The Mystery of Israel #2 - Modern Israel and The New Testament

[00:00:00] If you will turn with me to the acts and chapter one, I am going to read from verse six. [00:00:10] They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, that is Jesus saying, lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father hath set within his own authority, but ye shall receive power when the holy spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. [00:00:55] I would like to add to that something in marks. Gospel. The gospel of Mark and chapter 13 and verse 28. [00:01:09] Now from the fig tree learn her parable, when her branch is now become tender and putteth forth its leaves. Ye know that summer is is nigh. Even so ye also when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that he is nigh even at the doors? [00:01:32] And then again in the roman letter of the apostle Paul, from verse one of chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. [00:01:46] From verse one, I say the truth in Christ. I lie not my conscience, bearing witness with me in the holy spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. [00:02:03] For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake. My kinsman, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, whose is the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God, and the promises? [00:02:27] Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Messiah? Christ, as concerning the flesh, who is over all God, blessed forever. Amen. [00:02:41] But it is not as though the word of God hath come to naught. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel, neither because they are Abrahams seed. Are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. [00:03:08] And then in the same letter, chapter eleven, from verse eleven, I say, then did they, the jewish people stumble, that they might fall, God forbid. But by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness. But I speak to you that are Gentiles, inasmuch then, as I am an apostle of gentiles, I glorify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh and may save some of them. [00:03:53] For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world. What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? [00:04:06] Verse 25 for I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceit. For the hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their the jewish people's disobedience, even so have these the jewish people also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now obtain mercy. For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out for who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor, or who hath first given to him? And it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him, through him and unto him are all things, to him be the glory forever. [00:05:50] Amen. [00:05:52] Just a word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we want to thank you that you have sent forth the Holy Spirit to illuminate us, to give us the kind of understanding of your word that brings us into a real experience of yourself to give us that an understanding of your word that helps us to have an understanding of the times in which we live. [00:06:27] Beloved Lord, we pray together that you will now be to us everything we need in the speaking of this message and in the hearing of of it. We thank you for the anointing which is ours through the finished work of our Lord Jesus and made a living reality to us by the Holy Spirit. [00:06:54] Will you now, as we stand by faith, into that anointing, cause a double portion to be ours in our speaking, my speaking and in our hearing. And we shall be careful to give you all the praise and all the glory. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus the messiah. Amen. [00:07:25] I do not think I have to say that the whole question of Israel is a matter of colossal controversy, conflict and not a little war. [00:07:38] Ever since the state of Israel came into being on the 14 May 1948, it has been the focal point of such war. Seven wars in 55 years. [00:07:58] Even amongst christians there is very great division and not a little confusion over this matter. [00:08:08] It would not be exaggerating to say that it is a controversial subject. [00:08:17] One christian preacher some years ago declared in a message he gave that God is not interested in a little bit of real estate in the Middle east. [00:08:33] Another well known and respected evangelical leader said that Israel is a political accident and has nothing to do with the hand of God or the word of God. [00:08:56] It is, I find, noteworthy that for at least a hundred or even a 150 years there have been those who have vehemently stated that the jewish people would never return to the promised land because God had finished with them. [00:09:26] We were now in the age of the spirit, in the age of the universal. God was no longer interested in states as such, or in ethnic groups, an ethnic group, or in things that were physical. We had entered into the realm of the spirit in this age and God had rejected them when they crucified the Lord Jesus. [00:09:59] When they began to return, people said this was just human zeal. In 1880, the first aliyah, the