Lesson 48a

We are in Lesson 48 and Romans, and Romans Chapter 11 and verses 19 through 24. So Lesson 48. Everybody have that copy of 48? So again, Romans Chapter 11, verses 19 through 24. Again, Lesson 48. So remember just these passages. I know Mike's been going through these, and we've been going through these last several chapters which are more focused on israel than than us as believers of the church but there's always things within here that uh... we can and we can look at it gain some insights on and uh... so we're almost once we get out of chapter get back into uh... things more germane to the believer uh... or the church but uh... we're continuing on and uh... dealing with uh... Israel and you know are you feeling kind of like you're becoming horticulturist with the branches and that's all you're dealing with with how branches are cut off and grafted and all this we're continuing that vein right now so I'm going to start back in verse 17 which you dealt with last time in 17 and 18 but I want to kind of bring it in as a context so excuse me Beginning in chapter 11, verse 17, But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. But if you are arrogant, remember, that is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. Then our verse, You will say then, Branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.

Quite right. They are broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness. If you continue in His kindness, otherwise you will also be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again.

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? So, a lot of grafting, a lot of branches, a lot of cutting off, a lot of everything in this. So, Mike covered a little bit of this last week about who are the branches, where are the roots, and all that kind of stuff. So, in this, I guess, who are the natural branches? We talked about that last week. Jews. Jews. And the root? Abraham. But the root is? Abraham. What? Abraham. Abraham, or God's root, God, you know, the basic root. And then Jews were the natural branches. We get into more branches being cut off and broken off in this. And so, verse 19, could give leaders an attitude of superiority. So then, in verse 19, you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.

Why does Paul put this statement or warning in the text? Was he worried about it? Why would he say that? Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. One is collective, the other is individual. Okay, yes, Israel is the nation of individuals, but was he worried about people being arrogant or conceited about this? You know, you got broken off, but I got grafted in. You think he was worried about that? He was taught sin nature. Was he worried about us having an attitude being grafted in? Yeah. We're more worthy or something. Yeah. You got wasted over here. Your branch is over here. We're now the better branch.

But isn't that going to cause the Jews to jealousy? No. It's more about do we have an issue with being arrogant about it? It's not about them as much as our arrogance. And so if you remember, and that's why I included verse 18, do not be arrogant toward the branches. Do not be arrogant. So what does arrogant mean? Pride. I'm better than you. Arrogant. I'm better. The branches were the original branches. Now I'm the grafted in one. I'm a little better than you.

So Paul was worried about that. And he loved the nation of Israel and the Jews. And we've seen over the past few chapters, 9 through 11, his love for the Jewish nation. In the next question, we'll look at the reason why the Jews or the original branches were broken off. But Paul is warning the Gentiles that now have a relationship with Christ. God the Father, through faith, not of national identity, but about being arrogant or conceited about their new position and their possible disdain for the original branches.

So, he's worried about it, and he loves Israel, and he's obviously the church and the body of Christ, but he's going, don't be arrogant, don't be conceited because you now are grafted in to this root and life. Don't be arrogant about it. Don't say, you nasty Jews, you got cut off. Don't be that way. So, in verse 18 it says, do not be arrogant, but in verse 20 it says, do not be conceited. So, two times now he's warning about those who are grafted in to not be arrogant, not be conceited. So, does history confirm Paul's worry? Have the Jews been persecuted over time? Have Christians persecuted Jews? So was Paul valid in his worry?

Well, we have churches now that believe that the church has displaced Israel, and that Israel has no right to the land now. However, it would seem to be very much against Israel. We're supposed to feel that way, to believe that way. Yeah, there are Christians, quote, Christians, and others who have persecuted. Obviously, the Jews have been persecuted over time. So, not as much, but we're also talking about the Gentiles. So, the Gentile world. What about in Europe today?

A lot of anti-Semitism coming up. A lot of anti-Semitism. Yes. Hatred of the Jews. In the U.S. now, too. In New York. So, Paul had a valid concern about Gentiles and their position with the Jews. So, it wasn't unwarranted. He actually saw what was going to happen. Yeah. Long ago, when I was young, I lived in Manhattan for a while.

And the Jews were so different than everyone else. It's not that they dressed different, necessarily, but they acted different. And their noses were up at the sky. They would cut in front of you in line and then just turn halfway around and say, I'm a Jew. It really impressed me. So am I thinking the warning is what you were thinking about the Jews?

