Steve Conover: Welcome to The Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover, and with me is our host and teacher, Chris Katulka.

Chris Katulka: Hey, Steve. We have a great show lined up today. We're actually going to be continuing our series on Romans 11:28-29. I wanted to show believers who read through the scriptures, that from the New Testament, God still has a heart for Israel and the Jewish people. Last week, I gave you one reason from Romans chapter 11:28-29. Today, we're going to look at the other two reasons. I really think this is important, and I'm going to give you the reasons why as we get into the show.

Steve Conover: We look forward to it. But first in the news, Boris Romanchenko, a Holocaust survivor, has been killed in his home, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. This is according to a social media post from a memorial account for the Buchenwald concentration camp. The 96-year old Romanchenko survived the concentration camps Buchenwald, Dora, and Bergen-Belsen. He was killed by a shelling that hit his home.

Chris Katulka: Steve, I was reading about Boris Romanchenko, and I was actually reading that he spent a lot of his life talking about the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis. And it just breaks my heart that Romanchenko lost his life to the Russian invasion that's going on right now. Romanchenko actually spoke at a celebration anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, where he actually read a pledge written by Buchenwald survivors, which said this, "To build a new world of peace and freedom." That's the hope that the Buchenwald survivors had. Well, sadly, those survivors are reliving a war that they prayed that they would never see again. So as believers, let's lift up all of those Holocaust survivors suffering during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Chris Katulka: Last week, we started a short, two-week series on God's irrevocable call, which is three reasons why I, as a Christian, support Israel and the Jewish people from Romans 11:28-29. Now, I mentioned last week that from my freshman year of college, my professor, the late Dr. Herb Herr instructed us, he told us to, "Never read the New Testament back into the Old Testament. Instead, you've got to be sure to read God's progressive revelation from Genesis to Revelation."

And let me tell you, for the past 21 years, I have diligently followed Herb's instructions, and I don't plan to stop. But like I said last week, only for this series, am I going to abandon Herb's rule. And let me explain to you why; let me explain why I'm going to abandon Herb's rule for this one series that we're going through.

We're talking about why Christians should support Israel, biblically; why Christians should support the Jewish people biblically. And the Old Testament, listen, it's full of verses that I could use to defend my argument that Israel matters to God. But my goal isn't to use Old Testament passages. I want to show you from the New Testament, why Israel still matters to God; because the New Testament was penned for the church, which means God's Words in the New Testament apply to us today as Christians. And since it applies to the church, nobody can say, "Well, for Israel, that was back then. And then this is now." Actually, Romans 11:28-29 was written for today, so we can fully know God's feelings and concerns for His people and His land.

Also, it's important to note that when you're reading Roman's 11, Paul was alluding to God's view of Israel in this present age. Paul wasn't talking about Israel from the past, from the Old Testament. He was talking about the Israel of today. So the passage that we're going to be looking at again, highlights their current spiritual status of disobedience. Remember, Paul says that there was a partial hardening in Romans 11:25, a partial hardening that happened to Israel. But God is preserving, in His grace and His kindness, a remnant.

And this is the reason that we started in the New Testament. Some theologians have a tendency to switch gears with God's covenant relationship to Israel after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. I'm talking about theologians that I admire and have deep respect for, but these theologians have no qualms teaching about Israel's covenant relationship to God in the Old Testament, and the importance of Israel's role in the Old Testament. But when they arrive in the New Testament, all of a sudden, God's special relationship with Israel is turned upside down. Suddenly, it's sacrificed on the altar of their theological presuppositions.

