Well, let’s open our Bibles to Revelation 11. We are going through this incredible book looking at the visions that the Lord gave John the apostle, which he obviously recorded. Chapter 11, let me just read the opening three verses.

“There was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, ‘Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’”

Now I know just by reading that, you’re absolutely clear on what that is all about. I see the worried look on your face, but I’m going to help you to understand it; it’s so important. The key to this section is really the two witnesses in verse 3. Their story runs all the way down to verse 13, and we’ll be looking at that more in detail next Sunday.

Two witnesses. Throughout all of redemptive history, God has faithfully sent His witnesses to declare His message, His truth, His will, and His way. He sent His prophets and His preachers basically to call sinners to salvation, to repentance and salvation.

During the long, dark years of Israel’s rebellion, 2 Kings 17:13 says, “The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all [the] prophets and [seers], saying”—and this was a constant message—“‘Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent you through My servants the prophets.’” This is the standard operating procedure for God through His prophets and preachers in the Old Testament: “Turn from your evil ways. Turn to Me. Keep My commandments, statutes, and My law which I commanded you.”

That same passage, 2 Kings 17, in verses 14 and 15, says this: “However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.” Pretty amazing statement. This is Israel and Judah. God warned them, called them to believe in Him. They did not believe in the Lord their God.

That text goes on to say, “They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them.” They did the very opposite of what the prophets and preachers called them to do.

Another text in 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verses 15 and 16 gives us the same report: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”

One of the prophets whom God used to communicate these messages of warning was Jeremiah. Jeremiah 44:4 through 6 says this, and this is a message from God through Jeremiah: “I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again”—notice how many times we’ve read that, repeatedly—“saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.’ But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.”

This is the sad, long history of Israel and Judah. Warning after warning after warning from God’s preachers—they rejected them all, and they went, therefore, from judgment to judgment to judgment. Prophets like Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, many others, constantly confronting wayward Israel, and as well, sinful Judah and sinful Gentile nations, and they experienced the same kind of reception, no matter what period of time, with a very few exceptions, such as Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh.

Listen to what Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 25:1–6, “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying”—here’s the message—“‘From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened, [not] inclined your ear to hear, saying, “Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands”’”—that is, crafting idols—“‘“and I will do you no harm.”’” “Turn to Me from idols.”

This is a call to Judah and Jerusalem. This is their history, the history of rejection. But through it all, God always had a remnant, always a remnant. Isaiah 6, there’s a tenth; there’s a residue; there’s a remnant. Romans 9:27 says, “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.’”

With that in mind, look at Romans chapter 11, Romans chapter 11, just to get you in touch with God’s remnant. Romans chapter 11, verse 2: “God has not rejected His people.” Now remember, this is the apostle Paul after, really, hundreds of years of rejection and rebellion by the people of God. God has not rejected His people; they have rejected Him, with the exception of a remnant. He has not rejected His people whom He foreknew, whom He predetermined to covenant with, to love, and to redeem.

Do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? And this is what Elijah said: “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life”—“That’s how bad off Your people are.”

“But what is the divine response to him? ‘I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’” There’s a remnant, even though Elijah didn’t see it. Verse 5, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. [And] it is,” as verse 6 says, “by grace.” There’s always, always a remnant. Salvation has come to the remnant. It has come to those Jews who will believe, who will turn to God.

And when you come into the New Testament, obviously, Judaism is apostate, far from God. They have a superficial knowledge of God, but they don’t know Him at all. They think they have pleased God with their religious structure, but they have no relationship with Him at all. They are alienated from Him.

And so Jesus comes, and the apostles, and they’re a new generation of preachers. And what is their message to Israel? “Turn, turn, turn. Repent. Believe in the true God. Turn from your works-righteousness system.”

And how do they respond to the preachers? The same way they responded to the Old Testament preachers. They killed the prophets, stoned the messengers that God sent them in the past, and they actually killed the greatest preacher of all: Jesus Himself. And then they proceeded to do their best to obliterate His agents, the apostles.

This is the history of Israel, and it goes on even to this very day. When you have the nation of Israel unwilling to acknowledge the true God and His will and His salvation through the one Savior, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But God always has His preachers, and He always has a remnant. And even today, there is a remnant of Jews, and they are bound together with Gentiles in the church where the middle wall is torn down, as Ephesians tells us, and we are all one in Christ.

That early generation of preachers, Jesus and the apostles, passed on that responsibility to the next group, the elders of the New Testament churches. Paul said to Timothy, “The things that I’ve taught you, the things you’ve seen in me, do those, and the things that I’ve told you to do, find other faithful men and teach them the same truths.”

