Dale Partridge - Romans 11_23-27： The Unfolding of the End Times

00:00:00.000 Today, we are in Romans 11, and we are getting fairly close to completing, I don't know what

00:00:14.720 it is about this pulpit. There we go. I got it. Okay. Romans 11, we are continuing through

00:00:20.100 this wonderful interconnected redemptive relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles. 1.00

00:00:27.740 And you go, why does this matter to me? 1.00

00:00:30.020 Well, there's all types of reasons because we're going to be talking about how the world is going to end

00:00:35.300 and what the timeline of God's plan according to Scripture for Christ's return.

00:00:41.260 We're going to talk about how we should be thinking about Israel

00:00:44.280 and how we should be thinking about the Jews and presumption around the coven.

00:00:47.960 There's all types of realities that are important and applicable to us as Christians. 0.89

00:00:52.340 Now, we've seen that for the Jews' unfaithfulness, the rejection of the Messiah, that God judged them. 0.71

00:01:07.320 He gave a covenant judgment that resulted in what I would even call reductionism. 0.98

00:01:12.940 They were reduced to a remnant.

00:01:17.040 God cut off their generations.

00:01:20.260 many were in the covenant by birth some of them were in the covenant by sacrament

00:01:25.860 but God withheld his election his electing grace from many and I would even say from most 0.87

00:01:37.700 we learned that God preserved only a remnant of faithful Jews during that first century 0.64

00:01:48.520 and forward, we've seen that Paul was part of that remnant, that the disciples were part

00:01:57.580 of that remnant, but there was not many that embraced the Messiah.

00:02:07.060 We also learned that through that remnant, through the election of just that very little

00:02:12.300 few, that God would use that remnant to ignite a global revival of the nations. And we call that

00:02:23.960 the Great Commission. So this tiny little remnant of Jews, the vast majority of Israel rejects 1.00

00:02:31.860 Christ, except this tiny little remnant. And this little remnant is sent off into the world 1.00

00:02:37.720 to produce a global revival of the nations, which is the Greek word Gentiles.

00:02:45.180 And billions now have come to Christ as a result of the faithfulness of that little remnant. 0.90

00:02:56.340 We learn that this Great Commission would eventually provoke the Jews to jealousy. 0.95

00:03:03.620 eventually as they start to see the gentiles all the nations are inheriting the blessings and the 0.89

00:03:11.800 substance of the promises that were delivered to them but the rest of the world is inheriting 0.98

00:03:17.760 those realities and we learn that that jealousy from the gentiles would actually result in 0.92

00:03:28.640 a mass revival of Jews coming to Christ at the end of time. That's the basic timeline 0.83

00:03:36.000 that we've seen here through Romans 11. This divine kind of interconnected, interdependent

00:03:44.860 design for redemption, it should humble both of us as Jews and Gentiles. We're not Jews,

00:03:51.860 but I'm saying is that it should humble the Jew and the Gentile. That God is working a plan

00:03:57.700 together that honestly no man could ever come up with. This is a plan that would not birth out of

00:04:07.560 the imagination of men. It is so counterintuitive and opposite to how we would have written the

00:04:16.920 story. Now in the past two sermons, we've seen Paul address the issue of Gentile pride,

00:04:25.960 presumption that we somehow have a greater grasp or claim on the mercies of God than the Jews do. 0.75

00:04:37.700 Paul emphasized that it is not the Gentiles who support the root, but the root, the Jews, 0.97

00:04:46.840 that support the Gentiles. That's Romans 11, 18. It's a very humbling statement. That is, 0.77

00:04:53.180 while the Gentiles, we have covenant equality with the Jews. We're exactly the same in equality,

00:05:01.380 but what we don't have is covenantal station in an exact manner as the Jews. So we don't have 1.00

00:05:09.420 the exact position. They have a position of the root. We have a position that's coming as a

00:05:14.840 blessing of that root. We know that we have equality, but we don't have, again, the exactness.

00:05:21.980 there is a reality of spiritual ancestral honor, to some degree, gratitude for the covenant reality

00:05:34.220 of the Jews that we have come from, that we've been grafted into. Now, that does not mean that

00:05:43.600 we become these Jewish sympathizers and our whole world and economic and global geopolitic reality

00:05:51.640 revolves around Israel. We know that Talmudic Judaism is wicked. It's evil. It's a rejection 0.99

00:06:00.940 of Christ. It's idolatry and it must be condemned. But we're not to have a special animosity. We're

00:06:07.980 to have animosity or to all types of sin and all types of idolatry. But we're not to have a special

00:06:12.460 animosity toward the Jews, but we are to have a special pity for the Jews. And again, why do we 1.00

00:06:17.540 have a special pity for the Jews? Because we have inherited what was promised to them. 1.00

00:06:24.320 We should actually come, man, I feel for you. I feel, man, repent, come to Christ.

