Have You Not Read S3:E3 - The Conflict in Israel (Part 2)

Sunnyside Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Have You Not Read S3:E4 - The Conflict in Israel (Part 3)

00:11

Welcome to Have You Not Read, a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification of the saints.

00:19

Before we dig into our topic, we humbly ask you to rate, review, and share the podcast. Thank you.

00:26

I am Dylan Hamilton. And with me are. Chris Kiesler. Michael Durham. David Kassin. And we have

00:32

Andrew in the corner and he's gonna be helping us out today as well. It's okay. It's okay.

00:38

It's okay. So we have a very pointed question that ties back to our previous episode as to how we are to react as Christians to the conflict in Hamas and Israel.

00:48

And it's not just tangential, but it is kind of at the core of how differing views in Christianity view this conflict.

00:56

Michael, would you go ahead and kind of flesh out the question itself for us? Right. So what we wanna do is try to begin to talk about this very important topic without talking about everything at once.

01:07

So we wanna begin somewhere. And I think a good place to begin is when God made promises to Abraham about blessings and cursings, how is that fulfilled?

01:18

And then how does that then control our understanding of the conflict in Israel and Gaza?

01:24

Genesis 12 is a great place to start. Genesis 12 verses one through three.

01:29

Okay, Chris, you read that? 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.

01:37

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.

01:43

I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

01:50

So Joshua tells us that Abram was from Ur of the Chaldees, that he was an idolater, and yet God had mercy and grace upon him and called him out of that land.

01:59

Abram is also a descendant of Eber, since we get the word Hebrew. He's also a descendant of, like the rest of us,

02:05

Seth and Noah, more specifically, but he's the son of Shem and Noah, going all the way back to the promise made in Genesis 3 .15

02:13

that a seed would be born of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. And so we've been tracking that story all the way through Genesis, and we hear about all the nations split up at Babel, chapters 10 and 11 of Genesis.

02:23

And now here we have this wonderful promise that even though the nations are not getting along and they're all confused, and what now that God will work with Abram and he will make

02:35

Abram a great nation, which means Abram's going to have a seed, he's going to have offspring, even though he doesn't have any yet, and that nations, all the families of the earth will be blessed in Abram somehow, some way.

02:48

And then we begin to read the saga of Abram, and it's a marvelous story, it's riveting, so many wonderful parts to it.

02:56

But when we come to Genesis 22, we hear an echo. In Genesis 12, it says, now go to a place that I will show you.

03:04

And then there's the promise of offspring and promise of blessing and cursing. Now we come to Genesis chapter 22, and why don't you all read verses one and two for me.

03:16

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here

03:22

I am. Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

03:34

I shall tell you. Right, and so in the Hebrew, the place I will show you, the place I will tell you, same exact word in the

03:40

Hebrew. I checked. There's a particular echo going on here.

03:45

Go to a place that I will show you. Go to the mountain that I will show you. Both contexts about the promise of a seed, and in both contexts, issue a blessing, all the families or all the nations of the earth.

03:56

So if you will, one of you will read verse 18 of Genesis 22. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

04:07

Right, and then, so how did Abram obey? What was he, Abraham obey? What was he doing up on that mountain, and how did he obey, and then what happened?

04:15

Well, I believe he's gonna offer up his son. Right. As a sacrifice. Yeah, and he was ready to do it.

04:21

You know, the scene slows down. Every movement of Abraham is zoomed in on.

04:26

And he takes the knife, and he lifts the knife. He's about to strike with the knife, and then the angel of the

04:32

Lord stops him and reveals a ram caught by the thorns in the thicket as a substitute sacrifice.

04:37

Therefore, this is the place where the Lord provides. There on Mount Moriah, the place of the future threshing floor of Ariranna that David purchased to offer sacrifices to the

04:46

Lord to appease the wrath of God where the temple would be built. So a very, very meaningful, very special moment there in the

04:52

Old Testament. One that Paul, the apostle, looked back at for particular glory, and the glory is that of Christ.

05:00

So we go to Galatians chapter three, and he's dealing with questions about what about the promises to Abraham?

05:05

What about the law that was given to Moses? How are we to understand these things? Because the Galatians are getting persuaded to bring circumcision and all the law with it into their understanding of the gospel.

05:19

And Paul is saying, what are you doing? In a sense, he's saying, have you not read?

05:25

That's right. He goes back and says, let's think about how this actually happened back there in Genesis and Exodus and following.

05:31

So when we go to Galatians chapter three, we read, see,

05:37

I'm gonna go with. Starting verse six. Yeah, I think verse six would be a good place to start once you start reading,

05:43

David. Sure, through what, nine? Or a little bit further along? I would say nine, and then we'll jump down a little bit.

05:49

Roger that. Galatians 3 .6, just as Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness, know then that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

06:03

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall the nations be blessed.

06:14

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham. The man of faith.

06:21

So we hear, remember Genesis 12, Genesis 22. Blessings, blessings. I will bless those who bless you.

