{"id":19210,"date":"2018-01-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-030\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:10","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-030","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-030\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 030"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[68],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19210","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-isaiah","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 030","sermon_date":"20180110","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20039,"sermon_slides":20040,"sermon_mp3":20041,"sermon_id":"111182158380","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":68,"chapter_and_verse":"11:11-12","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n1-10-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isaiah 11:11-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 30\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28 and take a look at verses 63-65.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s been about a month since we met, so some of you may not remember what we\u2019ve been studying.\u00a0 There\u2019s a hint on the screen, The Coming Kingdom.\u00a0 I\u2019m kind of using a book that I wrote as a topical study but the important thing is it\u2019s not my book, it\u2019s God\u2019s book so my book just topically organizes some data.\u00a0 But what we\u2019ve been trying to get at is the whole subject of the kingdom.\u00a0 And we\u2019re now in chapter 12, so we\u2019re trying to get at this point here; what does the Bible say about the kingdom? \u00a0And it\u2019s sort of a dirty trick I\u2019ve pulled on everybody; I knew if we started to answer what the Bible says about the kingdom we\u2019d have to study the whole Bible so I could have just said let\u2019s study the whole Bible or I could do a stealth maneuver and say we\u2019re going to study the kingdom, because probably if you don\u2019t understand the kingdom you really can\u2019t understand the big picture of the Bible.\n\nSo I know there\u2019s a lot of cobwebs and it\u2019s been a month since we\u2019ve been at this so let me just sort of review where we\u2019ve been if I could.\u00a0 The story of the kingdom starts there in the Garden of Eden where God was ruling through a man and a woman and they were governing creation for God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really the establishment of the kingdom on earth, that arrangement.\u00a0 You know the story from Genesis 3, they stopped listening to God and started listening to what they were supposed to be ruling over, the animals, in particular a talking snake, and they rebelled against God in the process and so once that happened the kingdom was lost to the earth.\n\nSo the story of the Bible is how the kingdom is restored to the earth.\u00a0 And so you start to see through the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant that God entered into with Abraham, a plan is in motion, through a nation, to bring forth a king and a kingdom to the world.\u00a0 And the Abrahamic Covenant gave the nation of Israel ownership over three things: land, seed and blessing.\u00a0 That happens about 2000 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0 And then you kind of move forward another 600 years to about 1446 B.C., about a year after the Exodus and God gives to the nation of Israel another covenant called the Mosaic Covenant, which (unlike the Abrahamic Covenant) is a conditional covenant.\u00a0 So the Mosaic Covenant gives to Israel, not ownership, they already had that, but what?\u00a0 Anybody recall?\u00a0 Possession\u00a0 or what?\u00a0 Enjoyment.\u00a0 So in order for the nation to possess or enjoy what they already owned they have to comply with the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 And who does the Mosaic Covenant point to ultimately?\u00a0 Jesus!\n\nAnd we moved from there into the divided kingdom of the north and the south; just after the time\u00a0 of Solomon the kingdom was divided, the nation was divided.\u00a0 And of the two what\u2019s the more important?\u00a0 The south because there\u2019s prophecy given to Judah, found in Genesis 49:10 that through Judah is going to come this King and ultimately this kingdom.\u00a0 \u00a0Then we got down there to number 5 where something called the times of the Gentiles started.\u00a0 And the nation of Israel got so bad that they were evicted out of their land and as you know from Sunday mornings in Daniel a new time period started around the 6th<\/sup> century called the times of the Gentiles, where Israel would not have a king reigning on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 And that started with the Babylonian captivity and as we\u2019ve studied in the Book of Daniel that\u2019s going to go all the way until the Second Advent of Christ.\n\nSo until the Second Advent of Christ takes place you\u2019re not going to have the kingdom coming to the earth.\u00a0 And that took us to number six where the prophets, during this time of kingdom postponement sketch a beautiful picture of what the kingdom is going to be like.\u00a0 So the prophets sort of are functioning as a light shining in a dark place, as Peter says, during this time when the kingdom is absent what it\u2019s going to be like one day.\n\nAnd then the nation of Israel comes out of the seventy year captivity\u00a0 under the Persians, they go back into their land, the Persian Empire governing Israel is replaced by Greece; Greece is replaced by Rome and during the time period of the Roman Empire who shows up offering Israel their kingdom?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And that is what is called the offer of the kingdom where Jesus, and John and the disciples said, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is\u201d what? \u201cat hand.\u201d\u00a0 So had Israel, back in the first century, enthroned Christ, hypothetically the long awaited kingdom could have come.\u00a0 So we went into that concept and explained it.\n\nBut then you get down there to number nine and the tragedy is what did Israel do with their king and the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 They did what with it?\u00a0 They rejected it and does anybody recall what chapter of the Bible that took place in?\u00a0 Matthew 12.\u00a0 So Matthew 12 is the hinge.\u00a0 And once that happens the offer is withdrawn and the kingdom continues in postponement.