Turn with me this morning, if
you would, over to, we're going to be looking at several verses
that the Lord so guides us. I've kind of noted down quite
a few here to keep my memory going here. The Lord may bring
up others or pass me over a few that I wrote down, just wherever
the Spirit leads us in this. But what kind of was on my mind
this morning and actually the past few days especially as I've
kind of looked and seen on Facebook going around all the conversation
about what's going on over in Israel and of course all of us
here know that there are different schools of thought as to the
end times and what is gonna happen in what's called eschatology,
or the study of end times, or the study of the last things.
And all of us have those different understandings of the scriptures,
and all of us have our scriptures that we use to support our theologies,
so to speak, our eschatology. But it seems that today, the
prevailing school of thought among most evangelicals is the
thought of Israel being God's chosen people that will one day
be restored as God's chosen people and that all this end times stuff
is all pointing towards the nation of Israel and what's going to
happen with the nation of Israel. And so we're watching our news,
we're watching our newspapers, we're watching our crazy prophets
on TV, that for 95,000 years have been looking in the newspapers
saying, here it is, here it is, here it is. And everyone is concerned
with Israel and saying that we need to throw off all restraints
and do whatever we can to back Israel because those who bless
Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed
and they're God's chosen people. go against Israel, then you're
going against God's chosen people, and that's going to be bad for
you. They talk about Israel coming back into the land, and they
talk about Israel being reestablished as God's nation, and that Jerusalem,
and in Jerusalem, this rebuilt temple. They're going to have
this rebuilt temple, and this is going to be the place where
Christ is going to come, and He's going to rule, on his throne
with a rod of iron and Israel's going to be put in a place of
prominence over all the nations during a thousand years but all
of us from Christ's death until now
will be raptured out before this great tribulation takes place
and we're not going to experience any of that. We're going to be
you know we're going to be removed from the great tribulation but
yet israel is going to be here it's going to go through god's
going to bring it back he's going to fight the battle of armageddon
he's going to bind satan and then at the end of that there's
going to be battle of gog and magog all this stuff you know
and there's lots of Lots of maps and pictures and charts and everything
you can pull up. But that seems to be the prevailing
thought, this premillennial, dispensational, and even historic
premillennial, and some people that claim to be historic premillennial,
still hold to this idea that the Israel of God is a ethnic
or a national thing. But is that what the scriptures
teach? We want to be biblical, right?
We don't want to follow after the theologies of men. And by
the way, and I'm not getting into this, and I'm not actually
going to talk about eschatology today. I mainly want to talk
about what the Bible teaches about who Israel actually is. Is the nation Israel God's chosen
people that we are to be looking for and supporting, or is that
talking about somebody else? In all the talk and discussion
about the end times and everything like that, brethren, we've got
to remember that whether you go to Revelation or whether you
go to the Old Testament and all the prophecies telling about
the end, whether you look at anything that's in the New Testament,
when it all is boiled down, everything, as I say all the time here, and
I don't think I say it enough because we never can hear it
enough. Everything in this book is about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's to be focused upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's to be to the exaltation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we have running amok
amongst evangelicalism today and modern Christianity is this
idolizing of the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel, and I'll
just say this at the forefront here, and I know it's a bold
statement, I know it's a brash statement, I know that it's a
statement that's gonna come with a lot of disgust, but if you'll
hear me out, not me, but hear the scriptures out, I think that
you will see that the comment is not unfounded, but the nation
Israel is not the people of God. The nation of Israel, those Jews,
whether they be of the pure tribe or the impure tribe of what this
or that, whatever it is, I don't even know all the distinction
on that and I'll just be honest with you. I don't know all of
what's going on and who's who and where's what and where's
this tribe and this tribe and this tribe. I don't know all
that stuff. I'm still ignorant of a lot of
things. But I know this one thing, that the Israel of the flesh
is not the end-time Israel of God. It is not the New Covenant
Israel of God. It is not the people of God. Now, I've got that out. I've
said it. It's out there. Let the comments
begin if they want to begin. But brethren, we need to be biblical
and not emotional and irradical. Okay? Now, under the New Covenant, under
the New Testament, the terms Jew, the terms Israel, and even
I will say the term Jerusalem has been redefined. Maybe I should probably say more
clearly defined than their typology that was found
under the Old Covenant in the Old Testament. See, Jew, Israel,
Jerusalem, just like everything else we find in the Old Testament,
had typology to it. It had symbolism to it. It symbolized
something from a physical standpoint that shed forth truth about the
spiritual standpoint. And as Christians, as we seek
to discern and to interpret the spiritual with spiritual, we
want to look into what the typology is and see is there a New Testament
fulfillment of that? Is there a New Testament definition
of that? Is there a redefining of what
that was physically, but what that means spiritually? Brethren,
there is no doubt that the Bible is very, very, very clear that
the Old Covenant is done away with. It is not continuing on
and the Old Covenant is not going to be picked back up. The Old
Covenant, according to Hebrews, has died. It's gone. It is no longer there. So there is no more Old Covenant
things being played out by God. There is no more Old Covenant
things that God is looking to or going to reestablish in the
future because the Old Covenant has passed away. The glory has
faded. It is gone. It is done with. We are no longer bound to the
Old Covenant. We are no longer under the Old
Covenant. We have now been married to a
new husband. We have now been brought into
a spiritual kingdom, not a physical kingdom. We are now a spiritual
people, not a physical people. This is all about the spiritual
outworking of a spiritual gospel, a spiritual man, a spiritual
God. God is spirit and they who worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It's a spiritual
thing. I've mentioned that over the
last couple of weeks in several different things. We are a spiritual
kingdom. We are a spiritual people. It is not about the physical.
It is not about the flesh. These bodies are going to be
done away with. This earth that we know is going
to be done away with. It is going to be consumed in
a new heaven and a new earth. It's going to be experienced
by the child of grace whenever that time comes, whenever the
Lord Who brings that? So, brethren, this is a difference
in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And I would say that
probably everyone listening and everyone watching and everybody
here would probably all agree that we are under the New Covenant
if we are the children of God. We are under the New Covenant.