06:28

And the blessings of the families of the earth, the blessing of the nations will be through you and your seed.

06:34

And now Paul says, in due time, he has arrived and Christ is through whom the blessings come.

06:41

He's the seed of Abraham. And we read about that in verses 14 through 16. I'll go ahead and grab that.

06:47

That the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the

06:54

Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak in a manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

07:04

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is

07:16

Christ. In other words, Paul is saying that when you go back and you look at the promises that God made to Abraham, it was to Abraham and to his seed, and how are those fulfilled?

07:24

In his seed, who is Christ. So when we go back to Genesis 12, it's not something that we say, oh, well, we can just throw that away now that it's been fulfilled in Christ.

07:33

Absolutely not. We read it in the light of Jesus Christ. And so we see that those who bless Christ are blessed and those who curse

07:40

Christ are cursed. But what about you and I? In that we've sinned against God, and we've done things against Jesus, who is the

07:50

King of the universe. We've not always done what was right and bowed the knee and blessed him.

07:56

So what about our curse? Well, I mean, I had you start with verse 14, but what about verse 13?

08:02

Yeah, verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

08:10

Well, there it is. There's the hope of all the nations, right? Because all of us have fallen short. All of us have cursed

08:16

God's seed, his promised son. We did not count him worthy.

08:21

We didn't bow the knee. And the great fear is, oh, I've cursed him. I'll be cursed. No, he bears our curse on the tree and suffers that for us and takes it away so that we may have all the blessings that God promised to Abraham and his seed by faith in Jesus Christ.

08:38

So that is why, when you read other passages, there is no distinction. All of sin falls short of the glory of God.

08:45

There's no distinction now. Righteousness has been manifested apart from the law and the prophets. And now we have our righteousness in Christ, whether we're

08:52

Jew or we're Gentile, doesn't matter what ethnic background we come from, we are blessed in Christ, all the families of the earth.

09:00

Right, right. Remember the wall of hostility that he talks about in Ephesians that's torn down? Correct.

09:05

It's torn down by faith because they were made into one being. And here we just read, it says in verse seven, therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.

09:17

And Jesus had this discussion with the Jews of his time. We have Abraham as our father. And he says, if you did, you wouldn't be trying to stone me because Abraham's not your father.

09:29

Right, so how are we to understand this? It's not that somehow the church has replaced

09:36

Israel in the promises of God. And all we need to do is just go back and read the whole Bible. And everywhere we see

09:41

Israel, we just think to ourselves church or that the church is Israel and so forth. What we're told is that the promises of God, it doesn't say it was given to Abraham and to all of his spiritual offspring directly.

09:54

It was to Abraham and to his seed. And if we're in the seed who is

10:00

Christ, then we have blessing. So the focus is all on Jesus Christ. He's the focus.

10:05

And the promises were always meant for him specifically. Yes, I think that goes back to a larger picture that Christ as the last

10:15

Adam, as the second Adam is the image of God. He's the image of the invisible God. And when

10:21

Adam fell and he sinned before there was any law and he transgressed and he broke faith with his creator and he went against God's design, how

10:30

God made Adam into his own image. And after that, God makes a series of covenants in which he begins to restore that image and reveal the coming renewal of that image.

10:40

And all the covenants that God makes with Noah and Abraham and Israel and David are all in one sense, image of God shaped.

10:48

In another sense, they're all Christ shaped because they're ultimately fulfilled in him. And so that's why the hope of all humanity is in Christ because he's the fulfillment of that.

10:57

Now, when we go to Isaiah 49. Before we leave Genesis, excuse me, before we leave Galatians three, you said this and I want to make sure that nobody misses this point because I think the argument kind of hinges on this.

11:10

You say that, you know, continuing on in verse 19, it says, you know, why we have the law until the offspring should come to whom the promises were made.

11:19

You know, we keep saying these promises were made to the seed, to Christ.

11:25

Christ is the one to whom these promises were made. You know, that the promise and continuing on, verse 22, the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe for, verse 26, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

11:43

Okay, we're sons of God through faith. Christ is the one to whom the promises were made. Verse 29, he ends this chapter with, and if you are

11:51

Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise. So if Christ receives the promise and you're in Christ, you're a joint heir with him.

12:01

The church doesn't replace Israel, Christ is. And that's where we're going in Isaiah.

12:06

And just to see that he has so much weight and glory. He has so much glory that we no longer hyphenate our names, right?

12:15

We're just Christians, we're in him. We're not hyphenate our names. That's what verse 28, Galatians three talks about.

12:20

And we have to, you know, believe the plain reading of the text. There is neither Jew nor Greek, okay?

12:26

It doesn't mean that there are no ethnic Jews. It doesn't mean that there is no ethnic Gentiles. Of course there are. There is neither slave nor free.

12:33

There are slaves today who are Christians and there are free men who are Christians. And there's neither male nor female.

