Israel: Touchstone for The Church (1990)

[00:00:00] The following message, entitled Israel Touchstone for the church was given by Lance Lambert at the Christian Friends of Israel. Shiva wat 1990 celebration at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel on Monday 07:30 p.m. may 29, 1990. [00:00:18] I would like to turn you to a scripture in the Gospel of Luke, Luke's gospel and chapter two. [00:00:30] And I will read from verse 25, Luke's gospel, chapter two from verse 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. [00:00:50] And this man was righteous and fervent, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him and it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's messiah. [00:01:15] And he came in the spirit into the temple. [00:01:18] And when the parents brought in the child Jesus that they might do concerning him after the customs of the law, then he received him into his arms and blessed God and said, now let us thou thy servant, depart, Lord, according to thy word, in peace. [00:01:44] For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before the face of all peoples a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. [00:02:05] Some 2000 years ago, these wonderful words of this godly Jewish was spoken over the infant Jesus here in this city, in the temple which stood at that time. [00:02:25] And I've often thought to myself what a tragedy has befallen the church that she has understood the first part of what Simeon prophesied, a light to lighten the gentiles. [00:02:43] That has, for the most part, almost totally forgotten that he also said, and the glory of thy people Israel. [00:02:59] It is perfectly clear to me there is no kind of theological act that we can get into that can somehow make the Israel hear the church. [00:03:13] It is a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of the jewish people. [00:03:23] The jewish people may not have always understood that Jesus was their supreme glory, but there will come a day when it will be recognized throughout Israel and throughout the jewish people that the supreme glory of jewish history is in the person of the Messiah, Jesus. [00:03:53] I find this very wonderful because I was given a subject, Israel Touchstone for the church. [00:04:04] Now, I don't know how many of you know what a touchstone is. [00:04:09] I must say I was pretty ignorant. [00:04:13] A year or two ago I went to my jewelers in Athens. [00:04:18] I have a jeweller and being a jew, I like gold. [00:04:24] And I took along a piece of jewelry and I asked him whether it was gold. [00:04:37] And he opened a little drawer and took out a little stone and rubbed it and said, yes, it's gold. [00:04:48] And then he did something else and he said, and it's 18 carat. [00:04:56] I was of course naturally pleased, but the thing that interested me was his little bit of stone. And I said, and what's that? Oh, he said, this is a stone that we use to see if it's real gold. [00:05:14] That is a touchstone. [00:05:19] Now I dont know whether you realize that God has so ordained things that the jewish people are the touchstone for the church. [00:05:30] Actually God is using this whole question of Israel, its destiny, his purposes for it, his word concerning it, his prophetic word concerning it as a touchstone for the church to find out how genuine the church is. How genuine is its understanding of the word of God and the purposes of God. How genuine is its devotion to the Lord Jesus. [00:06:15] Now I take the word of God and I turn to the book of acts and the first chapter. [00:06:25] You remember when Jesus had been amongst the disciples and the apostles for some 40 days. [00:06:34] And then the time came for him to ascend. [00:06:40] And you will remember the words in acts, chapter one, verse six and seven. [00:06:46] They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority, but ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. And ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and unto the outermost parts of the earth. [00:07:29] Now there is a widely held interpretation of these words of the Lord Jesus, which I think is totally false. And it goes something like this. These poor disciples were still so nationalistic, so centered in their own race and in their own nation, that in spite of the Lord Jesus being with them, when he had explained all the glories of his kingdom and the wonders that were to come, still they could only ask him one question. What about us? [00:08:09] I've heard it again and again ever since I've been saved. This kind of interpretation. Well, you know, these poor benighted disciples, the Holy Spirit hadn't come upon them and therefore they didn't have spiritual understanding. And because they didn't have spiritual understanding, they were still centred upon their nation, upon their race, upon a narrow kind of earthly, physical thing. Poor, poor disciples. [00:08:39] I do not accept this interpretation at all. [00:08:46] First of