Right? So why are so many people wanting
to go back under the Old Covenant and pull up Old Covenant things. Well, that's because God made
a promise under the Old Covenant to give certain things to certain
people and only those certain people. Well, brethren, if God
fulfilled that covenant, which I believe God did, because God
doesn't go short on His covenants, if God fulfilled that covenant,
then that covenant has been fulfilled. And if there has been a fulfillment
of that covenant and the Bible says that there will be no more
re-issuing of that covenant, then why are we looking for the
Old Covenant again? Especially when the Bible is
so clear that says that that Old Covenant has been done away
with. So does the Bible redefine in
the New Testament or clearly define who the true Jew is? who the true Israel is, and where
the true Jerusalem is, and what does that represent? Does the
Bible teach that? Well, I believe it teaches it
very, very clearly. Paul was consumed with this,
I believe. He mentions it over the course
of several letters to several churches. He went to Jerusalem,
and he hashed out with those apostles, those Jews, who he
was also a Jew, but to hash out the fact that The Gentile is
no different than the Jew. The Gentile and the Jew are no
different in the sight of God. They are one people. And I hope
that we can see that as we read through some of these verses
that I wrote down here this morning. So let's start first though,
let's start in Galatians. There are several places in Galatians
where Paul addresses this issue, and we'll be bouncing back and
forth. So, we're going to be in Galatians and we're going
to be in Romans. So, you know, if you want to put something
to mark your spot in Galatians and one in Romans so we can bounce
back and forth, we can. Now, before I read this, don't
get me wrong, I am not a hater. of the people of Israel. I'm
not a hater of the people of Israel. As I'm not a hater of
any other people. You know? Do I get angry about
things that they do as a people? Absolutely. Do I get angry at
what other people do as a nation? Absolutely. Do I get angry like
I do at you maybe? Or what you do to me? Absolutely. It's not about what's called
anti-Semitism. This is not about anti-Semitism.
This is not about racism. This is about exegeting the Scripture,
interpreting the Scripture, and letting the Scripture dictate
to us what we believe. Let the Scripture define. Let
the Scripture portray. Let the Scripture be our rule,
our guide. It's about what the scriptures
teach. And so many of us, as was I, as many of us are here,
have been and may still be in some degrees influenced by our
upbringing, influenced by our former training or former teaching
growing up, being influenced by presuppositions, and even
being influenced by the outer influence of the culture that
has the same ideas about things. You know, this country all has
the idea that our country was founded as a Christian nation. But if you're truly biblical,
if you truly know what the scriptures say and know what a true Christian
believes, our country never was founded upon Christian beliefs.
As a matter of fact, most of our founders were not Christians
at all. Most of them actually was anti-Christian,
biblical Christian. So see, the sentiment though
of the country is, hey, we are a Christian nation. There is
no such thing as a Christian nation. Okay, there is no such
thing as that. But yet that's the sentiment.
That's the idea. That's the tradition. That's
the dialogue that has been given to us and placed in our head
and put in our old textbooks at least, not in the new ones
by any stretch. But in our old textbooks that
we had when we were children growing up, that this is one
nation under God. That's our motto. One nation
under God. Well, it doesn't define which
God, but it says one nation under God. That's been ingrained in
our heads, so now it's just common knowledge. Well, yeah, we're
a Christian nation. We're a Christian nation. Oh yeah, America was
founded on Christian principles. But see, that's because it's
been ingrained. But if we go to the scriptures and see, no, that's not true.
That's the same thing that we're seeing here, brother. Because
of the sentiment and the overall pressure of culture, it tells
us that Israel is God's people. and then we should lay off of
them and not say nothing about them and not ridicule them and
always back them, no matter what they do, we have to back them. And that does not make any sense,
right? You've got to back Israel at
all costs, no matter what they do. But what if Israel attacks
the United States? What are we going to do now?
You going to stand with Israel? It has been in the past that
Israel has attacked the United States, but that's another story. My point is this, that all that
are of Israel are not Israel. The Bible clearly teaches that.
We'll look at that here in a minute. But Paul here in Galatians, Paul
in Romans, Paul in other places in Scripture, in Hebrews as well,
is teaching that there is no distinction under the New Covenant
between the Jew and the Gentile. That there is a true Jew, there
is a true Israel of God, and there is a true Jerusalem that
is not of the flesh, that is not carnal, that is not a physical
thing. And it is the spiritual definitions,
the spiritual realities of those things that are of our concern,
that are of our importance, that is of God's importance. So in
Galatians chapter 6 and in verse 15, let's look here and see first
how does the New Testament under the New Covenant redefine or
clearly define who is the true Jew. And what does it say about
physical Jews, or old covenant Jews, or national Jews, or anybody
else besides Gentiles? Okay, so anybody else besides
Gentiles would be what? Only the Jews. Because back then
it was separated in two things. You were either a Israelite and
therefore a Jew, and if not, you were a Gentile. You
were a dog, you were an outcast, you were nothing to them, right? Paul, by the Holy Spirit, writes,
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law,
but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Verse 15, here
it is. For in Christ Jesus, in Christ
Jesus, so that means, we're talking about Being in Christ Jesus is
New Covenant terminology, right? The Old Testament covenant, the
Old Covenant, the ethnic Israel, they were not in Christ. They were the people of God that
was chosen out as servants of Christ. But they were not in
union with Christ. This right here is talking about
being in Christ. What is that talking about? That
is talking about the election of God. That is talking about
the union, that eternal, vital union that the elect people of
God, the seed of Christ, the people of God. That's what this
is talking about, those who are in Christ Jesus. It's not talking
about the people of the flesh. Okay, so it's not talking about
everyone everywhere. It's only speaking of those who
have been elected of God, given to Christ, and united to Him. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. What does that mean? Does that
mean that the men who have been circumcised are in and the men
who are not circumcised are out. I hope we all know what circumcision
is. I don't want to have to really hash that out, but I think we're
all pretty clear about what circumcision is, okay? In the Old Covenant,
which actually began, the circumcision began before the law. It began
with Abraham. To identify as a seal of the
covenant, the men were to be circumcised. And if you were to be a Jew or
an Israelite, you were to be circumcised. And even if you
were a Gentile who came under an Israelite in their household
and was a servant or whatever, you were to be circumcised. Circumcision
was a sign of the covenant. Circumcision was something done
in the flesh, it was something done physical, but brethren there
was a spiritual application to that as we see in the New Testament. But as it speaks of physically
and what Paul is saying here is what identified the Jew from
the Gentile was circumcision. God give to the Jews circumcision,
to the Gentiles there was no circumcision. As far as I understand
and as far as I know, except within the nation of Israel,
circumcision was unheard of everywhere. Nobody circumcised their children
except for Jews. And that was something that signified
and showed a difference of the people than the rest of the world. And so that became such an important
concept to the Jew, that was their sign and their seal of
being God's people. And so that circumcision was
something that they made sure that every child was done. Matter
of fact, there was a certain day that after so many days,
the child was circumcised. Which by the way, just a side
note, when men are circumcised, Nowadays, we have all kinds of
medicine that can keep it from, you know, that you can do it
right away. But used to, everyone, whenever
a child was born, they were circumcised after so many days or hours or
days, I think it was. Come to find out the reason for
that is because of the certain amount of healing that the baby
has. at that particular time. It takes
that long for that to build up where that takes place. Now,
I've read that. I don't know whether that's true
or not, but I've read that somewhere. But see, God determined that
all the way back when, whenever he'd give them how many days
before that child was to be circumcised. Now, you can go look that up.
