back to index2017-08-06 Our Father's Love for Israel Pt. 1
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Alright, if you could turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 10, and I will read from 00:00:19.240 |
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? 00:00:22.600 |
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? 00:00:26.320 |
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 00:00:29.040 |
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 00:00:31.280 |
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. 00:00:37.000 |
For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 00:00:40.880 |
So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. 00:00:47.820 |
For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to enter the world. 00:00:54.440 |
First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. 00:00:58.240 |
For the foolish nation I will make you angry." 00:01:00.560 |
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me. 00:01:06.560 |
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." 00:01:09.960 |
But of Israel, he says, "All day long I have held out my hand to a disobedient and contrary 00:01:27.040 |
We know that even our ability to persevere is because of your grace. 00:01:33.280 |
I pray that your spirit would break through our hearts, open our ears, Lord God, that 00:01:44.200 |
I pray, Father God, that even our worship, we are dependent upon you to stir us and to 00:01:51.420 |
So we ask, Lord God, that what we are not able to do, that your Holy Spirit would continue 00:01:57.420 |
to intercede on our behalf, groaning, Father God, because we do desire to be near you. 00:02:04.380 |
We pray, Father, your spirit would guide and lead us, empower, strengthen us, and feed 00:02:13.840 |
You know, recently, Esther and I, I would say it's probably more than recent, but Esther 00:02:18.560 |
and I, we've been just walking around our neighborhood, you know, because I have bad 00:02:24.200 |
knees, I can't do anything rigorous, so Esther and I have been just walking around our neighborhood, 00:02:27.920 |
and it's been a habit, like every night we walk to the, I don't know if it's called, 00:02:39.600 |
And I remember years ago, the very first time I came to Irvine in 1991, I ran into that 00:02:44.800 |
lake and it was, to me, it was like, oh my God, there's a lake in the middle of the city, 00:02:52.540 |
And I was just dumbfounded, just how beautiful that was. 00:02:55.440 |
Like, people actually live here in front of this, you know. 00:02:58.240 |
And I mean, my parents moved around so much, like I've been, just even in Southern California, 00:03:03.240 |
I think I lived in almost every county, except for San Diego. 00:03:07.080 |
And so it was, to me, it was like, wow, this kind of place still, like, really exists. 00:03:12.440 |
Before I became, I got married, even though it was beautiful, I didn't really appreciate 00:03:17.440 |
it, you know, because you want action when you're young. 00:03:21.180 |
You want to come outside the door and plenty of places to go. 00:03:24.440 |
And now there's a lot more stuff going on in Irvine, but at that time, it was just residential. 00:03:28.480 |
Even businesses, there are very few businesses in Irvine. 00:03:32.160 |
So I got married, you know, I can appreciate Irvine, but I remember just about a week ago, 00:03:37.160 |
Esther and I walked to the lake and I was sitting there, and I was just dumbfounded, 00:03:41.960 |
because you know, we lived maybe about two, three blocks away from this lake. 00:03:46.200 |
And for years, I would say probably decades, I never have given a second thought, other 00:03:50.520 |
than the very first time I ran into this lake. 00:03:53.380 |
And I was just sitting there thinking, this is not real. 00:03:56.520 |
I mean, for most people in the world, and I know a lot of people have the, you know, 00:04:00.600 |
say Irvine is a bubble and it's not the real world. 00:04:05.600 |
And I remember just sitting there, just appreciating the lake, thinking, this is not real. 00:04:10.360 |
You know, we travel to remote parts of India and even in rich places, like whether it's 00:04:16.080 |
Tokyo or Seoul or Beijing, you know, you don't run into this kind of stuff. 00:04:19.960 |
I bet you, if I took pictures of this and sent this out, and it's like, this is in your 00:04:23.160 |
backyard, not literally backyard, but walking distance, right? 00:04:27.880 |
And as I was contemplating and thinking about that, it just kind of made me think about 00:04:35.720 |
That, you know, how when you first encounter God, how floored we are about His grace. 00:04:42.560 |
That the God of the universe would even know my name. 00:04:46.720 |
And then to think that that God not only knows my name, but He cared enough to send His only 00:04:54.680 |
And how that just changes you, changes us, and changed me. 00:05:00.360 |
But years go by, struggles, ups and downs of life, temptations, distractions. 00:05:08.240 |
And as years go by, you know, the Christianity can easily become just a routine. 00:05:15.960 |
There's a knee-jerk reaction, and you walk by this lake so many times, it's just there. 00:05:20.760 |
And you don't really think deeply about what it is exactly that we have. 00:05:26.400 |
As strange as it is, sitting in front of that lake kind of made me think about that. 00:05:30.560 |
