Paul's Anguish for the Jews, No. 5
Romans 9:1-5
RO125-01

So, we read in 2 Corinthians 3, beginning at verse 12, "Seeing then that we have such a hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was passing away."

Moses, as you know, when he received the instruction from God in the form of the law on Mount Sinai came back with his skin permeated with the glory of God so that he was glowing like a lightbulb. And it was even frightening to people to look at his face and to see that glow of the glory of God. So, he put a veil over his face. He put a veil over his face to shield the glowing, but he also put a veil over his face because he noticed that something was happening - that the glory had brought such a glory to his face was beginning to diminish.

And it was symptomatic; it was a sign that what he received on Mount Sinai was temporary passing. It was a waystation. They had not arrived at the ultimate fulfillment; that was still down the line. So, Paul is pointing this out that Moses was trying to hide the disappointment of the fact that the glory glow was beginning to diminish from his face.

Verse 14, "But their minds were blinded: for until this day [that is, the Jews, until this day] remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away with in Christ." Paul says, "To this very day, there's a veil on the minds of the Jews. They don't understand that what Moses was trying to hide - the glory diminishing of the law system - has taken place and that there is no glory in anything that has to do with the Mosaic Law. It's a passé thing.

Verse 15, "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. [Their minds still think that's where it's at.] Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord [that is, when the nation of Israel shall turn to the Lord], the vail shall be taken away."

So today, there's a great veil upon the minds of the Jew. He looks upon Jesus Christ, and he dismisses Him as a fraud. This is what grieved the Apostle Paul. Paul said he'd be willing to give up his own salvation if thereby this veil of blindness upon the Jews could be removed, and they would accept Jesus Christ.

The rejection of Christ by the Jews is even more appalling, Paul points out, because of the fact that they possess certain distinct advantages because they were Israelites. And we have been looking at these advantages in detail so that you would have the full appreciation of what was in the mind of Paul when he used these words. He just used a word that has an enormous implication in what it covers and what it had behind that word in Paul's mind. And when you dig behind these words, that's when you really learn to appreciate the advantage that the Jew had and how unthinkable that they should have rejected Jesus Christ and not seen that He was indeed the One that had been promised to them.

Among these advantages was, first of all, divine adoption. The Jewish people were legally established as God's special heirs of all the nations on the face of the earth. Secondly was the advantage of the glory, the presence of God among them made evident by the visible glory of God. Third, the advantage of the covenants: the eternal blessings of God promised to the Jewish nation. And fourth, the advantage of the Mosaic Law: divine guidelines for their moral, their civil, and their religious life. They knew exactly how to do things so that they would prosper, so that they would have good health, so that they would enjoy happiness, so they would enjoy national security. Everything that a human being would want (the moral, civil, and religious regulations of the Mosaic code) laid out for them. And then, fifth, the advantage of divine service. The religious ministry of the temple and the priesthood with the sacrifices to approach God. And we went in detail on the significance of those sacrifices.

The Israelite's Advantage of the Promises of God

Now, to fully appreciate what it meant to be a Jew and what it meant to have the promises of God, you have to look at a few of those promises. That's when you get the impact of what the Jew knew, what he learned as a child when he went to Sabbath school and he was taught the doctrines of the Old Testament. And these promises of God to His people was a prominent part of the instruction that a child got. So that, when Paul said, "the promises," that meant a great deal to the Jewish mind. It means nothing to us until we go through the scripture and see a little bit. Exactly what did God tell the Jewish people that He would do for them? And then, when you understand these promises, then you step back and say, "They took a look at Jesus Christ, and they said, 'He's a fraud.'" And you shake your head indeed in disbelief.

Genesis 17:7, for example, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Here, the Jewish people were promised through Abraham that God would be their God forever.

Genesis 18:10, "And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him." Here was a promise from God that Sarah, who was up in her advanced years, well past the years of bearing children, was going to have a son who was going to be the channel through with all the promises of God were going to be fulfilled.

In Romans 9:9, we read, "For this is the word of promise, 'At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.'" The New Testament reference to this Old Testament promise. Did God keep His word? He has indeed. This elderly woman suddenly was restored to childbearing capacity.