all, I wonder why Jesus could not have settled this once and for all by saying to them, there is no question whatsoever of sovereignty ever again being restored to Israel. It is over. It belongs to the earth. It belongs to nationalism. It belongs to that which is past. It's all gone. It is the flesh. Now it is the age of the spirit. Now it is the age of the universal. He could have settled it all just like that. Then we wouldn't have all this problem, we wouldn't have all this confusion. But this is the way that the law, Jesus spoke. He said, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority. That doesnt sound to me at all like Jesus saying, no, there will never be a restored sovereignty to the jewish people. The kingdom will never come back to Israel. The king will never reign again in the jewish nations. What he was saying was, yes, there is a time, there is a season. It is all part of God's prophetic program, but only the Lord knows the exact time of its fulfillment. Your job is when the Holy Spirit is come upon you to take this good news concerning the kingdom of God through Jerusalem, through Judea, through Samaria, and to the outermost parts of the earth. [00:10:32] I find it very interesting that Jesus here in this same chapter, acts, chapter one, verse three, had appeared to them for the space of about 40 days, teaching them and instructing them concerning the kingdom of God. [00:10:50] Thats how I understand, therefore their question. He had said so much about the kingdom and so much not only about its spiritual character and its spiritual nature, but had spoken about it as being physically, in the end, on the earth and centered in Jerusalem and here in this land of Israel. [00:11:18] So much has he made this clear, that the one thing they said to me, Lord, note the words, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? In other words, how long have we got to wait for this lord? Are you going to do it now? Are you going to ascend to your father and almost immediately come back to set up this kingdom? Or have we millennia to wait? [00:11:53] I think it is, at least for me, very interesting to understand that Jesus had opened their understanding to the scriptures. Twice were told in Luke chapter 24, then opened he their understanding of the scriptures. And from these scriptures he revealed all the things concerning himself. It wasnt so much that he was talking about the kingdom as an it as a thing, but talking about himself as the center of that kingdom that was to come. Now, my dear friends, I believe, and this is the first thing I want to underline tonight, that the purpose of God is that a people for his name should be brought out of the gentiles. [00:12:51] That's one of the most glorious things. Of course, I don't need to tell all of you who have a gentile background, who have come to the Lord Jesus through his saving work and have, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit. I don't mean to tell you that God's purpose is to call out from every nation and tongue and kindred and people in the whole earth a people for his own name. [00:13:18] You know that you are the fruit of it. [00:13:22] Oh, that's what he meant when he said, but, but note it. He said, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority. But when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the outermost parts of the earth. My dear friends, this work of the Holy Spirit has been so successful in going to the outermost parts of the earth that there are millions of born again believers who have no idea that they are rooted in the jewish people. [00:14:07] They have no idea that their beginnings were in the jewish people, that all the original apostles were jewish, that all the original church leaders were jewish, that everyone within the early church jewish. I mean, I know I'm bringing Coles home to Newcastle, as they say in England in talking about this, but the fact of the matter is I need to underline it and emphasize it. Why? Because this is God's purpose, to bring out from all the nations a people for his name. And he's doing it, he's doing it by his spirit. Look at church history. Every time man has somehow other institutionalized, formalized, traditionalized, immunized and I don't know what else the church and it's died into some crystallized antique. [00:15:05] Then the Holy Spirit has once again fallen upon one or two or three or four. It's been another mini pentecostal look at the whole of church history, not only the Reformation, not only since the Reformation, but even before the Reformation, in some of the great movements of the spirit of God. All the way down until that day of the Reformation's dawn, it has been the Holy Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit coming upon men and women and putting within their hearts a burden to go out to the lost, to go out to the gentiles, to go out to the heathen and bring them into a saving knowledge of the God, of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, the