00:06:36.760 I also believe that we should have a special hope. Now, I only say that because I believe the

00:06:42.440 scriptures speak of a special hope. Paul says that if the rejection of the Jews brought blessings to 0.75

00:06:54.340 the world through the Great Commission, then what greatness will come for a mass revival

00:07:02.880 and acceptance by the Jews of Christ as Messiah? Paul says that it will be as life from the dead.

00:07:11.800 That's in verse 15, but I actually interpreted that with many other theologians as pointing to the final resurrection.

00:07:20.240 We'll get more into that in a bit.

00:07:23.040 In other words, when the church sees a mass revival of Jews, whenever that happens, 0.99

00:07:30.420 when we see a mass revival of Jews, we know that we're close to the end. 0.82

00:07:37.500 that said i'm a post-millennialist 0.69

00:07:43.200 and that means that i believe that christ comes post or after the millennial reign which i believe

00:07:54.880 is happening now the millennial reign of the kingdom happened after christ was resurrected

00:07:59.940 ascended to the throne sitting at the right hand of the father you can't have a king without a

00:08:03.900 kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. There is certainly a kingdom now that's being built.

00:08:08.820 How is it being built? Well, it's being built through the proclamation of the gospel. What

00:08:14.220 is Jesus doing? He's conquering. But how is he conquering? Through conversion.

00:08:20.520 He's conquering his enemies, who were once you, through conversion.

00:08:27.480 You've been conquered by Christ, if you've come to Christ.

00:08:33.900 And for that reason, I don't believe that we're at the anywhere close to the end of history.

00:08:42.400 Let me tell you why.

00:08:45.860 I could do about 75 hours on this point, but I'm just going to give you a couple points.

00:08:52.660 Exodus 26, God promises that his blessings will extend to a thousand generations.

00:09:00.400 His blessings will extend to a thousand generations.

00:09:03.900 Okay, whether that number is a literal 1,000, or it's just meant to represent an innumerable number.

00:09:13.760 Whenever that term 1,000, you know, God is the God of cattle on 1,000 hills.

00:09:19.960 Well, is he not the God of 1,001 hills?

00:09:22.800 No, of course he is. He's the God of the cattle on all the hills.

00:09:27.600 So, it's either going to mean 1,000.

00:09:30.220 it's either going to mean innumerable meaning more than a thousand but in scripture it never

00:09:36.360 means less than a thousand it's not going to be god is going to bless to a thousand generations

00:09:44.240 when really it's 622 no that's not how it ever works interpreting that number in scripture

00:09:53.840 today if we use 40 years as a generation we get that term from the old testament they wandered

00:10:03.860 in the wilderness for 40 years that one generation passed so we get that number as a basic how the

00:10:09.420 bible records a generation is about 40 years the math shows that we are roughly 85 generations

00:10:16.560 away from Moses where that promise was delivered. 85 generations. We're about 50 generations from

00:10:24.360 Jesus. So according to this perspective, which again was held by many church fathers, I'm not

00:10:33.320 a crazy person up here, many of the great reformers, the Puritans, many of the founding

00:10:38.880 fathers of America, and a growing number of modern theologians today, we still have a long

00:10:45.480 way to go. A long way to go. In fact, many Christians, including myself, believe that we

00:10:53.760 are still in what I believe in history would be considered the early church era.

00:10:59.560 I remember five years ago, Doug Wilson telling that exact statement to me and Veronica,

00:11:07.020 and we thought that he was maybe insane. Maybe insane.

00:11:12.120 one friend said to me in 2 000 years people will ask who was born first john macarthur or john

00:11:20.120 calvin that that's the kind of thinking we need to have and i know that's difficult for us to grasp

00:11:30.520 for a generation that has been told their entire life that jesus is going to return soon

00:11:39.040 Jesus is going to return soon.

00:11:42.460 Okay, this doctrine is called the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ.

00:11:47.900 You guys heard of this doctrine?

00:11:49.160 It's very popular.

00:11:50.580 Imminent return of Christ.

00:11:53.420 Now, for a doctrine to be true, it must be consistently true across all of time.

00:12:00.560 It must be true.

00:12:01.480 You can't say that a doctrine was not true until the 500s or it was only true in the 300s,

00:12:07.220 but it's not true now. No, for a doctrine to be true, it must always have been true,

00:12:12.320 obviously within context. I understand that. So, for example, if Christ's imminent return

00:12:16.960 is true today, it must have also been true 30 minutes after the ascension of Christ.

