Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Would you turn with me to that well known chapter in the prophecy of Zechariah?
[00:00:08] Zechariah. End chapter twelve from verse ten.
[00:00:18] Zechariah, chapter twelve from verse ten.
[00:00:24] And I will pour upon the house of David. And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced.
[00:00:38] And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son. And shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
[00:00:50] In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem. As the morning of Hadad Rimun. In the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn. Every family apart. The family of the house of David apart. And their wives apart. And the family of the house of Nathan apart. And their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi apart. And their wives apart. The family of the Shimeites apart. And their wives apart. All the families that remain. Every family apart. And their wives apart. In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David. And to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
[00:01:38] And then in the prophecy of Ezekiel and chapter 37.
[00:01:44] And verse eleven.
[00:01:51] I'm sorry. From verse seven.
[00:01:54] Ezekiel, 37. From verse seven. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I beheld. And, lo, there were sinews upon them. And flesh came up, and skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God. Come from the four winds, o breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them. And they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, o my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord. When I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, o my people. And I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. And I will place you in your own land. And ye shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.
[00:03:34] We just bow together in a word of prayer.
[00:03:39] Beloved father, we do want to thank thee that we are here gathered in the name of our Lord Jesus.
[00:03:47] And we thank thee, father, that thou hast made provision for us. And as we once again turn to thy word, we thank thee for the provision that thou hast made of grace and anointing, both for the speaking of thy word and for the hearing of thy word into that provision. By faith we stand, we ask, Lord, that we might know in our experience this evening thy grace and thy power, both in my speaking and in our hearing, that thy will be done. Lord, in this day. We thank thee for it. Lord, we thank thee for this coming together and for being able to pray and fellowship and share together over this whole matter of Israel and the jewish people. Now, Lord, we commit ourselves to thee as we come to the end of the day and pray, Lord, crown it with thy presence, with thy glory, with thy working, and we shall give thee all the praise and honor and glory in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
[00:05:00] This year a rather remarkable coincidence took place.
[00:05:10] The celebration of the 30th year of Israel's independence coincided with Pentecost, and it made me begin to think about the Holy Spirit and Israel.
[00:05:35] And although it is a very complex and somewhat difficult subject, I want this evening, at the end of this day, just to share some thoughts with you about the Holy Spirit and Israel.
[00:05:51] I want to speak first about the hidden work of the Holy Spirit as far as Israel is concerned. And then I want to speak about the future work of the Holy Spirit as far as Israel is concerned. And then I would like to finally speak about the present work of the Holy Spirit as regards Israel. First of all, the hidden work of the Holy Spirit as regards the state of Israel. Of course, we are dealing, we are here amongst friends, and whatever our views might be about various aspects of the future, about the millennium, about the tribulation, about the rapture, about many of these things over which there seem to be a multitude of views, we are all united in our sympathy and love toward the jewish people and toward Israel. And I believe that everybody here in this meeting, in this convention, believes that Israel is the result of the working of God, and it is the hand of God that is behind the reconstitution of the jewish nation.
[00:07:15] But nevertheless, we have to say that generally speaking, amongst the Lord's people, this subject of Israel is a subject of great controversy and much confusion. There are those who tell us that there is no future for Israel and that in spite of all that has happened, they say that is coincidence. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the prophetic word of God. Indeed, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the word of God.
[00:07:50] Jan Wilhelm van der Hofen, who was speaking earlier today, was telling me last night how at certain Bible college he after some lecture on prophecy, when the question time, he asked the lecturer, very well known and revered evangelical, now with the Lord, he said to him, is there any, has Israel any significance as far as the word of God goes? And the lecturer replied lucidly and concisely, none whatsoever.
[00:08:33] Now, this subject of Israel, as I think most of us know, is a subject of controversy.
[00:08:42] People say, how on earth can a movement called Zionism, led by many who are agnostics or self confessed atheists, be used by God? How on earth could such a movement as that be within the word of God or the fulfillment of the prophetic word of God? But I believe that this is the hidden work of the Holy Spirit. Now when we turn to Isaiah, chapter 66 and verse eight, we read these wonderful read who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day?
[00:09:35] Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Now I find this tremendously interesting. There are those who believe that this verse has yet to be fulfilled and that in a single moment of time the whole jewish people are going to be born again.
[00:10:01] I have no doubt that in the future ahead of us there is going to come a tremendous awakening amongst the jewish people. The veil that is on their heart is going to be done away. The hardness in part which has befallen them is going to be done away by the spirit of God. But I believe that this scripture, this prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 66 and verse eight, was fulfilled on the 14 May of 1948, when after ten 900 years of exile and dispersion, a land was born in a day and a nation was brought forth at once.
[00:10:47] It happened in a moment.
[00:10:50] What no one believed could happen, happened to the great embarrassment of many believers who believe evidently, that this is not in the word of God, had been confidently saying for years that there would never be a recreated jewish state or an Israel in the Middle east. But it came to pass, and it came to pass in a single day. And suddenly something happened. And a land was born amongst the other lands of the world, and a nation brought forth at once to take its place amongst the other sovereign nations of the world. Now, the prophecy says. For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
[00:11:45] There had been almost 1800 years or more in which Zion, as a term, I'm using it now, for the jewish people had taken everything more or less lying down.
[00:12:04] For the jewish people, their dispersion, the loss of their statehood, the loss of nationhood, the loss of national sovereignty, the loss of national territory, the loss of national well being was a judgment of God upon them. And therefore they said, we must take it as from the almighty. We must bear this. For this reason, the rabbi said that the jewish people must never forget their lost Zion. No jewish bride in an orthodox wedding could ever wear a gold or silver piece piece of jewelry on her wedding gown.
[00:12:45] No home could ever be built by a jew that near the entrance, there was a portion left unfinished to remind them of the destruction of Zion. Orchestral music was not allowed except on specific and particular occasions. All these little regulations were to remind the people of a lost Zion.
