{"id":18468,"date":"2018-01-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-009\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:17","slug":"ecclesiology-009","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-009\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 009"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18468","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 009","sermon_date":"20180107","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20045,"sermon_slides":20046,"sermon_mp3":20047,"sermon_id":"1718109243","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"16:18","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 009\n\n1-7-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 9\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this morning, grateful for the cool weather, grateful for a new year, grateful for a fresh start and so I ask, Father, that since this is the first Lord\u2019s day in the new year that it would be a special time where You could just sort of direct us back to Yourself, back to Your priorities, and that we could live 2018 for Your purposes.\u00a0 And if some of\u00a0 us are misaligned in our lives and our thinking and our priorities my prayer is that You\u2019d use Sunday School today and the worship service that follows to just sort of get us back into what\u2019s important, into eternal things.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nHappy New Year everybody.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we open our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 12 and verse 1.\u00a0 And if you need a handout Ron has one there for you.\u00a0 As\u00a0 you know we started a study, I think about eight weeks ago; we\u2019re on session 9 on the subject of the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the outline that we\u2019re following.\u00a0 We\u2019ve defined what the church is, basically the church is the called out ones; it consists of everyone, both Jew and Gentile, who have trusted in the Messiah rejected by national Israel in the first century.\u00a0 And from there we took a look at the differences between the universal church and the local church.\u00a0 And from there we went into seven word pictures of the church; a picture is worth a thousand words.\u00a0 We talked through what each of those word pictures are and how they sort of fill out the meaning of the church.\u00a0 And then from there, the last time we were together, about two weeks ago, we talked about the origin of the church and when did the church start?\u00a0 Acts 2, and I gave you six reasons why I think that\u2019s so.\n\nAnd what I\u2019d like to do now is get into an area where there\u2019s hardly, almost no, teaching on within evangelical Christianity and yet this area is so significant to interpret the Bible correctly.\u00a0 There\u2019s so many errors in Bible interpretation that take place because there\u2019s a lack of understanding that Israel and the church are different.\u00a0 Israel and the church are basically two programs of God on two different railroad tracks and unless\u00a0 you understand what verses go with Israel and what verses go with the church you\u2019ll be confused a lot of the time as to how the Bible should be interpreted.\n\nThe fact of the matter is, the whole Bible is for us but not the whole Bible is to us.\u00a0 So a lot of people are going into the Old Testament to find commands that they\u2019re supposed to follow today, which is sort of a dangerous practice because I can find a command there that says slay the Canaanites and bring an unblemished animal with you to Temple on Saturday.\u00a0 So obviously we can learn a lot from the Old Testament but we understand that when God told Noah to build an ark I don\u2019t start building one in my driveway, Amen\u2026 even though there\u2019s commands there for Noah to follow.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of obvious that some of the Bible is not directed to us, although the whole Bible is for us.\u00a0 Does that make any sense?\n\nSo to get a handle on this you really have to understand the fundamental differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 Now on Wednesday night I went through 24 differences, slowly, and so if you were with us here on Wednesday night this is going to be a little bit of a review.\u00a0 My plan is to pick up the pace and to go through these Israel\/church differences a little faster and if you want something more than the Readers Digest version you can go back to the kingdom series that we were doing on Wednesday nights and study that.\n\nBut Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, said there\u2019s basically 24 differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 I actually took that number, 24, I took some of his list but I added some things that I thought that he missed, if I can be so bold as to do that.\u00a0 And whether there\u2019s 24 differences or 23 differences or 25 differences, really my point in this is to show you that Israel and the church are different.\n\nSo here we go: There\u2019s the first eight so let\u2019s walk through some of these if we could.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that Israel is in the left column, the church is in the right column.\u00a0 Concerning marriage, Israel is the wife of Jehovah, that\u2019s how she is portrayed all the way through the Bible.\u00a0 So when you look, for example, at a verse like Isaiah 54:5 to Israel the prophet Isaiah said, \u201cFor your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.\u201d\u00a0 So Israel is the wife of Jehovah.\n\nAnd what\u2019s interesting is when you get into the New Testament what you discover is the church is not portrayed as the wife of Jehovah because we, as the church, are not married yet, we are what?\u00a0 Engaged. So we, as the church, are referred to as the bride of Christ.\u00a0 And of course the famous passage that reveals that the best is Ephesians 5:22-33 where our relationship with the Lord in terms of bride\/groom is analogized to a marriage.\u00a0 That would be one fundamental difference.\n\n[Ephesians 5:22-33, \u201cWives, be subject<\/em> to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being<\/em> the Savior of the body. [24] But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be<\/em> to their husbands in everything.