Like how blessed I am, what it is that I have. 00:05:33.560 |
I mean, obviously physically blessed, but especially spiritually. 00:05:37.600 |
To know that the greatest question that every human being, Christian or not, asks, what 00:05:50.340 |
The most fundamental question of mankind is answered for us as Christians, that God loves 00:05:58.440 |
That there's a purpose, there's a clear reason why He created us. 00:06:01.600 |
There's a goal that we're running toward, and at the end of it, no matter what happens, 00:06:06.520 |
that when we die, we're going to be in heaven. 00:06:09.640 |
And to just live day to day, not being affected by that. 00:06:15.000 |
And the reason why I share this this morning is because the text that we're looking at 00:06:18.760 |
this morning is an indictment against the nation of Israel. 00:06:23.400 |
And as you guys know, the nation of Israel has been blessed more than any other nation. 00:06:29.920 |
All their holidays was in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. 00:06:36.360 |
I think the United States is particularly blessed in that sense, because the major holidays 00:06:41.120 |
in the United States, it has Christian tones in it. 00:06:46.720 |
So it's not very hard as Christians when you're going abroad to teach English to teach 00:06:51.960 |
about Christianity, because all you have to do is talk about the origin of the country 00:07:02.160 |
But the nation of Israel in particular, their community centered around worshiping God. 00:07:09.800 |
We're not talking about a portion of the community, the whole nation. 00:07:13.100 |
Their beginning of the nation was that God would set up his tabernacle and every single 00:07:21.660 |
And so everything that they did centered around the worship of God. 00:07:26.680 |
God's glory rested upon this temple that they built. 00:07:30.940 |
So people are always looking for God's glory, but God's glory dwelt in their midst physically. 00:07:38.280 |
Their history is a record of God's faithfulness to their nation. 00:07:43.500 |
So whether they go back 500 years or a thousand years or 1500 years, every portion of Israel's 00:07:52.040 |
So they can sit around and just talk about what happened and their forefathers and every 00:07:56.460 |
single year that they study, it's a reminder of God's grace and love for them. 00:08:01.300 |
Their heroes, their forefathers, they were all men and women who represented God's presence. 00:08:07.700 |
Israel, ultimately, was the line in which the Messiah himself was going to come. 00:08:14.700 |
I mean, we can go on and on about how blessed they were. 00:08:20.140 |
Paul says in Romans 3, 1 and 2, above all of that, he begins the book of Romans by saying, 00:08:26.940 |
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 00:08:28.500 |
Whether you had the law or didn't have the law. 00:08:30.020 |
And he said, "Well, what advantage is there then to being a Jew?" 00:08:34.700 |
I mean, of course, I've mentioned maybe only about five or six things, but the whole book 00:08:39.460 |
of the Old Testament that we read is a constant reminder of God's grace and love to this nation. 00:08:46.240 |
But if they're not saved, if they're in the same position as the Gentiles, then what benefit 00:08:54.260 |
And so Paul answers that question in Romans 3, 1 and 2, then what advantage has the Jew 00:09:03.700 |
To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 00:09:08.420 |
Now he could have mentioned all kinds of things. 00:09:09.980 |
He could have mentioned any one of the things that I mentioned already. 00:09:13.300 |
You have the holidays, you have the worship, you have the tabernacle, you have your history, 00:09:17.500 |
you have the forefathers, you have his glory. 00:09:19.540 |
And he could have mentioned all of that, but he says, "But to begin with, above all," he 00:09:27.260 |
They were the first recipients of the gospel. 00:09:31.940 |
The message of salvation, they were the very first ones. 00:09:36.260 |
The tragedy of the church of Israel is also the tragedy of a post-Christian culture where 00:09:47.780 |
we are surrounded by witnesses, history, commentaries, churches, preaching, Bible studies, fellowship, 00:09:57.540 |
Christian work, funding, fellowship, and yet to be so far away from his presence. 00:10:06.620 |
Hebrews chapter 6, 4 through 8, the author describes the same issue that the nation of 00:10:11.820 |
Israel has and that Paul has been explaining up to this point. 00:10:15.620 |
He says, "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been 00:10:19.820 |
enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have 00:10:25.980 |
tasted the goodness of the word of God and powers of the age to come, if they then fall 00:10:30.900 |
away since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding 00:10:38.140 |
Now some people have read this text and said, "Well, it sounds like the author is saying 00:10:43.060 |
that if you were a Christian and then you fall away, that you lose your salvation." 00:10:48.740 |
Clearly that's not what he's teaching because one, it's inconsistent with the other teachings 00:10:51.900 |
in the Bible, and if you read in context of what he says, clearly he's not talking about 00:11:01.340 |
He's describing an individual who is in the church, who's hearing the same gospel, part 00:11:07.340 |
