Israel Gods Banner to the World — Lance Lambert

I would like you to turn with me this evening to the prophecy of Zephaniah. I'm going to read a few verses from the third chapter, from verse 8. Zephaniah, chapter 3, from verse 8. Therefore wait ye for me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey.

For my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger. For all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

For then will I turn to the peoples of pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.

In that day shalt thou not be put to shame for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me. For then I will take away out of the midst of thee thy proudly exulting ones, and thou shalt no more be haughty in my holy mountain.

But I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall take refuge in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.

For they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy.

The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not fear evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not? O Zion, let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save.

He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them the sorrow for the solemn assembly who were of thee, to whom the burden upon her was a reproach.

Behold, at that time I will deal with all them that afflict thee, and I will save that which is lame, and gather that which was driven away. And I will make them a praise and a name whose shame hath been in all the earth.

At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you, for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth. When I bring back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.

Just a further word of prayer. Father, this has been a long and wonderful day, but we need you this evening, and we need that quickening of your Holy Spirit, that anointing which has been so dearly won for us through the finished work of our Lord Jesus.

Now by faith we stand into it for my speaking and for our hearing, that this time, Lord, will be a meeting with yourself, and that you will, Lord, write in our hearts your word. And we shall give to you all the praise and the glory.

In the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen. The matter that has been on my heart is entitled, it was the original title that I was given for this time, which opened up to me, I believe the Holy Spirit opened it up to me, Israel, God's banner to the world and to the church.

Israel as God’s Banner to the World and the Church

And a banner is not just something you wave. In the old days, a banner or a standard designated someone's presence or some thing that was being done. And I think it's exciting to think of Israel as a standard that reveals something the Lord is doing.

And as such, therefore, it becomes a means of attracting the attention of the world and attracting the attention of the church. So I'm just going to talk for a little while first about Israel as God's banner to the world and then finally about Israel as God's banner to the church.

A banner is something seen. It is something which is supposed to attract attention. And that is exactly what physical, literal Israel is on this earth and among the nations. She has always been God's banner, sometimes revealing the judgments of God, sometimes revealing the displeasure of God.

And at this time, she reveals the activity of God in bringing back a people scattered to the ends of the earth back to their ancient homeland. From ninety-two different countries at least, they have returned against overwhelming odds to the very portion of territory in which the nation was originally born.

That territory that God promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to their seed throughout all their generations. That is, whilst there is a physical seed of Abraham on this earth, a physical seed of Abraham through Isaac, not Ishmael, through Jacob, not Esau, that covenant God made with Abraham and his seed still stands.

And because it stands, God has drawn back this scattered, despised, and devalued people from the ends of the earth back to that little portion of territory we call Israel. That little portion of Israel that is called the holy land or the promised land.

And in his very drawing back of the physical seed of Abraham back to this territory, God has constituted them a banner, a standard, if you like, by which the nations may know certain things. What are those things?

The Authority and Power of God’s Word

Firstly, God's word is authoritative, accurate, relevant, and powerful. There is nothing else on the face of this earth like the word of God. Shakespeare may be marvellous. He may be genius. He may have been able to put into a phrase a whole world of human experience, but I have never found a word of Shakespeare able to deliver an alcoholic or deliver a drug addict or heal a broken marriage or save a human soul.

But God's word is supreme. It is in another dimension, quite obviously, because it is the word of God. And because when God speaks, he doesn't use language loosely. He doesn't use it cheaply. He doesn't use it, as it were, without meaning.

He uses words carefully. Therefore, because it is God's word, it is authoritative. I do not believe for a single moment that God's word is adulterated by human contribution. In other words, it's partly God's word and partly man's word, all mixed up into one, which only our very clever theologians are able to distinguish.

What is man's word and what is God's word? Where does that leave you and me? How can we tell what is God's word and what is not God's word? God's word is God's word. And it is interesting, when you look at Israel, that there you see God's word, the authority of God's word, actually being fulfilled.

It is not just an exaggerated word. It's not just a word that's got all other kinds of things that have somehow or other crept in over the course of time, but it is God's word. I think, for instance, of so many things, and I want to go on and just say God's word is accurate because it is God's word.

It is obvious. If man has managed to get something into it, then it can be inaccurate. But if it is God's word, it has to be accurate. And when I think of something like the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 2 and 3, in that day Jerusalem shall be a cup of reeling, that is, a goblet of wine into which has been secretly introduced a drug, to all the peoples round about.

