Israel's Everlasting Covenant #2

[00:00:00] To the prophecy of Jeremiah again in chapter 31. [00:00:13] From verse 31, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my lord in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more. [00:01:22] And I would like to add to that in the prophecy of Ezekiel and chapter 36, the 36th chapter of Ezekiel, from verse 25. [00:01:43] And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my mine ordinances and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [00:02:28] And then in the new covenant in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians chapter two, verse eleven, Ephesians 211. Wherefore remember that once ye the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision, in the flesh made by hands, that ye were at that time separate from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, Israel and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Jesus, ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of the Messiah. For he is our peace, who made both one and brake down the middle wall of petition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And he came and preached peace to you that were afar off and peace to them that were nigh. And through him we both have our access in one spirit unto the father. So then ye are no more strangers than sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household, household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Messiah Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the spirit. [00:04:53] Just a further word of prayer, Lord, as we come again through the ministry of your word, we want to tell you, as we said in the afternoon time, we are wholly dependent upon you. We thank you for the anointing which is ours through the finished work of our Lord Jesus, which the Holy Spirit makes a living reality in us. And to us we stand by faith into that anointing, grace and power and wisdom that, Lord, you may take your word this evening and make it live to every one of us. Do something in us, Lord, holy to your glory. We ask it in the name of our messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:05:43] I want to speak this evening about that new and eternal covenant that is described in both the prophecies that we have read in Jeremiah 31 and in Ezekiel 36. It is referred to a number of other times in the old covenant, particularly in the prophecies. [00:06:11] I find it quite amazing that here in Jeremiah 31, where the prophet Jeremiah had such an unenviable task, called by God to a gainsaying, contradicting people, obstinate, stiff necked, backsliding, lighting, everything that they should not be. [00:06:44] And Jeremiah, of course, as you all know, those of you who know his prophecy, was not very happy with his ministry. [00:06:55] He was thoroughly criticized. He was looked upon as a traitor, as a someone in the employ of the Babylonians of Nebuchadnezzar, it was a very unhappy position that he was in and a ministry that he would in some ways have preferred to have been without. He said two or three times to the Lord, why did you do this to me? Why have you called me to this ministry? Why have you brought me to such a people? [00:07:30] Well, you all know that wonderful ministry, and you will know also that we dont know how, whether it was in vision or dream, the Lord appeared to him, and the Lord said to him, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now that he loved Jeremiah, theres no problem. [00:07:49] Jeremiah was faithful. Jeremiah was seeking to fulfill a ministry that was very difficult, and he was seeking to do it faithfully and by the power of the holy spirit. But it was not Jeremiah, although he was obviously included, it was not Jeremiah that the Lord said to him, I have loved you with an everlasting love. It was this gainsaying, contradicting, backsliding, stiff necked people. [00:08:25] And the Lord said to them, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness or mercy, or in the modern versions, steadfast love, persevering love. I will adore you again. Shall you be built, o virgin of Israel. Amazing, amazing when you look at it like this. [00:08:52] And the Lord says in this extraordinary passage that he will bring them back from the north country and from the uttermost parts of the north. He even speaks of Samaria in verse five. [00:09:10] And most of you will know that when people say that this prophecy was fulfilled in the 6th century before Christ in the first return to the land from exile, that the jews never did come back to SaMaRIa. There were no Jewish communities in Samaria. You will all remember the story of the Samaritan woman in John's gospel, chapter four, and her astonishment that Jesus as a rabbi should be found asking of a Samaritan woman, water. She said, don't you know we are poles apart, the Samaritans and Jews. What are you doing here? Most people, most Jews, whoever went through Samaria were going to a dying relative. And instead of taking the long way round on the other side of Jordan, they went as fast as they possibly could through