of the same prayer meeting, he benefits from the fellowship, encouragement of brothers 00:11:12.060 |
and sisters, of older Christians who have surrounded them, opportunity to serve and 00:11:17.580 |
give in every aspect, they have the same advantage of every person in the church. 00:11:23.580 |
And yet they refuse, they refuse to accept Jesus Christ. 00:11:30.620 |
Verse 7 says, "For the land that has drunk the rain and often falls in it and produces 00:11:35.060 |
a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. 00:11:41.020 |
But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its 00:11:47.300 |
In other words, he's describing the crops that are receiving all the rain and so some 00:11:54.780 |
of them receive the exact same amount of nutrients, the same amount, and some of them are bearing 00:11:58.740 |
fruit and then this other group have the exact same opportunity, exact same teaching, and 00:12:05.940 |
And as a result of that, it's a clear sign that they are not repenting. 00:12:11.300 |
The nation of Israel had every advantage, they had every advantage to receive Christ. 00:12:22.140 |
They should have been the first ones who ran to Christ when he appeared because their history, 00:12:31.500 |
Even Jesus' genealogy, the reason why there's a careful record of the genealogy of Christ. 00:12:37.380 |
We have two separate genealogies of Mary and Joseph. 00:12:41.380 |
The reason why there's a careful description of the genealogy of Christ is because God 00:12:47.140 |
He promised that the seed of the woman is going to come and he's going to crush the 00:12:50.660 |
head of the serpent, basically saying that he's going to come to save the world. 00:12:54.980 |
And he kept a clear record of how he was fulfilling that from generation to generation to generation. 00:13:03.340 |
And yet when Christ came, for the most part, they rejected him. 00:13:15.660 |
So when they stand before God, they have no excuse. 00:13:19.660 |
And again, that's a tragedy of a post-Christian culture where we don't lack any resources 00:13:28.220 |
You know, we have fellow brothers and sisters in India that it's hard for them to get together 00:13:35.180 |
to even have prayer meetings because if they have it outside, they're going to get targeted. 00:13:42.340 |
If you've been following the news about India, I mean, it's getting worse by the minute. 00:13:47.740 |
I mean, there's shootings, there's beatings, there's deliberate attack. 00:13:52.100 |
They would coax pastors to come, say, "Hey, we're interested in the gospel," and then 00:13:58.460 |
We're trying to help them build a center where at least they can come together and have prayer 00:14:04.100 |
But simple place to get together and pray for about 40 people, they don't have. 00:14:19.180 |
Plenty of brothers and sisters to run this race with, have fun with, raise our children 00:14:25.160 |
Like the Jews, if we don't recognize the gift that we have in Christ, we can live the 00:14:31.920 |
rest of our lives thinking, "Only if, only if I had more of this, only if I had more 00:14:38.060 |
of that, only if this was different in my life, I would be more faithful. 00:14:44.180 |
Only if I was a little bit younger, only if I was a little bit older, only if I had a 00:14:50.680 |
I'm not sure exactly what the thought of the Jews were, but the text that we're looking 00:14:55.060 |
at this morning gives a threefold indictment against the nation of Israel. 00:14:59.620 |
The first indictment, he says, is that Israel did not obey the gospel. 00:15:04.100 |
Let me just read it as it says in verse 16, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." 00:15:09.340 |
Now when they say all here, it's clear in the context that he's referring to Jews, because 00:15:13.780 |
in verse 18 and 19, he says, "But I ask, have they not heard? 00:15:21.280 |
For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world." 00:15:24.780 |
So he's clearly referring to the nation of Israel. 00:15:27.820 |
And then if that wasn't clear enough, verse 19, he says, "But I ask, did Israel not understand?" 00:15:31.960 |
First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation." 00:15:35.860 |
So clearly, when he says, "Not all have obeyed," he's referring to the Jews. 00:15:41.460 |
All this point, up to this point, he's been describing how the gospel came to save the 00:15:49.020 |
See the indictment against the Jews is that they did not obey. 00:15:53.460 |
Now, one of the questions I asked online, if you were able to look at it last night 00:15:58.300 |
before you went to sleep, is he describes obedience to the gospel. 00:16:11.220 |
But to obey the gospel, that language is consistent with other passages. 00:16:14.660 |
In 2 Thessalonians 1.8, "Inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know 00:16:19.980 |
God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 00:16:25.580 |
He says it again in 1 Peter 4.17, "For it is time for judgment to begin in the household 00:16:30.400 |
And if it begins with us, what will it be the outcome for those who do not obey the 00:16:36.740 |
Now, obedience and faith, at least in this context, is used interchangeably. 00:16:42.940 |
He says in verse 16, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 00:16:48.260 |
Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. 00:16:51.580 |
