The Doctrine of Israel (10/15/2023)

All right, let's open up to the book of Revelation, chapter 7. Revelation, chapter 7, and the title of this message is The Doctrine of Israel. The Doctrine of Israel. Or maybe I could add a subtitle, Why Evangelical Christians Support Israel.

I think there's a pretty simple answer to that. God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so according to the plan and purposes of God, they are an elect people. Also, Christianity developed out of the Old Testament faith, and at least at first, Christianity was seen as another Jewish sect.

So there's many connections, and Christians, you know, we feel these connections. We realize that God still has a plan for Israel. Now, at the same time, that doesn't mean that they get a blank check.

That doesn't mean we affirm everything that they do, certainly, because as a whole, the people of Israel, the Jewish people as a group, still deny Christ. Even in Bible times, God judged Israel, and in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed.

The people were scattered, which leads to another question. Is modern-day Israel the same as Israel in the Bible? Well, no and yes at the same time, because it's the same land. Most agree they're descended from the same people, descendants of Abraham.

So while not everyone sees this the same way, at the end of the day, Christians do tend to be very supportive of Israel and the Jewish people, and I believe there is a biblical reason for that. So now that war has broken out, and it's the first time that Israel has declared war in many, many decades, and this may be a bigger issue going forward, I thought it was helpful to look at what the scripture says about Israel as a people.

Revelation 7 and the 144,000 Sealed from the Tribes of Israel

So, Revelation chapter 7, let's start reading in verse 1, and this is the other question, which I already gave my view, but does God still have a future for them? Revelation 7, starting in verse 1, the apostle John writes, and after these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144 ,000 from all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Verse 5, of the tribe of Judah, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben, 12 ,000 were sealed.

Of the tribe of Gad, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Asher, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Naphtali, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasseh, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Simeon, 12 ,000 were sealed.

Of the tribe of Levi, 12 ,000 were sealed. And of the tribe of Issachar, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Zebulun, 12 ,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Joseph, 12 ,000 were sealed. And of the tribe of Benjamin, 12 ,000 were sealed.

Verse nine, and after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen.

Then one of the elders answered saying to me, who are these arrayed in white robes and where did they come from? And I said to him, sir, you know. So he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

And may God add his blessing to the reading of his word. So why go through all of that? Why read, okay, 12 ,000 from this tribe, 12 ,000 from that tribe, 12 ,000 from this tribe. You know, it's almost like the author here or the Lord is trying to make a point.

And what is that point? They are who? Who are the 144 ,000? They are Israelites. And he makes that point very clear, I believe. So the reason why I read this passage is that we see in the end of days, because revelation, I don't care what people say, there's all sorts of different people saying different things.

Revelation is a book about the end times. It is a book of future prophecy. And we see that in the end of days, guess what? Israelites are still here. Israelites are still around. And the nation can be counted even 12 ,000 from each tribe.

Now, I'll be honest, I don't know how that works. I don't have all the answers, but I know that's what the scripture says. So the Jewish people, the Israelites, they were there then, they're here now, they're gonna be here in the end times.

That's the first point. The second point is God is going to use them. How is God going to use them? How will he use the 144 ,000 and for what purpose? Well, basically to start a revival like the world has never seen.

We see that those who are saved during the tribulation, I think the implication is they're saved because of the ministry of the 144 ,000. So many people are redeemed unto God that you can't even put a number on it.

My friends, that's good news, isn't it? I know when you think about Bible prophecy in the end times and you think of the end of the world and you think of all the judgments in the book of Revelation, it can kind of leave maybe a sour taste in someone's mouth.

It's such a negative book with all the judgment and everything else because people think the book of Revelation is foretelling the end of the world. Well, at the very end, yes, but when Jesus comes back and during the tribulation, this is not the end of the world.

Okay, the end of the world isn't gonna happen anytime soon, but what is this time period? And when Jesus comes back, what is this? It's the end of the world as we know it, which honestly is okay with me.

I don't know about you. So it's not the end of the world, but things will change. This world system will be destroyed. That's what the tribulation is all about. That's what the book of Revelation is all about.

God passing judgment on Babylon, this corrupt world system. And when this world system is done away with, what takes its place? The kingdom of God here on earth. So plenty of good things along with the judgments, plenty of good things are happening in this period as well.

Obviously the rapture of the church, we could talk about that, but that's another sermon for another day. But there is this great end times revival, a multitude of all nations that no one can number. And as I said, the point that I really wanted to stress, and I think the point that the Lord, because it's the revelation of Jesus Christ, right?

This is Jesus conveying this. Israel is still around in the end times. Now, do you believe that? Because there's people right now who wanna make sure they're trying to see that Israel is not around in the future.

