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Now I want you to pay attention it wasn't anything in Israel wasn't their military.
Today is setting the groundwork for next Sunday. Next Sunday is when we have a culmination of this sermon series on the idea of What do we do with Israel? Why is it a big deal to us? What is Israel? It's a nation whoop-dee-doos.
There's a hundred and sixty-eight others like it all over the world. Why is Israel seem to be in the center of everything and that's what we're going to talk about next Sunday now. Next Sunday is going to deal with a lot of prophecy.
It's going to be a lot of eschatology. And so I'm going to give you some things this week that you really need to study for you to comprehend it on a fuller Nature, but let's just review just for a second.
First of all, let's read Psalms 105 starting in verse 6 through 11.
It says this.
He is the Lord our God.
His judgments govern the whole earth now. Let me stop. Don't just read through this. The words actually mean things. He governs the whole earth. He remembers his covenant forever. Not just in the times of David or Abraham.
But forever he remembers his covenants the promises he ordained for a.
Thousand.
Generations the covenant he made with Iber Abraham swore to Isaac and Confirmed to Jacob as a decree and to Israel as a permanent covenant.
I.
Will give the land of Canaan to you as your inherited? Possession Portion, I'm sorry. Last week we talked about four things that we had already seen happen. I'm gonna wait a minute. It's my fault. There we go.
There we go, and we're gonna go over those. But before we do I'm gonna kind of set the stage on who's who okay? Some of these things that I'm gonna be talking about if you don't already know who's who it's gonna be kind of hard for you.
To understand. First of all, I want you to understand that Islam is like Christianity. I know they're in the South and the Southern Baptists and all that other stuff. Muslims are all Muslims. That is not true.
There's a there y 'all realize there are 10 ,000 different denominations of Baptists alone just Baptists there are over 10 ,000 different denominations. I can't even begin to tell you how many different Christian denominations there are.
But there are a bunch. Well Islam is the same way you have Sunni and Shia and you've heard of those two before. But what I want to mark out for you real quick is I want you to notice the difference in numbers.
Sunni Muslims are 1 .3 9 billion.
People.
3 .9 billion people who follow Islam the Shia Is 200 million so there is a great difference between the two now. There's Zeta and there's there's others out there. But these are the two main you hear one now like other religious people that have Theological disparities they shoot and kill each other now.
We Christians have never done that. Never have done that because what we're Christians guys our history and you gotta understand when I say Christian I am talking about something different than the religion.
Okay, if you've sat under my teaching for a while, you know that I hate religion with a flaming passion. One that is unbridled in just absolute disdain our history as a Christian Religion is soaked in blood.
It just is it is absolutely atrocious. I was talking to someone the other day about the Spanish Inquisition and they said oh, well, that's Catholic that doesn't count. Really? Wow, that's awesome. You are a stud.
So what do you do with the Salem witch trials? What do you do in 1848 when the Southern Baptist Convention became the Southern Baptist Convention? To keep millions of people into slavery, so Please make sure you understand that that second switch by the light switch in your bathroom is an exhaust fan.
Please use it because you'll crap stink too. All right. Now I want you to understand the difference between the two and you've heard some of this. Everything in red is Sunni Islam. All this is Sunni everything in blue is Shia.
Now you might say why is that important? Well, if you look right here see this itty bitty little this is Israel right here and Right. I can't keep it steady enough. But right there is Gaza now. You've heard about Hamas a bunch in The news Hamas is the political organization in charge of the Gaza Strip right now.
Now we're going to do a little history. So don't don't let me lose you. But also you've heard of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is the Shia group. Hamas is Shia. Hezbollah. Shia and they're north here in Lebanon.
Actually you have this third group down here. There's been firing rockets. These are the Houthi rebels. They are Zeta they are a different type of Islam, but they there's a lot of Shia down here, too.