[00:13:08] The jewish people lived as if they had only just lost Zion yesterday, all through those ones.
[00:13:15] Just as if it was only yesterday that this tragedy came upon the nation. It was rather like lot's wife. It was as if the whole nation was frozen into an immobility by something that happened 1800 years ago.
[00:13:34] How did Zionism come to birth?
[00:13:37] I know it's a dirty word in some circles now defined by the United Nations General assembly as racialism and racism, but how did it come into being?
[00:13:58] Well, there are two streams, right back in the last century, there was a rabbi called Rabbi tzvi Kalisha, who led a synagogue, a congregation in East Prussia.
[00:14:11] And suddenly he began to teach that the redemption of the jewish people, the redemption of Israel, would come in two stages.
[00:14:21] This was absolutely electrifying in its result, because up to then, the redemption that was to come to the jewish people was wholly supernatural, holy, divine, and was going to come, as it were, out of heaven with the messiah. So when this rabbi began not only to preach this and publish tracts and little pamphlets, but to prove from the Bible, the Old Testament and from the Talmud that in fact, this redemption would come in two stages. The first stage, he said, would be when the jewish people themselves shook off their sloth, returned to the promised land and started to reclaim the land and rebuild the cities, which would end in a reconstitution jewish state. That was the first stage of redemption. The second stage of redemption would be supernatural and divine. It would come with the messiah from heaven, as it were. Do you understand? So there were these two stages. Now, of course, he was excommunicated, and all those who read his pamphlets and so on were also sort of put out. But it's interesting that there was another rabbi. He was an ashkenazi rabbi. There was another rabbi, a Sephardi rabbi, leading a congregation in Semlin, near Belgrade, in what was then the austro hungarian empire. And he also taught the same thing without any connection with each other. Redemption would come in two stages. This caused a great ripple through all the orthodox circles. Now, on the other hand, there were a large number of Jews, especially in central Europe, in Western Europe, central Europe, and also in Russia and Eastern Europe, or the whole of european Jewry, that were what we call assimilated Jews. Now, what is an assimilated jew? An assimilated jew is a jew who really wants to be like the nation in which he's found. He wants to identify totally with that nation, in dress, in habits, in everything, except that he is of jewish style. Now, amongst the higher middle class and the higher classes, this became very much the in thing to be assimilated. And there were so many russian Jews whose one great goal in life was to be russian, to speak Russian, to write in Russian, to contribute to russian society and russian national life. It was the same in austro hungarian empire. It was the same in France, certainly the same in Germany.
[00:16:57] These assimilated Jews did not believe in a Zion. They believed that their Zion was Russia, their zion was Germany, their zion was France, their Zion was Britain. Their Zion was, in fact, the onward march of humanity. And the little exclusive particularism, as they said, of the jewish people, must be lost in the onward march of humanity into an enlightened age, into a golden, golden millennium, you see, in which all men would be one. And they said, to go back to anything sort of Jewish Jewish is ridiculous. Why can't we be Jews but contribute to our life? Now, all this was changed, of course, by the russian pogroms. Suddenly, overnight, in the rosen pogroms, which began at the end of the last century, when suddenly, as it were, out of the darkness would ride a whole bevy of men, simply beat people senseless, rape women, burn houses and shops, loot everything, leave children mentally retarded for the rest of their lives by the things they witnessed and the things that were done to them. Suddenly, overnight, all these jewish intellectuals in Russia realized that their idea of an onward progress of humanity was shattered.
[00:18:24] One of their great writers said, you see, now we understand that anti semitism is not just something from the Middle Ages or from the dark ages. It is based on anthropological and sociological foundations. And the jewish people will never at any time be given the dignity of human beings until they are once again a nation amongst the nations and a state amongst the states.
[00:18:58] So you have two straight streams, as it were, that seem apparently to have nothing to do with God.
[00:19:05] One is amongst the orthodox, this view of a twofold redemption, one that would come about by the jewish people doing something for themselves and the other by supernatural intervention by God. And then the assimilated position where they became so disillusioned that for the first time they began to seek round as to whether the answer was not a recreated jewish state.
[00:19:31] Of course, you know the story as well as I do. All through these years, 1800 years, nothing had been done. It was toward the end of the last century that Theodor Herzl came onto the scene. Now, Theodor Herzl, like so many of these others, was an agnostic.
[00:19:52] He very early broke away from all religious observance. He came from an assimilated austro hungarian family. He was born in pest of Budapest, and he went to study at the University of Vienna. And at the University of Vienna, he used to argue in the debating societies that all Jews should take their place with their fellow christian citizens in either the austro hungarian empire or in the German Reich as fellow citizens. And he said, if it means getting christened or confirmed in either the Roman Catholics or the Lutherans, let us be christened and confirmed, but let us take our place beside them.
[00:20:41] I think some of you have heard of his famous note that he made about he envisaged at one time an honourable and mass conversion of the whole jewish people in central Europe in a great service at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna with a solemn pealing of bells midday on a Sunday.
[00:21:05] It all died when one of his closest friends committed suicide.
[00:21:13] A brilliant young man who had graduated in the University of Vienna, but who found to sheer anti semitic prejudice that he could not get a job anywhere.
[00:21:26] And he shot himself.
[00:21:28] And that had a profound effect upon Theodor Herzl. And he began to think and rethink and rethink. And then as a journalist, he was sent to Paris to cover the famous Dreyfus trial. And he went there over this captain Dreyfus. And this Captain Dreyfus was a jewish captain in the french army who was made the scapegoat of every kind of problem in the french army at the time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment upon the devil's island in the Caribbean. He was stripped and publicly degraded and drummed out of the french army. The whole of Europe was in uproar over this because many knew that Dreyfus was an innocent man.
