I just told Jim Olson, I said, I think the centrality of Israel and God's eschatological plans is a perfect sermon for this crowd this morning. So that's what we're going to preach on this morning. 

We're in the midst of a little series on the day of the Lord. We're in 1 Corinthians 5, and in chapter 4, Paul had been discussing the rapture of the church, the catching up of the dead and the living in Christ at that time. His purpose in these chapters is to comfort the believers by giving them sound truth concerning the things that are yet to come. They were discouraged. They were upset, confused because they did not have the truth. They were concerned that those who had died in Christ were going to miss the rapture. 

And we'll see in the second letter that they were also confused because there was false doctrine that had come into the church that maybe they had even missed the rapture and were in the day of the Lord. So we come to this term, the day of the Lord, and that's what we're discussing in this series, in these three messages, kind of laying a foundation for what we're going to study in 1 Thessalonians 5. 

It's this phrase that really is central to our understanding of what Paul is teaching in chapter 5, the day of the Lord. It is a phrase that means judgment, darkness, calamity, catastrophe on the earth. As we began to discuss last week, this term was used extensively in the Old Testament concerning Israel. It had near fulfillments in the chastening of God's people for their rebellion against him in order to bring them back to himself. 

We see this in the captivity of Egypt with Assyria, with Babylon, and Medo-Persia, with Greece, as well as Rome. The term, the day of the Lord, also has a final fulfillment. It has a future application, which is what we're looking at in our text as we get to 1 Thessalonians 5. We see this in many of the prophecies of the Old Testament. 

This is a culmination time, a culmination of all judgment, where God will fully and finally accomplish his purposes and his salvation plan, and as we will see today, fulfill his unconditional promises to the nation Israel. This day of the Lord includes a seven-year period of tribulation for Israel, where Antichrist comes to power, persecutes God's people, and rules this world for a short time. 

And we see as we carefully study the scriptures that this final fulfillment of the day of the Lord and the use of the term in the scriptures has two aspects. We're going to get into this more next time, but first, there's a broad day of the Lord fulfillment, including the time from the beginning of the seven-year period prophesied by Daniel all the way to the new heavens and the new earth. 

We know that the day of the Lord begins in the seven-year period of Daniel when Antichrist rules, when God pours out his wrath on this earth, culminating in the second coming and the judgment of all the wicked. And Peter tells us that this broad scope of the day of the Lord extends well beyond that short time to include the fulfillment of God's salvation plan.

I'd like for you to turn with me to 2 Peter 3 and see this. It's quite an important passage for understanding. 2 Peter 3.3 Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. 

This is what we call uniformitarianism. Everything just keeps going cyclically. You've heard people tell you that. It's like a stock market. It just keeps going. Nothing's going to change. Verse 5. For this, they willfully forget that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 

But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord, this is our phrase that we're studying. This is a key phrase. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Notice these two words, in which, in the day of the Lord, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

The day of the Lord is used to apply to a broad period of time from the beginning of the seven-year tribulation for Israel all the way through the second coming, through the millennial kingdom, and even into the destruction of the heavens and the earth and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Peter says, in which, in the day of the Lord, all these things will happen. 

So the term the day of the Lord applies directly to the rule and reign of God over his creation manifest physically on this earth and includes this broad period of time. However, we will see as we continue our study next time that the day of the Lord can also refer in some passages to a single day within this broader time frame. 

In some passages such as Joel and Nehemiah, there are prophecies that pinpoint specifically the day when Jesus comes to judge at his second coming when the nations are gathered together in the valley of decision and Jesus will set his feet on the Mount of Olives. So we're being introduced to 1 Thessalonians 5 to this important doctrine, the day of the Lord, and we are studying three important messages to give us a foundational understanding of the term in the scriptures so that we might rightly understand Paul's use of the term and how it applies to the believers in Thessalonica and also to us and our understanding of what is yet to come.

Last week we looked at our first message in this little series, God's creative intent, and we saw that God's plan and purpose in creation has always been to have a theocracy on earth, a man to rule and reign over his creation. He established this in creation with Adam, but Adam failed, sinning and bringing the curse on the world. He had a theocracy with the nation Israel, which we will study today, but Israel rebelled and did not serve God and his purpose for them in this world. 

Hebrews 2 tells us that we do not yet see all things under God's man, under God's representative in this world to rule and reign and have dominion. Everything is upside down and cursed. We see that every day of our lives, but the author of Hebrews says we see Jesus. Jesus is the promise of the restoration of God's creative intent, his ultimate plan and purpose. God will bring all things to consummation in Christ, Paul says in Ephesians, and he will establish his intended theocracy as Jesus rules and reigns on David's throne in the millennial kingdom.

