I read from God's Word, the book of Romans. I'll be preaching, emphasizing Romans 10, 1 through 4, but in order to give us some context for what Paul is continuing to say as it relates to the Jews and the Gentiles and the coming of the kingdom of Christ and the spread of the gospel and who God has designed that gospel to convert, even until the end of the age. I'll read verses 1 through 5 of Romans chapter 9, and then Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 7. I'll read chapter 9, verses 1 through 5 first, and then I'll move to chapter 10, 1 through 4. Listen as I read from God's word. I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were recursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God, amen. And then Romans chapter 10, excuse me, beginning in verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to the knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Thus far, the reading of God's word. You may be seated. Let me pray now for the blessing of the preaching of God's holy and inspired word. Lord, we come to you this morning as a people who need to be taught how to live in this world that you have made. And that begins first with the renewal of our mind by your spirit, that we might think your thoughts after you, that which is revealed, that which you have made known. For we know that the secret things belong to you, and there is much in scripture that is to us a challenge and a mystery. And yet you have called the kings of the earth, You have called your people to search out your word and to understand the mysteries that you have prepared for us to, by your Spirit, determine and apply and know. Lord, that we would not only be faithful in hearing but doing your word, that you would change us by the power of your spirit that you have sent out unto the world. We pray these things in your name, amen. The question that I endeavor to answer at least in some fashion, though this is a lengthy conversation and is even now a hotly contested topic among many in conservative right-leaning circles, is what has happened to the Jews. What are we to think of Israel? That for those who have rejected the Messiah, and for this reason, clearly, in the word, were accursed for it, the 2,000 years that has followed, what are we to think of this people that are, in every respect, our forefathers in the faith? What are we to think not only of their spiritual state as a people, but how are we to read Paul and to emulate the heart of this righteous apostle? Paul himself, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul himself, in God's own determination, to save him from a state not only of self-righteousness, but of aggression against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we to think of all of the apostles? How are we to think of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, of Moses and of David and of the prophets? How are we to take Romans 10 and rightly believe and apply what Paul will begin to say is an ongoing plan that God has for the nation of Israel? And it begins here this morning under these two headings. The first, Paul's heart for Israel. Paul's heart for Israel, and then second, an off-repeated refrain today, one that I wish to cover in some fashion, the Israelite, or as it is often called, the Jewish problem. This is code for something else. The first part, Paul's heart for Israel, and then second, the Israelite, or Jewish problem. Let's look at this first point this morning. Paul's heart for Israel. Now the reason I went back to chapter nine, verses one through three, is because it is here in chapter nine, one through five, really one through three, and in Romans chapter 10, verses one through four, that Paul expresses how he feels about the denial of his countrymen that Jesus was and is the Messiah. It gave him great sorrow, verse two of chapter nine, and continual or perpetual grief, such that from this statement or feeling of sorrow, he expresses in verse three, I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren. In this, Paul was not only Jewish, but a true Jew. A true Jew is not one who is simply a Jew outwardly or by ethnicity or genetic makeup, but a true Jew, according to the Epistle of Romans, is one who received Christ as the end or the consummation, the full and final revelation of the system of God's righteousness revealed in the Scriptures. And what Paul knew of Israel, was that they missed it. They got so close to the finish line and yet they stumbled over the rock and stumbling stone that was and is the Son of God come in the flesh, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. This is the one whom we rightly confess because God has made it known to us by his grace Jesus is Lord. And so concerning this, John Murray, in his wonderful commentary on the book of Romans, writes this, the term he, that is Paul, uses now do not have the intensity used earlier, but it is the same heartfelt, deep-seated solicitude for his kinsmen according to the flesh. The address with which he begins, brethren, that is in chapter 10, is one charged with emotion and affection and draws our attention to a, he says it again, solicitude, a warm affection expressed in the words that follow. For those who are outside of the fellowship, which the term brethren implies. Israel had become those who were cut off. Not all of them, of course, as we know from our Bibles. But in the main, as a group, as a nation, when Christ came to them, John and his apostle says, though Christ came to those, the very ones sent by the Father, they did not receive him. Christ came to his own, and his own did not receive him. And so they were cut off. They were cut off because they killed the Messiah instead of believing in the Messiah. Instead of embracing him as their Lord and Savior, they sought, through the system of righteousness that God had revealed to them, to achieve righteousness by works, of which Paul