How's everyone doing? Awesome. If it's your first time here, welcome to
Hosanna Christian Fellowship. And if it's your 100th time here, awesome. I'm glad
to see you guys. Today, Pastor Nathan unfortunately is sick. He's not dying.
He's okay. But he is sick, so he asked me to take over the study today and to share
with you guys. For those of you who don't know who I am, I am Pastor Rick Ice. I am
the youth pastor here. I'm also his assistant pastor. And so the reason you
don't see me very often, and I say this every time, is because I'm down the street
with the youth. We're only in here once a month, sometimes for rare occasions like
this, twice a month. But with that, today we're gonna have a really good blessed
study in Romans chapter 11. We're gonna be actually summing up what happened from
chapter 9 to chapter 11 in Romans, and then doing this conclusion of this whole
main point that Israel is still important, and we need to let God's Word
be the thing that changes our world view. That is the main points of today's
study, and honestly as Christians is the main point to life. We as Christians
should be trying to be more Christ-like and live in God's wisdom, not changing
God's Word to our own wisdom. Because guess what? A lot of problems come when we
do our own will through our own wisdom. But with that, we're gonna go ahead and
pray and start and get into worship. So, dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you
so much for your Word. We thank you so much for this opportunity to gather
today and just have true fellowship and worship and truly praise you for who you
are, Lord. I pray that you would bless today, that you would let your Word just
sit in our heart and change us, Lord. Help us to apply your Word to our lives and
live for you today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For those of you that are like,
why isn't this a Memorial Day service? Why aren't we doing something
specifically on Memorial Day? Well, I didn't have enough time from when I was
asked to teach. Nothing on Pastor Nathan. Poor guy is sick. So what I'm actually
gonna be doing, and I think it's really important in his really God-ordained
study today, is continuing where youth has been in Romans. So please open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 11. Again, that's Romans chapter 11 and the verse is verse
25. Now, to make this study under...understandable for you guys to get what's
going on, I kind of have to break down and give you context of what the youth
has been going over for like a month and a half. So good luck. Ready? This is a TLDR
right now. You're gonna learn everything from chapter 9 to chapter 11 of Romans.
Okay. So starting off, chapter 9 has Paul talking about how he would even trade his
own salvation for the salvation of the Jews, his people, Israel themselves,
because unfortunately they aren't saved. As a nation, this idea, they aren't
following God. They've crucified their own savior and they've turned away from
Jesus, and Paul is letting his heart be known. He's like, man, I would trade my
own salvation so that my own people would know Jesus their Lord and their
savior, their Messiah. And from there, it shows that God's Word hasn't failed
because Paul answers, and as he does in Romans, he answers objections. And one of
the objections is, well, if Israel isn't saved, then God's Word is false, right?
And Paul brings up the whole idea of Israel versus spiritual Israel and the
promise of Israel that God gave to Abraham, how it's not actually the
physical nation of Israel only, but the true people, the sons of Abraham,
is anyone who believes in Jesus, who has the same faith as Abraham.
Then it gets into God's selection is just and fair. You find out,
this is all in chapter 9 of Romans, we find out that we're all sinners
deserving hell, Jew and Gentile, and he made a way for all to be free,
and he's chosen us through his foreknowledge. And especially in chapter
9, that gets confusing. Some people are like, oh, his foreknowledge,
what does that mean? It literally means God is God. God knew everything before
it existed. God does not exist within time. He knew, and he chose us who would
choose him. So from there, Paul continues to talk about Israel isn't saved
because they missed out on the point of the law. They had the law,
they lived it, but unfortunately, they didn't see that Jesus was the point
of the law. They got to the end of the law and was like, oh, so I'm good
enough, I fulfilled it. They're kind of like that rich young ruler that goes up
to Jesus and is like, hey, what do I have to do to be saved? And he's like,
well, you know, don't lie, don't do all these things. He's like, oh,
I've kept all of them. And the simple fact that one of them was don't lie,
and he says, I've kept all of them. I'm like, okay, you broke one right there.
But that idea is Israel themselves, he gives this idea that unfortunately,
they missed out on their own savior because of their own idea of
self-righteousness. They saw the law and said, we fulfilled it.
But the truth is, no one can fulfill the law. We've all fallen short of the glory
of God. Then chapter 10 of Romans starts to talk about and explain further why
Israel isn't saved, how they missed out on the law, literally saying that they
didn't submit to God's righteousness. They had zeal, they had passion and drive
to live for God, but they fell short because they did not submit to his
righteousness, instead replaced it with their own. They saw the law and went,
oh, we're good enough, God. Look, we love you, we lived for you, we did it.
It's like, well, no, you failed, you've fallen short. Have you...
