Romans 11:1-16 (Remnant Now, Revival Coming, Pastor Jeff Kliewer)

That was actually the tune to Happy Birthday. Are we a little off on that? Yeah, we weren't ready for that.

No thank you.

But I do appreciate the sentiment very much.

Thank you.

And wow, aren't we blessed with the worship team to lead us in that way?

Wow.

Give a hand clap.

Thank you, Lord.

Beautiful. Beautiful singing. Hey, let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, we thank you so much for being such a gracious, loving Father, and you have given us so much. Lord, I even just think on my birthday about the gift of life, but Lord, thank you so much even more that your love, which is better than life, Lord, that you have given me the new birth through Jesus Christ, your son, and Lord, my prayer is that maybe somebody listening to the word today would be born again today, and this would be their birthday, their spiritual birthday, Lord.

Father, as we go into your word, I pray that you would help me to preach, Lord. I thank you so much for the gift of this pulpit that you've entrusted me with, Lord, and for the people that you have brought here to hear your word.

I pray that you would touch all of our hearts and give us confidence in our God. I pray that your word would just shine forth and show us the truth, in Jesus' name, amen. Israel is back in the promised land.

That is quite remarkable because in the year 70 AD, the Jews were driven out of the promised land and it looked like they would never return. In fact, did you know that it was renamed by the Romans, Palestine?

Israel was always Israel, but the Romans, seeking to completely eradicate the memory of Israel, renamed Israel Palestine after the Philistines because the Philistines were the mortal enemies of Israel.

So the Palestinians, as such, were not the name of that region. The Roman Empire did that to try to extinguish the Jews. But one of the great remarkable confirmations of our faith in this holy book, the Bible, is that after almost 2 ,000 years, on May 14th, 1948, the Jewish people were brought back to their homeland.

Has that ever happened before in the history of the world? It's not that the Amorites or the Moabites or the Edomites went back to their land. It was the Israelites that were given their land back. This shows the faithfulness of God.

In 1939, there were 16 .5 million Jewish people on earth. Ten million of those were in Europe and only 444 ,000 were in Israel. By 1948, the number of worldwide Jews had decreased to 10 .5 million. Where did the 6 million go?

The Holocaust. The number of Jewish people worldwide reduced by 6 million in that decade. Now, I think we should recognize Germany, and especially the Nazi regime, was not in any way, shape, or form Christian.

They were fully pagan. They practiced pagan divination, but they were also Darwinists, believing in evolution and that the races were differently evolved, such that they thought that the Aryan race was higher and the Jewish people were the bottom.

So it was a racist, Darwinist construction because the people of Germany had believed what was called German higher criticism. Have you heard of it? In the late 1800s, there was a rejection of the authority of the Bible.

The leading teachers from all the universities taught that the Bible was not inerrant, that it was made up of myths and fables, and the German people rejected the Bible before the Second World War. By and large, but there was always a remnant.

In 1948, there was 10 .5 million Jews worldwide, but now there were 850 ,000 living in Israel. Did you know that in 2020, the number of Jews worldwide had grown to 13 .5 million, but now 7 .2 million of them live in Israel?

More than half of all the Jews in the world are back in the Promised Land. That is remarkable and that is prophetic. But at the time of the rebirth of the nation in 1948, there were only 23 Jews in all of Israel who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, 23, and in 2020, the number has now grown to over 30 ,000.

The remnant has been growing and has been gathering. One of those who has come to faith is named Erez Soref. He is the president of a ministry called One for Israel. I would encourage you to watch videos by One for Israel.

They often will have videos that get millions of views within Israel, and tens of thousands of downloads of the Hebrew Bible that they are putting out. Erez, when he came to faith, was ridiculed by his own father.

His father said, Erez, do you think you're smarter than 4 ,000 years worth of scribes who did not believe that Jesus is the Christ? Look at all of Israel. Almost no one is believing. Who do you think you are?

Are you smarter than all those who went before you? And Erez, having come to believe in Jesus, answered his dad this way, I am not smarter, but God has opened my eyes. He has made me part of the remnant.

Amen.

Turn with me to Romans chapter 11 today. We answer a very important question. It might feel a little distant to us because it's regarding Israel. And here we are in New Jersey. What has New Jersey to do with Israel?

