The Enemies of Israel

 Temple Baptist Church - 7-20-2025

Psalm 83

 

Introduction:

 

A.  The Psalm discussed here speaks not only about the present but also offers prophetic insights regarding the last days. Throughout history, the Nation of Israel has faced intense hatred and persecution. From its inception in Egypt, the Israelites endured harsh treatment from the descendants of Ham. In response to their suffering, God sent Moses to free the Nation of Israel and lead them to the Promised Land, Canaan.

 

B.  Canaan, which was designated for Abraham through what is known as the Land Covenant, is a territory given to Israel. This land extends from the great Euphrates River in the north, which Abraham crossed to enter the land of Canaan, to the Nile River in Egypt. It was promised to the Jewish nation as their eternal homeland.

 

C.  In contemporary times, most of the Promised Land is inhabited by Arabic people, perpetual enemies of Israel.  The enemies of Israel are situated to the south and west in Egypt, to the north in Lebanon and Syria, to the east in Jordan, and to the west in Gaza, all surrounding what we refer to as Israel today. Ishmael and Esau now encircle this small nation.

 

D.  Israel spans just 290 miles in length—approximately the distance from here to Myrtle Beach—and 85 miles at its widest point, comparable to the distance from here to Asheville. At its narrowest point, it measures only 9 miles wide, which is less than half the width of Laurens County.

 

E.  How can a country this small stir up such hatred and animosity in the entire world?  The answer to this question is easy and yet profound.  Israel, as a nation, BELONGS TO GOD!  Therefore, the problem of hatred stems from a hatred of God!  Satan has always tried his best to destroy anything that God owns and loves, beginning in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, and Israel is the Apple of God’s eye, God’s Elect nation!

 

F.  I have never seen so much antisemitism!  Jews are and have been hated in every nation on earth.

 

G.   America is no exception.  We see in the news the Jew haters who openly curse the Jewish nation.  The bible says, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:  (2)  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:  (3)  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”  (Genesis 12:1-3)

 

H.  I will make this simple: to hate Israel is to hate God and be cursed by God.  To love Israel is to love God and be blessed by God!  I have never met a true believer who hated Israel.  No apologies here!

 

J.  A long introduction, but a necessary one.  Now, to break down this Psalm into its parts.  I want to primarily use an outline by Dr. Tom Wallace, which provides a great breakdown of the psalm. 

 

1.  Verses 1-2.  The Cry of Israel.

 

a.  Verse 1.  The silences of God. 

 

a.  There are times when God seems not to hear or not to care, and there will be more such times. Bro. Jim Pennington used to sing “Heaven’s Telephone.” “Central’s never busy, always on the line; you may hear from heaven almost anytime.” Notice the words “almost anytime.” There will be times when God is intentionally silent!  He has a purpose in the silent times.  Just trust in the Lord with all your heart.

 

b.  There will be a time, long to us but a moment with God.  In this psalm, it seemed as if the heavens were made of brass, and God chose not to answer the prayers of His people. One of the hardest lessons to learn here on earth is understanding God’s will, God’s way, and God’s timing.  God does hear, God does care, and God will show up in His time, which will always be the right time.

 

b.  Verse 2.  The necessity of Intervention.  A question asked and an answer needed.  Surrounded by the enemies of God, who seemingly do as they please.  A cry for help!

 

2.  Verse 3.  The Conspiracy of the Enemy.  They hated the righteous and right while plotting confusion and strife.  Their objective was to destroy Israel, the people of God.

 

3.  Verses 4-5.  The Consultation of Evil Forces. 

 

a.  Perpetual – To continue for as long as it takes.

 

b.  Purpose – The total annihilation of Israel.

 

c.  Present – To destroy Israel now!

 

4.  Verses 6-8.  The Conglomerate of the Enemy.

 

a.  Past.  Edom, Ishmalites, Moabites, Hagerines, Gebel, Ammonites, Amaklites, Philistines, Tyre, Assur, the children of Lot.

 

b.  Present.  Iraq, Iran, and their proxies,  Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia, China, North Korea, etc.