Next week we'll study the use of the term the day of the Lord in the scriptures, but this week I want to look at the centrality of Israel in God's eschatological plan and what is yet to come. This is perhaps the most important message I can preach on eschatology and the day of the Lord and the fulfillment of God's plan and purpose. 

I have a new motto concerning the study of the end times. After many months of preparing for this, it goes like this. If you're having trouble understanding what is yet to come, your misunderstanding is directly related to your lack of emphasis on Israel. The seven years of tribulation, the day of the Lord, the millennial kingdom, all of these things yet to come are directly focused in the plan of God on the nation of Israel. 

And they are founded in the unconditional promises made by God to Israel and his plan to bring salvation to the world through his chosen people. Don't forget this truth, and when you get confused studying the end times and all the related scriptures, come back to Israel and things will fall into place. Daniel 9 says 70 weeks are determined for your people Israel and your holy city Jerusalem. 

69 weeks have been fulfilled in that prophecy. There's one seven-year period yet to come for Israel focused on Jerusalem. It's for your holy people Israel and your holy city Jerusalem. Let's go to our text this morning. I want to read Romans 11, kind of a lengthy passage in relation to the centrality of Israel and God's salvation plan. 

Romans 11 at verse 1, and listen to the clear words of Paul, because many are saying today that God's done with Israel, that the church has replaced Israel, that they have so forsaken God and crucifying their Messiah that God has cast them away. Romans 11 1, I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin. 

God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scriptures say of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets, torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. What does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 

Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. In Paul's time, when he wrote this, there was a remnant of Israel. In our time, the Jews are still here. Why? Why are they here? Because God has a plan for Israel. Even so, at this present time, there's a remnant, and if it's by grace, then it's no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace, but if it is of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work. 

What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so they do not see and bow down their backs always. 

Now look at verse 11. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God has not cast away his people. They have not fallen to the point where they cannot get up. Go down to verse 22. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity, but towards you goodness, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise you also will be cut off. 

And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. For you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree. How much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? 

Look at verse 25. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own opinion. This is the key part, that blindness in part has happened to Israel. This blindness is only partial. Until, what does that word until tell us? It's temporary, right? The blindness is partial. There's a remnant today. Jews are being saved, and it's temporary. Until when? Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And so, here's a promise, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. 

I've given you four points on our outline this morning. A chosen people, a divine purpose, unconditional promises, and a sovereign plan. First in our study this morning, I want you to see a chosen people. Turn back to Deuteronomy 7 with me, please. Deuteronomy 7 at verse 6. 

Deuteronomy 7, 6. For you, speaking to Israel, you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all the peoples. 

But because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 

Therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, look at this, who keeps his covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. And he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him; he will repay him to his face. 

Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, the judgments which I commanded you today to observe them. Then it shall come to pass because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers. 

And he will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock and the land of which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. 

Over and over we see this reiterated in the Old Testament and the New. Israel was chosen by God. He chose to set His love upon them. And interestingly, we also see that Jerusalem was chosen by God to be His city. In 1 Kings it says, And to His Son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself to put My name there. 

Scripture after scripture reiterates these truths in the Word of God. God chose Israel from among the nations to be His own special people, to be called after His name. But why? Why did He choose Israel? What was His purpose in choosing them out? It's not that they were special or mighty or great. They were least among the nations. Why did God choose them? What was His divine purpose? 

Turn over to one scripture that tells us this. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43 at verse 10. Here's the key. You are My witnesses, says the Lord. And My servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. 

I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God among you. Therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I work, and who will reverse it? 

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. For your sake I will send a Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, the Chaldeans who rejoice in their ships. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power. They shall lie down together, they shall not rise, they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick. 

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to My people, My chosen. 

This people I have formed for Myself, they shall declare My praise. God chose Israel to be a witness for Him. Not only a witness to Him that He is God, the only true God, and Israel was set apart in so many ways for that purpose, but also a witness to the world. A city on a hill, a light to the world, to be witnesses, to draw men to God, to worship Him and proclaim His name. 

God chose Israel as His vessel, His channel for blessings to all nations. His own witness in the world, this was His divine purpose. We see this in Genesis 12, such a key passage, the unconditional promises made to Abram. It says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. 

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God chose Abram to be the patriarch, the father of the nation Israel. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes from his loins. 

And God tells us here that the reason Abram is set apart, that God blesses him by making him a great nation Israel, is so that He might bless all nations through Abraham's seed. This is the great salvation purpose of God in choosing out Israel from among the nations. 

