God Has Not Cast Away His People,Israel...Romans 9-11 pt 14

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.(Romans 11:1-6)

Romans chapters nine through eleven are meant to be understood as one unified whole. If you were to just read Romans 9 and 10 and not eleven, you would be tempted t think that the God of the Bible is finished with His ancient people.

Romans 9 tells us that only a small believing remnant of Israel is Israel anyway, and as for the rest of the physical seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are sinker to Pharoah in that God has hardened their hearts, after years of their own resistance to His will.

Romans 10 tells us that Israel for the most part has stubbornly refused the free gift of Righteousness by faith in Jesus Messiah, instead seeking to establish a righteousness of their own, more in keeping with works based, self salvation. Furthermore Romans 10 tells us that Israel has no excuse, for the prophets, Apostles and the Messiah himself were all sent with the message of Righteousness by faith and substitutionary salvation, but Israel stubbornly refused to hear it.

Instead, Gentiles, who weren’t looking for Righteousness, have found it, when they heard the preaching of the Jewish Messiah, who loved them and gave himself for our sins. Now the Gentile world is flocking to the Jewish God, and drinking from Him, the “Fountain of Living Water”, whole the nation of Israel itself is drinking out of “broken cisterns” that hold no water.

But All day long the LORD hold’s out his hands to the disobedient and back talking Son, Israel.

But thankfully this passage which is a revelation of God, and a prophecy of the history which we are currently living, Doesn’t end with Romans 10.

Perish the very thought of it! God is not through with the nation which is estranged from Him, He has a plan for them ,”For good and not evil, to give them an expected end”, as Jeremiah 29 prophesied.

Read the Song of Moses, or the 26th chapter of Leviticus, and see that God foresaw when he called Israel into existence that they would defect from Him, and go prodigal for centuries, and in the end return to Him to fulfill His plan for the world!

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.(Hosea 3:4-5)

Remember Elijah? He thought he was the last faithful Israelite, but God assured Him that HE(God) himself had reserved to himself seven thousand who would not bow the knee to Baal.

Of course Israel doesn’t deserve these favors! Israel is a microcosm of the whole world. If Israel doesn’t deserve grace, neither do you and I? If anyone has a problem with Israel, they have a problem with the grace of God.

This is the grace of God, in love choosing and preserving a believing remnant and insuring the survival and integrity of the holy nation forever. Obviously the church hasn’t replaced Israel! God knew all along what was going to happen. The climax of History will be the restoration and reinstatement of Israel as the sacred nation of Priests and teachers of the whole world. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it!

Thus saith the Lord; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.(Jeremiah 33:20-27)

It would be more likely that the sun not rise and the stars not shine, than that God should ever cast away the “Seed of Jacob and David” his servant.God has a beautiful plan for Israel, and which will involve blessing and restoration to them and to the whole world.

“So according to your view, the sea has already been turned to blood, the anti-Christ has already come, the devil has already been thrown into the lake of burning sulfur that he may never torment mankind again, and judgment day has already happened. The new heaven and the new earth has already appeared as well as the new Jerusalem.

“If so, then why are there still living things in the sea? Why is the devil still doing his evil work in the world? Why has God not created the world new yet?”

Well first of all, the apostle John wrote in His epistles that they were already “living in the last hour”, and they knew they were because of all the anti-Christs that were running around. Don’t believe me?

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18

There is not one single person in the Bible named “The anti-Christ.” Not one. Go look it up if you don’t believe me. That name “anti-Christ” conflates several out-of-context passages.

New Jerusalem is the church: Christ’s new covenant bride. The term “New Jerusalem” was used by John to contrast Christ’s old covenant bride, Israel by way of Moses and the law, with His church. New Jerusalem is the new “heaven and earth.” It is Christ’s bride. It is His church composed of all who believe in Him, both Jew and Gentile.

That is the very heart of the gospel, and Futurism denies it, in that Dispensationalist Futurism teaches that God has a “plan c” for Israel’s salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So here are just two verses that describe a Jewish view of what “heaven and earth” are describing in these apocalyptic passages:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Revelation 21:1

Thus said Jehovah: If My covenant is not daily and nightly, The statutes of heaven and earth I have not appointed— Jeremiah 33:25

The “statutes of heaven and earth” is a clear reference to the law given to the people of Israel, as this passage is talking about the covenant God made with them through Moses.

Old heaven and earth: the physical land of covenant. New heaven and earth: the spiritual country of the new covenant, as seen in Hebrews, chapter 11:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

Christ’s kingdom is spiritual and His kingdom - His throne - is in heaven. The Futurist error is compounded when they look for physical signs and literal fulfillment to all these things, which is the same error the religious leaders that crucified Christ made. They were looking for an earthly king and kingdom, too!

Finally, even Revelation states that sin will continue in the world, even after Christ’s bride has been introduced!

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:22-27

Paul wrote that those who believe are the “temple of God.” He wrote it several times! As Christ’s body, we are His temple, not literally but spiritually! Those who were immoral were not to be tolerated within His body, and injunctions against immorality in the church are found throughout the NT!

So yes, whether you believe it or not, we who believe in Christ are living in the New Jerusalem. We are part of His new covenant, and we are a “royal priesthood” as Peter wrote:

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5

The sooner you come to grips with the idea that none of what you’re looking for is going to happen the way you think it will, the sooner you can begin to see Christ’s words as He meant them, not as false teachers teach them.

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