Did the Lord reject Israel's Promise?

Romans 11:1-10

God cancelled promise to Israel?

Romans 11:1-10, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ³ “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? ⁴ But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. [a]But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. ⁷ What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. ⁸ Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.” ⁹ And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them. 10 Let their

eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, And bow down their back always.” Bible makes it very clear that God can be trusted. God keeps His word. If He says something, that is exactly what He means and that is precisely what will come to pass.

Titus 1:2, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,

It is not within the character of God to speak an untruth or to speak something that does not come to pass.

Hebrews 10:23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Joshua 23:14, “Behold, this day I[c] am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.

What God said came to pass. God speaks the truth and God keeps His Word.

Scripture is authored by the Holy Spirit, so it is the Holy Spirit's testimony to the truth of God.

John 17:17, Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

John 17:3, And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. We have the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in person. We have the testimony of God to Himself when He is called "the God of truth"

Psalm 31:5, Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. Very important to establish at the very outset that God is a God who keeps His promise. It is essential for our study to remind ourselves that there are no changes.

There are no cancellation of God's promises. The principle is that God had made very comprehensive, and specific promises to a people of Israel. God promised them certain things. The Old Testament is filled with those promises.

Romans 9:4-5, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; ⁵ of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

They had received many promises from God. If God has cancelled, or changed His promises to Israel, we are all in a lot of trouble because we have a God who can't be trusted! God, who may as readily change His promises to us as He did to them.

This is the basic understanding we need to have before in this chapter. Israel's very existence as a nation is tied to the promises of God without question. They were elected by God as His chosen nation and by His own sovereignty, and unconditionally.

God promised to bless them. The blessing that came to them in the Abrahamic covenant was not even conditioned upon them. God determined to do it no

matter what they did. God would bring about the right circumstances to fulfil His promises. God chose a people, God made promises to a people, and God confirmed those promises by an oath. (Genesis 15th Chapter.) God made the promises in Genesis chapter 12,13, and 15 He confirmed it by an oath. He had animals cut in half the pieces laid on two sides and two birds killed and laid on each side. God, as a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, passed between those pieces, covenanting with Himself, swearing by Himself, making an oath to Himself that He would keep His promises.

We have divine covenants based on sovereign election confirmed by a divine oath.

Hebrews 6:13-18, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

God has made His covenants and confirmed them by an oath by which He swore to keep His covenants. God has made promises to Israel which He must keep. The only reason why still there are still Jews in the world. The covenants of God sworn in the oath of God have demanded the preservation of the people of God. For if Israel went out of existence there would be no way for God to fulfil His covenants.

God has caused endlessness in the Jewish stock. He has caused those people to outlive all other people with them in ancient times. They are God's present people and God's future people to whom He must fulfil His covenants and His promises. Therefore, He must maintain their existence.

✓ God has a plan for Israel. ✓ God’s character depends on it. ✓ God’s integrity depends on it. ✓ God’s trustworthiness depends on it. ✓ God’s faithfulness depends on it. God's promise to Israel is to redeem them, to give them a glorious kingdom, to give them peace from all their enemies and the fullness of blessing. Will come in the future, that is God's promise.

Bible also indicates that those who are outside nation of Israel will also be blessed. It is not that God will alone bless Israel, it is that God will bless Israel and through them the world. God already has done that because it was through Israel that God brought the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

God has not seen His nation Israel as if they were a bucket, but a channel for the blessing of the world. God is blessing the world through Israel in no way means that He is going to cease fulfilling His promise to them. The promise of salvation, the promise of a land, the promise of blessing, the promise of peace, the promise of salvation, and the promise of a kingdom with a King. That all must be fulfilled.

Abrahamic covenant in which God promises to bless the people that come out of the loins of Abraham. Davidic covenant in which God promises to give them a King from the seed of David who will be a greater King than any king who ever reigned, the Messiah.

Mosaic covenant, Deuteronomy chapter 30, which is the promise of God that they shall possess the land. A promise of blessing upon obedience.

There is a New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 in which God promises to them that He will plant His law within their hearts, in which He will redeem them. All these promises given by God must be fulfilled to the Jewish people. Through Israel multiplied millions of Gentiles have been blessed does not cancel the promise to Israel.