We're concerned often about the implements of our own lives, you know, our own circumstances. And we don't think much about Israel, although Israel has been in the news a lot recently. Did you see that by God's grace, they vanquished Hezbollah to the north?

And now all of Syria fell as a result. And there's a new regime that does not give the same access to the Shiite powers of Iran that were running their terrorist organization through Syria. God has delivered Israel once again.

It's in the news. And now Israel, of course, has taken so much victory over Hamas, the Philistines of the Palestinian area, and the Houthis are now isolated to the south. God is protecting His people.

We're far from Israel, but the question in verse one is still very important. I ask then, has God rejected His people? We know from the context that He's talking about Israel. The problem that Paul raised in Romans 9, 6 is regarding the Word of God.

Most of the Jewish people did not accept their own Messiah. So how could the Christian gospel be true if the Jews don't even believe it? If so many of them are lost, then has the Word of God failed? Romans 9, 6, or put it here as Paul circles around to answer that question, after dealing with these issues of election and God's power to save, whom He will, he says in verse one of chapter 11, I ask then, has God rejected His people?

And his answer is, by no means. His first answer to this question will deal with God always keeping a remnant for Himself. As desperate as things look, God has not lost. As dark as Israel became, even kicked out of the promised land, and it looked like there was nothing left of them, yet somehow they remained a people and God was able to bring them back to the promised land.

God always keeps a remnant. So he says in verse one, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. He's giving specific reasons to show he himself is ethnically Jewish.

Paul says in verse two, God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. And that foreknowledge here is not a vision that Jesus or God has of what they would do by their own decision making. It's not foreknowledge of a decision.

It's foreknowing a people that He had known before the foundation of the world and had chosen to be His unique people. Those whom He foreknew, He would also predestine, namely the remnant, those who would believe and be justified and glorified.

Verse two, do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have demolished your altars and I alone am left. And they seek my life.

But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. Paul will make reference to Elijah, the book of 1 Kings.

In the 18th chapter, after the showdown at Mount Carmel, where he vanquished the prophets, he then ran back ahead of Ahab and Jezebel. And there he was persecuted and driven off into the wilderness. And so a loner in the wilderness, being fed by ravens, sulking, believing that he alone was the only faithful one left in Israel.

In truth, he didn't know about 6 ,999 others who had not bowed the knee to Baal. I alone am left and they seek my life. God answers, I have kept for myself. This is God's power to save. And he tells Elijah that it's not just him.

There's a total of 7 ,000 that belong to the remnant. Now, church, this is always God's dealing with Israel. In Genesis 12, verses 1 to 3, God creates a nation. He calls Abraham out. And the story of Genesis is really the creation of the nation Israel to mediate blessing to.

The world.

This particular nation, a chosen people that God has for himself. Within that nation, the people would, by and large, be faithless. But God would always hold for himself a remnant. In the days of Moses, when they were in captivity in Egypt, Moses led them out.

But of that first generation, how many of them fell in the wilderness because of unbelief and grumbling and complaining? The whole generation except for Joshua and Caleb. The next generation had more faithful people.

And with Joshua, took the promised land by faith. The walls of Jericho came tumbling down. And Israel was reestablished in the land, the remnant now looking strong. In the days of judges, however, they were up and down.

Sometimes they believed, other times they fell into apostasy. But God always had a remnant. He would raise up a judge. He would raise up a mighty deliverer and rescue his people. From the darkest, bleakest days, God always brought them back.

Why would anything be different in our day? In our day, they have rejected, by and large, their own Messiah. And so the question is, is God done with them? Is Israel doomed, cast off, and trampled underfoot?

Has God rejected his people? No, by no means, he never will. I want to show you a couple verses that make that promise. First, in Isaiah chapter 8, verses 16 to 18. There is a teaching that's very prevalent in evangelicalism that the church replaced Israel.

That God is done with Israel as a nation, as his chosen people. And now the Gentiles, and those who believe in Christ, have replaced the nation of Israel. But I would say that God will never reject and finally cast away his own people.

According to Isaiah chapter 8, verses 16 to 18, Isaiah was part of a very small remnant in his day. In fact, it was little more than him and his own kids. Isaiah 8, verse 16, bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.

