What do we do with Israel? part 3 (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

The Sovereignty of God and the Reliability of Scripture

Now I want you to pay attention it wasn't anything in Israel wasn't their military size because it's important that you learn. Now, for those of you in here today that are born-again Christians, I mean like your true believers, I'm talking about your Baptist peace hitters, you're truly a born-again believer in the Son of God, you're going to walk away feeling a little encouraged I hope.

For those of you that are in doubt about the Scriptures and God and all that other stuff, it's cool, you're struggling, you're trying to figure it out, hey, you're in the right place man, we're going to love you even though you're stupid and going to hell, we still love you and we are willing to work with you in any way that we can to answer any of your questions and walk through that journey with you.

But you're going to come face to face with some realities today. That there is a sovereign God and His plan is unfolding and it will not be thwarted, stopped, or even slowed down by the plans and the ideas of man.

I want you to read with me, if you will, read with me in 2 Peter, and I wrote it up here on the screen, 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 1 through 4. This is now the second letter, 2 Peter's second letter to God.

Then I'm writing to you beloved, I'm writing to you Christians, in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by the way of a reminder that you should remember the predictions of the Holy Prophets and the commandment of your Lord and Savior.

Trying nature of God, doctrine, theocracy. Ladies and gentlemen, let's be real, let's be real. If the church was the empirical evidence of God to a lost world, we have nothing to go on. I mean let's be honest, we are full of hypocrites.

I mean I just saw Benny Hinn on some video waving his arm and people falling down. That false teaching, that godless, hedonistic, egocentric, megalomania is not from God, it is from man. I've seen pastors, they're more concerned about money and growing the numerical value of their church and helping the souls in their church grow.

If the world looks only at the church in its modern understanding, there is plausible reason to go, I don't want no part of that. Oh but unbelievable. Skeptic and doubtful one, you have a bigger problem.

You have a bigger problem than the excuse of your rebellion towards God because of the church. You have the word of the living God that has been unchanged and been validated through history time and time again.

The king of Prussia once asked his physician, he said, how do you, a Christian, honestly believe a book that was written thousands of years ago? And the physician answered, he said, I will just give you two words, the G.

For there is no other explanation of a people group or a nation known as Israel to exist today without a sovereign hand of almighty God. Let's put this a little bit in perspective. Now I have given you, on your own pieces of paper, I gave you an amendment of an amended Jeff's history.

I have a book, it's about, I think, I don't carry, I don't remember how many pages it is, but it's like, I think, 132 pages. I call it History of the World, Part 2. If Mel will write it, I will. My generation gets that, the rest of you, it doesn't matter.

But anyways, and in that, I have literally the history of the world. I mean, I've written it out. It's taken me years and years and years to write it. It's kind of humorous in parts. But I had to condense all of that onto your paper.

Now, that is massively condensed. Well, on my notes, I had to condense it even more. I want you to, just for a second, just for a second, let me nerd out. Is that okay? Let me nerd out just for a second, alright?

Because, man, I'm telling you, one of the things that helped me understand the truth of God's word was history and science. Those two things validated the reality of the word God made more than any pastor or any preacher ever could.

And what's so awesome about this is literally your mind will begin to change. Maybe you're one of those people that say, well, there's a Bible history and a world history.

No, there isn't.

There is only history. Something happened in time, space, with matter. It occurred at a single event in time. It is irrespectable of anything or anybody. It just happened. Well, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, all those old testaments are a history of things that our archeology has validated and history has proven with extracurricular writers.

I'm going to give you just a small smidgen of the history of Israel. One day, there was a man. His name was Abram. And he was a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Herb. And he had a good haircut, didn't have tattoos, he didn't cuss, smoke, or drink, wore a suit and tie.

And God said, wow, this is a really good Christian. Think of this for a second. In about 2100 B .C., there was a cat named Abram living in a land that was not Israel, worshiping false gods and living his life according to the culture of that time.