 

5.  Verses 9-12.  The Comparison of the Enemies.

 

a.  You destroyed their Powers.  Great nations that hated Israel were destroyed.

 

b.  You destroyed their Princes.  Great princes who hated Israel were destroyed.

 

6.  Verses 13-16.  The Condemnation of the Enemies.

 

a.  Let them be like a wheel that rolls downward to destruction

 

b.  Let them be as the stubble of the field after harvest, whose end is to rot there.

 

c.  Let them be as wood destroyed by fire and brought to ashes.

 

d.  Let them be as helpless as a people in a storm.  Helene!

 

7.  Verses 17-18.  The Confusion of the Enemies.

 

a.  Bring them to confusion and shame in defeat.  No weapon formed against Israel will prosper nor be allowed to destroy God’s people.

 

b.  Let them know that there is still a God in heaven who watches over and protects His people from all enemies.

 

I want to say tonight that I love and pray for the Nation of Israel.  No apology!  Also, I pray that our great nation will continue to be a friend to the Nation of Israel!

The Enemies of Israel

 Temple Baptist Church - 5-4-2025

Psalm 129

 

Introduction:

 

A. Last week, we studied Psalm 29, which is all prophetic concerning the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews, and the defilement of the Temple called “The Abomination of Desolation.”

 

B. Psalm 129 is historic, contemporary, and prophetic, reflecting on Israel’s less-than-stellar past, challenging present, and ongoing future. Israel is the most hated nation on Earth, and home to the most persecuted of all people.

 

Possibly the oldest book in the Bible says in Job 14:1-2, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. (2) He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.”

 

Jacob, before Pharoah, said inGenesis 47:9, “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

 

Verses 1-2.

 

Psalms 34:19a Many are the afflictions of the righteous …

 

1. The Jews had been oppressed by Pharaoh in Egypt, by the tribes north of the wilderness, and by the Canaanites, Philistines, Ammonites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Samaritans, Greeks, and Romans in biblical days. In modern history, they were slaughtered in Germany during the Holocaust, and Jews are hated, with antisemitism found in almost every place they live. The newborn Nation of Israel has fought against its neighbors since becoming a nation in 1948 and continues to fight for its life against Iranian proxies across the Middle East.

 

The religious leaders crucified the Son of God because they hated who He was.

 

2. We need to make an application to Christians around the world in all ages. The war against God’s people began 2500 years before the persecution of the Nation of Israel began. In Genesis, chapter 4, we find the struggle of good and evil in the home of Adam and Eve. Cain killed his brother Abel because Abel was righteous, and Cain was ungodly. The hatred and persecution of the people of God has never stopped or even slacked.

 

3. The Church has suffered great atrocities at the hands of both religious institutions and heathens. In the Middle Ages alone, the Roman Catholic Church put to death over 50,000,000 “apostates” because they would recant their faith in Christ alone and bow to Rome. The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre (French: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against the French Huguenots of which tens of thousands died for their faith.

 

4. Germany killed over 6,000,000 Jews simply because they were Jews. Christians in our day are being assassinated and slaughtered throughout Africa and Arabic nations.

 

Verse 2.

 

Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

 

1. The combined powers of evil have not been able to destroy Israel. Israel survives today because of the continued protective hand of God, who is not done with them yet. They will live to be restored to their intended glory in the end time.

 

Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

 

2. The combined powers of evil have been unable to destroy the Church. By the Church, I mean the body of Christ. The great persecution in the days of Saul of Tarsus of the Church only scattered the believers who took the Word of God with them and continued to sow the Seed of Salvation.

 

The great persecution of God’s people by the Roman Church in the Middle Ages fired the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s. Read “Fox’s Book of Martyrs”, where you will find that the faith of God’s people was an enduring, overcoming faith.

 

Foxe's Book of Martyrs is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant English historian John Foxe, first published in 1563 by John Day. It gives the accounts of the greatness of the persecution and physical destruction of believers that could not stop the greatness of their faith and willingness to die for their faith.

