Israel and The Nations

[00:00:00] It is always a joy for me to be able to speak to Pfi. [00:00:09] I find that the most valuable contribution one can make to the work of God and the fulfillment of God's purpose is to speak to intercessors, and I mean real intercessors, genuine intercessors. This word has been unfortunately devalued now, like the term born again has been devalued. [00:00:39] But it is always a joy. I'd like to turn you to one or two scriptures. First of all, in the second book of Samuel and chapter seven, just two verses, the words of King David, verse 23 and 24. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem unto himself for a people, and to make him a name, and to do great things for you, and terrible things for thy land before thy people, whom thou redeemest to thee out of Egypt from the nations and their gods. And thou didst establish to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever. And thou Lord, becamest their God. [00:01:36] And then in psalm the 147th psalm, psalm 147 and verse 20, he hath not dealt so with any nation. [00:01:57] And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Hallelujah. [00:02:05] And then I would like to read the second psalm, psalm two. [00:02:12] Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his messiah, saying, let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us. [00:02:34] He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh, the Lord will have them in derision. [00:02:43] Then will he speak unto them in his wrath. [00:02:47] Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. [00:02:54] I will tell of the decree. The Lord said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel. [00:03:20] Now therefore be wise, o ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry. And ye perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. [00:03:42] Blessed are all they that take refuge in him. [00:03:51] Lord, thank you for the anointing which is ours in our Lord. Jesus made such a living reality. In the person of the Holy Spirit we commit both the speaking of your word and the hearing of your word to you, Lord, we want to recognize that without you we can do nothing. Just words, just truths, just doctrine. [00:04:17] But when your anointing grace and power is here, something is done in our lives. [00:04:26] Lord, hear us. We shall be careful to give you all the praise and all the glory for answering this, our prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus. [00:04:44] The title that was given for this morning's session was Israel and the nations. And I thought quite a lot about it. Of course, you've heard something about Ethiopia, you've heard something about Poland, and of course there are many other countries that you could hear about. What is happening with the jewish people there. It is amazing to me, the over a million russian speaking Jews and their relatives that have returned to Israel. It is simply amazing. I always say to people, you know, every sabbath I hear Russian all around my home and they are rather large people and they sit on my flowers. I'm afraid to say I'm not always very happy about that side, but I remind myself that it is a fulfillment of the word of God. [00:05:40] And of course, it is the same with the Spanish now. Now we begin to hear Spanish everywhere. We've even got a chance channel now in Spanish. I find it very interesting that suddenly the spanish speaking Jews are coming home. [00:05:55] Well, it is amazing to live in these days. They are trying days. They are difficult days. There are days that find us out, find whether we have roots, whether we have foundations. But they are also incredibly exciting days. [00:06:14] Israel and the nations, you're here, I imagine, most of you, because you pray for Israel, but there may be those here also. [00:06:23] You wonder why there is all this conflict over Israel, why there's controversy even within evangelicals and in the church itself. There seems to be such conflict, controversy over this little nation occupying a postage stamp of territory in the world with a tiny population of six and a half million people. It seems out of all proportion, the conflict, the fact that the United nations is always meeting and passing resolutions upon this tiny little nation in a tiny spot of territory. It is all the more remarkable when you remember that Zechariah, 2600 years or thereabouts ago, said that this would happen, that the nations would come against Jerusalem and that it would be a goblet of wine into which the Lord himself had introduced a poison. Anybody who drank it wrongly would become insensible. It's exactly what is happening. They're all insensible. [00:07:39] I mean, they don't think they're insensible. Of course they think they've got a lot of common sense with this two state solution, and I don't know what else, but as far as God is concerned, they are plain stupid because they do not recognize his word and they do not recognize the validity of his covenants, and they do not