{"id":18472,"date":"2018-02-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-013\/"},"modified":"2018-02-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-013","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-013\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 013"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[94],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18472","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-ephesians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 013","sermon_date":"20180211","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5428,"sermon_slides":5434,"sermon_mp3":5437,"sermon_id":"211181014381","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":94,"chapter_and_verse":"1:3","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 13\n\n2-11-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 13\u00a0\u00a0 164- 174\n\nFather, we\u2019re thankful for today and we\u2019re thankful for the cool weather.\u00a0 I just ask that you\u2019ll be with us in Sunday School today and in the main service that follows as we look into Your Word, as we try to study the doctrine of the church and also a little bit more on the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 I pray for Your illuminating Spirit, the ministry of the Spirit I should say, and I do ask that we would leave here changed.\u00a0 If anybody is here that\u2019s unsaved we pray that they would get saved and those that are on the road of progressive sanctification I pray that You would bring things to our minds that we can apply to our daily lives and grow in Christlikeness under Your resources.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If you could open your Bibles to the Book of Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 3.\u00a0 And as you all know, or if you\u2019re visiting for the first time, we\u2019ve been doing a study on the doctrine of the church which is something called Ecclesiology.\u00a0 By the way, you should have a handout.\u00a0 \u00a0One of the things we\u2019ve been talking about for the last several Sunday\u2019s in Sunday School is the differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t separate properly Israel and the church you move into a lot of interpretive mistakes.\u00a0 So this is one of the most fundamental things you could ever learn as a Bible student, the differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 And there at least twenty-four of them that we\u2019ve identified.\n\nThere\u2019s the first eight we went through, the second eight that we went through and we\u2019re on this third group of eight.\u00a0 We\u2019ve actually done most of these, except for the last three so we need to do today number 22, 23 and 24.\u00a0 And then as God allows it we\u2019re going to try to finish that part of the study today .\u00a0 Everybody\u2019s laughing because I say that every week.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to go back at the end and briefly review all twenty-four. \u00a0\u00a0So here we go!\n\nAnother difference, this would be number 22 on your list, another difference between Israel and the church is the evangelistic strategy.\u00a0 When God created the nation of Israel He had the nations on His mind of the world so the blessings that God gave to Israel were never designed just for Israel, they were designed to spill over to the rest of the world.\u00a0 So Israel, from the very beginning, had a missionary purpose, a missional purpose.\u00a0 And you can see that in what God said to Abram when He called him from Ur of the Chaldeans.\u00a0 He said, \u201cand in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[Genesis 28:14, \u201call the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d]\n\nAnd the prophet Isaiah picks up on this in the seventh century where Isaiah 42:6 indicates that Israel will be a light to the nations.\u00a0 And in Isaiah 49:6 Isaiah says the same thing, speaking of Israel, you are \u201ca light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 42:6, \u201cI am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations.\u201d\u00a0 Isaiah 49:6, \u201cHe says, \u2018It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.\u201d\u2019]\n\nSo there\u2019s some commonalities between Israel and the church; both are created with a missionary purpose BUT the strategy that God gave to each instrument to reach the world is different.\u00a0 Israel, for the most part, operated on the basis of a come and see strategy.\u00a0 In other words, the whole point of Israel, God\u2019s earthly people, was to build the temple, which was beautiful by everybody\u2019s estimation, including Josephus in the first century.\u00a0 He says if you haven\u2019t seen the temple you haven\u2019t seen the most beautiful thing in the world.\n\nAnd so what was supposed to happen, and that\u2019s why there\u2019s all these instructions that God gave to Solomon about the construction of the temple.\u00a0 And this was supposed to be such a beautiful edifice that the nations were to stream from where they lived to Israel to see this beautiful thing and in the process they were supposed to learn things about God\u2019s character and who God was.\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when you\u2026 you don\u2019t have to turn there but you can jot down 2 Chronicles 9:1-12, what\u2019s going on is you see the Queen of Sheba making a journey of about 1,200 miles to the land of Israel.\u00a0 Now 1,200 miles in that time period was a BIG journey, there\u2019s no\u2026 there\u2019s ships but there\u2019s no\u2026 cruise lines I guess we could put it that way.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have any airplanes, you don\u2019t have any of the travel comforts that we have today.\u00a0 So for her to make that journey was a huge sacrifice on her part and yet she made that journey, according to 2 Chronicles 9:1-12 to sit at Solomon\u2019s feet and learn of his wisdom.\n\n[2 Chronicles 9:1-12, \u201cNow when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart.[2] Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from Solomon which he did not explain to her. \u00a0[3] When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built, [4] the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, she was breathless. [5] Then she said to the king, \u2018It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. [6] Nevertheless I did not believe their reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard. [7] How blessed are your men, how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. [8] Blessed be the LORD your God who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the LORD your God; because your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.