The Church's Responsibility to Israel and the Jew
Transcript
The Church's Responsibility to Israel and the Jew
Intro
Narrator 00:00:00
You’re listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit www.lancelambert.org and follow us on Telegram to receive all of our updates.
Hey folks,
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In this episode, Lance explains why we as Christians have a responsibility to the people of Israel and how Israel is the fulfilment of the Word of God. Let’s listen.
Lance Lambert 1:30
If we could turn to Romans 11 once more, I would like to read some of those verses.
Romans 11:11
I say then, Did they stumble [that is the Jewish people] 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 fulness?
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 first-fruit 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.
Verse 20
Well said; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, 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 fulness 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.
Verse 28
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 not repented of. 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.
Prayer
Shall we just bow in prayer? Dear Lord, although we have already committed this time to Thee, we cannot just, Lord, speak without recognising our absolute dependence upon Thee, both speaker and hearer. We confess it, Lord, that if there is going to be value in this afternoon, then Lord, it will be because Thou art here, and because Lord Thou art the enabling power of speaker and hearer alike.
We stand into that anointing now Lord, and we trust Thee to meet with us through Thy word, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Church’s Responsibility to Israel and the Jew
This afternoon, I am going to speak on this subject of the responsibility of the church, or of the people of God, of the Christian, toward Israel, and the Jewish people. I believe that the church, the believer, has a very heavy and solemn responsibility for Israel and for the Jew. The first thing I want to do this afternoon — this is not a very good sermon, I am preaching, in that sense it will be a mess — but from my heart, the first thing I want to do is to ask myself, why does the church have a responsibility toward the Jew?
Why? Because I believe that until we see why we have a responsibility, no one will take up or shoulder that responsibility. Why have we, as the people of God, as the Church of God as the Body of Christ, as born again Christians, believers, why do we have a responsibility toward the Jew? I will answer firstly, because by their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Every single person in this room who is of Gentile stock is here because of the Jewish people.
The Gospel Was Given First to the Jews
There would be no gospel, but for the Jewish people. Humanly speaking, there would have been no Messiah, but for the Jewish people. The fall of the Jewish people has become the glorious means by which God has fulfilled that age old Jewish dream, that all the nations of the earth shall come into blessing through them. It has happened. From every tongue and kindred and people and nation, a people have been joined to God through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Himself.
They have come from every corner of the earth. They have been joined to the people of God. They have become members of the commonwealth of Israel.
If we look at Romans 11:11, it says, “… but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles …” and verse 12, “… if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles.”
By Their Fall We Have Been Lifted Up
Don’t you think that we as the people of God have got a tremendous responsibility towards Israel and towards the Jewish people? Perhaps a supreme responsibility towards this people because by their fall, we have been lifted up. Because they have been scattered to the ends of the earth, we have been joined to God, reconciled to God, made one with God in the Messiah, in Christ. How can any believer be anti-Jewish?
How can any true, born-again Christian take up an anti-Jewish stand? Surely, it is impossible. We read in Romans 9 verses 4-5, and the apostle Paul speaking about this says, ” … who are Israelites, whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom is the Messiah as concerning the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever, amen.” What a list!
The fact of the matter is that all that we have, has come through this people, humanly speaking. If anyone belongs to that ilk who feel that somehow or other, the Old Testament is some somewhat useless appendage, and that the New Testament is all that matters. I remind you, that as far as we know, there is only one writer in the New Testament who is Gentile, and of that, we have much dispute.
The Early Church was Totally Jewish
The only one that we understand is a Gentile is Dr. Luke, and as I say, that is under dispute, under question. All the others, the gospel writers, the writers of the letters, every single document, humanly speaking, has come through Jewish hands, by Jewish lips. The gospel was taken to the whole world by Jewish bodies and Jewish lips. There would not be here a single born-again believer, but for the original Jewish, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, who laid down their lives because they saw something that we are in danger of losing.
What did they see? They saw that this gospel was the fulfilment of Jewish history. They saw it as the consummation of all that God given to the fathers and the prophets. They saw it as the fulfilment of this age-long aspiration that Israel might become, as it were, a vessel by which the light and salvation of God would come to the ends of the earth. Why do people relegate all this to the millennium, as if only in the millennium it is going to happen?