recognize his purpose. [00:08:09] It is a tremendous day that we are living in. [00:08:15] Zechariah said that this controversy over Jerusalem and over Israel would basically continue until the Lord's feet stand again upon the dust of the Mount of Olives. [00:08:33] That day it will be over and peace will finally come to the Middle east. [00:08:43] What an amazing word, David said. I sometimes think he saw more clearly than many evangelical christians what one nation is like thy people, even like Israel. [00:09:05] I find it quite amazing because everything about Israel is unique. [00:09:12] She stands alone, apart from the rest of the nation. Of course, she is like any other nation. That's the problem. [00:09:28] She is like any other nation. She is disobedient, stubborn, stiff necked. [00:09:35] There's pornography, there are prostitutes, there are pimps, there are narcotics, there's dishonesty, there's corruption. [00:09:47] She looks like. Oops, sorry, she looks like any other nation, but she is not. [00:09:57] There is a dimension to the nation of Israel that no other nation on the face of the earth has. [00:10:08] And it is that spiritual dimension, I would call it. It is that divine dimension that marks out this people and this nation above any other nation. Now, I'm not talking about the church. If I was asked to speak about the church, I would speak about the church. And I would speak about the church, and I mean by that, not this institutional or traditional thing or denominational thing, but I would talk about the true church of God, which is the body of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Now, if I was asked to speak about the church, I would tell you the same thing. It's unique. There is nothing about the church which is like any other community. Of course, christians have tried to reduce it so that it looks like any other community with all their paraphernalia, fundraising techniques, training into tech methods, five steps to this, three steps to that, four steps to this and everything else. I mean, the way we elect officers, the way we have membership and all the rest of it is just like a bird watching club or a stamp collecting club. If I was to ask to speak about the church, I would speak about the church. She is unique, or she is meant to be unique. What other people in the whole world are joined to a head who is at the right hand of God? That makes the church absolutely unique. [00:11:46] What other people at the same time are in heavenly places and on earth now answer that one. [00:11:58] No other people has this privilege, and I've not been asked to talk about the church. [00:12:06] I really feel sometimes I ought to, because it is the misunderstanding of the nature of the church, its uniqueness, its apartness, its separateness, its sanctification, to use the old word, that is the key to its impact and its power and to the expression of the Lord Jesus upon the face of this earth. But come back to Israel. [00:12:43] We are talking about a nation and nations. [00:12:47] There is something amazing about Israel in the book of Exodus, almost at the very beginning, in fact, before she was born as a nation, God said to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say, let my son, my firstborn, go. [00:13:12] The Lord never spoke of any other people on the face of this earth, however extraordinary. And there are some very extraordinary people. I mean, nations. The British always did think they occupied a very special position as far as the kingdom of God is concerned. To be british was to be like the Lord Jesus. I mean, you had to have that phlegmatic level kind of character, and that was sanctification. [00:13:45] Anyone who would jump up in the seat and shout, hallelujah, that was us. Something absolutely. Let the Holy Spirit get there. That ironed out. [00:13:55] I better stand back from this thing. [00:13:59] Ironed out. You know what I mean? And of course, I have to tell you, I think the Irish are even more remarkable. [00:14:07] Someone sent me, and I shouldn't tell you this, someone sent me a little thing. A few months ago, God created whiskey so that the Irish could not rule the world. [00:14:29] The Chinese are incredible. [00:14:34] I could say a lot about the Chinese, but God never called any other ethnic group my firstborn. [00:14:52] And it is also remarkable that in a prophecy of Jeremiah, one of the most remarkable, especially for us in the day in which we live, the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. [00:15:07] And in it he says, praise ye the Lord, for the Jacob, for the chief of the nations, or in Hebrew, the head of the nations. What an extraordinary position that this nation occupies. I say that that is quite remarkable. And you see, I got to really thinking before the Lord in what does this uniqueness of this nation, not only in her ancient history, not only in her terrible, a bloody dispersion over so many years, but in her present modern history, what is it that is so unique? [00:16:19] And