12:39

Oh, they're male and female still exist, okay? But what is the point that Paul makes? For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

12:44

In other words, what is your identity now? Now think about it. Jew nor Greek, that mattered a great deal in the old covenant.

12:52

Slave or free, that mattered a great deal in the old covenant. Male or female, females didn't get circumcised.

12:57

Male or female, that mattered a great deal in the old covenant. But now in the new covenant, we're just Christ's. We belong to him.

13:04

You see, everything changes now. Well, and it wasn't that God had to come up with something new because something went wrong, right?

13:12

What he talked about in the Old Testament was always headed this direction. You had mentioned, instead of hyphenate, there's no

13:19

Jew or Greek. They're now one. They're male or female, they're now one.

13:24

Slave, they're now one. Often in discussions, it sounds like you had the Jews and now you have this second group of people, the church.

13:34

There are two people of God. In many discussions now, there's two people of God.

13:39

But that seems to be saying there is one people of God. Yeah, the basis of that two peoples of God says there are two peoples of God with two separate promises.

13:47

And there's a set of physical promises for the Jews and a set of spiritual promises for the church. But then that would divide up the promise where it says

13:56

Abraham and his seed. You would have some promises to Abraham and then some promises to the seed dividing the promise, but it doesn't say that.

14:04

It says the promise is to Abraham and his seed. And to this one to whom it all actually belongs.

14:13

And what happens to those who are in that one seed, they are joint heirs with him of those promises.

14:20

What promises? The one he just got finished talking about earlier in the chapter. Right. Right, so let's go to Isaiah 49 because we see how through these latter prophets, the latter prophets are working with all of the covenants by now.

14:36

You know, when you read in the Bible, by the time you get to 2 Samuel, you have all the covenants that God made, the major covenants where he's revealing the image of God.

14:47

And then there's the rest of the Old Testament is simply just expositing on what does that look like and anticipating the coming of the

14:54

Messiah. So when we get to Isaiah 49, there has been a lot of reflection. There's been a lot of consideration.

15:00

And by the time we get to David, what God has been dealing with very broadly with Noah, more specifically with all creation, and then with Abraham and his descendants, and then to Israel, which is a single nation, down to the representative of that nation, which is one man, the king.

15:19

And everything's hinging on the king. Is he a good king? Then things go good. If he's a bad king, things go bad.

15:25

And now we're gonna hear about the hope of Israel in Isaiah 49. So let's read verses one through nine.

15:32

Listen, O coastlands, to me, and take heed, you peoples from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb, from the matrix of my mother he has made me.

15:43

Mention of my name, and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, and the shadow of his hand he has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft.

15:53

In his quiver he has hidden me, and he said to me, you are my servant,

15:59

O Israel, and whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain.

16:04

I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain. Yet surely my just reward is with the

16:10

Lord, and my work with my God. And now the Lord says, who formed me?

16:15

From the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel is gathered to him.

16:22

For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. Indeed, he says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel.

16:35

I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

16:42

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the

16:58

Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and he has chosen you. Thus says the

17:04

Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.

17:10

I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages, that you may say to the prisoners, go forth, to those who are in darkness, show yourselves.

17:26

They shall feed along the roads, and their pastors shall be on all desolate heights.

17:31

So there are several passages just in that one text that get quoted in the New Testament, and to a man the apostles say, this is

17:39

Jesus. Sometimes Jesus himself quotes from this passage about himself, and so what we read is, okay,

17:45

God has this special servant. Now, it's helpful to read Isaiah 49 by beginning in Isaiah 40, and then reading all the way through, like,

17:53

Isaiah 55. Don't have time for that in this podcast, but it's a glorious read.

17:59

Now, you are a listener half -time, so go read it. You do, indeed, it's good, good stuff. Daily reading.

18:04

What we see here is a special, this is a special servant of God, specially formed, and he said to me, you are my servant,

18:11

O Israel. Okay, all right, well, hi, Israel. You are God's servant. And why did he form you from the womb?

18:18

Verse five, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him. What, you're the servant named

18:25

Israel to gather Israel back to God, okay? So there's a man named

18:31

Israel, there's a nation named Israel. Where do we get that dynamic from? Because God deals with the king as he deals with the whole people.

18:39

So he stands in for everybody, all right? So God has already got that pattern established in the covenant he made with David, and it's a reflection of how he deals with all of humanity because of Adam.

18:51

And now we're looking at the Messiah here, and we're thinking about the last Adam, the second Adam to come.

18:56

So this servant, it's just too small a thing that the Messiah should be raised up just for Jacob, right?

19:03

So God did not send his son, the Messiah, just for Israel.

19:09

That was never the plan. He came as a light to the nations, all the nations.

19:15

So the ones who were close to Jerusalem and through the islands and the coastlands from afar off, everybody. And we see very clearly, this is exactly what

19:23

Jesus says. In verse eight, God says to his servant, I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people.

19:33

Jesus says, this is my blood of the new covenant. I give myself as the covenant.

