The Jews And The End Times: Romans Series #17

Almost 100 percent of the Bible prophecies are related to Israel, the land and the people. Israel is the focal point in today’s world. Israel is in the headlines of every newspaper, not only in America but around the world. The eyes of the world are focused on the little nation of Israel. Israel is the land and the people of destiny. As the Jewish race goes, so goes the world. Israel is God’s yardstick, God’s outline, God’s blueprint, God’s program, and God’s prophecy, for all of the other nations of the world.

The apostle Paul has been writing in Romans 11 about God’s plan and how it includes the Gentiles. No doubt some of the Jews were asking, “What about the promises that God has made to us?” Thus, Paul asks a rhetorical question in Romans 11:1 with, “I say, then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” He was saying, God has not finished with the Jewish people. I have not broken My promises, not altered My covenants, and have not forgotten My Word.

Israel, in many ways, the nation and the people, are the center and the focus of the entire world. Israel is the regional center of the world. In Ezekiel 5:5, God says about Israel, “I have put you in the midst of the nations.” Israel is a land bridge between three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. It’s a great military and economic crossroads.

It is the revelation center of the world. The Bible was written in this land by those people by and large. It’s here where Moses, the prophets, and many of the apostles gave us the Word of God.

It is the redemptive center of the world because Jesus is of the tribe of Judah. Jesus is a Jew and He was born in the land of Israel. He lived in the land of Israel, taught in the land of Israel, was crucified in the land of Israel, was buried in the land of Israel, rose in the land of Israel, ascended from the land of Israel, and coming back to the Mount of Olives next to Jerusalem.

Israel is the reliable center of the world. If you want to know what God is doing in the world, if you want to understand Bible prophecy, you’ll never understand it apart from understanding what God is doing in Israel.

Israel will be the restful center of the world. This is the reason the Bible tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. There will never be peace in this world until there’s peace in Jerusalem; and there won’t be peace in Jerusalem without Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Israel is the radiant center of the world. In the future, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as waters cover the sea, the law shall go forth from Zion and God is going to rule and to reign on this earth from Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the most respectable city upon the face of the earth. In Zechariah 12:3, we read, “In the last days Jerusalem will be a burdensome stone for all the nations of the world.” There is more pressure being put on Israel right now, to sacrifice her sovereignty and to make it an international city, rather than the capital of God’s ancient people and God’s ancient lands.

Paul comes to this question in the book of Romans: “Has God cast away his people? God forbid.” With that question in mind, Paul gives many answers to prove God has not cast away His people and shows us where we are in time on the earth.

I. We Have The Factual Power of God (Romans 11:1, 2, 13)

We read, “I say, then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” Now notice the illustration he gives. “For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Paul says, I am a Jew, I am exhibit number one. Why did Paul use himself as an example? Because there were other Jews around. He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and he said God made him a pattern. He said of himself in another place he was one born out of due time—that is, he was not in the due time, but he was out ahead of his time.

Think about how Paul was saved. He certainly was not a pattern for my salvation, and he probably was not a pattern for your salvation. Paul was on the road to Damascus, persecuting Christians, and suddenly he saw a light above the brightness of the noonday sun. He was knocked off his horse and became blind. Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him. It was at this moment that Paul was saved!

Afterwards, Paul became a missionary to the Gentiles. In Romans 11:13, we read, “For I speak unto you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office.” God used him to evangelize the pagans of this world. The apostle Paul’s salvation is a picture of what God is going to do in Israel. There is coming a day when God will supernaturally appear to Israel. They will see Jesus as Paul saw Jesus, and a nation will be born in a day.

In Zechariah 12:8, we read, “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The day he is talking about is the day when all the nations of the world are going to come against Jerusalem. This event will be the beginning of Armageddon. The antichrist and his forces will be slaughtered in the Valley of Megiddo. It will appear dark for the people of God. Yet, as the noose tightens around Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem, God says in that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

“And he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David.” In that day the weak Israelite is going to be like David, and the house of David shall be as God and the angel of the Lord before them. “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:8–10).

Did you read that portion of Scripture carefully? We are not reading from the New Testament. How did Jesus die? He died on a cross. They pierced His hands and His feet. God says, “In that day they are going to see me whom they have pierced.” He’s making the point that they’re going to see Him.

Who is speaking? Jehovah is speaking. Who is He speaking to? His people. Jehovah is a spirit. How can you pierce a spirit? The only way a spirit can be pierced is to take on flesh. In other words, He has to become incarnate and has to die upon a cross. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son.”

Just as the apostle Paul saw the Lord Jesus, the resurrected, glorified Jesus, the Jews in that day are going to see Him. Just as Paul became a witness to the nations of the world, these Jews are going to become a witness to the nations of the world.

