Alright, if you could turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 10, and I will read from 14 all the way to the end of the chapter. But focus on verse 16 and on. Romans chapter 10, verse 14 through 21. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to enter the world.

But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. For the foolish nation I will make you angry." Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." But of Israel, he says, "All day long I have held out my hand to a disobedient and contrary people." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we want to again thank you. We want to praise you, Father God. We know that even our ability to persevere is because of your grace. I pray that your spirit would break through our hearts, open our ears, Lord God, that we may hear your voice and nothing else.

I pray, Father God, that even our worship, we are dependent upon you to stir us and to move us. So we ask, Lord God, that what we are not able to do, that your Holy Spirit would continue to intercede on our behalf, groaning, Father God, because we do desire to be near you.

We pray, Father, your spirit would guide and lead us, empower, strengthen us, and feed us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, recently, Esther and I, I would say it's probably more than recent, but Esther and I, we've been just walking around our neighborhood, you know, because I have bad knees, I can't do anything rigorous, so Esther and I have been just walking around our neighborhood, and it's been a habit, like every night we walk to the, I don't know if it's called, Irvine Lake, Lake in Yale.

Well, you know what lake I'm talking about. There's a lake in Yale, in Irvine. And I remember years ago, the very first time I came to Irvine in 1991, I ran into that lake and it was, to me, it was like, oh my God, there's a lake in the middle of the city, and it was man-made.

And I found out there's two of them. And I was just dumbfounded, just how beautiful that was. Like, people actually live here in front of this, you know. And I mean, my parents moved around so much, like I've been, just even in Southern California, I think I lived in almost every county, except for San Diego.

And so it was, to me, it was like, wow, this kind of place still, like, really exists. Before I became, I got married, even though it was beautiful, I didn't really appreciate it, you know, because you want action when you're young. You want things to be happening. You want to come outside the door and plenty of places to go.

And now there's a lot more stuff going on in Irvine, but at that time, it was just residential. Even businesses, there are very few businesses in Irvine. So I got married, you know, I can appreciate Irvine, but I remember just about a week ago, Esther and I walked to the lake and I was sitting there, and I was just dumbfounded, because you know, we lived maybe about two, three blocks away from this lake.

And for years, I would say probably decades, I never have given a second thought, other than the very first time I ran into this lake. And I was just sitting there thinking, this is not real. I mean, for most people in the world, and I know a lot of people have the, you know, say Irvine is a bubble and it's not the real world.

And in some sense, all of that is true. And I remember just sitting there, just appreciating the lake, thinking, this is not real. You know, we travel to remote parts of India and even in rich places, like whether it's Tokyo or Seoul or Beijing, you know, you don't run into this kind of stuff.

I bet you, if I took pictures of this and sent this out, and it's like, this is in your backyard, not literally backyard, but walking distance, right? And as I was contemplating and thinking about that, it just kind of made me think about my relationship with God. That, you know, how when you first encounter God, how floored we are about His grace.

That the God of the universe would even know my name. And then to think that that God not only knows my name, but He cared enough to send His only begotten Son to die for me. And how that just changes you, changes us, and changed me. But years go by, struggles, ups and downs of life, temptations, distractions.

And as years go by, you know, the Christianity can easily become just a routine. We know what to do. There's a knee-jerk reaction, and you walk by this lake so many times, it's just there. And you don't really think deeply about what it is exactly that we have. As strange as it is, sitting in front of that lake kind of made me think about that.

Like how blessed I am, what it is that I have. I mean, obviously physically blessed, but especially spiritually. To know that the greatest question that every human being, Christian or not, asks, what is my purpose? Where am I headed? What's going to happen to me after I die? The most fundamental question of mankind is answered for us as Christians, that God loves us.

That there's a purpose, there's a clear reason why He created us. There's a goal that we're running toward, and at the end of it, no matter what happens, that when we die, we're going to be in heaven. And to just live day to day, not being affected by that.