There's a small group of disciples in Israel. Just before the captivity, before Babylon will come through and take the southern kingdom away, seal the teaching among my disciples. Now listen, I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Isaiah still waits on the Lord's deliverance. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. Isaiah says, I and the children he has given me are signs, portents to all of Israel.

So the question is, who are his children? And you all know the answer to that. Maher, Shelal, Hashbaz, and Shear B'shub. You all know that, right? Maher, Shelal, Hashbaz. No, I'm not speaking in tongues all of a sudden here.

That's literally their names. Maher, Shelal, Hashbaz means quick to the plunder, fast to the spoil. Meaning it's coming quickly. The judgment is coming. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Before the little boy has even reached two years old, the great judgment will come.

But there's a second son. What does Shear B'shub mean? Because the children are a sign. Shear B'shub means the remnant shall return. The remnant shall return. Think of that word remnant. Remnant. There's always some part left that shall return.

God will not finally destroy Israel. A remnant shall return. Now, he explicitly says this in Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 37. Jeremiah 31. Turn there. Jeremiah 31, 37. Regarding Israel, his chosen people.

Here is what he says. Thus says the Lord. If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be explored. Meaning if there's someone among you who could just measure the entire heavens and explore everything that's under the earth.

Anybody here can do that? It's an impossible thing, right? If it could be done, if it weren't impossible, then I would cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.

The meaning of this is that God will never, under any circumstances, cast off his people, Israel. They're the apple of his eye. Turn with me to Zechariah for one final example of this promise. Zechariah chapter 3.

It's the third to last book in your Old Testament. And the third chapter pictures one of the great leaders of Israel. His name is Joshua. He's the high priest. As high priest, he would wear the names of Israel on his breastplate.

Because he represents them. He is their highest spiritual authority. And so Joshua is pictured in a vision on trial. The angel of the Lord is the judge. But that angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate picture of Jesus Christ.

Because in the second verse, he will speak to one who is also called Lord. Very much like Psalm 110, verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord. It's the son speaking to the father. Now let's read this. Zechariah chapter 3.

I want you to picture the guilt of Israel as represented by the filthiness of Joshua's robes and how God deals with the guilty nation. Zechariah chapter 3. We're just reading 1 to 10. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.

And Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan. The Lord rebuke you, oh Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed in filthy garments.

And the angel said to those who were standing before him. Remove the filthy garments from him. And I've just got to pause right there. Isn't it great that we have a gospel? Good news that we in the filthiness of our garments.

Meaning our own righteousness is like filthy rags before the Lord. We are guilty and God removes that guilt from us. And clothes us in his righteousness. Let's keep reading about Israel. Remove the filthy garments from him.

And to him he said behold I have taken your iniquity away from you. And I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.

And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua. Thus says the Lord of hosts. If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge. Then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts.

And I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now oh Joshua the high priest. You and your friends who sit before you. For they are men who are a sign. Behold I will bring my servant the branch.

Read that verse again. Verse 8. Hear now oh Joshua the high priest. You the representative of Israel. And your friends who sit before you. The Sanhedrin. The 70. The ruling priests. The ones who represent the nation.

They're the sign of the nation. But here is what is said to them. Behold I will bring my servant the branch. Church I want to tell you that the hope of Israel is none other than Jesus Christ the servant the branch.

Here is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. Isaiah had foretold the servant in four servant songs. Isaiah 42. Isaiah 49. Isaiah 50. And Isaiah 53. The servant of the Lord. The branch of God. He is the branch.

And what is the branch? This is very important. The branch comes up from a stump that looks like it's done. It looks like it's gone. It says in Isaiah chapter 11. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.

A branch from his root will bear fruit. So in the days of Isaiah it looked like Israel was done. Completely conquered. Vanquished. Eliminated. They were just a dry stump. They were cut down by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

Nothing left of them. But the promise is a shoot, a branch will come up from that stump. That branch is none other than Christ the Lord. Jeremiah spoke of this coming branch in chapter 23. And I think 35 as well.

No 33, 15. This is Israel destroyed and decimated. But God will still yet revive them. And the hope of Israel is this branch. This servant who is none other than Christ Jesus. This prophecy. Zechariah 3 .8.

Brings together what Isaiah said and Jeremiah. This hope of Israel is none other than one. It says in verse 9. For behold, he's called a stone on the stone that I have set before Joshua. On a single stone with seven eyes.