\u00a0 But God never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself, right? So we\u2019re living, as we have been for the last 2,000 years in a time period where the kingdom is not here; it\u2019s not going to come until the tribulation period and Israel finally receives the offer of the kingdom. As long as Israel has not received their king they remain the owner of her blessings but not the possessor and the kingdom remains not cancelled but postponed.\n\nSo that\u2019s the time period that we\u2019ve been in for 2,000 years but that doesn\u2019t mean God is not working, just because the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 So what you start to get information about is an interim period of time where God is doing certain things and those things include the kingdom mysteries and also the church.\n\nWe looked at the kingdom parables, there\u2019s eight of them, and Jesus, in these eight parables, given in Matthew 13\u2026 by the way, Matthew 13 follows Matthew 12, that\u2019s very logical because 12 is the rejection of the offer of the kingdom, 13 is the consequences.\u00a0 So he explains very clearly in eight parables what the world is going to be like while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 So we worked our way all the way through those eight parables.\n\nAnd then the second thing to understand to grasp the interadvent age is the birth of the church.\u00a0 So the church age has been going on for the last 2,000 years, we\u2019ve explained all about the church age.\u00a0 And probably the thing to understand is that the church, as wonderful as it is, is not Israel and is not the kingdom.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So God is clearly doing a work in the church, this new man, this new spiritual man, but it shouldn\u2019t be confused with what He\u2019s promised to bring to the earth one day through the kingdom.\n\nSo that, in a nutshell, sort of catches you up with everything we\u2019ve covered.\u00a0 It took about 30 lessons for\u00a0 us to get here but we made it safely.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re going to start moving into now is what in the world is God going to do once He\u2019s finished with the church, because one of these days the earthly mission of the church will be over; the church will be taken to heaven through the rapture, and after the rapture takes place God does not leave the earth without a witness of Himself, right?\u00a0 So He\u2019s still going to work; the question is how is He going to work and how is He going to bring the kingdom to the earth.\n\nSo we\u2019re finished talking about what God is doing in the present and now we\u2019re shifting to what God is doing after the church has gone.\u00a0 And God\u2019s program, His kingdom program, revolves around the nation of Israel.\u00a0 At Mount Sinai God says this: \u201cNow if you\u201d and the \u201cyou\u201d there is Israel, \u201cNow if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine. [6] and you shall be to Me a\u201d what \u201ckingdom of priests and a holy nation.\u2019 These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Exodus 19:5-6]\n\nYou see there the if\/then clause?\u00a0 If Israel does this then the kingdom will come.\u00a0 So as long as Israel hasn\u2019t complied with the \u201cif\u201d clause\u2026 and by the way, the \u201cif\u201d clause points to who?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0 As long as they haven\u2019t complied with the \u201cif\u201d clause the kingdom remains in a state of postponement.\u00a0 So really the goal of history is how is God going to get Israel into compliance so the kingdom can come.\n\nAnd this was the thing that Jesus was talking about just prior to His death, during the Passion Week He made this statement at the end of Matthew 23, He said, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d now who\u2019s He talking to there? Israel or the church?\u00a0 Israel!\u00a0 \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were unwilling.\u00a0 [35] Behold, your house is being left to you desolate, for I say from now on you will not see Me until you say \u2018Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Which is really a citation from Psalm 118:26, which is a Messianic Psalm.\u00a0 [Psalm 118:26, \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD\u2026.\u201d]\n\nAnd what Jesus is saying is I\u2019m not coming back for this nation to establish My kingdom through this nation until you acknowledge Me as your Messiah.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So the whole kingdom program following the rapture of the church and how the kingdom ultimately comes to the earth all revolves around God\u2019s program for Israel.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 That means we need to study Israel.\n\nSo our study of Israel has five parts to it. Number 1, we have Israel in the Diaspora, I\u2019ll explain what that means in a second.\u00a0 Number 2, you have Israel\u2019s regathering in unbelief, and I believe we\u2019re seeing that happen today, and that kind of shows us what time in history we\u2019re living in.\u00a0 Number 3, you have Israel\u2019s conversion through distress predicted.\u00a0 See, distress is what God is going to use to bring Israel to Himself.\u00a0 And then finally, number 4, there will be Israel\u2019s final restoration. \u00a0And unless you understand what God is doing, has done, is doing, will do through Israel you can\u2019t really understand how and under what circumstances He brings this kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 So Israel to God is a big deal because she is the nation that has been given the covenants.\n\nSo let\u2019s start with Israel in the Diaspora first.\u00a0 What does Diaspora mean?\u00a0 Diaspora is a Greek word that just means dispersion; Israel, in what we would call worldwide dispersion.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel in the first century (as you know) rejected Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In fact, the prophet Isaiah 700 years in advance predicted this would happen, Isaiah 53.\u00a0 Daniel, the prophet, in Daniel 9:26 predicted this would happen 600 years in advance. \u00a0It says the Messiah would be cut off, rejected by his own nation. \u00a0[Daniel 9:26, \u201cThen after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d]\n\nAnd one of the things to understand is God, when He brought the nation of Israel to Mt. Sinai and gave them the Mosaic Covenant, and here\u2019s another picture of Sinai, they\u2019re leaving Egypt, they go to the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which is the traditional view of where Mount Sinai is, some disagree and put Mt. Sinai elsewhere and that\u2019s not really my point to get into that debate of where Mt. Sinai is.