[00:22:15] But the thing that so appalled Herzl was suddenly the people took to the streets and began to scream at the top of their voice, death to the Jews. Death to the Jews.
[00:22:27] Suddenly Herzl realized, if in a country as sophisticated and educated as France, a sudden thing like this can be engineered and people can take to the streets crying, death to the Jews, what hope is there in the rest of Europe?
[00:22:52] It was then, he says, that a vision came to him so tremendous that he said, whether I slept or whether I walked or whether I stood or whether I sat in my work as a journalist, it completely overpowered me. It was the vision of a reconstituted jewish nation.
[00:23:22] He wrote in his diary.
[00:23:24] I am engaged upon a work of indescribable greatness.
[00:23:30] I do not know whether it will come to pass, but I do know this, that somehow or other, for me, life has ended and history has begun.
[00:23:47] He envisaged a congress in which all the leaders of Judaism would gather together to discuss the possibility of somehow or other, buying honorably territory somewhere in the world, preferably in the Middle east, in the promised land for this jewish state. Now, everywhere Herzl went, they laughed him to scorn.
[00:24:15] German Jews said to him, we are more German than the Germans. French Jews said to him what they'd said to Napoleon many years earlier.
[00:24:24] Paris is our Jerusalem.
[00:24:28] He was looked upon as a kind of vulgar rabble raiser by many of the jewish aristocratic families, or at the best, as a kind of mystical Jewish Jules Verne, a kind of seer of dreams and a kind of thinker up of legends, of visions, of kind of almost like a science fiction.
[00:24:50] Herzl pleaded with them, if you do not give yourselves to this whole matter of the recreation of the jewish state, sooner or later you will all be destroyed. And even those, he said, who are sympathetic to you when it comes to the crisis will turn their back on you and will not help you.
[00:25:19] His words were prophetic.
[00:25:23] Their children and their grandchildren died in their millions in the Holocaust of nazi occupied Europe.
[00:25:33] Those who heeded Herzl have lived.
[00:25:42] In November of 1897, the first international congress was called. And it is a very interesting fact that it was the first congress in which jewish leaders came together since the destruction of the state in 70 ad.
[00:26:03] And, you know, I think some of you, that Herzl wrote in his diary that night of the conquest finished this day. I have founded the jewish state. If I were to say it publicly, it would be greeted with howls of derision. But in five years, perhaps certainly within 50, the whole world will know it.
[00:26:25] It is very interesting that within 50 years, almost to the month in November of 1947, the United nations passed a resolution by a two thirds majority recognizing the right of the jewish people to a sovereign state of their own. It had come to pass. Now, my point is 1800 years and nothing happened. But as soon as Zion travelled, she brought forth.
[00:26:59] Within 50 years, it happened. They were the bloodiest years of jewish history. They were the most turbulent years of jewish history. They were, in many ways, of years of anguish and suffering that even the jewish people, with all their story of suffering, had never known before. But in those 50 years, the moment Zion travailed, she brought forth.
[00:27:27] When Theodore Herzl was dying, he said to his doctor, at the age of 44 years of age, of a broken heart.
[00:27:36] Labor had broken him, rejection had broken him, sorrow had taken its toll. But as he lay dying, he said to his doctor, you see those young jewish men guarding the door? Listen to me. One day, he said, they will enter the promised land as surely as I lie in this bed.
[00:27:56] And they did.
[00:28:02] Now, why? I'm telling you this whole story. I'm boring you stiff, but I'm telling you this whole story is this, that. You see, Zionism is a dirty word, especially because they don't even like to mention it.
[00:28:17] But I want to say this. It is the hidden work of the Holy Spirit who put into the minds of those two rabbis this, who disillusioned the assimilated Jews in all their positions in the academic and intellectual world of Europe. Who did it, if it wasn't the Holy Spirit? And isn't it an amazing thing that Theodore Herzl spoke of something far bigger than himself? He said, I don't. It looks over my shoulder, it whispers in my ear, it carries me, it causes me to dream when I'm asleep. What was it if it wasn't the hand of God? If it was not the spirit of God when he died? Reuven Brenin said, the story, of course, has been challenged in some quarters, but Reuven Brennin normally has told the truth in every other anecdote that he's ever told of Herzl. Reuven Brenin says that shortly before Herzl died, when he spoke to him, he opened his heart. Herzl opened his heart to him and said, I have told no other person this, but when I was twelve years old, years of age, I don't know whether it was a dream or a vision. I was carried in the arms of the king Messiah to the ancient of days.
[00:29:34] And he said, I saw Moses. And he said, just as someone would. He was so like that statue of Michelangelo that I remember when I was a boy. But he said, when I was brought to the king Messiah by the king Messiah, he said, to the ancient of days, the king Messiah. For this child I have prayed.
[00:29:55] And then to me he said, go to my jewish people and tell them that I will soon do great things on their behalf.
[00:30:08] The fact of the matter is, in my humble estimation, it was the hidden work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was taking hold of this one and that one and the other one to produce something that was to end in the fulfillment of the prophetic word of God.
[00:30:26] Even the might of Nazism could not destroy it. Indeed, God used the very wickedness of the nazis. To make the state of Israel an absolute necessity.
[00:30:44] It was because they would not listen to Herzl that God allowed evil itself to drive the jewish people to a place where they at last recognized that Herzl was right. There was no hope for the jewish people amongst gentile majorities. There was no hope of them ever being accepted as equals in gentile society. The only hope for the jewish people was that they might become again a sovereign state amongst the states of the world.
[00:31:21] I say that this is the hidden work of the Holy Spirit. Take Eliezer ben Yehuda. Earlier, his name was Eliezer Perelman. Now, Eliezer ben Yehuda was not a believer. He's what we call an agnostic. Very early in his life, he turned against all religious observance. And was kicked out by his family for reading Robinson Crusoe in Hebrew.
