Fulfilling the Mystery of Israel - Part 2 — Art Katz

The Mystery of Individual Struggle and Israel

It's very good to see your individual struggle in the context of the larger mystery. And it gives you an ability to bear that struggle in a way that you otherwise would not have had a comfort. So you need to have the context restored.

Your individual struggle, the sum total of all these individual struggles is part of the whole working of this mystery. So it's not a little isolated thing independent of, it's part and parcel of the whole.

But we need to see it as part of that whole. And it will give us the courage and patience to continue. The struggle is the church and in the church. We need to remember that when we use the word Israel For the uninstructed, they think immediately of the present political state.

They think that we're endorsing that state and wanting some superficial identity. They don't understand the Israel that you're referring to is a much deeper, larger entity in reality Than the present political entity.

So we need to separate and distinguish that for them. So the work is cut out for us. We need to be able exegetes, we need to present a biblical case. We need patience in contending and striving over these issues.

Escapism, Persecution, and the Sacrifice of This Life

And that there's a deep escapism in the American church That finds its desire in rapture. That contradicts all this, that the church is absent. How shall we extend mercy? Who's there to extend it when they need it so desperately?

Love not their lives unto the deaf Means that they had a view of eternity As a deep and immeasurable consolation That permits the sacrifice of this life. For this life is only momentary and transitory.

It's the thing that's eternal, that is what counts. For those who believe that In themselves deeply, unto joy Is a critical issue Of our willingness to lay down our lives presently. You don't have to make your own path to the cross.

He'll provide it when he sees your yieldedness and willingness. There'll be a logic, there'll be an unfolding Directly proportioned to your life. The realities, the place where you're called. The relationships.

Every one of us have a cross direction In the very particulars of our life. Because none of those circumstances are in any way accidental. They're already known of the Lord, given of God. And so the whole mystery is the fulfillment Of the cross life.

As it comes to each one of us in our particular situation. A marriage being tested An issue of health, finance. However the Lord will deal. We need to receive from his hand And even kiss the hand That brings the affliction and the testing.

For the sum result of it Is his glory forever. We're going to have the people come to us Who'll be totally emptied Of any confidence in which they formerly have had In themselves, in man, in the world.

And be devoid of anything And be the object of abuse From forces of hatred calculated For their annihilation. And in that condition they'll need our mercy. They'll need it physically. They'll need it psychologically.

They'll need it emotionally. They'll need it spiritually. The issue is will we have it to give. Will we be willing to give it When to be observed giving it Makes you a candidate for persecution. It's not a mercy that you'll be able to give At your convenience.

Sacrificial Mercy Toward Persecuted Israel

It's a mercy that you will give. And when you're willing to give it A sacrifice for them When they are everywhere hated How can they not be moved to jealousy. And say what is it with you. What is different about you.

Why aren't you joining the bandstand. Why aren't you hating us as everyone else. Why are you willing to take these risks. Why are you being kind. Why are you extending yourself. Why are you making a candidate To be persecuted yourself.

What did we ever do for you. That you should be extending yourself for us. That's the mystery. So concerning the gospel They are the enemies For your sakes touching the ancient For the fathers the gifts and callings Of God without repentance.

That's good to be reminded. God is irrevocable. He doesn't take back. He doesn't say that that that that. Now you've really lost it. He says I called you. You were a nation of priests. You will be that.

For you in times past have not believed God yet Have now obtained mercy through their unbelief. See why it is necessary That they were set aside Through their unbelief you have obtained mercy. So that now they can obtain mercy By your mercy.

For God has concluded them all in unbelief That he might have mercy upon all. Oh the depth of the riches. Something breaks in Paul's heart here He goes berserk. He sees the glory The magnitude of this remarkable mystery Both of the wisdom And knowledge of God.

Romans 9–11 and the Doxology of God's Wisdom

How unsearchable are his judgments. His ways past finding out. Who has known the mind of the Lord Has been his counselor. Who has given to him first And shall be given recompense to him again. For of him, through him, and to him Are all things To whom be glory forever.

Amen. So we need to dote and dwell on this concluding doxology. It's the greatest. What's the word Effulgence Of praise. Perhaps in all scripture Remarkable that the statement of the mystery Begins in chapter 9.

With Paul crying out he would wish himself accursed The bitterness of his soul For his brethren's sake. And then he ends with this ecstatic Outburst of praise. The chapter headings Are only a convenience.