 

In the New Testament, we find these verses:

 

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

 

Hebrews 11:32-40 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: (33) Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, (34) Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. (35) Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: (36) And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: (37) They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (38) (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (39) And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: (40) God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

 

Therein lies the summary of the history of the Church

 

Verse 3.

 

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

 

1. The unparalleled sufferings of God’s people, both Jew and Gentile, have been beyond comprehension at times as the furrows of hatred were plowed long and deep. Relentless at times but Israel and the Church still live.

 

2. When Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (A.D. 107), about 12 years after John the Beloved was given the Revelation of Jesus Christ, was taken to Rome and cast to the lions, he exclaimed, “I am God’s wheat, and must be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may be found His pure bread.”

 

3. The Sufferings of Christ. Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

 

Verse 4.

 

Isaiah 54:16-17 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. (17) No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

 

1. The Righteous Lord will not allow God’s people to be destroyed. He allows the disobedient to suffer as well as the obedient. We are not exempt from the sorrows of this world but are under the protection of God’s hedge and hands.

 

2. The Ungodly’s power is limited by God. They cannot reach farther than God will allow. God is in control of the lives of the godly and the lives of the ungodly.

 

Verses 5-7.

 

1. Their Wondering. As much as they hate God’s people, as much as they try to destroy God’s people, the more that Israel endures and prospers! The same with God’s Church. Tribulation and persecution have always caused spiritual prosperity.

 

2. Their Withering. These hate groups come and go. Others rise to take their place but ultimately wither away as all others. Only the things of God truly last.

 

3. Their Worthlessness. They become castaways that no one wants to help or retain. ISIS turns into Hamas, which turns into Hezbollah, and no one wants to associate with any of them because they are all losers.

 

Verse 8.

 

1. The Wicked will see the testimony of God’s people. “Neither do they which go by”

 

2. The Wicked will never say, “The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.”

 

3. This present world will never bless Israel as their hearts are cold and hardened. Their hatred for the people of god will lead to their own destruction.

 

4. The present world will never bless God’s children. Bless religion, yes! Bless God’s children, no!

 

5. But, God’s people will continue to bless Israel.

 

Ruth 2:1-4 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. (2) And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. (3) And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. (4) And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

The Restoration of the Nation of Israel

 Temple Baptist Church - 8-4-2024

Romans 11:25

 

Introduction:

 

A.  We have looked at the Selection of the Nation of Israel, God’s Glory—apple of God’s eye—God’s Elect Nation—the Nation God loves over all others!  Again, this love is national, not personal.  God loves every man, woman, and child.  God wants them to be saved through faith in the finished work of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

 

B.  My opening statement will be distasteful to many in our day as the nations of the world, including the United States of America, are turning their backs on Israel and backing Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

 

1.  I find this to be amazing as Israel has been the victim of unprovoked attacks against its civilians by all three of these groups.  Murder, rape, torture, hostages, missile attacks along with constant incursions into Israel to attack innocent civilians.

 

2.  Israel strikes back as they should and there will be collateral damage as these ungodly cowards hide and attack behinds the skirts of women and children. Hospitals, schools, daycare centers, etc.

 

3.  Israel MUST respond, and the world and fake news makes them the aggressors instead of the victims.

 

4.  Why?  Because God is setting up “Jacob’s Trouble” also called the “Tribulation Period,” where the nations of the world, under the leadership of their “god,” Satan will attack Israel in an attempt (notice I said attempt) to destroy the nation and annihilate the Jewish people.

 

C.  We saw the Rejection of the Nation of Israel.  Notice again I said the Nation of Israel, not individual Israelis.  Romans 10 speaks of their “righteousness” and ignorant of God’s “righteousness” as a rejection of Christ Jesus, who is the end of the Law of Righteousness.

 

1.  Man’s righteousness leads to spiritual death and hell.

 

2.  God’s righteousness leads to a state of impeccability because it is His and not ours.  Our righteousness is the imputed righteousness of Christ Jesus and it is the only righteousness that will take the sinner to heaven!

