Mike Bickle emphasizes the critical importance of understanding Romans chapter 11, which outlines God's end-time prophetic plan concerning Israel and the Gentiles. He explains that this chapter reveals a mystery about Israel's temporary spiritual blindness, the coming fullness of the Gentiles, and the eventual salvation of all Israel. Bickle warns against ignorance and arrogance regarding this mystery, urging believers to recognize their role in provoking Israel to jealousy through love and support. He stresses that the church's response to Israel will significantly impact their spiritual safety and the unfolding of God's plan in the end times.

I ask you to open our understanding and set our heart on fire, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, Romans chapter 11 is one of the most important passages in the whole Bible, in terms of chapters, that describes Jesus' leadership in the earth and the generation He returns. I want to say that again. Romans chapter 11, I'm sure that it's new to some of you, is one of the most important chapters in the whole Bible, describing Jesus' leadership. Or you can say it a different way, what the Holy Spirit is emphasizing in the church, in the generation that the Lord returns. And I believe we're in that generation. I believe we're in the early days of that generation. That's my personal conviction. We need to know what Romans 11 is about. Very important. And I find that most believers that I know are very unfamiliar with this chapter. And this is not just nice information. This is critical information for our lives. It affects our lives, our marriages, our future marriages, children, future children. It really will. And hopefully you'll understand a little bit more of that when I'm finished tonight. Although I don't plan to go into a whole lot of detail. My real desire tonight is just to point out the seriousness of this information. And how relevant it is for your life. And to set you on a journey of saying, hey, you know, I think I'm going to start paying attention to Romans 11. It's kind of an odd chapter. When I first read it, I couldn't hardly follow the logic at all. But having stayed with it a few years, it gets clearer. It's really a clear message. And we hope to make it clear to you as well, to help you out on your journey. I don't mean just tonight. I'm just talking about just our leadership team. This is something we really care about. It's Romans 11. Well, let's look at verse 25 right here on the handout. Romans 11, verse 25 and 26. I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. And a mystery is a hidden plan. It's the hidden master plan in God's heart. God has a master plan He's working from. When the scripture says mystery, it talks about something that can't be known except the Holy Spirit reveal it. Now the Holy Spirit did reveal it to the apostles. It's in the New Testament. It's written clearly. However, that's only the first ministry of the Holy Spirit. Is it giving it to the apostles and getting it written in the scripture? But it does take Holy Spirit help to understand this. So just know that. It's like the apostles. The Lord said, I'm going to die and raise from the dead. And then when he died, right before he's going to die, the guys went, what do you mean? He said, I've been telling you this for a long time. I'm going to die. They go, we don't get it. It's a mystery. The girls got it, but the guys never got it. And then when he rose from the dead, the ladies believed, but the guys didn't. I'm talking about his number one leader since the apostles. He stood in front of them and he rebuked them for their hardness of heart. Standing in the resurrection and they still said, this is intense. Are you sure it's you? When he met the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Here it is. Jesus preaching Jesus. You know, it never gets better than that. Here's the resurrected Jesus preaching from the Bible on himself. And they don't know who he is. Here's my point. God has a plan. He has a mystery. I don't mean it's mysterious. That's not the point I'm trying to say. It was a plan he's hidden in his heart. He didn't tell the Old Testament prophets a lot of details about this plan. He gave a few hints. But to the apostles in the New Testament, he goes, I'm going to give you a lot more information. I'm going to bring you into this secret plan called this mystery. However, now that it's recorded in the word of God, we are beckoned to come and understand it. However, I have found that this mystery has tripped more good men and women of God through 2,000 years of church history. They did not get it all their days. And for 2,000 years of church history, the primary description has been the church has been ignorant of this mystery. The church has been ignorant for 2,000 years of this dynamic. Paul said, I don't want you ignorant of it. Most of the body of Christ worldwide is ignorant of this mystery. It's three essential parts to this plan, to this mystery. Mystery or plan, you can use that almost interchangeably. There's three parts. Now you could lay it out in a half a dozen different ways. I would say this. I don't say this is a rebuke. I really don't. Most of the people in this room are probably unfamiliar with this plan and this mystery. Meaning if I said, put the notes down, close your Bibles, and just turn to your neighbor right now and tell them the three or four key points in Romans 11. I won't do that. Don't worry. Most of the people in the body of Christ worldwide, I'm not picking on us, would go, isn't that the thing about Israel? Something about Israel, right? Beloved, we can't be ignorant of this. And I'm going to tell you, it's real serious in a minute. Why? And Paul says why we can't be ignorant. It's not enough that we know it. We've got to be able to tell the ones we love about it too. We've got to be able to articulate it. So this little handout, simple handout, I'm just hoping to identify a couple of points. And if you're just totally new at this, give yourself a little mercy. Be patient. Read through it and go, I still don't get half of it. That's okay. That's a normal response. But what you want to say in your heart is, you know, I don't get it. And Mike, your handout, I know you meant well, but it wasn't that clear. That's fine too. But say in your heart, I'm going to stay with this thing because God said through Paul, I don't want you ignorant. I don't want you uninformed about these details. That's enough, right? But hopefully by the end of this, you're going to have a little more fire under you than even that point right there. Let's read verse 25 again. I do not desire that you would be ignorant of this mystery. Why? Lest you should be wise in your own opinions. Now in the other verses, verse 18 and verse 20, he says, unless you be conceited or lest you be haughty or proud, depending on the translation. Here he says it so that, but I mean in the same chapter, verse 18 and 20, he says, lest you be conceited. And beloved, I want to say this. Much of the body of Christ is haughty about this issue. They're conceited. And what I mean by that, they're proud. They have a view of what God's doing with Israel. That is against the scripture. And they use the very scriptures to validate their view. They didn't get it by revelation. They didn't get it with a spirit of devotion at the feet of Jesus. And a heart of, I love you, I love you, Jesus. Tell me anything you want. They did it through natural human wisdom and logic. And they have confidence in it. And the Bible calls that arrogance. And I know many, many good men and women, theologians, have a completely wrong view of this. I mean, completely against the plain sense of what the scripture is saying here. And Paul warned