I think anyone can be subject to the problem. Well, again, the persecution and the pointing out of the Jews Again, they have been persecuted for, well, they've been set aside and persecuted by the Gentile world. And so this warning that Paul is saying is, don't be arrogant about it, especially you who are grafted in. Don't be arrogant about that, because you have a new position that you didn't have before. And he's warning us, and it was a valid warning, as we see over the history since then, about the persecution.

And it's happened, you know, all over time. We'll get to a little bit more of that. They were persecuted by Archie Bunker, too. Fair enough. OK. He was from New York. But the persecution goes on today, and the same thing, the warning is valid. So, and this is out of Weiss studies, I believe. Danny goes with heart of matter when he says, the presumptuous Gentile persists.

It is not to the root I compare myself, but branches were broken off that I might be grafted in that surely involves some superiority in me. So, they were broken off so I can be on there. They were not as good as I am. And then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. And this, I think, is from Weiss. Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.

The despising of the Jews and the horrid persecuting of them by Christendom is one of the three great scandals in history. The first great scandal was the persecution of their own prophets by the Jews. So, they killed their own prophets. The second was the hatred unto death against the witness and the truth of the Gospel by Papal Rome, the professed Church of God, with its Inquisition tortures. You know about the Spanish Inquisitions?

The Catholic Church at that point went after Muslims and Jews. They were going to purge and clean the area. So they went after and they tortured and killed Muslims and Jews. So that was in the 1400s. And so again, that was another one where, uh, the Jews were persecuted and tried to be cleansed by the Catholic church at that point. Third, I made both of the hatred of the Jews by the professing Christians, by those who profess faith in a savior who he himself is an Israelite after the flesh. So again, it was Christians persecuting Jews also.

Again, this, this arrogance of I'm better than you now. and the position we have in Christ. So there's been a history of this all throughout the time since Christ. And this is another one, a quote, I think out of Newell, Dean Millman, in his History of the Jews, and such a book could be read with great profit in these days of rising anti-Semitism. calls the persecution of the Jews during the Middle Ages a most hideous chronicle of human cruelty, as far as my researches have gone fearfully true. Perhaps it is the most hideous, he goes on, because the most continuous to be found among nations above the state of savages.

Alas, that it should be among nations called Christian, though occasionally the Mohammedan prosecutor vied with the Christian in barbarity. Kingdom after kingdom and people after people followed the dreadful example of hatred and persecution of the Israelites, and strove to peel the nail of the descendants of Israel, till at length what we blush to call Christianity, with the Inquisition in its train, cleared the fair and smiling provinces of Spain of this industrious part of its population, self-inflicted a curse of barrenness upon the benighted land." Again, where they tried to cleanse the land of the Jews. So, the whole point is Paul had a warning, and it was very valid throughout history, that the Jews were going to be persecuted. They were set aside and we have been grafted in, but there's been a persecution of them. So question two, what was a real cause for Jews to be broken off and the Gentiles to be grafted in? Why was that? God just said, we're going to change things up. What was it? They rejected their Messiah because he didn't look like they planned on. Yeah, what was the basic understanding, or what was the basic problem? Unbelief. Unbelief.

And it says that in the verse. It says quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief in verse 20. But you stand by your faith, do not be conceited. So, it wasn't because the Gentiles were deemed better than the Jews, therefore they broke them off, it was because of their unbelief.

So again, the conceited part is that we think we're better and we got grafted in because of our great position. It wasn't. It was because of their unbelief. They were broken off and set aside. We were grafted in by grace. And it wasn't because of a superior position that we had, that we were so much better than the Jews, so we're going to replace those branches with us. It wasn't because of superiority. It was because of grace. What basis did the Gentile become grafted into God's branches? What's the basis? Christ's work. Yeah, but what is the basis for us to be grafted in? Faith. Faith. They had unbelief. And what is our entry point? By faith.

Ephesians 2.8, I think it is, 2.8.

You've been saved by grace through faith. So it was a gracious offer, but it was through faith. So the way that Jews were cut off by the branches, or the branches were cut off because of their unbelief, how did we get grafted in? By our faith. So it's kind of, as I go through and the more I study faith, you know, that is the basis for everything. Everything is based on faith. The Jews, for their unbelief or their lack of faith, get cut off and set aside. We, with our faith, get grafted in and have life. So again, as I look through scripture more and more and more, everything is based on faith. And I have tons of notes on this, somebody will dump it out, but everything is based on faith. When you really think about it, you have to believe. All the truths that God lays out in his scripture, it always comes down to faith. Do you believe it?

