The Mystery of Israel

[00:00:00] Speaker A: He is a well known Bible teacher. Author of books and all that. You can read that in the brochure. The best I can say about him, apart from my wife. He is the longest, I mean time wise, the longest friend I have. We met in 1960. That's a long time ago. It's 40 years. And it tells you something about lands that I'm still alive and well. Not only that, but when Lance is around, we get a bonus. We are not only getting a very, very wonderful insight in the word of God. But we get a language course at the same time in proper English. You know I don't speak English. I speak Danglish. I'm Danish. Danglish we call it. So how it is. I always from Romans have been speaking about God's calling upon the jewish people is irrevocable. But that's not the right way. It's irrevocable. Is that correct, Lance? And so I like to invite we call him among friends, his lordship, Sir Lancelot Lambert. Lanceford. You come and share the word of God with us. I better make sure we're still friends before we welcome Lance. Blessings by Emma. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Thank you very much indeed. I would like to turn you to for some of you well known passage in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Romans. Chapter nine. I will read from verse one. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not my conscience. Bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit. That I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake. My kinsmen. According to the flesh, who are Israeli, whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises? Whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ? As concerning the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever. But it is not as though the word of God has come to naught. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel neither because they are Abrahams seed. Are they all children? But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God. But the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. Chapter eleven. From verse eleven I say then did they, the jewish people stumble, that they might fall, God forbid. But by their fall salvation is come to the gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their fall is the riches of the world. And their loss the riches of the gentiles, how much more their fulness. But I speak to you that are gentiles. Inasmuch then, as I am an apostle of gentiles, I glorify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh and may save the sum of them. For if the costs casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree and was grafted contrary to nature into a olive twee, how much more shall these, which are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tweed? For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fulness of the gentiles become in and so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer. He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the elections, they are beloved for the father's sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just a further word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we are so thankful we are found here, gathered into your presence. We praise you, beloved Father. We're not asking that the Lord Jesus join us. We're coming into your presence, gathering to you now. Lord, all we want to do is to recognize that without you we can do nothing. You have provided us with an anointing, both for the speaking of your word and for the hearing of your word. And into that anointing, grace and power and wisdom. We stand by faith. Let us know it in the fullest measure this evening so that, Lord, if this becomes in your word a meeting with you, something is done in our hearts that is forever. And we shall give you all the praise and all the glory for answering this, our prayer. We ask it in the name of our messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen. There is one little verse that has been very much on my heart for some time in connection with my contribution to this conference. You will find it in this verse, 25 of Romans eleven. I would not have you ignorant of this mystery. I would not have you ignorant of this mystery. I would have thought that alone would cause the church to stop and think about this whole question of Israel and the jewish people such a burden on the heart of the apostle, having expounded the most in the most unbelievably clear manner, the gospel, the clearest exposition of the gospel in the 66 books of the Bible. He says, for I would not bother have you ignorant of this mystery. He is speaking to many, many gentiles in the church in Rome, and his longing is that they would understand by the Holy Spirit the mystery of Israel. The secret of Israel there are a whole number of mysteries. Indeed, the apostle in another place speaks of himself and other apostles as stewardship of the mysteries of God. It is an amazing word, just in secret. But he borrows from the secret societies in hellenistic society secrets in which only the members were initiated. And he speaks of a whole number of mysteries or secrets that only those born of God have a right to understand. But every child of God, however uneducated, however unsophisticated, however primitive in background, has a birthright. And that birthright is to know the mystery. They are revealed by the Holy Spirit. It has to come through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise it remains something beyond us. I think, for instance, of the mystery of the incarnation. Can anybody explain to me adequately in a way that would satisfy