Mike Bickle – Romans 11
Please note, in an attempt to convey some of the emotion and emphasis of what Mike was trying to say, wherever he was emphasizing something we have bolded it and wherever he was shouting or emphatically declaring we have presented it as all caps.] Father, we thank you for the word of the Lord and, Lord, as we open up the word now I ask for the breath of God. I ask for the activity of the Holy Spirit. We know it takes God to love God and we know it takes God to hear from God. So, God the Holy Spirit, we ask you, we invoke your presence, we acknowledge our need to speak and to hear and to receive and to be impacted. We need your help in this, so we thank you in Jesus name, amen. I’m going to speak from Romans chapter 11, a very familiar passage. In verse 25, Paul is talking to a predominant, gentile audience in the church at Rome. He has not yet visited Rome. He speaks with a great directness to them, almost surprising at times having not met them; but what’s on his heart in Romans chapter 11 is a tremendous pastoral burden for them as a people. He’s going to bring them into an understanding of some new dimensions of God’s purpose. At the very crux of Romans chapter 11 verses 20 to 22, Paul will show them that their personal faith will be in jeopardy if they don’t have understanding of the dynamics that could happen. He is assuming it would happen within their lifetime. The dynamics that he’s going to describe in Romans chapter 11 will happen in the generation the Lord returns. He’s assuming, and you get a number of hints about this in the New Testament, these things might happen to the very people he’s writing to. He is showing them that there’s going to be an unfolding of events around the world. If the people of God are ignorant of these dimensions of God’s purpose, and they end up, in their ignorance, drawing back and resisting in spiritual arrogance. Paul is warning them, that their very faith would be jeopardized in that process and they would be unaware of the dynamics as they begin to unfold before them in their generation. Now we have the historical perspective. It’s 2000 years later, those things in fact did not happen in Paul’s generation. I believe they will happen in the generation of people that are alive right now in the earth. People that are actually in this room right now will see some of these events take place before their very eyes. I believe we’re in the generation that the Lord will return. Whether that’s 5 years or 50 years, I don’t know. My assumption is that it’s closer to 50 than five. I believe that things are building. I don’t have any direct timing, obviously nobody does. Nobody in heaven takes my vote on when the timing should happen. I feel there’s urgency. Many, many things are bearing witness to the fact that in the next several decades’ things could really culminate with the coming of the Lord. I don’t know, certainly not too much longer than that, if it doesn’t happen by then. Paul is describing a series of spiritual realities with earthly dynamics. Real events happening in the earth that the body of Christ must be aware of so they lean into it and they throw themselves into the grace of God, instead of drawing back in hesitancy, or drawing back worse than that in arrogance because of ignorance and they begin to resist the very Holy Spirit that they love. What Paul’s burden in verse 20 to 22 is that this ignorance would actually grow into arrogance and it would end up in apostasy before it was over. That’s the burden on his heart. That’s a little bit of the burden on my heart. I say a little bit. My heart’s not that large yet, but I’m feeling that burden growing because when I think of gentile believers – I’m talking mostly tonight to gentile believers – I feel the burden growing just a bit, and I’m saying, “Lord, my capacity is small, but here I am. Give me a little bit more of what you’re feeling about this”; and I’m inviting you into this relationship with the Holy Spirit where you’re saying, “Lord, let me receive more of what you feel in the burden that Paul was touching here.” I believe that before this thing is over the Lord is going to apprehend some of us in a full way, and we are going to be in the full weighty burden of revelation in Romans chapter 11, and it’s this: that gentile believers all over the world, in Paul’s day, in the known world of his day, parallels what’s going on today. Most gentile believers I know are significantly unaware of the plan of God as revealed in the scripture and of the jeopardy that they will be in if they don’t understand it so as to cooperate fully in the grace of God. That fear of God, that peril, that threat is almost non-existent among gentile believers 500 million strong in the earth; and that is trouble. That is not a good situation! We’re not going to be equipped by Messianic believers trumpeting this and 500 million gentile believers going, “Well, it’s their thing.” We need an army of men and women taking their stand; anointed, equipped at the heart level, at the revelatory level, because it’s not a messianic believer deal; it’s a glory of God, end of the age, apostasy of the whole gentile church if they don’t throw themselves into the grace of God in this area. So, I’m talking with a pastoral heart, not with just eschatological zeal for Israel. I have that, but that’s not what I’m talking from now. I’m talking about the true peril that’s, in front of the gentile believers that we’re almost completely out of touch with this revelation. I’m talking about the people in this room. I’m talking about our congregation back home. I’m talking about our children. Do our children even understand any of this, really? Beloved, there’s a fast difference between religious sentiment, and prophetic revelation. There’s a growing, and I like it, there’s a sentiment growing, not real fast but it’s growing among gentile believers. Their hearts are warming toward of the purposes of God in Israel. Sentiment is