So it kind of made me think about that. And the reason why I share this this morning is because the text that we're looking at this morning is an indictment against the nation of Israel. And as you guys know, the nation of Israel has been blessed more than any other nation.

All their holidays was in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Every single holiday that they celebrated. I think the United States is particularly blessed in that sense, because the major holidays in the United States, it has Christian tones in it. It has Christian backgrounds. So it's not very hard as Christians when you're going abroad to teach English to teach about Christianity, because all you have to do is talk about the origin of the country and the Constitution and even on the money.

It's embedded in there. But the nation of Israel in particular, their community centered around worshiping God. We're not talking about a portion of the community, the whole nation. Their beginning of the nation was that God would set up his tabernacle and every single tribe would camp around this tabernacle.

And so everything that they did centered around the worship of God. God's glory rested upon this temple that they built. So people are always looking for God's glory, but God's glory dwelt in their midst physically. Their history is a record of God's faithfulness to their nation. So whether they go back 500 years or a thousand years or 1500 years, every portion of Israel's history is about God's faithfulness to them.

So they can sit around and just talk about what happened and their forefathers and every single year that they study, it's a reminder of God's grace and love for them. Their heroes, their forefathers, they were all men and women who represented God's presence. Israel, ultimately, was the line in which the Messiah himself was going to come.

I mean, we can go on and on about how blessed they were. Paul says in Romans 3, 1 and 2, above all of that, he begins the book of Romans by saying, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Whether you had the law or didn't have the law.

And he said, "Well, what advantage is there then to being a Jew?" I mean, of course, I've mentioned maybe only about five or six things, but the whole book of the Old Testament that we read is a constant reminder of God's grace and love to this nation. But if they're not saved, if they're in the same position as the Gentiles, then what benefit is there of being a Jew?

And so Paul answers that question in Romans 3, 1 and 2, then what advantage has the Jew or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. Now he could have mentioned all kinds of things. He could have mentioned any one of the things that I mentioned already.

You have the holidays, you have the worship, you have the tabernacle, you have your history, you have the forefathers, you have his glory. And he could have mentioned all of that, but he says, "But to begin with, above all," he says, "they had the oracles of God." They were the first recipients of the gospel.

The message of salvation, they were the very first ones. The tragedy of the church of Israel is also the tragedy of a post-Christian culture where we are surrounded by witnesses, history, commentaries, churches, preaching, Bible studies, fellowship, Christian work, funding, fellowship, and yet to be so far away from his presence.

Hebrews chapter 6, 4 through 8, the author describes the same issue that the nation of Israel has and that Paul has been explaining up to this point. He says, "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and powers of the age to come, if they then fall away since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt." Now some people have read this text and said, "Well, it sounds like the author is saying that if you were a Christian and then you fall away, that you lose your salvation." Clearly that's not what he's teaching because one, it's inconsistent with the other teachings in the Bible, and if you read in context of what he says, clearly he's not talking about a Christian who's losing his salvation.

He's describing an individual who is in the church, who's hearing the same gospel, part of the same prayer meeting, he benefits from the fellowship, encouragement of brothers and sisters, of older Christians who have surrounded them, opportunity to serve and give in every aspect, they have the same advantage of every person in the church.

And yet they refuse, they refuse to accept Jesus Christ. Verse 7 says, "For the land that has drunk the rain and often falls in it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned." In other words, he's describing the crops that are receiving all the rain and so some of them receive the exact same amount of nutrients, the same amount, and some of them are bearing fruit and then this other group have the exact same opportunity, exact same teaching, and yet they're not bearing fruit.

And as a result of that, it's a clear sign that they are not repenting. The nation of Israel had every advantage, they had every advantage to receive Christ. They should have been the first ones who ran to Christ when he appeared because their history, everything pointed to the coming of Christ.

Even Jesus' genealogy, the reason why there's a careful record of the genealogy of Christ. We have two separate genealogies of Mary and Joseph. The reason why there's a careful description of the genealogy of Christ is because God has been keeping record. He promised that the seed of the woman is going to come and he's going to crush the head of the serpent, basically saying that he's going to come to save the world.

