Hello, it's Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
A lot of people who still believe that the physical nation of Israel today are God's
chosen people, even in the New Testament, even though they don't believe in Jesus Christ,
they'll often point to Jeremiah chapter number 31.
And let me read it for you.
It says in Jeremiah 31 verse 35,
Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of
the moon, and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name.
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also
shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth
searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they
have done, saith the Lord.
Now in this scripture, he's promising not to cast off all the nation of Israel, and
that the nation of Israel will never cease from being a nation.
And people will point to this and say, see, that right there proves that the physical
nation of Israel are still God's chosen people.
He has not cast them off.
He promised to never cast them off.
But here's what they're failing to see in this passage.
In verse 37, it says, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
done, you know, if these ordinances fail.
So what he's saying there is not that he won't cast off any of the children of Israel.
He's saying he's not going to cast off all of them.
There will always be a remnant that remains as the people of God.
Let's go to Romans 11, and we can see this very clearly supported from the New Testament.
He's not promising in Jeremiah 31 that he's never going to cast off any of the Israelites.
Of course, he cast off many Israelites frequently throughout the Old Testament.
What he's saying is, I'm not going to cast off all of them, is what he said in verse
37, meaning that some of them will be saved.
Some of them will not be cast off.
Listen to Romans 11, verse 1.
I say then, hath God cast away his people?
Notice the same language as Jeremiah 31.
God forbid.
For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
The Apostle Paul is saying, I'm proof that God has not cast off all of his people, Israel,
because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm saved, and I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
Listen to this.
God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew.
Watch ye not what the scripture saith of Elias?
How he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy
prophets and digged 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 to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal.
And so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works?
Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then is it no more grace?
Otherwise work is no more work.
What then?
Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded.
So when God says in Jeremiah 31, 37, that he's not going to cast off all of his people,
what he's saying is that there's going to be a remnant that's saved.
Not all of them are going to be cast off.
A remnant will be saved.
Well, listen, that remnant, according to Romans 11, are those that are saved by grace, not
by works, not by following the deeds of the law that their Pharisee rabbis are telling
them to follow.
He says it's those that are elect because of the grace of God.
The remnant according to the election of grace, he said.
So when God says, I'm not going to cast away the nation of Israel, people today will take
that promise in Jeremiah 31 and say, see, that physical nation over in Israel are still
God's people.
They have not been cast off.
But wait a minute, that's a lie.
Those people have been cast off.
They have been broken off because of unbelief.
He's going to say later in this chapter, Romans 11.
Those natural branches have been broken off from Israel because of their unbelief.
God has cast away the unbelievers of Israel.
They've been cut down.
They are not God's chosen people.
But there is a believing remnant today of saved Israelites.
Those who are of Israel, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why God has not broken his promise that he made in Jeremiah 31.
It's not that the unbeliever Baal worshippers over in Israel today, in the modern state
of Israel, are God's people.
No.
It's the 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal that are the remnant, that are
the saved Israelites who worship the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the way, if you don't have the son, you don't have the father, the Bible says.
So the only Israelites who are truly worshipping the same God we are, God the Father, are the
ones who also acknowledge the son of God, Jesus Christ.
Because if you don't have the son, you don't have the father.
So again, Jeremiah chapter 31 is saying that God's not going to cast them all off because
there will be a saved remnant.
And according to Romans 11, that saved remnant are those that are saved by grace.
They're saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, not by their works.
God the Father, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,