\u2019 \u00a0[9] Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of<\/em> spices and precious stones; there had never been spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.\u00a0 [10] The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum trees and precious stones. [11] From the algum trees the king made steps for the house of the LORD and for the king\u2019s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.\u00a0 [12] King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested besides a return for<\/em> what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her own land with her servants.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd the nation of Israel really, when you study the Old Testament, they really didn\u2019t send out missionaries.\u00a0 Like, we\u2019re going to have a missions moment today, they didn\u2019t have missions moments, they didn\u2019t have mission conferences, they didn\u2019t say hey, let\u2019s get a bunch of Jewish people together and let\u2019s go out and evangelize because that is a strategy that God never gave to Israel.\u00a0 It was never a \u201cgo out strategy,\u201d it was a \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy.\u00a0 And in fact the only prophet I can think of in the whole Bible that was actually sent by God outside the borders of Israel to reach a distant people group is Jonah, and he didn\u2019t really want to go to begin with, so God had to deal with him very severely.\n\nAnd I think part of the reason Jonah didn\u2019t want to go is because it was just atypical for that to happen.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re not supposed to go to them but nations are supposed to come to us.\u00a0 And when you start understanding this strategy you understand why Jesus is so angry.\u00a0 Mark\u2019s Gospel records His visible anger when He went into the temple and He saw that they had turned the temple into a commercial enterprise. \u00a0You know the story, how Jesus started to overturn the money changer\u2019s temple and that kind of thing.\n\nSo why was Jesus so angry?\u00a0 Because the nations were streaming to Jerusalem to learn about Yahweh through the temple and what were they learning?\u00a0 They were learning a distorted image of who God is.\u00a0 They were learning that God was a God of greed God was a God of commerce, God was a God of merchandise, and in fact, Jesus does that, I believe to\u2026 a lot of people try to make it look like He just did it once but when you study the life of Christ very carefully what you discover is He did it twice.\u00a0 He did it at the beginning of His ministry and then He did it at the end of His ministry.\u00a0 So He was very upset about this and the reason He was upset is because this was a total perversion of the \u201ccome and see\u201d evangelistic strategy that God had given to the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd when the millennial kingdom is established upon the earth for a thousand years the \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy will be back in place.\u00a0 The prophet Isaiah talks about a time when Jerusalem, in the millennial kingdom, will be raised above the hills, and then notice what it says, \u201call the nations will stream to it.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 2:2, \u201cNow it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.\u201d]\u00a0 So it\u2019s not you folks in Jerusalem get out and evangelize everybody else, it\u2019s everybody is going to Jerusalem to learn of God.\u00a0 And it\u2019s from Jerusalem that Jesus will render decisions and there will be perfect justice and righteousness and all that sort of stuff.\n\nSo the nation of Israel was evangelistic in terms of God\u2019s missionary purpose for them but the purpose for the strategy was very different than what we see today in the church.\u00a0 It was the come and see strategy.\n\nThere\u2019s another verse in Zechariah 14:16 in the millennial kingdom, it says people will go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the King.\u00a0 [Zechariah 14:16, \u201cThen it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. \u201c]\u00a0 So it\u2019s a regular occurrence where people are going to travel to Jerusalem to actually worship Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So the \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy is going to be back into effect.\n\nNow compare that to the church; the church was also created for evangelistic purposes and it too is to reach the world by God\u2019s design, but it was never given a \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy.\u00a0 It was a go strategy, in other words the local church is about the idea that you win people to Christ, you build people up in Christ, and then you send them out to be ambassadors for Christ.\n\nJesus said something, and we just sort of read right over this because we\u2019re used to the missionary strategy that we have today, a go and send kind of strategy.\u00a0 But when the Jews heard Jesus say this I think it blew their mind because He was reversing what Israel had done for about 1,500 years.\u00a0 After the nation rejects the offer of the kingdom, Matthew 12, in Matthew 13 Jesus starts to disclose the new age of time where the rules have changed.\u00a0 What\u2019s consistent all the way through is God\u2019s desire to reach the lost; what changes is how it\u2019s going to be done.\u00a0\u00a0 So He says in Matthew 13:3, \u201cAnd He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, \u2018Behold, the sower went\u201d what? \u201cwent out to sow;\u201d now that\u2019s earthshaking there, what He just said.\n\nAnd this is why I like what Arthur Pink writes on this.\u00a0 Now I quote Arthur Pink a lot but I don\u2019t agree with everything Arthur Pink said.\u00a0 I can go into a lot of detail about things I disagree with but I think his treatment on the Matthew 13 parables is probably the best I\u2019ve ever seen. Arthur Pink writes, \u201c\u201cThe words \u2018went forth to sow,\u2019 <\/em>or as Mark\u2019s Gospel puts it \u2018went out\u2019 <\/em>were indicative of\u201d now here comes the \u201cD\u201d word, ready?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026great dispensational change<\/u> which was soon to be introduced.