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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's word will be a blessing to you.
We'll go ahead and start our lesson here this morning by
asking ourselves these question What is Judaism?
Who is considered a Jew? Is Judaism only religion?
Is it a cultural identity? Is it an ethnic group?
Are the Jews a distinct people or are they a nation?
What do the Jews believe and do they all hold the same beliefs?
You know, it's interesting that we have much in common with the
Jewish people in many ways. In fact, you would go back here
in the United States of America and often times it is said that
our nation was founded on judeo-christian values, meaning
that there is some commonalities between those of Judaism and
between us of Christianity as well.
But be clear about this this morning, that even as we
recognize the so-called Judeo-christian values, that
while we may share a common background with Judaism, we do
not share a common belief. I think that's important for us
to understand. Do we share a common background?
Yes, we do. For instance, the Old Testament,
we share a common background, but we do not share a common
belief. The Judaism of today isn't just
biblical teaching that says, well, they believe everything we
do except about Jesus Christ. Now, by the way, that would
still be wrong. Amen.
You can believe everything that we do from biblical
Christianity, not believe in Jesus Christ and still be
hopelessly lost because if you've missed Jesus Christ,
well, you missed everything. But I would say that Judaism as
we see it today isn't even simply believing the Bible, but
not the New Testament and not Jesus Christ.
That even Judaism today has deviated from that which was
taught in the Old Testament as well.
And so we can't simply look as Judaism as they believe like us,
except Jesus Christ. You know, it is much different
than that. And so I, I would put it this
way, that Judaism is an offshoot of the Old Testament, not Jewish
people following the Old Testament while ignoring the New
Testament. That even as we look at Judaism,
we're not looking at what God had commanded the Jews to do in
the Old Testament. They've even deviated from that.
And of course, that shouldn't surprise us because what Jesus,
or rather what God had commanded the Jews to do in the Old
Testament was pointing them towards who?
Jesus Christ. And so if they've missed Jesus
Christ, well, they've missed the mark of the Old Testament.
And so we're not looking at people who are exactly like us
minus Jesus Christ. And again, that would still make
them lost. But what we look at with Judaism
is far, far different even from that.
So who is a Jew that that might be the question today.
Well, who is a Jew? And you might be surprised to
find that there's even a lot of not controversy, but questions
about that even amongst the Jewish community.
Who is a Jew? According to Rabbinical Judaism,
a Jew is one who had a Jewish mother or has formally converted
to Judaism. That would be the definition
according to many, not all. That would be someone who had a
Jewish mother or someone who has formally converted to Judaism.
Leviticus 24 verse 10 is often used as the proof text of that
being the Jewish mother, making someone a Jew.
Now this is Leviticus 24, verse 10.
It says this, and the son of an Israelitish woman whose father
was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel, and the
son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together
in the camp. I wouldn't say that was a very
strong proof text for what they're trying to be able to
convey, but many Jews would point to this verse and say you
either have to have a Jewish mother or you have to have
converted to Judaism. Now, some rabbis will say that
it has nothing nothing to do with what an individual actually
believes. It's not a belief system to
some. These rabbis tell us that
according to the Halakha, the official legal system of
Judaism, a Jew does not need to be a follower of Jewish laws and
customs to be considered Jewish. In fact, a Jew can have no
belief in God whatsoever and still be Jewish based on the
fact of their lineage. So what makes someone a Jew?
Well, again, controversially or, or we would say that there would
be some questioning about this, but it seems to be that one can
be Jew by ethnicity because of the way that they were born.
Some can be Jew because of what they believe.
But someone that is ethnically a Jew may not believe in Judaism
and someone that is Judaism, someone that believes in Judaism
may have converted to it and not ethnically be a Jew.
I don't know if that makes sense to everybody, but the
understanding is this, that where we as Christians, it is
not an ethnicity. It is we have come from all
places and all types and of course we're all one blood under
Jesus Christ, Amen. But the fact of the matter is,
is that we come from all different walks of life, but we
are not ethnically Christians. We wouldn't say that.
