Romans 9_25-29： The Remnant and the Promise with Dale Partridge
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Summary
God is sovereign over his people, so why did the vast majority of the Jews reject Christ? Why did they reject Him? What was the reason for their rejection of Christ? What does it have to do with the Bible and why did it happen? In this episode, Pastor Ken answers these questions and more.
Transcript
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Open your Bibles, if you would, please, to Romans 9, 19.
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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump
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one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
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to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Verse 27. And
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Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of
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the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon
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the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us
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offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Verse 30. What shall we say
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then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that
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is by faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed
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in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on
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works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a
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stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
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This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Well, it's good to get towards the end of Romans 9.
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Over the past several weeks, we have worked our way through what Steve Lawson calls the Mount
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Everest of the New Testament. I believe it's a beautiful chapter. It's a glorious chapter.
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Romans 9 is one of the most powerful pieces of literature that you can find in the New Testament.
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We must remember that in chapter 8, Paul just asserted that God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
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in other words he claimed that God is absolutely sovereign from election to glory
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he is commanding the destiny of his people and so when you say something so strong
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that those whom he foreknew he predestined those whom he predestined he called and those whom he
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called he justified and those we justified he glorified. When you say those terms the central
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question becomes if God is sovereign over his people then why did the vast majority of the
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Jews reject Christ? That is the natural question. He's sovereign. Look at Israel. What's going on?
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and this is the thematic intention of this entire chapter, and Paul offers a thorough
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explanation by clarifying four points that I believe that we have touched thoroughly,
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and if you want to go back, you're welcome to do that, to go watch or listen to any of
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these sermons, but number one is, all Jews do not believe because all Jews are not elect.
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That was point number one. That's verse 6. Not all who are Israel are Israel.
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Shocking words to first century Christians. Number two is those who are elect are not
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elected based on works or foreseen future works, but solely on God's will before they're even
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born. That was a hard one. That's 914. Number three, there is no injustice with God in electing
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some and leaving others to justice. We like to believe that in election, that there's some sort
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of injustice, that we're not equally opportunity elected. No, the reality is none of us deserve
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election. All of us deserve wrath. There is no injustice in election. There's only justice and
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mercy. So the only two categories. And there's no injustice because all deserve his wrath.
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And number four, which we dealt with last week, is God's purpose in not electing all
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is to display all his attributes, including his wrath and his justice.
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this is a key point from last week. God cannot have attributes that do not have functions.
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God cannot have attributes that do not have functions. And God's attributes include his wrath
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and include his justice. Therefore, he must have a world that includes the opportunity for wrath
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and justice. You want to know why sin is included in this world? Why God saw that it was good to
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include sin in his world? Because it glorifies him in his wrath and in his justice. His entire
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person must be glorified and displayed. Ultimately, we learned that a world with sin
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brings about more glory than a world without sin.
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evil is not good, but it's good that there is evil.
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God did not create this world accidentally and go,
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that his glory might be shown in his wrath and justice.
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We closed last week by looking at two categories of predestined people.
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There was the vessels of wrath and the vessels of mercy.
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And we saw that just as the vessels of wrath were prepared to demonstrate God's glory in his justice,
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the vessels of mercy, us, were prepared to demonstrate the glory of God's grace.
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And then Paul closed this discussion regarding these vessels of mercy with these words.
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even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
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In other words, God's election and reprobation, when you elect somebody, you inadvertently pass
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over someone else. So in election and reprobation extended not only to the Jews, but also to the
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Gentiles. Now, the first century Christians, this passage is particularly shocking because it
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reemphasizes that many of the Jews are not elect. This passage today, you're going to see this,
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that many of the Jews are not elect, while it deepens the shock by emphasizing that some of
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the people who were not God's people are elect. It's a twist in the plot, for sure.
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God is an incredible storyteller. In other words, many of the people we thought were saved
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are not saved, the Jews. And all the people we thought were condemned, many are actually saved,
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the Gentiles. This is absolutely a monstrous idea to a Jew. Absolutely monstrous.
