What Shall I Do - Part Fourteen Feb 12, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: What Shall I Do... Audio Study Notes PDF Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Mt 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. We will continue to see what we may learn from the experience of Israel to help answer our series question. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday February 12th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 14 1). Mt 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. There are two occasions in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus referred to the sign of the prophet Jonah, a sign that pointed to His own death, burial, and resurrection on the one hand, and to the fulfillment of Israel’s calling to be God’s witnesses to the Gentile nations on the other. This sign then, pointed to that which could have been Israel’s experience following the Lord’s resurrection and ultimately points to what will be the nation’s experience yet future. The reference to Jonah in Chapter 12 comes after that terminal point was reached when the Kingdom of the heavens was effectively taken from the nation because of the blasphemy of the religious leaders against the Holy Spirit. a). The second reference to Jonah comes in Chapter 16, just before the Lord’s warning to His disciples about the ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which then led into Peter receiving the wisdom from above concerning Jesus’ identity and the Lord’s introduction of His Church – Mt 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. The addition of the phrase, ‘And He left them and departed’, adds a sense of finality to His dealings with the nation’s religious leaders. The King and the Kingdom He offered had been rejected, the cross was now center stage and the final sign, requested by the religious leaders, would be given to them. And once it had been given they would then have to choose what to do with it – Lk 16:30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ” These verses come from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and succinctly state what would happen following the Lord’s resurrection. Simply put, if the Jews would not hear what God had spoken to them through the OT Scriptures, even Christ’s resurrection would not persuade them differently. b). Nonetheless, although the outcome was certain, it was because of Christ’s resurrection, fulfilling one facet of the sign of the prophet Jonah, that the Kingdom of the heavens was reoffered to the same eternally saved generation of Jews who had previously rejected it, by the ‘Church’, that the other facet of the sign of the prophet Jonah might be fulfilled. The opportunity had to be given. The sign had been given to them, the Jews then had to decide what to do with it – Lk 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” This not only accounts for why the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens was made but also explains why Paul, during the Acts period, would always go to the Jew first with the gospel of the glory of Christ when he entered a city. But when the gospel of glory was rejected by the Jews, he then took it to the Gentiles in that place who had been saved by grace through faith. c). And if we follow his ministry journey through the time covered by the Book of Acts, we will see that there were three separate occasions in three different cities when Paul turned away from the Jews to leave them in their unbelief, just as was prophesied in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, fulfilling that seen in the latter part of the parable of the fig tree in Luke Chapter 13 – Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of age lasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” The first occasion, seen in the verses we have just read, was in Antioch. The second occasion was when Paul was in Corinth – Acts 18:5 When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” The third and final occasion was in Rome, around 62AD when the re-offer of the Kingdom of the Heavens to the Jewish people effectively came to an end, leaving everything seen in the sign of the prophet Jonah with respect to national Israel, yet future – Acts 28:25 So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, 26 saying, ‘Go to this people and say: “Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; 27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” ’ 28 “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. There is more than a touch of irony to the fact that it was in Rome, the center of Gentile world power of that day, the place where the scepter of rulership resided that had originally been given to Nebuchadnezzar, six hundred years before when the times of the Gentiles began. d). Rome was the place where the scepter of rulership, that should have been Israel’s, was held and was the center of the governing power, under Satan, to whom the Jews had pledged allegiance on the day of the Lord’s crucifixion. e). We will remember that the Jewish people had been driven out among the Gentile nations, beginning with the Assyrian and then the Babylonian captivities, to bring about national repentance on their part. Their continued unbelief had failed to bring about this repentance, right up to the end of the Book of Acts, which meant that they would now have to wait until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in before the opportunity would present itself again – Ro 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And through their continued unbelief they have brought on themselves the inevitable horrors of the great tribulation, pictured through Jonah in the heart of the sea and foretold throughout the OT, but horrors that will result in the deliverance and restoration of the Jewish people, also seen through Jonah and also foretold throughout the OT. f). Now what we want to note here, is that there were three occasions when Paul walked away from the Jews, leaving them to the consequences of their unbelief, there wasn’t a fourth. There had then, been a complete attempt to call the nation to repentance, seen through the number three. Every opportunity had been given to that eternally saved generation, beyond which it was impossible to go. g). And although by 62AD, many of that eternally saved generation who were alive at the Lord’s first advent had died, and eventually there would be no eternally saved Jews to whom the re-offer could have been made, they did not all die instantly at that moment at the end of Acts Chapter 28. h). So, did national repentance for Israel remain possible after Acts 28:28, before all that generation had died? The answer would have to be, ‘No’, because on the one hand