Good morning to everyone. Good to see you this morning. Looks like winter's finally gonna come. I saw the dreaded lake effect storm warning on the weather channel this morning, so that's alright. We've been blessed, praise the Lord, for time to get stuff ready for winter the last month or so. 

We are revisiting. We were finishing 2nd Peter, and in 2nd Peter 3 he talks about the day of the Lord coming. The day of the Lord will come, he says, and he gives us some tremendous information which we've talked about concerning what happens in the duration of the day of the Lord all the way to the new heavens and the new earth, he says. 

So we are going back, having finished 2nd Peter, to look at that phrase, the day of the Lord, and revisit three messages that I preached about two and a half years ago when we were in 1st Thessalonians 5. Last week we spent some time on God's creative intent, what I think is very important for us to understand. We'll talk a little bit, review that this morning, and this morning we are going to be looking at the centrality of Israel in God's salvation plans. 

We're seeing a lot about Israel in the news these days, and we're hearing a lot about the fulfillment of biblical prophecy in the Christian world, and last week we talked a little bit about having a right perspective on these things. I was listening to a preacher last night, a Reformed preacher, who was mocking the viewpoint that we take, but he made some good points, quoting some of Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye's quotes back in the day in the 80s about the rapture being near and 88 reasons that the rapture would come in 1988 and so forth. 

So we talked a little bit last week about having a right perspective on these things, understanding the chronology of the events that are to come, and not falling into the sensationalism of these things or looking for signs to be fulfilled because the definition of eminence is that there are no signs yet to be fulfilled. So we should be focused on being faithful today, being witnesses in this world, living holy lives, and that's the way that we anticipate Christ's coming. 

Well, we now live in the age of grace, the church age, when God is exercising immense patience, long suffering, which means salvation, as Peter said. He allows sin and wickedness to persist. Why? Because He desires that every man may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Peter makes this clear, God is not slack concerning His promise to come again and set things right on this earth, but is patient and long-suffering, waiting for men to come to Him in faith and be saved. 

But this time will end and the day of the Lord will come. Next week we're going to look specifically at this phrase, the day of the Lord, how it's used in the scriptures, and what events will occur during the day of the Lord, but as we saw last week, before that time begins, we now look forward to the rapture of the church, the next event in God's timetable in His salvation plan. 

There are no events or signs that must happen before the rapture can occur, and that is why we say that it is imminent, that it can occur any time. I believe in order to rightly understand eschatology, what God has planned for the consummation of all things in Christ, we must understand three things. 

First, we looked last week at God's creative intent. The second is the centrality of Israel in God's salvation plan, and the third is the nature of the day of the Lord, how this phrase is used and what will occur during this time. Last week we looked at our first message in this little series, God's creative intent. God's plan and purpose in creation has always been to have a theocracy on the earth, a man to rule and reign over his creation. 

He established this in creation with Adam, but Adam failed, sinning, bringing the curse on the world. He also had a theocracy with the creation of the nation Israel, which we will study today, but Israel rebelled and did not serve God and His purpose for them in this world. 

In Hebrews 2, as we read last week, it says, we do not yet see all things put under man's feet. God's representative in this world to rule and reign and righteousness is to be man; everything is upside down because of the curse, but you remember he said in verse 9, we don't see things as God intended in his creative intent, but 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 under Christ, and he will establish His intended theocracy as Jesus rules and reigns on David's throne. Next week we will study the use of the day of the Lord in the scriptures and that all-important pattern that is established in the Old Testament with Israel in the use of this phrase. 

It is a pattern that is firmly established each and every time it is used concerning Israel and the near fulfillments of the day of the Lord that we see in the Old Testament, and it is the pattern that we will see fulfilled concerning Israel in the tribulation time with the Antichrist and the pouring out of God's wrath on the earth culminating in the second coming of Christ. 

But this week I want to look at the centrality of Israel and God's eschatological plans and what is yet to come. 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, not on the church, but on 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. 

I want to remind you or have you think about when you get confused studying the end times and all the related scriptures, that you need to come back to Israel, and when you come back to Israel things will fall into place. We're going to see that this morning as God focuses on Israel and many of those prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. 