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There's a reason why Paul was often stoned and beaten and thrown in jail,
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because this message he preached against the Jews.
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And he did so with the use of the scriptures.
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Now, to add further shock, Paul demonstrates that it has always been God's plan to do this.
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This is not some random, unexpected, out of thin air.
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no this is been the plan since the beginning of time as is prophesied in the old testament
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so two things are important one we start to see that god has orchestrated the salvation of his
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people and of mankind in the reprobation paul is not inventing this doctrine of sovereign
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election that he is defending here in chapter 9 he's going to show you that god has predestined
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this reality in the old testament to uphold what he's saying here in chapter nine number two
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is as a gentile your conversion is a fulfillment of this prophecy we're going to see that today
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your conversion is actually a fulfillment of this prophecy so again contextually verse 24
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we're coming off the heels paul claims that god's electing grace extends to the gentiles
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and in verses 25 to 26 which we're going to hit here in just a second
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He offers the biblical evidence for that claim.
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those who were not my people, I will call my people.
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And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved.
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And in the very place where it was said to them,
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there will be called sons of the living God.
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Now, Paul's ministry, as we know, is directed, ordained to the Gentiles.
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He's focusing on proclaiming, demonstrating, and defending the expansion of redemption
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from ethnic Israel to the ends of the earth.
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And he wants to show how this all-sovereign, all-electing God
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but has extended it to every tribe, nation, and tongue.
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Now, the central way to authenticate a claim like that
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that foretold that God intends to save foreign people.
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Now here, he cites Hosea 2.23, which was written 800 years before this was penned by Paul.
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Those who were not my people, I will call my people.
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The apostle Peter actually references the same prophecy in 1 Peter 2.10.
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it says, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy,
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but now you have received mercy. But then Paul says this line,
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Now, God often refers to Israel throughout the Old Testament as his beloved, as his bride,
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as his betrothed. He uses those terms. And he excludes the Gentiles from that covenant title.
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But as we're going to see in Romans 11, God has grafted us in. We have been grafted into this
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bride, to this beloved. In verse 26, he offers further evidence for the Gentiles' inclusion.
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He cites Hosea 1.10 that says, and in the very place where it was said to them, you
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are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.
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As Christians, 2000 years this side of the cross, it's difficult to grasp how beautiful
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We need to remember that we are not the Jews. We are not Israel. We are outside of Christ a
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godless people having no promise, having no oracles of God, having not the covenants,
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having not the fathers, having not the temple, having not all of the things that Paul opened
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up this chapter with talking as he's mourning and grieving the loss of the Jews.
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we were a people without hope under the bondage of sin, death, and Satan.
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In other words, we struggle to see the blessing of the gospel
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because we never lived in a world where it was never available to us.
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A first century Gentile hearing about the absolute opportunity, offer of the gospel,
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But God calling us, the Gentiles, really needs to be felt as an orphan feels adoption
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Again, it's difficult for us in this generation.
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Do you remember what it's like to be not a people?
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Do you remember, outside of the church, before you came to Christ, what it's like to be not
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To have no identity but sin and Satan and death?
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I want you to notice the language in verse 26 because it continues to uphold this kind
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of overarching theme of Romans 8 through 9, that God is sovereign.
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It says, I will call my people, and I will call beloved, and they will be called sons
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It's like the Ezekiel passage that you have constantly, I will, I will, I will, I will.
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because the outcomes of society would be based upon the free will of man.
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And again, I say it every week. I'm going to say it again. We do not have free will.
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We have a will. It's never free. It's always enslaved either to Christ and righteousness,
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or it's enslaved to sin and death. You have a will.
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It's never free. Now you have a, what we call free agency. Now free agency means that you
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you can in your nature in your sinful nature when you're in sin enslaved to
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death you're free to sin you're free to operate within your nature you know
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what you're not free to do is change your nature you need God's divine
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intervention for you to change your nature this is the whole purpose of
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Jesus's miracles he wants to show if you're blind I need to come to help you
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see. If you're deaf, I need to come and help you hear. If you're dead, I need to come and help you
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be made alive. You are not free to go from death to life, from deaf to hearing, from blind to seen.