No doubt the Jews in Old Testament times and the Jews in New Testament times understood that the promises existed would be fulfilled literally. They understood that there would be a real kingdom and real blessing and real possession of the holy land. They understood them to be literal promises.

But, when the Messiah came, they rejected Him. They turned their back on Him as we have been learning in Matthew on Sunday morning especially, we have concluded the rejection of Him in Chapter 12. They did not want Him and ultimately cried, "We will not have this man to reign over us, crucify Him, crucify Him."

When given a choice between Him and a common criminal they cried "Barabbas, we will take the common criminal, kill Jesus." They rejected their Messiah.

Acts 3:14-15, But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. Some have concluded that because Israel rejected the Messiah,

God cancelled out all His promises to them. Many teach today that God then has obliterated all of His covenant promises to Israel and they are now spiritually being fulfilled in the church and we are the new Israel who receive all of the literal promises to Israel spiritually.

Is it true that because Israel has rejected the Messiah God has cancelled all His promises to them? V1, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Has God permanently set aside Israel because of their unbelief? Paul has been presenting justification by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been giving this tremendous message in the book of Romans about salvation by grace

through faith, justification through the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. If this is true, how is it that the Jews rejected it? How is it that the people who belong to God, who were the custodians of God's truth, how is it that they rejected this?

Romans Chapters 9 &10 discuss the matter of Jewish rejection. If the Jews have rejected Christ, then aren't all the promises cancelled to them? ➢ If they have denied Christ, ➢ If they have stumbled at that stumbling stone, Romans 9 at the end, ➢ If they have ignorantly pursued righteousness, Romans 10:3, ➢ If they have not believed though they have heard many preachers, If they are a disobedient and contrary people Romans 10:21, then hasn't God just wiped off all the promises?

This must be answered. Answered in chapter 11.

➢ Yes, Israel is in unbelief, chapter 9, but that fits into the plan of the sovereignty of God. ➢ Yes, Israel is in unbelief, chapter 10, but it's their own fault. We have that amazing combination of the sovereignty of God and the fault of man.

They have rejected Christ. They have been set aside from blessing. They have rejected the gospel. God knew that and God planned for that, that's all a part of His sovereign plan. Yet it was their own fault. But even so having rejected, even having sovereignly by God been planned, as it were, out of the place of blessing, does that mean God has permanently, totally and forever cancelled His promises to them?

As we study this chapter, we will have affirming sense of the trustworthiness of God who is a covenant-keeping God. Paul must defend the fact that God has not cancelled His promises to Israel, because how are you going to get any Gentile to accept the gospel from a God who cancels out His promises?

• No Jew would want to hear a gospel in which it was inherent that God had cancelled His former promises to them.
• No Gentile would want to sign up to belong to a God who couldn't be trusted.

Whole context of, does God keep His Word, and have the promises of Israel been cancelled, is essential to the further proclamation of the gospel. Romans 9-11 is the very heartbeat of this epistle because the doctrine of justification by faith must deal somehow with Israel.

Why have the people of God refused it?

Doesn't that mess up the plan? No, God had that in the plan.

Why are they set aside?

Because the gospel is untrue? No, because they were unbelieving and they sought righteousness the wrong way. Does God then cancel all His promises to them? The enemy would love to have the answer be "yes He does" because then he couldn't sell the gospel to anybody.

Nobody wants to trust a God who can't be trusted.

Paul deals with it in such a wonderful way, by the time you get to the end of the chapter it's time for praise and hallelujah. The chapter ends with a glorious praise, a glorious benediction.

Romans 11:33-36, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?” ³⁵ “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” ³⁶ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

It ends on a note of praise, a note of joy. Chapter 11 gives us Paul's answer to the question: Has God cancelled His promises to Israel? “No” is the answer. Chapter 11 can be divided three ways to understand better.

1. Partial V 1-10

2. Temporary V 11-25

3. Purposeful V 26-36

The theme of the chapter is very clear.

Israel will be restored, Israel will receive fully the promises. Their setting aside is only partial, not all of them. Only temporary, not permanent. Purposeful, it has a goal, it has an object, it has a reason. 1. Only partial.