Samaria, not stopping for a moment lest they be defiled or contaminated by this mongrel breed that had ended up in Samaria. So I find it very interesting when learned christian teachers and preachers tell us that this was all fulfilled in the return from Babylon. [00:10:21] How in the world could a word like this in Jeremiah 31 five again, shall you plant vineyards upon the mountains of samaria? The planters shall and shall enjoy the fruit. I mean, how could it have been fulfilled? It never was fulfilled. They never went back to Samaria. But it has happened in our day and in our generation in the same way that the Lord says, I will bring them from the north country. [00:10:48] Actually, it was from the east country. They came back when they came back from BabYLOn in the first exile. But it is obvious that the Lord has called back his PeOPlE in the most extraordinary way in our day and generation. From the north, precisely north, accurately north of Jerusalem, of ISrael. They have come back from the old soviet Union, nearly 1 million of them. So that Russian is now the fourth most spoken language in ISrael. Everywhere we look, we see Russian and we see russian Jews. Well, that's not my point. [00:11:34] To speak upon this particularly other than it is amazing to me that here in this prophecy about the exiles coming back from the ends of the earth, and particularly from the north, in this prophecy, when Samaria is actually mentioned, when the Lord in the most amazing way refers to this Backsliding, alienated people arguing, arguing with him, out of sorts with him, he says again, shall you be built, o virgin of Israel. Israel was anything but a virgin. She was, in fact, a prostitute. She had joined herself to demonic principalities represented by the various gods and idols all around Israel. She was a prostitute, sullied, dirted, degraded, devalued. [00:12:38] Not merely stiff necked and contradictory, far worse. And the Lord here in this amazing prophecy says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. [00:12:57] Therefore, with merciful, loyal, steadfast love will I draw you again. Shall you be built over virgin of Israel? [00:13:11] In other words, he saw an Israel saved by the grace of God, an Israel justified in the sight of God, an Israel whose sins had been blotted out, made as white as snow, when they were as vivid scarlet. [00:13:35] It is an amazing picture you have in Jeremiah 31. It is compounded further when you suddenly see Rachel, who has always been a symbol of jewish motherhood, weeping for her children who are not. They are all dead. They are all gone. And the word comes, they shall come again to their own border. [00:14:04] It is an extraordinary picture. And if we think of our own day and generation, it is all the more remarkable because the Holocaust saw nearly 2 million children under the age of twelve murdered, gassed or murdered, some buried alive in that terrible period of modern history that we call the Holocaust. [00:14:35] Yet those that are not have somehow or other come back to the land, as it were. And out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel arose in a resurrection that only God could have worked. [00:14:56] It is amazing. It's all here in this Jeremiah 31. And the Lord says, here, hear the word of the Lord, o ye nations. The word again is gentile, gentile nations, and declare it in the isles that are afar off. He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock. [00:15:24] It is, I say, remarkable because if we understand the modern history of Israel, everything here in this prophecy makes sense. [00:15:39] The children, as it were, have somehow come back where they were not. [00:15:46] Rachel has been comforted finally by the resurrection, as it were, of Israel. The land has been, its fertility has been recreated and its ecology has been restored and the ruined cities have been rebuilt. I said this in the earlier session. Its worth saying it again because in some amazing way it is all connected with this new and eternal covenant. [00:16:22] For the Lord says that in those days he will make this new covenant with them. [00:16:29] He says, not like the one that he made before. He said, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That was, of course, the mosaic covenant which my covenant they break. [00:16:49] But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and in their heart will I write it. And I will be their God. And they shall be my people. [00:17:06] The marvelous thing is that this new and eternal covenant is what the Lord Jesus talked about. You will find it, of course, in that amazing, amazing. [00:17:19] In those amazing words that he used as recorded in Luke's gospel, chapter 22 and verse 20. