Transcript

A man said to a friend, “I hear your church dismissed its pastor. What was wrong?” The friend said, “Well, he kept telling us we’re all going to hell if we don’t believe.”

The first man then asked, “That is true, so what does the new pastor say?” The friend replied, “The new pastor says we’re going to hell, too, if we don’t believe.”

The first man asked, “So what’s the difference?” The friend said, “Well, the difference is that when the previous pastor said it, he sounded like he was glad about it; but when the new pastor says it, he sounds like it is breaking his heart.”

The Apostle Paul’s heart broke at the thought of his countrymen, the Jews, rejecting the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 9 and 10, we learn how Paul longed and desired for Israel to be saved from their sins.

Paul wrote in Romans 10:1: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

In this short series, we are considering the question of what happened to Israel. To properly understand what happened to Israel, as well as God’s dealings with mankind today, we need to understand what Paul teaches concerning Israel and the Gentiles in Romans 9-11.

Romans 9:1-5: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

“For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth 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 as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”

Chapters 9-11 are strategically and logically placed in Romans. In Romans 1-8, Paul had spelled out many wonderful promises that are ours in the Church, the Body of Christ.

And Romans 8 ends with these words of comfort, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

A logical thought to what these verses teach is, “What about Israel? Have they been separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? What about all the wonderful promises to them? Will they all still be fulfilled?”

And that’s the direction the Holy Spirit led Paul as he wrote this letter. And Paul, in Romans 9, describes God’s sovereign rite as God to change His program, and choose to have a program with the Gentiles, or the nations.

And he further explains how God could temporarily set aside Israel and His dealings with her, without going back on any of His promises to His chosen people.

As Paul begins here in chapter 9, he reveals his heavy heart and great love for his kinsmen after the flesh, the Jews.

He wrote about his “great heaviness and continual sorrow.” These kind of intense emotions come from mourning a loved one who has died.

And Paul’s countrymen, the Israelites, who were not believers, were spiritually dead, as every unbeliever is who is outside of Christ. Thus, out of his deep desire for them to be saved and to find life in Christ, he was grieved for them.

Notice in verse 3, that out of his burden for the Jews, Paul wrote “I could WISH that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

Paul was so concerned about the souls of his brethren, the Jews, that he was willing to give up his salvation and life in Christ and take their place in the lake of fire, so that his fellow Jews could be saved.

But Paul could only “wish” for this, as such a thing is not possible, because Romans 8:38-39 teaches that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

We are secure in Christ the moment we believe and nothing could ever take away our eternal salvation or eternal life in Christ our Savior.

Deut. 7:6 says of Israel, “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”

In Romans 9:4-5, Paul discusses Israel’s past privileges as God’s chosen and special people. Paul lists 8 of them.

They include: (1) the adoption; or the placing of sons, having a legal standing as full-grown sons before God and thus heirs of all God promised them.

(2) the glory, or the glory of God’s presence with them, having the shekinah glory in the tabernacle and then the temple. This set them apart from all other nations.

(3) the covenants, which includes the covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David, of a great nation in a great land, the Law, and a kingdom with an everlasting throne. This includes the New Covenant as well which was made with Israel.

(4) the law, given to Israel at Mt. Sinai, for God’s righteousness to be manifest in them;

(5) the service of God, or the worship of God and the priesthood, having the privilege of being God’s representatives and ministers between God and man;

(6) the promises, or the promises given concerning the coming Messiah, His reign and rule of peace and righteousness over the earth, and Israel’s prominence in His kingdom.

(7) the fathers, or the fathers of the nation: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for whose sakes God would ever love them. As Rom. 11:28 says, Israel is “beloved for the fathers’ sakes.”

(8) of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. In fulfillment of the promises, Israel had the greatest privilege of all, of God’s own Son, the One who is over all and God in flesh, coming through Israel.

Jewish people today, and throughout the dispensation of grace, would agree with Paul and acknowledge all these blessings, until this last one. The greatest one, the most important one, sadly, they would reject.

And as we follow Paul as he followed Christ, we should have a heaviness and sorrow at Israel’s unbelief and desire that they trust Christ and be saved, as we do with people of all nations, ethnicities and races.

Israel’s rejection of Christ, of this, their greatest blessing, is what led their fall and their temporary setting aside by God, and this is what Romans 9-11 goes on to explain as it teaches what happened to Israel.

Romans 9:6-15: “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

“That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

“And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

“It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

As Paul begins the discussion of what happened to Israel, he does so by defining what true Israel is when he wrote “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”

In other words, not all Israelites are saved Israelites, and just because you’re a Jew doesn’t mean you’re a true Jew, or it doesn’t mean that you are saved.

Paul further says, “neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.” To prove this point, he gives an illustration. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.

Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn, but he was the son the patriarch had with his wife Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, when Abraham and Sarah went before the Lord and did not wait for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Isaac was the son Abraham had with his wife Sarah and was the son of God’s promise that they would have a child even in their old age.

God chose to count Isaac as the chosen seed through whom God would fulfill His covenant to Abraham, and not Ishmael the firstborn. And Christ came through Isaac and his seed.

Paul uses this example to prove to the Jews that though they might be Abraham’s seed, like Ishmael was, this doesn’t mean they’re children, or heirs, like Isaac was.

And if they’re not children, or heirs, they can’t inherit the promise of eternal life. Only Abraham’s children, or the believers among his multiplied seed, will forever inherit the land God promised to Abraham.

As Paul wrote in verse 8, “That is, They which are the children of the flesh [or Ishmael], these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise [or Isaac] are counted for the seed.”

And the other point Paul is making with this illustration, is that God works in unexpected ways according to His perfect will, such as “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” that is, in Abraham’s second son, not his firstborn, would He fulfill His covenants to Abraham.

In explaining what happened to Israel, Paul is showing how God has done another unexpected thing according to His perfect, sovereign purposes, which is to turn from His program with Israel temporarily, to have a program with the Gentiles, and instead of Israel being His channel of blessing, to use the Gentiles as His channel of blessing.

To further reinforce this, Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau. Abraham’s son Isaac also had 2 sons, like his father. Their names were Jacob and Esau, and they were twins.

Like with Ishmael and Isaac, the question is, which one would be the heir? Which one would inherit the promises made to Abraham by God? The firstborn or the second son?

Paul explains in verse 11, that God elected, or chose, before they were born, not based on any good or evil things they had done, but according to His purposes and will, that “The elder shall serve the younger.” Esau was born first. Jacob was born second.

Esau became the father of the nation of Edom. Jacob was the father of the nation of Israel. The blessing and promises made to Abraham went through Jacob, the younger.

The Edomites were another seed of Abraham that didn’t end up being Abraham’s heirs.

Paul is showing the Jews again that being of the seed of Abraham, even through Isaac, does not mean that that they were a child or an heir or had claim on God’s promises to Abraham.

Paul is teaching all of this because, his “heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” He was trying to reach his countrymen to show that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” He was showing them that they need to believe in Christ to be a child of God and true child of Abraham and have eternal life.

There’s a principle we find even now in this kind of thought process, when you hear people say that because their parents or grandparents were Christians that they are Christians too. But each person must make the personal, individual decision to trust Christ as their Savior to be saved, that He died for your sins and rose again.

Normally, in Biblical times, the younger child served the elder child. That was the elder brother’s right by birth, the right to rule his younger brother.

God stated in this case, with Jacob and Esau, however, that the roles would be reversed, that Esau, the elder, would serve Jacob, the younger.

God had the nations that came from Jacob and Esau in mind. And the nation that descended from Esau, or Edom, did serve the nation that come from Jacob, or Israel.

The point again is God departing from the expected in carrying out His purposes. As the elder serving the younger was out of the ordinary, it makes Paul’s point to show how God, according to His perfect will, may choose to use Gentiles to fulfill His purposes.

Paul uses this illustration of Jacob and Esau to show that God may indeed choose to go against the norm, and to set His chosen people aside for a time in their unbelief, to bring the Gentiles to the forefront and have a program with Gentiles by grace.

And speaking of the elder SERVING the younger, as Israel once had the “service of God” under the law, now the Gentiles have “the service of God” under grace.

And the basis for God doing this, and turning to the Gentiles, is that God can do whatever He pleases to do as Sovereign God according to His mercy and compassion.

As verses 15 and 16 say, “For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”

God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, that is, us Gentiles. And God will have compassion on whom He will have compassion, that is, us Gentiles.

“It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,” or we, Gentiles, didn’t make it happen. It’s not by our willpower, or our efforts or strength, or because we’re good, or in some way or somehow better than Israel. It’s not something we deserve at all.

No act of God’s mercy is merited by man; God’s own will is the basis of all His blessings. They come because God is good, gracious, and merciful, by His own choice.

And by His mercy and compassion, God has chosen to have a program of grace with the Gentiles, in which He is giving all people of all nations, including Israel, the opportunity to be saved by grace through faith alone in Christ and be given a heavenly home, blessed with all spiritual blessings, sealed in Christ, and seated in heavenly places.

Romans 9:23-24: “And that He might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

“Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”

Today, under grace, God has made known the riches of His glory on us Gentiles, who are the vessels of mercy, in verse 23.

Remember that one of the privileges Israel had in the past is that they had “the glory” (9:4). Under grace, the Gentiles have “the glory.” Romans 5:2 says that we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

This blessing and privilege of the riches of His glory under grace is for “us, whom He hath called,” or all of us in the Body of Christ, both believing Jews and believing Gentiles, as Paul points out in verse 24: “not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”

So what happened to Israel? Verses 32-33 of this chapter teaches us about Israel’s fall, “For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.”

