Gentile Reinforcements (Part B)

All 12 tribes appear in that final chapter of Ezekiel in the millennial kingdom. You know, usually you know there's one left out. Maybe he doesn't mention Joseph because he mentions Manasseh and Eve from the sons of Joseph, but not in Ezekiel 38.

They're all there. And that is the hope of Israel. And that's what we're supposed to preach. And if you mess with the Jews as a people, you're messing with the apple of God's eye. Many Gentiles loved that he magnified his ministry. Oh, there's Titus, Epaphroditus, Onesiphorus, Onesimus, Philemon, Erastus, Trophimus.

Wait till we get to the end. Epaphroditus, Onesiphorus, Onesimus, Philemon, Erastus, Trophimus. Wait till we get to the end of Romans. He starts rattling off all these names of Gentiles. They're very grateful that he magnified his ministry. By that it was expanded beyond the Jewish people reaching the Gentiles. Many of the apostles remained amongst the Jews.

Well, some of them did, but not Paul. Jesus said to the woman at the well, you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Of course, he had a greater outlook than anybody, but there we see it after the resurrection of Christ and the birth of the church.

We still see this being carried out. Salvation is of the Jews. Our Old Testament flashes that constantly.

Salvation, that's where we're connected to them. There was a time if you wanted to know any truth about God, you had to find a Jew. And now it's gotten so supposed to be, now you've got to find a Christian, a true Christian. I magnify my ministry, something men and devils could not beat out of Paul.

They tried. Sticks and stones, scourges, shipwrecks, serpent, they tried to beat out of this man the desire to go forward with the gospel. I think every Christian should have a taste of this. Every Christian should have a taste of Satan trying to beat out of them the desire to go forward with evangelical Christianity, with doing the work of the Lord, with serving the Lord. The next time you feel like you want to give up in serving, understand, that's not coming from heaven, unless there's a rebuke to you, like God saying I need to get you out of serving before you infect other people.

Hopefully that's not the case. But when you feel like, man, you know, just, what's the point? As much as I serve, you know, somebody messes something up, another Christian. Well, what are you going to do? Play into Satan's hands?

He'll love that. He doesn't have to use a scourge or a shipwreck to knock Christians out of the fight. He just has to make them feel like they're being cheated, like it's hopeless, like what's the point? Yes, that applies to our Christian life also. But if all you have is a Christian life and there's really not much service coming out of it, you need to be challenged. You need to be challenged to serve a little bit more. And there are so many ways to serve. I mean, what about those who are bedridden? We can always use people who can pray.

Always we can use people like that. Read Psalm 25 and hear the psalmist just pretty much say to God, I can't stop praying to you. Verse 14, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. Again, he wanted to provoke them with truth, give them a taste for truth, not opinion.

Truth doesn't care about our opinions unless it matches the truth. He wanted them to desire the same relationship with God as their scriptures called for, as they were watching Gentiles being inspired. Well, if you're not excited about your faith, if you're not excited about your church, why would you expect anybody else to be? I mean, if you imagine a pastor coming up into the pulpit and not being excited about the truth, see, it's been privileged to share. If he got into the pulpit and said, Psalm 23, well, whatever.

I mean, who wants to be attracted to that? The one that steps up and says, I know my redeemer lives and I will see him and you're not taking that away from me, Satan, man, or anything else. And there are a lot of things that converge on our faith, personal struggles, health, other people, it just doesn't stop.

Well, make hell say that about you. This guy won't stop. They keep following hard after Christ. We've thrown depression at him, we've thrown failure at them, we've thrown confusion perplexed, cast down, not destroyed though. That's what gets things done for the kingdom. When he mentions here in verse 14, and save some of them. Well, that's, his objective was God's objective first.

That's where he got it from. He wrote in Romans 10, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Well, do I have anybody in my life that I am praying for more than one time a week, more than once a day? Is there someone in my life whose soul is on the train to hell that I can pray for? It's worth it, no matter how much time it takes.

Hell is betting you're going to give up if you don't see results. But the just should live by faith, not by sight. Verse 15, for if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Well, he's talking about an anti-Messiah people. They cast away the one whom their own scriptures singled out with extraordinary detail.

See, that's the catch right there. God didn't ask them to believe in fairy tales. He gave them hard evidence that we still use to this day. Reconciliation is supposed to be a big part of our ministry, 2 Corinthians 5, 19. What will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Well, that's called revival. When you see a church saying, we're having a revival, you have to ask them, are you bringing the dead back to life, you know, metaphorically?

Oh, what are you saying? Your congregation is dead? You're trying to revive them? This is true revival. I know what they mean by it.

I don't want to be too hard on them. I mean, there's a difference between an outreach and a revival when you use those words. To revive is to bring back to life, and he says here in verse 15, their acceptance will bring them to life from the dead. He knew this because he read his scriptures and he believed them. He knew end-time prophecies, especially that are found in Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah. They're so detailed, so informative about Messiah reigning in Jerusalem. Ezekiel ends his book, that 38th chapter of Ezekiel, and he's talking about the kingdom age.