And God said, yo, Abram, come on up out of that land. I'm going to take you to another land that you ain't never seen, you ain't never been to. You ain't even heard of yet because it ain't created. And I'm going to make you the father of many nations.

Abram went and he packed up and he moved. And he became the first patriarch of what would become both the nation of Israel and many, not all, many of the Arab peoples. He had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.

Ishmael's mother was Egyptian. He married another Egyptian. And Isaac was, it's wrong to say Jew. There were no Jews yet. But he was what would become a Hebrew person. He had a son named Jacob. So this is Abram's grandson.

Watch this.

Don't lose me. Stay with me here. He was, he had a grandson named Jacob. And Jacob got busy. Man, Netflix was rolling in his house all the time because he had 12 sons. 12 of them.

12 sons.

Right? I could struggle with four. 12 sons and his sons became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.

That's how it happened.

Okay?

It's not that hard.

Well, they started hanging out in the promised land but a famine came. It got really hard to buy. I mean like a quarter pound was like five bucks. And they couldn't find any food. So they went on into Egypt and they said, hey, we're going to hang out here because their prices are a lot lower.

And God said, but I didn't tell you to go to Egypt. I said you to rely on me, not Egyptians. I told you to rely on what I would provide. And the Hebrews there were like, eh, we're cool. A little bit later Pharaoh of Egypt said, man, we have really got to work on our immigration policies.

We really do. Because these Hebrew dudes, they're like cockroaches springing up everywhere. I'll tell you what let's do. Let's put them all into slavery and put them to work.

All right?

They're not just going to clean our houses and mow our grasses. They're going to build cities.

And that's what happened.

For 400 years the Israelites were going, God, what happened?

God, what happened?

God, what happened?

And God said, y 'all stay where you are. And then finally God raised up this cat called Moses. And Moses said, yes, Lord, what do you want me to do? By the way, Moses was not a super Christian either.

In fact, he was a murdering, rebellious, godless heathen that was living as far away from God's will as he could. And that's the guy God chose. Some of you heathens in here, God still can use you. You don't have to look a certain way.

You just have to have faith. And God can use you for great things. God said, hey, I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. Moses said, what? He said, no, I don't have time to let my people go.

Moses said, you can't do it. God said, you best don't.

Moses said, okay.

He walked into Egypt. A little while later over a million Hebrews for the first time called Israel, the children of Israel. Way back there. They walked out of Egypt. And they walked into a land that you now know as the nation of Israel or Canaan or Philistia or Palestinia and all these other names in history.

And they took names and took over that land. Things were pretty good. But the people started going, we want to be like everybody else. Everybody else has a king. We don't have a king. We talked to a God that we can't see.

And we don't understand. We want to be like everybody else. God said, you really don't want this. They said, yeah, we do. God said, all right, here's what we're going to do. And he gave him a king and a king's a stump.

But then God picks up another guy named David. And David was bad to the bone. He was clean as wood to John Wayne. David walked up there and he goes, that's mine. They said, no, it's not. David goes, watch this.

He didn't even chew bubble gum. He just kicked butt. And then his son Solomon took over. And Solomon did something unique. Jerusalem at that time had two pivotal points. It had Mount Moriah kind of in the north.

And yes, that's what the road's named for. It's Mount Moriah in the north and Mount Zion in the south. Mount Zion was kind of where David's palace was. And Mount Moriah was this really special place. And Solomon built the first temple on that place.

Now, I'm going to kind of get a little bit faster here, OK? So just stay with me. Kind of follow any notes if you want. Israel was doing great under Solomon. They had a new church. I mean, they had the gold faucets.

They had Sunday school classes for everyone. I mean, it was great. The pastor had his own parking spot. It was a great, great temple. The nation was rich.

It was wealthy.

I mean, dang, they were just rocking. The economy was rocking. The military, everything was doing great. Well, Solomon dies, and immediately the descendants of those 12 tribes said, well, who's going to be king next?

