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Pastor David Mitchell
All right. Well, we're in Romans chapter 11. And, uh, so let's continue today. We'll review a little bit. If you remember, we had just talked about the fact that there's a little bit of a conundrum in here, uh, where it's where he asked the question, did God cast away his people, the Jews.
Right. And then he says in verse two, God did not cast away, um, his people, which he for knew. All right. So then you go, you drop all the way down to about verse 15 in the same chapter. And he talks about how you cast them away.
Remember that from last time? So how do you deal with things like that? Well, you know, you, you have to understand God cannot contradict himself. So that means our understanding of one of the two verses needs to be stepped up a little bit.
So if you remember, if you go back and you think about verse two, and honestly, I don't know how many times I've preached through this or studied it. And all my life I was counting up. I've been saved now for something like 46 years or something like that.
That's a lot. I was thinking about it when, when you played that song, the hymn, the first hymn, I thought, how many times have I heard that in my saved life? And remember a time when I wouldn't be caught dead in the church because I thought it was so boring and didn't want to hang around and thought the Bible was boring and then the Lord regenerated me and everything was different in a moment of time, so, um, but I've read that for 46 years and I never noticed that the emphasis on verse two is on the word for new and it's because by the time I would get down to verse 15, I would have forgotten about verse two.
And I didn't notice. They seem to contradict every time I've ever read. I just didn't notice it, but since I'm studying verse by verse and we're going to end up with verse 15, I had to figure it out this time.
Didn't I? So I guess before I just skipped over it, who knows the other, all the hundreds of other times. I don't know. So the Lord didn't choose to teach it to me till this month, but there is so beautiful when you see it that, yeah, he did cast away.
If you look at verse 15, if you just want to look at the nation of Israel, for the most part, he cast the nation away, but those parts of the nation that he foreknew those people that he foreknew that were his own, he didn't cast them away.
Now they did go into captivity with the others, unfortunately, but they had some manner of protection that the others didn't have because God didn't cast them away. So that's pretty cool. And then we looked in Jeremiah 15, where it literally shows examples of how God cast his people away.
And he talked about how they, they had forsaken him there in verse six. And he said, so should I have pity on you, Jerusalem, you've forsaken me. You've gone backwards. They're backslidden, aren't they?
And then in Romans chapter 11, verse one, I say, then has God cast away his people, the answer. All right. Now this really important that you remember the answer before we get into today's message. He did not cast away the ones he foreknew those who had been predestinated to be his own children.
He didn't, even though they were part of that nation, they weren't cast away. Now there's a great sense in which the nation of Israel can picture the church today. So specifically, we're going to let it picture the American church, which is different than churches in Africa and China and India, many of those are in barns and behind houses and in hiding places, the American church is opulent.
She says, I am full. I am rich, right? I'm beautiful. I'm powerful. And yet in the Lord's eyes, she is naked and hungry and poor, right? That's what was prophesied by the prophet. John, as he saw the ends of the age, he saw today's church in America, I think, but we have to understand that even though we may see some things in today's message, that would bring fear with regard to the nation that we grew up in.
We're the foreknown and he won't cast us away. So don't forget that as we move on here in John six 36, just as a reminder that the Lord never casts away his sheep. Jesus said, but I said to you that you have also seen me and you don't believe.
And he's talking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, isn't he in this context? He said, you've seen me, you've heard me and you don't believe in me. All that the father gives me will come to me.
Now he's talking to a group of people that had not come to him. They had rejected him as Messiah. And he said, well, I know that you don't believe in me, but a hundred percent of the people that the father brings to me will come to me.
If he has given you to me, you will come to me. And if he hasn't, you won't. That's what he's saying. He's telling him that pretty clearly. And him that cometh to me, I will know why is cast out. There's the gospel message and there you see the will of man.
And you see the sovereignty of God in one little bitty verse. They're always hand in hand. Both are equally true. Jesus said, no one will come to me unless the father gave him to me. But he said of all them who choose me, I won't cast any of them out.
So there you have the choice of man and you have the will of God on verse 37. For I came down from heaven, not do my will, but to do the will of my father. So Jesus is teaching us that the father is the one who chooses who the sheep are going to be and who the goats are.
And Jesus is saying that the goats don't come to me. And he's talking to some, he's, he could tell the difference. They can look in your eyes and tell the difference. And he said, you know, if he didn't, if he didn't give you to me, you won't come to me and you won't believe in me.
But if he did, you will. And if you do, I won't cast you out. Even though you're part of a fallen race. And this is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which he has given me, I will lose nothing.
You see, that's why it was so important in Romans to understand notice that little phrase where he said he has not cast out his people who he foreknew. And then later in verse 15, he did cast out the nation though, but the ones that were part of the nation that were foreknown as his own, he did not cast them out and that's the picture of us because we're part of a country that is increasingly pagan and it is going to be judged, it has already been judged in the year 2020.
And that is just nothing compared to what this country is going to see by way of judgment. But even as we see it, we have to understand the Lord may cast America out. He doesn't cast those out whom he foreknew.
And we have to take comfort in that and understand he has instructions for us. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone who sees the sun and then the Greek, the better word would be who beholds the sun.
You don't have to see him with your eyes. You have to behold him spiritually. Everyone who beholds the sun and believes on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up in the last day. All of them.
He, uh, he won't lose any Willie. So Jesus protects those whom he foreknew the Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread, which came down from heaven and they wanted to stone him after this.
Isn't that something? John sick, just a couple of verses down from this. No man can come to me. Jesus said, except the father, which has sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. So he never casts away his foreknown.
And just to emphasize that now, what about the rest of the people? What about the people who, uh, are not drawn to Jesus by the father? Well, Matthew seven 23 says, and then I will profess into them. I never knew you see the word.
No, the word no. And the Bible language doesn't mean just to mental have mental ascent of something. It means to know with love in a relationship manner. I never knew you depart from me, you that work iniquity.
That's what the other crowd will hear. The fallen race. America is predominantly composed of fallen human beings. And, um, they seem to be gaining steam, don't they? They seem to be gaining control more and more as time goes by.
And really you think about America, she's nothing more than an experiment from a human viewpoint. If you look at the history of nations and Kings and despots, America has been a wonderful, refreshing place of freedom in a world.
That's never seen it before since the garden of Eden, really. So did you really expect it to last forever? Isn't Satan known as the destroyer of nations? Has he been not working at it? Every great college on the East coast was started by preachers and the first presidents of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary Brown.