If that's not true, then that's my bad for believing what I read. But anyway, the circumcision
is what set them apart. And throughout all the ages,
This was an important thing. They had to be circumcised. They
had to be circumcised. That sets us apart. This shows
that we are His. That shows us that we're a special
people. And now all of a sudden in the
New Testament, Paul is saying this. In Christ Jesus, circumcision
availeth nothing, and neither does uncircumcision. Neither
one of those is important. Why? Because it's not the physical
thing. It's a spiritual thing. That
was a typology. The physical circumcision was
given to show forth a greater spiritual reality. The circumcision
that was given to the Jew was to show forth the circumcision
which the Bible says is a circumcision of the heart. The cutting away
of the flesh of the heart, the being, what does it say here?
Look at our verse, verse 15. What availeth then? For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but what does? A new creature. That's what availeth. It doesn't matter whether you're
a Jew or whether you're a Gentile. What matters is, is are you a
new creature? That's circumcision of the heart. I will take out
of their heart a heart of stone and I will put in them a heart
of flesh. Who does that? Only God. Who does God do that for? Just
the Jew? Absolutely not. He does that
to Jew and Gentile alike. So the one who is a true Jew
is not the one who is physically circumcised. And the Gentile
is just not the one who is not circumcised. This comes down
to a spiritual understanding. A Jew who is a true Jew has no
issue with circumcision or uncircumcision. It's the new creature. Are you
a new creature? If you are a new creature, then
you are a true Jew. Look what he says. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. Now, turn back in there in Galatians
and go to chapter 3. And let's look down, if you would,
at verse 26. Paul said this before he even
got to that in the letter. Now, I did that backwards, you
know, I started there because I want you to see that the ultimate,
and matter of fact, that's Paul's closing remarks to the Gentiles,
or to the Galatians, the Gentile Galatians. His closing remarks
was leaving them with this thought, hey, it doesn't matter if you're
a Jew or a Gentile. Matter of fact, the whole entire
book has been about, we are no longer under that old covenant.
We are no longer under law. This is a new covenant. It has
new laws that's put in our heart. Those new laws are the laws of
faith. It is not an outward thing, it's
an inward thing. Matter of fact, Paul even says
right there, I was going to read this later, but he says in verse
16, as many as walk according to this rule, what rule? The
rule of not making a distinction between Jew and Gentile and realizing
that it's a new creature, that we are new creatures created
in Christ Jesus, that we are the spiritual seed, that this
is under the new covenant, that we are no longer under law and
that it is all about faith. It is all living by the faith
of Jesus Christ. We live by the faith of Jesus
Christ, not by the walking and the rule of the law, of the old
covenant, under the old system. We are not physical people. We
are a spiritual people under spiritual laws, under a spiritual
king, who is a spiritual God, by the way. The ones who walk according to
this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of
God." Whenever he says, and upon the Israel of God, he's not making
a distinction between who he was just talking about and the
Israel of God. He's making it clear, according
to this rule, peace be on them, who are them, the ones walking
according to the rules, and mercy on them who walk according to
the rule and upon the, who is he talking about? The Israel
of God. Not just the new creatures, but
they are the Israel of God. The ones who walk according to
the rule are the Israel of God. So he left that letter off by
stating that. You know, a lot of times we save
our best for last, right? Whenever we want to close out
a letter or whenever we want to close out a, if we're writing
an article, We want to push forward all of what we've summed up and
what we've said before. We want to get down to that.
What's my main point? What was the main point in Galatia?
The old Judaizers were coming in with the old covenant from
the Old Testament and coming to try to subvert people's minds. to bring them back under the
law, to bring them back under Moses, to bring them back to
Mount Sinai, to bring them back to Agar. Right? That was what the deal
was. You have to keep the law of Moses.
You have to be under the old covenant. You have to keep up
these things. Why? Because the Israel of God, they're
under this covenant and they have to keep this and they have
to do this. They're under the covenant. But brother, for the
people of God, that covenant is gone. It's dead. It's no longer
there. We are no longer on Mount Sinai. We are under another mountain,
which we're going to talk about here in just a minute. We'll
get there in a little while. So in Galatians chapter 3, though,
you'll notice, in 26, it says, For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. See, the fact that we have faith
in Christ Jesus shows that we are the children of God. Why?
Because the children of God are like Abraham who God gave faith
to. That faith that God gave Abraham
was a testimony that Abraham had been justified before God
and was therefore His child. Now, we're going to read several
things about that here in just a minute, It says here, for ye
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,
there is neither. Now, this is not my words, this
is not my theology, this is not my eschatology, this is not my
anti-Semitism. This is the Word of God. There
is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. Now that's pretty clear. This
being the children of God, this being baptized into Christ, if
you're among those people, then it isn't about being Jew or Greek
or Gentile. It isn't about being a bondman
or a freeman. It's not about being a male or
a female. God is not making distinctions
when it comes down to who is represented as his children. Now God does make distinctions
between his elect and the non-elect. true Israel and those who are
not the true Israel just as he did in the typology. He made
choice of the nation of Israel but not the rest of the world.
That was a type of the spiritual reality. God has chosen for himself
a people that he would redeem because all of Israel was just
like everybody else. But out of one lump, he chose
a physical Israel to represent, just like now, out of one lump,
a spiritual Israel. And he elected them, and he chose
them, and made them a peculiar people, just like he made the
nation of Israel a peculiar people. The type, the fulfillment. The type, the fulfillment. The
type, the substance. The type, the substance. It's
all about types and substances. We find the substance of what
was tight. We don't continue the tight.
That's why I don't believe there's going to be a temple that is
going to reissue sacrifices with Christ sitting on the throne
saying, yippee, yippee, yippee. I'm glad you guys are doing that.
