{"id":19211,"date":"2018-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-031\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:16:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:16:58","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-031","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-031\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 031"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[69],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19211","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-jeremiah","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 031","sermon_date":"20180117","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20030,"sermon_slides":20031,"sermon_mp3":20032,"sermon_id":"117181316462","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":69,"chapter_and_verse":"30:7","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n1-17-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremiah 30:7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 31\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 30 and verse 7.\u00a0 As you know, we\u2019ve been studying the kingdom, and we\u2019re talking about what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have time to go through the whole thing every week unfortunately, but this slide just kind of tells you where we\u2019ve been.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been talking about the kingdom, how the kingdom is very well developed in the Old Testament as a literal time; to me it\u2019s a wonderful time, a time of peace and prosperity headquartered through Israel\u00a0 over planet earth.\u00a0 So it\u2019s very earthly in nature and it\u2019s also a time of righteousness.\n\nAnd that whole package, when you get to number 8 was offered to Israel on a silver platter in what\u2019s called the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Tragically the nation of Israel turned down that offer, there on number 9, and as you know that occurred in Matthew 12. And the moment that happened, and the Gospels trace this, Matthew\u2019s gospel specifically, but the moment that happened the offer was withdrawn, not cancelled permanently but was withdrawn.\u00a0 So currently the nation of Israel and the kingdom is not in a state of cancellation but in a state of postponement.\n\nAnd because the Lord never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself He brought forth an interim program that we\u2019ve been living in for the last 2,000 years, consisting of the kingdom mysteries, Matthew 13, and the church; the church would be us right.\u00a0 And the kingdom mysteries really go from the rejection of the offer until the Second Advent and the church, which is what we\u2019re in, is within that group but it\u2019s a little tighter bracket.\u00a0 So the church started in Acts 2 and will end with the rapture.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve carefully gone through that interim program and I\u2019ve tried to show you, the best I know how, that that interim program represents the work of God but it does not represent the kingdom.\n\nSo God is clearly working today, it\u2019s just not what is predicted concerning the kingdom.\u00a0 But one \u00a0of these days the interim age will be over; the age of the church will end with which event?\u00a0 The rapture, and God will bring His kingdom, His long awaited kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 The instrument that He is going to use to bring His kingdom to the earth is the nation of Israel.\u00a0 So in Israel\u2019s covenant, that we\u2019ve studied very carefully, the kingdom can\u2019t come to the earth until Israel responds to her Messiah.\u00a0 You see that at Mount Sinai, in the Mosaic Covenant; the Mosaic Covenant points towards Jesus as\u00a0 you know, and you see that if\/then language, if you do this then God will do this which is the manifestation of the kingdom.\n\nAnd even beyond that in Matthew 23 Jesus said the same thing at the end of the chapter, speaking\u00a0 to Jerusalem He says, \u201c\u2018You will not see me again until,\u201d see the condition there, \u201cuntil you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So as we have studied what\u2019s holding up the\u00a0 whole kingdom program is the response of Israel to her Messiah.\u00a0 Therefore you can\u2019t really understand how God is going to bring His kingdom to the earth unless we get a handle on His work with Israel.\n\nTo sort of help us understand that we\u2019re in the section now, and I think this is chapter 12 of my book if you\u2019re interested in reading that, but it\u2019s all about Israel\u2019s discipline and restoration.\u00a0 Israel becomes a big deal because that\u2019s the tool that God will use to bring His kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 This has four parts to it, we\u2019ve covered parts 1 and 2 last week and tonight we\u2019re going to cover parts 3 and 4.\u00a0 But we have, number 1, Israel in the Diaspora.\u00a0 Anybody remember what Diaspora means?\u00a0 Dispersion. Israel went into worldwide dispersion because that\u2019s what the Mosaic Covenant, given all the way back at Mount Sinai said.\u00a0 Israel was given blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience in that covenant.\n\nAnd one of those curses, at the height of Israel\u2019s disobedience a pagan power\u2026 and you see this in Deuteronomy 28:49-50, these are the cycles of discipline that God very well spelled out in advance for Israel, a pagan power whose language that they wouldn\u2019t understand would come and push them out of their land.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 28:49, \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,\u00a0 [50] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.\u201d]\n\nAnd this actually happened multiple times in Israel\u2019s history.\u00a0 The Assyrians scattered the north;\u00a0 the Babylonians took the southern tribes into captivity.\u00a0 And when Israel finally went back into their land in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah she was in that land for 400 years and Jesus showed up at the end of that 400 year time period with all of the regal pedigree and Messianic credentials and presented Himself to the nation of Israel as their king.\u00a0 As we know from the gospels Israel rejected that offer.