\u201d\u00a0 Everybody is afraid of that word \u201cdispensation,\u201d all it means is rule, house rules.\u00a0 So the house rules are about to change.\u00a0 What is consistent is God\u2019s heart for the lost; what\u2019s about to change is the strategy that God gives.\u00a0 And then he says, \u201cThere was no longer to be a planting of vines or fig-trees in Israel, but a going out of the mercy of God unto the Gentiles; therefore what we have here is the broadcast<\/em> sowing of the Seed in the field at large, for as verse 38 tells us \u2018the field is the world<\/em>.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.]\n\nThat\u2019s a brand new strategy.\u00a0 And of course this carries over into the age of the church as Jesus was giving introductory ideas to the age of the church there, I believe Jesus starts to give the primary\u2026 if\u00a0 you\u2019re into mission statements or vision statements He gives primarily here the mission statement of the church or the vision statement; it\u2019s called the Great what?\u00a0 Commission.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very clear, it says, \u201cAnd Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, \u2018All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.\u2019\u00a0 [19] Go\u201d see the word \u201cgo\u201d there, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of\u201d what? \u201call the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[Matthew 28:18-20]\u00a0 So you see the missional emphasis of the Great Commission with a brand new strategy; it\u2019s go and be sent strategy, it\u2019s no longer a come and see strategy.\n\nMark\u2019s Gospel puts it this way, Jesus says, \u201cGo into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.\u201d\u00a0 [Mark 16:15]\u00a0\u00a0 And then just before His ascension He says this to His disciples, Acts 1:8, \u201cBut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses\u201d now notice He doesn\u2019t say in Jerusalem only, He says, \u201cboth in Jerusalem,\u201d meaning you\u2019re supposed to get out beyond Jerusalem, \u201cboth in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,\u201d now Judea and Samaria.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Jerusalem, like a city Judea and Samaria to put this in 21st<\/sup> century vernacular would be surrounding counties, so get out into the surrounding counties into \u201cJudea and Samaria [and even to the remotest part of the earth.]\u201d\n\nAnd what you learn in the Book of Acts is the early church didn\u2019t want to do this.\u00a0 They\u2019re very comfortable in Jerusalem, thank you very much!\u00a0 Why were they comfortable in Jerusalem?\u00a0 Because the whole church, until the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10, the whole church is Jewish, Hebrew.\u00a0 So they haven\u2019t really caught on\u00a0 yet, they\u2019re still following the old strategy.\u00a0 And so God says well, I\u2019ll fix this problem, and He brings on a horrific wave of persecution through a guy named Saul.\u00a0 You can read about this in Acts 8.\u00a0 And this literally forces the church out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.\u00a0 So God had to sort of kick these people in the backside to get them to adopt His new strategy.\u00a0 So it\u2019s interesting, God is going to get His way one way or the other, isn\u2019t He?\u00a0 We can either cooperate with Him, that\u2019s the easy way, or He\u2019s going to get it done through some other way.\n\nAnd when He says you\u2019ll \u201cbe My witnesses in Judea\u201d and then He says \u201cSamaria,\u201d oh my goodness.\u00a0 If you know anything about the Jewish-Samaritan conflict which had been going on for 700 years you know that that statement blew their minds.\u00a0 The Samaritans were a half breed race that worshipped the way they wanted to worship, on Mount Gerizim.\u00a0 They wouldn\u2019t follow the game plan, they wouldn\u2019t go to Jerusalem like they were supposed to.\u00a0 And so for 700 years the Samaritans hated the Jews and the Jews hated the Samaritans and then Jesus goes in John 4 and ministers to a woman living in Samaria.\u00a0 And everybody is saying why are You talking to her, because of this racial hatred.\n\nAnd it\u2019s sort of interesting, we hear all this stuff in our culture today about race and everybody is so race focused.\u00a0 Have you ever studied race through the lens of the Bible? I mean, we have so much we could contribute to the conversation about race.\u00a0 And one of the ways is how God overcame in the age of the church the ancient Jewish-Samaritan conflict.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, the Jews hated the Samaritans so much that in Luke 9 Jesus went into a Samaritan village; the people there didn\u2019t respond to His ministry.\u00a0 And so James and John, now keep in mind John is the love apostle; he doesn\u2019t sound very loving here though, in Luke 9.\u00a0 He says, Lord, shall we not bring down fire from heaven and consume these people?\u00a0 [Luke 9:54, \u201cWhen His disciples James and John saw this, they said, \u2018Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?\u201d\u2019]\u00a0\u00a0 Why would he say that?\u00a0 Because of this ancient racial and religious tension between the Jews and the Samaritans.\n\nSo here Jesus is saying you\u2019re not to be My witnesses in Jerusalem any more, you\u2019re to get out and go into Judea and even into Samaria and then don\u2019t stop there, go where?\u00a0 To the remotest part of the earth.\u00a0 And so this Acts 1:8 is sort of an outline of the Book of Acts.\u00a0\u00a0 The witness of the church in Jerusalem is Acts 1-7; the witness of the church in Judea and Samaria, after the persecution broke out, spearheaded by Saul, is in Acts 8-12.\u00a0 And then how the gospel got to the remote parts of the earth, which would be Asia Minor, Southern Galatia, and ultimately all the way to Rome.\u00a0 Now do you know the statement, \u201call roads lead to Rome.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s an understanding that once it gets to Rome it\u2019s going to go everywhere because all roads lead to Rome.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Book of Acts stops, after Paul reaches Rome, with the gospel.\n\nSo the third part of the book, you\u2019ll be my witnesses to the remote parts of the earth, that\u2019s chapters 13-28 of the Book of Acts.\u00a0 And all of this is being carefully developed because there\u2019s a new rule in place where God is no longer saying come and see, it\u2019s a go and send strategy.