Expound: Romans 11 - Part C

Have you ever said, God, I don't know why you would do that. I think you should have done this, Lord.

Now, Lord, a smart move for you to make would be this. You've offered God your counsel. You've thought God has made a mistake in certain cases in your life. But because God operates on such a different ability with His cognizance, you know, who has known the mind of God?

We often try to make sense of God's plans, but His ways are higher than our own. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shows you how Israel's history points to God's existence and incredible sovereignty. But first, did you know that Skip often shares important updates and biblical encouragement on social media? To be sure you get the latest from him and this ministry, just follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Find him by searching at Skip Heitzig. That's at Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Now, we're in Romans chapter 11 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. I always find it an interesting phrase when Paul tells us that we shouldn't be ignorant of something because I've discovered that is precisely the area where many of us Christians are so ignorant. Hey, I don't want you to be ignorant about the coming of the Lord. There's a lot of confusion about that. Hey, I don't want you to be ignorant about how this Jew-Gentile thing works. There's a lot of ignorance about this. So when he says that, it's because it's an area that can be complex and has to be sort of unwound and examined and put back together. So I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, musterion, a Greek word that means something that was not understood, not put forth in the Old Testament, but now has been revealed in the New.

That's generally how the word is used. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that hardening in part—or again, some translations say blindness in part—has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. So notice verse 25. Blindness or hardness in part has happened to Israel. We know that.

We've established that. They rejected their Messiah. God set them aside temporarily. Jesus said, you don't see it. You're blind to it.

You're hardened to it. But there's a time frame until Jewish people—generally speaking, there's always a remnant. There's always a blessed exception to the rule. And I love seeing a Jewish person come to faith in Yeshua, Jesus as Messiah. But the general rule, Israel nationally, blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. The fullness of the Gentiles means the full number of the Gentiles.

Most translations that are more modern than this, we'll put that in there. Until the complete number of the Gentiles or the full number of the Gentiles be come in. So once again, Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah. It caused persecution of the early church in Jerusalem. Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was led to the house of a soldier named Cornelius in Caesarea, a Gentile, whose prayers were heard, whose alms had come up before God as a memorial. Peter was on a rooftop, and around noon he saw the vision of a sheep being let down from heaven with all sorts of un-kosher meats and four-footed animals and everything not cool for a Jew to eat. And God said, Peter, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter said, I'm not going to do what you just said. He said, no way.

I'm not going to do it. I'm kosher. I'm Jewish.

I've never had anything common or unclean. And God said, what I have cleansed you shall not call common. And he was preparing Peter for what was about to happen. He said, there's men that are going to be knocking on the door. When they come to the door, don't ask questions.

Just go with them. He goes to the house of Cornelius. He says, look, you guys know that I'm a Jew. This is Peter speaking. I can't go into the house of a Gentile. You guys know that, right?

It's like un-kosher, unclean, uncool. I'm paraphrasing. But the Lord sent me here, so here I am.

What is it you have? What do you want to know? So he said, you know, Peter began then to preach the gospel to him. Cornelius believed, and Cornelius was the first Gentile convert in the church. It created a huge stir in Jerusalem, so that by Acts chapter 15, this council gets together of church leaders, and Peter stands up and says, now you guys know that the Lord shows me to be the guy to open up the door to the Gentiles. I went to Cornelius, and you know that God chose to make the word of the gospel known to them.

You know that. And so they were conferring, what do we do going forward in terms of laying burdens on Gentile believers who come to faith in our Messiah? So, that's Cornelius.

He was the first one. Since then, millions of Gentiles, including probably, how many of you tonight in this room are non-Jewish? Raise your hand. Raise your hand up. Okay, put your hands down.

How many of you are Jewish? Raise your hands. Okay, there's just a sampling. You don't have to be ashamed.

Raise it up high, nice and high. So, I'm counting one, two, three. See, you guys are the remnant, as far as this chapter is concerned. But blindness in part has happened into Israel until the full number of Gentiles become in. So, God has chosen a, God knows there's a certain number of non-Jewish people who during this age the church age are going to come to believe in the Jewish Messiah. And when that number is full, and only He knows it, at that point, the day of grace, the age of grace, the church age will be over, the rapture of the church will take place, and the last period of world history, known as Daniel's 70th week, will take place. In case you don't know about Daniel's 70th week, Israel as a nation has always been the prophetic timetable in scripture. Daniel the prophet was given a vision in chapter 9 of that book. And the angel said to Daniel, Daniel, 70 sets of seven, sets of seven, 77s, are determined for your people and for your holy city Jerusalem. From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah the prince shall be 483 years.