it. Church history and church history by and large has been arrogant. They've had a boldness that they understand. And they go against the main, simple, plain sense interpretation of this text. Yet they're bold and they're adamant. They have energy and they promote it. And the Bible calls that arrogance. And Paul said, don't be wise in your own estimation. Or in verse 18 or verse 20, he says, don't be arrogant. Don't be conceited before God about this. Don't be a know-it-all in this subject. Humble yourself, Gentiles, and listen to what I'm telling you. Thus says the Lord. I was in that same place. I had the common view that the church replaced Israel and Israel was finished. And I was taught that by my leaders, and I taught that. Everybody knew that. Most Gentile believers around the world just kind of assume that. If they've studied the subject, that's kind of what they assume. And there was a point in time when the Lord touched my heart and said, I want you to humble yourself of your arrogance. You were wrong. You did not get that by revelation. Go back over. Become a student. Become a learner. Become a child before me. And let me give you the simple, again, it's real straightforward, what Romans 11 says. But I was just taught the normal way that the church replaced Israel. The church did not replace Israel. That's absolutely not a biblical doctrine. For I do not desire, brethren, you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise or you should be arrogant. Wise in your own opinion. And here's what he tells him. He gives him now a three-part plan from heaven. Number one, and in my handout, I changed the order around because it's a little bit easier to take them in a different order when I explain them. Number one, that blindness, spiritual blindness, in part, but for the most part as well, the vast majority, spiritual blindness happened to Israel. That's part number .1. There's a lot of implications to that. You might think, why do I care? You do care. This really does affect your life on Monday morning before it's over. It really does. First reading, you might not think it has anything to do with you. You're just a Gentile in America trying to make an honest living or trying to just do your ministry or go to school. What difference does it make? It will matter dynamically to understand this. Right here in America, in our lifetime. Point number two, he says, I want you to know that this spiritual blindness is temporary. It's going to lift when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. But the point number two is, the fullness of Gentiles, one of the great realities on God's divine calendars, the fullness of the Gentiles, it's yet to come. The fullness of Gentiles has not come yet. The greatest revival the Gentile believers have ever seen, far eclipsing, far surpassing the book of Acts, is yet ahead of us. It's called the fullness of Gentiles. That's number two point. The fullness of the Gentiles is going to come in, and when it comes in, it lifts off the spirit of blindness on Israel. Again, I know that a number of you say, I'm not connecting yet. That's okay. Just get the information in your head and we'll connect it later and then more just as time goes by. Verse 26, number three, all Israel is going to be saved. One guy says, now what does that mean? It means that all of Israel is going to be saved. A hundred percent, all, a hundred percent, every single Jewish man or woman, boy or girl, that survives the tribulation, that's alive when the Lord returns, and there will be millions of them, unbelievers at that time, 100% of them will be saved. It's related to the second coming of Christ. Thousands are getting saved now. And maybe we may even lead a million or two to the Lord. Who knows between now and the second coming of the Lord. But we're not going to lead every Jew to Jesus on this side of the second coming. But when the Lord returns, it'll take us still even a process of time. It's not like they just see him in the sky and then they're saved the next moment. There still will be a process. But every single, every single Jewish man or woman that has not taken the mark of the beast, that has not apostate, that has not reprobate, that has survived that time, there'll be millions, literally millions of them. Five, six, seven million of them. I don't know their number, but it's a giant number. They will come to Jesus red hot. I mean radical believers in the Lord. Let's go to the passage below. Paul asks the question, Have they, that means Israel, stumbled so that they should fall? That's the question. And what he's asking them, he says, this idea of falling, what Paul means is, have they fallen from their divine invitation and divine opportunity to be God's primary instruments of bringing the salvation of Jesus to the earth? See, from Abraham to the first coming of Jesus, that's 2,000 years. The most anointed people on the earth who talk about God, the true God of Israel, the only God. For 2,000 years, by far, the most anointed prophets, the most anointed kings, were all Jewish. God had given Israel the primary place of responsibility and the primary place in the anointing to bring the message of God to the Gentiles. They had that position. They were in first place. Not that there were not Gentiles. There were some Gentiles that the Lord anointed and touched. Some Gentiles jumped in and the Lord blessed them and used them. Cornelius is an excellent example in Acts chapter 10. He was a Gentile on fire for the God of Israel, the devoted man of prayer. The Lord visited him in supernatural ways and used him powerfully. There were Gentiles God used. But the number one, the heaviest, the most powerful, heavy is not the right word, the most powerful anointing were all among the Jewish people. But that was Abraham to Jesus. That's 2,000 years. That's 2,000 B.C. to whatever, you know, 0 A.D., whatever, 30 A.D. 2,000 years, just speaking in broad strokes. But since Jesus to now, the last 2,000 years, the most anointed people in the last 2,000 years have all been Gentiles. There's a shift. Israel has fallen from her primary place of bearing the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Lord still wants to use Gentiles after this, but he says, Israel, I'm going to bring this thing back to you. You haven't stumbled by denying me. For 2,000 years, you haven't lost as a nation the chance for me to raise up apostles and prophets from among Israel to be even more powerful than the apostles and prophets in the book of Acts. So he asked the question, has Israel stumbled by denying Jesus, by refusing him at his coming, and all through the last 2,000 years, have they stumbled so as to lose their opportunity to be anointed again and lead the charge worldwide? And Paul goes, no. There's a surprise turn of events coming. This isn't to take anything away from God's anointing on Gentile believers. The Lord's going to anoint Gentile believers, even on through the millennial kingdom. Gentile believers and kings will be powerfully anointed. They'll prophesy and heal the sick and preach Jesus powerfully. But the most anointed of all in the 1,000-year reign of Jesus will be of the tribe of Israel, or of the nation of Israel. There's a better way to say it. So Paul says, have they stumbled so as to fall? He goes, no. Is God finished with his plans to anoint them in a global way to change history? No. And be clear of this. Be clear of this. There's only one way for Jews to be saved. That's through Jesus. And there's only one calling. That's to bring the light and the message of Jesus to the nations. There isn't some other Moses deal going on. I hear these different ones and all these ideas about, well, they love God but not Jesus. They don't get the Jesus thing. I