{"id":19162,"date":"2016-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-10\/"},"modified":"2016-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T05:00:00","slug":"the-bible-and-voting-part-10","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-10\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible and Voting – Part 10"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[65],"series_event":[466],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19162","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-proverbs","series_event-the-bible-and-voting-2016","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Bible and Voting - Part 10","sermon_date":"20160911","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3936,"sermon_slides":3944,"sermon_mp3":3939,"sermon_id":"911161029593","series_or_event":466,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":65,"chapter_and_verse":"14:34","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nSeptember 11, 2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Bible and Voting, Part 10\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Jeremiah; you say Jeremiah, does anybody really preach out of Jeremiah anymore?\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ll make a few references to Jeremiah; Jeremiah 31:35-37. The title of our message this morning is The Bible and Voting, Part 10.\u00a0 If you\u2019re tired of parts you can call this Should Christians Support the Modern State of Israel, Part 2.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s more interesting than a part 10.\n\nOf course I appreciate what Richard had to say about 9\/11, which happened on this day back in 2001; three thousand Americans lost their lives simply by showing up to work.\u00a0 And what\u2019s even more tragic than that is some of the attacks that have happened in recent days have happened also on 9\/11.\u00a0 For example, the Benghazi attack happened on 9\/11 so 9\/11 is the time not just to look backward and memorialize, as important as that is, but it\u2019s also to look into the present and, as the Bible says, we need to be in constant prayer for our leaders and rulers so they can fulfill their purpose of restraining evil in our world.\n\nWe have begun, or actually haven\u2019t begun, we\u2019re towards the end of it (believe it or not), I think we\u2019re towards the end of it, a series of studies that really we started on Independence Day weekend on the whole issue of voting, not trying to corral people into one party or the other, or to promote one candidate or another, but rather to do this more or less as a topical Bible study because there are many, many things that the Bible talks about that we, as Christians, have the opportunity to vote on, not just in the present election cycle but in virtually every election.\n\nAnd the question is, when we go to vote for anybody or anything are we thinking the way God thinks.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve looked at some economic issues, we\u2019ve walked all the way through those, about ten of them we mentioned. \u00a0And then from there we moved into social issues; we tried to look at what the Bible has to say about key social issues of the day, like same sex marriage, like abortion, like euthanasia, things of that nature.\u00a0 And I hope you have been pleasantly surprised how much the Bible speaks to these issues.\n\nFrom there we moved into foreign affairs issues; we\u2019ve talked about the attitude of God towards world governments.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked about the attitude of God toward borders and their enforceability.\u00a0 And last Sunday we began looking at an issue that (I\u2019m very sad to say) very few people think about when they actually vote, and that\u2019s our relationship towards the nation of Israel.\u00a0 God, as we saw beginning last week has a lot to say about the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, I have been thinking a lot lately about the nation of Israel because I\u2019ve been involved in a conference at West Houston Bible Church (which finishes this evening) involving the nation of Israel.\u00a0 So if you have some time on your calendar and want to spend you Sunday night in an edifying way you might think about the conference tonight at West Houston Bible Church.\u00a0 If I remember right we have a few flyers left on the name tag table.\u00a0 I think it starts around 7:00 and tonight Yoram Ettinger<\/strong> is going to be speaking at West Houston Bible Church, who is a retired Israeli ambassador who is a wealth of information about Israel and the current struggle that Israel faces.\n\nBut in terms of our remarks about the nation of Israel you might recall last week we divided this up into three parts; we began looking at the divine purpose toward the nation of Israel.\u00a0 When God called the nation of Israel into existence, in early Genesis, what was God\u2019s purpose in it?\u00a0 The purposes of God, in terms of redemption, are first revealed in the book of Genesis, chapter 3 and verse 15 where God says to the serpent, \u201cAnd I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d\n\nAnd we saw that this is essentially the first presentation of the gospel found anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 We know from this passage that it has always been the plan and program of God to bring forth a very special Messiah who will deal a death blow to the devil, or the serpent, by crushing his head.\u00a0 Of course, in the year 2016 we understand that that coming one is none other than Jesus Christ but you see, the great question is, what nation is God going to use to bring forth this Messiah.\u00a0 God can\u2019t use just any nation.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because we saw at the tower of Babel that the tower of Babel universally contaminated every nation.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Genesis 11:1 says, \u201cNow the whole earth used the same language and the same words.\u201d\n\nSo the sin that was taking place at the tower of Babel, we described it as the worship of a mother-child religious system.\u00a0 That sin was exported into every nation that follows because all nations owe their lineage and their heritage to the tower of Babel.\u00a0 It was at Babel that God began different ethnicities and languages and cultures.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why this idolatrous system can be found in every culture.\n\nSo the point is, God can\u2019t use just any nation to bring forth His Messiah; He must, instead, begin a separate work, a separate nation, a separate project, a nation started after the tower of Babel universally contaminated the world.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the significance of the foundation of the nation of Israel that God began through a man named Abram in Genesis 12. \u00a0One of the key things to understand is the nation of Israel is the only nation in existence started by a special miracle of God.\n\nIsaiah 43:1 says this, \u201cBut now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel.\u201d\u00a0 If you look at Isaiah 43:15 sometime it says the exact same thing.