\u00a0 The point is God brought them to Mount Sinai and He gave them the Mosaic Covenant.\n\nAnd the Mosaic Covenant has a lot of different aspects to it, including (and this is why I had you open to Deuteronomy 28) cycles of blessing and curses.\u00a0\u00a0 And we\u2019ve studied this, if Israel disobeys the covenant she will be materially and physically cursed by God.\u00a0 If Israel obeys the covenant she will be materially and physically blessed by God.\u00a0 You see all that laid out very clearly in Deuteronomy 28.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 28:1-14 are the blessing for obedience; Deuteronomy 28:15-68 is the curses for disobedience.\u00a0 By the way, did you notice there\u2019s only 14 verses for obedience here, and the rest of the chapter is all curses for disobedience.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like God knew what would happen, right?\n\nAnd one of the things that God said is if you disobey Me, take a look at Deuteronomy 28:49-50, at the height of Israel\u2019s disobedience God predicted what would happen.\u00a0 Verse 48, \u201cThe LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, [50] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So what is predicted is at the height of \u00a0disobedience God is going to bring a pagan power, speaking a foreign language, He\u2019s going to bring that foreign power against the nation of Israel.\u00a0 That foreign power is going to be His instrument of disobedience and that foreign power is going to push Israel out of her land.\n\nSo God announced that this would happen and 700 years pass and God starts to make good on His promises because of the perpetual disobedience of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 You study the life of Solomon, for example, the third king of the united kingdom, and it\u2019s almost like Solomon woke\u00a0 up one day and read Deuteronomy 28 and decided to do the opposite.\u00a0 The Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 17, says the king is not to multiply wealth for himself, so what did Solomon do?\u00a0 He multiplied wealth for himself.\u00a0 The king is not to take on multiple wives; what did Solomon do?\u00a0 He took on multiple wives; the man had 700 wives and 300 concubines.\n\n[Deuteronomy 17:15, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one<\/em> from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. [16] Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, \u2018You shall never again return that way.\u2019 [17] He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.\u201d]\n\nAnd that\u2019s basically how you entered into a treaty with a foreign nation; the king gave you a princess as part of the treaty deal and the fact that Solomon\u2019s got 700 wives show you how many treaties he entered into.\u00a0 And by the way, the Book of Deuteronomy also says don\u2019t enter into treaties with foreign nations so you can see Solomon flagrantly violated that.\u00a0 I mean, you can\u2019t get a more disobedient guy in the final forty years of his life than Solomon.\n\nSo what did God do?\u00a0 What did God say He would do in Deuteronomy 28, 700 years earlier?\u00a0 He said I\u2019ll bring discipline, so discipline happened after Solomon left the throne and the kingdom was divided between the north and the south.\u00a0 The ten tribes in the north continued in disobedience and so what did God do?\u00a0 He brought the cycles of discipline again and scattered the north, and the rod of His discipline was the Assyrians.\u00a0 So God said I\u2019m going to bring a nation against you whose language you don\u2019t understand and this time He used the Assyrians, in 722 B.C. scattered the northern kingdom.\u00a0 You can read about that in 2 Kings 17.\u00a0 You can read about the division of the northern and the southern kingdom within the land of Israel in 1 Kings 12.\n\nNow you would think that the two little tribes that remained\u2026. anybody know the tribes that remained in the south?\u00a0 Judah and Benjamin.\u00a0\u00a0 You would think they would learn their lesson and say well, the north got in trouble when they disobeyed God so we\u2019re going to get our act together.\u00a0 When you get into the prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel describes these two kingdoms, north and south, as two sisters that are harlots, basically.\u00a0 The older sister is named Oholah and the younger sister is named Oholibah.\u00a0 The older sister represents (in Ezekiel 23 Ezekiel explains this) the northern kingdom and the\u00a0 younger sister represents the southern kingdom that remained.\n\nAnd Ezekiel\u2019s whole point in Ezekiel 23 is the younger sister should have learned what happened to the discipline God brought on the older sister because of her harlotry, but the younger sister actually became worse of a harlot than the older sister.\u00a0 And Ezekiel makes that statement as to how God\u2019s hand cannot be withheld and God has to make good on His promises and He has to bring discipline.\u00a0 And consequently the southern kingdom (the northern kingdom had already been scattered by the Assyrians) is taken into captivity and this time God is not using the Assyrians to discipline the south as He did the north, but He\u2019s using who?\u00a0 The Babylonians.\u00a0 So the Babylonians come under Nebu\u00adchadnezzar, remove the nation of Israel from her homeland and take her into captivity.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where the story of the prophet Daniel, that we\u2019re studying Sunday mornings, picks up at that point.\n\nAnd you know the story from the Bible how they went back into the land after the seventy years of discipline were over and Jesus shows up and they mistreat Him and they reject Him, and so God now, based on Deuteronomy 28:49-50, is going to make good on His promises once again and He\u2019s going to push the nation of Israel out of her land.\u00a0 And this time He\u2019s not using the Assyrians or the Babylonians but He\u2019s using the Romans.\u00a0 So that is discipline that God brought against His own nation about forty years or so after Christ left the earth.