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. [00:17:42] Has it ever come home to you? How amazing that was? It was the Passover. [00:17:49] And Jesus took the third cup, the cup of blessing. And taking that cup, he said to those disciples, every one of them jewish, he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. [00:18:12] There wasn't a gentile there. [00:18:16] It was the jewish Passover. [00:18:19] Every single one in the room was jewish. [00:18:25] And here was the Messiah, the messianic king. [00:18:30] Taking the third cup of the Passover, the cup of blessing and saying, this cup is the new covenant, the new and eternal covenant in my blood. [00:18:53] In other words, that king promised to David was going to give his life as the guarantee, as if you like, the foundation blood of this new and eternal covenant. [00:19:19] When those disciples were saved by the finished work of the messiah on the cross. And when the holy spirit on Shavuot, Pentecost, Shavuot, the feast of weeks came upon them, they were all jew. [00:19:42] All those people speaking all those wonderful languages talked about in acts, chapter one. Most people tend to think they are gentiles. Well, this wasn't a gentile amongst them. They were all Jews. Every single one of them. It was a terrible shock to the early church when Samaritans got saved. That was the first great shock. When the Holy Spirit fell upon the Samaritans. Same thing happened to them as on the day of Shavuot in Jerusalem with the jewish church. And then the biggest shock of all was when the Holy Spirit fell upon those full blooded gentiles, especially since they were roman army officers in an occupying army headquarters in the land in Caesarea, when the Holy Spirit fell upon them. And there was yet another Pentecost, as it were, they were included. It was a very great shock. But in the beginning, you can understand, you see this new and eternal covenant. This is Israel's everlasting and new covenant. God had made a covenant. He had prophesied, predicted it through all the prophets, particularly through Jeremiah and particularly through Ezekiel and also Isaiah. He had said that there would be a new covenant. Now this covenant had been sealed in the blood of the Messiah. What a king. [00:21:12] It wasn't just that he came to lead. It wasn't just that he came to be an example. [00:21:19] He came to be a sacrifice, and in so doing proved forever his worthiness to be king. [00:21:32] Jesus gave himself as the blood of that new and eternal covenant. [00:21:47] This new and eternal covenant is marvelous because it includes all nations. [00:21:54] It was to begin with Israel, but it was to go out to the ends of the earth. Isn't it amazing? When you think about it, if you take the hebrew letter and you take in the hebrew letter, chapter eight, I think it's chapter eight, verse six. We read this, but now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent by so much, as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises. [00:22:33] You understand? Look at it again. Chapter nine, verse 15. And for this cause, he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal covenant. Chapter ten, verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make. This is an actual quotation of Jeremiah. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws on their heart and upon their mind also will I write them. Then, saith he, in their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Is it not incredible that this new and eternal covenant has opened up the salvation of God to the nations, so that from every tongue and kindred and people, every ethnic group, there are those through the last two millennia that have found the salvation of God through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus? [00:23:48] I think it's wonderful, absolutely wonderful to be able to see it like this. Puts a different slant upon the whole thing. I mean, most people think the new and eternal covenant is only to do with the church, as if it had nothing to do with the jewish people. And to almost say that this is Israels everlasting covenant is, for some christians, virtually blasphemy. [00:24:18] Thats the most disgraceful thing I have ever heard. That someone could call this new covenant sealed in the blood of Christ, Israels everlasting covenant. [00:24:36] They would probably think that someone like me, preaching in so August a pulpit as the pulpit here in Westminster chapel, should be altogether hounded out. [00:24:50] The pulpit should be closed to such a person. I mean to say that this new and eternal covenant that is celebrated every time we have the Lord's table, that this is Israel's everlasting covenant, is to devalue it is to corrupt it, is to compromise the truth, is to somehow rather bring it down onto a poorer level. [00:25:18] But dear child of God, see how the early church saw it. They saw it as the a covenant prophesied by Jeremiah, the covenant prophesied by Ezekiel. It had happened. The Holy Spirit, they were not only saved their sins and iniquities had not only been washed away, blotted out, but the Holy Spirit had been put within them. And the law now had a different operation, a different functional operation. Whereas before it was outside and you had to try and keep it, now it came within and spontaneously. If you walked with the Lord and did not grieve the Holy Spirit, you would keep the law of God from within. Do