Alright, Galatians chapter 3. Now we've all heard the news
about the war over in the Middle East. And that's the title of
my message. War in the Middle East. War in
the Middle East. Right now there's many things
that the citizens of this country are divided over already and
this will just be something else to cause a great deal more division. Our young people are going to
be pressured in school to take a side in this thing because
that's just the way the world operates. So I wanted to preach
a message that addresses what's going on in the Middle East.
I want you to know what's going on there. And what does scripture
say? What does God say? Some are divided
over the cause of this war. You already have heard this if
you've watched the news. Some think it's merely over land.
Whenever God destroyed the Israel of the Bible in 70 AD, 70 years
after Christ, he destroyed the nation Israel. And from that
time until 1948, May of 1948, Palestinians lived in that land. And Zionists and other political
figures got together and decided to reorganize a political nation
called Israel. And they did that. When they
did, they displaced the Palestinians that lived in Israel, and they
ended up with that little strip called Gaza and the West Bank. And some are divided now, saying
this whole thing's just over that land. It's just over the
land. Others think it's concerning
atrocities. There have been atrocities on
both sides of this thing. before this war ever started.
You think I said it would be to live in Gaza as a Palestinian. It's half the size of New York
City, got over two million people in it, and it's totally surrounded
by Israel, and surrounded by Egypt on the south and then the
Mediterranean Sea. If you're born in Gaza, there's
no way in and no way out. That's just where you are. And
so some say it's over that atrocity and now that the atrocities at
Hamas committed, they're saying Israel's justified to bomb them
into oblivion. Others think this is about religion
between Muslim and Jews. And you can be certain, people
may deny that, but you can be certain at the heart of this
is the division between Muslims and Jews. Where did Muslims and
Jews start? I just read the scripture that
Brother Greg read. Abraham had two sons. He had
Ishmael by the work of his own hands, by his own wisdom, and
God said, cast him out. And that is the son from whom
the Muslims came. Isaac was God's promised son
that God produced with no help from man. And he is the one through
whom God has saved his people, his elect. He's a picture of
God's elect as a promised child produced by God. Now, the Muslims
believe Ishmael was the chosen son and Isaac was cast out. Jews believe Isaac was a chosen
son and Ishmael was cast out. So you got Muslims, Jews, and
Christians all claiming Abraham as our father. All claiming Abraham
as our father. I want to show you tonight what
the scripture says about that. with the scriptures declared.
But I want our young people here especially to know, and I want
you to know, that when you encounter folks arguing over these points,
guard your tongue. Just guard your tongue. Let the
potsherds strive with the potsherds. Let this world fight and argue
with one another all they want to. Don't get distracted and
don't get caught up in it. Just don't. Hold your peace unless
God's clearly opened the door from somebody who wants to hear
the gospel and made that clear to you and then preach Christ
to them. But for us just to argue in back
and forth, don't get involved in that. For you to get involved
in that wouldn't be any different for two people to argue over
these things than it would be for those whole nations to be
arguing. What we see among all this division
is fallen, depraved human nature on a global stage. That's what
you're seeing. And then all the side divisions
over it is just depravity is what it is. These divisions are
depraved man making God's salvation to be based on respective persons. That's what it is, making God's
salvation to be based on a respect of persons, whether a man is
a Jew or whether he's a Gentile, based on where he's born, who
his mom and his daddy was. Salvation based on man's works
is what you see men fighting over. That's what you see them
fighting over. But none of those things take
your focus off the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep your focus set on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing you're going to
run into is you're going to hear a lot of people using prophecy
of the scripture to try to show you and show you who each of
these people are in the scriptures and how this is the end time.
Well, the Lord said, when you see these things, He said, look
up, your redemption draweth nigh. God's people are always looking
up, looking for Christ. We're waiting on Christ to return.