\u00a0 So Christ left the earth, first the nation rejected Him, they turned Him over to the Romans for execution.\u00a0 God actually turned lemons into lemonade because through that transaction who\u2019s sin debt was paid for?\u00a0 Ours, the whole world, anybody that trusts in that provision.\u00a0 But God has to make good on what He said at Sinai, Deuteronomy 28:49-50.\n\nSo this time He brought the Romans against the nation of Israel; this is what Jesus is predicting would happen about four decades later in the events of A.D. 70.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see Jesus\u2019 predictions there in Luke 19:41-44.\u00a0 [Luke 19:41, \u201cWhen He approached Jerusalem,<\/em> He saw the city and wept over it, [42] saying, \u201cIf you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.\u00a0 [43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d]\n\nAnd at that point the nation of Israel is pushed into what we call the Diaspora, worldwide dispersion. And they have been in that state of worldwide dispersion for 2,000 years, and that\u2019s really how to look at the nation of Israel.\u00a0 The nation of Israel, as I speak today, is under the discipline of God.\u00a0 I love Israel, I think we should do whatever we can do to help Israel, but the reality is the nation of Israel for the last 2,000 years has been under the disciplinary hand of God, pushed into worldwide dispersion, an outworking of the cycles of discipline spelled out at Mt. Sinai.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that Moses, all the way back at Mount Sinai, predicted this would happen.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 4:27 it says this: \u201cThe LORD will scatter you among the\u201d what? \u201cthe peoples, and you will be left few in number among the\u201d what? \u201cnations where the LORD drives you\u201d that\u2019s Diaspora language, you\u2019re going to be scattered into the nations, and that really didn\u2019t happen the way Moses predicted it would happen until A.D. 70.\n\nAnd now we\u2019re finally getting to the verse I had you open up to, Deuteronomy 28:63-65, another Diaspora prophecy.\u00a0 \u201cIt shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.\u201d\u00a0 Now they entered under Joshua and they were in that land for about one thousand three hundred years; they were out of it for the captivity of seventy years in Babylon, but they came back and Moses is predicting that although you\u2019re going to be in that land for a long time, one thousand three hundred years to be exact, eventually you\u2019re going to be kicked out of that land again.\n\n[64] \u201cMoreover, the LORD will scatter you among\u201d the what? \u201call peoples,\u201d is \u201cpeoples\u201d there singular or plural?\u00a0 Plural, it\u2019s not talking about them being located into one nation for discipline as was the case in Babylon, it\u2019s talking about their global dispersion.\u00a0 \u201cthe LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth;\u201d see the Diaspora language there, global dispersion, \u201cand there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. [65] Among those nations\u201d plural, see that, \u201cyou shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.\u201d\n\nAnd I can\u2019t think of a better description of what the nation of Israel has endured for 2,000 years than what you find there in those verses, Deuteronomy 28:63-65.\u00a0 When you look at the language, when it says \u201cpeoples\u201d and \u201cnations\u201d this cannot be the captivity in Babylon because the captivity in Babylon was just to one nation.\u00a0 They were there seventy years and then they returned from their captivity.\u00a0\u00a0 What Deuteronomy 28 is predicting is something far worse than what happened to them in Babylon; it\u2019s them being evicted into their land and being in global dispersion, worldwide dispersion for a prolonged period of time.\u00a0 And that dispersion, in my humble opinion, really did not start until forty years after the time of Christ, in the events of A.D. 70.\u00a0 And that is the condition the nation of Israel has been in for two thousand years.\n\nSo to understand Israel the first thing you have to understand is Israel in the Diaspora, Israel in the dispersion.\u00a0 To understand how God is going to bring His kingdom to the earth, which is ,as I\u2019ve tried to explain, revolving around the nation of Israel you have to understand how God has dealt with great severity against Israel and pushed them into the Diaspora.\n\nYou say well, this is all very depressing.\u00a0 Well let me kind of give you a happy thought; can I do that?\u00a0 You say please, give us a happy thought.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 30:3 doesn\u2019t just predict the scattering but it predicts their ultimate what?\u00a0 Regathering and restoration.\u00a0 Now here\u2019s my happy thought of the day.\u00a0 Do you think the scattering happened very literally?\u00a0 Yes it did!\u00a0 That\u2019s the obvious record of history.\u00a0 Well, if the scattering happened very literally then the prophecies about Israel\u2019s what must be literal as well?\u00a0 Her regathering.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 So when you see how accurately God has made good on what He said He would do through the scattering and you say wow, God really means what He says, then you have to take also at face value and literally the prophecies of regathering.\n\nSo Deuteronomy 30: 3 says, \u201cthen the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from\u201d where?\u00a0 From Babylon?\u00a0 NO! \u201cfrom all the peoples [where the LORD your God has scattered you] of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 See that,\u201d where the LORD God has scattered you.\u201d\n\nNow there are many, many Christian churches, many, many Christian pastors, many, many Christian theologians, many, many Christian denominations that will not breathe a single word about this to you, in sermons of Bible studies.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because they really don\u2019t believe what it says and what they will do is they will say the prophecies there of Israel\u2019s scattering are literal but the prophecies of Israel\u2019s regathering and restoration are allegorical.\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 And that is a doctrine called amillennialism or replacement theology, or kingdom now theology, where they\u2019re basically trying to argue that all of the prophecies regarding Israel\u2019s restoration are happening today in your local church, Jesus is reigning in your heart, that kind of thing.