And Jesus even breaks it down. Have you hated someone, your brother in your
own heart? Yeah, you have murdered them in your heart. It's more than just not
physically doing the action. It's also the intent in falling into sin there and
gets into a lot of the idea of serving God with our mind, but that is an earlier
section of Romans that we will not be going through. But the idea is really
righteousness of works is how Israel failed. They thought they were righteous
through their own works and their own actions, but the truth is exactly how you
and I are saved, how we trust in Jesus, it's through faith. This is how you gain
God's righteousness. And Paul explains how anyone who believes in Jesus will be
saved. Anyone who believes in the name of Jesus will be saved. And God's
righteousness and his salvation will be given to that person who believes in
Jesus. Paul also encourages the people to share the gospel message, verse 15 in
chapter 10. You can read, it's not gonna go up, it's just, you can read it,
but it talks about how beautiful the feet of those who bring the good news.
And I love this idea, right? This is a call back to an Old Testament verse,
but the idea is like someone back then, they had to run around, you know,
or ride a horse. But the idea of someone bringing good news, this news bearer,
their feet, which has traveled a long distance in open-toed sandal shoes, right?
There's no like nice vans or Doc Martens or anything. No, gross, nasty,
crusty toes covered in mud and sweat and grime. How beautiful are those feet that
bring the good news? And that is the truth of those who bring the gospel.
Doesn't matter how, man, if you want to join evangelism, do it. Don't be like,
oh, I'm gonna give it so bad. Who cares? The message is beautiful and that's the
important part. It doesn't matter how you look and how you're, oh, my toes are
disgusting and gross. I can't give the gospel correctly. Who cares? If that
person needs the good news, which they do, then it's gonna be beautiful.
And then Paul handles objections that people might have about the Jews missing
the gospel message. In verse 18 of 10, he asks, did they not hear? And he even
answers his own question. He goes, yeah, they heard. And he quotes some Old
Testament verses. Then you also have verse 19, and he's like, did Israel not
understand? And he's like, yes, they did. They understood. The problem is,
is God couldn't have made it any more clear. Like, God's like, hey,
there's so many verses that goes, hey, you guys were disobedient and I'm gonna
make you jealous through Gentiles. He is clear. God has never been more clear on
how, honestly, it just really is their own self-pride and self-righteousness
that made the Jews miss out on Jesus. Then chapter 11 starts, and Paul asks this
very important question. Has God rejected his people? And that's a fair
question up to this point because for two chapters, we focused on how Israel
themselves, the nation, is not saved and how Jews have messed up and they've done
all of this stuff by their own works and their own righteousness. So has God
rejected all Jews for all time? The answer is obviously no because the guy
writing this, Paul, is a Jew. If you didn't know that, the early church were
Jews. God has not rejected his people. But instead, as we will find out later,
has put a partial hardening on Israel, the nation itself, and later on,
they will come back to him. Then another question comes up is, have they stumbled
as so far to fall? And this word stumbled means to transgress and to
misstep. So by their transgression, they misstep. And the idea of fall is to fall
and to ruin, to never be saved ever again. And as we've gone through in chapter 11
and as it will conclude here in chapter 11, again, the answer is no. Salvation has
come to us Gentiles from the denial of the Jews of Israel to Jesus. They denied
him and from that, salvation has come to us and even as pointed out early on that
salvation that came to us, the point of our salvation, is to make Israel jealous.
It's not only to have a relationship with God, but the Jews should look at us and
be jealous because guess what? We have a relationship with their God. He is our
God now too, but he was Israel's ruling God. They were a nation ruled by him and
now we have relationship with him. It is so much deeper and it should be, I said
this with the youth, they'll probably remember this, it's kind of like when
you're in high school and you had your crush, right? You had this crush that
you're just, they were so cute, so amazing. They were the best football player or
whatever it was, best cheerleader and then they start dating someone else. And the
first question you ask is, what does that person have that I don't? That's the same
idea. Not only Israel, but people in your life should look at the relationship you
have with Jesus and they should be jealous. They should go, what is it you
have that I don't? And then we get to go, Jesus. We get to point them to Jesus and
that's the thing, the Jews are missing out on this, but they haven't fallen to
ruin. Our salvation is actually to get them jealous and make them look into
Jesus, their Savior and Messiah, and then come to knowing faith in him. And then
Paul deals with prideful Christians because guess what guys, we're human. One
of the biggest, most common sins that we commit is pride. It really is. It's right
behind selfishness. It's really close. And Paul deals with this idea where
Christians start getting haughty and prideful and puffed up thinking that
they're better than Israel because we have relationship with God. And he gives
this analogy of grafting branches into trees and if you don't know gardening,
it's like literally taking, cutting off a branch of one plant and then taking a
healthy branch from another, attaching it and wrapping it and letting it mend and
grow this branch into this plant. And the idea that Paul gives here is
that us Gentiles, we're a wild olive branch. We're not a part of God's tree,
his branch, not to start. And then Israel through unbelief was cut off or taken
off of this plant and we through faith and belief were grafted on. And he
specifically says, the root feeds the vine, not the other way around. So if you
Christians think I'm better than Jews, Paul's like, yo, you're just a branch.