\u00a0 And so now, as Yogi Berra said, it\u2019s de javu<\/em> all over again; the cycles of discipline that Moses said would happen all the way back at Mount Sinai recycle.\n\nSo forty years after the time of Christ God uses the Romans, just like He used the Assyrians and the Babylonians in the Old Testament, this time forty years after the time of Christ He\u2019s using the Romans who would come and push Israel out of her land.\u00a0 Jesus is weeping over that prospect in the triumphal entry, Luke 19:41-44, and Moses said this would happen.\u00a0 [Luke 19:41-44, \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. [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\nHe said in Deuteronomy 28:64, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 38:64, \u201cMoreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.\u201d]\u00a0 And that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s been going on for the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a time period in Israel\u2019s history called the Diaspora, when she\u2019s in worldwide dispersion outside of her land.\u00a0 The second part of this, what we covered last time, is the Bible predicts that just as literally as Israel would be scattered into the whole world she would be regathered from all of the nations and she would be recycled into her own land in unbelief.\u00a0 And we went through last time many passages that reveal this.\n\nAnd we went through this chart last time so I won\u2019t go through it again but we believe, based on \u00a0the study of the Bible, that there are two end time regatherings for Israel; once in unbelief in preparation for the tribulation period.\u00a0 During that tribulation period she\u2019ll be persecuted by the antichrist so when she\u2019s finally in belief at the end of the tribulation period she\u2019ll be regathered in belief, so once in unbelief in preparation for discipline.\u00a0 I would say that process is happening right now before our eyes.\n\nAnd then a second time in faith in preparation for kingdom blessing.\u00a0 And I showed you the passage from Isaiah 11:11-12 which talks about the regathering in belief would be a regathering for the second time.\u00a0\u00a0 [Isaiah 11:11-12, \u201cThen it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand.\u00a0 The remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and 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\nSo that takes us to part 3, now that Israel is regathered in unbelief in preparation for the tribulation period what is God going to do?\u00a0 And the answer is part 3, she will be converted but only through a time of distress.\u00a0 That period of distress is the great tribulation period.\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s probably, besides God bringing judgment to the earth, probably the greatest purpose in the tribulation period is to bring unbelieving Israel to a place of faith.\u00a0 And some theology that I\u2019ve tried to teach here at different times, and the guy who led me to Christ taught me this, and I think it\u2019s excellent what he taught me, he made this simple statement, he said, \u201cGod knocks us down so we\u201d what? \u201clook up.\u201d\n\nSo if we\u2019re honest with ourselves this is how God works in all of our lives.\u00a0 He puts us in places of crises so we don\u2019t have anything but to trust in but Him.\u00a0 And He uses that to bring us to faith many times; He uses that to grow us up in Him many times.\u00a0 And that is the whole program for Israel which has been regathered but currently in unbelief.\u00a0 The question is, how is God going to get them from unbelief to belief so that the kingdom can come through them to the earth?\u00a0 And it\u2019s many, many predictions in the Bible about Israel\u2019s conversion through distress.\n\nSo all the way back at Mount Sinai, Deuteronomy, written forty years after Mount Sinai to the second generation about to enter Canaan, God revealed this concept. \u00a0He said in Deuteronomy 4:30, \u201cWhen you are in distress and all these things have come upon you,\u201d look at this, \u201cin the latter days\u201d so He\u2019s talking about a time period in the distant future, \u201cyou will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. [31, \u201cFor the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.\u201d] So notice that they\u2019re not going to return to the Lord their God and listen to His voice until distress comes upon them. So distress is the tool that He\u2019s going to use to empty them of themselves and bring them to an awareness of their need for God.\n\nJoel 3:1-2 says, \u201cFor behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem<\/u>, [2] I will gather all the nations<\/u> and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.\u00a0 Then I will enter into judgment<\/u> with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the\u201d what? \u201cthe nations;\u201d so that\u2019s a prediction there of the Diaspora, worldwide dispersion; and then it says, \u201cAnd they have divided up My land<\/u>.\u201d\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice the beginning there what I have underlined, God is going to \u201crestore the fortunes \u00a0of Judah and Jerusalem\u201d but it\u2019s not going to come until they have been gathered from \u201call the nations\u201d and they are put through a time of distress by the rest of the nations of the earth, and God \u00a0is going to be so upset at these nations that have mistreated Israel that He\u2019s actually going to bring them into judgment at the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and bring judgment against them for their mistreatment of Israel.\n\nOne of the things God is very upset with the nations about is the division of the land of Israel.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0And they\u2019re going to coerce Israel into further dividing her land.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what\u2019s going to bring the judgment of God on these nations.\u00a0 So that is sort of a spooky thing when you think about it because that\u2019s the whole name of the game in the world community, right?\u00a0 I mean, Israel needs \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to give up land in exchange for peace.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re told over and over again, called the two state solution.