My dear friends, the fact of the matter is, the early church was totally Jewish. Its origins, its thinking, its background, everything was Hebrew. They saw their responsibility to bring in the uncircumcision. They saw as their responsibility to take the gospel to the Gentile, and it brought them into terrible controversy, not only outside antagonism toward them from the Jewish establishment, but within their fold, Judaizers, those who did not see as clearly as they that the thing was fulfilled. Why did the apostle Paul suffer?
The True Israel of God
Why did the other apostles suffer? There was no need for them to become the offscouring of the world, and the derision of so many. If they had only followed a more compromised way, but they saw that this gospel, which had been given to them was the culmination of Jewish history. They saw it as the fulfilment of all that God had done in the people. Now get this clear. They saw themselves as the true Israel of God.
For the true Israel of God had never been the outward Israel of God. Do not forget that in the Messianic line, you have got Gentiles. You have got Bathsheba. She was not exactly a very moral lady at one point. She was a Gentile. You have got Ruth, a Moabitess. You have got a few others too that we will not go into. But they are all there. Job was not Jewish. Yet these people had been added to God.
They came to God. Do you see what I am trying to get at? What I am saying is that the real Israel of God was always within the outward Israel of God. The apostles, the early apostles, saw themselves as, as it were, the fulfilment of what God had been doing. Here was the real Israel of God.
The Middle Wall of Partition Had Gone!
They saw a solemn responsibility to take that gospel to the Gentiles, even though it caused tremendous controversy and upset and disturbance. Wouldn’t it have been much easier if they could have had nice little Gentile communities all on their own and Hebrew believing communities on their own? It would have made things so much easier! But no! They saw something that was tremendous. They saw the middle wall of partition had gone!
But the shoe was on the other foot. They did not think of Jews becoming Gentiles in order to become Christians. They saw Gentiles becoming Jews. That was the whole emphasis, they saw it as an adding into something which God had been doing. My dear friend, if you will only get your thinking reorientated on this, the whole Bible talks about it. All the letters talk about it. I could now spend hours just reading portions from it, and suddenly you would wake up to see. Listen to this. In Ephesians chapter two, let me just get this for you.
Ephesians 2:11
I am reading from the older version. Listen to this: Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from the Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in the Messiah Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of the Messiah. For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace. Now I could go on reading and reading and reading portion after portion, but what I will prove to you is this, that the early apostles, they saw it as their responsibility to take this gospel to the Gentiles.
They were saying to the Gentiles, “You are now included, you people who were afar off, to whom the fathers do not belong, to whom the prophets do not belong, with whom the covenants were not made, you are now included. You are members of the commonwealth of Israel. You are no longer separated, divorced, far off, distanced, you have be made nigh. For we who are Jews, we have been fulfilled, and you who are Gentiles have now become Jews,” if you want to put it that way. Of course, all that has been lost, this whole sense of it, and now comes back.
The Branches are Borne by the Root
People say the Bible is more contemporary than a newspaper. Of course it is. Listen to how contemporary this is, “Be not high minded, but fear.” Don’t think that you of Gentile stock, that you are now everything just because there happened to be millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of you, just you remember that all the branches are still borne by the root. Don’t be high minded.
Remember that to you belong the fathers, to you belong the prophets, to you belong all those saints, the true Israel of God. When we begin to see it like that, what a difference it makes. It clears up a whole number of our problems on this matter. The root bears us all. The root bears us all. The root, of course, is the Messiah himself.
He is the root and stock of Jesse. He said, “Before Abraham was I AM.” He is the root. But then we have all the others Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. People say, “No, no, no, no, no, no, they belong to the Hebrew community.” Well, just wait. Before you go any further on this point, I have got an argument with you. Listen to this, our Lord in Matthew 8:10. “And when Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them [this is the Gentile centurion] that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness.”
A Solemn Responsibility to the Jew
Or, again, just so that you are absolutely clear on this point, Luke 13, listen to these words, verse 28, “There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth”. Now don’t you see these, not only our Lord Jesus, the words of our Lord, but the early apostles, they saw something. They saw something!
