God's got Israel's number

Here’s an outtake from a sermon tonight at a weekend Bible conference in Kentucky, entitled “Israel Shall Be Saved in the Lord”:

Paul begins Romans 10 with, [1] Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
[2] For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
[3] For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
[4] For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
[5] For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

That’s the passage we just read back in Isaiah 45. You need God’s righteousness, not yours. You see, they were doing it all themselves. Christ comes along and says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added," explains Richard Jordan.

They’re focused on the things. The answer is on focusing on what God’s doing. The issue for the rest of that chapter is, “Believe the Word.”

Chapter 11 begins, [1] I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

I love that phrase “God forbid” because scholars don’t like it. In the Greek text there’s no word “theos” there; it’s just one word and it says, “May it never be.” But that’s not what it says at all! It’s says, “MAY IT NEVER BE!!!” It’s the strongest negative you can get. It’s called a dynamic equivalent in language. It’s, “NO, NO, NO, NO!!!” He’s mad about it.

God is not through with Israel. His promises, His covenants, all those things that belong to them—He hasn’t abandoned them, He hasn’t given away or given up His word to them. He’s just doing something different right now and He’s got every right to do it.

He’s done it before with them; we just read back there in Isaiah where He says He’s going to hide His face from them. He said, “I’m going to send you into captivity and I’m going to turn my back on you.”

Go back and read Hosea chapter 5 where He says, “I’m going to act like I don’t even know you; I’m going to let the Gentiles have their way with you. Why? Because you’ve been disobedient. I’ve been chastening you, chastening you, I’m tired of doing it; I’m going to let them do it. And I’m going to demonstrate to them that that’s what happens when I’m your God and you mess up! But you know what, there’s going to come a day when I’m going to come get you and call you back and I’m going to show those Gentiles . . .”

When Israel went into captivity, Ezekiel says all the Gentiles yelled, “YAY! Get ’em! Nail ’em! Because we hate ’em!”

You know all that stuff going on over there in Israel right now, that’s not the Israel of God over there. That’s just a bunch of people making out like it. But you know why the world hates Israel; why they hate the idea of Israel?

Ezekiel 35 talks about the ancient, perpetual hatred: [5] Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:

It starts with jealousy over the Abrahamic Covenant and with Ismael, Esau—a hatred that goes all the way back to that.

It goes back to jealousy of the promise of God to use that nation and the dumb Gentiles around the world today don’t have any idea about where it comes from, but your Bible says it’s an ancient, perpetual hatred and that’s why you’re not going to solve it by a bunch of armies, or political machinations, or two-state solutions and all that kind of garbage today. You’re not going to solve it with that stuff; Christ’s going to solve it when He comes back. That’s the point in Romans 11.

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In light of yesterday's post on No. 7, here's a short post on the No. 1 number found in Scripture--numero uno:

Two words that come up over and over and over again when politicians and governmental figures pontificate: Unity and division.

The number of God is 1. It's the number of unity and the foundation for all other numbers because every other number is a multiple of one.

No. 1 is a fundamental, foundational number, which makes sense that it would be God’s number. It first occurs in the text of Scripture in Genesis 1:9: "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so."

The waters He scattered out and now they’re gathered to one place. The idea with one is a gathering together in one place. In Deuteronomy 6:4—the great confession of Israel—Moses writes, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD."

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Now, you go to Genesis 2 and see No. 2 is a number of division. It’s interesting that it’s in Genesis 2 that Adam is divided. Genesis 1 says, "He created man and in the image of God created he."

Well, when did Adam become a "them"? In Genesis 2, God put Adam asleep, opened up his side, took out a rib and out of that rib He formed a separate person, Eve. Now there’s two.

I’ve often thought about what it would have been like when Adam woke up from that sleep. There stood Eve. I don’t know what you think he might have said—"Whoa, where have you been all my life?!"

And verse 24 describes what God did: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." We like to say, "Baby, I’m stuck on you." Do you see that word "one" there? It’s about uniting together.

If you really want to see it in action, come over to Genesis 11, because every uniting is not a good uniting.

Genesis 11 says "the whole earth was of one language." Verse 6 says the "people are one and have one language." I read that chapter and I think, "Wow, that is so true! Man can accomplish and achieve anything he sets his mind on doing unless God intervenes, as He did here."

They had one world with one language, and in verse 4 they tried to create a one-world religion. It was globalism at its best.