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You cannot do that on your own. It requires God's intervention. You have a will. It's never free.
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You cannot change your nature. You must have divine intervention.
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It's a beautiful thing to realize that you're alive. You love God. Your nature has been changed.
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Not because of you, but because God came and gave you new life. What does John chapter three says?
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say, we must be born again. How much of you or how many of you had any involvement in your first
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birth? None. There is no involvement in your first birth. It's the whole reason Jesus chose that
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metaphor. We cannot born ourselves again. It is a sovereign act of God. You are alive and seeing
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and hearing, because God came when you were dead, disinterested, deaf, blind, and hostile.
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Without your permission, only because of his love, made you alive.
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When you realize how great a rescue we had, you will appreciate the rescuer.
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Verses, if you look down to verses 27 through 29
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We need to bring ourselves into the world of the Bible
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okay the jews viewed themselves as the exclusive people of god and paul just dethroned the
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assumption by declaring the gentiles inclusion by using this old testament reference they think
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that they're the exclusive paul's coming in with hosea he's going to come in with other passages
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and other texts that he writes and other epistles and as i said earlier what makes romans 9 and this
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understanding of God's electing grace so profound, is that many of the people we thought were
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saved, the Jews, are not saved. And all the people we thought were condemned, many are actually
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saved, the Gentiles. This is the plot twist of this particular chapter. So while many of the
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preceding verses prophesied that the Gentiles were going to be saved in mass. The forthcoming
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verses prophesied that most of the Jews are condemned, that most of the Jews are condemned.
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If you want to go back and read verses one through five, you can see the absolute sorrow
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and grieving of Paul that his kinsmen, his people, his fellow brothers and sisters in Israel have
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rejected Christ. It says in verse 27 to 29, and Isaiah cries out concerning Israel.
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Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be
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saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as
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Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom
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and become like Gomorrah. Okay, I'm going to take a little bit of a side turn here for a second,
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Because I think this passage really speaks to some eschatological, end times, post-millennial realities that I want to touch on.
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Many modern Christians have adopted the Old Testament concept of the remnant.
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A couple years ago, I went to John MacArthur's Shepherds Conference, and the theme was the remnant.
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They do not have the same covenant theology or eschatology.
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love MacArthur, but we do not share the same view of the covenants and or eschatology that,
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and in fact, the vast majority of church history does not share the same view that John MacArthur
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has. But many modern Christians have adopted this Old Testament reality of the remnant,
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which suggests that only a small number of humanity will be saved.
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and they've applied this idea incorrectly to the church. I'm going to say that again.
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I'm going to say that again. Many modern Christians have adopted the Old Testament
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concept of the remnant and they've applied this idea to the church.
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Now this is the posture of the kind of doom and gloom Christians that it's only going to get
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worse. Why would we polish brass on a sinking ship? It's all going to hell in a handbasket.
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because that means Jesus will come back sooner.
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that has basically existed for the last 100 years
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and has created the world that we have today,
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that is not the Christianity that founded America,
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that is not the Christianity that built cathedrals
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that is not the Christianity of the early church.
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That is not the Bible's view of how end times work.
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What they fail to understand is that term remnant.
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What that means is that the promise to Abraham,
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The number of the sons of Israel being as the sand of the sea or as numerous as the stars.
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It says, when Abraham counted the stars, he was counting you.
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Do we have a God that doesn't fulfill promises?
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How can you have a remnant, but also have the sand of the sea and as numerous as the stars?
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No, it will still be fulfilled, not by the remnant of ethnic Israel, but through the Gentiles being grafted into that remnant of Israel.
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We are seeing the billions of Christians that have come, that have become those stars and become that sand.
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In other words, it was perfectly normal for the Jews to be pessimistic prior to the Messiah.
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The remnant ideology was perfectly normal.
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Things would only get harder, smaller, and more difficult until Christ came.