And some of them said, well, I'm a Republican. I want this guy. The other one said, well, we're Democrats. We want this guy. And believe it or not, they started infighting over who was going to be the king.

They actually raided the capital. Oh, sorry, wrong history. They got together, and they started fighting each other. I ain't talking about on CNN and Fox News, man. They drew swords and started hacking on each other.

And the ten northern tribes said, we are the best, and the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were down here. That's where you get the word Jew from, by the way. It's from the word Judah. There's a difference.

There's Hebrews.

There's Israelis. There's Jews. I can't go into all that right now, but that is a difference. Well, the ten northern tribes said, we're the best. We are the ones that have the real Bible, the real faith.

All you other people are stupid. God said, you best humble yourself before God. They said, whatever. 722 B .C., these little guys called the Assyrians walked in there and said, pimp slap, and took all the Israelites captive, shipped them off into all over the world, and destroyed what was Israel.

Well, the two southern tribes said, have you ever done this? Have you ever rejoiced in someone else's rear-end kicking by God? I actually had a Christian one time ask me this. They sat there and go, wow, she got cancer?

Man, what did she do? Please don't ever be that idiot. Please don't be that dumb, because here's what's fixing to happen, the same thing that happened to the Jews. They were like, oh, we're so awesome, we're so special, God spared us.

Well, God said, you better humble yourself and stop thinking of your brothers and sisters that way. You better stop worrying about where they come from, what they look like, and who they're with, and start thinking about who God called.

586, the Babylonians came in and destroyed that temple, burned it down, tore it up, and took them in and captured it. Now, from 586, we're just talking about the city of Jerusalem now. From 586 B .C., that's 586 years before Jesus was born.

We're talking like Bill Floyd age, way, right? From 586 all the way through when Jesus was born, all through the Romans, the Greeks, all through that, all the way up into like when America became a nation 240-something years ago, there was no Israel.

It did not exist anywhere. There was no language, there was no flag, there was no money, there was no cars, there was no nothing. It was ruled, watch this, by 40 different people groups, 40 different nations and people groups for 2 ,500 years, for 2 ,500 years.

We have, what's the name of the Indians from Mississippi, Bill, that are from this region? Choctaws, those guys. First it was the Choctaws, then it was the Colonial Americans, then it was the Southerners, now it's just America.

So, in 1 ,000 people group years, there's four. Israel has been 40, 40. And there have been Jews taken captive and thrown all over the world. Now, if you don't, if you're not getting this, what I am telling you is not Bible history or world history, it's just history.

It just happened.

May 14th, 1948, May 14th, for those of you that are skeptics, May 14th, 1948, a thing that has never happened in human history, ever, anywhere, except in Israel. A nation became a nation and was recognized as a nation by all the other nations.

Now, some of you are going, yeah, so what? It would be kind of a and so what, except for this. God said it would happen, but we'll get to that in a second. Let's look at Israel for a second. Let's look at who and what they are.

First of all, I want you to put in perspective the nation of Israel today. Now, on the right here, sorry, on the left here, that is the nation of Israel superimposed on the continental United States. That's how big it is.

If you wanted to go population-wise, they have about 9 .5 million people, which is about the size of New Jersey. About the size of New Jersey, 9 .5 million people. In the United States of America, put that in perspective, there are over 300, I think now we're at like 320, we're at 320 million people.

So we are roughly 30-something times the size of Israel, right? I'm not good with math or English, all right? I want to put this in perspective in the world. Now, this is just northern Africa. This, of course, is considered the Middle East.

Now, these are all, I don't even know if you can see Israel. I can't hold this still enough.

Israel is right there. It's just a little boop.

Pardon?

It's just a boop of a little nation.

It's right there. I mean, that's it.

Look at the size of it against Jordan and Syria and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It's just a little bitty, little itty-bitty little thing. The size comparison of those nations, look at where Israel is.