the first thing I would underline is that Israel is unique amongst the nations because of election. [00:16:33] What is it that makes Israel and the jewish people so unique? [00:16:40] Not intelligence, of course. I always think that the jewish people have probably above average intelligence and certainly above average shrewdness, but so are the JapaneSE, incredibly SHARP. The Japanese and the Chinese. [00:17:08] It's not for nothing that the Chinese have called the Jews of Asia. [00:17:16] But thats not what makes the Jewish people unique. [00:17:24] What makes the Jewish people of Israel unique is that God chose her. [00:17:36] He chose no other nation. [00:17:39] He chose Abraham. [00:17:42] And in choosing AbrahAm, he chose the seed of AbrahAm. [00:17:47] And again, if I were to talk about the ChuRch, I would talk about the spiritual seed of Abraham. But I'm not going to. [00:17:54] We'll keep to this subject. The fact of the matter is that God chose Israel. Now, in DeutERonoMy, and I think it's chapter seven and verse eight, we read this wonderful word. It says, but why did the Lord choose you? Let me from verse seven. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which ye swear unto your fathers. Hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt? [00:18:40] The Lord loveth you. And the amazing thing about the election of the Lord is that it is rooted in the love of God. But we cannot explain it. Why did the Lord love this people? These people that are in many ways so difficult, so restless? [00:19:09] Why did he choose them? I say it, and many of you have heard me say it before. [00:19:15] Can you explain love? Can you put love under a magnifying glass and really analyze it? You cannot do it. [00:19:28] Love is love. [00:19:30] People fall in love with someone else, and it puzzles one completely. What in the world world do they see? I see some of the oddest couples in the world, and they are incredibly in love. [00:19:45] I mean, we know a lot of people fall out of love, but I'm talking about those that stay in love. And you wonder, what is it that they see in one another, and yet they're bound to one another. [00:19:57] You cannot explain love. [00:20:00] Moses, by the spirit of God, said, but because the Lord loveth you. That's why he chose you. Not because you were brilliant, not because he knew you were going to be righteous, not because he knew you were going to be devoted. But he chose you because he loved you. [00:20:19] That is the only explanation for the preservation of this nation. [00:20:26] Wherever you look, there is no other explanation for the fact that the jewish people are not only still here, but very much alive. Not only very much alive. They are the focal point of enormous controversy, conflict and war. Who would have thought such a thing could happen so small a people in such a small territory. Why all this conflict? There must be something more to it. And there is. And that is the key to the whole conflict. [00:21:04] Because God chose them, because he loved them, the enemy hates them and will do everything in his power to liquidate them and eliminate them. [00:21:22] It is something tremendous, this uniqueness. But I must move on. [00:21:29] If someone says to me, oh yes, that's very, very interesting what you say, but that election has now been transferred to the church. You see, I think God only. [00:21:38] They were the stepping stone, the jewish people. Perfectly true. They were an agency, they were an instrument. In one sense, you could say they were a stepping stone to something else. [00:21:51] But in your New Testament, in the greatest exposition of the Gospel in the Bible, in the roman letter of the Apostle Paul and chapter eleven, this is what the apostle writes by the Holy Spirit. He says, as touching the Gospel, they are enemies. They, the jewish people are enemies for your sake. But as touching the elections, his choice, they are not. They were. They are beloved for the patriarchy, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. [00:22:36] Now that is a tremendous fact. [00:22:40] Think about it for the moment. What is the apostle Paul saying? He is saying that. That the election of this nation still stands and their gifts and their calling have not been shelved and have not been revoked or cancelled. [00:22:59] If that is the case, it explains everything. It explains the hatred of spiritual principalities and powers that will follow this people to the end of time to seek to destroy them. [00:23:17] It also explains the recreation of the jewish state in 1948. It explains so much wealth that I must curb myself. [00:23:32] It's not only that Israel is unique amongst the nations because of election. Israel is unique amongst the nations because of her history. [00:23:45] I love deuteronomy. Chapter four. Let me just read these wonderful verses to you. Chapter 32, not 32. Sorry, just wait. 32 to 34. [00:24:02] I don't know if I've got that right. [00:24:06] Anyway, what it says is what people ever