Who is this? Well, basically Israel's Arab neighbors, Hamas, Iran, and all of these nations and terrorist groups, they want to eliminate the Jewish people. They want to drive, as they put it, they want to drive Israel into the sea.

They wanna wipe the Jews off the face of the map. And they openly say this. You know, that's not gonna happen. That is not gonna happen. And it's not gonna happen because the United States exists. We're gonna defend it.

I mean, that may play a role in the small scheme of things, but in the grand scheme of things, they're not gonna fail. They're not gonna be destroyed. Why? Because God is preserving them. Why is that?

God's Promise to Abraham and the Survival of Israel

Let's turn to Genesis chapter 12. Why can Israel not be destroyed? People from Haman to Hitler have been trying to eliminate the Jewish people. They are not going to be destroyed because one simple thing, God made a promise.

That's everything to do with God's word and his promise. So you're gonna turn to Genesis chapter 12, but I want you to think about all of this, all the people groups that are mentioned in the Bible that lived thousands of years ago.

Who are some of the people groups you read about? You know, we've been studying the Old Testament, going through Judges and 1 Samuel on Wednesday night. You read about who? The Amalekites, right? The Edomites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and all these ites, right?

The Jebusites. Have you ever met a Jebusite? Have you ever met an Amalekite? You've never met any of these people. If it wasn't for the Bible, their memory wouldn't even exist, but you have met Jews, haven't you?

They're still here. You know, this is one piece of evidence that the Bible is true, that the Jewish people still exist after 4 ,000 years of history, people trying to destroy them. They're the most hated people group on the face of the earth.

I think it's safe to say that, but they're still around. So we'll read this section from Genesis 12. What is this? The calling of Abraham, right? Look at verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.

Who is Abram? Yeah, Abraham, Abram, he is regarded as the father of the Jewish people. So the Jewish people are around here in Genesis. They're around in Revelation. They are not going anywhere. I think I have to, before we continue, I just wanna share this with you because you probably know there's churches that disagree on this subject.

Why do churches disagree on Israel and there being a future for Israel? Basically, in the third, fourth, and fifth century, it did look like Israel was finished. So the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, 70 AD, the temple was destroyed, the people were scattered, and for the most part, the Jews did not believe in Christ.

So the church at the time, and certainly the Catholic church, which developed over time, they looked at this whole situation, and they thought, yeah, God is done with them, and they're scattered, they're finished.

So basically, what happened was the Catholic church looked at the Jewish people, they looked at the scenario, and they said that, no, the Jewish people don't have a future, but in the Bible, if you look at all these prophetic statements about the end of the world, it's talking about the 12 tribes.

So they're trying to make sense that it looks like God is finished with them, and yet there's all these statements about a future for Israel, the Bible talks about Israel. Long story short, what they did, they reinterpreted the Bible, and they said, well, the church is now Israel.

We, the Catholic church, we are Israel. And what about the kingdom of God that would be set up, and Jesus would reign from Jerusalem? Well, they said, we are the kingdom. So the kingdom is the Catholic church, and Israel is finished.

They wrote Israel out of the story, and now they said the church is Israel. So basically, that Catholic doctrine endured for 1 ,000 years, and even at the Reformation, many of the Protestants, they kind of held on to that belief.

So that's why there's churches that don't believe in a future for Israel. They're holding on to that ancient Catholic doctrine. So instead of a literal interpretation of Scripture, they settled for an allegorical approach to Scripture.

So then, who is the 144 ,000? You were there reading it with me, right? 12 ,000 from Gad, 12 ,000 from Asher. Well, they said, well, that can't be actual Israelites, because we decided they're finished.

So all of a sudden, the 144 ,000, it's not the Israelites, it's something else. And this is, like I said, a whole another sermon for another day, but basically, the Bible doesn't mean what it says. Well, does the Bible mean what it says?

12 tribes, you know what 12 tribes means? It's the 12 tribes of all the children of Israel. Yeah, that's what it means, Israel, and the church is not Israel. So the Amalekites are gone, the Amorites are gone, the Philistines are gone, but the Jews, Israel is still here.

And many of those people who believed in what is called replacement theology, they had egg on their face in 1948. But one more comment before we look at Genesis 12. I mentioned the Philistines. You know where the Philistines were from?

The land of Philistia. It was on the coast of the Mediterranean. You know what that's called right now? It's called Gaza, the Gaza Strip. So you had the Philistines, they were the great enemy of the children of Israel.

Philistines are gone, but now there's a new enemy there. So it's just strange how that works. But you know what? The day's gonna come where Hamas is gonna be just like the Philistines. They're gonna get erased, but God's people, Israel, will endure.

Okay, Genesis 12. They endure because of the promise. Genesis 12, starting in verse one, now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

This land was originally called Canaan, but today, most people call it what? Israel. No, no, no, most people, I call it Israel. You call it Israel, but what do most people call it? Palestine. Yeah, they call it Palestine.