And he kept a clear record of how he was fulfilling that from generation to generation to generation. And yet when Christ came, for the most part, they rejected him. That's the tragedy of the Jewish people. So when they stand before God, they have no excuse. And again, that's a tragedy of a post-Christian culture where we don't lack any resources of any kind.

You know, we have fellow brothers and sisters in India that it's hard for them to get together to even have prayer meetings because if they have it outside, they're going to get targeted. They might get stoned. A mob may come and beat them up. If you've been following the news about India, I mean, it's getting worse by the minute.

I mean, there's shootings, there's beatings, there's deliberate attack. They would coax pastors to come, say, "Hey, we're interested in the gospel," and then jump them in the house. I mean, this is happening left and right. We're trying to help them build a center where at least they can come together and have prayer meetings, you know.

But simple place to get together and pray for about 40 people, they don't have. You and I don't lack that resource. We can gather speakers. We have opportunity to serve. Plenty of brothers and sisters to run this race with, have fun with, raise our children with. Like the Jews, if we don't recognize the gift that we have in Christ, we can live the rest of our lives thinking, "Only if, only if I had more of this, only if I had more of that, only if this was different in my life, I would be more faithful.

Only if I was a little bit younger, only if I was a little bit older, only if I had a little bit more time." I'm not sure exactly what the thought of the Jews were, but the text that we're looking at this morning gives a threefold indictment against the nation of Israel.

The first indictment, he says, is that Israel did not obey the gospel. Let me just read it as it says in verse 16, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." Now when they say all here, it's clear in the context that he's referring to Jews, because in verse 18 and 19, he says, "But I ask, have they not heard?

Indeed they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world." So he's clearly referring to the nation of Israel. And then if that wasn't clear enough, verse 19, he says, "But I ask, did Israel not understand?" First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation." So clearly, when he says, "Not all have obeyed," he's referring to the Jews.

All this point, up to this point, he's been describing how the gospel came to save the world. But he says, "Not all of them." See the indictment against the Jews is that they did not obey. Now, one of the questions I asked online, if you were able to look at it last night before you went to sleep, is he describes obedience to the gospel.

Typically we don't use that language. We say, "Believing the gospel." Maybe even accepting the gospel. But to obey the gospel, that language is consistent with other passages. In 2 Thessalonians 1.8, "Inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." He says it again in 1 Peter 4.17, "For it is time for judgment to begin in the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will it be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Now, obedience and faith, at least in this context, is used interchangeably. He says in verse 16, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So clearly, Paul is using the term obey and believe interchangeably. Now, that doesn't mean that obey and faith is the same thing. Then we would be professing salvation by works, and we know that we don't believe that. Salvation is not by works. Paul has spent 10 chapters describing that salvation is not by works.

But what he does mean here is consistent with what he said before, that he who confesses that Christ is Lord, that he was buried and raised from the dead, he said he shall be saved. So genuine faith always leads to genuine fruit. Genuine faith leads to genuine fruit. It's not genuine faith and works that saves us.

It's genuine faith will require or will lead to genuine fruit. Now, that's not something deeply theological in Scripture. That's just common sense. That if you trust somebody, if you really trust somebody, and it's not just words, then you would entrust him with things. So if a friend asked me, "Hey, do you trust me with your money?" And he says, "Yeah, of course I trust you." "Well, let me hold on to it." "No." "Well, then do you trust me?" "Yes, of course I trust you." "Well, let me hold on to your money." "No." "Why not?" "I don't know.

I just can't let you." So the common sense would be, you say you trust me, but your actions say that you don't trust me. So that's not something deeply theological. That's just common sense. Only when it comes to Christianity have we made this disconnect between belief and life. So basically what Paul is saying is just common sense.

