This evening, turn to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 11.
I say then, did God cast off His people? God forbid.
For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God did not cast off His people, whom He foreknew.
Then, if you look at verse 7:
What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
According as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day.
Verse 11:
I say then, Did they 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 fullness?
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.
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?
And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, glory not over the branches. But if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee.
Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will He spare thee.
Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.
For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness 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 disobedience, even so have these 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, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
Shall we bow together in a further word of prayer?
Heavenly Father, we have been already in Thy presence, worshipping Thee, and we have already committed our time to Thee. And now all we ask is that, as we come to Thy Word, Thou wilt break the bread of life to us.
Lord, we pray that, as we touch the subject that is so confused and so controversial, Thou wilt give light to us. O Father, we thank Thee for the anointing which is ours both for speaking and for hearing. We appropriate it, Lord, in full measure for this evening, that Thy purpose for this time may be fulfilled and we, Thy people, may be instructed, built up, and challenged.
May that living faith which is Thy gift in every one of us be energised into action, we pray. And we ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I want to speak this evening about living faith and Israel. And I do not make any apology for the subject.
Because, as I said last night, I do not personally believe that it is possible to have an understanding of the times we live in, or be serving the counsel of God in our own generation, unless we understand two matters which are on the heart of God.
The first is the whole matter to do with the church, in which all of us are found by the grace of God. This matter is right at the very heart of all the conflict that there has been from the beginning of time unto this day. If we do not understand it, we shall not understand what the enemy’s thrust is in our generation, what he is seeking to do amongst the people of God, and why grace and power are made available to us in a very special way for the last phase of human history, that the purpose of the Lord for His people may be completed.
The other matter is Israel, the Jewish people. Many Christians do not understand how on earth Judaism has anything to do with Christianity, and how on earth the Jewish nation, Israel, has any bearing upon the gospel or upon the purpose of the Lord for the church.
I believe that in these days it is more important than at any other time since the first century of the church to understand what God’s mind is concerning the Jewish people.
Some people treat them as a prophetic illustration—a kind of object lesson, a prophetic object lesson—which just helps our faith and encourages us to believe that God is faithful to His Word. This is not good enough.
There is far, far, far more to the purpose of God concerning the Jewish people in this last phase of world history. That is why I am not just speaking about Israel and the Jewish people. I could speak for hours on the subject. But you can always get the books and study it at leisure, and it may be easier without me in front of your eyes.
I am talking about living faith and Israel, for there is a vital connection in the days in which we live.
Now, a hundred years ago—one hundred and fifty years ago—it was not so important that you should understand the purpose of God for the Jewish people. The main thing was to see what God was doing amongst the nations, and to give your heart to the great thrust outward into all the nations of the earth, that there might come from every tongue and kindred and people those redeemed by the grace of God.
If you understood God’s purpose for Israel, so much the better. It gave an added dimension, as it were, to your understanding of the purpose of God. But it was not vital.
I believe that today it is vital. It is no longer a question of just a luxury revelation—something that does not really, in one way or another, materially or substantially influence or affect your life with God or the building up of the church. I believe that this matter has very much bearing indeed.
Now, you understand, this subject is enormous, and my problem is where to begin, how quite to communicate what is necessary to communicate. You will understand, I hope, if I speak fast. Trust God to blot out of my heart and mind what does not need to be said for this evening.
But I want to underline the glorious promise of God for the Jewish people.
There are those who say that the Jewish people have no destiny. They are now under the irrevocable wrath and judgment of God. He has finished with them. There is no further divine interest in the Jewish people. God has transferred all His affections to another body, another company of people called the church, and the Jewish people are under the judgment of God.
They are, insofar as they are still alive today, some antique that has somehow survived from the past, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the future.
God’s Word, in my estimation, gives a very different picture indeed.
Now, I will not immediately go into the Old Testament, because I am well aware that there are people who dismiss the Old Testament. They say that all the prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the return of the Jewish people from Babylon and have nothing whatsoever to do with the recreation of the Jewish state, the recreation of Israel, in our generation.
There are others who treat the Old Testament as an appendix—a useless appendix, a prehistoric appendix. We do not need it. I am always very sad when I see people walking around with New Testaments, as if there is not an Old Testament.
Although I realise that sometimes it is easier to carry a New Testament around with you, God’s Word is not the New Testament. God’s Word is Old and New Testament.
It may surprise you to realise that the early church did not have a New Testament. All these marvellous revelations concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus were discovered within the Old Testament. They revelled in it, and they found the whole matter of the church in the Old Testament. They found all the pictures, figures, and examples.
When the Lord Jesus opened up their understanding, it was the Old Testament which they believed in and saw as inspired, through which they came to be saved. Is that not amazing? The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were in the making at that time.
Praise God, we have a New Testament and an Old Testament. But I will leave the Old Testament for now, because there are people who tend to say that the Old Testament is rather like doctors used to look upon the human appendix.
You know, if you had a slight rumble or some sickness in the stomach in the good old days, they whipped you in and took your appendix out. They said it was a prehistoric appendage that belonged to man when he ran around on all fours and sort of chewed raw meat, or whatever it was.