[00:31:49] Because it was considered a most dreadful thing to have put Robinson Crusoe into the holy language.
[00:31:57] This was the work of the assimilated movement to do the enlightened Haskalah. It was called a movement that wanted to put all these works into Hebrews or. But it was a very stilted Hebrew nevertheless. Eliezer Pellman read Robinson Crusoe in Hebrew. Do you know what it gave him? The idea. It gave him the idea that one day perhaps the Jewish People could speak Hebrew again.
[00:32:19] That's where it all began. Would you believe it? Robinson CRusoe was used of the Lord as well. You see, it is most remarkable. Now, in Eliezer ben Yehuda, he changed his name to Ben Yehuda. Because he saw that if the Jewish people were to go back to their ancestral land, to their ancestral home, they must speak one language. Otherwise, he saId, knowing the JewIsh People, and we all who know very well from inside JewIsh Things, know that he's right. He said, knowing the JewIsh people, they will be split into a THousAnd fragments.
[00:32:57] We must speak one language now. In his own words, he said, when the news came through of the uprising of the Roumanians and the Bulgarians against the Turks, he said, it was as if an incandescent flash of light came before me and as if I heard words in my ear saying, the renaissance of Israel on its own ancestral soil.
[00:33:24] In that moment, Eliezer ben Yehuda became the great prophet of the hebrew language. He gave himself lock, stock and barrel and was considered even by the jewish people to be a weird eccentric for many years because he had one, one vision and aim to renew Hebrew.
[00:33:46] Now, my dear friends, this has happened in the last century, in the whole history of the world. There has never been a language which has ceased to be a spoken language, has only been a liturgical language, like Latin, which after some 2000 years has been recreated, reborn as the spoken language of a volatile, virile people.
[00:34:10] Yet this happened with him. He himself says, in his own words, when he said he was an agnostic, he says, I saw an incandescent flash of light before me and words in my ears.
[00:34:25] The renaissance of Israel, of the jewish people upon their own ancestral soil.
[00:34:31] Is that the devil? Or was it the spirit of God?
[00:34:37] I say it is the hidden work of the spirit of God, working here and there, quietly, strongly, knowing exactly what he's doing to recreate the jewish nation. The hidden work of the spirit of God. I could speak for hours on this thing. When Eliezer ben Yehuda was near the end of his life, he saw. He went to the synagogue, sat in the synagogue, and with tears running down his face, heard the official pronouncement of the end of the third, of the second exodus of the jewish people. He lived to see it because officially, the second exile ended with the Balfour declaration.
[00:35:28] He lived to see it.
[00:35:30] Now, dear ones, I find all this extremely exciting, because what does the word of God say in the prophecy of Jeremiah and chapter 30 and verse 17? It says this, for I will restore. Restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds and saith the Lord, because they have called thee an outcast, saying, it's Zion for whom no one cares. That is exactly true of the history of the jewish people. They were people for whom no one cared. If it was a jewish life that was murdered, who thought about it? Who took up representations with the government. Nobody.
[00:36:11] A few worthless jewish lives.
[00:36:14] What does it matter?
[00:36:16] They're the swindlers anyway. They're the great exploiters of Europe. They're the poison of european society. What does it really matter? They're expendable. No one fought for the jewish people. Even those who had a love for the jewish people might pray for them and be concerned for them. But no one went so far as to lay down their lives to the jewish people. People, they were outcasts. And because for 1800 years they were outcasts, everyone looked upon them and treated them as outcasts. And the Lord himself said, I have seen this. I myself will restore health unto thee. I myself will heal thee of thy wounds, because they have said it. Zion, which is an outcast for whom no one cares.
[00:37:02] But listen to what the prophet Micah says about these outcasts in Micah and in chapter four and verse seven. And I will make that which was lame a remnant and that which was cast far off, a strong nation.
[00:37:20] What does it mean? How do you spiritualize that, may I ask? The Lord says, I will take that which was cast for far off and I will make it a strong nation.
[00:37:31] Is that not exactly what has happened? This little nation of 3 million people have become a strong nation. The world has marveled at this little people. I want to tell you, this is the nation of the entebbe rescue.
[00:37:47] It is a strong nation, a nation that's prepared to stand up for itself, that is prepared to defend itself, nationals and its citizens. How could it have happened after 1800 years when they've been trodden down, when they've had that haunted look, when they actually made themselves look miserable, made themselves look eccentric in order to help God? They said, if God has judged us, let us look as if God has judged us. Let us put into our liturgy a sob and a quaver. Let us put into our psalms when we sing them a mournful lament. Let our where be one dirge. Because God has judged us. Let us let it be seen that we are judged.
[00:38:28] But what has happened since the recreation of the state of Israel? This nation has thrown off the dirge and suddenly a strength has come into hebrew music. Suddenly it's a dance that's come in, and a strong note has come in, and suddenly the Quaver and the sob has gone out of the psalm.
[00:38:48] The Lord said, I will make of those that are cast far off. A strong nation. It is the work of God in my estimation. Now, I do understand that some will find this father puzzling because it's what I call the enigma of Zionism. I never fail to be amazed at this enigma of Zionism. You see here, on the one hand, they go back to Israel and what do they do? They rebuild the cities, they rebuild the waste places, they rebuild the desolations of many generations. And what do they do? They put scriptures there.
[00:39:24] In the rebuilt squares you will find, as in Ashkelon, they are engraved in stone the words of the prophet Zephaniah. And the remnant of the house of Judah shall come again, and the sea coast shall be for them and for their flocks, and they shall lie down in the evening in the houses of Ashkelon. There it is, inscribed in Hebrew in the town square. And if you say, as I once said to a prominent citizen in Ashkelon, but I don't understand it, you just told me Ashkelon is the most irreligious place in Israel. Oh, yes. He said, we don't believe anything. Then I said, why have you put the scripture there? Well, it is rather remarkable, isn't it?
