Lesson 49a

So JD, I listened to the tape and he, did he get into through question eight? I don't think so. Question eight in verse 24 is Paul speaking of the church. So let's, let's just put it in context here. In 23, it says, and they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again. Who are the they there? Jews. So verse 24 says, 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 my question in verse 24 was, is Paul speaking of the church? Come on, you only got two choices, so pick one. On the first part, he is. He's talking about the Gentiles in the first part, but the natural batches are the Jews. First part is the Jews. Because if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, Who's the Yukata from the wild olive tree? You're right, it's Gentiles.

Then he says, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, in other words, a good one, which is what? And let's talk, one of the things I heard on the tape, I want to get this clear. Did the church being grafted into the good olive tree come under the covenant that God has made with Israel? the Abrahamic covenant? I don't think so. Why not? I don't know. And you remember what the Abrahamic covenant covered?

What are the three big things? Land, seed, and blessing. Land, seed, and blessing. So are we now under the land, seed, and the blessing? No. No, we're not. So for us to be grafted into the good olive tree, what do we get? We get Christ. We get salvation.

I don't think we realize that before the Jews turned away from what was the big sin? The fact that they were violating the law? No, the sin is that they rejected the Messiah. And once that happened, Paul went to the Gentiles. And now the Gentiles are grafted in to the good tree.

The grafting in didn't make us Jews. It gave us the opportunity or put us in a position to receive God's grace through the Messiah. We got salvation, which we didn't have before. The only way anybody could get saved before this happened was how? Become a Jew. That's right. That's the only way. I think it's important for us to realize that what we got by being grafted in is salvation. Because who is the tree? It's Christ. He's the tree. So the big sin was, again, that the Jews rejected their Messiah. They rejected the good tree. So they got cut off and laid aside.

So verse 24 is not really speaking about the church, is it? No, it's not. 24 says, for if you were cut off from what by nature was a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to the nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are the these? That's the way I want to know. These who are the natural branches be grafted into their own. It's the Jews getting drafted back in.

Okay? You alright with that? So, question 24 is just a series, or question 9 is just a series of questions I said, let us ask ourselves and frankly answer the question. First question, did God once have a house on the earth? Yes. His temple. What's it called? His temple. Where was it? It was in Jerusalem, but all over earlier on. Well, it was in Jerusalem only. A synagogue is not the house. Oh. You understand that? There's only one temple. The synagogue was like a place to have a Bible study. Oh, OK.

It was not the temple. They didn't sacrifice animals there. It wasn't the place that God had the Holy of Holies. So without the temple, what do the Jews have? Nada. Nothing. What about the traveling tabernacle? Today. I think what he was referencing is when they're traveling to tend the tabernacle. Oh yeah, when they have the Holy of Holies and the travel is sure, they have the place where God's glory is. But once the temple goes down in 77 AD, now what do the Jews have? That's my favorite question to ask my rabbi neighbor. How about your sins? How do you get rid of them these days? He said, well, we go up to the synagogue and we pray. I said, so no animals get sacrificed? He said, well, we don't have a place to do it. Bingo. You don't.

And so in that system, God has had a house in Jerusalem that the Lord at the beginning of his ministry called the temple my father's house and at the end of his ministry he called it my house so and finally he said to the blind leaders of Israel your house has left you desolate so they have a building a structure on the earth third question will God restore to Israel his earthly house will God restore to Israel his earthly house Yes or no?

He's going to restore it, right? He will and we know it at Christ coming back to the earth is when it gets re-established or rebuilt. And we are told that it will open, it will be upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem where James' prophecy in Acts 15 quoted from Amos 9, 11 and 12. So there will be, when he returns, when Christ returns, a temple, they'll be the place. But meanwhile, between our Lord's absence in heaven and his second coming, does God have a house?

Yes or no? Yes. Come on, you cowards. The answer is yes. Where is it? Right here. We're the house. We're the temple. And I think a lot of times we as believers don't realize the... Maybe put it this way. Let's say that the temple in Jerusalem is still there. And we all got on Courtney's plane and we went to Jerusalem. And we get off the plane, we get on the bus and we go to the old city and there's the temple. And we walk in, and the Holy of Holies is there, and the Shekinah Glory is there.

How would that affect you? But you've got that inside of you. Each one of us has it inside of us. And we walk around like that isn't true. We carry the God of the universe in us. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're the temple. Kind of a cool thing, huh? That God would do it that way. And I don't think we appreciate what being in the temple is all about. When you come over to my house, I expect a proper...

