{"id":19163,"date":"2016-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-11\/"},"modified":"2016-09-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T05:00:00","slug":"the-bible-and-voting-part-11","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-11\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible and Voting – Part 11"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[65],"series_event":[466],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19163","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 11","sermon_date":"20160918","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3952,"sermon_slides":3955,"sermon_mp3":3957,"sermon_id":"918161028579","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 18, 2016 The Bible and Voting, Part 11\n\nShould Christians Support the Modern State of Israel, part 3\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20, verses 18-19.\u00a0 Continuing on with our study, The Bible and Voting, and continuing on even within that series we\u2019re doing a miniseries within the series; you know things are getting elongated when that happens.\u00a0 Should Christians support the modern state of Israel, part 3.\u00a0 So the whole subject of Israel has become a real point of contention, not only in the body of Christ but also in the court of world politics.\u00a0 How should Christians, when they look at the state of Israel, how should they think about that state, that tiny nation comprised primarily of unbelieving Jews on the coast of the Mediterranean in the Middle East, seemingly so far away from the United States?\u00a0 We have been, probably because it\u2019s an election year and everybody wants to talk about politics, been doing a topical study. \u00a0I\u2019ve worked hard at not bringing up political characters and figures and parties, but rather looking at issues that we face, not only in this election but in any election (state, federal, local\u00a0 elections), issues we face when we go to the ballot box.\n\nAnd the question is has God spoken on these topics.\u00a0 He certainly has spoken on spiritual things but what we\u2019re learning is He\u2019s also spoken on worldview items and essentially that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been looking at.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at what the Bible has to say on economic issues, I showed you several.\u00a0 We have looked at what the Bible has to say on so-called social issues, hot button issues of the day; we\u2019ve walked through several of those.\u00a0 Coming near the end of our topical study on the Bible and Voting, we began looking at issues related to foreign affairs; as America interacts with other nations does the Bible say anything about those kind of subjects.\u00a0 We\u2019ve taken a look at God\u2019s view towards one-world government, God is against that, by the way, unless He is running it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at the whole subject of borders and border enforcement; certainly that\u2019s a hot button issue, is it not?\n\nAnd we began a couple of Sundays ago looking at the whole subject of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to pick up the newspaper today without the nation of Israel somehow being mentioned, somehow being discussed.\u00a0 The question is, when we look at the nation of Israel are we looking at it the way God would have us to look at it, through His lens, the Scripture?\u00a0 So we began by looking at the divine purpose for Israel; we saw Genesis 12:3 where God\u2019s purpose in raising up and creating the nation of Israel is to use it, that special nation, beginning with Abraham, as a special nation through which His blessings would come to the planet.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen how God has made good on those promises as the Scripture, the Savior, and even the coming kingdom are intimately connected with His decision to bless Israel and through Israel the nations of the earth would be blessed.\n\nWe\u2019ve seen along the way that God actually entered into a covenant with this nation, called the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 One of the things He promised the nation is a tract of real estate, the dimensions of which are very carefully identified in the book of Genesis, chapter 15, verses 18-21. [Genesis 15:18-21, \u201cOn that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, \u2018To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:\u00a0 [19] the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite [20] and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim [21] and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s a plot of real estate that begins in modern day Egypt and extends all the way to modern day Iraq, \u201cFrom the river of Egypt\u201d and there\u2019s a debate on exactly what the river of Egypt is, this map has the Wadi El Arish as the beginning point; other people say no, it\u2019s the Nile.\u00a0 But whatever it is it\u2019s a big plot of real estate from modern day Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, a tract of real estate that the nation of Israel has never fully gained and even today enjoys a very small percentage of.\u00a0 And yet we know prophetically that one of these days in the kingdom age Israel will have all of it with the nations in submission to her according to divine promise.\n\nAnd along the way God gave to Israel certain protection.\u00a0 God knew that Satan himself would unleash all of his power and fury against God\u2019s elect nation, since that nation is the instrument of blessing and so God made a reciprocal promise to the Jews: the one who curses you, God said, I will curse.\u00a0 And consequently He spoke through the prophet Zechariah and He said, of the nation of Israel, \u201cHe who touches you touches the apple\u201d which is the pupil, \u201cof His eye,\u201d or the eye of God.\u00a0 [Zechariah 2:8, \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.\u2019\u201d]\n\nThe opposite is true; not only would God curse those who curse the Jews but He also promised to bless those who bless the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And consequently nations of the earth are evaluated by God, largely based on their treatment of the chosen people, the Hebrew nation and the Hebrew race.\u00a0 How important this is to understand in our day, with anti-Semitism, irrational hatred for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which we thought we had dealt with, with the holocaust; we thought with the holocaust we\u2019d seen the end of it.\u00a0 But how as we have developed in prior sermons that hatred is alive and well, as many even Christian denominations (I can think of two) that are taking positions politically against the nation of Israel.\u00a0 How important it is for us to under\u00adstand what God says about this nation in this climate of anti-Semitism that we find ourselves in.\n\nAnd once we\u00a0 understand the divine purpose for Israel, the protection of Israel, that hopefully is developing within us as we go through this sermon series a proper perspective concerning Israel.\u00a0 One of it is our attitude towards Israel.\u00a0 We have talked at length about how Paul, in the book of Romans, chapter 11, verses 17 and following talks specifically about how we, as Gentile Christians, who think about the nation of Israel, Paul explains the metaphor of the olive tree, how natural branches have been pushed out of that olive tree and wild branches have come into the place of those severed branches in the olive tree.