\u00a0\u00a0 [Isaiah 43:15, \u201cI am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.\u201d]\u00a0 In fact, Isaiah 43:7 uses the same Hebrew verbs to describe creation itself in Genesis 1.\u00a0 [Isaiah 43:7, \u201cEveryone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.\u201d]\n\nIsrael is special as far as God is concerned because it is a special nation created by God; no other nation has such a distinct privilege. And this is why the Scripture is so careful in tracing the lineage from Adam and Eve, remember this Messiah, Genesis 3:15, is going to come from the lineage of Eve and it traces very carefully early Genesis from Adam and Eve right into Noah.\u00a0 And Noah has three sons, and we learn in Genesis 9:26 that through the lineage of Shem this Messiah will come forth.\u00a0 And so early Genesis traces Shem all the way to Terah, Terah being the father of Abraham, the man that God used to begin the Hebrew race.\u00a0 [Genesis 3:15, \u201cAnd I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d Genesis\u00a0\u00a0 9:26, \u201cHe also said, \"Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.\u201d]\n\nSo from Adam to Noah to Shem to Terah to Abraham we begin to learn about the special nature of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 It is from this special nation that the Messiah is going to come forth.\u00a0 And thus in Genesis 12, which follows Genesis 11, God begins to call this man, Abram, whose name would later be changed to Abraham, which means father of many nations, and He tells him to walk by faith and He says I\u2019m going to take you to a land of promise that you know nothing about;\u00a0 Abraham at that time being an idolater, as were all the peoples of the earth.\u00a0 God is going to sanctify Abraham.\u00a0 First He\u2019s going to justify him, give him innocence before God by way of faith.\u00a0 Then He\u2019s going to begin the process of sanctification where He is going to separate him from what he knew, because God has a special work in store for the nation of Israel that will come forth from Abraham\u2019s lineage.\n\nIt\u2019s essentially the same thing God is doing in your life.\u00a0 First He saves you as you trust in His Messiah, Jesus Christ, God the Son, and then He begins to sanctify you, He begins to pull us away from the worldly attachments and contamination that characterized our lives before we came to Christ because God has some kind of special purpose for you as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what your purpose is, I have a difficult time fitting into my own purpose, but He\u2019s got a purpose for all of us and that\u2019s why He is at work constantly in our lives, separating or sanctifying us.\n\nThat, in essence, is what he is doing here with Abram early on.\u00a0 And in the process God gives to Abram certain promises.\u00a0 He says, \u201cAnd I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse\u201d now notice this next clause, \u201cin you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d [Genesis 12:3, \u201cAnd I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d]\n\nThis is so critical towards understanding what God is doing with Israel; what His purpose always was.\u00a0 It is to bless Israel, not for the sake of Israel alone, but He has blessed Israel to be a blessing, just like He blesses you, just like He blesses me.\u00a0 He blesses us, not for us alone but He wants to use us in some strategic way to bless other people.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what God is doing with Abram.\n\nSo we learn that it\u2019s from Israel that God is going to fulfill His redemptive program all the way back in Genesis 3:15 where it was first announced.\u00a0 And consequently as we saw last week it\u2019s true that every blessing that we have today, whether it be the Scripture, the Savior, or the coming kingdom which is on the horizon, is going to come into the world through the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Had God not worked strategically through the Jewish people we would not have the patriarchs, the Law, the Prophets, the Messiah, the apostles, the biblical writers, the early church, the early church Christian martyrs, Paul the apostle, or a future kingdom.\u00a0 He has blessed them to be a blessing.\n\nAnd in the process of time, as God was dealing with Abram He actually moved from promise to covenant.\u00a0 In Genesis 15 God enters into a covenant with the Jewish people.\u00a0 The word \u201ccovenant\u201d is used for the first time in Genesis 15:18 relative to the Jewish people. It says in Genesis 15:18, \u201cOn that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, [\u201csaying, \u2018To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.\u201d]\u00a0 A covenant is like a contract, putting it in modern day vernacular.\u00a0 God is binding Himself to act in a certain way to and through the Jewish people so that the human race can be blessed.\n\nHe promised them land, seed and blessing which is the foundation of Israel\u2019s structure that God develops through other covenants that He makes with the Jewish people later on in biblical history.\u00a0 And in the process He promises the nation of Israel real estate. In fact, this real estate is so literal that in Genesis 13:17 Abram was told to walk around the land that his people would one day possess.\u00a0 [Genesis 13:17, \u201cArise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.\u201d]\n\nThe dimensions of the land are very clearly articulated in the Scripture; it\u2019s to begin at a place called the river of Egypt and it is to go all the way east to the river Euphrates, simply put, from modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq.\u00a0 And as you can see from this chart Israel has never gained that territory in totality.\u00a0 In fact, that darker area there is what the Joshua generation (as it is described for us in the book of Joshua) gained.\u00a0 They only gained a very small fraction or a very small sliver of everything that God promised.\u00a0 In fact, Israel today as a modern state has but a small sliver of everything that God has promised.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s always amusing to me because people are always arguing today over the West Bank, which is Judea and Samaria.\u00a0 Forget the West Bank, God\u2019s going to give them the East Bank according to these prophecies.\u00a0 We know that God cannot lie.\u00a0 God has bound Himself to act in a certain way and we know that it\u2019s just a matter of time once He establishes His Kingdom that these prophecies will come to pass.\n\nThis covenant is what we would call unconditional, meaning it doesn\u2019t really rest on the performance of Abram or his descendants.\u00a0 It rests completely on the faithfulness of God; it\u2019s what we call an unconditional covenant, meaning it\u2019s not based on human performance but the character of God.\u00a0 And this is why I had you turn to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 35-37.\n\nThis is what God says, \u201cThus says the LORD GOD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:\u00a0 [36] If this fixed order departs from before Me,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.