He's not saying that you need to work for your salvation. He's saying that if you genuinely do believe, that it would lead to a certain life. If you believe that this life is not it, it would change your anxiousness on all the things that are happening. That we would not live for tomorrow, but we would live for eternity, if that was our perspective.

If we knew that heaven and hell really existed, it would change our paradigm as to how we value things, what is important, what is not important. So that's all Paul is saying. And so in that, he is indicting the nation of Israel. He said that they heard the truth, but they did not respond.

They did not obey the gospel. It doesn't mean that if you genuinely believe the gospel, that you are all going to bear the same kind of fruit. Even in the seeds, it says some bore 30, some bore 60, some bore 100. So some are going to respond and bear a lot of fruit because of the faith that God's given them and some may have less faith and they're not going to bear as much fruit, but clearly there is fruit.

And that's all Paul is saying. And Paul's first indictment against the nation of Israel was there was no fruit. You may have confessed, but there was no genuine fruit. See, in the nation of Israel, some who heard didn't believe and were hostile toward Christ. So clearly they did not believe.

Some followed superficially and they followed as long as Jesus was performing miracles, passing out food and saying kind things to people, how he was going to deliver them from bondage and he was going to deliver people from captivity. And as long as he was saying these general things of deliverance, they loved him.

But when he began to indict them for their sins and he called them out for the hypocrisy and he began to say hard things and say, you know, I am the bread of life. You're coming to me looking so that I will feed you, that I will heal you.

But he said, I do all of these things to teach you that I came for a bigger purpose, to forgive you of your sins, to deliver you from your bondage. So there were a group of people who superficially seemed like they were following Jesus until Jesus disappointed them, that he wasn't quite the Messiah that they wanted.

And as soon as they realized that he wasn't that Messiah, they turned away. That happens in John chapter 6. The multitude who ate the fish and the bread as a whole just turned away and no longer walked with him. Now if you lived in a culture where Christianity, there was hostility toward Christianity, that would naturally weed some people out because it requires sacrifice to be a part of a community.

But that's the problem with a post-Christian culture, that you could harden your heart against God and you never said, I'm not going to follow Jesus. But in all practical purposes, that may have already happened in your heart, but we never leave the church. So the church is filled with followers of Jesus, people who are lukewarm, and people who have denied Christ.

But we're all inside the church, and only God is going to determine at the end who is and who is not. See, but the nation of Israel, at least at that particular time, they had no reason to follow Christ because there was hostility against Jesus. So if you continue to follow Jesus, you have to live with the consequences, that the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel is going to come after them too.

So as soon as they realized, this is not the Messiah I wanted, they quit and they fell apart. And then there was a group of people who actually did ministry with the apostles. They went and some of them even risked their lives. And yet Paul, at the end of his life, writing 2 Timothy, lists a group of people that are mentioned in the book of Acts.

Some of these men and women are mentioned in the book of Acts, and as Paul is sitting in prison, and it looks like he's actually going to die, and that if they continue to follow this path, that they may also have to give their life. And he says many of them love the world more than they love Jesus.

And so they went back home. That's how Paul describes them. Jesus describes them as a group of people, the third soil, that the concerns and worries of life choke out their faith, and then they eventually die. See, when Paul here, the first indictment against the nation of Israel was there was no fruit.

They didn't persevere. They disobeyed the gospel. But the second indictment against the nation of Israel was, well, maybe they didn't obey because they didn't hear. Maybe they didn't know. But the second indictment that he gives is that God pursued them with His Word through the prophets, but they did not repent.

He gave them every opportunity to repent. It wasn't like God sent prophets and they whispered in the wilderness. I always think about Jonah, you know, when he preached at Nineveh. He probably was the worst preacher that ever existed. I mean, that's my guess, because he didn't want them to repent.

Can you imagine somebody, you know, basically telling people to repent, and he doesn't want them to repent? You know, like when I prepare my sermon, I have to read it over and over again to make sure that you understand what I'm saying. So if I feel like, "Oh, I'm going to lose them here," and I go and review, and sometimes I review till late at night, and all with the intention of, "How do I get you to pay more attention?