Today, I understand, they have a very different view. They have decided that the appendix is something very important to your stomach. I do not know, anyway; I am not a medical man, so I leave it all to the medics.
But the fact remains that some people look upon the Old Testament as something that no longer has any useful function. Therefore, to prove that Israel has been prophesied and predicted in the Old Testament has no bearing whatsoever.
We will turn, therefore, to the New Testament and find whether there is anything in the New Testament that clearly speaks to us about a future for the Jewish people. I say, here it is very clearly, in the chapter that we have read together—in this marvellous chapter.
I am very sad when people talk about these three chapters as a kind of parenthesis. You know, the Apostle Paul was always coming along, and then all of a sudden he went off on a little digression.
Well, it is true that when we get to Romans 8 and the last verse, the apostle has come to an end of an argument. He has brought us right through amazingly, so that we see Jew and Gentile, sinners saved by the grace of God in our Lord Jesus.
He has taken us not only through the fact that Christ died for our sins, but that Christ died as us, and brought us into the marvellous truth that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who shall separate us from the love of God?
Then, with chapter 9, he begins a new thought. I do not think it is just a digression, and that in chapter 12 he comes back to chapter 8, as if you can dismiss those three chapters as being something interesting but not necessary to his argument.
I believe that, as in Ephesians 3, we are introduced into the holy of holies—as if God draws aside the veil and says, “Come, I want you to understand that behind this whole plan of salvation, behind the redeeming purpose of God, there is a far greater purpose.”
In these chapters we are face to face with divine election, or the divine choice of God; the foreordination of God; the predestinating counsel of God. We discover that it has very much to do with the Jewish people, and not only with the Jewish people, but with the church of God—those amongst the Gentiles whom He would call out and name with His name.
Now, when we come to Romans 11:12, we read this wonderful word:
Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?
Now, did you hear that? There is a fall, there is a loss, and there is a fullness—all in the same breath. You get it?
Now, their fall—whose fall is it? Individuals’ fall? No, it is a national fall, a national fall. In a rare moment of unity, all Christian theologians and Bible scholars are united. They all agree that their fall was the fall of the Jewish nation, the fall of the Jewish people. Their loss is the loss of the Jewish people.
Now, if the fall of the Jewish people was the riches of the world, and the loss of the Jewish people the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? What I want to know is how anybody interprets this Word of God by taking the first part of the sentence as national and the last part of the sentence as personal.
I have heard people tell me that this matter of fullness is a personal thing. If individual Jews come into the church, they find fullness. I have no doubt about that. There is no other way to find fullness than the fullness of God in the Lord Jesus. But does this verse say it?
Who has given anybody the right to say the first part of the sentence is national and the last part is personal? The plain meaning of the Word of God, surely, is that if there is a national fall and a national loss which has been the riches of the world and the riches of the Gentiles, there is a national fullness yet to be.
Now, in Romans 11:15, the apostle goes on:
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?
Everyone is agreed. The rabbis are even agreed about the fall and loss of the Jewish people. All Christian theologians and Bible scholars are agreed that there was a casting away of the Jewish people.
Who is “them”? Individuals? No, it was the Jewish nation. It was the establishment that represented the whole nation that rejected the Messiah, and as a result the nation was cast away.
How come, then, that people do not always take note of the last part of the sentence? If the casting away of them—the Jewish people, the Jewish nation—is the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be? How can the first “them” be national and the second “them” be personal? How can the first “them” be national and the second “them” be just something individual?
The plain statement of the Word of God is that if there has been a casting away of the Jewish nation, which has been the means of the reconciliation of innumerable Gentiles from every corner of the earth, the receiving of that people will be nothing less than life from the dead.
Now, life from the dead is resurrection life. It is something like Pentecost. Once the Lord Jesus died, once the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, once He ascended to the right hand of God, then and only then His resurrection life was poured out in the Person of the Holy Spirit—life from the dead.
I go on, and I read in Romans 11:24:
For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
To whom is he talking? He is talking to Roman Gentiles. He is talking to those who are not Jewish. He says, “You are a wild olive tree.” We all actually are human beings, whether the natural olive tree or the wild olive tree.
Now, will you please take note of these words: their own olive tree. What is their own olive tree?
Some people will say, “Ah, no, no, you have got it all wrong.” I am not sure I have. He is talking about natural branches that have been laid on one side. Who are these natural branches that have been laid on one side? It is spoken of in verse 17:
But if some of the branches were broken off—
They were laid aside. Who are these natural branches broken off? Jews. Why were they broken off and laid aside? Because they did not have saving faith.
Now the apostle says, “How much more shall these natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” What is their own olive tree?
Because of the books I have written, I sometimes get very interesting letters. I get a whole number of letters that tell me there are two olive trees. They are always telling me, “Brother, you have got it quite wrong. Permit me to try and help you to understand this matter. There is one olive tree—the Jewish tree—and the other olive tree is the church.”
I do not understand it, because I always write back and say, “Well, I must have eyes that are either focused and you have not, or there is something very wrong with me, because it says that you wild olive branches were grafted into this olive tree.”
Furthermore, when people say, “Oh no, no, no, it is Christ,” of course it is Christ, but it does not just say the root. If you look carefully, verse 17 says:
If some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree—
In other words, when we come to the New Testament and to the early church, nobody was called a Christian. They were first called Christians—it was a nickname—at Antioch. What were they? They were disciples. They were true Jews.