But there are ethnic Jews who also believe in Judaism and then
vice versa. There is that type of overlap.
Now, what do they believe now? Or rather, where do they get
their beliefs? It may be a a way of putting it
well, we would see that they would find get their beliefs
from the Old Testament primarily or first of all rather, which is
called the Torah. We would call the Old Testament,
well the Old Testament, but they would use the term Torah for the
Old Testament. In the Old Testament are 613
commandments found, 613 commandments that the Jews were
to be able to keep, and they covered all aspects of the
Jewish life. And we look at some of those
when we go through the Old Testament, don't we?
And they cover civil law, they cover the ceremonial law, they
cover issues with the temple and sacrifices, all of these
different things, 613 in total. And then those could be in some
ways distilled to the 10 commandments as it's found in
Exodus chapter #20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5.
Just a brief synopsis, if you will, of the law.
But you might remember that Jesus Christ even took those 10
commandments and narrowed it down even further, didn't he?
Not that he eliminated the commandments, but that basically
he said really it all comes down to too doesn't it?
Says you love God and you love others because upon these hang
all the law and the prophets. He wasn't saying that the others
were irrelevant. He was just saying this if you
love God as you ought and you love others as you ought, you'll
be fine because everything that is in the commandments really
comes down to this. Love others and love God.
In fact, the 1st 4 commandments deal with our relationship
between us to God. The other six which deal with
our relationship from us to man, but even that can be broadened
out to the 613 that these are, are found in the Torah.
However, the Jews also believe in a different sacred book as
well, which is the Talmud. They have called the Talmud also
to be their scriptures. Now the Talmud is defined by the
World Book Encyclopedia as the following, a collection of legal
and ethical writings as well as Jewish history and folklore.
It serves primarily as a guide to the civil and religious laws
of Judaism. Orthodox Jews believe the laws
in the Talmud were given to Moses by God and passed down
orally from generation to generation.
About AD 200, scholars wrote down these oral laws in a work
called the Mishnah. Later, scholars explain,
interpreted the Mishnah. Their comments were recorded in
the Gamera, which was written between 200 and 500 AD.
The Mishnah and the Gamera together make up the Talmud.
So it's not just simply that they believe the Old Testament,
and this is where I would say that again, there's a deviation
from the Old Testament. They also hold up the Talmud as
well as the interpretation of the Torah, and they say you
really need to understand the Talmud to understand the Torah.
You say now where would all of that come from?
Did you catch that word talked about the Oral Law for Moses
being passed from generation to generation and then finally
being written down around 200 AD?
Who are the custodians of that Oral Law starting around 100 BC
or so and into the time of Christ?
That would be the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were the ones
that were constantly saying, well sure, the Bible may say
this, but we have said this and they were constantly taking
their words. Now they would say it was Moses
words, but they weren't Moses words.
They were their own creations. They were their own
interpretations. In fact, they added to them
overtime. They would take these and they
would take them and put them above Scripture, putting them
above Jesus Christ, which was constantly the clash that took
place between the Pharisees of Jesus Christ.
And again, that clash continues today between Judaism and
biblical Christianity. Because we would say that
everything that we need to understand comes to us in these
66 books. Everything that pertains to life
and godliness is right here. And they are told, the Jews are
told that they have to not just understand the Torah, but also
the Talmud, which was passed from generation to generation
and generation to generation. So what do they believe?
Now, I will say, because there's so many different groups that
are in Judaism, it's very hard to be able to just say, well,
this is what Judaism believes in.
However, in my study I found that it can be distilled no
matter pretty much what group you find these basic beliefs of
Judaism, at least religious Judaism, not ethnic Judaism, can
be put in these categories #1 God alone exists and is creator
#2 God is 1 and unique #3 God is incorporeal, meaning without a
body and incomparable. 4. God is eternal both first and
last Five. We are to pray to God alone and
to no other. Six.
