Has anyone here ever had your driver's license revoked? It's not exactly a raise-your-hand-in-church kind of a question. But I know the truth that there are people who go to this church that at one time did have their driver's license revoked. In fact, I know one of those brothers that he came here, and he repented of his sins, and he put his faith in Jesus Christ, and his life radically changed. And he went to the DMV to see if he could get back a driver's license. And then he came to me and said, hey, they need a letter. The DMV needs a letter. Will you write me a letter? And so, I wrote the DMV a letter. And I told them what I really thought. And I told them about this thing called the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how it is God's power to save sinners and make them new. And I had seen a radical turnaround in this man's life and DMV mailed him a driver's license. Yes, the gospel is so powerful, it can cause the DMV to act. Yes. And so, the idea of having your license revoked means that you have disobeyed the traffic laws, and you have now lost your driving privileges. And what we're going to learn today is that when God calls you, and he gives you the privilege of being one of his people, that call of God is irrevocable. You will never lose your privilege as being one of God's people. And we see that in Romans chapter 11. So, I want to invite you to open the Bible, and turn with me to Romans 11:25-32. And I want to go through this text with you. And I'm so excited for what God is going to teach you to strengthen your faith in his love for you here today. And so out of respect for God's word, I invite everybody to stand for the public reading of Scripture. And I'm going to read for us Romans 11, starting in verse 25, all the way to verse 32. And I want to strongly encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention because this is the word of God. Please follow along as I read Romans 11:25-32.
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And we've been reading through Romans 11, where he started to address the Gentiles. And Paul had a real concern that the Gentiles would become arrogant, that the Gentiles would become proud. And he picks that up right here in verse 25, when he says, “Lest you be wise in your own sight.” Paul, who is the apostle sent to the Gentiles, he thinks it's very important that the Gentiles know how to think about what's going on with the Jews. Romans 9,10, and 11 prove that if you ever hear anybody at church act like ah, that's old, that's outdated. It doesn't matter about the Jews anymore. It's all about us in the church. Now you should look at that person, and you should say to them, oh, you arrogant Gentile! Because it matters what God's doing with his people, the Jews. Because now you're saying you're one of God's people as a Gentile. So, the Jews are a specific nation of people that God has chosen to be his people. All the other nations, all the other people groups, we are the Gentiles. We are the others, so to speak, the other nations, but now we can also be God's people. Because of the disobedience of the Jews, salvation is now being offered, made available to all people, and Gentiles are being grafted into the olive tree of God's people. That's what we learned last week.
So, praise God that we can be saved. But it matters what God does with his people, the Jews, because however God treats those people, he's going to treat us the same way. So how is God towards his called ones, towards his chosen people, towards those that he has for known before the foundation of the world when God sets his love on you? What is that like? Well, we're here today to say that the call of God is irrevocable. If God decides to make you one of his people, God will never change his mind about you. And so, then if you're over here, acting like, Well, God changed his mind about the Jews. Whoa, you’ve got to really rethink that. Because if he changed his mind about the Jews, how do you know he won't change his mind about you? So, let's go and make sure we understand that God hasn't changed his mind about the Jews. That's what this text is trying to make sure that nobody here is an arrogant Gentile, thinking, it doesn't matter how God treats his people. No, God always treats his people the same way. If God says he's going to love you, God will love you to the end. That's what this is saying.
So, let's start with review. And there is a handout here in your bulletin, if you want to take some notes here from Romans 11:25-32. But let's just start with review of what it says here in verse 25, the hardening of the Jews has led to salvation for the Gentiles. The hardening of the Jews, the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, they hardened their hearts against him. They're not believing in Jesus. In fact, the Jews are against Paul spreading the Good News of Jesus to the Gentiles. And now the Jews are persecuting Paul for his ministry to the Gentiles. So, that's what he says here in verse 25, I don't want you to be unaware of the mystery. Something not known before is now being revealed. And it's through the disobedience of the Jews that gospel is now ringing out to all the other nations. And so that's what he has been teaching us. And he says, this word here, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery brother. So just turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3, just a few pages over to the right. Let's make clear what this mystery is. God's revelation in Scripture is progressive, right? We get the law of Moses, we get the Psalms of David, we get the prophets of Israel, then we get Jesus, and God speaks to us through Jesus. And so, we learn more as the scripture is revealed. And so, something that may in the past have been mysterious has now been made known. And he says here in Ephesians, chapter 3, remember who Paul is, even as we begin here, Paul says here in Ephesians 3:1. “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—. So maybe you know the story when Paul went to Jerusalem, because he'd gone and shared the good news with so many Gentiles. The Jews hated him. They arrested him, they tried to kill him. The reason Paul was a prisoner is the Jews were persecuting him for sharing Jesus with the Gentiles. How dare you say to those people that they can be God's