They were never intended. So the one flows right into the other. I beseech you therefore, therefore wherefore. Therefore in what I've just spoken and said For the fulfillment of this great mystery That eventually is in the glory of God forever.

Therefore do this. Make your mind Acceptable. Make your body a sacrifice Which is your reasonable service. The whole thing flows out from From the logic of what has been expressed That needs to be Recognized in an unbroken way.

God's Glory as the Ultimate End of Israel and the Church

So what do you make of Of him, through him, and to him Are all things That Paul is not Propagating a mystery that he has invented. It's of him. But because It's of him, it's also to him For his glory forever.

Because the issue is greater than Israel And the issue is greater than the church. The issue that eclipses all issues Is the issue of God's glory forever. If we're centered on One or the other thing Even Israel itself per se, or the church per se Will not be capable Of the uttermostness, the sacrifice Required for the fulfillment.

Only the jealousy for the glory That subsumes and exceeds Both the issue of the church And of Israel will be sufficient. And that is apostolic seeing. This is the genius of Paul The jealousy for the glory of God.

For which the church and Israel Is only the mode The means by which he's glorified forever. It's not per se The thing in itself However glorious a thing It is in itself It's still a means to the greater and ultimate end The glory of God Forever.

Because once it's consummated There's no other historical opportunity. There'll be no other episode No other saga No other drama that will give God the opportunity For the glorification That comes to him By the fulfillment of this mystery.

And it must take place at the end of the age. For it ends the age And brings in the new age and the millennium. So We are of that generation. And it takes place in our time. It's the historic consummation Requiring all.

It's God's glory forever. It's of such a. This glory is of such a magnitude. It will take eternity of eternities to celebrate it. But it is effective In time It's now. But the consequence is forever. It's of him.

Fulfillment Through the Life of Christ Within Believers

It's not a mystery we designed But it's to him. And because that it's through him. It's not something that we can accomplish By well-meaning intention Evangelical fervor Zeal Nothing like that. The only way it will be accomplished That the God from whom it is of Is also the God who enables and gives That the life of God The essential reality Which is the life of Paul.

For me to live as Christ Is not a little anxious phrase. It's the genius of what Paul is. He's the continuation of the very Life of Christ. And we have to be that. For the only basis upon which this can be fulfilled Is that life.

Only the life of God is the strength The wisdom, the love, the patience, the forbearance The ability to go back into the larger body To suffer the insults The misunderstandings, the neglects, the rejections All the kinds of things against which The flesh will shrink His life will be a sufficient strength.

So we need to come to the place Where we say with Paul in truth For us to live as Christ. It's not. And Christianity has not required that till now. Up till now we could have lived Out of our own sap Out of our own ability, conduct services Preach, perform, teach Carry on.

But now the ultimacy of this Mystery that That culminates in his glory forever Is beyond anything that we can attain Or perform out of our own strength Ability or intention. The long and short of it is.

It requires God. And that's what glorifies God. He'll be glorified by himself. He's our enablement. He'll be our patience. He's the essential martyr Where we've got to shift gears And come from that lesser Evangelical place, charismatic even Where the spirit of God is A little icing into the place In which we say with Paul For us to live as Christ.

In him we live and move and have our being. Our cleverness, our utterance, our compassion Our love, all that we are That has any distinction Is from him. It glorifies him. And he's made that life available That we should live Through him as he lived through the father.

How many of us can say that that is The descriptive Statement of our life now. That for me to live as Christ. That if His life is removed, I'm a dead duck. I don't know how to put two and two together.

I don't know how to put my Best foot forward. I don't know how to be clever, I don't know how to be religious I don't know how to be spiritual, I don't know how to be a father. I don't know how to be a husband.

I don't know how to be a brother. I'm devoid of anything. I have no distinction, I'm a dead man without you Christ. You're my life. Your resurrection Is the basis of my being. And therefore You'll be glorified by it.

This is the milieu This is the dimension In which the mystery will be fulfilled. For of him and through him And to him are all things To whom alone be glory Forever. He's brought us to a crisis Where if he is not all in all We're finished.

And that crisis Is the ultimate demanding crisis Of the mystery of Israel That no religious well-meaning intention Or intelligence can fulfill But only he himself In the power of his risen And ascended life.