And I've shared with you that great work of Sir Robert Anderson who computed that. That from the exact date that was given by Artaxerxes Longimonus to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, to build the wall, to build the streets, was March 14th 445 BC. He counted how many years until Jesus the Messiah which was April 632 AD. And he found not only was it 483 years, but it was to the exact date 173,880 days after the commandment was given by Artaxerxes until Jesus stepped foot on the Mount of Olives and presented himself as their Messiah. No wonder Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said, if only you had known the things that make for your peace in this your day, but they are hidden from your eyes.

You didn't know the time of your visitation. You should have known that. That's what Daniel predicted. So 69 of those sevens have been fulfilled from the time of Artaxerxes to the presentation of Jesus on the Mount of Olives. 483 years. But the angel said 70 sevens. 483 years is 69 of those sevens. There's still a final seven-year period. A seven-year period we call the tribulation.

First half is more mild. The middle part is the abomination of desolation. The last three and a half years is the great tribulation period. That seven-year period is Daniel's 70th week when the full number of Gentiles is come in. That is when non-Jewish people, the full number that only God knows, come to faith in Christ. When that number is hit, the rapture happens.

The church age is over. God again then turns to deal with Israel in restoring Israel to her God through the tribulation period. So that by the end of the tribulation period, Israel, those alive, will come to faith in Jesus. They'll come to faith. They'll come to believe in Jesus as a nation set aside temporarily, restored, regathered in the end times.

Blindness has happened to Israel. Hardening in part has happened to Israel till the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so verse 26, look at this, all Israel will be saved. The deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Now this phrase, all Israel, is not used diachronically, meaning all Jews of all time saved.

It is used here synchronically. That is, all of the Jews alive at that period of time, the end of times. During that time, that 70th week of Daniel, the seven-year period of the tribulation, we know that 144,000 Jewish evangelists sealed by God, will be witnessing not only to the nation, but to the world. We know that God will send two witnesses to Jerusalem, I believe Moses and Elijah, who will perform great wonders. Many of the hearts of the people will come back, will believe that Jesus is the Messiah during that time. And I want you to hear about the turning back in Zechariah, chapter 12. Now I'm reading Zechariah, chapter 12, verse 9. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me whom they have pierced, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his own son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad, Rehmon, in the plain of Megiddo, and the land shall mourn every family, etc. And then it goes on to talk about their salvation. Now think back to when Jesus stood in the temple in Matthew 23, and said, you will not see me here again until you cry, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When will that day be? As predicted by Zechariah, chapter 12, when there is a mourning, a sudden recognition, we've blown it. He is the Messiah.

He is the pierced one. He is the one we rejected, and they will turn to him. And so at that time, all those survivors of the world, at that time, all those surviving of Israel will be saved, all of them. God will restore his people. God will fulfill his promise to the Jewish nation after that period of time.

By the way, a little clue. In Jeremiah, chapter 30 and 31, it talks about the future time of tribulation, but it goes under a different moniker. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble. The time of Jacob's trouble.

Jacob is another name for Israel. The Jewish people will experience great trouble. I commend to you the last part of the book of Daniel, chapter 12. It talks about great trouble that will happen to the Jewish nation during a tribulation period, especially to the Jewish people. It'll be a great time of testing, great time of trouble, but the end result is that all the Jews at that time will be saved. The Deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

So the blindness is lifted. Concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Boy, I'm barely going to finish chapter 11.

I'm glad I camped on just one. Concerning the Gospel, they, the Jewish people, are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Now let me unpack that a little bit. Concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Rejecting Jesus, turning away from their Messiah, thereby becoming your enemies. They were the enemies of so many of those believers in the New Testament book of Acts. As hard as that was, it was a benefit and a blessing because it opened the door of faith to them.

So concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Concerning election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. The temporary blindness benefits us, but God has made a promise to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and part of the covenant that God promised Abraham is called the Abrahamic Covenant. God promised Israel the land that is Israel today. It's a land promise.

It's also known in Deuteronomy as the, it's called the Palestinian Covenant, or that land was given to the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the twelve tribes. For the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet now you have obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy.

For God has committed them all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. Oh, the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. There's a great story about a Prussian king named Frederick the Great, who doubted scripture and said to his court chaplain, well show me some proof.

What can you, what can you show me that proves the inspiration of the Bible? And the chaplain looked at his king and he said, your majesty, I can sum it up in one word, the Jew. The Jew, your majesty. It's the Jew. The survival of the Jews. The promise God made to the Jews. That's what Paul would offer here.