And here's the thing, you get caught up in prophecy and miss
Christ, it's not going to matter what God does, when He does it,
when He returns. If you miss Christ, you miss
it all. So you keep your focus on Christ and keep looking to
Him, and ignore what this world's fighting and arguing over. Now
let's see what the scriptures teach us, and I pray God settle
the hearts of His people on Christ alone. Now God's Israel, God's
Israel, true Israel, the Israel of God, are God's chosen people,
His elect, chosen from among Jew and Gentile. out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation on this earth. God has chosen
a people to save. That is God's Israel. That's
God's true Israel. Let's go back to Abraham. God
calls him the father of the faithful. Abraham's the father of those
God saves through faith in Christ. He's the father of all those
God saves. So let's go back to him and let's
see how God saved Abraham. He was a Gentile. At that time,
Israel didn't exist. Nobody ever heard the word Hebrew. God called Abraham the Hebrew.
Nobody ever heard of that. It means people from beyond. That's Strong's definition of
it, people from beyond. That's truly what God's people
are. From beyond, God the Father elected Abraham, chose to save
him. From beyond, Christ entered covenant
to be his surety, to be his righteousness. From beyond, Abraham was born
of the Spirit of God, given faith in Christ. That's what... He's
a Hebrew from beyond of God. And that's what all God's elect
people are, born of His Spirit. True Hebrews. But look here what
it says in Galatians 3 and verse 6. Abraham believed God, and
it was accounted to him for righteousness. God came and preached the gospel
to Abraham, this Gentile, heathen, lost sinner in Ur of Chaldea,
and he preached the gospel to him, and God gave him, made him
to be born of the Spirit and gave him faith, and he believed
God. He believed the word of the gospel. trusting Christ would
be his salvation and God imputed the righteousness of Christ to
him through faith. Christ was his righteousness,
that's why God gave him faith to trust Christ. Now verse 7
says, know you therefore that they which are of faith the same
are the children of Abraham. Now that's who the true children
of Abraham are, those that believe on Christ by the grace of God. They're the true children of
Abraham. They're made righteous by Christ. Because God chose them in Christ,
Christ came and redeemed them and the Spirit gave them life
and they trust Christ. Those that be of faith, saved
by the faithfulness of Christ and given faith to trust Christ. Those that be of faith. The Israel
of God are made up of elect Jew and Gentiles. Elect Jew and Gentiles. Now look here in Galatians 3.8.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed. Not meaning everybody
in all nations, meaning God's elect in all nations. in all nations. So then, they
which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." You see
that? Do you see who God's true people
are? That the true children of Abraham
are those saved just like Abraham was saved. through God choosing
him, through Christ redeeming him, through the Spirit regenerating
him, and God teaching him, and keeping him, and blessing him.
And that's how all God's elect throughout the world are blessed. That's how they are the children
of God, by God's grace. Now the Pharisees, you remember
when the Lord walked this earth, they thought that they were because they were natural sons
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, they thought they were
the elect of God. They thought they were God's
elect just because they were the natural sons of Abraham.
And that's what most believe, or a great many believe, who
are religious, who live in political Israel now. Now listen, it's
just like it is in this country. This is true amongst Muslims,
this is true amongst so-called Judaism. There is a vast majority
in those Arab nations and in Israel that have, that care less
one way or the other, that are not religious at all, just like
it is here. And then you've got a bunch of
different factions and sects kind of like denominations under
the umbrella of Muslims, and you've got a bunch under the
umbrella of Judaism. Some liberal, some conservative,
all the same things you have under the umbrella of Christianity.
But in Judaism, the majority who are the ones that are religious,
they believe they're elect because They think they're natural sons
of Abraham and therefore that makes them the elect because
they were born in Israel. Brethren, you that were born in New Jersey,
you're not God's elect because you were born in New Jersey.
Wouldn't it be foolish to say I'm elect because I was born
in New Jersey? Or me saying I'm elect because I was born in Arkansas?