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Pessimism was an Old Testament reality waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
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For Christians to adopt this kind of pre-Messiah Jewish pessimism,
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the remnant mentality, after Christ's victory over death and sin,
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and the expansion of the gospel to all nations,
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it's to misapply the idea of the remnant to the church.
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The church is not going to be a remnant of the population.
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It becomes the largest tree in all of the garden plants,
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Jesus also says that the kingdom of God is like leaven
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of the resurrection of Christ is more powerful than the fall of Adam. That's the simplest
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explanation. I believe that when Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been
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given to him, that we should expect to win because he already won. Is there any paradigm in which the
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body can lose and the head can win? Do we not rise and fall together? Can the church lose down
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here and Christ still win as our head? Are we not one? No, we must win together. If we lose,
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Christ loses. That cannot function with the scriptures. No, Christ wins because he already
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won. And we should expect the church to win because we are the body of the head.
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I'm going to give you a biblical parallel. And I'll wrap this up into this verse here in a minute.
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Just as God's rescue of the Israelites from slavery to Egypt was this shadow, it's a foreshadow or a
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prefigurement. If you've read your Bible, you start to see, wow, the Old Testament is shadows
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of the substance to come. It's the type and the anti-type. And just as God's rescue of
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the Israelites from slavery of Egypt is the shadow of God rescuing his people from the
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slavery of sin, the number rescued was not a remnant of the Egyptian population. Hang
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with me here. This is a fun little exercise. Scholars estimate that the population of Egypt
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at the time of the Exodus was about 3 million people.
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Now, that 3 million people actually included the Jews.
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Now, according to the Bible, there was 600,000 Jewish men,
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which equals about 2 million people with Jewish women and children.
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God's people made up of two-thirds of the population.
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You know why the Egyptians were freaked out about all of the Israelites living?
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Because basically two-thirds of their entire population was about to go away.
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And so if two-thirds of the population in the shadow, we should expect in the substance
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that that was reflecting in the gospel that the majority of the population is saved from sin.
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We should see a similar parallel from the exodus, from the slavery of Egypt, for the
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exodus of sin and the slavery of God's people in the gospel.
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The remnant is not God's word failing to complete its purpose, which is the dilemma, right?
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This chapter started off with, it's not as though God's word has failed.
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It's not like God tried to save the Jews but couldn't.
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We know that God's word accomplishes that which it purposes.
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No, the remnant is the evidence of God's word accomplishing its purpose.
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It was prophesied beforehand, there was always intended to be a remnant.
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though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him so that the
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words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he had
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heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe.
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And again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart,
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lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.
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The remnant isn't evidence that God's word has failed.
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The remnant is God's evidence that God's word has actually succeeded.
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God intended to save only a remnant that would be combined with the fullness of the Gentiles.
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to fulfill the promise to Abraham that his descendants by faith
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will be as numerous as the sand of the shore or the stars in the sky.
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Today, we know that about one-third of the population confesses Christ.
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We know that not all of them are regenerate or actually born again.
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But that number, if you look historically, has never gotten smaller.
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There has never been a time, if you look at 100-year periods,
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So why should we expect that it's going to get smaller?
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No, we should only expect what history has proven,
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but by the strength of Christ through the church.
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You should be confident that 500 years from today,
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If you just want to be sheerly relying on math,
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we look at America and we think oh it's getting terrible everybody's falling
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okay are you not aware of India are you not aware what's going on in the Middle East
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are you not aware of what's happening in Cuba are you not aware of the revivals that are
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occurring across the nations of course we're not fully aware
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the truth is that every time God allows persecution what happens to the church does it get smaller
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That's basically the narrative of church history.
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You can't have a church that continues to grow smaller.
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Get rid of the remnant pessimistic reality out of your mind.
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Doesn't mean that we don't have a terrible multi-decade period.
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We have comfortable beds and sunglasses and surgeries.
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We're also not watching people get eaten alive for fun.