The words of the prophets are true. 7 Moses was the chief
prophet, and Moses prophecies are true #8 the Torah, the first
five books of the Bible specifically, and the Oral
Torah, the Talmud were given to Moses and divinely preserved. 9
There will be no other Torah, since it cannot be changed. 10
God knows all things, including the thoughts and deeds of men.
11 God will reward the righteous and punish the wicked. 12 The
Messiah will come. 13 The dead will be resurrected.
Now, if you consider the 13 points that I've just read and
that you're looking at on your screen right now, we would say
in our studies so far of the Muslims and of Jehovah Witnesses
and of the Mormons, we would probably agree with more of
those 13 points than we would with any of those three other
groups, yes, including the Colts, Jehovah Witness, and
Mormons. However, again, we do not agree
with all thirteen of those points.
There are some very key different differences we
disagree numbers with #8 of the Talmud being of divine origin.
We would say the New Testament would be of divine origin.
The Torah sometimes called the first five books, sometimes
called the entire balance of the Old Testament.
What do we find that we would believe in Old Testament and New
Testament? They say that they would believe
in the Torah and the Talmud. We would look at #12 where they
say the Messiah will come, and boy, this is a big one.
We'll say this. He has come.
They are looking for him to come
and we are looking for him to come again.
That's the difference, isn't it? We are looking for him to come
again. They are still looking for him
to come. And again, one of the saddest
parts of any type of Passover feast that your Jewish friends
will hold in the usually around April time of year, one of the
things that they will do is at the very end, they will all
stand at the door and they will wait for Elijah to come.
They will, they will say Elijah come.
Now, why will that be? Well, because we'll see in the
book of Malachi that Elijah was to be the forerunner of Jesus
Christ. Well, who was that?
Elijah? That was John the Baptist.
We'll look at all of that this morning.
I'm kind of getting ahead of myself of over going to be at
11:00. But the fact of the matter is
they look for him to come. And it's so sad that they would
stand there at the door and wait ceremonially, of course, for him
to come. It's just part of the feast that
they have. But we would look at them and
say you're waiting for someone who's come. 2000 years ago.
So we would disagree on #12 on #11 we would agree God will
reward the righteous and punish the wicked.
Here's the difference. The Bible says that, well, all
of sinned and falling short of the glory of God, you will find
that Judaism basically teaches that mankind is inherently good
and starts from that point where we would say the word of God
teaches well that mankind is inherently sinful and needs
redemption. A huge difference.
And so we can see that out of 13, we probably agree with ten
of those points, but boy, those three, yeah, we need to be able
to be in agreement in all 13 and we cannot agree with all 13.
Those are some very, very large differences, including the very
difference between salvation and being lost, the fact that you
don't know who the Messiah is. That's what salvation is all
about, knowing who Jesus Christ is.
Now, the modern groups within Judaism are primarily born out
of the Pharisaical teaching that held the Old Testament and the
Talmud as the supreme authority. But even in modern Judaism,
Judaism, and I would say particularly modern American
Judaism, it seems that there are three religious groups.
The first would be Orthodox Judaism.
Orthodox Judaism is a movement holding traditional beliefs and
practices such as kosher diets, Sabbath rest, distinctive dress
codes. Now, if you are in our area and
you're driving around on a Saturday, Saturday would be the
Sabbath day. And if you were driving around,
as I was just a few weeks ago going through Sharon, for
instance, Sharon has a large Orthodox Jewish community.
As I was driving through town, I saw that there were families
that were walking to go on Sabbath, to be able to go to the
temple. They were dressed in a very
particular way, both women and men.
They were walking because they could not drive because they
that would be considered work on the Sabbath day.
The kids had their scooters and they were out there on the
scooters and mom and dad were walking.
I'll be honest, he's very impressive in some ways to see
them going and doing what they are doing it.
And in some ways you admire the fact that they are so very
dedicated to that which they believe.
But I would say this, they are dedicated to that which is not
the gospel. And so we look at those, but
those would be what are considered Orthodox Jews.
We could also look at Reform Judaism.