All of them were preachers. Look at them. Now they're putting out atheists by the hour. They're turning our young people into first thing they tell them is how stupid your parents are. And then they tell them about, uh, evolution and then they tell them about, uh, modern psychology and all kinds of principles, anti-God principles and on and on.
All right. So in Romans chapter 11, verse five, even so at this present time, also there's a remnant according to the election of grace. So Paul talks about how God cast away his people, but he said, but I didn't cast away those for new.
He said, even today, he's talking to the Jews first and the Gentiles in the crowd, right? And he says, God has a remnant, a small group saved out of the larger lost group. It's always been that way. It's still that way today.
And it's still that way in America, by the way, those whom he foreknew, he also chose according to the election. It says, look what it says. Read it carefully again. Even so then at this present time, also there's a remnant of Jews saved Jewish people in this case, according to the election of grace.
And he said, now let me explain the definition of grace. And you remember this is reviewed. So I won't go into it, but he said, look, it can't be grace plus works because then you destroy the definition of both works.
Remember that from last time? All right. Then verse seven, what then Israel has not obtained that which he seeks. So Israel tried to gain a way to heaven through good works, didn't they, and by keeping the law and they didn't obtain it, but the election obtained it, there were still saved Jewish people because every one of them that the father drew came to God.
Same is true today for Jews and Gentiles. All right. So then we looked at verses eight through 10 last time, and we saw eight different ways that these people were blinded, these Jewish people who were not drawn to Jesus, but who wanted to be saved by a hierarchy of rules and systems whereby they could look wholly the other people.
And they wanted to be saved that way. And Bible says they were blinded in eight different ways. And we talked about that last time. So today, if you ever wondered why some people in one particular political party don't seem to have any common sense at all about anything much.
If you wondered, how can that even think that how could a human being who's been to college, maybe studied logic perhaps, and they think so illogically, how can it be eight different ways, eight different ways.
And what's sad about it. Look at a number three through about number six. You see the word table. Their table is made them snare. The opposite of that is in Psalm 23, five, where you're before your enemies and the valley of the shadow of death, and God prepares a table and sits down and fellowships with you.
And you have peace right in the middle of all that. That's the opposite. That's what the Christian has, but the lost are blind. The rest, it says he blinded. Remember that had it up there. I didn't stick on it this morning because it's review, but it said, and the rest, he blinded.
He said some were saved by election of grace and the rest blinded. Same is true today. And there are eight different ways in which they're blinded. The very table that they sit at the religious table where they sit is a stumbling stone to them.
The thoughts that they talk about together about God is actually part of the problem because they're getting it from humanism, not from the scriptures and the Holy spirit. So it's a tough problem, isn't it?
All right. So that's review. So let's look at this for a few minutes. Psalm 69. If anybody still has a Bible turn there and, uh, otherwise your phone there or whatever, verse 21. This is known as a messianic Psalm, because as you read the Psalm, you might think it's talking about King David.
And the more you look into it, it is a picture. David becomes a picture of Jesus Christ, and it's actually talking about Jesus Christ. And there are several of the Psalms right in through that area that are this way.
But verse 21 says they gave me also gall for my meat. And in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. Do you remember when Jesus went on the cross, how they soaked the sponge and vinegar and put it up there on a stick and try to get him to drink it, but he wouldn't drink it.
He might've tasted it, but he didn't gain any benefit from it. Did he didn't want any benefit from it? So this is a reference to the, to the Messiah, let their table become a snare before them, who the people that put him on that cross, the Jews and the Gentiles, the Jews and the Romans, right?
Let their table become a snare. Doesn't that sound similar to Romans chapter 11, where you think perhaps the Holy spirit led Paul to quote some of this Psalm in Romans chapter 11, that we're studying right now.
It came to Paul's mind and he began to quote it and the Holy spirit had him repeat it in the new Testament for emphasis. So it's in the Bible twice. Now their table becomes a snare before them. And the thing, the very thing that should be the good thing, the fellowship and all that at the table turns into a thing that sends them the wrong direction.
They can't think right about how things really are. And that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Now, listen to this. This is Jesus prophesying. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake.
They're afraid of wars and rumors of wars. They're afraid of pestilences. They're a fearful people. Pour out an indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate.
Let none dwell in their tents. So like what used to be their home is disturbed. It's not their peaceful home anymore for they persecute him whom you have smitten. And they talk to, to the grief of those whom thou has wounded and iniquity unto their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousness.
Wow. That's a quite a prayer. Now you, you see, you see where it says, let them not come into thy righteousness, that's called imputation. It's a doctrine of imputation. The only way any of us are righteous is if God counts us righteous by giving us Jesus's righteousness and putting our sin upon him and the tree, and then he took his righteousness, put it on us.
That's the doctrine of imputation. And here, Jesus is saying this particular group of people don't let them come into God's righteousness, which means if they don't have that, they can't be saved yet.
No man is saved by his own righteousness. Wow. That's a frightening prayer. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Now there's a couple of books, the Bible talks about there's the book of physical life, and that's the one he's talking about.
So here he's saying, not only are they going to die spiritually, some of them are going to be killed when I send the enemy armies in to destroy the nation. And it's talking about, you know, often it's the nation of Israel, supposedly God's people who God cast out because they rejected him as a whole, even though those who he foreknew were in there and he protects them and they're still saved and not be written with the righteous.
So not only are they going to be killed physically, they're never given God's righteousness, this particular group of people. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation of God set me up on high. Now that's most, most conservative Bible scholars that I've read my whole life for 46, I guess it's 46 years yet is 46 years have agreed that this is actually Jesus talking through David as the Holy spirit inspired David to write this.
Uh, it's a prophecy of the Lord Jesus. And some of the very, what I find so fascinating about these passages is that it gives you a picture of what was going on in the mind of Jesus Christ while he hung on that cross.
It gives you information about what he was thinking when he was on the cross. And it's very interesting to read several of those. All right. So now we're back in Romans 11 and verse 11, I say, then have they, that's the Jews have they stumble that they should fall, but God forbid, but rather through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles to provide jealousy to the Jews to provoke, yeah.
Jealousy upon the Jews. Now this introduces a concept that if you love America could be really hard on you today. And I sort of jokingly talked with some in the back, say, I said, I'm going to prophesy against America today, but I'm not doing it.