That's making me so happy. Oh, by the way, my cross must
have been nothing to you. I'm not pleased with the sacrifices
of bulls and goats, but here you are have erected a new temple
to me and are sacrificing bulls and goats again. Did you not
hear what I said under the new covenant? Did you not see that
everything that was in the Old Testament was for our learning? Our learning what? Our learning
about history? No. Everything that was written
in the Old Testament, as the Bible says, that was written
for our understanding, for our learning, is not that we might
just learn that it happened. We can go to any history book
and probably find most of that. No, the Scriptures of the Old
Testament under the Old Covenant that was written and preserved
was written for our understanding and learning of the substance
of it because all of that in the Old Testament points to Jesus
Christ. and what he has done. It's for
our learning and understanding that the types represent the
substance. The shadows represents the reality. We learn what this type teaches. There was a type. Israel, there
is a substance, the people of God. There is a type, a Jew,
there is a substance, those who are a new creature who worship
God in spirit and in truth. There is a Jerusalem, a physical
place where God met with His people and came down in His glory
and met with His people and there were sacrifices made there. There
is a spiritual Jerusalem that is of grace where we meet with
God, not built with hands, but a spiritual place where we are
the people of God and He is our God. and we are His people and
we worship Him in spirit and in truth and where He has given
us grace and mercy and we have come to that because it is free
and it is given to us by Him. That's the Jerusalem that we're
looking for, not the Jerusalem of the old. I could care less
what happens on that Temple Mount. They could blow it up and drive
it down to the ground. I could care less. I'm looking
for the Jerusalem that's above. I'm looking for the Jerusalem
that is going to be the New Jerusalem that is the New Jerusalem, I
would say. It's not a future New Jerusalem. It is the Jerusalem that is now.
The Bible says in Hebrews that you are now come to this holy
city. We're not waiting for a certain
time for it to be rebuilt and everything to be good in a thousand
years so God, okay, I'm going to make peace so everyone can
come to Jerusalem. We're not waiting for those things.
He says, look at verse 29, and if ye be Christ, now, let me
tell you this, is the nation Israel today, are they Christ
people? No, they reject Christ, they
hate Christ. I follow a guy on Facebook, and
he goes over and he preaches in Israel all the time, street
preaching guy. And he preaches all the time.
I'm not saying I necessarily agree with everything about this
guy, but he goes over and listen, he gets attacked. If he goes
over and preaches Christ, he gets attacked by the people of
God. Preaching about their Messiah.
And he gets beat. He gets jailed while he's over
there. He gets spit on. He spends money to give them
literature and people are ripping it up and throwing it right in
his face. I mean all this kind of stuff is going on. Listen,
that's the people of God. Now, the Bible says, if you are
my sheep, you will know me and you will follow me. If they are
the people of God, they will love Christ. If they are the
people of God, they would rejoice in Christ Jesus. Jesus even said
it. If you were Abraham's seed, you
would love me. You would follow me. You would
listen to me. You would know who I am. But
you don't. You don't because you're not
my sheep. You're not my people. You're not my Israel. If ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. See, Abraham's
seed was not a physical seed. That was the type. The physical
seed was the type. But Abraham's seed, what God
preached to Abraham was not, hey, this is about stars. And this is about how your people,
out of your loins, is going to be just like that. No. It was about THE seed. It was about Christ. Abraham
was called the what? Father of Faith. Now, Abraham
didn't muster up faith. Faith was given to Abraham. So
we can't say Abraham was the Father of Faith in the respect
that Abraham was the first to have faith because we know that
Abraham wasn't the first to have faith. As a matter of fact, if
you go to where we was at last week, Hebrews 11, one of the
first persons that we see in the scripture that exhibits any
kind of God-given faith was Abel. Abel. But it says Abraham was the father
of faith. Why? Because God set Abraham
as the type of Christ. Christ was the faithful one. Christ is the one who had genuine
faith that God looked at as righteousness, not Abraham. Abraham was the
type of Christ. Plus, we see that Abraham and
the seed, the seed is not seeds plural, but seeds singularly,
which would be Christ, That is who the promise is in, and all
those who are in Christ Jesus are the recipients of the promise.
Just like whenever Levi paid tithes unto Melchizedek, the
Bible says Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, but Abraham came
way after. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek in Levi. I may have that backwards. paid tithes to Melchizedek. What does that mean? That means
that all the blessing is in Christ Jesus. All the promise is in
Christ Jesus and those who are His seed are the recipients of
that. So it's not talking about physical
Abraham, physical Israel, physical Jew, physical Jerusalem, it's
talking about the spiritual reality which is the substance of all
of that type. It's told about. And if ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed. Well wait a minute, I thought
I was Abraham's seed if I was a Jew or an Israelite. No, he's saying here, there's
a clearly defining of what that was talking about. All of that
was to tell you about the spiritual side of it, not the physical
side, the spiritual side. Look with me if you would, Romans
chapter 2. Brother, if you've got anything
to interject or to add to it, feel free to speak. Romans chapter 2. Now we're talking about who is
a true Jew. Does the Bible redefine or clearly define what a Jew
is? What is a true Jew? Is it the
type or is it the substance? In Romans chapter 2, look with
me to verse 28. It says, for he is not a Jew which
is one outwardly. Wait a minute, that's what distinguished
Israel from everybody else is the outward circumcision. That made them the Jew. What
made them the Jew? The outward circumcision. But here now Paul is saying he
is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh." Well, now you're even redefining
circumcision. We all know that circumcision
is the cutting away of the flesh that was commanded to Abraham
and was passed down through the law. But wait a minute. Paul says
that's not the importance here, brethren. You're idolizing the type when
there is the substance, the fulfillment of it. What is the fulfillment
of it? But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter. Preacher, I kind of see what
you're saying now. It's not about the physical,
it's about the spiritual. We keep making this distinction
between physical and spiritual. Natural and heavenly. We're making the distinction
that we are not to be looking at the physical things of this
world. We're not to place our trust
and hope in the physical things of this world. We're not to put
our eyes on the physical things of this world, but the things
which are in heaven. A lot of people think that whenever
the Bible tells us to set our minds on things that are above
and not on things that are below, it always talks about, we've
got to think about religious things, holy, righteous things. We've got to think about doctrine.
All this kind of stuff. It's not necessarily thinking
about that. Our whole purpose as a spiritual
people who are spiritual wanderers, who are spiritual pilgrims in
this physical world, we are a spiritual people who came from God. Our
life was hidden in Christ, in God. That's a spiritual life. And that life is going to go
back to God, and God's going to give us a spiritual body.
We're going to be a spiritual people in a spiritual body in
a spiritual kingdom with a spiritual God. It's about the spiritual
things. That's why it tells us don't
put your thoughts and your mind on the things of this world,
but set your affections and your mind on things above. What is
the teaching of the world telling us? What is the teaching of the
heavenlies telling us? What is the things of the earth
and what are the things of heaven? It's the first Adam who is of
the earth. Earth is the second Adam in His work that is of the
heavenlies. We who are after the earthy Adam
are going to be like that of the heavenly Adam. See, there's
always this distinction between here and there, between us and
God, between spiritual and physical. Even within our own selves, brother,
there is the outward man and the inward man. There is the
Esau and there is the Isaac. There is always the dichotomy.