They felt they had a solemn responsibility. Their responsibility was this, they had been so favoured, so blessed, they were of the natural stock, and they had found the Messiah, and in finding the Messiah, they felt, “We have a solemn responsibility now to see that this Gospel goes to all the Gentiles, that this age old aspiration of the Jewish people be fulfilled, and that out of every tribe and tongue, kindred and nation, and people shall come a people for the Lord.
Of course, there must be problems and there are problems as to physical things, material things, the nation in the future and all that, but spiritually, let us get at least at the spiritual heart of this matter. We have a solemn responsibility towards the Jewish people because not one single person of Gentile stock would be in the Messiah but for them. Not only the faithful ones who brought the gospel to us, but the majority who fell, for by their fall salvation has come to the Gentile.
A Little Speculation
You know, I have often thought we would never have any problem on this matter. If, and this is all speculation, by the way, I would really like if the tape recorder turned off at this point. This is all just speculation, but I often think now, this is the way it would help us to understand.
Just supposing that the Jewish people had accepted the Messiah, just supposing the Jewish establishment, for that was the crux of the matter, had accepted and received Jesus as Lord and Messiah. He would have still died, only this time, the Gentiles would have crucified Him as Messiah, and King of the Jews. Then the whole Jewish people would have risen up with patriotism in their veins and been saved. Don’t you see it? Now, this is all speculation.
Then what would have happened? They would have started going everywhere. There would not have been such a thing as Christianity. Now think about that. There would not have been such a thing as what we call Christianity, there would have been the community of the saved. There would have been the redeemed, only this time from all over the earth, they would have been gathered in. It did not happen.
We Ought Also to Lay Down our Lives to Win Them
But the Jewish establishment and the Gentile establishment crucified the Lord of glory. By their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles. Don’t you think we have a solemn responsibility? I say, if there was nothing else to say on this matter, we have the most solemn responsibility. If they laid down their lives to win us, we ought also to lay down our lives to win them.
If the majority fell that salvation might come to the ends of the earth, to the Gentiles, then the Gentiles who are saved by the grace of God have a solemn and supreme responsibility towards this persecuted and hated people. That is the first thing. I have to watch the time as always. The second thing is to why we have a responsibility is this. It’s very simple. I don’t know whether we need to spend so long on it, although I would almost like to end it here again in Romans chapter 11:28.
They Are Beloved for the Fathers’ Sake
But as touching the election, they are beloved, for the father’s sake. How on earth anyone can not love the Jewish people when it says clearly in the Word of God that God loves them. I don’t understand. It says touching the election, they are loved. Of course God loves the whole world. Oh, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But he especially loves the Jewish people, because of their past.
Because of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and so we could go on. Because of the fathers, he loves them. They are beloved of God for the father’s sake, oh, the sad failure of the church in this matter of love. People are more interested in Israel as a literal prophetic object lesson. You get people fascinated with things. Oh, I wish they take all their systems and burn them sometimes.
All these pathetic systems, this system and that system and the other system, you know, when you study them, you feel like putting a block of ice on your head, and going back to the Bible for relief. But people get so fascinated with these things. And they they write volumes on it, which only confuses the more. But I don’t find the Bible gives us systems of papacy. I find that all papacy has a very practical objective, to awaken us, to prepare us, to warn us, to train us and to equip us.
God’s Heart is For Israel
It is a very sad fact that when people are interested in Israel, they are only interested in Israel as a kind of illustration of God’s faithfulness to his word. I think I told you before how in the Yom Kippur War, when the mind in Germany, who is has been for many, many years is hidden from the Lord in in Israel was a poll in a large company of real believers to find that 10 minutes was given for prayer for his trip. And when they paid they all paid for German tourists caught in the war.
People were interested in Israel as the fulfilment of prophecy, but they had no love for the people. No love for the Jewish people. It seems to me that if God loves this people for the fathers’ sake, so ought I. How can the love of God be shed abroad in my heart and it exclude the Jew? How can the love of God be shed abroad in my heart and it even mean that there’s an area of indifference to the Jew?
The Election of God Comes from the Love of God
If they are beloved for the fathers’ sake, then if my heart is filled with the love of God, I shall feel something of his own heartbeat for this nation, and for this people. I will say no more about this matter. Except this, election, is not a mechanical thing. Oh, how some people have made this whole matter of predestination and election a matter of mechanics, so that God is some horrid bit of machinery. But the election of God comes out of the love of God. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. And it is that and that alone, which lies at the root of election.
As touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. A third thing I believe we have a responsibility. Why we have a responsibility is because Israel is the fulfilment of the Word of God. Now these dear people who say that there is no hope at all for the Jewish people, and that there is absolutely no future, they of course had a number of rather difficult to swallow in the last generation. It was all very well to talk like that before 1948.
1948 Creation of State of Israel
But 1948 saw the creation of the State of Israel and that was an extremely difficult camel for them to swallow.
But they have done their best and have somehow or other managed to swallow the camel. Following that, in 1967, was the fulfilment of that word in Luke 21 and 24, that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And for the first time bar a few months in 135 AD, Jerusalem came back under Jewish administration and government, and has remained so ever since, and in my estimation will remain so.
That was an elephant that they tried to swallow. And even now some of them have managed to get the elephant down. It is quite remarkable to me how people understand some scriptures. And if only we had hours to spare, I would like to have gone to different scriptures and talked about them.
“Bring my Sons from Far”
For instance, we know that there is a spiritual meaning in Isaiah 43 when our Lord says in those wonderful words, verse five of Isaiah 43 “Fear not; for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;” Now, of course, we understand that spiritually, we know that God is doing something with his own redeemed people.
He is bringing us all back together. He is causing us to find one another. He is joining us together. He’s breaking down the old traditional walls that have separated us. For this we thank God, it’s got to happen before the end. But it has a literal meaning. Now liberals tell me that all this was fulfilled when they returned from Babylon. That I find extremely interesting because they may have come from the north, and they may have come from the east, but they never came from the west or the south.
The Desolations of Many Generations
But some will say that doesn’t really matter. They turn to another scripture which says in Isaiah 61, “And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers.” Now will you notice it says they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
Liberals tell me this was all fulfilled when they came back from Babylon. Many generations? God’s a great exaggerator then. He said they shall build the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. I say that those two scriptures have only been fulfilled in this century. Where are these waste cities? Where are these desolations of many generations? Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be’er Sheva, Gat, Arad. One after another, they poured out. Rehovot.
They Shall No More Be Plucked Up
All biblical places, built on the desolations of many generations. Or I think of another one here in Amos, if you can find it. Amos and chapter nine. And it says in verse 14, And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.”
I am told by some that this was all fulfilled in return from Babylon. Then God is a liar, for he says here, “and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land that I have given them saith the Lord their God.” But the dispersion of 70 AD was a far more terrible and colossal and long lasting dispersion and judgment than ever the Babylonian one was. So what does God mean? I say it has only been exhaustively fulfilled in our generation.
The Lord Their God Will Visit Them
Or listen again to Zephaniah and chapter two and verse four, “For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.
And the sea-coast shall be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed their flocks thereupon; in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for the Lord their God will visit them, and bring back their captivity.” I am very interested when some people tell me that all this was fulfilled in the return from Babylon.
They are talking nonsense. Why? Because when they returned from Babylon, they never never drove out the Gentiles from the low land. They left them in Ashkelon, and Ashdod and Gat and Ekron. And it became a place where for a while many of the more observant people of God would not go. That’s why Herod the Great was so disliked, because he was born in Ashkelon, and he beautified it, and the columns of his sort of supermarket are still there to this day.
The Philistines Driven Out
When were the Philistines driven out? When did the remnant of the house of Judah come to possess Ashkelon and Ashdod? Not in 1948, but in 1957, after the Suez War of 56, South African Jewry gave the money, and Ashkelon was built. And there isn’t a single Arab in Ashkelon, bar one, and he is the chemist. And he’s leaving, thank you Gideon.
That’s not because we want him to leave, because he’s a very nice man indeed. And he said how happy he was to be there. But my point is this do you begin to understand how modern and contemporary the Word of God is? The land of the Philistines, in Hebrew, Philistine is פלישתים (Plishtim), that’s the word for Palestinian.
And the house of Judah, the remnant of the house of Judah is where we get the word Jew from, from Judah. And here it all is in the prophecy of Zephaniah. Is it any wonder then, that in the town centre of Ashkelon, this prophecy of Zephaniah is there engraved in stone?