I'm just reading you scripture. But, um, I want you to keep in the back of your mind, how this speaks to the people that you rub elbows with in this country, because he's talking about how in the church age, God, well, we'll see as we go, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but God brings some blindness to the Jews so that the age of the Gentiles could come in, which we know is the church age, which predominantly is Gentile at this point, maybe for a few years of the first century, it was predominantly Jewish church, but that didn't last just a very few years.
If even years now, if the fall of the Jews, them be the riches of the world. Now, remember the word world is interesting to study. The new Testament has many different meanings. It's usually the same Greek word a on, which means age.
Um, sometimes it means, um, cosmos, which means all of God's ordered creation. It depends on which word is used, but the riches of the world, literally sometimes the word world in the Jewish mind to the Jewish believers and unbelievers in new Testament, they would use the word world to mean non-Jews.
So it's kind of like we use, you know, how we as Christians use the word world in a negative sense, when we talk about worldly, you know, like the, the, the world, the flesh and the devil are our three enemies, the world system is what we're talking about, right?
The Jews had a similar use of it. Only they didn't mean world system. They meant anyone that's a Gentile. Okay. So that word world there literally means Gentiles. So if the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, the Gentile world, and the diminishing of the Jews is the riches of the Gentiles, how much more would their fullness be if God brought the Jews back to knowledge of him, wouldn't that be great?
That's what he's talking about. Now he's got Jews and Gentiles in his crowd that he wrote this letter to. For, I speak to you Gentiles. And as much as I am the apostle, the Gentiles, so I magnify my office.
And he made clear that the Jews knew that even though he would always speak to them first and he cared more probably in the flesh, he cared more for the Jews because they were his brothers and sister wanted them all to be saved, but he knew God had blinded him in part and he made sure they knew, but God called me from my mother's womb to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
And one of the reasons he would always bring that up, and this is so helpful to understand this when you're interpreting certain key phrases and words in the new Testament, that especially the epistles of Paul is that Paul had a consistent, constant struggle with the Jews to convince them that God would even save a Gentile.
You've heard me say it, but it's everywhere. And here, when he just mentions that I'm the apostle Gentiles, he is subtly telling the Jews in the room, look, they're saved too. In fact, God sent me to preach to them and to see them one to the Lord.
You've got to accept that you don't like it. You got to accept it. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them that are of my flesh, the Jews, and might save some of them. So here, Paul's been taught by the Holy spirit, by Jesus himself in the Arabian desert for parts of three years of maybe the larger part of three years that God is going to blind his brothers and sisters, the Jews, and very few of them, a remnant would be saved.
But this is so that the gospel could go out to the Gentile nations of the world. And he knows that. And he says, but I'm still trying to, I'm still trying to win some of my brothers and sisters to Christ.
Doesn't he? I still want to see Jews saved for if the casting away of the Jews be the reconciling of the Gentiles, the world Gentile system, what shall the receiving of the Jews be, but life from the dead.
So he's always putting out that hope to the Jews that are in the audience listening, because some of them are lost. Some of them are safe. I mean, you got three kinds, right? Goats, lost sheep, saved sheep.
He's talking to the lost sheep and he's enticing them to realize this is something that God has brought to the Gentiles, but you need it. You need it. And God will save you. If you'll receive Jesus as your personal Lord and savior, and he's given them the gospel here in verse 15, verse 16, for if the first fruit be Holy, that's the Jews and the lump is Holy.
And if the root be Holy, then so are the branches. Now this is, um, an allusion to the altar in the wilderness tabernacle. Charlotte's been studying, uh, dr. Rocky Freeman's, uh, tapes, which are on park meadows, church .com website, and in the archives, you can hear his study of the tabernacle.
It's just amazing. How many pages of notes do you have over a hundred pages of notes? She's taken from that series. You guys need to check it out if you haven't. But, um, um, what happens is when you look at the altar, when they would place the offering on the altar, the altar, they kill the little animal.
That's a picture of Jesus, right? It's all symbolism and they sprinkle the blood on the altar. And now the altar is made Holy by the blood of the lamb. And what's interesting then, when they take some pigeon that some poor person offered, and they put that on the altar because it touches the Holy altar, it becomes Holy.
And so this is, he's using that analogy and telling the Jews, look, you were the first to have the oracles of God in the world, and you're Holy as a people because of that, and if you look at it like a tree, if the root is Holy, which is you, the Jews, then so are the branches.
And he's about to tell us that the Gentiles were just grafted into that same tree and it's the root that makes us Holy we're, we're touching the one that the altar picture, Jesus Christ. And he makes us Holy because we are on that altar.
We are with Christ. So spot Paul spends much of his time convincing the Jew that God would save a Gentile. And we see that here, um, an example of why this is important. When you look at a verse like second Corinthians five 14 rabbit trail here, just for a second.
If God for, if the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, there is a, there's been a constant battle among theologians. Did Jesus die for every individual man, woman, boy, and girl that was ever born.
And most of the church, most of the Baptist believed that he did to today. Whereas if you go back to the 1800s, when Spurgeon lived, uh, only about 5 of the Baptist believed that he died for every individual.
Most of them were called particular Baptist, which means they believe Jesus died for only particular people known as the elect. And then that's flip-flop. So that now in the end times, the preachers preach it the other way.
Why do you suppose that is what Jesus said? There'll be many false prophets in the end time. So just because they're a preacher doesn't mean you need to listen to me too, you should check out everything.
I say, I haven't done my job. If I don't make you study. Right. So doesn't it sound like it says that Jesus died for all yes or no. It looks like it says that, but it doesn't say that because it would contradict hundreds of other verses.
So it's not so important what it says. What's important is what does it mean? The only way you know that is by studying and using the 10 rules of proper Bible interpretation. So I'm going to show, I'm going to help you out a little bit because what Paul's talking about over here in Roman chapter 11, in the fact that many times throughout all of his epistles, he's trying to convince the Jew that God will actually save a Gentile.
Comes into understanding the meaning of the little word. All in Greek is POS and more often than not, it does not mean every individual. It means some individuals from all people groups, such as pretend you're a bunch of Jews and I'm Paul and I say, look, I know you love me and you kind of find my doctrine interesting, but you hate the idea that I'm telling you God will save a Gentile, but I'm telling you Jesus died for all men.
Now, how would you take what I meant when I said that? Do I mean all individuals or I mean not just Jews, but also some Gentiles. See, that's what it means. So it means some individuals from every people group, not just the Jews.