In the book of Revelation, John the apostle had a foreglimpse into glory and saw 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. They are sealed with the seal of God on their foreheads. In Revelation 7:9, 14, John shares the outcomes of the 144,000, with, “And I saw a great multitude of all kindreds, tribes, peoples, nations, a multitude that no man could number, and these are the ones that have come out of the great tribulation, washed their robes white and made them whiter than the blood of the Lamb.”

The people who are saved had never heard the Gospel when they are witnessed to by 144,000 Jews. Can you imagine what it would be like to have 144,000 Pauls? The apostle Paul is saying, “God is not finished. I am an example!”

II. We Have The Forceful Preservation of God

In Romans 11:2–5, we read, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know ye not what the scripture said of Elijah? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they killed thy prophets, dug down thine altars, and I am left alone and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

What does remnant mean? Paul is teaching that there are those who have not bowed their knee to the world system and they are set apart and will not be destroyed. Elijah had a contest with 450 prophets of Baal. Afterwards, Elijah said, “Lord, I’m the only one, there’s nobody left, and now they’re trying to kill me!” God responded by saying, “Elijah, you’re not the only one left, and when you die, Israel will not die. I have 7,000 who have never bowed to Baal.” God always has a remnant; God always has a faithful people. Throughout the centuries, there has always been a remnant of believing Jews and there always will be, because God is the One who preserves Israel.

In Romans 9:27, we read, “Isaiah also cried concerning Israel, Thou the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.”

The Jews were not the chosen people because of their faithfulness and they’re not going to be rejected because of their unfaithfulness. God is talking nationally and He is talking personally. He’s saying there will always be a nation of Israel. The Jewish nation and the Jewish faith are indestructible.

In Psalm 89:27–29, God is talking about His irrevocable covenant and promise to David. We read, “Also I will make him,” he’s talking now about David, “my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” This is a prophecy for David’s greater son, the Lord Jesus, when every knee shall bow. “My mercy will I keep with him for evermore. My covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed,” that is his descendants, “also will I make to endure forever. And his throne, as the days of heaven.”

God is talking about David’s descendants, his seed, and he says this—if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments,” and by the way they did, forsake God’s law, “and if they break My statutes,” and they have broken His statutes, “and keep not My commandments,” and they have not kept them, God says, “then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.”

God said He would chastise them and He has done it. Yet, notice, “Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness and I will not lie to David, his seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven.” Then he says, “Selah,” where means, “just think about it” (Psalm 89:33-–37).

God is saying, “I have made a promise to David. If his descendants break My laws, if they won’t keep My statutes, then they’re going to be punished, but I am going to keep My word.” God has always had a remnant, and this nation is God-elected, God-decreed, and God-preserved.

God prophesied they would be disobedient, disbursed, discredited, but they would not be destroyed. The pharaoh of Egypt could not diminish them, the Red Sea could not drown them, Jonah’s whale could not digest them, the fiery furnace could not devour them, the gallows of Haman could not destroy them, the nations of the world cannot divide them, and the dictators of this world cannot disseminate God’s ancient people, the Jews. They have known all kinds of persecution, and they are still prospering on planet Earth.

The Jewish race makes up less than .02 percent of the world population. Yet, the Jewish people have captured Total Nobel Prizes: Between 1901 and 2025, at least 220 individuals, or roughly 22% of all recipients, were Jewish or had at least one Jewish parent. Over 40% of the Nobel Prizes in Economics and about 25% in Medicine and Physics have been awarded to Jewish individuals. Jewish people have won roughly 25% of all Fields Medals, which are considered the top honor in mathematics. From 2000 onward, around 24% of all Nobel Prizes and 26% of those in science were won by Jews.

You may not realize how God has touched your life through the Jewish nation. If you’ve ever taken a Bayer aspirin, this was developed by a Jew. If you have been vaccinated against polio, Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk were Jews. If you’ve gone to the dentist and he deadened your gums, Alfred Einhorn, who developed Novocain, was a Jew. If you’ve ever had an infection and used streptomycin, Selman Waksman was a Jew. If you’ve ever had psychoanalysis, Freud was a Jew. If you’ve given to the Salvation Army or have been ministered to by the Salvation Army, the mother of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was a Jew. If you studied philosophy in college, Spinoza and other philosophers were Jews.

All history really revolves around six Jews: Moses, Paul, Marx, Freud, Albert Einstein, and Jesus. I am not saying that Marx was good, but rather he was a Jew. God has preserved these people.

III. We Have The Forthright Plan of God (Romans 11:11, 12, 15)

In Romans 11:11, we read, “I say, then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather through their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

God let the Gentiles get saved so that we could live godly lives and cause Jews to want what we have through Jesus Christ. In Romans 11:12 we read, “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?”