But what I want to argue is that Paul never considered that God was through with Israel on a national level. Not only does Israel still matter to God today, but that they also have a bright, prophetic future. And Romans 9-11, three chapters dedicated to God's faithfulness to Israel, can be reduced down to these two verses at the end of Romans 11:28-29. Now listen to what Paul says here, "Concerning the gospel they, Israel, are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

So last week, I shared the first reason why Israel still matters to God. It's embedded in the way Paul talks about Israel in Romans 11:28-29. Paul says that, "Even though Israel remains an enemy of the gospel today, they are beloved by God for the sake of the fathers." The language that was used in the Old Testament to talk about Israel's election, that Israel wasn't elected because they were awesome. Israel wasn't elected because they were big or strong or mighty; but that by God's grace and the promise that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are Israel's fathers, God maintained His loyal, covenant love toward them because of an oath and a promise that He swore to them.

And even in Israel's sin in the Old Testament, God would invoke this message. God would say something like, "Israel, you don't deserve to go to the Promised Land. You don't deserve the land of Israel. You don't deserve the blessings that come with the promise that I made to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you benefit from them because of my love that I have for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers."

Well, that's the way Paul is talking to Israel in the church age. Now, if you missed last week's message and you want to catch up, just go to FOIradio.org, visit our archives page, and you'll find last week's message plus the last seven years. That's right, seven years of radio content, right at your fingertips.

Okay. So you're all caught up now. Let me share with you two more reasons why Christians should support Israel and the Jewish people from Romans 11:28-29. Here's reason number two. Paul writes that, "Israel's gifts are irrevocable." First of all, irrevocable, first of all, irrevocable means you are not able to change it. You can't reverse it. Israel's gifts can't be changed. They can't be reversed. You can't take something that was meant for Israel in the Old Testament, and simply change the meaning of it, or the essence of it. The gifts of God that were directed toward Israel and the Jewish people are irrevocable. They can't be changed.

If you're wondering what these gifts are, Paul talks about them earlier in Romans 9, when he defines the unique gifts that were given to Israel. The gifts were designed by God to set Israel apart from the world, to make them holy. And of course, there's no doubt that each of these gifts bear witness to their divine election, why God would choose them. Paul lists these privileges, these gifts, out in Romans 9:4-5. Listen to this, "Who are Israelites; to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh Christ came, who is overall the eternally blessed God."

Paul says earlier, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." You remember this? "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also for the Greek." That's Romans 1:16. That phrase, "to the Jew first," could be interpreted in a couple different ways. It could be actually, go to the Jewish person first and share the good news of the Lord Jesus with them.

But it could also mean for the Jew, especially. Why especially? Well, they're the ones to whom God gave the gifts. If anyone is best to understand the coming of the Messiah, the power of God to salvation, it's the Jewish person, especially. It's in the Old Testament. It's the Hebrew Bible. Israel maintained a unique place in God's purposes.

But what Paul is arguing is that uniqueness has not been lost in the church age. God still has a care and concern and a plan for Israel and the Jewish people in the future. They haven't been done away with this, Paul said in Romans 11. It's not been lost; because the gifts of God are irrevocable toward Israel. So Israel and the Jewish people remain a testimony to the faithfulness of God.

Over the centuries, they should have disappeared from the scene of human history, like most people groups from the biblical era. Yet, in their darkest hour, on the brink of defeat, God has always preserved them from vanishing, and even maintaining a unique identity throughout the ages. As Paul said, "Israel remains to this day, the bearer of God's gifts. And nobody can take that from them. To them were given the covenants." Do you hear this? "The promises, the law, the patriarchs, worship, and the Messiah, Jesus. These gifts are bound by a promise that cannot be broken. It cannot be undone. And it cannot be reversed."

Now listen, when we come back, I want to share with you the last reason, reason number three, why you should support Israel and the Jewish people specifically from the New Testament. But I kind of want to go back for a moment to talk about Boris Romanchenko, the Holocaust survivor that was killed in his home, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Right now, Jewish people are suffering in Ukraine. Ukraine has a history, especially with the Holocaust, of Jewish people who have suffered. A lot of Jewish people died during the Holocaust in Ukraine. Those Holocaust survivors that are still there remember what it was like during those days. And they're reliving those moments.