You can't do anything without the roots giving you the nutrients that you need to
even make the fruit that you make. On top of that, you weren't even on this tree
naturally. Paul ends that section by going, and how much more natural if the
natural branch puts their faith in God again, if Israel, how much more natural
would it be for them to be grafted back on? Because they naturally belong there.
We're just wild branches that were put on through faith. And thank God we're put on
through faith. And that was his plan, but don't be puffed up and think you're
better because we're all on an even playing ground. We're all sinners saved
through faith. That is it. So now we're caught up. There's the context of quite a
few months of study. I really recommend go home, read Romans chapter 9 through 11,
this whole section. I recommend if you haven't done a study through Romans, do
it. But it'll give you a better, deeper understanding. I really just did a TLDR
and just gave you what gives you enough context to understand where we're at
because there's way more than I can cover in this small time. So now if you
would turn or look at Romans chapter 11 verse 25, we will get into this end of
this beautiful section of Paul dealing with the current state of Israel, how
they've fallen, and the future plans God has with them. So verse 25 says,
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that
you would not be conceited. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until
the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be
saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn
godlessness away from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I
take away their sins. So Paul summarizes verses 11 through 24 in this last
section right here. He's summarizing, he's talking about how there's literally a
partial hardening that has been put on the nation of Israel. And we see that
nowadays. Israel as a nation does not believe in Jesus. I unfortunately have
not been to Israel yet, but it's the only thing that a lot of Israel
takes advantage of apparently is the tourism side of Jesus. They make profit
off of Jesus, but they don't make the ultimate profit of salvation through
Jesus because they haven't truly put their faith as a nation in Jesus. And
that's something that we need to pray for, right? Israel hasn't turned to their
Savior who is the end of the law. But notice it says it's a partial hardening,
not a full hardening. Because remember, Romans, well you don't remember, kids,
remember Romans chapter 11 verse 11 part A says, I ask then have they stumbled so
far as to fall? Absolutely not. Israel is not fully in ruin. There is plenty
of prophecies that talk about Israel coming back to God and the whole nation
being ruled by Jesus. But this hardening is interesting. They really got what they
wanted. Israel didn't want a Savior that died for them. If you knew the context of
Israel and the Jews at the time, they were under oppression from Rome and they
wanted a ruling reigning tyrant of a, just not tyrant, but like war leader,
man's man, gonna kick Rome out by himself and sit in rule and reign forever in
Israel. That was the idea, right? The idea of like the Holy Goliath in a sense.
That's what they wanted. No one that can beat him, this amazing powerful man. Which
Jesus is amazing and powerful, but he had to come to die for our sins and they
didn't want that. Remember, they missed out on the whole point of the law that
God gave them. They missed out on the fact that they could not do it on their
own, that their righteousness wasn't good enough. So of course they had Jesus
killed. They killed their own Messiah, their own Savior. It's really similar to
Pharaoh. They hardened their own heart first and so God has given them a
partial heartening. He said, fine, you want this? Have it. And that's a very, very
real and dangerous thing to look at in our lives is be careful what you wish
for. Because if you are gonna turn, yes, you can be fully saved I believe, but if
you will go into sin, God's not gonna go against your free will and he'll let you
and he'll also let you have the repercussions of that sin. Yes, not the
ultimate. He has died for your sins. You have salvation in hell, but if you go
cheat on your wife or your spouse, he's gonna let all the things happen. You
might get unfortunate diseases. You will get found out. God punishes those who he
loves like a good father should. He corrects us so that we come back to him.
And Israel has really messed up, messed up. They're like, they literally killed
their own savior. And the crazy part to think about is God knew all of that
beforehand and he still loves them because they're only partially hardened.
We know from Old Testament prophecies in Ezekiel and Jeremiah and in so many other
prophets that speak of Israel truly coming back and living for God and
believing in Jesus and as we saw as Pastor Nathan taught in Revelation
chapter 7 and 14, speaking of the 144,000 the Jews who come from each tribe to
live under Jesus and believe and they have his name written on their foreheads.