the percentage of the Jewish nation that remained eternally saved Jews would have diminished substantially, and on the other hand, it remained true that if they could not be persuaded by the Gospel of the glory of Christ preached by Paul, in conjunction with the Word they already possessed through the OT Scriptures, it was never going to happen. It was as pictured through the rich man and Lazarus – Jn 5:45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” 2). Now the terminal point for the nation reached in Rome at the end of Acts Chapter 28 is the third of three terminal points seen in Jewish History. Terminal points, where God withdrew His hands from the Jewish people and left them to the consequences of their unbelief. a). The first of these three terminal points came at Kadesh Barnea, when the first generation to come out of Egypt turned back from entering the land that God would give them – Heb 3:16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. There were many times during the journey to Kadesh Barnea when this same generation exercised unbelief through their complaining and rebellion. But it is at Kadesh Barnea with the land set before them, when the complaining and rebellion reached its apex, that the terminal point was reached, from which there was no recovery. b). What we must keep in mind as we remember the events at Kadesh Barnea is that we are not dealing with a people who just made a wrong choice out of ignorance, but rather with a nation who had a better than good understanding of God’s purpose for them. An informed people, who then chose to turn away from what they knew of their God given purpose, thereby exercising unbelief of such a nature that God withdrew His hand entirely from them to leave them to the choice they had made – Nu 13:25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit…….. 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land………..14:4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” And let’s be clear that the unbelief they exercised at Kadesh Barnea went far beyond just not trusting God enough. What they did was to reject the purpose for their deliverance from Egypt, the purpose for their creation in Jacob, and thereby brought scorn upon the reason for God’s creation of Man, thereby showing contempt to all that is encompassed by the Seventh Day. The Day that God had blessed and sanctified. The Day pointed to through the sign of the Sabbath that the Jews were to keep throughout their generations. c). This was no small thing, and the seriousness with which God regarded it is seen by the entire generation, apart from Joshua and Caleb, perishing in the wilderness, being cut off from the land and the inheritance promised to the descendants of Abraham. And having reached this point there was no way back for them, even though the next day, in realization of their sin, they changed their minds, God would not change His - Nu 14:40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!” The perishing of the first generation in the wilderness presents a graphic picture of what still awaits that same generation in the future. And if we now jump forward in time to the seventy-five days following the end of the Tribulation and the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Trumpets, when this same generation will be resurrected and regathered to judgment in the wilderness of the peoples we will see the full extent of the consequence for their unbelief – Eze 20:37 “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. Within the historical context, this first generation did not enter the land of promise to receive their inheritance experiencing physical death instead, but this only foreshadowed what would be the outcome for them with respect to Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, ‘they shall not enter the land of Israel’, ‘they would not enter His rest’. Participation in the fulfillment of God’s purpose for Israel with Messiah in their midst is now lost to this generation for all time. Only ‘death’ for the age to come awaits them. d). The first generation of Israel to come out of Egypt is not the only generation who will be resurrected to the wilderness of the peoples for judgment, not the only ones who will have experienced a terminal point with respect to God’s purpose for them because of their unbelief – Mt 12:41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. And as with the first generation at Kadesh Barnea, the ‘fruit’ of the ‘heavenly land’ promised was available for all to see through the signs that Jesus did – Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” These verses record the second sign given on one particular Sabbath, pointing to the spiritual healing that awaits the Jewish people in the Seventh Day, following national repentance. e). But that which could only have been accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Seventh Day was attributed to ‘Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons’, by the nation’s religious leaders. f). And as we saw with the first generation at Kadesh Barnea this was not just the expression of petty spite against the Lord. The nature of their intentional unbelief here was such that they also rejected the purpose for which they had been redeemed by the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs and the reason for their creation in Jacob, thereby scorning the purpose for God’s creation of Man, pouring contempt on all that is encompassed by the Seventh Day. The Day that God had blessed and sanctified. The Day, the age to come, that God had made through the Man Christ Jesus who had given them the sign on that particular Sabbath day – Heb 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds [the ages]…….. What this generation of eternally saved Jews did by turning away from the King and His Kingdom at Lord’s first Advent, as with the generation at Kadesh Barnea, was of such a serious nature that they could never recover that which they had rejected. 3). It was towards the end of the period of time covered by the Book of Acts, when the third of the three terminal points in Jewish History was reached, that Paul wrote his letter to the Church in Rome, a letter to Roman Christians - Ro 1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the first Chapter of Romans Paul wrote about two groups of Christians with respect to the message given to him for them – Ro 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. It was as we see, ‘the gospel of Christ’, the gospel given to Paul, the gospel of the glory of Christ, that was preached to the eternally saved. And this is clearly understood in the opening verses of Chapter 1 – Ro 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. 