What is Paul saying? He is saying, in God’s plan is a Jewish Messiah. The Jews rejected Him, but that gave Paul the platform to go to the Gentiles, and he became the apostle to the Gentiles. Today, we are studying from a Jew who wrote to us the book of Romans.

In essence, remember that Israel was not to be just simply a reservoir into which God poured His blessings, but it was His pipeline through which God would disperse His blessings. God said to Abraham, “Through you all the nations of the world shall be blessed.” What God is saying is this: “If I have prophesied that the Gentiles would be saved and they have been saved, how much more then, will I keep My word to Israel and bring them back to me?”

Notice in Romans11:12, there is a “fullness” coming for Israel. Paul stated, “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?”

In Romans 11:15 he speaks of Israel receiving: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be?”

Please follow Paul’s logic carefully. Paul is saying that God is doing all of this according to a magnificent plan. They were diminished and they fell away. But He’s saying they will come back full. God is saying, “If I kept My word to the Gentiles, I’m going to keep My word to the Jews. If I could take unsaved pagan Gentiles and bring them to Israel’s Messiah, how much more can I take Israel and bring Israel to her own Messiah?”

IV. We Have The Faithful Promise of God (Romans 11:16–18)

In Romans 11:16, we read, “For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.”

What Paul is writing about here is the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. According to Old Testament law, when a woman baked bread, she had to take a pinch of the dough and offer it up to God. The whole lump was holy because that pinch of dough had been offered to God. All of the bread belonged to God, Who gives us our daily bread.

Then Paul says, “If the root be holy, so are the branches.” That is, the tree is going to be like the roots of the tree. God made promises to Abraham, God made an unbreakable covenant with him. So if that little lump of dough, Abraham, was holy, all the loaf belongs to God. If Abraham, the root, is His, the tree is His. God is saying, “I am going to keep My covenant promise to Abraham.” God has not broken His promise, and God cannot break His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

Abraham is the tree, and we who are Gentiles have simply been grafted in. In Romans 11:17–18, we read. “And if some of the branches be broken off,” that’s unbelieving Jews, “and thou being a wild olive tree,” that is you and me, “were grafted in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, remember, thou bearest not the root but the tree.” We have entered into Israel’s blessings because we have been grafted in. We are the wild olive tree. God is stressing, “If I can take unbelieving pagans and make believers out of them, how much more can I bring Jews to their true Messiah?”

V. We Have The Full Purpose of God (Romans 11:25, 27, 30, 36)

What is the full purpose of God? We read in Romans 11:25–28: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened 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 Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

Paul is not talking here about spiritual Israel, but about natural Israel. God never called spiritual Israel Jacob. He is talking about literal fleshly Jews.

How is God going to culminate His purpose? First, God is going to doing to do this according to His clock. Look carefully at verse 25, “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part, not all, the blindness is not total and it is not final, blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”

God does things in His time, whether we like it or not. God has a purpose. God is visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. Then, God is going to return and build again the tabernacle of David. He does it “until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.” What is the fullness of the Gentiles? The Church.

One of these days the Church is going to be complete. When will the Church be complete? When will the last soul be saved? I don’t know when the last soul will be saved, but when the last soul is saved, that will be the fullness of the Gentiles. There is a number known to God alone. No one knows when the last soul is going to be saved, but the Bible tells us God is going to do it in His time, and blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.

Second, God’s purpose is done through His Christ. In Romans 11:26, we read, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

Who is the Deliverer? His name is Jesus. In the darkest hour for Israel, they are going to look upon Him whom they have pierced. In Zechariah 12:9–10 we read, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.”

In Zechariah 13:1 we read, “In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” What is that fountain? There’s a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Third, God’s purpose will be fulfilled according to his covenant. In Romans 11:27–29, we read, “This is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, their enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

What does that mean? God keeps His Word. God is not a liar. If God says He’s going to do it, He’s going to do it. God will fulfill His purpose in His time, through His Son, according to His Word.

Fourth, God’s purpose will be fulfilled by His compassion. We read in Romans 11:30–32, “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” God says all are unbelievers and He wants mercy upon them all. God does this through His mighty grace.

Fifth, God fulfills His cumulative purpose for His crown. Romans 11:33–36, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor or who hath first given to him and it should be recompense unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

Paul exclaims, “What a mighty God we serve!” God is not finished with the Jew. God is not finished with the Jews! God is not finished with the Gentiles! God is not finished with you! Get ready! Jesus is coming soon! We are now living in the most exciting time in the history of the chosen people of God. All of the prophecies of the God of Israel are being fulfilled since the creation of the state of Israel. Over the past 70-plus years, God has again dramatically appeared in the life of His beloved nation and land. All His prophetic promises are becoming a reality. This is the Church’s greatest moment!