One of the things Paul wanted to stress and you want to keep in mind as we look at these promises is that God keeps His word. And the Jews should have known that a God who makes promises that He keeps should have been able to make the connection with Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of these promises.

Genesis 22, beginning at verse 15, "And the angel of the Lord [that is, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ] called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, 'By myself have I sworn,' saith the Lord, 'for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemy; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."

Isn't that something? All the nations of the earth are going to be blessed because this one man believed God's promise and obeyed Him. And indeed, with the coming of the Savior, this has certainly been fulfilled. All the nations of the earth have been brought out of darkness because of the Gospel.

When Abraham was willing to offer Isaac in sacrifice just because God told Him to do it, God said, "I'm going to bless you like you wouldn't believe it. I'm going to give you an earthly progeny that will be so numerous, it will be like looking up into the sky and seeing all those stars and trying to count them. I'm going to give you an earthly progeny that is going to be so numerous that it's like going to the seashore and trying to count the grains of sand. You just can't do it."

In the people of Israel, there is the fulfillment of that earthly progeny. Exodus 12:13, "'And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.'" God said, "I'm going to kill every firstborn male in every home in Egypt, and I'll kill them in your homes too, even though you are Jews, unless you have killed the lamb. And that lamb will cause me to pass over your home, and I'll let your eldest son live."

Later, they had to give God an offering, a token of money, to redeem their elder sons in every home, because they thus belong to God. God did not kill them. The eldest son belonged to God, and they had to make a redemption symbolically through the money that they gave in a way of an offering.

But indeed, as all the Egyptians found out to their sorrow, there was wailing in Egypt that night as the oldest son in every family died. But in Goshen land, where the blood was on the doorpost and lentils, there was perfect security; God had kept His promise.

Numbers 21:8, "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.'" Because of the evil and rebellion of the people, God had sent in the serpents into the camp. People were dying left and right. These were poisonous creatures. And God said, "Make a serpent, put him up on a pole, and those who look upon him, they will live." The Jews who were in agony of snake bites who didn't believe this refused to look upon the pole, they died. But those who did found themselves immediately healed. God kept His promise.

Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him." Here is Moses, the great prophet of God. They've got enormous revelation from God through Moses. Moses is now on his last leg. He's about to die. He's writing this book as his final communication. The Jewish people are saying, "Now what? Who's going to talk to God for us when Moses is gone? How about a couple of centuries down the line? How are we going to talk with God now?"

And here, this is a promise. God said, "I'm going to raise up a prophet that's going to be just like Moses. And when He speaks, He'll have all the authority, and He'll have all the truth." And, of course, that prophet was Jesus Christ. And, the New Testament points out that God kept this promise through Christ, but the Jews did not make the connection even though they had the promise and even though Jesus Christ indeed was giving them the kind of confirmed information from God. Don't forget, it was confirmed information.

Miracles

The first miracle comes along with Moses. Why? Because Moses had to prove that by overriding natural laws, which only God could enable him to do, he really spoke for God. And once it was confirmed that he was indeed God's messenger, because remember that the magicians of Egypt tried to do the same thing, and some of the tricks they could by sleight-of-hand and deceiving the eye, they could perform. But finally, they got to the real stuff they could not do, and they threw up their hands and say, "We can't do this. We're faking it, but he's doing it for real." And when that was done, there were no more miracles.

When was the next time the miracles came along in the human race? When Israel was again down on its belly in apostasy and God had to come along and send Elijah and Elisha with tremendous messages from God to get them all straightened out. They Ahab and Jezebel era. And to be able to speak and for people to believe them required miracles.

And after they got through, there were no more miracles again until Jesus Christ came along. And He had miracles for the same reason: to confirm that He was from God. And His confirmation was the same as Moses had. And that's why the significance of saying, "I'm going to send you a prophet just like Moses, and when He stands up and speaks, He's going to speak with the same authority and confirmation as Moses did, because He will perform miracles."