heard God speak out of heaven and what people ever saw the mountain on fire and his presence there. Now I say that. You mean that is absolutely. Has any nation ever had an experience like that? No nation that makes Israel absolutely unique. [00:24:42] It doesnt matter where you turn in this, its tremendous. Simply because the Lord is in it. Let me read verse seven and eight. For what great nation is there that hath a God nigh to them as the Lord our God is whensoever ye call upon him? And what great nation is it that had statutes and ordinances as righteous as all this law which I set before you, I think that that makes Israel unique, quite unique in every way. And then again, I have to say, no nation in the history of the world has twice been exiled from its national territory and twice regathered to it. [00:25:35] The first time, you all know, 50 years exile, 70 years captivity in Babylon, so many miles east of the holy land. But the second exile for 2000 years, nearly 2000 years into every single nation on the face of the earth from the far north to the far south, from the far east to the far west, this nation had been dispersed for some 2000 years. No other nation on the face of the earth has a history like this. Is it coincidence? If it is coincident, it is the most remarkable coincidence in history. [00:26:23] It almost requires more faith to believe that it is a coincidence than it is to plainly believe that this is gods hand in history. If I take Jerusalem, how amazing it is Jerusalem. God chose Jerusalem. She is an extraordinary city. [00:26:45] I mean, no one would choose her in their right mind, not as a capital city. It had no water within its walls, no sort of spring of water within its walls. It had no natural harbor, no great navigable river. It wasn't on the coast where you could have another harbor. It wasn't even on great crossroads. I mean, it was on crossroads. But I consider those crossroads, camel tracks. I mean, they really weren't great crossroads. [00:27:16] Even the Viamoris didn't come to Jerusalem. The great ancient trade route of the world from Egypt going to Babylon and to Asia Minor, it didn't come anywhere near Jerusalem. It was about 50 miles to the west. I mean, it is extraordinary. Even the king's highway that came up from Yemen now right the way up through Saudi Arabia and to Jordan didn't come to Jerusalem. It was about 60, 70 miles east. I mean, this is extraordinary. God chose this city. Why? That's the key to Jerusalem. God chose her. [00:28:03] And he said, I will cause my name to dwell there. Have you ever heard of such a phrase? How can you cause your name to dwell in something? [00:28:12] Isn't that extraordinary? I will put my name there, he says, in one place in deuteronomy twelve and a little further on, I will cause my name to dwell there. It's almost as if God chose Jerusalem over against Babylon. Babylon represents the whole rest of the world. [00:28:30] Every capital in the world is represented by Babylon. But Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God and the salvation of God and the word of God and the messiah of God. It represents another world. It represents God over against fallen man. I say this history makes Jerusalem quite. [00:28:57] Makes Israel quite unique and indeed makes Jerusalem also. It gives us an understanding of Jerusalem. [00:29:06] Isn't this amazing? Do you remember that psalm that says glorious things? Things of glory are spoken of thee, o city of God? Do you remember where it says, when the Lord wipes up the nations, he will say, this one and that one was born in her? [00:29:26] Not just physical. It says, even if they were born in Babylon or Philistia or Tyre or somewhere else, if they've been born again, their birth is registered in Jerusalem, which means all of you are registered in that Jerusalem which is above. You were once born in Babylon. Thank God you have been re registered. [00:29:56] You are now. You have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's dear son. [00:30:06] Well, again, I have to curb myself. But think for the moment, this history, this incredible, incredible history of Israel. He's a history of warfare and battle. Why? Why had the nations always battled over this little nation in this little postage stamp of territory? What an amazing word the Lord gave to Jeremiah when, in the midst of destruction and death, when all seemed to be lost, this man who'd been so faithful to the Lord and through the years had been so 100% devoted to the word of God and to the truth, this man heard the Lord say to him about Israel, you are my battle axe. [00:31:04] And with you will I destroy nations, and with you will I destroy, destroy kingdoms. And then it goes on all to all the other things. It's in Jeremiah 51 from verse 19 and 20 and onwards. You read it yourself. I mean, it is an amazing thing. What the Lord will say was, when this was a backsliding nation, how could she be a battle axe? Here was a nation pulverized in exile. How could she be a battle