So clearly, Paul is using the term obey and believe interchangeably. 00:16:55.820 |
Now, that doesn't mean that obey and faith is the same thing. 00:17:01.540 |
Then we would be professing salvation by works, and we know that we don't believe that. 00:17:09.600 |
Paul has spent 10 chapters describing that salvation is not by works. 00:17:14.060 |
But what he does mean here is consistent with what he said before, that he who confesses 00:17:18.500 |
that Christ is Lord, that he was buried and raised from the dead, he said he shall be 00:17:26.460 |
So genuine faith always leads to genuine fruit. 00:17:34.340 |
It's not genuine faith and works that saves us. 00:17:38.820 |
It's genuine faith will require or will lead to genuine fruit. 00:17:44.180 |
Now, that's not something deeply theological in Scripture. 00:17:53.140 |
That if you trust somebody, if you really trust somebody, and it's not just words, then 00:18:00.420 |
So if a friend asked me, "Hey, do you trust me with your money?" 00:18:22.060 |
So the common sense would be, you say you trust me, but your actions say that you don't 00:18:32.500 |
Only when it comes to Christianity have we made this disconnect between belief and life. 00:18:39.460 |
So basically what Paul is saying is just common sense. 00:18:41.620 |
He's not saying that you need to work for your salvation. 00:18:43.780 |
He's saying that if you genuinely do believe, that it would lead to a certain life. 00:18:49.560 |
If you believe that this life is not it, it would change your anxiousness on all the things 00:18:58.100 |
That we would not live for tomorrow, but we would live for eternity, if that was our perspective. 00:19:03.620 |
If we knew that heaven and hell really existed, it would change our paradigm as to how we 00:19:08.940 |
value things, what is important, what is not important. 00:19:13.780 |
And so in that, he is indicting the nation of Israel. 00:19:16.260 |
He said that they heard the truth, but they did not respond. 00:19:23.860 |
It doesn't mean that if you genuinely believe the gospel, that you are all going to bear 00:19:29.580 |
Even in the seeds, it says some bore 30, some bore 60, some bore 100. 00:19:34.980 |
So some are going to respond and bear a lot of fruit because of the faith that God's given 00:19:38.940 |
them and some may have less faith and they're not going to bear as much fruit, but clearly 00:19:46.900 |
And Paul's first indictment against the nation of Israel was there was no fruit. 00:19:51.980 |
You may have confessed, but there was no genuine fruit. 00:19:55.020 |
See, in the nation of Israel, some who heard didn't believe and were hostile toward Christ. 00:20:06.300 |
Some followed superficially and they followed as long as Jesus was performing miracles, 00:20:13.140 |
passing out food and saying kind things to people, how he was going to deliver them from 00:20:17.740 |
bondage and he was going to deliver people from captivity. 00:20:20.220 |
And as long as he was saying these general things of deliverance, they loved him. 00:20:25.300 |
But when he began to indict them for their sins and he called them out for the hypocrisy 00:20:32.220 |
and he began to say hard things and say, you know, I am the bread of life. 00:20:35.220 |
You're coming to me looking so that I will feed you, that I will heal you. 00:20:40.060 |
But he said, I do all of these things to teach you that I came for a bigger purpose, to forgive 00:20:45.700 |
you of your sins, to deliver you from your bondage. 00:20:50.300 |
So there were a group of people who superficially seemed like they were following Jesus until 00:20:54.340 |
Jesus disappointed them, that he wasn't quite the Messiah that they wanted. 00:21:00.500 |
And as soon as they realized that he wasn't that Messiah, they turned away. 00:21:06.180 |
The multitude who ate the fish and the bread as a whole just turned away and no longer 00:21:13.740 |
Now if you lived in a culture where Christianity, there was hostility toward Christianity, that 00:21:19.580 |
would naturally weed some people out because it requires sacrifice to be a part of a community. 00:21:26.700 |
But that's the problem with a post-Christian culture, that you could harden your heart 00:21:32.440 |
against God and you never said, I'm not going to follow Jesus. 00:21:37.100 |
But in all practical purposes, that may have already happened in your heart, but we never 00:21:43.260 |
So the church is filled with followers of Jesus, people who are lukewarm, and people 00:21:51.460 |
But we're all inside the church, and only God is going to determine at the end who is 00:21:57.260 |
See, but the nation of Israel, at least at that particular time, they had no reason to 00:22:03.500 |
follow Christ because there was hostility against Jesus. 00:22:06.100 |
So if you continue to follow Jesus, you have to live with the consequences, that the Pharisees 00:22:10.820 |
and the leaders of Israel is going to come after them too. 00:22:13.660 |
So as soon as they realized, this is not the Messiah I wanted, they quit and they fell 00:22:19.620 |
And then there was a group of people who actually did ministry with the apostles. 00:22:26.700 |
They went and some of them even risked their lives. 00:22:29.660 |
And yet Paul, at the end of his life, writing 2 Timothy, lists a group of people that are 00:22:37.460 |
Some of these men and women are mentioned in the book of Acts, and as Paul is sitting 00:22:40.700 |