“They shall lie down in the houses of Ashkelon.” At least those who have returned to Israel in unbelief have got more regard for the Word of God than some so-called theologians who are supposed to be believers.
Israel is the Fulfilment of the Word of God
The fact of the matter is that Israel is the fulfilment of the Word of God. And therefore, all these dear Christian people who have in themselves a civil war, and feel that, somehow or other, they hear so much about the wrongs of the Palestinian cause, and all the rest of it, they find themselves engineered by the enemy into a position where they are enemies of God. Now, I can say that because I love the Arab people.
And because in the work in Jerusalem we have a number of those who are amongst our closest friends who are Arab believers. What a joy was recently to hear one Arab boy stand up and say how all the hatred in his heart had been taken out, and he saw that he was joined to the commonwealth of Israel. That will happen more and more and more. After all, Arabs and Jews can live together, they’re cousins.
There’s no reason why this should be. It’s all these super power politics and outside pressures that are doing all the damage. But the fact of the matter is this, if I say that Israel has no right to its existence, I find myself as an enemy of God. Because the whole of God’s Word says that Israel will become a fact. It said so; has said so for thousands of years. Let those people pour their scorn upon it. Let them tell us that there is no future for the Jewish people.
How do We Explain These Things?
How do they explain the creation of the State of Israel? How do they explain the 1967 retaking of Jerusalem? How do they explain these prophecies? In what way are they explained? You must have a spiritual eye disease to read these prophecies and wrangle out of them. The fact of the matter is this. Of course, the Palestinians have a case. Of course, there are injustices. We have to say it. Always in all war there are injustices.
I know because I remember the first shock I ever had when I started to travel in Germany and Austria, ministering amongst believers, and I had to hear from dear, old believing ladies some of the things that happened to their families when the allies took Germany. And then I understood it. I had always been brought up to understand that we were all righteous and they were all wicked. And it isn’t really true.
But that does not lead me to say for one single moment that Adolf Hitler and his henchmen were on the side of right. They were demon possessed. But in all things to do with war and strife, there are in justices on both sides.
A Nation Who Sells Her Soul
The fact of the matter is this, that in the end, we have to ask ourselves, is Israel the fulfilment of God’s Word? Is it the fulfilment of the purpose of God? And if it is, we must stand up and be counted. It’s no good compromising like the rest of them are, and just simply going the way of this world because of oil, and money, and a living standard.
Who would think that a nation could sell its soul for a living standard? But they will do so. And they will have it as good as they want it, and they will find they have lost their soul. What shall we gain a man or a nation if it gain the world and lose its own soul? There is another reason why I think we have a responsibility towards the Jewish people, and that is that the purpose of God is to graft them in again.
You Have Been Grafted In
Now, I’m very interested in this because I like the biblical phrases. Sometimes when I read some of the things written on the matter, they confuse me. But when I come back to the Bible, I don’t find the Bible so confusing. What does it say in Romans 11? This is what it says. It says, “Now you who are Gentiles were like wild olives, you were wild olive branches. You’ve been grafted in, and they have been cut out.”
And then it says, “You Gentile believers will remain in as long as you continue in faith, and they also can be grafted in again.” Now that’s a very interesting phrase, “grafted in again”. Or listen to this lest you’re still in an argumentative mood. Romans 11:24. “How much more shall these which are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” Now I believe that that little phase, to me, clears that 1001 problems that we all have, some more than others.
Their Own Olive Tree
People have got so many problems about this whole matter of the Jewish future and the Jewish identity and what happens when a Jewish person gets saved? And oh, dear dear, dear if only they would leave those who are Jews who get saved to the Lord! But they have to get them into this, or get them into that. Sometimes they make them more Jewish than ever, and sometimes they make them totally Gentile. May God preserve us from the hands of some of these dear Christians.
But the fact of the matter is this, what does it mean, “able to graft them into their own olive tree”? Now my dear friends think for a single moment. Their own olive tree? Does that mean that they’ll know they’re out of their own olive tree and you are in their own olive tree? It does. That’s precisely what it means.
