We have completed our Sunday night series recently looking at the teaching of Hebrews. I’m sure you’ll agree our pastoral team have served us faithfully. We’ve been well fed from God’s Word under their ministry. Thank you, brother pastors, for your hard work and your labors. I’ve been blessed myself from your preaching.
Tonight we are taking something of a break from our regular preaching pattern, which is the straightforward exposition of the Scriptures, to do something a little different. You may recall we did this back in April. This is now our second opportunity. We’re calling it “Key Questions.” We invited you over the last few weeks to submit questions that have arisen, perhaps from your Bible reading or in the course of your Christian lives that will be edifying for the whole congregation to think through in the light of the Scriptures. And we received a bunch of really great questions, and while I’ll do my best to answer, we will not have time to answer more than, I think only three of them. So please forgive me if I didn’t get to your question; it’s not personal. It’s just the way things go, I’m afraid. Perhaps we can revisit this opportunity and tackle some of your questions left over from tonight on another occasion.
As I think Wiley pointed out this morning, we will not have a single Bible reading as usual, but we will be reading from various portions of Scripture as we respond to the different questions, so it will be very helpful to you to have a Bible ready to hand as we flip back and forth together. Before we get started, however, as always, let’s bow our heads and pray. Let us all pray.
Our Father, we want to be instructed by the Word. We want our understanding to grow, our love for Christ and for His people and His purpose in the world to deepen. And so we ask that by the work of the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of Your Word amongst us now, You might shape and form us into the likeness of Christ. For we ask this in His name, amen.
Question 1: Will the Jewish people be converted?
Well let me begin with a question, a Bible question, that was submitted. One of you asked, “In reading the Old Testament in the Chronological Bible” – at the beginning of the year, our elders purchased Chronological Bibles for anyone that wanted one in the congregation and many of us have been reading through the Bible together that way – “In reading the Old Testament in the Chronological Bible, it is overwhelmingly obvious how much God loved the Israelites. However, during the time of Christ, the Israelites and continuing today, are the non-believers. Knowing that God is in control of everything, is there an explanation in the Bible as to why this is the case in the current day? Are the Jews converting?” Okay, that’s an excellent question. It helps us get at an important, though in my judgment much misunderstood and often neglected set of issues related to our hope for the future of the Gospel. And to help us answer it, would you take your Bible and turn with me to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 11, Romans chapter 11, where the apostle Paul actually faces those questions directly. The mass of the Jewish people have rejected Jesus, their Messiah. But if God has made a covenant with them and He loves them, how do we explain the fact of their present unbelief? Has God broken His promises? That’s the question. And look how Paul responds. Romans chapter 11, beginning at verse 1:
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.’ But what is God’s reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.’
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written:
And David says,
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.’
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!’”
And then skip down to verse 17:
“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
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.”
Alright, so you see Paul asking our question in verse 1, “Has God rejected His people?” Has God forgotten His covenant? Is God unfaithful to His promises? And notice Paul’s answer. First, in verses 1 through 10, we are told God has saved a remnant of the Jewish people, Paul himself among them, according to His electing purposes. Verse 2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” Verses 5 through 7, “At the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace…What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.” So part of the explanation for why not all the Jewish people have followed Jesus their Messiah has to do with the mystery of divine sovereignty in election, which is, remember, the major emphasis of the teaching of Romans chapter 9.
But there is a wider explanation that Paul supplies here as well; one that holds out hope not just for the Jewish people in fact, but for the whole world. In verse 11, Paul asks whether the Jewish rejection of Christ is final and absolute. “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall?” Are they beyond saving now, the Jewish people? Is it all over for the Jews as the covenant people? Notice how Paul answers. “By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.” Alright, so there’s the principle. In God’s plan, the mass of the Jewish people rejected Christ in order that the Gospel might go out from the Jews to the whole Gentile world, but the conversion of the Gentiles has, in turn, as its objective, the provocation of the Jewish people to jealousy. That is to say, the faith of the largely Gentile church is meant to be such a mighty witness to life and hope in Messiah Jesus that the Jewish people will see what they are missing without Him and turn to Him in faith. That is God’s design and intention.