They were the Jews who had fulfilled the purpose of God for the nation. Furthermore, they looked upon the Gentiles coming to the Lord as partakers in the commonwealth of Israel—no longer afar off, no longer alienated, but brought into the commonwealth of Israel and made members of God’s true Israel.
Now, this is a huge matter, and if I were to go on with it, it would take us away from what I really want to say. But suffice it now to say this: their own olive tree is the church. The Jewish people’s own olive tree is the church.
They do not see it. They do not understand. I am not talking about a church, a traditional church, or an institutional church. I am talking about the true church of God—those who are the elect. That is the Jewish people’s own olive tree.
Now, having established that, this is how the apostle goes on:
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery.
He was so bothered that these dear Gentile believers, born of the Spirit of God, would be ignorant of this mystery of Israel.
Now, a mystery is not something complex so that you forever cannot understand it. That is not the meaning of the Greek word translated by the English word mystery in the New Testament.
The word means a secret into which only the initiated understand. In other words, if you are born again, if you belong to the Lord Jesus, you are one of the initiates. You are one of those who ought to understand these mysteries. They belong to you.
They have been shut up for ages and generations, but now they have been revealed to those who are born of the Spirit of God in this day and age. Is that not marvellous?
It means that nobody has a right to understand this mystery of Israel unless they are born of God. But if you are born of God, your very birthright— inherent in your birthright—is an understanding of this mystery.
The apostle says:
I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits.
That bears thinking about. No matter how great the wild olive branches are, they may cover the whole tree. Multitudes and multitudes and multitudes of Gentiles may have come into the salvation of God, but he says, “Do not glory over the branches as if the branches carry the tree. It is the root that carries you.” Remember that.
Then he says:
I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved.
This does not mean, in my estimation, that when the last single Gentile to be converted and saved has finally been saved, then this hardening will be put away. I do not believe that.
At the beginning, Jews were still being saved alongside Gentiles when the Lord began to bring in the Gentiles into the salvation of God, beginning at Caesarea. But still, everywhere there were Jews, Jews, Jews, Jews coming.
Do you know, even Jewish sources estimate that almost over a third of the nation were born again in the beginning? So great was the number that was saved at the beginning—an enormous number believed.
You get a little intimation of that: three thousand on the day of Pentecost; five thousand within a little while; eight thousand; a great company of priests and Levites. Can you imagine the effect upon the people, just within Jerusalem?
It must have been at least ten percent of the population of Jerusalem who were believers in the Lord Jesus. It is an amazing thing.
Today, in rabbinical circles, it is accepted that so great was the effect of the gospel in the early days of Christianity, as they call it, that almost a third of the Jewish people went over to it.
Now, my point is simply this: when we begin to look at it, “a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved.”
This does not mean that every Jew will be saved automatically. If they are to be saved, they will be saved by the atoning death of the Messiah. God never saves people automatically.
The Jewish people, in that they all come, will never be saved automatically. Caiaphas was circumcised. He was a covenant child of God, but he was not saved. Amos was circumcised; he was a covenant child, but he was not saved. Judas was circumcised, but he was not saved.
You go right through history and find evil kings like Ammon. They were circumcised. They were covenant people of God, but they were not saved. The real Israel was always within the outward Israel. Do you understand?
I do not believe that “all Israel” means that every Jew is going to automatically be saved at some point. It seems to me that what the Lord is saying is this: the whole purpose of God to bring out a redeemed people from all over the earth, beginning with the Jewish people—to the Jew first and then to the Gentile—has been completed in the final phase by an enormous grafting back in of the natural branches.
Now, how does the apostle go on to argue? He says:
There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer;
He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
This, he says, is my biblical basis, for “even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
This is a reference to Isaiah 59:20, which reads in the Hebrew:
And a Redeemer shall come unto Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.
Now, I have looked and looked and looked for this version. People have always told me, since I was first saved, that this is the Septuagint version—the Greek translation of the Old Testament—but I cannot find it in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It does not say it like this.
This is very interesting because it suggests to me that this marvellous verse—“There shall come a Redeemer to Zion”—has already been fulfilled. Did He not come to Zion? Was He not born in Bethlehem? Did He not come to Jerusalem? Did He not die for the redemption of the people in Jerusalem on Passover Day?
Yes. And whom did He save? That remnant of the Jewish people that turned from ungodliness in Jacob.
But here it is a little different:
There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer.
It is as if, when God has done a great work in His spiritual Zion, bringing together people from all peoples, tongues, and nations—from every part of the globe—into the body of the Messiah, then at last that Messiah who came to Zion originally, to those who turned from ungodliness in Jacob, and saved that little remnant who became, as it were, the great foundation of the church, will be revealed to the natural branches at the end of the age.
He shall turn away ungodliness in Jacob. I find this very, very wonderful.
I hope you realise that I am seeking to lay a foundation for living faith. He goes on to say:
As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
Is that not a most remarkable word? “As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake,” as if God says, “I treat them as enemies. I curse them for your sake.” For your sake, in the mystery of God’s counsel.