So the reason I point this out is Hamas. Hezbollah. Hezbollah are two different groups. These guys down here are a totally different group, but all three of them Follow these guys right here. This is Iran is the power broker of the Shia Muslims in the Middle East these guys right here Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
But mostly Saudi Arabia are the main Sunni Islamic tribe now you're saying pastor. My gosh. I came to hear about Jesus. Well you are. Because what's really cool about Jesus? He told us all this would happen.
So anyways, this is kind of the political setup you have now. If you ever have someone tell you well if Israel would just let Gaza be free everything would be okay. Well, there's a problem with that because back in 2005 Israel said we done and they pulled all their troops out of the Gaza Strip and said Y 'all got it, right?
Here's the ball. There's the end zone. Y 'all run the touchdown. Well at the time there was a group named fatwa and they were the political organization think of Republican and Democrat. The the Republicans were in charge.
They got kicked out the Democrats came in. Well, that's what happened fatwa. In 2005 they were in charge of Gaza and they said yes peace. Let's give peace a chance and then the radicals the Shia radicals in Gaza said man No, our stated goal is not just to be free.
Our stated goal is from the river to the sea and what that means is Israel has got to go. We are not going to take this anymore. Quiet right? Never mind. So anyways That's what's going on and so from 2005 onward Gaza was in charge of Itself they really were people say well, you know, they didn't get a fair break.
That's not true. We there were nations all over the world. Not just the United States of America the UN were funneling money in there to try to help Establish a sense of normalcy people say well they were in a prison.
Well, yes and no I strongly disagree with that. I think that's an apple and orange idea because 25 ,000 Gazans came to work in Israel every day every single day. It was easier for a Gazan to walk across into Israel than it is for Mexican to walk across the Rio Grande.
Okay, you don't even have to get wet. They just walked right in there and said here I'm here and that's how it was. But just like everything else in life you have the people that yeah. They're Islamic and here's something you need to understand in Israel.
There are a bunch of Muslims. There are a bunch of Arabs. There is a whole Israel Defense Force Brigade that it's made up of Arabs. It's not all the Arabs against the Jews. It's it's it's not as simple as that.
The world's a lot bigger than Bartlett guys There are a lot of Arabs that are fighting for Israel. There are a lot of Arabs fighting for Israel. Okay, it's not as simple as we or the news want to make it sound.
It's not Arab against Jew or Arab against Christian. It's something bigger and we're going to get to that in just a minute. So this is kind of the setup you got hope that kind of clarifies some things and it is important.
Because of this right here now, this is a little bit better map. This is a little bit better map, but I want you to understand some things. Israel as a nation has only existed as a modern nation since 1948.
1948 and.
You have to and we're going to go over all these next week. We're going to talk about the wars and Israel has antagonized The situation as well as the Arabs Christians. Let me let me bring this to you face to face.
I Love reading the Word of God, but here's what I hear some preachers do. They take all of the main Protagonists in Scripture and make them out like they're wearing white hats and they're the hero. I can't but David was a scumbag.
David was a cheating.
Adulterous murderer.
Solomon Abraham was a racist. I mean you talking about racist pig. Every single person in Scripture was not a pure driven person. And this is what gives me such hope in my own self because I'm a big scumbag, too.
Right now, I don't cheat on my wife and haven't murdered anybody yet. But at the reality, well, I haven't had a deacons meeting in the past few weeks. But anyways, we're all Sinful there was this guy that once said for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God for there are none righteous.
No, not one. Oh, that's the right. His name was Jesus. Understand the only universal truth there is is that all men are totally depraved no matter where you come from or what you call yourself. And just because you're a Baptist Christian or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Muslim.
It don't matter you Still hold the stain of sin now, are you righteous if you're covered in the blood of Christ? Yes, but that flesh is still condemned. So here we are. Here's Israel now you have to understand.
And this is really important. You have to go back. Oh, I was talking about the Jews are antagonizing this. So this was this idea was made up in 1967 and 1948 Israel became a nation. They had to fight a war of independence.