\u00a0 The natural branches broken off are the current Jews in unbelief, having for the most part never recognized Jesus as their Messiah.\u00a0 And how we are these strange branches that have been grafted in.\u00a0 And the fact that we have been grafted in because we have trusted by faith in the Messiah that Israel rejected an agricultural miracle has occurred.\u00a0 God has brought us, non-olive branches that really don\u2019t belong, into the nurturing sap of the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 But Paul is also very careful to describe our attitude as unnatural branches.\u00a0 We\u2019re not to be boastful towards the branches that have been broken off, Paul says.\u00a0 Romans 11:17 and following.\n\n[Romans 11:17-24, \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<\/em> it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports<\/em> you. [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. Do not be conceited, but fear; [21] for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. [twenty-two] Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God\u2019s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. [23] And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. [24] or 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<\/em> be grafted into their own olive tree?\u201d]\n\nWe\u2019re to be remindful of the fact that it is not we that support the root but the root supports us.\u00a0 Had God not strategically worked in the past through the nation of Israel the blessings that we enjoy today simply would not exist.\u00a0\u00a0 And Paul goes on in Romans 11 and he says you know what?\u00a0 If God can bring these strange branches into the tree (us), how much easier is it for God to reach out one day and bring the natural branches back into its own tree, which is something that God one day will do, following the rapture of the church in the events surrounding the great Tribulation period.\n\nAnd the great mistake that Christendom has made is looking at the promises that are unfulfilled regarding the nation of Israel and acting as if God will never fulfill those promises.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is, God is going to keep every single promise He has ever made to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\u00a0 Yes, He is at work today in the church, but we are not the sum total of God\u2019s work.\u00a0 The nation of Israel has a future in God.\u00a0 And how that is a very difficult idea for the Christian mind to wrap itself around, how the Christian church itself over the last 2,000 years, some of our most cherished leaders have been embroiled in some of the most anti-Semitic vitriolic language against the Jewish people, you can imagine, I\u2019ve given you quotes from well-respected Christian leaders last Sunday, in history that have made horrific statements against the Jews.\u00a0 How out of touch that is with Paul\u2019s whole metaphor of the olive tree and our attitude that we should have towards the Jewish people.\n\nAnd one of the things I was hoping I\u2019d have a chance to bring up and so I\u2019m going to bring it up now, is the whole subject of deicide; deicide is a concept that Chrysostom, who is known as Golden Throat, Golden Mouth, because of his oratorical skills as a Christian preacher, deicide is an idea that Chrysostom himself in the 4th<\/sup> century developed and it has to do with the killing of God.\u00a0 We know the word suicide, killing one\u2019s self; homicide, killing another human being, but what is deicide?\u00a0 Deicide is the killing of God, and Chrysostom, all the way back in the 4th<\/sup> century A.D. \u00a0began to accuse the Jews of killing Christ, deicide.\u00a0 And consequently Chrysostom, to a very large extent, has looked at Israel as the Christ-killers.\u00a0 After all, how could they be the subject of future divine blessings when they themselves killed Christ?\u00a0 The charge of deicide!\n\nAnd with most lies that take root in the minds of people there\u2019s always an element of truth to it.\u00a0 Yes, the Jews, particularly in the first century, we\u2019ve been covering that this morning in Sunday School, the Jews played a role in the rejection and ultimately the surrender of Jesus Christ to the Romans for execution, but you see, that\u2019s only part of the story.\u00a0 Let me give you the rest of the story if I could.\u00a0 I have eight fast points to make here.\u00a0 Number 1, what about the weeping Jewish remnant?\u00a0 Are we to assume that every Jew in the first century was eager to rush Jesus off to execution?\u00a0 That\u2019s not what the Bible teaches at all.\u00a0 There were mobs and multitudes that embraced Christ amongst the Jewish people.\u00a0 Certainly not the leadership of the nation but the people.\u00a0 And this is why the religious leaders of national Israel were so eager to discredit Christ, because of fear of His growing popularity amongst the masses and the rank and file.\n\nIn fact, in John 12:19 it says this in Christ\u2019s triumphal entry: \u201cSo the Pharisees said to one another, \u2018You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him,\u2019\u201d\u00a0 speaking of His popularity in first century Israel.\u00a0 Beyond that, who put Christ to death, exactly? When you study the Gospels carefully you learn it was the Herodian dynasty, the Herod\u2019s.\u00a0 What do we know about the Herodian dynasty.\u00a0 They were a puppet regime of Rome and they were descendants, not from Israel but their heritage is Edomite.\u00a0 They were sort of a mixed race and so if you want to blame someone for the execution of Jesus Christ you don\u2019t place the blame squarely on the nation of Israel, certainly they shouldered some of the blame, but the Edomite Herodian half breed dynasty played a monumental role in the execution of Christ.\n\nBeyond that, what about the Roman soldiers?\u00a0 Don\u2019t they share part of the blame?\u00a0 In fact, Rome, according to John 18:30-31, had come to power over the land of Israel, really beginning around 63 B.C., and they had taken away from the Jews the right to execute their own criminals which in itself is the fulfillment of prophecy.\u00a0 Had the Jews executed Christ He would not have been pierced.\u00a0 And yet the book of Isaiah, chapter 53 and verse 5, Zechariah 12 and verse 10, the prophecies given in advance are very clear that the Messiah must be pierced and thus it was necessary, not for the Jews to kill Messiah but for the Romans to kill Messiah through a grizzly invention that they borrowed from the Assyrians, called crucifixion.\n\n[Isaiah 53:5, \u201cBut He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Zechariah 12:10, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.\u201d]\n\nIsrael could not have killed Messiah; the power of capital punishment had been removed.\u00a0 The Roman soldiers certainly share part of the blame.\u00a0 Now notice also Matthew 20:18-19, this is why I wanted\u00a0 you to open to that passage.\u00a0 Notice what Jesus says about His executioners and how he would be treated.\u00a0 He said, toward the end of His ministry, \u201cBehold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,\u00a0 [19] and will hand Him over to the\u201d who? \u201cthe Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.\u201d\n\nVery clearly Jesus places part of the blame on the chief priests and the scribes; some of them, not even Jewish in nature, but Edomite\u2019s, the Herodian dynasty, but He very clearly places part of the blame on the Gentiles.\u00a0 Had the Gentiles, the Romans, to put it in modern vernacular, the Italians, not played some sort of role in the execution of Jesus Christ, Jesus would have never died on that cross.