people? We’re the Jews, we’re God's people. So, they were against Paul's ministry to the Gentiles. And Paul, he says here in Ephesians 3:2-5, “assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Hey, good news, everybody. Jesus isn't the Messiah just for the Jews? Jesus is the Messiah for all of us. And even Gentiles can believe in Jesus and be saved? Can I get an amen from any Gentiles here today? Praise the Lord. Now, this was maybe not clear in the past. But Paul's now making it very clear that it's not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles to be saved. So go back to Romans 11. That's review. That's what we've been learning. But see, here's the point that he wants to make emphatically clear. And in verse 26. “In this way, all Israel will be saved.” So, he's already been telling us not all Israel is Israel, and God chose the Jews as a whole. That doesn't mean he chose every individual Jew. And a lot of Jews are hardening their hearts. A lot of Jews are not believing in Jesus. And we're supposed to be praying for them and feeling compassion for them and going and sharing the gospel with them. But I want to tell you that Israel will be saved, I want you to know, there is a future for the nation of Israel. As it is written, here's one way you can know that there's a future for Israel, it's been prophesied. Look at what he quotes here in verse 26, “the deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
So, Paul is thinking that the time where God is going to come and take away the sins of the Jews, that hasn't happened yet. No, they've still hardened their hearts. They’ve rejected the Messiah. They're not believing. But based on prophecies, and he's quoting here, Isaiah, primarily Isaiah 59. Based on the prophecies, I know God has a hope, a plan, a future for the people of Israel, because that's what God said. And then he says this as his commentary, verse 28. And notice, it's kind of two parallel statements here in Romans 11:28. “As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. But as regards the election, as regards God's sovereign choice of who will be his people, the Jews are beloved, they're still his chosen race, his holy nation. And that's because of the sake of their forefathers, the covenant that God made with Abraham, the promises that God made through King David, all the gifts of the Law of Moses, all the gifts that God gave to Israel, that God set them apart to be his treasured possession, on planet earth know all that gift, all the calling of God is irrevocable. If they are God's people, God's not going to change his mind about Israel.
So, I'd like to throw up here on the screen, the Greek word for irrevocable here, and I want you to see what it means. Ametamelotos means that there's not going to be a change of mind, we're not going to rethink this in repentance when God calls you. And he's called Israel as a nation to be his people. And he's called many of us as individual Gentiles, to be his people. And he called us when he decided to put his love on us and adopt us before the foundation of the world. God decided you would be one of his people. And if God calls you to be one of his people, he will never change his mind about you. He will never take it back. He will never repent of you being one of his people. If God calls you, he has set his seal upon you. He has set his love upon you, and you will be one of God's people forevermore. That's how it works. And so, if you're over here, and you're thinking, well, it doesn't matter what happened to the Jews, no, it does matter, because the Jews are God's people. And if they can stop being God's people, then how do you know you can't stop being one of God's people? See? So, this is a way that I mean. Go back to Romans chapter 8. And remember how Romans 8 ended right before we got into all of this conversation about the Jews in Romans 9,10, and 11. And we ended Romans 8 like this. Do you guys remember when we were preaching through Romans 8? It was way back in the old auditorium across the courtyard, which is now the kids building. Anybody remember those old days, right? Romans 8 was great. It was like every sermon was meant to just pump you up, right? To have assurance of your salvation. There's no condemnation. If you're in Christ, nothing can separate you from God's love. That's what Romans 8 was all about. Look at Romans 8:37-39 with me. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Anybody wants to say amen to that here today? Like nothing can separate you from God's love. But do you see if we can get out of like our self-centered American perspective for a minute, and we can get into the mindset of somebody reading the book of Romans in the first century in the city of Rome, in that church, Jews and Gentiles reading it, and you're telling me God loves me so much nothing can separate me from his love. And I'm thinking, Well, what about the Jews man? They're supposed to be God's people. Sure. Doesn't look like God loves them right now. I mean, they just killed God's Son, they're hardening their hearts against the gospel of Jesus. They're persecuting Paul, who's writing this. Everybody in the church of Rome knows that these are fighting words that Paul is saying in Romans 9, 10, and 11. They know that Jews are after Paul. They might even be able to guess that when he gets to Jerusalem, where he says he's going when he writes Romans, that they're going to arrest Paul when he goes to Jerusalem. So, they're all thinking, wait a minute, you're telling me God loves me, and nothing can separate me from his love? Sure seems like God and the Jews are separated right now. And if they were God's people, how can I have confidence that God is going to love me? If I don't even believe God still loving the Jews? That would have been a big question on people's minds? That's why he goes straight from saying that to let me answer the elephant in the room. Let me address the question with the Jews, because I know you can see that not all Israel is Israel, and I know you can see the hardness of their heart. Well, first of all, let's celebrate that because that's bringing all these Gentiles in, praise the Lord. But let me make it very clear to everybody. God still loves the Jews, and he still has a future for them; all Israel will be saved. Paul wants everybody to know that.