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the United Nations wants; it\u2019s what the Obama administration wanted, \u00a0it seems like Israel has gotten a little bit of reprieve from that mentality with the current administra\u00adtion but the world as a whole thinks that this is going to solve all the Middle East problem.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly that coercion of Israel into the division of her land is actually what\u2019s going to bring the judgment of God to the earth.\n\nSo what is going to bring the wrath of God to planet earth?\u00a0 Is it going to be homosexuality?\u00a0 Is it going to be abortion?\u00a0 Is it going to be the fact that we teach evolution in the schools?\u00a0 I mean, all of those things probably play a role.\u00a0 Is it the fact that we don\u2019t allow Bible reading and prayer in schools anymore?\u00a0 Is that\u2019s what\u2019s going to bring God\u2019s judgment?\u00a0\u00a0 All of those things play a role, and I don\u2019t mean to under value them or undersell those things but when you look at your Bible very carefully you discover that THE thing that\u2019s going to bring the judgment of God on the nations of the earth is the deliberate intention by the nations of the earth to divide Israel\u2019s land, exactly what Joel says.\n\nSo the nations will do this and God will judge the nations and yet when you look at this prophecy very carefully this actually is the tool, this time of distress, that God is going to use to, verse 1, \u201crestore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem.\u201d\u00a0 So Israel is to be converted through a time of distress.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I had you turn to Jeremiah 30:7, there isn\u2019t a clearer verse in the Bible that reveals this clearer than Jeremiah 30:7.\u00a0 Jeremiah the prophet says, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob\u2019s\u201d what? \u201cdistress, But\u201d and I\u2019m glad there\u2019s a conjunction there because it would be kind of depressing if the sentence just stopped, \u201cbut he\u201d that\u2019s Jacob, \u201cwill be\u201d what? \u201csaved from it.\u201d\n\nSo let\u2019s break this verse down a little bit, shall we?\u00a0 The first thing you notice here is the reference to Jacob.\u00a0 Who is Jacob in the Bible?\u00a0\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\u00a0 Jacob\u2019s name, remember it was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jacob\u2019s name was changed to Israel, let me give you two verses, in Genesis 32:28 and Genesis 35:10.\u00a0 [Genesis 32:28, \u201cHe said, \u2018Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Genesis 35:10, \u201cGod said to him, \u2018Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.\" Thus He called him Israel.\u2019\u201d]\n\nSo if you know your Bible there\u2019s no doubt who Jacob it; it\u2019s not New\u00a0 York City, or San Francisco, or the Italians or\u2026and I love the Italians, I love their spaghetti and their pizza, but it\u2019s not talking about any other people group; it\u2019s talking about the Jewish people, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob equals Israel in the Bible.\u00a0 And then it says, \u201cAlas for that day is great, there is none like it.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s talking about a time of distress that is unequaled, unparalleled.\u00a0 And there are only three other times in the Bible that I know where this time of distress is mentioned in these terms.\u00a0 One of them is Jeremiah 30:7. [Jeremiah 30:7, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it.\u201d]\u00a0 You see that right there on the screen.\n\nLet me give you the other addresses, Joel 2:2 you\u2019ll see it.\u00a0 Daniel 12:1\u00a0 you\u2019ll see it, I won\u2019t read Daniel 12:1 now because we\u2019ll get there at some point Sunday mornings.\u00a0 So two other Old Testament passages besides Jeremiah 30, Joel 2:2, Daniel 12:1.\u00a0 [Joel 2:2, \u201cA day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 12:1, \u201cNow at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d\n\nAnd the last place in the Bible that mentions it is Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus mentions it in Matthew 24:21 in the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cFor then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.\u201d\u00a0 And then He says, [22] \u201cUnless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect\u201d now who would \u201cthe elect\u201d be in the Olivet Discourse?\u00a0 The Jews.\u00a0 \u201cbut for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, Jesus is saying if this time of distress was allowed to continue on unhindered it would destroy all life on the earth, even all Jewish life, which God can\u2019t allow to happen because He\u2019s got to bring these people to conversion.\n\nSo this is not just some kind of garden variety ordinary trial; this is something of a magnitude and of a level that Israel or the planet earth has never experienced.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a lot of people that will try to fit this back into the first century; that\u2019s called preterism.\u00a0 Of course that doesn\u2019t work, does it?\u00a0 They try to make it sound like this is A.D.\u00a0 70.\u00a0 A. D. 70 was bad but it wasn\u2019t the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened to the Jews or the world.\u00a0 Probably about a million, a million and a half Jews were killed in A. D.\u00a0 70.\u00a0 That was a terrible time but it wasn\u2019t THE ultimate worst time because Hitler killed how many?\u00a0 Six million.\u00a0 So this is something that goes way beyond the first century or anything that\u2019s ever happened before.\u00a0 And if you want an in depth description of it you\u2019d read the Book of Revelation, chapters 6-19 is a description of that time period.\n\nSo this time of distress is coming for Jacob \u201cbut he will be\u201d what? \u201csaved from it,\u201d he\u2019s going to be converted.\u00a0 It\u2019s a terrible time but God takes lemons and makes them into what?\u00a0 Lemonade, something good is going to happen which is the conversion of the nation.\u00a0 So you see Jeremiah clearly unfolding this time period.\n\nAnd when\u00a0 you back up from verse 7 in the same chapter, and you got back to verse 3 it reveals their conversion.