00:12:25.260 So, Jesus ascends. Do you think any of the disciples are going, he can come back anytime?

00:12:32.080 What did he just tell them to do?

00:12:36.000 Go get the nations, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded.

00:12:41.960 Do you think anybody's thinking, we could do this in our lifetime?

00:12:45.040 No internet, no cars, no electricity.

00:12:48.300 No, this is a massive, massive commission.

00:12:54.540 Go into the world and make disciples of all nations.

00:13:02.080 teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded.

00:13:07.480 This is a massive, massive commission.

00:13:16.300 Instead, we should hold to a doctrine of what I called fulfilled return of Christ.

00:13:20.980 Instead of the imminent return of Christ, the fulfilled return of Christ.

00:13:24.660 And that would emphasize that Christ's second coming happens after all prophetic events, 0.66

00:13:32.360 including the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the mass revival of the Jews. 0.51

00:13:37.620 Once those two things occur, then Christ will return. 0.78

00:13:43.740 You can also call that post-millennialism.

00:13:46.800 That's basically what post-millennialism is.

00:13:49.320 furthermore we have to recognize that the doctrine of the imminent return of christ

00:13:56.700 has ingrained what a short-term view of the future in christians which has nearly eliminated

00:14:06.260 the long-term investment and multi-generational thinking

00:14:10.620 that's necessary to spread the gospel and take dominion over the culture

00:14:13.660 in other words the imminent return of christ when you think of this doctrine

00:14:20.060 has caused an attitude in the church that you have all witnessed that basically states

00:14:27.920 why bother improving things if things are right about to end

00:14:30.900 we can't take we don't have enough time to take back the public schools right

00:14:37.280 i mean jesus is coming back probably any time now i grew up in calvary chapel that was the

00:14:42.900 message every single month seemed to be just this recurring reality. If we don't polish brass

00:14:49.000 on a sinking ship, this thing's going to hell in a handbasket. In fact, you should pray faster that

00:14:54.480 it gets worse quicker because that means Jesus is coming sooner. Evangelism becomes this invitation

00:15:00.040 to invite somebody to come to the losing team. Come lose with us. Let's wait for Jesus to come

00:15:05.720 back. Yeah, we can engage, but because we don't have much time, we can't build anything. The

00:15:11.040 gospel is all that counts. Let's just evangelize and evangelize and evangelize and do nothing else.

00:15:15.940 Let's not build any institutions. Let's not build anything long-term. Let's not focus on multiple

00:15:20.800 generations because you know what? Jesus is going to come back. In fact, maybe you don't even want

00:15:24.580 to get married. You don't even want to have kids because the world's getting worse.

00:15:31.760 We've had families in this church,

00:15:33.440 are no longer here, who admitted that they did not have children because of that eschatology.

00:15:46.020 They repented of it on their own, realized it was wrong, and became post-millennial.

00:15:56.920 Why play hard if you know you're going to lose?

00:15:59.480 this is not how the historic church thought about history

00:16:09.760 also by the way this is not how the roman catholic church even thinks about history

00:16:17.220 you know the roman catholic church i believe misses the gospel but what they do get right

00:16:26.300 is a long view of history.

00:16:30.660 Now, I'm not saying that this is a Roman Catholic doctrine.

00:16:32.920 This is actually what I would call a Puritan doctrine.

00:16:35.200 It was an early church doctrine.

00:16:36.540 It was held by many people, all Christians throughout time.

00:16:41.660 One example of this, this is interesting,

00:16:45.500 is how for centuries, Christians had no problem 0.59

00:16:49.040 starting projects like cathedrals

00:16:51.860 that took hundreds of years to build.

00:16:57.080 The Cologne Cathedral, you guys ever seen a picture of the Cologne Cathedral?

00:16:59.960 It's one of the most magnificent buildings on earth.

00:17:02.040 The Cologne Cathedral that's in Germany took 632 years to build.

00:17:11.040 632 years to build.

00:17:13.720 It was started in 1248 and it finished in 1880.

00:17:20.480 The Milan Cathedral took 579 years.

00:17:24.900 The Savelle Cathedral took about 500 years.

00:17:28.180 The Winchester Cathedral, 498 years.

00:17:31.960 You don't begin projects that span centuries if you believe in the imminent return of Christ.

00:17:42.540 Do you understand that connection and correlation?