And in fact, as verse 12 explains, God’s plan for the Jews is that one day they will indeed be brought to faith in Christ. And when that happens, it will spell even greater blessing for the nations. Do you see that in the text? Verse 12, “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!’” Now follow Paul’s logic for a moment. Think about the way he is arguing. It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater. If we get blessing, the blessing of salvation because the Jews rejected the Messiah, how much greater will our blessing be – blessing to the nations, to the ends of the earth – when the time comes when at last they embrace Him? The blessing that will come to the whole world will be so much greater in order of magnitude. In fact, he goes on to compare it to life from the dead. Do you see that in verse 15? “If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean, but life from the dead?”
He goes on to amplify the argument in verses 17 to 24, but the bottom line is spelled out in verse 25. Look at verse 25. “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.” So God is working in the nations, the Gentiles, to bring people all over the world – from every tribe and language and people to Himself, to salvation – He’s working in the nations until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in to faith in Christ. When that unknown point in the secret counsels of God is at last reached, there will be an awakening amongst the Jewish people. The Jews will be converted to faith in Christ. The natural branches that were once broken off will be grafted back in. And this, in turn, will spell even greater awakening and blessing for the whole world.
It’s a missing emphasis in modern American reformed circles, but our reformed forefathers read this chapter of the book of Romans as the great prophetic engine that propelled global missions. We want the fullness of the Gentiles to come in to Christ, and so we go to the world with the Gospel, and we do it in the hope that soon the Jews might be converted. And in the wake of that glorious event, there might be still greater global revival among the nations. That’s the promise and the pattern of Romans 11, and it teaches us to have a bright Gospel hope, not to despair just because things are hard and challenging now. We look around and it’s easy to think, based on current circumstances, that things can only get worse from here. It’s particularly tempting, if you’re Scottish! But Romans 11 will not permit it. Romans 11 says there is a bright prospect for the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It will be, at first perhaps, only like a seed the size of a grain of mustard. But one day it will grow up to be a tree and all the birds of the air will come and find shelter in its branches. Bright Gospel hope, to which we need to cling. When it gets a hold of our hearts, it will motivate us to press on in being witnesses to the ends of the earth. I wonder if you have a living, prophetic hope for the Gospel. Paul did, and it moved him in bold witness and aggressive mission.
Question 2: What does it mean to fear God?
Alright, now the next question is much briefer, but it is no less profound. In fact, in some ways it’s more profound. One of you asked, “What does it mean to fear God?” Isn’t that a good question? “What does it mean to fear God?” I’m really grateful for the question because it’s one, I think, we tend to struggle with in our particular cultural moment. We find it hard, I think, to conceive of fear as anything other than a wholly negative emotion. But if the Bible commands us to fear God, and it does, does that mean then that Christians should be afraid of God, relating to Him in anxiety and insecurity, scared that He might turn against them and treat them harshly? What does it mean to fear God?
There’s actually two senses in which we can speak about the fear of God. We need to think about them both. The first is the fear of coming before God as a holy judge without having our sin forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So for example, Hebrews 10:26. Hebrews 10:26 warns, “If we go on sinning deliberately, after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” In other words, if we say we have become Christians, if we have received the knowledge of the truth and yet we persist in living like the world, we are contradicting our profession of faith so that, as Hebrews puts it, we are effectively repudiating the work of Christ at the cross by which sinners are saved. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Your faith is only words, you see. You’re not really converted. And so instead of finding refuge from judgment in the sacrifice of Christ at the cross, all you have left, Hebrews says, “is a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Professing to be a Christian but not in fact being converted ought to expose us to real fear. We ought to be scared of what lies ahead if we do not repent.
If you’re not a Christian tonight, or if you profess to be a Christian with your lips but live like the world, there is a kind of fear, a dread of judgment, that ought to grip your heart. You are heading for a lost eternity and the only remedy for that is to turn from your sin to Christ for mercy without excuse and without delay. So there’s one sense of the fear of God that’s appropriate and urgent and necessary. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire.”