[00:40:07] You go into some of these big new buildings, and there in the cornerstone, you see these words, fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thee from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, my daughter. And I say to these people who are agnostic, well, no, how come you? Well, it's like Shakespeare, isn't it? It's very interesting. I mean, it's our literature, but don't you think it's wrong? Why do you put it in the thing? Why not take something else like love as strong as death?
[00:40:43] Oh, well, then they look a bit embarrassed, you see, and they sort of say, well, you see, it's very interesting. It's an enigma. You see, deep, deep down in the jewish heart, there is a deep awareness of God, even with the agnostic and the atheist. Many of the jewish atheists and agnostics I've known have become like that because of what they have seen, of suffering and anguish. I remember one friend of mine who went through Auschwitz and the only reason he lived, he still had the tattoo on his arm, was because he was the strongman of the hungarian states circus, and he was the man put with others to dig the graves for the bodies. And in those few days they dug because the crematoria couldn't take any more bodies. So many were being gassed. The day before he was liberated by the Russians, his whole family, grandfather, grandmother, his maternal and paternal grandparents, his uncles, his aunts, his nephews, his nieces, his cousins, his wife and his five children were gassed.
[00:41:53] And he said, do you know what? As those people queued up and went into those gas chambers, they sang psalms.
[00:42:02] Then he said, why didn't God break out of heaven and save them?
[00:42:08] He was an agnostic.
[00:42:11] He said, on another occasion, I remember him saying, I saw the hasidic people dancing as they waited to go into the gas chamber.
[00:42:23] They were welcoming death.
[00:42:26] Then he said, if they have such faith in God, why didn't God do something for them? Now, dear friends, you know, if you are real, what answer have you got for that?
[00:42:38] Deep down in the jewish heart, there is an awareness of God. And one day it is this deep seated awareness of God that is going to be ignited into glorious and dynamic faith.
[00:42:52] It's there, but there'll come a day when God will give them faith, and then the whole thing will ignite and become the dynamic for the last stage of human history.
[00:43:11] I must go on or we'll never finish. I've got a few things to say about the future work of the Holy Spirit and the present work of the Holy Spirit, but I must just tell you one other thing about this that is thrilling to me. Here is another example of it. You see, do most of you know, I'm sure Makhagan does, and one or two others of you may know this, but, I mean, I wonder how many really know how the state emblem, the emblem, the official emblem of the state of Israel was chosen. Do you know what the emblem is? I'll just remind you all. The official emblem of the state of Israel is a seven branched menorah lampstand with two olive branches on either side and underneath written Israel.
[00:43:55] Right? I suppose most of you have seen it. Now, that was chosen by David ben Gurion on the basis of Zechariah. Chapter. Chapter four.
[00:44:08] You remember when the prophet saw a lampstand, all of gold with its seven bowls on the top and a light, and then he saw on either side an olive tree, and then he saw a bunch of the olive tree coming down and out of the branch, gold being emptied into the lampstand. And then he heard the words, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the lord of hosts. Now, in English, it's rather long, but in Hebrew, those words are seven words.
[00:44:44] Seven words. And the story goes according to rabbinic tradition, that when Zechariah saw the lampstand alight, he saw in each the flame of each of the seven lights, one hebrew word. Not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
[00:45:04] Now I know people don't believe that the recreation of the state of Israel is in fact the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to ask, how else did it come to pass? It is one of the great accidents of human history.
[00:45:17] One of the great coincidences of human history.
[00:45:20] If it is an accident, it is some accident.
[00:45:24] If it is a coincidence, it is some coincidence.
[00:45:28] All I can say when I look is I know that we are to take that scripture spiritually and for our comfort. And thank God we can, in the completion of the house of God, in the completion of the church of God, of the body of the Messiah. But, my dear friends, it has a literal meaning as well. That restored jewish nation has not been by myself nor by power, but by the Lord's spirit.
[00:45:56] And furthermore, you see, God is doing a work in such a way that that nation is going to become the way by which the Lord will reveal himself to all the nations of the world. Now, that leads me to this second thing. I won't spend too long, but I will spend a little while. The future works of the Holy Spirit. What is the future work of the Holy Spirit? Well, here we've got it in Zechariah, chapter twelve. Listen to this. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as for an only son, and be in bitterness for him as for a firstborn. Anyone who knows anything about jewish mourning habits knows that they are no short, brief matter.
[00:46:44] Seven days of absolute mourning in which whole of life is disrupted. 30 days of mourning in which life is abnormal. You cannot live normal life. Now, I do not believe that the jewish people are going to be saved in a day. That is my personal view. I believe that it's going to be over a period of time on the basis of this scripture. And I want you to notice that they don't look upon him as it is in the King James or authorized version. They shall look upon me whom they have peers. The Hebrew is, they shall look unto me. And the word in Hebrew is used normally, as it is in one of the psalms, in the direction of, toward, to. And sometimes by now I understand that to mean something more spiritual. If I look unto somebody, it has a more spiritual feeling, doesnt it, than if I look upon them. Do you understand what I mean? If I look upon George here. Well, im looking upon him as a person. But if I look to him, I am looking to him in a spiritual way. I want him to do something im expecting him to do. I am trusting him. Do you understand? Now, it seems to me most wonderful that when the spirit of the Lord is poured upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem upon the jewish people, upon Israel then they will look unto him whom they have pierced. And listen to this. They will mourn for him as for an only son. Now, if jewish mourning is somber and awesome when it is an only son, it is terrible.
[00:48:23] Who is this only son? Jesus.
[00:48:27] Who is this firstborn?
[00:48:30] Jesus.
[00:48:33] Who else has been pierced in jewish history?
[00:48:38] No one else.
[00:48:41] Now, I understand that it says that in that day a fountain shall be opened for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.
[00:48:57] No, they're not going to have a special fountain open for them. It's the same fountain that you've come to.