How do I get you to respond to the Word of God?" But if I didn't care, and if I, in fact, if my motive was, "I don't want you to listen to me. I want the wrath of God to come upon you," man, that would be an easy sermon to prepare.

In fact, I wouldn't be preparing at all. I wouldn't be preparing at all. I just walk up here. Walk right up here and say, "Well, this is what God wants me to say." He says, "You know, if you don't repent, you're going to die." Then just walk off. I did my part.

You told me to tell them, I told them, and I—that was Jonah. See, but that was not the nation of Israel. Israel did not have a reluctant prophet. He says, "Faith comes from hearing, and the hearing of the Word of Christ." See, that was not the nation of Israel.

Over and over again, God sent prophets—Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel—over and over again. You have prophets before the fall. You have prophets during the fall. You have prophets after the fall. You have Moses. You have Elijah. You have Elisha. You have King David, handpicked by God. Everything about the nation of Israel was God constantly.

Even during the period of judges, they would sin. They would fall under judgment. They would cry out to God. God would have mercy. He would raise up a leader, and the leader would lead them to revival. Then as soon as they become comfortable, they forget God, and they began to—and this cycle was on and on and on.

So if you ever read the book of Judges, it's frustrating. It's like trying to teach a child who just will not listen. That's the nation of Israel, and they only pay attention when they get burned. That was nation of Israel. And yet, through hundreds and hundreds of Israel's history, years of Israel's history, God is pleading with them, sending prophet after prophet after prophet, pleading with them.

Nineveh had this reluctant prophet walking around saying, "If you don't repent, you're going to get judged. You're going to get judged." And the whole nation repents. But it says, "of the nation of Israel." Is it because they did not hear? Is it because the word of God was not clear?

Is it because God didn't send enough prophets or a prophet that was articulate? He says, "No, but I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and the words to the ends of the world." God's been speaking to this nation one after another, after another, after another, and after another.

In Amos chapter 3, verse 7, it says, "For the Lord God does nothing without revealing a secret to his servant, the prophet." In fact, in Ezekiel, when God is sending these prophets, Hosea, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, all these pre-exile prophets to warn them that because of your sins, the judgment of God is coming, and you're going to go into captivity.

Even in that context, Ezekiel 2, 4-5, it says, "The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. I send you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God,' and whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them." Now, Ezekiel, was he the only prophet?

Was he the first prophet? He comes from a line, a succession of many, many prophets. In fact, Jesus constantly says, "You are like your forefathers who killed the prophets." And every prophet that Jesus would send, or God would send, they are the ones who get targeted. They were the ones stoned.

They were the ones who were chased out of their city. And yet, in Ezekiel, before the judgment comes, you would think that God would throw up his hand and say, "You know, they have had every chance, and they still didn't listen." Instead, he sends another one. He sends another one.

And he says, "They probably aren't going to listen, but I'm going to send you to them anyway. I'm going to send them to them anyway so that they at least know that a prophet was among them." That even if they don't know when he is there, maybe after they go into captivity and the judgment actually comes, they can look back and say, "Wow, Ezekiel, he was speaking for God, not these false prophets.

Jeremiah was speaking for God. Isaiah was speaking for God. Hosea was speaking for God. Amos was speaking for God." And not only did God send them before the captivity, during captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, over and over again, Hosea. He says, "Is it because they did not hear? Is it because they did not understand?" No.

They had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. They had plenty of opportunity with God sending his prophets to get them to repent, and they would not. That was their second indictment. Third and finally, he said, "Even the salvation of Gentiles was not to reject them, but to provoke them to jealousy." Even after all of that, he says, his final call to them was, "Now I'm going to take this gospel, I'm going to take this truth, and I'm going to allow the Ninevites to come in.

I'm going to allow the other nations, the Gentiles, to come in." And he says, this is how it's described, verse 19, "But I ask, did Israel not understand? But Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation, and with a foolish nation I will make you angry.' Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me, and I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.'" He said he opened the door to the Gentiles to come in, not simply to use us to provoke them, but because he loved them.