So every generation—starting in the Old Testament, to Christ and the apostles, and the next generation, and all since then—has passed down the message of salvation and the gospel. And there have always been preachers, always. And there’s always been a remnant. Church history is filled with preachers who continue the apostolic preaching of Christ crucified and Christ risen to this present day. That, by the way, is why we have The Master’s Seminary, because we’re passing the baton to the next generation of preachers.

But with regard to Israel, it does seem somewhat fruitless. How many times have I endeavored to give testimony of the gospel to Jewish people without a response? How many missionaries have found their way to the nation Israel in recent years and are holding forth the word of life there? There are many who are coming to Christ. There is a remnant. Churches are being established. The gospel is being preached and believed.

But that promise of the salvation of Israel seems an impossible dream. It isn’t, and this text is an insight into that. What’s going on here is God, in verses 1 and 2, is measuring the Temple and the altar and those who worship in it.

Where are we in time, in chapter 11? We’re in the time of the Tribulation. We’re in the future, the Day of the Lord, the final era of judgment. The church has been taken to glory. Divine wrath has begun to be unleashed, starting in chapter 6 and running all the way to the return of Christ in chapter 19. And that divine wrath is described in seven seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments, and seven bowl judgments, telescoping out of each other.

During that period of judgment, we get the details. The seal judgments tell us there will be false peace in the world, followed by war, famine, earthquakes, pestilence, death, vengeance, and the collapse of the universe. The trumpets will then bring about the destruction of one-third of the earth, one-third of the seas and its creatures, one-third of ships. One-third of fresh water, one-third of the sun and moon. And then, following the natural disasters, will come hell belching out millions of demons.

First, the release of bound demons who come out of the pit to harm people. They can’t kill them, but they can harm them. And they are then followed by 200 million demons who come to kill a third of humanity with fire, brimstone, and smoke. And the seventh trumpet hasn’t even sounded. But out of the seventh trumpet, when it is sounded—and we’ll see that down in verse 15—come the seven bowl judgments described over in chapter 16, which are worse judgments yet. So the whole world in the future time of the Tribulation is going to be under judgment that is unfathomable, unfathomable.

Now John was given an opportunity to participate in his vision in chapter 10, you remember? The angel had the little book, which is the title deed to the earth, and John then entered into the vision and was told to eat the book; and he ate it, and it was sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. What does that mean? That when these days of judgment come, while they are profoundly bitter, as all the ungodly will be destroyed, there’s a sweetness. How can that be? How can that be a sweet savor? Because salvation will at the same time fill the earth.

The salvation, according to chapter 7, of people from every tongue and tribe and nation, and the salvation of the Jews, starting with 144,000—12,000 from every tribe—who will then become missionaries for the rest of the nation and the rest of the world. There will even be an angel flying in mid-heaven, according to chapter 14, proclaiming the gospel. So even in that time of judgment, God will have His witnesses, and we meet them here, two of them, in chapter 11, two witnesses. And of particular interest to these two witnesses is the salvation of Israel. That’s why this section begins with the Lord measuring out the Temple, the altar, and those who worship there.

This is fascinating. God will have His preachers, as He always has. He will always have His preachers. But it will be more than a remnant of Israel in the Tribulation. All Israel will be saved after the rebels have been purged out.

So again, John was drawn into the vision in chapter 10, and he’s drawn into this vision in chapter 11. In chapter 10, he was drawn in to eat the scroll. Here, he is drawn into this amazing vision, and he’s told to measure, to measure. This is part of his ministry responsibility, to measure.

What is he measuring? Well, see the word “measuring rod” there in verse 1. It’s kalamos . It really refers to a reed that grew in the Jordan Valley. It could grow to heights as much as 20 feet. It was very straight, it had a hollow center, and it was very light; and it was used for a lot of things. It could be filed down and used as a pen, dipped in ink. It could be used as a staff or like a cane. But it was definitely used as a measuring stick, like a yardstick. There is an illustration of this in Ezekiel chapter 40, verse 5, where you have a nine-foot-tall, one of these kalamos sticks, used to measure the Temple in the millennial kingdom.

John is told then to get up, take the measuring rod, and measure the Temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. This focuses directly on Israel. This is an act of God. And what is he saying here? By measuring this out, God is saying, “This is Mine. This is Mine. This is My property; I possess this.” Very much the way you have a measuring in chapter 21 and verse 15, the measuring of the New Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven, is all measured out. God is making note of His property; He is marking off what belongs to Him. And in the middle of all this judgment, God is going to mark off the Temple and the altar and the people who are worshiping there.