you understand what we're trying to say? It is wonderful. [00:26:18] And everyone will know the Lord. We don't have to be dependent upon clergymen or pastors or christian leaders. Now don't get me wrong on this matter. [00:26:30] Thank God for these dear servants of the Lord who have laid down their lives to shepherd and care for the flock of God. [00:26:41] We don't want to be those kind of christians who think they know everything and can do without any form of teaching. Otherwise why would we have teachers in the church? [00:26:53] But nevertheless, we don't have to depend upon the pastor or the vicar or the priest or whoever he is. As a mediator between us and God, we can know the Lord. Every one of us, for ourselves, everyone from the least to the greatest, shall know the Lord. [00:27:21] Now would to God that every child of God did know the Lord for themselves. [00:27:27] So few children of God really know the Lord. [00:27:32] There's so little discernment. There is so little spiritual shrewdness. We dont want to be those dark, negative people that find something wrong in every single thing. [00:27:45] I mean, once you trash the Lord's people, where do you end? [00:27:50] You start with some. Where will you end? It reminds me of the old story of the Quaker lady who was being driven by her servant in the hansom cab to the meeting, to the friends meeting, and she said to him, you know, James, all the world's queer save thee and me, and even these a little queer. [00:28:20] That's basically where we end when we start trashing God's people. [00:28:26] You cant throw out someone Christ has received. [00:28:32] You really believe you can do that? [00:28:36] That someone whom the Lord has received and saved and is in the family you will have nothing whatsoever to do with kick them out. [00:28:49] We must never be partakers of other mens sin, but that which is of God, that belongs to us and we belong to him. [00:29:02] Paul said, in one place, I determine not to know anything. Say Jesus the Messiah and him crucified. [00:29:11] In other words, he said, I will find the Lord, the crucified Lord, in you, and that I will hold to well, I find this very wonderful, this new and eternal covenant which he has made with us. And I think it's even more wonderful that from every corner of the world there are those who have been born of God. I travel all over the place I'm getting now to the place where I can't always go to the summer, the more primitive areas that I used to love to see. But I still have the most vivid members of those tribes, people in many strange parts of the world who were brothers and sisters in the Lord, for whom King David is more their king than mine, to whom Isaiah spoke, speaks livingly, whose psalms mean everything to them. They live in them. Such simple people. I remember on one occasion going to one place where we had a prayer meeting in a long house. [00:30:31] And whilst they were praying, of course, in a tongue, I had no idea what they were praying about because they were praying in some tribal dialect. But I looked up and I saw what seemed to me to be coconuts in great nets. [00:30:53] After a while, one of the leading brothers touched me on the arm and said, is it bothering you? [00:31:02] No. I said, but why have you put coconuts up there? [00:31:07] And he said, theyre not coconuts. [00:31:10] Those are heads. [00:31:16] Heads. I said, well, he said, we were all headhunters one generation ago. [00:31:29] He said, weve never bothered to remove them. Anyway, he said. [00:31:33] Anyway, he said, they're all Japanese. [00:31:42] I've never forgotten it. [00:31:45] Such things happen when you go around the world. Oh, those dear people. How they loved the Lord. They were the ones who came and said to me, dear brother, we want to make a gift to Israel. Really? I said, yes. They said, we want to make a gift to israeli widows, war widows and orphans. [00:32:18] I couldnt believe it. One generation ago, these people were in the business of making widows and orphans, and here they were clothed and in their right mind, the Lord Jesus meant everything to them, and our patriarchs and kings and prophets meant everything to them. And the amazing thing to me was that without any of the antisemitic virus which is in the church in the western, they naturally, spontaneously saw the place of Israel in the purpose of God. Why do you love Israel? I said, because I was the first jew theyd ever met. [00:33:05] Why do you love Israel? [00:33:08] We are going there, they said, in the end, Jesus is coming back to Jerusalem and were going to be at his coronation. [00:33:20] Well, I mean, maybe there were some things where they needed a little bit of help and a little bit of instruction, a little bit of deliverance, maybe. But one could only warm to the fact that from every part of the globe God has done such a work. It doesnt matter whether its south America or Africa or Southeast Asia or mainland China. [00:33:47] Whereas here, sadly, tragically, grievously, there is so much that is dead in the so called homelands, the christian