Communion and Dependence on Christ's Life

How often are we coming to the communion table You saints. How often do we thirst And hunger for his body And his blood As being more than just a ceremonial Thing that we take once a month Once a year.

Why aren't we at that table daily Being renewed and invigorated By the life of God And his body and blood Given as a sacrament for that very purpose That I don't even begin My devotional reading Until I first have communion.

I can't commence Reading Spurgeon Or any other Until I have first been revived Out of the life. It takes his life even for devotion. It's not that I first get warmed up And then take communion. I take it virtually from the moment That my eyes are opened.

For I wake again like a dead man Totally thrust and dependent upon him Even for devotion. What shall I do for service. How shall I be the inger. What to the body. How shall I be the prophetic voice. What to the church.

Except by the life that is renewed and sustained By every eating and drinking Of his body and blood. The neglect of that sacrament Is itself a testimony and statement. How destitute we are of that life.

And how much we're still living out of ourselves. And count once a month sufficient Okay To be at his table. We need to be at it Daily And be renewed in that power. There's no Fulfillment Of the pretense of the claim That we should be an apostolic people Without having this pulsating Jealousy at the centimos Root of our being, the jealousy for his glory.

Apostolic Jealousy for the Glory of God

For that will permit you to be Christ's fool And suffer whatever Is required. But short of that we will balk. It's that jealousy for his glory That makes us insane And carries us into dimensions that we would not have Otherwise entered.

And if we don't have that jealousy As a pulsating thing and it has been displaced Or never had A place, we need to pray for it. Lord impart to me That apostolic jealousy For your glory That blinds me to every other consideration.

I'm willing to be the fool for Christ's sake Whatever that means If only you should be glorified forever. That's the hope for performing. I tell the Lord over and over again I have no other reason for being.

This is why I'm alive. It's for your glory Lord. I have no career, I have no ministry. I have nothing to develop or to present Or affect. I'm here for you. So may God impart that jealousy and that glory.

We can pray for that even In conclusion to our session today. And if you'll be gracious To endow us with that jealousy We will have obtained Something much more than instruction today. And that will serve us in good stead All the balance of our days.

Paul's Apostolic Sorrow for Israel

Good to be reminded that what begins With Paul's cry. I would wish myself a curse For my brethren's sake Is not a cry rising Out of Paul's ethnic identity As a Jew. If we think that then it has no Implication for us.

That's Paul, he's Jewish of course I'm not Jewish, I don't have that cry. Paul is not crying out of his ethnic Jewishness, he's crying out of his Apostolic priestly identity. And we can equally cry Out of the same identity for it's Equally our calling.

And because we cry out at the beginning We can then also lay claim to the Great doxology Of the depth of the riches both arisen on God. We can Exalt God Beyond limit because we've Begun in the depths of A cry of the sorrow That is continually with us For our kinsmen's sake.

There's a spectrum, the green line Culminating with the end of 11 And then the injunction, therefore I beseech you brethren Make your bodies a living sacrifice. Thank you Lord For those glorious words.

Spirit inspired, text of all text Praise of all praise Thank you my God. May it reverberate in our souls May it find a permanent dwelling. And we're asking Lord as a capstone for today and in these days A jealousy For your glory, we cannot Fabricate this, we cannot Lie on a bed of nails.

We can't perform something religious. It needs to be imparted. It's out of your very soul my God. It's the heart and genius of apostolicity Itself, without which We make a mock of the great word. And so we're asking even now Lord that you would brood over us And move about this room And breathe upon our souls This jealousy for your glory.

Thank you my God that we would count it Privilege that we're called to be The people of the last days Through whom the great mysteries are affected. Jesus Thank you Lord, impart and bless your people And spark That great jealousy that will never Ever subside and sustain Them in whatever Unforeseen and unpredictable thing Yet remains ahead.

Closing Prayer for Mercy, Sustenance, and God's Glory

Thank you Lord. Bless us by instructing us Blessing by imparting to us Be the life of our life The thought of our thought, the speech of our speech The grace of our grace. Thank you for your mercies my God.

We live by them, thank you for the mercy Of today, the mercy of these days It has been Spectacular Thank you Lord. Given not because of our deservedness But because you could not help yourself It's because this is what you are.

You're a God of mercy. It's in your nature It's inherent In your deity. And so we love you for it and we receive it And want to extend it And we thank you.