going back to the land on the part of russian Jews. [00:10:18] It could be explained away then. [00:10:21] But on the 14 May 1948, in spite of the Holocaust, in which two thirds of european jury died in the most horrific circumstances, and when you could well believe that what some christian preachers and teachers had said, there was evidence for it in the terrible death that so many jews met men, women and children and babies. [00:11:03] On the 14 May, in spite of that terrible Holocaust, Israel was born and the recreated state of Israel appeared again upon the world stage. [00:11:25] I would have been very embarrassed if I had been one of those people who had said all along that this would never happen, in fact, I would be. I would feel that if I would have been so embarrassed, I don't know whether I could have opened my mouth for at least a time until I'd sorted myself out. [00:11:50] But not these ones. [00:11:53] They just altered course and said it was a political accident, nothing to do with God. [00:12:06] On the 7 June 1967, something happened that they said could never happen, and Jerusalem in its entirety came back to the jewish people again. I would have thought that there would have to be some soul searching. [00:12:29] But on the major part of those who spoke so vehemently about this matter that God was not in it, they just altered course again and said, jerusalem will only remain in their hands for a very short period. [00:12:54] Now, almost a generation later, Israel is very much here and, it seems, is the focal point of world concerns and controversy and is the subject of war. [00:13:25] Does God still have a purpose for the jewish people? [00:13:32] Is the state of Israel not just a state, another state among so many others? She looks like it. [00:13:47] Secularism, disobedience, sin, just like any other state? All there, is she just another state amongst many other states, or does she have a divine destiny? [00:14:12] These messages I believe that the Lord has given me are principally to help those who truly want to know what the Bible says about this matter. [00:14:35] And if I believe we approach it with an open heart and with a heart seeking to hear what God is saying in his word. I believe that such illumination will be given to us in this message. I want to talk about Israel in the New Testament. [00:15:04] A question often asked of me in my travels all around the world, especially in theological seminaries or in Bible schools, is how come there is so little in the New Testament upon this subject, if it is so important and so significant? [00:15:32] Of course, it is true that the New Testament doesn't dwell upon this matter. [00:15:42] I always answer in the same way. My Bible consists of 66 books, not 27. [00:15:54] In other words, my Bible consists of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. [00:16:07] I see the Bible as a whole with a tremendous theme that begins in Genesis one and ends in Revelation 22. [00:16:21] I have no doubt about its authority, no doubt about its inspiration, and no doubt about its relevance in its every part. [00:16:36] What is abundantly and explicitly clear in the Old Testament is not dwelt on in the New Testament. Otherwise we would not have 27, but 47 books or thereabouts. [00:16:56] In my estimation, the Old Testament is clear and explicit about this matter of Israel, not in one place or two places or three places, but everywhere you look, from what God did with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob, what he did within and through Moses, even the prophecies that Moses made, gave the way through. [00:17:37] Wherever you look in the Old Testament. This matter, in my estimation, is clear. [00:17:48] And so this study that I am giving now, this message I'm giving, is about Israel and the New Testament. [00:18:02] First of all, I want to turn you to the passage we read in acts and chapter one and verse six and seven. You will remember it when the disciples came to the risen Lord Jesus and said to him, do you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? [00:18:28] And he replied, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. But you shall receive power when the holy spirit is come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. [00:18:52] Note very carefully, the disciples did not ask, do you, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? That is not the question they asked. [00:19:07] Ive heard many, many preachers and Bible teachers put it that way, as if they asked this question of Israel, are you going to restore it or not? Is it finished? [00:19:26] I remember one preacher when I was just a couple of years saved, saying, these poor disciples, of course, he said the Holy Spirit had not yet been given these poor disciples. They were so intensely nationalistic, they could not conceive of anything outside of Judaism. [00:19:53] And so here they come. Here is the Lord. [00:19:57] He has finished his work on the cross and he's about to ascend to the Father. [00:20:03] And the only question they could ask him is, what are you going to do about the jewish people? [00:20:09] And then I remember this preacher going on to say, God has finished with them. [00:20:15] This is a matter