Well, nobody's elect because they're born in Israel, or because
they're born in Egypt, or because they're born in Saudi Arabia,
or any other nation. God's elect or elect because
God chose us freely by his sovereign grace, not based on anything
in his people. When Christ walked this earth,
he said to the Pharisees, you believe not because you are not
of my sheep. He told them plainly. You're
not, you don't believe because the Spirit hasn't given you faith,
hasn't given you life. And the reason he has it is because
you're not my sheep. I didn't come to lay down my
life for you. He told them plainly they were not his. He didn't
say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. He said you
don't believe me because you're not my sheep. God's Israel are not all the
natural children of Abraham. They were natural children of
Abraham, the Pharisees were. But God's elect Israel are not
God's because they are the natural sons of Abraham. Let's go back
to Romans 9 and see this again. Romans 9. Brother Greg read the account
of Isaac. God had promised to produce Isaac. He was a child of promise. That's
who God's people are. They're children of promise that
God promised to produce, to create. Now look, verse Romans 9, 6. But not all the natural sons
of Abraham are God's people. Now Paul is declaring here that
after all the benefits that Israel had, most didn't believe. And he says there, not as though
the word of God had taken on effect. That's not why they didn't
believe. Here's why they didn't believe.
For they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Not everybody
in Israel was God's true Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. 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. For this is the word
of promise. God said, at this time will I
come and Sarah shall have a son. Hoji place right there. Now you
remember Abraham had another son named Ishmael that he produced
with Hagar, the handmaid. Well, God said Ishmael was not
his, he was not his elect, he was the child produced by Abraham,
by his works, and God said cast him out. That's what Brother
Greg just read. Isaac, on the other hand, was
the child God promised. That was the child God promised
to produce. That was God's elect, and God
produced him. And that's what all God's elect
have in common. We're created by God. That's when you're born the first
time, when you're just a natural child of whoever your parents
are or whatever nation or race you're in, that doesn't make
you a child of God. It's being born of God in spirit
that makes you a true Jew, the true Israel of God. That's what
Paul said in Romans 2, 28. He's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
outward in the flesh. He is a Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men but of God. God did it. God did it
all. That's what Isaac was. a child of promise. And then
in Romans 9, he gives another example using Isaac's two sons. Isaac had two sons. We see Abraham
had these two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was cast out.
Isaac was the son of promise. Well, then Isaac had two sons,
twins, in the mother's womb at the same time, and God said,
one of them I love, one of them I hate. Look at Romans 9.10,
when Rebecca also is conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, now here's the important statement, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Here's why election
is so important. It declares that salvation is
not of works, but of God that calleth. It was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. He said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, salvation's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Now be sure to get this first
point. God's Israel are those God chose by His grace in Christ. That's who God's Israel are.
That's who Christ made righteous by His precious blood, and that's
who the Spirit of God will give faith and life and faith to trust
Christ. That's God's Israel. It has no
regard of anything in them having done any good or evil. God chose
them by grace. It's all of grace, all of grace,
not based on anything in us, not based on our race, whether
we're Jew or Gentile, and not based on our works. It's by God's
grace. God chose whom he would. Now
secondly, the reason election is so important,
and this is the vital thing to declare here, is election declares
who it is Christ came and laid down his life for. God chose
a people that he would make righteous, but we all fell in Adam. We all
sinned. Well, who did Christ come and
lay down his life for? He came and laid down his life
for the elect that God gave to him. And it declares to us, brethren,
when Christ accomplished that redemption, which is what scripture
says, that means he was successful. He accomplished it. God declared
in Isaiah 42 that Christ shall not fail, and he didn't shed
his blood in vain. He did not fail. He said, as
the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay
down my life for the sheep. That's who he died for. He came
into this world knowing who he was laying down his life for.