never, ever, going to stand steady and true under pressure. There has to be clear revelation, rooted in the ‘logos” – in the written word of God. We need to have this thing schooled and trained, line upon line so it makes sense in the day of increasing pressure to do what the word of God says to do. It’s not enough for me. We have a staff of 400 people. They all raise their own support; it’s a missions base. It’s not okay that I understand this a little bit; 400 full-time staff members need to enter into this. My sons need to enter into this. My granddaughter – and new one to come real soon – my grandchildren, they need to enter into this; and I’m going to see to it that they do; because it’s not mostly a “let’s help the guys over there in the middle east” deal. It’s a glory of God, end of the age reality; and the destiny of ones I love truly will be threatened if they remain in ignorance. Especially if the ignorance grows into arrogance, the very thing that Paul was urging them not to yield to. “I do not desire brethren, (verse 25), that you should be ignorant of the mystery.” The word “mystery” or the idea of mystery means, “the plan of God’s heart.” God has the most surprising plan in His heart. I tell you we’re just a little bit familiar with the core reality of His plan. God became human and was crushed by the wrath of God, raised from the dead, exalted to the right hand of the Father. We’re a little bit familiar with that. We think we’re kind of familiar with it. When we stand before God in eternity our spirits, our lives, will be ROCKED by the reality. The uncreated God became human and was crushed by the wrath of God out of passion for us. We understand that just a little bit. A billion years from now we will sing with fresh zeal and fresh discovery and fresh experience, “WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN.” We will sing it as though it was first time because the freshness will weigh on our spirits. So, I have to say that we’re only a little familiar with the fundamental reality of the mystery of the plan of God. Beloved, even that was a SHOCKING surprise. Now that it happened 2000 years ago, our minds are around it a little bit. Imagine in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. Imagine when it’s announced the Father’s plan: the second person of the trinity is going to become, though fully God and remaining fully God, He will become human. When He becomes human – it’s not something that He will put on a garment to do a task, then raise from the dead and lay the garment aside – He will be human forever! Forever human! Fully God, but fully human. The implications of that, of God experiencing something new, is staggering to my mind. Anyway, that’s not my point, but I can’t just glibly say that we’re familiar with the core reality of the mystery. That mystery was SHOCKING in the eternal realm. When angels and demons began to understand, “He’s becoming human? Whatever for?” Then when the Father crushed him with divine wrath, it was SHOCKING to all that observed it. The mystery had a very, very SHOCKING beginning in that dimension, the core reality; but the mystery is more than that core reality, that centerpiece dimension of it. The mystery that’s in God’s heart speaks of His leadership over natural history to produce the dream and the vision of His heart – and that is a people who are fully unified with His heart and fully unified with one another in a voluntary way, not in a mandatory way. Not forced, but voluntary love-sick worshippers of Jesus and truly in love with one another without God having violated their free will or without in any way minimizing His dealing of perfect justice with the devil. The Father say’s, “Watch this, I’m going to lead the nations of the world.’ Acts chapter 17 verse 26, (I’ll just throw out a bunch of little verses as we go just so you can jot them down, not to look them up), He says, “I’m going to move boundary lines of all these nations. I’ll move boundary lines here, I’ll move them there, and the inhabitants of those nations, they will grope, they will be disoriented; they will lose their way. Economics will be thrown off – spiritual, religious infrastructures and systems, political kingdoms.” He says, “I will move boundary lines 50 to 100 miles, one way or the other, and the nations will grope. They will be disoriented and all that they trusted they will no longer trust, and perhaps they will seek God and find him.” The Lord says, “I’m going to move boundary lines.” He’s going to do many, many things. He says, “I’ve got a plan. I’ve got a mystery.” Mystery is the plan of God. He’s says, “I’m working for a very clear end. I’m going to have a people. I’m going to have a people.” (Several billion strong from history is my guess.) “They are going to love My Son. My Son will receive the reward of His suffering. They will be love-sick worshippers of Him because they WANT TO BE.” Yes, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Yes, mandatory obedience is part of the inheritance Jesus receives from the Father; but mandatory obedience of every demon in hell and every angel and every believer and unbeliever is not the fullness of His inheritance. He wants voluntary lovers at the very center of His inheritance; but it’s not enough that we would love Him. He wants us in love with one another. The picture I get in my mind is Genesis chapter 45 verse 15 when Joseph unveiled himself and he fell upon the neck of his brothers and they wept and fell upon each other. The Father says something like, “My people – Jews and Gentiles, male and female, old and young, all the distinctions – they will be in love with each other and it won’t be an automatic program. It won’t be something that they have to do by virtue of a resurrected body. I’m going to work it in time and space into their spirit. I will not violate their will. I will not do any lack of justice in My administration of history, in My dealing with the devil. I will show