that begins in Jerusalem and goes to the ends of the earth, full stop, period. [00:20:22] There's no more. [00:20:25] I've heard many a preacher since then more or less say, you know, this thing is no longer a practical question. [00:20:39] God has finished with it. [00:20:41] It is the kingdom of God which is, which has really nothing to do with the jewish people. But it is very, very interesting to note how the Lord first, how they asked the question, they did not say, are you going to restore the kingdom? They said, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? In other words, they were quite clear about the restoration of the kingdom. [00:21:16] It was the question of the timing. [00:21:20] Note also the way the Lord Jesus replies, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority. [00:21:31] In other words, don't get caught on this thing, not now, but when, but when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, you shall be with my witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. [00:21:55] In other words, don't get caught on this question. [00:22:02] Now you have a job to do and you're at the beginning, not the end. [00:22:10] This is going to start here and go to the ends of the earth. [00:22:15] Another, I think noteworthy point to make is that for 40 days, according to verse three in this same chapter, it says, I will quote it, to whom Jesus also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs appearing unto them by the space of 40 days. And speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. [00:22:48] Now it must have been in the outlining of these things concerning the kingdom of God that caused the disciples to ask, is this the time for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel? [00:23:15] Far from this being a negation of this matter, not just a shelving of it, but a rebuttal of it, I would say it is absolutely clear that the Lord had outlined this matter and it prompted the disciples to say, how long in our lifetime right now? [00:23:46] And Jesus said, don't get caught on it. [00:23:54] You have a job to do. And when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will fulfill that work. [00:24:02] It will start here and go to the ends of the earth. [00:24:13] I would say then that the question of Israel is a very serious and significant matter. If there is a restoration of the kingdom a few chapters later, in chapter three, Peter the apostle speaks of the Messiah being reserved in heaven until the restitution. All things here is the same thing. Restore the kingdom to wisdom, restoration of all things. [00:24:47] Then if you will, turn with me to Marks Gospel and chapter 13. [00:24:55] This is the major discourse of our Lord Jesus upon his second coming, and you will find it in all three synoptic gospels, in the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 24, and here in Marks Gospel chapter 13 and in Lukes Gospel and chapter 21. And all three of them tell us that the Lord Jesus ended this discourse, which by the way was, according to Mark, given to only four of the apostles, Peter and Andrew and James and John. They came privately to the Lord Jesus and said, when will these things be concerning your coming? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And Jesus said a whole number of things. [00:25:55] And then he said, as recorded in all three of these synoptic gospels. Now from the fig tree learn her parable or her lesson. What is the lesson of the fig tree? [00:26:10] I am told by many Bible teachers that it is simply a question of coming summer. [00:26:17] In other words, when you see her leaves coming out, which he is almost the last tree to put leaves out in Israel, and when she does put those leaves out, literally within weeks, the long, hot, dry season begins. [00:26:36] In other words, all this is a picture of what he had said, the signs he'd already given. Wars and rumors of wars, kingdom rising, kingdom nation against nation, famines, pestilences or plague, diseases, epidemics and famine and persecution. [00:26:59] When those things happen, this is the fig tree putting out her leaves. [00:27:07] The problem, however, is that you could say that at no point in the last 2000 or so years, or certainly 1900 since Jesus gave this discourse, has there been a period in world history when we haven't had famines and epidemics and earthquakes and persecution and wars and rumors of wars? [00:27:38] So one fully understands why the Lord's people, through the generations of these two millennia of time, have thought, maybe the Lord is coming. Maybe the Lord is coming. [00:27:51] Does the parable of the fig tree, the lesson of the fig tree, have something deeper in it than that? [00:28:01] It is interesting to see the way Luke puts it, because Luke, being a doctor, was very careful on small things. [00:28:13] To make a correct diagnosis, you have to be. [00:28:16] And he says in chapter 21 and verse 29, he spake to them a parable, behold the fig tree and all the trees. In other words, two things. [00:28:27] Something that happens to all the trees and something that only happens to the fig tree. [00:28:35] That's very interesting. He is the only gospel writer who mentions this, as if he's saying, now, it's