\u2019 [37] Thus says the LORD, \u2018If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,\u2019 declares the LORD.\u201d\n\nGod says as long as the fixed order remains, the sun, the moon and the stars, Israel will always be a nation before Him, even when they\u2019re out of their land, which they have been for 2,000 years, God promises to preserve them which He has.\u00a0 So if you want to get rid of Israel you should not aim your rockets and your bombs at Israel, you should aim them at the sun, the moon and the stars because God has said as long as those remain Israel will always remain before Me.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that God makes this statement through the prophet, Jeremiah just before one of the worst stages of discipline in Israel\u2019s history.\u00a0 God disciplines His children, \u201cwhom the LORD loves the LORD\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cchastens.\u201d\u00a0 They were doing incredible sins here, such as offering their own children into a fire to satisfy a god (little g) named Molech; they are going off into the seventy year deportation in the time of Jeremiah, just after the time of Jeremiah when this prophecy was given and God says although discipline is coming Israel will always exist before me because of the Abrahamic Covenant.\n\nAnd consequently the book of Ezekiel, chapter 5 and verse 5 tells us that Israel is a nation that is living at the center of the nations.\u00a0 [Ezekiel\u00a0 5:5, \u201cThus says the Lord GOD, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.\u201d]\u00a0 As we mentioned last time the Hebrew word translated \u201ccenter\u201d is literally the navel or the bellybutton which refers to the entire body.\u00a0 This is the mind of God towards the chosen people.\u00a0 They are the centerpiece of everything that He has done, is doing, and will do.\n\nAnd in the process of time God knew that the devil himself, using fallen human beings, would routinely come against Israel because God has one plan, Satan wants this thwarted, so the Jewish people, their very lives would be in a precarious position.\u00a0 So in the process God gave Abram, who later became Abraham, promises of protection, and this is what He said, \u201cI will bless those who bless you and the one who curses\u00a0 you I will curse.\u201d\u00a0 We saw last week how literally those promises are fulfilled when nations come against Israel.\u00a0 God evaluates nations, like the United States, like Canada, like Mexico, like Europe, based on how they treat the chosen people. Zechariah 2:8, God says \u201che who touches you\u201d the Jewish people, \u201ctouches the apple of His eye.\u201d\n\n[\u201cFor thus says the LORD of hosts, \u2018After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.\u201d]\u00a0 But the opposite is true, the one who blesses you I will bless.\u00a0 Last time I talked about something that very few Americans understand; in fact, when I shared this at the conference I spoke at last week there were Hebrews and Jewish people, people in Israel that had come to participate in this conference, most of them didn\u2019t know about this either.\u00a0 It was a letter to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, that George Washington wrote, August 18, 1790, after visiting that particular synagogue which is the first synagogue ever built in the United States of America.\n\nGeorge Washington wrote a very famous letter which has actually been recorded by various Supreme Court opinions and historians.\u00a0 It may be the most significant letter of religious freedom that has ever been given to the Jewish people.\u00a0 You might recall we read from that letter where George Washington says, \u201cI rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport...the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance... May the Children of the Stock of Abraham,\u201d see, he\u2019s addressing something here to the Jewish people, \u201cMay the Children of the Stock of Abraham who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.\u201d\n\nIn fact, when you visit this synagogue, as I have done, they have it sort of set up, the original synagogue intact, a museum is set up off to the side that showcases this particular letter and what I believe is this: that God blessed America because George Washington, the actual federal head of America blessed the Jewish people.\u00a0 He gave them a gift that they had never known before in the history of mankind.\u00a0 Everywhere the Jewish people have gone they have been under constant persecution and attack.\u00a0 And George Washington said it\u2019s not going to be that way here in America; you\u2019re going to dwell here in safety and\u00a0 you\u2019re going to worship God the way you want to worship God.\u00a0 I believe that God made good on His promise, \u201cI will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse.\u201d\n\nSo that takes us to part 3 which is what we barely started getting into last week, the proper perspective concerning Israel.\u00a0 What should be the attitude of the average evangelical Bible-believing Christian as they look across the world and see that that tiny nation on the banks of the Mediterranean sea?\u00a0 In fact, our attitude towards that nation and that people group speaks volumes in the mind of God concerning His decision to bless or curse America or any other nation.\n\nThe first is\u2026 we hinted at this briefly last week, attitude.\u00a0 Take a look, if you could, at Romans 11 once more, and verse 17.\u00a0 Paul, in Romans 11, begins to talk about a tree and he begins to talk about branches, natural branches that have been removed from the tree.\u00a0 And then he begins to talk about wild olive branches that have been brought into the tree.\u00a0 The tree, of course, would be the Abrahamic Covenant, the natural branches broken off would be the Jewish people who by and large as a group stand in unbelief today, having failed to receive Christ Jesus as their Messiah when He came 2,000 years ago.\u00a0 Of course, there are Jewish converts in the church today but that is not the bulk of the Jewish people; they remain in unbelief. In fact, as\u00a0 you look at Israel today they continue on in unbelief.\n\nAnd yet these wild olive branches that have been grafted into the tree\u2026 who would that be?\u00a0 That would be you, that would be me; we are those who have been brought into the nurturing sap of this tree and we\u2019re called wild olive branches, actually we\u2019re not even called olive branches, just wild branches, because we really don\u2019t belong and we really don\u2019t fit.\u00a0 It\u2019s an agricultural miracle for even something like this to happen, and yet God, because He loves us so much did something contrary to agricultural laws and brought us into a right relationship with Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, and we have salvation.\n\nAnd in the process of explaining all of this Paul begins to critique the attitude of the unnatural branches towards the natural branches.\u00a0 What is the attitude of the Gentiles, who are in faith, to the Jews who are not yet in faith?\u00a0 And Paul writes this in Romans 11:17, \u201cBut if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, [18] do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.