I think, how could anyone have said that all those thousands of years ago, and it has waited to this day and generation for its fulfillment? Let me say again, he said, in that day Jerusalem shall be a goblet of wine, a cup of reeling to all the peoples round about, that is, all the neighbors of Israel will somehow act as if they are insensible, drugged, drunk.

They have been somehow or other poisoned by what they have drunk of this cup called Jerusalem. In other words, anyone who messes with the divine destiny of Jerusalem will find it renders them insensible.

It destroys their economies. It paralyzes them, and when we look at our neighbors, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, all our neighbors, Egypt, all of them, one after the other, they have for forty-five or more years been rendered insensible and paralyzed by this conflict with Israel.

This deliberate intention of our neighbors to play with the destiny and future of Jerusalem. They believe that Jerusalem is an Islamic city, and that it must remain an Islamic city. God has said that there would come a day when Jerusalem would return to the Jewish people.

Even Jesus said it. He said, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down underfoot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. We have lived to see it. But then, Zechariah says something else, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it.

But, my dear friends, how could anyone understand such a prophecy a hundred years ago? Why would the nations of the earth be gathered together against Jerusalem? What would they be gathered together against Jerusalem for?

What would they gain? There was nothing in Jerusalem a hundred years ago. It was a little village town buried in the Judean hill country of thirty-eight thousand inhabitants, half ruined, living on past glory, capital of nothing.

What in the world would anyone want Jerusalem for? There were no diamond mines there, no gold mines there, no oil there, no coal there, no natural gas there, a lot of hot air. But I mean, a lot, I mean, what in the world would they all want?

But Zechariah said two thousand, four hundred, five hundred years ago there would come a day when all the nations of the earth would be gathered against Jerusalem. When Jerusalem, its status, its future, its destiny would be a hot potato for all the nations, they would not know what to do with it.

And we have lived to see it, more accurately predicted in the word of God than tomorrow morning's newspaper. It's all there. I say this is a banner, Israel is a banner to the whole unsaved world, the Islamic world, the capitalist world, the humanist world, the religious world, the secular world, if you like, even if we can so describe it today, the Marxist world, what there is left of it.

Here is God's word, and Israel is a standard that manifests the simple fact that the God of Israel is very much alive, and the word of the God of Israel is authoritative and accurate. I could go on if you wanted me.

Prophecy Fulfilled in Israel’s Restoration

I could, for instance, quote from the prophecy of Isaiah and chapter sixty-one and verse five and six, where it speaks about, they shall build the old waste places, the desolations of many generations.

Well my dear friends, when they say that was fulfilled in the return from Babylon, what are they talking about? Because we know that it was only one or two generations at the most. But if it has been fulfilled in our day and generation, it is indeed the desolation, the devastation of many generations.

But even more interesting, it goes on to say, and strangers shall stand and feed your flock and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine dressers. Now when they tell us that that was fulfilled in the return from Babylon, it makes mockery of the word of God.

You all know, you're all good Bible students, you all know that Nezra and Nehemiah spent half their time divorcing foreign wives and foreign husbands and chasing out of the work of God Samaritans who were only half Jews.

So where did all these foreigners stand and feed the flocks in the return from Babylon? When did these strangers, these foreigners, these aliens become vine dressers and plowmen? It wasn't certainly not in the return from Babylon, but today all over Israel, in every kibbutz, in every moshav, you will find Gentile young people and older people helping.

And what are they doing? They're helping in the building up of Israel. They are vine dressers and plowmen and looking after cattle, looking after turkeys, looking after chicken houses, and I don't know what else.

Picking the oranges, picking the lemons, picking the grapefruit, picking the cotton. It's amazing. It has actually come to pass. Now I say that's a banner. That means God's Word is authoritative and accurate.

When God says something, it may have been 2 ,600 years ago or 2 ,400 years ago, He doesn't play with the words. He means exactly what He says, which means, and this is not what I should be telling you, and now I should keep it for a few moments later when I talk about Israel as God's banner to the church.

It means that if God says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, you will be saved if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it does mean this, that He is able to save to the uttermost all those that draw near unto God by Him.

He can save to the uttermost. God doesn't exaggerate. He means it precisely what He says. He uses human language as a vehicle to say something. Now my dear friends, I could go on and on on this, but you can see we're going to be here till tomorrow morning if I do, because I could take you on to Isaiah 49 and that wonderful, and these shall come from the north, and these from the east, and these from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.

You have never, as some of you have heard me say, you've never heard a message on these from the land of Sinim. Why? Because nobody can spiritualize it. That's why. They can't get a spiritual message out of this little phrase, these from the land of Sinim.