Not all Jews are set aside. In any generation from the time of Christ until the coming of Christ in His Second Coming and at any point in time we will find some Jewish converts, who have embraced the Saviour. Precisely Paul's argument in verses 1 to 10.

Paul gives us three indications that the setting aside of Israel is only partial.

• a) The writer.
• b) The remnant.
• c) The revelation.

• a) The writer.

V 1, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. I say then Takes us back to verse 21.

Romans 10:21, But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.” Israel is a disobedient, a contrary people. They were a foolish nation. If they were a disobedient, contrary people, foolish nation, unbelieving, rejected Christ, rejected the Messiah, "I say then, does God, therefore, cast away His people? God forbid,"

The strongest negative in the Greek language, no, no, no, no way, utterly impossible, can't happen, ridiculous, no, no, no, no.

• Even though Israel followed Gentile patterns of evil,
• Even though Israel indulged in lusts and evil passions,
• Even though Israel desired not Christ but desired His death,

that does not nullify the promise of God, no, not at all.

Has God cast away His people? No, it cannot be so. It could never become that, not in any way. The very question itself sort of inherent in it implies that "no" answer. Because the question is implied in terms that are very much reminiscent of Old Testament passages which affirm that God never will cast away His people.

1 Samuel 12:22, For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Why would God be pleased to make you His people and then cancel out that which pleased Him? No, it can't happen.

The Lord will not forsake His people.

Psalm 94:14, For the Lord will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. "For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance."

God will not forsake His people.

Psalm 89:31-37, If they break My statutes And do not keep My commandments, ³² Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. ³³ Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. ³⁴ My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. ³⁵ Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: ³⁶ His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me; ³⁷ It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah

It is obvious from that that God's not going to change. God will not cast His people away. God will not forsake His people. The repeated affirmation of Old Testament teaching. We find it in so many places.

Psalm 106:13-45, They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, ¹⁴ But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. ¹⁵ And He gave them their request,

But sent leanness into their soul. ¹⁶ When they envied Moses in the camp, And Aaron the saint of the Lord, ¹⁷ The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, And covered the faction of Abiram. 18 A fire was kindled in their company; The flame burned up the wicked. 19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the moulded image. 20 Thus they changed their glory Into the image

of an ox that eats grass. ²¹ They forgot God their Saviour, Who had done great things in Egypt, ²² Wondrous works in the land of Ham, Awesome things by the Red Sea. ²³ Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them. ²⁴ Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word, ²⁵ But complained in their tents, And did not heed the voice of the Lord. ²⁶ Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them, To overthrow them in the wilderness, ²⁷ To overthrow their descendants among the nations, And to scatter them in the lands. ²⁸ They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor, And ate sacrifices made to the dead. ²⁹ Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And the plague broke out among them. ³⁰ Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, And the plague was stopped. ³¹ And that was accounted to him for righteousness To all generations forevermore. ³² They angered Him also at the waters of strife, So that it went ill with Moses on account of them; ³³ Because they rebelled against His Spirit, So that he spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples, Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, ³⁵ But they mingled with the Gentiles And learned their works; ³⁶ They served their idols, Which became a snare to them. ³⁷ They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons, ³⁸ And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they were defiled by their own works, And played the harlot by

their own deeds. ⁴⁰ Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, So that He abhorred His own inheritance. ⁴¹ And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, And those who hated them ruled over them. ⁴² Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand. ⁴³ Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity.

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, When He heard their cry; ⁴⁵ And for their sake He remembered His covenant, And relented according to the multitude of His mercies. When they cried, He heard.

Why? He remembered His covenant. Now that was the confidence of the Old Testament saint, that what God promised, He would do. "Has God cast away His people whom He foreknew?" So familiar to a Jew that he would have to say, "Well ridiculous, obviously not,"because those are the very terms used to affirm that that in fact is exactly what God says He would never do.

Nehemiah 9:26-30, “Nevertheless they were disobedient And rebelled against You, Cast Your law behind their backs And killed

Your prophets, who testified against them To turn them to Yourself; And they worked great provocations. ²⁷ Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, Who oppressed them; And in the time of their trouble, When they cried to You, You heard from heaven; And according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them From the hand of their enemies. ²⁸ “But after they had rest, They again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, So that they had dominion over them; Yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies, ²⁹ And testified against them, That You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, And did not heed Your commandments, But sinned against Your judgments, ‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’ And they shrugged their shoulders, Stiffened their necks, And would not hear. 30 Yet for many years You had patience with them, And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets. Yet they would not listen; Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

No matter how many times God rescued them, they did evil again.