But He says:
As touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
How can any Christian dislike the Jewish people or hate the Jewish people if they are beloved of the God they worship? It does not say, “I did love them, but they are a pain in the neck now. They have gone so far away and done the foulest deeds.” God says, “As touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.”
Then comes this marvellous word: “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
I have heard sermons galore on this marvellous truth, especially in Britain, because there is such a strong number of preachers who believe in the sovereignty of God, in Britain, much more than the responsibility of man. So they love this verse: “The gifts and the calling of God are not to be repented of. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
But did you notice that little preposition, for? They are beloved, as touching the election, for the fathers’ sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Now comes the amazing thing:
For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these 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.
Now, I find this so amazing that every time I contemplate it, I feel bowled over. It is something so tremendous—as if the purpose of God is one great cycle. Do you understand? As if the whole thing is interlocked.
You were disobedient. They became disobedient, and by their disobedience you have obtained mercy. But do not shut them out, because by the mercy shown to you, they are going to obtain mercy. In other words, it is all linked together.
How did you all become believers? Oh, you say, in various ways. “I heard an evangelist. I heard a preacher. Maybe it was on television. Maybe it was over the radio. Or you read something. Or it was through the Bible you were reading. Or it was in a church meeting, or some campaign meeting.”
But I want to tell you something: you are a direct result of the early Jewish believers.
Those early believers in the Lord Jesus, saved by the grace of God, saw something. Maybe they had their problems. They had the Judaizing party. They had those who were very narrow and wanted to put the whole Mosaic Law in all its details on everybody. But, by and large, the main body saw something—especially the Apostle Paul.
They saw something of the purpose of God. Those beloved Jewish brothers and sisters in the Messiah laid down their lives that the Gentiles might come into the salvation of God.
There is not a book of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, bar Luke and Acts, that was written by a non-Jewish hand. I know it does not mean anything because it is the inspiration of God, but is it not interesting?
You have not got a non-Jewish book except Luke and Acts. And, by the way, there are people who contend about that as well. They say Luke was also a Jew. There are those who say he was not. Well, that is all right; we shall give him to you.
But the thing is, whether you like it or whether you do not, the whole New Testament, bar Luke and Acts, is written by a Jewish hand, if you take the human side of it.
All those early apostles—there was not a non-Jew amongst them. Take all those early men who were set to look after the widows and their food: every one of them was a Greek-speaking Jew. Take all the early thrust of the church: every one of them was a Jew.
Do you not see what you owe to this people? They became the offscouring of their own people. They were denigrated, devalued, thrown out, martyred, in order to take to the Gentiles—whom they had always considered to be unclean, filthy, dirty, below par, not to be talked with, never to come under their roof—the gospel of God’s saving love and grace.
By the disobedience of that people, you have obtained mercy—actually, by the remnant that was saved.
Oh, what they did! If we believe church tradition—and I do not always—but if we believe church tradition, by the year 44 AD, fourteen years after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, those Jewish apostles, Jewish evangelists, and Jewish preachers had gone over the whole known world.
They had gone as far south as Saudi Arabia, the southern tip, and over into Ethiopia. They had gone as far east as India, as to the south of India, and right through Persia and Central Asia. They had gone northwards, right into Armenia.
Everywhere they had preached the gospel, and everywhere people had come to the Lord. Oh, I do not say it was a marvellous church, but is it not amazing? If we believe church tradition, within fourteen years the gospel had been taken so far.
Do you know that there was a tradition in Britain—of course, the Britons always love to have this kind of tradition—that Joseph of Arimathea was the first to preach the gospel in the British Isles, and he did so fourteen years after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus?
Certainly, we do know that the first group of British Christians was in the first century. These people were considered to be barbarians by the Romans, let alone the Jews. I mean, they only had feathers and rode—well, that is about all of it. They did not have no loincloth.
Now, my point is this: through the disobedience of the Jewish people, these obtained mercy by these faithful men and women, Jewish in origin, who had found the salvation of God in the Messiah. They laid down their lives that these others might come.
Now, dear friends, is it too much to ask that in the last part of the era there may be those who are of Gentile origin who will lay down their lives in love and in intercession, that these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree, that by the mercy shown to you they also might now obtain mercy?
No wonder the apostle bursts out in a peal of praise and says:
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 unto Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
It blows one’s mind that God should have such a purpose.
Now, my point in all this is to go just a step further, if you do not mind, and point out that there are some other Scriptures too. As if it is only one chapter which I might be misinterpreting.
I am perfectly well prepared to say here and now that if I am wrong, I am wrong. I would be very sorry to have spent a whole hour in this conference telling you something that is wrong. But I know that you are mature enough, at least, to search these things in the Word and not just take it from us as gospel truth.
I believe in it; otherwise, I would not seek to teach this kind of thing.
But when we go back to our Lord’s own words, there are some people who feel that the Apostle Paul cannot be wholly trusted in some matters. They say, “You know what happened? He shaved his head and took a vow. There is something very wrong there. In another place, when he was arrested, instead of saying, ‘I was a Jew,’ he said, ‘I am a Jew.’ That is very wrong. He was in the new man. He is going back on all this.”