 

D.    This morning, we will look at the Restoration of the Nation of Israel.  Several questions were asked and answered in chapters 10 and 11 of Romans.  God gives immediate answers to each question so as to stop people from drawing their own conclusions.  Someone said that if you ask 10 people a question, you may get as many as 15 answers.

 

E.  These questions give us the biblical ability to know what God’s plan is for an elect but partially blinded (nation and not individual) nation.

 

1.  The answer to salvation.  Isarel Slipped, Stumbled, Slept, and Sleeps On.  It is all of Christ Jesus or it is nothing at all!

 

a.  The Nation of Israel Slipped.  Romans 10:3-4  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  (4)  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

 

b.  The Nation of Israel Stumbled.  Romans 11:9  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

 

c.  The Nation of Israel Slept.  God broke off the natural branches (Israel) and grafted in the Gentile nations.

 

d.  The Nation of Israel Continues today to sleep.  There is a vail over their hearts when the Word of God is read or heard.

 

2.  Is God done with Israel.  “Hath God cast away his people?”  Chapter 11:1.  The answer is no:

 

Romans 11:1-2  God forbid ... God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.

 

a.  Nationally blinded to the gospel.

 

Romans 11:10  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

 

Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

 

b.  Individually open to the gospel. 

 

Romans 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

 

3.  Have they stumbled that they should fall.  God forbid!  Their fall was the salvation of the Gentiles.  It also provokes Israel to jealousy.  Israel’s “fall” is only partial and temporary.

 

Romans 11:11  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

 

4.  When will Israel be restored?  At the end of “Jacob’s Trouble!”

 

Romans 11:25-27  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  (26)  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  (27)  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

 

5.  Prophecy fulfilled with Israel.  God’s “Time Piece!”

 

a.  Two thousand years ago, Israel rejected Christ (John 1:11) and became nationally blinded.

 

b.  For the past two thousand, the gospel has been preached to the Gentiles as God is calling out His Church, the Body of Christ made up of every born-again believer.

 

c.  At the end of the church age, we find the Gentiles falling away from biblical salvation and embracing religion which is a mixture of faith and works.  It is either works or faith and, like oil and water, they CANNOT mix.

 

Romans 11:5-6  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.  (6)  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

 

d.  The next major event on God’s Calendar.  The Rapture of Catching Away of God’s Church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) and the beginning of Jacob’s Trouble, the Tribulation Period.

 

e.  The Second Coming of Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period; the destruction of the nations who war against Israel. Revelation, chapter 19.

 

f.  Israel’s restoration through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Lord and King.

 

Romans 11:25-26  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  (26)  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

 

Zechariah 13:6-9  And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.  (7)  Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.  (8)  And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.  (9)  And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

 

6.  One day soon, Israel will be grafted back in and will walk in the light of the New Jerusalem forever.  What a day that will be but, until then, we will continue to bless and pray for Israel.  The Nation of Israel belongs to God!

Ignorant - The Spiritual Blindness of Israel

Temple Baptist Church - 7-28-2024

Romans 10:1-10; 11:25

 

Introduction: 

 

A.  Last week, we saw in Romans, chapter 9, God’s Divine Election of the Nation of Israel.  In the absolute sovereignty of God, He chose Israel.  Israel did not choose God!

 

B.  In chapters 10-11, the context has not changed.  Paul is still writing about the nation of Israel, God’s Glory and the Apple of God’s eye!  Today, God continues to love Israel. 

 

Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 

 

Mystery – to silence or to shut the mouth.  A Biblical Mystery can only be understood through the medium of the Scriptures and the discernment of the child of God through the Holy Spirit.

 

C.  This morning, we will see the condition of the Nation of Israel today. 

 

1.  “Spiritual blindness” in part!  Not totally blind.  There are those who believe that Jews in our days cannot be saved.  Chapter 10 deals with that and I will in a minute or two.

 

2.  Israel’s blindness is found in all of chapter 10 and the first 25 verses of chapter 11. 

 

Israel Slipped (Romans 10:2-3; 11:1-7), then Israel Stumbled (Romans 11:9, 11), then Israel Slept (Romans 11:9-17), and now Israel Sleeps On (Romans 11:25).  One day, Israel will See their Messiah (Romans 11:23-24, 26-27).