go, no, no. It's Jesus or it's not the true God of Israel. And so when Paul says, have they stumbled through their 2,000 years of rejecting? And, of course, in Paul's day, the stumbling was just happening. But now in our day, 2,000 years of stumbling. Have they lost their divine calling to be the primary or to bear on an anointing, to have apostles and prophets with the anointing second to none to lead the charge? Beloved, it's going to happen. When the Lord returns. We have this idea the Lord is returning and he waves his hand over the earth and all of a sudden everybody's saved. No, absolutely not. The Lord returns and evangelism kicks into a whole other level. But it still has to happen. Signs and wonders, prophesying, apostolic ministries, church planting, the reconstruction of nations, building infrastructures, building Bible schools, and there will be many, many anointed Gentiles. But the most anointed who are leading the charge, you know, the Reinhard Bonnke's and the Billy Graham's that are leading the charge, the most notable ones will mostly be Jewish. You say, well, that's nice. The Lord returns. Everything will take care of itself. No, no. There's a dynamic, dynamic relationship between literally this time right now. I don't mean the year 2005 versus 2006, but right now in 2005 there's a dynamic relationship and continuity to what happens in the next couple of decades and the Israel receiving this anointing. And it has to do with Gentiles responding in a certain way for this to happen. It's not going to happen just automatic. The Scripture says that Gentiles have to play their part in this. The Lord says it's critical that you play your part in this. Of course, most Gentile believers don't even believe God's got a purpose for Israel. They don't know anything about it. And so when it comes down to real time and money and energy and prayer meetings, they go, I'm just not into the Israel thing. I'm into the, you know, I'm into street preaching or evangelism or I'm into businesses or I'm really into Bible teaching. I'm not into Israel. As though Israel is one of the topics, you know, of one of the diverse callings Israel. The issue of Israel, I want to say this strongly, is the issue of the prophetic church in the end times. The issue of Israel, and I know that doesn't make sense to everyone in this room yet, but the issue of Israel is the very line measuring rod of which the end time church will be measured by. It's not a calling like, well, I do these outreaches, but not those. I do the poor, but not the rich. Or I do the rich, but I don't really do the poor. I do Bible schools, but not outreaches. No, I do outreaches, but not Bible schools. I do businesses, but not church. I do church, but not business. I hear all these different combinations over the years. And then they throw Israel into the mix. It's not like that. Absolutely not. There is a dynamic relationship to what we do in the next couple of decades and what happens in Israel and Israel entering into their purpose and God's evaluation of our lives in the light of it. We'll see that in a minute. So Paul says, have they stumbled, has Israel stumbled, by sinning against Jesus and rejecting him so bad that they've lost their opportunity for world leadership again in the anointing? Paul goes, no, they haven't. Of course, Paul's writing this to the Roman, to the Gentile Christians in Rome, and they're going, well, it sure looks like they failed us. It looks like they've fallen from their place of leadership and opportunity in the grace of God. Paul goes, there's going to be a surprise turnaround in the end times. There's going to be a surprise turnaround. And Gentile believers are going to have a real, real important role in the surprise turnaround. But through their fall, God is using the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. God is using the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. It's a very important concept. We'll look at it in a few moments. Paul says, but through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, the Jews, salvation, the anointing, it's more than just Gentiles getting born again, but the most powerful of prophets and evangelists and apostles have come out of Gentile heritage and lineage, not out of Jewish. It's a total turnaround. When it says salvation has come to Gentiles, it doesn't mean that just Gentiles get born again, like we had to have Israel send so we could get born again. That's not what he's talking about. When it says salvation has come to the Gentiles, that means the most powerful apostles and prophets and evangelists, teachers and pastors will be among Gentiles, not Jews, and that's a total reversal from the early church. Salvation. The leadership of the salvation mandate to the globe has been in Gentile hands, but for a very strategic purpose. There's many reasons God's done that, but one reason is to stir Israel out of their lethargy. To wake them up in a most dramatic way. Verse 12. For if their fall, if Israel's fall, is riches for the world, I mean, if Israel lost her position, it's riches for the world. Why? Because Gentiles got that position, and the Gentiles, apostles, and prophets have brought the gospel to almost every nation. So, hey, the world's richer for it for the last 2,000 years. If Israel's failure has led to the riches of the Gentiles, meaning there's been anointed evangelists, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, there's been an anointing on Gentile believers. That's called riches for the Gentiles, and they've brought Jesus, and they've brought his teaching all through the earth. Not every nation, but, beloved, the Gentiles are getting close to having a witness of the gospel in every nation of the planet. The Jews didn't get close to it, but the Gentiles have done well in that regard. The Lord's honored. The Lord's blessed. That's called riches for the Gentiles. But Paul says now, he goes, if when Israel was doing bad, you still got some wealth, just think how much more when Israel enters into the fullness of their anointing, think how much wealth the Gentiles... He goes, if the Gentiles became rich in the Spirit because Israel stumbled, then the Gentiles are going to be doubly rich when Israel enters into her anointing. It's not going to be bad for the Gentiles. Here's what it's called. The end of verse 15. It says, what will their acceptance be? What will Israel's acceptance of the Messiah? And more than... not more than that, but in addition to that, acceptance of their responsibility in the anointing to bring the gospel of Jesus to all the earth. He goes, what will their acceptance be? It will be life from the dead. That means the millennial kingdom. That Israel under the anointing will be a critical, a critical part of God's plan to bringing the earthly kingdom, the messianic kingdom on all the nations of the earth. It will be life from the dead. It will affect the plants. It will affect the economy, all the world governments. Life from the dead. That's the millennial kingdom he's talking about. So the Jews go, okay, okay. What's the deal here? Let's get down to the brass tacks here. Okay, let's look at B on the notes. Paul had urgency that all would understand this. Now his urgency... Now we're going to get right to the urgency in a moment. His urgency is noteworthy. Because Paul has never visited the Gentiles in Rome. He's right into the church at Rome. He's never met them. And yet he speaks some really strong words, negative words to them. And they might say something like, Paul, ouch! You're speaking really intense to us. You don't even know us. Paul says you don't understand how urgent I am because you don't understand how important this message is for your safety. For your spiritual