\u00a0 You see, it\u2019s a very lopsided reading of the Bible to blame everything on unbelieving Israel.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what the Scripture teaches.\n\nAnd beyond that, if you really want to know who killed Christ look in the mirror because the last time I checked Jesus died for the sins of the what?\u00a0 Whole world.\u00a0 John 3:16, you know the verse well, \u201cFor God so loved the world the\u201d what? \u201cthe world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 I killed Christ because of my sin.\u00a0 You killed Christ because of your sin.\u00a0 Had the sin problem not universally invaded the human race the death of Jesus Christ would not have happened.\u00a0 If you want to charge someone with deicide we should charge humanity as a whole.\n\nBeyond that, the Father Himself is responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the Father understood that the only way for a holy God to maintain His holiness and unconditionally forgive sin is to punish an innocent scapegoat in the place of the guilty.\u00a0 This is why the book of Isaiah, chapter 53 and verse 10, of Christ\u2019s death, a prophecy given 700 years in advance, says this: \u201cBut the LORD was pleased To crush Him,\u201d it doesn\u2019t say the Jews were pleased to crush Him, \u201cthe LORD was pleased to crush Him.\u201d\u00a0 [\u201cBut the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s the only way the atoning substitutionary death of Jesus Christ could have been accomplished.\n\nBeyond that, Christ Himself is partly responsible for His own death.\u00a0 Why would I say that?\u00a0 Notice John 10:17-18, Jesus is very clear here.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it up again.\u00a0 [18] No one\u201d which would include Jews in Israel, \u201cNo one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.\u201d\n\nJesus is very clear here that He was not overwhelmed by a race of people and ushered to some sort\u00a0\u00a0 of premature grave against His will, He is very clear when He indicates that they would have no authority to do anything to Him had He not first allowed it.\u00a0 So all of this to say Israel certainly is part of the blame, first century Israel.\n\nPeter said in Acts 2:23, speaking to the Jewish leadership and the Jews of that day, he said you nailed Him, that\u2019s Jesus, to a cross, but then Peter goes on and he says, \u201cthis Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God\u2026.\u201d \u00a0Yes, the Jews played a role among the roles of many actors but God used these decisions providentially and sovereignly to orchestrate His master\u00adpiece, the payment of the sin debt for the human race.\u00a0 The proper way of thinking about this is first century Israel is \u201ca\u201d cause but when you look at all of these factors they are not \u201cthe\u201d cause.\u00a0 Many other factors play in; the issue is far more complicated than simply charging the Jews with deicide.\u00a0 And yet because of the influence of Chrysostom and others following his lead this has been the pattern of thinking amongst Christendom, largely over the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a simple case of reading the Scripture and seeing the complexity of the issue and seeing how many things were involved in the death of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And how foolish it is to develop a hard-hearted attitude towards the Jewish people following this charge of deicide.\n\nAnd so as Paul tells us in Romans 11 we need to watch very carefully what our attitude is towards the Jewish people.\u00a0 We should not look down with condescension and arrogance upon those that have been (for a time) cut out of the tree.\u00a0 Last week we saw that your position on Israel is largely a position you take in the angelic conflict.\u00a0 We know Ephesians 6:12 that \u201cwe wrestle not against\u201d what? \u201cflesh and blood,\u201d but rather \u201cagainst principalities and rulers of this dark world,\u201d to make things as simple as I know how to make them.\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<\/em>.\u201d KJV]\n\nWhen we study the angelic conflict as it is unveiled for us in Revelation 12 and we worked through part of that passage last week, God has an intention to maintain and to keep Israel and to fulfill His covenants through the nation of Israel.\u00a0 That\u2019s God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 The devil\u2019s plan, as given by Revelation 12 is the exact opposite; it is to blot out the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And in fact, Jesus made an interesting statement in Matthew 23:38.\u00a0 [Matthew 23:28, \u201cBehold, your house is being left to you desolate!\u201d]\n\nAt the end of that chapter He said to the Jews, because you\u2019ll notice in verse 37 he says, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d He said to the Jews down in verse 39 \u201c\u2026you will not see Me again until you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 This is not speaking of the rapture; the rapture is a totally different event which concerns the church.\u00a0 This is God\u2019s program and blueprint for Israel.\u00a0 God is going to take the nation of Israel and bring them to a point of crisis; in that crisis (that we call the Great Tribulation period) the nation of Israel will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, then Jesus says I will come back, establish My kingdom, in and through you, and I will rescue you from the wrath of who?\u00a0 The dragon that Revelation 12 very carefully identifies as the devil.\u00a0 You see, we quote this verse, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; what about the other side of that, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a verse but it\u2019s a saying, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.\u00a0 Can I give\u00a0 you the opposite of that?\u00a0 Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life.\u00a0 Every time God has a plan Satan is out to destroy it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we\u2019re told in John 10:10 that, \u201cThe thief comes to\u201d what? \u201csteal, kill and destroy but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.\u201d\n\nAnything that\u2019s good in your life that God is bringing forth the devil is out to annihilate, to destroy, to distract.\u00a0 That\u2019s the nature of Satan; that\u2019s the nature of the angelic conflict.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same with God\u2019s working with Israel; God\u2019s purpose for Israel is to protect and to promote; Satan\u2019s plan is to abolish and destroy.\u00a0 That and that alone helps you understand the great anti-Semitism that sometimes works its way into Christianity itself, that manifests itself in horrific events like the holocaust.\u00a0 These are all out workings, if you will, of the angelic conflict.\n\nAnd beloved, let me just say something as clearly as I know how to say it; the view you take on Israel is you\u2019re taking a side in the angelic conflict; you have to decide which side of the ledger you want to be on, knowing both the ultimate goal of God and the ultimate goal of the devil.\n\nWhen I began to understand this I became one of the most pro-Israel people on planet earth.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with every jot and tittle that the nation of Israel does any more than God did.\u00a0 Read the Old Testament, you\u2019ll see God disagreeing with His people many times.\u00a0 But at the same time in my heart of hearts I understand that there\u2019s a spiritual war happening.