I don't know about you, but I've looked in my Bible front to back. I've never seen the word Palestine anywhere in my Bible. So God calls it Israel. I'm calling it Israel, amen? I would encourage you to do the same thing, but it was originally called Canaan, but now God is making a promise to Abraham and his descendants.

This land is now yours. So get up from where you're living and go to this land that I will show you. So he's sending this man currently named Abram. Abram will be the father of who? Isaac. Isaac will be the father of who?

Jacob. God changed Jacob's name to Israel. So originally Israel was a man. Then he had 12 sons, right? And the 12 sons of Jacob became the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. So originally Israel was a man.

Then it developed into a family. You remember 70 people were in that family when they went to Egypt. And then over 400 years in Egypt, they turned into millions and they were made a nation at Mount Sinai.

So started with a man, then to a family, now a nation, but they're not just a nation. What are they? They will be a chosen nation. They will be a great nation. Look at verse two, Genesis 12, verse two.

I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. So notice that statement in verse three, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. What has happened to all these people groups that try to annihilate and destroy Israel? Again, the Amalekites, Philistines, Nazi Germany, they're done, they're finished.

God destroyed them. So this statement, in you, Abraham or Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That statement is, we can say, pregnant with truth and great significance. Why? Because the greatest truth in how all the nations will be blessed through Abraham is how?

Christ, Galatians chapter three, verse eight, the apostle Paul identifies this verse, Genesis 12, verse three, Paul says that this was God preaching the gospel first to Abraham. That's probably not the way you think of it, that God is the first one who preached the gospel and he did it to Abraham.

So before any man was preaching the gospel, God preached the good news to Abram. Later, this promise is extended to Abraham and to his seed, right? And this first appears to be his descendants, physical descendants, the Israelites and all the rest.

And that's true, there's truth to that, but ultimately we see that the seed, the true seed of Abraham is Christ. God used Israel, and this is the greatest thing that God did through Israel. He used Israel to bring the Messiah into the world.

But as for Abraham, he is the father of the Jewish people. You see, at this point, his name is Abram. Abram means father. So just as God changed Jacob's name from Jacob to Israel, God will then change Abram's name to Abraham.

So he goes from being called Abram, father, to Abraham, which means father of many nations. One takeaway from that is how God didn't just love the one nation, Israel. God, the Bible says, so loved the world.

God loves all the people of the world, but in this age, they are called to believe in Christ. So God loves people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Jesus came to save both Jew and Gentile. Abraham is known as the father of the Jews, but he is much more than that.

Turn to Galatians chapter three. But it all started, Israel's history, it all started with Abram. And God preached the gospel to him. Now, the devil hates all of this, right? The devil hates all of this.

One reason is because God knows that Israel will be used as a vehicle, if you will, to bring the Savior into the world. So God, or excuse me, the devil wants to destroy Abraham and his descendants. And he's always looking to corrupt God's people.

He's looking to destroy Israel or corrupt it. All throughout their history, they were led astray into idolatry, bowing down, serving, graven images. And even this happens in the church where God hates the work of the, or the devil hates the work of the church.

So the devil tries to corrupt it, but the devil was trying to do this back then. But it doesn't work. Why? Because God always preserves for himself a remnant. Back in the first century, even though the majority of Israelites rejected Christ, many received him.

And to those who received Christ, John 1, verse 12 says that he gave them the right or the power to be called the children of God. And that's what matters most. Look at Galatians 3, verse 6. It says, just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

So in this age, to be a true child of Abraham, what do you need to do? Yeah, you need to have faith and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you need to share that same faith of Abraham. The one true faith started with him, okay?

Abraham is sort of like a picture of the church, if you will, and that he's called out, out of the world, set apart unto God. But again, the enemy seeks to destroy and corrupt all this. So today, the devil is convincing people that, hey, everybody's a child of God.

Everyone is one of God's children. Doesn't matter what you believe. Is that true? No, that's not true. But that's what the devil will try to say. How does the devil work? How does he corrupt people? You ever wonder, some of you have probably seen this on TV.

There's these protesters that are marching for Hamas. Have you seen this? Yes. Like people on college campuses, they're out in the streets of New York, whatever, and they're actually pro-Hamas. And when you hear the things that Hamas is doing and just attacking, killing innocent civilians, you wonder how could the devil so twist a person's thinking to actually support Hamas?

After all the violence and the atrocities, butchering of innocent civilians, you think how could someone take up that cause? Well, this is what that mindset leads to. The mindset of abandoning absolute truth, the mindset of abandoning God.

This country rejected God many, many years ago. It's just been snowballing. So when you reject the 10 commandments, when you reject that absolute truth even exists, that's how you get people supporting just blatant evil.