God and the father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. [00:16:00] This has been God's glorious purpose. And when we come to the roman letter we find that the apostle argues first of all, in those first chapters about what is the status of a jew as well as a gentile without the law or with the law. And finally he begins to unveil the salvation of God. And then when he's unveiled the whole question of what it means to be justified in the sight of God by the death of the messiah on Calvary, then he goes on to the whole question of sin within our very members and how we can somehow or other be delivered from that man of flesh, that man of death, and finally speaks about the Holy Spirit. So many christian commentators say that romans chapter one to eight is really the theme of the apostle's burden. And then they say there is a parenthesis, as if because he was so brilliant, he had one of these ideas that suddenly came to him. Scatty, but nevertheless very interesting, but too mysterious and too deep for most christians to understand. And that we have in romans 910 and eleven. And then the apostle returns to his original theme in chapter twelve and verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies to God, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your divinely, your spiritually intelligent worship. [00:17:48] Apparently you don't have to bother your little heads about romans 910 and eleven. Leave it to the theologians. Well, now that even the theologians have made a mess of romans 910 and eleven, it's a very interesting thing. I have often said that the church is a mystery. It's called the mystery of Christ. [00:18:09] It's a mystery. It has to be revealed to us. But Israel is also a mystery. It also has to be revealed to us. And when we come to romans chapter 910 and eleven, we find first, the apostle argues, is everyone a jew? Who says he's a jew? [00:18:28] Is everyone only a jew who's circumcised? No, he says, there are those who are Jews in their heart. They are circumcised in their heart. Now it seems as if he's saying, don't bother about the jewish people. They're finished. God is finished with them. They've gone. And he goes on. He gets even more vehement as he goes on. In romans 910 to the beginning of chapter eleven, he has to ask himself a question. Has God cast off his people? He says he has been so vehement, so dogmatic, that it is naturally the question. Well, then God must have finished with the jewish people. He is now turning to the Gentiles. He's turning his back upon the jewish people. [00:19:15] But he says, God forbid, I am also an Israeli. [00:19:21] That's what he says. Of course, you've got it in your lovely King James version. I am an Israelite. [00:19:29] I don't know why it is, but some christians always think an Israelite's not an Israeli. But I mean. [00:19:35] And an Israeli is not an Israelite. As if there's something very special about an Israelite that belongs to something antique. And today the Israelis have nothing to do. My dear Francisco, this is a lot of nonsense. He said, I'm also an Israeli. He gives his tribe, he argues a bit longer. [00:19:56] He says, well, now, it's perfectly clear. Now listen to me carefully. It is perfectly clear. God has reserved a remnant to be the nucleus of the church, to be the embryo, if you like, out of which the whole church, this people, for his name, from amongst the Gentiles is going to come, and the rest he has heartened. [00:20:21] Now, that seems very strange to people in the 20th century. They say, oh, dear, that's very weird. There must be another explanation for this. I mean, God is a democrat, really. I mean, doesn't do that kind of thing. I mean. And then when he argues about Esau and Jacob, it seems very strange to modern ears. So that's why these chapters are so very little studied. [00:20:49] They present us with a whole series of problems. [00:20:57] But then he says, then did God trip them up, that they might fall? In other words, God was so fed up with them that he arranged a little obstacle so that they would trip and they might fall. [00:21:17] God forbid, he says, but by their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles. [00:21:28] In other words, the apostle doesn't try to explain it. How much was God in it? What was God doing? Only this. When they fell, salvation came not through the success of the jewish people, but through the fall of the jewish people to the ends of the earth. [00:21:49] Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. [00:22:00] Now, if we were to stop there, we might think, well, that's it. [00:22:06] There is no more. But then the apostle goes on, doesn't he? [00:22:11] He says, now, if their fall is the riches of the world and their loss the fall of whom the jewish people. The loss of whom the jewish people. If their fall is the riches of the world and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. [00:22:37] So if there is a fall