00:17:46.200 Is that if you think that it's just going to get worse and that Christ is coming back soon,

00:17:51.280 you will never think long term about anything but when you think that you're actually building the

00:17:59.640 kingdom through the church the proclamation of the gospel and that christ isn't coming back for

00:18:05.300 possibly thousands of years you have no problem taking on a long view of history multi-generational

00:18:11.940 it's why again we build churches today that basically after 100 years need to be demolished

00:18:19.040 and rebuilt? Why don't we just build it out of rock? The ones that are, there's buildings in

00:18:25.060 Europe that are still there. It's actually, honestly, financially cheaper to just build it

00:18:30.820 that way than tearing it down every hundred years and rebuilding it. But we don't think that way

00:18:37.100 anymore. If you've gone to Europe and you see all the beautiful architecture and all the beautiful,

00:18:45.240 I mean, it was such a long view of history.

00:18:49.700 And here, everything is disposable and microwavable and, you know, eliminated quickly.

00:18:54.940 We have no process to think that way.

00:18:57.620 In fact, if we want the world that they had, we have to believe what they believed.

00:19:02.200 The problem is that we don't believe that way.

00:19:04.960 We are so selfish that we can't even think long-term to build something that I won't actually experience,

00:19:11.360 but actually will be a blessing to my great-grandchildren.

00:19:15.240 we have bumper stickers that have the elderly saying spending my children's inheritance

00:19:24.980 it's so gross we're not thinking down at all because we're so busy thinking of ourselves

00:19:34.560 the idea of the imminent return of christ it really only gained traction in the 1800s try to

00:19:40.700 go find the imminent return of Christ, use AI. You don't even need like a research assistant

00:19:46.600 anymore. Go ask AI about the history, which I did, of the imminent return of Christ.

00:19:52.340 It was really only gaining traction under the father of dispensationalism, John Nelson Darby,

00:19:57.240 mid-1800s. And since then, there have been hundreds of failed predictions on the return

00:20:06.400 of Christ. All of these denominations that are what I would say cults that really started in the 0.98

00:20:13.540 late 1800s were really a result of all this predictionism that came out of the misinterpretation

00:20:21.320 of the end times. In fact, using AI, I found that prior to the 1800s, there were only about 20 to 30

00:20:30.340 documented predictions of the return of Christ. So you're talking 1800 years, and you have about

00:20:36.380 20 to 30 documented predictions of the return of Christ. That's about 1.3 predictions per century.

00:20:44.180 Okay, 1.3 predictions per century. After the 1800s, there's nearly 300 documented predictions

00:20:50.900 from the return of Christ. That's 150 predictions per century. Do you know how much money has been

00:20:57.120 made and how much just nasty charlatanism that has happened from predicting the return of Christ?

00:21:06.380 instead of just looking back at what church history has always believed.

00:21:10.220 Now, again, yeah, there are always people that had a premillennial view,

00:21:13.620 but the vast majority of Christians throughout church history

00:21:16.460 really held to an amillennial view or a postmillennial view,

00:21:20.460 which is really very similar and had a long view of history.

00:21:25.980 In other words, we need to return to a long view of history.

00:21:30.900 we need to see how the great commission where god will save the nations

00:21:37.500 through the proclamation of the gospel has millennia to go let me give you some more data

00:21:45.500 well actually let me just say one other thing this should change the way you live

00:21:55.580 instead of buying something that's from ikea that's going to fall apart in you know two years

00:22:00.720 this should change the type of dinner table that you buy for your family

00:22:05.120 it should change the type of art that you put on your walls it should change the type of

00:22:11.200 church building that we save for you know just uh two weeks ago me and veronica had the

00:22:17.360 blessing of going to moscow idaho i might get the exact details of this wrong but

00:22:24.440 i have the general details about 40 years ago they started saving for a building

00:22:29.560 as a church and they met in a gymnasium for a school for about 40 years give or take

00:22:38.220 and they saved because they wanted to build a stone cathedral

00:22:43.980 and they made a commitment to not building or starting the building until they could basically

00:22:51.160 pay for it cash there's a book that he wrote about this process called let the stones cry out

00:22:58.880 and it's a biblical defense for architecture for churches and this is a protestant church by the

00:23:04.360 way and we went three weeks ago or two weeks ago up to moscow idaho and i believe this sunday

00:23:12.520 is the very first sunday that they are gathering in the first portion of that cathedral

00:23:20.320 they are building it into three sections and the first section is finished

00:23:25.260 the parking lot was done

00:23:27.880 and it's an amazing thing to see that Doug had this vision 40 years ago the whole thing may not

00:23:36.700 be finished before he dies he's 73 I don't know how many years they have left to save and to spend

00:23:43.640 but there's something that needs to change in the way we think about the church and our lives

00:23:52.020 having a long view of history. How does this connect? Well, actually, I want to say one last

00:24:01.120 thing. I want you to think about how you can bless future generations of Christians today.