Paul wants everybody to know that God's calling cannot be taken away. God does not change his mind. Who God loves, he will always love. And so, he's trying to make that very clear here. And, he even thinks it's relevant to the Gentiles. He even thinks it's important for us to understand the future plan that God has for Israel, because then we can see God's steadfast love to his people. And maybe you don't really feel like God loves you today. Maybe you feel like you're a sinner. Or maybe you have a hard time believing in love because of your family and things that have happened to you in your life. And so maybe it's hard for you to feel love. But look at the Jews. They disobeyed God in the wilderness, he still took them to the Promised Land. They disobeyed God in Jerusalem and they were exiled. God still brought them back. Now they rejected God’s Son, they rejected the Messiah. They shouted “Crucify him.” They killed Jesus. Guess what? God still loves his people. Look at how disobedient the Jews have been. Can you see God's love for them? Yes, God loves you that same way. This is why so many people like that verse. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And here's all these Gentiles finding a lot of encouragement in a verse that God has given to the Jews. Because the same way that God treats the Jews is how he's going to treat me and you. And so, there are so many people who go to churches like this these days. Let me just say it as nicely as I can. We are so arrogant in the way that we are Gentiles. Like so many people act like all that story about the Hebrews, all that part of the Bible, you know, the Old Testament, that's outdated, that doesn't matter. I don't need to read that. I don't need to know that. I don't need to care about that because I'm the church. Now I'm kind of a New Covenant thing. The good thing going. It's about us right now; the Jews have rejected Jesus. We're the ones who believe in Jesus. And so, there are so many arrogant Gentiles looking down on the Jews, and even ignoring all of these prophecies that God has made, prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled.
If you go read about the Jews, you're going to learn more about the future of planet earth than watching the news today. That's the truth. You go read the ancient prophecies; they're going to give you more insight into history than what people are saying in the media right now. But so many Christians today, they don't pay attention to the prophets, and therefore they don't see who God is, and the plan God has for his people. And there's so much encouragement there that we could have. If God's that way for the Jews, he's going to be that way for me. But we don't even know how he is for the Jews. We think the Jews are old news. So, look at Romans 11:26-27 because Paul is quoting and he has been quoting, I mean, just look right now at Romans 9, 10, and 11. And they don't bracket in my Bible, they don't bracket all the quotes. But there have been so many quotes throughout these chapters. And even as we go through the quotes, maybe some people in the in the church are thinking, ah, who cares about those quotes from the Old Testament, from the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me tell you, who cares about those quotes. Paul does. That's why he keeps quoting them. In fact, his certainty, his confidence, the reason Paul can have such an unwavering faith that God loves him is he is convinced by the prophets themselves, by the words of God that God has spoken. Do you realize that if God says something, even if he says it from some guy a long time ago, and even if he says it to the Jews. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are one of the 12 other written prophets, do you realize that everything that God says it is the Word of God. And the flowers are going to fade, and the grass is going to wither, but the Word of our God will endure forever. The Word, the ancient prophecies of the Jews are more relevant than today's news. That's the truth. Everybody would be better served reading Isaiah than paying attention to the news these days. But we're such arrogant Gentiles, we don't believe that. We think we've got our own thing going on. But he's like, no, let me tell you, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will embellish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them. Now, when Paul quotes this, it's not like he's just throwing out a verse from Isaiah 59:20-21. That's where he starts. But He then puts a different ending on Isaiah 59. He pulls in Isaiah 27:9, and then he even wants to tweak another thing where he sprinkles in Psalm 14:7, so that one quote that we just read is actually Paul taking three different passages that apply to what he's saying, and mashing them up together, because he is got so much prophecy on his mind. And I don't know what Paul's level of expectation was, as he even writes this to the church in Rome, where some are Jews, and some are Gentiles. Remember, these believers in Rome? Like, do they even have their own copy of the Bible, like how many copies of the Hebrew Scriptures are even available to them. But it's like he's expecting them to know these prophecies as he mashes them up. He's expecting that by quoting these prophecies that will be meaningful for these people, to remind them, and convince them that God has a future to save Israel, God has a plan for his people, God has not revoked the privileges of the Jews to be his people. And he has confidence in that is based on the prophecies.
So will you please grab your Bible and go to Isaiah 59 with me. And I want to turn to some pages right now, where maybe the book, the pages are still stuck together in your Bible. I want to open up to some of the prophets of Israel. And I just want to encourage you to rethink what you think about the Old Testament. All right, I’ve just got to tell you something that's very personal for me. In the summer of 2019, we did this series through the book of Philippians; it was called the Summer of Joy. Does anybody remember the Summer of Joy in 2019? “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.” Some of you were there, right. And I read this line in Philippians 2:15. I can remember I was sitting in my house, and I was studying for the sermon. And it talked about us “shining his lights in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.” And I realized when Paul wrote that in Philippians, 2:15, that he was quoting the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, and that Moses was calling God's people who complained against him in the wilderness in numbers, a crooked and twisted generation. And so Paul wasn't just writing something to the Philippians about their day and their time, and how crooked that generation was, he was expecting the people in the church in Philippi to know the song of Moses, and to understand that he was referring to the Israelites who complained to God in the wilderness. And I had to admit to myself that there were many things that Paul and the other guys writing the New Testament that they were referring to. And a lot of those things were going over my head, because I did not know the Bible as well as I should have.