The apostles confirmed the New Testament scriptures - that which is written in New Testament scriptures which they were first proclaiming. They confirmed it by miracles. And then, the New Testament Bible was revealed, the truth completed for this New Testament era - no more miracles. You see, the Charismatics have never made that connection, and it's an enormous mistake. They would know that God is not performing miracles now because there is no scripture, no message from God to be confirmed. He has spoken, and the message is complete.

But there are miracles coming in the future, and you know where that is. The book of the Revelation tells us that the false prophet, Antichrist, ecclesiastical ruler, he's the one that's going to come on with the next outburst of miracles, and he's going to be good. The Bible says so good that even those who are born again are almost going to be deceived into thinking that he is doing something by the power of God.

So, if you see a charismatic doing a true miracle today. Let's say a TRUE miracle. One of their favorite miracles, you know, is the leg lengthening. Some guy with one short leg and another long leg. That's a favorite. Of course, you can put your hip in a certain way that you have a short leg, and you've got a long one. And then they see that leg come out as you turn in a certain way. They love to do that. Supposing somebody did have a short leg, and they gave him a long one? Is that from God? Not likely. Is it from Satan? Very likely. And the devil is going to come up with greatest miracles of all in the future.

So, when the Jews were told, "We're going to send you a prophet like Moses," they also understood that it wasn't going to be somebody's who's going to stand up and say, "I'm the prophet that Moses said was coming." If he said that, they were going to say, "Prove it. Give us your credentials that Moses gave us the credentials with the miracles," which is exactly what the Lord Jesus did. The Lord Jesus never used miracles just because somebody was sick, just because somebody was dead, just because somebody needed something. His miracles were always to establish the truth of His message. It was to authenticate His claims to being sent from God as the Savior of the world.

In 2 Samuel 7:12-13, God speaking to David, "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers [when you die], I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thine own body, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build an house for My name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever." David was told, "When you die, I'm going to have a man that I will establish as king over Israel who will be your son." And that was Bathsheba and David's son, Solomon. And he said, "I will establish his kingdom forever because he is descended from you, David." And, of course, God has established the kingdom of David forever.

Now, there's a lot of people who don't believe that. They think that the church is the kingdom that's established. But of course, David would never have thought that. Solomon would never have thought that. And Mary would never have thought that when the imminent birth of the baby Jesus was announced to her and she was told that He was the one who has come now to fulfill this scripture to be on the throne of the kingdom of David forever.

So, God hasn't kept His promise in all of this, but because He has always kept His promises otherwise, we know that the Jewish kingdom is going to be reestablished. No matter what anybody tells you, they're wrong. Believe the promises of God.

Psalm 16:10, just moving quickly through the scriptures. Psalm 16:10, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Here is a statement concerning the future Messiah King. He has died. He has been sacrificed as the Lamb of God. And, as the scripture says, "You will not leave my soul in Sheol," the Greek word for that is "Hades." Jesus Christ has died. His soul has gone into Hades, the place where the saved and the unsaved went before the resurrection. And it says, "You won't leave my body in the grave to turn to worms." Did that happen? Precisely. The promise was kept, and the Jews knew this promise.

That's what made the leaders so panicky. They thought back to Psalm 16:10 when they found that Jesus Christ was not in the tomb. They just went berserk, because they knew that He had to get out of that tomb if Psalm 16:10 was to be fulfilled. If He did not rise again from the dead, His body was going to turn into worms, into corruption. And indeed, God kept His word. That gave them a real fit.

Take Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Hundreds and hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, here we are told that He would be born of the virgin and that He would have the name given to Him, among other names, "Immanuel," meaning, "God with us." And you know from the New Testament scripture, I'm not going now to the New Testament scriptures to show you the confirmation, but that's exactly what happened.

Let's take Jeremiah 23:5. "'Behold, the days come,' saith the Lord, 'that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.'" A King who is going to rule over the whole earth in righteousness and justice, a king who is descended from David - a branch of the house of David. Has that happened? Not yet. That is still future, but God says, "I promise to do it. I sent my Son to do it. They rejected Him. When He comes a second time, I won't ask them. The second time, I'll impose that kingdom."