That's what's happening today. What should our response be to all of this? Some people respond with righteous indignation. Some people respond with indifference, I suppose. Some people are in despair.

What does the Bible tell us? Psalm 122, verse six. Do you know what that verse says? Tells us to pray for the peace of what? Jerusalem. Right, Psalm 122, six. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So we certainly wanna do that.

We wanna pray for all those who have been kidnapped. We wanna pray for those being held hostage for innocent civilians on both sides. You know, and it's right to pray that the Lord would save people on both sides.

Pray that God would use this to lead more people to the Savior. So do that. If you haven't been doing it, do it this week. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. This is one of the reasons why Christians are so, either what you call pro-Israel or interested in events in the Middle East is because we understand, those of us who know the end times theology, we understand that this event could escalate and it could lead to a wider conflict that could signal the second advent of Christ.

I told you last week that that might not happen. Might not go that far, but it will one day. So that's why Christians are often paying specific attention to events in the Middle East. So we want to pray for the people of Israel.

We want to pray that the Lord would save people. We want to pray that this doesn't escalate, but if it does, we need to be awake. We need to be ready. Again, Israel probably has more enemies than any other nation on earth, and Satan will continue to raise up more enemies.

We read that verse last Sunday from Zechariah, where the Lord will cause all nations to move against Jerusalem. There's already a lot of anti-Semitic thought within the UN, so this could easily happen.

But whenever that does happen, whether it escalates and it takes place soon, or it happens in the future, when all nations move against Jerusalem, will they be able to destroy it? Will they be able to destroy or eliminate the children of Israel?

No, because God made a promise. God will not allow it. The Lord has in the past and still has a purpose for them. And most significant of all, maybe, how God used Israel is to give us the scriptures. Look at verses 26 through 29, because the scriptures are all about, he is the focus, Christ is the focus, but the Bible is all about him.

So what does the Bible say about Abraham today? Verses 26 through 29, the apostle Paul writes, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And this is interesting, in verse 29, he says, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise.

Those of you who have read the Old Testament, you know that the genealogy was very important. They needed to be able to trace you through your tribe. So if you were a king, you had to be from Judah. If you were a priest, you had to be from Levi.

It was very important who your ancestors were, who your relatives were in the Old Testament. What's important now though? Your physical descendants? What matters is your spiritual descendants. What matters, are you Abraham's seed through faith?

So before we close in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus talked about being able to read the signs of the times. Remember that statement? This is why I'm doing the message. We need to be able to read the signs of the times.

Most of the first century Jews were not able to read the signs of the times. Jesus rebuked them for it and they missed the coming of Christ. What about Christians? Are Christians gonna be able to read the signs of the times about the second advent of Christ?

If you look at the teachings of Paul, the answer is yes, we will be able to read the signs of the times. So what have we seen over the past 70 years? We have seen the reestablishment of the Jewish state starting in 1948.

We've seen a great falling away from the faith all over the world. We are now witnessing the push for a one world globalist agenda. And again, I'm not saying, hey, this is it. It's gonna happen this year.

Did I say that? Would I say that? No. What I am saying is that the things that have been happening over the past generation or two, it lines up exactly with what the Bible said would happen just before the last days.

On top of that, the way the nations are aligning, Hamas and their connection with Iran, Russia being friendly with Iran, and now China maybe being friendly. These are the exact nations that the Lord said would be raised up against Israel.

Is that a coincidence? Well, again, I'm not saying this is it. It would be foolish to set a date. No one would ever do that, or at least no one here would ever do that. But here's what also would be foolish if we just ignored all of this.

And say, well, people have been saying this for hundreds of years. Well, that's true. People have been saying that. We don't want to ignore this. So what's the result? What's the takeaway? My friends, we need to be ready.

Look at the signs of the times. Everything would point to the fact that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may, in fact, if things continue on the course they're on, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may be drawing near.

So until that day, we need to be awake. Look at the signs of the times. We need to spread the gospel. We need to talk about not the physical descendants. We need to pray for them, but we need to make spiritual descendants of Abraham through the gospel.

Prayer for Israel, the Gospel, and Readiness for Christ's Return

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just ask that this would be a message that would be a comfort to people's heart. Lord, as the world spirals into chaos, Lord, we have a great hope. Just as you made a promise to Abraham and to his seed, Lord, you have made many promises to the church.

One of the promises you made to the church is that we are not appointed to wrath. So Lord, I believe that your people, Christians, would not ever face your wrath when it is poured out in the end of days.

But Lord, we know that tomorrow is not guaranteed. Help us to be about your business while we have breath in us. And Lord, we do pray for all those suffering on the other side of the world. We pray that whatever happens, you would use it for your glory and for the good of your people.

Lord, may there be a great harvest in Israel, and may you draw the children of Jacob back unto thyself. And I pray it all in Christ's name, amen.