Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 11 as we look at the nation of Israel and see that God is not done with them, there is coming a future day of restoration for the nation of Israel. Now, for many, this is a difficult concept for they see God as being done, being finished with the Jews, that there is no future restoration for them. If that were true, then the promises of God would have failed and it would leave us as being hopeless, for if God could not save the Jew, how can we be sure He will save us?
Before we get to our text this morning, listen to what Charles Swindoll said regarding restoration. He said:
A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting “Nightwatch.” Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore the treasures.
By His sovereign grace, God can bring good out of our failures and even out of our sins. J. Stuart Holden tells of an old Scottish mansion close to where he had his little summer home. The walls of one room were filled with sketches made by distinguished artists. The practice began after a pitcher of soda water was accidentally spilled on a freshly decorated wall and left an unsightly stain. At the time, a noted artist, Lord Landseer, was a guest in the house. One day when the family went out to the moors, he stayed behind. With a few masterful strokes of a piece of charcoal, that ugly spot became the outline of a beautiful waterfall, bordered by trees and wildlife. He turned that disfigured wall into one of his most successful depictions of Highland life.
- Charles Swindoll, The Quest For Character, p. 49
Folks, God has done the same with our lives, He doesn’t throw us away because we are damaged, but restores us, just as He is going to do with the nation of Israel. If you are struggling with this issue, God restoring the Jews, please listen to what I have to say, what the Scriptures say, because there are many ideas that are not based in Scripture out there regarding the Jews that have come down through history, as Martin Luther and others saw God being done with the Jewish people because of their rejection of the Messiah, but that is not that case as we will see this morning. With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 11, starting in verse 25 and see what the Lord has for us this morning!
Paul starts out by saying to us that regarding the restoration of Israel, don’t be ignorant about it, they will be restored. If you doubt that then you are standing on your own opinion, you have come to that faulty conclusion on your own, it is not of God, it is not found in the Word of God, for the Scriptures clearly tells us that Israel will be saved!
Yes, Israel has been blinded to the things of God “in part” or temporarily, but they are not going to be blinded forever! God reached out to the Gentiles for a reason, as Paul tells us in Romans 11:11-14, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.” In other words, as God blesses the Gentiles, it will stir the hearts of the Jews and they will desire to have what we have, Jesus, they will be saved!
Now there are a couple of phrases that we need to clear up, we need to understand, and we did cover them on Thursday, but I think it is important that we all have a grasp of these phrases so we don’t get confused by them. Here in Romans 11:25 Paul speaks of “the fullness of the Gentiles” and that Israel will be blind as a whole until the fullness of the Gentiles has come to pass. This is speaking of the last Gentile to be saved before the Lord returns for His Bride, the Church. It is the close of the Church Age and the start of the 70th week of Daniel or, as we know it, the seven year tribulation period. During this time God is not only going to be dealing with a Christ rejecting world but also the nation of Israel, the Jews once again. So if you are not saved yet, get saved, you could be holding things up for the return of the Lord!
The other phrase is “the times of the Gentiles” and it speaks of Gentile rule over Israel, the Jews. This began when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah and captured the people, taking them back to Babylon and placing them in captivity for 70 years. Now some feel that the times of the Gentiles is over because Israel is back in the land, became a nation in 1948 and recaptured the city of Jerusalem in 1967. Thus, the Jews are no longer under Gentile rule, or at least that is the thought, but I don’t see it that way.
That phrase, “the times of the Gentiles” comes out of Luke chapter 21 where Jesus is speaking of the tribulation period and He says starting in verse 20, “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Thus, the times of the Gentiles will not be fulfilled until Jesus Christ returns to set up His kingdom and He crushes Gentile power, and the Jews and Gentiles will worship the Lord! But before that, during the tribulation period, the Gentile nations will surround Jerusalem, to destroy her and her people! So the times of the Gentiles are not over.
Let me show you what I mean from this report by Hal Lindsey. He tells us:
The U. S. has joined with the other members of the Group of Seven nations (plus Russia) in a joint resolution backing the deployment of an international military force to be used as “monitors” of the peace process in Israel. The prophet Zechariah wrote 2500 years ago that the day would come when God will make “Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:3). It is also interesting that this declaration originated in Rome, was called for by the seven heads of the world’s leading Western economic powers, and has been championed by the ten-nation Western European Union since Arafat first floated the idea.
- BBC & Hal Lindsey
Also, we are seeing a rise of Anti-Semitism and I see it growing even bigger than the days of Adolph Hitler, for this will not be one nation, but the world will be against Israel, the Jews! The Associated Press reported: “Almost half the American people believe Israel is a threat to world peace, according to a poll presented Wednesday by a Jewish group . . . In last month’s Eurobarometer poll, 59 percent of Europeans chose Israel, ranking it number one [in being a threat to world peace] . . . About 73 percent said the United States was more likely to be attacked by terrorists because of its support of Israel . . . Foxman, 63, a Holocaust survivor, also said that Anti-Semitism around the world is at a higher level than he ever expected to see. . .”