Jeremiah 31:31-34, "'Behold, the days come,' saith the Lord, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: [The old covenant was the Mosaic covenant. Now, God says He will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, a new agreement.] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, though I was an husband unto them,' saith the Lord: [the Mosaic covenant] 'But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days,' saith the Lord, 'I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.'"

I've given them the law where it was written outwardly on parchment, and they couldn't keep it. Now, God says, 'I'm going to make a new deal, and I'm going to write this in your hearts. I'm going to cause you to be born again spiritually so that you will have the capacity to obey me, and then the Jews will obey all the commandments I ever gave them.

Verse 34, "'And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord:' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,' saith the Lord: 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.'" What a tremendous promise! God says, "They won't even be asking questions about the Lord. Everybody's going to know about Him. There will be no doubt whatsoever."

So, the promises of God here are absolutely fantastic. They just are promises that consistently and regularly had been fulfilled.

Daniel 2:34, "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broke into pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: that the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

This is the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw on the plain and which Daniel interpreted and said, "These four different metals represent the progression of world empires." The world is now ruled in Daniel's day by Babylon. It will be ruled by the Medial-Persian Empire next. It will be ruled by the Greek empire next and finally by the Roman Empire.

Verse 44, "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." And Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone out of the mountain that just broke itself loose. No hand cut it out, and it just hit this image, and it crumbled it. And then the stone filled the whole earth, representing the kingdom of the millennium of Jesus Christ.

Well, of course, part of this has been fulfilled. In fact, the liberals know this has been fulfilled so exactly that the book of Daniel gave them a lot of trouble. Because they know that if this is true, then the Bible is an inspired book. Because the book of Daniel clearly portrayed exactly how human empires progressed one to the other, even to saying how the Roman Empire would be divided into two segments, at the two legs of the image.

So, the liberals finally said, "There's only one thing we can do: we have to establish that the book of Daniel was written after the Roman Empire came in to be. And some guy wrote this book and then put the name "Daniel" on it and pretended that it was written back in Daniel's day. And unfortunately, all of the scholarship of the manuscript evidence undermines that argument. The book was clearly written in Daniel's day, and liberals cannot get around the fact that this was a prophetic picture that exactly was fulfilled. God had made a promise, and it has happened. But verse 44, no, that has not happened yet. We have not seen the empire of Jesus Christ yet take over. But, because God always keeps His promises, we will see that as well.

In Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit."

Joel is talking about what is going to happen at the end of the tribulation period. We found that when we look at the context and we see the description of the times and the conditions when this is going to take place. And Joel in these two verses is saying that the time is going to come when God is going to have a spiritual expression of ecstatics, the thing that the charismatics look for now.

You know, Peter said on the day of Pentecost, he says, "You know, this is sort of like what Joel is talking about." The charismatics say that Peter said, "This is what Joel was talking about." But that's not what Peter said. Peter said, "I know what's happening. This kind of ecstatic expression - our speaking in these foreign languages, the tongues of fire on our heads, this spiritual ecstasy that all of us feel (because we are on a high) - that's what Joel was talking about."

And after the tribulation is over and the millennium begins, this is how it's going to be for everybody. This is the kind of ecstasy in spiritual things everybody's going to enjoy. We're going to have that because there's not going to be any religion in the world like charismatic religion to contaminate that kind of ecstasy, and there won't be the devil around to use it to make fools of people. God will be in such control that people are going to have a real spiritual high like you wouldn't believe. That's what Joel was talking about. Is God going to do this? He hasn't done it yet, but He always keeps His promises, and it all is based upon what Jesus Christ came to do. The Jews knew that.

Amos 9:11, "'In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches of it; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old." He's talking about the house and kingdom of David which is now in ruins on this earth, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the nations, which are called by my name,' saith the Lord that doeth this." I'm going to raise up the Jewish nation. I'm going to raise up the Jewish monarchy, and that monarchy will rule over all the nations of the world.

Verse 13, "'Behold, the days come,' saith the Lord, 'that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them."