And so, in that day, I stopped thinking of it as the “Old Testament,” written for somebody else, in some other place. And I started saying, this is all God's Word, and all scripture is profitable. For me, all of this is inspired by God. It's not like one third of it is better than the other two thirds of it; I need to know this whole thing. And I'll tell you what, my life, my relationship with God, everything has improved, the more I have embraced all of God's word in my life. And so, if you're still somebody who's like, well, I'm just primarily focused on the New Testament, the Greek part, and I don't really care about the Hebrew part, the Old Testament. Do you realize that the people who wrote the part that you care about were building on the part that you don't care about? And they were referencing and assuming that you understood what came before, and they're just adding on to it? And so, I feel like many of us are reading the Bible backwards. And we're not really seeing how it was revealed. And so, I had to say, God teach me more than I've known before. And that's when we started going through the laws at church. And we started reading through the prophets and the writings.
And so, if you kind of act like some parts of the Bible are more relevant than other parts, I want to challenge you to rethink that as we look at these ancient prophecies, because look at Isaiah 59. Let's just start right here in verse Isaiah 59:1-2. “Behold,” look at this, “the Lord's hand is not shortened.” This is telling you who God is here. “The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” I know Matt Chu was preaching this to the Junior Highers up on the mountain this weekend. Hey, God can save you. God can hear you, but it's your sin that separates you from God. And so, Isaiah 59 is a prophecy where God is speaking through Isaiah, two of the people there in Israel, saying you guys are sinning against me and your disobedience is going to lead to judgment. And you need to turn to me and look at how bad their sin was. Look at Isaiah 59:7-9. “Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.” We as a country, we as a people are turning away from God into our sin, descending into darkness. Justice and righteousness do not reign in our lands, we have become an evil people before God. But yet, look what it promises. Go down to verse Isaiah 59:20-21. And this is the beginning of our quote in Romans 11, where it says “even though there's all this sin in Israel, “’And as for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord: ‘My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,’ says the Lord, ‘from this time forth and forevermore.’”
Even though the Jews are in such sin as a nation, God will send them a Redeemer, God will send them a deliverer, and God will have a covenant with them, where they will have the Spirit, they will know God's Word. And not only will dad say the Word, but his kids will know the Word. And not only will the kids know the Word, the grandkids will know the Word, and God will establish justice and righteousness among his people from generation to generation. I don't know any time in the entire history of Israel that we could say that has happened yet. And that's why in Romans 11, Paul is quoting this like this is still going to happen. Yes, the people, Jews are in sin. Now Paul's saying in Romans 1, but they were in sin in the day of Isaiah, and look what God promised them. See, God's call on them is irrevocable. Because if God says it, it is going to happen. Can I get an amen from anybody on this?
So Isaiah 59 is telling you the future. God is going to send a deliverer to the Jews at some point in the future, that will still happen. In fact, now you notice, if you look at Romans 11, if you get your handout out, and you compare it to Isaiah 59:20-21, you'll notice some of the quote, the deliverer is coming. But notice a change here in Isaiah 59. It says, a redeemer will come to Zion, but in Romans 11, it says “the deliverer will come from Zion.” That's an interesting change. What is Paul saying there? And then notice how it ends here. It says, “My covenant is my spirit is upon you.” But in Romans 11, it says, “My covenant with them is I'm going to take away their sins.” So, go with me to Isaiah 27. Go back to Isaiah 27. Just another chapter. There are 66 verses of prophecy here in Isaiah, many of them completely ignored and overlooked by arrogant Gentiles. Today, look what it says in Isaiah 27. You may not even know this, you may not even be familiar with this. You may have never even read this. Look at how this chapter begins in Isaiah 27:1. It says “In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Does anybody have any idea who Leviathan or this dragon may be? Anybody got any idea? Okay, does anybody want to go be so bold to say that sounds like Satan to me? Anybody wants to say that? Okay, let me ask you a question. Has God with his heart in great and strong sword? Has he slayed the dragon that is Satan yet? Or is Satan still the god of this age, blinding the minds of the unbelievers and prowling around right now looking for another soul to devour. So, when it says in Isaiah 27, “in that day,” and it says in verse 1. It says it in Isaiah 27:2, it says it in Isaiah 27:12, even in Isaiah 27:6. In days to come, it is still talking primarily about the future from our perspective in 2024. This is not old; this is telling you about tomorrow is what's happening here.
And so, few people dare to even read it, or pay attention to it, or give it their full consideration. So many people today think that we can't find a lot of profit in reading from the prophets. And look what it says in Isaiah 27:9. This is what Paul is quoting to us Gentiles in Romans 11. “Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned,” for there's going to come, this future time in Israel, where their sin will be forgiven. Look at this, “this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin,” I will take away their sin, talking about Israel, there's going to come a day when God will save Israel, and it's like the whole nation will turn in repentance. A time of mercy, a time of grace is coming when the Jews will look on the one that they have pierced. And they will realize they were wrong about Jesus, that Jesus is the Messiah. And there will be a revival among the Jewish people where they will turn to put their faith in Jesus, and Jesus will come back, and he will establish a kingdom, and he will reign as king of the world from Jerusalem. And in that day, he will save Israel from their sins. And see Paul believes in that. And Paul thinks if you know that, that's how the story is going to end for the Jews, then you can have more confidence in how the story is going to end for you. This is relevant to you as a Gentile, because look at how much they've disobeyed him. They're going to kill Paul for bringing us the Gentiles the gospel, and yet God still will not revoke his call for them. And does that encourage you that how much God will love you to the end?