Well, when you look at this, the grammar, even in the word meanings in the Greek. Are like mathematics and they just nail it down. And I haven't shown this to you before. So I want you to see it as best I can remember.
I haven't. All right. So, and that he died for all that they, which live should not henceforth live into themselves, but into him, which died for them and rose again, what's kind of clear towards the end of verse 15, that he's saying that he died for those that live the living, not for the dead, but still, it still sounds like he died for all, because it uses the word all in English.
And if you didn't know Greek, you wouldn't understand that POS doesn't mean in all inclusive, all like English, all does in Greek, it means some. From all the parts, it's a little different word. If you didn't know that it can sometimes in Greek, in the context, the word POS will mean every individual of something of all things, but more often it doesn't well now let's look at this little phrase and look at the Greek a if one died for all, then we're all dead.
Now this is, this is part of this same passage in second Corinthians chapter five, but what's interesting in the Greek, the first time the word all is used, it's just the word POS. If Jesus died for all now that can mean either every individual, according to the word itself, or sometimes the word means he died for some individuals out of all people groups, it could mean that what's interesting, the next phrase says, then we're all dead.
Now I struggled with that in the English for many years after I was saved, especially after I was called to preach, started studying a lot is because to me, when it said, and just think of it in English, if one died for all, then we're all dead, I stopped to think about the depravity of man, and I think, well, all of the human race, every individual is fallen.
Correct. So that seems to be the all-inclusive all doesn't it? And I thought, well, why would it say all-inclusive all we're dead, but it doesn't mean that when it talks about him dying for people. So maybe he did die for everybody.
That's what I used to think when I would study that in English, that one bothered me even after I didn't believe that he died for every individual. I would read that in English and think, yeah, but that one kind of is problematic.
Until I read it in Greek and when you read it in Greek, what you understand is the second word, all is actually two words in Greek it's whole POS. And when you understand what whole is, it's a definite article.
Like, like a good translation in English would be the word this. So then if you write it as the Greek reads, read it again. If one died for all, then we're this all dead. So the same, the same group of people that were dead, or you put it, the positive same group of people that he did die for, they were once dead is actually what the verse says, which is, I don't know, you may not be interested in that detail, but the point is when you understand it in the Greek, it is not teaching that he died for every person.
It's teaching that the ones that he did die for were dead. Well, we kind of know that don't we, but so it's not like a great revelation, but it's interesting that in the Greek, it doesn't prove the negative.
It doesn't prove what everybody wants to use it to try to prove. All right. Now look at verse 17. Let's get back in our passage. That was an interesting rabbit trail to me. Anyway, if some of the branches were broken off, and so here you've got this tree that pictures the Jewish nation, which pictures God's people and the root is Jesus, right?
And, and here you have it. And now Paul is saying, God broke some branches off of this tree so that he can make room to graft in some Gentiles so that Gentiles could be saved is what he's picturing, but you were part of a wild olive tree, you Gentiles.
I mean, they're listening to they're in the room too. You're part of a wild olive tree. That's what we are. I mean, you think about the miracle that we're even saved. I mean, Ron talked about it a little bit this morning.
It's miraculous. We sit here saved. I was thinking about my own salvation. I don't know if it's last night or yesterday, but, um, just driving in my car, thinking everything's just great. And all of a sudden God comes in that car and saves me on the way to work.
One morning I had a long drive. It was 30 minutes, 35 minute drive from Waco to maya, where the oil company office was, where I was working and then going to school, kind of going to school in the mornings to get my MBA and then driving there and managing the oil company in the afternoons and on the trip to my hair, God saved me and changed everything in a moment.
And what a, an amazing miracle in my life. It was, but then to, to consider even beyond that, I'm, I'm a wild, you know, I'm, I'm part of a wild olive tree to God. I'm not a, I'm not a Jew. I sure don't deserve to be saying, in fact, most of the Jews of first century would have said that David Mitchell can never be saved.
He's part of the world. He's not part of God's thing. He's part of the world. And Paul said, no, but God, you know, God died for the whole world. See, that doesn't mean every individual either. It means not just Jews.
And if you study the context, you'll see, that's what Paul's talking about. Makes sense. When you know who he's talking to, always ask who's being spoken to when you read a passage. Now, if those part of this wild olive tree were grafted in among the Jews, the limbs that are supposed to be on the tree and with them, they partake of the root and the fatness of the olive tree.
The root is Jesus. That's a beautiful picture, isn't it? But never forget it's not our tree. We're grafted in. Now, did we take hold? It was God's will that we take hold and we're part of the root now.
And as Jesus taught, I'm the vine, you're the branches without me, you can do nothing. We're as much a part of it as the Jews. In fact, during the church age, predominantly it's Gentiles that have been saved because the Jews were blinded in part, my mentor was a Jew who got saved, so he was one of the outside of the impart that he wasn't blinded or he was, he had his vision returned to him.
Didn't he? By the Lord. Now watch this. So Paul tells us how it really is. We Gentile. And listen, you part of a mega church here in the United States, you, you, you've got like a $10 million a year budget.
Some of them may be a $5 million a month budget, you know, and how's that translating into people here in the gospel in India or China or anywhere in the world, it may basically building bigger basketball courts and I shouldn't pick on that bowling alleys.
Let's use that. You know, you, whatever the money's going towards, but, uh, we brag about that, but listen, we're just grafted in, but look what he says, boasts not against the Jews, if you're a saved Gentile, don't sit there and say, Oh, look at those Jews.
They don't even know the Lord. You know, they're, they're in darkness. They're blinded. Both not against them. But if you do boast, you bear not the root, but the root bears you. Jesus is a Jew, right?
It's a Jewish tree and we've been grafted into it by the Lord. That would say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in and brag about it as Jew, Gentile Christians can do well. Because of unbelief, those Jews were broken off.
Now, what kind of a Jew doesn't believe a foreknown Jew or one that wasn't foreknown? Okay. What kind of a Jew can't believe one who was predestinated or one who wasn't predestinated? All right. So what kind of Jew never believes and he's broken off a sheep Jew or a goat Jew?
You see my point? And so why would we brag if some of the Jews aren't saved? Is every Gentile in the church today saved? It claims to be a church member. Be not high minded, but be fearful. Now the rest of this message today is about that verse.
And this verse, look at this, this is the message today. And it's to America at large. Not so much to those sitting in the room, except, except for us sitting in this room, we need to understand that when they're taken away captive, if you're still here physically in this country, it can affect you and your family.