\u00a0 And you say well, is this really practical, what you\u2019re talking about?\u00a0 Let me show you how practical this is: a lot of church models today is still a come and see strategy.\u00a0 I volunteered at a church sitting in a staff meeting and the leader of the particular ministry that I was in made this statement.\u00a0 It was a mega church and he said, \u201cif we build it they will come.\u201d\u00a0 And I started thinking to myself, gosh, that sounds familiar, where is he getting that from, I can\u2019t find that in the Bible.\u00a0 Well, as you know that comes from Hollywood, that comes from the movie Field of Dreams<\/em>.\u00a0 Let me get this straight, we\u2019re getting our missional strategy from Hollywood and not carefully consulting the Word of God?\n\nThere\u2019s a lot of people out there that say we\u2019re going to build this beautiful, whatever.\u00a0 Robert Schuller in California, about 15 minutes from where I grew up, built this beautiful edifice, made of pure glass basically, and it was very attractive to look at, and it\u2019s this idea that once we get this thing built then everybody is going to stream into the doors and all that kind of stuff.\u00a0 And the reality of the situation is you\u2019re going back to an old strategy when you do that.\u00a0 The age of the church, the focus is not earth, earthly things, the focus is not property, the focus is really not material beauty, although God has given us a beautiful facility here and so we might as well use it to His glory.\u00a0 But we could have church without this building, amen!\u00a0 Because the church is God\u2019s people.\n\nSo in the age of the church it\u2019s not a let\u2019s get everybody in here kind of thing, even though we want as many people to come as possible, the idea is to build people up in Christ, primarily through the perpetual teaching of God\u2019s Word, which then equips them for their ministry where?\u00a0 Outside the doors of the church because you\u2019re going to have access to people I don\u2019t have any access to.\u00a0 So I can multiply the influence of my ministry by building into you and this week you can reach two or three people that I won\u2019t even know, I don\u2019t even know exist.\u00a0 And think if that happens with every person in the room; there\u2019s a far bigger impact than just getting a bunch of people in the room. I mean, we could probably only fit two or three hundred people in this whole room.\u00a0 And just in this room, if everybody here reaches two to three people, I mean, we\u2019re reaching far more just through the multiplication than just a mere two hundred or three hundred.\u00a0 So we need to embrace this strategy that God has given us; it\u2019s a win\/win built in strategy.\u00a0\u00a0 So that becomes another major difference between the nation of Israel and the church.\n\nAnother difference relates to our blessings.\u00a0 The blessings of the nation of Israel are primarily material blessings. I know I had you open up to Ephesians 1:3 but you might want to slip back for a minute to Deuteronomy 28, holding your place in Ephesians 1, and notice what God, through Moses, says to the nation of Israel and look at how all of these are material things.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 28:1, \u201cNow it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His command\u00adments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the\u201d what? \u201cnations of the\u201d what? \u201cearth.\u201d [2] \u201cAll these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God:\u00a0 [3] Blessed shall you be in the city,\u201d that sounds earthly, doesn\u2019t it, \u201cand blessed shall you be in the country.\u00a0 [4] Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.\u201d\u00a0 See how these are all earthly things.\u00a0 [5] Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cBlessed you will be when you come in and blessed shall you be when\u00a0 you go out.\u201d\u00a0 [7] The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.\u201d\n\nSee, these are all earthly things.\u00a0 \u00a0Verse 8, \u201cThe LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.\u201d\u00a0 And you can just go right on through that.\u00a0 It talks about rain and crops, livestock, I mean, Israel\u2019s blessings were earthly, they all relate to this earth, planet earth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s part of the reason God gave them a \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy because people could come to the land of Israel and see the actual material blessing of God, see there\u2019s no other source for this other than God.\n\nCompare that to the church; we can to Ephesians 1:3. \u00a0Look how different this is.\u00a0 Paul, writing to the church in Ephesians 1:3 says, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201cspiritual blessing\u201d where, \u201cin the heavenly places in Christ,\u201d now as you look at Ephesians 1:3 there\u2019s probably\u2026 the three words I\u2019m focusing on in here is number 1, \u201cblessed\u201d a lot of people are trying to get\u2026 a lot of Christians are out there trying to get blessed from God, and if someone tells them you can get God\u2019s blessing if you do this formula.\u00a0 Well, the reality is you\u2019ve already been blessed.\u00a0 In fact your bank account is so full if you ask God for something else there wouldn\u2019t be enough room for it.\n\nAnd it\u2019s not just a couple of blessings that we have; we have how many blessings, \u201cevery\u201d blessing; that\u2019s a pretty comprehensive concept, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And then it very clearly says our blessings are spiritual; they\u2019re not material.\u00a0 Now does God bless people materially?\u00a0 Yes, He can and does.\u00a0 Does God provide for our needs?\u00a0 Yes, He can and does.\u00a0 But that is really not the focus of the church; the church\u2019s blessings are spiritual blessings, every blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well, is this really relevant, what you\u2019re talking about?\u00a0 There isn\u2019t anything more relevant than understanding this because so many of God\u2019s people think that their glass is maybe three-quarters full.\u00a0 And they\u2019ve got to go and plead before God to get the final twenty-five percent.\n\nAnd in the charismatic movement you see this idea of the second blessing.