That is the moment that we see in the future of Israel truly turning back and
living for God. So the crazy part is though this hardening is until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And this idea here, some people debate a
little bit on it and they like, oh I remember reading this one where they
even said thought the fullness of the Gentiles was a bad thing. Like till
because there's Old Testament verses that talk about the fullness of the sin
of the Canaanites until they weren't judged until their sin was full. And so
they take it that way but the problem is the context of everything that has been
from chapter 9 to here is salvation to the Gentiles is a good thing and it's to
make Israel jealous. So then when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, the
full amount of those that are to be saved, God will switch his focus from
Gentiles back to Israel and we see that in Revelation. Now I'm not gonna dive
into eschatology, that is you guys want to be here for four hours, the
connections into that but yes the idea here especially the word fullness means
the full number. So the full number of those Gentiles that will be saved, it
really is the fact that we will be saved. The full number has come to this count
and then as Paul says all Israel will be saved which we find in Revelation chapter
7 and 14. And this idea of all Israel will be saved really is exactly that, the
nation. You guys, we talked about this last week. This means that all Jews will
be fully living for God and the nation Israel itself will be living under his
rule and reign. I don't believe personally that there will be a king in
Israel or a politician, I believe it will be them fully surrendered to God through
the Revelation times. Paul even quotes Isaiah 59 verse 20 and 21 and
Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, two prophecies concerning the future covenant of God
with Israel and this covenant is classified as the new covenant which
we'll talk about a little bit later but it literally is that a promise, right, a
covenant is a promise or agreement to do something which can also be one-sided.
Thank God it can be one-sided because God makes covenants with us and we fail
all the time and he's like hey look just put your faith and trust in me and I'll
take care of the rest. But all of these prophecies here are pointing to Israel
no longer living in sin but living for their Savior, fully coming back to Jesus
and the question is why does Paul summarize this? Why is it so important
for him to summarize verses 11 through 24? He says this, he doesn't want us to
be ignorant of this truth so that we will not be conceited. Conceited here, this
word means wise in your own estimation, basically saying relying on your own
wisdom and Paul destroys this idea of what honestly conceited prideful
Christians and even conceited prideful people who think they're Christians have
come up with which I don't know if you've heard too much about but it's
called replacement theology. It's the idea that the modern church, the Gentile
Church, has fully replaced Israel in all of the Old Testament prophecies that
have not come to be and not come to pass. They fully believe that Israel now no
longer matters. We are spiritual Israel, we are better. But Paul is like guys I
just told you no you're just a wild olive branch what are you thinking? You
don't make the plant holy the roots do and the roots are my covenants with the
patriarchs of Israel so at part of my French shut up like that's the idea is
shut up and stop thinking that you're better than everyone else. Stop being
conceited and thinking in your own way. Stop relying on your own wisdom. Man how
hard is that as a human being? How often do we fail and fall to our own pride and
our own wisdom? How often we do we do something without asking God first and
we're like oh no yeah this is perfect and we're like oh I broke my leg that
wasn't smart. I mean honestly ask yourself do you always make the best
choices? Nope neither do I. Perfect example because I love the Bible how
honestly the beauty of it is it shows the flaws of all of the followers of
Jesus. David a man after God's own heart also the dude who slept with it committed
adultery killed killed the man though Bathsheba's husband. Horrible father. Man
like there's it shows the issues but one of the ones that's really funny to me is
Abraham. For those of you the patriarch Abraham who the new covenant was
promised to Abraham or yeah no sorry Abraham who the the Abrahamic
covenant was promised to who'd have many sons he had to have many nations bless
through him. Yeah you guys remember when he was promised a child and what did he
do before Isaac showed up? He slept with his handmaiden Hagar and created
Ishmael. Ishmael who then was blessed by God but was not the promised son. You
know what's really interesting about that? It's believed today that all of
Arabs especially even those that are Palestinian are descendant of Ishmael.
You guys know what's going on nowadays right? Free Palestine's going on and
there's a lot of hatred against Israel. Yeah that's a family issue created back
when Abraham did something in his own wisdom. When he gave in to oh yeah
because yeah if you want to say oh Sarah was the one who came up with the idea
yeah well I mean Abraham did the deed. Abraham definitely failed and did in his
own wisdom. Abraham's choice really is biting
biting Israel in the butt right now unfortunately and we need to be praying
for them and we'll talk about that a little bit but Paul doesn't want us to
miss this truth because of our own understanding or lack of understanding.
Sometimes we listen to our own wisdom not God's and now we have things like
replacement theology but Proverbs 3 verse 5 through 6 says this, trust in the
Lord with all of your heart and do not rely on your own understanding in all
your ways know him and he will make your paths straight. This is very important as
a Christian we are called to be biblically minded. This means we let the
Bible, God, His Word which is good for correction, reproof, training for
righteousness, we let Him teach us how to think and live instead of what is done
nowadays in modern times where people go I don't like that one I don't like that
one I like this one I'll keep this one. No we listen to God's truth and His
words and if we disagree with God's Word guess what you need to change your mind
not the other way around because guess what God is all-knowing. How all-knowing
are you? Think about this week and think about all the decisions you made and how
many were wrong how many were bad. We should be trusting God because He is God.