\u00a0 [25] Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, [26] so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. [28] So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; [29] for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does<\/em> the church, [30] because we are members of His body. [31] FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. \u00a0[32] This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. [33]<\/a> Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it<\/em> that she respects her husband.\u201d]\n\nA second difference, and by the way, that helps you understand why a lot of the commands are what they are in the New Testament.\u00a0 We\u2019re told as God\u2019s people to keep ourselves pure, just like a woman dressed in white is signifying, when she walks down that aisle, that she has kept herself pure for her marriage day, her marriage bed.\u00a0 That\u2019s basically the imagery that\u2019s used to describe the church.\u00a0 So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, \u201cFor I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as<\/em> a pure virgin. [3] But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u201d\u00a0 So Paul is trying to keep the Corinthians doctrinally pure just as a woman who was engaged would keep herself pure for her marriage day.\u00a0 So when you understand that we are the bride of Christ a lot of the commands in the New Testament directed to us fit that motif.\u00a0 Another difference is our relationship to Christ.\u00a0 The nation of Israel birthed Christ; had it not been for God\u2019s work with the nation of Israel, going back to Old Testament times, we would have no Messiah.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why I had you turn to Revelation 12:1-5 which says this:\u00a0 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; [2] and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.\u00a0 [3] Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were<\/em> seven diadems. [4] And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and he did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.\u00a0 [5] And she gave birth to a son, a man child,<\/em> who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.\u201d\u00a0 Interesting verses, a lot of symbols.\n\nThe son, s-o-n, who is brought forth from this woman who is to rule the nation with a rod of iron, who would that son be?\u00a0 It\u2019d be Jesus Christ.\u00a0 He fits the imagery of Psalm 2:9.\u00a0 [Psalm 2:9, \u201c'You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.\u2019 \u00a0\u2018You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.\u2019\u201d]\n\nHim being caught up to the Lord would fit the imagery of ascension, Acts 1.\u00a0 [Acts 1:9, \u201cAnd after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. [10] And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.\u201d [11] They also said, \u2018Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.\u201d\u2019]\n\nAnd then\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice the dragon standing in front of the woman trying to devour the child the moment it\u2019s born.\u00a0 Who would the dragon be?\u00a0 The devil, because the same chapter, verse 9, tells us that the dragon, or the serpent is Satan.\u00a0 So it\u2019s really a picture of the spiritual warfare that went on when Herod, you recall, was trying to kill all those babies in Bethlehem.\u00a0 It was Satan using Herod\u2019s insecurity over his own throne to thwart the birth of Christ.\u00a0 But this child that is going to come forth through a woman, Revelation 12:1, describes her as being \u201cclothed with the sun, and the moon\u201d and the \u201ctwelve stars.\u201d\u00a0 Who would that be?\u00a0 Well, the Book of Revelation never tells you so what you have to do with a symbol like that is you have to find it in the Old Testament because the Book of Revelation has 404 verses in it; I think 287 or maybe it\u2019s 278, right in there, of those verses are allusions back to the Old Testament.\u00a0 So when you go to Joseph\u2019s dream that he had when he was 17 years old you read this language.\n\nIt says, Genesis 37:9, \u201cNow he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, \u2018Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon\u201d does that sound familiar? \u201cand eleven stars\u201d now it doesn\u2019t say twelve stars here because Joseph is the twelfth star, the \u201celeven stars were bowing down to me.\u2019 [10]\u00a0 He related it to his father and to his brothers;\u201d now that was probably a mistake, he shouldn\u2019t have done that, that\u2019s why they wanted to kill him, because of jealousy.\u00a0 \u201cHe related it to his father and to his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him, \u2018What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?\u2019\u201d\n\nSo Joseph is 17 years old, he has this dream, we know from the rest of Genesis that it\u2019s going to be fulfilled when he\u2019s 30, when he\u2019s going to be elevated to a place of second in command over Egypt and the nation is going to leave Canaan around Genesis 46 and is going to come to Egypt to receive grain in the midst of the famine and Joseph is the intermediary that God was going to use.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why he says at the end of the Book of Genesis, \u201cwhat you intended for evil\u201d in terms of the betrayal by the brothers, \u201cGod intended for\u201d what? \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Genesis 50:20, \u201cAs for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.\u201d]\n\nSo had Joseph not been betrayed by is brothers, sold as a slave to Egypt, he wouldn\u2019t have ultimately been in this position, second in command, where he could help his nation out in the midst of a difficult time.\u00a0 But we know how the vision was fulfilled but Joseph doesn\u2019t know that; his brothers and father don\u2019t know that, so when he narrates it to them they rebuke him. His father rebukes him and in the process of the rebuke the father reveals what the imagery represents.\u00a0 So the sun is Jacob, the moon would be Mrs. Jacob.