Myself true, but I will find My purposes fully realized,” but, He goes, “I have a plan, and the plan will have many turns and twists to it! My plan: I will reveal it incrementally over the generations, over centuries. I will give a little here and a little there of understanding”; and, beloved, the plan of God the Father, (if I can use this word), the “social architect of human history” is to produce this great end result described best in John 17:21-23. In unity with one another, flowing out of the unity with God filled with the glory of God. And the angels might have said something like, “How are you going to do this? You’re not going to muscle anyone? You’re not going to violate their free will?” He says, “No, watch this!” Paul the apostle takes 3 parts of the plan of God. If you had to categorize it, and you could do it in so many different ways. You might have 10 or 15 major points in the mystery and about 10 or 20 sub-units of every 1 of those points if you tried to graph out all the key components of the mystery of God, of the plan of God, of His surprising leadership over human history to produce this great end. Paul focuses on 3, but really, it could have been 10 or 12 dimensions. John the apostle in the book of Revelations adds a couple of more dimensions that Paul doesn’t know about. Undoubtedly there are a few surprises that nobody writing in the scriptures had any understanding of. There’s a few of them undoubtedly the Father says, “I haven’t told anybody yet. They will see it in that day and in that hour.” So, we all come in humility. We all come as learners. We all come small in our own eyes in terms of our understanding because, beloved, to get any insight into this information, it’s only given of God or it cannot be had! We can’t get all the great theological philosophers of history and try to get the best of the best and “break the code,” so to speak. There’s dimensions of the mystery that are given, and those that are given will be adequate to prepare us for the coming hour; but there’s more that God is doing that none of us know yet. Paul said, “If you think you know, become as those who know nothing and then you will be postured to receive the necessary wisdom of God for your generation.” (I’m adding a few words to it). Here it is. He gives three different parts of the mystery of God – the surprising plan of God – and all three of these are staggering in their implication. All three of these are surprising. Who would have thought of these three things? I mean God’s starting with a blank canvas. He’s starting with a white board with nothing on it. He can lead history any way he wants to, to produce His desired end. Paul tells the gentiles in Rome, he says, “Number one”, he says, “don’t be ignorant of this. If you’re ignorant of this, you’re going to end up in trouble.” Again, not everybody ignorant ends up in arrogance; but when the pressure comes, when the eschatological, end-of-the-age pressures come, the ignorance will be serious in its consequence. We cannot afford to be ignorant when the pressure comes; because the ignorance, if it continues without being dealt with and removed, will begin to grow an unperceived, underneath the surface root system of arrogance that we won’t even know we have. The pressure will expose it. The pressure will bring it to the surface. I believe this, (I don’t like saying this), I believe many, many gentiles . . . I don’t say most – I don’t know the percentage, but I think it will be millions and millions and millions – will fall away because they’re developing right now a spiritual root system of arrogance against God. It’s unperceived; they don’t even know about it because the word of God is not like a mirror letting them see and confronting this growing root system in their spirit. When the pressure increases where it’s going, they will be entrenched, many, and stuck in their old paradigms. They’ll say, “We’ll take our chances.” I would rather wrestle. I would rather look at these mysterious dimensions of God’s leadership and say, “I don’t like this, I don’t like that”, and incrementally deal with them, line upon line, over months and years and find myself in a place of humility, in a place of revelation equipped to stand and prevail in the victory of God. We must bring our people into this confrontation of the heart with truth now, while things are very, very easy – because the same confrontation of truth in the midst of conflict will make it very difficult for them to be objective. There’s coming a pressure in the days to come where they will have every natural, carnal, self-preserving reason to read the Word of God to cancel out Israel; to have that bias to cancel out Israel. Right now is a really easy time to sit with our nice Starbucks, to look at it in a fairly detached objective way. It doesn’t cost us much yet to look at it and [think], “Huh? I like that verse. What does it really mean,” and the Lord says, “I’m whispering right now. I’m giving you time. Grapple with this. Confront the ones you love with these truths so that in a time where the environment is in peace, while they can still run with the footman, let them deal with these truths now; because the days are coming . . . (Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5), He said, “the days are coming, if you can’t run with the footmen; if you can’t deal with truth in the day when the pace is slow; how are you going to deal with truth in the day when the pace is picked up, when the horsemen come?” I feel – again, it’s a pastoral urgency, it’s a burden on my spirit – he (Paul) tells them three things. He goes, “Number one: you have got to know this; your people have to know this, Roman Christians,” (he’s telling them right in Romans 11), he says, “Number one: that blindness in part has happened to Israel.” What an incredible concept. That God the Father put that in the plan. I can imagine the angels going, “Now why would you do that?” And the Father, of course it never happens this way – it’s very different, says, “Trust me guys, it’s going to work out in a STUNNING way when all the pieces come together.” He (Paul) says, “Gentiles in Rome, you better know by revelation that God is working with the judicial hardening and blindness unto redemption,” and they go, “We don’t know what it means,” and Paul says, “You need to know what that means. That’s why I’m telling you. It’s a critical part of God’s plan as the social architect of human history.” They (the Romans) go, “Okay, gentile believers today; me, all of us? It doesn’t seem that important that we know that.” The Holy Spirit whispers, “It’s vital to your future that you understand this.’ Romans, “We trust you, will you tell us more as to why this is so important?” Holy Spirit, “Yes I will, if you posture yourself to want to hear!” Romans, “Okay.” These three things I’m [Mike] taking deadly serious! I’m going, “Lord, I got to know as much as I can contain about this piece of information about your plan of history.” “Okay, Mike. If you mean it, stay with Me and I’ll give it to you incrementally over time.” As a ministry, we’re fasting and praying on a regular basis asking for the spirit of wisdom and revelation for these realities, because we don’t believe we know them sufficiently to be prepared in the way we need to be. If you don’t mind me, I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m bragging about our humility. It’s a little contradictory, but I want to posture our ministry in humility and I don’t’ mean like we got some great humility in our midst; but I mean we want to go and say, ‘we really don’t know.” It’s not like we’re pretending not to know because it looks so good and it’s politically correct to act like you don’t know. I mean getting our leaders going, “We don’t know what this is about. This is worth fasting and praying, not once, like, WEEKLY until the Lord returns kind of thing. We got to get into this thing!” I believe the Lord looks at that and He says, “If you stay with that . . . yes, your capacity is small; yes, you don’t learn very quick; yes, you’re prone to forget what I tell you; but if you stay in that posture I’ll give you what you need.” My burden is: where are the gentile believers in the earth taking serious the plight and the peril of their ignorance? And it’s not a political statement. I mean, it’s real to where they change their lifestyle because they think their ignorance is serious. He goes on to say the second part of the mystery. This blindness is going to lift, but now he connects it to the second thing: when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. There’s this thing called the “fullness of the gentiles.” Well that’s a pretty exciting concept! You know, most of the gentile church doesn’t believe that the fullness of the gentiles is coming. Most of the revival people don’t believe it’s coming. You can tell by the way they spend their lives. They don’t really believe it’s coming. If we believed there was an eschatological, (that’s one of the only big words I know, that’s why I use it all the time; it means “end times”), if we believed there was an eschatological fullness coming we would do things differently, I believe, at 2 o’clock on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. The church – gentile believers – do not see this by revelation because we live business as usual because WE’RE NOT EXPECTING AN HISTORIC BREAK-IN OF HOLY SPIRIT POWER. So it’s like, “Well hey, we love God. You know what, we’re doing a little better than the congregation down the road, that other group.” Paul says when you compare yourself by yourself, you are deceived. He goes, “Don’t compare yourself if you’re getting a little bit more lively spirit than that other group. Don’t compare yourself; westerners with westerners; backslidden, Laodecian, self-satisfied, spiritually content believers with other ones; and find out you got a little bit more zip than they do. Compare yourself to the noble ones of history of whom the world was not worthy.” Easy to say, hard to do, right? We all know it. I love to preach that! It’s a good thing to say it’s exciting, but do I [say that] on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday? I don’t mean I stay in some unbroken intensity of, “Oh, my gosh!” That’s not the point I’m calling people to. What I’m saying is, if we had the revelation that fullness is coming, I think we would be dreaming and thinking different things about the future. The greatest hour of history is coming for the Church. Our finest hour is coming. Yes, it will be the most difficult hour, but it will be our finest hour in human history. The most difficult, but our finest hour; our finest hour is yet ahead. Thirdly . . . They’re just kind of recovering. They liked that one! They didn’t fully understand it, because, you know what, it takes revelation to see this. It’s not a bible verse; it’s a spiritual reality. It’s much more than a bible verse. We can’t enter into this except for by revelation. I look at my own life. Sometimes that is so alive in me, and a month or two later it’s kind of diminished. I say, “Lord, I have need of help. I am in need of regularly renewing”; and the Lord might say something like, “If you stay in that posture I will continually renew you and you will lose some of your fire, but I will renew you. Stay in the posture. Don’t remember your fire from two years ago and assume it’s your fire today. Don’t live on yesterday’s break-in and yesterday’s breakthrough in the spirit – yesterday’s revelation. I want you to live TODAY leaning on me as though you have need of a breakthrough today.” I want a revelation in the present tense like you do. Third thing: “All Israel shall be saved! All Israel shall be saved.” These three dimensions are stunning in their implications. The implications of these are massive and there are several levels of implications to all three of these. My point is there is a deep well in verse 25: go after