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As a result, it's becoming increasingly difficult
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I think in about a thousand years, yes, that means that I don't think Christ is coming back
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anytime soon. I think in a thousand years, this idea of the remnant, the church is only getting
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smaller. It's only getting worse. It's just going to get harder and harder and harder
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to uphold that position. Now, in verses 28 through 29, if you look down with me,
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we see a prophetic reference or a reason for the remnant, the judgment of the remnant,
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and why so many Jews have been left to wrath, why they have been vessels of wrath. It says in verse
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28, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And
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as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, or your translation might
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say seed, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Now again, you know that
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we opened up chapter nine, Paul has the sorrow for the mass of his people who have been cut off
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or accursed from Christ. And through Paul, or sorry, though Paul was part of the remnant,
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Paul is actually part of this remnant. He was grieved over the majority of his people being
00:35:46.000
cut off. Now, when you understand that God's intention was not only to save a remnant of the
00:35:52.240
Jews, you begin to see how passages like Matthew 7, verse 13 and 14 apply specifically to the
00:35:58.080
Jews and not the church. I'm going to read it. Actually, why don't you guys turn there real
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quick. Matthew chapter seven, verses 13 and 14. So many times this passage comes up.
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When you understand that God's intention was to only save a remnant of the Jews
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and to not apply that to the church, passages like Matthew 7, 13 through 14, start to make sense.
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text more than many scriptures. Who is Jesus talking to? Basic hermeneutics here, people.
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Who's the audience? Okay, let's ask another question. There are four Gospels, three synoptics.
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Matthew is considered what? The Jewish Gospel. The Jewish Gospel speaking to a Jewish audience.
00:37:19.240
and he says enter by the narrow gate this is jewish language by the way talking about
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the architecture around jerusalem for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
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destruction and those who enter it are many he's prophesying right now about the vast majority
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of Jews that will not come to Christ, to himself. For the gate is narrow and that way is hard that
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leads to life and those who find it are few. When you realize that this is talking about the Jews
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to the Jews and not about us, you go, oh, that makes sense. That makes sense. Few find it. Few
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of the Jews find it. You could not say this to be true of the Gentiles. Literally billions of
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Gentiles have found it. And it's continuing to grow century after century after century.
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Verse 29 says in Romans, as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
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we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. This prophecy had not been fulfilled
00:38:49.800
when Paul had wrote this letter. Now, yes, it's fulfilled in the Babylonian exile. Yes,
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it's fulfilled in the remnant of the church and the fact that many of Jesus' own people
00:39:01.020
have rejected him. But the ultimate fulfillment of this passage of scripture is not coming until
00:39:07.160
a few years after Romans was written. Now, if you look down with me, it says again,
00:39:12.400
as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom
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and become like Gomorrah. What you need to know about prophecy is that there is an immediate
00:39:25.140
fulfillment and there is often, almost always a future fulfillment. So when Isaiah prophesied
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this, it was speaking certainly of the Babylonian exile. It was certainly speaking about the
00:39:37.140
rejection of the Jews in Jesus's ministry. And it's certainly speaking about what we call 70 AD
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in the destruction of Jerusalem. As Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24, verse 22, it says,
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and if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake
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of the elect, those days will be cut short. Someone give me a Bible. I don't have my Bible
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with me. Can I use your Bible real quick? I brought my iPad here. I want to read something
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to you guys. Open up to Matthew 24. Is this ESV, Trevor? Okay. One of the greatest problems
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of the American church is understanding, is not understanding the significance of 70 AD
00:40:51.100
but I'm going to just give you a little bit here
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He's prophesying a judgment that's about to come
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upon Jerusalem for the Jews rejecting the Messiah.
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It says, Jesus left the temple and was going away
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Truly I say to you, there will not be left here
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one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. So the context is what? You're in Jerusalem.
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You're looking at the temple. The disciples are like, I'm looking at the building. And Jesus says,
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you know what? All of these blocks that are here, not one will be standing upon the other.
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It'll be thrown down. Verse three says, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to
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him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? When will this destruction occur
00:42:12.920
essentially? And what will be the sign of your coming and the closing of the age? Man, I don't
00:42:20.800
have time to go into the deepness of that, but this is, when will be the time of your coming,
00:42:25.520
your judgment, the fulfillment of this prophecy, the destruction of those buildings?