But there’s another sense in which we are to fear God and in this sense the fear of the Lord is a good thing, a blessed thing, something commanded and commended by the Scriptures as characteristic of a believer’s basic attitude and stance toward God. So for example, 1 Peter 2:17 says, “Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” Fear God. That’s how Christians are to live. Proverbs 1:7, of course, famously declares, “The fear of the Lord is” what? “The beginning of wisdom.” Or as Psalm 25:14, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him.” The fear of the Lord – do you see – describes the Christian’s heart and life before God. So what does it mean in this sense to fear the Lord?
I find 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 14 through 17, to be particularly helpful in this connection. First Peter chapter 1, verses 14 through 17. If you would turn there with me please. First Peter 1 at verse 14:
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”
Okay, a number of things to see in this passage, 1 Peter 1:14-17. First of all, notice the command carefully there at the end of verse 17, “Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” Clearly, Peter does not mean live every day in servile fear, in abject terror, worried about your spiritual life, afraid you might not be saved, scared of your own shadow. He does not mean that Christians should never have any settled hope or bright Gospel certainty. On the contrary, remember Romans 8:15. “You did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” That is the Christian’s inheritance – the spirit of sonship that drives out fear. So when Peter says we should conduct ourselves with fear during the time of our exile, he doesn’t mean the fearful expectation of judgment from which we have been delivered by Christ. In fact, you’ll notice the doctrine of our adoption that we have received by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us in union with Christ, the doctrine of our adoption is just as much in Peter’s thought as it was in Paul’s in Romans chapter 8 verse 15. Here we are, verse 14, “obedient children.” And so verse 17, we call on God as “Father.” So whatever this fear is that Peter is talking about, it is a fear that is suited to a child in relation to their loving heavenly Father. And it’s the opposite of spiritual uncertainty. It comes with spiritual confidence.
Also notice what this fear produces, what it generates in our hearts. “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear.” So rejecting the passions of the world, pursuing holiness in us, because God is holy, is the same thing as conducting ourselves in fear. Conducting yourself in fear, the fear of the Lord, is shorthand for a life of godly obedience to the Lord’s holy commands in His Word. Psalm 34:11-12 makes the same point. “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” So the psalmist is going to give us a definition of the fear of the Lord. Here it is, verse 12, “What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” That’s the psalmist’s definition of the fear of the Lord. That’s what the fear of the Lord looks like. That’s how it plays out in our lives. It’s holiness, do you see – purity in word and in deed.
And then finally notice Peter drives home one important motive for the fear of the Lord in a Christian’s heart. He reminds us in verse 17 that our Father “judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, so conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” So why should you live with the fear of the Lord? Because judgment day is coming for you, Christian. You’re going to face judgment, believer in Jesus. Now we understand, don’t we, there is no prospect, there is no possibility for you, as you trust in Christ, of ever being condemned in the day of judgment. That’s not possible because the Lord Jesus has borne our penalty, hasn’t He? Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So when you come before the judgment seat of Christ at last, it will not be to face the possibility of being condemned. Christ was condemned for you. Now you have been justified and accepted forever. There’s no prospect of condemnation, but there is the prospect of reward according to your works. Rewards in heaven are based upon holiness on earth. That’s not merit. You don’t earn heavenly rewards. They’re not wages. Even the rewards we receive will be grace, since after all, the obedience we are performing here on earth to God is an obedience He Himself has worked in us by His grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. We “work out our salvation with fear and trembling as God works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure.” And what’s more, every reward that we receive then, on that day, when we are face to face with our Savior, will so far exceed the merits of our imperfect obedience here on earth, they will leave us stunned and amazed at the goodness and kindness and lavish generosity of our Father to treat us so graciously.
