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Reprinting by permission from the magazine of the Soverign Grace Advent Testimony – ‘Watching & Waiting’  (October – December, 2026)

a sermon by David Baron

(This message was preached by Mr Baron on 25th March, 1926 (approximately 7 months before his home-call), at a Conference of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony held in Highgate Road Chapel, London).

‘For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My Covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins’ (Romans 11:25-27).

I want, by God’s help, to speak some very simple elementary truth this afternoon – such that even the youngest believer can understand and lay hold of.  I shall have occasion to refer to different parts of this chapter, but I want particularly to centre your thoughts in the first instance on these three verses.

Avoid Ignorance

The first point I would beg you to notice is that this subject of Israel is one concerning which Christians cannot afford, for their own good, to be ignorant about.  ‘I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery,’ says the apostle, ‘lest ye should be wise in your own conceits.’  Alas, the very danger which the apostle foresaw, and concerning which he warns us, Christendom has fallen into.  It has become wise in its own conceits.  It is proud, it is boastful, it claims to have taken the place of Israel, and proclaims that it is making wonderful progress, and that it is going to bring the world into the Kingdom of God: yet all the time it is itself corporately sinking deeper and deeper into apostasy.  Would to God that Christendom had given heed to the warnings contained in this chapter, and had taken to heart God’s dealings with His own nation.  It might then have been saved from falling into the great errors which characterise the professing Church of Christ.

Remember, says the apostle, in verses 21 and 22, that ‘if God spared not the natural branches, neither will He spare thee.  Behold, therefore, the goodness, and the severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.’  Alas, Christendom has not continued in the goodness of God – namely, God’s marvellous grace which is revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ and which is made sure only to those who continue in the faith.  The late Dr Adolph Saphir used to say that Christendom which boasts so much of having taken the place of Israel, instead of being able to exercise any influence for Christ and His Gospel on the Jewish people, has itself fallen into the two outstanding errors of modern Judaism.  The two great errors that characterise Rabbinic Judaism are these: first it exalts human tradition to the same level as the Word of God, and practically makes the Word of God of none effect by these traditions; and the second is an error of doctrine.  ‘Being ignorant of the righteousness of God’ – that is the justifying righteousness which God provides for sinful men, which must be received as a gift through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ – ‘they go about seeking to establish their own righteousness.’ (more…)

Reprinting by permission from the magazine of the Soverign Grace Advent Testimony – ‘Watching & Waiting’  (October – December, 2026)

David Baron was taken to be with Christ on 28th October, 1926, so that this month is the centenary of his home-call.  He was a man who was mighty in the Scriptures, and the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony has continually recommended his writings throughout its 108 years.  We wish that in these days, more Christians would study his works as we know they would greatly profit from doing so.

In its early days, the SGAT was always pleased to have David Baron speak at its meetings and in this issue of Watching and Waiting, there is a summary of a sermon that he preached shortly before his passing into glory.  The message was preached at a three day conference at Highgate Road Chapel, London and others taking part at that conference included William Baker, Thomas Houghton, George T Hunt, S Hutchinson, John Hunt Lynn, James Stephens, and William Wileman; so there was plenty of good and faithful preaching.

David Baron was born in Russia/Poland in 1855, and he lived to be 71.  His was a life spent for Christ and Israel.  His writings were Scriptural and helpful and although some of his books may now be out of print, second-hand copies are frequently available and are worth obtaining.

Dr A T Pierson wrote of him in 1891, ‘He is well named David, for he is a true prince of the Davidic house,’ referring, of course, to his spiritual understanding of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms.  His name, David, meaning ‘the Beloved,’ was appropriate too, seeing that he was loved by numerous believers, both Jewish and Gentile, in England, America, on the Continent and in the Colonies, wherever he or his books travelled.

As a Jewish lad be spent his early days in Suvalki in Russian Poland. His upbringing and training were under strict Rabbinical influence. 
The youngest of seven children, at four years of age, he went to the Jewish School (Cheder), and could, in six months, read Hebrew well.   This meant that when reading the Old Testament, he would use the Hebrew Text rather than the English translation.

He had, in his early life, many trials and some of these are recorded in the book, ‘David Baron and the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel.’  Mr Baron’s personal spiritual experiences have been told in his own words in the booklet, ‘Led of God from Darkness into Light.’

Following his conversion, he, like the apostle Paul, had a great concern for his fellow kinsmen and a strong desire to preach the Gospel to the Jewish people.  So, in 1893 he, with Mr C A Schonberger, under God, commenced the Mission known as ‘The Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel.’  As director in this work, he edited their quarterly magazine entitled, ‘The Scattered Nation’ but sadly, it is now extremely difficult to obtain volumes of the bound copies.  The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony is thankful that it possesses a set of these volumes as we do not know of any other person or movement that is thus blessed. (more…)