So the truth is Christians don't replace Israel we should be supporting them we
should be loving on them we should be literally making them jealous of our
relationship with their Lord that's the crazy it's their Savior he came through
them and promised to them and thankfully to us as well but we have that
relationship with him that is what should be going on we should be loving
them like Jesus loved the church so that it makes them see that we have something
different than they do we have their Lord and Savior we have a relationship
with him. So in this Romans 11 18 says do not boast that you are better than
those branches but if you do boast you do not sustain the root but the root
sustains you. Again we are simply a wild olive branch that has been grafted into
the to God's plant. We don't make this plant holy we aren't special it's
Christians who think Israel doesn't matter or even nowadays you're hearing
all of this pushback against Israel let Israel die oh pro-Palestine and you know
what I honestly can say I hate about the whole pro-Palestine thing is I truly
believe it's a demonic push because there's no logic no comments and
nothing in this to where if you bring up any of the truths they don't know any of
the truth lies are just being peddled to make people think oh it's fine if you
guys don't know Palestine right Palestine this strip the Gaza Strip
that's part of Israel that they're fighting over is ruled by Hamas a
terrorist organization that actually broke off from Palestinian
government they're doing their own thing they're wild and they believe in Sharia
law and an extreme version of that which literally kills people for unbelief
kills women if you do anything wrong if you think that like oh church oppresses
women or not church but America oppresses women which is a lie go to
Palestine I dare you try and walk around with your head uncovered try to walk
around how we're dressed here instantly dead instantly there was I hate the fact
that this happened but there was these two influencers on social media there
were cyclist influencers it was a married couple they wanted to prove that
Palestine is great and there's no problems they flew over and rode their
bikes killed killed by Palestine by Hamas how crazy is that but people in UCLA
pro-hamas free them they're fighting genocide I'm like no Hamas is for
genocide they were only created to kill all Jews that is Hamas but you know what
that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that every Palestinian is wrong there are
people on the Palestine side that don't believe in this that are slaves to their
own terrorist group what we should be as Christians is praying that Hamas is
dismantled and even get this as Jesus said pray for our enemies praying for
the salvation of Hamas because if you think about if everyone saw our
relationship with Jesus is when jealous and came to know Christ think think how
the world would be if everyone actually had a relationship with Jesus read you
can read it in Revelation how beautiful it would be but we need to start now we
need to have our relationship and living by God's wisdom not thinking we're
better than others not boasting being thankful that God saved us and sharing
that salvation with others and letting our relationship with Jesus be known to
everyone around us praying for our enemies especially those that go against
Israel so remember there was this partial hardening and God will redeem
Israel in the future this isn't a ultimate and I'll be all hey they're
gone we're this olive branch that has been grafted in but we're called to make
people jealous with our salvation and when our time has come when the Gentiles
has come the beautiful thing is God will move back to Israel and Israel truly
will live for them the Israel as a nation will be under God again and for
those of you that are like man Israel other horror I'm like one of my favorite
things to point out to people at this point about Israel to show that God's
hand is still on them they are one of the smallest nations smallest people
group have been around forever right in that sense have been around longer than
any other nation group hey where's Rome right now this mighty powerful nation
gone and destroyed Ottoman Empire gone and destroyed you want to talk about
World War two Germany powerhouse Germany is barely compared to where it used to
be but if you look at Israel smallest nation who is the most persecuted
nation of history and is still alive has gone through multiple attempts of
genocide and is still around and thriving yeah that's by God's work
because he has promises for them in the future because if God was done with
Israel Israel would not be around anymore honestly if we as the Christian
Church replaced them Israel wouldn't be a nation anymore they'd be gone but God
has future promises that he kept to them and we'll talk about that continuing on
here in Romans 11 but if you disagree with what I've talked about guess what
I'm just teaching you what the word says you're disagreeing with God which means
you need to sit down and you need to have a talk with God and change your
mind you need to listen to what he says not what you feel so Romans chapter 11
verse 28 through 29 says regarding the gospel they are enemies for your
advantage but regarding election they are loved because of the patriarchs
since God's gracious gifts and callings are irrevocable so Paul gives a current
status update right pastor Nathan if you knew he went back you know before I was
even here so like 16 years ago when they would do trips to like Man Thai Utah and
do some cool trips he would vlog and he'd give you little updates and like
status update of where the group's at doing their missionary trip that's this
idea right here Paul's like hey here's the status update here's how they're
feeling Israel regarding the gospel yeah they're enemies they failed Israel is
turned from Jesus there they literally are the ones who had Jesus crucified
they had the law but they missed out on the gospel and Romans chapter 9 31 through
32 says but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not achieved the
righteousness of the law why is that because they did not pursue it by faith
but as if it were by works they stumbled over the stumbling stone
Israel has missed the point of the law they literally it says they stumbled
over the stumbling stone their transgression their mess-up was
literally being so proud that they were looking up and if any of you been
hiking you know you're looking up on a new trail you haven't been on and you