Even though God foreknew you and will not cast you aside. If he casts the whole nation aside and you have to be in the city that gets nuked first, you're gone physically. And you'll be immediately with the Lord.
That's a good problem, right? You'll be immediately with the Lord. And so where your children and your spouse and everything you have will be gone, if God spared, not the natural branches, listen to me, people, this is so important, take heed.
Let's see. Also spare, not the, who is the, their Gentiles save Gentiles. Now let me ask you a question. Well, let me read this first. Now I'm gonna ask questions. Behold, he's Paul says, and I want you to look at two things.
Look at God, the father and none of war one, behold his goodness because he saved some from a race that should have all gone to hell. Did he not? He saved a remnant by the blood of Jesus, by giving his own son for them.
But the rest are blinded. So behold the goodness of God. But now he says, but also I want you to behold the severity of God because the rest were blinded. On them, which fell those branches that had been cut off severity, but toward you, the foreknown goodness.
But look at the next word. If I'd try to look, see if maybe in a Greek, that's not there, but it's there as this turns into more of a church of Christ verse right here at the right at the end, right? If you continue in that, what they preach, you got to continue.
Well, I agree with them. You do gotta continue, but she continue. It's the goats that go back to the mixed metaphor here, but to the pig style, the goats go back to the pig style. The sheep don't, once they see that shepherd and he's got the food, they follow him and when they don't, he's got to stick with a crook on it.
He can put it around your neck and drag you back or use the other end and spank you back. And so, yeah, we do continue. But on those who continue, because it is their nature, you do understand. I know you do.
I'm preaching to the choir all the time in this church. You do understand when God saves you, he changes your nature, right? He changes your entire nature. You become the new man. The old man is crucified in Christ.
You become the new man. Do you know why? Let me ask you something. Does a cow, um, eat grass so that it will turn him into a cow? Or does he eat grass because he isn't a cow and it's his nature. Okay.
You take a lion. Will he go out and eat the grass with the cow or will he eat the cow? Okay. Does that make him be aligned? Like he was a cow and I turned in the line because he ate a cow or does he eat the cow because he is aligned.
It's his nature to eat meat. Right? Okay. So when God changes your nature, you have a continuing nature. Now, does that make sense? It is your nature to not quit. It is your nature, not to fall away from God.
It's your nature to not love the world and the flesh of the devil anymore. Now your flesh can, but they knew you cannot. In fact, first John says the new man cannot even sin won't sin and can't sin. It's your nature to continue.
You get that, but they across the street over there, church Christ, they don't get that, but you got to get that. It's see, it's not about man. See they're humanist in their beliefs, the church, Christ, Catholics, Mormons.
They're humanists. They believe that humans climb a stairway to heaven and please God and get there at least partly by their behavior. Totally false because an effect can never be the cause of the cause.
You're not saved by the effects while we were yet in sin. Has he quickened us? That's the brought to life. The regeneration is totally God and only God. Everything else is an effect. Okay. So here we see you will continue in his goodness.
Otherwise you'll also be cut off. Now, why would he put that there? Because you have to ask, who's he talking to? He's talking to a church larger than this church that consists of Jews and Gentiles in both groups consist of three kinds of Jews and three kinds of Gentiles.
Save sheep, lost sheep, and goats. And that last part, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise you'll be cut off is directed at the goats and the lost sheep because the save sheep. No, they're not going to quit.
You know it. And I know it. We don't have that in us. You can't be unborn. You cannot be, you can never not be part of God's family. Now that you're part of his family. But if you're sitting out here today and you're not saved and you're acting like a church person and wanting everybody maybe pretend you're saved.
And I preached that it will bother you because you know, that when you leave, you know, next Friday night, next Saturday night, you're going to be in the wrong place doing stuff with the wrong people and doing the wrong stuff.
And it's going to bother you that you didn't continue. Like you acted in church. That's who that's written for. All of Paul's crowds had goats, lost sheep, saved sheep. He's talking to all of them. Those kinds of things like verse 22 are addressed to the lost sheep and the goats.
And I'm going to say today, United States of America, you're big enough to have some goats in you. And you're big enough to have a whole lot of lost sheep that need to get saved pretty quick. Because the Lord is coming back.
And before he comes, you're going to see tribulation. Like the world has never seen, or we'll ever see again. And if God didn't cut it short, there'd be no life left on the earth. And that's what we're moving towards.
And if you don't know where you stand, you better try to figure it out. Now, if you have any yearnings at all towards it, then you're a lost sheep because goats don't care. So if you're listening to me and you don't care, fine.
Turn your teeth, turn it off. You don't need to listen, but if it bothers you a little bit that you're not living right, then you're a lost sheep and the Holy spirit is drawing you. And all you have to do is like the bride does with the groom, just respond.
To the flowers and the candy and everything Jesus is giving you to draw you to himself. Just respond because whoever has the desire to call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So that's you. That's great.
But look at the warning to America. So let me ask you this. Let's think for just a minute. What nation would you name in the world today that has the largest contingent of born again? Gentiles would it be England?
Not anymore when Spurgeon was alive, maybe, but not now. Would it be Germany, Switzerland? No, they're all secular. Now they're walking dead men, America. Yeah, it's definitely America. So out of all the nations of the world, this prophecy is to America today.
And I want to talk to you a minute, just about some of the things that have happened in the past and what the result was, and let's talk about offering children to Moloch. Sometimes it's spelled Molech in the Hebrew, but in English, sometimes translated Moloch, and if you remember Moloch is the God where they would offer their live children by fire to Moloch and killed and children would be killed in worship to who they thought was God.
Now, who was this God? They were really worshiping. What's his real name? Satan, Lucifer. What about America? Do we offer children to Moloch January 22nd, 2020. Once you think about this now, January 20, January 22nd, 2020.
Did we know about COVID yet? Only heard a little rumors, right? This little rumor is no big deal. Right. But that very date mark the 47th anniversary of Roe versus Wade, where they legalized abortion in all 50 States.
It also marked the beginning of COVID as the somber day approaches. This was written a year ago. New analysis from the national right to life estimates at 61 million, 628 ,000. 584 babies lives have ended through legal abortion in 47 years in America only.
This number represents close to 62 million people, each unique and unrepeatable. Instead of being welcomed into birth or adoptive families, these lives were snuffed out through the violence of abortion in America.
62 million potential doctors, potential engineers, potential people who would have invented a cure for COVID, but they're dead so they didn't get to. So people died because of it by way of rebuke from the Lord.