\u00a0 [19] You will say then, \u2018Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.\u2019 [20] Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.\u201d\u00a0 Watch this, \u201cDo not be conceited, but fear;\u201d [23] \u201cAnd they also if they do not continue in unbelief will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again\u201d and He is able to do so, He will graft them in again.\u00a0 [24] For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? \u201c\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that Paul says watch your method of Bible study very carefully; watch your method of interpretation very carefully.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say anything like that, he goes to attitude because the type of philosophy that you hold concerning the future of the nation of Israel has more to do with attitude; you adopt the right method of interpretation when you have the right attitude of humility.\u00a0 And Paul makes a very simple point here; you natural branches, you Gentiles that are in faith, as you look at unbelieving Jews don\u2019t be arrogant because you don\u2019t support the root, the root supports you.\n\nIn other words, you would have nothing as a Gentile Christian if God had not strategically worked through the patriarch, Abraham and the Hebrew nation.\u00a0 And if God can do an agricultural miracle and bring into the olive tree these strange branches that really don\u2019t belong (us), how much easier is it for God to reach out and restore the natural branches.\u00a0 If God has already done the greater miracle can\u2019t He do the lesser miracle, in other words?\u00a0 And in fact, when you continue to study Paul in Romans 11 you learn that\u2019s exactly what God is going to do.\n\nSo we need to monitor very carefully our attitude towards the Jewish people.\u00a0 I say that with a great deal of frustration because as I speak today at least one Christian denomination that I can think of is engaged in a formal economic boycott against the nation of Israel and Israeli products.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of an activity that takes place in Christendom that is more outside the scope of what Paul is writing here in Romans 11.\n\nAnd if you are in college or if you have children that are in college, let me tell you what they\u2019re going to hear: they\u2019re going to hear BDS.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.\u00a0 What does all of that mean?\u00a0 Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions is a political movement against the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Well, you might remember South Africa, how the world community looked at South Africa and said that is what they called an apartheid, meaning racially segregationist, an apartheid state. \u00a0And what corrected that was the world community engaging in a boycott, divestment and sanctions effort against South Africa.\u00a0 And so by using this identical language, boycott, divestment and sanctions, what they\u2019re basically saying here is the nation of Israel is no different than South Africa.\u00a0 And just as we boycotted to correct the racism in South Africa we need to boycott to correct the racism in the land of Israel today.\n\nWell, why would people think that the nation of Israel is an apartheid state?\u00a0 Well, they built a wall; wouldn\u2019t you want a wall if people were lobbing missiles and bombs and things of that nature from the Gaza Strip, which by the way elected Hamas, into your territory?\u00a0 Did you know that that wall has been successful in restraining 98% of potential terrorist activity?\u00a0 This is not a matter of racism; this is a matter of common sense.\n\nAnd by the way, what about this issue of Israel being an apartheid on equal par with South Africa?\u00a0 Did you know that there are non-Jews, Arabs, that are welcome citizens in the land of Israel today?\u00a0 Did you know that they have all of the participation and the economy and privileges to work and to support your family just like any Jew living in that land would have.\u00a0 Did you know that there are non-Jews that have actually risen to places of political prominence in the land of Israel, like into the Knesset, like even into the Supreme Court.\u00a0 Does that sound to you like an apartheid state?\n\nYou can\u2019t take South Africa and put it on equal par with the nation of Israel, but you see, we\u2019re involved in a propaganda campaign where the repetition of this expression, boycott, divestment and sanctions is repeated so frequently that they want us to make a mental connection to the apartheid state of South Africa.\u00a0 And sadly some of the worst anti-Israel language comes to us from the Christian world.\n\nIn fact, I was reading one article very recently where an individual named Gary North, who is what we would call a replacement theologian, (a replacement theologian is simply the belief that Israel is finished as far as God is concerned and the church has taken Israel\u2019s place).\u00a0 Gary North has boasted that he has already in his computer a book, already written, for what?\u00a0 For when Israel gets pushed into the Mediterranean Sea, or converted to Christ.\u00a0 By the way, Gary, they are going to be converted to Christ, just not on your timetable.\u00a0 So he\u2019s got a book already prepared as a manuscript in his computer (this is a Christian) where he just can\u2019t wait for the day when Israel is pushed into the Mediterranean Sea and the book is already to go out where it\u2019s sort of an \u201cI told you so!\u201d\u00a0 book.\n\nThat is a tragic thing, to think that way as a Christian.\u00a0 Let\u2019s play a little game; who said it?\u00a0 You ready?\u00a0 \u201c\u201cFirst, their synagogues should be set on fire\u2026Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed\u2026Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more\u2026Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews\u2026Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury or charging interest on loans\u2026\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSeventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the ax, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle, and let the earn their bread by the sweat of their noses\u2026We ought to drive the rascally lazy bones out of our system...\u201d\u00a0 \u2026Therefore away with them\u2026 To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden\u2013the Jews.\u201d\n\nNow some of\u00a0 you know the answer to this; this was not written by Adolf Hitler, although more than one historian that I\u2019ve read has indicated that Hitler got many of these ideas from a German theologian who happened to live a few centuries earlier than Hitler, who planted seeds into its soil.\u00a0 This individual is none other than someone that I have a great deal of respect and revere, one of my heroes; Martin Luther wrote those words.\u00a0 [Martin Luther, Concerning the Jews and Their Lies, cited in Michael Brown\u2019s Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, pp. 14-15.]\n\nAnd people, it\u2019s interesting as you listen to them everybody is trying to take Luther off the hook here.