This is a modern movement begun in the 1800s, takes many liberal
viewpoints and does away with conservative values and
practices that are inherent to Orthodox Judaism.
You will find that many Jewish temples today, the large
majority of Jewish temples would fall under Reformed Judaism that
they have basic Jewish beliefs, but they are very liberal in
every way that are so contrary to the word of God.
Not just in their beliefs but also in how they handle
themselves as opposed to Orthodox Judaism.
We have a Jewish temple in town. It is a Reformed Judas, Reformed
Judaism temple where they hold certain beliefs but in many ways
are unrecognizable to Orthodox Jews.
But there's also part of Judaism which is a little bit of a
misnomer because it's a group that tries to balance between
Orthodox and Reformed. However, they have a lot of the
liberal tendencies of the Reform Judaism while still trying to
hold to the Torah and understand that it is the Scriptures where
Orthodox Reform Judaism would not say that the that the Torah
is absolute scripture. And so there are again, some
different flavors between them, but this is the three Orthodox
Reform and Conservative tries to be right in the middle, but
again falls more to the liberal side towards Reform than it does
for Orthodox. And there's one more group that
it also is prominent but is not a religious group, and that is
this. It is secular Judaism, secular
Judaism, those who still identify as Jews mostly by
heritage, but are actually secular humanists, the popular
religion of today. In many ways, they have taken
one more step beyond Reform Judaism, and they are purely
secular in their religious outlook.
They retain the name for the sake of their ancestry.
They may even celebrate some of the feasts like the Passover,
just because it's part of their national heritage, But they are
not celebrating it for a religious reason.
You say, well, why would somebody do that?
I don't know. Why does all the United States
celebrate Christmas but have nothing to do with Jesus?
So it should not surprise us that there would be some that
would do the same thing as a way to be in touch with their roots,
but really have no connection with God whatsoever, probably
don't even believe in God, and would certainly not hold to
those 13 points that we just put up a few moments ago.
So those 13 points would really in many ways encompass the top
three. And then secular Jews, those who
want to connect with their ethnic roots but yet do not
believe in God, would fall under the secular Judaism category.
And I will say in my interactions with many people
here in Easton and the surrounding area over the years,
I have met several in each of these categories.
I have met several of them. And one of the things that I've
loved for us to be able to do in the past is to be able to have
one of our missionaries, Sam Wilson, come.
Some of you remember him and he was a missionary in Israel for a
short time, then had to come back to the States and now
ministers to Jews here in the United States, has been here
before a couple different times and taught us.
How to better relate to our Jewish neighbors and friends and
really showed us some really, really interesting things.
Not to start a Jewish ministry within your church, but to just
equip the people within the church to be able to reach Jews
for Christ. And so I think it's a very
important thing and it's important for us to be able to
brush up and understand more about these things for
ourselves. So here's the question that we
must ask ourselves today. It's why we're in Romans chapter
10. And I think we've already asked
it and answered it in some ways. But I want us to look at what
the Bible says about this. Are the Jews saved?
Now, here's the answer to that
question. I know I just asked the
question. I said we're gonna look at the
Bible. But the answer to that question
is this is that people are not saved by what ethnicity they
are. People are not saved by what
people group they belong to. People are saved one way and one
way only, the Bible way. And so we cannot say that the
Jews as a group are saved or unsaved, other than we recognize
that there will be a time that at the end of the Tribulation
period where they as a group will accept Jesus as their
Savior. But in the meantime, we look at
them and say this by and large the Jewish people have rejected
Jesus Christ. There is there's no denying for
us to be able to say this morning that by and large the
Jewish people have denied Jesus Christ.
Now listen carefully to what I'm about to say.
The Jewish people and I think of the nation of Israel in
particular loves to be able to have evangelical Christians to
come and to go into their nation and to be able to take tours and
do those types of things are very welcoming to evangelical
Christians doing so. Why?
Because of the Christian heritage that we have there that
we share in our roots with them. And so they.
