Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 4 * BOOK 23
ROMANS 8:31-39
We just want to teach The Word, and help people see what The Book says, and, just as important, what it doesn’t say. Understanding The Book is really not that hard, and the best way to study is to compare Scripture with Scripture. Peter says:
II Peter 1:20
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
That means that you cannot build a doctrine on one verse of Scripture here and there, because then you can build anything. But it’s our prerogative to use all the Scriptures from Genesis through Revelation, and see that they fit. Seeming contradictions may arise, but when you study you find they’re not contradictory at all. Usually it’s because in one instance God is dealing with the Nation of Israel, and in another what may seem contradictory is His dealing with the Church Age. And there is a vast difference.
Before going further I want to point out that Romans Chapters 9, 10, and 11 are parenthetical. Here are three chapters that sit in the middle of the Book of Romans, and Paul is going to suddenly digress, and deal with the Jew. Chapter 9 is going to deal with the Nation of Israel’s past. Chapter 10 is about God dealing with Israel today in the present. And Chapter 11 is Israel’s future. Then when you come to Chapter 12 it begins like we left off in Chapter 8. It fits beautifully when you make it parenthetical. In our ordinary English usage, you can make a sentence that makes sense, and then all of a sudden you think of something that you can stick in the middle of the sentence that will enlighten it, so you open your sentence up and what do you put in the middle? A parenthesis ( ). How exactly this fits in Romans. We just finished Chapter 8, and all those great verses of assurance in the closing verses, how that Christ died for us, and, consequently, God is for us, no one can be against us:
Romans 8:39
“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature (creation), shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans Chapter 9 verse 1 just doesn’t fit, does it?
Romans 9:1-3
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:” (Israel)
There is just no real connection, but turn over to Chapter 12, and look at verse 1, which is the other side of the parenthesis, and this just fits so beautifully: Now, remember what Romans 8:39 said about “nothing could separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And now look what Romans 12:1 says:
Romans 12:1
“I beseech you therefore (and remember the `therefore’ is what Paul just finished up with in Chapter 8. If God is securing us so completely that nothing can touch us then I beseech you therefore), brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Now, do you see how this fits? I just wanted you to see that this is a parenthetical section of the Book of Romans where Paul is going to leave off with all of his instructions, and his doctrines for you and I as Gentiles, and he’s going to deal with the Nation of Israel for three chapters, her past, her present, and her future. Let’s come back to Chapter 9, and since Paul is saying it, I’m going to qualify it with some of the Old Testament Scriptures which, of course, he uses himself over and over in his early writings.
Romans 9:1-3
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:”
How could this man say such a thing as that? Because of his love for the Jew. Who else said almost the same thing? Moses.
Exodus 32:31,32
“And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, `Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.'”
And isn’t it amazing how I’m always comparing, or at least holding up, these two men. Moses the giver of the Law to the Nation of Israel on Mount Sinai, and then comes the Apostle Paul (I think also at Mount Sinai), and God gives him these doctrines of Grace. I think these two great men, in their own respective areas, are the greatest two men in all human history. Both of them make that kind of statement concerning the Nation of Israel. I’m pointing this out to say that probably 90% of Christendom, including the Roman Catholics, as well as Protestants, is of the opinion that God is all through with the Nation of Israel. That God has nothing more to do with the Jew because they rejected and crucified their Messiah. They’ve been called everything and anything ever since.
The vast majority of the politicians and religious leaders of the world say, “The Jew of today has no connection with the Jew of The Bible.” But I tell you they are in every way connected to this Book, even though most church members today see no connection between the little Nation of Israel that’s sitting there like a little hornets nest ready to be knocked down and destroyed. That little Nation of Israel is still God’s Covenant people. Now, granted, He has set them aside. Look again at our timeline (front of book). From Genesis 1:1, and the creation of Adam in Chapter 1 is 4004 B.C. Those first 2000 years of human history are covered with the first 11 chapters in the Book of Genesis.