And yet nevertheless, Peter is saying we ought to feel a sense of the gravity of the call to obedience here on earth weighing upon us. There is a solemn sobriety and weight that ought to mark our resolve to live for Christ. That’s what the fear of the Lord means. “Conduct yourselves with fear during the time of your exile” because the judgment according to works is coming and you will stand before your heavenly Father one day. So what does it mean to fear the Lord? It means that we should cultivate the reverent awe that is fitting of a child of so great and holy a God as ours. It means that we should tremble at the thought of dishonoring Him. We should recoil instinctively at the idea of trampling underfoot His love. It means pursuing holiness because He is holy and we want to please Him and be like Him. And it means the sober realization that we will be judged according to our works on the last day. Here’s the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. And without it, frankly, we will live casual, morally indifferent lives that struggle to resist the tug and the pull of worldliness whenever it presses itself to us. We need badly, I think, to recover the fear of the Lord. Do you fear God? Do you? Do you fear Him? Do you tremble before Him? Do you have any sense of His majesty and grandeur and glory? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Question 3: Are we living in the last days?
One last question, no doubt in light of unprecedented upheavals in this crazy year. The question was asked, “Are we living in the last days?” Are we living, right now, in the last days? The answer is, we absolutely are living in the last days. These are, beyond all doubt, the end times. Well how can I be so sure? Have I cracked the Bible code? Have I calculated some special numbers hidden in the Scriptures? Have I deduced from cable news the identity of the antichrist? No. I am certain these are the last days because the New Testament teaches us that the last days began at the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and they’ll continue until His final return to judge the living and the dead at the end of the age.
Many of us have been steeped in a way of interpreting the Bible known as dispensationalism. Dispensationalism, it’s important to note, is a relatively novel approach to understanding the Bible in general and Biblical prophecy in particular. Originating in the 19th century in Britain, in the thought of a man called J.N. Darby, popularized in American in the 20th century by C.I. Scofield, best known for his Scofield Study Bible with its dispensational notes on the text of Scripture. Since then, dispensational ideas about the end times have continued to find popular advocates, especially in books like Hal Lindsey’s, The Late, Great Planet Earth, which scared me half to death when I first became a Christian, and more recently still in Tim LaHaye’s truly awful, Left Behind series. It’s awful theologically and the writing is terrible too, but I’m a snob in that respect.
With some variations, the approach generally understands the end times to refer actually only to the very last years of history immediately prior to an initial secret appearance of Jesus, usually called “the rapture.” He will come, dispensationalists argue, to take Christians out of the world and leave the rest behind to face the rise of the antichrist. People who become believers after that point will undergo the sufferings of the great tribulation, and at the end of that time, Christ will return to reign physically on the earth for 1,000 years. The Jews will be converted, the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the sacrificial system will be reinstituted, and at the end of that period, the last judgment will finally take place. That is roughly the system of dispensationalism and you all are probably quite familiar with it.
I suspect the questioner who asked if these are the last days may have been operating with something like that framework in mind. They want to know, “Is the rapture about to happen? Is the antichrist about to arise? These are difficult, trying times. Perhaps these are the end times.” And in response, let me say first that for the first 1,800 years of Christian history, no one believed that the Bible taught any such scheme for the end of the world. That’s important. Nobody. I think that’s important because we sometimes imagine, because this system of thinking is so normal in our heavily Baptist culture, it must be the norm across Christian history and any departure from it is suspect. But that is not at all the case.
And then secondly and even more importantly, as I said earlier, the Bible teaches that the last days began with the life, death and resurrection and ascension to reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The language, “the last days,” comes from the prophecy of Joel, chapter 2 verse 28 – “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” and so on. You will remember that in Acts chapter 2 verse 17 Peter quotes that passage from the prophecy of Joel to explain what was happening right in front of them on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church by the risen Christ. And so in Peter’s mind, he was, the people before him were, and we still are living in the last days when the Spirit was given to the Church. Along the same lines, Hebrews 1 verse 2 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things through whom also He created the world.” The last days are the days of God no longer speaking through the prophets but much more immediately and completely and exhaustively through His Son, the Lord Jesus.