axe? These great nations around her were superpowers of. But God said, I will use you to destroy them. And it is exactly what happened in the feast belshazzar. When you remember, the writing appeared on the wall and nobody could interpret it. And the king, the emperor, the sultan said, is there nobody who can tell us what this hand has written on the wall? And the old queen mother said, there is a man. [00:32:07] He was your father, counselor and adviser. [00:32:13] And in him is the spirit of the God. His name is Daniel. And they brought Daniel in, and Daniel with enormous courage. He was an old, old man. He could have lost his life easily, but perhaps he could. He was so old, it didn't really matter. It had enough of it all. I don't know. But he said, he said, you have brought the vessels, the holy vessels of the temple of God, into this place. And you're drinking from them. You and your family and all these potent tents and nobles, they're all drinking from them. Let me tell you. God says that you have been judged and found wanted. [00:32:55] This night, the kingdom is taken from you and given to another. It was the exact fulfillment of this crushed, exiled little nation, so small compared with Babylon and her magnificence. [00:33:11] She, God used her to break the power of Babylon. And all through history, God has used this little people and this little nation, this nation amongst the nations. So like other nations, to smash other nations. It doesn't matter whether it is Persia or the hellenic kingdom or the Roman Empire. [00:33:31] And I include, of course, the Lord Jesus in this. I mean, obviously. [00:33:38] And so it will be. Now the British Empire's gone. The Ottoman Empire went before it, the soviet empire has gone. They all meddled with this little nation and this city of Jerusalem in this little piece of territory, I mean, and they've all gone. And now it is the United States and the European Union. [00:34:13] My dear friends, Israel is unique because of her history. [00:34:22] Then Israel is unique, in my estimation, because of her divine destiny. [00:34:33] Has the church taken her place? [00:34:41] Good question, isn't it? [00:34:43] Has the church taken her place? [00:34:48] I believe the church is the spiritual flowering and fulfillment of Israel in one sense, but she has not taken her place. [00:35:03] Every gentile believer who's been saved has been introduced into that purpose of God which began with Abraham and has not been yet completed. [00:35:20] I find this then tremendous, this whole thing. If I were to go on, I could go on. Is it really so that she has a divine destiny? Yes, I say she has a divine destiny. For listen to this, others have you ignorant of this mystery, this secret, lest you be wise in your own conceit, that are hardening in part to the befallen Israel until the full number of the Gentiles become in. And so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer. He shall turn away ungodliness in Jacob. And this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. This is something future. This was written at the very point when Jerusalem was falling, when everything, as it were, was falling to pieces, when the greatest exile of the jewish people was about to begin. And the apostle, by the spirit of God says, dont be bamboozled. Dont be, as it were, deceived. I dont want you to be ignorant of this secret, that God has a purpose for this people. He said, when the full number of the gentiles have come in. Come into what? [00:36:45] Come in. Come into what? [00:36:50] Do you see? [00:36:52] The emphasis is on the other foot. It's not that the christian Jews come into the Christians. It's rather that the believers amongst the Gentiles have come into that original purpose of God. [00:37:08] Paul speaks of it in Romans eleven as the olive tree and speaks of the natural branches being laid on one side. [00:37:20] The natural branch is being laid on one side. And then he says, you, wild olive branches, you have by the grace of God and to the gift of living faith, you have been grafted in country to nature. [00:37:37] I have 27 olive trees, of which the larger number are grafted into a wild olive root. That's the right way. [00:37:47] You've got the natural grafted into the wild olive root. No one's ever heard of grafting wild olives into a good olive tree. But just think what God has done with you, some of you more wild than others. But, I mean, the fact of the matter is he has taken hold of you and brought you into something so amazing that our kings are more your kings than our kings, and our prophets are more your prophets than our prophets, and the covenants are yours and not ours. And it seems as if somehow you are so, so lost in the fathomless fullness of God, in the Messiah, so lost in the unsearchable riches of the Messiah, that you've almost excluded us, as if we are nothing. [00:38:43] But the word of God says that God blinded them, hardened them, cast them away, made them enemies of the gospel with a purpose. What