Now, what does that tell you? Well, during the Tribulation there’s going to have to be a Temple. The word “temple” is naos . It means the inner temple. It means the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. That’s going to be reconstructed.

That ought to be delightful news to the Jews; that’s what they desire more than anything. And, of course, they want that on the Dome of the Rock where the Muslims have established their global religion. But in the time of the Tribulation, God is going to reclaim that location. There’s going to be a temple and an altar, which means there’s going to be sacrifices and there are going to be people coming to worship there. This could be any Jews. They will come to worship there. That’s part of God bringing them to salvation.

Let me give you a picture of this by comparing it to something in Zechariah. Turn back to Zechariah chapter 2, and I’m going to bring you back so you’ll understand what I’m endeavoring to communicate here.

In chapter 2, verses 1 to 5, Zechariah also has a vision of the prophet, and he “lifted up [his] eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand.” Very similar. “So I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And he said to me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.’” And here again, God is going to measure out what will belong to Him.

“And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, and said to him, ‘Run, speak to that young man saying, “Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. For I,” declares the Lord, “will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.”’”

This is a vision. This is a vision of God claiming, as His personal property, Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom, in the reign of Christ. How do we know that? Because it “will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.” It will be a massive population that would overflow the ancient size of Jerusalem. That speaks of the millennial kingdom. But even more importantly, it has to be the millennial Jerusalem because God “will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst,” says the Lord. This is the glory of Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom. And by the way, in that millennial kingdom, Jerusalem will be all-glorious, and there will be a temple, a millennial temple; and it’s described, and its worship is described, in Ezekiel chapter 40 and following.

So in Zechariah, you have the prophecy that there will be the kingdom, and the kingdom will be all-glorious, and God will be the presence of the kingdom and the protector of those in the kingdom, and the kingdom will be so broad as to overflow all the bounds of any ancient imagination of the size of Israel. His kingdom will cover the earth, centered in Jerusalem. This is the promise that God will do this: He’s measuring it out; “This belongs to Me.”

Now let’s stop and ask the question, Why is God so stuck on Israel that He’s promising them here a millennial Jerusalem and a millennial temple and millennial glory, when their history is so much rebellion? Because in the end, that’s what He’s going to do. He’s measured it out.

Ask yourself this: Why did God choose Israel? Why did He choose a nation? Out of all the world, why did He select one nation to make a covenant with them? What was He trying to accomplish through them? Well, I’ll give you the things that I think are true about His commitment to Israel.

Number one, He chose a nation to, basically, proclaim Him. In the midst of polytheism, in the midst of multiple gods of all kinds, there was the need to have a witness nation, the nation that would say, “The Lord is one. The Lord, the true and living God, is one. All others are false gods.” Isaiah 43:21 says, “The people whom I formed for Myself will [recount] My praise.” He called Israel to be His witness nation to declare Him the one true God.

Secondly, He needed a nation through whom He could bring the Messiah. When He chose Abraham, He said, Abraham’s seed would be a vast nation and bless the entire world. And Galatians 3 says that seed ultimately was Christ Himself. God chose Israel to proclaim the true God and to be the nation that brought forth a Savior of the world.

Thirdly, God chose Israel to be His nation to be, really, a nation of priests, an intermediary between the pagan world and the true and living God. Chose them to represent Him as a kingdom of priests. If a Gentile wanted to know the truth, he would have to go and find a Jew who had the law of God, and that Jew could be the priest, the intermediary that led him to God. God provided them with a sacrificial system and priestly ordinances by which sinners could approach God.

Fourthly, God chose Israel to preserve and transmit Scripture. Romans chapter 3 begins that way, saying He gave them His Word, and they are the stewards of it—Old Testament, and even in the New Testament. They were the ones who received it; Jewish people who wrote down the inspired text.

Number five, He chose Israel as a nation to show His grace to those who repent. Go back to Exodus chapter 34. This is worth a comment or two.

In Exodus 34 God says to Moses, as the nation is about to be formed and enter into the Promised Land, the Lord descends in a cloud, Exodus 34:5. And the Lord in verse 6 “passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.”

God needed a nation in which He could demonstrate His grace, His mercy, His compassion, His lovingkindness. And Micah the prophet says, “Who is a God like You, who forgives iniquity . . . ?” There was no other deity like the true God. So to proclaim Him, to bring Messiah, to represent Him as a kingdom of priests, to preserve and transmit Scripture, to show His grace to those who repent, God chose a nation.

And then He also chose them to show His judgment. Go back to verse 7 of Exodus 34: “He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” Israel demonstrated all of this, all of this. They were examples of grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and they were examples of justice and judgment.