Which is really like miraculously cool. We'll talk about that next week and These were the boundaries that were drawn up except for this part right here. And if you look right here, this is Jerusalem way over here.
And this is the Jerusalem and it's actually split in half. We were going to Israel This spring, of course, we can't now but one of the places I wanted to go was Bethlehem and Bethlehem was about 10 15 miles south of Jerusalem.
Well, I can't go there because it's in Muslim hands and they're not really kind to Christian peoples. But anyways, here's what the Jews are doing. They're saying, okay, we'll give you Gaza. We'll give you West Bank.
And by the way, West Bank and Gaza are basically the same people group split in half. Okay, and Here's what the Jews say. They say, okay, we'll respect your boundary. Here's your boundary. We won't encroach on it.
We're gonna get right. Here, we're gonna build a camp and this is where we're gonna build the camp. But Bob wants to build a house right here, but that's fine. Our mayor's office is back over here on this line.
So we ain't touching that and then over the years it just spreads and spreads and spreads. And basically the Jews are walking up to the Muslims doing this. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you right?
And so once again, you cannot look at this is simply good and bad. Like it's not a story that began once upon a time and you have the good guys and you have the bad guys. Remember everyone's the bad guy.
The only good thing is God's sovereign hand. All right, watch this last week. We talked about this ready. God promised Abraham. Sorry, that's cut off. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be a nation way back in Genesis chapter 12 Verses 1 through 3 now remember, here's Jesus Christ.
Here's 2 ,000 years later and we're sitting here in Witten Baptist Church. Here's Jesus Christ 2 ,000 years before that was Abraham. Okay, God told Abraham 2 ,000 years before Jesus Christ. Yeah, you and your wife are gonna be a great nation and He's like dude.
I'm 75 years old. I ain't got a kid, you know I'm like Pastor Josiah. All I can have is girls and I even got them. Right. How am I going to be a great nation? How is that going to be possible? God said because I said so and Abraham Believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness.
So Abraham started having kids and people think he just had Isaac and Ishmael. That's not true after his wife died. He remarried again and like Rodney even at a mature age. He was a playa. All right Rodney getting married next week.
That's my boy.
So.
Abraham's descendants and Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons and God changed his name.
To.
Israel that's where you get the 12 tribes of Israel and that's where Israel came from. That grew they grew they grew. They ended up in Egypt. They got in slavery. They grew some more. They grew into this massive amount of people over 400 years.
They walked out of Egypt with about a million and a half people and took over Canaan. And that's where all that started. God told them. That's what was going to happen and the fact that we have a nation called Israel today.
That's not church talk. That's not a government conspiracy. You people that look for black helicopters answer yourself this question. We have the written text of this from Genesis predating anything that of Israel.
Predating anything of Jesus and it said that you would be a great nation. It'd be like me looking at Mike and looking at his wife and going one day y 'all gonna have your own state. It's gonna be the state of Mike and it's gonna be filled with nothing but descendants of Mike.
That wouldn't go there. But anyways The Jewish people will be scattered for their disappearance now. Now once again, I'm just doing a little history lesson with you.
This is.
Reality you if some of you who spend too much time playing video games and you're mad at the church because you're rebelling against your Parents because you have daddy issues. That's fine. Use Wikipedia if you want.
Don't listen to me, but in 722 BC after Israel was a nation the nation of Assyria came in and Captured a bunch of Israelis and took them off and spread them out all over the place. They went everywhere.
Here's an example that I have for 6 ,000 years I'm sorry 4 ,000 you 4 ,000 years an entire people group has looked at God and said Whatever turn their backs on him. God spanks him and says now come on back home.
Man.
Ain't it good that no matter how idiotic we are and for how long we are God already has a plan to bring us home Israel and Isaiah 66 written 700 years before Jesus there was no Israel. There was no nation.
And I'm waiting for an atheist or anthropologist or archaeologist to explain this to me. Their people group ceased to exist. Their national identity ceased to exist. Not for 10 years not for 20 years for 2 ,000 years actually 2 ,500 years.