homelands, so little fire, real fire, a lot of strange fire, but so little real fire. Fire, the fire of gods presence, the fire that burns in such a way as it once did in the old dead thorn bush that causes people to turn aside and see and then hear the voice of God and meet with him and come into his salvation. [00:34:33] There is so little fire. [00:34:37] I think its because theres so little suffering, which is in itself another matter, because it might mean that God will have to bring the homelands into colossal suffering before the fire finally burns again. [00:35:02] It was Whidley and Latimer who were being burnt at the stake, and one of them for a while quavered and the other said to him, play the man, for this day we shall set afire a torch in England that by the grace of God, will never go out. [00:35:22] Its in danger of going out. [00:35:27] Thats where. [00:35:30] Thats where it has come. [00:35:36] But at least we can thank God for areas like China, the greatest ethnic group of believers in the world, without Bibles, without theological seminaries, without Bible schools, without all the fundraising techniques, techniques that were so used to here in christian things in the west, you have a New Testament church with all its failings and faults, turning the world upside down. [00:36:15] It is a new and eternal covenant that was given to Israel, Israel's eternal covenant, and it has gone to the ends of the earth. And now there are those from every tongue and kindred and ethnic group who have been saved by the grace of God through the finished work of the messiah. [00:36:40] And I hear the words of Jesus, salvation is of the Jews. [00:36:50] It has come through them the riches that God gave us. [00:36:58] Now it belongs to the world. [00:37:01] It is the unsearchable riches of the messiah that have now been given to the world, to those who are saved by the grace of God from every single part of the world. Well, dear folks, thats something to rejoice in. [00:37:26] And there are a very large number of you who have come into the salvation of God through this new and eternal covenant that God has made with you. [00:37:43] And you are now as much part of what God is doing as I am or for that matter, anyone else. We are all in this together. [00:37:59] Did you notice that passage I read together in Ephesians? Dont you think that is the most extraordinary thing? Does anyone ever take note of it? I don't know. I mean, listen to this. Wherefore remember that once you, the gentiles in the flesh were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision. Actually, they had many other names for them too. But I won't go into that. [00:38:25] By that which is called circumcision, made by hands that ye were at that time separate from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. [00:38:39] What are these covenants of promise? [00:38:43] What are these covenants of promise? Does anyone ever stop to think we were strangers? You were strangers from the covenants of promise. What covenants are they? The Davidic covenant, even the abrahamic covenant, it has something to do with the church of God. It is amazing, this new and eternal covenant. You were strangers to it, but now, now you are in it. [00:39:28] I think that thats something quite wonderful. [00:39:32] You are now partakers of the Commonwealth of Israel. You who are afar off are now made nigh one new man. [00:39:41] Isnt that amazing? [00:39:49] When we come to Romans chapter eleven, weve got it all there again. [00:39:55] Its just the same thing all over again. The Lord has not forsaken his jewish people. [00:40:03] It may seem that he has given them up to suffering and given them up to much else, but he has not forsaken them. And the wonderful thing is that when you come to Romans eleven, you read words like these. [00:40:18] Fullness. [00:40:20] Fullness. [00:40:22] You read another word like receiving again, received again. [00:40:31] Or you read another word like natural branches grafted back into their own olive tree. Or you read another word like this, all Israel saved. [00:40:50] Or you read another word like this, election. [00:40:55] Their election still stands, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Or you hear again another verse. Here it is. [00:41:09] They will obtain mercy. [00:41:13] Now, if you want those verses, youll find them all. I can give them to you. Romans 1112, verse 15, verse 26. Verse 31. Verse 25 should have come in there, too. Verse 25, verse 26, and verse 31. Here is a most marvelous catalogue, just as negative as ever Jeremiah had for this people. [00:41:42] They are described as blind, as deaf, as fallen, as lost, as cut off, as hardened, as enemies of the gospel, as disobedient. Now that is a catalog of negative. [00:42:06] But at the very same time the Lord says, if, therefore is the riches of the world and their loss the riches of the, how much more their fullness? If the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be but life from the dead? And if they are branches cut off and laid aside, then it is