5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ… We will notice that Paul’s message concerned the good news of God, to which he had been separated. A separation seen through Paul having been taken into the third heaven where he was taught by the Lord the message he was to subsequently take to the Gentiles – 2 Co 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Ga 1:11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the message containing that which God had ‘promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord’. And that contained in the Holy Scriptures written by the hands of the prophets would begin with Moses in Genesis. a). And that contained in the Holy Scriptures, beginning with Moses shows that Jesus ‘was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’ And it was from this same Jesus that Paul ‘received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among the nations’ – Eph 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel…….. This then is the gospel, the good news, of Christ, that is the power of God to salvation for those who believe, those who have faith to the saving of the soul, the good news preached to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. b). A gospel that is exclusively for the eternally saved, dealing with a salvation that is a present process leading to a future fulfillment, the salvation of the soul. And it is with respect to receiving this gospel that Paul wrote about both faithful and unfaithful Christians in the first Chapter of his letter to the Romans. c). It is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the message concerning the faith that had been received by all. And we are not dealing with eternally saved Christians in Rome who had no knowledge of these things, but rather those who had been given an ‘epignosis’ knowledge of them and then had responded to this mature knowledge in different ways – Ro 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Some of the Christians in Rome are commended by the Lord through Paul for their faith to the saving of the soul which ‘is spoken of throughout the whole world.’ d). But for others, still eternally saved, still having an ‘epignosis’ knowledge concerning the faith, there is no commendation – Ro 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. As we consider this though, it would be good to remember one thing. Paul was writing to the first century Church at a time when the gospel of the glory of Christ was the only message being taught, at a time when the leaven had only just begun its destructive work. e). However, if we bring this same scenario into our time, after two thousand years of the work of the leaven, we will easily realize that this message is not being taught universally throughout Christendom as it was at the beginning and therefore, for the greater majority of Christians it is impossible for them to stand away from the truth through unbelief, when they have never stood with the truth in the first place. However, unbelief remains unbelief whatever its origin and the consequences for it remain the same. f). But, for those who have heard the Word of the Kingdom, for them, the opportunity to walk away from the truth remains an ever-present possibility. Hence the five interconnected warnings in the Book of Hebrews. We will pick this up again next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed. What Shall I Do - Part Fourteen Feb 12, 2023 Speaker: John Herbert Series: What Shall I Do... Category: Sunday Morning Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Mt 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. We will continue to see what we may learn from the experience of Israel to help answer our series question. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday February 12th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 14 1). Mt 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. There are two occasions in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus referred to the sign of the prophet Jonah, a sign that pointed to His own death, burial, and resurrection on the one hand, and to the fulfillment of Israel’s calling to be God’s witnesses to the Gentile nations on the other. This sign then, pointed to that which could have been Israel’s experience following the Lord’s resurrection and ultimately points to what will be the nation’s experience yet future. The reference to Jonah in Chapter 12 comes after that terminal point was reached when the Kingdom of the heavens was effectively taken from the nation because of the blasphemy of the religious leaders against the Holy Spirit. a). The second reference to Jonah comes in Chapter 16, just before the Lord’s warning to His disciples about the ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which then led into Peter receiving the wisdom from above concerning Jesus’ identity and the Lord’s introduction of His Church – Mt 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. The addition of the phrase, ‘And He left them and departed’, adds a sense of finality to His dealings with the nation’s religious leaders. The King and the Kingdom He offered had been rejected, the cross was now center stage and the final sign, requested by the religious leaders, would be given to them. And once it had been given they would then have to choose what to do with it – Lk 16:30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ” These verses come from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and succinctly state what would happen following the Lord’s resurrection. Simply put, if the Jews would not hear what God had spoken to them through the OT Scriptures, even Christ’s resurrection would not persuade them differently. b). Nonetheless, although the outcome was certain, it was because of Christ’s resurrection, fulfilling one facet of the sign of the prophet Jonah, that the Kingdom of the heavens was reoffered to the same eternally saved generation of Jews who had previously rejected it, by the ‘Church’, that the other facet of the sign of the prophet Jonah might be fulfilled. The opportunity had to be given. The sign had been given to them, the Jews then had to decide what to do with it – Lk 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” This not only accounts for why the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens was made but also explains why Paul, during the Acts period, would always go to the Jew first with the gospel of the glory of Christ when he entered a city. But when the gospel of glory was rejected by the Jews, he then took it to the Gentiles in that place who had been saved by grace through faith. c). And if we follow his ministry journey through the time covered by the Book of Acts, we will see that there were three