hit that random rock and you trip and stumble that's the idea they missed the
end of the trail the whole point Jesus think of it this way you're driving on a
road that road has a massive gap at the end but you see off to the right there's
a guy with an airplane the Jews were on this road the law driving on it as fast
as they could trying to jump the gap but guess what no one can make it you can't
make it but if they just saw the little stop sign right next to the guy with an
airplane named Jesus and they put their faith and trust in him he would fly them
across the gap but they missed out they keep trying to jump it and so many
people nowadays still are but Israel one day thankfully will choose the pilot but
according to the gospel or regarding gospel their enemies but according to
election they're loved because of the patriarchs because of the patriarchs
Abraham Isaac and Jacob because of their their those men's faith in God and the
covenants that God has created with them through that love and that bond in that
relationship Israel is still loved today one of the reasons I believe Israel is
still around and why we believe as a church that Israel is important and will
is is Israel in all of these Old Testament prophecies from their faith
in God God made covenants with them the Noahic covenant the Abrahamic covenant
the Mosaic covenant the Davidic covenant and the new covenant and the new covenant
which we're a part of that allows faith through Jesus for us to enter in which
is beautiful because this new covenant Jeremiah 31 31 through 34 Paul already
quoted he already talked about how guess what this prophecy yes has been partially
fulfilled with the acceptance of us of us going to Jesus we are a part of that
new covenant but also will be fulfilled in the future with Israel coming back to
him when Israel will no longer be in sin from there we see that he says that God's
gifts are irrevocable and this is truly why God has not given up on Israel first
Samuel 15 29 says furthermore the eternal one of Israel does not lie or
change his mind for he is not man who changes his mind guys that said he would
bless Israel and he's gonna do it God said it it will happen we're going
through Genesis right now we see the power of God's word he spoke and created
everything he's not gonna go back on his own word he's not like man and honestly
this is comforting to us Christians if you're hearing this you should be
comforted because God says he will be our provider our comforter our Lord and
Savior he says he holds us in his hand we are saved by him through simply
putting a faith in Jesus so believe it because God doesn't lie or change his
mind he is not like man so concerning Israel be praying for them pray and
share the gospel so that the time the Gentiles can end and we can go back to
him focusing on on Israel and moving forward pray for these end times because
guess what comes after that all of us all of spiritual Israel living with God
on the new heavens and new earth heaven eternal with our Lord and Savior now
this also means in your hard times and dark times in life you need to still
continue to trust God and his promises because he doesn't lie he doesn't change
his mind now continuing on Romans 11 30 through 32 says as you once disobeyed
but God sorry as you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through
their disobedience so they too have now disobeyed resulting in mercy to you so
that they may also now receive mercy for God has imprisoned all in
disobedience so that he may have mercy on all the idea here is everyone has
been trapped has been imprisoned in disobedience to God everyone has done it
Gentiles have been disobeying God from the start we were following demonic
leaders we were following anyone especially back in the old times I truly
believe and we can if you want to talk about it later we can I believe a lot of
the old gods of Gentiles were just demons fallen angels tricking humans into
following after them and doing horrendous evil things but that's for a
sidebar conversation that would take a long time but but we have gained
salvation through Jesus and this is what we need to remember everyone has
disobeyed but everyone can receive salvation through Jesus and as
beautiful as Gentiles we've received it through Israel's denial Romans 9 30 what
should we say then Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained
righteousness namely the righteousness that comes from faith we right giving
this idea disobeyed God from the beginning we weren't following after his
righteousness we were following after selfishness in our own game if you look
at a lot of the old old gods of other Gentile religions it's all selfish stuff
let me please this person so they do this for me let me please this God so
they do that for me let me please that God so they do that for me it's all
selfishness it wasn't seeking after righteousness but Israel did pursue
righteousness but again like we've said it wasn't God's righteousness they
pursued Romans 10 3 since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God
they attempted to establish their own righteousness they have not submitted to
God's righteousness this is Israel's disobedience like we've said
self-righteousness I'm good enough I can make it but the beautiful thing is all
of us humans are now placed in the same spot trapped in our disobedience stuck
no one's better than the other Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God we've all failed we're all stuck we're all in the same boat
same level playing field guess what though this is actually a beautiful
thing this makes God's salvation in his mercy morally fair and morally right
because he's not giving one group of people special treatment we're all in
the same place on the same boat deserving of help and he has offered us
mercy to everyone you simply just need to put your faith and trust in him and
this defeats a major thing where people go oh God's not morally just in saving
some people will know others like yeah no he is he offered it to everyone and
every single second you're alive you have an opportunity to give your faith to
him to put your faith and trust in Jesus the only reason you're in hell if you go
to hell is because you chose it God gave you this beautiful beautiful mercy and
this opportunity to do it and it's morally right but you still have to put
your faith in Jesus if you don't he lets you be trapped in your disobedience he
lets you stay there but that's the thing God guys I God is so good and so like he