All of you dear people of Gentile stock, you are in their own olive tree. Think of it! By their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Their loss is the riches of the Gentiles, their fall the riches of the world. You are in their own olive tree. Now what does it say? It says is he not able to graft back the natural branch into their own olive tree?
Saved in a Day?
So what do I look for? Some of these ideas, look I’ve listed a few of them down here just to confuse you all. The sad confusion amongst Christians, there is this idea that the whole Jewish people are going to be saved in the day. Because it says somewhere that a people should be born in a day. So they’ve taken it that a whole nation automatically is going to be born again in a day. Where in the whole of the Word of God, Old Testament as well as New, has there ever been such a mechanical conversion of people?
Do you mean to tell me that Caiaphus is in the kingdom of God because he was a Jew? Do you mean to tell me the Annas is in the kingdom of God because he was circumcised? Of course not.
You know that very well. You know that the real Israel of God was within the outward Israel of God. And here, you’ve got the same thing, this idea they’re all going to be saved in a day.
They Shall Mourn for Him
Now the result of this teaching is that we don’t do any evangelism. We don’t pray for them, we don’t care for them. We just watch them like an object lesson. And we say, “one day, it’s all gonna happen in a minute, in a minute.” And I’m told that this conversion, this being born again is going to be when the Lord actually appears. I find it hard to understand how this people is going to be converted in a single day when they see the Lord and the rest of the Gentiles will not be saved at all when they see the Lord because that’s the end, it’s too late.
It doesn’t say that. It says they shall they shall weep and wail. And it says in another place they shall cry for the rocks to fall upon them, and all the rest of it. No, what does it say? It says, “The Lord will pour upon them the spirit of supplication and grace and they shall look unto Him whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, and the mourning shall be greater than in the day of mourning in Hadad Rimmon.
Blessed is He that Comes in the Name of the Lord
That was the King Josiah’s, when the whole nation mourned for a day. Why, that means that something’s going to dawn upon the Jewish people in such a way that there’s going to be a mourning before the Messiah appears. And these people will not suddenly be converted and then in the next breath say, “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” but they’ll be so wonderfully saved, that they will be prepared, along with all of you to say, “Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.”
There are these confused ideas. This one is saved in a day mechanical, and other one is that we speak of the chosen people, the people of God, and then we get into a great mix up because we don’t know whether the church is the people of God or not the people of God. So we speak of them as the new people of God and the ancient people of God.
Elect or Not Elect
And then we speak with the chosen people, meaning the elect people, that’s the church if you’re a Calvinist. And then somehow or other you think, we’ll now what about Jews? They are the ancient elect people of God. How can you ever be an ancient elect people of God? You’re either elect or you ain’t elect, I mean, you are either elect or you are not elect.
The fact of the matter is this: that there is only one elect people. And that people goes back to our father Abraham. And he is the father of all who believe. And every Gentile who has ever believed, has found himself in the Messiah, by the positioning of God, he is in the Messiah, and every Jew, who has discovered the Messiah, as Jesus, and the salvation of God is found in the same Messiah. There are problems of course, in this whole thing, but I say I’m keeping myself to this point.
God’s Purpose is to Graft them in Again
Why have we got a responsibility? Because God’s purpose is to graft them in again. And dear friend, it’s not as if we were living in the time of the Reformation, or in the time of the first evangelical awakening, or the second evangelical awakening, we are living in the times when the veil is to be taken away from the Jewish heart.
Therefore, if we have not always had a responsibility (which we have) this generation of believers has a more solemn responsibility towards Israel and to the Jewish people than any other generation. Because we are living in the generation, when the hardening that hath befallen in part Israel is to be done away.
Life From the Dead
There is one other point, give me just a few more minutes, and that is life from the dead. And I want to appeal to your selfish instincts now. Which are in all of us even though we don’t like to admit it. Why have we a responsibility towards Israel and Jewish people? Because what will the receiving of them be but life from the dead? I hear everywhere I go, people asking the Lord to revive Christians to revive churches.
I suspect that in some places, all they want is to see the pews filled and more in the collection plate, and a few more people to take responsibility in these dying so called testimonies. I don’t think God will ever revive any of them. God has never revived machines or organisations or institutions. He’s always revived his own. But the fact of the matter is this: if you believe that we need revival amongst us believers and an awakening amongst the unsaved, well, dear friends, your great responsibility is towards Israel and the Jewish people, for when that veil is taken away it will be like life from the dead.