\u00a0 Oh, he was old, he was grumpy, he spoke kind of rashly towards the end of his life.\u00a0 You can find this tract easily on the internet for free, download it to your kindle, you can read it for yourself.\u00a0 This is no small tract, this is an 80 page document.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice the dot dot dot \u2026 that I kept putting in between phrases, that means an ellipsis, where parts of it, just for the sake of space have been removed.\u00a0 He goes on page after page after page after page after page in an 80 page document talking about this tract entitled, The Jews and Their Lies.\n\nI\u2019m a preacher and a teacher, I know what it means to misspeak.\u00a0 When you\u2019re writing it\u2019s a completely world because you are coolly and calmly and deliberately reflecting on your thoughts and\u00a0 your sentence structure.\u00a0 I have a great deal of respect for many of the contributions of Martin Luther but let me tell you something, Luther had a dark side, just like you have a dark side and I have a dark side, and he went back into the sin nature and started listening to the wrong voices.\n\nAnd sadly this has become, to a very large extent, normal in mainline denominations, anti-Israel vitriol.\u00a0 May God help us to understand this, may God help us to understand what Paul said in Romans 11 where we ought not to be arrogant towards the branches that have been broken off.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why unbelieving Jews really want very little to do with Christians or Christianity today; it has to do with our history.\u00a0 A very fine book, quick read that I would recommend to you is the book by Michael Brown, we have it in our church library here, it\u2019s simply titled Our Hands Are Stained with Blood.\u00a0 It is a historical documentation of Christendom, the early Church Fathers, right through the past 2,000 years of the anti-Semitic sermons, the anti-Semitic writings, the anti-Semitic statements that we, as Christians, have made towards the Jewish people because we\u2019ve lost sight of Paul\u2019s command to us in Romans 11.\n\nWe ought to think very carefully about what our attitude is towards the Jewish people because that attitude dictates which side we are on in the angelic conflict.\u00a0 Take your Bible, if\u00a0 you could, and go to Revelation 12 for just a minute.\u00a0 I want to pull back the veil and the curtain and I want to show you something from the spiritual world.\u00a0 We all know from the Scripture that what is happening in the angelic world, the realm of demons and angels influences events in the physical world; just ask Job about that.\u00a0 Job lost a great deal, you\u2019ll remember, because of a conversation between God and Satan that Job knew nothing about.\u00a0 David had a thought to number the troops of Israel because of a satanically planted idea into his mind.\u00a0 Peter tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross and Jesus said, \u201cGet behind Me,\u201d what? \u201cSatan.\u201d\n\nSee, as Christians we can articulate things and say things thinking they are our own unique ideas, not understanding where those ideas come from.\u00a0 We\u2019re warned in Ephesians 6:12 that \u201cwe wrestle not against\u201d what? \u201cflesh and blood, but against principalities\u201d and rulers of this dark world.\u00a0\u00a0 [Ephesians 6:12, \u201cFor we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.\u201d]\n\nLet me take you for just a minute into the mind of the devil; I\u2019ve taken you into the mind of God and what God\u2019s plan and program is for Israel but what about the devil\u2019s plan?\u00a0 Have you ever thought about that?\u00a0 The Bible addresses this.\u00a0 Revelation 12:1-9, it says, \u201cA 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. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. [4] And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw 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 male child, 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\n\nNotice the repetition of this term, \u201ca sign\u201d as John describes it.\u00a0 In other words, we are seeing here great symbolic language at work, which is characteristic of the book of Revelation.\u00a0 We run into three characters: number 1, a woman, clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars.\u00a0 Secondly, a dragon, and thirdly a son, s-o-n, to be distinguished from the sun, s-u-n, back in verse 1.\n\nAnd people look at a vision like this and they just sort of throw up their hands but let\u2019s remember something about\u00a0 the book of Revelation; the book of Revelation comes from the noun apocalupsis<\/em> which means the unveiling.\u00a0 God has given us the book of Revelation to understand something.\n\nAnd if you follow a few principles of Bible study technique you will see that it\u2019s very understandable what God is revealing here.\u00a0 He\u2019s revealing the dark side, what Satan\u2019s agenda is towards the Jewish people because the Son, S-o-n has to be Jesus.\u00a0 Why is that? Because he\u2019s going to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Psalm 2:9 says that.\u00a0 [Psalm 2:9, \u201c\u2018You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 Jesus is caught up to God in His throne in this vision; that\u2019s the ascension, is it not?\u00a0 Acts 1:9.\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.\u201d]\n\nThen we run into a dragon.\u00a0 The dragon is very easy to figure out because verse 9, which we didn\u2019t read, tells you that the dragon is who?\u00a0 The devil.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d]\n\nBut what about verse 1, this woman, \u201cclothed with the sun, and the moon\u201d and the twelve stars\u201d and I can\u2019t tell you how many theologians I know of look at that and say that\u2019s the church.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, this woman is about to give birth to Jesus; the church never gave birth to Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus gave birth to the church; it can\u2019t be the church.\u00a0 So who is it?\n\nWell, you have to understand Joseph\u2019s dream, all the way back in the book of Genesis because this vision was given to Joseph. Look at what he says here, he got this vision when he was about 17 years old, \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\u201d sound familiar?\u00a0 \u201cand the moon and eleven stars\u201d Joseph being the twelfth star, \u201cwere bowing down to me.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 37:9]\u00a0 The vision of what would happen about 13 years later in Joseph\u2019s life where he would be elevated to the second in command in Egypt and his brothers would come to Egypt from Canaan to receive help for famine, grain in the midst of famine.\n\nAnd Joseph kind of liked this vision so he says hey dad, let me tell you about it.\u00a0 [10] \u201cHe related it to his father\u201d that would be Jacob,\u201d and to his brothers,\u201d isn\u2019t this great, you guys are all going to bow down to me.\u00a0 How do you think they took that? \u201cHe related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him,\u201d now in the process of the rebuke the imagery is deciphered for us.