Paul’s assertion that Israel’s current spiritual blindness is temporary, and a future restoration assured, is not merely his opinion, but is firmly rooted in Old Testament prophecies. The sheer volume of scripture dedicated to Israel’s disobedience, dispersion, regathering, and restoration underscores its centrality to God’s redemptive plan.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 11 28-36 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Not only does the Apostle Paul state that Israel’s national spiritual blindness will be removed, but he tells us when it will happen, and the circumstances that will lead to it.

This topic is key to understanding scripture and the times we are living in.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 11:26-27 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

That’s the question Paul asks in Romans chapter 11.

His emphatic answer should put an end to the debate, yet sadly, antisemitism has been as rife in the Christian church through the centuries as it has in the world.

Here, Paul not only makes his case from scripture, but warns against those who would just dismiss Israel.

Yes, ‘national Israel’ have been blinded, but that blindness is only temporary. Once God had gathered in all the Gentiles who will accept His call and the free-gift of Salvation through Jesus, Israel’s blindness will be removed and ‘so all Israel will be saved’ – both the believing remnant who formed the early church, and the unbelieving Jews who were blinded for their rejection of their Messiah.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 11:1-25 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

To put it another way, the Word of God causes us to hear, to perceive, to understand. It gives us an understanding of who God is, of what He’s done, of His faithfulness to the saints of old. By so-doing it produces faith. The more we read and study God’s Word, the more our faith grows.

But what is faith? It is not a blind leap in the dark. Dr George Eldon Ladd said:

“Faith does not mean a leap in the dark, an irrational credulity, a believing against evidences and against reason. It means believing in the light of historical facts consistent with the evidences, on the basis of witnesses”    

In this study pastor Barry looks at a number of examples to show us we really can trust God’s Word. We can have a faith that is certain and unshakable.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 10:18-21 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In these verses Paul begins to lay out the fact that Israel had every opportunity to respond in obedience to the Word of God, but instead they ‘would not’, and so their ‘house was left unto them desolate’. (see Matt 23:37-39)

Paul drives home the simple fact, using Abraham and Moses as his witnesses, that righteousness does not come through our works – however well intentioned – but by God grace alone. The Law was given to reveal to us God’s perfect standard, and to show that we can never attain to that standard. But Christ came and fulfilled the Law, offering to exchange our sin for His righteousness, so that we can be declared ‘not guilty’ before a Holy God.

As has been said; He paid a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a price we couldn’t pay.

We conclude by considering just how important the Word of God is to our faith.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 10:1-17 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In Matthew 23:37-39 Jesus outlines Israel’s past, present & future.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings…

This tells us the purpose of all history: that God might gather His children together. (Jerusalem is a synecdoche for all of Israel).  The image of the mother bird gathering and covering her brood is a familiar one. Moses used it in his farewell sermon (Deut. 32:11). It is a picture of love, tender care, and a willingness to die to protect others. Jesus did die for the sins of the world, including the nation of Israel: but “His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

Israel’s past is the underlying theme of Romans chapter 9.

and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

As Chuck Missler says: The purpose of all history was that God might gather His children together. The tragedy of all history is that through disobedience and rejecting their Messiah, Israel ‘would not’, and consequently ‘her house has been left desolate’, with the Jews scattered around the world.

This sums up Israel’s present condition and is the underlying theme of Romans chapter 10.

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Jesus left the nation with a promise: He would one day return, the nation would see Him and say, “Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” This is a quotation from Psalm 118:26, that great messianic psalm that was quoted so many times in His last week of ministry. The crowds had used those very words (Matt. 21:9). This is a statement of the hope Israel has, and that Paul alludes to, that the Nation of Israel will be regathered and restored, albeit a remnant.

This future hope is the theme of Romans chapter 11.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The PowerPoint slides used in the study are available for free download.

The post Romans 10 – Introduction first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

How do we understand the fact that God can sovereignly chooses whom He will, and yet at the same time reconcile this with our own personal responsibility?

Paul tells us in this chapter that God has sovereignly chosen the Nation of Israel to be His instrument through whom He has revealed Himself to the world. In Deuteronomy we read: “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deut 7:5-9).

As hard as is it for us to grasp, God’s choice is His, free of any obligation. If Gid did not elect, none would be saved. Salvation is of the LORD and His sovereign choice of Israel as His instrument, to whom He made unconditional promises, is not negated through through their disobedience.

Paul gives the example of Esau and Jacob. Jacob was chosen and Esau was hated.  Some may argue: “God is unjust if He chooses one and leaves another”. But the purpose of God goes beyond justice; for if God did only what was just, He would have to condemn all of us! The question is not ‘why was Esau rejected?’, but “why was Jacob chosen?”!

Paul states in regard to God’s sovereignty: “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” 

However, on account of Israel’s disobedience, God (in His foreknowledge) has made a way for the ‘whomsoever’, both Jews and Gentiles to come to Him.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Romans 9 6-33 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We see how God has used the Nation of Israel to reveal Himself to the world, and intertwined in their ‘appointed times’ and Feast days we see evidence of God’s divine control of history. We also look at 10 belssings, alluded to by the Apostle Paul, unique to the Nation of Israel found in Roamns 9: vs 1-5.

Note: Additional slides detailing the four unconditional covenants God has made with Israel, along with a summary of the history of the Nation are also included for further study.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study given by pastor Barry on 12th January 2025.

If you want to support this ministry you can donate here: https://www.calvaryportsmouth.co.uk/product/make-a-donation/

The post Romans 9 1-5 Pt2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

It is a topic we cannot ignore! From Genesis 12 to Acts 2, the Nation of Israel is the major theme of the Bible; and we cannot escape the fact that Jesus was Jewish, as was all the early Christian church.

In chapters 9 to 11 of the book of Romans the apostle Paul asks the question, if God is so faithful and his promises sure, why have Israel as a nation been ‘cast off’? and what is to be the future for them? Have they really forfeited the blessings God promised them? Is it true that these blessings, (promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their biological descendants), now somehow fall on the church, as many in today’s church claim?

In this first part of our study on the opening five verses of Romans chapter 9, we look at some of the promises God made to Israel and consider the history of this nation, a nation unlike any other in the history of the world, and look at the staggering prophecies that foretold their future in advance.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study given by pastor Barry on 5th January 2025.

If you want to support this ministry you can donante here: https://www.calvaryportsmouth.co.uk/product/make-a-donation/

The post Romans 9 1-5 Pt1 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we look at the last of a series of eight visions that the prophet Zechariah had in one night. Each vision unveiled a little more of God’s plan to restore and rebuild the nation of Israel following the Babylonian captivity. The scope of these visions takes us from 518 B.C. when Zechariah had these visions, to the time ahead of us when Jesus will return to establish His kingdom on Earth.

In this eighth vision Zechariah sees two ‘mountains’ in juxtaposition, as if squaring up for battle. These may well represent the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of this world, for we see that in the midst of them come riding four horsemen and chariots that bear a striking resemblance to the four horsemen we see in Revelation chapter 6. These are angelic beings that are ushering in a time of judgment, after which Israel’s enemies will be silenced and our King & high priest  will be crowned.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The post Zechariah Ch6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.