\u00a0 God is at work in and through Israel, in spite of their imperfections and the devil is at work to annihilate and to eradicate.\u00a0 What side of the ledger do you want to be on?\u00a0 When you adopt a theology what side of the ledger do you want to be on, because there\u2019s a whole theological system out there that will allow you to cut Israel completely out of the equation.\u00a0 When you go to vote, who do you vote for?\u00a0 When you vote for somebody are you thinking about this issue, because God sure has a great deal in His Word to say about it.\n\nAnd people ask all of the time, how can you support a nation that\u2019s in an apostate condition?\u00a0 The answer to that is they may be in an apostate condition today but prophetically that is not the end game.\u00a0 Many, many passages document this, like Ezekiel 36:24-28, which of the Jews God says I will take you from the nations and gather you from the lands and bring you into your own land.\n\n[Ezekiel 36:24-28, \u201cFor I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.\u00a0 [25] Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. [26] Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. [28] You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.\u201d]\n\nYou say well, Pastor, what does that mean?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what it means: God is going to take the Jews from the land and regather them into their own land.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to rewrite this.\u00a0 Then in verse 25 it says, \u201cThen\u201d there\u2019s a sequence, \u201cThen I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;\u201d first is their physical regathering in unbelief, next comes their spiritual regeneration.\u00a0 Of course the nation of Israel today is an apostate nation in unbelief but prophetically the Bible tells us over and over and over again this is not the end result; this is just the beginning, the first fruits, if you will, of greater things to come.\u00a0 That\u2019s why in the illustration in Ezekiel 37, when Ezekiel sees the skeleton forming so that it develops over the skeletal assembly sinews and muscles and it forms what looks like is a man and God says to Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 37:11, \u201cthese bones\u201d are the church on the day of Pentecost?\u00a0 NO, it doesn\u2019t say that, does it. \u201cThese bones\u201d represent Sugar Land Bible Church?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 \u201cThese bones\u201d represent the United States of America, it doesn\u2019t say that either.\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear, Ezekiel 37:11, \u201cthese bones are the whole house of Israel.\u201d\n\nAnd so a skeleton comes together and only after that skeleton and muscular system develops, then (notice the sequence) does breath enter the body.\u00a0 In fact, this passage very clearly says that there was no breath in them.\u00a0 Verse 10, \u201cSo I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We pointed out last time, in Zechariah 12:10 that\u00a0 prior to the Spirit being poured out on the whole house of Israel, Israel is inhabiting Jerusalem.\u00a0 Zechariah 12:10 says, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of\u201d what? \u201cJerusalem, the Spirit of grace\u2026 how did they get into Jerusalem? How did they get into Jerusalem before the Spirit of God is poured out on them?\u00a0 God regathered them.\n\nSee, these are all factors or ingredients or details that you should think about when you read about the nation of Israel in the newspaper, when you hear debates about the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I wonder, many times, if we\u2019re thinking the way God would have us to think.\n\nOne of the things that I embrace, I got this from Dr. Randall Price, the two regathering\u2019s of Israel, because people all of the time were telling me you can\u2019t believe that the current regathering of the Jews has anything to do with God because they were in unbelief.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, in the Dallas area Anne and I were in a church and they had a missionary speaker and this individual got up into the pulpit, in front of the whole congregation and he said essentially this: the regathering of the Jews today is not a work of God.\u00a0 This speaker went on and he called the regathering of the Jews today a work of Ishmael, not Isaac.\u00a0 Now when you understand your Bible and you understand how Ishmael came forth, you understand that Ishmael is the product of human manipulation and works.\u00a0 Isaac is the product of faith.\u00a0 When this individual said that the current state of the Jews today in the Middle East is a work of Ishmael I said to my wife, we\u2019re leaving this church, this is the last time we come back.\u00a0 And once the sermon was over we made a beeline for the door, even though we were heavily involved in this congregation, and we left and we never looked back.\u00a0\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because of Genesis 12:3, that\u2019s why.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.\u201d\n\nI can put up with a lot; believe it or not I\u2019m a fairly tolerant person.\u00a0 I can put up with differences of worship style, I can put up with some minor theological differences.\u00a0 What I cannot put up with is a congregation that will stand up and curse the state of Israel.\u00a0 That\u2019s just too far for me.\u00a0 That is my breaking point.\u00a0 And I think that way largely because of what the Scripture reveals. She has returned to part of the land and the second regathering is at the end of the Tribulation, she will return to all of the land.\u00a0 The first regathering is a return in unbelief; the second regathering is a return in faith.\u00a0 In the first regathering, which has started, it\u2019s undeniable, it started May 14, 1948 with the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel, and God had been preparing the nation all of these years for this return.\n\nIt\u2019s said that World War I prepared the land for the people.\u00a0 World War II prepared the people for the land.\u00a0 You see, it was in World War I, I\u2019ll talk about it in just a little bit, with certain international agreements that that territory was carved out for this nation to return to.\u00a0 The problem is the nation itself didn\u2019t see its need to get back into the land.\u00a0 Well, Adolf Hitler with the final solution rectified that issue and the Jews, some of them perhaps for the very first time concluded that no matter where we go we will always be under the thumb of persecution, under the threat of extinction and elimination.\u00a0 We have got to become Zionists in our thinking; we have to go back to a place where we\u2019re going to be safe and protected.\u00a0 World War I prepared the land for the people.\u00a0 World War II prepared the people for the land.\u00a0 It\u2019s all the sovereign hand of God setting the stage for His end time plan.\u00a0 In the present regathering she is being prepared for a time of discipline, the great tribulation but once she is converted at the end of the tribulation she is being prepared for millennial blessing.\n\nBut what I want you to see is the first column is just as much a work of God as the second column.