Okay, this is getting a little odd, isn't it? A stone with seven eyes. A single stone is the hope of Israel. Isaiah had foretold in chapter 28. That he sets a stone in Zion over which Israel will stumble.

But those who hope in that cornerstone will not be put to shame. What are the seven eyes? Zechariah tells us later in this book. It is the eyes of the Lord that go throughout the earth. The seven eyes represent God who sees everything.

The number of completions, seven. It is the eyes of God. Roaming to and fro throughout the earth. Seeing everything. It's a picture, a metaphor for omniscience. And only God is omniscient. So here we have the promise of a stone with seven eyes.

This stone is God. And it says in verse nine. I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts. And I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. Day, yom, single, ehud, a single day.

So the entire hope of Israel is built on one branch, one servant, one stone. Three pictures of one person whose name is Jesus Christ. And he will atone for the sin of Israel in one day. That day was the day that the Messiah of Israel was rejected and pierced on Calvary's tree.

In a single day, he atoned for sin. He once and for all paid the sin debt of people who stood in filth. Zechariah chapter three is a beautiful picture because the sinner is guilty. The robes that Joshua wore at that time were in fact loaded with excrement.

That's the picture in the Hebrew. Completely defiled. He was filthy. And there was an accuser who was Satan himself. The word accused means to Satanize. Satan is the accuser. That's the meaning of that word, hasatan, accuser.

He stands before the guilty sinner, accusing and condemning. And here the picture is Israel has come out of captivity, but they're still filthy. And Satan is saying, be done with this nation. Cast them away.

There's nothing left of them. The remnant itself is spoiled. Look at Joshua, their high priest. He's as guilty as the rest. Look at the Sanhedrin. Filthy. Condemn them. Be done with them. And God says, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, on account of the branch, the servant, the stone.

He is an advocate who intercedes for us before Almighty God. And here he is standing for Israel. Go back to Romans chapter 11. Many believe that God's word has failed. Because Israel is not believing in their own Messiah.

But Paul says, by no means God has not rejected his people. He has been keeping a remnant until this day. And he will always have his remnant. Now, what of this remnant can we learn? In verse 5, we were told, so too at the present time, there is a remnant.

These are Israelites who believe in Jesus. They are chosen by grace. And now Paul takes a moment to do what he's done for two chapters, to exalt grace. To show that salvation is entirely of grace and not of works.

Verse 6, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. Verse 7, what then? Israel has failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.

So to what do we owe the faith of some? Paul's a believer and he's a Jew. Peter's a believer. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all these Jewish people are believing.

What made them different?

Grace. Their salvation was owed entirely to God's gracious plan. It says here, the elect obtained it. Verse 7, God had chosen to mercifully open their eyes and give them grace. In fact, faith is not the final polar opposite of works.

Notice carefully in verse 6, it's not faith here, but grace that sits over against works. Because more fundamental than faith is the grace that opened your eyes to believe in the first place. Do you know Paul already said that?

He already taught us that. Back in Romans chapter 4, verse 16, what did he say? He told us why salvation is by faith. Why is it that he doesn't judge by works, but he justifies the one who has faith? The reason for it is in order that everything would rest on grace.

The promise, it says, Romans 4, 16, that is why it depends on faith. In order that the promise may rest on grace. So think of this, church, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. For it is by grace that you are saved through faith.

Faith is the instrument that comes because grace undergirds it. Faith is on top of grace. Grace rests at the bottom. So ultimately, grace is the reason we should praise God. We praise him for his glorious grace.

Paul says this in Romans 1, verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace. It should cause us to praise. And notice also in Romans 4, 16, the promise rests on grace and is guaranteed to his offspring.

What does that mean?

God in his grace will always have his chosen offspring. A certain people chosen by grace to whom he would grant this faith to believe in the son. That leaves us here in New Jersey, having heard the gospel, believed in Jesus, no better than the Jewish person at the synagogue around the corner who does not believe in Jesus.

The only distinction between us is that grace came and changed our hard, dead hearts.

He opened our eyes.

He turned the heart of stone to a heart of flesh. He miraculously did this for us to the praise of his glorious grace. Turn back to Romans 11. He'll say something more about those who are hardened. What then?

