Age of the Gentiles (Part A)

They had been in captivity, they were brought back to their land by God, but they remained subject to the Medo-Persian Empire at that time. They built no palace for a king, but they built a temple for God. They had no throne for a king, but they had an altar for God.

Spiritually, they were still the light of the world, but no longer, secularly, were they in control of their destiny, as in the days of King David. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Romans chapter 11 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Romans chapter 11 verses 25 through 27.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of the mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness, in part, has happened to Israel until fullness of the Gentiles has come, and so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 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 their sins away.

Please be seated. The age of the Gentiles, that's what we have before us this morning. Once upon a time, the Jews controlled their land, they had their temple to worship, they had the light of the world. For over 2,500 years, the Jews, however, have lost that privilege, and they have been under Gentile supremacy. It is even demonstrated today in Israel as they are at war with the demons of Gaza.

The United States has dispatched aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean Sea. This demonstrates that God is going to take care of Israel, but without that support, Israel would not be able to stand. And that's why God, of course, is protecting Israel and using Gentiles to do it. Without the Gentiles, they would not be back in the land, and they would not be able to hold onto the land. This is the work of the Lord. For almost 2,000 years, Gentiles, not Jews, have been the spiritual light of the world.

I don't know if you see what I'm saying. The Jews once were independent, they were safe in their land, they had their kingdom, they had the scriptures and the temple, they held the truth, and it's all gone. They are back in the land, but still dependent upon Gentiles to some degree to remain there. They're no longer the light bearers of God's word. That has fallen to the Gentiles of the church. Two facts that belong to the age of the Gentiles, which we are now living in.

Secularly and spiritually, the Jews aren't what they used to be. And this is what Paul is talking about. One thing you get from this apostle Paul, there are many things, but one that stands out is the stability of his ministry. And you ask yourself, why was he so stable in all that he did with the churches all over that Gentile Roman Empire? It's because of his knowledge of the scripture and his application of what he knew. And he wanted others to not be ignorant, but come into the knowledge, into the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. And so he starts off this 25th verse, addressing the Gentiles mainly, because this church in Rome was Jew and Gentile. And he says, for I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Ignorance is harmful and mishandled knowledge is destructive. I'm not sure that a lot of adult Christians get that. Paul, writing to a pastor, said to him that there were those always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Why? Why were they always learning and never doing what they were supposed to do with what they were exposed to? And that's in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 7. What baited Eve to stumble, to disobey God? Knowledge. One of the big things. Genesis 3, 6, she saw a tree desirable to make one wise.

She took of its fruit and ate. Learning, but not obeying. Hosea, the prophet, said of the people of God, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Well, Paul is saying, I want you to know these things, Gentiles in the church. Lest you be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel. I want you to understand the times that you live in, which were for them, again, the times of the Gentiles.

We'll come to all of that. Lest you should be wise in your own opinion. Well, self-flattering pride spoils our faith. Romans, chapter 1, Paul wrote, professing to be wise, they became fools.

So I have to watch out for that booby trap. I can become a fool by puffing up with knowledge. As he wrote to the Corinthians, knowledge puffs up. Love edifies. Beware of a smug self-esteem, which disguises self-love for Christ-like love.

It's very sneaky. It's very helpful to pursue humility in Christ. James says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Well, that makes it easy for us to understand what's expected of us and what is the right way to take through this Christian life. Now, he mentions here the mystery. Well, the church is the mystery. Undisclosed to the Old Testament writers, they had no knowledge of the church. Now revealed through the New Testament writers, which is what Ephesians is about, Ephesians 3 particularly.

We'll take a part. Ephesians 3, verse 6, the Gentiles, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel. This now brings the Gentiles into the church, and it makes it radically different from what the synagogues were doing because these Gentiles did not have to become Jewish.

A big problem in those early days. And all of them, Jew and Gentile alike, accountable to Christ. Romans 2, verse 16, God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Well, what's with all the cross-referencing?

We've probably done about seven of them already. We learned this from those in the Scripture. We learned this from the Holy Spirit's work in people of God in the Bible. Paul is going to rattle off Scripture after Scripture to support, to say, this is the basis of what I'm teaching you, the prophetic word of God. And so, I think it is right to imitate that, to follow that.

Paul said, imitate me as I imitate the Lord. That blindness in part has happened to Israel, he says. Well, this blindness began when they plotted to kill Jesus. So in part, since it lasts only through the church age, then Israel will be restored. Those privileges he once had will be regained. But not during the church age, and not until the fullness of the Gentiles is complete, not in the time of the Gentiles which we are now in.