He came to make them righteous, to purge them of all their sin,
to justify them of all their sin, to make them righteous before
the law of God, accepted of God. He knew who he was doing that
for. I laid down my life for the sheep, and he accomplished
it. This is what Hebrews 1.3 says,
when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God. That means everybody for whom
Christ died, Christ accomplished putting away their sin. He accomplished
justifying them. He accomplished making them the
righteousness of God in him. He is not a failure. He accomplished
that. Man wants to put it in man's
hand and say, now you can make his work effectual whether you
accept it or reject it. That's exalting man. God says, and the way we should
preach this is how God says it, God chose who he would save,
and that's who Christ came to save. And Christ laid his life
for them, and by himself he purged our sins, then he went back to
God and sat down. It's those the Father gave to
him whom he redeemed that he intercedes for in glory. Go with
me to John 17. This is who he prays for. And
he's praying that we'll be kept, he's praying for the Spirit to
be sent, the Gospel to be sent to us, that we might hear the
Gospel, be regenerated, given faith, and he prays that we'll
be kept. And this is his intercession
for us the whole way through our life. Look here, John 17,
2. Well, let's just begin in verse
1. These words make Jesus lift up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son that thy son also may
glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. Now look down at verse 9. Verse
9, he says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. That's
who he said he prays for. He says, all mine are thine and
none are mine, and I'm glorified in them. Look down at verse 20. He said, neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word, through their preaching of the gospel. That's who he
prayed for. He said in verse 24, Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So you
see, the doctrine of election and the doctrine of particular
redemption, they go hand in hand. Whom God the Father chose, God
the Son came, took flesh, Christ Jesus the Lord, and He laid down
His life for them and redeemed them. And now, from His throne
in glory, He prays for them. He prays for them. That's why
the gospel is sent to us. That's why the Spirit of God
is sent, and we're regenerated through the gospel and given
faith to trust Christ. That's why we're kept all our
days, and that's why we'll go and see Him in glory one day.
It's because He intercedes for those who He accomplished redemption. That's such good news, isn't
it, Brethren? You see this? I'm not sitting
here trying to preach this and put it in your hands. I'm telling
you a helpless, depraved sinner, salvations of the Lord, start
to finish. That's good news when God has
made you see how helpless you are to do one thing to be accepted
of God. And that's how it is, brethren.
This is good news to sinners, to sinners. God help us to see
we're sinners because that's who this should be. You'll delight
to know this message when you are the sinner. Now thirdly,
what is the enmity? We see these nations at war.
What's the enmity between them? What makes them hate each other
so much? You know what the enmity is between them? the law. That's the enmity. Scripture
clearly tells us that. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. This was the same with us. It's
the problem we as believers have. Both sides are looking to themselves. The Muslims and the Jews are
both looking to themselves, to their works, and to their natural
differences to say one is superior than the other. That's what they're
doing. That's what all individual sinners
do that. Individual sinners look at, you
look at yourself and your differences between your difference, how
you're different from another, by what you've done, by your
works, or what you, who you were born to, or what your social
status is, or whatever difference may be, and somehow start thinking
that you're superior to somebody else. That's what we all by nature
were in when we were lost. This is what we still have a
problem with as believers, because there's still this whole self-righteous
Pharisee in us. The only way that's put away
in God's elect is by Christ. The only way. Look here in Ephesians
2.11. Wherefore, remember, you being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who were called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands."
Now, that right there is pretty much what's going on in the Middle
East right now. You got the circumcision made
with hands. You got natural Jews who at this
point really can't even prove their genealogy because it was
all destroyed in 70 AD. But they naturally are circumcised,
circumcision made with hands. They got their law keeping that
they've done. And they're looking at Muslims, who they call the
uncircumcision, and looking at them with hatred in their heart.