not just what happens to trees. [00:28:49] That would be a picture of coming summer. They put out their leaves. The deciduous trees put out their leaves. Then you know, summer's coming. But there is a particular tree as well, amongst other trees. Keep your eye on these two things. When these two things come together, something happens to the fig tree. And at the same time you have all these signs of wars and rumors of wars and epidemics and famine and persecutions. Well, then you will know that he is nigh, even at the door. [00:29:25] The victory has always been a symbol of the nation in the Old Testament. You have. In fact, it is even more interesting that it seems to be a symbol of national territory, because you will remember the little phrase that comes three times in the Old Testament. [00:29:43] Every one shall sit. Every one of the children of Israel, that is, shall sit under his own fig tree and vine. [00:29:51] In other words, he will have an allotment of the promised land large enough to plant a fig tree and grow a vine that will grow up into the fig tree. As so often in the Middle east, the two things will go together. [00:30:08] You will remember the Lord Jesus actually spoke a parable, and the scribes and pharisees understood exactly what he was saying. [00:30:22] He said a certain man had a vineyard, and in his vineyard he had a fig tree, and for three years he came. Now, isn't that interesting? The three years of the Messiah's ministry looking for fruit on the fig tree, and he found none. And he said to the tenant farmer, cut it down. But the tenant farmer said, no, give me a little more time. I'll aerate the soil, I will fertilize it and let us see if it does something. [00:31:00] The chief priests and scribes knew exactly what Jesus was saying. [00:31:09] He was speaking about them and about the nation of Israel. [00:31:16] He had come three years looking for food. Found none. And indeed, the Holy Spirit watched over that nation for another 40 years. A whole generation. [00:31:28] Until the great exile, the end of the temple and the priesthood. And the sacrificial system. And the scattering of the jewish people to the ends of the earth. [00:31:42] I would have thought that that has some bearing on this subject. As to what is the parable of the fig tree, what is this lesson? But there's even something more interesting. Luke's gospel from chapter eleven to chapter 15. Covers seven days. [00:31:59] On the day before Jesus said, learn the parable of a fig tree. Something happened to a fig tree. [00:32:08] They always stayed in Bethany. And used to walk up the mount of olives. And down into the Kidron valley and up into the city of Jerusalem. [00:32:18] And at some point in a place called Bet Paga. Which in Hebrew, Bethphage. In English, Betpaga means house of unripe figs. Evidently, figs never ripened in that spot. [00:32:34] Jesus went over to a fig tree and looked for fruit in march. Now, you never find fruit on the fig tree in march in Jerusalem. [00:32:43] But he went through it all, through all the motions. And the disciples heard him say, no man eat from you henceforth forever. [00:32:57] The next day they were going past it. And Peter said, master, look at the fig tree that you cursed. It's died. And then he made an interesting observation from the root. Not from a blight from without to within. But from the root from inside. It has rotted. It has died. [00:33:19] They did not understand it at the time. The Lord Jesus spoke about having faith in God. [00:33:28] Not about killing fig trees, I might say, but something far more significant. [00:33:35] They went into the temple. [00:33:38] And they met the royal party, the Herodians. And then after that, the Sadducees. And then after that, the Pharisees. It was the last great confrontation jesus had with them. It ended with that solemn denunciation. [00:33:55] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. [00:34:00] And ended with the words, your house is left unto you, desolate. [00:34:12] They went into the temple. Going out of the temple. The disciples said to him, look at these stones, Master. 43 years this has been being built. And he said, you see them? Not one will be left on another. They went down into the Kidron, out of the old City, down into the kidlon, up to Gethsemane. [00:34:32] And then he went higher up the mount of olives. With four of them probably sitting where they could see the whole city, how many times I've seen it living in Jerusalem below. [00:34:49] And they said, when will these things be? [00:34:53] What will be the, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And then he went to all these other signs. And then he said to them, learn the parable of the fig tree. [00:35:07] Are you going to tell me that that fig tree that he cursed and that died overnight was not in their minds? [00:35:17] Are you going to tell me that when the Lord Jesus said, when the spirit of truth is come, he will lead you into all the truth, he will bring back to your memory the things that I have said, that these things did not come back by the spirit of God with understanding and illumination? [00:35:36] No, I think it is quite clear to me that they understood years later. You see, it was as if