Abraham comes on the scene at 2000 B.C., and in Genesis 12 God is going to do something totally different. Out of that one race of Adam he picks one man (Abram) in Ur of the Chaldees. He was a Syrian, and became the father of the Jewish race. God promises that one man, Abram, that out of him He’s going to bring about a nation of people totally different than any other race of people on earth. And they are going to be the vehicle through which God is now going to communicate, and bring about the whole plan of redemption to the whole human race through Israel. So God gives Abraham the Covenant. We spent a lot of time on that Abrahamic Covenant. God in Genesis 12 promised, “I will make of you a great nation, I’ll put you in a geographical area of land, and one day I will come and be your King, and be your government.”
Now, that’s basically the Abrahamic Covenant. Then about 500 years later we find God calls out Moses. Israel is now down in Egypt, they’re multiplying, and God tells Moses that He’s going to send him into Pharaoh. He was to lead His people who had come now from the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve sons, out of Egypt. God tells Moses, “You’re going to bring them to Myself, and I’m going to start working with this little nation of people and prepare them for the coming of the Messiah.” Now, that was really the whole purpose of bringing the Nation of Israel out of Egypt. And that’s what Genesis says, “That when Jacob went down into Egypt, God promised him that there He would make of Jacob, and those twelve sons a nation of people.” And that’s where the Jewish Nation came from.
Moses then was given the Law about 1500 B.C., and that was about 500 years after Abraham was called out of Syria. Then about 1000 B.C., about 500 years after the law, we have another great patriarch, David. Then with King David we find God makes another Covenant, and that is that through King David would come a Royal Family bloodline. And through this Royal Family would come The King of Israel. When you follow the genealogy coming out of David, you’ve got David and Bathsheba, and they have two sons. Solomon on the one side, and Nathan on the other. That’s the family tree, and they come through history until finally you have Joseph on the one side, and Mary on the other. And Christ is the last possible Son of David that could be The King, and He makes His appearance to the Nation of Israel. That’s the whole idea of His first Advent. He came to be that promised King according to the Abrahamic Covenant. Now, this is exactly what Paul says in verse 4.
Romans 9:4
“Who are Israelites (see that?); to whom pertaineth the adoption (or the positioning), and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;”
God promised the Nation of Israel over and over. Now, contrary to worldly opinion, Jews, whether they’re in Israel, Russia, or America, are still the same Jews that we read about in The Bible. Now, turn with me to Deuteronomy Chapter 4, verses 32 and 33:
Deuteronomy 4:32,33
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it (and what is it?)? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?”
What’s He talking about? Mount Sinai. Remember how God came down on the mountain, and the smoke just billowed, and the Nation of Israel was at the foot of the mountain? They weren’t destroyed, and yet the presence of God was that close to them. And so God says, “Did anything like this ever happen to anybody else?” Never. So they are a Covenant, special, set aside people. Let’s go to II Samuel Chapter 7, as God is now giving David the promise, “That through him would come this royal family.” And we’ve all heard the expression,“The house of David.” Well, that’s what it is, it is a Royal Family, and even though there were ungodly kings down through history, yet the royal blood kept together until the birth of Christ, and especially through Mary who was the physical mother, and, of course, God is the Father. But, nevertheless Joseph was the legal father, and so he, too, had to be included in that Davidic genealogy. So here God is speaking to David through the prophet Nathan, and he is referring first and for most to Solomon:
II Samuel 7:13,14
“He shall build an house for my name (now that has a two-fold meaning. Solomon is going to build the Temple there in Jerusalem, but he is also going to be the beginning of this royal family), and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever (now that goes beyond human history, that goes on into eternity. So we’re dealing again in the realm of the Spirit. Then in verse 14 God says to David). I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If (this is exactly what we were talking about in the last lesson so far as you and I as believers are concerned if)he commit iniquity (and will he? You bet he will, and remember, God is not just talking about Solomon, but also the Nation of Israel), I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:”
Has God done it to this nation? Over and over Israel has come under the disciplinary action of their God because of their unbelief, and because of their sins. Then in verse 15, what’s the first word? `But.’ Whenever you see this word, look for the flip side. Yes, they’re going to commit iniquity, but the flip side is God says:
II Samuel 7:15
“But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.”