how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? Or again, when the fulness of the Gentiles be coming, this hardening in part will be done away. And so all Israel shall be saved. That is, the whole elect redeemed people of God, saved by the grace of God. Or I think of this, enemies of the gospel. Their election still stands. [00:43:03] The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. It is amazing when you see it like this. So now, what I'm trying to say is very, very simple. [00:43:15] I hope you've already got there before me. [00:43:20] I am trying to say that this new and eternal covenant was given to Israel, and she fell. [00:43:33] The early church came into it. The rest were hardened. [00:43:37] But at the end, in some marvelous work of the Holy Spirit, they will be brought back into the salvation of God. [00:43:50] Now, I dont know if youve been asleep before that. If you have been, you can wake up now, because I will say at least a few things that I think are very important on this matter before we close. [00:44:06] You see, it seems to me that Satan is a master student of the word of God, far from being somewhere empty headed, stupid, dumb, dim witted creature that some imagine him to be. [00:44:30] Satan has supreme intelligence, far greater than all of ours put together, even though it is created intelligence. It's not like God, not infinite, but he has intelligence. Furthermore, he's been at this job for quite a few thousand years and has picked up a lot of experience in the way of outwitting people, tripping them up, just not always on an individual level. He knows how to trip governments up, he knows how to whale a whole nation. [00:45:10] He done this job for thousands of years. [00:45:16] But God has a purpose for the jewish people. And somewhere along the line Satan has picked up that when those people begin to go back to the land from which they were exiled, and when the fertility of the land is recreated, and when the ecology is restored and the ruined cities are being rebuilt and reinhabited, when there is a state again there, and when the capital is regained, and when the national institutions are reinstated, then his end is near. [00:45:59] So he will do everything in his power to annihilate this people before it can happen. [00:46:09] He will stop the aliyah, he will stop the immigration, he will wreck the economy, he will demoralize the nation, he will divide it irreparably, he will do everything he can. If he cannot military destroy them, then he will morally destroy them. [00:46:29] But he will do everything he can to destroy this people, because he has picked up something. This new and eternal covenant is Israels everlasting covenant made by God with them. [00:46:46] It has now gone to the ends of the earth. He has done everything to stop that gospel from being preached in every part of the earth. Oh, what he mobilized to stop the gospel from ever coming to Britain, from ever coming to Scandinavia, from ever being preached in Europe, let alone Africa or South America or Asia or China. But he has failed. [00:47:17] And when he has caused the martyrdom of countless thousands, their blood has become the of a triumphant, powerful church on fire for God, he has failed every single time. [00:47:34] It was c. T. Studd who said that he. [00:47:40] I shouldn't really say it. [00:47:42] No wonder dear old C. T. Got into such trouble with christians. He was the one who wrote the parody on the hill, him. Onward christian soldiers, backward christian soldiers marching as from war. [00:47:59] He wrote the thing with C. T. Stadt, I always remember was he said he felt sorry for the devil, because he said, really he is gods greater servant. [00:48:17] Everything he does, God turns to good. [00:48:24] He uses him in a way that he uses no one else to bring people to salvation and to perfect them through tribulation. [00:48:37] You think about it, its very true, the powers of darkness have done everything within their power to stop that gospel from going to the ends of the earth. See what has happened, see what has happened. And look how the enemy comes in, where there have been the greatest triumphs of the gospel. When you think of Turkey, which was once aflame for God. It's like a desert, spiritually. When you think of North Africa, which was once a flame for God, it is a desert. Think of Egypt, which was once the great christian educational center of the world. It is a desert spiritually. You take Central Asia, that once saw triumphs of the gospel everywhere. Oh, how Satan hates it. He couldn't stop it at the time, but he's worked and worked and worked to break the very places where the gospel saw its greatest triumphs and then make it a barren desert spiritually. [00:49:43] I have the feeling that's exactly what the powers of darkness are doing. With Britain, with Denmark, with Holland, the Netherlands, with Germany, everywhere, where the gospel has had its greatest triumphs and from which light has gone to the ends of the earth. They're now centres of pornography, immorality, everything that is against the