\u00a0 Now Rachael is already dead in Genesis 35 and Jacob had two wives, not that that\u2019s a good thing, by the way, but that\u2019s just how it worked out, so he was married to someone else named Leah.\u00a0 So the moon is the matriarch, the son is the patriarch of Israel, the eleven starts bowing down to Joseph would be Joseph\u2019s brothers.\u00a0 The twelfth star is Joseph himself, so the twelve stars represent the twelve tribes.\n\nSo when John, going back to Revelation 12:1, talks about a woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars under her feet and from this woman who is the nation of Israel the son, the matriarch\u2026 the moon, the matriarch of Israel, the son, the patriarch of Israel, the twelve stars, the twelve tribes of Israel, this is all imagery used to describe Israel.\u00a0 When John sees a child or a Messiah coming forth from that woman and Satan trying to thwart the birth of this child what it is revealing to us is something that we really already know, that Jesus came into the world through which nation?\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why, when you go to probably the most Jewish gospel that we have, Matthew, probably the earliest gospel, written during a time when Christians were still what we would call Hebrew Christians, they might not even use the name \u201cChristian\u201d yet for all we know because they don\u2019t start using the name \u201cChristian\u201d until the church makes its way up north into Antioch.\u00a0 But you sort of have to put yourself in the position of a Hebrew Christian and what they\u2019re asking is if Jesus is the King, as we have believed He is, then where is His kingdom.\n\nSo Matthew\u2019s Gospel, the whole thing is set up to answer that question and unless you put yourself into the position of the recipient of Matthew\u2019s Gospel you can\u2019t understand the Gospel of Matthew.\u00a0 So right at the beginning the genealogy of Christ is carefully documented, going back to, first of all David, and then ultimately Abraham.\u00a0 So Matthew is basically saying look, you believed in the right Messiah, it\u2019s just the kingdom that you\u2019re expecting has not been cancelled but it\u2019s been postponed.\n\nSo very clearly what you see in this is Israel birthed Christ.\u00a0 Now how about the church?\u00a0 Has the church birthed Christ?\u00a0 It\u2019s the opposite, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Jesus birthed the church.\u00a0 Matthew 16:18 delivered in Christ\u2019s ministry, Christ says, \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock\u201d that would be the rock of his confession, \u201cI will build My church; [and the gates of Hades will not overpower it].\u201d\u00a0 So when he says \u201cI will build My church\u201d the verb there, \u201cbuild,\u201d [oikodom\u0113s\u014d<\/em><\/a>] is in which tense?\u00a0 Future tense.\u00a0 So the church didn\u2019t exist yet when Jesus made that statement.\u00a0 And Jesus says I\u2019m going to produce My church; I\u2019m going to begat My church, I\u2019m going to build My church and that process, as we\u2019ve talked about started in Acts 2.\n\nSo when you start comparing Israel and the church what\u00a0 you start to see is Israel birthed Christ but that\u2019s not how it is with the church at all; the church was birthed by<\/u> Christ, two different concepts entirely.\n\nHow about the return of Christ; when is Christ coming back for Israel?\u00a0 When\u00a0 you go back to the Jewish gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus made this statement in Matthew 23:37-39.\u00a0 He said: \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d doesn\u2019t that look Jewish to you, \u201cyou who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather\u201d and the Greek verb [\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3w]]]]]] there is very interesting, it\u2019s episunag\u014d,<\/em> where we get the word synagogue, which is a Jewish gathering.\u00a0 Jesus said when I came the first time I wanted to have synagogue with you, My nation.\u00a0 \u201cHow often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,\u201d beautiful imagery there, but the problem wasn\u2019t me, the problem was you, because he says, \u201cand you were unwilling. [38] Behold, your house\u201d that\u2019s their temple, \u201cis being left to you desolate!\u201d\n\nHe used to call it My Father\u2019s house, now He says it\u2019s \u201cyour house,\u201d you kicked Me out, it doesn\u2019t belong to Me anymore.\u00a0 And I\u2019m so happy the verse doesn\u2019t end there, because then you get into verse 39. If the verse ended, or the chapter ended with verse 39 you would think God is through with Israel but verse 39, Jesus goes on and says, \u201cFor I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say,\u201d now who\u2019s the \u201cyou\u201d?\u00a0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, \u201cuntil you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d which is a citation from Psalm 1:18:26 which is a Messianic Psalm.\u00a0 [Psalm 118:26, \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.\u201d]\n\nAnd what He\u2019s saying is I\u2019m not coming back for this nation until you confess Me as\u00a0 Your Messiah.\u00a0 Well when is that going to happen?\u00a0 Matthew 23 is followed by Matthew 24.\u00a0 Matthew 24 is a description of the tribulation period, it talks about a time of unequal distress from the beginning of the world until now, and through that tribulation period Israel is going to be converted to her Messiah.\u00a0 She\u2019s going to be put in a position where she will call Christ back to the earth and Jesus will come back and rescue her from the antichrist at the end of the tribulation period.\n\nSo in Matthew 24:31 it says, \u201cAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET\u201d this is NOT the rapture at all, God can have more than one trumpet, amen!\u00a0 People see the word \u201ctrumpet\u201d and they ram, jam and cram the rapture into everything.\u00a0 Verse 31 says, \u201cAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER\u201d now the word \u201cGATHER\u201d there, what\u2019s the verb\u2026 episunag\u014d<\/em>, the same verb we just read about at the end of Matthew 23.