I think notice it didn't kill children. It killed those who abort children, which is adults. That's interesting to me. Well, let's look and see if history repeats itself. Let's go back 2 ,624 years ago.
Second Kings 23 verse one, read in their ears, all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. At this time in Israel's life, the Bible, they didn't have as many of them as we do had been hidden in a dusty bin, somewhere in the bottom of a closet in the temple of God, and no one was reading it anymore because they were just teaching humanism, the priests were, they had gotten to the point where they were worshiping bail and they were literally offering Jewish children by fire to Molech.
And yet the house of God was still there and they were still pretending. This started one of the greatest revivals of human history under King Josiah. You can read about it's amazing. He made a covenant with the priests that were still good.
They were a terrible, bad priest and a few small group of good priest who knew God and loved him and he knew who they were just like we know who we are. And so Josiah, the King, the good King came to the good priest and said, there aren't many of us, but listen, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to make a covenant together to live by the word of God. Go find it. It's in the house of God. Go undust it, get it out and let's read it together and live by it. So after they had done that, because it says he read in their ears, all the words of the book, he stood for a whole day and just read scripture to them, maybe longer than a day.
And revival always comes from the reading of the word of God. It doesn't come first. It's always getting into the word and studying the word that brings revival, even in churches. It's backwards nowadays.
I think if you play loud music for the first hour, you can have God show up and then you preach the, you know, a little devotion that for 20 minutes. That's not biblical. This is how it works right here.
Reading their ears, the words of the book. The result of this revival was the King himself led the good people to destroy these vessels, which were used in Baal worship and the groves of trees, which they considered to be God.
And they worship the trees. They destroyed them. They burned them and they carried the ashes to Bethel, which is the real place of God, um, the house of God is what Bethel means and they brought it there and they scattered the ashes and they crumbled the stuff into powder.
He killed the idolatrous priests, had their heads cut off by the good priest. He told the good priest, go kill them. And they just went up to them and chop their heads off. He broke down the houses of the sodomites.
Do you find that interesting that that's part of what he had to do to cleanse the nation? And their houses were next to the house of God. Is that a picture of the big American church today where they're right in the churches and the mega churches are full.
Welcome the men to sit right there. And some of the preachers are sodomites. And if you read the story of Sodom, you'll understand what that's actually talking about. The words used a little differently nowadays, it was more inclusive back then, it basically meant people that practice homosexuality, both men and women who practice homosexuality is what it means and that's what it means to the Jew.
So he, he removed homosexuality from the land as part of this greatest revival that ever happened in history. And he defiled Topheth. There's a typo there where they had burned their children to Moloch.
So he tore that down. He tore down that place. He destroyed the altars built to all the false gods and verses 11 through 12. There, he stamped out Jeroboam's altar. Jeroboam was a bad King that started some of this got false God worship.
He slew all the priests and the high places. And then he renewed the Passover, which God had told him never to stop it. And they had stopped it during this time of idolatry. And the nation was virtually gone and had this revival not taken place, they would have been utterly destroyed.
Perhaps second Kings 23 21. And the King commanded all the people saying, keep the Passover and to the Lord, your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant, surely there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges that judge Israel, nor all the days of the Kings of Israel, nor of the Kings of Judah, there was never a Passover celebration like this one, because they'd already cleansed themselves and gotten right with God before they did it.
But in the 18th year of the King of Josiah, where in this Passover was holding, it was the largest celebration of Passover that ever existed short of revival like this, my personal belief is that America is lost.
I don't see as having a leader quite like Josiah in the near future. And this had to be led from the top down. Ladies and gentlemen, this was not a rebellion or a March to the capital to take it over with moms and dads and their kids and grandparents with them to take it over, right?
Uh, I've got video showing who the people look like that were in that March. That's a rabbit trail. I'd love to get into, but anyway, um, you gotta, it's gotta be from the top down and we don't see that.
So now, so let's talk about, now we talk about offering children to Moloch. What about drunkenness in America? Excessive alcohol use is responsible for the 95 ,000 deaths each year in America. Almost a hundred thousand people die just because of alcohol.
That's about 261 deaths per day, but they want to ban guns, right? That shows they're blinded. I mean, they can't think. They can't use simple logic. These deaths shorten the lives of those who die by an average of almost 29 years.
So the lifespan of people who drink alcohol is shortened by almost 30 years. You don't see that on the Michelob billboards, do you? For a total of 2 .8 million years of potential life loss. Now, listen, these could be productive individuals.
Maybe these are who should have cured AIDS perhaps or cured COVID, but they died 30 years before they cured it because they were on alcohol, every TV show and movie, uh, Hollywood. You like, all they drink is alcohol.
You want to have a little refreshment here. Let's have a drink, right? It's never, it's never milk. It is a leading cause of preventable death. It is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
And it costs the nation $249 billion per year, but we don't do anything about that. We want to ban the guns, right? So are we really thinking approximately 10 .5 that's 7 .5 million us children, 17 and younger have alcoholic parents.
They don't call them alcoholic parents anymore. Now they call it alcohol use disorder. It's a disease. Now it's not a choice of sin. According to 20, a 2019 study, approximately 4 .2 million people ages 12 to 20.
Think about your children ages, 12 years old to 20 reported binge drinking in the last month when the survey was taken, this represents 11 .1 of people in this age group are getting drunk in America.
Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of thousands of people younger than 21 in the United States each year. This includes a thousand 72 killed in car wrecks because they were drinking. This is kids. Okay.
A thousand children killed murdered by someone who was drunk. 208 children die from alcohol overdose or falling or being burned or drowned because they were drunk. These are children from 12 to 20, 596 suicides because of alcohol in that age group, alcohol in us college students.
So let's open your mind here a little bit. 33 of all full-time college students, 18 to 22 report binge drinking compared to only 27 of the population. So if you send your kid to college, they're about a 6 more likely to be drunks.
I think that's underestimated. You get probably right. According to the most recent data from the national highway traffic safety administration. There were a total of 10 ,874 fatalities in motor vehicles involving drunk drivers just in 2017 is the most recent I could find in short drunk drivers accounted for almost 30 of all traffic fatalities.
That's a lot. So you have one alcohol impaired driving fatality every 48 minutes in America right now. So maybe we should catch the bus home instead of driving home. What do you think? You never know who might come around the corner.