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026his father rebuked him and said to him, \u2018What is this dream that you have had?\u00a0 Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually bow down ourselves down before you to the ground? \u201c\n\nSo the sun, s-u-n, is Jacob, the moon is Mrs. Jacob, the eleven stars are Joseph\u2019s brothers, the twelfth star would be Joseph himself.\u00a0 You know these twelve stars, they represent Jacob\u2019s dozen because Jacob had twelve descendants, did he not?\u00a0 And through those twelve descendants came the twelve tribes of Israel.\u00a0 Who is this woman \u201cclothed with the son, and the moon and the twelve stars\u201d? therefore in the book of Revelation she is none other than the nation of Israel.\n\nNow when you go back to Revelation 12 and you look at verses 13 and 14 and then verses 15 and 16 what you\u2019ll discover is the dragon (who\u2019s the dragon? The devil) he is in the second half of the tribulation period trying to destroy the woman.\u00a0 And great imagery is used to depict this although God steps in and supernaturally protects the woman.\u00a0 It\u2019s in Revelation 12 that the following descriptors are used to describe Satan\u2019s animosity towards the woman, or Israel.\u00a0 Wrath, persecution, the desire to sweep her away, enraged, war; this is the mind of Satan towards the Jews, specifically the Jewish people, specifically the Jewish nation because they are the nation through whom God would bless the world. Satan says this is my world, I\u2019m not going to sit by and let this people group bring forth the Scripture, the Messiah and the kingdom, I\u2019m not going to let them bring forth the kingdom, that\u2019s for sure because once the kingdom comes Satan says to himself my days are finished, so what I\u2019m going to do is work in the second half of the Tribulation period preemptively to destroy the nation of Israel.\n\nPeople look at the holocaust and say how could something like that have ever happened in history?\u00a0 The level of barbarism and cruelty?\u00a0 In fact, Dachau, I\u2019ve actually stood and walked in that very area where the Jews were told by the furor or his henchmen to lead the trains, the boxcars that they were in, and to run into this diabolical area to receive a shower and as they ran into these places to supposedly receive a shower, as they were panting having been running, of course water doesn\u2019t come out of the nozzle, poisonous gas does and six million Jews, think about that, lost their lives.\n\nAnd we look at something like this and we say how could this have happened in history?\u00a0 Here\u2019s how it can happen; it\u2019s satanically energized.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t come from logic or rationality; there is no logical explanation for this other than it\u2019s part of the angelic conflict.\u00a0 It relates to something Jesus says at the end of Matthew 23.\u00a0 After condemning the unbelief of first century Israel Jesus says in Matthew 23:39, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d He\u2019s making a statement there to the Jewish people, He says at the very end of these verses, \u201cyou will not see Me until you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not coming back for you, I am not going to rescue you until you acknowledge Me as the Messiah.\u00a0 Satan says to himself, well, we\u2019ll just see if that ever happens; we will kill, through demonic power, every Jew on planet earth and if there\u2019s no Jews left to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, the Second Coming will never happen.\u00a0 And the world will go on and on and on and on under my grasp.\n\nSee, you begin to put some things together and you begin to understand the irrational hatred for the Jewish people.\u00a0 How is it that you even have a movement today that denied the holocaust ever happened?\u00a0 The former leader of Iran is a holocaust denier.\u00a0 How can you be a holocaust denier when I myself have been to the holocaust museum, what\u2019s called the Yad Vashem, where it\u2019s a historical record of the six million people that lost their lives, the Jews.\u00a0\u00a0 What sort of logical rationality, particularly a world leader, would deny the holocaust?\u00a0 Answer: it\u2019s not motivated by logic.\u00a0 This is a spiritual issue; we are getting into what the Scripture would term the angelic conflict.\n\nWhat side do you want to be on in this angelic conflict.\u00a0 Have you ever thought about that?\u00a0 As we hear about BDS what side of the conflict are they on, God\u2019s or the Devil\u2019s.\u00a0 As we stand up for Israel what side of the conflict do we want to be on?\u00a0 God\u2019s or the devil\u2019s?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t seem to me like there\u2019s a lot of leeway here.\u00a0 You can be a saved person (as Peter was) and lend your mouth (as Luther did) to the plans of the wicked one.\u00a0 I have that potential, so do you.\u00a0 Or I can get into the Scripture, figure out what God thinks, figure out what the devil thinks and align myself accordingly, because let me just tell you something as clearly as I know how to say it:\u00a0 Beloved: your attitude toward the Jewish people, the theology that you adopt, whether Israel has a future as the Scripture says or not, who you vote for, or don\u2019t vote for, allows you to align in the angelic war.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think of the issue that way, do we?\u00a0 Yet God says this is extremely important.\n\nWhich leads me to another point; Israel\u2019s apostate condition.\u00a0 How can you, some of you may be thinking, stand up in a Protestant church behind a pulpit and advocate for the nation of Israel when the nation of Israel is in unbelief?\u00a0 They won\u2019t receive Christ at the present time.\u00a0 How can you be a\u2026what some of\u00a0 you might think, a cheerleader for Israel?\u00a0 How can you support an apostate nation in other words?\u00a0 Here\u2019s my answer:\u00a0 They may be apostate today but that\u2019s not their future.\u00a0 They\u2019re coming to Christ, a remnant of them anyway.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because I take Bible prophecy\u2026 what?\u00a0 Literally!\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole name of the game.\u00a0 You take the prophecies literally or come up with some excuse as to why they\u2019re not literal.\n\nIn fact, if I were to put you in a time capsule and transport you backwards to the first two centuries of the church you would hear sermons exactly like what I\u2019m preaching.\u00a0 Justin Martyr, a very early church father, says it this way: \u201cBut I and every other completely orthodox<\/u> Christian feel certain that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, followed by a thousand years in the rebuilt, embellished, and enlarged city of Jerusalem<\/u> as was announced by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the others.\u201d\u00a0 [Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 80]\n\nNow people say well, wait a minute, Andy, you can\u2019t make this stuff a test of orthodoxy; I mean, orthodoxy really relates to the big items, right?