You can't find Israel on a map. There is no Israel. Rome actually renamed the whole thing Palestine right, but it wasn't a country. It was a region like Yellowstone. It was just a region within a state.
They ceased to exist and then in 1948 in one day.
In one.
Day a nation is born people say well America was like that. Go back and study history. Man, you're on crack. Well, they signed that Declaration July 4 1776. It wasn't till 1783. 1783 the war was over and we still hadn't had that Constitution ratified.
Israel is the only nation the only people group in the history of mankind That ever became a nation overnight. Now, let me stop here and just like I did with God's not done with you for all of you folks in here That are trying to convince yourself and everybody else how smart you are and that God and all this Bible Christian stuffs all a bunch.
Of garbage.
Wrap your head around this for just a second. God literally fulfilled regardless of time regardless of nations. 11 Arab nations said no, they're not. We're gonna wipe them off the map. They ain't gonna be a nation in our land.
And they still there since 1948. Things that make you go. Hmm. Here's some things that have not yet been fulfilled. Here's some things that have not yet been fulfilled. Read with me if you will and you can.
Look at this in Genesis 15. I told y 'all to read that for today. It says on that day Genesis 15 18 on that day The Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying I give you this land from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
Israel has never ever ever Controlled all that land and all of human history. They've never controlled that so if every other prophecy about Israel has come true yet. But not this. What's that mean to tell you it gonna happen?
Well, but pastor what. Okay? So everything else has come true just like God says it is but God don't drop the ball on this one. No, man, he ain't the Titans. He's gonna actually score. Okay? He's gonna actually score.
I'm sorry. I'm still struggling with the volunteers yesterday. But anyways.
Stop there.
This is what Israel is gonna look like one day. All right, let's just go through this. Here's the second thing that's got to happen. According to 2nd Thessalonians. Yes, the New Testament watch this now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And our being gathered together we ask you brothers not to be easily upset or your mind troubled either by a spirit or a message or by I Can't read alleging that the day of the Lord has come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day.
Will not come unless an apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he sits in God's sanctuary.
Publicizing that he himself is God now. This is going to be one of our main texts for next week. But let's just go through this just for a second. Okay, and I want to lose you on this one. Here's something else that's got to happen.
Not only does Israel have to control that land, but the temple has got to be rebuilt now people have traditionally said Well for that temple now for let me explain this is Israel. This is Mount Moriah right here.
All of this is Mount Moriah and you can once again if you want to go look this up on Wikipedia, but this is Jerusalem. This is Mount Moriah the city of David Mount Zion's down here. But anyways in 632 600 years after Jesus this new religion named Islam showed up and it swept over all the Middle East and they took over Jerusalem and then of course the Christians came in and said we've got to free Jerusalem from those nasty Muslims and so they came in there they were killing women babies children.
Just like every other totally depraved human being. But anyways, the Muslims built a shrine to Allah on What they thought was the exact site of the old temple the old Solomon's temple. Now, how are you going to have?
Second Thessalonians come true. How are we going to have the prophecy of God fulfilled if there's a Muslim temple? Well, people have said we don't tear that sucker down. We don't tear it down and we gonna rebuild the temple of Solomon.
I've heard Christians say that I'm like, wow. You you really bleeding Judaism and Christianity together a lot. But what is the temple of God? Witten Baptist Church, right? This building. This is the temple of God man.
God needs to upgrade man. It's like a Frazier temple, right?
We.
Listen to me church. This is not the house of God. This is a building. This is the house of God Collectively not just me Collectively. Okay. I am the temple of God may be a double wide, but I am The temple of God.
Okay, but in prophecy It actually says that someone will physically go in that temple. The Antichrist is going to go in that temple and he's going to set himself up. Let me explain to you what's going to happen.
We're going to get into this a lot more detail Later on our next week the guy who can get the Muslim world and the Jews To be cool to be at peace. It's going to be a political.