separate occasions in three different cities when Paul turned away from the Jews to leave them in their unbelief, just as was prophesied in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, fulfilling that seen in the latter part of the parable of the fig tree in Luke Chapter 13 – Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of age lasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” The first occasion, seen in the verses we have just read, was in Antioch. The second occasion was when Paul was in Corinth – Acts 18:5 When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” The third and final occasion was in Rome, around 62AD when the re-offer of the Kingdom of the Heavens to the Jewish people effectively came to an end, leaving everything seen in the sign of the prophet Jonah with respect to national Israel, yet future – Acts 28:25 So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, 26 saying, ‘Go to this people and say: “Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; 27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” ’ 28 “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. There is more than a touch of irony to the fact that it was in Rome, the center of Gentile world power of that day, the place where the scepter of rulership resided that had originally been given to Nebuchadnezzar, six hundred years before when the times of the Gentiles began. d). Rome was the place where the scepter of rulership, that should have been Israel’s, was held and was the center of the governing power, under Satan, to whom the Jews had pledged allegiance on the day of the Lord’s crucifixion. e). We will remember that the Jewish people had been driven out among the Gentile nations, beginning with the Assyrian and then the Babylonian captivities, to bring about national repentance on their part. Their continued unbelief had failed to bring about this repentance, right up to the end of the Book of Acts, which meant that they would now have to wait until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in before the opportunity would present itself again – Ro 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And through their continued unbelief they have brought on themselves the inevitable horrors of the great tribulation, pictured through Jonah in the heart of the sea and foretold throughout the OT, but horrors that will result in the deliverance and restoration of the Jewish people, also seen through Jonah and also foretold throughout the OT. f). Now what we want to note here, is that there were three occasions when Paul walked away from the Jews, leaving them to the consequences of their unbelief, there wasn’t a fourth. There had then, been a complete attempt to call the nation to repentance, seen through the number three. Every opportunity had been given to that eternally saved generation, beyond which it was impossible to go. g). And although by 62AD, many of that eternally saved generation who were alive at the Lord’s first advent had died, and eventually there would be no eternally saved Jews to whom the re-offer could have been made, they did not all die instantly at that moment at the end of Acts Chapter 28. h). So, did national repentance for Israel remain possible after Acts 28:28, before all that generation had died? The answer would have to be, ‘No’, because on the one hand the percentage of the Jewish nation that remained eternally saved Jews would have diminished substantially, and on the other hand, it remained true that if they could not be persuaded by the Gospel of the glory of Christ preached by Paul, in conjunction with the Word they already possessed through the OT Scriptures, it was never going to happen. It was as pictured through the rich man and Lazarus – Jn 5:45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” 2). Now the terminal point for the nation reached in Rome at the end of Acts Chapter 28 is the third of three terminal points seen in Jewish History. Terminal points, where God withdrew His hands from the Jewish people and left them to the consequences of their unbelief. a). The first of these three terminal points came at Kadesh Barnea, when the first generation to come out of Egypt turned back from entering the land that God would give them – Heb 3:16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. There were many times during the journey to Kadesh Barnea when this same generation exercised unbelief through their complaining and rebellion. But it is at Kadesh Barnea with the land set before them, when the complaining and rebellion reached its apex, that the terminal point was reached, from which there was no recovery. b). What we must keep in mind as we remember the events at Kadesh Barnea is that we are not dealing with a people who just made a wrong choice out of ignorance, but rather with a nation who had a better than good understanding of God’s purpose for them. An informed people, who then chose to turn away from what they knew of their God given purpose, thereby exercising unbelief of such a nature that God withdrew His hand entirely from them to leave them to the choice they had made – Nu 13:25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit…….. 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land………..14:4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” And let’s be clear that the unbelief they exercised at Kadesh Barnea went far beyond just not trusting God enough. What they did was to reject the purpose for their deliverance from Egypt, the purpose for their creation in Jacob, and thereby brought scorn upon the reason for God’s creation of Man, thereby showing contempt to all that is encompassed by the Seventh Day. The Day that God had blessed and sanctified. The Day pointed to through the sign of the Sabbath that the Jews were to keep throughout their generations. c). This was no small thing, and the seriousness with which God regarded it is seen by the entire generation, apart from Joshua and Caleb, perishing in the wilderness, being cut off from the land and the inheritance promised to the descendants of Abraham. And having reached this point there was no way back for them, even though the next day, in realization of their sin, they changed their minds, God would not change His - Nu 14:40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!” The perishing of the first generation in the wilderness presents a graphic picture of what still awaits that same generation in the future. And if we now jump forward in time to the seventy-five days following the end of the Tribulation and the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Trumpets, when this same generation will be resurrected and regathered to judgment in the wilderness of the peoples we will