Go with me to Psalm 14. Look at Psalm 14, because this is where he changes it to “from Zion” rather than “to Zion.” It's like he refers to Psalm 14:7. And you might be familiar with Psalm 14, this Psalm of David, because Paul quoted this extensively earlier in Romans 3. I'm hoping that you can see that so much of what Paul is writing is quotations, not his own thoughts, but him quoting previously revealed scriptures. And so, when Paul needs to prove to us that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, when Paul needs to say that human beings are depraved, we are wicked in our heart, we are evil to our core, when he needs to make that point, how does he make that point? By quoting Psalm 14:1-3. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” So, Paul, when he proves that to us in Romans 3, he uses this Scripture. But then, look at this, this Psalm is proving to us that we're all sinners before a holy God. But then look what it says in Psalm 14:7. “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” Remember, Jacob is another name for Israel; God gave Jacob a new name Israel. So let the people of Israel be glad. So, Zion is a literal place. It is one of the mountains that the city of Jerusalem is built upon, but over time, Zion becomes more of a figurative place, a place where God is. And so, is God going to come and deliver to Zion? Yes, but where is the deliverer going to come from? From the heavenly Zion, from the throne room of God, from the presence of God. And who is at the right hand of the Majesty on High right now ready to return? And when he comes back, he will bring salvation for Israel, he will restore the fortunes of his people, the Jewish people are the greatest story going on in the history of all the nations of planet earth. Why? Because they are God's people. And if God calls you to be one of his people, he never takes it back. That's something we're supposed to know. That's something we're supposed to be so confident on, that God will remain faithful to his promises to his people. God, when he sets his love on you, nothing can separate you from the love of God. He's doing it with the Jews. He'll do it with you.
So, point number one, here's what I want to challenge you to do at this church, I want you to “Increase your profit from the prophets.” I want you to increase your profit from the prophets, I want you to see that what God is doing with the Jews is meant to teach you. And I want you to stop thinking that the Jews are the old way, antiquated, outdated, we don't need to pay attention to that, because it's about us now. No, Paul is saying, look at the Jews. And look at how they are actually the way God has called them, the way God has chosen them to be his people. They're actually beloved like that, you can actually relate to them like that. God will keep his promises to them. And that should encourage you that God has a future for you. God has a hope and a plan for you, just like he does with his people, the Jews.
And so, here's what I want you to see. And there's a blank under point number one there. Chapters of the prophets describe a day for Israel that has not happened yet, therefore is yet to come. There are entire chapters of Scripture that we could read together, we just looked at Isaiah 59, and Isaiah 27, and Psalm 14, but we could go through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the other twelve prophets that are today known as the Minor Prophets, we could go through all of them. And we could read a whole chapters, chapters that are describing a kingdom, they're describing a righteous king, they're describing a future for Israel, a future that has not yet been fulfilled. I'm telling you, there are whole chapters that Christians today act like I don't even know about that. I don't even care about that. I don't even want to bother to read about that. But let me go and make sure I check my newsfeed to know what's going on right now. But I don't care what God said a long time ago. But really, that chapter that you've overlooked all of your life is telling you the future. From our perspective today, it's telling you what God is about yet to do. Why have we written that off? Why are we overlooking that? Just over this last summer, I got to do something that was so special to me, I got to go with a hundred people from our church to the nation of Israel. And this was before this war broke out between what's going on now in Gaza, before this horrible time that there has been now for all those people there in the Middle East. But before that, we got to go on this beautiful trip. Hundred of us went and we went to our guides Shafiq and said, “Shafiq, we have a dream, we have the American Gentile dream, we want to eat cheeseburgers on the Sabbath. Can you make this happen for us?” And so, we did it, we went to the Dead Sea out in the desert. And this guy showed up in this sketchy looking car and pulled up his trunk. And somehow Shafiq had got some guy he knows down the street or some relative of his to make hundred American cheeseburgers, and they were delicious. There were even French fries. And they came out of this trunk of some dude’s car in the middle of the desert. And here we were, a hundred Gentiles, just praising God for meat and cheese on the Sabbath, at the Dead Sea, eating a very non-kosher meal. And I read while we were looking at the Dead Sea, I don't know if you've ever heard about the Dead Sea. It's a very unique body of water on planet earth. It's actually below sea level. Nothing lives in it. That's why it's called the Dead Sea. And it's so full of minerals that you float in it. And they take from the Dead Sea, and they make all these skincare products that I think go out all over the world. And so people come from all over the world to visit the tourist trap that is the Dead Sea. And we read prophecies that someday there will be a river that will start at the temple and it will flow into the desert; streams of living water will revive the desert. And as I'm reading these prophecies, we've been to the temple at this point, we've seen Jerusalem, and we've been to Bethlehem, and we've been out in the middle of the desert. And the wilderness of Judea is a desolate place, a dry place. And there are whole areas that look like there could be a river there. But it's so dry, I don't think waters have ever seen that place. And there are prophecies in this book that say, someday there will be a river of water that will flow from the temple, and it will flow through all the deserts of Judah, and it will flow into the Dead Sea. And someday, God is going to resurrect the dead sea to be one of the most alive bodies of water on planet earth, it'll be the best place you could go fishing. And if you could ever eat of the fruit of the trees that are on the shore of the river that runs to the Dead Sea, it will be fruit like you've never tasted before, because Jesus is coming back. And there's a future for the desert. There's going to be rivers in the desert. And it's not saying this, like, here's some picture to make you feel better about how bad your life is. It's saying that like this is going to happen. This is the future. And most Gentiles don't even know about this. They've never even read about this before. Because we're so arrogant. We're on to newer things. And I want to encourage you to change your heart about the Prophets.