Nehemiah 9:31, Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God, gracious and merciful.

How many times they did evil and when they come back God forgives them.

Why?

Nehemiah 9:32, “Now therefore, our God, The great, the mighty, and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and mercy: Do not let all the trouble seem small before You That has come upon us, Our kings and our princes, Our priests and our prophets, Our fathers and on all Your people, From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. Jeremiah ³⁰ it's exactly the same thing. Jeremiah ³¹ it's exactly the same thing. Isaiah ¹⁴ it's exactly the same thing. Will God cast away His people? No!

Will God chasten them? Yes! But not utterly cast them out. Paul begins that God has not at all cancelled His promises to Israel. The present dispensation is a time period in which there is a partial and a passing and a purposeful setting aside of the

nation Israel, not a total and permanent and judgmental, final setting aside. V 1, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. If God cast away His people, I wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't have entered into covenant blessing. I wouldn't have come to salvation. If God had condemned all Jews because of the nation's rejection of Jesus Christ, which by the way was not the whole nation, but the majority part and the leaders. There were many Jews in Israel who did believe, so it wasn't the full nation.

God accepted it as a whole national rejection, if indeed He did that, does that mean that every Jew who ever lives past that point is cut off from the covenant? Are all Jews becoming victims of a comprehensive, sweeping totality of judgment that encompasses every Jewish offspring?

No, it can't be.

Why? Because Paul is saved,

➢ Paul is transformed. ➢ Paul belongs to God. ➢ Paul is come to the Messiah. ➢ Paul is in the kingdom. ➢ Paul is an Israelite. Though contemporarily the nation rejects, not all do because I don't. I'm an Israelite. The unbelief of Israel, their rejection of Christ, their hatred of the gospel was never more demonstrated than by Paul.

If there ever was a hater of the gospel, it was Paul. Paul killed Christians. He was a blasphemer. He was injurious.

1 Timothy 1:13, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. He persecuted Christians. He was breathing out slaughter. Paul was so venomous and so hateful toward Christians, and he was Jewish. Paul is one Jew that ought never to be able to enter into the covenant. There's a Christ- rejecting, Christ-hating, Christian-

hating, Christian-killing Jew who should never be allowed into the covenant. "I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham and the tribe of Benjamin," Paul was the leading spokesman for the Christian faith. You could be a Christ- rejecting, Christ-hating, God-rejecting, Christ-denying Jew and still be saved. Which is to say God does not and has not set aside all Jews.

Paul is living proof that as the promises didn't include all Jews in salvation, chapter 9. Paul is the living proof for does the punishment exclude all Jews from salvation, chapter 11. Paul wouldn't teach his own damnation.

Paul wouldn't spend his entire life preaching a gospel that he was shut out from. Paul is the first living proof that the setting aside of Israel in judgment is only partial. "I am an Israelite." Paul belongs to the nation connected to the land.

He is an Israelite. He is not a proselyte. I am an Israelite, not by choice but by birth. I come from the seed of Abraham, by blood. He is a real Jew. He is a real son of the land inherited by birth.

2 Corinthians 11:22, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Paul was a true Jew. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin.

The two tribes that had the most dignity and the most honour and the most prestige because they never defected were the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The other ten tribes that went north defected and went apostate. Judah and Benjamin were very respected tribes.

To belong to the tribe of Benjamin was indeed a distinct honour. The most prominent person that had ever belonged to the tribe of Benjamin was Israel's first king, whose name was Saul.

Paul, he was named after this most famous of all Benjamites, Saul the first king of Israel. He was a man who was truly of the land, of the seed of Abraham, of one of the respected tribes, and even named after the most famous of all of the Benjamites, Saul the king.

Philippians 3:4-8, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. ⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. If there ought to be any Jew shut out, it ought to be him. If God says I am going to judge that whole nation and wipe them out of any covenant fulfilment, it certainly ought to come to a guy who is that Jewish and that committed to it and that anti- Christ and anti-Christian.

• b) The remnant.