\u00a0 At the bottom of my heart I reject, completely, this idea that God has nothing to do with the modern state of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, I may have read this last week, I don\u2019t remember so bear with me if I\u2019m repeating myself, but in a conversation on religious questions, Frederick II, King of Prussia, around 1740-1786 asked Joachim von Zieton, General of the Hussars, whom he esteemed highly as a Christian for his uncompromised views, give me proof for the truth of the Bible in two words, to which Zieton replied, \u201cYour Majesty,\u201d here come the two words, you ready? \u201cthe Jews.\u201d\n\nThere is no doubt in my mind that the Bible is the Word of God because of its prophecies about the Jews.\u00a0 Sociologists tell us that when a nation is removed from its land within a few generations as that nation is in the diaspora they just assimilate into host cultures.\u00a0 Not so the Jews.\u00a0 Is it not interesting that the nation is out of its land, beginning in A.D. 70 and they go back into that same land 2,000 years later, with the Hebrew language intact, their religion intact, and all of these host cultures that we read about in the Bible, all the \u201cites,\u201d the Amalekites, the Jebusites, how many Amalekites do you know?\u00a0 They\u2019ve all passed into history but the Jews remain.\u00a0 That, in and of itself is the authenticating stamp that God has placed on the Bible that the Bible is the Word of God.\u00a0 When\u00a0 you look at a tiny nation fighting for its very existence in the Middle East, the Hebrew flag flying, The Jerusalem Post being written in Hebrew, you are seeing a modern day miracle of God.\u00a0 When you vote or when you adopt a theology are you thinking this way, because this is the way that God thinks.\n\nThus Paul says from the standpoint of the gospel they, that\u2019s the Jews, are your enemies, they\u2019re the ones persecuting, they are the ones who are coming against the gospel, but from the standpoint of the patriarchs (that\u2019s the unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham), from the standpoint of the patriarchs they are beloved.\u00a0 Do you look at a Christ-rejecting Jew that way or are you filled with thoughts of deicide, Chris-killers, troublemakers.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how God thinks; that\u2019s not how Paul instructs us to think.\n\nSo attitude, angelic conflict, embracing Israel in spite of her apostate condition, what about some practical reasons?\u00a0 Are there some actual practical reasons to support the nation of Israel?\u00a0 Yes there are.\u00a0 Israel is surrounded by twenty-two neighbors.\u00a0 Israel, by contrast, is a singular nation.\u00a0 These twenty-two neighbors are 640 times the size of Israel.\u00a0 By contrast, the tiny nation of Israel is about 1\/19th<\/sup> the size of California.\u00a0 If you want a state in our union that is about the size of Israel you would look at a little tiny state like Vermont, or New Jersey.\n\nWhy am I bringing this up?\u00a0 Because as you watch the media they have a strategy; I like to call it transforming David into Goliath.\u00a0 Israel is the imperialist nation; Israel is causing trouble all over the world.\u00a0 In fact, the BDS movement, which I mentioned last week, which stands for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions which coincidentally is highly connected with the movement Black Lives Matter, not that black lives don\u2019t matter, the last time I checked all lives matter, but there\u2019s a connection between that movement and there\u2019s a connection with BDS because of this link of (they think) of oppression.\u00a0 Just as America is some sort of oppressor around the world the nation of Israel has gained power over there and they are oppressing the Palestinians.\u00a0 And so when you watch the news, when you hear reports of it you get this idea that Israel is some sort of Goliath, some sort of bully, some sort of troublemaker on the earth.\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 How could they be a troublemaker when they\u2019re neighbors are 640 times their size?\n\nBeyond that, the other nations surrounding Israel have a population of about 250,000,000, connected intimately I might add, with 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide.\u00a0 Look at Israel\u2019s population by way of comparison, a population of 13 million.\u00a0 And by the way, that number, 13 million should be more like 20 million, but Hitler, with his final solution, cut down the number quite a bit, did he not.\n\nAnd as you look at these twenty-two nations surrounding the nation of Israel what are we dealing with here?\u00a0 What form of government are they operating under?\u00a0 These are dictatorships.\u00a0 These are some of the most rogue blood-thirsty governments on planet earth.\u00a0 And yet what is Israel by way of comparison?\u00a0 A democracy, an oasis of freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, an oasis of western values in a sea of totalitarianism.\u00a0 And then you look at the subject of wealth; these twenty-two neighbors control most of the world\u2019s oil supply.\u00a0 Israel may be sitting on some potential oil discoveries but her wealth in comparison is so miniscule with this issue of black gold, oil, which is\u00a0 so necessary for the functioning of the global economy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we\u2019re seeing the nations of the earth constantly turning against Israel; the issue is oil, the issue is money, not thinking the way God thinks.\n\nThe dissimilarities continue.\u00a0 Israel desires peace with her neighbors.\u00a0 How about these twenty-two nations, what kind of peace are they desiring?\u00a0 Very limited except for maybe the possibility of Egypt and Jordan, which entered into treaties with Israel, but most would say even those treaties were highly suspicious in nature.\u00a0 They really didn\u2019t mean what they said.\n\nWhat about religious freedom.\u00a0 If I were going to go start a church in Saudi Arabia or Iran, for example, or Iraq, how would I be received?\u00a0 Well, we know the answer to that, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 I\u2019d most likely be killed, and yet in the nation of Israel Christianity is growing.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s the only place in the entire Middle East where Christianity is experiencing any kind of growth at all.\u00a0 And these twenty-two nations, what\u2019s their Holy Book?\u00a0 What do they follow?\u00a0 They follow the Qur'an.\u00a0 What does the Qur'an call for?\u00a0 Have you ever read it?\u00a0 It calls for worldwide submission under Sharia Law, something called Caliphate.\u00a0 It is governing the entire planet, if they had their way they would do it right here in the United States of America, some would argue they are trying to do it as I speak.\u00a0 It is toppling the free western economies and governments and democracies of the world and imposing Sharia Law worldwide.\n\nDon\u2019t get mad at me, I didn\u2019t write this, I\u2019m just delivering the news here.\u00a0 And what, by contrast, is the Holy Book that the nation of Israel is following?\u00a0 The Torah, which promises the Jewish people what?\u00a0 Worldwide submission?\u00a0 NO, it promises a very small allotment of land from the Euphrates to the Tigris in comparison to those giant nations.\u00a0 And yet these twenty-two nations essentially believe that the nation of Israel is their holy site and it belongs to them.\n\nCan I ask you a simple question?\u00a0 How many times is the word \u201cJerusalem\u201d found in the Qur'an?\u00a0 Zero. \u00a0In fact, the closest they\u2019ve ever been able to come up with is Qur'an Surah which means chapter 17.1; it makes a reference there to a remote mosque, and they say that\u2019s Jerusalem.