safety. And beloved, where this thing is going to land, it's going to be an issue of our own spiritual safety as Gentiles before the Lord returns. That's why it's so relevant. And that's why Paul had the urgency. Well, in the positive sense, first, I'll say this. The power of God, just like it was released through Moses for the salvation and deliverance of Israel, the power of God is going to be released in the end times not only related to Israel by any means. Because God's going to release the power of God to bring in the harvest, signs and wonders for the billion new Gentile converts in the earth. But let me tell you this. I believe the most extreme and dramatic expressions of the power of God will more often than not be related to this issue of the deliverance of Israel. Now, I could take 20-30 minutes and prove that from the Scripture. I'm not going to right now. I just want that to stir in your mind. I want you to go, really? You want to prophesy? You want to heal the sick? Well, get involved in the world harvest and evangelism. Because that's where the Holy Spirit moves with healings and prophecies in the midst of evangelism. But you want to bring that to its most intense place. That is in bringing the Word of God and the grace of God to Israel. The most hostile group to Jesus. But the most, it's not most necessary, but it's very necessary that they come to Him. God wants all people to come to Him. He promised in Micah 7, verse 15. He says, in the days, as in the days when you came out of Egypt. He's talking about the end times. He's talking about the generation of the second coming. He's talking about, I believe, our time here. He says, as it was in the days when you came out of Egypt. Remember, the miracles of Egypt. Moses lifted up his rod and all these great miracles happened. He goes, I'm going to show you the same miracles in that day. And that's going to be related to the same purpose of bringing God's salvation to Israel. It will be the most costly assignment. But it will be the assignment of which we will see the greatest and most extreme manifestation of miracles in this regard. It will be, I believe, the most costly assignment in the most general sense to bring the message of salvation to Israel. Because of what's going to happen. The great holocaust that's coming against Israel. And the church is going to stand, not just for Israel, but with Israel in it. Releasing signs and wonders and power. And it's around the corner. Maybe a couple decades away, maybe longer, maybe shorter. My sense is it's several decades away. But, beloved, they'll be here in a minute. Really, we'll be here in a minute. Look what it says here in Jeremiah 16. It says, the days are coming. It's talking about the generation the Lord returns. The days are coming, says the Lord. It shall no longer be said, Thus says the Lord who brought up Israel out of Egypt. He goes, you're not even going to talk about the great miracles of Egypt anymore. He goes, what you're going to say is, Thus says the... You're going to say, you're going to swear by the Lord, verse 15. The Lord lives who brought up Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He has driven them. For I will bring them back to their land. Here's the point. The days are coming that are yet future. They have not happened yet. That Israel is going to be so impacted by the display of power that when they say the Lord lives, when they talk about God in glowing terms, they're not... Right now, when you talk to a devout Jew, they say, the God of Moses. Moses is the major reference point. Either God of Elijah or the God of Moses. The God of Moses is far more than Elijah, because Elijah did miracles here and there. Moses did miracles that delivered the nation out of 400 years of slavery and broke the most powerful nation in the earth through miracles. And that's a picture of what the church is going to do with Israel against the Antichrist kingdom. The days are coming when Israel is not going to say, Our greatest day was with Moses. They're going to say, Our greatest day was in those years when God delivered us from the land of the north with miracles. Beloved, the most powerful hour of supernatural activity is yet ahead of not just the body of Christ, but the whole planet. And you know where those miracles are going to come from? Active participation with Gentile believers, actively participating in it. This is our story too, not just theirs. We are going to be... I'm talking about the Gentile believers worldwide. We are going to be among... I mean, in a significant way, God is going to call heroic obedience and risk and sacrifice of Gentile believers to go into the very jaws of the lion, right into the lion's den, right into the jaws of the lion himself, and stand there courageously, and God will release miracles in their midst to bring the salvation to Israel. It's fantastic. Well, that's the positive side. There's a negative side. Number two, and this is what Paul... Paul hits the negative side in Romans 11. He didn't even hit the positive side, barely. He calls it the fullness of the Gentiles. It means the full anointing on the Gentiles. So he hints at the great power coming on the Gentiles, but he doesn't really develop that in a real major way. But he really speaks about the negative side if Gentiles back away from this. Let's read in Romans 11, verses 18 to 22. Right here in the handout, he says, do not boast against the branches. The branches are Israel. He's using an agricultural analogy. He goes, don't boast against those branches, against Israel, because most Gentiles who talk about Romans 11, most Gentiles don't even talk about it, never even read it, but most Gentiles, I mean, those in the leadership, talk about Romans 11, talk against Israel with Romans 11. They interpret it against them. And Paul said, don't boast against Israel. Don't do that. Don't go there. But the Gentiles have done it for 2,000 years. Some of the greatest church, most famous church fathers, Martin Luther, St. Augustine, right down through the ages were against Israel. And to their shame, they were deceived. Great men of God with deception, a significant deception in their heart. John Calvin and many of them, some of the great ones of history had a significant deception and darkness in their thinking. Yet the Lord used them in their generation. But they contributed to great damage in the body of Christ, because our generation is still reeling under the negative influence of deception of men like that. Mighty men of God. Adolf Hitler used Martin Luther's teachings to get the Lutheran church on board to kill Jews. He appealed to Martin Luther. The Catholic church has done it for many centuries. Their theologians empowered and emboldened the church to kill Jews by interpreting Romans 11. Paul said, don't boast against Israel. Don't go there. But many, many of God's servants have done that. Verse 20. Don't be haughty or don't be conceited. I already quoted that. But rather, fear the Lord. Have trembling in your spirit about this subject. He goes, carefully, be careful about this subject. Don't just read a couple commentaries, do a little cut and paste theologizing and come up with your conclusions. Fear the Lord. This is an awesome subject, he's saying. Don't just read your favorite theologian and run with his stuff and promote his darkness. Fear the Lord. It's one of the most significant areas where good men and women of God do not fear the Lord in this subject. Good men and women of God. I mean people that love God, but they don't fear the Lord in this subject. The very thing that Paul urged them to do. Now here's the logic. It's going to get really intense here. Verse 22 is really intense. We'll start in 21. He goes, if God did not spare