law, the revealed law of God. [00:50:12] But if the powers of darkness have been unable to stop this gospel from being preached, and from men and women coming into the salvation of God, into the kingdom of God, then he knows there is one last possibility to frustrate the purpose of God. [00:50:45] It is the jewish people. [00:50:50] He couldnt stop Israel from being recreated. [00:50:57] He worked the Holocaust and it became the catalyst for the state of Israel. [00:51:10] So in my estimation, those powers of darkness have a strategy. [00:51:19] It is to destroy Israel before ever this everlasting covenant can somehow burst into life. [00:51:31] For Israel and the jewish people. [00:51:37] It is not a fairy tale I am telling. [00:51:44] I dont think for a single moment that its flesh and blood that necessarily is doing. But in my estimation, there is a satanic strategy in the so called peace process. [00:51:58] And that satanic strategy is to demoralize Israel by chipping away, bit by bit by bit by bit, until she becomes indefensible. [00:52:19] It is somehow or other to misrepresent her in the media of the world and in the governments of the world, to such a way that somehow or other, she feels she's a pariah, some outcast, some monster that history has created. [00:52:43] Israel is today war weary, far from the picture that the media give of an arab bashing, triumphalist, aggressive, pugnacious people. [00:53:05] Israel is war weary in a way that no other people on the earth are war weary. [00:53:13] She longs for peace. [00:53:17] She longs for normality. [00:53:20] Like someone who's been subjected to day and night noise, longs for just a few hours of quietness and stillness. [00:53:34] I believe that it is this enormous longing for peace that you will find from the left wing to the right wing, from the religious to the secular it is this that can be the ground for delusion so tremendous. I'm asked everywhere I go, don't speak to us. They say about this. Go and speak to Mister Barak. [00:54:13] He needs to hear what you're saying. [00:54:18] But the extraordinary thing is that Israel has now started on a path where she will do anything for peace. [00:54:27] She will give away almost anything if once theres a possibility of real peace. And the fact of the matter is there is no peace. [00:54:37] It is exactly as Jeremiah said. They shall say, peace, peace where there is no peace. [00:54:47] I dont say that it is flesh and blood that has a strategy, but I think the powers of darkness do. [00:54:54] And their strategy is to demoralize Israel, divide her, fragment her somehow, rob her of any sense of dignity and normality. And finally, when the opportunity comes, deal the death blow. [00:55:18] Nor is that some idea that is crazy in my mind. [00:55:24] Iran is working in spite of being called more moderate, Iran is working furiously on a nuclear program. [00:55:36] Already she has missiles capable not only a medium range of reaching to Rome, but she has before long, those that will reach London and Paris. [00:55:52] Nor is Saddam Hussein any better. [00:56:01] We have to thank God, at least I do, that the Golan, the talks between, the possible talks between Syria and Israel failed. [00:56:20] It seems very strange, as a child of God, to rejoice in peace talks that failed. [00:56:30] But when the foreign minister of Syria said four weeks in an interview with a journalist in Damascus, this is Farouk Sharra, the foreign minister of Syria, he said, if we, that is Syria, make peace with Israel, it will only be for a limited period of time. [00:56:55] Has anyone ever heard of a nation making peace with another nation and giving back a whole portion of territory that has been used offensively by that other nation again and again for the destruction of civilian life and much else. [00:57:14] When they say if we make peace, it will only be for a limited time, that shows you how war weary Israel is, that you even would consider the possibility not just of giving away the golem, but right down, down to the shores of the Lake of Galilee and allowing syrian fishing boats on the Lake of Galilee. That's all in the deal. Or was to be. That's our beloved friend Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albert. They worked this wonderful deal that we would have syrian fishing boats on the Lake of Galilee. [00:57:53] If it was real peace, there would be a possibility of arguing that it might be good to make enormous sacrifices and take enormous risks. Now, that's if you don't know the word of God. [00:58:11] But this is not peace. I say it everywhere I go. [00:58:17] I think this is the kind of peace that Neville Chamberlain came back with from Munich when he came with his bowler hat and his umbrella and his little piece of paper and waved it in the air and said, it is peace in our time. [00:58:39] Adolf Hitler wrote a letter to Martin Bormann, his deputy, saying, calling, by the way, Neville Chamberlain called Hitler a gentleman. [00:58:52] He said, he's a gentleman who is honourable. He will keep his word. [00:58:57] Hitler wrote to