is all-knowing just thinking of how amazing and great all of his plan is
from before everything ever happened had this entire plan planned out and it is
going extremely well we read here what happens with Paul or we read continue to
read what happens from Paul thinking about God's plan and righteousness and
amazingness verse 33 oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge
of God how unsearchable his judgments and how untraceable his ways for who has
known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor and who has ever
given to God that he should be repaid for from him and through him and to him
are all things to him be the glory forever amen God is God for some reason
we tend to forget that the beautiful thing here is some of your Bibles you'll
notice they put little headers at the top of certain sections to give you an
idea of what's being said literally this one is called the hymn of praise a song
of praise this idea of just praising God because Paul has just explained through
Romans how everyone is a sinner and failed and then we've all fallen short
but then Jesus died for us and gives us our righteousness and then handles the
issues here in 9 to 11 of yeah and then we have these issues of the of Israel
no they haven't fallen away completely but they have been partially hardened
but God still has a plan to redeem them and just the simple thoughts I like I
imagine Paul sitting there writing all this down to the churches in Rome and
it's just like God you are so amazing your plan is morally just and fair and
you've trapped us all in the same spot you've taken care of everything you are
so you are God and he just broke out into praise like that's what I imagine
happened here in this section where he's just like God is good man who know the
riches and depths of his wisdom and knowledge no one can compare think of
the smartest person you've ever known or ever heard of yeah no they don't even
have 1% of God's knowledge oh he is so amazing God is smarter than anyone who
has ever or will ever live what human could have planned salvation like God
has what human would have thought of all of this to trap every single person in
disobedience put them all in the same spot and then come and die for them
these people that he had the total authority to just wipe out but instead
loved us so much and came up with this whole elaborate plan so that while
working within free will human free will he gave us salvation all because he
loved us God is God and we see that he did this even before creation he planned
this out Ephesians chapter 1 3 through 4 blessed is the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavens in Christ for he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be
holy and blameless in love before him I've said this to you guys before but
God is all-knowing verse 34 of Romans 11 for who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor God doesn't need help he planned everything
out before he even created it because he's all-knowing my favorite thing to
say is I truly believe God doesn't have to think God just knows he is all
knowing there's nothing else for him to learn to think about he knows everything
man don't we wish we could be that way and sometimes we act like we're that way
but the truth is he is that way he is all-knowing think about this God didn't
need human counsel to do anything for instance do you guys know that Jupiter
has such a dense and heavy gravity field that it deflects almost all meteors that
come to earth we just look at the planets go oh that's real cool God thank
you God's like yeah I actually made that planet specifically to keep you safe
from just being destroyed by asteroids think about that when you think about
the vastness of the universe I'm knowing the attributes of God I go okay God
there's a reason you know it I don't but there's some reason why there's
millions of universes and millions of stars and all these things there's a
reason and one day in heaven I pray we'll know I can't wait I'm excited just
picking God's brain but here's the truth then if God is God and no one can counsel
him he is all-knowing trust him in his plans we already went over this if you
read God's Word and you're like now I believe something different so God's
Words wrong no you're wrong you're not smarter than the all-knowing God creator
of everything guess what I say that because there's times where I'm like oh
god I'm definitely smarter than you I got this see how that turns out my wife
can attest there sometimes I do things and she's like really but here's the
idea truly trust him and if there's something that's hard that you're like
man I just I don't know there's something that some part of the Bible or
I just I I can't run my brain about it study it don't just leave it there don't
just be like oh I don't understand this so therefore I'm gonna disagree with it
no try and learn what God's getting at in the point of it and if you need help
come talk to count counselors you can tell I'm in youth mode come talk to us
counselors no talk to your local pastors talk to even your guys you can counsel
one another like there's no special Holy Spirit compared into me compared to you
were all the same God has just called me to be up here talking but you might have
wisdom and knowledge that can bless the person next to you because the Holy
Spirit lives inside you just like he lives inside me so trust him because
he's the one who gives us salvation and planned everything out now this last
section here for him through him and to him are all things this is actually a
really simple idea and I love it because it's it's from this him the idea is from
him everything every single little thing ever was planned out by God I remember
all knowing all knowing God he knew knew that Israel was gonna disobey and he had
a plan for it to redeem them in the future he knew that they would kill
Jesus and he's like okay yes that's the plan and so Jesus's death is a sacrifice
for all human beings he knew that the Romans would be in charge at the time and
how they would react he knew everything he knows what's going on in your life
right now he knows everything and God created the plan of salvation even before
the foundation of the world so from him then you have through him the truth is
everything every single thing was made through him and his beautiful idea is
it's even held together right pastor Nathan talked about this last Sunday the
idea of God is holding this universe and I like how he says it dissolves right