Israel, the natural branches. He's talking to these believers in Rome who he's never met. He goes, God may not spare you. They went, ouch! That's intense! There's this mighty apostle to the Gentiles, Paul. He goes, I'm telling you, with my apostolic authority and office, I know from heaven, if you back off of Israel, God may not spare you. And there's a process, and we'll talk about the process here. It's not just if they don't understand Israel, they're going to hell. It's not that cut and dry. It's not like that. He goes on to talk about it. A little more here. Verse 22, he says, consider. He goes, I want you to consider two things. Consider the goodness and consider the severity of God. And we're normally pretty big on considering the goodness of God. And that's a very important thing. We're commanded in the Bible. But what Paul really wanted them to do, he said he wanted them to consider the goodness, meaning how good this plan was. God was going to give the fullness of the anointing to the Gentiles. It's called the fullness of the Gentiles. He goes, that's good. God was going to join Jews and Gentiles together in a unity, and it's powerful. He goes, that's good. He goes, consider the goodness of how God freely forgives and how God gives a new beginning. Consider the goodness. But don't stop there. And this is what he really wants them to do, is to understand his next sentence. Consider the severity. Consider how severe God will break in with judgment on this subject. He says, the Lord will be severe about this. And you need to consider it. Most Gentiles that I know have never considered the severity of God related to this subject. They've never obeyed this passage. And I'm wanting our missions base, our spiritual family of FCF to consider this severity, to take this for real, and to make this known to the people we love. Then he goes on. He said, on those who fell, severity. But towards you, goodness. And they go, whew. They kind of relax. Thank you, Paul. Finally, you gave us a little relief here. He goes, if you continue in goodness. However, otherwise, even you will be cut off. He goes right back to the heavy stuff. C. Paul warns in this passage of the consequences. Now, here it is. C is probably one of the most important paragraphs in this handout. C warns. So mark a little arrow there or mark it on your neighbor. Mark arrow. Make sure you read this. There you go. Paul warns of the consequences of ignorance. Because he said, I don't want you ignorant. Remember in verse 25, he goes, I don't want you ignorant of this. And why is your estimation? Here's why. Ignorance can lead to arrogance. If we're ignorant, if we don't know what's going on, then we get this inappropriate confidence in our spirit that we understand when we don't. And then we write Israel off. Again, there are more theologians that have this boldness that they understand and it's directly in opposition to the revelation of God in this chapter. Directly in opposition. They have boldness. Again, that's called arrogance. Now, here's the problem. There's a progression of ignorance. There's a progression. Ignorance doesn't always just stay ignorance. If it stays ignorance and it never grows, that's not good, but it doesn't have eternal consequences. If ignorance just stays ignorance, many people for the last 2,000 years have been ignorant and they died ignorant of this subject, they still went to heaven. There's still a price to pay. There's still an inability to understand what God's doing with Israel. But look at this. Ignorance can easily become arrogance. Now, it doesn't always become arrogance, but it often does. They have this boldness in their spirit, this confidence, this even zeal to stand against Israel. I mean, it's amazing. I know more men of God that with boldness, a lot of the charismatic world, boldly against Israel. I don't go for this Israel stuff. Bless God, I'm for the church and everybody applauds. It's arrogance. Ignorance often, not always, leads to arrogance. But arrogance leads next to passive resistance. Then passive resistance over time, it's not an automatic, it's not an instant process, leads to active resistance. And I'll explain that in a minute. And active resistance leads to denying our faith. Apostasy means denying the faith. And then that leads to being cut off. And that's what Paul meant. He goes, if you resist, he goes, Paul didn't lay it all out. Step 1, 2, 3, 4. He goes, if you're arrogant, there's a couple steps between hearing God cutting you off. But if you get arrogant, you get resistant. You get resistant passively, it grows into active resistance. And then it grows into a whole other thing. It's called apostasy. Now, the context doesn't make sense at this point in time yet. For this arrogance that turns to apostasy is that there's going to be a tremendous, a tremendous turn of events. A tremendous turn of events is going to take place. Because right now, it says that Israel, in verse 25, has blindness. Spiritual blindness. When you talk to Israel about Jesus, Jews about Jesus, not all of them, because there's record numbers getting saved, but the numbers are still real small. There's spiritual blindness. They go, we're not into the Jesus thing. No, it's a supernatural operation. It's a supernatural activity on their heart, blinding them. So they have this minus one. I mean, the average Gentile, even the guy living in sin, talked about Jesus, he goes, I like my sin. I don't really get the Jesus thing. I like my sin. But the Jews are different than that. They go, I like my sin, but I hate this Jesus figure. I mean, there's a militancy. There's an anguish and an anger about the name. It's called blindness. So they're like way over here. They're the most hostile nation in the earth to Jesus Christ, is Israel. It's going to be a great reversal because the most hostile nation to Jesus is going to become the most devoted, lovesick nation to Jesus before it's over. But there's a bunch of steps in between. And we play a part. So how does Israel go from this hostility of blindness in verse 25 to verse 11 where they are provoked to jealousy? How are they going to go from hostility to jealousy? That's a big swing. Millions of them. Now Paul does not develop how that happens in Romans 11. But the scripture does. Plenty of places. And if all you read is Romans 11, you won't find the full logic of what's going on here. But Paul addresses the subject in other places. So here's the question. Paul leaves them with a pretty heavy dilemma in their thinking if they're thinking people. How is the most hostile nation towards Jesus who despises Gentiles? I mean has contempt for Gentiles. And their religion. Even Gentiles alone. Not just the religion, but Gentiles and the religion. That's a double whammy. They're going to swing from hostility to provoked jealousy. What's provoked jealousy mean? It means something is going to happen where they are going to want to they're going to love Gentile believers. And they're going to want to be like Gentiles spiritually. I don't mean culturally. They'll always have their Jewish culture. And Gentile cultures, there's a thousand different Gentile cultures in the earth. I don't mean culturally. Spiritually. What I mean by spiritually is they're going to want the relationship with God that Gentiles have with God. They are going to go from this contempt and hostility and they're going to look you in the eyes and they're going to say something really powerful has happened over these events that I'm going to talk about in a moment. And I used to despise you. But now I love you. I trust you. And I want the God you serve and I want to know him like you know him. That's called provoked by Gentiles. So now anybody who's thinking just simply, does