\u00a0 I wanted to gather you, have synagogue with you, when I came the first time; the problem wasn\u2019t Me, the problem was you.\u00a0 So now you\u2019re going to go into a time of unequalled distress called the tribulation period; you\u2019re going to be converted.\u00a0 Through that process you\u2019re going to call upon Me, you\u2019re going to cite Psalm 118:26 and I\u2019m going to return to the earth to rescue you.\u00a0 [Psalm 118:26, \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.\u201d]\n\nSo a lot of people today, in their evangelism, are following the ABC method, you\u2019ve got to Admit you\u2019re a sinner, you\u2019ve got Believe that Jesus is your Savior and what\u2019s the C stand for?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to Confess Christ.\u00a0 And we here at Sugar Land Bible Church do not follow the ABC method, we follow the B method, there\u2019s only one condition which is to Believe.\u00a0 And everybody says well wait, Romans 10:9, what does it say over there?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to make some kind of public confession of Christ, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 Almost in every evangelistic tract someone tosses in Romans 10:9, it says, \u201cthat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.\u201d\u00a0 So when people put their evangelistic methodology together they go to Romans 10:9 and they include that.\u00a0 So they come up with the ABC method.\n\nThe problem is Romans 9, 10 and 11 is written to which group of people?\u00a0 Israel!\u00a0 Why is Paul dealing with Israel?\u00a0 Because he\u2019s just made a bunch of promises to us at the end of chapter 8, like nothing can separate you from the love of God, and some wise guy in the back raises his hand and says wait a minute, God broke His Word to Israel and if God broke His Word to Israel, which is an inviolable covenant then God can break His Word to us too.\u00a0 So Paul goes on a digression; it\u2019s actually not a digression, it\u2019s central to his argument that God has not broken His Word to Israel.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Romans 9, 10 and 11 is about.\u00a0 So Romans 9, Israel in the past\u2014elected; Romans 10, Israel in the present\u2014rejected; Romans 11, Israel in the future\u2014accepted.\n\nSo when Paul talks about confessing Christ publicly He is not making a statement about what a person in the church age has to do to get saved.\u00a0 He is talking about what the nation of Israel will do in the future where they publicly confess Christ and Christ will return at the end of the tribulation period and rescue them.\u00a0 Paul, in Romans 10:9 is talking about what the Jew is supposed to do to trigger the Second Advent of Christ, so Christ can come back at the end of the tribulation period and rescue them from the beast.\u00a0 Romans 10:9 equals\u2026 in fact, you ought to just write that down in\u00a0 your study Bible, if you have a pen or pencil you ought to put right next to Romans 10:9, you should say \u201cequals Matthew 23:29 which concerns Israel.\u201d\n\nSo all of that to say when somebody says to get saved you have to publicly confess Christ they are not respecting the Israel\/church distinction.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 A person can get saved without telling anybody.\u00a0 Now I recommend you do tell someone but that\u2019s not a condition God gave.\u00a0 In fact, so much for my \u201cReader\u2019s Digest version,\u201d look at this rabbit trail I\u2019ve gone off on here.\u00a0 For example, John 12:42, what does that say?\u00a0 John\u2019s Gospel, \u201cNevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him,\u201d why not? \u201cfor fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.\u201d\u00a0 So you\u2019ve got a bunch of people in John\u2019s Gospel that believed in Christ but didn\u2019t tell anybody because they didn\u2019t want to be kicked out of the synagogue which meant, if you were kicked out of the synagogue you were basically cut off from all of your religious contacts, social contacts, economic contacts.\u00a0 You would become a leper in society.\u00a0 So they just kept it to themselves.\n\nNow here\u2019s some people that believed but never confessed.\u00a0 Is anybody in their right mind going\u00a0\u00a0 to tell me that those people weren\u2019t saved?\u00a0 If anybody in their right mind is going to tell me that someone who somehow has access to a missionary or the gospel in some Islamic theocracy somewhere in the world that doesn\u2019t have the freedom that we have here in America and they hear the gospel and they believe the gospel but if they say anything about it they know that their kids, their daughter could be raped, their kids could be stoned to death, they could be stoned to death, so they keep the whole matter to themselves.\u00a0 I mean, is anybody in their right mind going to tell me that that person is not saved?\u00a0 And yet they didn\u2019t follow the ABC method. Well, I\u2019m not really concerned whether they followed the ABC method, I\u2019m concerned whether they followed God\u2019s method.\u00a0 God puts one condition on the unsaved to be saved and that is to believe!\n\nNow should we confess Christ publicly?\u00a0 I think it\u2019s a good thing to do, I think God rewards us for doing it.\u00a0 But the reality is confessing Christ publicly is not some kind of condition that has to be fulfilled for a person to experience justification.\u00a0 To make that work you\u2019ve got to grab some passages related to Israel at the end of the tribulation period and misapply them to the present church age.\n\nSo what was I trying to say with all that?\u00a0 I was trying to say that Jesus is going to come back for Israel at the end of the tribulation period; that\u2019s when He\u2019s coming back to them.\u00a0 Now when is He coming for the church?\u00a0 That\u2019s completely different.\u00a0 He said in John 14\u2026 see where I\u2019m going here, I\u2019m not longer in the Olivet Discourse which concerns Israel, now I\u2019ve gone to which discourse?\u00a0 The Upper Room Discourse, which concerns the church; that\u2019s where you start to find your rapture teaching.