Verse 7, Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it. That's what we're saying. But the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, ears that would not hear, down to this very day.

And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them. This is severe treatment. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.

Consider, church, both the kindness and the severity of God toward us who believe he has given kindness to open our eyes. But it says here that sometimes he hardens what is rejecting him. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

The same light from heaven, that warmth of the sun, which can melt the wax and make it soft, can harden clay.

He does both.

Here, he's hardening a people. When Jesus came speaking, he spoke in parables. He told the parable of soils, that some are good soil. There's other soil that is like a hardened cart path. When the seed falls on that soil, the birds of the air come and snatch it away.

There's some soil that's rocky. And when the roots try to go down, they can't get deep enough to take root. And so it withers in the sun. There's other plants that in the soil, they start to grow up, but they're entangled by thorns and thistles and they get choked out to death.

But the fourth soil is good. And it produces a bountiful harvest from that root. 30, 60, 90 times what is sown. The disciples said, Lord, what are you saying? And why do you speak to them in parables?

Jesus answered, so that seeing they will not see and hearing they will not hear. Because this people's heart has been made hard. He's quoting from Isaiah 6. Jesus is free to harden the clay. What if God is behind the hardness of Israel?

They are responsible to a disobedient people all day long. I have held out my hands. The last verse of chapter 10. They're responsible for their own sin. And yet God in his sovereign purpose has allowed them to be hard toward Christ for all of these centuries, indeed millennia.

2 ,000 years rejecting their own Christ. Could it be that God is sovereign over even that? According to this, he is.

He wrote it.

He softened some to open their heart like he did for Lydia, opened her heart to believe the gospel. For others, he leaves them in the hardness of their heart and makes it even harder for them to hear.

Doesn't it say that? Their ears would not hear down to this very day. Church, this sounds like really bad news for Israel as a nation. And many theologians over the centuries, in fact, even Martin Luther, I've at one point told you about this in a sermon, about how in his later years, he wrote on the Jews and their lies.

And he turned very harsh against the Jews living in Germany. Many church historians and theologians have decided that God is now done with Israel. The church has replaced Israel. But that's because they didn't read carefully enough.

A few more verses and we're done. Verses 11 to 16, such good news of what's coming. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

God hardened the hearts of the Jews to reject their own Messiah that the gospel would be shot out from there to the ends of the earth. And somehow here we are today, hearing about Jesus Christ, believing that Zechariah 3 is about Him.

Did you know that in the synagogue today, they won't even read Isaiah 53? Refuse to read Isaiah 53. Their eyes are so blinded to it. How is it that we read the very book that they refuse to? Is God done with them?

It actually says quite the opposite. God will make Israel jealous by sending the gospel out to a nation that wasn't a nation. And the gospel went west. It went into Philippi. That's the first reaching of the continent of Europe.

And then all of Europe heard the gospel. And then in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And the Jews were kicked out of a nation. I think it was Portugal in 1492 as well. And the gospel takes root on this continent.

And then from here, missionaries to South Korea, which becomes largely a Christian country. And China now believing. Sub-Saharan Africa lighting up. The gospel goes to the ends of the earth and is circling back around to Jerusalem, where the Jews sit yet unbelieving.

But they're watching. They're seeing what God is doing. And he is so blessing the gospel that there are many who are becoming jealous. Keep reading verse 12. Now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, listen to this.

How much more will their full inclusion mean? If this has been glorious for us, that the gospel came, the Jewish Messiah was preached here and we believed, how much better when we being grafted in, welcome them right back into that tree.

Full inclusion. This is what Paul is saying. The Jewish nation of Israel, although having been hardened for a time, will yet one day revive like a valley of dry bones, seemingly dead. The bones will snap together and form into bodies.

And then sinew and tissue and flesh and skin will form. And then God will breathe the breath of life and up will arise an army of living people. It's a prophetic picture, not of zombies, but of God bringing back the Southern and the Northern Kingdom, making them one and Israel again, knowing their God.

There's coming a day when Israel will believe in their own Messiah. Full inclusion. Then it says in verse 13. Now, I am speaking to you Gentiles. The Romans were Gentiles, were Gentiles by and large. In as much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.