But not only that, look at what God's Word says in Isaiah 14, 14. It says this. The Lord says, small and weak as you are, Israel, don't be afraid. I will help you. I, the holy God of Israel, am the one who saves you.

You can rely on horses and chariots, but I will save you. Now, why is this so important? Guys, if God came and saved the United States of America in a war, I mean, that's pretty awesome. If you ever want to study that more, go study the American Revolution.

It's unbelievable. But that's pretty awesome, but, you know, America's pretty big as far as military power, you know? But God picked the smallest, most weakest nation who had been beat and kicked around like an old dog for 2 ,500 years, and they're back again, and nobody can touch them.

Why?

Because God wants you to understand that He is God. And what man says is impossible, God says, done done it. You see, you in this world right now, you're sitting in this place saying, I want to be a Christian, but, or I don't understand this, but, understand this, that no matter where you are or what you've done, the grace of Almighty God is able to deliver you as an individual like He's been doing to a nation for over 2 ,500 years.

God can do it, see? And He's proven He can do it. If we can see His sovereignty in something as powerful as to orchestrate nations like a puppet master, He can definitely, yeah, I know, it just went through my head.

He can do it to you. Guys, watch this. Look at the conflict just for a second. I want you, and if I could apologetically just discuss this for a second, all the green is Muslim countries. Now, and I'm not trying to say anybody's stupid, but let me just explain this.

The word Arab and the word Muslim are not always synonyms. Muslim is a religion. Arab is a culture.

Okay?

You understand?

Does that make sense?

Okay?

Just like when I talk to people in India and Pakistan, they always say, well, America's a Christian nation.

Not in my neighborhood. Okay?

I mean, no, you may think it's a Christian nation, but no, it ain't.

Okay?

But anyways, I want you to think about this.

Right?

And once again, you can't even see it. Little Israel is right there. All of this other are all Muslim-led nations. Muslim-led nations. Do you know where the largest Muslim population is? Everybody always says it's in the Middle East.

Actually, no, it's right here in Indonesia.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's huge.

Massive.

Massive. Now, people always say, well, Israel's a communist country. A Muslim can go anywhere, get all over there.

A Jew can't.

You're going to be with me. Zechariah chapter 12, verses 2 and 3. Zechariah chapter 12, verses 2 and 3. It says this. Wow.

Wow.

Word of God tells us that Israel, Jerusalem specifically, will be the epicenter of God's will, of God's purpose. It will be. In fact, to read Ezekiel 5 with me. It says, Lord, this is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of nations with countries all around her.

All around her.

Guys, you realize just geographically, Israel... Am I losing some of y 'all?

No. Okay. All right.

Jerusalem is the epicenter of Europe, Asia, and Africa all coming together into one location. It has been strategically centered throughout all time. Every general in the world, yes, even Patton and Schwarzkopf, even American generals, have walked through there and understood the strategic importance of that geographical location.

Israel is the only democracy... Now, I want you to watch this, by the way. Israel is the only democracy...

Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

...in that area.

Did he lose control? Tab it.

The only one.

Okay.

Somehow he lost control.

It's the only one, by the way, for some of you younger people in here. I always love watching the news. Did y 'all see all those fruitcake little school brat kids up in Cornell?

You know?

They're always like, we need to help poor people.

And you spend $67 ,000 in college and $67 ,000 in school.

Drop out of school, go to state, and give that money to somebody who could actually use it, right? It's funny how they always want everyone else to sacrifice, but that doesn't leave high examples. Anyways, I want you to do this, oh liberal one.

Okay.

You've got total control.

If you're thinking, because this is the shame thing that is right.

Okay.

If your name is Susie, I want you to change it to Sam.

Okay?

Change it to Sam. Dress like a boy. Talk about gay rights. And you go to anywhere...

Do it.

Let me go back.

In the green.

Okay.