Love to have us to be OK. I've never been to Israel.
I'd love to visit Israel someday.
Never have been the Bible. I've heard people say that it's
like going to Israel's, like seeing the Bible in color after
seeing it in black and white before, because you get to see
the very places that you read about in the Gospels and other
places. I can't imagine what that would
be like. I hope someday to be able to do
so. But I will say the Jewish
government is very welcoming for those tourism dollars to flow
into Israel to allow people like us to be able to come.
But there's also something they would like us to do as well.
Leave. And I'm not trying.
To be unkind about this, I'm not trying to be snide or smart
aleck about this whatsoever. What I'm saying is this is as
welcoming as they are to evangelical Christians to be
able to come and visit, they are also very closed as a country to
the gospel. Meaning this that if someone was
to come as a missionary and to try to start a church, very
quickly they would be asked to leave Israel.
And that's a story over and over again that it is a closed
country to the gospel, as closed as many of the common countries
we would think of as being closed to the gospel.
But we don't think of that because they are so welcoming to
us to be able to come and visit. They just don't want you to go
into proselytize and they do not want anyone to go and to start a
church. And I say that for no other
reason, just to say that that is what the fact of the matter is,
that by and large that they have rejected Jesus Christ.
That does not mean that all Jews have.
You may have heard of Messianic Jews.
These are those who are Jewish, of ethnic origin, and they have
come to understand that Jesus is their Messiah, not that he will
come, but that he has come and he will come again.
And they are out there. I have met them before.
They are some lovely people. Many of them will hold the
feasts during the year, not because they have to.
We're not required to hold the feasts anymore.
It's Old Testament, they pointed Jesus Christ, but they use them
as very vivid ways within their communities to be able to show
Jesus Christ through their own heritage.
And I think that's a wonderful thing for them to be able to do.
I encourage them to do that. We're not biblically told to do
that. We're cold told to take the
Lord's Supper. We don't have to take the
Passover. Remember, we just saw in First
Corinthians chapter #5 that Christ is our Passover, That we
understand that He was the sacrifice, the Lamb of God to
take away the sin of the world. But yet we understand there are
some Messianic Jews out there. So what does?
What do we see about this? Well, I will tell you who had a
great burden to reach the Jews for Christ, and that was Paul.
Paul had a great, great burden to see the Jews reached for
Christ. But why?
We think of him as the missionary to the Gentiles.
And he was. But I will say this, in every
city he went to, he always went to the Jews first.
In every city he went to, he always went to the synagogue and
was always trying to present Jesus Christ to those in the
synagogue. Sometimes people believe and
there were places where people would believe.
Ephesus is one of those places that comes to mind.
However, many times he was expelled from the synagogue,
sometimes was beaten by those who ran the synagogue, and
sometimes was run out of town before he even got to talk to
the Gentiles. But many times he would give the
gospel to the Jews. He would shake the dust off his
feet after they were rejected and then would go and give the
gospel to the Gentiles. This was what he did.
What was his heart? Well, chapter 10, verse one says
this, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but listen
not according to knowledge. When I think of Orthodox
Judaism, when I think of those, particularly of that group of
which Paul would have been very acquainted as a Pharisee
himself, when I think of that group, they have great zeal.
Often times they have greater zeal than we do as Christians,
that they are strict in their diet.
They are strict in their timing of their of, of their
scheduling, of their week. They are strict in what they
wear. They are strict in every single
way. They've got a zeal.
But here's what Paul says, but not according to knowledge.
They are zealous, but they know not what they are zealous for.
For their being ignorant, verse 3 of God's righteousness and
going to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Saying this because they don't truly understand who God is.
They have tried to make themselves righteous.
But what do we find in chapter 3, verse 20 of Romans?
There is none righteous. No, not one.
They are trying to, through their works, to be able to
purify themselves unto righteousness.
And this, this is folly. Verse 4 For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the
law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
If you were to save yourself by the law, then you must hold
yourself to the law your entire life.