So, here's what we're going to do. If you can flip your handout over. Well, I want to talk about what we're going to read, and I want to invite you to read the Bible with me. Yes, I'm so thankful you come so we can preach through Romans on the weekends. But I want us to read the Bible together all week long. Okay, we can't just hear the Bible once a week, we’ve got to get our eyeballs in the Bible every single day if we want to have revival for our souls. So, we're going to do a short-term plan. And then a long-term plan. The short-term plan is we are three weeks away from Easter, everybody. And if for some reason in America, to this very day, people will come to Easter more. They'll come to church more on Easter than any other day of the year. So, you might need to get here an hour early again on Easter if you want to get your seat, okay? Because people come to church on Easter. And on Easter, we're going to celebrate the fact that Jesus on Good Friday died for our sins. And on the third day, Jesus rose up from the grave, and we're going to praise him together as the risen Lord Jesus is alive. And we're going to Lift high the name of Jesus. And so, here's what I want us to do. I think we’ve got three weeks till Easter; I want us to read through the Gospel of Mark over those three weeks. I'm inviting you to start tomorrow, Monday morning. Let's all read Mark one. And if you read five chapters a week, that means on the third week, which is the passion week, the week that we'll be thinking about Jesus getting ready to die on that cross, and Jesus getting ready to rise up out of that tomb. Well, if you read on this schedule that we give you there on the bottom of your handout, on Thursday, in a couple of weeks, we'll read Mark 14, where Jesus at the Last Supper in the upper room, he passes around the bread and he passes around the cup, and he introduces communion. We'll read that together as a church and then we'll come take communion together on that Thursday night. And then on Friday morning, we'll wake up and we'll read about Jesus getting nailed to that cross bleeding out on that tree, dying for the sins of you and me. And then we'll have two different services on Good Friday to celebrate that Jesus loved us so much he died in our place. And so, reading through Mark will get us ready to celebrate Jesus, his death and resurrection, this Easter. And so, I want to ask if you've got little kids, how about you start a countdown to Easter at your house today? Let's count down the days. Let's get excited. Let's get ready. Let's pray for people to be saved. Let's pray that the name of Jesus will be lifted high. And then here's what we're going to do on Easter Sunday. We have Saturday night service. And then on Easter Sunday, we'll have our two services at nine and eleven. We're going to introduce our plan at that service to read through the Prophets. And I'm going to invite everybody here, hey, let's stop acting like the prophets don't matter to us when the prophets are telling us a future kingdom where Jesus is going to reign, that we're going to end up being a part of, you're going to end up in Jerusalem. If you believe in Jesus, you're going to end up in Jerusalem sooner or later, everybody. And so, I want to encourage you to stop being an arrogant Gentile and to read through the Prophets of Israel with us. We're going to start that in three weeks.
Now go back to Romans chapter 11. Because here's why this is so important. Here's why you and I need to know how God treats his people, the Jews being an example to us because he's going to treat us the same way. And he repeats how God treats us. So, Romans 11:29, we get the confidence statement that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. If God has called you to be one of his people, you will never lose your privilege of being one of God's people. And then he says something three times here in Romans 11:30-32. He says the same thing three times for just as you were at one time, “but now you have received” what does he say everybody key word here. Mercy. You used to disobey God, and God gave you mercy because of their disobedience because the Jews disobey. So, the Jews have now been disobedient, in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy, for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Remember when you were living in disobedience to God, that God judged you, God punish you, God gave you what you deserved. Or did God give you mercy? Well, now the Jews are in disobedience. And guess what they're going to get in the future? Mercy. In fact, it doesn't matter if you're a Gentile or if you're a Jew, you have been disobedient before God, and guess what God wants to give you? Mercy. See, when it repeats something, see the Bible doesn't speak in exclamation points. They didn't do that in ancient Greek when Paul wrote this. There are no bold letters, there are no emojis to really help you get the point, knowing when Paul wants to get your attention, he uses repetition.