Here, when the kingdom of Israel is again restored to its authority on this earth, God said, "I'm going to prosper them agriculturally. Everything they do will be fruitful. They will enjoy rebuilding the waste cities." And this is taking place in Israel today. If you should have an opportunity to visit the city of Jerusalem today, I'll tell you one thing: you will see on the horizon everywhere you look is building cranes. Building cranes. The city that is being prepared for the return of the King to be the capital city of the world. It's in the process under our eyes this very day. And God says "When I get through, Israel's going to be back on top in full prosperity."

Verse 15 says, "'And I will plant them upon their land.'" "I will plant them upon their land." Now, what does that mean? That means that Americans will be planted upon the United States in the North American continent, that the French will be planted in continental Europe, that Britain will be planted in the islands of the British Empire. Bologna. You're right. But that's the a-mill[ennialist] is telling you. That's what he is saying, that you know that in this context God means one thing: I'm going to plant them, my Jewish people, upon their land, which is the land of Israel, the land of Palestine.

"'.And they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,' saith the Lord thy God." Once I get them back in there, they're going to have it. They're never going to be out of it again. Do they have it like that today? Not for a moment. The Jew is always looking over his shoulder for some Arab terrorist, for some Palestinian that's out to take their land back away from them.

In Micah 5:2, another promise, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." In the city of Bethlehem will be born the Messiah Savior King. He will be God. He will be one who has been from of old, from everlasting. And I'm going to tell you exactly the city where He's going to be born.

Did God keep His promise? Yes, He did. Did they know this about Jesus Christ? They surely did. Did they ever challenge His right of being in the line of King David and having the proper family lineage? Not for a moment. They all agreed that if the throne of Israel was to be reestablished in the day that Jesus lived, He was the King. He was the rightful heir to that throne. You see how absolutely deliberately blind the Jews of that day were and why Paul was astounded that with all these promises - so many fulfilled - they could have ignored the obvious facts about Jesus Christ.

Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey." Now, how can you read that scripture and see what Jesus Christ did on Palm Sunday which was exactly fulfilling the scripture and not have made the connection that here was the man who has proved by His credentials the capacity to perform miracles. All of the things that He's done, He has proven that He is indeed the promised Messiah, Savior, King of Israel. And now, we have the final fulfillment before our very eyes, and the people responded with enthusiasm. They looked, and they saw the connection. And they shouted, "Hosanna!" Lord save us. They knew exactly who He was. "Hosanna!" Lord save us. That's what it means. One week later, because they decided to believe their rabbis, they were shouting, "Crucify Him!"

Zechariah 12:10, one more. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

Now, that's a promise of God, too. Zechariah 12:10 says that the time is going to come when these Jews who have rejected Jesus Christ - have turned their back upon Him, have chosen to ignore Him - are going to turn back to Him. And they're going to sit down and cry and weep because of what they have done. And part of the weeping of that generation will undoubtedly be the fact that when they realize that indeed Jesus of Nazareth was the anointed one of God, how many millions of Jews are in the agony of the lake of fire with their rabbis and their teachers and their leaders ever since New Testament times, because they followed the lead of the majority, and they ignored the promises of God.

Now, do you see what Paul means when he says, "They had the promises"? Now, we've only skimmed over them. The Old Testament is full of these promises that God made to the nation which were fulfilled and promises that identified clearly Jesus Christ. They should have recognized Him. In spite of all these, they rejected Him.

So, we read in Galatians 3:16, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, 'to seeds,' as of many; but, 'as of one,' And to thy seed, which is Christ." The promise was made to be fulfilled in a seed, a specific man, and that was Jesus Christ.

Add to that Romans 15:8, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." And there you have it. Jesus Christ was made to confirm the promises. He was the seed, the one who was to confirm the promises. God is faithful. He has demonstrated that by keeping His promises in the past. This has been ignored by the Jews, and consequently, God has now cast them aside. Make no mistake about that. God has cast the Jew aside.

Hebrews 6:12 says that, "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Here, the writer of Hebrews, writing to Jews, saying, "Don't be slothful. Don't be sloppy that you should follow the mistake of our fathers and ignore the significance of all of our promises and the evident fulfillment of those in Jesus Christ." All of the promises which God has made to Abraham and to his posterity that have not been fulfilled are going to be fulfilled even as many have already been.