\u00a0 The word \u201cJerusalem\u201d is not even there, and yet they\u2019re arguing that they have a right to Jerusalem because of this remote reference to a remote mosque.\u00a0 Compare that to Torah! Compare that to Hebrew Bible that we call the Old Testament where the name Jerusalem, if you factor in the name Zion, which is a synonym for Jerusalem, is used a thousand times, whether it\u2019s your holy book, religious freedom, the ambition for peaceful coexistence, wealth, the type of government, population size, number of nations, it becomes so obvious that just by practical reasons, putting our theology aside even just for a moment it makes sense, does it not, to stand by and to support the nation of Israel.\n\nLet me tell you something about Islamic thought.\u00a0 Israel is the Little Satan in Islamic thought.\u00a0 You know what the Great Satan is, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 It\u2019s the United States of America.\u00a0 Everything that is happening today in the Middle East to the Jewish people, through attacks and suicide bombers and speeches about how we\u2019re going to drive you into the sea, that is exactly what that same mindset wants to do here to the Great Satan, it\u2019s just a matter of time in their thinking before the Little Satan topples and then we\u2019ll really go to war with the Great Satan.\n\nSee those green areas there?\u00a0 Those are those twenty-two nations I\u2019ve been describing.\u00a0 Those are Islamically controlled nations and you see that, your eyes have to be good to see it; in fact, I had to put a big red circle around it so we could even make it out.\u00a0 That little tiny dot, it almost looks like a postage stamp on an envelope it\u2019s so tiny, that\u2019s the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And yet what is the world community saying over and over and over again?\u00a0 If Israel just gave up a little more we\u2019d be happy.\u00a0 And because Americans hear that through the repetition of media over and over and over and over again they have in their mind some sort of idea that Israel is the bully, Israel is the Imperial power, Israel is the aggressor.\u00a0 A simple geography lesson shows that nothing, NOTHING can be further from the truth.\n\nWhat\u2019s the name of the game today?\u00a0 It\u2019s land for peace.\u00a0 What does that mean exactly?\u00a0 Well, if Israel chisels off a little bit of land that she gained in the 67 war, flippantly called the West Bank, which is a word I don\u2019t think we ought to be using or a term we ought to be using as evangelicals.\u00a0 When you say West Bank you\u2019re buying into the Jordanian point of view.\u00a0 Words mean things.\u00a0 We don\u2019t call that the West Bank, we call it Judea and Samaria.\u00a0 And by the way, we don\u2019t call the Gaza Strip the Gaza Strip; we call it Philistia.\u00a0 If Israel just gives up a little bit more in these areas then we as the world community will be happy\u2014land for peace.\n\nCan I let you in on a secret here?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how much Israel gives up, these nations will not be happy as long as there\u2019s an Israel, period.\u00a0 They can chisel apart this part, or that part, and give it up and let me tell you something about Islamic eschatology; it feeds into a triumphalism where when Israel acquiesces they see themselves as winning, Caliphate is happening; the Eschaton has begun, which feeds the appetite for greater and greater and greater oppression against the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.\n\nAnd how the western mind, without understanding this great conflict between Islam and Judaism, how little the western mind understands when they look at this situation and they look it as a real estate deal.\u00a0 In fact, one of the major candidates for President, I won\u2019t mention who it is, says this is the ultimate real estate deal; what a silly and arrogant and ignorant point of view.\u00a0 This is not a real estate deal, this is a spiritual conflict, a conflict between two theologies and ideologies.\u00a0 And unless you understand those theologies and ideologies you cannot look like this as a casino deal or a gambling arrangement.\u00a0 This is an intense spiritual conflict; this is part of the angelic conflict.\n\nDo you think like this when you vote for somebody?\u00a0 Does this factor in?\u00a0 Because God, I\u2019m telling us, has a great deal to say about it.\u00a0 To Islamic thought if Islam has ruled over a territory ever then that territory belongs to Islam, it belongs to Allah, and any nation that exists on that territory is a usurper and it\u2019s very existence is showing disrespect to Allah.\u00a0 As long as there\u2019s an Israel in existence at all, it doesn\u2019t matter how big it is, it doesn\u2019t matter how small it is, the twenty-two nations that are Islamically controlled, surrounding the nation of Israel, will never be satisfied.\u00a0 The Palestine Liberation Organization, what is that?\u00a0 Palestine Liberation Organization, what are they trying to liberate Palestine of?\u00a0 It\u2019s an organization designed to liberate Palestine of Israel.\n\nBy the way, that name, \u201cPalestine,\u201d where does that come from?\u00a0 That comes from the Emperor Hadrian who, after Israel had been pushed out of that land in A.D. 70 renamed that whole territory.\u00a0 He wanted to de-Judaize that area; he developed a name for it called Palestine connected to the root word Philistine.\u00a0 Who were the Philistines?\u00a0 Ancient enemies of Israel.\u00a0 When Hadrian renamed that area to humiliate the Jewish people and to de-Judaize that land and to pretend like the nation of Israel was never there he developed this expression Palestine.\u00a0 So when a Christian uses the word \u201cPalestine\u201d they are\u00a0 using an anti-Semitic slur without even realizing it.\u00a0 In fact, even in some of our study Bibles it talks about God\u2019s covenant with the Jews as the Palestinian Covenant.\u00a0 What a bunch of nonsense.\u00a0 The Bible doesn\u2019t know the word \u201cPalestine.\u201d\u00a0 The word Palestine comes from anti-Judaistic thought, Hadrian is responsible for that.\u00a0 If you want the proper name for that area of the world you call it Canaan, as the Old Testament calls it; the Promised Land as the Old Testament calls it, or if you don\u2019t like those names use the name Jesus gave to it in Matthew 2, the land of Israel.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we refer to this part of the world.\n\nAnd lo and behold, comes along this Palestine Liberation Organization, sometimes known by the designation, PLO, and you listen to the Palestine Liberation Organization and what they say is this: If Israel just goes back to the pre-1967 borders when they gained Judea and Samaria then we\u2019ll be happy.\u00a0 There\u2019s a little problem with that, folks.\u00a0 The Palestine Liberation Organization was not founded post 1967, it was founded in 1964.\u00a0 It was founded a full three years before Israel ever gained Judea and Samaria, what we call the West Bank.\u00a0 What were they trying to liberate in 1964?\u00a0 Not these extended territories, they were trying to liberate Palestine and trying to eliminate the nation of Israel in its totality.\n\nWe need to be on the ball with this, folks; we need to understand what is happening.\u00a0 In the year 2000 Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak offered to withdraw from 90% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip.\u00a0 \u00a0At the time it was happening I knew it was a mistake but this was the offer that was placed on the table.