So it wasn't that God was saying, "You know, I had enough." You would say, "You know, I had enough of you. How many times do I need to plead with you? How many times do I need to send the prophet and you kill my servants before I say enough with you?

I'm starting over with a new nation." He doesn't do that. So even as he goes to the Gentiles, he is hoping that the gospel going to the Gentiles will provoke them to repentance. So even as he is judging them, even as he is judging them, he is hoping that that will somehow arouse jealousy to bring you to repentance.

Those of you who have been studying through the book of Revelation with us, I mean, that's the theme over and over again, that we think about Revelation as judgment of God and hell and fire and disease and pestilence and war and rumors of war. And all of this is true, but if you pay very close attention to the outline of the book of Revelation, it's God is using every one of these provocative judgments, hoping that that will bring to repentance before the final judgment comes.

It isn't simply about the wrath of God. In fact, intertwined with all these wrath, it's God's grace. He's still being gracious. He's still giving time for them to repent. And so God is saying, what Paul is saying to the Romans, is that in every way, God is giving you opportunity.

So in Romans 10, 21, these Gentiles, who I did not give the same opportunity, these Gentiles that I did not seek, came and sought after me. But in verse 21, but of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held on my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

This whole section is an indictment against the nation of Israel. He starts out by saying, not all have obeyed the gospel. And then he concludes by saying, all day long, I've been holding my hands out to them. It wasn't because they didn't have opportunity. It wasn't because they didn't have the prophets.

Even in judgment, he was provoking them to jealousy, and they still would not return. All day long, I've been holding out my hand. Not one year, not two years, not 10 years, not 100 years, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, generation after generation after generation. God is still persevering with them.

So the natural question that anyone should ask, is God done with Israel? Has God put them away, and now he says, you know what, that's done with Israel, and now let's move on to the Gentiles. Is he done? The second part of verse 16, it says, they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed that he has heard from us? That passage is from Isaiah 53. How many of you guys know about Isaiah 53? Isaiah 53 is the clearest presentation of Christ's sacrifice and gospel in the Old Testament. This is where all like sheep have gone astray, each of us to his own way, but the Lord has placed on him an iniquity of us all, and you have the whole chapter.

And so a lot of the Jewish people who reject Christianity, they don't read Isaiah 53. In fact, I have a book of a testimony of a Jewish professor who became a Christian because he attended a Bible study that was happening to read through Isaiah 53, and he was angered because he said, you know, I'm a Jew.

Talk about Jesus is offensive to me. And then he said, we're not reading the New Testament, we're reading your Bible, the Old Testament. So he goes home and he finds out, he grew up a Jew all his life, reads Isaiah 53, and he comes to repentance. And I have a book in my office where he gives his testimony about that.

Isaiah 53 is the clearest presentation of the gospel. And so Paul is reading, or he is stating that passage in Isaiah 53 verse 1, and he begins, before he presents the gospel, he says, who will listen? In other words, the Jews aren't going to listen. They're not going to listen to this.

And they haven't. They've shut the door and they refuse to listen. In fact, many of the synagogues basically exist as if this passage does not exist. As one of my assignments as a seminary student years ago, my professor asked us to go attend a Jewish synagogue. So I went to a synagogue in LA with a group of my classmates, and their worship is a bit different.

A lot of our worship order came from the first century synagogue order, because that's where the first Christians came from. But their worship is a little bit different. They have a lot more singing, but it's not singing like us. You know, we sing songs like some artists, you know, wrote lyrics and we try to sing biblically sound, you know, lyrics and songs, but they actually just sing the Bible.

They will go to the Torah and then the rabbi would come and he would sing verbatim. And then the congregation would respond and read the next section verbatim. And then they would just have some intonations back and forth. And then the Jewish rabbi would come and he would give them maybe a five or six exposition, maybe his devotion.