\u00a0 Verse 3 says, \u201cFor behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.\u201d\u00a0 [Jeremiah 30:3]\n\nAnd so we read that and we say thumbs up, that\u2019s cool, God\u2019s going to do that.\u00a0 But then you get down to verse 7 and you learn the tool He\u2019s going to use, which is this time of unequalled, unparalleled distress.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 30:7, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he will be saved from it.\u201d]\u00a0 So verse 3, the result, is followed by verse 7 which is the tool that God is going to use.\n\nAnd if you have been tracking with us on Sunday morning you know about the Seventy Week prophecy, amen.\u00a0 Does anybody recall that?\u00a0 The seventy weeks prophecy, the seventieth week is also a description of this unparalleled time of distress, Daniel 9:27, a seven year tribulation period.\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\nSee all of these passages are talking about the same period.\u00a0 And yet verse 27 in the seventy weeks prophecy is preceded by verse 24. Verse 24 is the result, verse 27 is the tool.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 Verse 24 says, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.\u201d\n\nNow Sunday mornings we\u2019ve gone through all that and I showed you the six clauses there and all\u00a0 of those refer to the physical and spiritual restoration of the Jewish nation, which is a necessary prerequisite to bring the kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 Verse 24 is the result; verse 27, the seven year tribulation period yet future, is the tool that God is going to use.\n\nSo when we study Israel we learn: number\u00a0 1, about Israel in the Diaspora beginning in A.D. 70.\u00a0 Number 2, we learn about Israel\u2019s regathering in unbelief.\u00a0 Number 3, we learn about Israel\u2019s conversion through distress.\u00a0 And then the last thing to look at here is Israel\u2019s final restoration, what\u2019s the end product going to look like?\u00a0 And even before we look at that end product, I didn\u2019t have this in my notes but you might want to jump over to Zechariah chapter 13 for a moment, verses 8 and 9.\n\nGod says of this time of distress, He says, \u201c\u2018It will come about in all the land\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018That two parts in it will be cut off and<\/em> perish; but the third will be left in it.\u00a0 [9] \u201cAnd I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.\u201d\u00a0 What\u2019s the end result of all of this?\u00a0 \u201cThey will call on My name, and I will answer them;\u201d see their conversion there, \u201cI will say, \u2018They are My people,\u2019 and they will say, \u2018The LORD is my God.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So again the result is at the end of verse 9, the tool is the time of distress and Zechariah is very specific in his prophecy; what is going to have to happen is two-thirds of the nation is going to have to be purged or killed in the judgment of God, two-thirds!\u00a0 And the only thing left is a third and they\u2019re refined as fire refines a piece of metal, fire applied to a piece of metal purifies it, and they will pass through the tribulation period and yet at that final third is the group that God is going to fulfill His covenant through.\n\nNow you talk like this to a Jewish person, and Anne and I were on an Israel trip, remember that when we sat across from the Jewish lady, I forgot her name, but we started talking like this, somehow the conversation went this direction and she didn\u2019t want to hear this at all because to the Jew their slogan is never again!\u00a0 Right, Hitler and the holocaust didn\u2019t kill two-thirds, he killed one-third.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly the worst holocaust is yet future for Israel where not a third will be killed but two-thirds will be killed.\u00a0 And this doesn\u2019t sell well with people that say never again, this will never happen again.\u00a0 In fact, it not only will happen again it\u2019s going to be worse.\u00a0 And I wish there was a nicer way to say it but that\u2019s what these prophecies, in my humble opinion, are revealing.\n\nAnd yet, through it all you\u2019re going to have number 4, a completely restored Israel.\u00a0 So what will the restored Israel look like?\u00a0 Well, there are five major verses that talk about it.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 30:3, Jeremiah 16:14-15, Ezekiel 36:24-28, Zechariah 8:7-8, Amos 9:14-15.\n\n[Deuteronomy 30:3, \u201cthen the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 16:14-15, \u201cTherefore behold, days are coming,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cwhen it will no longer be said, \u2018As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,\u2019 [15] but, \u2018As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.\u2019 For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.\u201d\n\nEzekiel 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. \u00a0[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\nZechariah 8:7-8, \u201cThus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west;\u00a0 [8] and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.\u2019\u201d\n\nAmos 9:14-15, \u201cAlso I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; <\/em>they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit.\u00a0 [15] I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,\u2019 says the LORD your God.\u201d]\n\nAnd actually I fibbed a little bit there, there\u2019s a lot more verses that talk about it but I figured you guys wanted to go home before the ice got refrozen and you couldn\u2019t drive because of a lack of safety so I cut the list down.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice that these come from the Law, the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets and then very fast I\u2019ll give you a conclusion at the end.\n\nBut the very prophets that predict the scattering and the distress also very clearly predict Israel\u2019s conversion.\u00a0 So all the way back at Mount Sinai, about a year or so after the Exodus, actually in this case it would be forty years after the Exodus because it\u2019s in Deuteronomy, given to the second generation about to enter Canaan, Moses said, Deuteronomy 30:3, \u201cthen the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.