You can be saved by the law. In theory, we could put it this
way. You could be saved by the law.
You'd have to keep it your whole life.
So here's the thing. You can't be saved by the law
because we know that we cannot keep it our entire life.
I always laugh when I talk to people.
Not laugh in their face, but I laugh when I talk to people and
I'm witnessing them and I ask them if they're a Sinner and
they have to think about it. It's like how far back you got
to go in that Rolodex of your mind to figure out.
Most people I talk to will say, Oh yeah, they know they're a
Sinner. I don't have to convince them
that they're a Sinner because we understand that if we've broken
one of the 10 commandments in our life that we're a Sinner.
You're done. That's it.
He said, well, do I get a do over?
Do I get a Gimme? Do I get a Mulligan?
No, that's it, you get nothing. And so we can't be saved by the
law. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ was the one who lived the life that we could not live, who
shed his precious blood so that we could be saved.
And so it says that the man which doeth those things shall
live by them. And we would not be something
that we could do. But yet there are many in those
groups that believe that this is what they must do to be able to
be saved. Now we're kind of go backwards
through the book of Romans. I know this kind of the
backwards way of doing it, but look at chapter #9 verse #1 it
says this. I say the truth in Christ.
I line up my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost. So Paul is saying, I kind of put
it this way. He says what I'm about to say.
You're not going to believe, but I'm telling you the truth and
I'm telling you that I'm telling you the truth through the Holy
Ghost and we understand that because he's speaking in
Scripture and scriptures are inspired by the Holy Ghost.
But to those he's writing to, he's saying this I'm going to
say something you're probably not going to believe, but but
I'm serious about this. Well, what could he possibly
say? Well, verse 2 that I have great
heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I wish that
myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman
according to the the flesh. He says that saying what I think
it's saying it absolutely is saying what you think he's
saying. Paul said this if I could cash
in my salvation. To be able to cover my brethren,
the people of Israel, I'd do it, he says, if that meant that I
had to go to hell so that everyone else would be saved.
He said I would do this. He said I don't believe it.
Well, he didn't think he'd believe it.
That's why he said verse one. That's why he had to make clear
what he says there. But you know, he's not the only
one who felt this way. I think of Moses in Exodus
chapter #32 you know, Exodus chapter 32 goes up in the
mountain, comes down the mountain.
Joshua says, hey, there's a noise of war.
And he goes, that's not war. He's that's the sound of people
playing. What kind of playing were they
doing? Well, it wasn't courtyard
playing. Let me tell you this.
There wasn't playground playing. It was people that were in
their, in their very state of undress, who were engaging in
paganism around a golden calf 40 days before.
They had heard the voice of God and now they have gone to this
debauchery. And so all of this takes place.
We understand what Moses does that he he he breaks the
tablets, he grinds them into powder, he puts it in the water
supply. He's like, this is going to be
bitter and you need to drink it. You need to understand how
bitter you have made your life by what you have done.
But then he goes back to the Lord and he actually becomes a
an advocate for the people of Israel to the Lord is as the
Lord says, says, you know, move out of the way.
They're gone. I'm starting over with you,
Moses. And basically Moses says the
same thing. He says I would be accursed.
He says for you to save them. And of course the Lord doesn't
do that, that the Lord's not interested in making deals with
humanity. Let's make that quite clear.
But the idea was the heart of Moses was this.
He says it, the service that I provide to these people is
greater than myself. He knew that what he was doing
was greater than self. Here's Paul.
He says this, and what I'm doing is greater than myself.
If the Jews could be saved and that meant I had to go to hell,
I'm willing for that to happen. And again, humanly speaking, I
don't understand it other than I know it's true because the Bible
says it's true. Verse four Who?
Are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption and the glory and
the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God
and the promises. He's saying this.
The Jews have a rich history. He's looking back at the rich
history that they have, the adoption meaning that they were
God's chosen people. By the way, that doesn't mean
Israel's better than everyone else.
Let's make that clear. It just means it's that God had
chosen them for a particular task.