The Jews didn't believe. This can't be our Messiah. This can't be right. They get cut off and put aside. We, if you believe through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and His Word, by faith we are placed into Christ, into the life. So, Newell puts it this way, it was not the Gentiles' importance over that of the Jews, but the Jews' unbelief that caused some, for the present, all but a remnant to be broken off, and the Gentile stands by his faith, not by his superiority to the Jews." So, in verse 21, is Paul talking about individuals, Jew, or Gentile? So in verse 21, let me get up there, 21, For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. So is he talking about individuals or an individual Jew or a Gentile? Gentile. Talking about an individual. Is it an individual or a national identity? Well, it could be a national identity here. It has to be. So it's not talking about an individual Jew or Gentile. This is corporate. This is a national identity.

You know, in verse 21, we must keep in mind, because this will come out how some of these verses have been contorted and misinterpreted for losing your salvation. And so it's critical that we understand these things in order to be able to understand the rest of some of what we're going to come up in these verses. Because a lot of them think that in these verses it shows that you can lose your salvation. And it's important to know what we're talking about here, whether a national, an individual, or what, a Jew, a Gentile. So there's a lot of things that need to be identified in here and correctly identified. Otherwise, you can get some misguided theology. Well, isn't he talking to believers? He's talking to Jews. I mean, the whole book of Romans is talking to believers.

Remember, this is a set-aside in the 9 through 11. He's now talking about Israel. through 8, and then we'll pick it up again in 12, it's talking about the church and the believers, the foundational aspects of the church. Right now, this is an offset. This is where Paul loves the Jews in Israel, and he's now talking to them in these three chapters, 9, 10, and 11, and identifying them and saying, you know, his care for them, his love for them, and he's telling us here, about the branches being cut off. We'll see at the end about them being grabbed back in and the natural and some of those things. So this is a subset to the Jews. But he says he may not spare you either. Yeah. Isn't that individual? We'll get to that. We'll get to that. So in, let's see, let me go back up here.

For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either." So, is he talking about one branch or branches as a group? That was the question. The point is, He didn't spare the natural branches. He put Israel aside as a nation. He'll do the same thing to us as a group of people.

Is he talking about Gentiles or believers? Well, he goes on to say, for God is, if you do not continue, then he grafted us in. So we're actually, he's considering us a branch. So are we grafted in at this point or will he spare you as, is he talking about Gentiles or believers?

Gentiles. Gentiles. He's talking about Gentiles. So, the natural, and then you Gentiles, as a group, can be cut off too. Which you will be if you're not a believer. You're cut off. So, again, he's talking about Jews and Gentiles. Group. Corporate. Not individual. When he says you, he's talking about the Gentiles.

And if they don't believe, are they grafted in? No. So again, it's very important to understand what's going on here, because otherwise you can get off, like I said, theologically off track very quickly. The group is grafted in, but not the individuals. Well, the original was part of it, and they were the natural branches. We as Gentiles can be grafted in through belief. Right.

Only grafted in. because of the Jews' unbelief. Unbelief. And so the favor to be grafted in went to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. So now the door was open to the Gentiles, which it wasn't before. Right. To, if they exercised faith, that they got grafted in. But as the offer was given to the Gentile nations, that they don't believe.

Right, but that's the Gentiles, not the believers. So again, it's real important, this is not corporate, I mean this is not individual, this is corporate. We're talking about the Jews who are the natural branches, and we're talking about those who could be grafted in, which is a Gentile nation. Gentiles, not nation. The Gentiles is a group. So these are not individuals.

So when you get to, he will not spare you, does that, we'll get that, does that mean salvation can be lost? you're cut off. So this is where it becomes critically important to understand these, because otherwise you can say salvation can be lost. So it's important to get down on these verses.

So again, in verse 21, it's a corporate nation of Israel, which is the natural branches, and then the Gentiles as distinctive parts of a race are in view, not an individual Gentile or individual on this. So we get to question three, which is where this gets misconstrued. In verses 20 through 21 is Paul talking about the loss of salvation for the Gentile. So, for context, I'm going to read it from verse 19.

You will say then, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Quite right. They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. So, is he talking about we can lose our salvation. Remember what we just talked about. Was this an individual or was this Gentiles as a group? As Dr. Newell puts it, he's speaking of, he uses the term Gentiledom. Gentiledom, I know. We'll get what's up. Gentiles in general. Yeah. Yeah.