the intelligence, the incarnation? It is a secret. Yet the simplest child of God knows that he has met with God in the Lord Jesus, that in some amazing way he or she has found God in the person of the Lord Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. The simplest, most uneducated child of God knows that they have met something. They met the very heart of God, the very mind of God in the person of the Lord Jesus. You can't trap this in a queen. You can't even, to use an american term, verbalize this properly. Yet it is a mystery that is the birthright of every poor child of God. And then I think of the mystery of the gospel. It's another extraordinary mystery. I mean, the apostle calls it the foolishness of preaching. It really is stupid when you know very well that only God can save people. Yet he has ordained that through the foolishness of preaching, men and women should be saved. Every time I, I am by virtue a Calvinist, but every time I stand up in front of anyone ever preach the gospel, I know only God can save. Those listening to the rest will just think its a lot of stupidity. But God does save. Thats the amazing thing. If you dont preach, God doesnt save, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Messiah. It is a mystery or I think of the mystery of the indwelling of the Lord Jesus. The apostle, again in Colossians chapter one, speaks of it. What is this mystery among you? He says, among the Gentiles, it is Christ in you, the certain hope of glory. How do you explain that? Yet the simplest child of God knows that Christ abides, dwells within us. And the more of Christ, the more of glory. Or I think of the church. What a mess weve made of the church. Its called the mystery. It is amazing to me, head and body. But we all think of the head as the head of a hospital, or the head of a school, or the head of some government department, or the head of the nation. And we think of the head as someone over there, and we are here. But the Bible speaks of the head and body. You have never seen a headless, living body, nor have you ever seen a living bodiless head. The whole idea is that head and body are joined together. They are one. It's a mystery. It's a secret. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal it. But when the Holy Spirit reveals it in it is tremendous. That kind of church turns the world upside down without huge fundraising schemes, without huge theological seminaries or anything else. It is the impact of the risen Messiah through the members of his body. It has always been so. It is a mystery now. There are a whole number of mysteries, and thats not my purpose to go through them all. But Israel is also a mystery to the intelligence. It doesnt add up. Try to make it add up. Does God use unsaved people? How can the election of God still stand for a people that are blind, deaf, disobedient and enemies of the gospel? It doesn't add up. Is it not true that the pioneers of Israel were mostly agnostics, if not atheists, neo marxists? Yes, it's absolutely true. Then how in the world can you say that Israel is the fulfillment of God's prophetic word? It cannot be. Does God use agnostic, agnostics and atheists? It is extraordinary. You see, it's a mystery. The whole thing is a mystery. It is a secret. A secret that only the Holy Spirit can reveal. And yet, once the Holy Spirit illuminates our spirit with this truth, it dawns on us the glory of God's grace and the glory of God's mercy and the glory of God's faithfulness. So I find this tremendous of the apostle said, I would not rather have you ignorant of this mystery. I wonder what the apostle would say of the church today, and particularly the church in Europe and in particular the church in the United Kingdom. This mystery, for the most part heart is not understood. There is an ignorance of this mystery. I want therefore to underline it because others are going to talk about gods prophetic agenda. I want to talk about replacement theology. Its a dreadful subject in one way, its not in another way, its a glorious subject from another point of view. But I want to talk about because it lies at the root of our whole understanding of gods prophetic agenda and his purpose in our day and generation. It is my conviction that if you do not understand the mystery of Israel, you are at sea. You are at sea in everything that God is seeking to do with the true church. You are at sea in everything that the Lord is seeking to do amongst the nations. You are at sea concerning his heart for the jewish people. So I want to dwell for a little upon these incredible chapters, verses 910 and eleven of the roman letter of the apostle Paul. Because they are, they comprise the key to our understanding. The way this has been treated is very interesting. It has been treated basically in two ways. One is this parenthesis, that is, it's in brackets beginning with chapter nine, verse one, and ending with the last verse of chapter eleven. This is sort of a kind of parenthesis in which the brilliant mind of the apostle Paul wanders. Now we're told, of course it's truth, but it is a sideline. It is a cul de sac or in american English a dead end. It's not going to lead you anywhere fast. This it is just that the apostle, because of his genius, his brilliance, has somehow taken off and wandered for three whole chapters. When he comes to chapter twelve and verse one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritually intelligent worship and service. He is actually coming back to the first eight chapters. Its nothing to do with chapters 910 and eleven. He is coming back to the first eight