I guess we have not learned our lessons from the past and tragically, they will be repeated! I found it interesting that no one mentioned Yasser Arafat and his people who are terrorists, known terrorists, and yet Israel is the threat, go figure?
You see, the world is being prepared for the tribulation period leading up to the Great Tribulation or the last 3½ years of the 7-year tribulation period. It is out of the tribulation period that the Kingdom Age will be birthed where Jesus Christ will return and establish His kingdom on the earth and of this day we are told in Isaiah 11:6-10, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.”
What a glorious day where righteousness will fill this land, where all of creation will live in harmony as Jesus Christ rules and reigns from the throne of David in Jerusalem for 1,000 years and the knowledge of the Lord will fill this earth! Now, let me throw this out to you because I believe it is the reason for the rise of anti-Semitism today. Before the Lord can return, I believe it is the Jews who will have to call for Him; they are the prerequisite you might say for the return of Jesus Christ! And thus, the Devil is trying to wipe out the Jews using humans as his instruments to carry out this evil!
That may be hard for you to swallow but let me show you from the Scriptures what I mean. First of all I want to show you that God still has work to do with Israel and the work is given to us in Daniel 9:24 where the angel Gabriel tells us, “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.”
Gabriel tells us that 490 years are determined, not upon the Gentiles but upon the Jews and the city of Jerusalem. What is the purpose of those 490 years? He speaks of 6 things that will be accomplished which are directly related to Israel and God’s program for them. First of all to finish transgression, Israel will turn back to God and receive Jesus as the Messiah. Secondly, to make an end of sins, which has been accomplished in Jesus, but the Jews have not received it as yet. Thirdly, to make reconciliation for iniquity or being restored back to God through Jesus, but again the Jews as a nation have not received this yet, they have rejected it. The fourth aspect is to bring in everlasting righteousness, which will take place in the Kingdom Age as righteousness fills the land. The fifth aspect is to seal up vision and prophecy, which speaks of a close of all vision and prophecy as Jesus sits on the throne of David to rule and reign. And the sixth aspect is to anoint the most holy and this will occur when Jesus comes into the Millennial Temple as King.
And so, at the end of the 490 years these things will be completed in Israel, as Paul said in Romans 11:26-27, “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 away their sins.’” Now that is the scope of this prophecy, or an overview of Daniel 9:25-27 and I think it is important that we get these down if we are going to understand this prophecy and the tribulation period.
In Daniel 9:25 we are told, “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.” The key here is the ushering in of the “Messiah the King” or the Meshiach Nagid. The time frame is 483 years or 69 seven-year periods and this prophecy is based on the Babylonian calendar of 360 days per year. Thus, in days, the 483 years would be 173,880 days. The starting point is the command to “restore and build Jerusalem.”
In Nehemiah chapter 2 we see King Artaxerxes Logimanus,
king of the Medo-Persian Empire give a command to Nehemiah to
“restore and build Jerusalem.” That command was given on March 14, 445
BC. If you start to count off 173,880 days from March 14, 445
BC, add 116 days for leap years, you would come to April 6, 32
AD, we call it Palm Sunday, the only day that Jesus was hailed
as the Messiah the King as He rode into Jerusalem on the colt
of a donkey.
Then, in Daniel 9:26 we are told, “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.” Here we see a break between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel as the Messiah is to be “cut off” or executed for a capital crime, a death by piercing! That is exactly what happened to Jesus He was executed for a crime He did not commit, “but not for Himself”, He was innocent! This break between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel is what we call the Church Age where the Holy Spirit is drawing out a Bride for Christ. It is when the Church Age comes to an end, during the rapture, that the Lord will deal with Israel once again and finish this last 7-year period, the 70th week of Daniel, the tribulation period.
Now the “prince who is to come” is speaking of the Antichrist and in Daniel 9:27 we are told, “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” The Antichrist confirms a covenant with Israel and I believe that this covenant will be the rebuilding of the temple, coming on the heels of a war with Russia and her Muslim allies coming down upon Israel to wipe them out and instead, God wipes them out, and on the heels of this nuclear disaster, the Antichrist comes to power to solve all the worlds problems. You can read of this temple in Revelation chapter 11 and if you read these verses here in Daniel, the temple must be built for the blood and grain offerings to be started up again.