I have four children. If I've chosen one of them to go
take out the trash, that doesn't mean that they're the best.
In fact, they might think they're the worst.
If I'm the one that chose to take out the trash, it just
means that they have a purpose of which I as a father have
chosen them to do. The people of Israel as God's
chosen people are not more beloved by God than you.
God had given them a specific task to bring through the very
oracles of God, the word of God that we have through the Jews.
And I remind you, even in the New Testament, what is the
church primarily made of the Jews, and that we as the
Gentiles are grafted in after that, as we are one church.
But yet we find here that we are blessed by the Jews as the
chosen people, but they are not the best people, these superior
people to anyone else. Listen, we are all, all people
created in the image of God, and we're all people.
Listen, who needs salvation? And so he says this, but you as
Jews, they have the adoption, they have the glory, the
covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God and the
promises. Verse 5, whose are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over
all God be blessed forever. So not only did the Jews have
all of verse 4 and even in verse 5 it mentions the Father's.
We think of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and others that are so
revered, but he says to them, listen, more important than any
of those things, Christ came in the flesh through the tribe of
Judah as a Jew. So that was the greatest of all.
These people have all of this, but yet they don't understand.
And Paul and his heart was. Burdened.
For them, because they did not get what was right in front of
their nose. Now go back to chapter #3.
All right, Romans chapter 3, you might say, well listen, Jews and
Gentiles are the same pastor. Then what does even matter if
you're a Jew or a Gentile? Well, Paul covers that as well.
Again, I know we're going backwards is not the normal
direction we would go, but as Paul is building a case, we're
kind of deconstructing the case, going backwards.
Look at what it says. What advantage then hath the Jew
or what profit is there of circumcision?
I just mentioned this a moment ago.
Much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed
the oracles of God. God chose Israel as the people
He would reveal His word to. Verse 3.
For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without a fact?
And so he even says this. Well, does the fact that many
Jews have rejected the faith meaning Jesus Christ, does that
mean it's not so? Does that mean it's not the
case? And the answer is, well, without
going into the rest of the chapter, the answer is, well,
they may have rejected, but that doesn't make Jesus less God.
That doesn't make him any less the Messiah.
And so they may not believe in him, but he is who He is whether
they believe in Him or not. And so you can see kind of over
and over chapter 10, Chapter 9 and chapter 3, what is Paul
saying over and over again? By and large they are lost.
By and large, they do not believe in Jesus Christ their
Savior. But any single one of them could
be saved by believing the gospel.
The gospel is just as true for them as it's true for us.
And we pray that they come to understand the knowledge of the
truth. Now, some of you may know the
conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, and he is a very famous
Orthodox Jew. And I have a very short video
that I'm going to show here in just a moment.
And in this video, I think it best articulates the differences
between Judaism and Christianity.
It's only about 4045 seconds. But I don't know that I could
have said it any better. You know, the videos that I
choose, I always try to choose people who are speaking from
their own mouth, not someone who agrees with me, who is saying
because if they agreed with me, then I'll just say it.
I don't need someone else to say it, but someone from a different
group saying something that highlights something we're
talking about biblically. I think this will be a help to
you to understand really the very basis of the difference
between biblical Christianity and Judaism.
So if you had that Brother Scott, let's go ahead.
When when you talk with people who are Christian and Jewish and
you have sort of interfaith conversations, the original 1
sentence can see the difference between them is that what you
hear from Jews is Judaism is Acts based and Christianity is
faith-based. Christianity is about the
acceptance of Christ. When you accept Christ, then
you've accepted what you need to accept and everything flows
therefrom. And Judaism says it's not just
about accepting God, it's all these myths vote, right?
There are all these commandments that you have to do.
And these are what perfect you as a human being.
It's the, it's the performance of these commandments accepting
God's sovereignty because he's the one who gave the
commandments. But you actually have to act in
the world. And if you don't act in the
world, then you haven't fulfilled your responsibility in
the world. I think that says it pretty well
right there, doesn't it? The differences.