And then you've got the Muslims who have their religion, which
is just the same thing. It's a religion of works. And
they're looking at their works and where they were born and
who they were born to, and they're looking at the Jews and they
hate the Jews. It's just enmity from natural
differences over some what they think is a difference,
and it's no different. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Before God, everybody involved
is a fallen, depraved sinner. Everybody on this earth, outside
of Christ, and there is no difference. It's just little worms trying
to make ourselves superior to other worms by something that
we see as a difference in us. Now look what happened. At that
time, verse 20, this is just what Paul said, at that time
you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope without God in the world. But now, In Christ Jesus, here's
where the peace is. In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now watch
this. For Christ is our peace who hath
made both one. He found his elect Jew and he
found his elect Gentile. Some of them were Some of these
Gentiles were in Muslim religion, some of them was Arabs, and some
of them was Germans, and some of them was English, and some
of them was living here in the United States. Well, we was all
Gentiles who didn't know God. And Christ Jesus made both his
elect who were naturally Jews and his elect who were naturally
Gentile. He made us both one. He broke down the middle wall
of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
the hatred. What was it? What was it we were
using to hate one another with? Even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances. That's what we were using. We
were using the law that was given to declare us all sinners in
need of Christ to save us, but we didn't use it that way because
we were dead in sin. We used it to try to exalt ourselves
over another by saying, I've done this better than you've
done that. We all did that. So he took that out of the way,
he fulfilled the law to make in himself of two, one new man,
so make in peace. He's the one new man. Christ
is the one righteous man who God looks to who's made peace
between God and his people and between Brethren, look here,
and that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby, and he came and preached peace
to you, which were far off, and to them that were nigh, for through
him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." Now, we're
no more foreigners and strangers, we're fellow citizens of the
same heavenly Israel, the same spiritual Israel nation, the
holy nation. We have the same household of
God. We got one father. We got one elder brother, Christ
Jesus. You see, you see, He did it.
How did He do it? He came and fulfilled the whole
law of God for us. He came and fulfilled the law
that we could not fulfill and made all his elect righteous
and he took it out of the way and he came and he preached peace
to you and that involved him coming and showing you and me
that we've never kept the law, that we've broken it in every
regard, that we're only sinners, and he brought us down so low
in the dust that we couldn't dare try to exalt ourselves over
our brethren anymore, and he showed us Christ, our righteousness,
and he put this peace in our heart, and then he made us be
at peace with one another, because now we both have, we're born
of one Spirit, one Father, one Redeemer, and we're one. We're
one. That's how God's people are brought
into peace with one another. Do you know how many peace agreements
they have signed to try to make Israel and the Arabs to be at
peace with one another? That's been going on for thousands
of years, trying to make peace between them. Man can't make
peace between them, and he'll never make peace between them.
Christ can. Christ is the only one, but he
only does it for those the Father gave him from eternity, those
he redeemed. He comes and he preaches this
peace to them in their heart. This is the only way he makes
peace is through this gospel. This is why I tell you, brethren,
if there's a difference between two brethren, You're not going
to make peace between them by pointing out their differences.
And that's all talking about the law and how one's messed
up and the other one didn't mess up. That's all that's going to
do is point out their differences. That's not going to make peace
between them. What's going to make peace between them? Preach
Christ Jesus the peacemaker. Show us that we're all sinners,
that He's the one who came and fulfilled the law. He's our righteous,
He made peace, and that's how He makes peace in the heart by
His Spirit. Now lastly, this message is hated by natural men
that's born after the flesh, and they'll always hate it. Almost
every time I've preached this subject, I have received emails
calling me an anti-Semite, just almost every time I've preached
on political Israel not being the Israel of God. I'm against
the Jews. This time I'll probably receive
emails saying I'm against the Palestinians. The scripture If
I'm not mistaken, the Palestinians is a word that really comes from
the same word as the Philistines, and that's who they were in the
scriptures. But I'll probably get hate mail
on both of them, but if we stop preaching the gospel every time
somebody's offended because of what we preach, we stop preaching
because somebody's offended every time you preach. But Abraham's
two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, go over to Galatians 4. Greg
just read it. I want you to see this real quick. Those two sons, Isaac and Ishmael,