19:40

And how big is this covenant? As a covenant to the people to restore the earth and to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages so that, as we read in another place, the knowledge, the glory of the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

19:59

So this is a huge deal, big covenant, a new creation, a new covenant, new creation.

20:08

Here it mentions him, Jesus, as the servant Israel. It also mentions

20:15

Jacob and Israel, bringing Jacob and Israel back. And he says, that's too small of a thing.

20:21

It's too small of a thing for you to bring back one nation. I'm going to have you bring back the earth, all the nations.

20:30

All the nations. All the nations, which makes me think of Psalm 2. Here he's given as a covenant, not just for one nation, but for the entire earth.

20:42

So if all of the nations are given to him, what is the responsibility of the nations?

20:48

What is their relationship to this person who is being given as a covenant for them?

20:54

So Jesus, all authority, amen, all, has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And that's everything, everywhere.

21:00

And so all the nations are to be discipled and taught that Jesus is king and they need to bow the knee.

21:06

And what does that mean? It means people. And people are farmers, people are soldiers, people are magistrates, anywhere, anyone, from the butcher to the king, it doesn't matter who you are.

21:19

Christ is the last Adam. He is king over everything. Everybody bowed the knee.

21:25

And Psalm 2 talks about that as well. This chapter, Isaiah 49, I just saw it. It was a cross -reference

21:30

I was not as familiar with, but it's cited in 2 Corinthians 2 where Paul is writing to a very

21:37

Gentile church. This is Isaiah. He's quoting Isaiah to a bunch of Gentiles.

21:44

And Paul is making this very appeal that you guys are getting ready to, when you bring in Psalm 2, backing up in chapter five, verse 20, therefore we,

21:53

Paul and his cronies, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God for our sake.

22:03

He made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

22:10

Working together with him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain for he says, this is the

22:17

Isaiah quote, in a favorable time I listened to you and a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time.

22:25

Behold, now is the day of salvation. This chapter is in the context of to Israel coming to save Jacob, but he's also supposed to be a light to the nations.

22:35

What better chapter to appeal to when Paul is talking, hey, we are ambassadors, we're imploring all of you, and he's talking to all of these people, all of this walks of life.

22:44

And this is Corinth. This is not some podunk backwater. This is an influential city.

22:50

And Paul, like Isaiah 49, is calling these people out. Now is the day. Right, and so when you read through a psalm like Psalm 2, it includes everybody.

23:00

There's the nations, there's all the different people who are making up those nations, and you go from the lesser to the greater.

23:07

So the kings and rulers are especially addressed because there are these representatives of the people, but everybody is told to kiss the sun.

23:15

Everyone is to find refuge in him. How blessed are all those who put their trust in him.

23:21

You want to be blessed and not cursed? Find your refuge in Christ. And that, I think, is the way that we should look at what is going on either in Russia and Ukraine and their conflict, or the conflict going on between Israel and Hamas in that region of the world.

23:40

It doesn't matter where we see chaos and violence and sin and warfare going on.

23:48

What is the answer? So in that vein, we know that there are those in all four areas that kiss the sun.

23:56

Do any of these nation states, are they instructed? Are they being wise? Are they paying homage to the sun?

24:04

No, if they will tell lies about the sun or they will just flat out deny him.

24:10

Israel is a secular state and those who are religious Jews don't believe that Jesus came as the

24:18

Messiah. The covenant that God made with them went away in 80, 70. It was obsolete and ready to pass away anyway,

24:25

Hebrew says, but the Palestinians or the Islamic radicals or in regular

24:31

Islam, all sorts of lies are told stretching back to Muhammad about who Jesus really is.

24:36

So they're not being instructed. They are not being wise and they're not serving Jesus who is the

24:43

Christ, the King of Kings. In Psalm 2, so he points to the sun and there's a reference,

24:51

I have today, I have begotten you in verse seven, but he specifically in verse eight says, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.

25:02

And he's talking about this King, his chosen King that he has set on Zion. I will give the nations as your inheritance, ask and I will give them to you.

25:12

Well, we have many nations today that are fighting each other and not kissing the sun and they're his inheritance.

25:21

What happens to them if they don't repent and they don't kiss the sun? It says there in the text, kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way.

25:32

Who perishes? The nations. The nations who don't kiss the sun perish in the way.

25:38

And this would be all the nations. And will we make distinctions today over who are the nations and who are the

25:44

Kings still, right? Because we may eventually have a nation that does without a King who doesn't as well because he will inherit the nations, right?

25:54

But not every King is gonna be a part of that either. All right, so we see the great multitude in Revelation 5 and 7.

26:02

The people, the nations, the tongues that are purchased by his blood gathered in innumerable multitude in praise and glory to him.

26:10

Now among them, there may be among them those who served as Kings and judges, okay?

26:16

But in Psalm 2, we see that those are not the same. There are the nations he's inherited but we see the influence of Kings and judges have over various nations.