\n\nSo you see what they have to do here?\u00a0 They\u2019ve got to take one-half of the verse literally, the scattering, and the other half of the verse allegorically.\u00a0 Now does that make any real sense logically?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the Holy Spirit is going to switch horses in midstream; I mean, if God said the scattering is literal, of a literal nation, the Hebrew nation, then their regathering has to be literal as well.\u00a0 So when you see how severely God has treated Israel, His wife (Israel is the wife of Jehovah, Isaiah 54:5 says that)\u00a0 it\u2019s kind of easy to get depressed about it.\u00a0 [Isaiah 54:5, \u201cFor your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.\u201d]\n\nBut then you start to say wait a minute, if God did everything He said He would do concerning her scattering then I have to also take at face value her regathering.\u00a0 And as Christians we have to pay attention to the prophecies related to Israel\u2019s regathering because the whole manifestation of the coming of the kingdom to planet earth revolves around God\u2019s program for Israel.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s why Israel is a big deal.\n\nSo we\u2019ve seen Israel in the diaspora but then the prophecies go on and they begin to talk about her regathering in unbelief.\u00a0 If you look at my outline here there\u2019s basically two regatherings.\n\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nIsrael\u2019s Two Regatherings\n\nThe Present (First Regathering)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Permanent (Second Regathering)\n\nReturn to part of the land\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Return to all the land\n\nReturn in unbelief\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Return in faith\n\nRestored to the land only\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Restored to the land and the Lord\n\nSets the stage for Tribulation (discipline)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sets stage for Millennium (blessing\n\nAdapted from: Price, Jerusalem in Prophecy, 219\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nFirst Israel is going to be regathered in unbelief and then as she goes through the events of the tribulation period and the persecution of the antichrist she\u2019s going to be regathered in faith.\n\nNow this chart here from Dr. Randal Price, who we\u2019ve had as a speaker here before at this church,\n\nI think you have it there in your notes, it\u2019s one of the best charts explaining the two regatherings because a lot of people today are very confused as to what God is doing.\u00a0 God is regathering the nation of Israel today; He started that process\u2026 well, it really culminated and continues with their war of independence, May 14, 1948 and this is sort of a thorn in the side of a lot of people because they say well how could that be the plan and\u00a0 program of God?\u00a0 Israel today is an unbelieving nation, I mean, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the nation of Israel, is not an evangelical Christian.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 In fact, that nation is primarily atheistic.\n\nAnd so people say well how could that regathering, how could that group of unbelievers in the Middle East be significant?\u00a0 After all, they\u2019re not Christians.\u00a0 And the answer is you\u2019ve got to understand that the regathering process has two parts to it.\u00a0 First He\u2019s got to regather them in unbelief before He regathers them in faith.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 Guess what you have to do before you can be a believer?\u00a0 Anybody know the answer to that?\u00a0 Before you can be a believer you have to be an\u00a0 unbeliever.\u00a0 Now let me just ask you a basic question\u2014do you think God was at work in your life before\u00a0 you were a believer?\u00a0 I can look back at my life and I can very clearly see the work of God, at the time I didn\u2019t know it but God was setting up the right conversations and allowing me to meet the right people and experience some failures and some emptiness and things where my heart was sort of searching.\u00a0 That\u2019s all the plan and program of God.\n\nIn fact, Jesus, in John 16:7-11, where He says \u201cthe Spirit has come into the world to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment,\u201d that\u2019s the description of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the unbeliever.\u00a0 [John 16:7-11, \u201cBut I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. [8] And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; [9] concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; [10] and concerning righteous\u00adness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; [11] and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.\u201d]\u00a0 So if God can work in my life as an unbeliever and bring me to faith why can\u2019t He do that with Israel.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And that\u2019s how to understand the current regathering of Israel in unbelief, as still the work of God.\u00a0 You with me on that?\n\nSo this chart here shows you the difference between the two.\u00a0 We have Israel\u2019s two regatherings.\u00a0 We have the present first regathering and that is to be compared to the permanent second regathering.\u00a0 In the present regathering Israel returns to part of her land; today Israel, see that dark blue area there?\u00a0 That\u2019s basically what Israel possesses today.\u00a0 You see that lighter blue area?\u00a0 That\u2019s everything that God has promised Israel.\u00a0 So in the first regathering she returns to part of her land; in the second regathering she\u2019s going to return to the whole land and she\u2019s going to get everything that God promised to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant, a plot of real estate that goes from modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq.\n\nBacking up again, back to our chart, in the present regathering Israel returns in unbelief, but in the second regathering at the end of the tribulation period she returns in faith.\u00a0 And if you look at Matthew 24:31 it makes this statement, it says, \u201cAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.\u201d\u00a0 That is a description of God regathering His nation, in context, the nation of Israel, after they have been persecuted from the antichrist.