was the purpose? To bring you in. [00:39:01] And more than that, to use you to provoke the Jews to jealousy. [00:39:09] Well, most of our church meetings wouldn't provoke anyone to jealousy. [00:39:16] I mean, our meetings are so boring when I was telling them in Ireland, because, you know, in Ireland they've got such an enormous sense of humor. So I naturally take to them like a doctor walker. I mean, I was saying to them, we had a history teacher at school. His name was Crowther, if I remember. Very aristocratic man indeed, from a very, very good family. And he was a marvelous history teacher. He instilled in me a love of history that has never left me, which is unusual because most people had boring history teachings. We affectionately called Mister Crowther. Crowbar. [00:39:53] That was our affectionate term for him. And I always remember him. He came up to me and said, my dear boy, you're not going to be a missionary, are you? [00:40:03] And I said, yes, I believe that God has called me to China. [00:40:09] Oh, he said, you'll never make it. [00:40:14] Why? I said, you've got far too much humor. He said, they'll kill you. He said, they'll kill you. He said, they're the most humorless lot I have ever seen. [00:40:29] The Christian. [00:40:31] Well, I have to say, I won't say that all christians are humorless, but I have to say an awful lot of them are. [00:40:39] They dress in black and they look heavy and they only believe they're enjoying Lord, when they're miserable. And you know the kind of thing. It's so sad anyway, that's by the way. But the Lord said instead he would save the gentiles and give them all those unsearchable riches and all that fullness and all that magnificent salvation and redemption to provoke the jewish people to jealousy. In other words, he still has a destiny for them, he still has a purpose for them. That's the amazing thing. And so he goes on to what I've already quoted, he says, as touching the gospel, they're enemies for your sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for, the patriarchs say, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And then he says a marvelous thing. He says, as they were disobedient, and through their disobedience, mercy was shown to you gentiles. Now by the mercy shown to you gentiles, they also will experience mercy. For God has shut up all to sin that he might have mercy upon the world. [00:41:57] Oh, hi. I can't. I can't. I know some people have got all these wonderful charts about the thousand years and the millennium and everything else. And I think it's wonderful, of course, except you have to take certain scriptures and sort of fiddle with them to get them into their sort of scheme. [00:42:16] I've never yet found a scheme that is completely spontaneously laid back, if you know what I mean, where everything fits beautifully. I know it fits for some people, but I sometimes think they don't think. [00:42:31] But what I do know is this, that there is coming a day when God will save the jewish people. And when that day comes, you know, those irish people do that dance, it'll be nothing. The angels will do that kind of footwork all over the halls of heaven. It'll be a banquet of ball such as has never been seen in the whole of history. When finally the circle of redemption is closed and the natural branches are back in their olive tree. Now, dear friends, if what I'm saying is right, there's one other thing. What's the time? Now I must watch myself yes, I nearly all have to finish. But this is a wonderful thing. Listen to this. [00:43:19] If all this is unique. Yes, and it is. [00:43:23] It is also unique because the jewish people, for the purpose of God, he had a purpose. [00:43:31] When you read Romans chapter nine, verses four and five, and you read what belongs to Israel, it is amazing that you come into all of that. Promises of God. Think of the promises of God. So many promises of God. All yours in the Messiah. Yes. Through him are men, every one of them. [00:43:54] They came to us. [00:43:57] That's not being superior. I should be stating a fact. [00:44:01] And then the covenants. Oh, well, you say the mosaic covenant's over. Yes, of course it is. [00:44:09] That in one sense is obsolete, but not the abrahamic covenant and not the davidic covenant. They're still operative. But even more amazing is the new and eternal covenant, the new and eternal covenant which was given to us. [00:44:30] Ezekiel said, I will make a covenant with the house of Israel. [00:44:35] It's a new. And the amazing thing is that only a remnant came into it and all the gentiles have come in and now they think it's a covenant that is theirs and not ours. [00:44:49] Well, what can we say? [00:44:53] What about the Messiah, born of a jewish mother in a jewish home, had his Brit mila at eight days as all jewish boy, his bar mitzvah when he was 13. [00:45:15] What can you say about the Messiah? [00:45:19] It is no wonder that the Messiah said, salvation is of the Jews. [00:45:27] How can any Christian speak