\u00a0 In fact, in this particular deal the Palestinians would maintain control over the holy places and have religious sovereignty over the Temple Mount.\u00a0 And every major President towards the end of their administrations, we\u2019re getting near the end of the Obama administration, they\u2019re going to go the exact same route, they do this game where they\u2019re trying to get concessions from Israel because they all want to be known as the President who brokers the art of the deal and have their name in the history books.\n\nThis is what was happening at the end of the Clinton administration.\u00a0 This was the deal on the table that Ahud Barak, the Prime Minister of Israel, offered.\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s just one little catch; Arafat was expected to agree that the conflict with Israel was over, we\u2019re going to give up this, we\u2019re going to give up that, we\u2019re going to give up that, it\u2019s an unprecedented deal; we just want you, if you could sir, erase your eradication of Israel as one of your goals in your stated charters; we want you to acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist and we want cessation of conflict and we want a two-state solution and we want permanent peace in the Middle East.\u00a0 You know the end of the story?\u00a0 Arafat walked, an unprecedented deal right there on the table and he walked away.\u00a0 Why would he walk away?\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty simple; his goal was never to permanently acknowledge the state of Israel in some form or substance; he wanted freedom to get involved with what is called the Intifada, if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, which is perpetual war against Israel, which began September of 2000.\u00a0 He never wanted a permanent solution, he wanted the disappearance of Israel.\u00a0 That is Islamic thought.\n\nAnd then Israel, in 2005, does something unprecedented; they give up this little strip of land there off the Mediterranean Sea in the land of Israel, called the Gaza Strip, he can have the whole Gaza Strip; land for peace, right.\u00a0 What do these people do once they get political control of that area?\u00a0 They elect somebody to rule over them.\u00a0 Do you know who they elected to rule over them?\u00a0 Hamas!\u00a0 Who is Hamas?\u00a0 A terrorist organization.\u00a0 Why is it that you\u2019re giving land in exchange for peace and the first time you\u2019re given an opportunity to vote in an election you vote for Hamas to rule over you, which is an organization dedicated to the destruction of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And what do they start to from Gaza Strip, this Hamas controlled government?\u00a0 Launching missiles and rockets into Israeli territory.\u00a0 You may have heard of the tunnels, the death tunnels, the terrorist tunnels tunneled under\u00adneath to allow entrance into the land of Israel to expedite terrorist activity.\n\nI like the way Benjamin Netanyahu puts it; \u201cIf the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.\u00a0 If the Jews put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Are we looking at this through the right lens?\u00a0 What we\u2019re told over and over again is Israel is involved in occupied territory.\u00a0 People hear that constantly over the news, \u201coccupied territory\u201d which in their minds communicates the whole issue of illegality.\u00a0 I mean, if this territory is occupied Israel must be doing something illegal, right?\u00a0 That\u2019s what your average American thinks, that\u2019s what your average Christian thinks.\n\nI want to introduce you to two scholars, the first is Joan Peters, she wrote a book, it\u2019s a few decades old now, it\u2019s called From Time Immemorial<\/em>, where she, as an anti-Israel liberal bought into that whole Palestinian narrative and she went to the land of Israel to prove it.\u00a0 The problem is the more she dug around in the facts the more the facts didn\u2019t line up, and she switched her view and wrote an entire book about this called From Time Immemorial<\/em>.\u00a0 I would encourage you to get that book and start reading it if you\u2019re interested in this; it\u2019s not the easiest read in the world but she documents that Israel is doing illegally nothing.\n\nThe second gentleman on the screen that I\u2019ve heard speak live on a couple of occasions is Canadian lawyer Jock Paul Gutia, he recently finished a twenty year project; he worked on a dissertation at the University of Geneva Political Science Department in international law twenty years.\u00a0 His readers to his dissertation, I know a little something about this having written a dissertation myself, made his life a living hell.\u00a0 They made him cite and footnote and quote everything with exactitude and verbatim.\u00a0 If there\u2019s ever a guy that had to get his ducks in a row this was it.\u00a0 And yet when I\u2019ve listened to him lecture he says that was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me because what has been produced is a dissertation that demonstrates unequivocally that Israel is doing nothing illegal.\u00a0 There is no international law that Israel is violating; everything is legal going back to World War I and what\u2019s called the San Remo Conferences and other things.\u00a0 This issue of occupied territories illegality that people think Israel must be doing something wrong, breaking some kind of law\u2026 they are breaking no such thing.\u00a0 His thesis was completed in 2007.\n\nBut Andy, isn\u2019t it true that Israel went into a land which was a thriving population, didn\u2019t they not dispossess the people of that land?\u00a0 Did they not take over that thriving population?\u00a0 And the answer is that is false.\u00a0 I want to quote Mark Twain but back to Gutia just for a minute.\u00a0 Here\u2019s his conclusion: You can think whatever you want about Israel, you can agree with it, you can disagree with it but here\u2019s what you can\u2019t say:\u00a0\u00a0 You cannot say that Israel is doing anything illegal.\n\nMark Twain, in his book, Innocence Abroad<\/em>, 1867, traveled to the land of Israel, the very area of the world where most of the Bible stories took place and he wrote about it two years later in his book The Innocence Abroad<\/em>, and this is what Mark Twain says of that land: \u201c\u201c... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds\u2026 a silent mournful expanse\u2026. a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action\u2026. we never saw a human being on the whole route\u2026. there was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere.\u201d\u00a0 In fact at one time he encountered a goat and he says this must be the kind of goat that can eat a rock because that\u2019s all that\u2019s around here.\u00a0 \u201cEven the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.\u201d\u00a0 [Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, Complete<\/em>, 1st ed. (A Public Domain Book, 1869), 267, 285, 302. These quotes can be found in chapters 47, 49, 52.]\n\nThere was nothing there but a barren mournful expanse.\u00a0 There was no thriving Palestinian civilization that the Jews came and stole; that is propaganda; that\u2019s what people think because they really haven\u2019t done a lot of research into the area and oh what that land has become as it moved into Jewish jurisdiction.\u00a0 Israel, by working the land the way it should be worked, has produced a gross domestic product that is higher than any of its neighbors.\u00a0 In fact, you want a book on this?