\u201d\u00a0 So just as the scattering actually happened, A.D. 70, the regathering and the restoration will happen as well.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of funny watching theologians today, they\u2019ll take the scattering there literally but they won\u2019t take the restoration literally.\u00a0 And that is, to my mind, crazy, you can\u2019t take part of the verse one way and the other part of the verse a different way.\n\nSo this ultimate regathering of Israel is predicted in the Old Testament Law, the Book of Deuteronomy.\u00a0 Then you have the major prophets talking about it a lot.\u00a0 Who are the major prophets?\u00a0 The prophets that wrote the big books, and I think it\u2019s sort of insulting to call the smaller guys \u201cMinor Prophets,\u201d since many of them lost their lives for what they did.\u00a0 I mean, when I get to heaven and meet Amos and Zechariah and those guys I\u2019m not going to refer to you guys as the Minor prophets.\u00a0 But we flippantly call them the Minor prophets because they wrote smaller books.\u00a0 But the major prophets would be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.\n\nSo the major prophets are very clear about this restoration of Israel.\u00a0 Here\u2019s just one quote from Isaiah.\u00a0 Now in the book I give you many, many quotes from Isaiah but for the sake of time I\u2019ll just use one.\u00a0 Isaiah predicted that \u201cIt will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown,\u201d and people say well, that\u2019s the rapture.\u00a0 No, that\u2019s not the rapture, the rapture is for the church, the church doesn\u2019t exist yet, this is a trumpet God is going to sound to regather the elect in Israel, in preparation for the kingdom.\n\n\u201cIt will come about\u201d God can use more than one trumpet, right?\u00a0 Can God have two trumpets?\u00a0 Okay, because a lot of people see the word \u201ctrumpet\u201d and they think the rapture has a trumpet so every trumpet is the rapture, but you see, there can be a trumpet for the rapture and another trumpet for Israel after the church has gone.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a big problem for God.\u00a0 \u201cIt will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at\u201d Washington D.C.\u00a0\u00a0 Ooops, it doesn\u2019t say that, at where? \u201cJerusalem.\u201d [Isaiah 27:13]\u00a0 So they\u2019re scattered and they\u2019re brought back to Jerusalem in faith to worship the Lord.\u00a0 You don\u2019t worship the Lord unless you\u2019re in faith, right.\u00a0 So this is a great passage talking about the regathering in belief for Israel.\n\nThe prophet, Jeremiah, talks about this a lot.\u00a0 One verse from Jeremiah, Jeremiah 16:14-15, \u201c\u2018Therefore behold, days are coming,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018when it will no longer be said, \u2018As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,\u2019 [15] but, \u2018As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from\u201d how many countries? \u201call the countries where He had banished them.\u2019 For I will restore them\u201d where? \u201cto their own land\u201d well where is that? \u201cwhich I gave to their forefathers.\u201d\u00a0 What forefathers is he talking about?\u00a0 The promises God gave to Abraham.\u00a0 God says I\u2019m going to restore them right back to that same land and in that final restoration they\u2019re going to be in faith and in worship.\n\nAnd people like to say well, that\u2019s just the restoration from Babylon.\u00a0 Well as my professor, Dr. Toussaint used to say, \u201cthat dog won\u2019t hunt.\u201d\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Because the restoration from Babylon was restoration from one geographical area.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Babylon, the circle in the east.\u00a0 What is Jeremiah predicting?\u00a0 Not a restoration from one geographical area but a restoration from all countries.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Babylon doesn\u2019t fit the description at all.\u00a0 This is talking about something yet future, yet eschatological which really has never happened.\n\nEzekiel, another major prophet, talks about this also, probably the most famous passage is Ezekiel 36:24-28.\u00a0 Ezekiel predicts, \u201c\u201cFor I will take you from\u201d Babylon?\u00a0 NO, \u201cfrom the nations,\u201d plural, I think the word there is goiim<\/em> in Hebrew, the \u201cim\u201d ending is plurality, it\u2019s how we use the letter \u201cs\u201d indicating a group, more than one, goiim<\/em>, nations, \u201cFor I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands and bring you\u201d where? \u201cinto your own land. [25] Then<\/u> 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.]\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s kind of something God\u2019s done with us, isn\u2019t it, put a new spirit in us.\u00a0 Well, this is not talking about us in the church age, this is talking about the national conversion of Israel.\n\nAnd \u201cI 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\u201d what? \u201cland that I gave to\u201d who? \u201cyour forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.\u201d\n\nSee that?\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about a worldwide regathering and it\u2019s not just a restoration to their land; it\u2019s a restoration of them spiritually.\u00a0 As we went through these verses in the major prophets you see how Jeremiah keeps mentioning the land.\u00a0 You see how the prophet Ezekiel mentions the land.\u00a0 What land are we talking about?\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about that land, that light blue area there; it\u2019s part of the covenant that God gave to Abraham.\u00a0 The dimensions of the land are spelled out in Genesis 15:18-21.\u00a0 [Genesis 15:18-21, \u201cOn that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, \u2018o 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 tract of real estate that goes \u201cfrom the river of Egypt\u201d which I think is probably the Nile, even though that map there doesn\u2019t go quite that far, but I think he\u2019s talking about the Nile, it goes from the Nile and it goes all the way to the Euphrates, so it\u2019s talking about a piece of real estate bigger than what Israel possesses today, bigger than anything she\u2019s ever possessed in her history.