Let's go to our text this morning, and I'm using this not to exposit Romans 11 this morning, but as a base text, Romans 11, and I want to begin reading in verse 15. It says, "'For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?' As you study through Romans 9 to 11, you'll notice that he's talking about national ethnic Israel every step of the way, and we could look closer at that, but he starts with that in chapter 9, "'To them belong the covenants, the promises, and so forth,' he says, "'My countrymen, according to the flesh.'" 

As he goes through in chapter 10 as well, Israel rejected, that's why they didn't receive salvation in the kingdom. Even here he says, if the Gentiles being reconciled, if they're being cast away, Israel's being cast away as a reconciling of the Gentiles, the world, what will their, that would be the national ethnic Israel, what would Israel's acceptance be but life from the dead? He's pointing forward to the time when Israel will turn to their Messiah and believe. 

Verse 16, "'For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree.'" 

So many things we could say here at this point, but the idea here, along with Hebrews 8, is that we as Gentiles have become partakers of the blessing, the promises made to the fathers, to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We've become partakers of that blessing, the root and the fatness of the olive tree. What should our response be? 

Verse 18, "'Do not boast against the branches, but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "'Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.'" Well said, because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. "'Do not be haughty, but fear,' he says, "'for if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 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.'" 

Gentiles do not believe they will be cut off. There will come a time where the fullness of the Gentiles will come in, he says, and God will turn back to Israel. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. The issue here is faith, belief. 

"'For if 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?' Now look at verse 25, "'For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.'" 

Don't be wise in your own opinion, don't be haughty, understand that they were cut off because of unbelief, don't think that you're better than them, don't think that God has rejected them as he went over again and again in this chapter. He says that blindness in part, what does that mean? If it's partial, it's not total, right? Paul already went over that. Jews are still being saved. There's a remnant to maintain that national identity. 

Blindness in part has happened to Israel until. What does the word until mean? It means there's an end, right? I'm going to go out and sit in the woods this afternoon and sit in my deer stand until dark. What does that mean? It means that dark, I'm going to get down and come back into my house. I'm no longer going to sit in that deer stand. 

So blindness has happened to Israel until there's a point where Israel will no longer be blind. And when is that? When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Now if the Gentiles are Israel, that's nonsensical, isn't it? Yet we have a whole faction of Christianity today that says we are Israel. The covenant people say Israel is the church in the Old Testament and the church is Israel today. It's just one of God's people. Continuity all the way from the covenant of works which began when Adam fell, all the way through. The Reconstructionists and Dominionists say church has replaced Israel. 

Well, Paul says that the blindness that now is affecting the national ethnic Israel, God's chosen people, will persist until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So I want to reiterate that if the Gentiles are Israel, then this statement makes absolutely no sense. So the blindness of Israel is partial, and it's temporary. There's coming a time. That's what Paul says next. 

Verse 26, And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Look at the terms he uses. Israel, Zion, Jacob. For why? Why is this going to happen? Why is God going to save Israel? For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. When was it that God made a covenant with Gentiles? Never has God made a covenant with Gentiles. 

So why is all Israel going to be saved? For His namesake. We're going to see that in the scriptures today. God made a covenant with Israel. We are blessed out of that covenant made with Israel. We are partakers of the fatness of the root, right? The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But there's no covenant with Gentiles. The reason that God is going to save Israel is for His namesake, because He made unconditional promises. 

I've given you four points on your outline: a chosen people, a divine purpose, unconditional promises, and a sovereign plan. 

Well first in our study this morning, I want you to see a chosen people. Turn to Deuteronomy 7 with me, please. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. Deuteronomy 7, 6, for 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 peoples. But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath 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 who keeps 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, and 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 New, Israel was chosen by God, and interestingly we also see that Jerusalem was chosen by God to be His city. First Kings 11:36 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 God choose Israel? What was His purpose in choosing them out, setting them apart? It was 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? 