and if there is a loss, there is a fullness. And will you please note, the apostle introduces their fall and their loss only in the light of their coming. [00:22:50] And it's not as if this is a one off thought of the apostle. Which is open to question, because in a few moments he returns to the same thing with renewed vigor. He says, now, if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be but life from the dead? [00:23:16] And then he starts to talk about, now look here, of all of you, you Gentiles, you've got saved gloriously. Don't think, even if you are an enormous number, don't think the tree is the branches. [00:23:38] The branches may extend all over the place, but just remember, you, branches, it is the root that carries you. [00:23:48] And then he speaks about natural branches and wild olive branches. And he speaks of the natural branches being laid on one side and the wild olive branches grafted in. He says, the natural branches are laid on one side. I like that word. Not burnt, not totally rejected, not forsaken, but laid on one side. [00:24:17] And the wild because of unbelief. And the wild olive branches are grafted in because of God given faith. And then he makes this amazing statement. I don't know if you're still with me, but this is how it goes. Now, if you, being a wild olive branch, was grafted contrary to nature into a good olive, how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree, just in case anyone tries to twist out of it? And I'm afraid I know a little bit about theological acrobatics in this way. [00:25:00] Here is what the apostle says, for I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, there shall come out of Zion a deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness in Jacob. And this is my covenant, which I will make with them in the day that I will take away their sins. [00:25:43] Just in case anyone hasn't understood what the apostle is saying, he goes on, as touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the they are beloved for the father's sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. [00:26:10] What does that mean? That the gifts of the jewish people and the calling of the jewish people are irrevocable. [00:26:23] According to God's predestinating counsel and grace, the jewish people are still beloved. [00:26:38] They are hardened, blinded, until the fullness of the gentiles become. [00:26:52] It doesnt mean that God is waiting for the last gentile to get saved. And then when the last gentiles got saved, he will turn to the jewish people. There will be an overlap. And my dear friends, I believe were in it. I believe were in it. No other generation has seen as many jewish people finding the Lord Jesus as the messiah and tasting the salvation of God through the finished work of that Messiah since the first century of the era than this generation. [00:27:28] Now, why did I say all that? [00:27:32] Because I want to lay a solid foundation for talking about Israel as the touchstone for the church. [00:27:43] You see, it is perfectly true to say that God has now given this good news concerning his salvation to all the peoples of the earth. That Jesus has been given as a light to lighten the gentiles. It has gone to the ends of the earth. There are people who name themselves with the name of the Messiah all over the earth. Thank God. Many of them are truly born of God. They are bearing the name of the Lord Jesus. [00:28:21] But, my dear friends, gods purpose for the jewish people and for Israel has not been canceled. [00:28:39] There is a fullness, there is a receiving. [00:28:45] There are natural branches which will be grafted back into their own olive tree. [00:28:51] There is an election. [00:28:54] There is a calling. [00:28:56] There are gifts yet to be fulfilled. [00:29:10] If that is so, then this little nation of three and a half million people buried here in a sea of Islam in the Middle east, amongst neighbors who hate us with an undying hatred, this little nation is the touchstone for the church. [00:29:41] Through this little nation, God is bringing out into the open all the hidden, motivating forces in christian leaders and Christianity, christian theology, dragging out into the open a venom that has been within the Gentile heart concerning the jewish people from the beginning. [00:30:16] There is an anthill. [00:30:18] Please note it. It's your bible and it is in the New Testament. [00:30:27] Just in case anybody considers the Old Testament a little suspect or feels maybe that it has all been fulfilled anyway in the coming of Jesus. I just have to underline one thing. There is an until. Listen to the until. [00:30:45] A hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles become in, and so all Israel shall be saved. [00:30:58] So there is an until. [00:31:01] There is an until. [00:31:04] God, in his enormous, abounding grace, has put a limit on this hardening in the jewish heart. [00:31:17] When God works, it will happen suddenly