00:24:09.940 I love that Augustine wrote down his thoughts. I don't know if he was aware

00:24:17.220 of the reality that almost 2,000 years later

00:24:22.580 I would be referencing his material for my sermons.

00:24:26.900 But what a blessing it is that he wrote those things down.

00:24:30.300 What can you do today that would bless your generations,

00:24:34.560 that would bless the church 500 years from today?

00:24:41.060 How does this connect with our passage?

00:24:42.840 habakkuk 2 14 is a prophecy about how the world will be prior to the return of christ this is a

00:24:53.780 prophecy about how the world will be prior to the return of christ listen to this habakkuk 2 14

00:25:02.700 for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord as the waters cover the sea

00:25:12.840 Are we there yet? Not yet. Incredible progress. Incredible progress going from a very small group

00:25:23.160 of Jews to, you know, 36% of the population of the world. Incredible. Incredible. But I do believe

00:25:34.760 in about 2,000 years that it's going to be 50% of the world will be professing Christ. And maybe

00:25:41.500 in 3,000 or 4,000 years, 60% or 70% will be professed. Now, are all of them going to be

00:25:48.040 converted and genuine believers? No. The reality is that we're going to have a Christianized world

00:25:56.500 because Christ doesn't fail at what he is doing. 0.98

00:26:04.940 One day, when this prophecy is fulfilled, we can expect it to provoke the stubborn hearts 0.98

00:26:10.100 of the Jews to jealousy. Think about this for a second. Think about four or eight thousand years 1.00

00:26:16.940 from today, and you have a Christianized world. It's more unified in the church than it ever has

00:26:25.440 been. And think about the Jews still not coming to Christ. Think about the drama of the story 0.98

00:26:37.440 that you have all the nations

00:26:41.500 are filled with people proclaiming Christ as Messiah 1.00

00:26:46.460 but the Jews are still hardened

00:26:49.440 and then think about that jealousy 0.86

00:26:54.900 of watching the world inherit the promises

00:26:58.220 that were given to them

00:26:59.140 and God all of a sudden

00:27:01.160 granting mercy, granting faith

00:27:06.580 and permitting a massive revival of Jews

00:27:13.340 and an entire nation comes to Christ 0.75

00:27:18.120 and the end of the world is here.

00:27:21.640 That's basically the narrative that you get from Romans 11.

00:27:26.880 Now last week we reflected on Paul's warning to the Gentiles

00:27:33.280 to guard against covenant pride and presumption.

00:27:36.580 it reminded us that just because we're baptized, just because we pray prayers, just because we go

00:27:45.360 to church doesn't mean that we're saved. Just because you're in the covenant does not mean

00:27:50.380 that you're of the covenant. Covenant inclusion, being a part of the people of God, does not

00:27:56.620 necessarily mean that you've been born again. The true measure of salvation, the only metric

00:28:03.940 that we can use is that we have a saving faith, a faith that rests solely upon the righteousness

00:28:10.440 of Christ, not thinking that we are good, not believing that we have any merit of our own,

00:28:15.360 but that we are trusting solely and completely on Christ alone. Furthermore, Paul warns that

00:28:25.800 if God was willing to cut off an entire generation of his own people, the Jews, for their unbelief,

00:28:34.880 for these people that had some degree of a claim upon his mercies, 0.94

00:28:41.100 that we should not be prideful in assuming that God will not cut off our own Gentile generations

00:28:50.720 for our unbelief, for our unfaithfulness, who do not have any claim upon his mercies. 0.73

00:28:59.540 As I said last week, this is relevant and clear that it has occurred to the American church.

00:29:07.780 Compared to a century ago, if you just go back to, you know, the late 1800s, early 1900s,

00:29:14.080 we are living in a remnant generation. There are significantly less Christians today than there

00:29:20.340 were then. We have significantly less penetration and influence in the culture today than we did

00:29:27.560 then. The church's unfaithfulness, this kind of silence toward wickedness, this cowardice

00:29:33.580 towards speaking the truth and proclaiming the gospel and standing for righteousness,

00:29:38.520 there has been a consequence for that. You know, we have abortion that occurred in 1973. We have

00:29:49.640 homosexuality being passed in a marital act in 2016, transgenderism that has been running 0.98

00:29:57.640 rampant everywhere and even into our children's TV shows. These are all clear signs of a covenant 0.98

00:30:03.480 judgment upon America. Now, if we desire to bless our children and our grandchildren and to

00:30:10.940 create a more Christianized and holy and righteous nation. We have to be willing

00:30:19.460 to stand for the gospel in ways that previous generations did not. We have to be willing to

00:30:27.800 say and to do what previous generations were not willing to say or do. The reason that we have to

00:30:34.400 speak out against homosexuality or against transgenderism or against feminism or against

00:30:39.820 abortion or against pornography is because we've had too many generations of pastors

00:30:44.200 who were unwilling to say hard things.