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And Jesus answered to them saying, see that no one leads you astray for many will come in my name
00:42:36.580
saying that I am the Christ and they will lead many astray and you will hear of wars and rumors
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of wars. This isn't talking about our time. This is talking about pre 70 AD culture.
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Keep in context people and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed
00:42:53.860
for this all must take place. He's telling you when those things, when that building will fall
00:42:58.180
apart. He's, he's giving you the context. See that you are not alarmed for this must take place,
00:43:03.080
But the end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,
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and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, and all these things are
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I'll tell you what, it's not an American from Ohio, okay?
00:43:28.560
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death.
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And you will be hated by all nations for my sake.
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And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.
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And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
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And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
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But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
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And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world, as Paul says.
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It has already been proclaimed to the entire Roman world.
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That's the question that Jesus is answering here.
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So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken about the prophet Daniel
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standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.
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That is, let the reader of the prophecy of Daniel understand.
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I'll do a teaching on this in a few months.
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Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
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Because I think this just geographically anchored us in Judea.
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Oh, so this must be talking about something that's going to happen there.
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Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
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Let the one who is on the housetops not go down and take what is in his house,
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and let the one who is not in the field turn back and take his cloak.
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and for those who are nursing infants in those days,
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pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
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such as has not been from the beginning of the world
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Okay, if this is talking about the end of the earth,
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such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now,
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That means that this would need to be greater than the flood
00:45:58.420
So is this talking about the end of the world or is this talking about the destruction of
00:46:03.540
a locality and is Jesus prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem?
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It says in verse 22, and if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.
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But for the sake of his elect, those days will be cut short.
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Then if anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ or there he is, do not believe it.
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For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders
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So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go.
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If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.
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For as the lightning comes from the east and shines to the west,
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This is what's called prophetic apocalyptic language.
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Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon
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will not give its light and the stars are fallen from heaven and the powers of heaven
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You're thinking, oh, certainly this is talking about the end of the world.
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The problem is, is that I could give you four other instances in the Old Testament that
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Jesus is basically saying, Israel, Jerusalem, I'm going to uncreate you.
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I'm about to come with my wrath upon Jerusalem for the rejection of the Messiah
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and judge you with such a judgment that only a remnant will be left.
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Now, again, I can't do a full teaching on Matthew 24 today,
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but I want to give you that text so that you can at least go back.
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R.C. Sproul has a fantastic exposition of Matthew 24.
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Jeff Durbin, down at Apologia, probably has the best exposition of Matthew 24.
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I don't know how long he went through it, maybe a year.
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And when you start to see that the tribulation is actually 70 AD,
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when you start to realize that the Puritans all believe this as well,
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and Calvin, and Zwingli, and Knox, probably Luther, certainly Augustine,
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when you start to see these things come together,
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it'll start to help you have a more systematic framework
00:48:47.200
around New Testament interpretation of prophecy.
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all prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem
00:49:09.960
about this remnant that's in our verse here, that seed that was left. Because had they not left
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Jerusalem and stayed there, it would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. There would have been
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nobody. There would have been no seed. One article says, quote, historical records and early
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Christian writings indicate that Christians fled Jerusalem prior to its destruction in 70 AD,
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seeking refuges in places like Pella. This flight is associated with Jesus's prophecy
00:49:40.880
about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, as found in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. Eusebius,
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an early church historian, documented the Christians in Jerusalem were warned through
00:49:52.720
a divine revelation to leave the city. They heeded this warning and moved to Pella, a city in the
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region of Decapolis, before the Roman siege and subsequent destruction of Jerusalem.
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This is in Eusebius' history of the church, chapter 3, verse 5.
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This move was seen as the fulfillment of Jesus' warning about the impending desolation of
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Other sources, like Epiphanius, also confirm that the Christians fled to Pella, underscoring
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the belief that they were divinely guided to avoid the catastrophic events that befell
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This Exodus helped preserve the early Christian community, which later returned and contributed
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This passage is talking about a fulfilled prophecy.