There is always the separation between these things, and we
have to keep them separate. If we don't keep them separate,
we are going to be so confused about so much that the Scripture
teaches us. He says, For he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. What does
this earthly circumcision and earthly Jewism causing people
to do? Worshipping people rather than
God. It's more about worshiping these
people than it is about God. It's throwing the emphasis onto
man and taking it away from God. That is why we don't worship
in the letter, but we worship in the Spirit. That's why we
are not after the letter, but after the Spirit. That's why
we are not the natural people, but the spiritual people. I know
I'm going to say that a lot of times, It's just amazing to me that
anybody, especially sovereign grace people, it's amazing to
me that they cannot see past this physical thing and why they
are not rejoicing and worshiping in the Spirit. We're placing
so much emphasis on the physical that's going to be done away
with. Listen, why in the world if Christ has a kingdom, a spiritual
kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world, why in the world
would he want to place emphasis on something of a kingdom on
this earth that's going to be destroyed? You ever thought of that? Not to mention that the Bible
clearly says that that's not the kingdom that anybody's looking
for who is a child of grace. Abraham wasn't looking for that
kingdom. He wasn't looking for the kingdom in a thousand year
reign. on the Mount of Olives sitting
on a throne in a temple or something. He wasn't looking for that. He
was looking for a different kingdom. He was looking for another place.
I hope we are too. Look at Acts chapter 15. Verse 7. Acts chapter 15. In verse 7 it says, now if you
remember Acts chapter 15, this is where Paul and Barnabas went
up to Jerusalem to discuss this whole thing about the Judaizers
coming down to the Gentile churches trying to spread the Law of Moses
to everybody. And they said, hey we need to
go up there and take care of this. We need to go up and settle
this with the other apostles and they need to get, as Barney
5 would say, they need to nip this in the bud. Verse 7, And when there had been
much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren,
ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. Now look here at verse 9. Now
this is Peter. We've been talking about Paul,
but this is Peter, who God showed this very thing to whenever He
had him go to Cornelius. "...and put no difference between
us, the Jews, and them, the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith."
The circumcision of the heart. the new creature. I have seen
and now understand that what the old covenant was all about
was just the type, was just the shadow, but the fulfillment,
the substance of it is Jew and Gentile alike, all one people. He has made no difference between
us and them purifying their hearts by Now, how did He purify their
hearts? By them believing on Him? No. How did He purify their hearts?
By the One who is faith. The object of faith. Christ Jesus
who died for them. Christ Jesus who redeemed them,
justified them, sanctified them, glorified them. Christ Jesus
is the One who bore their sins, just like He did for the Jew.
He bore their iniquities. He lived in obedience to the
Lord's command, which none of the Jews were doing, nor the
Gentiles. He caused them to be born from
above. They are a new creation. One man, one person in Christ
Jesus. So who is the one who is a Jew?
There's no difference between Jew and Gentile. The Jew is one
who is one inwardly who has the circumcision of the heart. Now,
I know I've gone kind of long, but let's look at a few other
verses here as it pertains to who is a true Israelite or what
is true Israel. Look at Romans 9 with me if you
would. People watching said, oh, I know
you go to Romans 9. In Romans chapter 9, We see Paul starts this out as
saying, listen, and how I did a while ago, I'm not hatin' on people from
Israel, Israelites. I'm not hatin' on them. Now,
whenever I say maybe hatin' on the Jews, I don't mean that as
a ethnic people, I mean that as a religious people. Because
see, that's the difference. And Israelites, there were Israelites
and then they were Jews. The Jew part is the religious
part, the worshipping part. They became a Jew by circumcision. They were already an Israelite,
but they became a Jew by circumcision. A Jew is one who has been circumcised
in the flesh. Spiritual Jew, we are the elect
of God, right? But we become a true Jew when
we are circumcised in the heart. There may be more to that than
I'm even aware of and been revealed by God. To me, the Jew is the
one who is the religious portion. I do not care for the religious
Jew of today because they despise Christ. They hate Christ. They
are anti-Christ. They are anti-Christ. Just as
the Pope is anti-Christ. Just as the Catholics are anti-Christ. They are anti-Christ. Just as
every Christian who calls themselves Christian who denies this sovereign
work of God in salvation, the predestinating work of God in
all of His creation, those people who deny the gospel of Jesus
Christ, they are anti-Christ. I don't care if they call themselves
Christians or not. They are anti-Christ. It just means against Christ
or it can mean opposed to, opposite of Christ. It says here in Romans chapter
9, Paul gives his plea that, hey, I'm not throwing all my
Israelite buddies and kinsmen under the bus. I love them. I
care for them. I wish that all of them could
be saved. And in verse 6, he says, not
as though the word of God had taken none effect, For they,
who are they? Well, he just said those who
are his kinsmen according to the flesh. The Israelites, the
natural Israelites, the nation of Israel, the ethnic people. He's talking about ethnic people
now. So that'd be like me talking about those people living over
there in the Middle East, in Israel. They, that's who they
are. They are not all Israel who are
of Israel. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means that they are
not all Israel or they are not all considered to be true Israelites
that are of the true national ethnic Israelites who descended
from the first Israel. Jacob, who was the son of promise by
Isaac, who was the son of promise by Abraham. See, it's not about physical
descendancy. It's not about DNA. It's not
about your ethnicity. He's saying here, they are not
all Israel. What is Paul saying? To sum that
up, he's saying there is a distinction between national, ethnic, fleshly
Israel and who we're talking about under the New Covenant
in this New Testament that's being written here. Under this
New Covenant, we are talking about the true Israel. the Israel
that God intended before the foundation of the world, but
typified them throughout the Old Covenant. See, God never
intended bulls and goats to be our salvation, right? I think
everybody in this world who even professes some hint of Christianity,
and even maybe some who don't know what Christianity teaches,
would probably say that God never intended to save people by those
bulls and goats. Why would you think that God
intended that by the nation of Israel that that would be His
chosen people in distinction of His spiritual people? Is He going to continue that
type and not all the other ones? He says, neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children. Wait a minute,
I thought if I was born from the lineage of Abraham, if I
was an Israelite, then I am a child. Paul said, uh-uh, uh-uh. That was in the type. But in
the substance, the reality, the true Israel, the true children
of God, the true people of God, they are not the children of
the flesh. These are not, not, not the children of God. and have the universalists say,
well, aren't we all the children of God? Maybe by creation we
are all, but whenever it comes to redemptive things, whenever
it comes to salvific things, no, not everybody are children
of God. Including the seed, physical
seed of Abraham. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. See, Paul is now clearly defining,
some may say redefining, however you want to put it. Paul is making
clear the definition of Jew. He's making definition of the
children of God. He's making definition, clear
the definition of Israel. Not all that are physically descendants
of Israel are of that spiritual seed, that spiritual Israel.