in prison, and it looks like he's actually going to die, and that if they continue to 00:22:44.900 |
follow this path, that they may also have to give their life. 00:22:47.580 |
And he says many of them love the world more than they love Jesus. 00:22:55.500 |
Jesus describes them as a group of people, the third soil, that the concerns and worries 00:23:00.900 |
of life choke out their faith, and then they eventually die. 00:23:05.980 |
See, when Paul here, the first indictment against the nation of Israel was there was 00:23:17.020 |
But the second indictment against the nation of Israel was, well, maybe they didn't obey 00:23:24.340 |
But the second indictment that he gives is that God pursued them with His Word through 00:23:35.100 |
It wasn't like God sent prophets and they whispered in the wilderness. 00:23:40.180 |
I always think about Jonah, you know, when he preached at Nineveh. 00:23:44.900 |
He probably was the worst preacher that ever existed. 00:23:48.220 |
I mean, that's my guess, because he didn't want them to repent. 00:23:52.180 |
Can you imagine somebody, you know, basically telling people to repent, and he doesn't want 00:23:58.540 |
You know, like when I prepare my sermon, I have to read it over and over again to make 00:24:05.660 |
So if I feel like, "Oh, I'm going to lose them here," and I go and review, and sometimes 00:24:08.980 |
I review till late at night, and all with the intention of, "How do I get you to pay 00:24:14.700 |
How do I get you to respond to the Word of God?" 00:24:18.260 |
But if I didn't care, and if I, in fact, if my motive was, "I don't want you to listen 00:24:23.700 |
I want the wrath of God to come upon you," man, that would be an easy sermon to prepare. 00:24:35.520 |
Walk right up here and say, "Well, this is what God wants me to say." 00:24:37.900 |
He says, "You know, if you don't repent, you're going to die." 00:24:43.260 |
You told me to tell them, I told them, and I—that was Jonah. 00:24:55.560 |
He says, "Faith comes from hearing, and the hearing of the Word of Christ." 00:25:03.260 |
Over and over again, God sent prophets—Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel—over and over 00:25:23.820 |
Everything about the nation of Israel was God constantly. 00:25:28.000 |
Even during the period of judges, they would sin. 00:25:36.860 |
He would raise up a leader, and the leader would lead them to revival. 00:25:40.360 |
Then as soon as they become comfortable, they forget God, and they began to—and this cycle 00:25:45.320 |
So if you ever read the book of Judges, it's frustrating. 00:25:48.080 |
It's like trying to teach a child who just will not listen. 00:25:51.000 |
That's the nation of Israel, and they only pay attention when they get burned. 00:25:56.320 |
And yet, through hundreds and hundreds of Israel's history, years of Israel's history, 00:26:01.440 |
God is pleading with them, sending prophet after prophet after prophet, pleading with 00:26:07.400 |
Nineveh had this reluctant prophet walking around saying, "If you don't repent, you're 00:26:23.980 |
Is it because God didn't send enough prophets or a prophet that was articulate? 00:26:31.960 |
He says, "No, but I ask, have they not heard? 00:26:35.120 |
Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and the words to the 00:26:41.100 |
God's been speaking to this nation one after another, after another, after another, and 00:26:50.840 |
In Amos chapter 3, verse 7, it says, "For the Lord God does nothing without revealing 00:26:58.220 |
In fact, in Ezekiel, when God is sending these prophets, Hosea, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, all 00:27:08.100 |
these pre-exile prophets to warn them that because of your sins, the judgment of God 00:27:13.900 |
is coming, and you're going to go into captivity. 00:27:16.760 |
Even in that context, Ezekiel 2, 4-5, it says, "The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. 00:27:23.460 |
I send you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God,' and whether they 00:27:28.160 |
hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been 00:27:42.860 |
He comes from a line, a succession of many, many prophets. 00:27:46.340 |
In fact, Jesus constantly says, "You are like your forefathers who killed the prophets." 00:27:52.140 |
And every prophet that Jesus would send, or God would send, they are the ones who get 00:27:59.060 |
They were the ones who were chased out of their city. 00:28:00.520 |
And yet, in Ezekiel, before the judgment comes, you would think that God would throw up his 00:28:04.480 |
hand and say, "You know, they have had every chance, and they still didn't listen." 00:28:12.360 |
And he says, "They probably aren't going to listen, but I'm going to send you to them 00:28:19.140 |
I'm going to send them to them anyway so that they at least know that a prophet was among 00:28:25.060 |
That even if they don't know when he is there, maybe after they go into captivity and the 00:28:30.500 |
judgment actually comes, they can look back and say, "Wow, Ezekiel, he was speaking for 00:28:44.180 |
And not only did God send them before the captivity, during captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, 00:29:05.520 |
They had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. 00:29:12.600 |