The stumblingstone and rock of offence is a “Him” according to verse 33. The “Him” is Jesus Christ. In fulfillment of prophecy, Christ came to Israel to seek and to save that which was lost, and “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Rom. 15:8).

He performed miracles, cast out demons, raised the dead, demonstrating He was Israel’s Messiah and King. He preached that the kingdom was at hand, and prepared Israel for the tribulation and His kingdom.

But Israel rejected their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and did not believe in Him. Israel’s rejection of Him led to the Cross. After Christ rose and ascended, He sent the Holy Spirit to Israel, who bore witness to Christ’s resurrection and Messiahship.

But Israel continued in their rejection of Christ to the point that Israel’s leaders stoned Stephen a man full of the Holy Spirit. Israel stumbled at that stumblingstone and fell in her unbelief of Christ at that time.

Instead of her fall bringing in the prophesied Tribulation period, God ushered in a never-before-revealed dispensation of the grace of God in which He has turned to the Gentiles, and raised up a new apostle, Paul, to reveal the truth of the Church the Body of Christ with its heavenly hope today, and for him to carry God’s message of grace to the nations.

In this dispensation, Israel, and God’s prophetic program with her, has been temporarily suspended by God. In this dispensation of grace, unlike previous dispensations, “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him” (Rom. 10:12).

There most definitely was a different between Jew and Gentile in the past, but under grace, there is no difference, and whosoever believes in Christ, believing Jews and believing Gentiles, are all one in Christ, members of one another in the Body of Christ.

Under grace, Jews must come to Christ the same way a Gentile does, by trusting the gospel of the grace of God, that Christ died for our sins and rose again the third day.

To fulfill His future promises to her, God is preserving the Jewish people in this dispensation, which in itself has been a miracle, because of the hatred of so many toward the Jews and the various attempts to wipe them out.

Following the conclusion of this age, which closes with the Rapture and the catching away of the Church to heaven, God will pick up right where He left off with Israel, and fulfill everything He has promised to that nation. Because God is faithful.

Romans 9:25-29: “As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

“And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living 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: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

“And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.”

These verses refer to Israel’s future restoration. Israel has not been set aside forever. Verses 25-26 teach that Israel would go through a time of not being God’s people.

But following this age, after God concludes this program with the Gentiles and turns back to Israel, God will again call them “my people” which were not His people. He will call her “beloved” which were not beloved, and they will “be called the children of the living God.”

The period of Israel being considered “not my people” and “not beloved” by God is only temporary under grace. One day, following the Rapture, Israel will again be God’s people and His beloved as He restores His program with Israel and makes her the chief nation and a blessing to the whole earth.

While it refers specifically to Israel’s restoration, there is a principle about the Gentiles under grace in these verses, when once Israel was not God’s people, then they were God’s people, and when they were once not beloved, then they were beloved and children of the living God.

If God did this with His people, Israel, He can do that with the Gentiles too. And He has. Though, in the past, Gentiles were not God’s people or God’s beloved, believing Gentiles in the Body of Christ are now beloved, God’s people, and children of the living God.

In verses 27-29, Paul further teaches what will take place after God restores Israel and His program with her, that a remnant will be saved to enter His kingdom.

Though the number of Israel is “as the sand of the sea,” as Paul wrote in verse 6, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel,” and just a remnant will be saved.

Verses 27-28 refers to a prophecy by Isaiah of the judgment of the Babylonian invasion, destruction of Israel, and Israel’s exile.

Finishing “the work” and the “short work” that the Lord will make upon the earth refers to the work of God’s judgment being poured out on the earth in the future Tribulation.

It is a “short” work, because it is only a 7-year time period. That short time will separate and clearly reveal true believers in Israel from the unbelievers and imposters.

So many will perish in that day of judgment, it will be like another Sodom and Gomorrha, but through it, God will preserve a seed in that day, a believing remnant in Israel.

Through this believing remnant, along with Abraham and all his believing seed who will be resurrected to enter the kingdom of heaven on the earth, all nations will be blessed in the kingdom, and God will fulfill all His covenants and national promises to Israel.

You see throughout Scripture, throughout this present dispensation of grace, and in Israel’s future, that God works through believing remnants, the small groups, those in the minority, those who trust Him and who stand boldly for Him and the truth of His Word.

God is more interested in quality than He is in quantity. The smaller the number, the greater the glory and honor and adoration He receives. His power is revealed in the weak, the beggarly, the small, because His “strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Little Bible study groups, small churches who are faithful to God’s Word, God works mightily in and through these things and He is glorified through them.

As 1 Corinthians 1:27 says: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”