Sinim in modern Hebrew means the Chinese people. So it means, and these from the land of the Chinese. You say, but there are not Chinese Jews. Oh yes, there are. Oh, you say, I've never heard of it. Well, that doesn't mean anything, just because you haven't heard about it.

There's a lot of things about Israel people don't know, especially in the church. They're very ignorant when it comes to it. But from the 6th century onwards, there have been many Jewish settlers in mainland China.

And we know from the 11th century, one of the most beautiful synagogues in the whole world was a Chinese synagogue in Kaifeng, the city of Kaifeng in Henan, in north central China, which was built in the traditional Chinese style.

It was swept away in a huge flood at the end of the last century. But the fact remains that there was a synagogue large enough to hold a big community, because there was a big community in that part of China of Jews in the 11th century.

Now I'm talking about the time of Marco Polo, if that means anything to you. And I think you all know that in the Second World War, the Japanese under Nazi pressure brought all the Jews from Korea, Japan, China mainland, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and hold them all up in the ghetto in Shanghai.

My great uncle was one of them. That's why I know the whole story. And at the end of that war, there were 30 ,000 in that ghetto, and they did not know where to go or what to do. And when Israel was declared a sovereign state in 1948, the majority of the 30 ,000 came back to Israel.

And what seems to be a useless, irrelevant little phrase in Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 12 got fulfilled in our day and generation. It waited for all these years to be fulfilled, and finally was fulfilled.

That is the accuracy of God's Word. But I could go on about this. I could say it is relevant. Yes, of course, it's relevant. That's why the Apostle Peter, writing to believers in our Lord Jesus, those who'd been saved through the work of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, said,.

And we have the word of prophecy made more sure,. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,. As unto a lamp shining in a dark place,. Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Why did he say we have the word of prophecy made more sure?

Because he had witnessed the fulfillment of a whole number of outstanding prophecies concerning the birth, the life, the ministry, the calling, and the work of the Lord Jesus, His resurrection and His ascension.

So he said, we have the word of prophecy made more sure, because we have been eyewitnesses of its fulfillment. My dear friends, do you realize what that means? That you and I, little you and little me, living in 1992, have the word of prophecy made even more sure.

Because we are the eyewitnesses of a whole number more of prophecies that have been literally fulfilled in our day and generation. We have seen the Jewish people being brought back from the ends of the earth, back to little Israel.

We have seen that little nation embattled for 44 years in 6 wars, 4 of which should have been her destruction. We have seen her not only preserved, but we have seen her triumph in war after war. We have seen the ecology of Israel restored.

We have seen its fertility recreated. We have seen its cities rebuilt and re-inhabited. These are the things we with our own eyes have seen, precisely as Ezekiel said it would be, precisely as Jeremiah said it would be, precisely as Isaiah said it would be.

The Living and Active Word of God

Now my dear friends, do you begin to understand how marvellous this is? When I think also of the fact it is not only relevant, some people think that God only did things in the days of Jericho and the Red Sea, as if then God was young and virile, and somehow or other He was able to use muscle power to part the Red Sea and somehow bring the walls of Jericho down.

What He did in the time of Jesus, when Jesus was on earth, is what He cannot do now that Jesus is in heaven. My dear friends, this is stupidity. To bring down the walls of Jericho doesn't mean a thing to God.

He doesn't have to get up steam. He doesn't have to exercise for a whole month, do aerobics or something else in order to bring down the wall. One single syllable from His mouth and the walls of Jericho fall flat.

One word from the Lord and the Red Sea is parted. One word from God and He can do anything. Not a word of God ever falls to the ground. Nothing is impossible with God. Now my dear friends, I want just to say on this matter also that it is powerful.

I love this because I've already made reference to it, but you see in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, we are told the Word of God is living and active. What a wonderful description, living and active.

That is, it is alive and it is creative. Within the very Word of God is all the power to bring about its fulfillment. By the Word of God, the heavens and the earth were made. It says it a thousand times in the Bible.

By the Word of God, He parted the heavens from the earth with an atmosphere. And all these things remain, by the Word of God, stored up to a baptism of fire. The earth has had its baptism of water. It is waiting for its baptism of fire yet to come.

But my dear friends, how wonderful it is that everything God has ever done, He has done through His Word. And it was as if heaven touched earth and I walked on air until I realized, as Bob Mumford says, I thought that I'd been crucified with Christ and that I was now dead.