 

3.  I want to re-emphasize that context in the Scriptures does not always begin or end with the chapter and verse notations found in the Bible.  These were added by the translators to help us find what we are looking for without having to read the entire Bible to do so. 

 

D.  In Romans, chapter 11, A question is asked and answered at the same time.  This is because God does not want to ask us a question and leave it up to us to come to our own conclusion, which may be right or may be wrong.  God answers the question so that we will know the right answer. 

 

1.  Verse 1, The Question:  “Hath God cast away his people?”

 

2.  Verses 1b-2a, The Answer:  “God forbid ... God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

 

3.  God’s Election and Love for Israel has not changed but the Nation of Israel and its Condition has changed.

 

E.  Israel, as a nation, has “spiritual blindness” because of their rejection!  I want to look at some of the areas of rejection that has caused the Nation of Israel to be blinded and set aside until the “fulness of the Gentiles (The Ages of the Church) be come in.”  Notice the words “be come in” which is a continuation.

 

F.  Israel’s blindness was “in part,” and this is noted in chapter 10:9-17 as individual Jews can be saved just as we are.  By faith in the gospel!  Their blindness was national, not individual.

 

G.  The Natural Branch (the Nation of Isarel is the branch that belongs to the root) has been broken off and the “wild olive tree” (the Church through the Gentile nations) grafted in.  The Dispensation of the Gentile Church or Bride until the time that the Church will be raptured out.

 

Romans 11:17-24  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou (Romans-Gentiles), being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  (18)  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.  (19)  Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.  (20)  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:  (21)  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.  (22)  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.  (23)  And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.  (24)  For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

 

H.  What Israel rejected that caused their blindness.

 

1.  Israel’s Rejection Of the Word of God.  Zechariah 7:11-12  But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.  (12)  Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

 

Israel rejected the Promised Seed of the Woman, their Messiah, the Lamb of God, the only solution to the problem of sin.

 

2.  Israel’s Rejection Of the Prophets of God.  Matthew 23:37-39  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  (38)  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  (39)  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.

 

Matthew 23:35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

 

God’s men who prophesied God’s Word.  Men of God continue to be despised if they preach the Word of God without compromise.

 

3.  Israel’s Rejection Of the Spirit of God.  Acts 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 

 

Acts 2:12-13  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?  (13)  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

 

Though 3,000 men were saved on the Day of Pentecost, millions were not!

 

4.  Israel’s Rejection Of the Son of God—Christ Jesus—Israel’s Messiah.  John 1:10-11  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  (11)  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

                 

Matthew 27:25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 

Israel prayed a curse down upon itself and its posterity which remains to this day.

 

5.  Israel’s Rejection Of the Gospel of God.  Romans 10:16  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

 

Acts 7:54-60  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.  (55)  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,  (56)  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.  (57)  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,  (58)  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.  (59)  And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  (60)  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

 

Stephen preached a risen Christ to them!  Gospel—good news—death according to the Scriptures, burial, and resurrection according to the Scriptures.

 

6.  Israel was blinded because of their Self-Righteousness.  Romans 10:3-4  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  (4)  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 

 

Salvation is to everyone that believeth, not everyone that worketh!  Repentance from dead works and faith toward God is the only way of salvation.

 

7.  Israel was blinded because of National Pride.  Acts 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 

 

To the Jew, Gentiles were sub-human and often called Gentile dogs.  Jews do not listen to the witness of Gentile dogs.  They thought that they had to be right with God because they were of His people, Israel.  Many people of our day believe that they are going to heaven based upon their parent’s faith.

 

Conclusion:

 

1.  Israel’s eyes saw but they did not see.  Isaiah 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  

 

They saw Christ but did not see who He was.  They tempted Him, they taunted Him, they tested Him, and crucified Him.

 

2.  Israel’s ears heard but they did not hear.  Jeremiah 17:23  But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

 

3.  Blindness in part:  though nationally blinded, individual Jews can and are being saved.