I also appreciate there's someone on Earth who talks
faster than I do, so that's good.
But you know, that's really what it comes down to.
Is that that one? I have to agree.
With Him, we have to accept Christ our Savior, or you have
to believe in the Bible. But you got to do a bunch of
stuff, and then you have to. And again, good works are good.
We're not against good works here.
In fact, as believers we ought to be for good works.
But again, the difference is where do good works come from?
They flow from a heart that has already been saved and out of
love for Jesus Christ. That is where that comes from.
Not that we do that to be saved. But once again, what have we
found about Muslims? Works based What have we found
about Jehovah Witness? Works based?
What have we found about the Mormons?
Works. Based.
What are we finding about Judaism?
Work Based. That's why every other religion
in the world says do, but Jesus Christ says done.
That goes all the way back to the very first week that we were
here. The difference between God and
not God for religions that there's really two God and not
God, those are the only two religions in the world.
But every religion in the world says do.
Jesus Christ says done. Now again, that doesn't mean we
don't do after we're saved, but it means that we do it from a
whole different perspective than any other religion that has ever
existed that we do it from this. I know I'm saved and from that
heart that has been changed by Jesus Christ that now I'm going
to do right because of what he's done for me.
Let's turn to Romans Chapter 11 very quickly and we'll be done.
Romans Chapter 11 popping back forward here in the book of
Romans. Just read a few verses here and
then we will be done with this lesson this week.
Romans 11. What I say then, Hath God
castaway his people? Is he done with the Jews from
what we've read? Well, God forbid, for I also am
an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of
Benjamin. God had not castaway His people
which He foreknew. What he not what the Scripture
sayeth of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against
Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig
down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what excuse me, what sayeth the answer of God unto him?
I have reserved to myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present
time, all also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. Now hear that word election.
You might get concerned about Calvinism and those types of
things. But listen, God has not elected
certain people to salvation. That's what Calvinism teaches,
that God has chosen certain people to salvation.
He's also chosen certain people to damnation.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
That's not Bible teaching. The Bible is a book full of
choices that we must to choose to do right and not and choose
not to do wrong. But what it is saying is this is
God has chosen to still extend grace to the people of Israel.
He has chosen to still give grace despite the fact that they
have over and over and over again rejected them.
He still will give them grace. They'll drop down to verse #25
For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits.
That blindness in part is happening to happen to Israel
until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written.
There shall come out of Sion the defender, the deliverer rather,
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away
their sins. So what's going to happen?
There will be a time when they call upon Christ together.
When would that be? Well, that will be at the end of
the Tribulation, The time the Gentiles is over.
What's going to happen? They're going to see their
Messiah and understand how incredibly wrong they were.
And what are they going to do? They will accept Christ.
By the way, there are a lot of people, there will be a lot of
Jews even before that will though, accept Christ because
there's going to be 144,000 Jewish witnesses that will be
presenting the gospel during the Tribulation.
It won't just be at that last moment, it will be during the
Tribulation, but they as a nation will do.
So there will be a restored Jewish Kingdom during the
Millennium with Jesus Christ as the head.
And you see how all this kind of even goes together.
First Corinthians chapter 6, we were talking about the Saints
who were going to be able to make judgment.
If you can't judge in the church, then how are you going
to be able to judge later on and judge angels?
Well, that all goes together with this during that millennial
reign. Say, pastor, I don't know that I
understand all this. Well, here's what you do need to
understand because I know I'm giving these very quickly, but
here's what you need to understand.
God is not done with the Jewish people.
God is not done with the Jewish people, but the Jewish people
must get saved like the Gentile people, and that's through the
gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no other way.
And in the meantime, there are Jewish friends, they're Jewish
neighbors, There might even be family.
You might even have someone that I believe we're all Gentiles
here this morning, but you might have had someone even marry into
your family as as even I could attest here this morning that
needs Jesus Christ. Well, what do you need to do?
We'll talk about how we can best show him to these people here
over the next few weeks. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.