~ Who are the Jews? ~

Romans 2:28, 29- For he is NOT a JEW which is one OUTWARDLY; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the FLESH:

But he IS a JEW, which is one INWARDLY; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Read chapter 3- it tells how we are not justified by the law (OT) but by grace through Jesus. So to ever go back to the OT at any point would be to go back to the law, away from grace. The ‘nation' of Israel is strictly OT and God will never go back to it.

Lam.5: tells about the putting away of the nation of Israel. At the end, v20-22-we see them asking him to take them back again; but look what is the answer: Wherefore dost thou forget us FOREVER, and forsake us so long time?

21-Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

V22-BUT thou hast UTTERLY rejected us; thou are very wroth against us. [They are asking God to turn back to them as a nation and back to law. But see that God refused this request FOREVER.

Lam. 1:8-Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth and turneth backward.

The whole book of Lamentations is about the doing away with of the OT and all that pertains to it. God said I will do a new thing. He NEVER goes back to an old thing he despised and did away with. The NT Church is her enemy it is talking about.

Cp 2:5,6-The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

V6-And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

Here is the cutting off of their king and their priest. This is forever.

V9-The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. Here the law and the prophets are cut off forever.

This whole book is about doing away with the OT.

V17-He set up the horn of thine adversaries. [This is the Church].

Cp.4: 16-The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will NO MORE regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests.

Romans 9:6-8:Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, For they ARE NOT all Israel, which are of Israel:

V7-Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

V8-That is, they, which are the CHILDREN OF THE FLESH, these are NOT the children of God: But the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

V24-Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he saith also in Osee, I will call them MY PEOPLE which were NOT my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. [ See here that he included BOTH Jews and Gentiles as His people.]

V26-And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

Rom.10: 12-For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

Cp11:1-Hath God cast away his people? God forbid, For I also am an Israelite.

God hath NOT CAST AWAY his people which he foreknew. He foreknew those of faith.

V5-Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

This is showing that those whom God elected are the ones who come in by grace and not by the works of the law.

V10-Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back ALWAYS.

V26-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: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

V32-For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Here we see that God says all Israel shall be saved. This surely does not mean all (natural) Jews will be saved. It is saying all saved people are God’s Israel, the inward Jew, which is the true Jew.

When he concluded us all in unbelief, he put us all into the same category. So, for anyone to teach that God is going to turn back again to that natural Israel and law serving group of people, is to totally deny this truth right here. You are saying that the blood-washed Christians of faith will no longer be God’s chosen people. You are saying that God will put them aside and turn back to the law, which is not of faith, and discard the people of faith.

You are denying that God joined us together as ONE. You are trying to divide us again and make two separate groups of people again. To do this would be doing away with the people of faith. It would be saying that those who are not of faith are chosen of God. But God clearly shows that those of law are not of faith and that he was always displeased with them. He did away with them, for they were never truly His chosen people. Only those in faith, grace, were ever God’s chosen people. Even in OT times, only those who were in grace and had faith, such as Moses, were God’s chosen people. There were very few of them. Those who worshipped idols and were of the works of the law were NEVER God’s chosen people. They were never the true Jews.

Gal.2: 8-For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. So, God was working here with both peoples. He had not cast away the Jews.

V16-for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Gal 3:9-So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

V22-But the scripture hath concluded ALL under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

V26-For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

V27-For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

V28-There is neither JEW NOR GREEK, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus.

V29-And IF YE BE CHRIST’S THEN ARE YE ABRAHAM’S SEED, and heirs according to the promise.

Now, don’t you see that he is saying all Christians are Israelites? All Christians are Abraham’s Seed?

Gal. 4:22-31-Here Paul shows that the two sons of Abraham represent the two covenants, law and grace, the NT and the OT. [To save space you read this.]

V25-This Agar is mount Sinai (the Law) which gendereth to bondage and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

In other words, the Jerusalem over in the East, the natural people, are the bond child.

V26-But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (The church) So, to dote on the natural Jerusalem is to put that bond child (law) above the free (the New Jerusalem).

V28-Now we, brethren, (church) as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

So he said the church is the free children of promise.

V30-What saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

He is speaking to his brethren the church, not the natural Israelites.