That's why right now we have field workers on the ground in Ukraine who are helping bring Jewish people, Jewish refugees, to safety; to help them even make Aliyah to Israel. If you want to be a part of this, if you want to help Jewish people during their time of suffering right now, as Russia has advanced into Ukraine, I want to encourage you to go to foi.org/easterneurope. There you'll be able to find ways to give, to help Jewish people find safety and refuge during this very difficult time. Again, you can go to foi.org/easterneurope.

Okay. So we're moving on to our third reason, our final reason why I think Paul is trying to argue that God is not through with Israel. We saw that the first thing was that God's care for Israel is wrapped up in not their obedience, but actually His love and concern for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the eternal promise that He made to the fathers. We saw that God's gifts to Israel are irrevocable. They can't be changed. They can't be undone.

Well, there's another one as well. Did you hear that when we read through Romans 11:28-29? It was that God's call, Israel's calling is irrevocable. The call of God is irrevocable. It can't be undone. Paul writes that Israel's calling is irrevocable as well. Some see Israel's calling an election as synonymous. But I see God's calling as the task that He gave Israel to fulfill as His chosen people.

He described that task in Genesis 12:3, when He made a promise to Abraham. Not only did God promise Abraham the land and descendants, which are the Jewish people; but he also gave them a divine purpose as a people as well. He said, "Through you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed." Israel was called to be the conduit of blessing to the world. God was using Abraham and his descendants to bring salvation to the world. That divine purpose would later be given again at Mount Sinai, when God called His people.

And the calling would become even more clear when He called them a "kingdom of priests" from Exodus 19:6. Listen to what God said to Moses. It says, "When Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, He said, 'Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I lifted you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. And now, if you will diligently listen to me and keep my Covenant, then you will be my special possession, and out of the nations. For all the earth is mine, and you will be for me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites."

Israel was to serve God; this is their original calling. Israel was to serve God as a priestly nation, interceding between the holy God and the nations of the world by both declaring salvation, but also by providing the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, through whom salvation would be affected.

Jesus reiterated this concept as He was sharing with the Samaritan woman. You remember this? He was talking about Israel's divine calling and how it all gets worked out when he proclaimed to the Samaritan woman, John 4:22, "Salvation is of the Jews." Christians of all backgrounds will have a really tough time trying to escape the reality that our faith is grounded in the calling and the promise is given to Israel. The salvation that is from the Jewish people, as Jesus said, cannot be proclaimed or lived apart from the Jewish people. It's ever present. Remember? Don't forget; the Bible is a Jewish book. Don't forget; our Messiah and Savior, our King, is a Jewish person himself.

As the church, we cannot explain away the fact that we are grafted into the olive tree, whose roots are the fathers. Do you remember? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul writes these gifts and calling of God, that they are irrevocable. Remember? The idea that it can't be reversed. And Paul is even using that word irrevocable, in the Greek. In a legal sense, that means God will never regret the promise that He made to Israel through Abraham.

This one word biblically cancels out any notion that God is through with Israel in the New Testament. Irrevocable shows us that there is no place in the church for any form of antisemitism, the hatred of Jewish people. If God had not abandoned His chosen people, even in their disobedience, then neither should the church.

Finally, Romans 11:28-29 secures for us in the church today, that God's promise to Israel and the Jewish people remains firmly intact. God's irrevocable promise provides for us a foundation to stand on in support of Israel and the Jewish people in both a physical sense and a spiritual sense.

Now, let me end with this. If you're questioning the depths of God's grace in your life. If you've ever thought that you can't be forgiven, or that your past somehow prevents you from receiving God's mercy and grace in Christ, Jesus, then please read Romans 11:28-29. If God cannot abandon the promises that He made to His people, Israel, despite their sinful history, then His grace is sufficient for you today.

Today is the acceptable day of salvation. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:2, he says, "In a favorable time, I listen to you. And in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." Just as God has called Israel to turn to Him, to repent and find forgiveness and grace and mercy, God is calling you and me, even today, to turn to him. Remember, as Paul writes earlier in Romans 2:4, "It's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance."