\u00a0\u00a0 He says in John 14:2, \u201cIn My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; [3] If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself,\u201d after you\u2019re almost martyred by the antichrist.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t\u2019 say that, does it.\u00a0 \u201cI go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and\u201d that\u2019s imminency, He\u2019s coming back for us next, there is no event mentioned that precedes His coming for us which is the rapture.\u00a0 \u201cIf I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.\u201d\n\nSo the coming of Christ for the church is in John 14:2-3 which is the rapture, which precedes the tribulation period.\u00a0 The coming of Christ for Israel is completely different; she\u2019s thrust into that time period, called the tribulation period, in unbelief.\u00a0 Through that unbelief and that distress she becomes a believing nation and then she acknowledges Christ as her Savior, her Messiah.\u00a0 And then Jesus will come back at the end of the tribulation period and gather he together the same way He wanted to do when He was here the first time.\u00a0 So related to the return of Christ Israel and the church are under different programs.\u00a0 The coming of Christ for the church is the rapture; the coming of Christ for Israel is at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 See that?\n\nHow about leadership roles?\u00a0 The nation of Israel had a king, didn\u2019t she?\u00a0 What was her king\u2019s name? Jehovah!\u00a0 Over in\u00a0 Isaiah 33:22 written to Israel, it says, \u201cFor the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our\u201d what? \u201cking.\u201d\u00a0 Now you can go through your New Testament all you want and Jesus is never called our King.\u00a0 I know that\u2019s very disappointing to a lot of worship leaders because they\u2019ve got a lot of songs about King Jesus and all of that, but the imagery that\u2019s used in the New Testament related to the church is He is the head, (Ephesians 5) we are the what?\u00a0 Body.\u00a0 [Ephesians 5:30, \u201cbecause we are members of His body.\u201d]\u00a0 He is the groom, we are the what?\u00a0 The bride.\u00a0 [1 Timothy 6:15, \u201c\u2026He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s our relationship to Him, it\u2019s just described completely different.\u00a0 He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, meaning He\u2019s going to reign as King one day.\u00a0 But He\u2019s not currently functioning in that role as King; He is functioning in a role as high priest at the right hand of the Father after the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0\u00a0 So our leadership to Him is described differently.\n\nHow about spiritual birthday; when did the nation of Israel have its spiritual birthday?\u00a0 When did it start?\u00a0 The nation of Israel started in Genesis 12 with the calling of Abram, whose name at that time hadn\u2019t even been changed to what?\u00a0 Abraham.\u00a0 Prior to that point in time we had\u00a0 the tower of Babel, we had the flood, we\u2019ve had the fall of man, we\u2019ve had original creation, and it\u2019s not until you get to Genesis 12 that you start to learn there\u2019s going to be a special nation that God is going to use through the physical descendants of Abraham to bring forth His Messiah and ultimately His kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not until Abraham, Genesis 12, is called out of the land of the Chaldeans, which probably is where Ur was, and is told to walk by faith.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not until God starts to give Abraham, then Abram, certain promises that later get ratified into the form of a covenant, Genesis 15, it\u2019s not until that happens that the nation of Israel starts.\u00a0 So it\u2019s at that point in time that you have two people groups now on the earth, Gentile and Jew or Hebrew.\u00a0 Prior to that point in time you only had Gentile.\n\nNow that\u2019s completely different than the church, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 When did the church start; we\u2019ve already studied that, haven\u2019t we?\u00a0 Acts 2.\u00a0 The church doesn\u2019t begin, the church doesn\u2019t have its birthday until Acts 2 and it\u2019s not until Acts 2 that you learn that God adds a third group to His dealings with mankind; Jew, Gentile and what? The church of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:32 says, \u201cGive no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;\u201d Paul is acknowledging that a third people group just got added.\u00a0 Prior to Acts 2\u00a0 you only had Jew and Gentile.\u00a0 Prior to Genesis 12 you only had Gentiles.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So our birthday, in terms of when the church started, is completely different than when God started Israel.\n\nHow about volume of Scripture?\u00a0 How much of the Bible is devoted to talking about Israel versus how much of the Bible is devoted to talking about the church.\u00a0 Well, if you have a hard copy of your Bible pick that up just for a second, this won\u2019t work if you have a computerized version, but just pick this up because it\u2019s sort daunting when people discover this, pick it up and with your left hand put your index finger in Genesis 12.\u00a0 Put your index finger of your left hand in Genesis 12 and with the same hand, which would be your thumb, the thumb of your same hand put your thumb in Acts 1.\u00a0 So left hand index finger, Genesis 1, same hand, left hand, thumb, in Acts 1.\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you\u2019re doing your class project correctly you should be doing something kind of like this; can you just do that for a second.\u00a0 Now hold that up to your face, put it right\u00a0 up there by your eyeballs so you can see it.\u00a0 That stuff that you\u2019re holding up is what God said to Israel.\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that a lot of information?\u00a0 This little dinky part over here is what God said to the church.\n\nAnd in fact, a lot of the things He says in this little dinky part aren\u2019t even directly aimed at the church.\u00a0 I already mentioned Romans 9, 10 and 11.