What is Life From the Dead?
What does it mean life from the dead? Is it just an exaggerated phrase?
I don’t think so. What is life from the dead? Think what the resurrection of Jesus did from the dead. It turned the world upside down. It brought into being the house of God. It sent out flaming apostles to the ends of the earth. It enabled people to lay down their lives for him, so that others might come to him. That’s life from the dead. What is Pentecost? Pentecost is nothing less than the risen life of our Lord Jesus Christ distributed by the Holy Spirit, isn’t it? What does the Holy Spirit do when he comes into you? He brings life. The old dead bones start to do a jig.
Flesh comes on to the dryness, sinew! They start to move. What happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you? More life, life more abundant! Equipment, clothing. Don’t we need it for these last days? We don’t know just when our Lord will come, but we know he’s coming. I suspect that we have yet some very dark days to go through before our Lord comes to take us. We need life from the dead. And therefore, why have we going to responsibility?
A Country Has Sold Its Birthright
Just on this one line that it is going to be the dynamic that will carry the church of God, the body of Christ, the people of God, the true Israel of God it’s going to take them right through because, in my estimation, the people of God, the redeemed people of God, and Israel as a nation are going to be forced together into an identification with one another. It would never, never surprise me. But I shouldn’t say this, I suppose after this referendum. But it would never, never surprise me if Israel is one of the few spots in the world where there will still be democracy and freedom, almost until the coming of the Lord. It would never surprise me.
Our country has sold its birthright for a mess of porridge. I don’t want to bring any divisions in on that matter. But still, the fact of the matter is we shall find it as time goes on, more and more. Well, now then I’ve said enough, I think.
Love
I’ve said why have we got a responsibility towards Israel and the Jew. I’d like just to say this, I will promise you I won’t be more than a minute. What is that responsibility? First, it is love.
And if we only had our hearts baptised afresh with the love of God, it would do more for bringing Jewish people into the house of God and into the body of Christ than any other thing. I don’t know a Jew that has ever been saved but by being shown love by some Christian. What is our responsibility? To know a baptism of love. Not only as individuals, but as companies of God’s people. Our dear brother David Paulson is going to speak about provoking them to jealousy.
Oh, I wish we could provoke them to jealousy. I think most Jews when they come into some of our meetings must surely pity us.
We are so hoity-toity, so formalised, so cool, so distant. I can’t imagine them ever being provoked to jealousy. But in the early church, oh my, but that’s not my subject. The fact is, the love of God in us.
Prayer
Secondly, prayer. Oh for God to raise up an army of intercessors. I think it’s a shame that anyone is here coming into this time today who’s not a member of prayer for Israel. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
And he didn’t ask me to say it. But you should be, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should you should be praying. Of course, how can you pay for Israel unless you have information? Can’t you give 10 minutes a week? Couldn’t you put it up to half an hour? Just half an hour for Israel and for the Jewish people per week? It’s not much, is it, to ask? That’s your responsibility. I hope you will one day hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
Witness
Thirdly, I believe we need to witness. Now I have deliberately not used the word “evangelise” because of some of its undertones and overtones. But witness, oh, if only we would witness. But some people have got the idea that they’re the people of God anyway, and you don’t need to witness to them? Well, what did the apostle suffer for, may I ask? Why were they put out of these synagogues?
Why did the whole establishment come crashing down upon them if these people are the people of God anyway, and we don’t need to witness to them, no need to draw them in, no need to express the salvation of God, to communicate the gospel? I don’t mean in that sort of rabid type of cornering people and sort of giving them three, four steps into the kingdom. But I mean, to be able in your life, by life and by lip, to express the reality of the salvation of God, and may I say, the community of God.
I believe Jewish people are both touched by our community. That is, our living in relationship to one another as believers than even by what we profess. When they see us joined together in a loving community that is really only the church. When they say that, I believe they find in our hearts something awakens.
Well, I think as I’ve said, that’s enough. The Church’s responsibility towards Israel on the Jew, the born-again Christian’s responsibility towards Israel and toward the Jew.
Thank you for listening!
Lance Lambert Ministries