So let's talk about child abuse in America, 2019. There are over 656 ,243 reported cases of child abuse. That includes 1 ,809 children killed by child abuse in America. 5 .4 children died every day in this country in 2019 because of child abuse.
God is watching. What about this topic? In 2019, there were 98 ,213 reports of this sin in America. Those are just the reported cases. You'd have to probably triple that, right? Or quadruple it to get anywhere near actual cases.
All right. What about this problem that was addressed in the days of the Kings when Josiah had his revival? How is this sin doing in America, Washington, DC, the percentage of American adults identifying?
I love that new terminology. It's not new now, but, uh, like you, what do you think you are? What do you feel like you are? So they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. It increased to 4 .5 by 2017.
And it's up from 4 .1 in 2016, 3 .5 in 2012. So that number is growing every year. Now you say 4 .5 is a small number. Listen, that's almost 5 of the entire population. And you have to understand when I was in college at Baylor, I was pre-med for two years, so I took a course in abnormal psychology and in that book, which was about this thick, still have it on my shelf at home, a full chapter was devoted.
And the book is about abnormal psychology, a whole chapter, at least one was devoted to homosexuality. Now, do you think that chapter's in the books today at college? Because the people writing the books are homosexual and the people doing the new studies that have proven that ain't that way we're homosexuals approved.
Oh, well, you know, we're this way because we were made, we came this way. Back then the book said you're that way. Cause you had a predominant mom and a wimpy father. That's exactly what the, the, all the known literature in psychology.
That's that was the predominant cause of it. And what probably that went back to Freud, right? Who probably was one. No, I don't know if he was or not, but anyway, so, you know, 5 of something that's abnormal, that's a large percentage for a whole country to have.
And it's probably underreported too. I mean, multiply that one by 10, maybe. No, that's what the media wants you to think that it would be 40%. It's still a very small group of the whole country, but why are they so loud?
Why did they speak so loudly to our politicians? Have you ever wondered that into our corporations only 4 and yet they make all the rest of us, listen to things and watch things and abide by things and agree with things that only 4 of the people are abnormally interested in.
That's that in itself is blindness. America's blind ladies, gentlemen. So you can see the number grow from 2012 out here. So they are growing. That's a Gallup poll in a recent study that that one was only up through 2017 or something, but a more recent study.
Now the number is even bigger than the 4 .5. It's 6 .4 of females, 4 .9 of males identify this way. Now notice the female contingent is higher and that's going on in the dorm rooms now in the colleges.
And it's more prevalent among the young ladies. Well, I guess we should call them women over recent decades. Studies have shown that American society has grown more welcoming or accepting to members of this community.
And 20, a 2001, 53 of respondents stated they believe gay or lesbian relationships to be morally wrong. By 2020, only 32 believed it was wrong. That's a big change in the number. Well, they've changed the textbooks in the colleges.
So people are being taught that it's okay. What about political division? These shifting attitudes can be reflected in American politics. Since taking office, the Biden administration has prioritized the expansion of LGBT rights and protections.
Listen to this. Many of which had been rolled back during the preceding four years. That's Trump. People say, why do you vote for Trump? He's a despicable person. I voted for him because of not who he was, but I voted for him because of his platform and there's evidence right there.
He rolled it back. He was more biblical in his policies. I don't, I don't, young people don't get this. They think, well, you should vote for the personality that were true. I didn't vote. I just wouldn't vote.
I didn't like any of the choices four years ago. Did you guys too much, but God gave us two people, Hillary and Trump. Duh. You got a Bible. Duh. Goodness. We're blinded in America. Many of which had been rolled back the preceding four years in recent decades, the most significant steps forward for the LGBT community were taken under president Obama's administration.
These are just facts of history that no one wants to talk about. What about the decline in church attendance in America? Well, there's a big gap between baby boomers, which is my generation and the silent generation, which was my dad's generation.
There's a big gap between us and millennials in their levels of religious affiliation and attendance. Does that surprise you more than eight and 10 members of the silent generation described themselves as Christians, almost eight out of 10, 84%.
And baby boomers, 76 described themselves as Christians. But when you look at the millennials, only 49, less than half in this country in America will even claim to be a Christian things are a change in an old America, there's been even further decline since COVID of course, they believe now we're church attendance only up about back to 36 of what it was prior to COVID and 52 of all church goers, uh, only 52 won't primarily in purpose in person services.
So most of them want to just stay at home now and watch it on TV instead of being in person after COVID. Isn't that interesting? What about murder in America? This is the last one case you're getting hungry, already a violent city, Chicago, which is where president Obama was based.
Um, their, uh, murders increased 56 in 2019, nearly three times as many victims as in Italy. And the whole nation of Israel, Italy, where the mafia is from. So there were three times more deaths in that one, the American city than in all of Italy in 2019.
As the crime data from 2020 is being compiled. One thing has become clear. American cities saw the biggest rise in homicides in decades during COVID when they were supposed to be staying home. So maybe they're killing each other at home.
So it rose 30 just last year. Murders did that would be the highest annual increase in more than 50 years in New York city murders were up 45%, San Francisco up 36%, Washington, DC up 19%. Our analysis of preliminary data with the FBI says that is not just big city phenomenon.
It's affecting small towns and countrysides to 25 increase in the murder rate of 2020 would mean that the United States would surpass 20 ,000 murders in a year for the first time since 1995. So we're, you know, we we're a nation that's debauched and we live in somewhat protected places in our homes and in our church and our Christian school and good.
It's good that we are, but we need to realize that when Nate, when Israel was taken, the four known people had to go with them into Babylon. And so we need to sort of keep that in mind now with that in mind, chapter 24 of Matthew, it's very interesting when you look at the first three verses, because they were talking about how beautiful the temple was and Jesus wasn't that impressed with it.
He said, well, actually there won't be a brick or a stone left upon top of another one shortly it'll be destroyed. Well, that got their attention. Didn't it? Because everything about worldly things and Jesus wasn't, and he just mentioned it won't be here.
So now what's interesting about it was they ask him two questions and most people don't ever notice this. They just think it's one question. There are a group of a large group of Christians that believe that everything mentioned in Matthew 24 has already happened and that it's simply prophesied Titus coming into Jerusalem in 70 AD and destroying the city.
And that's all it's talked about in chapter 24, but that's not true. If you look at the question, they're sitting there and privately, they said, do you see this word? And that means there are two questions.