Stud.
Nobel Peace Prize in Spades, he ain't gonna just run around the world apologizing for America like Barack Obama and get a Nobel Peace Prize. He's actually gonna do something. Okay, he is actually going To bring peace to a place where there has been no peace since the dawn of time.
He's gonna be a stud and the Muslims and the Israelis are gonna go. Oh, yeah boy. And they're gonna hug and kiss for three and a half years. For three and a half years now. Here's what's really cool in the last 50 years people are getting excited because they're saying we don't have to tear down The Dome of the Rock that Muslim place because we found the foundations of Solomon's temple.
Right here.
Now watch this if They build Solomon's temple right next to that and everybody's good with that and everybody says hey. Let's just give peace a chance and Jerusalem is for all peoples. We all need to be tolerant.
We all need to love we all need to and you know hippies show up and this happens. That guy is going to be have great political power now. Watch this now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask you brothers not to be easily upset in mind or troubled either by the spirit of message a letter as is from us. Alleging the day of the Lord has come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy first comes in the man of law.
Let's just revealed the Son of Destruction. He opposes and exhausts himself above every so-called God or worship so that he sits in God's sanctuary. Publishing publicizing that he himself is God. Oh Sorry.
Well, that was a really great verse. That's not the one I wanted you to read you. But anyways, I'm gonna read you the one I wanted to read you. You'll find it there on your paper on the back of your paper.
Revelation chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 then I was giving a measuring rod like a measuring reed like a rod with these words go and measure the temple of God and the altar and Count those who worship there but exclude the courtyard outside the temple.
Don't measure it because it is given to the nations that they will trample the Holy City for 42 months. Now wait a minute, let's go back. What can I go back? Let's see. Yeah, there we go. You know, it would be really cool if that really is the old side of Solomon's temple, which I believe it is.
He was like don't worry about that outer courtyard. It's for the Gentiles. Are y 'all with me? Somebody like what? Burnett's help out the blondes. This is really cool. Okay, the reality of this is in the book of Revelation he's saying Don't worry about the outer courtyard.
It's the inner one that's going to be really the temple of Yahweh now. It says for 42 months someone good at math. Help me out. How many years is that? About three and a half. Wow. So that would Isaiah Daniel Ezekiel Zechariah said hundreds of years is the same thing John said is the same thing Philip said it's the same thing Paul wrote about the same thing Jesus said in Matthew 24.
Wow, you mean all of that is all saying the same thing and 90 of it has already come real in human history. Yes. Yes, now I'm gonna actually close here. I'm gonna close here. I just want to ask you just just a couple of questions number one.
Is the Bible to you a moral story that starts out once upon a time and they lived happily ever after.
The end.
If it is you need to put the crack pipe down and you need to wake up now. I know listen to me. Listen to me some of you in this room are Faithful church members, but you still going to hell in a handbasket.
Let me say that again. Some of you people are faithful church members. But you really ain't part of the church because how many churches are there in the world? There's one. There's just one and it don't matter what man calls them.
There's only one church and it's made up of believers from Abraham to us. It's made up of different people of different colors with different backgrounds and different everything. There's only one church guys.
There's only one. Are you part of that church? Here's what I get. Well, I'm a member at Bellevue. That's what you're going to heaven on. It's gonna suck for you in hell. Well, I don't cuss smoke or drink or have tattoos.
All right, man. Cool. You get a Bucky Beaver badge. You're still going to hell. Well, I believe in God. Well, so do the demons. So what again here's here here it is. Well, I prayed and I asked Jesus Christ into my heart.
I'll give you a hundred bucks. You find me that in Scripture.
Ain't there? Oh.
Did y 'all feel that spirit? Wow that got hitting on somebody. I'm not up here to entertain you. I'm not up here to make you feel anything. My simple job is this. I'm telling you what's written in God's Word.