were an allegory, a spiritual illustration. And I've pretty
much preached this to you already, so I'm just going to try to read
it, just briefly point it out to you. It's written, Galatians
4.22, it's written, let me find it here. It is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, Hagar, the other by a free woman,
Sarah, but he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise, which things
are an allegory. They represent two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is
Hagar. That's a picture of works. Hagar
represents works. This Hagar pictures Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is in its bondage with
the children. He's saying at the time he wrote
that, he's saying Hagar pictures the children of Israel in Jerusalem
at that time who were still in bondage because they're still
trying to come to God by the works of the law, even though
Christ had come. We could today say Hagar pictures
Israel over there right now who are still trying to come to God
by the works of the law. All right, Hagar pictures the
law, the covenant of works, the false church. producing children
by the will and works of man. Not only does she picture the
law, she pictures the false church, but Sarah pictures Jerusalem,
which is above, the church of God, which is free, which is
the mother of us all. For it's written, rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that surveillest
not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise, but as then, He that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. These two nations fighting each
other over there right now, as much as they hate each other, If a mark was put on every true
elect child of God in this world, born of the Spirit of God, and
they could know who they were, specifically who they were, they'd
unite together to kill you. Why? Those born after flesh hate
those born after Spirit. That's how it is. That's how
it is. Verse 30, nevertheless, what
says the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then brethren, we're not children
of the bondwoman, but of the free. That's what Paul's saying
in Galatians 3 when he says, if you're Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. That political
nation Israel is inhabited by Jews who think they're God's
elect because they're natural descendants of Abraham through
Isaac, but they're trusting in their law obedience the same
as the Muslims who they hate. There's no difference in either
one of them. No difference in either one of them. They hate
each other, they think they're superior to each other, but they
would join together to crucify you and me. That's so. This gospel is the gospel by
which God quickens his child and shows us our sins and shows
us there's no difference. There's no difference except
the difference grace is made, the difference Christ is made
by His righteousness, the difference the Spirit is made in your heart
giving you faith and all things that pertain to life and godliness
so that you can't boast, you can't exalt yourself over another. We simply give God all the glory
in Christ Jesus and we live in peace with one another. And this
is by the gospel of Christ. by the gospel of Christ. You know, I was reading, as I
read about, I was reading about Gaza, and in that little strip
of land, they say that there is a small, very small remnant
in there that professed to believe Christ. Right now. Right now. That's not surprising. Scripture says Christ is worthy
to take the book, open the seals, for He was slain and has redeemed
us to God by His blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests,
and will reign on the earth." You mean there could really be
some people amongst those Arabs in Gaza that are God's elect,
saved by God's grace? Yes, there could. It has nothing
to do with their natural ancestry, or their race, or anything. And
there could be some right there in amongst those natural Jews
who are God-select, who really believe the gospel of Christ. So you remember this, brethren.
This peace is not going to be created by arguing. So don't
get thrown into an argument over these things. Christ said, if
my kingdom is not of this world, if it was, my people would fight.
So don't get into an argument with folks over it. How is peace
given to you? Through the gospel of Christ.
So if the Lord opens the door and you can speak the gospel
to somebody, speak the gospel to them. But when they start
on to argue about this, that, or the other, just hold your
peace. You don't have to weigh in on it. It won't matter one
way or the other if you do. While you're doing that and people
are trying to distract you with prophecy and all that, you be
looking to Christ. Maybe He is about to return. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? That'd be wonderful. And if you get a chance to speak
the gospel, speak the gospel. We walk after the flesh, but
we don't war after the flesh. Our weapons are not carnal, they're
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. He's able
to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. He's able
to bring His people down in the heart to where all our thoughts
look into Christ and we're trusting His obedience as our only righteousness.
He did that in you, He can do it in others. So rather than
argue about these things, if God opens the door, speak the
gospel of Christ to them, and trust Christ to bless it, and
ask him to bless it. And I hope that helps you understand
what's going on. It's been going on ever since
Cain killed Abel. It's been going on, and it'll
keep going on until the end. But I hope that helps you. All
right.