The Jew, God's elected, selected, protected group of people. For, verse 34, who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor? I can answer that. You have. You don't know his mind, but you've become his counselor, right? Have you ever said, God, I don't know why you would do that. I think you should have done this, Lord. Now, Lord, a smart move for you to make would be this. You've offered God your counsel.

You thought God has made a mistake in certain cases in your life. But because God operates on such a different ability with his cognizance, you know, who has known the mind of the Lord. David said in Psalm 139, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.

I cannot attain it. So, we're dealing with God, who has known the mind of the Lord. No one, except him, who has become his counselor. The answer should be no one. 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. In closing, if you were to study Jewish history, and you should, if you studied Jewish history, and you don't believe in miracles, you are not a realist. If you look at Israel nationally, and you discover what other nation, after 400 years of slavery, after 2,000 years of dispersion, after two total destructions, after multiple deportations, after tribal divisions, and a holocaust, not only survived, but came back into a land that they had not inhabited for 2,000 years.

What other nation comes even close to that? Back to that 1911 prediction, or that little quip in Encyclopedia Britannica, yeah, you know, the odds of that language ever being revived are about as remote as Israel ever getting their land back again. Fact check, they got their land back, and they speak Hebrew in it. So, Paul said, has God set aside Israel? No, and I'm proof.

I'm one, but there are others. Now, we are just a remnant, but we won't always be a remnant. In the end, at the end of days, God will save the nation of Israel. And so, it says all Israel will be saved. It all really comes down to choice for us.

God has his plan. Paul said God is sovereign. But in terms of us interacting with God, we have a choice to make. Jew or Gentile, Jew or Gentile, we can be part of the covenant or not. We can say yes to him or not.

We can enjoy the eternal blessings or not. You remember that last, I think it was the last Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was that the last of those films? That wasn't? Well, oh, you remember that that wasn't?

Oh, okay, what was? So, okay, that's right, Crystal Skull. That has nothing to do with my Bible, so I don't know why I'm asking it. Except to say, at the end of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade one, which is where they are looking for the Grail of Christ, right? The Grail is protected by one of the temple knights in a cave somewhere, but it's actually in Petra, Jordan, where it's filmed. And do you remember the film? Do you remember when Indiana Jones comes in and then the Nazis there, and there's all these different chalices, and the knight says to both the Nazi and Indiana Jones, choose wisely. Because as the real Grail has the power to give life, the false Grail has the power to take life from you.

Remember that? So the Nazi picks this golden chalice and drinks water out of it and he disintegrates. And I love it because the old knight turns to Indiana Jones and says, he chose poorly, after he was disintegrated. So Indiana Jones looks through all of the cups and sees this old clay one, he goes, that looks like the cup of a carpenter.

And he drinks from it, it's the right one. And the knight says, you chose wisely. I don't want to make light of it, but too many people, when it comes to the things of God, we would say, they chose poorly. But if you come to the Jewish messiah, given to the Jewish nation, but offered to anyone who will believe, you choose wisely. And even though Israel is presently in unbelief, one day they will not.

One day they will mourn, one day they will acknowledge, one day they will see, one day they will believe. And all Israel will be saved. And so God still has a future plan for Israel. And all you have to do is read the rest of the Bible, because not only will 144,000 believe, not only will two witnesses share the gospel, but in the millennial kingdom, Jesus will rule and reign from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, in the new heaven and the new earth. After that, there's new Jerusalem, and there's 12 gates with the names of the 12 tribes. So God still is working with, into the future, the plan he has for Israel. The plan he announced to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He has not set them aside. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series Expound Romans. Right now, we want to share about a great resource that will help you engage even deeper in your Bible study times. Guinness World Records has again confirmed that the Bible is the best selling book of all time.

Research puts the number at up to 7 billion, and portions of scripture have been translated into nearly 3,500 different languages. But there's a big difference between having access to God's word and allowing it to change your life. Listen to this about practical Bible study from Skip Heitzig.

Observation must lead to interpretation, which must lead to application. As somebody once put it, if you want the meat, it's in the street. It's where you take the Bible truths and you put shoe leather on them.

It's where the rubber meets the road. You do what Jesus said. We want to increase the effectiveness of your personal Bible study with Skip Heitzig's book, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It. This practical guide is our way of thanking you when you give $25 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. Get your copy today and take the mystery out of studying scripture.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how the Lord works powerfully in you when you wholly devote yourself to Him. I do think it's good from time to time to review the mercies of God in your own life, to stop and think of how God has taken the moments, the relationships, the decisions, the mistakes and woven them together in perfection to bring you to where you are. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.