and with an enormous power, just as suddenly, unbeknownst, unpredicted by the majority, suddenly we see an enormous, enormous alia of russian Jews to Israel. Who would have ever believed it? Right in the midst of the worst form of problem we've had in the country called the intapada, when everything seemed impossible, when everybody was arguing, when Israel is more isolated than she's ever been, when she's alienated even from some of her dearest friends in the nation, such as the United States or Canada or Holland or Denmark or Norway. [00:32:07] Isn't it interesting that in the midst of this, suddenly something happens in Poland and it goes from Poland to Hungary and from Hungary to Bulgaria, and from Bulgaria it goes to East Germany, and from East Germany it goes to Czechoslovakia, and from Czechoslovakia it goes to Romania. And suddenly it all happens in a moment, in a moment, in exactly the same way. When God's time comes, you mark my words, the hardening in part which has befallen Israel will melt away like snow before the coming sun. As the sun's rays touch the snow, it will melt and melt and melt and melt. And suddenly a whole nation will wake up to its history, wake up to its messiah. [00:33:04] Praise the Lord. [00:33:08] Until God has put an until in this thing. Now, my dear friends, Jesus put it in his words. Now listen to these words. Your house is left unto you desolate. Never before had Jesus ever referred to the temple as your house. Oh, the christian sermons that have been preached on this one phrase, denouncing the whole jewish people, relegating them to an everlasting suffering and hell. [00:33:49] Your house is left unto you desolate. [00:33:55] But Jesus didn't end there. [00:33:58] You shall not see me henceforth. Oh, that seems to enforce it even more. Until you shall say, blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord. So there is an until. [00:34:20] Even Jesus said it. [00:34:23] Until. [00:34:25] Oh, my dear friends, I believe this is how Israel is the touch tone for the church. [00:34:34] There are those who believe that Israel is a political accident, that she has nothing whatsoever to do do with God's prophetic program, who say to us not just once or twice, but many, many times, yes, yes, God is going to convert Jews. At the end, they will become Anglicans or Lutherans or Methodists or Pentecostals or whatever. [00:35:06] They're going to all be saved, many of them, in the end, because, you know, they're going to see Jesus, you see? And when they see Jesus, they'll be as being automatically converted. [00:35:18] I can't accept that at all. [00:35:25] No, my dear friends, before that time comes when there will be a people here in the land who will say, baruch habab Hashem Adonai. [00:35:41] Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord. Welcome in the name of the lord. Before that day could be fulfilled. First there had to be a return of Jews to the land. [00:35:57] Then, in spite of all the opposition and antagonism and colonies and misinterpretations, and I don't know what else that has been heaped upon the head of those amazing first pioneers, then the land itself will blossom like a rose, as Ezekiel said, and ye are, o mountains of Israel. You shall shoot forth your branches for my people, Israel that are about to come. And it has. [00:36:30] We even know how many trees there were here at the end of the british mandate. The British, in their normal, methodical manner, had counted all the trees, 4,800,000. And if I had the accident, I could give you right down to the last tree. [00:36:47] Today there are 220 million trees. [00:36:52] The words of Ezekiel have literally come through the mountains, have shot forth their branches. The whole land, which was arid, waterless, malarial, swampland, it's become a land of orchards and fields and vineyards and forest. [00:37:14] And it has all happened in this century, my dear friends, all these ancient prophecies that are held up to ridicule by many christians. [00:37:32] Held up to ridicule in this sense, they say, no, these were all fulfilled in the return from Babylon. [00:37:40] These ancient prophecies are being fulfilled in our day because before the Lord could melt the hardening in part which has befallen Israel until there could be a people in this land who could say, welcome in the name of the Lord. [00:38:00] There had to be an aliyah to this land. There had to be not only 12345, there had to be even, God forgive us, a holocaust that became a dynamic to force the jewish people back to this land. [00:38:29] There had to be an anger in all the arab neighbors that forced the expulsion of all the Jews in arab countries around us. [00:38:42] My dear friends, it's come to pass. [00:38:52] There had to be a recreation of a jewish state. It happened on the 14 May, according to the roman calendar, on the 14 May 1948, when against all odds, against all the predictions of the experts of the world, military and economic and even political, the