And I found that I had not died, I'd only fainted. But then when the Lord revealed to me, when the Lord revealed to me that when Christ was crucified, I was crucified, and that I could live that kind of life, which was to lose my self-life for His sake and the Gospel's, and thus find it unto life eternal.

The Church as the Body of the Messiah

My friends, it was as if heaven touched earth. And I remember the time when I first saw what the church was. Oh, it blew my mind. I walked in a daze for a whole week. I couldn't explain to anybody what had happened, except the Lord had revealed to me what the church was.

And it was the most amazing thing from that moment on was I was done with all this institutional, traditional, crystallized business that people call churches. I knew what the church was. It was the body of the Messiah.

It was a living organism. It was being in union with Him. Oh, it blew my mind. I can't explain it. I can't explain it. When I first saw what Israel was and the purpose of God, it blew my mind again. Because I had no time for Israel.

I only thought the church was Israel. Naturally, how can you think any other when the Lord gives you such a revelation? Expels everything else. But then when He showed me how Israel was related to the church, and how in the end the two things will come together, then it blew my mind.

My dear friends, I have to keep on saying to myself, Lance, you're not married. You're only engaged. From glory to glory. That's all I can describe it as. From glory to glory. I can't... And then I think, well, what is it going to be like when we're married?

Can you imagine it? We'll all have to take tranquilizers or something spiritually. I mean, how are we going to put up with it? It'll be so amazing. As Dennis Clark always used to say, May the Lord bless you as much as you can take.

If He gave us all His blessing at once, we'd be in a mental home, wouldn't we? Some of us can't do anything practical already. Can you imagine what it would be like if He gave us revelation after revelation after revelation?

Too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use, as they used to say. Well, now, my dear friends, come back to this. Do you really believe the Lord is looking for a bride that is a Hollywood beauty? She's one of these gorgeous things outwardly and inwardly, not a thing between ear and ear.

But that's how some Christians put over this whole thing. Oh, the Lord doesn't want you to think. He doesn't want you to use your will for Him or your mind for Him or anything else for Him. Because all He wants you to be is just a channel that's all empty-headed.

He just wants you to sit there and look beautiful. And everyone says, oh, isn't she beautiful? Of course, it is true every now and again we meet someone like that. And when she opens her mouth, we suddenly realize there's something missing.

Do you really think that the Lord is looking for a bride like that, that He has to say, now, shut up. Not a word. You just sit there on the throne and look pretty. You put that crown on and you look lovely and let everyone admire you.

But don't you say a word or try to do a thing because you're as empty-headed as they come. You're imbecilic. Nevertheless, I've saved you. You're a trophy of my grace. My dear friends, why do you think the Bible talks about going on with the Lord, reaching out for what is before, pressing on toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?

Why does it warn us that there's such a lot to lose? Not our salvation, but how much there is to lose if we don't go on. We have to grow up. You cannot marry a baby. You cannot marry a little child. You can't even really marry an adolescent.

There has to be a certain minimal maturity before there is a genuine marriage. And that's the Lord's problem. And if only the church would wake up to Israel as the banner of God to her, they would see what God is doing with Israel means the time is short.

And if you and I want to be in the marriage supper of the Lamb, if we want to be with the Lord as His bride, then we need to put things right in our lives. We need to let Him do the work in us that He longs to do, and which often we won't let Him do.

Israel, the Church, and the Olive Tree

My dear friends, this true church of God began with the Jews, and it will end with the Jews. If I understand my Bible right in Romans 11, in those amazing revelations that the Apostle Paul communicated to us by the Spirit of God, he says that the root bears you Gentiles, saved by the grace of God.

Your wild olive branches grafted by God-given living faith into the good olive tree. But, he says, don't forget there will come a day when the natural branches will be grafted into their own olive. Here we are to that day.

How much we should pray for it. How much we should allow the Spirit of God to conceive, travel in us for this to be fulfilled. If anyone has a problem on this thing, I can only turn you to Hebrews chapter 11.

And going right back to the beginning, the Apostle, whoever is the writer to the Hebrews, goes right the way through all those who by faith are in this great train, and then he ends up with these marvellous words, which I have no doubt most of you must, if not all of you, have noted in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 39,.

And these all, having had witness born to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Did you get it?

That means we're all of one. Isn't it amazing? That means that all those great saints that are mentioned here, and many that are not mentioned, but are still in the great line of faith, succession of faith and salvation, you and I are part of it.