26:26

They have a King over them because he's on a mountain and this mountain is taller than any other mountain. This is a mountain called

26:32

Mount Zion which we're told in Galatians 4 and Hebrews 12 is not a mountain that can be touched.

26:38

It's a heavenly mountain where Christ is reigning from the right hand of God. Our God is in the heavens.

26:45

He does whatever he pleases and Christ is his right hand mediator. So Christ is fully

26:50

God, has all the authority of God and reigns from heaven over all other Kings. So that's why all must submit to him.

26:57

Have instructions ever come down from a mountain that can't be touched? Yes, yes, that would be the

27:06

Mosaic Covenant which brings up a question, a clarifying question before we move on.

27:12

You had said that the old covenant has passed away and that has been done away with.

27:18

However, we had just gotten done reading in Galatians 3 how the promises to Abraham have been fulfilled.

27:26

So this hasn't just vaporized, that hasn't gone away. Can you draw that distinction with what has passed away and what has been fulfilled in Christ and if you need to draw in the analogy of mountains that should not be touched, please feel free and fire away.

27:44

Yeah, so the contrast there is in Hebrews 12 where it talks about the old covenant and a very effective centerpiece for thinking about the old covenant is

27:54

Mount Sinai and all the terror and so on. You weren't allowed to touch that mountain but in contrast there's Mount Zion, a mountain that cannot be touched because it's a spiritual mountain and therefore because it's a kingdom of heaven it cannot be shaken while everything else does get shaken.

28:09

So when we think about what has passed away versus what has been fulfilled, what did

28:14

Jesus say? In Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.

28:20

So when you read, and law and the prophets is a way of, it's in the New Testament, it's a way of kind of talking about the whole thing.

28:26

Remember that the Old Testament scriptures was called the Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi 'im, the Kethuvim, the law, the prophets and the writings.

28:33

And so sometimes you'll see the law being talked about as all of the Old Testament, all the Hebrew scriptures.

28:38

Sometimes law and the prophets stand for the whole thing and then sometimes Jesus actually says the law, the prophets and the writings. Now what does he say about that?

28:45

He doesn't say I've come to destroy the Old Testament. I do not come to destroy but to fulfill.

28:51

What does that mean? I hear the word abrogated thrown around a lot. That seems different than fulfill.

28:56

There's no good. Yeah. It's not been abrogated like it was tossed aside, it's thrown away.

29:04

There's all kinds of words I think that are just not helpful. What word is used in the scripture?

29:10

We don't have abrogated in the scripture. Like come on. Charles Spurgeon. Sorry, he was one of them.

29:17

Yeah. But I figured God knew what words would work best.

29:23

And what he said was I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. In other words, Christ comes to fulfill all of the

29:30

Old Testament, not just the Mosaic covenant, not just the Abrahamic covenant, not just parts of things, but all of it.

29:40

He came to fulfill it all. He didn't destroy it, he fulfilled it. It's end is not in Christ destroying it, it's end is in him fulfilling it.

29:51

Christ is the end of the law and righteousness for all who believe. Okay, Romans 10 .4. So Jesus says,

29:56

I do not think that I came to destroy the law. Why would they think that? Because he's about to say some things that sounds like he's against the law.

30:04

Right. But he's not. The law testified of him. He said, if you believe Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote of me.

30:10

So he says, I did not come to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

30:17

So what parts did he fulfill? All of it. There's perfect harmony between Old Testament and New Testament because Christ fulfills it.

30:24

And there's perfect discontinuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant because the

30:30

Old Covenant passes away because it's a lesser glory and it had its ministry of condemnation, but now

30:36

Christ has come and there's a better covenant. So there's perfect harmony in all scripture. Perfect harmony between Old and New Testament.

30:43

Perfect discontinuity between Old and New Covenant. You can't put new wine into old wineskins. That just doesn't work. So Jesus says,

30:49

I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. Notice he says in verse 18, for surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all was fulfilled.

30:59

This is Matthew 5, correct? Matthew 5, 18. That's right. Now this verse often gets read as, okay, scripture is never going to fail and God's word is going to be perfectly preserved until the end of human history.

31:11

And what a great truth that is. I don't think it's what this verse is talking about, right? Because in Isaiah, again, going back to Isaiah, God clearly states in Isaiah in a variety of prophecies that he's going to do away with heaven and earth and then he's going to build a new heaven and an earth all within history.

31:28

And that things are going to happen after he makes the new heaven and new earth and lays a new foundation and lays a whole new way of doing things and plants new seed and so on to make a new heaven and a new earth.

31:37

What is he talking about? He's talking about a new order of things. What is that? The doing away of the old and a coming of the new into the old covenant, here comes the new.

31:47

And he calls it a new creation in more than one place. So what is he saying? The law is going to be fulfilled by the coming about of a new heaven and a new earth.

31:57

The old heaven and old earth pass away, but don't worry, everything's going to be fulfilled. Not a single yod or seraph of the

32:06

Hebrew, none of that's going to fail, right? And what's he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament, talking about Hebrew caricatures and letters.