And if the Holy Spirit is doing this to you right now like ooh, that's me you have two choices. You can keep protecting your reputation and your religious resume. Or you can actually submit humble yourself and give your life to Christ.
It's one of the two. Some of you have been sitting in churches knowing that you're not saved. Knowing that you are truly not reconverted and regenerated. But you've served as a deacon or you've been a pastor.
I remember preaching our Bible one time and the pastor came down front and got saved. Listen to me. Listen to me your spiritual resume ain't got nothing to do with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Pastor how do I know I've been saved?
Well, if you took our survey you would know Bible says this. If you love me pastor I'm sorry. Say that again.
Obey Obey.
Obey I always think about that. I'm not even gonna mention his name obey.
Obey.
How much do you obey God? I'm kind of hit or miss.
Okay.
Well, I did. When I was seven years old and I went to backyard Bible Club and I gave my heart to Jesus. I obeyed then. But I'm 42 now and man I haven't obeyed since. News flash you're not a Christian.
Wrap your head around that. Hold on. Let me give you a second for judge. Not let you be judged. Go ahead. Okay, now that you've gotten past that. Wrap your head around the fact you are not a believer.
You're not you are not. Well pastor, I walk down the aisle. There is no walking down the aisle in Scripture. Okay, there is no prayer to ask Jesus in your heart in Scripture. It does not exist. Do you obey God.
If the answer is no you've got problems. Now here's the next line. Someone always says well we all sin.
Thank you for the news flash.
Really? Watch this. Is this what your spiritual life looks like? Year one year two year three year four. Oh, wait a minute. They sung that song from when I was a little kid and I got a little fuzzy warm feeling in my heart.
Oh. Or someone preached a really good sermon and I got encouraged but other the way it just looks like this. You got problems. Okay, and the problem is you're not regenerated because here's what a Christian spiritual life looks like.
It's like a little.
Little one engine prop plane with me on it. It's like. And it's trying its best to get up the hill the little engine it could but. But it's constantly doing this. Doctrinally speaking that's called sanctification.
Do you have that? I know some of y 'all are visitors here you go. That's not what I came here for. You came here for someone to say smile. Jesus loves you. It's all gonna be good trusting God and everything's fine.
Problem is you ain't never trusted in God. You've trusted in religion and Somebody in this room is gonna go to hell. Because you're trusting in the words of man or a Baptist creed or some other garbage rather than the truth of God's Word.
Now I have done what God's called me to do. So guess what? I'm cool. So in other words you go, you're an idiot. Peace. I'm gonna sleep just as good tonight as I did last night because I got Thanksgiving.
That's fat guy. Happy day.
I'm good to go.
It's all on you. I have never led anybody to Jesus. I have never saved anybody. Only the hero Holy Spirit of God. Can you've heard the Word of God? It's now up to you. We're gonna have a time of invitation and that means simply this.
They're gonna be people up here that ain't gonna fix you can't save. You aren't miracle workers. The same Spirit of God's in me is the same Spirit of God's in Louise. It's the same Spirit of God is in me the same Spirit of God's in tackle box.
Everyone in this room is all without power except by the Holy Spirit of God. So now here's what these people up front are here to do. They're up front for you simply open up God's Word and show you the truth.
Because Romans 10 17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing. Pastor Jeff. Oh, yeah the Word of God. That's what we're here to do. Okay? But we're not the only ones in the room can do it. If you're scared to come to a fat bald ugly guy I get it.
I would be too. How many of you women in here Christians raise your hand?
So now all you got to do is look around and find someone who had their hand up and go talk to them. Christians if you're in the room don't sit and hold the pew or the chair in front of you. Go minister.
Let the Holy Spirit use you right now. Be the church if you need to get saved if you need to Get help with some accountability with a sin. You need to join a church. You need to confess Christ. You need to be baptized.
Whatever it is I'm gonna ask you to stand up. And as you stand up and the music people are going to come up you're gonna you're gonna Obey God by coming and listening to him. And you come this morning as God leads.