it! Even if some great teacher could come and unlock it to you that doesn’t mean its beating. It doesn’t have a heartbeat inside of you. Even if some Asher Intrater comes up and unveils it – you might even take notes and get the transcription and just write it word for word and even repeat it – that doesn’t mean it’s beating inside of you! (Although I do want somebody to give me this, and I tell you, I’ll take the transcription. I’ll memorize it word for word. I’ll do it!) But I want it alive in me. So, I’m pointing to a reality; not trying to give a comprehensive explanation of it; but I couldn’t anyway because there are so many things here I don’t know. Those are three realms, not realms of reality, those are three trends in history that are going to converge and come together in the generation the Lord returns and they’re really important to our children and grandchildren; and a lot of gentile believers, the vast majority, cannot connect it to their children and grandchildren. It doesn’t connect that those three things matter to the vitality and well being of their children. It’s never dawned on them. They go, “What has that got to do with this?” Here’s the litmus test: verse 33. I’m saying this to gentile believers. If whatever your understanding of Romans 11 is; of whatever your understanding of Israel, it must produce, “Oh the depths of the riches.” If it doesn’t cause you to be awestruck, you have not understood it. I have talked to people for years and they have, (I’m going to go in one direction then I’m going to go in the other direction), the “Replacement Theology.” Many friends of mine, they look at this and they have this really kind of neat . . . they can tuck away a lot of the verses in some different explanation. I don’t believe it’s a true one. There are a few of them that are just unmovable. They just can’t get rid of them. I’ve seen them sweat over them. They just can’t move them. They’re stubborn. They stay there; even the people with all their intellectual abilities; they can’t move a couple of these, even in the theological world. They’re just stuck there. They are staring at you going, “Oh, my goodness. It really says that, doesn’t it?” But here’s what I tell them, “Regardless of what you come up with, here’s my answer, ‘With your 10 page little read out there, does it produce in you and the people who read it, verse 33? Does it make them bow down awestruck? If it doesn’t, I can assure you, you have not touched the nerve of truth yet.'” I go, “You know what it does more times than not?” (I don’t want to pick on people, ’cause I don’t think that’ll get you anywhere), but I said, “More times than not knowledge puffs up. It makes us feel satisfied. Something makes us rise up instead of bow down.’ I said, “The most knowledgeable man of the mystery of God – here he is towards the end of his life – is AWESTRUCK by a truth that he is very familiar with. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE THAT WE CAN READ ROMANS 11 AND COME UP WITH AN ANSWER THAT MAKES US RISE UP INSTEAD OF BOW DOWN AND WE HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE MIDST OF SUCH TERRIFYING WARNINGS? WE HAVE CONFIDENCE THAT THINGS ARE OKAY!” Now lets go to the other side. Let’s go to the Messianic community. I don’t have any authority to talk to the Messianic community. I’ve told a few people that I have some real things burning in my heart, but it’s really for the gentile believers. There’s very few things I could say unless I have invested myself for 20 years in the perils and the day-to-day threats they live in. So I said, “I can offer some suggestions and distant hints.” It is not my place to bring corrective truth to people living in the fire of affliction that I know nothing about. So, (I say this with fear and trembling even as I say this), that whatever version the Messianic community has of Romans 11, if it does not produce verse 33, it is still incomplete. If it produces the same thing as the gentile arrogant theologians, if they rise up in pride instead of . . . I don’t mean just bow down in humility [i] AWESTRUCK, OH GOD, OH GOD! BRILIANT, MYSTERIOUS TURNS AND TWISTS OF HISTORY, WHO COULD HAVE PLUMMETED THE WISDOM, STUNNINGS, STAGGERING, MY GOD! That is the only answer to the litmus test if you are in the vein of truth of understanding of Romans 11. There is no other answer. I mean there is no other response that should give us confidence we’ve understood. I talk to more and more…again, I love it, but it bugs me. I love it but it bugs me. We all got a lot of things like that. We understand it. So many gentile believers getting caught up in this sentiment of Israel, but they are not awestruck with Jesus in the plan of God. I tell you, that sentiment will betray our hearts under pressure. That sentiment will deceive us thinking the sentiment is reality, so we’re standing in confidence when we should be in need of trembling before God because we have need of being equipped for the hour that is coming. So I say, “Brothers, sisters, both sides, both and . . . does verse 33 touch your spirit when you read Romans 11?” Now I’m admitting that on a scale of 1 to 10, I’ve got a one; but it used to be a point five. Its up to a one and it’s going to be a two. I’m at the beginning. I’m telling you, I’m not saying that, “Oh, isn’t that nice. He’s kind of humble. He thinks he’s just a one.” The angel might say, “Well, maybe point eight. Maybe not quite a one.” My point is this is Paul the Apostle. “Oh, the depths . . .” He’s overcome. Romans 11:33 is the same response of the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures in Revelations chapter 19 verses 1 to 4, because it’s the same reality. I’m not going to prove that right now; but I CAN prove it. [In] Revelation chapter 19:1 to 4, all the saints of God are in unity with God and unity with one another; and when the purpose of God comes to fruition – ALL THE SAINTS in unity with God and with one another – the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures, they fall down; and in essence they are crying Romans 11:33 in different languages. They are awestruck when the plan unfolds in history. So, I look at this and I go, “This is awesome, Lord!” Look at chapter 12 verse 1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, become a living sacrifice” . . . I beseech you. Because of these mercies, Paul says, “I beg you in light of this mercy right here. I beg you in light of Romans 11, THRUST YOURSELF by the mercy of God into the fire of affliction and don’t retreat from God when the fire goes; become a living sacrifice.” And the fire of affliction, I don’t mean just meaning end-time calamity. I’m talking about that action in our soul. Peter calls it “lust that wages war with the human heart.” I’m talking about the fire of affliction there, where when we see Romans 11 it produces awe in verse 33, but it produces this STEADY abandonment of chapter 12 verse 1. If it doesn’t produce an abandonment, if it doesn’t produce a desire to be WHOLLY GIVEN, then we haven’t understood Romans 11. The last group in the body of Christ that should be having a lazy backslidden spirit are people with revelation of Romans 11. One of the great mistakes of history, theological mistake, is Romans 12 saying, “I beseech your therefore,” (and the “therefore” goes back to Romans 3 to 8 because of the great parentheses of Romans 9, 10, and 11). It absolutely misses the whole argument of what Paul is saying in the book of Romans. He’s saying, (oh, I’d love to go off on this but you’ll get it on your own anyway), the mercy of chapter 12 verse 1 is related to the mercy of chapter 11 verses 30 to 32. Yes, it’s related to the mercy of Romans 5:2. We stand by the mercy of God. We stand in grace. Yes, it’s related to Romans 3 and Romans 4 and Romans 5; but, beloved, fresh off of Paul’s overwhelmed doxology, “I LOVE YOU GOD, I LOVE YOU GOD,” he comes up for air and says, “Oh, if you understand this you would throw yourself into the hand of God as a burning sacrifice. You would not draw back, you would trust yourself forward.” Again, I’m not trying to pick on . . . Paul has just had this verse 33 to 36 overwhelming. All of a sudden he just kind of recovered, pushed “delete”, made it a parentheses and said, “Oh, by the way, let’s go back a few thoughts ago and it would be good to be committed.” Oh no, beloved, Romans 12:1 is all about Romans 11. It’s right there. My point is this . . . my point isn’t . . . (there’s so many points in Romans 11), but here’s the burden of my heart: are we receiving this truth or are we remaining in ignorance? And someone says, “Yeah, I got this truth.” Is Romans 11:33 being awaked in your spirit leading to Romans 12:1? If you find yourself more resistant to giving your time, money and energy you haven’t understood Romans 11 even if you’ve preached on it for years. If you find yourself with GREATER GRACE AND A GREATER EASE TO THROW YOURSELF INTO THE FULLNESS OF WHAT GOD IS… (and I think it’s a critical term when he says “living sacrifice.” There is a reason that he is taking this holocaust term and using it right now, and I’ll just leave that for right now). He’s telling the gentiles in Rome, “Are you willing to give yourself wholly and utterly for this purpose?” He said, “It’s your reasonable service.” Here’s what the word “reasonable service” means, here’s what the idea means; it doesn’t mean “it’s logical.” It means that when you understand Romans 11 it’s the inevitable response of having the heart touched with awe. When it says, “the reasonable service,” put “the inevitable, the bursting forth, volcanic experience” of Romans 11 has touched you and your money is not yours, your time is not yours, your reputation is not yours. You bless your enemies, you risk your life, you’ll do anything because there’s been an explosion in your spirit, and that’s what the phrase “reasonable service” . . . you should say the word “reasonable service” with a stirring of heat in your spirit when you say that. It’s an inevitable explosion of GRATEFUL LOVE AND TRUSTING ABANDONMENT into the hands of the mercy of God. That’s what this verse means in chapter 12 verse one. If there’s any group on earth that should be on fire, its Jews and gentiles that understand Romans 11. Well that begs the question, “Do we understand Romans 11?” “Well, yeah! Our congregation has taught about it. Our pastor wrote a book on it!” That has nothing to do with what I just asked you. “Yeah, we do Romans 11. You know, the Jews and they’re really important and that stuff. Yeah, we do Romans 11.” Where’s the awe at? You don’t have the look of awe in your eyes. “What do you mean, ‘awe? Where’s awe at?'” Oops, then you haven’t done Romans 11. “I would that you would not be ignorant brethren of the great, the grand, mystery of the dream of God’s heart.” That He’s going to use all of the power at His disposal to lead human history without violating the human freewill, without any injustice to Satan. He’s going to produce this dream of His heart in real time and space. Watch it happen. They will be passionately in love with one another, Jews and Gentiles, falling on one another’s necks in total trust and confidence; but they will do it through the fire of affliction. He goes on. Let’s just look at verses 20 to 23. Look at this. He says, “Well said.” Verse 20, “because of unbelief they were broken off and you stand by faith.” He’s talking to the people who stand by faith. I’m going to get a little pushy here. It’s talking to people that stand by faith. Underline the phrase “stand by faith.” He’s not talking to unbelievers. He’s talking to believers standing by faith. He looks at them and he says, “Listen, don’t be haughty. Don’t get an arrogant spirit about this.” The people at Rome, the believers, are going, “Man, this guy’s never met us. Don’t be haughty? Why is he saying this?” And Paul says, “I’m not being offensive. I care! I love you. I’ve been praying for you.” There’s