\u00a0 It goes from basically modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq and God is very specific about this land.\n\nThe land to God is a big deal!\u00a0 It may not be important to us; it may not be important to modern day Christendom, it may not be on the thoughts of your average Christian but I can tell you this much; God is really concerned about that real estate.\u00a0 It\u2019s the only real estate that He gave to a specific people.\u00a0 And the reason I bring this up is we\u2019re living in a time period where the theologians are basically telling us that land-shman, who cares about land; why are you so land focused?\n\nThis is one of my professors, Dr. Darrell Bock who\u2019s a progenitor of what\u2019s called progressive dispensationalism and I like a lot of the things Darrell Bock has said and done and defended, he\u2019s done a good job defending the resurrection of Jesus, the historicity of Jesus, you\u2019ll see him a lot on TV programs and things like that.\u00a0 But there\u2019s another side to what he believes that most people aren\u2019t aware of and it\u2019s this progressive dispensationalism where he\u2019s trying to find this middle ground between what we believe and what those who deny the land of Israel believe.\u00a0 Most Christians, by way of denominational affiliation, believe in replacement theology which is the idea that the church has permanently replaced Israel so all of Israel\u2019s land promises are cancelled and they become spiritualized.\n\nSo we\u2019re here, the replacement theologians are over here and Dallas Seminary once stood here but sadly Darrell Bock and his generation have put that school and their movement in the middle and tried to find (and this is a key term that you need to know) \u201ccommon ground\u201d with other belief systems.\u00a0 So when you set out to find common ground with someone you disagree with you have to end up marginalizing or watering down truth.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you have in progress\u00adive dispensationalism.\u00a0 You have this idea that oh yeah, there\u2019s going to be a restoration to the land but it really isn\u2019t that important because we\u2019re all going to inherit the land.\u00a0 \u00a0So there\u2019s a massive downplaying of the significance of the land.\n\nSo in a 1992 Christianity Today article, I wrote these words kind of summarizing the article.\u00a0 For example, \u201cFor example, according to Progressive Dispensational progenitor Dr. Darrell L. Bock, his Progressive Dispensationalism, is both \u2018less\u2019\u201d that\u2019s a direct quote, \u201c\u2018less land centered\u2019 and less \u2018future centered\u2019 in comparison to traditional Dispensationalism.\u201d\u00a0 [Darrell Bock; quoted in Ken Sidey, \u201cFor the Love of Zion,\u201d Christianity Today<\/em>, 9 March 1992, 50.]\n\nSo what he is basically doing there is he\u2019s not denying Israel in the land, he\u2019s basically saying let\u2019s play it down\u2026 play it down!\u00a0 And they do this with almost all the most significant doctrines that Dallas Seminary was founded to defend.\u00a0 They do this with the rapture.\u00a0 They say oh yeah, we still believe in a pre-trib rapture but we\u2019ll never talk about it, we won\u2019t emphasize it.\u00a0 And that allows them to sign the doctrinal statement of Dallas Seminary but at the same time work in sort of an ecumenical way when you find a mediating position with those you disagree with.\n\nSo people come out and say you don\u2019t believe in the rapture, and they say yes we do, but let\u2019s just tone it down, let\u2019s play it down.\u00a0 And I think we\u2019re in a time in history where we don\u2019t need to be playing these things down; if anything it\u2019s the opposite, we need to playing them up.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s one of the reasons why I never really got along good with those guys over there because I wanted to talk about the things that I\u2019m talking about here at this church and they were always putting pressure on people like myself to just sort of play it down, tone it down, don\u2019t upset the opposition and let\u2019s sort of work together on things that we agree with.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s called progressive dispensationalism.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of an outworking of postmodern thought.\u00a0 Postmodern thought is truth is always in the middle somewhere.\u00a0 I call it middle ground mania; you find truth amongst competing opposites and whatever the broad spectrum can agree on, that becomes the new truth.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Truth is not over here, truth is not over there, it\u2019s what we can all agree on.\n\nAnd you see, the spotlight gets off of God and His Word and it gets onto man\u2019s opinions.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s called postmodernism, progressive dispen\u00adsation\u00adalism, middle ground mania.\u00a0 And so amongst progressive dispensationalists you see statements like this all the time, we\u2019re less land centered, less future centered.\u00a0 The issue really is whose opinion do you think is important?\u00a0 Do you think Darrell Bock\u2019s opinion is important or do you think God\u2019s opinion is important?\u00a0 Now let me tell you, the more you stand on God\u2019s truth the more you get marginalized by these guys, as a fundamentalist.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of the worst term they can throw at you; you are a major fundamentalist.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of a putdown.\u00a0 You know, you\u2019re reactionary, you\u2019re not scholarly, you\u2019re not thinking this through when in reality all you\u2019re really doing is standing on what God says.\n\nThere\u2019s a price you have to pay in your life when you stand on what God says.\u00a0 And in academia it relates to loss of\u00a0 tenure, loss of employment, loss of opportunities to be published.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same kind of thing that happens to somebody at a secular school that wants to believe in young earth creationism and defend that scientifically, which by the way, it can be defended scientifically.