Through Israel would come the seed which would bless all nations. Turn to Galatians 3, and let's see Paul make that clear at verse 16. Galatians 3, 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one. And to your seed, who is Christ. 

And this I say, that the law which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. The promise of salvation for the world would come through Israel. 

The seed, the Messiah, Jesus, would come by promise through Israel, and He would bring salvation to all nations by grace through faith. Israel was to be a witness to the world. You remember the encounter that Jesus had with the woman at the well? In the course of that conversation, He said, You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews, Jesus said. 

Salvation is of the Jews. God's plan and purpose for Israel was for them to be a vessel, to be a channel of blessing to the world through their witness of who God is, that He is the Lord, that He is the only true God, of the Messiah coming through the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of the message of salvation through faith in Him. 

This is the message of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, raised up on the pole. This is the message of Isaiah the prophet. What did he say? Look unto me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. Believe me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. All nations, all people. Israel was to be a channel of blessing to the nations. That's God's divine purpose. 

We could say this was God's creative intent concerning the creation of the nation Israel. Now pause just for a second here and give me your attention, if you're nodding off. This is important for us if we are to rightly understand what is yet to come, the end times and God's plan and purpose. God will always fulfill His creative intent, His will, His purpose. 

He had a plan and a purpose for Adam. Adam failed and sinned. God will fulfill His creative intent in the last Adam, Christ. This is why there must be a millennial kingdom on this earth, what Hebrews 2 calls oikumenea, an inhabited earth yet to come. 

God had a plan in the creation of Israel to be a witness to the nations, to bring salvation to the Gentiles and witness to them of the person and work of God in salvation. Will this be fulfilled literally? Yes, in the kingdom as well. Zechariah 8.20, listen. Thus says the Lord of hosts, peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities. 

The inhabitants of one city shall go to another saying, let us continue to go and pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also. Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and pray before the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, in those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man saying, let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you. 

The nations will look to the Jews for they will fulfill the purpose of witness to God and the nations will say, we have heard that God is with you and they will go to Jerusalem and worship the Lord. God's word will be fulfilled. His creative intent will become a reality on this earth. He will accomplish his will and his plan. God is sovereign in his plan and purpose. His promises to Israel will be fulfilled. 

Let me propose this question at this point in our study. Why does this matter? What does it matter to us? All this Israel stuff and end times and the day of the Lord. Does this really have any application for me? A large majority of the professing Christian church, the mainline denominations, the reform camp, many others say no. None of this matters. God is done with Israel. 

They rejected their Messiah. They crucified him, and now God has replaced Israel with the church. Israel is no more as a nation, and God has no more plans for her. Might I humbly submit that this is the reason they do not teach on prophecy and end times and that their eschatology is so confusing when a third of the Bible is prophecy. 

This is why they must allegorize so much of the scriptures. You can read a reform commentary on the book of the revelation. I believe pastor has one on his shelf, and it will say at the very beginning this. The book of the revelation of Jesus Christ does not mean what it says. Think on that for a moment, my friend. The word of God does not mean what it says in the great book of blessing. The book of the revelation. 

Well then who decides what it means? And this is much of the church concerning Israel in the end times, and it's nothing new. Paul wrote extensively about this in Romans 9 to 11. I do not want you to be wise in your own opinion. I do not want you to be ignorant brethren. So I'm going to tell you that the deliverer is coming out of Zion, and all Israel will be saved. 

And this is where we find the application of all these things for us. This is vitally important for us to understand. Paul asked the question directly. Has God cast away his people? Is he done with them because of the rejection of Jesus for all that they have done? And his answer is an emphatic no, no, no. Certainly not. May it never be. 

And notice verse 11. Paul actually keeps God's emphasis on the nation of Israel even in light of the church age. Through their fall, in order to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God is working all the time to bring his promises to fulfillment for Israel, to bring his creative intent to pass in that nation which he brought into being through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

So what does this mean? My friends, Israel is not the main point. God is the main point. We worship him. We exalt him. We look to him and the fulfillment of his word and his plan. And it just so happens that Israel is at the center of that plan. The centrality of Israel and God's salvation plan is crucial to understand. 

Not because of Israel, but because of God and his unconditional promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is the nation that God chose, set his affection on, in order to display his glory and power in the world. And we find those unconditional promises again in Genesis 12. 

I will show you a land. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. What's God say in Genesis 12? I will. I will. I will. 

God made promises in the giving of the law on Sinai. Remember that? It went like this. If you, if you, if you, then I will. But the promises made 400 years earlier to Abraham cannot be annulled by the law. The promises to Abraham were unconditional. They were dependent only on God and his character and nature. And those promises will be fulfilled in Israel, just as God said.