\u00a0 So this is their regathering in faith.\u00a0 In the first regathering she goes back to her land in unbelief; in the second regathering she returns 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 So in the second regathering she comes back into her own land as a believer, regenerated, just as real as you\u2019re regenerated today.\n\nThe first regathering, and I believe that regathering is happening right now, is setting the stage for the tribulation period.\u00a0 It\u2019s setting the stage for discipline; it\u2019s through this distress or discipline that she\u2019ll get saved.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 But the second regathering is going to set the stage for the millennial kingdom and it will set the stage not for discipline but for blessing.\u00a0 So you see what\u2019s happening here?\u00a0 We\u2019re living in between those two gatherings; the regathering in unbelief is already happening.\u00a0 And by the way, this regathering in unbelief is a sociological miracle.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because when a nation is removed from its homeland within a couple of generations that nation assimilates into its host\u2019s culture.\n\nSo the reality of the situation is there shouldn\u2019t be Jewish people today; there shouldn\u2019t be a group of people called the Hebrews.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because the Bible talks about the Amalekites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites, the mosquito bites,\u00a0 the termites, the out of sights, the electric lights\u2026 I mean, how many Amalekites do you know?\u00a0 Do you know any Amalekites?\u00a0 How many Jebusites do you know?\u00a0 They\u2019re in the Bible.\u00a0 When the neighbor moves in down the street we don\u2019t say oh, what a lovely Jebusite couple down the road.\u00a0 There are no Jebusites.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because sociologic\u00adally they were removed from their land and they assimilated into the host culture.\u00a0 They lost their ethnicity.\n\nSociologists tell us that within two to three generations that happens.\u00a0 Now how do you explain Israel being out of its land in worldwide dispersion, not for two or three generations but for two thousand years?\u00a0 How do you explain that?\u00a0 And then they go right back into the same land that they were evicted from two thousand years later, speaking the same language (Hebrew) and the same religion and the same culture.\n\nAnd people say oh, I wish God would do some miracles today.\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 If you look at the nation of Israel and the Middle East that\u2019s a sociological miracle.\u00a0 That\u2019s the best example I can think of, of a modern day miracle today.\u00a0 And God said this would happen, you\u2019re going to\u00a0 go into dispersion, and yet He can\u2019t bring them back unless they\u2019re preserved, so through all these years and all this persecution they\u2019ve been preserved and God recycles them back into the same land that they were initially evicted from. \u00a0So that\u2019s where we are today.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I believe that the church ag is rapidly coming to an end; I\u2019m not a date setter but the reality of the situation is God is building the temple and basically what\u2019s happening right now is He\u2019s putting on the roof.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be much longer until the church age is over because we see signs of it, rumblings of it in the Middle East, God is getting ready to turn His hand back on the nation of Israel and their regathering in unbelief is evidence of that.\n\nSo there are many, many prophecies in the Bible that reveal that God is going to regather His people in unbelief.\u00a0 One of them is in Ezekiel 20:33-38,\u00a0 you might want to look at that\u00a0 It says this: \u201c\u2018As I live,\u2019 declares the Lord GOD, \u2018surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with My wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.\u201d\u00a0 Look at this: [34] \u201cI will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are\u201d what? \u201cscattered,\u201d what\u2019s our Greek word for \u201cscattered,\u201d diaspora<\/em>, \u201cwith a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; [35] and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 See that, they\u2019ve been regathered in unbelief awaiting His judgment.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0[36] \u201cAs I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,\u201d declares the Lord GOD. [37] \u2018I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;\u201d\u00a0 Look at this, [38] \u201cand I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgressed against Me;\u201d see what he\u2019s doing?\u00a0 He\u2019s bringing them back in in unbelief for discipline.\u00a0 \u201cI will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.\u201d\n\nNow take a look at Isaiah 11:11-12, this one is very interesting. \u00a0It says this: \u00a0\u201cThen it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the\u201d which time? \u201csecond time with His hand,\u201d isn\u2019t that interesting, it gives a number there, \u201cThe remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,\u201d those are all the nations where Israel\u2019s been scattered, \u201cand from the islands of the sea.\u00a0 [12] And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.\u201d\n\nNow in context this is talking about the regathering in faith at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 Well, if that is the second regathering let me ask\u00a0 you a question, and it says the \u201csecond time,\u201d when was the first one?\u00a0 People say well that\u2019s Israel being brought back from Babylon.\u00a0 Well, that dog won\u2019t hunt because when they were brought back from Babylon they weren\u2019t brought back from the whole world; they were brought back from one locality.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo what he\u2019s saying here, Isaiah is, is there is going to be a regathering in faith which will be preceded by a worldwide regathering in unbelief.\u00a0 What are we seeing today.\u00a0 We are seeing the first of the two; there is a regathering in unbelief, that\u2019s the first one.\u00a0 Then in the events of the tribulation period she is scattered again and then there\u2019ll be a regathering in faith.