a law of the spirit. There’s this axiom in the spirit. Whoever you pray for, you fall in love with. Even if you don’t mean to, you just fall in love with them, because when you pray for a people, it gets into your spirit. When you pray for a people, you’re in the way to receive revelation, to receive impartation, for your emotional chemistry to change. It is God’s genius plan. You just kind of pray by rote. You just kind of pray because of commitment. You don’t even like them. You don’t even care. You just do it because you said you would do it and you get yourself in the way of the fire of God, and the Holy Spirit sneaks up on you. You get divine insight about those people. Your spirit starts moving. There’s downloads of courage; there’s downloads of passion. It’s the Lord’s way of ambushing the whole body of Christ, getting them to pray for one another. He’s telling us, He goes, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I will put watchman on the walls for Jerusalem,” and the Lord’s whispering, “I am going to sneak up on the entire gentile believing community in the earth and I’m going to give them passion. I’m going to give them revelation. I’m going to overwhelm them and it’s going to get all over them if they will simply line up and start to do this.” The best thing I can do as the leader of a team of people that are weak and broken . . . we all are. We are just weak and broken. We love God. Our sincerity is real. It’s not super deep, but its real. We’re real. Our spiritual depth isn’t that great yet, but we’re real. The best thing we can do is take our tired little bodies and sit there . . . and we do it four or five times a week for two hours at a shot, and we go in front . . . the prayer meetings go on all the time, but I’m talking about the ones that are devoted to Israel . . . and we sit there and we go, “Lord, [pause], uh, bless Israel; whatever.” We get our lists, “Lord, bless Asher and Betty, Dan and Patty, David and Emma. Bless ’em, bless ’em, bless ’em. Rick and Patty, just bless ’em, whatever. Oh, man…an hour and 50 minutes to go. Okay. Bless ’em. Give ’em stuff. Help them out.” You know what happens. It’s accidental. You don’t even mean it. You start feeling Rick and Patty. You start feeling them. You start thinking about them. It sneaks into your spirit. So, the wisest thing you can do if you’ve got a lazy spirit and you lack revelation; just sit in front, take your cold heart and put it in front of a bonfire called the presence of God. You don’t have to feel a thing. You will in time, just line up there. That’s why the wisdom of God is to get the entire gentile believing community in the earth into the spirit of prayer, because that’s where they’ll get information. That’s where they’ll get courage. That’s where they’ll get action plans. They’ll get strategic direction. All we got to do is take our little worn out bodies, get in front of that fire – we don’t got to feel a thing, just do it by faith – and little by little this thing starts percolating inside and things start happening . . . and we start feeling Dan and Patty, and then we like them and then we care about their kids. We go, “I didn’t even mean to love them, God. This is ridiculous. Now I want to give them money. I want to send my sons there. I didn’t want to do all that stuff. I just had them on a dumb prayer list.” The spirit of prayer is God’s ambush sneak attack. It makes the human spirit vulnerable to the will of God. It really does. It makes the human spirit vulnerable to the will of God, even in our weakness. You don’t even have to know it’s happening. It just happens automatically. So, [Paul] tells these guys here, he says, “don’t be haughty.” Verse 20, he says, “fear God.” In other words, DO verse 33; tremble before God. They go, “Fear God? Why should we be fearing God because Jewish people are going to get saved? Why does that produce the fear of God in us?” And I’ve skipped a whole bunch of points because I’m going to close in a moment here, but the idea of Paul saying, “fear the Lord, because for Me to bring in Israel” . . . (and there’s a whole bunch of points I’m skipping), it implies, “I’m going to do something radical at the end of the age and it will have consequences. This radical invasion of glory and of pressure will produce . . . will produce a situation on the earth where you will go towards the fear of God or towards arrogance and apostasy.” He says, “you don’t know what’s going to be set in motion when this thing is happening in the planet.” He goes, “you better fear the Lord now.” So, I wanted to do this thing on the front end and say, “Lord, the pressure isn’t mounted.” Oh, the pressure is there, for sure. That would be so insensitive of me to say the pressure is not here; but, beloved, the pressure is going to get so much more intense for Jews and gentiles. God has inextricably bound our destinies together into this thing. That nation Israel – national Israel – and Apostolic Christianity are bound together in one destiny. I’m going to say that again. That’s what Ephesians 3 is all about. Ephesians 3 and 4 . . . well, 2, 3 and 4; chapters 2:11 to 4:16. Ephesians 2:11 to 4:16 is all about this sentence – what I’m going to say – that there’s a surprise plan. National Israel, national Israel and Apostolic Christianity, our destinies are bound together and that’s a surprise that nobody was counting on, and Paul in Ephesians 2:11 to 4:16 is unveiling the mystery. In Ephesians 3:9 he calls it the “fellowship of the mystery.” Jews and gentiles will be lovesick for one another under the lordship of Yeshua. And they’re going, “We will?” And he goes, “Oh yes! You just don’t know.” He goes, “This is so bound up in your destiny.” He says in Ephesians 3:9 it’s the “fellowship of the mystery” of these vast different realities coming together. He says in Ephesians 3:10, he goes, “and I’m going to use the incarnation of this reality, of these people being one, to use it as my weapon and my