V 2, God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, He has not. He makes an emphatic statement. He asked the question, answered it in verse 1.

Now makes an emphatic statement! God has not cast away His people. His people. It's in verse 1, It's in verse 2, The idea of possession. They are a people of His own. They are a people that He called, a people that He predetermined to love, a people that He chose and He has not changed His mind.

"His people"has reference to the nation of Israel. It is not referring to saved Jews as such, it is not referring to saved Gentiles. It's referring to the nation of Israel.

Romans 10:21, But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.” V 1, "I say then, has God cast away His people?"

The people in verse 1 must be the same people in Romans 10:21 and that people is the nation defined as Israel.

Has God cast away Israel? We are not talking just about regenerate Jews. We are not talking about regenerate Gentiles. We are talking about the nation of Israel, which is the theme of this passage. This is not talking about spiritual Israel, saved Jews and Gentiles who are the spiritual children of Abraham, or even saved Jews, it is talking about the nation.

It is in reference to national identity. God has not set that nation apart except partially. V 2, God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. "Foreknew"means a predetermination to love. It doesn't mean to know something before it happens, it means to determine it.

He has not cast away. He doesn't say Israel but "His people,"because that ties them in with Him. "Whom He foreknew He predetermined to love." The Old Testament, the Bible tells us that a man knew his wife and she had a child. It's the knowing of intimacy, Knowing of a close relationship and of love.

Amos 3:2, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

It doesn't mean the only people in the world God knew about were the Jews, no. Israel only have I predetermined to love with intimacy. Israel only have I joined with Me in a very intimate bond. Joseph and Mary when the people saw she was with child, and Joseph had not known her.

Or it says in the Bible that a person never knew a man. It doesn't mean she never knew a man existed or didn't know the name of one, it meant she never had a relationship with one, an intimacy of love.

The word "know"carries the love relationship. The word "fore"or "pre"means a predetermined love relationship. So, God has not pushed away or rejected His own called people, whom He predetermined to love. God’s foreknowledge is the foreknowledge of His own will. It is the same as a determination.

Acts 2:22-23, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— ²³ Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; Peter says you took Him with your wicked hands, you crucified Him, and slew Him. But He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Now foreknowledge in that context can only mean preordination, predetermination. “Determinate counsel” and “foreknowledge of God” are equal.

“Determinate counsel,” that is that God already determined what would happen, and “foreknowledge of God,” the same thing. We know that it means foreordination. That is what foreknowledge means, God predetermines to set His love.

Romans 8:29, For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

There are several groups of people and individuals within those that were preordained or foreordained for the love of God. Israel on whom God predetermined to set His love. The church, on whom God predetermined to set His love.

Christ, who is called God’s elect. Those three, Christ, the church and Israel, are spoken of in Scripture as the elect of God, predetermined before the foundation of the world to the task and the role within the framework of God's love to which they were ultimately called.

God chose Israel, it was a predetermined love relationship.

Deuteronomy 7:6-7, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for

Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; You are a holy people, the Lord has chosen you, and He did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than anybody else. It equates His choosing with His setting love on them.

So foreknowing is setting love on someone as an act of sovereign choice on the part of God. It's a great thought but that is exactly what God has done. If God has predetermined before the foundation of the world to set His love upon this people Israel, He is not going to change His mind.

God did not love them to damn them. God did not call them, elect them, choose them, and draw them to Himself for ultimate cancelling of His promises. Israel is the only nation which God ever foreknew.

What is the proof? The proof is the remnant.

In every period of the history of Israel there is always a remnant of saved Jews, always.

Conclusion

Does God keep His word? Absolutely. Does God is going to keep His word to Israel? Yes. God’s character is at stake, His integrity is at stake and He is the God who cannot lie so there's no way He cannot fulfil His word. He set His love upon those people, predetermined to set His love upon those people to bring them fulfilment in the covenants that He made.

God is a God who keeps covenants. God may have to chasten. God may have to rebuke. God may have to discipline. Ultimately, He is going to mercifully, graciously demonstrate the fulfilment of all His promises.

That is why there is a preservation of Jews to this day, until the time can come when God will fulfil the literal promises to the literal nation of Israel in their land with their kingdom and their king in the glory promised to them.

Has God cast away His people? No.