God Always does HIS part, Will you
RESTORATION
A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting "Nightwatch." Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore the treasures.
By His sovereign grace, God can bring good out of our failures, and even out of our sins. J. Stuart Holden tells of an old Scottish mansion close to where he had his little summer home. The walls of one room were filled with sketches made by distinguished artists. The practice began after a pitcher of soda water accidentally spilled on a freshly decorated wall and left an unsightly stain. At the time, a noted artist, Lord Landseer, was a guest in the house. One day when the family went out to the moors, he stayed behind. With a few masterful strokes of a piece of charcoal, that ugly spot became the outline of a beautiful waterfall, bordered by trees and wildlife. He turned that disfigured wall into one of his most successful depictions of Highland life. Swindoll, The Quest For Character, Multnomah, p. 49.
Blessed to be a part of God’s will
[23]And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. [24] For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? Romans 11:23-24
Do you know and believe that Israel’s restoration will happen.
If God has said it HE will bring it about.
The restoration is conditional and depends on our doing what God calls us to do.
Note the word “if”—“if they abide not still in unbelief.” Genuine belief in Jesus Christ is the condition for salvation.
How will they know if we do not go...
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 3:22).
God will graft them back, because of His enormous love.
God loves everyone and will forgive any person, any thing if they turn from their life of sin and unbelief.
God accepts all who come through HIS Son Jesus Christ.
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy” (Micah 7:18).
“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).
God is able because of HIS great knowledge and power.
God is God; HE knows all and is all powerful.
HE knows when a man’s heart is submitted to HIM and moving toward HIM.
God knows just when to move upon a person’s heart, and knows the circumstances that will cause a person to turn to HIM.
So at the proper time, God has the power to stir Jewish hearts to return to HIM in large numbers. The valley of dry bones can be resurrected by the power of God (Ezekiel 37:1f).
“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25).
“For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
“That ye may know....what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephes. 1:18-20).
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephes. 2:1).
“Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all” (1 Chron. 29:12).
Blessed to see God fulfill HIS word
[24] For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? Romans 11:24
The grafting of the natural branches (Israelites) is much more likely than our calling was.
God is able to graft Israel back into the olive tree.
Paul proclaims that Israelites will turn to Christ and be restored into a right relationship with God.
“Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved” (Rom 9:27).
“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5).
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom 11:25-26).
“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee” (Deut. 30:3).
“Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9).
“And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase” (Jeremiah 23:3).
Israel’s forefathers, the patriarchs, give a heritage of holiness. This is an important in dealing with the restoration. God gives two pictures about the first-fruits.
The Jew always dedicated the first fruit of his harvest to God. In so doing they were saying to God they dedicated all of their food to God
The second picture is that of a sapling being offered to God. Every branch thereafter was looked upon as being sacred to God
Israel by merit of their patriarchs, their fathers, hold a very special place in God’s heart.
The whole nation will be restored and saved, because of the godliness of their forefathers and because of God’s promise to the forefathers.
Israel was initially chosen by God to be HIS witness upon earth: to be HIS federal nation or representative nation to bear testimony of and for HIM.
The first fathers of the nation believed God and lived lives of faith, and a few have continued to follow God down through the generations.
God clearly says that because of the holiness of these few, HE cares for the nation—for the whole lump.
Here we see the influence of godly parents, forefathers, upon children and succeeding generations. It is important we parents live godly lives.
“The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7; cp. Leviticus 14:18).
“And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them” (2 Kings 17:15).
“God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it” (Job 21:19).
“All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not” (Matthew 23:3).
We need the influence of godly people on our nation and those to whom God calls us.
We need the influence of godly men upon our nation and those to whom God calls us.
“And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:6).
“They are beloved for their father’s sakes” (Rom 11:28).
“And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt” (Deut. 4:37).
But, we must always remember that the people of a nation can be restored to God only through repentance, only by turning from sin back to God.
“If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” (Leviticus 26:40-42).
Will you confess your iniquities? Are you ready to come back to God? HE is always waiting to bring you back home.
Are you prepared to “Go ye therefore to all nations…including Israel?
We must understand that God calls each of us to a particular ministry, we must seek it out and be faithful to it.
The floods this past week should remind us of the urgency, none are guaranteed tomorrow…so let us “Go”.