For this is the word of promise, At the time I will come, then
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to the election might stand. Not of
works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I. hated. We see here that it is
not the children of the flesh that are counted. While you're
there in Romans, let's go ahead and look at Romans chapter 11.
Because everyone says, yeah, you're reading Romans 9. You
get over there, it's 10, 11, and 12. Well, 10 and 11. Well, let's go to Romans chapter
11. I'm going to start reading. I'm going to start reading in verse
1. It says, I say then, hath God cast away his people? Talking about the physical people.
Hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people. So there you go. Someone's going
to say, there you go. God hasn't cast away Israel. He's got something
in store for them. He's going to do something great
with them at the end of time. He's gonna regenerate them, refresh
them, bring them back to the land, give them back their temple,
they're gonna be restored to power, give them rule over the
nations, and He's gonna be right there beside them as the Messiah
that they were looking for. But unfortunately, there is some
more to that verse right there, right? God hath not cast away
His people of the ethnic tribe, of the ethnic group, the national
Israel, the natural Israel, which He foreknew. See, that's the
killer. That's the killer to the Zionists.
That's the killer to the premillennialists. That's the killer to the dispensationalists. God hath not cast off the national
part of Israel that He foreknew. And he's fixing to explain that.
How that's going to take place. What's going to happen amongst
that. But brother listen, it says here, he hath not cast away
his people which he foreknew. What ye not, what the scriptures
say of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord they have killed their prophets, digged down thine altars, and
left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer
of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so,
then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace." There is a remnant according to the
election of grace. Listen, is there going to be,
is every American going to be saved? No, but there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. Is every African going
to be saved? No, but there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Is there every Chinese going
to be saved? No, but there is a remnant according to the election
of grace. Is there going to be every German
saved? No, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. See, that's what the issue is. Paul is reverberating what the
Bible has been teaching that God out of every nation tribe
and tongue is saving people out of, not
saving them as a nation, but saving them out of every nation. He isn't saving whole nations
and he isn't rising up whole nations to be his people. He
has a people out of. Now, he used a nation, Israel,
as a type out of all the peoples of the world to show forth his elect. But
his elect are made up of everyone from every nation. And that's
what Paul is getting across here. That I have an elect remnant
according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then
it is no more of worse. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for? Wait a minute, so you're telling
me now that there are some Israelites who's not going to get what they
were looking for? What does Paul say? Let's quit
putting Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey and Timothy Ives and Darby and
Schofield and Ryrie and all those guys interpretation on the scripture. Let's let the scripture lay waste
to the root of their error. But the election hath obtained
it and the rest were blinded. Who is the one who is obtaining
these promises? The one who is obtaining this
salvation? The one who is obtaining this
prominence as the people of God, as the Israel of God? It isn't
those of the flesh, it is those who are of the election of God. They have obtained it, but what
about the rest of Israel? What about the rest of the ethnicity?
What about those who are not of that election, of that remnant?
The rest were blinded. Verse 8, according as it is written,
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David
said, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling
block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that
they may not see and bow down their back always. I say then,
have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid, but
rather, through their fault, salvation has come unto the Gentiles. The fact that they rejected Christ
as their Messiah, as a nation, as an ethnic people, the fact
that they did that, guess what? God has went to the Gentiles
and preached unto the Gentiles. So their rejection, their blindness,
their stumbling over the stumbling block has become salvation. for the Gentiles. Now they're
going to get to hear of the experience of their salvation because now
the gospel is going to them. It says, God forbid, but rather
through their salvation is coming to the Gentiles for to provoke
them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be riches
of the world and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles,
How much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles,
and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine
office. If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are of my flesh, and might save some
of them." Now, he's not saying in a legal way of salvation. He's saving them from the error,
saving them from their misunderstanding of the gospel by preaching the
gospel unto them. giving them the truth, the report
of the testimony of Christ that we talked about last week. He says, if the first fruit be
holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are
also the branches. And if some of the branches be
broken off, and though, being a wild olive tree, were grafted
in among them, and with them partakers of the root and fatness
of the olive tree, boast not against the branches. But if
thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off that I might
be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief they
were broken off, and thou standest by faith, be not high-minded,
but fear. For if God spared not the natural
branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. Behold,
therefore, the goodness and severity of God. Now, what is God saying
here? Are we going to lose our salvation? Are they going to
gain salvation because of something? What's God saying here? It's
an admonition. It's a reminder of Him. He's
just saying, hey, listen. He said, just because God's come
to you now and you're beginning to see your salvation, don't
jump down on them. And that's why I said we need
to be careful, brother. whenever we're making these distinctions. We don't hate on a people just
because they're a certain kind of people. But what are we talking
about? We're talking about the spiritual. And again, whenever I say I hate
those Jews in the religious aspect, I'm hating that just like I hate
the Catholics, just like I hate any person who is anti-Christ,
who is against the Gospel, who is preaching false Gospels. I
hate false gospels. I don't like it. Why? Because
it's, number one, telling a lie about my Lord. Number two, it's
telling people false hope about how people are saved. He says, And they also, if they
abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God
is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut off of the
olive tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary
to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these which
be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? 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 fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And so, all Israel shall be saved. Who is all Israel here? Well,
brethren, all Israel is Jew and Gentile alike. When all the fullness
of the Gentiles come in, and then the remnant of grace among
the Jews come in, of Israel, of national Israel, When all
those two parties, when all the fullness have come in, then all
Israel shall be saved. The Israel that is from every
nation. See, up until that point in time,
it was just Israel out of the nation, Israel. Those who are
of Israel, that were actual Israel. But now we're beginning to see
God calling the rest of Israel, true Israel, from all these other
nations. And then whenever all their fullness
have come in, then we can say all Israel has been saved. But
you were saying at the beginning, back in Romans 8 and 9, wait
a minute, you mean to tell me that all Israel's not going to
be saved? See, that's why you've got to
take 8, 9, 10, and 11 all together. Because Paul has made one long
argument over all these chapters. It's not about national election. It's about individual election. It's about each man, each woman. Not all are going to be saved. God has determined who he's going
to give mercy to and who he's not. And he said in the type,
Israel was a picture of the elect of God. the spiritual elect of
God. And he says, so whenever you
say, wait a minute, are not all Israel, not all is going to get
it? Not all is going to receive the promises? Not all is going
to get what God said he was going to get? He said, absolutely,
all of Israel is going to be saved. All of Israel is going
to receive the promises, just as God had said. But you're misunderstanding
what those things we're talking about. God isn't talking about
earthly, fleshly, physical things, he's talking about spiritual
things. That was the type, just as the golden lampstands, the
golden altar, the Ark of the Covenant, just as the temple,
just as the veil, just as the bulls and the goats and the fire
and the basin and all those things, those were physical things, but
they all taught us about Christ. Taught us about His redemption.