Paul says our bodies are the temple of God's Holy Spirit. That's exactly right. Our bodies are. Because inside the body is your spirit. And the spirit is the place where the Holy Spirit of Christ is. It's your kind of glory. Yeah. He doesn't manifest it visibly. If he manifested it visibly, it would be awesome. He does. He does.

When, you know, in Galatians we're studying in 5 and 6 about walking in the Spirit, what do you do when you walk in the Spirit? You manifest the life of Christ. The Spirit of God manifests the life of Christ through you. I don't see Shekinah Glory. I don't see the clouds that are on fire at night. That would be just totally awesome.

But you know, that will happen in the reign of the Kingdom because the Lord Jesus will be here and He will be in a glorified body. And all of you guys are going to be here too. in a glorified body. So guess what? So during the Millennial Kingdom, if you're walking down Koufax and there's a bunch of Millennial Kingdom people across the street, are they going to know that you're a son of God by looking at you?

I think they'll be able to see it. I agree. I think they'll see it too. It'll be visible. I think so too. There won't be any There won't be any impediment to the glory of God shining out of every one of us. No, they won't see it. And those who are independent, who are not saved during that time, they will probably see it and just... Reject it. Reject it, go away. Absolutely. Sure. Or they'll try to buy it. Yeah. Earn it. Yeah, earn it somehow.

It's going to be an incredible situation when you have an earth that's been released from its vanity. So, I mean, everything's growing like crazy, right? And the Lord Jesus Christ himself is here in Jerusalem, and we're here because we'll never be separated from him. We'll be scurrying around the planet. I don't understand how anybody can reject Jesus Christ with her God. with such a visible announcement of his presence. It's just amazing.

Well, you would think so. Now you know the power of the sin nature. That's really right. That's really right. And the issue then will be a Jewish monarchy with Christ being the king. And the entire earth will be under him. Theocratic kingdom. the whole earth, not just the Jews, the whole earth. And the Jews will be the favored nation. And if you want to go see the Lord Jesus, you've got to go through the Jews to get there. Yet in the meantime, I think all of us are going to be spread out all over the planet.

Gordon gets Parker. So the next question, what is that house? Paul says it's the church. The Ecclesia is now God's house. Quote from 1 Timothy 3.15, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. The house of God is the church. Now let's talk about that individually. and corporately as a body is the church, is the building. See that?

Each member indwelt by the Holy Spirit of Christ. Now, you know, when the Bible talks about the rapture, that the Holy Spirit is going to leave, I don't think he's going to leave the planet at all, but the influence that the body of Christ on the earth, being the temple, and each individual one of us, when we leave, that influence goes away. But he's still going to orchestrate stuff. He just won't be here influentially like he is today through each individual member and the body of Christ itself. See that? Because he isn't going to just leave the planet to just go and do whatever they want. when after about three and a half years it's going to get really tense around here. Let's see.

Here God and the Holy Spirit dwells both in the individual believer Jew and Gentile and also in a corporate way in the assembly of the saints of God. This house was formed first on the day of Pentecost. That's when it started. And the Holy Spirit came down to dwell in those believers. And from then on, from Jerusalem to all Judea and Samaria and to the outermost parts of the earth. So whenever you get two or three of us gathered together, we're a church and dwelt by the Spirit. So will this church or assembly ever be connected to Israel?

Yes. What do you think? In other words, at some point in the history of the planet, God is just going to put us all in the same pot. I didn't think so. No, he's not. So Christ built his Assembly of the Church in a building, and we are going to be the bride of Christ. It says that we are one new man, new in kind and quality. Never been that kind of man before, or after, or after.

So where do these blessings come from? That's the hardest of the questions. They come from the promise made to Abraham. Isn't that cool? That's where they came from. Abraham was the root, and from the promise to him comes the fatness. We're the fatness.

But after the church has been taken to heaven, God will again bless Israel. So you must realize, and I think that J.D. talked a lot about it last week, that in contemporary Christianity, this division or this understanding that the Church and Israel are totally separate entities is really an important thing to get down, and to know why. Because Reformed Covenant theology wants to blend the Church and Israel together, and they want to put the Church under the Mosaic Law system. which qualifies Christians for spiritual handicap parking and gives the Jews more than they deserve. That's really true. And anybody under a law system, from us studying Galatians over the last year plus, realizes that you introduce law into grace and you spoil the whole thing. The whole thing goes south. Lesson 49.

So the first question I ask, in verse 25, what's the mystery that Paul talks about? So verse 25 says, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed as to this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So first of all, what's a mystery, a biblical mystery?