\u00a0 And I get that because it says there \u201cthe second time.\u201d\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\n\nYou say well, pastor, you\u2019re crazy, why do you talk like this.\u00a0 So let me quote someone that knows more about it than I do.\u00a0 Arnold Fruchtenbaum, the great Hebrew Christian scholar, he\u2019s making a statement here about Isaiah 11:11-12, because people will say this: oh, 1948, who cares, they could get scattered again and if they get scattered again God will bring them back again in unbelief.\u00a0 So they don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any prophetic significance to what\u2019s happening in the Middle East today.\n\nWell, once again that dog won\u2019t hunt because Isaiah says \u201cthe second time.\u201d\u00a0 If there\u2019s a second regathering from around the world there has to be a what?\u00a0 A first regathering from around the world.\u00a0 See, Isaiah 11:11-12 refutes this mindset that\u2019s so common among Christians that Israel in the land today doesn\u2019t mean anything.\n\nSo Arnold Fruchtenbaum explains it this way: \u201cBut then the\u2026view goes on to say that we really cannot be sure that the present Jewish state, as we see it today, is the fulfillment of those prophecies that spoke of the regathering in unbelief. Why not? Because they believe that it is possible to have several regatherings in unbelief before there is the specific one that fulfills the prophecies just discussed. But this passage in Isaiah\u201d the one we just read, \u201cshows that is exactly what cannot be: there cannot be several regatherings in unbelief from the four corners of the earth<\/em>. This is the entire context of Isaiah 11 and 12.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026In this context, he\u201d that\u2019s Isaiah, \u201cis speaking of the final worldwide regathering in faith in preparation for blessing.\u201d\n\n\u201cIsaiah numbers the final worldwide regathering in faith in preparation for the messianic Kingdom as the second<\/em> one.\u201d\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 \u201cIn other words, the last one is only the second one. If the last one is the second one, how many can there be before that? Only one. The first one could not have been the return from Babylon since that was not an international regathering from the four corners of the world, only a migration from one country (Babylonia) to another (Judea). The Bible does not allow for several worldwide regatherings in unbelief; it allows for one worldwide regathering in unbelief, followed by the last one, the one in faith, which is the second one. This text only permits two worldwide regatherings from the four corners of the earth<\/em>. Therefore, the present Jewish state is<\/em> relevant to Bible prophecy.\u201d\u00a0 [Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events, rev. ed. (Tustin, CA: Ariel, 2003), 102\u2013103.<\/em>]\n\nI can\u2019t tell you how long I\u2019ve heard from people that well, we don\u2019t really know what it is, we\u00a0\u00a0 can\u2019t be sure.\u00a0 Let\u2019s sort of pause and make sure we\u2019re calm, cool and collected before we can categorically say that what God is doing in the Middle East today is prophetically significant. There is so much, what I would call prophetic agnosticism in the average evangelical mind today.\u00a0 People just will not take a stand on these kinds of subjects and hosts of other subjects for that matter.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m taking a stand on it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not giving you a date and I\u2019m not giving you a time.\u00a0 What I\u2019m saying is this: what is happening in the Middle East today is a big, BIG deal and you shouldn\u2019t take it lightly as a Christian.\u00a0 It is a sign from God and something like this has never happened before.\u00a0 It is a sign from God that God is saying I\u2019m about to bring My kingdom to the earth, I\u2019ve got to convert Israel first, so therefore I\u2019ve got to finish up the work of the church; I\u2019ve got to get the church out of here, I\u2019ve got to take the church to heaven via the rapture, so I can finish what I said I would complete all the way back in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28.\n\nSo as a Christian you need to understand something.\u00a0 You are living on borrowed time if you understand these prophecies correctly.\u00a0 You may not live out\u00a0 your full life expectancy; I may not live out my full life expectancy.\u00a0 Now then again, maybe we will, I can\u2019t set a date, I can only know the general season that we\u2019re in.\u00a0 You say well, this is all a bunch of academic stuff, give me some application.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the application: if\u00a0 you\u2019re committing some kind of sin in your life right now, you\u2019d better knock it off!\u00a0\u00a0 How\u2019s that for application?\u00a0 Because you\u2019re going to stand before the Lord at the Bema Seat Judgment and give an account in terms of rewards, not salvation but rewards.\n\nHere\u2019s another application; if God is putting on your heart to do a ministry you\u2019d better do it right now.\u00a0 You\u2019d better not presume\u2026 James says we commit the sin of presumption, you say well, tomorrow I\u2019ll do this and I\u2019ll go into this city over here and I\u2019ll start a business and James says you don\u2019t even know if you\u2019re going to be alive tomorrow. We don\u2019t even know if the church is going to be here tomorrow.\u00a0 So if God is calling you to do a ministry now is the time to do it.\u00a0 If God is calling you to share your faith with somebody, a neighbor, a coworker, or a family member or whatever, you shouldn\u2019t say well, I\u2019ll just do it next year; you should do it right now.\u00a0\u00a0 And every time you look into the Middle East and\u00a0 you see the Israeli flag flying there and you see the Hebrew language being spoken, that is a testimony that this age is getting ready to wrap up.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God is communicating in these things.\n\nWe\u2019re so lackadaisical with our Christianity, there\u2019s almost in the American church today there\u2019s such a lack of urgency to what we\u2019re going.\u00a0 A lot of times we\u2019re just kind of going through the motions.