Regardless of how Israel falls into wickedness – God’s going to discipline them, and we know He has. They still must face the greatest discipline that any people have ever had when they go through the Tribulation, but He’s not going to destroy the Nation of Israel. He has not turned His back on them forever. He has set them aside for a season. It was during this 2000 years from Abraham to Christ that he dealt only with this favored nation, with some exceptions. Even after the Crucifixion, in the early chapters of Acts, who does Peter address?“Oh ye Children of Israel.” “Ye men of Israel.” And Peter pleads with them to respond to the fact that the One they crucified was their Messiah. But nationally, Israel wouldn’t believe it. Some did, but mostly the nation rejected Him. What did God do? Discipline again. God brought in the Roman Army under Titus, and Titus besieged the city, and when he finally gained entrance to it it was the greatest mayhem man could imagine as those Roman legions destroyed the Jew by the thousands. They took the Temple down stone by stone as the prophet had written would happen.
Israel was dispersed into every nation on the face of the earth. Then about the turn of the century the Jew started coming back. They set up Kibbutzes and little by little the Nation of Israel was making its appearance again. Then in 1948 they had that war with the Arabs. Then President Harry Truman, bless his heart, was the first world leader to declare the Nation of Israel a sovereign state. To this day I claim that’s why he beat Thomas Dewey in the next election. But the little Nation of Israel becomes a sovereign state again, yet the world says,“That’s not anything that God has to do with, because He’s all through with the Jew.” No He isn’t, because He has promised that His mercy wouldn’t depart from that nation. Let’s go to the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 31. And when these people try to say that the Nation of Israel has nothing to do with Scripture (because God is through with the Jew, He cast them off when they crucified their Messiah), then they don’t know their Bible. The Scripture is adamant that He will come back, and fulfill these Covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Jeremiah 31:35
“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: `If those ordinances (these laws of nature and science) depart from before me,’ saith the LORD, `then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.’ Thus saith the LORD; `If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath (if you can do that God says then), I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,’ saith the LORD.”
It can’t be done. Will He ever cast aside Israel? Never. God is not through with His chosen nation Israel. When they rejected their Messiah, and crucified Him, and Peter couldn’t get them to believe in the early chapter of Acts, God then raised up that other little Jew, Saul of Tarsus, whom we know as Paul, and sent him primarily to the Gentiles. Just as sure as there were Gentile exceptions as God dealt with the Jews, yes, there are certainly individual Jews who can be saved in the age of Grace. But you can’t let the Church go in and mix up with Israel in the coming Tribulation because the Tribulation will again be God dealing with Israel, and not the Church. Since we’re still in Jeremiah let’s look at that in Chapter 30. Now, I’ve got to back up with Scripture what I just said. The Tribulation is primarily God dealing with the Nation of Israel, and you cannot run the Church into God’s dealing with His Covenant people because we are not under any of these Covenants. They have nothing to do with the Gentiles, they are Jew only. And those Covenants will finally come into fruition in the Tribulation.
Jeremiah 30:5,6
“For thus saith the LORD; `We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?'”
Why? Because of the horrible events that are coming on the earth. And it’s going to be primarily centered again in the Middle East. Now, I think it’s scary as you read your news accounts lately. We know that several of those Middle Eastern nations have nuclear war heads. Some feel Israel alone has over 200. Well, I think anyone can understand what 200 nuclear warheads can do to any part of the world. And most of those nations around Israel probably have a few also. So the potential for mass destruction is hanging over the Middle East. So there’s going to be tremendous fear, tremendous suffering like you and I can not imagine, and it will be directed primarily to the Children of Israel. Now, reading on.
Jeremiah 30:7
“Alas! for that day is great (all you have to do is think back through human history at all the horrible things that have happened, and yet they all pale into insignificance when put against this final seven years of human history), so that none is like it: it is even the time Jacob’s trouble (and who is Jacob? Israel. So this seven year period is primarily the time of Israel’s trouble. God will be dealing with them, in His wrath and vexation, with the end result that out of them will come a remnant of believers), but he shall be saved out of it.” Never lose sight of the fact that all through Scripture God has always had His remnant of believers.