They say, “What was he doing keeping the Passover when the Passover is fulfilled? Taking Timothy and getting him circumcised? I mean, the whole thing is terrible. It is going back.”
So now let us go to the Gospels, to Matthew 23. I am sorry, not chapter 24—chapter 23, verse 38. Perhaps you had better read from verse 37.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Now, this is a very sad point in history. You will remember it is the last words the Lord Jesus ever uttered to the Jewish establishment. It was as He was leaving the temple, going out to the Gate Beautiful, going down into the Kidron Valley, and going up on the other side to the Mount of Olives.
Leaving eight of them, He took the four and went up higher and sat down with them and spoke about the whole age, the time of the end. Remember, they came to Him with the question, “When shall these things be?” That is, when will the temple be destroyed? “And what will be the end of the age and Thy coming?”
As He went out, they had shown Him the great wonderful stones and said, “Do You know, it was forty-three years they had taken to build this great temple?” And Jesus said, “Do you see them? Not one stone will stand upon another.”
He said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Now, Jesus had never referred to the temple as their house. He had always referred to it as “My Father’s house.”
Now, for the first time, He said, “Your house is left unto you desolate. You shall not see Me henceforth.”
Oh, how many Christian teachers have gone just that far and no further, and on the basis of this have pronounced irrevocable judgment of wrath upon the Jewish people. But Jesus did not say that.
He said:
Your house is left unto you desolate.
Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Now, in modern Hebrew, if we want to say “welcome,” we say baruch haba. And baruch haba means literally, “Blessed be he that comes,” if you want to put it literally. It just means “welcome.”
If you want to be religious, you will say, Baruch haba b’shem Adonai, which means, “Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.”
Now, I find it amazing to believe that some people teach that the Jewish people are all going to wail and cringe and cry and go off into the holes and caves of the earth and hide away from the Lord, and Jesus said they will say, “Welcome in the name of the Lord.”
It seems a very strange contradiction: people cringing in terror saying, “Welcome in the name of the Lord.” I would have thought, “Mercy, mercy, Lord.” I would have understood it if they had cried out, “Oh God, have mercy upon us. What have we done?” But no—they say, “Welcome in the name of the Lord.”
I also find it very hard to believe that they are all going to be saved at the sight of the Messiah. Because if we take what Jesus said, does it not suggest that something of a radical, revolutionary nature has taken place within the Jewish heart?
Their whole concept of Jesus has changed; their whole attitude to the Person and work of Jesus has changed. It has undergone such a revolution, such a change, that they say, “Welcome in the name of the Lord.”
I find this a very wonderful verse. Now, when I turn to the Old Testament, I find it even more so.
We go to the Old Testament for a moment, to Zechariah 12, from verse 10. Listen to this prophecy of Zechariah.
This is very interesting because he first tells us that all the nations of the earth will come to war over Jerusalem.
It is an interesting fact that from AD 70 there were not the same kind of wars over Jerusalem. There were wars over Israel, over Palestine, but always on a much bigger area—Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the whole area—but not over Jerusalem.
This prophecy says that in the last days all the nations will be gathered together against Jerusalem. Not for some eighteen hundred years have all the nations of the earth been gathered together concerning Jerusalem.
We are fast approaching that day now—fast approaching it—because Jerusalem has once again become the focal point of all the talk, has it not?
It is an amazing thing to me that this little nation of three and a half million people, with an area not bigger than the state of Indiana, is endlessly discussed on television, on radio, by Congress, by the British Parliament, and by the United Nations, which is forever having special security sessions and passing resolutions on this funny little nation.
Forty years ago, this nation did not exist. Indeed, forty years ago, two-thirds of the greatest Jewish community in the world were being liquidated. Six million of the nine million European and Russian Jews were going into the gas chambers forty years ago.
If I had stood and said, “There will come a day when these people will regain their land and become a nation again with their own army, their own government, their own president, their own prime minister, and all the rest of it,” people would have laughed.
If I had said, “All the nations of the earth will start to be gathered together against them, and they will endlessly discuss their status and come against their capital, Jerusalem,” people would have laughed.
I do not hear Finland forever being discussed in all the councils of the world. I love the Finnish people, but I never hear Finland forever being discussed. I never hear Norway being ever discussed. There are also four million people in each of them, with much greater territory.
But this little nation in this tiny little pocket state has suddenly come to the fore of world politics and has been endlessly discussed. All the controversy is over it.
Now, here in this verse which speaks about nations being gathered against Jerusalem, which means that at some point in the future Jerusalem would again rise to its place—when somehow or other the times of the Gentiles might be coming to an end—then Jerusalem would again become not some little provincial town in Palestine, but the capital of a recreated Jewish nation at the heart of world politics.
Then the prophet says, verse 10:
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart.
Then he goes all the way through, and then it says:
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Now, there are people who tell me that the Jewish people are going to be saved in a single day of time, and they quote Isaiah 66:8.
Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once?
For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
They tell me that this nation is going to be saved when they see the Lord Jesus, in a single moment of time. Within a day the whole nation is going to be born again.
I say that this prophecy in Isaiah 66:8 has already been fulfilled. It does not speak so much of the nation. Notice how it is introduced: “Shall a land be born in a day?” You do not normally speak of a land being born, but a land was born. It speaks of statehood—statehood.