00:30:50.660 Today, we're going to see in this passage of Scripture, Paul shift from his call,

00:31:00.660 from Gentile humility to not be prideful against the Jews, to not presume on covenant

00:31:06.000 rights as a Gentile people, he's going to shift his focus and we're going to return to the rationale

00:31:16.800 for a future Jewish revival. So if you look down in your Bibles, you'll see from 11 to 16, 0.91

00:31:23.860 he basically gives three reasons to support this Jewish revival in the future. He's talking about

00:31:31.120 the possibility of this Jewish revival. He then kind of digresses into this discussion around

00:31:38.820 Gentile pride and presumption, which we've been dealing with for the last couple weeks. 0.66

00:31:43.540 And now he's returning for a concluding thought, giving the fourth point. And so if the third point

00:31:49.100 or the first three points were jealousy leading to Jewish salvation, that was kind of point number

00:31:56.260 one. And then the second is that greater blessing will come from Jewish fulfillment, or the Jews

00:32:01.280 coming to Christ. The third is Jewish reconciliation will bring about resurrection, which you guys

00:32:07.100 know that I spoke about is resurrection from the dead, which speaks to the last times the end of

00:32:12.720 history. This fourth point, and I believe it's a concluding point, is really, I've titled it,

00:32:20.120 is God's ability to restore the Jews. And so I want you to look at this, especially this theme,

00:32:27.520 because this is a theme that's greater than this passage of Scripture. It's really about God's

00:32:35.060 power to take what is dead and bring it back to life. It's really trying to demonstrate the

00:32:40.820 reality that God is sovereign over salvation. He is the one who does the cutting off and the

00:32:47.200 grafting in. He is the one who is the decisive action for salvation for the Jew and the Gentile. 1.00

00:32:58.380 Verse 23 says,

00:33:01.740 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able

00:33:09.340 to graft them in again. So remember, it's always important to identify the object of a pronoun,

00:33:16.860 so that we know the subject in context of your passage of Scripture. Again, we are smart Bible

00:33:24.220 interpreters. That means that we are not going to be 10 or 20 or 15 years, whatever it is,

00:33:28.400 into understanding our Bibles and not knowing how to interpret grammar. Pastors, in my opinion,

00:33:35.060 really are professional interpreters. We are needing to have a strong command of language.

00:33:42.200 We need to understand that recognizing pronouns and identifying who is really the subject in the context.

00:33:52.120 So the they in 23, it says, and they also, the they in 23 is speaking to the current and future unbelieving Jews.

00:34:04.760 Now the phrase, quote, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. 0.75

00:34:13.260 This can be kind of a stumbling block to a Calvinist soteriology, understanding salvation.

00:34:20.580 Because it seems like Paul is putting emphasis on human will.

00:34:25.200 It can sound like Paul is saying, if they choose Christ, if they would stop their unbelief and they would choose Christ, then God will graft them in.

00:34:32.200 It could sound like a conditional salvation.

00:34:34.720 If they do this, then God will do this.

00:34:40.060 Now, I'm not saying that the condition is not real.

00:34:45.860 The condition is real.

00:34:47.900 I'm simply saying that according to the doctrine of salvation that Paul has been talking about from chapter 8, 9, 10, and now 11,

00:34:56.240 that God meets the condition, which is faith, by gifting that faith to us.

00:35:00.840 It is not a condition met by man, but by man through the power of God, by the gift of faith.

00:35:10.700 Again, Paul is demonstrating, again, the sovereign nature of salvation.

00:35:19.720 Just as he took the spiritually dead, cut off branches from the wild olive trees and grafted them in.

00:35:30.840 to the living, cultivated olive tree. 0.96

00:35:34.700 He can also take off or take those branches that he has cut off from Jewish descent

00:35:39.740 that have died and withered on the ground 0.86

00:35:42.260 and restore them to life and graft them back in again.

00:35:48.780 Herman Bavinck wrote on this verse, he says,

00:35:52.940 quote, in salvation, the breaking off and grafting in

00:35:56.960 is symbolic of the sovereign work of God.