Steve Conover: Israel, on the verge of becoming a state, a teenage Holocaust survivor arrives on her shores alone. His name is Zvi Kalisher. Little did he know, his search for a new life in the Holy Land would lead him to the Messiah. Zvi, enthusiastic to share his faith, engaged others in spiritual conversations, many of which can be found in our magazine, Israel, My Glory. While Zvi is now in the presence of his savior, his collected writings from well over 50 years of ministry continue to encourage believers worldwide. Now, Apples of Gold, a dramatic reading from the life of Zvi.

Mike Kellogg: People here in Israel are extremely nervous. This is partly due to the economic situation. When I try to speak with them, many say, "There is no longer a God, because He sees and allows His chosen nation to fall down." One man asked, "What do you think, Zvi?" I replied, "What you say is not true. God has chosen us, and brought us to this Promised Land. We should live and not die."

“In October 1973, when the Arab armies attacked us, the Israeli population was very demoralized. Why did God spare us? And why are we living now? We are still alive and still a nation because God loves us. Is it not true that we love our children? Of course, we do. If we do not punish them for their misdeeds, they will continue to do as they wish. It is the same with our God. He loves us. Therefore, He punishes us when we need it until we ask for forgiveness. If people ask for forgiveness, change their ways, and turn to God, He will bless them. If you do so, you and all your friends will know the truth about our God. And when He makes a promise, He keeps it. He is not as we humans are.”

After that, this man asked, "What do you think I should do? Should I believe in God?" "Oh yes," I replied. "But you should ask God what to do instead of asking me." In surprise, he asked, "How can I ask God?" I told him he could go directly to God in prayer, because He is our Father, and will answer him. "How shall I pray?" He questioned. I then opened the Bible, and read the Lord's teaching about prayer in Matthew 6:9.

Then this man realized about whom I was speaking. "Jesus?" he asked, incredulously. "He was against our Torah. How can I believe in Him?" I then read from Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them." This was another surprise to him, and he declared, "Jesus is a great enemy of the Jews. That is what people say." I told him, "And you, my friend, believe it." He thought for a moment and then replied, "That is how I felt before, but not now." Then we read together John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"This is all new to me," he said. "It would be nice if you would give me some books, so that I may read about these things for myself and share them with my friends. I want to show them how they lied to me. I will visit you every week, and you can teach me from the Bible." Through this man, two other families came to me, and I gave them my testimony about the Lord. I was sure that after such a lengthy conversation about our Savior, they would not return. But the Lord opened their hearts, and now we meet every week. All of these dear people are now secret Christians. Perhaps one day soon, they will openly acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

Chris Katulka: The impact of Zvi's life and ministry in Israel, it didn't end when he went home to be with the Lord. In fact, Zvi's legacy lives on. Our Friends of Israel ministry representatives continue to share the gospel in Jerusalem, Israel, and really all throughout the world. We also serve Holocaust survivors and their families. We provide free food, medicine, and clothing. And we even promote the safety and security of the state of Israel and the Jewish people everywhere. So when you give to the Friends of Israel, your donation actually allows us to advance the gospel of our Messiah, Jesus. You can give online by visiting foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org. You can click right there on our donate link. Also, be sure to let us know where you listen when you contact us.

Steve Conover: Thank you so much for joining us for today's edition of the Friends of Israel Today. Chris, where are we headed next week?

Chris Katulka: Steve, we actually have someone who's going to be calling in from Israel. It's a very special guest, and someone that our audience, I am confident knows and loves. It's going to be a great program.

Steve Conover: We look forward to next week. Our host and teacher is Chris Katulka. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione. Our theme music was composed and performed by Jeremy Strong. Mike Kellogg read Apples of Gold. I'm Steve Conover, Executive Producer. Our mailing address is FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099.

And one last quick reminder, visit us at foiradio.org. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide evangelical ministry, proclaiming biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, while bringing physical and spiritual comfort to the Jewish people.