Then after that, they would go and fellowship and just dance. Not a dance party, but like fellowship. They would, you know, the way we have fellowship, we're done with worship, they will go out and fellowship. But their fellowship is incorporated within their worship, and they would stand in a circle and just dance, you know, celebrating part of worship.

I thought that was really interesting. But they will never read this text because it would confuse a lot of Jews. So Isaiah begins the chapter by saying, who is going to listen to this? They already knew. God already knew that the Jews were going to harden their heart toward Christ and the gospel.

And so he quotes that passage, they did not obey the gospel. Who's going to listen to this? Is it because they did not hear? God's been sending out messengers to all the ends of the world. Is it because they did not understand? No, he opened the gospel to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.

All day long, he's been holding out his hand toward them, and yet they would not repent. Then the question is, why? If God knew, if God knew they were going to harden their hearts, why did he send Isaiah? Why did he send Ezekiel? Why did he go to the synagogues?

Why did he send these people? Why did he endure with them another three, four, five, six, 700 years? Isaiah 6, 9 through 12 records Isaiah's calling into ministry. And you guys know that passage well, where he's confronted by the glory of God. He falls down, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips, from a people of unclean lips, and God raises him up and he commissions him.

Who will go for me? And Isaiah says, "Here am I, send me." And then so God commissions him to ministry, and this is his commissioning to ministry. And it was always confusing to me. Like, why would God send and commission Isaiah if he's going to say this? And again, I know some of you guys know this passage, Isaiah 6, 9 through 12.

And he said, "Go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of the people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed." Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said, "Until cities lie waste without inhabitants and houses without people and the land is desolate waste and the Lord removes people far away and for forsaken places are many in the midst of the land." That was Isaiah's calling.

This would weed out the seminary real quick. "Here my Lord send me." So, okay, I want you to go for me. Okay, where do you want me to go? I want you to go over here. And they're not going to listen to you. They're not going to hear you.

They're going to call you a false prophet. They're going to run you out of town. Well, how long do you want me to be? Until judgment comes, they get taken away. I mean, they never turn? No. So, you want me to go and basically you're commissioning me to a group of people who are already judged and you want me to sacrifice my life, my family, to go and tell people that aren't going to listen.

How long? Until it actually happens. Why was he even looking for anybody? Why doesn't he just let them go? Why does he even tell them? It's going to happen anyway. Why does he even prophesy Isaiah 53 if Israel was not going to receive it and they're going to reject it?

You know, one of the saddest scenes in Israel's history is described in Ezekiel chapter 8 through 11, is where God's glory begins to leave the temple. And I think Dr. Harris did such a great job describing this scene of God's glory. Some of you guys may remember, a few of you may remember, I think it was about 12, 13 years ago he came and he was describing this glory of God and how in Ezekiel up to chapter 8, he describes why judgment is coming upon Israel.

Then after that, he begins to describe the progression of the glory of God leaving. It's almost kind of like if you read chapter 9, in particular 10 and 11, it almost sounds like if you've ever moved, you know how you pack your bags and put it in place and then you're ready and then when you're ready, you pick up your stuff and take it out to the living room?

And then from the living room, you take it out into the hallway, you know? And then from there, you take it downstairs or wherever you need to go, put it up on the truck. And that's the kind of scene that you see at the temple where God's glory with the cherubim and the creatures are basically getting ready and they're fixing to get ready and they go out to the threshold and then they hover there for a period.

And then from the threshold, they pack up their stuff and then they move out to the east gate and then they hover there for a period. And then from the east gate, they move out up to the mountain and they hover there for a period before he actually departs.

And I think Dr. Harris did such a great job and it was so convicting. He's almost like somebody who's leaving a home that doesn't want to go. That God is leaving his temple and his glory among people that he dearly loves. And he's packing his stuff up and he's at the threshold.

It's almost like God is sighing and waiting. That even then, if they would just repent. And then the creatures in the glory of God and the cherubim move out to the east gate and they sigh and they wait for a period. Almost kind of like, even then, if they would just repent.