\u00a0 Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, they do it all the time.\u00a0 But the moment you open your mouth and start to talk about young earth creationism is the moment you\u2019re grant money dries up, your career prospects dry up, your opportunity to be published in the top periodicals and books dries up.\n\nIf you want a good documentary showing you this, in the area of creationism, I would recommend the video Expelled.<\/em>\u00a0 The subtitle is \u201cNo Intelligence Allowed<\/em>, put out by Ben Stein who is not an evangelical Christian but a devout Jew and he documents and interviews all these people that basically lost their positions at major universities because they hinted somewhere in their writings that they believed in young earth creationism.\u00a0 So the same kind of pressure that you run into in secular universities, sadly, is the same kind of things that are going on in Christian institutions.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t know, I spent ten\u00a0 years at this school, I was there from 2000 to 2009, I have two degrees from this school, I have a Th.M. and I have a Ph.D. and I think I know a little something about it; I\u2019m a little bit qualified to talk about it.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t believe it was like this until I enrolled and started taking classes there.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a tragic thing what\u2019s happening.\n\nSo really what my conclusion on the whole thing is, after ten years of dealing with this is it\u2019s irretriev\u00adable and really what we need is starting something new.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when Chafer Seminary asked me to get on board with them I took that opportunity because it\u2019s an opportunity to start something fresh and new where you can get back to the original vision of training men for the pulpit through truth and not by sitting there and monitoring all the scholarly trends.\u00a0 Because when you get into conversations with people like this their whole focus is what\u2019s the latest trend?\u00a0 \u00a0What has M. P. Wright said or some big scholar.\u00a0 It\u2019s not what does the Bible say, what does God say, it\u2019s what are these scholars out there saying?\u00a0 And that\u2019s an outworking of postmodernism because in postmodernism how do you find truth?\u00a0 Nobody has the truth so you have to go to middle ground mania and the truth is what everybody agrees on.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo the scholarly consensus takes precedence over truth and I just bring that up because that\u2019s what he is doing in this Christianity Today<\/em> interview article related to the land.\u00a0 It\u2019s right there in print, he\u2019s deliberately playing it down.\u00a0 The question is, what does God say about the land?\u00a0 Leviticus 25:23 says, \u201cThe land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is\u201d what? it\u2019s \u201cMine\u2026\u201d God says, it doesn\u2019t belong to the United nations, it doesn\u2019t belong to the United States, it doesn\u2019t even belong to Israel; it does belong to Israel because God gave it to Israel but ultimately who does it belong to?\u00a0 It belongs to God.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t have it as a gift unless the giver possesses it.\u00a0 See that.\n\nAnd when you look at Deuteronomy 11 and 12 it says, \u201cBut the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, [12] a land for which the LORD your God\u201d what? \u201ccares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it,\u201d what\u2019s the \u201cit\u201d?\u00a0 The land.\u00a0 What land?\u00a0 The tract of real estate that God gave to the patriarch Abraham.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it,\u201d how long, \u201cfrom the beginning even to the end of the year.\u201d\u00a0 So this verse here says God cares about the land and He watches over it 24\/7.\u00a0 Leviticus 25:23 says \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]\u00a0 Darrell Bock says he wants to be less land-centered.\u00a0 Well, I like a lot of the things Darrell Bock has said but here he\u2019s presented me with a choice, I can either believe him or believe God.\u00a0 I made a decision I\u2019m going to believe God.\n\nNow a lot of people, and I don\u2019t mean to hold myself up as better than them, but let me tell you something, they don\u2019t make that decision.\u00a0 They realize that to get ahead they\u2019ve got to play the game so they\u2019ll cooperate.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just scholars, it\u2019s every one of you; at some point in your life you\u2019re going to have to choose what you find to be more important.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to have to make this choice in your business, at your company, God forbid it even happens in your church, it even happens in your family, and God is going to put you in a position where you\u2019re going to have to make a decision.\u00a0 And a lot of times when you make that decision it\u2019s not going to go well for you, from man\u2019s point of view.\n\nAnd the moment you start to make a decision for God and you start to pay a price for it is the moment you graduate from simply being a believer to being a what?\u00a0 It starts with a D\u2026 Disciple!\u00a0 That\u2019s discipleship.\u00a0 Being a believer is great, it keeps you out of hell but the blessing of the Christian life, the rewards of the Christian life go to the disciple.\u00a0 And all of our brothers and sisters around the world that are suffering martyrdom and things like that are making that decision even as I speak.\u00a0 We have\u00a0 it, at least recently, a little easier here in the United States, maybe things will change but even here in the United States, in every single one of your lives you\u2019re going to be forced to make a decision where you\u2019re going to have to choose between man\u2019s opinion and God\u2019s opinion and you\u2019ll suffer to some extent for it.\u00a0 But as you do that do you know what\u2019s on\u00a0 you?\u00a0 The favor of God because you\u2019ve moved into discipleship.\n\nThe land is also mentioned in the Minor Prophets or the restoration of Israel is mentioned in the Minor Prophets.