And I get back to those, both of those. He says, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. This word, until, is the guarantee that things are going to change for the Jew. The Jew will regain spiritual favor. The date is on God's calendar, as he has demonstrated in the past with prophecies.

Genesis 15, 16, Galatians 4, 4, if you want to reference, cross-reference, how God's calendar does work. So the transition begins from the Gentile age into the restoration of Israel when the two witnesses, the two Jewish witnesses, spoken of in the book of Revelation, when they come onto the scene during the Great Tribulation period, then the 144,000 Jews along with them, then Israel will be saved. But this fullness of the Gentiles is not to be confused with the times of the Gentiles.

They are two different things, though similar expressions. First came the times of the Gentiles. Jesus said in Luke 21, Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Well, when did that start? It started with King Nebuchadnezzar, 586 years, give or take, before the coming of Christ, when Jerusalem was trodden down by the Babylonian army. First he came and he besieged Jerusalem and they surrendered to him, and then they resisted again. He came a second time with his armies and besieged Jerusalem and they surrendered to him, and then the third time in 586 BC, they again rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the armies came and they completely destroyed Jerusalem, and they destroyed the Temple of Solomon also, and that began the period during which Jerusalem fell under Gentile power completely.

And it continues until the return of Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation period, when he visibly takes the throne. When the exiles returned from the Babylonian captivity some 70 years after the destruction of the Temple, when they returned to the Promised Land during the days of Zerubbabel and then later Ezra, as recorded in the Book of Ezra, they did not re-establish their kingdom. They had been in captivity, they were brought back to their land by God, but they remained subject to the Medo-Persian Empire at that time. They built no palace for a king, but they built a temple for God.

They had no throne for a king, but they had an altar for God. Spiritually they were still the light of the world, but no longer secularly were they in control of their destiny, as in the days of King David, for example. Times of the Gentiles continues again until Christ returns, but the times of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Gentiles, there's a difference between the two. The political dominance of Gentiles over Jerusalem and Jerusalem's land, this is the time of the Gentiles. But the fullness of the Gentiles, as used here by Paul, has to do with the spiritual ascendancy of the Gentiles.

The Gentiles coming into the church, the Gentiles becoming the light of the world, the Gentiles having missions and places of worship, according to the Jewish Messiah, who is our Christ. So after Israel outdid all their previous sins against Yahweh by plotting, murdering, blaspheming, rejecting, and crucifying Christ, after that, when they rejected his finished work on the cross, the ongoing work of the church to the Holy Spirit, they forfeited their spiritual supremacy, 500 years after they lost their secular supremacy. Resisting the Holy Spirit is especially documented, resisting the Holy Spirit by them, is especially documented in the book of Acts and also in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

It's elsewhere too, but those two are more pronounced. God then postponed the nation's spiritual privilege. Increasingly in the book of Acts, the emphasis is on the Gentiles. Since Pentecost, it just continues to move towards the Gentiles. It's not long before Antioch and Corinth and Ephesus and Rome passed Jerusalem as the centers of spiritual influence on the earth.

Then in 70 AD, Roman soldiers raised Jerusalem again to the ground, their second temple, which was started by Zerubbabel, expanded by the Herod's, and then destroyed by the Romans. And after the Romans destroyed the second Jewish temple, all appearances of Jewish spiritual authority in the church vanished. The fullness of the Gentiles thus refers to the spiritual blessing that God put upon the Gentiles. Peter and Paul and James all attest to this. Acts chapter 15, Peter said, God made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

And then later when Paul is in Rome and he's trying, he's preaching to the Jews and they reject him, he said, therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. We have been watching this in history, this transition from the Jews to the Gentiles, but it will flip back, but we shouldn't be here for that. So the fullness of the Gentiles is the church age versus the times of the Gentiles, which they do belong together, but the times of the Gentiles precedes the fullness of the Gentiles to the church by 500 years.

But both are still in effect. We're still in the times of the Gentiles. The Jews do not have absolute control as they may appear, they don't. And then the church, the fullness of the Gentiles continues until the rapture of the church. The times of the Gentiles will continue, but not the fullness. When the church saves its last soul, there's no more use for the church she's taken out. Antichrist then comes into power. Once the church saves the last soul, maybe you can get saved, we can all get out of here.

That's the idea. The apostate church will remain and it will be more Christless than ever. So when the rapture comes, not all those who are churchgoers will go with the Lord, just born again those who pursue obedience according to his word. Then God will again begin to bless souls through Israel, the two witnesses, the 144,000s of Jewish evangelists preaching God's word. The Jews will evangelize Gentiles and Jews also. But for now the church is the light of Christ, not the Jews as a people. There are Jews who are Christians that are in part of the times of the Gentiles, they're part of the church. There is also a fullness of Israel that he mentioned in verse 12.