\u00a0 Once you get beyond Revelation chapter 5 the church disappears and we don\u2019t really see any references to the church during the tribulation period on the earth; the word \u201cchurch\u201d doesn\u2019t even show up until Revelation 22.\u00a0 So my point is even this little tiny part over here, a lot of it relates to Israel; some of it relates to the church.\u00a0 So what I\u2019m trying to get at is this; 80% of the Bible is talking about Israel.\u00a0 20% of the Bible or a fifth of the Bible is talking about the church, and yet most of our preaching and teaching comes from which section?\u00a0 This little dinky part here.\u00a0 Most Christians know almost nothing about this big section here and yet I\u2019m not sure if our teaching philosophy is correct on this because the great volume of material in the Bible is clearly aimed at the nation of Israel.\u00a0 If you just look at it in terms of volume or material covered Israel is a big, BIG deal to God.\u00a0 And yet I, as a preacher, to be honest with you, am far more comfortable teaching out of this little section here.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s the stuff that applies to us directly; that\u2019s the stuff I understand the best.\u00a0 It\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s sort of less Jewish that as a Gentile makes me a little less nervous.\u00a0 I mean, all this feast stuff and sacrifices, to be honest with you that stuff scares me to death.\u00a0 I like these New Testament ideas better, about the body of Christ, and things like that.\n\nBut the reality of the situation is although we\u2019re more comfortable in the 20% section that\u2019s not how the Bible is set\u00a0 up.\u00a0 Most of the Bible is dealing with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel is bringing forth the Messiah and then the church that the Messiah Himself built up is the body of Christ that\u2019s described in the final fifth.\n\nHow about the covenants; what is our relationship to the covenants?\u00a0 You know the covenants, have\u00a0 you studied the covenants?\u00a0 God gave to Abraham a covenant called the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 The covenant\u2019s promise to Abraham and his descendants was land, seed and blessing.\u00a0 Those are the three main promises.\u00a0 And then what the rest of the Old Testament does is it develops each of those promises.\u00a0 So the land covenant is developed with greater clarity and specificity in what\u2019s called the land covenant, Deuteronomy 29 and 30.\u00a0 The seed promises is given more explanation of what\u2019s called the Davidic Covenant, 2 Samuel 7:12, 16.\u00a0 The blessings aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant is given greater development in what\u2019s called the New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-34. [2 Samuel 7:12, \u201cWhen your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.\u00a0 [16] \u201c\u2018Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.\u201d\n\nNow with whom did God make these covenants with?\u00a0 Israel, and in fact you don\u2019t have to guess about it at all, all you\u2019ve got to do is open your Bible to Jeremiah 31:31-34 which is articulating the New Covenant, which you\u2019ll see there on my chart.\u00a0 \u00a0God says, \u201c\u2018Behold, days are coming,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018when I will make a new covenant with\u201d First Baptist of Houston\u2026 NO, \u2018\u201cwhen I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,\u201d talking about the northern and southern kingdoms.\u00a0 The covenants were never made with the church.\u00a0 In fact, how could the covenants be made with the church; the church didn\u2019t even exist in Old Testament times.\n\nSo related to these covenants Israel is a direct party to the covenants.\u00a0 The only parties in the covenants are God and Israel, period!\u00a0 Now in the service today, and I noticed the deacons haven\u2019t set up the table yet, hopefully they\u2019ll do that at some point, we\u2019re having communion today aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be celebrating communion and Paul says that we ought to take communion because we are beneficiaries of the New Covenant.\u00a0 Well why are we taking communion, celebrating the New Covenant, when we aren\u2019t parties to the New Covenant?\u00a0 The answer is this: while we may not be parties to any of the covenants we are\u2026 what our legal system in contract law calls we are third party beneficiaries to the covenants.\u00a0 We are not a party, we are a third party beneficiary.\u00a0 In other words, God made these covenants with Israel so that the spillover effect is to bless other people.\n\nSo what is the difference between a party and a third party beneficiary?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the example I like to use to describe that: does anybody need their car washed?\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to look out there and find a car unless someone raises their hand.\u00a0 Who needs their car washed?\u00a0 Mikey needs her car washed.\u00a0 And I drive in and I look at you all\u2019s car and I say man, that\u2019s just terrible, the car is dirty, and it just doesn\u2019t look good at our church, I don\u2019t even know what car you drive so this is all hypothetical.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve got an image to protect in the community and so I decide to hire someone to wash your car.\u00a0 So who would like to wash their car?\u00a0 I notice all the hands aren\u2019t going up.\u00a0 I will hire Tomalia to wash Mikey\u2019s car.\u00a0 Now the moment\u2026 and you don\u2019t even know that I\u2019ve entered into this agreement with Tomalia do you?\u00a0 I just call her aside and say their car looks terrible, I\u2019ll pay you\u2026 I don\u2019t know, 30 bucks or whatever, to wash their car.\u00a0 So the moment that happens is the parties to the contract are myself and Tomalia.\u00a0 You aren\u2019t a party to the contract at all; you don\u2019t even know that the contract has been entered into; you are a third party beneficiary.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo in this relationship Tomalia is Israel, and I can do this because I\u2019m teaching and I have the microphone, I am god, isn\u2019t that a sad thing to think about.