32:12

Now in verse 19, he says, whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

32:21

But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I'm not against the law and the prophets.

32:27

I'm not against these commandments that have been given. And if you break them and say, don't follow, don't think about these things, then you're going to be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

32:36

You're going to be in the kingdom of heaven, but you're going to be no count because you're against the word of God. You're against scripture and all scriptures inspired by God, breathed out by God, profitable for doctrine, teaching, reproof, correction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work.

32:49

So don't do away with the scriptures. Jesus is saying, I'm not doing away with the scriptures. You don't do away with the scriptures.

32:55

I've come to fulfill them. And that gives you an idea of how to follow them and how to teach them because Jesus is the one who fulfills them.

33:02

And to wrap it all up in verse 20, he says, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the

33:09

Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So you don't even get in. You don't even get in unless your righteousness is better than that of the scribes and Pharisees.

33:19

But if you are in because of Christ, obviously, because he's the one who fulfills, he's the fulfillment of the law unto righteousness for all who believe.

33:28

If you're in and you're like, I don't deal with that Old Testament stuff. Jesus says you're going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven.

33:34

But at least you're in because you're in me. How do we have a righteousness that is better than the scribes and Pharisees?

33:39

Jesus just told us he fulfills the law and the prophets. So we have, using

33:45

Galatians, we've shown that Genesis 12 and Genesis 22 matter to the

33:52

Christian because of who Christ is and what he has done. And then what you have just read says let's not completely disregard the

34:02

Old Testament because of who Christ is and what he has done in fulfilling the law.

34:08

So let's not make either error where he says, okay, we're saying that Genesis 12 is still in force in its own unique way without the fulfillment that Christ gives, but let's not also say, oh, everything's completely vaporized and let's ignore it either.

34:23

So let's not do that. We are looking, as you had referenced, Hebrews 12, we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

34:31

Christ is king. Christ is on Mount Zion. He is ruling from heaven above all of the kings of Psalm 2.

34:41

So who Christ is and what he has done, all of these kings have to either submit or they can rage against him.

34:51

And we see the results of those two, that binary choice. You either submit to the king of kings, regardless of where you may live or your nation, or he will be angry.

35:04

And what does Psalm 2 say? They will perish. So that leads to my question that I'm gonna have.

35:11

We're talking about Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament promises and fulfilling the law. And there's a lot of talk about blessings, but what about the cursings that we find in the

35:22

Old Testament, especially when it comes to that text that Chris read, blessings and cursings, and then the cursings of the

35:28

Old Covenant as well. Are those fulfilled in Christ as well as the promises?

35:34

Remember that the blessings and cursings were pronounced upon Israel, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Yes. They were pronounced upon Israel.

35:41

And so Jesus says, now I'm not destroying the law and the prophets, I'm fulfilling it. And we see that the scriptures call

35:49

Christ Israel, even down to out of Egypt, I've called my son. I mean, just everything that the New Testament says about Jesus, the

35:55

Old Testament said about Israel. And so what do we understand about the blessings and cursings then? Yeah. Well, the blessings and cursings are fulfilled in Christ.

36:02

He just said he fulfilled the law and the prophets. So what does that look like? It looks like that if you are in Christ, the curses that we deserve fell upon him.

36:10

And the blessings that we receive because of his merits, because he's a faithful son, faithful servant, faithful Israel, the blessings come to us because of his merits.

36:19

And what does that mean for the way that the world works? I mean, if there's a wicked pagan nation that defies

36:25

God and hates Jesus and persecutes Christians, what are we to think about the things that happen to them?

36:32

But when the typhoon hits them, do we say, oh, look, see, God is cursing them because they weren't faithful.

36:38

Well, so what was the promise? Oh, bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you, okay? And Christ is king of all the nations everywhere.

36:46

So he is free to use his rod to smash clay pots, and he is free to reign and to do whatever he sees fit in all of the world because it's all been given to him.

36:57

And he's gonna rule it so well, and he is going to defeat all of his enemies in his own good timing, in his own good way, and he's going to bring this program to a completion until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

37:09

And that's the promise. So I think sometimes people will look at the blessing, cursing, and will say, okay, this is operative and normative for any nation state, any political body today, so that if Canada does poorly, then cursings will be upon them.

37:26

If they do well, then blessings will be upon them. Or churches, if churches do well, blessings, churches do bad, cursings.

37:33

But what does the scripture say? That Christ fulfills all of that. So he bears our curse, he provides our blessing, he's also king, and he's free to reign.

37:43

And he will bring discipline, he will bring judgment, he will do as he sees fit. And if he is

37:49

Israel, then those who bless Christ will be blessed, and those who curse

37:54

Christ will be cursed. That's right. And if there are people that are set aside for judgment, it is

38:01

Israel, Christ, who pursues that holy war upon them. It is in any nation state today that has any right to any kind of holy war, because that belongs to Christ alone.