not even take deep thinking. How does the most hostile nation towards Jesus and Gentiles become jealous and on fire with zeal and energy to receive from them and to be like them spiritually. It's a very, very intense end time scenario that's going to create that environment. Okay, let's go to the top of page two. I'm going to skip that. Okay, top of page three. Let's skip that. To the middle of page three. There you have it. You were kind of getting nervous there. You're looking at the clock going, oh my gosh, we got like four pages to go. Well, we just got right near, getting real close to the end here. The middle of page three. A coming crisis. This coming crisis is going to change everything. And our response to the Holy Spirit in this issue, in this coming crisis, will determine whether we deny the Lord or whether we're true to the Lord. Now a lot of Gentiles will go, I don't want this litmus test. I don't want this. And the Holy Spirit says, I'm not giving you the option. You, if you're ignorant, many of you will become arrogant and if you're arrogant, you will become resistant. And if you're resistant, sooner or later, not in 100% of the cases, but in many cases, it will lead to denying their faith. Paul's saying, you can't go that direction. Then God will cut you off. That's where it will go. Roman number two here. A coming crisis. The great tribulation will be the most severe time in history for everyone. For Israel, for the church, and for unbelievers. It will be the most severe time. It will be the church's greatest hour, but it will be our most severe hour. Look what it says here in Daniel chapter 12. At that time, Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, which means the time of the Antichrist. The reign of terror. There will be a time of trouble such as never was. Beloved, there is coming a time of trouble such as never existed in Israel. Israel is, their history is filled with trouble, but the angel tells Daniel, Daniel, Israel likes you, so you tell them. Whatever troubles they have between now and the second coming of the Messiah, tell them the worst of all their troubles will be just before the Messiah comes. It will be worse than 70 AD. It will be worse than Nazi Germany. The worst hour of Israel's history is just in those years, right before the second coming of Christ. It's still yet future. The worst time ever for Israel or the earth. Verse 7, the angel swore that would be for a three and a half year period. That's all. In other words, the swearing isn't that it would go that long. The swearing is it wouldn't go longer. He said, I swear to you by God, it won't go longer than three and a half years. And he says, and when this happens, the power of Israel will be completely shattered. Now, obviously, Israel as a nation, and even many Messianic believers in Israel, they don't like this prophecy. They don't buy it. They ignore it. I'm talking about devout Jews who don't love Jesus, who love the prophets. They don't like this prophecy. But the angel swore by heaven, by God himself, this time will be so severe, it will completely shatter the power of Israel as a nation. Someone says, what's that mean? I don't know. It's heavy though. He goes, will they do this, will they do that? I don't know. We don't have to go there. We just know it's heavy. Our point is to figure out all the nuances of what that means. Our point is that as Gentile believers, we are standing in the gap, 100 percent committed with them in the journey. And the faith of the Gentile church is on the line in this issue. Now, in case you think Daniel got a little excited, didn't really see the angel, he thought he saw the angel. But it really wasn't, he just was having a bad day. Jesus, the great prophet, yay, more than a prophet, the uncreated God who became man, quotes this prophecy. And he tells the apostles, go tell all of Israel this point. Daniel was right. The most severe time ever, he quotes it, word for word, is going to happen just before I return. Beloved, what happened in Nazi Germany will be surpassed again. And the church in Europe stumbled so bad in that hour. Not everybody, but by and large the church in Europe stumbled severely and has not recovered at all, even to this day. There's blazing bright lights of individual testimonies and little groups here and there that were remarkable in their devotion and obedience. And that was a warning to the church, because now what happened in not just Nazi Germany, in all of Europe, with the anti-Semitism, was a warning to the church worldwide, don't stumble like the church in Europe did. Don't do it. It will happen again. Jesus made it clear there's coming a time of tribulation, Matthew 24, verse 21. Such has never happened since the beginning of the world. He goes, pick any time in Israel's history, even after there will never be a time equal to it. There's no way to get around this. There's a time, the last three and a half years before Jesus is coming is when it happens. And the Lord is raising up the Gentile believers worldwide with the fullness of the Spirit. The fullness of the Gentiles is coming so they can stand in the gap as God's messengers of mercy, and it will be so radical it will provoke Israel to jealousy. It will make Israel change their entire opinion about Jesus and Gentile believers for those that stand. B. Satan's strategy to exploit a loophole in God's prophetic plan. Jesus bound himself by a prophecy, his own prophecy. He didn't have to, but he wanted to. He wasn't worried at all as he stood before the Pharisees, as he stood before them and rebuked them in Matthew 23 and wrote off that whole generation as being perverse and of the devil. He said this, and he wept over them. He said, I tell you, you have one more thing I say to you. His final words to the government of Israel. He's talking to the government of the nation, the Jewish government, the Sanhedrin, the scribes and Pharisees, the chief ones. You shall see me no more until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Every word is filled with meaning. Every word. I mean literally every word. I looked at this. They will see him again. The government of Israel. They will see him. He's coming at the second coming. But he will not come until they say with their mouth out loud as a government to Jesus. You are God. Blessed is he who comes from heaven. And the devil said something like this. I like that prophecy. That works for me. Because if Jesus comes back in any other condition besides the fulfillment of his word then he's a liar. And if Jesus is a liar then he cannot judge me and send me to hell for being a liar. So Satan decided, okay, that works. If there are no Jews they cannot receive him back. For real. Satan's agenda has been the complete extermination of the Jewish race. And he really took it up to another level in Nazi Germany. He got close to exterminating every Jew in Europe. Didn't get there. Just amazing. Satan is serious about this. The Antichrist is convinced when he begins his mission that he can pull this thing off. And I'm sure that something like, I don't want to say it that way, but somewhere in their communication he's saying something like this. Listen guy, I'll give you the earth but if you fail on exterminating every Jew this is the devil talking to the Antichrist you're in big trouble with me. Big trouble. The Antichrist says don't worry I won't fail. It's interesting isn't it that Adolf Hitler talked about the thousand year reign of Nazi Germany. He was promised, I'm convinced he was promised by a demon that if he killed the Jews he would get the thousand year reign. It was his main promotion. Nazism would reign for a thousand years. He had this fanatical fanatical compulsion to kill Jews. It was an act of