They had plenty of opportunity with God sending his prophets to get them to repent, and they 00:29:20.160 |
Third and finally, he said, "Even the salvation of Gentiles was not to reject them, but to 00:29:29.160 |
Even after all of that, he says, his final call to them was, "Now I'm going to take this 00:29:34.280 |
gospel, I'm going to take this truth, and I'm going to allow the Ninevites to come in. 00:29:39.560 |
I'm going to allow the other nations, the Gentiles, to come in." 00:29:44.960 |
And he says, this is how it's described, verse 19, "But I ask, did Israel not understand? 00:29:48.880 |
But Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation, and with a foolish 00:29:55.960 |
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me, and 00:30:01.800 |
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.'" 00:30:06.320 |
He said he opened the door to the Gentiles to come in, not simply to use us to provoke 00:30:16.580 |
So it wasn't that God was saying, "You know, I had enough." 00:30:19.520 |
You would say, "You know, I had enough of you. 00:30:25.400 |
How many times do I need to send the prophet and you kill my servants before I say enough 00:30:32.680 |
So even as he goes to the Gentiles, he is hoping that the gospel going to the Gentiles 00:30:41.960 |
So even as he is judging them, even as he is judging them, he is hoping that that will 00:30:49.000 |
somehow arouse jealousy to bring you to repentance. 00:30:53.600 |
Those of you who have been studying through the book of Revelation with us, I mean, that's 00:30:58.280 |
the theme over and over again, that we think about Revelation as judgment of God and hell 00:31:03.760 |
and fire and disease and pestilence and war and rumors of war. 00:31:09.200 |
And all of this is true, but if you pay very close attention to the outline of the book 00:31:13.760 |
of Revelation, it's God is using every one of these provocative judgments, hoping that 00:31:19.960 |
that will bring to repentance before the final judgment comes. 00:31:27.920 |
In fact, intertwined with all these wrath, it's God's grace. 00:31:38.000 |
And so God is saying, what Paul is saying to the Romans, is that in every way, God is 00:31:46.800 |
So in Romans 10, 21, these Gentiles, who I did not give the same opportunity, these Gentiles 00:31:54.840 |
that I did not seek, came and sought after me. 00:31:58.800 |
But in verse 21, but of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held on my hands to a disobedient 00:32:08.820 |
This whole section is an indictment against the nation of Israel. 00:32:11.920 |
He starts out by saying, not all have obeyed the gospel. 00:32:16.360 |
And then he concludes by saying, all day long, I've been holding my hands out to them. 00:32:20.440 |
It wasn't because they didn't have opportunity. 00:32:22.040 |
It wasn't because they didn't have the prophets. 00:32:25.280 |
Even in judgment, he was provoking them to jealousy, and they still would not return. 00:32:32.240 |
Not one year, not two years, not 10 years, not 100 years, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds 00:32:37.320 |
of years, generation after generation after generation. 00:32:44.080 |
So the natural question that anyone should ask, is God done with Israel? 00:32:53.920 |
Has God put them away, and now he says, you know what, that's done with Israel, and now 00:33:03.160 |
The second part of verse 16, it says, they have not all obeyed the gospel. 00:33:09.400 |
For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed that he has heard from us? 00:33:20.920 |
Isaiah 53 is the clearest presentation of Christ's sacrifice and gospel in the Old Testament. 00:33:26.840 |
This is where all like sheep have gone astray, each of us to his own way, but the Lord has 00:33:32.160 |
placed on him an iniquity of us all, and you have the whole chapter. 00:33:34.720 |
And so a lot of the Jewish people who reject Christianity, they don't read Isaiah 53. 00:33:40.240 |
In fact, I have a book of a testimony of a Jewish professor who became a Christian because 00:33:46.720 |
he attended a Bible study that was happening to read through Isaiah 53, and he was angered 00:33:56.040 |
And then he said, we're not reading the New Testament, we're reading your Bible, the Old 00:34:00.000 |
So he goes home and he finds out, he grew up a Jew all his life, reads Isaiah 53, and 00:34:07.000 |
And I have a book in my office where he gives his testimony about that. 00:34:11.240 |
Isaiah 53 is the clearest presentation of the gospel. 00:34:14.080 |
And so Paul is reading, or he is stating that passage in Isaiah 53 verse 1, and he begins, 00:34:22.040 |
before he presents the gospel, he says, who will listen? 00:34:26.360 |
In other words, the Jews aren't going to listen. 00:34:35.760 |
They've shut the door and they refuse to listen. 00:34:37.640 |
In fact, many of the synagogues basically exist as if this passage does not exist. 00:34:44.080 |
As one of my assignments as a seminary student years ago, my professor asked us to go attend 00:34:53.360 |
So I went to a synagogue in LA with a group of my classmates, and their worship is a bit 00:34:58.400 |
A lot of our worship order came from the first century synagogue order, because that's where 00:35:07.440 |
They have a lot more singing, but it's not singing like us. 00:35:11.480 |
You know, we sing songs like some artists, you know, wrote lyrics and we try to sing 00:35:15.720 |