\u00a0 Like Trinity, virgin birth, deity of Christ.\u00a0 Look at what Justin Martyr says here, \u201cI and every other completely orthodox Christian,\u201d he made it a test of orthodoxy, not me.\u00a0 Everybody that loves Jesus and loves the Bible for the first two centuries of the church loves the Jews because we understand that God is going to fulfill His plan and program through the Jews.\n\nBut oh how things changed in the fourth century beginning with a school of thought down south in Alexandria, Egypt, where the great allegorizers of Bible prophecy came to the forefront, Origen, Augustine, others, and they began to say things like this: Away with this fable of a thousand years; God is through with the Jew and we, as the church, have supplanted the nation of Israel.\u00a0 But that begs the question, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 How can you support an unbelieving nation?\n\nCan I ask you a simple question? \u00a0What do you have to be before you can be a believer?\u00a0 You have to be a what?\u00a0 An unbeliever, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 Let me ask you a question: were you an unbeliever before you became a believer?\u00a0 Well of course you were.\u00a0 Was God not at work in your life before you came to Christ?\u00a0 Of course He was; the Spirit of God was at work, John 16:7-11 tells us that.\n\n[John 16:7-11, \u201cBut very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. [8] When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: [9] about sin, because people do not believe in me; [10] about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; [11] and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.\u201d]\n\nWhy can\u2019t that be true of the Jewish nation?\u00a0 Have you ever studied the order of these prophecies given by Ezekiel and others, where God is going to gather them from all lands and bring them into their own land?\u00a0 That\u2019s a physical regathering; that\u2019s stage 1.\u00a0 Then, oh, that\u2019s sequential, THEN I will pour clean water on you and you will be clean; the clean water is later defined as the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Do you see a pattern here?\u00a0 They\u2019re restored physically, I would argue we\u2019re seeing that happen today, and then God is going to eventually restore them spiritually.\u00a0 Have you ever studied the valley of the dry bones?\u00a0 The very next chapter of Ezekiel, where Ezekiel looks out in this valley and he sees bones scattered everywhere and he begins to see the bones assemble themselves to form a human skeleton and then muscles and flesh and sinews develop on this skeleton to form a person.\u00a0 But what does it say in Ezekiel 37:8?\u00a0 That there was no breath in them.\u00a0 [Ezekiel 37:8, \u201cAnd I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.\u201d]\n\n\u201cSo I prophesied again as He commanded me, and the breath came into them and they came to life\u2026.\u00a0 [Ezekiel 37:10, \u201cSo I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.\u201d]\u00a0 The skeleton comes together in the form of a corpse, that\u2019s the physical regathering of Israel in unbelief, and then they are revived spiritually.\u00a0 This is part of a process that God is at work doing, that\u2019s how I can support unbelieving nations; they\u2019re unbelieving today but that may not be the case tomorrow.\u00a0 That prophecy tells me it won\u2019t be the case tomorrow.\n\nI was sitting one time in an amillennial church and the pastor was preaching out of Ezekiel 37 and he said these bones represent the church on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 And you\u2019d be proud of me, I kept my mouth shut.\u00a0 I kept saying to myself read verse 11, which says as clearly as it can be said, \u201cthese bones are the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 What happened at Pentecost was wonderful but you only had three thousand out of over a million Jews saved on Pentecost; in fact, the nation of Israel after the day of Pentecost, about forty years later, went off into divine discipline.\u00a0 What happened on the day of Pentecost is such small picking\u2019s compared to the future for Israel.\n\nZechariah 12:10 says, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace\u201d can I ask you a simple question?\u00a0 Where are the inhabitants, Jews, just before the Spirit of God comes upon them?\u00a0 What does the text say?\u00a0 \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,\u201d they\u2019re in Jerusalem.\u00a0 What are they doing in Jerusalem?\u00a0 God has put them there, they\u2019re just waiting for the Spirit to fall.\n\nJ. Vernon McGee, great Bible teacher, for years has said what is happening in Israel today is not necessarily a work of God because the Spirit hasn\u2019t come yet. J. Vernon McGee in his early ministry said that and my friend, David Hocking got together with him in his house and the two of them were playing pool and this subject came up and David Hocking asked J. Vernon McGee a very simple question: According to Zechariah 12:10 where are they before the Spirit of God comes? And J. Vernon McGee looked at his Bible and saw that it was in the house of \u201cthe inhabitants of Jerusalem.\u201d\u00a0 And J. Vernon McGee, the way David Hocking described this scene as he began to kind of flap his suspenders like he was thinking, and from that point on J. Vernon McGee switched his view that what is happening in Israel today is just as much a work of God as it is the second work where the Spirit of God comes upon the Jewish people.\n\nJohn Walvoord, the great prophecy teacher, says this:\u00a0 \u201cOf the many peculiar phenomena which characterize the present generation, few events can claim equal significance<\/u> as far as Biblical prophecy<\/u> is concerned with that of the return of Israel to their land<\/u>. It constitutes a preparation<\/u> for the end of the age, the setting<\/u> for the coming of the Lord for His church, and the fulfillment of Israel\u2019s prophetic destiny<\/u>.\u201d\n\nThis is not some oddball strange doctrine that I\u2019m teaching; John Walvoord himself, on page 26 of his book, Israel in Prophecy, says the state of Israel is prophetically significant.\u00a0 In fact, the current return of the Jews in unbelief is but preparation for what is to come.\n\nI so appreciate the work of Randall Price, who we\u2019ve had here as a speaker, in delineating the two regatherings, Israel\u2019s present regathering, which he calls the first regathering, and then the second permanent regathering.\u00a0 In the present regathering, largely having begun in 1948 Israel returns to part of the land.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing that happen today.\u00a0 In the second regathering she\u2019ll return to all of the land.\u00a0 Today she\u2019s coming back in unbelief; later she comes back in faith.\u00a0 In the first regathering she\u2019s restored to the land only; in the second regathering she\u2019s restored to the land and the Lord.\u00a0 The current regathering sets the stage for discipline of the tribulation; but oh, that second regathering, when Israel is in faith, sets the stage for blessing or the Millennial Kingdom.