Jesus, looking into the eyes of those four jewish apostles, said, don't think this is the end of our people. [00:35:55] You will live to see them destroyed. You will live to see them the city of Jerusalem razed to the ground. You will live to see the house of God destroyed, the priesthood ended, the sacrificial system ended, and the beginning of the longest and most terrible exile in jewish history. [00:36:21] Don't make a mistake. [00:36:24] This fig tree, which will seemingly disappear from its territory, will be back in the same ground it was before I come, not as an antique, not as a fossil, but as a living matter, alive SAP rising in it leaves and the promise of fruit. [00:36:55] I cannot help but feel that here you have a most striking confirmation of everything in the Old Testament concerning Israel. [00:37:17] Then if you will, turn with me to Romans, the roman letter of the apostle Paul, and to the three chapters 910 and eleven. [00:37:36] This is not a parable. [00:37:39] Nor is it, if I may so say, an obscure part of the book of revelation or somewhere else which may be open to different interpretations. [00:37:54] Here, within the greatest exposition of the Gospel in the 66 books of the Bible, the roman letter, you had this matter clearly confirmed. [00:38:13] These three chapters, chapter 910 and eleven, have been dealt with in some very interesting ways. [00:38:27] It is often said by Bible teachers and theologians that it is, in fact, a parenthesis. [00:38:40] In other words, it's in brackets. [00:38:43] It is not just something important, it's in brackets. [00:38:55] In other words, it is not the theme of the rest. [00:39:02] It is something else. [00:39:04] Therefore, you can remove it. [00:39:08] And indeed, they go so far as to say that the apostle follows a theme from chapter one of Romans through to the end of chapter eight, and then speaks about another subject, and then comes back to the first eight chapters of Romans in chapter twelve and verse one and two, where he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritually intelligent worship. [00:39:58] In other words, he comes back to his theme. [00:40:04] That is one way you will find it dealt with in many commentaries. [00:40:09] Then there is another way, which I would say is the more liberal way of dealing with it altogether, which is that the apostle was a genius, had a brilliant mind, and like many geniuses it once it wandered, and this was the wanderings of a brilliant mind. [00:40:34] He talks about things that are tremendous, hard to understand, but are not very important. It's a kind of luxury. Don't bother your heads about it unless you want to. [00:40:48] The third way it is dealt with, and by far the most serious, is it is very much part of the roman letter and very much to do with the gospel. [00:41:01] It is all to do with predestination and election. [00:41:06] Now I don't have any problem there with that, except that, generally speaking, it is apparently to do with the predestination and election of the church and not Israel, that it does deal with election, and does deal with the saving of the gentiles and the producing and building of the church. I dont have any doubt about it, but I find it very odd that the question of Israel doesnt seem to come into the minds of many who talk about these chapters as to do with predestination and elections. [00:42:05] And they have apparently nothing to do with the jewish people, other than the jewish people are an illustration of it. [00:42:18] I think myself that when the apostle Paul, following the theme that God had given him, came to the end of what we now call chapter eight, it was as if the Lord said, now you cannot go any further, Paul, before we go back behind the whole of history and behind almost the whole of time, to something even more foundational. [00:42:54] And thus we have these three chapters, 910 and eleven. And when the apostle Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, notice it is in the plural, you will find that mercy is spoken of. Here we are called vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory. [00:43:21] In other words, it is not just the first eight chapters, but the whole of these eleven chapters that the apostle refers to when he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritually intelligent worship. He just ended these three chapters with a paean of praise. You could almost say, oh, a worship of God. [00:44:03] Spiritually intelligent worship. [00:44:11] Let me make a few more comments about this because here we have a confirmation of everything in the Old Testament about this matter. [00:44:25] The apostle begins in chapter nine with a statement that I think is fundamental to the whole. He says, I could wish that I myself were anathema from Messiah for my brothers sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Who are Israelis? I dont know why all the modern versions have to say Israelites as if Israelites are another breed. To Israelis it is just the same people. [00:45:02] Whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises? Whose are the fathers and of whom is a messiah? As concerning the flesh, who is overall God? Bless forever. Amen. Now do you notice he doesnt say who are Israelis? Whose was the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises? [00:45:40] Whose were the fathers and of whom was Christ the messiah? [00:45:50] Its all in the present. [00:45:54] I find that very, very interesting if we take what he goes on to say. But it is not as though the word of God has come to naught. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, neither because they are Abrahams seed. Are they all children? [00:46:13] In other words, the evil king Ahad, the evil king Ahab. [00:46:25] Those who were utterly evil and had rejected the truth, they were of Israel, but were they real Israel? [00:46:42] You could say the same about Caiaphas and the high priest in the time of Jesus and his even more evil father in law Annas. [00:46:56] They were circumcised, bar mitzvahed, and occupied highest position, ecclesiastical positions. We could say, were they truly Israel? They were of Israel. [00:47:16] But were they Israel? [00:47:19] Has not the real Israel always been within the outer Israel? [00:47:26] In other words, the apostle says it is faith that counts, not ritual. [00:47:32] Where there was living faith, people were part of the real Israel. Now my point is this, that when you start now from these verses, chapter six, sorry, chapter nine and verse six, you have pure replacement theology. [00:47:59] Replacement theology is the theology that says that the church has replaced Israel, that Israel no longer has any part in the kingdom of God. [00:48:19] She has no place in the divine future. [00:48:28] She's finished. Unless individual Jews come to the Lord, then they are no longer Jews. [00:48:40] You've got pure replacement theology. Let me just read a few verses. I don't want to belabor the point, but it's important, I think, to understand it. You take chapter nine, these verses six and seven neither because they were Abraham's seat, are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed that is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for the seed. Now actually the apostle was speaking of Jews there. [00:49:11] So the real Israel was within the outer Israel always through time. But as he goes on, he says this in verse 25. He says in Hosea, let me put it this way, from verse 20, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the gentiles, as he says in Hosea, I will call that my people which was not my people, and her beloved that was not beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living God. Replacement theology. [00:49:47] Seemingly it is pure replacement theology. [00:49:53] He goes on again in verse 30. [00:49:58] What shall we say then? That the gentiles who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel following after a law of righteousness did not arrive at that law wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by works, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. Now it seems quite clear, if you really read through these two chapters, romans nine and ten. From this verse I have made from verse six onwards. It seems as if it is the foundation for this theology we call replacement theology. [00:50:54] When you come to Romans eleven, the apostle begins to qualify and condition everything he has said in romans nine and ten. [00:51:10] So strong is his argument that he has followed that he himself says, I say then, did God throw off or cast off his people? And then he says, God forbid. That in Greek is best translated as in some of the modern versions. Certainly not. [00:51:35] Certainly not. [00:51:37] Certainly not. [00:51:43] Now he begins to say that there are a remnant, according to the election of grace, and the rest have been hardened. [00:51:56] Hardened? This sounds so foreign to modern earth. [00:52:04] A remnant, according to the election of grace. That remnant, according to the election of grace were the apostles, the eleven of them and 120 in the upper room. [00:52:23] And then the 3000 that got saved on the day of Pentecost. All Jews, by the way, not a gentile amongst them. [00:52:31] And then the 5000 within a few weeks, a great company of priests and Levites. And then a few more months, 8000. [00:52:46] The whole early church were jewish believers without exception. [00:52:57] In fact, most of our cathedrals are named after them. [00:53:01] St. Matthew's, St. Peter's, St. Mark's, St. Paul's. [00:53:09] Where else do we go? [00:53:11] Everywhere you go, it is these Jews who were a remnant. According to the election of grace. [00:53:25] Our whole New Testament was written by Jews, with the exception, probably, of Luke's gospel and acts. We don't know if Luke was jewish or if he was a convert, or if he is what is called a God fearer. That is, someone attached to the synagogue, but who had never taken the step of circumcision, a worshipper of God, and a believer in the word of God and the covenants of God and in the purpose of God, but had never taken the final step. [00:54:06] That, I think, is amazing when you begin to think of it, because that early church, it was a shock to them when the Holy Spirit fell upon the Samaritans, a mongrel breed, jewish and others mixed. There was a great shock to the church in Jerusalem and Judea when they heard about it. And they had to send apostles down to