Something you didn't know before. Something that's never been revealed before. So Paul doesn't want us to be ignorant about that. He wants to know what the purpose of God, which has been revealed, is understood by believers. So what is it? There are certain secrets he tells his saints that he doesn't tell anybody else. You realize there are things of God that we all know that nobody else knows. It's true. It's true. So what's the mystery? That God has chosen the Gentiles to be blessed and saved along with his people? Actually not. And, you know, I say this all the time, what does the verse say? That's the mystery. What does it say? Read the verse.

Partial hardening is coming. A partial hardening of Israel. That a hardening in part both has befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So what is that? There's a partial hardening. What does that mean? We studied it now for a couple of weeks. They have been set aside and there's a hardening with them, but it's not permanent. Right? What's the fullness of the Gentiles? Where it says the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. That's question two. It means all of them. All the Gentiles that will be saved will be saved. Isn't it? Pretty much. But it's a... How do I say it?

God doesn't have two plans running at the same time. The one plan he has is a partial hardening of the nation, Israel, and now in place of that is the fullness of the Gentiles. So it's the very number of which God knows to come in, that is, to be saved. Again, did the Gentiles have any opportunity before this to be saved? They did, but it was hard. Well, they had to be in the Middle East, for sure. They had to become a Jew. And be around the Jews. And from there, because God dealt with the world only through the nation of Israel. We don't think that's fair, because we all should have the opportunity, right? The Constitution says so. God created us all equal. Yeah, equally dead.

So, the fullness here means that this fullness, when you talk about the fullness of the Gentiles, what are you really talking about? You're talking about election, aren't we? He's talking about the Gentiles who come into the church. Well, what you talk about, what you really talk about is that God has taken Jews and put them over here. And now His grace from back all the way to the covenant with Abraham comes to all the Gentiles, right? They have the opportunity now for salvation that they never had before. But the fullness is, along with what Carol is saying, the fullness is exactly by election who is going to come in. And until the event that ends the fullness of the Gentiles. You know what it is? It's the last one. Just before the rapture. Just before the rapture. The last one that comes in, the next event's the rapture, that same day.

Because that's it. Yeah, because there's no more waiting. No more waiting. That's right. Do you ever think about that in your own personal, moving towards glory, that God is getting you there as fast as He can? And if you say, gee, I want to live another two years, he says, what's the matter with coming home with me? Nothing. That's what I'm for. So one of the things that motivates people I know that have evangelistic gifts to them is that very thing, that this person may be the last one, because we are saved because we are left.

Why is that not unfair? Why would God elect some and not others, and that not be fair? Well, by our standards, it is unfair. By His, it's not, because He's not into fairness. Why isn't He unfair? What if He was fair? He said the truth is in justice and love. What if He was fair? We wouldn't go. Nobody gets saved.

I think you have to, yeah, that term election always scares me when you think about, is there, the backward terminology, it's by, he offers it to all, but it's up to us to accept that gift and then we become the elect. So it's not that he's predetermined, although he has the corridors of time in one point, it's still our free will decision to accept that gift, which then would become the elect. That's not true.

So, how is it... He says that God chose me from the foundations of eternity. I know, but that's because we step in, once we're placed into Christ, we have that eternal position, correct? Yeah, but what you're really... the argument you're trying to make is the fact that God knew I would accept him, so I became one of the elect.

That's not the right argument. The right argument is, he said, I'm selecting you in Christ before I ever create the first A-T-O-M. I select you. And because I select you, you will come. Freely. The guy sitting next to him, he said, no, I don't select you, and I don't care how much you dance, you're not coming. It's pretty cold, isn't it? It's not our choice.

Ultimately, it's God's choice. It was, that's right. God's choice before he even created the material universe. Well, and it says that he knew, Jim, he knew you as a person in Christ before the foundations of eternity. He knew you. That's amazing. See, it isn't. Did he know what you would do? Sure, but that's not the reason he chose you.

He just I'm picking Jim for my glory. Now, if you want to talk about man saying, well, gee, what do I have to do with it? Well, God's sovereignty around everything that goes on in his universe, he gets to choose because he's God. But he does it in such a way that at some point in time, we agree with him.

And the guy sitting next to you who isn't chosen always has the opportunity, but he never does it. I'm convinced that the only reason I'm saved is because he chose me, because I would not have done it otherwise. Oh, yeah. And you know, he says of the unregenerate, he says, I never knew you. That's right. I never knew you entirely. And the unregenerate don't want Don't want to be saved anyway. That's the point. That's exactly it. And so did I. I didn't want to be saved. What do I care? My focus is on me. We're hollowing in our sins and enjoying ourselves. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So the fact that he saved one is a miracle to me. Especially when it comes to Courtney. So why are there evangelists if it would have been selected ahead of time? Yeah, because evangelists go out and what do they do? They spread the word. They offer salvation, they make it aware, but underneath evangelization is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin.