\u00a0 Now that you are a Christian you\u2019ve got to go on now and get this sort of second dose of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Well, that would contradict, wouldn\u2019t it, Ephesians 1:3.\u00a0 Ephesians 1:3 doesn\u2019t say you\u2019re blessed with every spiritual except the baptism of the Spirit, you don\u2019t have that one yet.\u00a0 I mean, the problem with us is not that we need more blessings; the problem with us is we quench the blessings that we do have, so our fellowship with God can get broken and we need to restore that AKA 1 John 1:9.\u00a0 Right? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d]\n\nSo I don\u2019t need more of the Spirit, the Spirit needs more of me because I constantly will, in my human fallenness, assert my will against the Spirit and I can quench the Spirit.\u00a0 But the problem isn\u2019t God here in the lack of blessings; the problem is I haven\u2019t been a good steward of the blessings I do have.\u00a0\u00a0 And so many people, they fall for a financial strategy which says gosh, if I\u2019m having some problems financially the televangelist told me that if I give a certain amount of money and the money has to go to the televangelist by the way, did you ever notice that?\u00a0 It\u2019s never don\u2019t give to the orphanage that no one knows about, always give it here.\u00a0 Then God is obligated to bless me materially so material blessings are held out to people as a consequence of giving money to a televangelist.\u00a0 And immediately when you hear that you should be thinking, first of all, that\u2019s the wrong dispensation.\u00a0 And what confuses people is the televangelist will quote a bunch of verses from the Bible but they\u2019re all from Israel.\u00a0 And people that don\u2019t understand the Israel\/church distinction will fall for this.\n\nSo if you feel you have to give to somebody to get the blessing of God, number 1,\u00a0 you\u2019re going back to old covenant Israel whose blessings were earthly.\u00a0 And number 2, you\u2019re confusing the motive for giving.\u00a0 Why do we give as New Testament Christians?\u00a0 By the way, the New Testament in the epistles talks about giving.\u00a0 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, it\u2019s called the principles of grace giving.\u00a0 Why do we give?\u00a0 I mean, do I give because if I put $10.00 in God is obligated to give me $100.00 back, like a slot machine?\u00a0 NO, I don\u2019t give\u2026 watch this very carefully, I don\u2019t give to get blessed; I give because I\u2019ve already been blessed.\u00a0 That\u2019s a totally different motive.\u00a0 We give because we can\u2019t believe what we have in the grace package; God has given us \u201cevery spiritual blessing in the heavenly places\u201d.\n\nNow in our soteriology study we went through 33 of those blessings that you already have.\u00a0 Those are yours at the point of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 But they\u2019re not earthly, they\u2019re not material, although God does provide for our needs and does financially bless His people when He wants to.\u00a0 That\u2019s just not a guarantee.\u00a0 Meeting our needs is a guarantee.\u00a0 But what is a guarantee is \u201cwe have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u201d\u00a0 [Ephesians 1:3, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.\u201d]\n\nThis is why Jesus, to the church at Smyrna, Revelation 2:9, says I know \u201cyour poverty,\u201d now the Greek word for poverty here is a level of poverty that\u2019s abnormal.\u00a0 We\u2019re not just talking about people that are struggling to pay their bills; we\u2019re talking about a level of poverty that\u2019s way below anything that would be imaginable in the human mind.\u00a0 So Jesus says I am acknowledging your poverty, and then He puts in parenthesis here, \u201cbut you are\u201d what? \u201crich.\u201d\u00a0 Why are they rich?\u00a0 Because they\u2019ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0 A job layoff can\u2019t change that; inflation can\u2019t change that, interest rates can\u2019t change that, identity theft can\u2019t change that.\u00a0 Anything that\u2019s taken away from you in the earthly realm can\u2019t alter the fact that you\u2019ve been blessed with every blessing in the spiritual heavenlies.\u00a0 So Israel and the church are very different because Israel\u2019s blessings were earthly, they are God\u2019s earthly people and we are God\u2019s heavenly people and so our primary blessings are heavenly.\n\nAnd let me see if I can squeeze one more in.\u00a0 This is number 24.\u00a0 The final difference that we have between Israel and the church is the composition.\u00a0 The only thing that\u2019s necessary to be a member of Israel is physical lineage, meaning you have to be a physical descendant from who?\u00a0 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!\u00a0 If you\u2019re in that lineage then you\u2019re Hebrew, you\u2019re Jewish.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God calls Himself later on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\u00a0 He\u2019s making a statement about Israel.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because Joseph was a tribe, one of twelve, within Israel.\u00a0 The only thing that\u2019s necessary to be a member of Israel is you have to be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob physically, genealogically, which means within Israel you can have some that are actual believers in God\u2019s promises and some that are unbelievers.\n\nDo you see that?\u00a0 And as you begin to understand this it starts to make sense of the things that the New Testament prioritizes for the Jew.\u00a0 The New Testament is very clear that yes, God loves the Jewish people but He\u2019s going to fulfill His covenants, not just through Israel but through who?\u00a0 Believing Israel.\u00a0 This comes out in the preaching of John the Baptist.\u00a0 Matthew 3:9, \u201cAnd do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, \u2018We have Abraham for our father\u2019;\u00a0 So a lot of them thought they were okay with God because of their genealogy.\u00a0 And John the Baptist says, \u201cfor I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.\u201d\n\nIn other words God is not impressed with someone just because they\u2019re Jewish.\u00a0 What He\u2019s impressed with is the believing Jew.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Because within Israel it\u2019s completely possible to have a composition of unbelieving Israel and believing Israel.