Taught us about His people that He would save. All that was type
and foreshadowed, and so was Israel of the flesh. And he says, And
so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins as concerning the
gospel. They are enemies for your sakes,
but touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's
sakes. For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now
obtained mercy through their unbelief. Even so have these
also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtain
mercy. For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all. 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 for who hath
known the mind of the Lord or been His counselor, or who hath
first given to Him for it shall be recompensed unto him again
for of him, through him, and to him are all things. Be glory
forever. Brethren, we see Paul making
that distinction. Look back, if you would, with
me at Galatians chapter 6, verse 16. We read it earlier. It says, for as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the
Israel of God. Again, the New Testament is redefining
are clearly defining who Israel is. The Jew, the Israel is not
one who is of the flesh. But while we're there, look in
chapter 4 and verse 26. We're also seeing that Jerusalem
is redefined. People are looking for a physical
Jerusalem. Waiting on a new physical Jerusalem
to be restored to the Jews and for a temple to be built In Galatians chapter 4 and verse
26, actually I want to start back up at verse 22. It says, For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by
a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. We just read that those who are
the children who are of the seed are the ones who are the children
of the promise. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants? I mentioned to you a while ago,
we have an old covenant, we have a new covenant. One covenant
has gone away, one covenant is everlasting. Right? He says, for these are an allegory,
for these are two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia. and answereth to Jerusalem which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all." Paul is saying, wait
a minute. There's a Jerusalem that all
of us who are the true children of God That's who we're under. That's who's the mother of us,
not Agar. Look what it says there. Verse
27. For it is written, Rejoice thou
barren, that bearest not, break forth and cry, that thou trivest
not. For the desolate hath many more than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. But as then he Now, remember,
he's talking to the late Gentiles here. He's calling them the children
of God, the children of promise. Listen, those ethnic Jews, those
ethnic Israelites, they are always against the Christian. Now, we
think that Israel is our good buddies. They might be to America, but
they aren't to Christians. It says, nevertheless, what sayeth
the scripture? And this would be my question
for you. What sayeth the scripture? It
says, cast out the bondwoman. cast out the bondwoman and her
son. That covenant and the product
of that covenant cast it out and it says the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Now that's
pretty darn clear. The physical seed of that covenant
is not going to be the heir with the free. It isn't about ethnicity. It isn't about whether you're
of Abraham's physical seed. Verse 31, So then, brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Why do you want
to keep placing us back under the bondwoman? Why do you want
to keep looking back to Sinai? Why do you want to keep holding
on to the Old Covenant? We are the children of the free,
brother. Turn with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Look with
me, if you would, at verse 22. The Bible says, but ye are come.
That's present tense. It's not future tense. You will
come. someday come, it says, but ye
are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. Brethren, we come to the heavenly
Jerusalem. We're not looking to come to
the earthly Jerusalem. We are come to the heavenly Jerusalem
in which the old Jerusalem that now is, when Paul wrote that,
He says that Jerusalem that now is, that is established on this
mountain that hadn't yet been destroyed, that hadn't yet been
torn down, had yet been judged upon, that was then. We're not looking for that to
be rebuilt. We're not looking for that to be reinstated. Matter
of fact, Jesus, whenever he passed by, he said, that house is going
to be left this. And he said, I'm going to tear
down that tabernacle. And in three days he's going
to raise it up. And what was he talking about? Was he talking
about that physical tabernacle? Well, he did tear that tabernacle
down several years later when he came in judgment upon Jerusalem.
But he was talking about his physical body. He was making
the spiritual distinction about a type and shadow. That tabernacle
was a scriptural or spiritual picture of the people of God. He said, I'm going to tear that
down. a picture of his body. I'm going to tear that down and
I'm going to raise it up again. He says that ye are come unto
Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem. So Paul, by the Holy Spirit,
has redefined Jew, has redefined Israel, and has redefined Jerusalem. But there may be some detractors
that say, well, wait a minute. What about the land? They were
promised the land. They don't have it. They don't
have all the land that God gave them. Well, brethren, the Bible
says that they got it all. They don't have it now. No, I
agree with you. They surely don't have the land
right now. Turn with me, if you would, to Joshua. We'll end with
these. Joshua chapter 21. If you remember, Moses wasn't allowed
to go into the land. Joshua took over from Moses He's
the one who brought the people into the land of Canaan, the
promised land. Right? He's the one who brought
them in. And Joshua chapter 21, now there's
a lot to be said about Moses not coming into the land, being
able to come into the land of the tithe, and the foreshadow
that that was portrayed. And Joshua being the one who
takes them into the land. But I just want us to look here
at Joshua 21 and look at verse 43 It says and the Lord gave
unto Israel now listen everybody all the land which he sweared
to give unto their fathers and They possessed it and dwelt therein
all the land that he promised to their fathers, they possessed
it and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round
about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them. The LORD delivered all their
enemies into their hand." Verse 45, listen very closely, not ought of any good thing which
the Lord hath spoken unto the house of Israel, all came to
pass." So brethren, all these people that keep saying they
still haven't got all their land yet, they are supposed to own
that land, they have the promise of all the land and all the promises
that God has given them. Listen to me, physical Israel
received all that God promised them physically. They received
the land, they went into the land, possessed the land, all
their enemies was defeated before their face, and every promise
that God made to them physically, He kept that promise and gave
them. The Scriptures say it right there,
there fell not thought of any good thing which the Lord had
spoken unto the house of Israel, all came to pass. Joshua 21. The Lord gave Israel all the
land which He swore to give unto their fathers, and they possessed
it. Don't tell me that Israel hasn't
possessed the land that God promised to them. I've heard that in my
whole life. They've only possessed partial
of the land. Part of the land. Not all the
land. Even right now. They're not even
allowed to do a lot of things in their own land over there
because Palestinians and Arabs and all the other people that
are... Listen, God promised him the land, promised he'd bring
them in, promised he'd remove all their enemies, and that they
would find rest in the land. And it says there, they possessed
it, they dwelt therein, the Lord gave them rest round about, and
that there stood not a man of all their enemies before them,
the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand, and
failed not to give them everything that He promised them, and every
bit of it came to pass." So did God keep His covenant? Yes. If
God doesn't give them all that land back, is He missing out
on the covenant that He promised them? No! Because He gave it
to them and fulfilled the covenant and all came to pass. Here's the Bible saying 1 Kings
chapter 9. Look if you would with me. 1 Kings chapter 9. Look at verse 1. Now this is years later, many years
later. Solomon had built the temple
unto God. And it came to pass when Solomon
had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the
king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to
do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as he
had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him, I
have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made
before me. I have hallowed this house which
thou hast built to put my name there forever." Also, keep in
mind, brethren, this is also a type of foreshadow of spiritual
tabernacles, right? To put my name there forever
and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. There you
go, the tabernacle's to be forever. The tabernacle's to be perpetual.