\u00a0 The Start Up Nation<\/em> is the name of the book, documenting the technological and agricultural innovations that have come forth from the state of Israel after they went back into a land that was barren, and how the world\u2019s economy, many of the technological gizmos that we\u2019re used to come to the world community from the nation of Israel..\u00a0 [What\u2019s Next for The Start Up Nation?: A Blueprint For Sustainable Innovation<\/em>, Paperback\u2014July 27, 2012, by Uni Goldberg]\n\nAnd you start seeing things like this and you start to see the hand of God in it.\u00a0 Why would I see the hand of God in that?\u00a0 Because Leviticus 26:32, God says this: \u201cI will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what Mark Twain saw in 1867.\n\nBut the prophecies don\u2019t end there.\u00a0 In Ezekiel 36:34-35 it predicts this: \u201cThe desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by. [35] They will say, \u2018This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.\u2019\u201d\n\nAre you telling me that God is not fulfilling His prophetic word today as we speak?\u00a0 Of course He is, and it\u2019s so frustrating to go into the average evangelical church and hear nothing about this.\u00a0 We\u2019re too busy talking about five ways to make\u00a0 your life better or whatever.\u00a0 And God is doing perhaps one of His greatest miracles in our midst and we\u2019re too busy to think, to contemplate, to consider.\u00a0 And yet what does the rest of the Bible say?\n\nEzekiel 37:7 says, \u201cSo I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling<\/u>; [and the bones came together, bone to its bone.\u201d]\u00a0 When this comes back together, as Israel is brought back in unbelief it is going to be clamorous, noisy, and rattling.\u00a0 Would you not say that\u2019s happening?\u00a0 Almost every newspaper article, almost every United Nations declaration has something to do with this issue.\n\nZechariah 12:2, \u201cBehold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples\u2026.\u201d Verse 3, Jerusalem will become a heavy stone for all the nations.\u00a0 [2, \u201cBehold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples <\/u>around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.\u00a0 [3] It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples<\/u>; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.\u201d]\n\nThe Jews will go back, the land will be productive, God will use it to set up His end time program but it will be a source of consternation to the nations.\u00a0 What is everybody trying to figure out today in the world community?\u00a0 What are they thinking about?\u00a0 Why does the\u00a0 United Nations meet?\u00a0 They\u2019re all trying to figure out what we\u2019re going to do with Jerusalem and the nation of Israel.\u00a0 This is what Zechariah said would happen 500 years before Jesus ever showed up to give you the time frame.\u00a0 And yet the nations would see this and they would become enraged at Israel.\u00a0 Zechariah 12:3 says, \u201call the nations of the earth will be gathered against it<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAll\u201d means all folks!\u00a0 That would include the late great United States of America, wouldn\u2019t it.\n\nZechariah 14:2 again says, \u201c\u2026all the nations<\/u>\u201d will come \u201cagainst Jerusalem\u201d<\/u> and they would put pressure on this nation to cede territory in exchange for the illusory promise of peace.\u00a0 [Zechariah 14:2, \u201cFor I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.\u201d]\n\nAnd the prophet Joel says if that happens in your generation you\u2019d better watch out, you\u2019d better have your bags packed because this is what Joel 3:2 says, \u201cI will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations;\u201d look at this last line here, \u201cAnd they have divided up My land<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 This is a prophecy about Armageddon.\u00a0 This is a prophecy about the judgment of God coming to this earth.\n\nDid you ever ask\u00a0 yourself a question?\u00a0 Why is God going to judge this world one day?\u00a0 Is it homosexuality?\u00a0 Is it lack of prayer in schools?\u00a0 I think all those may factor in but the prophet Joel says what will incur the wrath of God is the deliberate division of the land.\u00a0 What is the whole world community demanding today?\u00a0 The land be divided.\u00a0 You say well land schman; I mean, Andy, you\u2019re so land focused, we\u2019re in the church age now, what matters is the spiritual things, not land, God doesn\u2019t care about land.\u00a0 Leviticus 25:23 says something different.\u00a0 God says this: \u201cthe land is mine.\u201d\u00a0 [Leviticus 25:23, \u201cThe land moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.\u201d]\n\nI\u2019m not asking you to think in terms of what\u2019s popular.\u00a0 I\u2019m asking you to think the way God thinks.\u00a0 God made a covenant with the patriarch, Abraham; He plotted out a specific plot of real estate and God said that land belongs to Me, I don\u2019t care what your party is, who you vote for, what your theology is, the land belongs to Me.\u00a0 You say well, does God really care about land? Deuteronomy 11:12 says \u201ca land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.\u201d\u00a0 When God looks at the land of Israel His eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.\u00a0 This is not my opinion, this is what God says.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Candidate for office, do you want my vote?\u00a0 I want to know what you think about the land of Israel because that largely dictates, I believe, our future as a country.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at the purpose for Israel, the diving protection for Israel, and hopefully I\u2019ve given us proper perspective concerning Israel.\n\nOf course, one of these days the Lord wants\u00a0 you, as His child, to live in that land with Him, where He will rule the world with you by His side in what\u2019s called the Millennial kingdom.\u00a0 You say great, how can I get there?\u00a0 You don\u2019t to book a flight to the Middle East, you just need to fill a single condition, which is to accept, by faith, to trust by faith in the Jewish Messiah.\u00a0 Once that happens and you fulfill that condition then you are given the promise of Revelation 5:10 where you are incorporated into a kingdom of priests and you will rule and reign with Him over the earth.\u00a0 [Revelation 5:10, \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d]\u00a0 And He asks for something so little to receive this, which is to receive it as a gift, by faith.\u00a0 Have you done that?\u00a0 Have you been, as we talked about today, grafted in?\u00a0 If the Spirit is convicting you of your need to do that the Bible says today is the day of salvation; respond in the privacy of your own heart the best you know how, without raising a hand, walking an aisle, giving money, pledging to join a church, you just respond in the heart of your heart in a moment of privacy to this free offer of salvation and you trust in that.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what brings you in to your glorious future and inheritance.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, I am convicted as I was putting this together how little we think the way You think.\u00a0 I do pray Lord that in this series You will use it to fortify our thinking as we adopt theology and represent You in the polling place.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.\u00a0 Amen.","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