says in Romans 3 and 4, is not possible. For no man can be justified by words, but only by faith. Now what is faith? Faith is a resting and receiving alone the righteousness of Christ. We must rest and we must receive the righteousness of Christ. And that righteousness is imputed. It is given. It is not infused, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches. It is always an alien righteousness as it relates to our being credited as righteous in the sight of God as judge. The Jew did not believe this in the main. But as a people, almost to the man, they denied this system of righteousness. And it is for this reason, in Romans chapter nine, that they stumbled. We call this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It is to deny the external calling of the Spirit to bring about a condition of repentance and faith in Christ's righteousness. And in light of this, as a people, Paul looks at his brethren and it breaks his heart because of all that they had received. And yet when the Messiah came to them and all of these things leading up to the Messiah, that at the very end of the race, as it were, they did not cross the finish line. They stumbled. They deny Jesus as Lord, and so he feels grief. Elsewhere, Paul, though, in light of this coming Messiah and the revelation of Christ, expresses gratitude. Paul talks about his own conversion, a Pharisee of Pharisees, according to the law. No one kept the law. No one had greater zeal than Paul. He was a zealot. Paul uses that word zeal. They had zeal for God. but not in a way that would lead to righteousness, because they sought salvation by works. But not Paul, but he was until Christ came and transformed him and converted him and made him his disciple. And as we move through Romans 10 and continuing, In the Romans 11, we read that the rejection of Christ by the Jews is not entire, it is not total. And so even then, as Paul moves from Romans 10 to 11, he will express hope. And what is that hope built upon? That God does not remain angry forever. That God does bring salvation even to those who in their obstinance deny him the seat and the authority of Redeemer and Lord. But Paul knew what they deserved. Paul understood what they would get because of their rejection. And so, as we continue through Romans chapter 10, it is not just a, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. But because of their rebellion, as he said earlier in chapter nine, they deserved judgment. Paul understood why they would receive judgment. Paul expresses it very clearly. Had Christ not been denied, then those who would have embraced him would have been redeemed. Now we must not, nor cannot say that the rejection of the Messiah when he was in their midst was like any other sin. In fact, the rejection of the Messiah, when Christ walked among his people, was one that spoke to not just a rejection of the system of righteousness historically, but was an even more high-handed act of betrayal and blasphemy against God. In fact, in Romans chapter nine, as I read earlier, in verses four and five, that those brethren according to the flesh, those countrymen who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, which references the priesthood, and the promises of whom are the fathers, that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those men in particular whom God made covenant with according to the flesh, Christ came. He came to them. And all of these gifts God poured out upon the nation, a distinct group of people. Now, this is not to say that in the Old Testament that there were not Gentiles who were brought in, those like Rahab, those like the slaves who left with Israel from the land of Egypt, who were not just the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 tribes. Ruth, as we know, as I began preaching last week, was a Moabitess. The Moabites were the tribe that they acted in aggression against the people of Israel as they called on Balaam to prophesy and to curse Israel. When that did not work, because a donkey stopped him, an angel of the Lord sending a message, even as Balaam continued to try to prophesy against Israel, every time he opened his mouth, he spoke blessing. And so the Midianites and the Moabites send in all of these women into the land of Israel so that they may compromise through idolatry and adultery the men of Israel. That's the story where Phinehas goes in and he runs a man and a woman in the act of adultery through the stomach with a spear. And he gets a promotion because of his jealousy for the glory of God. And so God says to Israel, because of the Moabites, you are to never fellowship with them. But then later this woman, Ruth, comes to Israel from Moab. And she is the one who is the mother of Obed, who is the mother of Jesse, I'm sorry, the mother of Obed, who is the father of Jesse, who is the father of David. The Gentiles were always part of the plan. In fact, one of the great sins that Christ confronts in his earthly ministry is that the Jews had shut off the court of the Gentiles to the Gentiles through their corrupt business practices, which is where he's overturning the tables. Because the vision of the temple is that it would be the house of prayer for all nations. And so Israel was involved in deep idolatry that not only caused them to be cold to the Messiah when he would come, but also the promises of God that the Messiah would open up and fling wide the doors of heaven for the Gentiles. Israel's rebellion was not only high-handed, it was utter, it was total, it was complete. But it was not because they did not have zeal. In fact, let's keep looking. But in Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. That's chapter nine. And then Paul picks up on that theme again in chapter 10. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Years ago, believe it or not, I played basketball for two years in high school. Now the only way that happens is when you go to a very small Christian school. And I remember the first time I started a game. I was a point guard, obviously. It wasn't a power forward or a center. It would never happen. It was the Hobbit team. And that would be the only way I get an inbound pass and I'm so caught up in the moment that I run the opposite way to the opposing goal. Fortunately, the referee blew the whistle and I got called for a backcourt violation before I put the ball in the other team's goal. We call that an on goal in other sports. I was so enthused that I got to finally start a game. And the coach, I look over and just went, Such is the zeal of Israel as it relates to the accomplishing of the true righteousness that God revealed. God in his word says, here is how you can be saved. You must come to the altar of sacrifice and have your sins wiped away by the blood of another. And only then, only then does your obedience Can it please God? And so Israel got the inbound pass, they got all of that revelation, and they went in the opposite direction. They went the wrong way completely, and not just sort of strolling, but they hit that, they were running to that goal like there was no defender there. Just with gusto. and rebellion. Do you wonder why, when Jonah preached grace to Nineveh, they can be forgiven if they would but repent? And then Jonah is angered because God shows mercy to a repentant sinner. Do you know why he was angered? Because his system of righteousness was not one that was built upon grace shown to sinners. He despised Nineveh. And it is that heart of Jonah that is expressed in even harder way by the time Jesus comes and shows up in the flesh. The Jews treated their system of righteousness like an exclusive club that could only be entered through money and blood and human transaction. It was a system of righteousness that spat, literally spat, in the face of God's grace shown through His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, lest you think that the Jews are alone in this, do not forget this creed. If it were not for the grace of God, there go I. In fact, think of the countless nations to which missionaries who proclaim the grace of God go, and in response to the gospel of grace, the demons who have stronghold of those people in their idolatry and unbelief respond with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. against the true light of God's word. There have been places where the missionaries of the gospel go and there are people, there are witch doctors, there are those who are lost in deep darkness and they hiss and they growl and they scream and they pronounce curses against those who carry the gospel. Why? Because the darkness, wherever it is found, despises the light. And the Jews were captured. They were captured. They were lost in deep darkness. And despite their zeal, despite their sincerity, they were running the opposite way. Their zeal was in completely the wrong direction. For when Christ came, they were zealous not in the receiving of him, but what? In the denying of him, in the charging of Christ with blasphemy, and in the crucifying of Christ by incorporating, by using Rome in their capital punishment. in order to mock him, such that they placed a sign above his head that said, the King of the Jews. Actually, it was Rome that did that. The irony is what? They were right. They were right. Israel was guilty of wretched, high-handed, cosmic treason. And so the question for us is this, what are we to think of them now? Who are they? Because these questions are often presented to us, and there is, I would argue, in the midst of those who rightly have embraced the Western tradition in God's grace of the gospel, moving from Israel, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the utter ends of the earth. What are we to think of these people who rightly can be charged with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the apostles charged with that? Well, in order to answer this question, we must approach this answer with care and a humble posture as we endeavor to avoid undue or imbalanced hatred or resentment that keeps us from the kind of activity that God requires of the Church and as individual Christians as we interact with those who self-identify as Jews. Now historically speaking, we must say that the Jews are unique as a people who received so much divine favor, grace, revelation, and enduring patience and long-suffering by God. And we ought to lay at their feet their own rebellion, as Paul does in Romans chapter 9. They denied the Messiah, and they are guilty for that. In fact, it is for this treason and blasphemy that John writes in the book of Revelation and elsewhere in the apocalyptic sections of scripture like Zephaniah and Zechariah and Daniel and elsewhere, that God rode out in judgment to destroy the temple and the city through that wicked nation of Rome. The temple has therefore been destroyed. That act of judgment was God saying, not only to the Christian church, you don't have to come to Jerusalem anymore, and the place of holiness is no longer the land of Canaan, it is all the earth. And so we don't have to go to the city. There is no holy land. in the way that it was perceived and understood in the Old Testament, where there was a holy land. This is why Elimelech sinned when he left Bethlehem to go to Moab, because you could not be blessed outside of the land of God. But now that the land has been destroyed, as it were. God has, in a redemptive historical way, made it very clear, you don't have to go here. It doesn't matter if the temple is rebuilt. There will be no re-offering of sacrifices when the millennial reign begins, as the dispensational premillennials say. And so, who then are the Jews? Well, the history between the Christian church and those who have historically denied Christ is an important one to understand. And so for us who are endeavoring to engage with