Galatians 3:21 says, "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." The promises are going to be fulfilled.

"Whose Are the Fathers"

So, the fathers referred to here are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, what was significant about that? Well, that was very significant because in the ancient world, there was no communication with God. There was no information about God. When the world finally came down to that point where there was a lot of civilization and a lot of culture in Babylon and in the city of Ur, and those cities of the plains, there were prosperous, progressive, technologically-advanced cities and cultures, but they were spiritually benighted. They were doing the worst kind of imaginable things religiously. They were the lowest level of paganism imaginable. And along came Abraham, raised up by God for the purpose of getting a new channel of enlightenment to the whole world. So, to say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are your family forefathers was to say that you had a contact with the living God. Because these men spoke directly with God.

Every now and then, in the charismatic circle, somebody gets up and says, "God came to me and spoke to me. I was lying in my bed one night, and all of the sudden, there was a glow at the foot of my bed. And I heard a voice saying, "This is my beloved Son; hear Him!"

This is the same routine that the Mormons play, you know. If you ever go to Salt Lake City and see that impressive Disney-like panorama of Joseph Smith there in the woods, and there stands these two white-robed men (God the Father and God the Son, because in Mormonism, God is a man, a human being, I should say), and the Father is saying, "Here, my son." And the lady guide, when she repeats those words, says, "There is the Father, and Joseph Smith heard the Father point to the Son and say, 'This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him.' Now, where did you hear that before," the lady asks. And all those people who have ever read the Bible before say, "Why, that's just exactly what happened at the baptism of Jesus, so it's the same thing. It must be true." And, these people are very impressed that here is a man who has heard a communication from God.

The Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon is infinitely superior to Jesus Christ. The current president of the church, prophet, seer, revelator, Ezra Taft Benson, says that the Book of Mormon is the book that Mormons should read daily and immerse themselves in it. It is the best book in the world, that it will lead them directly to God. Why? Because it was written by a man supposedly who talked directly with God, so this is real information. So, to say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were your progenitors is to say that you have been talking with men who were in direct communication with the living Creator, sovereign God. And therefore, he should be believed.

When a Charismatic stands up and says, "God has spoken to me from the foot of my bed," everybody in the place leans over and says, "No kidding! What did He say?" So, this is what was impressive, to say the Jews had the fathers. That meant they had a true source of information.

Luke 20:37 says, "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." When Moses was at the bush, God identified Himself how? As the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which meant that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive. God is not the God of dead people; He is the God of the living, and in this way, Moses immediately understood what God was saying, "I am the living Creator, sovereign God. I am the final authority, and I have with me the fathers of this nation. They are alive at this point."

All of you in this auditorium should realize that a thousand years from now, you will still be alive. Everybody that you meet should realize and should be told that a thousand years from now, they will still be alive. Their bodies will not be alive, but they will be alive, and they might want to consider what the significance of that might be to them, whether there is anything that they should take into account and consider as to what their condition will be a thousand years from now, when they discover that they are still alive in their souls and spirits.

So, these men were transmitters of enormous spiritual enlightenment to their descendants, the Jews. The ancient world had no other source of information. Whatever divine viewpoint Gentiles got, they got it through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Jews took a great deal of pride in the founders of their nation, but they did not connect their message as they should have with Jesus Christ. So, how terrible to have been born so well in such a family tree and then to reject the final Father, the final patriarch, Jesus Christ, of whom the Father spoke.

You remember that this is one of the categories, one of the characteristics of Jesus Christ, that He would be a fatherly person. And when Isaiah speaks about Him coming, it describes Him, you know: He is going to be a Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father. And this is the final patriarch that Isaiah was talking about. "Whose are the fathers," and yet, in spite of that, the Jews today have lost it all.

If we're going to be alive a thousand years from now, we're going to have to be somewhere. And it behooves us to consider whether that somewhere is going to be of joy and of great happiness or whether it is going to be the place of great torment and pain. That's the only two options there are. Men have invented other options because they want to escape the authority of the Word of God, but the Bible says, "It's heaven or hell." And a thousand years from now, everybody in this room is going to be either in heaven or in hell. There is no other option.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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