Shall a state be born in a day? Shall a Jewish state, after thousands of years of dispersion and exile and persecution, be born in a day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once?
It is exactly what happened on 14 May 1948. A land was born in a single day, and a nation was brought forth at once.
Even the British did not believe that that land could be brought forth in a day. They thought they would be swallowed up by the enormously well-equipped five Arab armies, some of them British-trained, waiting to pounce upon that little nation.
They had so few rifles that there was one between every five men. They had one aeroplane, with one engine. It is amazing.
At the beginning, they had to take recourse to what we call the little David. It was made with old tin cans. They welded them together, and it did not kill anybody, but it made the most fearful noise. It was amazing how, with this funny little weapon, whole areas just cleared out.
You say it was very wrong, was it not? Clearly murder? Yes, it was a question of their being murdered. What else were they to do? They had been promised a bloodbath worse than Genghis Khan. The whole land was going to be bathed with Jewish blood.
But that little nation was brought to birth in a single day, and God protected it. It ended up with more territory than the United Nations had assigned to it, which the Jewish side had agreed to and the Arab side had refused.
I am not going to go into all the various wars, but I want to point out that I believe that prophecy is concerned with the birth of a state, a land, a nation. It is statehood and nationhood.
This prophecy in Zechariah speaks of something else. It says that the spirit of grace and supplication will be poured upon the house of David—that is, the establishment, the governing class—and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, the ordinary citizen.
They shall look unto Me whom they have pierced. Now, in the King James Version, very sadly, it says, “They shall look upon Me whom they pierced.” I cannot understand why, but the New American Standard Bible and the Revised Standard Version have both said, “They shall look on Me.”
But the Hebrew is never “looking on.” If I look on President Reagan, I physically see him, do I not? If I say, “I look on President Reagan,” it can only mean one thing: I saw him with my eyes.
If I looked on the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, I mean, I saw her. But if I looked unto President Reagan, what does that mean?
If I say I look toward President Reagan, it could mean physical. But if it has this feeling of looking unto, it is a moral thing, a spiritual thing. I have a respect. I have a reverence. I have an understanding. I honour him.
“They shall look unto Me whom they pierced.” It does not sound to me just like a physical sight of the Messiah leading to salvation, but a spiritual revelation of the Person of the Lord Jesus, because in the whole of Jewish history, the Person pierced is Jesus.
Then it says two amazing things, but I will take the second first. All the houses, all the families, will mourn—husbands and wives apart.
Now, you have to understand Jewish mourning habits. This is no day’s work. This is not something happening in a day.
If husbands and wives have to be apart, it is not for an hour. That does not mean anything. Most of you husbands and wives are apart for one hour of every day, are you not? Many more. It does not mean anything.
What does it mean, husbands and wives apart? It means a number of days. In Jewish mourning habits, when someone has died, for seven days husbands and wives do not share the same bed.
Husbands do not shave. They do not cut their hair. They do not cut their toenails or fingernails. The whole of life is abnormal. You live an abnormal life. You do not sit on ordinary chairs; you sit on stools close to the floor as a sign of mourning.
For seven whole days, the whole normal life of the family is upside down. It is called in Hebrew the shivah.
Then, for thirty days, you return to a somewhat normal life, but still very abnormal. You can go back to business again. You can shave again. You can look a little more tidy, but still life is very, very different.
Then, for one whole year, life is different. In that year, you must not sell property, buy property, or do anything personal in that way to change your circumstances. The idea is that people can do something quickly after being bereaved that they regret later. I think there is a lot in it.
So, for a whole year, you do not do anything unusual with your circumstances.
Now, is this not interesting? Here we have all these verses that I am sure, to the average Christian, do not mean anything: these people mourning, husbands and wives apart, the house of David, the house of Nathan, the house of Shimei. What is it all about?
Well, I will tell you what it is all about. It evidently means that a work of the Spirit of God will begin in the Jewish people that will, to begin with, be just like gentle showers coming down of the latter rain. Then it will come heavier and heavier and heavier, and in the end they will look unto Him whom they pierced.
They will weep; they will mourn for Him—not a sorrow that is remorseful and leads to suicide, but repentance that leads to salvation.
Even more wonderful is this word, if I might—and I may be wrong. But if I am right, this reference to the great mourning in Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddon, was a reference to the godly King Josiah, who was killed in battle at thirty-one years of age. The whole nation gathered together in Jerusalem to mourn him.
Is it possible to believe that something could happen before the coming of the Messiah that would take away the hardening which has befallen Israel in part, so that they begin dimly—just begin at the start dimly—to look at the Lord Jesus and recognise Him?
Then it will become a mourning, a grief, a sorrow, as a recognition comes into the national consciousness of something that happened nineteen hundred years ago. That is the key to Jewish history and the key to Jewish destiny.
Now, dear friends, you see, our time has all gone. This subject is enormous. All I can do is open a little window.
God forbid that any of you become Israel cranks. We have so many of them. Every conceivable Israel sort—they are drawn to Jerusalem like a magnet, shaving their heads, flowing ash, all the thing. Weird people.
I do not know what it is. People who here would be quite normal, when they get there become totally abnormal. Whether it is a kind of historical glamour complex that hits them, I do not know what it is.