those who are highly suspicious and dogmatic against the Jewish people, one of the questions we need to answer is, who are the Jews? And I would say we need to answer it from this perspective. We need to talk about those who God considers to be Jews. Who does God consider to be those who fit the description that Paul gives in Romans 9 and Romans 10. Those who were of the visible people of God, who consider themselves as those who waited for the Messiah, yet deny the Christ. Well, it's just that. It is those who continue to take a portion of God's word seriously, namely the Old Testament, and who have added to it the wicked Talmud, which is a wretched document that is wholly unbiblical and is pernicious above all things. It is no less righteous than the Quran, or the Book of Mormon, or any other text that is not divinely inspired of God. We must say, if God did not write it, it is what? It is anathema. Even if it pertains to and contains truth, just because there are elements where there are truth, it still leads us astray from the Messiah. And so for those who continue, to take part in taking some of God's word, but denying the power and what Paul calls the end of the system, which is the full and final revelation of God's system of righteousness of the scripture, those are ones we should consider to be Jewish in faith. And they persist in taking part in rebellion against God's clear revelation. And for this they are guilty of great sin. For they have received so much goodness, so much light. Is it not David who says, it is not in sacrifices that you delight, O Lord, but what, a broken and contrite heart. That system of justification and righteousness is wholly contrary to a system of works that Paul condemns in Romans 3 and 4. And so if there is a person who has received all of these gifts, namely the Jews, and they've received all of this, and yet they deny the substance, the full and final word of God's revelation, and they do so in a way that corrupts scripture, that shows their hearts to be not only corrupt but stubborn, they are enemies of God, and yes, they are enemies of the church. But what are we to do with our enemies? What are we to do with our enemies? We must name them, and then we must seek their what? Their salvation. We must stand opposed to what they teach. They should not be given place to teach publicly, because what happens when those lies are brought forth in public? Then people will be led astray, and so what do we endeavor to do? We endeavor to silence untruth, and we endeavor instead to speak louder than the lies and bring them to salvation. And not just the Jews. But is it not part of the mission of the church to pull the plug on all the calls to holy prayer that Islamists practice? It would be a wretched thing indeed for a nation that is built upon the principles of scripture, where the church bells ring out every Sunday morning and evening when the saints of God are to gather to worship, and then you hear that strange, hollow, demonic chanting calling people to face Mecca and to pray seven times daily. Is that something you want to hear? What is that if it is not an affront to the Lordship of Christ? And yet, what have we done largely in the West? We have said, as long as they don't bother me and keep me from making money and stand in the way of educating our children, we'll just let it happen. And what's happened? We've given Satan a toe in the door, and he's pushing it open. We have practiced, in essence, publicly speaking, a secular faith, and we need to repent of that. Now, as it relates to their sin, the Jews in particular, what lies at the heart of it is this. They did not submit to the righteousness of God by faith, but rather they sought and still seek through their own righteousness of works to please a holy God. while maintaining to embrace the scriptural system of faithfulness. They are hypocrites. In fact, in Acts chapter 13, when Paul and Barnabas, during his first missionary journey, we read, beginning in verse 44, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with envy. and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you, that is the Jews, first. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth. Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Let us not forget that behind the scenes that controls all of this is the appointment of God to both Jew and Gentile unto salvation. It is God who appoints. But the will of God and the will of men are not contrary to one another, rather they run in parallel, as Paul has said in Romans chapter nine. And so the only way for one to be restored from one's bad religion, of contradicting the gospel of Christ and blaspheming, as we see in verse 45, is to do what? Is to believe. It is to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. But as a nation, as a people, as a visible church, one might say, the Jews have denied Christ, that Jesus is the Christ. And for this reason, they are like no other people that have ever lived, except us. In this way, they were raised on God's word. And despite being reared and nurtured in the truth of God's word, they denied the heart of the system. It would be like this. You come to church every day, and you hear an even clearer word that has now gone out to the nations, that Jesus is the Christ. And week after week, Sunday after Sunday, when you sit with your parents and they tell you about the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, you say, no. That is not something I want to believe. And this is why the scriptures say that for those who have tasted of the heavenly gift and yet deny the grace of Christ, it would be better had you never been born. And so what is to be said of those who are living hollow and empty lives as though it would be better had they never been born? What kind of life is that? It is a pitiful life. It is a sorry life indeed. Pertaining to the persistence of the Jew as it