They ask the first question and then they ask the second question. The first question is when are they, when are they going to tear down this building? Now in the rest of the chapter, Jesus answers both questions, sometimes going back and forth, and sometimes you have to read it really carefully to know which one he's answering.
But all of the answers to the first question have already happened because they happened in 70 AD when Titus came through with the Roman soldier destroyed Jerusalem. So those answers to those questions in 24 have already happened.
But then they ask a second question. What shall the sign of your coming? Oh, you mean they believed in a literal second coming 2000 years ago, the apostles believe that you mean we didn't invent that just recently in seminary that we got a second coming.
They believe Jesus was coming back and they said, tell us when that's going to happen and what the signs will be. That's the second question. And none of those have happened yet. So maybe a few, but not all of them.
So it is a lie when you hear someone say, well, everything in chapter 24, that's a post-millennial list. If you want to study what that is, everything's already happened. And who is the very conservative man that passed away that you guys admired hearing, but you knew he was off on that.
Forgot his name, but you'll think of it. You'll think of him in a minute, but anyway, he was a great scholar, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or else RC Sproul used to great theologian, but he believed everything had already happened that there is no literal second coming, no millennial King.
None of that was literal. And, and listen, everyone thought he was a great preacher, but he was really old and see, that's an old theory. In fact, after world war two, when Hitler killed 8 million Jews, not hardly anybody else believed post-millennialism anymore, but I've only known two people in my lifetime that are friends of mine that still believe it too, out of everyone I know.
And one's a brand new friend I just met. So, and he wants to debate me and I smile. I said, you won't like it. You won't like it if we debate on that issue, but anyway, I was messing with him, but what he does, in fact, he mentioned to me, he said, well, everything in chapter 24 has already happened.
He literally said that to me, this was just a few, a couple of months ago. And I didn't get a chance to tell him that there are two questions, not one. So anyway, that's the key to understanding it. All right.
Now, when you go into it, look, just, I'm not going to go through the whole chapter because I know I'm out of time, but look at verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness into all nations.
And then shall the end come. Which question was the answering there in that verse, the second one about when is the end of the age? Would you agree? So do you think that in 70, a D the gospel and Bibles had actually gone into every kingdom and language and been translated in all the languages of the world at that time?
No. So there's one that had not happened. So when you say all have happened, you're wrong. Even if there's only one that didn't happen yet, that one has just about happened now, just in the last five years, almost every dialect has at least the new Testament translated into it for the first time in human history.
I mean, they didn't have the printing press yet in 70, a D. So that ain't happening in 70, a D. So people that say that, let me just say this kindly, they read it in a book. They probably read Sproul's book about it and said, Oh, he's a genius and I'm not interested in myself.
So I'm not going to look into it. And they missed one that obvious, right? So you got to grow up. You got to quit listening to what your denomination taught you and the stuff your mentors taught you, you've got to get you a Bible like this one is my favorite kind, this is actually a real one.
And, uh, you know, if you look at some of the pages in there, they're pretty marked up, but 46 years, you can do that, but you got to get you a Bible and realize that this is the only authority and the books you've read don't have any authority of humans wrote them.
They get some stuff, right? They get a lot of stuff wrong, but now look at this, the gospel will be preached and then the end will come. Verse 15, when, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of Daniel, the prophet stand in the holy place, whosoever reads this, let him understand.
Now, did that, which one's this answer? Kind of a trick question. Actually, it, it has a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment. Like so many of the old Testament prophets, because this actually happened in 70 AD, but it's also going to happen again, because how do we know it's going to happen again?
Because the apostle John wrote all about it in the book of revelation and told us it's going to happen in the future. So there is a future fulfillment of this that has not happened yet. And that's where the antichrist is going to offer a swine at the altar in the temple that hasn't been rebuilt yet.
So there's another one that hasn't happened yet. It's going to be rebuilt. There'll be a new temple in Jerusalem and where the perfect lamb is supposed to be all offered, he's going to offer a pig, which, you know, Jews are not real big on pigs, are they?
And that's known as Daniel, uh, the prophet Daniel talked about it. Then let them, which are in Judea fleet of the mountains. All right now, ladies and gentlemen, I know that does say Judea, but I'm going to be clear with you when you study everything in Daniel, a few things in places like Joel and you in, in all through the book of revelation and all of Paul's epistles, where he alludes to the second coming and all this, what you're going to find out is that the tribulation period is a worldwide tribulation.
It's not just Israel and it's not just Jerusalem. Like it was in 70, a D it's a worldwide tribulation that is so bad that if God didn't cut it short, no life would be left. The scripture says, so there's a clue if you're in America and you are foreknown by God, and he's not going to cast you away, but he is going to cast the whole country away, you might not want to be living in the biggest cities or any of the cities when that happens, you might want to be in the countryside better yet in a cave in the mountains somewhere.
I mean, this is God's word. Just keep it filed away in the back of your mind. I'm not saying run off and live in the cave yet, because we need to be working right now and preparing, and we have some time left, but you have to always have a plan if you believe God's word is literal for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor never shall it be.
No, may I ask you that did that happen in 70, a D no, because after 70, a D came world war two and the tribulation. When the two atomic bombs were dropped was massively larger than anything that happened in 70, a D.
So not everything in Matthew 24 has already happened. Would you agree with me? Thank you. I hope my friends listening. Cause then we won't have to debate. I just want it. Okay. So anyway, and except those days should be shortened.
There shall no flesh be saved, but for the elect sake, who's that? The foreknown, he will not cast you away for your sake. Those days will be shortened. There'll be shortened to seven years, actually three and a half years of great tribulation.
Romans 11 23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted back in. Now he's back talking to the Jews for God is able to graft them in the message that Paul has to the church. The Gentile church today is don't get boastful.
Don't get prideful because if he broke off those branches, he can break you off too. All right. So let's, but not the foreknown, right? But the Gentile church. Yeah, he can break it off where it does not exist.
Like it does now. All right. Let's stand and have prayer together, father, or your word. We know sometimes it's not, does not send us home. Joyful. It doesn't send us home. All happy and uplifted, but it always sends us home with the truth and a desire to be ready.
And so Lord help us to be ready. When you come back, help us to be good servants who are doing your work when you come back and you find us working, but also prepared and Lord, we ask you to bless the study of your word.
Help us to continue to study these things on our own Lord. We thank you for each person here and listening in on the internet today. Lord, may you go with us now into a time of fellowship. Bless the meal we're about to have.
And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. You are dismissed.