And he didn't say it once, my friends. Genesis 17 too. And I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. As for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. 

Leviticus 26. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham. I will remember. I will remember the land. Leviticus 26, 44. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, when they're being chastened, when God's taking them to the woodshed in a dramatic way, he says, I will not cast them away. 

Nor shall I abhor them to utterly destroy them and break my covenant with them. For I am the Lord, their God. Psalm 89, 34, my covenant, I will not break nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Second Kings 13, 23. But the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them and regarded them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and would not yet destroy them or cast them from his presence. 

Turn to Jeremiah 31. Let's look at Jeremiah 31 at verse 35. Jeremiah 31, 35. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for light by night, who disturbs the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. 

Look what he says in verse 36. If those ordinances depart from me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel. Look at this for all that they have done. 

Isn't that what they say today? For all that they have done, they rejected their Messiah. They crucified Jesus. So God has cast them away. God says, I will not cast them away because I've made a covenant with them and I will keep my word. 

The Lord will keep his unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and those promises are of our land, of a nation, of the kingdom, the Messiah reigning on David's throne. God will save his people, why? For his great namesake. 

1 Samuel 12, 22, for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. Psalm 23, three, he restores my soul, he leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake. God is doing all that he's doing for his namesake to glorify himself. 

Psalm 106, eight, listen. Nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty power known. God will keep his promises because of his name, because he cannot lie, because he's faithful, and he will accomplish his purposes and his will. My brothers and sisters, this is all much bigger than Israel. It's about God's character and nature.

Have you ever wondered why Paul wrote Romans 9 to 11? Do you see it as sort of a parentheses in the book of Romans? Do you see it something separate from all that Paul wrote in chapters one to eight? I would submit to you that Romans 9 to 11 is at the very heart of what Paul is trying to communicate in the book of Romans, because here's the message. 

God has made promises. He's made covenants with the nation Israel. God is sovereign, carrying out his plan and purpose for salvation and the consummation of all things in Christ for his glory. God will keep his promises, and that means that Israel is still very much at the focus of the plans of God, and especially in the end times fulfillment of the day of the Lord. 

God has not cast away his people. They've not fallen to the point where they can't get back up. God is using the church age, the salvation of the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy, and in the plans and purpose of God, through the tribulation time for Israel and the second coming of Christ, all Israel will be saved, and God will bring his kingdom on earth, a physical kingdom for a literal thousand years, fulfilling the promises that he made to Israel, unconditional promises to Abraham. 

Now again, why does this matter to you? Why does Paul spend so much time on this in the middle of the great book of Romans? Well, here's the take-home message, why all of this is so important and so much of the word of God is devoted to eschatology and prophecy yet to be fulfilled, because my brother, my sister in Christ, if God does not keep his word, his unconditional promises to the nation Israel, then what hope do you have that he will keep his promises to you in Christ? 

It matters that God keeps his word. It matters that God means what he says. That's the purpose of Romans 9 to 11. He's just told all these people, if you'd place your faith in Christ, God makes a promise of salvation. Someone's gonna say, what about Israel? What about the promises that God made to Israel? Is he gonna keep those? 

Paul says, yes, he's gonna keep those promises. He's going to fulfill his creative intent in the creation and the theocracy of God and in the nation of Israel in the kingdom. He will keep his word. Isn't that good to know? John 14, let not your heart be troubled. If I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you to myself. 

And then you know what he says? If it were not so, I would have told you. Does he lie? No, he's a God who cannot lie. He's gonna keep that promise. He's gonna come and get us and take us to be with him where he is forever. 

And my friends, he's gonna keep his promises to Israel too, because God keeps his word. And that's why we must know, we must understand and believe what in the world God is doing and what is yet to come in the ultimate fulfillment of all of these prophecies and scriptures. And the meaning of this term, the day of the Lord. 

We'll study that in detail next time. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for your word, your truth. And you write us these things to encourage us that we may know that you are the God of the world, of the universe, that you're the creator, that you're the only true God. And that your word will not return void, that your word will have its effect. 

And the things that you've said are going to come to pass will come to pass. And that we can know that we have salvation in Jesus because of what he accomplished on the cross, not something I do, something he did. And through faith alone in him, we can trust and know that we have passed from death unto life, that we have eternal life. 

And that we can anticipate the fulfillment of the promise when you will come and take us to be with you. And then you will set things right on this earth and bring a new heavens and a new earth. Thank you for these promises, this encouragement, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, comfort one another with these words. In Jesus' name we pray.