00:36:00.840 In both cases, whether cutting off or grafting in, it is God who performs the act.

00:36:08.660 His mercy alone determines the inclusion or the re-inclusion of those once cut off, end quote.

00:36:16.040 This is basically the argument of the next verse.

00:36:17.920 I'm not going to offer any commentary on it because it's really self-explanatory.

00:36:20.620 It says in verse 24,

00:36:21.580 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree,

00:36:32.020 how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted back into their own tree?

00:36:42.280 And verse 25, it continues saying,

00:36:44.700 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. 0.99

00:36:51.580 A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. 0.99

00:36:59.600 You need to catch that word until. 0.99

00:37:03.080 It says, brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel for how long? 1.00

00:37:08.740 Until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. 0.98

00:37:13.800 So, if the previous verses, 11 through 16, speaking on this future revival, spoke to the probability of a Jewish future revival, 0.99

00:37:31.640 this verse really speaks to the inevitability, the certainty. 0.69

00:37:36.880 It's a revelation of mystery.

00:37:39.040 pride often comes from ignorance of God's will and by revelation of scripture we get to learn

00:37:47.340 these things that prior to Paul writing this or the gospels being recorded nobody understood or

00:37:55.720 knew why the vast majority of the Jews rejected Christ it was a mystery but Paul in Romans 11

00:38:03.480 and has revealed that mystery, that there was a purpose in the rejection of the Messiah,

00:38:11.400 that God will work and cause all things to work together for good,

00:38:14.960 and that their rejection meant the Great Commission for the world, 0.69

00:38:19.480 and the Great Commission for the world would draw jealousy to the Jews,

00:38:22.360 leading to a revival of the Jews in the future and the end of history.

00:38:27.660 But this was not information that was known until these mysteries were revealed.

00:38:33.320 Robert Haldane, he breaks this mystery into two parts.

00:38:37.560 He says, the first mystery was that, quote, a partial blindness had come upon ethnic Israel, leaving only a remnant.

00:38:46.460 That was the first part of the mystery.

00:38:48.040 Wait, you're saying that the Messiah came and there was a partial hardening and the reason the vast majority of the Jews rejected Christ is because they were made blind by God? 0.98

00:38:58.420 Yes, that is exactly right. 0.99

00:39:02.580 The second mystery is that this blindness will continue until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. 1.00

00:39:16.000 How long? 0.97

00:39:18.620 Until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in. 1.00

00:39:21.540 as i've said before we we should not expect the return of christ until the great commission has 0.99

00:39:32.920 been fulfilled and we should not expect the great commission to fail because the great commission

00:39:42.000 is carried out by the body of Christ, and the body is only operating by the power and the authority

00:39:52.360 of the head, which is Christ. And so is it possible for the body to fail and the head win?

00:40:00.560 No. No, we rise and we fall together. We are one, united together.

00:40:06.700 the promise of Jesus that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

00:40:14.680 We have every possible reason that the Great Commission will be fulfilled

00:40:18.480 because it's done by the power and authority of Christ.

00:40:22.000 All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth.

00:40:26.240 We have no reason to doubt the success of the Great Commission.

00:40:32.140 As of 2024, approximately 3.4 billion people, about 42% of the world, live in unreached people groups with little to no access to the gospel.

00:40:53.160 In other words, if you think about Habakkuk's prophecy in 2.14,

00:40:56.020 for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the

00:41:01.360 sea we are not there yet we're not there yet and when you think about the judgments from the

00:41:08.500 covenant judgments of God on nations for their unfaithfulness and the kind of ebb and flow of

00:41:13.560 God redeeming his elect through time this could be millennia before we start to see

00:41:21.060 more and more nations coming to Christ. 0.52

00:41:30.140 Until then, until that time, a partial hardening will remain on the Jews of ethnic Israel.

00:41:42.500 Jesus actually confirms this in Luke 21-24. He's giving a prophecy about the destruction of

00:41:49.640 Jerusalem, but he's also giving a little bit of an insight to this timeline, this eschatological

00:41:54.520 timeline of the Gentiles and the Jews and how they relate with one another. It says,

00:42:00.160 quote, they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, 0.54

00:42:05.340 and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, speaking of 70 AD.

00:42:10.120 But then it says this, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, end quote.

00:42:18.120 this is an incredible statement by Jesus it also again this is not a doctrine of Paul this is

00:42:29.180 really a doctrine of Christ that is being reiterated by Paul in verse 26 Paul offers

00:42:35.740 a greater clarity on this passage of scripture to support this claim he says

00:42:42.580 And in this way, all Israel will be saved.