\u00a0 This starts to make sense of what Paul says in the Book of Romans, chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, a section where he\u2019s dealing with Israel.\u00a0 And Paul says, \u201cFor he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. [29] But he is a Jew who is one\u201d what? \u201cinwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.\u201d\n\nI mean, there\u2019s nothing wrong, of course, with being a physical Jew.\u00a0 God set up the institution of circumcision, Genesis 17,\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s all wonderful but the reality of the situation is God is not going to fulfill His covenants just through Jewish people because they\u2019re Jewish.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to fulfill His covenants with believing Israel.\n\nRomans 9:6 says, \u201cBut it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;\u201d\u00a0 see that?\u00a0 So in the outer ring there that\u2019s in blue you have the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\u00a0 But in that white ring in the interior there you have a special group of Jews, believing Jews\u00a0 And Paul calls them, Galatians 6:16, \u201cthe Israel of God.\u201d [Galatians 6:16, \u201cAnd those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.\u201d]\n\nThey\u2019re a lot of people out there trying to make it sound like \u201cthe Israel of God\u201d is a term that applies to the whole church.\u00a0 That is not true and we tried to deal with this in our Kingdom series, I think the last lesson we did at the end of last year.\u00a0 You can access that and see what Galatians 6;16 is really talking about.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about a group within the physical lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that are believing Jews and they\u2019re affectionately called \u201cthe Israel of God.\u201d\n\nAnd that\u2019s why Jesus, back to the church at Smyrna, could say, \u201cI know the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews but are not.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 2:9.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see the exact same concept in Revelation 3:9 as Jesus addresses another church in Asia Minor.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:9, \u201cBehold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie\u2026.\u201d]\u00a0 So what he\u2019s getting at is God is not impressed with someone just because they\u2019re Jewish; it\u2019s the believing Jew that He\u2019s going to fulfill His purposes through.\u00a0 So all the way through Old Testament, New Testament, you have this constant distinction being made between the believers and the unbelievers that are all physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nYou say well, can you connect the dots for me a little bit more?\u00a0 Well here we go.\u00a0 You ready for this?\u00a0 That\u2019s why Israel will go into the tribulation period.\u00a0 Why is Israel going into the tribulation period, the 70th<\/sup> week of Daniel?\u00a0 Because the purpose of the tribulation period, besides judging this world for its wickedness is preparatory for the kingdom.\u00a0 God\u2019s covenants are made with the Jewish people.\u00a0 God is very clear that He is going to fulfill His Word through the Jewish people, not just the Jewish people generically but the Jewish people in faith.\u00a0\u00a0 So He\u2019s got to send Israel into the tribulation period to find the ones or to create the ones that are believers in Him.\u00a0 They\u2019re called the remnant; the rest of them are going to be purged off or cut off.\n\nThat\u2019s why this remnant in the tribulation period is analogized to the refiner\u2019s fire; you apply the refiner\u2019s fire to a piece of metal and what does it do?\u00a0 It purifies the metal; it burns off the dross.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the tribulation period is doing for Israel.\u00a0 The purpose of it is to locate and in some cases bring to faith the remnant and to purge off the unbelievers.\u00a0 Why does God have to do that?\u00a0 Because of the nature of Israel itself.\u00a0 Israel, by definition, has within it believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 So the prophet Zechariah says, [Zechariah 13::8] \u201cIt will come about in the land, declares the LORD, \u2018that two-thirds will be cut off.\u201d \u00a0Now who\u2019s the two-thirds?\u00a0 Those are Jews that are not believers. \u00a0\u201c\u2026and they will perish; but the third will be left in it.\u00a0 [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.\u201d\u00a0 And then it talks about their believing state when this process is over, the Israel of God, \u201cThey will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, \u2018They are My people,\u2019 And they will say, \u2018The LORD is my God.\u2019\u201d\n\nSo what is God doing in the tribulation period is He\u2019s making a deliberate separation between unbelieving Israel and believing Israel and at the end of the whole process you now have a believing Israel in place whereby God can fulfill His covenants and bring forth what He\u2019s always wanted to do, the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think you guys have this slide but I added this at the last minute but it\u2019s just Ezekiel 20:33-38.\u00a0 It teaches the same principle.\n\nGod says in Ezekiel 20:34, \u201cI will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, \u2026 [35] \u2026 and there I will enter judgment with you face to face.\u00a0 Verse 38, \u201cand I will purge from you the rebels\u201d now who would the rebels be? Unbelieving Israel, they\u2019re purged off, they\u2019re cut off, leaving only believing Israel so there\u2019s a believing Israel in place whereby God can fulfill His covenants and His program.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 So Israel, because of how she\u2019s designed, having believing Jews and unbelieving Jews, has to go into the tribulation period.\u00a0 Does that make sense?\n\nCompare that to the church.\u00a0 Can you have unbelievers in the universal church?\u00a0 I mean,\u00a0 you can certainly have unbelievers in a local church, but we\u2019re not talking about that;\u00a0 we\u2019re talking about God\u2019s church, the universal church.\u00a0 If you weren\u2019t a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you couldn\u2019t get your foot in the door.\u00a0 You would never be granted entry.