But there’s one other thing that strikes me as so very important. If you’re keeping a list, this would be number seven: He chose a nation to demonstrate His faithfulness, His irrevocable love. And that is the message that the apostle Paul gives in Romans chapter 11, that God’s love for Israel, His promise to Israel, is irrevocable.

Listen to Romans 11:26, “All Israel will be saved”—that’s unequivocal—“just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’ ‘This is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.’” Verse 29, “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Israel, a nation used to proclaim the true God, to bring the Messiah, to intercede on behalf of other nations and bring them to the true God, to preserve and transmit Scripture, to show illustrations of divine grace and divine judgment, and to demonstrate God’s faithfulness.

How important is God’s faithfulness to you? I would say it’s the most important thing to me. I mean, I’ve put a lot of stock in God’s faithfulness for my whole life. How do I know that God is going to be faithful to the promises that He made to me, or to you, or to the church? How do we know God is going to keep His promises? How do we know there can’t be things that can interrupt that and change its course? Answer: Look at Israel.

Chosen to be a witness nation, they failed miserably at that. Chosen to put God’s attributes on display, they miserably failed at that. Chosen to demonstrate adherence to His law, they failed miserably at that. And yet, God says, “I am marking off Jerusalem,” in Zechariah 2, “for the future. My glory will be there, and I will protect the people who gather in that millennial glory: the people of Israel.” This is amazing faithfulness.

I understand why some people want to deny that the future of Israel is still in place. There are people who say, “No, no, no, the church replaces Israel.” Really? God promised Israel a millennial temple in Zechariah, but right here in Revelation 11—go back to it—He promises them a tribulation temple; and this is critical. This is critical because it is in the period of the Tribulation that the salvation of Israel takes place. And part of it is this temple.

They have no temple now. They haven’t had one since 70 AD. They’ve had all kinds of Gentile occupiers. And yes, there will be a millennial temple in the millennial Jerusalem. But here we find out that God is measuring out a temple and an altar and those who worship in it during the time of Tribulation. God will restore their ancient system, their ancient system.

The prophets had always told of a temple in the future. Amos said that. Micah said it. Haggai said it. Zechariah said it. There would be a temple, a glorious temple in the end.

But there’s another temple in the Tribulation. How do you know that? Because it’s here in the middle of the Tribulation that the Lord measures it out. Furthermore, in Daniel 9, during that time of the Tribulation, what happens? The Antichrist makes a pact with Israel—some kind of an alliance—and in the middle of the seven years, he violates it and commits what Daniel calls “the abomination of desolation” in the Temple. And Jesus referred to that in Matthew 24:15 and 16.

So there will be a Tribulation temple. So if you’re counting temples, there was Solomon’s temple, then there was Zerubbabel’s temple, then there was Herod’s temple destroyed in 70 AD. There will be a millennial temple, but there will also, before that, be a Tribulation temple. God is still going to hold on to His people.

The hope of the Orthodox Jews today is the rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount, where they believe they have a right to build it. Well, I have good news for them. There will be a temple. It’ll be there, and it’ll be established; it’ll be built, and it’ll be functioning, even in the middle of this massive judgment.

And why is that important? Because as the Jews come together to be a part of that long-awaited temple, something begins to happen. The two witnesses are going to begin to preach to them, and it’s going to be effective. How do you know that? Because verse 13, the very last comment: “[They] gave glory to the God of heaven.” The two witnesses focus on Jerusalem, and the effect of their ministry is the population giving glory to the God of heaven. This is a reference to the impact of these two witnesses God uses in the salvation of the future nation of Israel.

Let me take you back to Zechariah again, chapter 12. Chapter 12. There’s a lot to look at, but I’ll just pick out a few things.

Chapter 12 says many times over and over and over, “In that day,” “in that day,” “in that day,” “in that day.” Even though Jerusalem is under assault and under attack, “In that day”—verse 8, Zechariah 12—“the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” He will defend them. Verse 9, “I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

There’ll be a temple. There’ll be an altar and sacrifices being offered. Jewish people will be worshiping there. The nations will assault, attack, under the leadership of Antichrist. God will defend Jerusalem; He’ll defend them. He’ll defend them so well that “one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them.” He’s going to make them strong, and He will destroy the nations.

And then verse 10, it’s in that context, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication, so they will look on Me whom they have pierced”—the one they crucified—“and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son; they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” In the midst of the nations attacking Antichrist turning on them, they’ll be in their Temple worshiping, and everything will come clear: Oh. They’ll look on the one they pierced and realize He was their Messiah.