38:12

When you read in the Old Testament that God said, I will use my servant, Israel, to pursue judgment upon wicked pagan nations, and he did so, and they were his servant to fight against idolaters and to wipe them out.

38:27

That actually happened, okay? But that covenant with that Israel has now been fulfilled in Christ.

38:35

He is the fulfillment of it all. And who do we see that comes against nations today and brings judgment in the holy, offended, hot wrath of God, Jesus Christ does.

38:46

So it's type to anti -type. Yes. So I think that helps us to begin to look at the

38:53

Israel -Gaza conflict a little bit differently. Obviously, when we hear the word

38:59

Israel, as Christians and as Bible -loving Christians, our ears go up in a way that it didn't when it was

39:06

Russia and Ukraine. You know, we kind of, oh, hey, this is Israel, so it must be different. But we need to remember, biblically, what does that name refer to in the history of God's covenants and how

39:19

Jesus Christ, in Isaiah 49, he's the Israel who saves the tribes of Jacob, of whom many live in the nation -state of Israel today, and he also is there to save people on the coastlands, like the coastland of Gaza, right?

39:35

So he is the one who will save these people. He is the one who bears the rod, and he is the one who brings the peace.

39:44

Yes. Yeah, Zechariah 9 .10, it says, in the horse of Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off.

39:51

He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

39:58

Now, there is a lot of other questions to be asked, and they are about, and I think this is good, because they'll be about specific scripture passages.

40:06

What about this promise? What about that promise? And I think all of those could be talked about, and need to be.

40:12

But we have to define terms first, and for everybody in this room, we think that the scriptures from Genesis, through Isaiah, and up through Matthew and Galatians, the ones we just talked about, clearly show, using the

40:28

New Testament to interpret the Old, and later revelation, interpret earlier revelation, even the later prophets interpreting the law, we see

40:36

Christ is the fulfillment of Israel. Christ is

40:42

Israel. Amen. The true Israel. We got an amen corner over here from Andrew.

40:49

It's very Baptist of us. Oh, yes, it is. It is. Well, I think that about wraps up this discussion on this specific topic today, answering the question of who is

40:58

Israel, and believing so that it is Christ Jesus. So we'll move on to what we have to recommend for content for this week.

41:07

Chris, would you like to start us off? The book of Isaiah. Just read that.

41:12

So 40 through 55, right? Yes, specifically, yeah. Homework. Homework.

41:18

I really do recommend it. It was eye -opening to me to see the

41:25

Bible talk about Israel as a person, and what that person would do.

41:31

The promises that were made to Israel, and then you see, oh, the seed.

41:38

The promises are made to that seed. So everything else that follows, the discussions about the current nation called

41:47

Israel, all of that is wrapped up in what was God doing with those promises of the old covenant and the promises of the new covenant.

41:56

So yeah, I would highly recommend reading those chapters from Isaiah. I'm reading a book right now.

42:02

It's called The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation by Daniel G.

42:09

Hummel. I don't really think that the historian's writing from a confessional perspective at all, but he's done his homework, and you get to read about primary source material about how dispensationalism was formed and how it came across the pond, so to speak, and the form it took when it took root in America and in the post -Civil

42:27

War era and all the things that shaped it the way it is. And it's really helpful insight to see how this movement began and then how it progressed and changed over the years.

42:40

And it's very helpful because there's not a Christian believer in America today that has not been impacted in some fashion by this particular movement.

42:50

So it's very informative. Does he mention Rockefeller having ties to Schofield at all? Yes. Does he really?

42:55

Really? He has a full section in this book about the funding of dispensational teaching and how the financials that are behind the spread of dispensational teaching.

43:07

I need that just for that chapter then. I need that just for that chapter. All right, David. This was a book that was given to me years ago.

43:15

I pulled it off my shelf, and I'd forgotten that he had written on the inside cover.

43:21

This was early on in my Christian walk, and I admit I did not understand what

43:26

I was reading. And I have thumbed through it over the years, and it has now become much more, it's been much more useful.

43:35

I just wasn't ready to read it. Abraham's Four Seats by John Reisinger. This is a biblical examination of the presuppositions of covenant theology and dispensationalism.

43:45

It's a third way. It's not a middle way, it's a third way. It's a short read, and I am thankful to Jeff for giving me that book so many years ago, and I wish

43:56

I had maintained contact with you so I could thank you for putting that in my hands, because it's been so useful.

44:04

It's been becoming more useful over the years because I see other books that I'm reading now cite this one.

44:11

I went, oh, that's what he meant. So it's been helpful. So there it is.

44:16

Abraham's Four Seats, John Reisinger. Andrew. Pass. Not today? Come on, man. I'm barely staying afloat in calculus, so.

44:25

So your recommendation is not calculus. It's clearly not calculus. We read books because, or listen to content because it's conveying some type of useful information.

44:39

To me right now, that's university studies and mathematics, and there will be a point in time where all of this, all the reading that you're doing is being used as an instrument for future things.