worship. Human sacrifice. In exchange for world dominion. I'm convinced it wasn't in all the Germans minds, all the Nazis most of them were in it for money. But in his mind I am convinced it was an act of worship of human sacrifice with Satan for the exchange of world dominion to rule the world for a thousand years. His government. Total deception. Germany came and went down in flames. But the next man that comes says you know Adolf Hitler meant well in his evil. He was nothing. I'm far more powerful than him. And there is coming a global scenario far more intense than World War II. And this time the church cannot be silent. And the church wasn't 100% silent in Europe, just mostly. That's Satan's number one plan. Satan's not worried about a Gentile leading a Gentile to Jesus and then the Gentile dies and goes to heaven and gets out of his turf and out of his space. That's not what troubles him. Satan loves to throw Gentiles in hell. He loves that. But his big point isn't to throw people in hell. That's not his big point. His big point is to rule the earth and stay out of hell himself. Satan doesn't think about how he can send your friend to hell and stop you. I mean, he wants to stop you. But that's not the biggest thing on his agenda. Satan's demonic structures. They're involved in that. But Satan has a far bigger agenda than stopping Susie, Aunt Susie, from going to hell. He doesn't even like Aunt Susie. He doesn't care where Aunt Susie is. Just get her out of the way. She dies, goes to heaven. Get her raptured out of here. Pre-tribulation rapture. Just get her out of here. What Satan wants is two things. He wants world dominion and he doesn't want to go to the lake of fire. And if Jesus comes back, he doesn't get world dominion and he goes to the lake of fire. But if there's no Jews to receive him back, Jesus can't come back. Satan says, that works for me. I have a shot at this. And the Lord says, well, it's not going to work because the most powerful force in all of human history is going to be the Gentile believers at the end of the age under the full anointing of the Spirit and they will love me more than they love their own lives. They will come as the most powerful intercessory prophetic force in history fearless in the face of death and persecution. They will go right into the jaws of death under the anointing and stand with unbelieving Jews and say, we are here with you in the name of the Lord. And the Jews will go, what on earth are you talking about? Okay, go to page four. Provoke to jealousy. Four ways. It's not that it's limited to these four. B. One thing that we're going to do under the anointing of the Holy Spirit worldwide, it's one of my most important mandates as a messenger. As a preacher. My main mandate isn't to Israel per se to the church in Israel. I want to support those that are called there. My main mandate is to the Gentiles in the earth to get them ready for the most significant, severe, glorious time of any time in history is yet ahead of us. We're going to provide refuge for Jews in flight. Now, in flight from where? In flight from the Antichrist and his worldwide infrastructure. That's what I mean by in flight. Someone goes in flight from the land. Some will flee from the land and some will flee to the land. Some will flee from one neighborhood in Chicago to the other. One guy will flee from, you know, Tokyo and go over to Beijing. They'll flee all over in all directions. Some people say, well, they're all going to flee from Israel to Israel. They'll be in all kinds of directions in flight. They'll be fleeing from their persecutors. Some will flee from within the cities of this nation. And as in Nazi Germany, there were state laws and the Antichrist will do the same, that refusal, refusal, refusal, English is my second language, okay, to turn in a Jew in Nazi Germany was at the pain of death. The Gentile family did not turn in a Jew in hiding. Their family went to the death camps. That was the state law. And that state law is going to be put in place again, worldwide, all through America, everywhere. It won't be in every crook and cranny. There will be pockets of mercy. There will be places in the earth that just because of righteousness, there will be a protective hand of God. But I'm talking about worldwide, generally, there will be pockets of mercy. There will be exceptional regions because of Jesus and the power of God and intercession and fasting and prayer. There will be pockets of mercy. What we are going to do, what I mean by we, I'm talking about the devout, prophetic, Gentile believers in the earth. There will be hundreds of millions. Hundreds of millions of Gentiles will deny the Lord in this pressure. I'm just denying. Hundreds of millions will, but hundreds of millions won't. And the hundreds of millions that deny the Lord will reduce the church and the hundreds of millions that are fearless and under the anointing will double and triple it, called the Great Harvest. So our numbers will go down a chunk, I mean a bit, I mean significantly, and then explode beyond any other numbers in history with power. But it's all related to this drama. It's not only related to this drama. I don't want to say all, but this drama is significant to the increase of the harvest. It's going to purify the church. It's going to remove all the compromisers out of it. But the issue will be Israel. One of the primary issues. C. Not only will we provide refuge, we'll perform miracles. The scenario will be something like this. There'll be 10 Jews in flight, and you'll take them into your home, and there's 5 that live in your house. And there's 10, and there's 15 of you. There's 5 potatoes, but there's 15 people, and they're all hungry. And little 10-year-old Susie puts her name, little Gentile girl, been in Lenny's Children's Equipment Center. She's going to put her hand on those potatoes and says, In the name of Yeshua. And the fish and the loaves will be multiplied. And these Jewish people in flight, again some in flight within our own city and within nations, all kinds of combinations. So I'm trying to lock that down. It's impossible. There'll be every combination you can imagine. Coming and going. To the land, from the land, within nations, from one city to another, one neighborhood to another, all kinds. And they're going to look at little Susie, and they're going to say, How'd you do that? They're going to say, Would you do that again? Because it says, Paul said it. Paul was a Jew. He said, Jews seek signs. They like signs. They like miracles. They respond to miracles. They like them. It says, Gentiles, they're philosophical. They want to know logic. You show Jews signs, they believe God is in the signs. So it says in 1 Corinthians 1. There'll be multiplication of food. But it's not just that. Then the lady's going to say, You know, I had a dream last night. At 10 o'clock, they're knocking on the door. An angel stood before me in a dream. They go, We've never heard of this. We've never seen this before. She says, Let's go over here or over there. And they do it, and they find out later, that's when the authorities came. Exactly at that time. They're going to say, How did you know that? And then these Jews in flight are going to say this. It's amazing. Because this sounds like Argeis. Elijah. Argeis did this in the Old Testament. Moses, Elijah, Elisha. And then little Susan's going to say, Yeah, yeah. It is your guys. We're tapping in to your guys' calling. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. This is the Jewish God. We're grafted in. Because of God's grace, we get to sit at your table. We're serving you your food at your table. They're going to say, This can't be real. Is this real? Yes. How did you get that direction? That looks like one of the prophets. You're a Gentile. How does a Gentile get a prophecy like an Old Testament Hebrew prophet to save Jews? Because the head prophet is Jewish. And he loves you. And he saved us. And we love whoever he loves, whatever he loves. We love this Jewish man. He's called the son of David. He's the man you're looking for. And they're going to say, We're wow. We're not sure, but we're messed up right now. Signs and wonders. The fullness of the Gentiles is the anointing of power. D. God be living. The world will be a cesspool. I mean a cesspool murder. Revelations 9.21 Do I have that verse? Yeah. Revelations 9.21 There'll be murder. It says, here's the four descriptions of the end time of the earth, of society in the end times. Murder. Immorality. Occult. And theft. Those are the four major descriptions of society. I mean the leaders of society will be thieves. That just describes Nazi Germany totally. Murderers. Immoral. The vast majority were steeped in the occult. And most of the holocaust to the Nazis was about theft. It wasn't even about hating Jews. Hitler did. It was a spiritual thing to Hitler. They wanted their money. It was about theft. Most of it. And they bought into the rhetoric so they could steal the money and have the house and all the goods. It's going to happen again. But anyway, it's going to be bright righteousness. There's going to be godly men and women amongst Gentiles and believers that have never ever been surpassed. Men and women of such sterling righteousness. Equal to anything that's ever happened in history. A man named Niemüller. There's a book I read called Hitler Comes to Niemüller. And Niemüller was one of the most famous, well-known pastors in Nazi Germany. It's a fantastic book. We have it in the bookstore. Hitler Comes to Niemüller. Or Hitler Visits comes to. No, comes to Niemüller. One of the most prominent, well-respected Lutheran pastors in Germany. Had all the trappings. And he had dinner with Hitler a number of times. Knew Hitler and his rise to power. And then Hitler liked him a lot. Trusted him. Because he seemed like a man a man of character. And Hitler brought him in on the fateful day and says, hey, Niemüller, I got a, it's your lucky day. I want you to be my man, my main guy. And Niemüller was a man of discernment. He said, uh-uh. It's not going to happen. He knew he was of the devil. He knew Hitler was evil. He goes, what do you mean? No, I want to make you the main guy. You can get lots of money, lots of power, whatever you want. He goes, no. And Hitler got angry. So angry at him. He says, are you kidding me? Do you know who I am? Niemüller said, no. And Hitler says, well, I only have one option because you're so prominent and everybody knows I'm offering this to you. For you to refuse me in Germany? This is unthinkable. You have to go to the death camps. He says, that I will gladly do. He said, are you kidding? He went to the death camps. And a strange thing is that Niemüller uh, he didn't die like in a year or two like many. He survived, I can't remember the years, but like four or five years. I mean, a long time. And he was among many, many of the Jewish people in those camps. And an unbelieving Jew, Leo Stein, who stood at his side for two to three years, wrote the story, this book, Hitler Visits Niemüller. And he writes, and I couldn't tell in the book if he got converted, but he says never have I or anybody in those camps witnessed a brighter light of love and divine power than in this Lutheran pastor. And his love for us and his fearlessness before death and torture. So we've never seen anything like it. It was truly from another place, from heaven. We're talking about a Jewish man is writing his story after he dies, and Hitler had him killed at the very end. He said, kill Niemüller. Just like Hitler did Bonhoeffer. Right in the weeks before Hitler killed himself, he said, kill Niemüller and Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer did the same thing. Those are fantastic stories. Corrie Tim Boone's family took in Jews in flight. They caught them, and these Gentile believers went to the death camps. They all died, except for Corrie Tim Boone, the famous story, The Hiding Place. Most of you know it. They're going to see our transcendent life. And what I mean by transcendent, that we live for eternity. We live for another realm, another dimension. We will be fearless before death. We'll be fearless before the Antichrist. We will be in love with the God of Israel and with the people of Israel. And this issue will provoke the Jews to jealousy. All of these put together. They will say, we've never seen anything like it. And Paul said, if you don't know there's a divine strategy and you're arrogant, you're ignorant, you know what you will do? You'll buy into the anti-Semitic jargon that even the preachers are putting out. You'll say, what do I know? Because if you're ignorant, you're totally vulnerable to become arrogant. And arrogant means this bolstered boldness. I know what I know, and I know the Word of God is right, and Israel's cut out of the will anyway. They killed Jesus, as though the Gentiles didn't too. That's what Nazi Germany did. The theologians became arrogant and bold that Israel had no place. And then the passive resistance starts. Finally, I mean, they tell the story, I've been quite an energetic student about the process. I have a lot of energy about this. I've got quite a few books and videos and studied it for years. How many, quote, innocent Lutherans did not mean at all to turn over the Jews. They did not mean to at all. It started off. It's a slippery slope. They were silent. It was passive resistance. They wouldn't turn Jews in. They wouldn't tell on anybody. They were silent. And the groups became stronger and stronger, and their money was involved, their social life, their place in the business, in the army, in the police force. And they just said they'd come home from work and say to their wife and family, I just didn't say nothing. I haven't changed. I just didn't say nothing. And the noose gets tighter and tighter and tighter, and the vast majority went from silent, passive, doing nothing, just quietly. Before long, they got their finger in their face. They said, you need to speak up. Where do you stand? Well, you know, they did kill Jesus and they don't love him, and you know, they say that God's done with the Jews anyway. Maybe it's God's judgment. That's what they're saying. This ignorance will lead to arrogance, which will lead to passive resistance, may take a few years, to active resistance, to full denial of their faith, and then verse 22, God cuts them off from salvation. Beloved, it happened all over Europe. Paul writes, the Gentiles, just to end with this sentence, Paul Paul writes to the Gentiles in Rome. He says, you better, you better not be arrogant. Fear God in this. You have no idea how vast this subject is to the whole state of the Gentile church before the Lord returns. Amen. Let's stand. What I'm going to ask, I really am encouraging you, of course you can't understand, you know, if this is brand new, you don't understand all the verses and the terms. You'll get it. They're not that hard. There's only, you know, a handful of terms and concepts and you got it. But if you're in a place where you've been passive about Israel, because I say passive, I totally haven't understood anything or, you know, I understood it but I didn't really buy into it, you know, whatever, just pretty soft about it, never really did much with it, and you feel like the Lord's tugging on your heart right now and saying, you know what, you need to go up a notch in your interest and your heart commitment to this. I want to invite you to come stand on these blue lines.