[00:49:03] It is the work of the Messiah. It is the finished work of the messiah. Isn't that marvelous? Well, I find it marvelous anyway. I mean, I know there are those who say to me there is no future for the jewish people whatsoever. And you're being led along excited and are going to get into a cul de sac.
[00:49:21] I am perfectly content to leave it with the Lord. Why spend time arguing?
[00:49:27] The Lord will prove this thing.
[00:49:31] Ill eat my hat if something doesnt happen to the jewish people.
[00:49:36] As far as I can see from the word of God something glorious lies just ahead of us in this generation, in this age. Something so tremendous that it'll bowl us out.
[00:49:51] Pentecost was the most tremendous thing that happened, wasn't it? At the beginning? There have been so many Pentecost since. But my word, that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem upon that 120 that resulted in 3000 people being saved in the very first day and 5000 within a week. And then the whole of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria turned upside down and went right through the roman empire till it even came by the year 44.
[00:50:18] To Britain, to Gaul, to Spain, to south India to Armenia, to Ethiopia, to Sudan, to Mauritania. Jewish hearts and jewish lips took it. Dear friends, that was a tremendous thing. If that was tremendous, what's this that we're all waiting for? What does it mean when it says in that marvelous passage that was read to us right at the beginning of this time if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world what will the receiving of them be but life from the dead? What does it mean life from the dead. Does it mean this thing can happen and no one know it?
[00:50:55] I think that when someone gets raised from the dead, that's something that most people take notice of.
[00:51:02] It's not something that's just done in a hole or a corner. It's something that everyone starts to talk. They all know they were dead and they've come alive.
[00:51:12] And the prophet Ezekiel says, when they have become, as it were, a nation, that is, they've got the skeleton, the bones are back in place, and the flesh comes over, and the sinew, but no spirit in them. But when the spirit of God comes into them, they will stand up an exceeding great army.
[00:51:31] Well, then, if that's the kind of prospect we have, why don't we get more involved?
[00:51:38] It's something to be excited over. This isn't going to be one of those three month Billy Graham campaigns, tremendous as they are. I'm not disparaging Billy Graham for one single. I thank God for him and for the work that God has done, done through him. But, my friends, this is going to be something that will be the campaign of all campaigns in the history of the church. It won't be with human personalities in that way. It's going to be a sovereign action of the Holy Spirit.
[00:52:04] When the word goes forth from the throne of God, accept them in that moment, something will go right through jury that has never gone through it in 1900 years.
[00:52:20] I often wonder what happened in that day.
[00:52:23] I must watch the timer. I often wonder what happened in that day when dear Peter went to a gentile city called Caesarea. Now, Peter was very jewish.
[00:52:37] He was very jewish. He was so jewish that he got into trouble with the apostle Paul. Nonsense. Twice.
[00:52:45] Not that the apostle Paul wasn't jewish, but, you know, Peter got so mixed up on the kosher laws whether to be kosher or not be kosher. You know, I mean, there was a really little problem they had between them at one point. You know the story, I'm quite sure. You know, when. When that vision came to him, when he was on the rooftop at Joppa and he saw all those unclean non kosher things in the sheet, and then he was going, rise, kill me. He said, never, lord. I've never touched a non kosher thing in my life.
[00:53:17] And then it was lifted up. He came three times, and then there was a tap, tap, tap on the door, and the girl called up to Peter and said, there are people here come to see you. And he came down and there were gentiles, and they said, we've got a big meeting in Caesarea and we're all terribly interested. Do you think you could come over and talk to us? And he went like a lamb. Now, the interesting thing was, if he was going to live in Caesarea, especially amongst these gentiles, he was going to have to eat non kosher things. Isn't it funny? He went like a lamb, he said, three times, never.
[00:53:51] And he went like a lamb.
[00:53:55] And there he was in that gentile atmosphere with all those gentiles around. And he himself tells the story. He said, as I spoke, dear friends, I want you to understand this. I didn't give an altar call.
[00:54:09] I didn't ask them to come forward to the mercy seat.
[00:54:13] I didn't give them any decision to make. As I was speaking to them, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. And he said, do you know what happened? They spoke in tongues and prophesied gentiles.
[00:54:30] Gentiles.
[00:54:33] The uncircumcision, the dogs, those who are without the pail.
[00:54:40] Now, dear friends, you're taking me to task for accepting them in to the community of the redeemer. What else could I do? If the spirit of God fell on them and they showed the sign that they were redeemed, how could I say they are not?
[00:54:58] Now, my dear friends, don't you think in that little tiny meeting in Caesarea, which must seem to us so odd, I suppose it was some little, small meeting with about 60, 70 people jammed into a kind of the largest room in the house. We wouldn't have thought of it as very prisic. We wouldn't have thought this is the most significant meeting in the history of the church.
[00:55:22] But I tell you something, there is not a Gentile Christian in this place today that is not here as a result of that meeting.
[00:55:31] Until that time, the key had not been turned in the lock, the door had not been opened. But in that moment, it was as if God said, accept the Gentiles. Accept them. And then I suppose he said, now, it's no good saying that to my servant Peter, because he had choked.
[00:55:51] So what I'll do is I'll pour the Holy Spirit upon them and then he'll have to accept it. And when he goes back to Jerusalem and gets hauled over the coals, he'll be able to say to them, well, my lord did it.
[00:56:07] But there are none of you here today who are not here as a consequence of that meeting in Caesar.
[00:56:15] Now, there's going to come a day, in my estimation, when the word will go forth from the throne, when God says, accept them. And it will be this time the jewish people. I don't know how it will happen. I won't predict that. But all I know is that somehow the Holy Spirit will work in such a powerful and magnificent manner that thousands upon thousands upon thousands of jewish people will look unto him whom they pierce and shall mourn for him as for an only son, and be in bitterness for him as for a firstborn.
