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it only as we are concerned about any general dis
pensational teaching; that it is so much for us as
we can gather and appropriate; that it is a distinct
section of the Word of God in which God speaks
distinctly of His relation to a distinct people. God
therefore elected this people as a people, as a na
tion, to perform a certain part after the fall of
man, looking to the redemption of the race. God
elected this people as the people through whom and
by whom to bless the world. This election is en
tirely Jewish and not Gentile. It does not relate
to Gentile relationship to God at all, and we study
it only that we may see this part of the great
scheme and plan and purpose of God that lies
back of all the teaching to the accomplishment of
His glory.
Now, let us take the fifth section of the ninth
chapter —the reason for Israel’s rejection, for Is
rael is rejected, and has been rejected. Let us see
the reasons for it.
111. ISRAEL’S REJECTION, v. 27-33.
1. The fact stated, v. 27-29.
2. The reason given, v. 30-33.
We have just seen that Israel is God’s chosen
people, elected by Him to this distinct work that
He is to accomplish through them. Now, we come
to take their rejection, v. 27-29. Israel has dis
appointed God, and by reason of their disappoint
ment of God, God has sent them aside, and has
called them, as W'e see in v. 25-26, “a people not
His people, a beloved not His beloved.”
God then called the Gentile people, my people
and your people, that through them He might ac
complish the thing that He originally started out
to accomplish through His own cLosen people, so
you see that the Gentiles were chosen also, so that
we, as a people, as a race, are now the elect of
God in the place of the Jew, who rejected Him.
God had to set the Jew aside and reach out for
another people that He might make this other peo
ple His elect people, and begin the present dis
pensation. We are the elect of God, and the Jew
is set aside. Why is the Jew set aside? “That
the Gentile, who followed not after righteousness
attained unto righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith; but Israel, following after a law
of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Where
fore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as
is were, by works. They stumbled at the stone
of stumbling; even as it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stone of stun. blip ; and a rock of offence;
and he that believeth or. Him shall not be put to
shame.
Israel left out of its program of life and service
the one important link of faith; though the Jew
was the elect of God, so far as a people was con
cerned, he was to maintain his place of election,
through and by the exercise of faith. Even Abra
ham, the father of the faithful, lived by faith, and
so the Jew, the elect of God, had to maintain his
election by the exercise of faith, and live by faith,
but there came a time in his history when he failed
to do that. He left out, as I said, entirely from
his program of life and service the link of faith,
and the result of this was that he, as a people, was
dropped from the plan of God.
Then the Gentile took it up exactly where the
Jew laid it down. The Gentile took up the link of
faith which coupled him on to God, and was made
part of the great plan and scheme of God for the
redemption of the world.
Jesus Christ in the meantime, had come, the long
looked-for Messiah, and when He came He became
“the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense.”
The Jews refused to accept Him. They threw down
all they knew about the teaching of the prophets.
They were not mistaken about it, because it is too
clear. They are not mistaken about it today, un
less they just will shut their eyes. It is their self
conceit that will not allow them to embrace it.
They laid down their faith; faith in the teach
ings; faith in God the teacher, and Christ the
sent one. The Gentiles appropriated by faith the
Christ, and by their appropriation of Christ by
faith they became for this dispensation the elect of
God. That is election. It is not an individual thing
we are talking about, for Paul clearly teaches us
that there are those that are not of the elect. He
clearly teaches us that even after the rejection of
the Jews there are some of them that are yet saved,
The Golden Age for October 24, 1907.
but they are saved as individuals. The race of
Jews is set aside just as they were once elected, and
in the setting of the race aside, he is only dealing
with the racial side of the question. Each indi
vidual stands out, each for himself, to appropriate
the teachings of the Word of God.
IV. ISRAEL’S HOPE.
1. We have Paul’s prayer for it.
2. The condition stated, v. 9-13.
3. Paul’s prayer for the salvation of Israel.
That is a very good hope in itself. “Mv heart’s
desire and my supplication to God is for them, that
they may be saved.” I should think there was a
great deal of hope for my salvation if I knew that
the apostle was praying for it, and so there was a
hope for Israel because Paul prayed for it.
In verse nine he states the condition, and the
only conditions, for Israel’s salvation. “Because, if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord,
and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
He is here talking to the Jews, tn those people
who had rejected Jesus; who had fallen over the
stone of stumbling, and had had God’s back turned
on them. Though they had done all this, yet there
was hope for them, but that hope was in their ac
cepting Jesus as Lord —the same Jesus whom they
had rejected and stumbled over.
Confess Him, how? With the mouth. They denied
Him with the mouth. Now they have got to con
fess Him with the mouth. Confess Him as Lord,
and what does that mean? It means Master, Sov
ereign Ruler, absolute Monarch. It means that hey
accept His government, the command of His voice,
the teaching that He gives; that He is to be Lord
and Master of their lives. That is what it means.
There is no hope for the Jew unless he does that.
They may talk about the Father; they may name
their children Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the
Jew must confess Jesus as Lord. Not only as
Christ, not only as Messiah, but as Lord, as Mas
ter. That is the only hope for Israel.
But not only that- They have got to go a step
further. They have got to believe in their hearts
that God raised Him from the dead.
1. Confess Him as Lord.
2. Believe in their hearts that God hath raised
Him from the dead.