about the jewish people? [00:45:35] Even if many are dark, how can they speak about them sometimes in the way they do? I had an old norwegian lady. She was such a wonderful old saint. [00:45:52] She once turned to me. She said, I hope I don't upset you. She said, I have a feeling, she said, that the Jews either go to the top or they go to the bottom. [00:46:08] It's absolutely true. [00:46:16] Well, I say I must finish, but isn't this a mark? Isn't this amazing? You know that psalm two I read to you? You know, the psalm two is not only a messianic psalm, it's a prophetic psalm. It's a divine window into the heart of history. [00:46:36] In this little psalm, everything is explained. [00:46:42] The nations in foment, tumultuously gathering together, almost riotously coming together, imagining a vain thing, as if theyre all centered on futility. Isnt it amazing? Emptiness, vanity. [00:47:02] Theyre kings and their rulers, thats all. The great of these nations set themselves against the Lord and against his messiah. And they speak of his word, his truth, as bonds, as cords, bonds to be cast away oh, my goodness me. [00:47:33] At least I'm getting some nice emphasis on these things. [00:47:40] You know, it. Isn't it amazing when you think about it, though, just to let it sink in? I mean, it is amazing. We are living in a world now in which globalized society is in the process of throwing away what they call bonds. That's biblical principles. [00:48:02] Whether it's to do with marriage, to do with the family, whether it is to do with euthanasia, whether it is to do with abortion, everything is being thrown away because they are formulating a new pattern for society. Exactly what psalm two says, as if the forces of darkness, darkness immobilizing everything within their power for a final, last attempt to destroy the purpose of God. [00:48:37] And the key to it is the Lord says to the Messiah, ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the outermost parts of the earth for thy possession. So that's the key. The key to this conflict is that from every nation and every tongue and every ethnic group, every race will come, men and women, redeemed through the blood of the Messiah. [00:49:09] And in the end, the earth will be the Lord's fully. At present, he only calls one little place his land. [00:49:20] My land, he calls it. That's that little postage stamp of territory in the Middle east. They're going to divide it. Oh, well, they're on a collision course with God. I leave it to him to deal with that one. But isn't it interesting, this, this, this word of the Lord? [00:49:44] Paul understood it. [00:49:48] He said, a hardening part of befallen Israel by divine degree, if you read the other previous chapters. [00:49:58] And then he goes on and says, until the full number of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel will be saved. [00:50:11] That's where you are. That's where I am. We are in an amazing period of history when God has recreated the statehood of this nation, planted it amongst the nations, and all of them are in foment over it. [00:50:36] And what does the Lord say? [00:50:39] He says, I will laugh. [00:50:44] I love him. [00:50:46] I absolutely love him. [00:50:50] So the Lord laughs. [00:50:54] He says, I will laugh. [00:50:58] I will hold them in derision. [00:51:04] Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. [00:51:10] Where is the messiah? [00:51:14] Where is our Lord Jesus? At the right hand of the majesty on high, with all authority and power in his hands, not only in heaven, but but on this fallen earth, the same yesterday, today and forever. [00:51:40] So it is the purpose of God for the Messiah that lies at the root of this whole thing. [00:51:49] Well, I don't know whether you would have preferred to have lived in the beginning of this age or in the middle of this age, or at least a few centuries ago in the victorian era or now, but I think it's very, very thrilling. [00:52:11] Well, Anthony, is it any wonder that the Lord says to the Messiah, sit thou at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet? [00:52:27] Is that any wonder? [00:52:30] He doesn't have to do anything. Now, dear friends, this is what I want to close with. Listen, listen, those of your intercessors. [00:52:39] This battle is the Lord's battle. It is not yours that you are involved. There is no doubt about it. But supremely, essentially, this battle is the Lord's battle. Don't fear about this multitude that's coming against us. [00:53:01] This battle is not yours. It is the Lord's. [00:53:07] Then this is two chronicles 2015. And then verse 17. [00:53:17] You will not need to fight in this battle. [00:53:21] Stand ye still. Actually, take up your position. [00:53:25] Set yourself, stand still and see the salvation of God with you. [00:53:37] This battle. You know, people are all excited about poor Eric Sharon and what he's doing, and the wadaul from Gaza and whether it's right or whether it's wrong, and backwards and forwards it goes. My