[00:56:52] Now this will also be national, because this reference to Khadad Rimun in the valley of Megiddon was to the great national days of mourning in the times of the godly king Josiah when he died, and the whole nation mourned his passing. So where else in the history of the world has there been a nation that has looked back over its history and put its finger upon an event that took place ten, 900 years before and said, this is the key to all our anguish. This is the key to our dispersion. This was the key to our sorrow. This was the key to our sadness and loss.
[00:57:36] This morning is not the morning of Judas, who went out and hanged himself.
[00:57:44] It is the sorrow of Peter, who wept himself into a union with the Messiah.
[00:57:56] So, dear friends, this future work of the Holy Spirit is very exciting. When I read in romans chapter eleven and verse 26, it says, I'll read verse 25 as well, for I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceit, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fullness of the gentiles be come in so and so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, there shall come out of Zion a deliverer, the deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now I find this very interesting, because it is a quotation of Isaiah, chapter 59, and verse 20. And a redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. In the Septuagint version, that is the oldest greek translation of the Old Testament from about 100 years before Christ, which the early church used. It is put this other way. Now I find that very interesting because this scripture was fulfilled when the redeemer did come to Zion and did come to those who turned away from ungodliness in Jacob. All those first believers were jewish, as our dear brother pointed out earlier today. Every one of them, they were all jewish. They turned from transgression in Jacob, and the Redeemer saved them, and they became that godly remnant at the very beginning of this age. Now what does it mean when it says, in a most beautiful way, a slight change of phrase, and says, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. My dear friends, I know it seems mysterious, but this is how I see it. It is a mystery. It is the mystery of Israel. It seems to me that the finished work of the Lord Jesus encompasses the whole of jewish history from beginning to end.
[00:59:49] I dont know what will happen to the many who died in unbelief, who never found the Messiah. I leave that to God. But I do know this, that the work of the Messiah encompasses the whole of jewish history and in some marvelous way. At the end of the age when the purpose of God has been fulfilled in bringing in those great number of gentiles from every tongue and kindred and people and nation, then God will turn back to those jewish people and will say, the hardening, do it away. Do it away.
[01:00:27] Let it disappear.
[01:00:31] And then all Israel shall be saved. How will they be saved? They will be saved by the work of the redeemer in the same way that you and I. Have you not been to the fountain open for uncleanness in the blood of the Messiah?
[01:00:48] So shall they.
[01:00:50] Do you see it? Oh, friends, how wonderful. How wonderful. And do you see what it says in Ezekiel about this very people? Do you know what God is going to do before then, before he actually saves them, before that work comes? If I understand it rightly, he is using them as an instrument by which he gives the nations the evidence for his being.
[01:01:13] Now, may I say it again? We could take a great internationally known evangelist, and we could have great national campaigns in Britain and national campaigns in different countries in Europe or in different parts of the world. But the governments of the world will never listen to a man like they will say, he's paid. He's an evangelist. He's in the pay of a particular movement or some kind of evangelical movement that runs over the denominations or charismatic movement or something. You understand what I mean? But if God takes a little nation of 3 million people who seem to be the weakest of all the nations of the world, with an incredible story of sorrow and anguish behind them, and they come back in unbelief and blindness, and then he protects them and guards them, and every time it seems they will be snuffed out, he causes them to triumph, and every time it seems it will be their end. Instead, it becomes a further stage in the fulfillment of the divine program, don't you think? In the end, the nations will begin to say, what is this? What is this with this little nation?
[01:02:17] We can't snuff them out. 3 million people in an area. If we take down to Beersheva, only 140 miles long. Think of that. 140 miles long from down in the north to Beersheba. And the south. If we went to a lot, of course we will go farther. But 140 miles. And do you know how wide? Not more than 60 miles, even if we took a man in.
[01:02:42] Now, my dear friends, this little plot of ground 140 miles long, 60 miles wide, with 3 million people in how is it they overcome 100 million Arabs armed to the teeth? Every time they threaten them, I say, we will snuff them out. We will drive them into the sea. We will bathe the ground with jewish blood. What happens? God steps in.
[01:03:06] And when this world becomes cocky God allows them to suffer as he did in the Yom Kippur war till they knew themselves.
[01:03:13] It could have been the end of us and God stepped in and saved us.
[01:03:20] Now, my friends, my point is this. It's all in ezekiel.
[01:03:24] I mean, it says in chapter 38 and verse seven and 39 and verse seven. And I my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people, Israel. Neither will I sight suffer my holy name to be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the holy one in Israel. Now, dont think that that means that of necessity they are saved at that point.
[01:03:47] Because he says in chapter 38 and verse 16, and thou shalt come up against my people, Israel, as a cloud to cover the land. It shall come to pass in the latter days. That I will bring thee against my land, that the nations may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee. O Gog.
[01:04:08] Now, how on earth can God be sanctified? In Gog? Does it mean Gog will be saved? The antichrist? Certainly not. What it means is this. God will take that Antichrist and that Antichrist system and he will reveal that he is himself.
[01:04:25] And this is just flesh, demonized flesh.
[01:04:31] In other words, this word sanctify means God will put things in their proper place. He will say, that's that. And this is this. Do you understand?
[01:04:39] As if he will say to the nations, now, you think you can come against them politically. You think you can come against them militarily. You think you can come against them economically? I will protect them. And so Israel, this little little nation, becomes the means by which God, God will instruct the nations. We have seen something, my dear friends. That united nations resolution of 1975 defining Zionism as racialism and racism and Israel as an imperialist colonialist regime occupying Palestine.
[01:05:15] This resolution, in my eyes, is as serious as Hitler's beer hall manifestos, which christians took very little note of, because in the end, the nations of the world will band together on the ground and foundation of this resolution to destroy this imperialist colonialist regime in occupied Palestine.
[01:05:40] But I have no fears for little Israel, my dear friends. I just hope I'm there.