So, do you remember when you were disobeying God? Do you remember that God didn't give you what you deserved? Well, that's what's going to happen to the Jews who are now in disobedience. They're going to get mercy because this is who our God is. God sees that everyone is disobedient, that everyone is breaking his law, and God gives mercy. This is how God revealed himself when he spoke to Moses on the mountain. He says, I'm YHWH. I'm God, and I am merciful. First thing God said about himself.
Has anybody here ever been pulled over by a police officer? And you were busted because you had broken the law, and they were right to pull you over? Would anybody like to admit to that here at church today? Anybody wants to admit? So some of you, I don't know how to take the fact that you're not raising your hand right now. Oh, a few more hands went up when I said that. Some of you are not raising your hands. So either you are a law abiding citizen, and we want to thank you for being one of the few people who are out there obeying the traffic laws around here, or you're a complete liar. And we should call you out to your face. But I have definitely been pulled over by a police officer. And I was definitely wrong in what I was doing. And I was let go with no ticket. No, fine. I did the crime. But I did zero time. And you know what that is called when you don't get what you deserve? Mercy. No one in this room by the very fact that you are in this room, I can tell you that you have not gotten what you deserved. Because the wages of our sin is, after death comes judgment, and you deserve to be judged because you have broken God's laws.
In fact, what I would like you to do in response to this sermon, what I would like you to do before you go to your fellowship group this week, is I would like you to try to make a list of all the laws of God that you have broken in your life. And then I would like for you to take a moment to speculate. What do I deserve for breaking these laws? What, what anger management class, what community service? What, what fine should I have paid? What punishment should I have received? When God told me what not to do, and I did it because I didn't care what God said. Or God told me what to do and I didn't think it was worth doing. And I didn't do it. I have broken God's law, what kind of judgment do you deserve? It's very important for our church that we really get this point that we have all been disobedient, but God has responded to us with mercy. Nobody here has gotten what they deserve. And let me show you. We're here in Romans 11, where he says mercy in 30, mercy in 31, mercy in 32. Well skip down with me to Romans 12:1 that we're going to get to in two weeks where he says, I want to encourage you now, I want to appeal to you, therefore brothers, by what is the appeal to us based on everybody? The mercies of God. And starting in Romans 12, he's going to be like, how do you want to respond to God? Here's how God has treated you. How do you now want to respond to God? And I'm going to appeal to you based on has God been merciful to you, well, based on the mercies of God, what do you want to do in response to God? Well, the only way we're going to be ready to respond to God in two weeks, is if we really consider his mercy this week, that he's clearly trying to bring to our attention by repeating three verses in a row.
Whether you're a Gentile and you were disobedient, and God gave you mercy, or whether the Jews right now are disobedient, and God's going to give them mercy. No matter who you are, everybody's disobedient so that God can give them mercy. So where should you be right now? And what do you deserve right now. And the fact that you have never received that, that is mercy.
Point number two: “Consider your response to God's mercy.” We’ve got to really think about this. I want you to really try to get an idea of where you would be and what your punishment would be. I mean, obviously, we don't know fully how the judgment of God would work. But we would have an idea of what we've done wrong, and a punishment that would fit the crime, a judgment that would be according to what we have done. And you haven't received that judgment, you haven't experienced that punishment, because God has given you mercy. Jesus made this very clear that he who knows he is loved much, is therefore the person who loves much. And I'm going to be back up here in two weeks, Lord willing, and you're going to be back here in two weeks, Lord willing, and I'm going to say, does mercy mean anything to you? And the question is, does it mean anything to you? Does it mean anything to you that you have not been treated as you deserve to be treated for breaking God's laws. You should be pulled over; your privileges should be revoked. But yet God has called you in a way that is irrevocable. What does that mean to you?
Go with me to 1 Timothy 1 over here where there's Thessalonians, and Titus, all the T books together. 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Paul is the perfect example of the hardness of the Jews and of the Good News to the Gentiles. Paul is the living embodiment. Nobody could teach Romans 9, 10 and 11 like the apostle Paul; he is the perfect man for the job. And this is what Paul says. You’ve got to remember who Paul was. Paul was a hardcore Jew. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews. When they killed Stephen, the first martyr in the Christian church, they laid their feet at the garment of a man named who, everybody? Saul. Saul was what he was known as before he met Jesus on the road, and Jesus blinded him with his glory. And Jesus sent him to the Gentiles. And from that point on, he was known as Paul, this guy got introduced as the villain of the book of Acts. And he went down as the hero, the human hero of the book of Acts. So, he was a hard hearted Jew who ended up sharing God's good news of salvation to all the other nations. And here's what he has to say, 1 Timothy 1:12, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” I mean, Paul probably had a clear idea of how he should have been judged for overseeing the murder of the first Christian martyr, of speaking against God, of opposing the work of the Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's like, I didn't get what I deserved. “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” He's like, man, if there's something you could learn from me, he said, look how patient God is. Look how merciful God is.