relates to looking at the scripture then and not only misunderstanding and so denying Jesus, their denial of Christ is by and large 2,000 years in the making. In fact, when John Calvin was writing his commentary on the book of Daniel, And as he was taking Daniel chapter 2, which speaks of the kingdom of God that will come and crush the kingdoms of this earth, how would you rightly understand and apply that? Which kingdom has come and is crushing the kingdoms of earth? You should rightly say, the kingdoms of Christ. Is this not what Isaiah says? We sing it during the Handel's Messiah, or we hear someone sing it. The kingdoms of this earth have become the kingdoms of our God. This is about the Messiah. And so when Daniel is writing in his commentary on this particular passage, this is what he says. But here, he not only betrays his ignorance, he is writing of a rabbi who lived at the time named Rabbi Barnabel. In fact, he wrote prior to Calvin. Barnabel lived from 1437 to 1508. Calvin is writing about Rabbi Barnabel's interpretation of this Daniel chapter 2 text. But here he, Rabbi Barnabel, not only betrays his ignorance, but his utter stupidity, since God so blinded the whole people that they were like restive dogs. I have had much conversation with many Jews. I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingeniousness. Nay, I have never found common sense in any Jew. But this fellow, who seems so sharp and ingenious, displays his own impudence to his great disgrace." Now, we love Calvin when he talks about piety and the doctrine of justification and saying all of that. And we go, Calvin is the greatest. And then we read Calvin and go, whoa. And he's labeled here what? What would be the typical cultural label? All right, I guess Calvin's also now an anti-Semite, right? But what is Calvin asserting when he says, I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingeniousness? No common sense. Because when you open your Bible and you read it from Genesis to Revelation, And you say that the kingdom that crushes these other kingdoms is the Turks? What are you doing? What I would call hermeneutical somersaults to avoid the actual meaning of the text. Who does that? People who, in denying Jesus the title of Messiah, do whatever they have to do, do all manner of exegetical sort of, you know, like Neo in The Matrix, where he's sort of falling backwards, and all of this truth would hit him if he weren't bending over backwards to believe or endorse something else. It's stupidity. And yet, for the past several decades, Many have associated the virtue of Christianity with a hyphen. In fact, we give to pride of place the virtue of those who, apart from Christ, can have no virtue. You know the phrase? Judeo-Christian. How do you do that? How would you then say Moabite-Judeo? How can you say that? We don't say Islamic Christian. Why? Why don't we do that? Because there has been for many years this idea that because we share something of the Old Testament, we are family. Well, we are family in the sense that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our forefathers. But not by blood. In fact, the only reason that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and we share any lineage whatsoever is because 2,000 years ago Christ came and he died upon the cross because he has united in his body and blood the family that is of faith from the old and the family of faith that is from the New Testament or New Covenant. That is our lineage by faith. And so my hope in this is not to incite those who see behind every ill in the world a Jew. Because there are many who now, having been radicalized by actually exploring the religion of the Jews and the religion of the Christians, and see that at the center of it is Christ, and unless you confess Christ, you are a false religion. What then are we to do? Well, what is Paul endeavoring to do? Paul was, for a season, until they absolutely denied him any audience, went to the Jews. And he expressed sentiment that he wished they would be saved. Here is, I think, where we find ourselves oftentimes in a dangerous place in the church. We are too controlled by fear, and we ourselves become covetous of others, We are too controlled by this narrative, and as we move out from underneath one narrative, we swing to an equally problematic on the other side of the spectrum narrative. For what are we to do with our enemies? We must know where they are our enemies, we must know how they are our enemies, and we must know how it is our enemies can become our friends. And we must not let them continue to bear the title of those things that keep them from putting Christ first. Christ must reign. Earlier I said that the only people who are as near to the Jews in their unbelief and hypocrisy would be those who are in the church. Why? Because we hear the truth all the time. Unless we respond with faith in Jesus Christ, we are what? The world's greatest hypocrites. And so we ought then, when we see these who are struggling with faith, do what? Not adopt their virtue. Reject it. Reject a system that denies Christ, but instead, go after them. Proclaim a better way. In fact, it is Paul that says, it is through envy that they will come to know Christ. Build something better. Be faithful in your piety. Be persistent. Build a kingdom that they look at and go, surely Jesus was the Christ. Show forth evil in our midst. Name it for what it is, but then seek to be, A, yourself transformed, and B, seek for others to be transformed as well. So do not be taken in. Put up your shields, know your Bible, know your confession, and then get to work. Because we're called not only to minister to those who once betrayed Jesus as the Christ and who continue to do so by their confession, but all who do it. We begin with our homes, we begin in our counties and we move out through all the earth. Let's pray. Lord, even now this morning, may we be