the idea of the universe dissolving I personally I agree I think I'll slightly
different I don't think it dissolves guys what happens when an atom splits big
boom if we look at atoms and what they're made of electrons neutrons
protons logically they should not exist the protons in the middle should not be
attracted to each other they should be repelling each other the electrons not
only should be crashing into the nucleus right crashing into those positively
charged molecules they shouldn't be just nicely going around and following in a
perfect circle and staying still and once they got close to each other they
should repel each other it makes no sense logically within human
understanding unless you go oh God said he's holding all things together he is
holding the universe together and I believe in Revelation in the end time
when it's time for this world and his universe to go I think he just lets go
and it's multi-universe atomic bomb all gone that's just a fun theory that I have
but it's beautiful because he's the one that holds it together and science of
course I believe it's called the strong nuclear force is what they call it
because they have no idea what holds atoms together they're just like oh
we're just gonna give it a name and just not talk about it it's God because guess
what through him are all things through him the power everything even salvation
is only through God because guess what if honestly think about this if we you
as a human had a people group that you were in charge of and they sinned
against you you're more like most likely to be art I'm done with you I'm done I
like I'm glad I thank God all the time that I am NOT God because I know how
horrible and selfish I am and I'm like man I would have ended humanity a long
time ago just being honest but God is so loving that he's waiting for the
fullness of the Gentiles to come in so that Israel can also come back and he
will have full his people in total living for him and what's crazy when as
Nathan was going in Revelation even after the millennial reign of Christ and
this beautiful idea of everyone living under Jesus he still gives people the
free will choice to live for him or not because he loves us and won't force us
to live with him he'll let us make our choice well he'll let those people at
that time make their choice because God loves us then so we had from him through
him and the idea of to him to him are all things guess what all of creation
salvation the plan of salvation itself everything our creation as human beings
is all to his glory it's all made for him and his glory and for exactly that
as it says to him are all things all things should be praising him and giving
him his glory our salvation everything should be just totally to him and it
should be how we live everything to him in the understanding of he made
everything so the the simple idea of you and I sitting here in this room is
simply because he decided to make everything and keep everything around
and keep humans around until we got around and then from that he's also
holding us all together and letting us knowing that we'd make mistakes and sin
and fall and create things like replacement theology and go against
God's plan he still loves us and holds us together so that we can come back to
him and all of this is so that it's for his glory so that in the end he will
have a people that truly chose him love him and live for him and then he will
rule and reign with them in the new heaven and new earth in glory with
people who give him praise and worship every day every hour who love him it's
all for his glory so in closing guys
Israel still matters it really does the nation matters why because God said so
and God is God his prophecies in to redeem Israel the fulfillment of them
we see in Revelation God is God he said so we need to trust him and we need to
be praying for those that are pro-Palestine we need to be praying for
those that are in Palestine and Israel dealing with this horrible terrorist
group that's just there to genus to do the genocide of is of all Jews that's
all they're there for that's all Hamas wants we need to be loving them praying
for them and for those when we see because my natural tendency right when I
see some of the dumb stuff going on in UCLA and the encampments all that I just
the horrible part of me is like you guys are just dumb I don't want to love you
but guess what God could say it could have could have he didn't thank God
could have said that about us he gave me you guys are dumb I don't want to die
for you but he loved us and did it anyways and that's the love that he's
called us to love them with and to love Israel with to bless Israel with and to
guess what make them jealous of our relationship with their Lord also don't
fight against God's Word God is God guys stop dumbing him down in your mind in
your life which I am so guilty of there's I'm right there with you of like
oh god I'm gonna do this plan and it's like why didn't I consult you first why
didn't I think about your word and your will in my life God is God and trust him
and if you disagree if you're like no I want to think this way you're in the
wrong you need to trust God you need to love him and you need to let him change
your worldview and how you live so again remember God is God there's no one like
him he created everything he never changes and he never lies his plans will
come through and even if that plan is for us to wait and trust it and bless
Israel in their disobedience so with that we'll pray and have worship oh dear
only father we thank you so much for your word which sometimes is extremely
convicting but is good it is always good or your word which guides us which is a
lamp unto our feet and light unto our path Lord your word which shows us who
we are as humans as sinners and how we need you have the law itself the end of
it points to Jesus we thank you and we trust you Lord and I I just pray for
anyone whose heart is against your word and your their heart is is against
Israel because of just what the public nation is saying and what I believe
demons and the devil is pushing on people in this culture I pray against
those those those evil lies Lord and I pray for them truly to let their heart
just trust you for you to let your Holy Spirit work on their heart to let them
truly accept your word and love you Lord and father I pray that as we go out
today we truly trust that you are God that we live for you that we love you
that we trust you with all of your plans and all of your truths in our lives Lord
we thank you in Jesus name we pray amen