Isaiah 43:10, here's His purpose. "'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 is 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 to 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 beast 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 this purpose, but also as a witness to the world, a city on a hill. You know, the church is not a city on a hill, America is not a city on a hill, Israel is a city on a hill, a light to the world, to be witnesses, to draw men to God, to worship and proclaim His name. 

God chose Israel as His vessel, His channel for blessing to all nations, His own witness to the world, this was His divine purpose. We see this in Genesis 12, as well. Now the Lord God 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, 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, and the twelve 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 his seed. This is the greatest salvation promise, the purpose of God in choosing out Israel from among the nations. 

Through Israel would come the seed which would bless all nations. We see this in Galatians 3, Paul makes this clear, he says, "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, listen to Paul's words, 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 inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise." 

The promise of salvation would come through Israel. The seed, the Messiah, Jesus, would come by promise through Israel. 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 in John 4 with the woman at the well? Remember what he said to her? He said, "You don't know what you're doing, right? We know, we worship. The time's coming when you will worship in spirit and truth." 

In verse 22 he says, "Salvation is of the Jews." Salvation is of the Jews. God's plan and purpose for Israel was for them to be a vessel, a channel of blessing to the world through their witness of who God is, of the Messiah coming through the line of Abraham, and of the message of salvation through faith in Him. 

This is the message of the serpent in the wilderness raised up on the pole, right? Of Isaiah the prophet when he said, "Look unto me, believe, believe me and be saved all you ends of the earth, all nations." Israel was to be the channel of blessing to the nations, God's divine purpose. We could say this was God's creative intent concerning the creation of the nation of Israel. 

We read that text before that He created the nation of Israel. What was His intent? To bring salvation to all nations. God will always fulfill His creative intent. We need to understand that. His Word will not return void. It will accomplish what He has intended. He had a plan and purpose for Adam. Adam failed. God will fulfill His creative intent in the last Adam, Christ. This is why there must be a millennial kingdom on this earth. 

That's why Hebrews 2 uses the word "oikumene," the inhabited earth what? To come. The 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 a witness to them of the person and work of God in salvation. They failed. They became exclusive. They disobeyed. Will this be fulfilled literally? Will the nations follow Israel to Jerusalem to worship the Lord? 

Turn to Zechariah 8. Zechariah 8 at verse 20. Will God fulfill His creative intent for the nation Israel? Zechariah 8:20, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, people 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 to pray before the Lord." 

Look at verse 23. "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.’" Is that what's happening today? Are all the nations grabbing the sleeve of the Jew and saying, "Take us with you to the Lord, we know that God is with you, we want to worship God with you?" 

No, Zechariah 8 says it's going to happen. The nations will look to the Jews for they will fulfill their 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 they will worship the Lord. God's Word will be fulfilled. His creative intent will become a reality on this earth. 

You see, it's not about Israel. It's about God. It's about God's name. It's about God's character and nature. It's about God fulfilling His Word, His intent. He's not going to create the nation of Israel for the express purpose of being a witness to the nations and leading them to Him and then just fail and not have that happen. It will happen, just as Jesus will fulfill the theocracy that God intended when He created Adam. 

So why does all this matter? Why do we care? What does it matter to us, all this Israel stuff and end times, the day of the Lord? Does this really have any application for me? Well, a large majority of the professing Christian Church, the mainline denominations, the Reformed churches, and many others say, "No, none of this matters. It's all allegorized, it's all pictures, it's all been fulfilled. God is done with Israel. They rejected their Messiah, they crucified Him, and now God has replaced Israel with the church, or the church is Israel." 

Israel is no more as a nation, and God has no more plans for her. This is why they must allegorize so much of the scriptures, and this is much of the church concerning Israel in the end times, and it's nothing new. Paul wrote extensively about it in Romans 9 to 11, and this is where we find the application of all these things for us. 

This is vitally important for us to understand, my friends. Paul asked the question directly, verse 1, "I say then, has God cast away His people?" What's His answer? "Meginatah." No, no, no, no, no, no, no, may it never be, certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham and the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people, whom He foreknew. Verse 11, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?" That means, did they fall down to a point they can't get back up? "Certainly not!" 