Gal.5: 2-Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

V4-Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Eph. 2:12-22:But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made BOTH ONE, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself OF TWAIN ONE NEW MAN, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile BOTH unto God in ONE BODY by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

V18-For through him WE BOTH have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

V19-Now therefore YE ARE NO MORE STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the HOUSEHOLD OF GOD;

V20-And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

In whom ALL the building fitly framed TOGETHER groweth unto AN HOLY TEMPLE IN THE Lord;

WHOM YE ALSO ARE BUILDED together FOR AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT.

This proves that both the Jews and the Gentiles became one new man = the Church. See the above: that new man is the Holy Temple, the habitation of God. On the day of Pentecost, at the birth of the Church, the first ones in were all Jews. The next 3000 were all Jews. The next 5000 were all Jews. See. God did not cut them off. That is the fulfilled promise to regather them. He closed off the OT. But, then he grafted them back into the good Olive Tree, which is Jesus. He is the root of that tree. Then he brought in the first Gentiles with Cornelius’s household and grafted them into the good Olive Tree; thus making them both one.

People, they will forever be one. God will never go back and separate them again. Why would he? That would be to do away with the finished work of Jesus, to make us both one, thus making peace.

Read in Hebrews. It is too much to put on this message. Maybe I will do more on this later. But, we are told that all the OT things: law, priesthood, prophets, Sabbaths, everything to do with it, was only types and shadows of the good heavenly things to come, meaning the Church. So, why would he go back to the types and shadows when he has the thing he wanted all the time, the Mount Zion, the true Church of God, blood bought, blood washed, Holy Ghost filled Church? I tell you, it is just not true. God always does a NEW thing. He never said he would go back and do an old thing. God is not like that. He was finished with the nation of Israel forever. Why put them aside, bring in a Church, then put the Church aside, and go back to the nation of Israel? No! God will never do that thing. We are all together, a Holy Temple of God.

The Christians, The Church, are the Zion which God loved more than all the dwellings of Jacob. This is the Holy Jerusalem. He will not go back to the bond child. Put your love and loyalty to the true people of God, the Christians.

God cleansed them by the blood of Jesus. There is no other way. The natural Jews have to come in through Jesus just as we do. They will never get in any other way. There is no other way. They must come in and be part of the Church if they want to get to God. The Word is very clear on this. After they come in by faith in Jesus, they become part of the Church, the Spiritual Jews or Israel. They are not separated now and they never will be separated again. Jesus did a finished work when he took of the twain [Jews and Gentiles] and made one new man, the Church. God is never going to undo this finished work and start over again with that group of rebellious natural Jews. God sees the people of the world as all one and the same. God only used those twelve tribes of Israel to show the things which are and will be. God said he was never pleased with that group of people, for they were never of faith. Without faith is it impossible to please God.

There is not one verse of Scripture teaching that God has ever refused to save a Jew if they repented and were willing to believe in Jesus and come in the NT method of salvation. As I showed, all of the first Christians were Jews. When Paul said he turned to the Gentiles, this only showed that Paul was doing his God-called job of being the Apostle to the Gentiles. It was NOT God saying that he turned away from the Jews to Gentiles. People have misrepresented Paul’s words here and made up a false doctrine. God has always said that WHOSOEVER will may come and be saved. This included any and all Jews and every race of people on this earth. God’s grace is open to all who will come in purely by FAITH, not counting on the works of the law for salvation. Everyone who obeys this salvation taught in Acts 2:38 are the true Israel of God or the true Jews. It is totally spiritual and not natural. It makes no difference what one is in the flesh. God does not go by our human flesh. He goes by our faith.

11Cor.3: tells us that the OT, brought in by Moses, was death. V11-For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

He is speaking of doing away with the OT forever.

Hebrews is full of this. In cp.7&8, he tells that the old priesthood and the old laws were all changed to bring in the heavenly and better covenant. To go back to the Nation of Israel would be to leave all this and go back to the done away with Levitical priesthood, the law, everything, and thus totally void the work of Jesus. God bless you all that read this. May it bless you and show you this great truth: WE ARE THE ISRAEL OF GOD!

By: Jo Smith