\n\nMost acknowledge that the second regathering will be a work of God.\u00a0 May I just say something to you; the first regathering is just as much a work of God as the second regathering.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 I know that by just asking you a very simple question: how many Amalekites do you know?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Amalekites are in the Bible along with the Jebusites, and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the out of sights, and the electric lights and the mosquito bites and the termites, I mean, they\u2019re all in the Bible right next to Israel.\u00a0 What happened to the Amalekites?\u00a0 Sociologists tell us that with a couple of generations a nation removed from its land loses its cultural identity.\u00a0 They simply assimilate into the whole culture and they lose their distinctiveness as a people group.\n\nDo you not think it somewhat odd that the nation of Israel, beginning in A.D. 70 was outside of their land, not for a generation or two but for 2,000 years and then comes back into the exact same land that they were evicted from with their religion intact, their culture intact, and their language, the Hebrew language intact.\u00a0 When you are looking at a Jewish person you are looking at a miracle of God.\u00a0 And people today say man, I wish God would do miracles today.\u00a0 When you look at a tiny nation in the Middle East with a Hebrew flag flying and the Jerusalem Post written in Hebrew you are looking at a miracle.\u00a0 It\u2019s so plain and it\u2019s so tragic that Americans don\u2019t recognize it, politicians don\u2019t recognize it and God help us, even members of the Christian church don\u2019t see it for what it is.\n\nThis is how I can support an unbelieving nation, because they\u2019re not always going to be unbelieving and I understand what the devil is trying to do, and I understand what God is trying to do.\u00a0 Now the question usually is this:\u00a0 Well, Andy, do you support everything Israel does?\u00a0 I mean, if Israel started nuclear war tomorrow would you support that blindly?\u00a0 And the answer is no, I don\u2019t support every little thing Israel does because Israel is an imperfect nation just like the United States; I don\u2019t support everything the United States does either.\u00a0 And by the way, God didn\u2019t support everything Israel did, just read your Old Testament, read Isaiah, you\u2019ll see it pretty clearly, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. \u00a0But I support the right of self-defense; I support the right of existence of a nation.\u00a0 I can still see, even though they\u2019re in unbelief the divine program of God unfolding.\n\nAnd thus I largely think the way the Apostle Paul thinks in Romans 11:28-29.\u00a0 Look at what Paul says speaking of the Jewish nation, \u201cFrom the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake,\u201d go through the book of Acts and you will see the biggest opponents of Paul\u2019s gospel of grace was unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 Paul, in city after city after city, was thrown out of the synagogue, a Jewish gathering place and he bore fruit amongst the Gentiles.\u00a0 Paul spent time in prison and having false charges brought against him because of unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 Nobody is more qualified to address this subject than Paul.\u00a0 \u201cFrom the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake but\u00a0 from the standpoint of God\u2019s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;\u201d\n\nI don\u2019t agree with Israel\u2019s rejection of Christ but I know this much about my Bible, that they are beloved.\u00a0 Who are the fathers?\u00a0 The patriarchs, particularly Abraham, the one who received by God the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Verse 29, \u201cfor the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.\u201d\u00a0 Irrevocable is a legal term from contract law, it has to do with this idea that once an offer is made and certain conditions are met the offer can\u2019t be pulled back.\u00a0 God has said something regarding the nation of Israel which can never be withdrawn because of the unconditional nature of the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God Himself said as long as the fixed order is in existence Israel will always remain a nation before Me.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just a matter of time before God makes good on the rest of His promises.\n\nOur attitude towards Israel, Romans 11; part of the angelic conflict, Revelation 12; Israel\u2019s apostate condition, Ezekiel 36 and 37.\u00a0 Time has escaped me and we\u2019ll look at some practical reasons to support the nation of Israel next week.\n\nAren\u2019t you glad that God is a God that keeps His promises?\u00a0 When I look at the Jews in the Middle East I don\u2019t get angry, I rejoice because God keeps His promises to an unfaithful people.\u00a0 You know whose hope that fulfills?\u00a0 Mine, because if God is going to keep His Word to Israel He\u2019s going to keep His Word to me and to you.\u00a0 And the answer is, have you ever entered into the promises of God just like Abraham entered into the Abrahamic Covenant?\u00a0 Have you entered into those promises, which we call the gospel?\u00a0 The gospel is good news, it is a gift from God that you receive by way of faith. It\u2019s the same type of arrangement that Abraham had nationally, in a sense, with the Jewish people.\u00a0 And once you have received the gospel by way of faith you are secure because that\u2019s the nature of God.\u00a0 God can\u2019t what?\u00a0\u00a0 He can\u2019t lie.\u00a0 So our exhortation to you here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to receive the blessings of the gospel which is simply this, Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago and paid a penalty for every sin you\u2019ve ever committed.\u00a0 And by receiving that as a gift you enter into a relationship with God; your sins are forgiven, you have the hope of glory and what you have in Him can never withdrawn or taken away.\n\nIf the Spirit of God is convicting some of you to receive this gift our exhortation here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to receive, by faith, what Jesus has done.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do right now where you\u2019re seated; it\u2019s not something you have to walk an aisle to do, raise hand to do, join a church to do, give money to do, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you respond by faith, just the way Abraham did, trust in what God has done.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we are grateful for Your hand in history and Your faithfulness over time in spite of great attack and opposition.\u00a0 Help us to begin to think and orient our thoughts correctly towards a very serious issue in Your Word.\u00a0 Help us to vote accordingly and adopt theology accordingly because we want to think the way you think in these things.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","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