So a few bad apples can spoil the bunch? No, it's just the Gentile nation can be excluded. And I shouldn't say it's not a nation. It's a Gentile identity. It's a group of non-Jews. So they can be cut off too. And they are if they don't believe. So it's important. And that's why I went to great lengths. It's not an individual that we're talking about that you can be cut off.

It's talking about the Gentiles can be cut off. From other scriptures, can a believer ever lose their salvation? No. Okay. So, with all the other scriptures that we talk about, does this make sense that you can lose your salvation by being a branch cut off? No. No. So, that means it's talking about Gentiles as a whole.

So, again, a lot of people take this verse and say, well, you can lose salvation. You can be cut off. You know, Jews got cut off. You can be cut off. But it's not about the individual. It's the Gentiles as a group. Not the believers. So would the church be a branch? No. No. We're a life in Christ. Because you can't lose your salvation. Right. And we have life in Christ. Our life is in Christ.

This is dealing about with some of the nations and what's going to happen too. We'll see when the millennial comes. Millennium comes. Will the Jews regain their position? Yes. They've been set aside now. So these are all parts of what's going to happen in transitions and different things. But the believer is still set apart in Christ. We've been placed into Christ. The Jews have been cut off, but the individual Jews still can be saved. Yeah, anybody can. And we'll get to that in a minute. In Christ, there's no distinction. Remember what we've been through?

No distinction. Jew, gentile, barbarian, Scythian, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's no male, female. There's nothing. So it doesn't, you know, in Christ, all your identity is gone. With whatever nation, ethnicity, whatever. You're now in Christ. I think it's hard for us as those who live in the age of grace to realize that at the time that God was dealing with the world through the Jewish nation, that if you weren't somehow associated, linked to, or knew about the Jewish nation, you had no opportunity for salvation.

Right. None. Right. And the only way you got salvation is if you somehow entered into the Jewish belief, what was a small country in the Middle East, you know, what if you lived, you know. Yeah. But then Christ comes, Christianity comes in, the Spirit of God comes, and the Jews are set aside, and now the Holy Spirit goes around the earth, convicting people of their sin and saving them. He didn't do that in the time before Israel. He did not.

It's hard for us to think that, gee whiz, it's not fair for all of those people who didn't get an opportunity, and there is this warning Gentiles now are favored because salvation is offered to them. And if they don't accept it, they do get cut off. They never get grafted in. Yeah, never get grafted, right. So this is again the warning to the Gentiles.

Anybody who is non-Jewish, this is the warning to them. So we can never lose our salvation. We've just been through it in Romans 6. the identification truths about us being placed in Christ, He's our very life, sealed by the Holy Spirit, all these things. So we cannot lose our salvation. So this cannot mean that we get cut off from being in Christ.

So, it's important to know that because a lot of people misconstrue this and they don't know, they don't know, you know, Jew, Gentile, and the Church. The three that go through Scripture. Those three tracts are the only three tracts along history. Jew, Gentile, and Church. So, Danny had a note on this from Wiest. As far as comparisons, and this is about...

So, in this case, what does Paul mean? He will not spare those grafted into God's tree. So, it doesn't mean salvation is lost from a believer. So, what does it mean? That they won't be spared. One, who are they? Which we've talked about. Who are they? Gentiles. And they're not going to be spared. What does that mean? They won't be saved. Right. They can be cut off. So, Danny has it this way. As far as comparisons can be made at all in such things, the Jews had been more securely invested in the kingdom than the Gentiles.

They were, in the language of the figure, not artificially grafted in, but native branches. on the tree of God's people, yet even that did not prevent him from cutting off those who did not believe. And if he did not spare them, he will not spare Gentiles either, if in pride they fall from faith."

So they don't believe. They don't believe in Christ. He's not going to... That's the phrase that they pick up on, they fall from grace. Fall from grace. Well, but again, the faith, they don't have faith in Christ. Those who are not going to be spared. Those who don't have faith in Christ won't be spared. So they fall because of their participation in faith or not. Say that again. Whether they fall or not depends upon their faith. will fall from grace.

Now this is He will not spare them. This is about the branches and the cutting and that. So remember that. That's wholly different than me grieving the Holy Spirit or something like that, where I'm not acting who I am in Christ. That's different than what he's talking about here.

Did you have something, Michael? I was going to say that what happens is, I think, is grace is offered. God's unmerited favor for salvation to the Gentiles. If they don't exercise faith, which is a non-meritorious act, then the grace is withdrawn. Right. Yeah. And he's not sparing them. That's right.