see the full extent of the consequence for their unbelief – Eze 20:37 “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. Within the historical context, this first generation did not enter the land of promise to receive their inheritance experiencing physical death instead, but this only foreshadowed what would be the outcome for them with respect to Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, ‘they shall not enter the land of Israel’, ‘they would not enter His rest’. Participation in the fulfillment of God’s purpose for Israel with Messiah in their midst is now lost to this generation for all time. Only ‘death’ for the age to come awaits them. d). The first generation of Israel to come out of Egypt is not the only generation who will be resurrected to the wilderness of the peoples for judgment, not the only ones who will have experienced a terminal point with respect to God’s purpose for them because of their unbelief – Mt 12:41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. And as with the first generation at Kadesh Barnea, the ‘fruit’ of the ‘heavenly land’ promised was available for all to see through the signs that Jesus did – Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” These verses record the second sign given on one particular Sabbath, pointing to the spiritual healing that awaits the Jewish people in the Seventh Day, following national repentance. e). But that which could only have been accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Seventh Day was attributed to ‘Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons’, by the nation’s religious leaders. f). And as we saw with the first generation at Kadesh Barnea this was not just the expression of petty spite against the Lord. The nature of their intentional unbelief here was such that they also rejected the purpose for which they had been redeemed by the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs and the reason for their creation in Jacob, thereby scorning the purpose for God’s creation of Man, pouring contempt on all that is encompassed by the Seventh Day. The Day that God had blessed and sanctified. The Day, the age to come, that God had made through the Man Christ Jesus who had given them the sign on that particular Sabbath day – Heb 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds [the ages]…….. What this generation of eternally saved Jews did by turning away from the King and His Kingdom at Lord’s first Advent, as with the generation at Kadesh Barnea, was of such a serious nature that they could never recover that which they had rejected. 3). It was towards the end of the period of time covered by the Book of Acts, when the third of the three terminal points in Jewish History was reached, that Paul wrote his letter to the Church in Rome, a letter to Roman Christians - Ro 1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the first Chapter of Romans Paul wrote about two groups of Christians with respect to the message given to him for them – Ro 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. It was as we see, ‘the gospel of Christ’, the gospel given to Paul, the gospel of the glory of Christ, that was preached to the eternally saved. And this is clearly understood in the opening verses of Chapter 1 – Ro 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. 5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ… We will notice that Paul’s message concerned the good news of God, to which he had been separated. A separation seen through Paul having been taken into the third heaven where he was taught by the Lord the message he was to subsequently take to the Gentiles – 2 Co 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Ga 1:11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the message containing that which God had ‘promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord’. And that contained in the Holy Scriptures written by the hands of the prophets would begin with Moses in Genesis. a). And that contained in the Holy Scriptures, beginning with Moses shows that Jesus ‘was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’ And it was from this same Jesus that Paul ‘received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among the nations’ – Eph 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel…….. This then is the gospel, the good news, of Christ, that is the power of God to salvation for those who believe, those who have faith to the saving of the soul, the good news preached to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. b). A gospel that is exclusively for the eternally saved, dealing with a salvation that is a present process leading to a future fulfillment, the salvation of the soul. And it is with respect to receiving this gospel that Paul wrote about both faithful and unfaithful Christians in the first Chapter of his letter to the Romans. c). It is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the message concerning the faith that had been received by all. And we are not dealing with eternally saved Christians in Rome who had no knowledge of these things, but rather those who had been given an ‘epignosis’ knowledge of them and then had responded to this mature knowledge in different ways – Ro 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Some of the Christians in Rome are commended by the Lord through Paul for their faith to the saving of the soul which ‘is spoken of throughout the whole world.’ d). But for others, still eternally saved, still having an ‘epignosis’ knowledge concerning the faith, there is no commendation – Ro 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. As we consider this though, it would be good to remember one thing. Paul was writing to the first century Church at a time when the gospel of the glory of Christ was the only message being taught, at a time when the leaven had only just begun its destructive work. e). However, if we bring this same scenario into our time, after two thousand years of the work of the leaven, we will easily realize that this message is not being taught universally throughout Christendom as it was at the beginning and therefore, for the greater majority of Christians it is impossible for them to stand away from the truth through unbelief, when they have never stood with the truth in the first place. However, unbelief remains unbelief whatever its origin and the consequences for it remain the same. f). But, for those who have heard the Word of the Kingdom, for them, the opportunity to walk away from the truth remains an ever-present possibility. Hence the five interconnected warnings in the Book of Hebrews. We will pick this up again next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and someone has prayed.