He's leaving his listeners with, this is where we're going. All 12 tribes appear in that final chapter of Ezekiel in the millennial kingdom. You know, usually you know there's one left out. Maybe he doesn't mention Joseph because he mentions Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, but not in Ezekiel 38. They're all there, and that is the hope of Israel, and that's what we're supposed to preach. And if you mess with the Jews as a people, you're messing with the apple of God's eye, and it ain't going to go good for you.

It's going to go doubly bad for you. Well, verse 16, and we'll come back to some quotes for that in a little while. Verse 16, for if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

So he's going to use two illustrations to show that Israel's future is not over. Because again, back to the whole beginning of this, that God's people have God's word, they're not believers, what's up with that? Has God done with them? There are people that have made doctrines in Christendom that have just discarded the Jews, cast them away forever.

That didn't come from heaven. And there are those that gobble it up, and they're articulate, they're intelligent in their argument, they're wrong. They disagree with what the Bible teaches.

Clearly, at least it should be clearly to them. Anyway, the first one, for if the first fruit is holy, that first fruit is Abraham. The root will also be, and the branches will be the offspring.

The lump, that will be the offspring of Abraham. Paul is saying Abraham was selected by God, his descendants ultimately will also be accepted by God. Not talking about the Jews who are against the Lord, who have disbelieved, he's going to mention those branches being broken off. So he personifies the nation as a sacrificial offering and as an olive tree. All of that ties into their scripture, to their Old Testament. Every point he makes, he ties to scripture, not just Paul's opinion, not some clever argument. He always has, as a basis, as a foundation, the word of God.

They are set apart to a position of privilege with God as a people. The lump refers to the harvest. So the first fruit, that's, you know, so let's just say it's wheat harvest. You take a sheaf from that harvest, you take it to the temple, you offer it to the Lord.

You say thank you, Lord, as a token of your understanding that God didn't have to bless you. And that the rest of the harvest, that's his too. But he's letting you keep it. And that's the lump that he is referring. The rest of the harvest is the lump. Meaning, when God accepts the part, he sanctifies the whole thing. Numbers, chapter 15, you shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering, as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it. And that's what Paul is getting this metaphor from.

He's making this analogy. He says, you know, you are this offering to the Lord as a people. God is not done with you. He will make good on his promises to Abraham. And you are his descendants. And you Gentiles, you better be watching this, because if you get uppity on the whole thing, you're going to get you too. That's the verses we read as we stood and read.

That's what he's talking about. Now, he also probably has in mind Jeremiah 2.3. Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the firstfruits of his increase. All that devour him will offend, disaster will come upon them, says the Lord. Do you hear me, Gaza? You're messing with Israel, you're going to be devoured.

And if not in this life, in the one to come that you're going to miss out on. All that devour him will offend, disaster will come upon them, says Yahweh, Jeremiah 2.3. And it's not the only place. One of the reasons why we love Israel. And if the root is holy, now this is his second, the first was the firstfruits, the lump being the harvest, being the people, representing the people. Paul again saying, God's not done with his people. He goes all the way back to Abraham, and he's not going to walk away from that promise. Here, the root, again, is Abraham. Now you could say, well, Jesus is the root. Of course, Jesus is always the ultimate.

But that's not how he's applying this. And even when he uses the branches here. Well, Christ is the branch of Jesse, but that's not how he's applying it here. The root is Abraham, the friend of God. Mainly connecting all this to Genesis 12, verse 13. Abraham, in the sense that he is the source of human life for the Jewish people, the chosen people, distinct from all the nations, and they are very distinct from all the nations.

Balaam is one of the first to point that out. And he was a Gentile. He was a prophet. He became an apostate.

And he's judged and doomed now. So if the root is set apart, so are the branches. They belong together, which is his point.

Gentiles will be grafted into these branches, and they don't belong. But they're going to be received, and this goes against nature. He's very careful to point out a little horticulture knowledge when he starts using this metaphor. He does not want his metaphor to fail because he misapplied something. You can't say something like, I don't know, steering a train as a metaphor. Well, trains have rails. You don't steer them.

They go on the rails. So someone could pick that apart in your metaphor. Well, he's not giving them that shot.

So he's going to cover his bases very well. God accepted the founder of the nation, Abraham, and the patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, and then the people. God also accepted the people, the lump, the rest of the harvest, and the branches, the offspring of Abraham. Verse 17, And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree. Well, the broken branches here in verse 17 refers to ethnic Jews who did not accept Christ, disbelievers. Jesus introduced this type of imagery in John 15 when he talked about, I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Without me, you can do nothing of yourself. He talked about pruning off the branches that weren't bearing fruit. When God prunes, it's not very pretty at first.

He prunes a church. A good church gets pruned. It cuts out that which is not fruitful, and it's ugly for a while. Then the fruit comes in, and you forget that you even did it. Hopefully, if you prune a shrub or something too much, you're probably going to kill it.

So you have to know what you're doing. Well, God is the vine dresser. He knows what he's doing when he does the pruning. So where unfruitful branches were pruned, so fruitful branches can thrive. That's why you prune.