And Danny goes on, it should be clear that those in danger of being cut off are unsaved Gentiles and not cut off from salvation, for they have none, but cut off from the place where God might use them as unsaved Israel is cut off in the dispersion. So again, it's not about a saved Gentile. This is not sparing an unsaved Gentile. To fall from grace is just to fall to the law.

Well, it's just not, I don't know, it's just, I say it's quenching the spirit, or not walking by the spirit. They had a good note on this, and this was in Newell's. It's a little bit lengthy, but I thought it was good, probably the best way. And it's really important, again, I think it's really important that you understand, if anybody comes to you with these verses and saying that, well, look, this is where you can lose your salvation, I think it's critical that we understand this. So, he had a note in Newell's, a little lengthy, but I thought it was pretty good to summarize this.

Some who deny the eternal safety of saints apply the warning of verses 20 and 21 as if it were a personal instead of a generic one. a warning to individual believers instead of Gentile-dom as such. But this is not only bad theology, but a missing of Paul's whole point here. It is bad theology, for our Lord says of His sheep that they shall never perish.

And when Paul warns believers of being high-minded, compare 1 Timothy 6.17 with Romans 11.20, it is not to threaten doom to them, but to counsel them how to walk Then it is bad interpretation, for the whole passage of Romans 11, 19-24 deals not with the church, where there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, but with the Jew position and Gentile position in God's affairs on earth.

Israel, unbelieving, was cut off for a while from his place of divine favor and blessing. Gentiledom comes into favor instead of Israel for a while, and the church came into the administration of the promises in the character of the Gentiles. in contrast with the Jews. It is to be characteristic Gentile that Paul speaks in Romans 11 19, thou will say branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. He speaks generically to this characteristic Gentile when he warns in verse 22, toward thee God's goodness, if thou continue in goodness, otherwise thou also shall be, as was Israel before Gentiledom, cut off. Now we know from God's prophetic word that Gentile-dom will indeed be cut off, as was Israel, and Israel be restored to his former place as a sphere and channel of God's blessing to earth. So that, when Paul says, I speak to you that are Gentiles, he is talking not to God's saints as such, much less to the church, which is the body of Christ, but to Gentile-dom, which has been given to be, in God's goodness, the place of his blessing while Israel is for the time set aside.

Another proof of this is in the very admonition itself. Be not high-minded, but fear. If this, as some claim, is merely a warning to individual saints to avoid pride, why should it be addressed to Gentile saints only? Had Jewish believers no danger of pride? No, it is not of the church at all, nor of its real saint, that God speaks here, but of Gentiledom."

So again, I thought that was a good summary. Again, this is not about saints. It is not anything to do... This is about the Gentiles and their being cut off. So again, people gravitate to these verses about how you can lose salvation. So it's critical that you understand this. So that's where I beat it up a lot. But clear on that? All right.

Question 4. God says to the Gentile, towards you, goodness if you continue in his goodness, otherwise you will also be cut off. Now, what is the goodness referred to here in verse 22? So, in verse 22, Behold then the kindness and severity of God to those who fell severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue his kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off. So, what was the view of the Gentile before Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and day of Pentecost. What was the view of the Gentile before that? They called them dogs. Dogs. Barbarians.

You were not to associate with them. You were not to eat with them. That's why when the Apostles are going out, Peter and those to Cornelius and to these Gentiles, you don't understand what that means to a Jew. That was like, you know, being excommunicated out of the family, everything, by associating with a Gentile. They were dogs. They weren't worth anything.

So, Newell puts it this way, we remember the Lord saying to the twelve apostles when he first sent them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, go not in any way of the Gentiles or enter into any city of the Samaritans. That's Matthew 10, 5. He had come as a minister of the circumcision to his own.

So that was the initial focus was to who? Gentiles? Jews. That was the initial one. So what did the Jews do? They accepted him with open arms. They crucified him. keep Jesus, give us Barabbas. He's a great guy. We want him. They rejected him. So the Gentiles, they were dogs, but now the Jews rejected Christ. So, Newell puts it this way, when they had rejected and crucified him, the risen Lord said, now, did he change? He told his apostles and disciples, go out to the lost sheep of Israel. Afterwards, what does he say?

Go into all creation. Now salvation is open to all through grace, salvation through grace, through faith. So he says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation, Mark 16, 15. Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1, verse 8.