Now, in the middle of the tribulation period, at the 3½-year mark, the Antichrist will enter the rebuilt temple and demand to be worshiped as God as Paul tells us in II Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” It is then the Jews recognize that this man is not their Messiah and they refuse to worship him and he goes after them to destroy them as we are told in Revelation 12:12-17, “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
As he comes after them the Jews flee to the rock city of
Petra down in the south in the area of Jordan where God will protect
them for 3½ years, until He returns, and we will deal more
with that in a few minutes. First I want to read from
the prophet Hosea, and these are some very interesting verses
as they relate very clearly to what we are talking about this
morning, the restoration of Israel. In Hosea 5:15-6:1 we are
told, “I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge
their offense. Then they will seek My
face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but
He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.”
First of all the Lord says that He is going to return to His place, which tells me He came to earth, out of His place, and then He is going to return to heaven. Did that happen? Of course, God became flesh, dwelt among us and then He was crucified, put to death and on the third day He rose from the dead and forty days latter He was taken up into heaven in the Ascension! When is He going to come back? Here is where it gets interesting. When Israel acknowledges their offense! What is their offense, and notice that it is not plural, but singular? It is their rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ! In John 16:8-9, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Notice the sin that sends all people to Hell is their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah!
But there is coming a day when they will seek the face of the Lord, when they are being afflicted, during the tribulation period, and it is then, as they return to the Lord that they will be healed. Of this time we are told in Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” Who is this speaking of? The Jews as they look upon Jesus and they see His wounds and they mourn over their rejection of Him!
Now, turn to Matthew chapter 23, for this is what I have been building up to, laying down the background information for, because it is what I believe Israel will do to bring in the Messiah, to usher in His return. In Matthew 23:37-39 Jesus tells us, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”
Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem and their rejection of Him for He knew that destruction was just a few years down the road, for in 70 AD Titus and the Roman army came in and leveled the city, killed many Jews and sent the rest fleeing for their lives, all because they rejected their Messiah!
The key to this, I believe, is given to us in verse 39 for in this verse Jesus is saying that the Jews will not see Him again till they say “ . . . ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’” You see, I believe this is the prerequisite to the Lord’s return, the Jews calling upon the Lord for as we were told in Hosea “I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Hosea 5:15.
Now keep in mind that many of the Jews have fled to the rock city of Petra in Jordan, hiding from the Antichrist who is trying to kill them. The Devil wants to thwart or put a stop to the Jews from calling upon the Lord, he doesn’t want Jesus to return, and if he could, he would stop it from happening, he does not want the Kingdom Age to be set up, but his evil plans will not work even though millions of Jews will be killed by him!
As the Great Tribulation period comes to a close with many Jews in Petra, notice where the Lord returns first, it is not in Jerusalem. We are told in Isaiah 63:1-6, “Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength? — ‘I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.’”
The Lord comes to His people in Jordan, He delivers them, appears to them, they see Him again, and then He moves northward to the valley of Megiddo for the battle of Armageddon. It is there that the Lord will defeat the enemy and then He will establish His Kingdom on this earth to rule and reign from the throne of David for 1,000 years and we will rule and reign with Him.
I hope you can clearly see that God is not done with His people, He is going to save them or as Paul said, “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. 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 away their sins.’” Romans 11:25-27.
But that does not seem fair! They have rebelled against Jesus! They have rejected Him! They are stiff-necked! Yes, and so were we, and God loved us and drew us to Him. Listen to this Jewish legend for it helps to illustrate this point. We are told:
When God was about to create man, says a Jewish legend, He took into His counsel the angels that stood about his throne. “Create him not,” said the angel of Justice, “for if Thou dost he will commit all kinds of wickedness against his fellow men; he will be hard and cruel and dishonest and unrighteous.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Truth, “for he will be false and deceitful to his brother-man, and even to Thee.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Holiness, “he will follow that which is impure in Thy sight, and dishonor Thee to they face.”
Then stepped forward the angel of Mercy (God’s best beloved) and said: “Create him, our Heavenly Father, for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness I will take him tenderly by the hand, and speak loving words to him, and then lead him back to Thee.”
- J. A. Clarks
Praise God for His grace and mercy that He bestows upon us and may we be a people who love the Jews and pray for them as Psalm 122:6 tells us, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.”
What does this do for us? In knowing that the Lord’s return for His Bride, the Church is quickly approaching, it helps us to live lives that are pleasing to Him. When He returns we want to be involved in the work of God, doing what is right and not what is evil, what is immoral. It is as John tells us, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I John 3:2-3. You see, we are “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.
As I close this morning, I hope you have seen clearly that God is not done with His people, the nation of Israel will be saved and Israel’s peace is only going to be found in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ and that is the peace we truly pray for. Praise the Lord for the Jewish people and all they have given to us and may we give to them what they truly have given to us – JESUS THE MESSIAH!