trophy against powers and principalities.” Now a few of you I lost in the last minute or two; but a bunch of you I didn’t. Let me just talk. I’m real close to being finished here. Let me just talk for a minute to that group. When it says in Ephesians 3:10 that God, the intent of God, is to use this surprising plan at the end . . . it’s a plan all the way through Church history but it comes to a real fierce crescendo at the end. The Lord says, “I’m going to use this; and I am going to use it as a weapon against principalities and powers.” It’s going to usher in what Romans 11 verse 15 calls, “life from the dead, the Millennial Kingdom.” It is going to shatter principalities and powers. The living embodiment – the incarnation of me (a Gentile) and Dan Juster (a Jew), on the earth, in love with our families, regardless, we won’t count anything dear to our self. That reality in the grace of God, God will use as a battering ram to shatter darkness at the end of the age. This is really the will of God and He will make it a trophy of grace for the good guys. The angels will go, “MY GOD, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED THIS?” In Revelation 19 verse 4 they’re bowing down awestruck like Romans 11:33. Beloved, this thing is so serious. We’re bound together. Paul the Apostle said…you know the verse well, (2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3, if you don’t known the address), you know the idea: there’s a great apostasy coming before the Lord’s return. I believe that apostate Christianity; apostate, backslidden Christianity, which is going to be a very common thing in the west; and Apostolic Christianity is going to come out of the response to our destiny of national Israel and Apostolic Christianity. We are going to be brought together in glory and conflict so that a great separation happens; so God purifies Israel and He purifies Apostolic Christianity and makes them one before the second coming as a weapon to loose the second coming. IT’S A WEAPON THAT WILL LOOSE THE SECOND COMING! So, lets end with this: he says . . . I’ll just say it instead of read it . . . verse 20 to 22, he says, “Don’t be arrogant!” He said, “I beg you.” It’s so intense in verse 22. We have to read verse 22. It’s so scary. Let me just read it for you. Know this is about you and your families, because if we don’t read this . . . I have never heard a sermon on this. I haven’t preached one. I’m not saying this is the sermon, I’m only mentioning it at the end. I want to hear some sermons on this. Who has the nerve to preach, I mean a whole message, a series on this? He says in verse 20, he goes, “Because of unbelief they were broken off and you stand because of faith. Do not be haughty but fear God.” Why? Why do we have to fear God because Jewish people are going to get saved? Why has that got the fear of God on it? Paul says, (stay with me here), he said, “If God did not spare the natural branches He may”…oh, what language, “He may not spare you.” He may not spare you! Where is the trumpet blast to the gentile believers, “GOD, THE LOVESICK BRIDEGROOM, GOD MAY NOT SPARE YOU AND YOUR CHURCH!” The gentiles in Rome are going, “Paul, you haven’t even met us.” Paul says . . . well, he goes, (stay with me), he’s saying to them, “therefore, consider the goodness.” He goes, “Study the goodness. Study the bridal paradigm. Study the father heart of God. Encounter the goodness. Get lost in the realm of the mercy and the goodness of God.” But he goes, “Don’t just study that, because God never suspends one attribute to exercise another; because God in His total severity and His total goodness is one reality.” He goes, “Study the severity too, not just the goodness; because you will never understand the depths of goodness when you are shallow in the revelation of severity.” We can only go so far in the revelation of goodness when we are only an inch deep of understanding of the revelation of severity; because severity is all about the message of goodness; because severity is God removing everything that hinders love. At the end of the day, it’s all one message. He looks at them and he says this, “Consider the severity.” They’re being a little pushed, like “We don’t know you. It’s a little intense for you to tell us this.” He goes, “On those who fell: severity.” And they’re going, “Okay, okay. We’re with you. We’re back with you.” “But towards you: goodness.” “Oh, Paul. Okay, we forgive you for that mean verse. Whew!” Paul says, “If… IF you continue in goodness, if you continue in humility, if you give yourself in the spirit in the future, otherwise,” here it is, the crescendo, “you will also be cut off.” They are mystified. He goes, “This thing – the ignorance – will lead to arrogance, which will lead to PASSIVE resistance, which will lead to ACTIVE resistance, which will lead to apostasy. It’s a root system that will grow and your hearts will betray you.” He goes, “You better fear God right now.” Now, I’m not trying to produce uncertainty in our confidence before God right now. What I’m saying is this: if we are in humility right now; if we are in the fear of God right now; if we are saying, “Lord, we don’t really know. We’re little guys. We don’t hardly even know what’s going on.” The Lord says, “I can use that. I can empower you. I can empower you; but if you think you’ve got this chapter clear and you think you have settled the mystery of what I’m going to use to disarm principalities and power” . . . (not disarm them, that’s what’s done by the cross), but, “I am going to use it as a weapon against them and to show forth my purposes through history; and you think you have it and you’re unmoved by it instead of awestruck and you’re living in your carnality and your smug “Laodecian spirit” Christian lifestyles; and you think you’ve understood this reality?” He says, “You better fear the Lord; because times are coming where all the conditions necessary are converging for this reality to come to pass.” Amen.