jewish Yeshuv pronounced and declared a jewish state sovereignty free and independent. It was sweet, was predicted there would be a bloodbath, a massacre. They would be just killed, swamped, overrun, liquidated. And what happened instead? In the war of independence, Israel came out on top, and 1 million arab young men, fully trained and fully, fully equipped in five arab armies fled before 80,000 ill equipped, untrained young men and women. [00:40:02] My dear friends, this is all happened in this century. This is the century of fulfillment as far as Israel is concerned because the purpose of God, to call out a people for his name from the gentiles, is coming to its conclusion. It's reaching its climax, reaching its fulfillment, though there's still much to be done. And God is beginning now to work the works that very few understand, to prepare the whole scenery for the greatest miracle of all, the redemption of the house of Israel, that recreation of the jewish state. I've often said, and now people say that I'm a right wing fanatic and all the rest of it, but I always say it was the divine cat amongst the satanic pigeons. [00:41:08] It has simply brought out the venom of our neighbors in a way that is unbelievable. [00:41:20] It is not flesh and blood. [00:41:23] I don't believe the Arabs do it simply because they're Arabs. [00:41:29] I believe there is a power of darkness in Islam that is motivating the arab nations and even now imposing itself upon the so called christian churches of the Middle east. [00:41:55] But I haven't finished. [00:41:57] Theres something else. Now listen to me. [00:42:02] On the 6th and 7 June 1967, Jerusalem came back to the jewish people according to the words of the Lord Jesus in Lukes Gospel, chapter 21 and verse 24, when he said, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So there's another until Jerusalem is the sign of the times of the Gentiles. Whilst Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles are operating. But the moment Jerusalem comes back to jewish sovereignty, to jewish government, becomes the capital, as it were, of a sovereign, independent jewish state, and remains so, the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. [00:43:09] And so, my dear friends, I find this quite amazing. Here is the Lord Jesus giving us a key, a program. He says, jerusalem all down through the years will be trodden down by the Gentiles. But there's an until. There will come a time when Jerusalem will no more be trodden down by non Jews, but will come back to the jewish people and remain in the hands of the jewish people. All this is part of this that God has to do before he can bring about the redemption of the house of Israel. [00:43:46] Now, I don't know whether you see what I'm saying, but what I'm trying to say is when people disparage, devalue, or just ignore these amazing prophetic fulfillments in our day and generation, there is something wrong in the spirit. [00:44:17] Now listen, I can talk amongst friends. [00:44:21] I have the greatest sympathy with some of our christian leaders and theologians who feel that a lot of the folks who believe in Israel are not cases. [00:44:33] I'm afraid that there are a number of nutcases. [00:44:38] We see them all here in Jerusalem. It acts as a magnet to draw them here. There are nutcases. [00:44:45] It seems as if Israel has saved them and Israel finished the work on the cross and Israel is the beginning and the end of everything. It's almost as if Jesus has gone and is has taken its place. [00:45:01] I understand them when some of them get all upset and bothered. But my dear friends, there is something wrong inside a heart of a person who hates the jew and says he loves Jesus. [00:45:19] I say there is something wrong in the heart of any Christian, whoever it is, who says that he loves Jesus and disparages the jew. [00:45:43] No, my dear friends, this Israel, in all her sin, in all her blindness, in all her transgression, in all her divisions, in all her confusion, is the touchstone for the church. [00:46:06] God said many, many years ago through the prophet Isaiah, I will lead the blind by a way that they know not, in paths that they have not known will I lead them. [00:46:22] I will make darkness light before them and the crooked places straight. [00:46:30] These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. [00:46:39] So I must finish. This has been a long evening and I'm sure many of you want to get to bed, especially those of you been traveling most of the night. [00:46:49] But I just want you to understand, all these things we're talking about tonight are not things that might happen. They have happened. [00:47:01] They've actually happened. The in gathering of the Jews, the refertilizing of the whole land, the recovery of the very soil of the land, the fruitfulness of the land, the recreation of the state, the reunification of Jerusalem and the preservation of this people through five wars in 40 years. Miraculously, all these things are facts. [00:47:35] I say God surely has not preserved our people through these 4000 years to cast us away at the end. [00:47:49] There must be some very real divine purpose for this nation. [00:47:58] And I suggest that God is going to use this nation to trip up other nations. [00:48:09] Listen to these words and I'm going to close with these in Zechariah. End chapter twelve. I'm sure many of you know this very well. When it says the burden of the word of the Lord, Lord concerning Israel, and then the Lord goes on. I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto the peoples roundabout that is the immediate neighbours. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone unto all nations, all that burden themselves with it shall be sore with and all nations will be gathered together against Jerusalem. [00:49:01] Verse nine. [00:49:03] And it shall come to pass that in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Now I know that sometimes some people take it a long, long way. That word that God gave Abraham. About those that bless you, I will bless. And those that curse you, I will curse. But even if you have problems theologically on that, and I can't see why, but maybe you do, you cannot have any problems on this prophecy of Zechariah. This has never been spiritualized at any time in church history. Theyve never been able to spiritualize this chapter. Did you know that? Theyve always had to leave it as it is to be literally understood. And what does it say? It says there will come a day when all the nations will be gathered together against Jerusalem. [00:49:57] How could that have been a hundred years ago? Who in the world would come against Jerusalem? A hundred years ago Jerusalem was a funny little anti half ruined, flea bit and fly blown village town in the judean hill country in the Ottoman Empire. Who in the world would come against Jerusalem? [00:50:17] 30,000 inhabitants, capital of nothing. [00:50:22] Who would come against it? Yet Zechariah's words have been in the hands of christians for nearly 2000 years. [00:50:31] And he said there will come a day when nations will be gathered together. All nations will be gathered together against Jews. Am I being fanciful to suggest that we are reaching that point? [00:50:45] Will you notice? It doesn't say that they will come in war. It comes later in chapter 14. But it doesn't. It says against, gathered against. That is, they will militate against Jerusalem, they will try to compromise Israel, they will try to dismember her, they will try to belittle her, they will do everything in their power. It will be a coming against Jerusalem on the part of the nations. And God says, concerning all those that conspire against this little nation, in her blindness and sin and sometimes even her wrongdoing, God says, I will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. That means if the United Kingdoms goes on militantly behind the scenes seeking to belittle and dismember Jerusalem, then something will happen to the United Kingdom. If Sweden goes on trying to somehow further an independent palestinian state, that will in the end be the dismemberment and destruction of Israel. God will come against Sweden more surely than I stand on this platform. Judgments will come upon all these nations. God will not forget this is the hand of God. No matter what men may say, what christian theologians may say, what councils of churches may put together in declarations, and I don't know what else. The fact of the matter is, if they meddle with God's destiny, ordained destiny for Jerusalem and for this little Israel, they will come into collision with the almighty power of God himself. [00:52:49] I say the same of the United States. [00:52:54] If they want to say what they want about us and do the things they want about us, they're free to do it. But in the end, they will meet with God. [00:53:08] So, my dear friends, we are moving into one of the most amazing eras, not only of israeli history, but of world history. [00:53:20] A time of enormous change in which forces are being let loose, in which tremendous prophetic fulfillments are taking place in the midst of it all. [00:53:36] And little Israel is the touchstone for the church. [00:53:44] May God bring into your heart a burden for your own nation as well as for this nation. [00:53:59] And I can do no better than to finish where I began with the words of that godly old prophet, that jewish prophet, Shimon. [00:54:17] Now let us, thou, thy servant, depart in peace. [00:54:23] For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before the face of all peoples. [00:54:33] A light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. [00:54:42] Yes, the Lord Jesus has been a light to lighten the Gentiles. [00:54:49] He has yet to be the glory of his people Israel. [00:54:56] May God hasten that day and may we all be alive to every single event that is leading to it. [00:55:11] The Lord bless you. Thank you.