00:50:49.880
And so to connect all of this verse together, unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, which was left with
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no survivors. God permitted, through the prophecy of Matthew 24, through the prophecy of John
00:51:07.640
and Revelation, a seed to remain, a remnant to remain that would ultimately and eventually
00:51:15.760
grow into the church. There is so much there, and I wish that I had more time to take you
00:51:23.120
through that. Why does this all matter? Okay, first, having the scriptures does not mean that
00:51:32.960
you see. That's one takeaway that I would say. The Jews had the scriptures. They had the oracles of
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God. They were not only having them, they were proud of their interpretations of them.
00:51:42.880
John 5, 39 through 41 says, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have
00:51:47.460
eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me and have
00:51:52.240
eternal life. I don't know about you, but I've met pagans that reject Christ and they go,
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I've read the Bible. I've read the Bible. I've read it cover to cover. And I go, you probably
00:52:07.680
have. You have just not been given eyes to see. You have not been given ears to hear.
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You were like the Pharisees who knew all there was.
00:52:20.500
You know that Caiaphas, the high priest, is supposed to be the man that knows more about God than anyone else on earth?
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The guy who was supposed to know more about God and the scriptures than anyone else on earth is the guy that kills the Messiah.
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We cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit's illumination.
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So the takeaway for point one is pray that the Lord might give you right interpretation.
00:52:58.860
We live in the information age where you guys will leave and watch three videos and read a book
00:53:05.180
and an article and listen to a podcast. And you have to learn how to rightfully interpret the
00:53:10.100
Word of God. You want a systematic comprehension of the gospel. Sadly, many Christians have an
00:53:17.760
unsystematic, an incoherent theology. But we want a systematic, cohesive view of the scriptures.
00:53:26.880
1 Corinthians 2.14 says, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because
00:53:30.600
they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually
00:53:34.280
discerned. The Bible alone cannot cause a convert. It must require the Spirit of the Lord to come
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and give them eyes to see. Pray that the Lord gives you eyes to see as you're reading the
00:53:48.920
Scriptures, interpreting the Word of God. Check your conclusions against church history. Check
00:53:55.680
your conclusions against the cross-references of Scripture. Pray for the right interpretation.
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Second, without God's plan of election that we see here in Romans 9, there would have
00:54:12.400
And if there was never a remnant, there would have never been a seed that produced the redemption
00:54:22.860
God's election for the remnant became the seed that saved you.
00:54:31.660
You heard the gospel through somebody, through some means,
00:54:34.580
through the proclamation, through the giving of the Bible,
00:54:38.620
How are they going to hear unless there was a preacher sent?
00:54:42.940
No, the truth is, this is why we should really appreciate
00:54:46.420
and why Paul fights, as you will see in the following chapters,
00:54:54.020
Not in the sense that we owe them anything.
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But the reality is, is that God blessed them to bless us.
00:55:11.500
Through the Jews came the gospel to the Gentiles.
00:55:18.900
At the Exodus, God rejected the Gentiles, the Egyptians, and elected the Jews.
00:55:34.840
And so God's election should never be viewed as this kind of tight-fisted reality.
00:55:48.900
In the same way that he preserved Noah, a seed.
00:55:55.340
And with that seed, he started the kingdom of God, starting with Christ, moving on to
00:56:02.220
that remnant, preserving that remnant, which turned into the proclamation of the gospel
00:56:09.660
to all the nations, which resulted in your salvation.
00:56:15.660
It's a really beautiful systematic view of how God is saving his people throughout the generations
00:56:22.800
according to his will, without our involvement.
00:56:29.200
It's a real blessing to know that God is in charge of the salvation of his people.
00:57:50.980
Lord, that you would save only a remnant of your own people,
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that you might save a mass of the Gentiles.
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that would help us to comprehend and appreciate with gratitude,
00:58:14.100
that we would walk in a way that sees this great salvation