make sure that it was real. And the apostles noticed the Holy Spirit had fallen upon them in the same way that the Holy Spirit had fallen upon them in Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost of Shavuor. [00:54:44] Then, of course, you have a far greater shock when a gentile officer in the roman army, probably a naval officer we don't know, asked Peter to come and stay in his home, which was something Peter found difficult because he'd never stayed in a gentile home. [00:55:09] And he went off and Peter began to rehearse the whole thing. They wanted to hear all about these things, these gentiles, the whole place. I don't know what it was, whether it was the courtyard or whether it was the drawing room of this home, of this officer's home. But it was packed with other officers and gentiles in the roman administration. [00:55:33] And the Holy Spirit fell upon him. [00:55:36] Peter suddenly had an experience which some of us preachers had when we suddenly see that the congregation is no longer listening to us. [00:55:48] But this time it was quite remarkable. It wasn't that people were asleep or thinking of something else, dreaming their own dreams. They were all speaking in tongues and prophesying. [00:56:01] Poor Peter got into a lot of trouble over this because they felt he had somehow other manipulated these people. And now the church, which was essentially jewish and had at least recognized the Samaritans because they had some jewish blood. Now, the problem was the whole fully fledged jewish gentiles had come into the kingdom of God. It was the beginning of the greatest evangelistic crusade the world has ever seen began in Caesarea, in the land of Israel, and went to the ends of the earth. And every one of you who's listening to me, who's a gentile in background and by birth, you are part of this great mission launched in Caesarea. [00:56:50] Now, the interesting thing is this. The apostle then comes to his second question. Well, he says, then, if God has not cast them off, did he trip them up? [00:57:04] He puts it. I say, then did they stumble, that they might fall? In other words, God actually arranged their fall? [00:57:11] Certainly not. He says, God forbid. But he says, by their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke the jewish people to jealousy. [00:57:25] Now he begins to qualify everything. Now, if their fault, he says, is the riches of the world and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness. [00:57:38] This is not just a one off statement which we could write off within a few more sentences. The apostle comes back to it, verse 15. For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be but life from the dead? So if theres been a casting away of the jewish people, then there will be a receiving of them. [00:58:11] We may be very near to that time. Now, what I find so incredible in this is that the fall of the jewish people, which resulted in the riches, as it says, of the world, and their loss, the riches of the Gentiles is only spoken of in the light of their coming fullness. So if there has been a fall and a loss, there is also a coming fullness. And the apostle Paul only speaks of their fall and their loss in the light of that fullness that is coming. Now, if their fall, the fall of the jewish people, the loss of the jewish people is something to do with territory, with the capital, with statehood, with national institutions, would you not think that the fullness also has something to do with those things? [00:59:26] In other words, it began with the loss of spiritual status and went on to the loss of the capital, the loss of the temple, the loss of national institutions, the loss of national territory and the exile to the ends of the earth. Would you think that maybe the fullness will come the other way round? [00:59:54] First the return to the territory and then the recreation of the state, and then the restoration of the capital and then the rebuilding all the national institutions. [01:00:11] I think this is incredible. [01:00:16] It is not just the recreation of the state. It's the recreation of the fertility of the land, which has been one of the marvels of the world, the restoration of the ecology, the rebuilding of ancient cities, in some cases 2000 or so years in ruins, the restoration of the language. There is no other instance in the whole world of a language that ceased to be a spoken language of street and hearth, only a liturgical language, becoming again the spoken language of a ModeRn People. [01:00:58] Hebrew. Incredible. The story of Hebrew, the recreation of the national institutions, army, air force, Navy, government, parliament, the Knesset, the police force, universities, Jewish universities. [01:01:26] It is incredible. It's all happened in a century or so. [01:01:37] You're going to tell me this isn't the hand of God, where everywhere I turn in the Old Testament, it is spoken of, and here it is confirmed. [01:01:55] So if they have been cast away by God and this has resulted in the reconciling of the world, if their fall has been the riches of the world, the whole world has entered into the richness that God gave them, they lost the riches of the gentiles. [01:02:15] There is a receiving, a divine