dear friends, what else is the poor man to do if he doesn't have a living experience and relationship to the Lord Jesus? How else is he? He believes we've come. The very survival of Israel is at stake, and the only thing to do, common sense tells him, is to withdraw and contract in order to save as much as we can. He said recently, no leaders in the western world are with us, not one, not even President Bush, who has said many good things about Israel when it comes to the actual thing of the land. [00:54:29] He does not see that this land belongs in its entirety to the jewish people. [00:54:39] What else is such a leader to do? Being a patriarchal figure and a top military type, that compounds the whole thing, because they always believe they're right and that they are having to forge something ahead that everybody else has to suffer. But they will see in the end that it was right. [00:55:02] I'm not worried about it. Look here, this is God's business. [00:55:09] The Lord's on the field. [00:55:15] It is possible as an intercessor to get neurotic, what I call spiritually neurotic. You can get all agitated as if everything depends upon you and as if you've got to almost kill yourself with fasting. I'm not against fasting, but you know what I'm saying? I mean, sort of everything depends on me. I've got to do it. If I don't, the whole purpose of God will collapse. [00:55:45] Dear child of God, God is well able to do it without you. [00:55:51] And in fact he can do it more easily without you. [00:55:56] This is a very humbling thing for all of us who are servants of God, that the Lord can do things much more easily without us than with us. But he has chosen to include us. [00:56:07] Don't ask me why, but it is extraordinary that by so doing his introduction, a whole number of problems for every believer is a problem in some way or another. [00:56:22] Why does the Lord do it when he could do it apart from us in the most wonderful way? But he doesn't. He says, no, no, no, I want you to be in on this. Now listen, you don't have to get agitated or neurotic or fight, but you do need to take. Take your position. [00:56:41] How can you take your position if you dont know what the right position is? [00:56:47] Well, your right position is in the Lord. [00:56:50] Thats wonderful. In Christ, in the messiah. Thats your position. Take your position. Now. What is the will of God in Christ for this people? It is clear in romans eleven. [00:57:03] Now you can stand. [00:57:06] Stand still. What a way to win a battle. You don't go forward, you don't go back, you go side, you don't go up, you don't go down, you stand still. [00:57:15] That I think is amazing. [00:57:20] And see the salvation of the Lord with you. There's a wonderful verse in psalm 33, verse ten. The Lord brings to naught the council of the nations. Naught is naught, zero, zero. [00:57:34] He brings to nought. He's done it with the Oslo Accords. He's done it with the Geneva Accords. I think he's doing it now with the road map. [00:57:43] I know I should be very careful how I speak about the Lord, but the lord has something up his sleeve. [00:57:56] I know I shouldn't say this either. [00:57:59] All the cards are in his hands and he knows just when to play them. [00:58:12] The Lord is so wonderful. He upsets all the human apple carts. [00:58:19] Just when they think they've got it all tied up and done. [00:58:23] Its gone, finished. [00:58:27] This battle is the Lord's battle. [00:58:30] It is not your battle. Supremely, it is his battle. After all, he chose this nation. [00:58:38] And even in its unbelief and disobedience and sin, he still remains faithful to him. [00:58:48] It's his battle and he's going to win it. [00:58:56] The king is already there. Years ago, really finished. Now, years ago, I remember a brother coming in very depressed to the lord's table. He'd had a very bad time the day before. But then the lord met him and he stood up. [00:59:17] This is another story I shouldn't tell you, but before he was saved, he loved to gamble on horses. [00:59:25] And when he was very depressed, he went back home, found his kids watching something on sports. But it had gone to racing, and so he became more and more interested. And he heard the commentator saying, such and such a horse by such and such a name is winning. Now the other one's coming up behind it. [00:59:45] And they went breast by breast to the. To the. To the mark. And then there was complete confusion. He said, we have no idea which horses won. So they waited for the. Whatever it's called, the jockeys thing or whatever. I don't know what it is. I don't. Yeah, but. [01:00:05] But there came an announcement. [01:00:08] Such and such a horse has won by a nose. [01:00:15] His nose went over first. And the Lord said to dear Fred, you see, when the nose goes over, the tail has won. [01:00:32] So when the Lord is at the. Jesus is at the right hand of God. If I may say it reverently, the head has one and therefore the tail is one. [01:00:47] Praise the Lord.