Is he doing his job? How about the guy that lives in the Amazon jungle? Is he doing the job with him? Sure is. Only because he says he does. Well, the focus of evangelism is really a focus on the Lord's return, because that last person accepts Christ. We're done.

How can they be saved without hearing? You've got to be right. You've got to hear the gospel. And how can they hear if somebody doesn't go and tell them? Well, it's interesting, the tools that God uses to save those that he has elected. I remember one time reading in a missionary magazine about a woman who, this is an answer to a question, if you in Romans chapter 1 decide to honor God as God and you're thankful, That doesn't save you, but it takes you out from the wrath.

Okay? The woman lives in a village, she's a villager, and she decides that the village worshipped a tree in the middle of the village. That was what God was. And she said, I don't know who you are, God, but you're not the tree. And I want to know who you are. And within a year, a guy walks in the village and she said, What's his name? He pulls his Bible out and he says, let me tell you.

So if a person, no matter where they are on this planet, will honor God as God and they're thankful, he'll get the message of the gospel to them. Because it's his job to do it. Well, Cornelius honored God. Sure. And all the people in his household. Sure. And it may be you, the messenger. Maybe not. So what does God do?

He takes a guy like Hudson Taylor, And he plants in his heart this desire to go to China and to save the Chinese, because a million Chinese were dying every day and had never heard the gospel. That was not acceptable to him. Well, it was okay with me. Why Hudson Taylor?

And he learns to discipline himself, to live in poverty, and there he goes. And he travels around China, and he doesn't even speak the language when he shows up there. But God sent him there and he knew it. Kind of cool how he does stuff. He didn't even go under a mission to organize it?

No, no, not at all. Yeah. So, yeah, I think you can't get away from God's sovereignty in an election. It isn't because he knew what our decision would be. He caused the decision. That's what I think. I mean, I'm never going to be able to stand before God and say, look what I did, I believed. That's by faith a non-meritorious act. That's exactly right. I can't brag about my faith. That's right. It's not a meritorious act, it's not a braggable event. No, it's not. So I can't do that. No, you can't.

But if I look at God and say, I'm the one that made the decision, And you knew I would make it, so I do have something to brag about, because I did make the decision. I don't think so. I will say, I orchestrated all that so you could do that. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah.

So, I mean, here we have a time-space finite mind, and we're trying to figure out how God's mind in eternity works. Good luck with that. How can he possibly choose me and know me from the foundations of eternity and we get to 2020 and I'm wondering and praying for somebody that they will come to Christ. I have no idea whether they will or not. But I know it's God's election whether they will or not. I do know this too. There hasn't been one that I've ever read or know about or met that deserved it.

So, the guy across the street in the White House, Christ died for his sins. Yes, he did. Paid the penalty for them. But if I go talk to him and say, Christ died for your sins, but you can only be saved if Christ elected you. That probably wouldn't be a selling argument. Right. Is there a difference between them? Yeah, there is. And here's the difference. Let's pick you.

Before you were saved, were your sins paid for? Yes. Well, why weren't you going to heaven? Because I hadn't believed. But what is it about you that keeps you from going to heaven? Sin. What's that? Sin. S-I-N or S-I-N-S? It's the sin nature. The sin nature is the issue. It's like the ultimate oxymoron is to say that I'm a forgiven sinner. No, I'm not. His sins have been forgiven, but he's got a sin nature that he's identified with.

And that sin nature, according to Romans 8.3, has been condemned. So if he's united to that sin nature and he leaves the planet, where's he going? Where is the sin nature going? Condemnation. If he believes in the person and work of Christ, what happens positionally? He gets separated from the sin nature, and he gets identified with Christ. So when he leaves the planet, where is he going? To where the one he's identified with goes.

That's the difference. Well, yes, it's... Maybe it's a semantics then, as far as election. You know, as far as... You tell them, If you believe this, then you'll have salvation. And that means that God elected you at the same time. But if you don't, then I guess God didn't choose you. I mean, that's the fact. But that isn't a good selling point. Sure, maybe that's what I'm trying to get at. You could be accurate in telling him that. You could be. But again, maybe that's not the way to believe in Christ.