receiving again, which will result in resurrection, life for the whole redeemed community. [01:02:28] It will be fullness. Now, I say, this is amazing, and whilst I dont want to belabour this so that it becomes too heavy and too much, the fact remains that you have one incredible statement in verse 28 and 29. And this is how it as touching the gospel, they, the jewish people, are enemies for your sake, but as touching the electrum, they are beloved for the patriarch's sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. [01:03:12] You know, I have been a believer now for more years than I care to remember. [01:03:20] I was saved young. [01:03:22] I was just coming up to 13. [01:03:28] I find it amazing that in the years that I have been a child of God, I have heard so many messages on this statement. [01:03:40] In God's word, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. [01:03:53] In every instance I have heard it referred and related to christian ministry, to christian ministers, to christian servants of God, to the church of God, to christian missions, to christian missionaries, and I have never heard a christian preacher say in my hearing, primarily, this is to do with the jewish people. [01:04:32] I find that extraordinary. [01:04:35] I've not even heard people say in its first relationship. This, of course, is to the jewish people. [01:04:45] But we can learn from this, and I agree with that. [01:04:51] But to take this verse as if it was to do with the church and the ministries of the church, when its first primary meaning is to the jewish people. And they are described here in these chapters as blind, as hardened, as cast away, as fallen, as suffering loss, as laid aside, as enemies of the gospel. [01:05:33] It is of these people that the spirit of God, through the apostle Paul says, their gifts and calling are irrevocable, as touching the election that is the predestinating counsel and will of God. They are beloved. Not they were beloved. They are beloved for the patriarch's sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. In other words, then, we find here, in this greatest exposition of the Gospel, in the 66 books of the Bible, a confirmation of everything in the Old Testament that speaks of a restoration Israel, a recreation of the state of Israel, the redemption of the land. [01:06:39] It is all confirmed here. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. They are beloved. [01:06:52] If this had sunk into christian people and into the church of God, what a difference it would have brought in the sad history of the relationship of Christians and Jews if only there had been what the apostle Paul says. [01:07:17] I have great sorrow, unceasing pain in my heart. [01:07:23] I could wish that I were anathema cursed for their sake. [01:07:33] Or again, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them that they may be saved. [01:07:47] If the christian church had had that in its heart and it had affected its whole attitude to the jewish people, there may have been a very different story. [01:08:05] The apostle Paul says two or three times that God wants the church to provoke the jewish people to jealousy. But most of our meetings wouldn't provoke a mouse to jealousy. [01:08:23] I mean, and I think of the dull routine and the does anything ever happen in some of our meetings? I would. [01:08:37] Heavy, dull, monotonous. How in the world could you ever expect the jewish people to be provoked to jealousy? But when the jewish people see the love of God manifested in christians, when they see the works of God worked in christian people, when they see miracles take place, when they see fervent prayer from the heart with answers, they provoke the jealousy. [01:09:16] It has always been so and it will always be so in the future. [01:09:23] Well, I think this is enough to say what a tremendous thing we have here. [01:09:35] Is it any wonder that the apostle ends with this pan of praise and worship? [01:09:44] It's almost as if he's moved out of himself and says, could anything be more wonderful than this? [01:09:53] That God's original purpose for the jewish people, that they should be a vessel of salvation to the ends of the earth, has been accomplished not by their success or obedience, but by their fall and their loss? [01:10:15] Don't ask me to explain it all. I can only say this. Does God have a purpose for Israel? If I understand my New Testament? He very certainly has. [01:10:28] Is there a divine destiny for the jewish people? There most certainly is. [01:10:34] Is there hope for their latter end? [01:10:38] Absolutely. [01:10:40] And the fury that we see centered on Israel, the controversy, the conflict, the wars that are fought over her very existence, they are all the evidence of not mere flesh and blood, but of the anger of the powers of darkness. [01:11:14] Satan hates this people as much as he hates the true church of God, because he knows in some way that they betoken his end, and he will do everything in his power to liquidate them and destroy them. [01:11:45] May God give us understanding on this matter. There is no way to have an understanding of the times in which we live apart from an understanding of Israel in the purpose and economy of God.