44:54

I thank God for the future things that are gonna be coming through this, but right now, getting through this material is difficult.

45:01

And so, yeah. But like I said previously, I am still reading things. It's just like, the content is a whole lot less now.

45:09

Different mode, different way of going about things right now. Exactly. Well, my recommendation today is another podcast.

45:16

It's called Don't Quill the Messenger. It's done by a producer, an ex -actor, a play actor of Shakespearean theater, and he examines the

45:25

Shakespearean authorship question on who actually wrote the plays and the poems and the sonnets that are attributed to one

45:34

William Shakespeare. But it's fascinating because he brings on scholars from all sorts and walks of life, from judges to lawyers to forensic analysts to other playwrights, other actors, and other producers to get their perspective on the authorship question and why it wasn't the one who we believe was

45:53

William Shakespeare. But he definitely has an interesting interview every single time. It's not from a

45:59

Christian perspective at all, but it is very entertaining and it's very valuable. Try and mine the depths of another rabbit hole, and it's fun.

46:08

So what are we thankful for this week, Chris? I'm thankful to Sunnyside Church. I'm thankful for the faithfulness of the people here.

46:15

Congregation and elders and the deacons. I am grateful for the people who love the

46:22

Bible and want to know what it has to say about every aspect of life. There's not an area where something is taboo, where Christ is king over all of it, and it's looked at in that fashion.

46:36

I'm very grateful to you guys as part of Sunnyside and what we get to do in just being in God's word, reading it, learning from it, and to just be around people who are like -minded in that fashion.

46:51

I'm so grateful to God for bringing me here, and yeah, I'm thankful.

46:57

Amen. Michael? I'm thankful for my dad and some of the things he taught me. He taught me how to handle a dog, but how to take command.

47:06

He taught me what to expect in the life of a pastor. He taught me the value of persistence.

47:15

He challenged me and didn't let me stay where I wanted to be, and he did a lot of things behind the scenes that I never really found out about to make sure that everything went well, kind of playing that role of even if I wasn't there, he was doing things that he knew would make it easier on me.

47:32

I'm thankful for his continuance, even though he's retired from the pastorate, how he's continuing to minister at Heritage Baptist Church, and also he's going down to a small church,

47:44

I'm trying to remember the name of it, and helping lead music at a small church down south of Norman, down in Purcell, I think.

47:50

I help lead music there about twice a week, just trying to help a young pastor out, and he's just still serving, and I'm thankful for that, thankful for the way he cared for my mom to the very end, and how he's just continued on, so thankful for my dad.

48:05

Amen. David? I am thankful for this group of men that I get to work with, and study with, and be challenged by.

48:14

I get a lot of free time in my job, and there's a lot of dead time, and knowing that I have to come prepared, knowing that, it's just, well, what are they gonna ask me, what

48:26

I read this week? It's helpful, it's a level of accountability that I desperately need, and I haven't been to a

48:35

Sunday service in months, because I'm working every single weekend, and in November, I get to be home every

48:45

Sunday, not every Saturday. That is much enjoicing. But yeah,

48:51

I will finally get to come to a Sunday morning, and worship, and be in Sunday school class, and not have to listen to recordings, which

49:01

I listen to, it's good, I mean, we're making a recording right now, but nothing beats being there in person.

49:08

Not the same. Not the same. So I am thankful for this group. It has been a lifeline for me, and I'm thankful that I'll be able to get back to Sundays here in another week or so.

49:20

Andrew? After reading, or discussing this topic, and looking at Genesis 12, and just being reminded that the nations would receive blessing through this seed,

49:31

I am just so thankful, grateful to God, for his faithful son, through whom I get blessings, graciously that I don't deserve, that he would consider us brothers and sisters, and children of his own that God has given him.

49:47

It's almost too much to handle sometimes, and so this discussion between who Israel is, if there's one thing that I know that every single person who listens to this podcast says, in faithfulness to Christ, is just complete adoration for the faithful son, through whom we receive all the blessing.

50:05

Amen to that. Amen to that. I'm thankful to God for my wife, who has been an extension of myself in the home, outside of the home, ever since we've been wed.

50:16

We're gonna be coming up on five years in November, so we're so overjoyed by that, because that's a show of the

50:24

Lord's faithfulness through five years, five extremely wonderful and extremely chaotic years, especially in the life of young parents who are trying to have as many as we can, because we love them so much, and we know they're a blessing from the

50:40

Lord, but she has been faithful and steadfast as the Lord has made her, and never batting an eye at her duties, never batting an eye at her role to love and respect me as she has, and I'm so very thankful for her, and that she was the one that the

50:57

Lord brought to me, instead of allowing me to have my way, all along the way, it would have been disastrous, but the

51:04

Lord has made something so wonderful in bringing us together, and it's his doing. And that wraps it up for today.

51:10

We are very thankful for our listeners, and hope you will join us again, as we meet to answer common questions and objections with Have You Not Read?