Go to anywhere you want in the green. And you fight for their freedoms from the colony of what you can't see.

I don't know. It could have been him not doing something.

Because here's what's going to happen with all those freedom fighters you go and stand up for. They're going to take large, heavy rocks and crush your skull in because you are gay. But if you go to Israel, that won't happen.

Things that make us go... 1948. So from 586 B .C. all the way to 1948, there never was an Israel. And once again, I'm not teaching you a sermon.

Okay?

I'm not giving you my opinion. In fact, in reality, there was no such thing as an Israeli person. Isaiah chapter 66, verse 8. Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth. Before she was in pain, she delivered a boy who has heard of such a thing or who has seen such a thing.

Can a land be born in one day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her sons. By the way, that's a rhetorical question, Farley. God already knew the answer.

Can a nation be born in a day?

Yup.

It's happened one time. It will only happen one time in all of history. So let's talk about this. Just to put this in perspective, let me find someone out here. Let's see. I need a girl. Now, Amber's kind of tough.

I need the others. We'll use Melody. All right, Melody. I know you're shy. Don't worry. No one's really going to hurt you.

All right.

Melody.

Now, Melody is a trained whatever.

Melody.

I know.

Melody, most of you don't know this, but she was actually assigned to SEAL Team 6. She is a trained black belt ninja, special forces, green beret, Navy SEAL ninja.

Okay?

I'm serious, man.

She can.

She'll put cord blood on you. When she hits you, the cord blood will fall out of you. She is bad to the bone. There are males in here who would be scared for $10 ,000 to get in the ring and fight Melody.

I mean, it's simple, right?

She's nothing.

She cannot defend herself.

Okay?

Most of you chicks could whoop her.

Okay?

She's 50 years old.

She's done.

Okay? She's dead.

It's over.

Okay?

That's part of her life is behind her. She has nothing left for you except die. Okay, come on.

Come on.

Her husband's older than that.

Guys, watch seriously. I want you to think about this. Let's say right now I said all of you in this room, think about it for a second. This is not an exaggeration. All of you in this room attack Melody right now.

Was there any chance she would win?

No.

Did someone actually say yes? Please put the pipe down and pay attention. There is no human, military, physical way she could win. Someone would say, what if she had a gun? She still wouldn't win. It's not going to happen.

Now, please, some of you all in your hippie modes are like, potty, get off of Melody.

No.

The idea here is not really picking on Melody. The idea is this. 1948, 650 ,000 Jews were surrounded by 40 million Muslims. On May 14th, 1948, they became a nation. And then they were attacked on May 15th.

All right, now we train fighters here. Our fight camps last, what, three months? They got 40 months to physically prepare after they've been training all of this time. Israel was born on May 14th. Seven different nations attacked them on the 15th.

Look at that map.

They were just a day old. 1 ,000 volunteers on May 15th for the army with 10 ,000 rifles.

So not only do they have 29 ,000 people, they have rifles.

It's like, here, Bubba, here's a rifle. All right, someone pick up a rock.

Let's go. That's what they fought with against seven Arab armies. Militarily, this is. Because you're attacked from all sides, and the only place you got to go is the sea. And anybody leading military training knows you don't want your back to the ocean.

It didn't work out good at Dunkirk.

Okay?

Guys, you do not want that.

There's a story in an American newspaper in the time when this story. You can look it up. It's kind of cool to read. In the Jezreel Valley, that's north. The Jordanian, Iraqi, and Lebanese armies were coming in.

And they got down in the Jezreel Valley. They got down there. And when they got down there, they were at higher elevation. When they got down in the valley, people started going,.

Thomas the Tummy is a little upset.

By the time they got across the valley, they had to stop their APCs and their tanks. Because everybody was puking. And everybody had Montezuma's revenge.

It was funny.

They were so sick, 400 Israelis with a few rifles captured 20 ,000 men in three different armies. So as they were attacked, the Egyptian armies came up from the south, as you see here. And let me get my pointer thing.