They're taking up energy and blocking suddenly to get them out of the way. He uses the olive tree, and the olive tree's unfruitful natural branches replaced with other branches. So we're going to keep that as a cliffhanger so you don't fall asleep. You keep waiting to get to that horticulture point that backs up his metaphor, which comes toward the end. Anyway, of course I might be impatient and get to it faster, but he says here in verse 17, And you being a wild olive tree, now that's the Gentiles.

You've got to keep up with them, right? Grafting a living branch or a shoot of a wild olive into a cultivated olive to rejuvenate it. That's his imagery. Israel is the olive tree. They need to be rejuvenated concerning their Messiah as a people.

They're not getting it. Bring in that wild olive to bring life. Now don't forget, we've got a horticulture point.

Say horticulture, it's fun. Anyway, we'll get to that. He wants the abundant harvest God does. And he has to reinforce his believers and he's doing it with Gentiles because the Jewish people have overall become disbelievers. Paul knows the process is contrary to nature and therefore is a miracle.

And he's going to say that when we finish up. He says we're grafted in among them. They entered into a relationship with God, the God of Abraham, who is the root, the Jewish people, the branch.

The Gentiles grafted in shoots or branches. He talked about this kind of thing in Romans 4 in verse 11 and he says, And with them became a partaker of the root, the fatness of the olive tree, equal access to God. Gentile Christians are not second-class Christians to messianic Christians. I've met some messianic Jews and some of them are like, Well, I'm a messianic one, get back there. It doesn't work that way.

Anyway, you want to bring somebody down to earth, you just flatten it car tires. The Gentile does not become a Jew, nor does the church become the nation of Israel. And verse 18 now, Do not boast against the branches, but if you do, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. So he says to the Gentile Christians, who might be getting a little uppity, watching themselves, starting to love the scripture and the Messiah and see all these Jews not doing it, he says you should know your roots as Christians, how God set this up. He's warning them against what we call anti-Semitism. Zechariah 2.8, For thus says Yahweh of hosts, He sent me after glory to the nations, now that's the messianic part, which plunder you, for he who touches you touches the apple of my eye. Those who are messing with Israel are messing with God, to his face.

And it will end tragically for them. I don't have the list in front of me of all the nations who were once superpowers in the world, who are no longer superpowers in the world. Look at the Ottoman Empire.

They were rotten through and through anyway. Any idea of turning against the Jewish people can never be biblically justified. It never means we support sin, the sin of a Jew or anybody else. But as peoples go, we know that anti-Semitism is something that has a sole source manufacturer.

The original equipment manufacturer of anti-Semitism is hell, Satan, every time. He can't stand the Jewish people. As Christians, we're not supposed to despise any particular people, but especially the Jew. That doesn't mean we have to like their music or their wardrobe or their cuisine. I'm not crazy about Jewish food.

Hummus is okay, to a point, but I'd rather Italian food. It's not anti-Semitic, it's not against them. I'm not trying to embrace their culture. But I know who they are and I know where they're going. And I know what's going to happen to their enemies. And I side with God. Israel is now God's time clock. And it is one of the greatest single sources that verifies your scripture as being from the hand of God. That Israel is a nation.

So the next time you get doubts in your head, I want to get the Bibles through. Because there's a lot of people out there, don't know what they're talking about. And that doesn't stop them from talking about it. And you know, they think they know all the arguments.

And it's just a very simple comeback. Number one, you are a sinner and you are accountable and you know it. And the only way you don't know it is if you lie to yourself and then lie to me. And number two, you can't explain Israel's presence unless you come to the scripture.

Their entire existence, their survival, and their future. The only place that calls it like it is, is God's word. Anyway, verse 19. You will say then, branches were broken off that I might be grafted in, verse 20, well said.

Because of unbelief they were broken off. And you stand by faith. Do not be haughty but fear. And so he's thinking now, he's addressing the Gentiles. He's addressing the Gentiles and the Jews back and forth in front of each other.

They're getting all the same information. He's not saying, well don't tell the Jews, but then. So he says, yep, disbelieving Jews are branches broken off. That was their choice. Remember it's a metaphor.

It runs parallel but it's not absolute. They are removed from Messiah's work to this day. So personifying Israel to make his point, showing that God's mercy is not random. His judgment is not random, it's attached to disbelief.

His favor is not random, it's attached to faith. Disbelief has temporarily forfeited their role, but not their destiny. Romans 9, he said, why? Because, speaking of their unbelief and their loss of position. Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. Well they stumbled at the stumbling stone and that is Christ.

He would not receive Christ over the law, even though he was pointed out in the law. He says, and you stand by faith, do not be haughty. Faith, not self-importance, don't blow it, he's telling them, but fear. Biblical humility, that's born of awe for God and not for self. That's biblical humility.

It's not self-impressed, God-impressed. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you in due time. Well, you get to that by faith. Verse 21, if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either. Wake up call, God can also judge the Gentiles. And he's going to judge the Gentile apostate church. We've covered that already, so I won't take any more time with that. He says he may not spare you either. Don't be a presumptuous Christian.

Paul singles out individuals and groups on the subject of arrogance. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick, we'll be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.