\u00a0 And when you start to understand these prophecies what it introduces is immediate urgency into the life of the Christian.\u00a0 When they figured out the Titanic was sinking they didn\u2019t waste their time rearranging the deck chairs.\u00a0 I mean, this was serious now, we\u2019ve got to get people off this boat.\u00a0 And so what I\u2019m trying to say is the Titanic is sinking!\u00a0 Now there\u2019s hope because there\u2019s a new world coming but this world is about to move into strenuous judgment after the rapture.\u00a0 And you may not have a lot of time left to warn people and get them saved so they can go up in the rapture.\n\nThink about this for a second.\u00a0 Rome, in A.D. 70, kicks Israel out of her land.\u00a0 Rome, a worldwide power speaking Latin, kicks Israel out of her land; that\u2019s A.D. 70.\u00a0 Flash forward 2,000 years\u2014Rome is gone, Latin is a dead language.\u00a0 What remains?\u00a0 Tiny Israel and Hebrew is what?\u00a0 A live language.\u00a0 That\u2019s the hand of God!\n\nOf course, you know from our study in the Book of Daniel on Sunday morning that what will start the tribulation period is the antichrist entering into a peace treaty with unbelieving Israel.\u00a0 Daniel 9:27.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nCan I ask you a basic question?\u00a0 How can that happen unless you have a what?\u00a0 An unbelieving Israel in existence.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t had that for 2,000 years.\u00a0 Oh, Rome, in our lifetime, there it is.\u00a0 God is setting the stage for the tribulation period is what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of prophecies that Israel has to fulfill while she\u2019s in unbelief, therefore she\u2019s got to be regathered in what?\u00a0\u00a0 Unbelief!\u00a0 Have you read Revelation 11:8 lately?\u00a0 It\u2019s in the tribulation, it says, \u201cAnd their dead bodies\u201d that\u2019s the two witnesses, \u201cwill lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d\u00a0 Where was Jesus crucified?\u00a0 Which city?\u00a0 Jerusalem.\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about Jerusalem, and he says at that time Jerusalem will be like Sodom, known for depravity, right?\u00a0 And Egypt, known for bondage.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have a prophecy like that unless Israel is regathered in unbelief.\n\nHave you studied Zechariah 12:10 lately?\u00a0 \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit\u201d the \u201cSpirit\u201d is the Holy Spirit at their conversion, \u201cthe 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\u00a0 This is the conversion of Israel.\n\nNow watch this very carefully, before the Spirit comes upon them where is their geographical location. The Spirit comes upon them while they are inhabitants of Jerusalem; so they\u2019re in Jerusalem in unbelief, then the Spirit comes.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ve got a question, how do they get there in unbelief?\u00a0 There has to be two regatherings, see that?\u00a0 A regathering in unbelief which paves the way for the regathering in faith.\n\nYou say well, pastor, I still think you\u2019re crazy.\u00a0 That\u2019s all right, a lot of people do.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I like to quote people that know more about this than me.\u00a0 Long time prophecy scholar John Walvoord said, \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<\/em>\u00a0 [Israel in Prophecy, <\/em>Page 26]\n\nThat\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m saying right here, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I\u2019m not making stuff up.\u00a0 All I\u2019m doing is carrying forward a tradition that\u2019s been handed to me and these older guys they got it from the Bible.\u00a0 Do you know when John Walvoord made that statement?\u00a0 He made it in 1962.\u00a0 You say well what\u2019s the big deal about that?\u00a0 Well, Israel didn\u2019t even get Jordan and Samaria and Judea back until 1967.\u00a0 When Walvoord made that statement the nation of Israel didn\u2019t even have political control over the city of Jerusalem\u20261962.\u00a0 Can you imagine his excitement when Israel gets control, in what\u2019s called the Six Day War, over the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 Once they get control over the city of Jerusalem suddenly the Jews in Jerusalem, where they have to be before the Spirit comes upon them, suddenly that prophecy starts to make sense.\u00a0 The world calls that the West Bank but it\u2019s better called Judea and Samaria; it\u2019s a territory that Israel got in a war of self-defense called the Six Day War.\n\nOne quick thing, by the way, I\u2019m in my book, pages 160-162 I\u2019ve got three other quotes from Walvoord where he says that.\u00a0 He says things like that in 1962, I\u2019ve just given you one quote. \u00a0And people say well, you know, if you listen to John Piper, for example, I call him the Pied Piper, he\u2019s very popular amongst the youth, kind of a motivational speaker type of guy, and he\u2019s always saying Israel in the land today doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Israel was in\u00a0 unbelief, so if Israel is in unbelief she has no right to [can't understand word]\u00a0 That\u2019s his logic.\u00a0 Well, news flash, Israel was in that land from the time of Joshua up to the time of Christ for 1300 years.\u00a0 Have you read\u00a0 your Old Testament carefully?\u00a0 Were they ever in belief?\u00a0 I mean, they were characterized by unbelief.\u00a0 So if you say that Israel has to be in belief before she has any right to the land then you\u2019re got to throw out1,300 years of biblical history.\u00a0 And people like John Piper do not acknowledge that God can work with a people in unbelief before they\u2019re brought to a conversion.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing happening in our day.\n\nSo we\u2019ve looked at Israel in the diaspora; Israel\u2019s regathering in unbelief, then you say well once they\u2019re regathered in unbelief how is God going to save them.\u00a0 So next week we\u2019ll talk about that, how God is going to save them through distress and this is important to understand because God\u2019s work through Israel is the mechanism that He\u2019s going to use to bring the long awaited kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 So I will stop and those that want to stick around and ask a question, a few questions, we can do that as well.","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