Those who would hear and believe this gospel, getting jealous of what God is doing in the world, anyone who believes would be saved. Verse 15. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean?

But life from the dead. Verse 16. If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. This summer, we forgot to water our little lemon tree out back and it wasn't raining enough.

And so sure enough, we looked out one day and the lemon tree had turned into nothing more than a stick. It was just a little brown stick in a pot. And I'm ready to throw it out. But my wife was still believing.

She kept going out and watering it. And so eventually I got on board and start spraying the hose in it. Months go by and it's nothing more than a stick. It sure looks dead. The lemon tree has gone the way of all the earth until one day a new shoot fires out at the base of the lemon tree.

And now, months later, that has grown up the height of a man. And it's got beautiful, big leaves. It's come back to life. That is what God is doing with Israel. He is bringing it back from the dead where it looked like it was gone, even driven out of the land.

He's brought them back. Now, the majority of Jews live in Israel. More and more people are getting saved. I was just down in Hamilton not long ago with some pastors and in walked two Messianic Jews, Michael and Leon.

They pastor a church in Haifa, Israel. They tell us more and more Jewish people are believing in the Messiah. One for Israel talks about how October 7th, the Jews were called up to defend the homeland because they were being stormed by Hamas.

Many of those who came to the defense were Messianic Jews. They interviewed one of them. His commander was a Messianic Jew. The other commander was a Messianic Jew. And he pointed up at the helicopter.

He says, the pilot of that helicopter is a Messianic Jew. Amazing what God is doing in Israel, blessing the nation, bringing them together. And so we close. Today, we talked about Israel. Seems so far away, but church, let it build your faith to realize that every promise that God made to Zechariah and Jeremiah and Isaiah, the remnant shall return.

God will never be done with his people. He'll never cast off Joshua, the people of Israel because the accuser says how filthy they are. Rather, there's coming a day when there will be a mighty revival in Israel.

It may already be beginning. It doesn't take full hold until the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And then comes the final seven years of this world, of this age. We are living, church, listen, you are in the time of the Gentiles.

Daniel prophesied 77s for the Israelites, for God's people to finish transgression, make an end of sin, atone for iniquity, to anoint the most holy place and to anoint the Christ. 77s means 490 years.

Daniel 9, 24 to 27 says after 483 years, Messiah will be cut off. 483 years from what? The issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That happened in 445 BC. Artaxerxes gave the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

483 years later, the Messiah was cut off. Wouldn't you know on the Hebrew calendar, that year was 33 AD. The very year of his crucifixion was prophesied. And so there's yet one more seven-year period coming.

This is when this false prince comes and makes a covenant of peace with Israel. And then desolations occur on the wings of an abomination, which means the Antichrist will proclaim himself God in the Jewish temple.

And then the full tribulation unfolds. Seven years of destruction on the earth. This is the book of Revelation. The seven years of judgment that is coming. But here's the good news, church. We are in the time of the Gentiles, where God is making Israel jealous by us, so blessing us.

And when the time of the Gentiles is over, he will catch us up to meet him in the air and then starts the final seven years. So here's my worldview. God is being so gracious to us in this dispensation.

We ought to be the most optimistic people in America. Evangelical Christians who have received grace to believe and have faith in the son of God. He wants to bless us with the blessings of Genesis 12, one to three, so abundantly that he makes Israel jealous.

And in the final age, they believe in their own Messiah. I was part of a panel in Wisconsin in May. Things were looking bleak in the American election and in Israel because of the war with Hamas. And I was so optimistic about what God is going to do in our country and in Israel, they started saying that I was too optimistic.

Well, six months later, look what God has done. And I'm not a prophet or a son of a prophet, but I think that this worldview of what God is still going to do with Israel and what he's doing with the church now is the most optimistic way to read the Bible.

And I think it's the true way. God has good things planned for Israel and he's going to so bless us in this age until the rapture that it will make Israel jealous to see how he treats us. That's how I see the world.

And so I think you also should be optimistic about God's grace on this land, this Gentile land, who has received, so many people have received the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we wanna thank you so much for the grace that you have given us.

You've grafted us in to the root, to the branch that is Christ the Lord. And father, we wanna pray especially this morning for Jewish people, Israelites, that you would save them. Lord, we pray that you would open their hearts to believe in their own branch, in the servant, in the stone.