Let's get this down. Paul, the apostle is “the example of a hardened Jew who receive mercy to bring to the Gentiles.” He's the example of a hardened Jew who got mercy and then spread that salvation to the Gentiles. He shows God's mercy to the Jews, and God's mercy to the Gentiles all in one example, that is meant to show us that guy was one hundred percent against God with all of his heart. And God did not treat Paul according to how he deserved, but he gave him mercy. Can you see the mercy that God has given to you? Can you see what you deserve in your life? And then can you see that you've never known what you deserve? And if God has called you to be one of his people, if you believed in Jesus, and God has declared you righteous, if God has chosen you to be one of his people from before the foundation of the world, if God has predestined you in love to adopt you into his family, and make you one of his sons, and you one of his daughters. If God has called you that call is irrevocable. I'm trying to tell you today that you will never get what you deserve. You will never experience judgment. Because God has given you his mercy. How would you like to respond to God's mercy?
Grab your Bible and go with me to Lamentations, chapter 3. Probably the most famous passage on mercy in the Scripture is in the middle of this little book Lamentations. And these pages might still be stuck together in your Bible, because lamentation isn't exactly like, hey, it's Saturday night, what do you guys want to do? Let's read some good old Lamentations. Right? These are poems that are so sad and so beautiful. These are poems written by the prophet Jeremiah. That's why in our English translation of the Bible Lamentations is put right next to Jeremiah, because Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, who warned the Jews that they would be judged, and they would be exiled, and King Nebuchadnezzar would come, but they didn't listen to him. Well, then he wrote these works of poetry, when the judgment of God came upon the people of Israel, in Jerusalem. And if you look, if you can open up the Lamentations, look at chapter 1. If you can just see Lamentation chapter 1 there in front of you. This is beautiful Hebrew poetry. In fact, it is an acrostic in the original Hebrew language. Hebrew is a language that goes from right to left and has twenty-two letters. And if you look at Lamentation 1 in your Bible, you can see there are twenty-two verses there. And each one of those verses begins with a different Hebrew letter. So, like in English, verse 1 would have an A where it would begin. And verse 2 would have a B, and verse 3 would have a C, and that's to help you become familiar with the poetry so you can have it on your mind, so you can have it on your heart. And if you go over to Lamentation is chapter 3, which is the most famous of the poems in Lamentations, you'll notice that it's 66 verses, which means we've taken this acrostic poem structure, and we've times dip by three. So, their letter for a is all F. And so, verses 1-3 are three verses that start with all of the first letter of their alphabet, and so 22 times three, so each letter gets three verses in this poem. That's how we get to 66 different verses. And what this perspective is in Lamentation three is a man who has experienced the judgment of God and wants to tell us what it was like to see God's judgment come there in Jerusalem. And if you are one of God's people, if God has called you, I want you to know with one hundred percent confidence, I want you to leave here today feeling in this invincible, I want it to be like there's a forcefield around you that you will never get judged according to what you have done. God will never separate you from his love. So, it's like this guy is trying to tell us about a place of judgment that you and I will never know, will never experience, but he still wants to give us a glimpse into this judgment. Look at what it says here in Lamentations 3:1-24. “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.’ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.’”
He described the judgment that you will never know because every morning when you wake up, even on the morning, once a year, when you have to wake up an hour early, my friend, guess what all you've ever known? Mercy, new every morning, never once getting what you deserved for breaking God's laws in your life. Does that sound terrible, that description of judgment right there? I think that's good for us to meditate, because of the fact that we will never experience that. That is God not giving us what we deserve. That is a good definition of God's mercy. And even in the midst of the judgment, Jeremiah wants to bring to mind the mercies of God, they never come to an end. They are new every morning. And so, what is your response to God not giving you what you deserve? That's what we're going to talk about in two weeks, because I want you to leave here today, knowing that God loves you. God has chosen you to be one of his people, if you're my brother or sister in Christ, if you believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, then God right now, he holds you in his hand, and no one is able to snatch you out of your father's hand, he will hold you fast. Let's pray together.
Father, we come before you and we just have to confess that we are some arrogant Gentiles, Father. And we have acted like all that you've done with the Jews, that's all old news. That doesn't matter to us anymore. And we've perhaps overlooked the prophets, and we've perhaps looked down on the history of the Jewish people. But Father, I pray that we could hear you say to us today, that when you call people, that call is irrevocable. And you have a future for the Jewish people, because you will be merciful to them because you have set your love upon them, because they are your people. And I pray that you will open the eyes of our hearts, that we could see the way that you have treated the Jews and how you have been so faithful to them, and how you have loved them as your people and how you through your prophets, you have promised that you have a plan for Israel, that you have a future, that you have a hope, and when we can see your steadfast love to Israel, then we can see that nothing can separate us from your love, because we also are your people. And we have also experienced your mercy and you have also called us by name. And so, I pray for all my brothers and sisters here today that we would know that your call to save us is irrevocable. That we are your chosen one. That we are your set-apart people, and you will never take the privileges of being your people away from us. We will never get what we deserve. We will never experience judgment every morning when we wake up. All we will know is your mercy. And so, Father, let us now respond to you in praise. Let us now respond to you in worship since we have been loved much. Let us now be people who love you very much. Let us see how we have broken your laws and you have not held it against us. You have not treated us with the judgment that we deserve. Let us see your mercy here today and let us worship you in this place. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.