\u00a0 So I\u2019m god, she\u2019s Israel, the two of us have a contractual relationship with each other, and in fact, this image might not even be the best because in God\u2019s covenants with Israel they\u2019re not bilateral, they\u2019re what? Unilateral, in other words, God does all the work.\u00a0 So don\u2019t push this imagery too far.\u00a0 So who would Mikey be in all of this?\u00a0 She would be the church.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo yeah, we are benefits of a lot of blessings of these covenants and you can go through the New Testament and\u00a0 you can document, oh, there\u2019s a blessing, there\u2019s a blessing, there\u2019s a blessing, but we were never parties to the covenants.\u00a0 The only parties between the covenants are God and the nation of Israel.\u00a0 So that\u2019s another fundamental distinction.\n\nAnother distinction is the nation of Israel is a political entity.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 She is a nation.\u00a0 In fact, when the United Nations meets Israel has a seat at the table along with every other nation on the earth, whether it be Canada or Zimbabwe, or the United States or whatever, because that\u2019s how God set Israel up.\u00a0 He set her up as a nation or we might even say as a country.\u00a0 So as a nation she had land, and the land has borders, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 When you study Genesis 15:18-21 you can see the specific borders that God gave to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 She hasn\u2019t even entered those [can't understand word] borders\u00a0 yet but she will in the millennial kingdom.\n\nAnd because the nation of Israel is just that, a nation or a country she has a capital.\u00a0 The capital of the nation of Israel, thank you Donald Trump recently for recognizing this, is not Tel Aviv, but it is Jerusalem. And then you get into 1 Kings 11, 1 Kings 12 and the ten northern tribes separate from the two southern tribes; the ten northern tribes take on the name Israel, the two southern tribes take on the name Judah, and the capital of the south is Jerusalem; the capital of the north is what?\u00a0 Samaria.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that the nation of Israel is always treated like a country; in fact, she actually has tribes.\u00a0 In fact, you get into the Old Testament and there is information about how you handle border disputes with your neighbors.\u00a0 I mean, what if your neighbor takes more property than they\u2019re supposed to?\u00a0 Your Old Testament and the Mosaic Law covers those kinds of situations.\u00a0 What do you do with a wild animal that comes into your property and destroys it?\u00a0 What do you do there?\u00a0 Well, the nation of Israel is an actual nation, she has laws governing that kind of things, just like you would have here in our country, the United States of America.\n\nNow compare that to the church; is the church a nation?\u00a0 No she is not.\u00a0 In fact, Paul, the apostle, in Romans 10:19 tells us specifically that we are not a nation; we are a non-nation making God\u2019s nation, provoking her to a state of jealousy.\u00a0 As the blessings of God are poured out upon us and are currently absent from unbelieving Israel, the nation of Israel, the wife of Jehovah, is getting jealous that God has turned His attention to another woman.\u00a0 That\u2019s the imagery that\u2019s used here.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cBut I surely say, Israel did not know, did they?\u00a0 \u201cBut I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, \u2018I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION,\u201d that would be us, so we\u2019re specifically called a non-nation because we consist of believers in Jesus Christ of how many nations?\u00a0 All nations.\n\nGalatians 3:28 says, \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Ephesians 2:14 says, \u201cFor He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.\u201d\u00a0 So how then are we, as a non-nation governed?\u00a0 We are governed in local assemblies by leaders of the church called, it starts with an E\u2026 Elders.\u00a0 That\u2019s the divine arrangement of God in the church age.\u00a0 The nation of Israel had no elders the way the New Testament describes Elders for us.\u00a0 The nation of Israel had\u2026 and the hint is there\u2019s a great big book, two books in the Old Testament named after this office, they had Kings.\u00a0 The northern kingdom had 19 kings, the southern kingdom had 20 kings.\u00a0 And by the way, having a king is not the greatest thing because the northern kingdom had 19 kings and not a single one of them was good.\u00a0 The northern kingdom went 0 and 19 in their season.\u00a0 The southern kingdom went a little bit better; they had how many good kings? 8 or 20, so they went 8 and 20.\u00a0 I guess I\u2019d take an 8 and 20 record better than an o and 19 record.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is the kings didn\u2019t do very well and so the message in all of that is Israel is to wait for who?\u00a0 The ultimate King, Jesus Christ, who will be untainted by a sin nature.\n\nSo the nation of Israel has kings; we don\u2019t have kings, we have elders.\u00a0 Why the difference?\u00a0 Because the nation of Israel was a nation with political borders and a capital; not so the church, it\u2019s a spiritual man spread out in all nations.\u00a0 And that\u2019s sort of the danger of confusing one\u2019s nationality with Christianity.\u00a0 A lot of people think America means Christian or Christian means America.\u00a0 And they think that probably because the gospel has germinated here more than any other place on planet earth and I praise God for it.\u00a0 But God never set up the church to be the possession of a single nation.\u00a0 It\u2019s supposed to go into all nations.\u00a0 So all around the world today as I speak we have brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world that are part of the same body.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how it was with the nation of Israel; the nation of Israel was an actual nation with an actual country.