\u00a0 With Israel it\u2019s completely possible to have an unbelieving Jew and a believing Jew.\u00a0 You cannot have that in the universal church.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, \u201cFor by one Spirit\u201d us Bible church people were all\u2026. No, it doesn\u2019t say that, does it?\u00a0 \u201cFor by one Spirit\u201d us Presbyterians, us Methodists, us Lutherans.\u00a0 No!\u00a0 \u201cFor by one Spirit we were\u201d what? \u201call baptized\u201d means identified, \u201cinto one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were\u201d what?\u00a0 What\u2019s the next word? \u201call made to drink of one Spirit.\u00a0 If a person has trusted in Christ they are part of God\u2019s\u00a0 universal church; if they\u2019ve never trusted in Christ for personal salvation then they are not part of the church.\u00a0 Not so with Israel.\n\nSo the primary distinctions that the New Testament draws our attention to concerning divisions in the church have nothing to do with believing versus unbelieving.\u00a0 What it has to do with is different levels of maturity and different levels of growth.\u00a0 That\u2019s the distinction.\n\n1 Corinthians 2:1-3 says, \u201cAnd I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in\u201d babes in what? \u201cbabes in Christ.\u00a0 [2] I fed you milk to drink, not solid food; for until now you were not yet able to receive it.<\/em> \u00a0And even now you are not yet able, [3] for you are still carnal. For where there is envy and strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal, and are you not behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 And it is frustrating to me to watch commentator after commentator after commentator in their Corinthians commentaries try to explain that the babes in Christ and the carnal are not Christians.\u00a0 Well folks, that\u2019s an Israel distinction, believer versus unbeliever.\u00a0 Paul is not dealing with Israel here; he\u2019s dealing with the universal church.\u00a0 If these people were not believers they wouldn\u2019t be part of the universal church at all.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 That\u2019s why he calls them \u201cbabes in Christ.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s why he says, \u201cAnd I,\u201d what\u2019s the next word in verse 1, \u201cI, brethren,\u201d see the distinction within the church is different levels of maturity and different levels of growth.\n\nWe are very simplistic how we think.\u00a0 Our thinking is believer\/unbeliever!\u00a0 And that\u2019s an important distinction because that determines heaven or hell but that is a very shallow, superficial analysis.\u00a0 What you\u2019ll find in Paul is a lot more sophistication than that because within the camp of the saved, within the universal church there are different levels of maturity.\u00a0 One group is the growing group called spiritual believers.\u00a0 One group is the infants in Christ, those are new Christians and they\u2019re sort of cute because they\u2019re doing age appropriate things, like when a baby sucks their thumb, that\u2019s sort of cute, right?\u00a0 But when they\u2019re 16 it loses its cuteness and the group that loses its cuteness is that third group there, the carnal Christians.\u00a0 The author if Hebrews, chapter 5, verses 11-14 says that that group \u201cby this time,\u201d in other words, they have been in the state of carnality for a long time, \u2018by this time they ought to be teachers,\u201d but I need \u201cto teach you the elementary\u201d things of the Word of God all over.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve done studies on the reality of carnal Christianity.\n\nAnd there\u2019s such a fear that if you acknowledge a category called carnal Christianity that somehow you\u2019re misinterpreted as being a cheerleader for carnal Christianity.\u00a0 Paul was no cheerleader for carnal Christianity.\u00a0 You can see Paul in 1 Corinthians speaking very harshly to these people, not threatening them with hell but threatening them with loss of rewards at the Bema Seat and all kinds of other issues.\u00a0 So just because you acknowledge it\u2019s a category doesn\u2019t mean you think it\u2019s some great thing that you have carnal Christians because in the hyper Calvinist circles you get this idea that you\u2019ve got believers and unbelievers and that\u2019s it.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re not growing in Christ you were never saved.\u00a0 And if Jesus is not Lord of all then He\u2019s not Lord at all.\u00a0 And you hear this type of thinking and then I would just challenge you to read that through the grid of Paul.\u00a0 Paul wants folks saved but within the saved camp he clearly acknowledges different levels of maturity within the body of Christ.\n\nSo what am I trying to get at?\u00a0 What I\u2019m trying to get at is Israel had believers and unbelievers in it so Israel has to go into the tribulation period to purge the unbelievers from the believers.\u00a0 The church, the universal church has no unbelievers in it at all.\u00a0 The only distinction that\u2019s drawn is the different levels of maturity within Christians.\u00a0 So therefore the church does not have to go into the tribulation to purge believers from unbelievers because you wouldn\u2019t be part of the universal church at all unless you were a believer.\n\nNow God, prior to the tribulation, will send you into all kinds of trials, little \u201ct,\u201d to move us away from infancy and carnality into the spiritual man.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the trials are there to do; they\u2019re there to bring us to a higher level of maturity.\u00a0 James 1:2-4.\u00a0 [James 1:2-4, \u201cConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, [3] knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. [4] And let endurance have its<\/em> perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.\u201d]\u00a0 But it\u2019s not going into the tribulation period itself, the way Israel has to do, to separate believer from unbeliever.\n\nSo John Walvoord, the great prophecy scholar said this:\u00a0 \u201cYour views on eschatology really relate to your views on ecclesiology.\u201d\u00a0 If you have a correct ecclesiology down then your view on eschatology will fall nicely into place.\u00a0 So people that want to put the church into the tribulation period, number 1, don\u2019t understand the purpose of the tribulation period, and number 2, they don\u2019t understand the nature of the church.