00:42:47.540 As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion.

00:42:51.920 He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins, end quote.

00:43:01.020 Now, there's a massive debate.

00:43:03.040 I mean, I'm talking a huge debate over the word all in verse 26.

00:43:07.760 And in this way, all Israel will be saved.

00:43:12.580 Now, the context is speaking specifically of ethnic Israel.

00:43:19.500 And so it's easy to, there's multiple perspectives.

00:43:24.180 Is Paul talking about all Israel, meaning every single Jew that is alive at the time that the Gentiles have fully come in?

00:43:35.620 Is that all, everybody that's a part of the nation of Israel or everybody that's of Jewish descent? 0.82

00:43:42.580 Or does it speak of all as the, all of the true Israel, all of the children of Israel

00:43:48.840 from Abraham by faith, the Jew and Gentile, will all of them be saved?

00:43:56.020 And honestly, I look to, I look to many commentaries.

00:44:01.460 I looked at the context of this passage.

00:44:04.280 What I believe Paul is specifically speaking to is ethnic Israel, though he oscillates

00:44:09.580 between the spiritual Israel and the geographic Israel, I really do believe that I lean towards 0.92

00:44:18.340 the former in the fact that when Christ has brought in all of the Gentiles and we provoke 0.94

00:44:29.700 the nation of Israel or the people of Israel, the Jews, to jealousy and God grants that mercy

00:44:38.860 I believe that every one of them will be saved.

00:44:47.080 Now, I can't say that with complete authority, but the text does, and in this way, all Israel will be saved.

00:44:56.980 I landed there because in Matthew 19.26, Jesus says,

00:45:00.940 With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

00:45:08.860 The salvation of an entire nation, all within, say, one generation, sounds impossible, but it's also what makes it sound like God.

00:45:20.440 And what I mean by that is that, I'll share a quote from the early church.

00:45:25.420 This gentleman says, quote, I believe that Christ died for me because it's incredible.

00:45:29.880 I believe that he rose from the dead because it's impossible.

00:45:32.660 In other words, the very incredibility, the very impossibility is what makes it sound more divine or divinity.

00:45:42.320 It's those real things that you go, I can't believe that God can do that.

00:45:48.240 And that's the very reason why I believe that God did that.

00:45:55.300 And when someone asks me, how can you believe in a God that created everything in six days?

00:45:59.700 i'd ask them how could you not

00:46:03.640 i wouldn't want a god that can't raise the dead or speak galaxies into existence or or you know

00:46:12.380 change uh the outcomes of history and wars and kings in fact scripture tells me that god does

00:46:19.120 all of these things and it's the very thing that actually makes me have reverence and awe in the

00:46:23.760 glory of God. So if I could sum up this sermon, I would say we need a biblical view of redemptive

00:46:40.300 history. We need to view history, how the Bible views history and that God has taken this tiny

00:46:52.260 remnant caused a mass revival of billions of Gentiles in the Great Commission that will one

00:46:59.480 day provoke a tiny nation to return to their Messiah. By God's providence and plan, the nation 0.99

00:47:11.340 will come and the resurrection of the dead will follow at the end of history.

00:47:15.700 we need to see that God is sovereign over salvation

00:47:21.760 we need to learn to remain faithful for the sake of our generations

00:47:28.260 we need to extend our view of history so that we start to see things in centuries and not in

00:47:37.220 decades we need to teach our children about multi-generationalism

00:47:43.200 and most of all we need to get to work yes all of our work needs to be done in faith

00:47:51.380 but we need to do something we need to be faithful and build institutions and families

00:48:03.500 engage the culture proclaim the gospel christianize these places to the glory of god

00:48:11.960 Let's pray.

00:48:14.800 Father, we thank you, Lord, for this long view of history,

00:48:19.700 an incredible narrative that we are a part of.

00:48:25.940 Lord, we ask that you would bless us with wisdom

00:48:28.700 on how to apply these thoughts around the Great Commission

00:48:34.160 and future generations.

00:48:36.980 How does it really come out of our fingertips?

00:48:39.020 Lord, give us wisdom

00:48:41.660 that we might be used as a church

00:48:44.820 here in this town

00:48:46.520 and Lord, for many faithful churches

00:48:48.780 across this nation

00:48:50.160 that you would restore and bless this nation

00:48:53.520 for your name's sake

00:48:56.040 in Jesus' name, amen

00:49:09.020 Thank you.

Dale Partridge - November 22, 2024

Romans 11_23-27： The Unfolding of the End Times

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