Martin Bormann, his deputy, and said, neville Chamberlain is a silly old english gentleman. [00:59:09] Within one year the whole of Europe was locked in the worst war ever in history. [00:59:21] I have the feeling that we have much the same thing in Israel. My dear friends, the reason for all of this, why I say it is, I have no doubt at all that the powers of darkness plan another Holocaust. [00:59:37] Gas and fire, they will fail. [00:59:46] But you see now I believe we are very near to the hardening in part which has befallen Israel, being melted very near to the salvation of the house of Israel. [01:00:06] The nearer we come to it, the more furiously the powers of darkness will work. [01:00:13] They will fail as they have always failed and God will fulfill his purpose on time. [01:00:26] But what is needed now, our intercessors. [01:00:31] Dont be discouraged if you are an intercessor, be encouraged. [01:00:37] The Lord is in this business and the Lord is well able to undo all these strategies and plans of men. [01:00:48] In the prayer conference in Jerusalem in January, old Germany brother came up to me. [01:00:57] He could only speak German. He was very nervous. He knew that I had a number of members of the family who died in Auschwitz. [01:01:06] And he whispered in my ear, my wife and I are Moravians. [01:01:16] And he said, we asked God to give us his word for prayer. [01:01:25] And he said, I opened, we opened the moravian daily prayer book, the day prayer book. And he said there was the scripture. He said it lit up for us. It was Isaiah 810. [01:01:45] Take counsel together and it shall not, it shall come to naught. Speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us. Emmanuel, he said, weve stood on that ever since. Well, it went into my heart that day and I and many others have stood on this word over this whole process thats been, weve been hearing about with Syria, with the Palestinians and so on, and we've stood on this word. [01:02:21] We have an enormous battle. Don't give up. If there are those here who have never been intercessors for Israel and you don't even think you could be an intercessor for Israel, let me at least appeal to you. [01:02:37] If you would only allow the lord to the kind of work in you that he wants to do. [01:02:44] He could make you an intercessor. Some people call themselves intercessors who are not intercessors. [01:02:53] Intercession is far, far more than being a prayer, a person who prays. [01:02:59] But if you would only give yourself to the Lord, the Lord could take you and do something in you, and he could do something so wonderful in you. The Lord has so few candidates for this, and you might well ask, well, why would the Lord want anybody to be an intercessor? If he's going to do it, surely he can do it. Yes, yes, yes. That's absolutely right. In fact, the Lord could do it much better without us. [01:03:25] We are normally a great amount of trouble to him. [01:03:31] But the Lord doesnt want to do it without us. He wants to train us, instruct us, teach us. And in intercession, one has to learn all the various things of how to discern the mind of the Lord, how to work together with others, how to be subject to the Lord, how to come under the anointing of God in prayer, how to stand with the Lord for the fulfillment of his purpose. May the Lord challenge you this day. Here we are. You have come into this new and eternal covenant. You are no longer a stranger to the covenants of promise. You are a partaker. You are a partaker of the Commonwealth of Israel. You are no longer alienated from the Messiah. Youre in union with the Messiah. [01:04:23] It is wonderful to think what God has done with us all now. We are so near to that day when the natural branches are going to come back into their own olive tree. But we need those who can stand with the Lord, who can know how to stand with the Lord for the fulfillment of his purpose. May the Lord touch your heart and may he bring you in some very real way into the heart of his purpose. [01:04:56] That's my prayer. Thank you very much. [01:05:03] Lord, we want very simply now to commit ourselves to you. We have no doubt, Lord, that you are perfectly well able to fulfil your own purpose without us. Us. [01:05:16] But, Lord, you have called us to be co workers together with yourself. [01:05:22] And, Lord, we know that in some marvelous way, you want us in fellowship with yourself. [01:05:30] Therefore, Lord, we pray that you will touch our hearts and give us a new understanding of this everlasting covenant that you have made with Israel and with the church into which you have brought all of us. By your grace, Jew and Gentile, breaking down the middle wall of petition and making of us one new man. [01:05:59] Beloved, Lord, touch our hearts this night challenge us, Lord, in a deeper way than ever before. [01:06:09] And, Lord, help us to come at least to the place where we will say, here am I. [01:06:17] Use me. [01:06:20] We ask all this with thanksgiving in that wonderful name of our Lord Jesus, our king and our messiah. [01:06:32] Amen.