biblically sound, you know, lyrics and songs, but they actually just sing the Bible. 00:35:20.560 |
They will go to the Torah and then the rabbi would come and he would sing verbatim. 00:35:26.160 |
And then the congregation would respond and read the next section verbatim. 00:35:29.680 |
And then they would just have some intonations back and forth. 00:35:32.480 |
And then the Jewish rabbi would come and he would give them maybe a five or six exposition, 00:35:39.000 |
Then after that, they would go and fellowship and just dance. 00:35:44.600 |
They would, you know, the way we have fellowship, we're done with worship, they will go out 00:35:48.520 |
But their fellowship is incorporated within their worship, and they would stand in a circle 00:35:51.960 |
and just dance, you know, celebrating part of worship. 00:35:59.860 |
But they will never read this text because it would confuse a lot of Jews. 00:36:05.980 |
So Isaiah begins the chapter by saying, who is going to listen to this? 00:36:16.800 |
God already knew that the Jews were going to harden their heart toward Christ and the 00:36:23.660 |
And so he quotes that passage, they did not obey the gospel. 00:36:30.280 |
God's been sending out messengers to all the ends of the world. 00:36:35.060 |
No, he opened the gospel to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. 00:36:40.200 |
All day long, he's been holding out his hand toward them, and yet they would not repent. 00:36:50.040 |
If God knew, if God knew they were going to harden their hearts, why did he send Isaiah? 00:37:07.720 |
Why did he endure with them another three, four, five, six, 700 years? 00:37:14.200 |
Isaiah 6, 9 through 12 records Isaiah's calling into ministry. 00:37:19.440 |
And you guys know that passage well, where he's confronted by the glory of God. 00:37:26.520 |
I'm a man of unclean lips, from a people of unclean lips, and God raises him up and he 00:37:35.480 |
And then so God commissions him to ministry, and this is his commissioning to ministry. 00:37:43.080 |
Like, why would God send and commission Isaiah if he's going to say this? 00:37:50.240 |
And again, I know some of you guys know this passage, Isaiah 6, 9 through 12. 00:37:53.240 |
And he said, "Go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. 00:38:02.600 |
Make the heart of the people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they 00:38:06.320 |
see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn 00:38:14.240 |
And he said, "Until cities lie waste without inhabitants and houses without people and 00:38:18.840 |
the land is desolate waste and the Lord removes people far away and for forsaken places are 00:38:57.680 |
So, you want me to go and basically you're commissioning me to a group of people who 00:39:02.680 |
are already judged and you want me to sacrifice my life, my family, to go and tell people 00:39:23.000 |
Why does he even prophesy Isaiah 53 if Israel was not going to receive it and they're going 00:39:29.920 |
You know, one of the saddest scenes in Israel's history is described in Ezekiel chapter 8 00:39:37.640 |
through 11, is where God's glory begins to leave the temple. 00:39:43.600 |
And I think Dr. Harris did such a great job describing this scene of God's glory. 00:39:48.840 |
Some of you guys may remember, a few of you may remember, I think it was about 12, 13 00:39:52.800 |
years ago he came and he was describing this glory of God and how in Ezekiel up to chapter 00:39:59.400 |
8, he describes why judgment is coming upon Israel. 00:40:04.720 |
Then after that, he begins to describe the progression of the glory of God leaving. 00:40:09.800 |
It's almost kind of like if you read chapter 9, in particular 10 and 11, it almost sounds 00:40:15.560 |
like if you've ever moved, you know how you pack your bags and put it in place and then 00:40:20.760 |
you're ready and then when you're ready, you pick up your stuff and take it out to the 00:40:25.000 |
And then from the living room, you take it out into the hallway, you know? 00:40:29.320 |
And then from there, you take it downstairs or wherever you need to go, put it up on the 00:40:33.900 |
And that's the kind of scene that you see at the temple where God's glory with the cherubim 00:40:38.160 |
and the creatures are basically getting ready and they're fixing to get ready and they go 00:40:42.440 |
out to the threshold and then they hover there for a period. 00:40:46.960 |
And then from the threshold, they pack up their stuff and then they move out to the 00:40:50.360 |
east gate and then they hover there for a period. 00:40:53.880 |
And then from the east gate, they move out up to the mountain and they hover there for 00:41:00.200 |
And I think Dr. Harris did such a great job and it was so convicting. 00:41:03.400 |
He's almost like somebody who's leaving a home that doesn't want to go. 00:41:09.280 |
That God is leaving his temple and his glory among people that he dearly loves. 00:41:15.200 |
And he's packing his stuff up and he's at the threshold. 00:41:26.700 |
And then the creatures in the glory of God and the cherubim move out to the east gate 00:41:34.640 |
Almost kind of like, even then, if they would just repent. 00:41:38.960 |
And then he doesn't just take off, he would go out and he would hover over the mountain 00:41:42.440 |
for a period looking over the temple in the nation of Israel. 00:41:47.520 |