Chapter 13, verse 1, “In that day”—again—“a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” They’re going to be cleansed. They’re going to be saved.

Go down to verse 8: “‘It will come about in all the land,’ declares the Lord, “two parts of it will be cut off and perish’”—two-thirds of the Jewish people will be cut off and perish in unbelief—“‘but [a] third will be left.’” That’s that final remnant. “And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.” And here it is: “They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

That is a long time in coming, wouldn’t you say? That’s what the prophets of the Old Testament tried to get people to do throughout their history. That’s what Jesus called them to, the apostles called them to, and they were stiff-necked, hard-hearted. “But in that day”—back to Revelation 11—“measure it out. It’s going to belong to Me—the Temple, the altar, and the worshipers.”

And then in verse 2 He adds this: “Leave out the court which is outside the temple, do not measure it.” Such an interesting statement. There was an outer court in the Temple, ancient Temple, that was for the Gentiles, the Court of the Gentiles. He’s saying, “This is not to include them. I don’t have a Gentile covenant.” Yes, He has the church, but the church is raptured and gone. “I don’t have any covenant with the nations of the world.” Yes, people from all the nations will be saved, Revelation 7, every tongue and tribe and people and nation during that seven-year period. I believe it will be the greatest ingathering of salvation in human history. But it is Israel that is God’s own possession.

God doesn’t say, “I’m going to take a third of the Gentiles.” No. The Jews are the privileged people of God’s covenant. And it’s just a stunning thing to understand, if you ever have an inkling of questioning the faithfulness of God, to think about how they treated Him, and how in the end He is faithful to them.

They are privileged people. Gentiles have no such privilege. Oh, we’re welcome in the church. There’s neither Jew nor Gentile in the church. But in that future, while He saves Israel, the nations will reject.

Look at verse 2 again: “It has been given to the nations; [that] they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.” That’s three-and-a-half years. While God is saving Israel, the nations are going to be trying to destroy Israel. While God is conducting worship in Jerusalem, the nations are going to be endeavoring to destroy Jerusalem.

So you have this remnant of Jews coming to salvation, and at the same time, you have the entire world lined up in what amounts to the full Battle of Armageddon being waged against the purposes of God. The same limits are put on Antichrist in chapter 13. He gets forty-two months, 1,260 days. That’s the second half.

So God saves Israel. A third of the nation constitutes that saving covenant fulfillment. The Gentiles from every nation, tongue, and tribe, and people individually will hear the gospel and believe, as chapter 7 says, but the Gentile world will turn their attention to Jerusalem, and they will do everything they can to destroy it. And that’s when God will be its protector. At the end of the forty-two months, three-and-a-half years, Christ returns, destroys Antichrist and his forces, judges the nations, and establishes His kingdom.

If there’s a message in this, it is clearly the faithfulness of God, is it not? God keeps His promises; He keeps His covenants. And if you ever questioned whether He would keep the covenant He made with you, the New Covenant in Christ, look at Israel, look at Israel.

A few minutes ago, Johnny sang about God’s faithfulness. Everything that we hold onto, everything, the hope of heaven is all dependent not on us, but on His faithfulness. He keeps His promises. What the Lord promises, what He covenants, He fulfills. He will for Israel, and He will for us.

Father, again, we feel like we have somehow been carried away into a realm of truth that is so exalted, so wondrous, so precise, as to be, perhaps, only fit for those who are glorified. Why should we be so privileged to know all of this? Why is it important for You to show us what Your future for Israel is? And the answer comes ringing through: so that we know You keep Your promises.

You are a covenant God who is faithful. And one of Your promises we read earlier: that if you confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That’s a promise. And we hold onto that promise. We do confess Jesus as Lord. We do believe that He rose from the dead as the validation of His substitutionary atonement and its efficacy. And it’s on Your faithfulness that we rest.

We thank You that You have given us such a dramatic illustration of the covenant-keeper that You are, and how that encourages our own hearts because along the way, we certainly come up with enough reasons to think that we are unworthy, that You would have every right to let us go, as You would have had the people of Israel. And yet, You held Your promise. This is everything to us. He that has promised is faithful, faithful to bring us to glory, to bring us to that inheritance that is laid up in heaven for us, to bring us into Your presence and perfect us in the image of Christ.

This is our longing, our desire, that we may be conformed to Him. We long for that. Thank You that we can be confident, and it will be a reality for all who are genuinely Your people. And they are so by faith in the Savior, the Redeemer. This is the glory of the gospel and the hope of the gospel, and we give You all the praise in Christ’s name. Amen.