[01:05:48] Someone said to me a while ago, aren't you afraid of being blown up?
[01:05:53] And I said to them, well, I think I'll get there quicker.
[01:06:01] I don't understand them when they say, a little while ago, a very famous authoress in mission circles in this country came to Jerusalem and someone was instructing her very carefully on how to look for bags left in foyers or buses. Now, they said, as soon as you see it, get out. And she said, why? They said, it may have a bomb in it. And she said, oh, really?
[01:06:23] And then she well, am I supposed to be afraid? Well, he said, you don't want to be blown up, do you? And she said to me, she said, I would much rather be blown into the presence of God than in my days in an old age home.
[01:06:37] And I said, good for you.
[01:06:41] Good for you. Much better to be blown into the presence of the Lord. After all, as if we're left half maimed at the problem. Once we're in the presence of the law, we'll say, wasn't that a wonderful little trip? Just like that. And we're here.
[01:06:55] Thank you, Lord, for doing it that way.
[01:07:00] Now, I'm only just saying this. Of course there's going to be war. Of course there are going to be problems as far as Israel is concerned. But we have no fears for Israel. Our fears are for this nation. Our fears are for the nations of Europe. Our fears are for America. Our fears are for the so called great superpowers of the world. These are the nations that will be broken upon Israel. They will be devastated. They will be desolated. They will be broken. Not Israel. Israel may suffer. Israel may lose much life. But Israel will never be defeated till the Messiah comes, until those blessed, pierced feet stand again upon the dust of the Mount of olives and walk again within the streets of that old walled city. Jerusalem is invincible. Even according to the prophet Zechariah, when half the city of Jerusalem falls, then at that moment, the messiah will stand upon the Mount of Olives and the kingdom begins.
[01:08:10] Dear friends, I have not much worry about this matter of the future because I know that God is behind this little nation of Israel. He has said, I will lead the blind by a way that they know not, in paths that they have not known will I lead them. This will I do and not forsake them.
[01:08:31] They are blind and he has led them.
[01:08:36] They have been brought in paths that they knew not. It led to the Holocaust of 1930, 919 45.
[01:08:44] These things he has done and has not forsaken them. Thanks be to God. And here is the last thing I want to say. I mean, theres a lot more one could say about the future work of the Holy Spirit. You understand that, but ive just touched on few glorious things that are in front of us.
[01:09:03] I only know that I want to be on this life from the dead. I pray that my eyes may see it. I pray that I may be in some little way. If God only allows me to be a spectator, to be a spectator of this most marvelous theme. I would die content if I could see the jewish people restored to God.
[01:09:28] Now, the last thing is the present work of the Holy Spirit, intercessions. I say that without people might say, oh, we need more missioners. And this is nothing about you, Leslie, or any others that are going in this work. People say, oh, we need missionaries, we need workers. We need more servants of the Lord. Know, my friends, what we need at the present time is intercessors, not just people who mouth a few petitions, but people who know how to intercede in the secret place that is the call.
[01:10:01] The present work of the Holy Spirit, we find in Isaiah, chapter 62, where the messiah says, for Jerusalem, for Zions sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth.
[01:10:20] And then he says, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that are the Lord's remembrances, take no rest and give him no rest until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
[01:10:39] Dear friends, many people want to go and live in Israel. Many people want to get involved in practical, physical ways. I am not disparaging that, but I believe the highest and greatest and most vitally necessary call the Holy Spirit today is to intercession.
[01:11:05] What we need are people who are prepared to lay down their lives that God may fulfill his purpose. Concerning the jewish people, is it too much to ask?
[01:11:24] Those early jewish believers risked excommunication and derision and alienation. They became the offscouring of the world that they might bring the good news of the messiah and the salvation of God to Gentiles.
[01:11:43] And when they found in synagogue after synagogue that the jewish people turned away from them, they turned to the Gentiles.
[01:11:52] And the Gentiles heard gladly the good news.
[01:12:01] If we bleed church tradition, not a single one of those early apostles died a normal death.
[01:12:15] We know that thousands upon thousands of those early jewish believers, believers died in the arenas of Rome and elsewhere.
[01:12:26] Why did they die?
[01:12:30] They died that that good news of God's salvation might go to the whole creation.
[01:12:40] And, dear friends, you are the fruit of their labors.
[01:12:47] Is it too much to ask that at the end of the age there might be those who would lay down their lives for the jewish people?
[01:13:01] If I were to ask you to do it out of sheer love for the jewish people, there may be some who feel a little qualm.
[01:13:09] Do I love them enough, enough to lay down my life for them?
[01:13:16] But if I were to appeal to a more selfish instinct and say, wouldn't you like to be involved in the purpose of God?
[01:13:25] Wouldn't you like in some way to really be involved in what the Lord is doing at the end? For it will be your blessing.
[01:13:36] My blessing?
[01:13:39] I think we need both, dont you?
[01:13:42] I think we need unceasing pain and sorrow in our heart prayer, a hearts desire that will never be quenched until God does this thing.
[01:14:02] And we need a longing to be involved. Some people think that by going to Jerusalem or going to Israel, they're going to be involved. My dear friends, I can tell you from bitter experience that there are many people in Jerusalem who are far out of the will of God.
[01:14:18] And as far as getting these things, this whole matter fulfilled, they are not even involved. They're deceived, they think they are. By going there, they think they can involve.
[01:14:29] My dear friends, that's not the way you get involved. The way you really get involved is inwardly, firstly, maybe some will have to go, but inwardly is the first thing you can be here in this country. And yet in so led into intercession, that you are a vital strategic part in that instrument of intercession for the fulfillment of the purpose of God.
[01:14:57] May the Lord help us. There could be no more glorious subject than this subject of the Holy Spirit and Israel.
[01:15:06] I have done it in justice, picking here and picking there. But my dear friends, remember, it is not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