And then he doesn't just take off, he would go out and he would hover over the mountain for a period looking over the temple in the nation of Israel. And Dr. Harris described the scene as God reluctantly leaving Israel. So the question, the natural question that we ask is, is God done?

Is God done with Israel? And that's exactly what Ezekiel asked in Ezekiel 11, 13. "Our Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Now that the glory of God has departed, are you done with Israel?" And God answers him in verse 16 and 17 of Ezekiel 11.

He says, "Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord God, though I removed them far off among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.'" Even as he is leaving, even as he is packing up, reluctantly going after sending hundreds and hundreds of years of prophets to get them to return, even as they stone them and chase them out of the city, and as they are going into captivity, Ezekiel asks, "Is this it?

All that you have done for us, is this the end? Will your glory leave us forever?" The simple answer is, "No, I'm not done. I'm not done with them." And that's the question that is asked in Romans chapter 11, the very next chapter. Ask then, "Has God rejected the people?

Has God rejected Israel? If this is what happened with Israel, if God has opened the door to the Gentiles, is he done with Israel?" And the answer is an emphatic, "By no means, by no means." Romans 11, 11 and 12. I asked them, "Did they stumble in order that they might fall?

By no means. Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean?" I want you to take a minute to think about what this is saying.

If their fall means salvation for the Gentiles, if they have become poor so that the Gentiles become rich, and God did all of this to provoke them to jealousy, what would it mean when Israel repents? You know what he's saying? God has not forsaken his people. As he rejoices over the Gentiles coming into his kingdom, if he rejoices and celebrates for every soul that repents and comes into the kingdom, what kind of celebration will there be in heaven when Israel that he loved for centuries after centuries, sent his prophets, that only God was sent as a Jew, what would it mean when they repent?

It's an expression of his love to these people. I don't know about you, I don't know about you, but has anybody ever pursued you like that? Maybe some of you guys have boyfriends who went out of their way, maybe they're romantic and they just, you know, bent over backwards, "Oh my gosh, I'm so touched," and you're in tears.

Has anybody pursued you like that? Anybody loved you like that? Anybody been patient with you like that? Anybody stayed with you like that? Even in the indictment against the nation of Israel, over and over again, why wouldn't you be done? Why are we even having this discussion? Why wouldn't they, why wouldn't he have been done with Ezekiel's prophecy?

Why wouldn't he have been done with Hosea's prophecies? Why wouldn't he have been done with Jeremiah's prophecies or Isaiah's or Daniel's? Why are we having this conversation again? Even after Jesus came himself, stood before them, and even after, not only the prophets but the Son of God that they crucified, even then, you would think if God was patient by killing the prophets, even after you killed his only begotten Son, you must be done now.

It must have finally, I mean, even God, you must have a patience that must run out at some point, and you would think that if it was going to run out, it would be with them crucifying your son, or you're done with Israel, and he doesn't just say, "I don't think so." He doesn't just say, "Maybe," or "Possibly." He says, "No, by no means, not even close." God's going to restore them.

Hebrews chapter 1, 1 and 2, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

As long as it is called today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. As long as God is gracious, as long as God speaks, as long as your ears are open, your hearts are soft, do not turn away from the Lord. As he was patient with Israel, God is patient with us." I want to encourage you.

Maybe some of you guys have been drifting away from God for so long, there's no feeling in your heart, you don't remember when you first came to Christ. Maybe you've been living and deliberately hardened your heart for so long because you didn't want to be obedient, and you've hardened your heart and hardened your heart and hardened your heart, and yet God is still talking to you.

God is still patient with you. As long as it is called today, as long as your repentance is genuine, as long as you cry out to God in sincerity, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us all our unrighteousness. I pray that every single one of us would recognize what it is that we have in Christ, that we may enter the throne of grace with confidence by the blood of Christ.

Will you take some time to pray with me as I invite the worship team to come? Amen.