And Dr. Harris described the scene as God reluctantly leaving Israel. 00:41:54.780 |
So the question, the natural question that we ask is, is God done? 00:42:02.740 |
And that's exactly what Ezekiel asked in Ezekiel 11, 13. 00:42:06.660 |
"Our Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? 00:42:12.020 |
Now that the glory of God has departed, are you done with Israel?" 00:42:18.220 |
And God answers him in verse 16 and 17 of Ezekiel 11. 00:42:21.940 |
He says, "Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord God, though I removed them far off among the 00:42:26.420 |
nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary 00:42:31.900 |
to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. 00:42:36.300 |
Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble 00:42:40.020 |
you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of 00:42:46.860 |
Even as he is leaving, even as he is packing up, reluctantly going after sending hundreds 00:42:53.720 |
and hundreds of years of prophets to get them to return, even as they stone them and chase 00:42:58.400 |
them out of the city, and as they are going into captivity, Ezekiel asks, "Is this it? 00:43:07.780 |
All that you have done for us, is this the end? 00:43:26.140 |
And that's the question that is asked in Romans chapter 11, the very next chapter. 00:43:37.080 |
If this is what happened with Israel, if God has opened the door to the Gentiles, is he 00:43:42.880 |
And the answer is an emphatic, "By no means, by no means." 00:43:54.920 |
I asked them, "Did they stumble in order that they might fall? 00:44:01.720 |
Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel 00:44:08.600 |
Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for 00:44:13.960 |
the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean?" 00:44:21.320 |
I want you to take a minute to think about what this is saying. 00:44:26.520 |
If their fall means salvation for the Gentiles, if they have become poor so that the Gentiles 00:44:34.600 |
become rich, and God did all of this to provoke them to jealousy, what would it mean when 00:44:55.400 |
As he rejoices over the Gentiles coming into his kingdom, if he rejoices and celebrates 00:45:00.280 |
for every soul that repents and comes into the kingdom, what kind of celebration will 00:45:05.040 |
there be in heaven when Israel that he loved for centuries after centuries, sent his prophets, 00:45:15.960 |
that only God was sent as a Jew, what would it mean when they repent? 00:45:22.080 |
It's an expression of his love to these people. 00:45:27.120 |
I don't know about you, I don't know about you, but has anybody ever pursued you like 00:45:38.640 |
Maybe some of you guys have boyfriends who went out of their way, maybe they're romantic 00:45:41.520 |
and they just, you know, bent over backwards, "Oh my gosh, I'm so touched," and you're 00:46:06.680 |
Even in the indictment against the nation of Israel, over and over again, why wouldn't 00:46:21.540 |
Why wouldn't they, why wouldn't he have been done with Ezekiel's prophecy? 00:46:26.360 |
Why wouldn't he have been done with Hosea's prophecies? 00:46:29.320 |
Why wouldn't he have been done with Jeremiah's prophecies or Isaiah's or Daniel's? 00:46:38.240 |
Even after Jesus came himself, stood before them, and even after, not only the prophets 00:46:44.320 |
but the Son of God that they crucified, even then, you would think if God was patient by 00:46:50.880 |
killing the prophets, even after you killed his only begotten Son, you must be done now. 00:47:00.280 |
It must have finally, I mean, even God, you must have a patience that must run out at 00:47:04.240 |
some point, and you would think that if it was going to run out, it would be with them 00:47:09.240 |
crucifying your son, or you're done with Israel, and he doesn't just say, "I don't think so." 00:47:32.160 |
Hebrews chapter 1, 1 and 2, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to 00:47:37.840 |
our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, 00:47:44.000 |
whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 00:47:51.840 |
As long as it is called today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in 00:48:00.540 |
As long as God is gracious, as long as God speaks, as long as your ears are open, your 00:48:06.160 |
hearts are soft, do not turn away from the Lord. 00:48:12.020 |
As he was patient with Israel, God is patient with us." 00:48:22.420 |
Maybe some of you guys have been drifting away from God for so long, there's no feeling 00:48:27.660 |
in your heart, you don't remember when you first came to Christ. 00:48:32.940 |
Maybe you've been living and deliberately hardened your heart for so long because you 00:48:36.140 |
didn't want to be obedient, and you've hardened your heart and hardened your heart and hardened 00:48:41.620 |
your heart, and yet God is still talking to you. 00:48:51.100 |
As long as it is called today, as long as your repentance is genuine, as long as you 00:48:56.780 |
cry out to God in sincerity, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 00:49:05.900 |
I pray that every single one of us would recognize what it is that we have in Christ, that we 00:49:11.860 |
may enter the throne of grace with confidence by the blood of Christ. 00:49:16.700 |
Will you take some time to pray with me as I invite the worship team to come?