But I pray to God that no one in this congregation this evening would somehow go along that way and allow this whole matter to divert you from the question of the building of the church.
But there is a tremendous amount here. These people are going to wash themselves in that fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, in the same way that you have. The natural branches are going to be grafted back into their own olive tree along with the wild olive branches.
How amazing is the purpose of God.
Now, I know this might raise problems for us in other spheres which we cannot answer at present because of time. But what I am trying to say is this: if it is true, however we see it, it is true that there is a destiny for the Jewish people, and that there is a redemption of the Jewish people—a spiritual redemption—that they are going to taste the salvation of God.
Do you not see that you and I have a responsibility towards this people as to no other people in the earth?
You have a responsibility to the American people if you are Americans, or to the Canadian people if you are Canadians, and I to the British people, insofar as I was born amongst them. Whatever nation you come from, you have a responsibility before God.
But in this matter there is something quite unique. You have a responsibility toward the Jewish people, because it was not only through their disobedience that you obtained mercy, but all those early ones who laid down their lives were Jews who had discovered the salvation of God in the Messiah.
They laid down their lives that you might come to God.
I would like to talk about why there is a need sometimes to pray for Israel physically. Do you know why? I will just say it in a word before I go on to the other matter.
Satan knows that that people are going to be the scene of an ultimate triumph for God that will put, as it were, the top on the whole purpose of God. Satan will do every single thing he possibly can to destroy that people before that miracle takes place.
He will bring nuclear weapons into the Middle East. He will raise up all kinds of misunderstandings. He will bring armies together in confederations. Then he will use economic boycotts.
He will try to get those who are native-born Israelis to leave in their thousands, as they are. Montreal has seventeen thousand Israelis living there now. Atlanta, I believe, has something like seven or eight thousand Israelis—not Jews, Israelis. Los Angeles has an even larger number. New York has an enormous population of Israelis.
Do you see what Satan will try to do against the Word of God?
If I had the time, I would go to a whole lot of Scriptures to show you how these Old Testament purposes are being literally fulfilled. We have to pray that the attempts of the enemy to frustrate the purpose of God by eradicating this people will fail, and that God will use the very manoeuvrings and tactics of the enemy to fulfil His purpose.
People get so worried in Israel about all these yordim, we call them—those who have come over here to live—but I personally am not worried. I believe that once they are out of our context, God can save them.
Many of those Israelis may well meet some loving believer who really loves the Jewish people and loves Israel, and it will open their heart. They will come back to us as apostles and pioneers for the good news concerning the Messiah Jesus.
I am not afraid of it. But what we need is living faith.
If I have questions about the whole thing, well, I am just going to dismiss them. It is just some point of interest. Perhaps it helps me in my understanding of the faithfulness of God to His Word, but no more.
But if I understand that you, wild olive branches, were grafted in among them originally—those branches that believed—and they are natural branches who through disobedience and unbelief were laid on one side, but in the end there will be a fullness—it has already started—there will be a receiving of them again. It has already started.
Dear people of God, I am already witnessing a change in the attitude toward the Lord Jesus.
May I tell you that here we are living in days when so-called Christian theologians say that the resurrection of Jesus is a myth. Yet we have a Jewish theologian, Professor Lapide of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has written a book in German called The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, proving that Jesus rose from the dead. Wow.
When our ex-deputy Prime Minister, Yigael Yadin, a great archaeologist and great figure in Israel’s history, was speaking at a great meeting in Jerusalem four years ago, he said, “The greatest Jew that ever lived was not Moses, nor one of our prophets, nor one of our great sages, nor the great rabbis. It was Jesus of Nazareth.”
A change is coming. Oh, it is only the very beginning. Do not understand me to say that there is a great awakening, that people are calling on the Lord—far from it—but a change is coming.
Little by little, bit by bit, stage by stage, it is all part of the unfolding purpose of God. These people are being cornered.
Now, my dear friends, nineteen hundred years ago there was an apostle, Jewish in origin. His name was Shimeon. He was on a roof in Joppa, fasting and praying.
He had felt that his time was over, and he called down to the girl, “I am finishing my fast. I will have a meal.” She started busying herself getting the meal ready.
While he was on the roof, he had a vision. Down from heaven came a sheet filled with all kinds of unclean animals and birds—in other words, non-kosher food.
The voice of the Lord said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” And Peter said, “Never, Lord. I have never eaten anything non-kosher.”
The sheet went up. Then it came down a second time, and again the voice said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter said, “Never. I have never eaten anything non-kosher.” The sheet went up again.
Down it came a third time, and the voice said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat. Do not call unclean what I call clean.”
Peter said, “No, Lord, I could not do it. You are testing me. I could not do it.”
While he was yet speaking, he heard the girl at the door saying, “Oh yes, he is up on the roof. He has been having a time of prayer.”
The girl came up and said, “Peter, there are some Gentiles. I do not know what they want, but they are at the door. They look as if they belonged to the army. They have some story about some officer who has had a dream and heard about you. I was told to tell you to come over. What am I to do?”
Peter said, “I had better come down.” So he came down, and the fellows said, “Our master, officer so-and-so—a Roman, a Gentile—he is a God-fearing man.”