That last is the one thing that they are not wil
ling to do as a people. There are individuals that
are saved, but as a people, they are going with
their eyes shut, stumbling and falling, pretending to
be looking for the Messiah, groping in the dark,
waiting for that spectacular Messiah that they claim
is to come, until, after awhile, there will be a shout
in the heavens, and the trumpet of God will sound,
the graves will burst open and the righteous dead
will rise and the living be changed, then the period
of great tribulation, then, after all this is over, Jesus
Christ, in all of His glory as King Emmanuel will
come from heaven, and then the Jews will sav, “Ah.
Messiah has come now!” and they will fall down
and worship Him. They will then be accepted as a
nation, and then it shall be that “A nation shall
be bom in a day.” The nation of Jews, as a peo
ple, shall be bom again. Up to that time they will
be saved as individuals. Then we will see that
this saved nation, this nation that has been set
aside, will be the great exponents of the salvation
of the cross throughout the world.
Now then, take the last thing—the closing part of
this tenth chapter is the argument for missions.
There are five words:
1. Send.
2. Preach.
3. Hear.
4. Believe.
5. Save.
I know there are some people who say that we
have no business sending missionaries to the Jews.
I know that they are good people as citizens. I
believe in them, associate with them. I am kind to
them, but when it comes to recognizing them as a
saved people I can not do it. Need we hope that
the nation will be converted? Do not be mistaken
about that, for the nation will not be converted
in this dispensation. No more will the nation be
converted in this dispensation than will the world in
this dispensation be converted. Any man who starts
out sending missionaries with the thought that if we
flood the world with missionaries we will convert
the world does not know his Bible. This world will
never be converted until Jesus comes. This world
is getting further and further from conversion.
We are not converting the world. We are not ex
pected to convert the world. We are expected to
bear testimony for God in all nations and among
all people. When the Son of God returns to this
earth, clothed with the authority of all heaven, then,
and not until then, will this world bow its knee to
Christ.
We are to send missionaries to the Jews with the
hope of bearing testimony to them so that they will
be without excuse, and we hope that we will gather
out from among them a people for His name when
He comes.
* I?
Campaigning in Alabama.
“Come to Lowndes county and open our cam
paign against liquor.”
Thus wrote Claude J. Leckie, a fine young man
of Fort Deposit, Ala.
Glad to fight the liquor traffic anywhere. I was
especially glad to go to Fort Deposit, for I had
spent a delightful week in a meeting there a year
ago.
It was a beautiful September Sunday morning
when I spoke first to a splendid union congregation
at the Methodist church, talking to them, not about
liquor, or no liquor, but about “the Bread of life.”
And then, that afternoon at the school auditorium,
I made the first speech of the campaign. Fort
Deposit did not have saloons, but a “nice (?) re
spectable (?) ” dispensary, whose liquor makes peo
ple drunk just the same as barroom liquor does.
Wi*h arms around that darling dispensarv, hug
ging it to their bosom, as a necessity for meeting
the expense of the town government, electric lights,
schools, etc., some good but mistaken citizens were
working for the continuation of the dispensary in
Fort Deposit, and alas, the saloons in other parts
of the country. I tried to help them see the truth
of Gladstone’s wisdom: “Give me a sober citizenry,
not spending their earnings for drink, and I will
take care of the revenue”—for any company of
people worthv to organize themselves into a munic
ipality should be able to administer the affairs of
the town without the revenue that arises from the
debaucherv of some of their friends and neigh
bors: and anvhodv whom God has blessed with
children should be willing to educate those children
without the help that comes from staggering white
folks and drunken negroes *
Evervbody was in a good humor, and we had a
good time.
A Picnic Crowd for Letnhntchie.
A few miles awav is a nrettv liftle burg with the
nuaint Indian name of Lotnhatehie. Here I was
booked to snoak Sbmdav niriit. Charmino'' ns some
of the nennle were, two snlonnq hliriitod the fair
face of Letohatehie. T did not know what mv re
ception world bo at the hands of a communitv that
allowed snch a state nf affairs.
But Tietnhatchie’s welcome was all ri<*hf. Thn
crowd was fine, and neerlv evervbndv voted “drv.
Gom<r home that niriit the innocent merriment
of vonth. the trraee nf manlv <*ollan+rv. and the mu
sic of girlish lano-htnr. proved a pleasant tnnie fnr
tired nerves, while the triad assurances that hearts
had been reaehed that dav and snmn lives turned,
norhaps, to the right made balm for an anxious
heart.
After talking to the bright school hors and rirls
at Fort Deposit. Mondav mornincr. T did a thine? T
seldom do. I drove ten miles nut in tn the enuntrv.
the ohieetive nnint bring Sandv Pid<m. whioh rives
a practical illustration nf rr Village Farmim*”-
for several dozen families live nn Sandv Rid<m.
while their well-kent farms roll down on either
side. And there was life nn Sandv Rido-e. Horn
Professor Garrett, a “Diccinles” preacher, bright,
nlnckv and onnsoernfnd. had enme twn nr three veers
before, lifting a “blank fljw” in his hand and sav
ing: “As T live there shall be no liquor sold at
this place.”
And gathering about him a faithful “bndv
guard” the battle was fonght and won.
*
Be sure to read the advertisement of the Mutual
Investment Company, on page sixteen of this issue.
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