And that’s why 2 Timothy 3:1-5, when Paul writes to warn his protege, Timothy, against false teachers in the Church, he says this. “Timothy, I want you to understand that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, wreckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people.” So the people Timothy is to avoid, right away in his own day, time and context, are the people who will arise in the last day.
The implication is clear enough, isn’t it? Timothy was already living in the last days, and so are we. So to be clear, the New Testament describes the unfolding program of God between the first and final return of Jesus much more simply than our dispensational brothers and sisters would have us believe. The last days, the end times, began when Jesus rose again. The millennium, described in Revelation 20, is a metaphor for the whole period between the first and final return of Christ, viewed from the vantage point of the victorious Church sharing in the triumph of Jesus at His right hand in heaven. The three-and-a-half years of tribulation describe the same period, the whole period between the first and final return of Jesus. It’s another metaphor from the vantage point of the suffering Church on earth. The suffering Church on earth are always called to suffer “for a little while.” Jesus is always said to be “coming soon” to them. And so from the point of view of those who are already enjoying full participation in the victory of Jesus, having gone ahead of us into glory, it’s a long time luxuriating and basking in His presence. And for the suffering Church, though it may seem to us to be arduous and grueling enough, it is but a short time. Christ is coming soon. He is nearer now than when we first believed.
Revelation 1:7 is also clear – there is no secret rapture. When Jesus comes, every eye shall see Him. Everyone is going to see Him. And when He does, at the last day, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess – some in horror and regret at how wrong they now see they have been, and some in wonder and joy, face to face with the Savior they have trusted and served. And then, the last judgment and the new creation. Some will be dispatched into the outdoor darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth – away, punished forever, away from the presence of the Lord. And some will be invited in to the joy of the Lord to be with their Savior and the whole glorified Church in the new creation. What a day that will be.
As I tried to show you earlier form Romans 11, I believe the Bible describes a future conversion of the Jews and a global revival still to come before Jesus returns. But I also believe that keeping pace with the advance of the Gospel will be sharp and growing opposition and persecution by an unbelieving world. Both will grow in intensity before the end, but importantly, there are no indicators in Scripture that we can use to gauge, based on current events, where we are in God’s timeline. We ought not to read the Scriptures with one hand and the newspapers in the other, seeking to marry them one to another. Instead, as Jesus says in Matthew 24:36 and following, “Concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.” Acts 1:7 he adds, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has fixed by His own authority.” And so as He concludes in Matthew 24, here’s the real issue. “You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
And so the real question that ought to preoccupy us is not, “Are these the very last days of human history?” The real question is, “Am I ready for the day when Jesus comes?” Are you ready? He will come when you do not expect it, “like a thief in the night,” He says. And so we need to be ready.
Do you fear the Lord? Do you have Gospel hope for the world? Are you ready right now for the return of the Savior by trusting Him to be your only Redeemer and Rescuer? Or will you find when your knees buckle and your tongue is made to confess Him, “Lord,” to the glory of God the Father, when He comes and splits the skies, that you are doing so not with joy and adoration and delight, but in chagrin and regret and horror, that you have resisted Him for so long when He has offered Himself to you so freely here tonight? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do you fear the Lord? Are you ready for the day and the hour that no one knows? Because our Savior is coming soon.
Let’s pray together.
God our Father, we thank You, we thank You that Jesus, right now, already reigns – King of kings and Lord of lords. We bless You that You are working Your purposes out as year succeeds to year. And Christ is building His Church so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Thank You that one day the Gospel will reach the ends of the earth and a vast multitude greater than anyone can number, from every tribe and language and nation, will be assembled around the throne of God and of the Lamb to sing His praises. How we pray for our loved ones, family members, for people sitting around us perhaps here tonight, who do not know Him, who are not yet ready. O, that You would call them to Christ, that You would break their hearts. Show them the bankruptcy of life their own way and bring them on bended knee now in repentance and faith to Christ before the great and awesome day when He comes and they are forced to bend the knee in sorrow and regret forever. For we ask this all in His precious name, amen.