\n\nAnd you see, this is where people get confused about the subject of tithing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I even want to bring this up because I need to be winding down here.\u00a0 Israel had a tithe, in fact, they had three tithes. Did\u00a0 you know that?\u00a0 Two annual, one every three years; every Jew was required by law to give twenty-three and a third percent of their income to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s a country that has to support certain things.\u00a0 Like what?\u00a0 Like a priesthood, and an army, and people take that same mentality and they want to bring it into the church and they want to find a number\u2026 how much am I supposed to give to the church?\u00a0 Well, the Old Testament has a number because you\u2019re dealing with a country.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a tax system.\u00a0 The New Testament, for the church age, has no number.\u00a0 It\u2019s very disconcerting to people who discover that, there\u2019s not 10%, there\u2019s no 23 and 1\/3 percent.\u00a0 Now the United States government is not going to give you that same luxury; right?\u00a0 They don\u2019t say well, just give as God has purposed in your heart; I mean, if you do that you\u2019ll be in a lot of trouble, particularly around April 15th<\/sup>, is that the tax day?\u00a0 And in fact, we\u2019ve got our tax things out for folks because they want to know if they can deduct things that they\u2019ve given here, from their taxes, to the U.S. government.\u00a0 Taxes are not optional; they are obligatory.\n\nThat\u2019s why you get into the New Testament and\u00a0 you don\u2019t have a specific number because we\u2019re not a nation and we don\u2019t have a priesthood to support and we don\u2019t have an army, and we don\u2019t have borders and we don\u2019t have a capital.\u00a0 So what are you supposed to give?\u00a0 You\u2019re supposed to follow, not a number but adverbs; an adverb modifies a what?\u00a0 A verb; an adverb typically ends in \u201cl-y\u201d, Joe ran quickly, ran is the verb, what\u2019s the adverb?\u00a0 Quickly, because when I run I don\u2019t run quickly so [can't understand name] would be running quickly.\u00a0 I would be running slowly.\u00a0 So we have different adverbs to describe the verb.\u00a0 See that.\n\nSo if you want to understand the divine expectation in your life concerning giving you don\u2019t go back into a system where we\u2019re dealing with a nation or country.\u00a0 You go into the age of the church where adverbs are given and you\u2019re going to find those adverbs in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9.\u00a0 They tell you not how much to give, as it was in the nation of Israel, but principles for giving.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll find adverbs like this: when you give, \u201cgive\u201d what? \u201csecretly,\u201d don\u2019t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.\u00a0 In other words, don\u2019t give money and expect a building to be named after\u00a0 you.\u00a0\u00a0 When you give, give what?\u00a0 Generously. When you give, give hilariously, cheerfully, not grudgingly, because God loves a what?\u00a0 Cheerful giver.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 9:7, \u201cEach one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.\u201d]\n\nWhen you give, give sacrificially, we should give sort of to the point that it hurts.\u00a0 That\u2019s the New Testament model.\u00a0 Now what\u2019s the point of hurt for you; it might be different for you than it is for me but you see, there\u2019s no number given. There\u2019s a principle given and we\u2019re to follow that principle.\u00a0 So we\u2019re to give sacrificially, we\u2019re to give generously, we\u2019re to give secretly, we\u2019re to give hilariously, oh, and also we\u2019re to give proportionately.\u00a0 It says, \u201cgive as the Lord has\u201d what? \u201cprospered you.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, as your economic status increases there\u2019s an expectation you would give even more.\u00a0 But you\u2019re not going to find a number in the New Testament because the church is not a nation.\n\nAnother real fast one, and then I want to open it up for questions.\u00a0 Wars, what kind of wars do we fight?\u00a0 What kind of wars did Israel fight?\u00a0 Political wars; they went out and they fought the Amalekites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites, the electric lights, the out of sights, the termites, the mosquito bites, all the \u201cites,\u201d they are actual people they\u2019re fighting.\u00a0 There\u2019s a body count you\u2019ll see described in the Old Testament, the armies that they\u2019re supposed to use are described in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Now you would expect that because the nation of Israel is a country.\u00a0 We are not a country so we\u2026 of course, applaud and support those who defend our country, the United States of America, we have a lot of vets and things like that in this church and we try to acknowledge their sacrifice but the fact of the matter is, fighting a war is not an obligation that God ever gave to the church.\u00a0 That is an obligation that God gave to the nation state which He created subsequent to the tower of Babel.\u00a0 We\u2019re not dealing in the church with a nation state, we\u2019re talking about a spiritual entity.\u00a0 So our struggle in the church, Ephesians 6, is \u201cnot against flesh and blood.\u201d\u00a0 Well, wait a minute, in the Old Testament Israel Joshua, David, in fact, this is why David couldn\u2019t build the temple; God wouldn\u2019t let him because there was blood on his hands.\u00a0 Why was there blood on his hands?\u00a0 Because he was the king; he was supposed to go out and wage military conflict.\u00a0 But the church does not do that; the church is a spiritual man in a spiritual struggle because \u201cwe wrestle not against\u201d what?\u00a0 Flesh and blood.\u00a0 So that\u2019s another basic difference.\n\nThat takes us to number nine I think so we\u2019ll stop there and we\u2019ll pick up this list next time.\u00a0 I hope you find this interesting.\u00a0 Let\u2019s open it up for some questions if you have any.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t