But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, who to jealousy? The Jews, Israel. To provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Paul asked directly, has God cast away Israel? Is He done with them because of their rejection of Jesus for all that they have done? And his answer is an emphatic no, no, no, certainly not, and in verse 11 Paul actually keeps God's emphasis on the nation of Israel even in light of the church. 

Through their fall, in order for the express purpose to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God is working all the time to bring His promises to fulfillment, to bring His creative intent to pass, and that will include in the nation Israel. So what does this mean? Does this mean that we have some great infatuation with Israel? They're a bunch of apostate people, they hate the Lord, they're lost. Does it mean that we somehow worship Israel? 

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. 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. 

Genesis 12, we read that before, "I will make you a great nation, I will bless those who bless you, curse him who curses you; I will, I will, I will." God made promises in the Law Covenant, didn't He? We read a little bit of that in Deuteronomy, if you keep My commandments, if you do this, if you do that, if you follow My statutes. But the promises, Paul says in Galatians 3, the promises made 400 years earlier to Abraham cannot be annulled by the Law. 

The promises to Abraham were unconditional. What is the fulfillment of those promises dependent on? God. Dependent 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, "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, My covenant with Isaac, My covenant with Abraham, I will remember, I will remember the land. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, 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." 2 Kings 13:23, "But the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them, why? Because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence." 

Does God mean what He says? Turn to Jeremiah 31 with me, please. Jeremiah 31 at verse 35. Jeremiah 31:35, "Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from before 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 for all that they have done, says the Lord." The Lord God will keep His unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob, to Israel. 

And those promises are of a land, of a nation, of the kingdom, the Messiah reigning on David's throne. God will save His people, why? For His great namesake. "For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people." 

He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. "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 is faithful and will accomplish His purpose, His will. My brothers and sisters, this is all much bigger than Israel. It's about God's character and nature. 

It's about His Word. Have you ever wondered why Paul wrote Romans 9-11? Do you see it as some sort of parenthesis? Do you see it as something separate from all that he wrote in one day? I mean, 1-8, man, right? We could live there forever. Well, I'd say that Romans 9-11 is the very heart of what Paul's trying to communicate in the book of Romans. 

Because here's the message. God has made covenants with Israel, promises to them. 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 have not fallen to a point where they cannot 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 at 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, as I read Revelation 20, fulfilling the promises He made to Israel, unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why does this matter to the Gentile church in Rome? Why does this matter to you? Why does Paul spend so much time on this in the middle of the great book of Romans? 

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 unconditional promises to Israel, then what hope do you have that He will keep His promise to you in Christ? That's what the book of Romans is all about, an expanded gospel that says if you will just turn to Jesus and place your faith in Him, you will be saved forever. 

You know what that is? That's a promise. Can I trust God to keep His Word? I mean, in that time, in that culture, would not someone say at the end of chapter 8, "Hey Paul, what about the promises to Israel? You want me to accept promises made in Christ? What about the promises God made to Israel?" And Paul says, "Let me tell you about that. God's going to keep His promises to Israel. And God's going to keep His promises to you in Christ." 

God will fulfill His creative intent. He will fulfill the theocracy. And He also will fulfill His creative intent for the nation of Israel and the kingdom. He will keep His Word, He will keep His promises, and we can trust Him. And that is why we must know and understand and believe that what God is doing and what is yet to come in the ultimate fulfillment of the day of the Lord. And that's what we're going to explore next week. The day of the Lord in the Scriptures. What the Scriptures say. That's what we want to know. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your plan of salvation all the way back in Genesis 3. All the way back before time began, Your plan to redeem a people for Yourself. Father, we thank You that You revealed these things to us and that we can read all the way back in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed You, believed You, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

And we see that same truth as Paul writes to the Roman church in Romans 3, Romans 4, that when we believe You, You impute to us Your righteousness, the righteousness of God, freely given. Thank You for that promise, that truth. Thank You that we can know that we have eternal life, that we can trust Your Word, and when You say it, it's going to happen. Help us to understand these things and to take assurance and confidence, not to be afraid, but to be faithful, bold witnesses in this world as long as we are here, for Your name's sake. In Jesus' name, amen.