There's always gonna be a tabernacle. Yes, sir, there's gonna be a
tabernacle, all right, but it's not a physical one, it's a spiritual
one. But look what he says. And it says, And if thou wilt
walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of
heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have
commanded thee, and will keep my statutes and my judgments,
then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever,
as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail
thee a man upon the throne of Israel. If ye shall at all turn
from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my
commandments and my statutes which I have set before you,
but go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I cut
off Israel out of the land which I have given them, And this house,
which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight,
and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all the people. And at this house, which is high,
everyone that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss,
and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done this unto this
land and to this house? And they shall answer, because
they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers
out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods,
and have worshipped them, and served them, therefore hath the
Lord brought upon them all this evil." Now, brethren, God here is saying
that if national, ethnic Israel, who was brought into the land,
given all the promises, all came to pass, the fulfillment of that
covenant that God had made with their fathers and had built this
holy temple, this tabernacle, that He might come in and that
He might dwell among them in. He said, even though He gives
that, that it will be there perpetually and forever if they do not turn. from following
me, if they do not go after other gods, if they don't forget me,
if they don't go and worship other gods. But what happened
to Israel? What is Israel doing today? At
this very moment, the ones who are in war right now, that everyone
is saying those are God's chosen people, that those are God's,
that's God's nation. that we should be supporting
them because they are God's chosen people. God said, if you turn
from Me and worship other gods, then I will remove you from off
of this land, I will take out My name from this house, and
I will cast you out of My sight. What did Jesus say in the New
Testament? He said that they were a synagogue of Satan, He
said they were whitewashed sepulchres. He said they were a brood of
vikers. He said that he would leave unto them their house what? Desolate. That's what it said
in the Old Testament. I will remove my name from your
house. And that's what he did. He removed
his name from the house. The physical house. The spiritual
house. that tabernacle that was made
with hands. God removed His name from that. God's name is no longer attached
to physical, ethnic Israel. His name is no longer there.
The people of God is that spiritual people who that type and foreshadow
foresaw. And brethren, listen, there's
no difference in the type and foreshadow as it pertains to
us. Listen, we who by the natural man, we went after other gods,
after other idols, we went away from Him, and God is not going
to do anything with this earthly tabernacle. But He has raised
up for Himself a spiritual tabernacle, not made with hands, and we are,
as in the spiritual sense, lively stones in that tabernacle. Again,
it comes down to physical versus spiritual. Brethren, every part
of the spiritual part of that is type and foreshadow and it
is to be done away with and not looked at because the substance
has come. We are now in the new, it's always
been the new covenant, but we as the people here are under
the new covenant. We're not under the old covenant,
we're not under Agar, we're not under Ishmael, we're not under
the Sinai mountain, we're not under the old law, we're not
under the physical israel we are a people of god that is spiritual
who is the israel of god it is the elect spiritual people of
god the seed of christ the ones who are the children of promise
by not physicality but by spirituality well anyway that's my thoughts
on them i don't know don't know what to put a point on but All this hubbub that's going
on over in the Middle East and all about that and everybody
getting wound up about that and then getting mad whenever people
like us say Israel is not the people of God. We don't back
them because they're the people of God. No. Now, will America
back Israel because they think that they're an ally? That might
be true. I don't even think that is really good because Israel
has done a lot of atrocities of their own. Are we bound as Christians to give credence and to give
backing to an ethnic people that God has removed His name from? Are we to say that their God
is our God? Is this a Judeo-Christian? No,
it's not. Christianity is not a Judeo-Christian
religion. As a matter of fact, Christianity
is apart from, separate from, antithetical to Judeoism. Judeoism. The religion of the Jews is Antichrist. We will not have that man be
our God. We will not have that man be
our Messiah. Let his blood be on our hands
and all of our children's hands. And so it has been. So it has
been. The elder shall serve the younger. Think about that a little bit.
As it pertains not only to the nation, Israel, and the people
of God, but think about that as it pertains to this physical,
this natural man, and the spiritual man. It's always going to serve. It's always going to be below.
It's always going to be not the one of prominence. Esau should have been the man
of prominence. He was the firstborn. The Bible says that was not first,
which was spiritual, but that which was natural. But after
that came the spiritual. We were born of Adam. Natural. But the flesh profits nothing. We've been born from above, a
new creation. We are born of the Spirit. We
are now a spiritual life person. And that is the one that God
is pleased with. Not because we
do anything. He's pleased with it because
it is His Spirit that is in us. He's pleased with it because
it's the righteousness of God. Anyway, I could go on in several
different directions with all of that. Anybody got any questions
or comments or things you'd like to add to anything? I hope that, again, I hope this
brings emphasis back to what God has done in Christ. It's
not even about us as the elect people of God. That's not where
the emphasis should be. The emphasis should be on the
fact of God's sovereign grace. Because we are no different than
everybody else. Just like Israel of the flesh
was no different than everybody else of the world. But God chose
us before the foundation of the world and before we had done
anything good or bad that the purpose of election might stand.
God chose us, the true Israel, the true Jew, and has brought
us to the new Jerusalem, the true Jerusalem, the heavenly
Jerusalem, the one that is free. So, may we give honor and glory
to Christ. All right? Nobody has anything? Lord, we thank you again for
this day. We thank you for your mercy and your grace. We thank
you for Christ Jesus. We thank you for salvation, for
the election of God. We thank you for the Word of
God that we have. And Father, we surely, as we
speak of these things, we do not speak of these in any way
to be derogatory towards any kind of people, but to only be
scriptural in our understanding and in our preaching. And Father,
that our hope doesn't lie within a nation, doesn't rely upon a
tract of land, but all of our hope is in Christ Jesus, who
is the fulfillment of all these things. We have already entered
into our rest. We have already entered into
that land. We have been brought to that new Jerusalem. All of
us eat Now out of every tribe, every language, every tongue
will be represented as the Israel of God. All of Israel shall be
saved. Father, Lord, we just pray that
as we speak of these things, as we talk about these things
to all those around us, Lord, I pray that all the emphasis
would always go back to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray
now, Lord, for all these brethren. I pray that you'd give them safety
at home. I pray, Lord, that you'd be with them this week. And Lord,
that you just might keep us faithful to the Word of God, that you
might continue to minister among us here at this church. And Lord,
I just thank you for all that you've done and the salvation
that we have through Christ. In Jesus' name, we pray.