That's why he goes on,. Therefore let us, also seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

So, my dear friends, you understand what I mean about having a problem with such a subject as this. Isn't it amazing to think that here you are in 1992, and by the grace of God, he's put you into this tremendous movement of his Spirit, that goes right back to Abraham, the father of all who believe.

So you, many of you, are wild olive branches, by God-given faith grafted into the good olive tree, but there are all the natural branches. Thank God many of them are being grafted back into the tree today, and many more to come.

God’s Covenant Faithfulness and the Call to Maturity

So, dear friends, think of it like this. Let me move on quickly. God is absolutely faithful to his Word and his purpose. He keeps the covenants he makes. He has kept them with the seed of Abraham, and he will keep the covenant he has made with you.

It is a wonderful thing to think that God's covenant purpose for you is to make you like the Lord Jesus. Now, if you know yourself, you must understand it is an impossibility. I know myself, and I think every day, how in the world is he going to make me like the Lord Jesus?

I am so different to the Lord Jesus. Well, I won't go into it, but I know how different I am to the Lord Jesus, and yet the purpose of God is to conform me to the same likeness. You know, the Lord is absolutely faithful to his covenant.

He has saved you with an uttermost salvation. He has given to you grace which abounds. He has given to you power which is unbelievable. Dear friends, you can never blame the fact that you will not come to God's end on God.

Nor can you blame your family, or your friends, or your ministers, or whoever else, or PFI, or something else. Just let me tell you, there's only one person who is responsible if you don't come to the end that God has in mind for you, and that is you.

For all the grace is available to you, and all the power is available to you, if you and I would only take it. Well, you see, a time has gone. But I have to tell you too, that an apostasy is coming. And apostasy is apostasy.

Don't try to think of it as some form of escapism, that we're all going to be taken. I believe in a rapture, but I do not believe in a rapture which is a form of escapism. You and I have to face the issues, or in the presence of the Lord we will face those issues.

Better to face those issues with the Lord now. We have to face them and hear His question as to why we would not allow Him to do in us what He wanted to do. Dear friends, I fear very greatly for the Church in Britain, as I fear for the Church in the United States and Canada and much else of the world.

And I am not just talking about the institutional and the denominational and the systematized. I'm talking about that which we call the evangelical, or charismatic, that which is alive, that which is Bible-believing.

Spiritual Readiness and Obedience

My dear friends, I feel sick at times. I have been in meetings where the Bible is not even open, where we have basically soliloquies, messages, without a simple exposition of a single word in the Scripture.

Even sometimes in our worship. Thank God for this worship team and their sensitivity to the Spirit of God. But I've been in places where it's just so crass. That's the only word for it. And where what we sing is so superficial.

I understand the Lord when He said, I will vomit you out of my mouth. And He will use persecution to do it. When the tide turns, you and I need to face one simple thing. Only be safe if you obey the Lord.

But if you obey the Lord, all the power of God's election and all the power of God's Holy Spirit is behind you. You will not fail. As surely as an old salmon gets back to the very pool in which it was born and spawned.

As surely as a swift and a swallow flies over 10 ,000, 15 ,000 miles back to the very spot where it was born. So you will reach the throne of God. You have within you a homing instinct in the Holy Spirit.

A homing life. It's stronger than anything else. So my dear friend, that's really the burden of what I wanted to say this evening. The paramount need if you understand Israel as God's banner to the church is to be ready.

Don't think that by just loving Israel or having a knowledge of Israel truth, that makes you ready. Readiness is a question of spiritual character. Spiritual character doesn't fall on you overnight. It has to be developed by deep experiences, costly experiences and obedience to the Lord.

That's why we need to wake up and that's why we need to let the Holy Spirit begin to do a real work in every one of our lives. Then in the days that lie ahead, there will be nothing to be ashamed of. Whatever lies ahead, we can trust the Lord for it.

He has not saved you to leave you in the end. He hasn't gone to all this trouble to be born in Bethlehem and to live for 33 years on this earth and to die on the cross that you might somehow or other be deceived, deluded in the final phase of world history.

Israel’s Future and Offering Ourselves to God

No, my dear friend. He's going to save you to the uttermost. But he needs your cooperation and your obedience. May the Lord help us. My dear folks, there's nothing more thrilling than what God is doing in the world today.

What he is doing with Israel is so exciting and whatever may lie immediately ahead of us, we do know one thing, God is going to bring her through. And in the same manner in which he will bring through a people even at present unsaved, how much more will he bring through those who are saved by his grace and born of his Spirit.

May we offer ourselves afresh to him, a whole body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. May the Lord do it for us all.