\u00a0 It would be a violation of the nature of the church itself to put the church into the seven years wrath of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s number 24.\n\nSo here we go, we\u2019re going to review the difference between Israel and the church: Israel is the wife of Jehovah, the church is the bride of Christ. Israel birthed Christ, the church was birthed by Christ.\u00a0 God returns for Israel, the second coming; He returns for the church at the rapture.\u00a0 God is the King of Israel; He\u2019s the head or the groom over the church.\u00a0 Israel began in Genesis 12; when did the church start?\u00a0 Acts 2.\u00a0 80% of the Bible, 4\/5ths of it governs Israel.\u00a0 20% governs the church.\u00a0 Concerning the covenants, Israel was the direct party between God and the covenants.\u00a0 We\u2019re not a party to those covenants, we\u2019re what we call third party beneficiaries.\u00a0 And just kind of review the prior lessons and if some of these things I\u2019m saying are ambiguous.\n\nIsrael is a political nation, the church is a spiritual man.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s wars were political, our wars are spiritual. Israel has timing texts; the church has none.\u00a0 Israel has a priesthood, the church is a priesthood.\u00a0 Israel had a physical temple, but today the temple of God is where?\u00a0 The individual Christian.\u00a0 Israel is going to receive their resurrected bodies at the first resurrection, Revelation 20; the church is going to receive its resurrected body at the time of the rapture.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s judgment is on the earth; our judgment for rewards is where?\u00a0 In heaven.\n\nThe New Jerusalem names the gates after Israel but it names the foundations after the church.\u00a0 You get into Israel through physical birth; you get into the church through spiritual birth.\u00a0 What governs Israel is the Law; what governs the church is New Testament revelation, primarily the epistles.\u00a0 Israel received the Holy Spirit selectively, temporarily and subsequent to salvation.\u00a0 We receive the Holy Spirit universally and permanently at the moment of salvation.\u00a0 God\u2019s farewell address to Israel is the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 His farewell address to the church is the Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 Israel is called God\u2019s firstborn Son.\u00a0 We are called the Bride of Christ.\u00a0 Israel is revealed in the Old Testament but the church is not.\u00a0 Israel followed a come and see evangelistic strategy.\u00a0 The strategy God has given us is a go and proclaim strategy.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s blessings are earthly, the church\u2019s blessings are heavenly.\u00a0 Israel is composed of believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 The church is composed only of believers.\n\nWhat I\u2019m trying to argue here is that God has, watch this, separate programs for Israel and the church.\u00a0 Israel and the church are like two trains running on different railroad tracks.\u00a0 Take a look at Ephesians 3:10, just to sum up here.\u00a0 Paul says this, \u201cso that the manifold<\/u> wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Paul says when he\u2019s describing the church it\u2019s part of, and I have the key word underlined here, \u201cthe manifold\u201d plan of God.\u00a0 The word \u201cmanifold\u201d is polypoikilos<\/em>, what does that mean? I looked that up in the lexicon and it means many sided.\u00a0 God\u2019s program is many sided.\u00a0 It brings to memory a multi cut diamond, many sided, multiple cuts to make up a diamond.\u00a0 That\u2019s the plan of God.\n\nGod has one program for fallen angels.\u00a0 He\u2019s got a totally different program for the angels that didn\u2019t fall.\u00a0 God has one program for man.\u00a0 He has a totally different program for woman.\u00a0 God has a program for national Israel.\u00a0 He has a completely different program for the church because this is the nature of God.\u00a0\u00a0 God is a God of diversity and variety.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that obvious by looking at creation?\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that of the seven billion people on this planet nobody has exactly the same fingerprints; we all have different personalities, we all have different temperaments.\u00a0 And you look at nature, you look at humanity, you look at what God has created, what do you see?\u00a0 You see complete diversity.\u00a0 And what do you see in the plan of God.\u00a0 You see diversity.\n\nAnd the reason I bring this up is there is such a\u2026 what I would call a ram, jam and cram mentality today where people don\u2019t like all this and they want to oversimplify things and just jam it all into one thing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s called the one people of God theology.\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t believe in one people of God theology, I believe in at least two people of God theology, Israel and the church. I don\u2019t have any problem believing in that if it\u2019s biblical because it fits into the many sided manifold plan of God which is who God is.\u00a0 He\u2019s a God of variety; He\u2019s a God of diversity.\n\nSo let\u2019s let Israel and the church just be what God wants them to be; let\u2019s not force one to be the other.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s people in the church that want to be Israel today and there\u2019s other people that think Israel is the church and it\u2019s part of this mindset that we have where we want to fit God into our box and God doesn\u2019t fit into a box (as you know).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God\u2019s plan is multisided.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s what the Israel\/church differences help us to understand.\n\nSo the next time we\u2019re together we\u2019ll get into the subject of the intercalation that the church is what we would call an intercalation; it\u2019s an interruption in God\u2019s past and future program for national Israel.\u00a0 The church is not less important but it\u2019s right there, it\u2019s sometimes used as a parenthesis to describe it, it\u2019s right there interrupting God\u2019s past and future work with Israel.\u00a0 So that\u2019s where we\u2019re going starting next week and I\u2019ll stop talking, believe it or not, and we can open it up for questions.","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