\u00a0 Zechariah 8:7 says, \u201cThus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; [8] and I will bring them back and they will live\u201d where? \u201cin the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'\u201d\u00a0 So the Minor prophets also are predicting this restoration of Israel.\n\nProbably one of my favorites is how the Book of Amos ends.\u00a0 Amos 9:14-15, God says, \u201cAlso I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; <\/em>they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit.\u201d\u00a0 Look at this, [15] \u2018I will also plant them in their land, and<\/u> they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,\u201d says the LORD your God.\u201d\u00a0 So this is talking about the final regathering of Israel in faith when she will dwell securely in her land, never to be uprooted again by any villain, whether it\u2019s Antiochus Epiphanes, Adolf Hitler, Yasser Arafat, or the antichrist.\n\nAnd I really like this quote from Thomas Ice, the director of the Pre-trib Study Group.\u00a0 He says, \u201cEvery Old Testament prophet, except Jonah, speaks of a permanent return to the Land of Israel by the Jews.\u201d\u00a0 [Breaking the Apocalypse Code<\/em> (Costa Mesa, CA: Word for Today, 2007), 136-37.]\n\nI mean, every single prophet\u00a0 you have, major prophet, minor prophet, other than Jonah, they\u2019re all saying the same thing, they\u2019re all talking about the return of Israel to the Jews.\u00a0 And yet how many Christians go to churches where they\u2019ve not heard a single teaching on this, this whole thing is foreign to them.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about it here because it\u2019s in the Bible.\u00a0 If you\u2019re in a church that is not talking about the return of the Jews to their land then you\u2019re in a church that\u2019s teaching\u00a0 you a fraction of the Bible and not all of it.\n\nWhat is the conclusion of the matter.\u00a0 I like this chart here, there have been three dispersions and three returns, two past and one happening now and future.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel was taken, it was predicted anyway, that they would be taken from Egyptian captivity back to Canaan.\u00a0 That prediction was made in Genesis 15:13-14. \u201cGod said to Abraham,\u201d even before they went into captivity, you\u2019re going to go into captivity in Egypt, I don\u2019t know if the name Egypt is mentioned but most people believe that\u2019s what it\u2019s talking about, you\u2019re going to go into captivity in Egypt for how long?\u00a0 For four hundred years, but you\u2019re going to come back into this land with great possessions.\u00a0 \u00a0[Genesis 15:13-14, \u201cGod<\/em> said to Abram, \u201cKnow for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. [14] But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.\u201d]\n\nWell, four hundred years later it happened.\u00a0 They spoiled the Egyptians, remember?\u00a0 They left Egypt with all that gold and that wasn\u2019t necessarily a good thing because they made a golden calf out of it along the way, because you run into these psychologists, people trying to mix the Bible with psychology and they say well, we need to kind of extract the divine principle from Freud and Young and Skinner and mix it with the Bible because after all, the Jews did that with the Egyptian gold.\u00a0 They spoiled the Egyptians, they took the Egyptian gold and\u00a0 used it for God\u2019s purposes.\u00a0 Well, yeah, you tell me a little more about the story, they also made a golden calf out of it, so I don\u2019t know if spoiling the Egyptians is such a good thing.\u00a0 But people hold whole conferences on spoiling the Egyptians, you all know that probably. \u00a0So you\u2019re going to go into Egypt and you\u2019re going to come back and guess what?\u00a0 That prophecy was fulfilled in the Book of Joshua. It took a while but God did it.\n\nThen the nation of Israel is in the land for about 800 years and the prophet Jeremiah is raised up and he says, and I have the verses there, Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 29:10, you\u2019re going to be kicked out of here and\u00a0 you\u2019re going to be taken into Babylon and you\u2019re going to come back\u00a0 70 years later.\u00a0 And guess what?\u00a0 Was that prophecy fulfilled?\u00a0 Yes it was, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the fulfillment of that prophecy.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 25:11, \u201c'This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 29:10, \u201cFor thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.\u201d]\n\nThen the prophet Ezekiel and others are raised up and say the nation of Israel is going to go into worldwide dispersion and come back into this land and when God is done with everything they\u2019re going to be in a state of belief\u00a0 and the millennial kingdom will start.\u00a0 Has that prophecy happened yet?\u00a0 Well, sort of, we\u2019re kind of seeing the initial progress of it but certainly the whole prophecy hasn\u2019t been fulfilled; they\u2019re not in faith yet.\u00a0 So here\u2019s my question: if returns one and two have happened with great literalness and accuracy, are you a betting person?\u00a0 You probably shouldn\u2019t answer yes.\u00a0 If I were a betting man, and I\u2019m not, I would say number three is going to happen too!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because one and two happened.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo I stand here today totally confident that God is going to complete His unfinished work with Israel and bring His kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 So that\u2019s Israel and the diaspora, Israel\u2019s regathering in unbelief, Israel\u2019s conversion through distress and then Israel\u2019s final restoration.\u00a0 And when we get together next week, hopefully it\u2019ll be warmer, we\u2019re going to talk about the kingdom and how it comes specifically to the earth.\u00a0 We know it\u2019s going to come through the Jews, that\u2019s the who question, but how is the kingdom going to come.\u00a0 We\u2019ll stop there, I ended two minutes early, praise God, and we\u2019ll dismiss people who need to pick up their kids and if anybody has any questions we can try to answer those 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