So there is going to be a completion of things. There's a plan that God has and he is carrying it out. Once upon a time, if God had anything to say, he said it through a Jew, with the exception of Job. If God spoke to men, he spoke in Hebrew.

Very rare exceptions to that. There are some in the book of Ezra, for example. After Pentecost, God began to speak in Greek through his servants, a Gentile language, because now we're in the times of the Gentile, which is the time of the fullness of the Gentiles, which is the church age. Past 2,000 years, primarily, if a Jew wanted to know their Messiah, they had to come through the Gentile church. Even if a Jew saves a Jew, there's this great influence of the Gentile believer, because who preserved the New Testament? Who publishes the New Testament? Whose commentaries are they reading to learn more about their own Messiah? This is not against the Jew.

This is just how things are. Verse 26, he continues, and so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The Deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Yeah, after the times of the Gentile, this will take place, not in the church age.

All Israel here does not refer to all the Jews that have ever lived. Many of those Jews are judged and doomed. Only those Jews who, this is referring to, those Jews who are alive at the end of the Great Tribulation period, they will all be saved.

Zechariah is one of the main Old Testament sources for that statement that Paul is making. So there are three aspects of Christ's second coming. The rapture of the church, the judgment of the nations, Great Tribulation period, and Israel's Deliverer, the return of Christ. So when Paul says in verse 26, so all Israel will be saved, he's talking about the return of Christ and he says, as it is written, which is the New Testament, the New Testament way of saying, thus says the Lord. The majority of Jews will perish in the Great Tribulation period.

We think it's bad now, it's going to get worse for them because they're going to buy into Antichrist. And at the return of Christ, the surviving remnant will be converted. Zechariah 12, verses 10 through 14. And so all Israel will be saved. A scriptural fact, the Deliverer, he says here in verse 26, will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Well that confirms, verse 25, all Israel being saved. This now is the millennial age and all the Jews will be believers then. Paul is quoting Isaiah 59, verses 20 through 21, plus some other parts of scripture.

He's just rattling them off. Isaiah 59, verse 20, the Redeemer will come to Zion, Isaiah speaking, God through him, and to those who turn from transgression. And Jacob says, Yahweh, as for me, says Yahweh, this is my covenant with them, my spirit who is upon you and my words which I put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants says Yahweh from this time and forevermore. All Israel will be saved. And the Deliverer here, of course, that comes out of Zion, Zion being Jerusalem, is Jesus. And when he says to turn to those who turn from transgression and Jacob, Jacob is the Promised Land. So you have Jerusalem, you have the Promised Land, you have restoration. Isaiah 45, verse 17, but Israel shall be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed or disgraced forever and ever. Don't listen to anybody that tells you that somehow the church has replaced Israel completely and God is done with ethnic Israel. He is not, he is most certainly not, and we're seeing it right in front of us today.

But there is a process. Isaiah 45, verse 25, in Yahweh all the descendants of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. Isaiah 60, verse 20, all your people shall all be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Well, we're watching this happen. As I mentioned, God has put them back in their land and God has directed the Gentiles, whether they know it or not. Many times the Gentiles have helped the Jews and also have hurt the Jews, but still they are there because God has used Gentiles. Look, if the United States did not send those carrier groups to the Mediterranean, the sending of them was to say to all the enemies of Israel, watch your step, you can go, but so far you cannot take this land. What would happen if we didn't send any reinforcements there, if we didn't have the shadow of the big stick?

Well, the Ruskies, the Chinese, the Chichoms, the Chinese communists, they would have all descended upon Israel. Well, it's going to happen that way at Armageddon, but this ain't Armageddon yet because the church still has work. As difficult as that work is, people are still getting saved, Christians are still being built up. John the Baptist, the Bible says, saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God. He said, look, there's the Lamb of God. John chapter 1 verse 29.

That could not be said of anyone else in human history, past, present, or future. It only applies to Christ. In a single sentence, John the Baptist united the Old Testament and the New Testament before there was a New Testament. The sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament, the deliverer out of Zion, and the blood of the New Covenant all wrapped into the Lamb of God, the Savior. And so coming back to this 25th verse by evoking the name Jacob, what Paul is marking for us is the unchanging distinction between the ethnic Gentile and the ethnic Jew. And he is saying the ethnic Jew remains.

The Gentiles will too. 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 at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.