Don't you say that chosen from the foundations of the world Oh yeah, well the Mao's used to say that when you're walking up to the gates of heaven, there's a big sign over the gate that says, whosoever will may come. But when you go through the gate, when you get through the gate, you turn around and the back of the sign says, chosen from the foundations of eternity.

So election only applies to believers. That's true. It only applies to believers. And you don't know who they are until they accept. until they have faith, believe in the person and the work of Christ. Yeah, that's correct. And then they know that they're elected. Sure. And what caused God to elect any of them? His sovereignty. Real simple. Well, as Donna said, election isn't only pertinent to believers and it's only known by God. It really isn't ours to evaluate. That's right. That's exactly right.

So it actually puts us as believers in a position where because we don't know who We have an obligation to God to be paying attention to who's around us in terms of the gospel and what we have to say and the way we live, which is more important than what we say.

Because nobody's ever going to come to Christ because my story was so good. My testimony knocked them over. They're going to come to Christ because the Spirit draws them. That's why. It's like my Jewish buddy whose dad wouldn't allow, when he became a Christian, his dad said, you can't mention the name of Jesus in this house ever again. And so 15 minutes before this guy died, his dad, he went down there the day before and he said, Dad, I've got to go at you one more time about who Christ is. And the dad didn't say anything, but he came back to see him the day that he died, and his dad just said to him, you and I believe in the same Savior. Fifteen minutes.

Was he elect? Yeah. Sure was. It wasn't because... Yet so is by fire. You know the good works to carry into heaven, you know. Let's see. In order for these Gentiles to come in, a hardening judicially and sovereignty has befallen the nation of Israel. Do we understand that the hardening had to come first? In other words, God was dealing with humanity through the nation of Israel only. And to get the Gentiles in a position to be under grace, He had to harden the Jews to do it first before we could have the opportunity.

Again, what does it show? It shows God's absolute sovereignty. Because he made a bunch of promises to the nation of Israel. And going all the way back to Abraham, he said, through you, your seed, will all the nations of the earth be blessed. Well, how does that happen? You would think that it's because the Jews have done such a great job of evangelizing for Jehovah.

Because they did such a bad job in order for Him to do that. He first partially and temporarily hardens the Jews and what does that open the door for? Us. But that has to be part of it. Do you see that? Okay, that's important. So all talk therefore of Israel's national turning to the Lord until this Gentile fullness to come in is in vain. The nation of Israel is not going to come around until the last gentile is saved in the rapture. There isn't going to be a revival of real Judaism until the last gentile is in, no matter what the reformers tell you. So Mike, during this time period, could you say then that the Jews had no preference that that the Lord looks at them the same as he would the Gentiles?

Yes. And so they could be saved the same as any of us could be saved? On an individual basis. That's true. But no national recognition. No national recognition, that's right. So, in other words, the tribulation in Armageddon has to happen first. It just does.

It's interesting that God lets us know that that's the plan. Because what happens if a Jew believes in the personal work of Christ today? He becomes a Christian and all designation in terms of Jew and Gentile go away. Israel's hardening is in part the remnant according to the election of grace. Interesting. The election of grace, not because they just decided to be in a remnant, are now being saved National Hardening is in view here, and so after this Divinely Revealed Order we read that they will come in, get grafted back in at the proper time, when the fullness of the Gentiles is done. The fullness means the last one's in. Is that what changes their heart? Well, it's part of that because the word says that the Jewish nation will become jealous of God's grace towards the Gentiles.

Because once the rapture happens, then there's no believers, no Jewish believers. Right? Because they all go out with the church, right? Well, again, it goes back to the fact that in Christ Jesus there's neither Jew or Gentile. So, you know, I don't care if your name is Goldberg. But nationally, there would be no national until the coming of Christ.

Sure. You know how we're talking about how there was a mystery and the mystery, the hardening of Israel until the fullness of Gentile in both parts. But let's say it seems like another mystery that is just totally hooked to that mystery is that it opens the door for the Gentiles. Yes.

It was a dual, dual beautiful mystery that God hardens them. And then also that, wow, it's for the Gentiles too. And Peter goes, you won't believe this, but the Gentiles are seeing the same thing we are. Well, when Peter was at Cornelius' house quote-unquote Gentile Pentecost happened. It surprised the heck out of him. And he went back and told his buddies, the other apostles, hey, guess what? God's going to save the Gentiles.

They said, ah, no way. No way. Yeah. Yeah. It started. Let's close. Father, how we thank you for all your grace and the fact that we can continue to grow in that grace and in the knowledge of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in His name. Amen.