This is very interesting because he had not got circumcised. When you use the term God-fearing, it means that he had not gone that far. All it means is that he worshipped God and read the Scriptures.
They said, “This God-fearing man had a dream, and he saw a person called Peter who was in Joppa, and that he should come and instruct his household fully in the ways of God.”
Peter remembered the kosher business. Maybe it does not mean anything to you, but for Peter it was the biggest step he had ever taken, in one sense. It says so, if you read the story.
He had never been under the roof and stayed, if he knew, if he went to Caesarea—the military headquarters of the Roman army in the whole province of Syria—and was going to stay in a Gentile house of a Roman army officer, he was going to have to eat unkosher food.
Now he understood the vision, and Peter went like a little lamb. I suppose he thought, “I wonder what all this is about? I wonder what they will think in Jerusalem? I wonder if I have had enough fellowship about this?”
I am sure all the stories about the Gentiles came into his head. You know, they used to call them dogs—the uncircumcision. They behave like animals. They are so immoral, so dirty, so unhygienic.
But he went off. When he got there, the officer was there and treated him with great respect. Then he fell on his knees, and Peter said, “Oh no, do not do that.”
Then he went in, and to his amazement there was a whole room. Now, when I say a whole room, it was not anything like this. It was a tiny little room—I mean, probably a third of this platform.
I do not know anything about it, but I suppose all the women were shut out in the corridor and all the men were packed in there. Peter began.
Now, I do not know. We have no way of telling. Stephen said the other day that Peter was normally rather a long-winded preacher. He could well be; I have no doubt about that.
But what I do know is this: I imagine that when he began to preach, some people who had listened to Peter many times could have said, “I have heard him better. What a shame he cannot preach like he did on the day of Pentecost.”
Perhaps he was nervous. All these Gentiles everywhere. He did not quite feel safe.
But while he had not gone very far into his message, something happened. Suddenly, Peter found he was preaching to himself. Nobody was listening, for they were all prophesying and speaking in tongues. Poor Peter.
Then it came upon him suddenly: they are Gentiles. Oh, my goodness. What do we do?
Before very long, someone came and said, “Can we be baptised?” Now Peter was in the soup—perhaps we should say in the water—but anyway, they were all baptised.
Now, my point is this: I do not think for the moment—and I may be wrong; one day we shall be able to ask him, and he will be able to clear up the whole thing—but I suspect that Peter had no idea how important that little drawing-room meeting was in that officer’s home in a Gentile quarter of Caesarea.
I do not suppose for the moment that Peter suddenly realised, at that point, that the door had swung open to the great Gentile mission in the church, in which an innumerable multitude of Gentiles from every colour, shape, and size would come into the kingdom of God.
It all began in that little meeting.
And you are in the direct apostolic succession, if there is such a thing. That is why you are here today—because of that little meeting in Caesarea. It was the beginning of the Gentile mission of the church.
Now, I would never be surprised if one of these days, somewhere, somehow, something begins again in Jewish circles this time. Without our even knowing it, the door will open. Once again, they will be able to see by God.
If this is so, oh, the need for living faith—the need to understand that we are in the last days. We are really in the last days, so near to the coming again of our Lord.
Oh, the need to be alive, to be alert, to be watchful. What exciting days we are living in.
There are saints who have longed to see these days with their eyes, especially those who are of Jewish stock. How they longed to see the days when the kingdom would be restored again to Israel, when there would again be a sovereign Jewish state with a sovereign Jewish leadership.
Even though they were very fleshly, they so longed for their own people. The Gentile mission of the church has gone all over to bring all in.
Dear ones, may God give us such a love for Israel and such a love for the Jewish people. May He clear away all the webs of wrong ideas and erroneous ideas.
May He do more. May He put within us a travail. When God is going to do something, Matthew Henry once said, He first sets His people to pray.
May God give you a new attitude toward Israel—not to divert you, not to lead you into a spiritual cul-de-sac, a spiritual dead end, but to lead you into an appreciation of the heart of your God and Saviour.
May you have living faith toward them, as they once had living faith toward you.
It must have cost them something in those early days to believe that those savage barbarians and Scythians, those proud Romans, could ever become fellow heirs, fellow citizens, fellow members of the body.
But it was living faith in them that believed that God could do the same thing amongst the Gentiles that He had done amongst the Jews—bringing them into the new man, into the new creation, into the body of the Messiah.
May God give you such living faith toward them now, to believe that they, so conscious of material things, so tied by material things, so blinded to the Person of the Lord Jesus, may yet become again fellow heirs, fellow citizens, fellow members of the body.
Shall we pray?
Now, Heavenly Father, deliver, we pray, this evening from all confusion and all misunderstanding. If anything has been said, Lord, that is wrong, or in error, or untoward, wilt Thou graciously rub it out of heart and mind and memory, that the enemy may have no ground whatsoever to work?
But, Lord, all that is of Thyself, write it indelibly upon our hearts. Engrave, Lord, with Thy finger.
Grant, we pray, Lord, that there shall come a new heart burden, a cry from the heart for this people, an unceasing sorrow and anguish for them, that they might be saved.
Dear Lord, grant this, we pray. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.