So was there a change after Christ was crucified? Was the focus of the ministry changed? Because right at the beginning was, you go out to the Jews and proclaim Christ. And they rejected Him. death, burial, resurrection, ascension, or the return, and he's now telling him, don't just go out to the Jews now, go out to all the uttermost part of the earth and proclaim Christ. So a completely different change in all the administration of God's presence here on earth. It wasn't how the Jews were always the, as Mike said in the beginning, unless you were in Jerusalem or in Israel, or in that part of the world during this period from Abraham through...

Did you have any opportunity to be grafted in or anything? Hear the prophets? Hear anything? Very little. It was a very small area. Now, go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Is that what you would call the gospel of the kingdom? In the beginning of the... I don't know. Would that be the gospel of the kingdom? Is that more in the millennium? Well, yeah, but the gospel of the kingdom is like in Acts 2 when Peter gets up at Pentecost and he's really talking about the kingdom. And there comes a time, though, when after Stephen scoriates the Jews in front of the Sanhedrin and they stone him to death, at that point, the whole message goes to the Gentiles from then on. Yeah. And it's not a kingdom gospel, it's a personal gospel. Yeah, it's not a kingdom, it's a personal gospel, but I, so I... I mean, yeah, okay.

So I don't know, you know, mostly the kingdom, the kingdom is mainly millennial based. And it was just for the Jews? Yeah, this was, yeah, so it's not as much kingdom based, it was to the Jews, the Jewish nation. at that point. I don't think it was, quote, kingdom. Again, my interpretation is kingdom of being like the millennial kingdom and that where the Jews will have it be restored to a position of basically they're the ones who... So you hear that working for the kingdom language today, whereby reformers who say that the church is an extension of Israel and really what we're doing is we're working to enhance God's kingdom.

Yeah. Well, the problem is we don't have a king. We have a savior. Right. And the kingdom hasn't been set up yet because the king isn't here. Well, and the other is it's not a kingdom. It's a life. And that's, I think, the differentiation for me is that when we talk about kingdom, it's not, mine's a personal relationship, an individual.

And a kingdom is, you know, a place, an area, and a king. And there will be a kingdom when Christ returns. When he returns. And that's why I said the kingdom typically is in the millennial time, that phrase, kingdom. So this is more individuals right now. And you'll see, because shortly after this, where does Peter go? To Cornelius. Cornelius was a Gentile. And remember his vision and all that, and it suddenly, you know, What can I eat? You mean all those crazy animals that we can't touch and think are weird? You know, now I can eat those things? Everything's clean? What? And then, you know, Cornelius' house. And what happened with Cornelius and his family? They became believers. So, you've got to understand, this was a big shift.

The original one was, go out to the lost sheep. While Christ was on the earth, he's saying, go out to the lost sheep of Israel, and let's tell them all about me, Christ. After that, they rejected him. Crucify him, give us Barabbas. Okay, at this point, after Pentecost, when the church begins, It's now the focus is not just on Israel. In fact, they are set aside now. Now it's to anybody, Jew, Jew, Gentile, to have salvation and life. So it's a completely different change right after Pentecost. Now it's Peter's going out to Cornelius. Paul, obviously, was to the Gentile world. It's a completely different message now.

There's two Gospels. There's the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Grace. You have to keep those separate. Yeah, and that's why, like I said, Mike's right. A lot of times you hear, like, Kingdom, like, there's some songs like, you know, make your kingdom here now and all this with us.

And that's totally bad theology. You know, we're individuals now in Christ. We're not a kingdom. We are a person. in Christ. So, you know, they like to hear these songs, and build your kingdom now, here, and all this kind of stuff, and that's bad theology. It's in the millennium, there'll be the kingdom. He'll come back, we'll rule and reign with him, and the Jews will have their position restored. So, alright, I think that's the second battle, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, we thank you for this time, and again, just We think, as we study these, that our salvation is never in doubt. We've been placed into Christ where there's no possibility of being removed, broken off as branches. We have eternal life in your Son and that gives us peace and rest and comfort knowing that there is nothing that we can do to be removed from that life. And we'll have that eternally life in Christ.

And we thank you for that. And we thank you for these scriptures that are sometimes difficult to understand. But again, we rely upon the Holy Spirit and the conviction of these scriptures by the Spirit. And we thank you again for this time we've had. And we pray for Mike as he gives us a message in the next meeting. And just prepare our hearts to receive it. And again, we thank you for this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.