfulness of man or not; God’s going to keep His word. Listen, God says He’s going to save by Christ going to the cross. It doesn’t matter if one person in all of humanity believes it, or 100 billion believe it. It’s regardless: “I’m going to provide salvation. If anyone believes Me, they shall be saved.” Period. There’s no changing that. And when He says, “I put blindness upon the eyes of My people until the fullness of the Gentiles is complete,” He is announcing there’s going to be a day when they see. Why? The gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. Don’t raise your hand, but how many of you know that you’re a Christian? I’m not asking you a good Christian; none of us are good Christians. All of us are disgusted at how miserable we are at following Him. That’s not the point. Do you trust that He died on the cross for you and rose again from the dead? Are you putting your full weight upon what He did, not what you’re adding to it? Cult friends, my cult friends, I love you, but listen, cult friends: “Oh yeah, we believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and we have to add our righteousness also.” The Bible condemns that. If you believe the pure gospel: repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. Change your mind, metanoia. Change your mind and come to Christ. What does this mean? It means that God called you into His family, and He will never un-call you. Hang on. There are those who visit this church who believe that you can lose your salvation. Explain verse 29 to all of us, will you? You can’t. Here’s the question: are you really saved? That’s the question. Revel in this, friends: if God called you into His family, He will never un-call you. His decision to bring you into His family is irrevocable. He will not change. Charles Spurgeon—of course it’s cute, it’s not theologically accurate, but it’s cute—Spurgeon said, “I’m so glad that God called me into His family based on His foreknowledge before I was ever born, because He sure wouldn’t have called me into His family after I was born.” That was silly; it’s cute. But there’s confidence in this, so much so that Jude chapter 1, verse 24: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Listen, let’s stand. I’m going to read this again. “Now to Him” – you know what that means? That means that heaven and earth turn their applause toward Him. To Him. Now to Him, not a church, not a system. Are you seeing this, everybody? Are you reading it? Am I seeing—are you saying, “To Him,” to an organization? Listen, with all due respect to the Vatican, to Chicago, to Miami, to L.A., to, uh, to Paris—no. “Now to Him who is able” – what He does, mankind is unable to do. God, He does it. He saves you. He’s able to keep you from stumbling. You know what that means? That means you and I have a rough go in our Christianity, and we bounce off the guardrails sometimes. But listen, even if you fell down, He’ll pick you up. This word “stumbled” implies that you will not stumble over the precipice. And to present you – this is the best – to present you faultless. Are you kidding me? Everybody get this before you go home. God, Jesus, the gift of God through eternal life, Christ Jesus, He says, “This is what I’m going to do. When you believe in Me, this is what I impart to you: I impart to you a state of sanctification, or we would call it being atoned for or justified.” He puts the word up there: faultless. You know what it means? The word, go look it up. The word in Greek means that you’re looked at as—watch. Imagine this podium being somebody, and somebody’s trying to find something wrong with me. Look, I can find more stuff wrong with me than anybody else. He looks and He concludes, “All I see is Jesus.” Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Church family, celebrate Him! He loves you so much. If the veil is over your eyes today, may it be lifting up out of the way right now. Come to Jesus Christ as Messiah, Savior. There’s no other hope of salvation but through this One, the one and only. And give Him all the glory. Let’s respond with that joy. Let’s practice right now for heaven. I hope the next time I see you it will be heaven. How about that? Wouldn’t it be awesome? Let’s bless Him now in Jesus’ name.