What's really awesome is this is the Egyptian army. They came right up into what is now the Gaza Strip. But there was a pan-Saudi-Iranian, pan-Arabic army. In other words, everybody who hated Jews sat there and they joined this army.

And it drove straight into Jerusalem. Well, as they got on the outskirts of the western part of Jerusalem, the Jews that were actually in Jerusalem defending that area, there was about 3 ,000 of them.

And they had about 400 to 500 rifles. They had a few mortars, but they were very inaccurate. And they had a bus that they had welded boiler plates on with two guys sticking out with broom handles to make it look like it was an armored person.

That's it.

That's all that happened.

That's it.

The pan-Arab army came from the west and started coming through the groves there on the lower areas of Jerusalem. Jerusalem sits on a higher hill. And as they walked in, they walked into what was a bee farm.

I didn't know such things existed. Did you know that there are actually farms that raise bees? Like bees. I didn't know that. So they're raising these bees as the Arab army goes in. And like 40 million bees get irritated and start stinging all these guys.

They literally are flying in the vents of the cars and trucks stinging people.

And they start just rotting away.

That's not the cool part. The cool part is, the people, David Ben-Gurion tells this story. He talks about when we're sitting there, we're like, where are they, man? Why haven't they hit us yet? Where did they go?

And so they sent out a scouting patrol. And they're like, man, there ain't nothing out there. And so they walked out down, they walked down the slope of Jerusalem there down the hill, walked out, there were guns and trucks left there.

But wait a minute, that's not the cool part. You know what wasn't there?

Bees.

They showed up, Israel showed up, they all went back and said, and went back to sleep. They actually bombed an entire brigade of Israeli troops by the weapons that were left from bees being attacked by bees.

But guys, I'm sorry, I have to put this in here. For those of you that are skeptics, you really don't believe, yes, you're right. They're trying to control you through our moral understanding. There is no God.

And it's all make-believe, and I'm here just to get to a sovereign God. And without Him, you're screwed. It's one of those two things. So keep putting your tinfoil hat on and getting your white helicopter on.

Or maybe you need to submit something other than your own.

Israel's Restoration, Hebrew Language, and Prophetic Fulfillment

Isaiah 11.

Isaiah 11. Verses 11 and 20. It says this, In that day the Lord will extend His hand again a second time, premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, a second time, to recover the remnant, the remains of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Patharos, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar.

By the way, if y 'all want to do a little extra study to get you fired up, study the Ethiopian airlift of the Jews out of Egypt. By the way, there are a lot of black Jews. People like, yes, there are black Jews.

In fact, most Jews in Africa are found in Ethiopia. But anyways, study that. It was in the 70s. A bunch of Jews were like, I'm talking about like 20 ,000 of them were like, hey, we need to get out of here.

We want to come home. The Israeli government said, boy, boy, come on in. And they were like, we can't get from here to there because there are Muslims in between. And so Israel took every plane they had, flew into Ethiopia.

They were like, the Muslim country, if you do this, we'll shoot you down. Israel said, we got F -15s. Come on, baby. And no plane left. And they actually flew them all back from Ethiopia.

There's a huge,.

The English, never mind. Guys, from the coast of the sea, he will raise his signal for the nations, and he will send them to the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Now, here's what's funny. And I'm almost done. Just stay with me for a second. Please think outside the box. Remember, the world's bigger than Barbados, Tennessee. Think outside the box. In 1948, after they won that war, and by the way, they won it in nine months.

I always thought that was cool to talk about the birth of a nation. Never mind. But anyways, they whooped them all. They whooped all seven armies in nine months. Didn't last a year or four years or 20 years.

They whooped them all in nine months. But when all the Jews started coming back to Israel, there was no Hebrew language. There was no Hebrew culture. All the Jews had been living for 2 ,500 years in Russia.

Guess what they spoke?