chapters. Therefore these three chapters are for theologians, for those who have the time and are not so busy that they can, as it were, contemplate and reflect upon this brilliant parenthesis of the apostle Paul. But it has no realistic relevance for the church in practice. It has no realistic relevance for missions in practice. It is something marvelous, but not necessary. That's the first way these chapters are dealt with. The second way is a good deal better. It is that in these three chapters the apostle deals with elections, that is, with predestination or for ordination, whichever word you like best. And he deals with it completely to do with the church, the elect Israel is forgotten. Indeed, the election of Israel is merely an illustration, as it were, a kind of foreshadowing of the church. Now my own conviction is that in this incredible exposition of the gospel, chapters 910 and eleven are foundational. You come here into the holy of holies. It is not the wanderings of a brilliant mind, brilliant as the apostles mind was, nor is it merely and only to do with the election or predestination of the church. I say here it's almost as if the Holy Spirit caused a kind of hesitation in the apostle spirit. He could not go any further, and he had to deal with the whole question of Israel and the jewish people and the church. And it is exactly here that is the point of our confusion, because those who see the calling of the church do not see the calling of Israel. They cannot see any relationship between the two communities. They can only see one or, or other. Even those who love Israel sometimes have no understanding of the calling of the church, as if everything begins and ends with Israel and that the church is a sideline, an afterthought that God had. This is the matter that the apostle deals with here, and I want to say straight away that I believe this whole question of Israel and the jewish people and their destiny is strategic to christian mission. When men and women and christian leaders see God's purpose for Israel, then God will give them nations. Once they lay down their lives, as it were, on this issue, then God will work in the most incredible way to bring salvation to nation. I believe it is also true of the church. These three chapters reveal something to us that I believe is again strategic, that the purpose of God for the church cannot be fulfilled without the natural branches. The natural branches have to come back into their own olive tree. And once we understand that, then the building up of the church, the functioning of the church, the witness and testimony of the church, comes into a new dimension of powerful relevance to us all. Thats why the apostle sums up, in my estimation, everything when he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies, thats in the plural, the mercies of God. Its not only that he has spoken about mercy and mercy and mercy and mercy in those first eight chapters chapters, but if you carefully underline it in chapter 910 and eleven, you will find mercy, mercy, mercy and mercy. Now he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritually intelligent worship and service. It is strategic this matter. For out of this presenting of your bodies a living sacrifice by these mercies of God you will prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God and you will not be conformed to this world, but instead you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, I dont know. This is a first evening and I hope im not boring you stiff, but it seems to me that this matter is of tremendous importance. Long before we can understand anything about gods prophetic agenda, we have to understand that it is the focal point of that prophetic agenda is to do with Israel. I hope you have been with me thus far. The divine call to God is that once the Holy Spirit reveals this mystery of Israel to us, we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, both for the preaching of the gospel and the evangelizing of the world, and for the building up of the church and for the salvation of the house of Israel. That's the first thing I want to underline this evening. Here's the second thing. Now hold on to your seats because some people get upset when I say this, but I'm going to say it. Romans nine and ten is pure replacement theology. Don't run down people who believe in replacement theology because it is Bible based. The problem is they have only two chapters, if you understand what I mean. If you don't see romans eleven qualifying and conditioning all that the apostle has said by the spirit, in romans nine and ten you have only replacement theology. And everywhere you look in the New Testament and indeed in the Bible, you come to replacement theology. It looks as if the church has totally replaced the jewish people. That is the flowering of everything, the completion of everything God has finished with the jewish people. They were merely a means to an end. They were merely a stage in God's redemptive purposes. They're gone now. So I do hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Romans nine and ten is pure replacement theology. Listen to it. If youve got your bible, ill go through it with you. Verse six. But it is not as though the word of God has come to naught, that they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Now what is he saying? He means that some people who are circumcised and bar mitzvahed are not. What does he mean? Of course he means exactly that. The real Israel has always been within the outer Israel. After all, you had Ahab, he was as wicked as they come. You had Menasseh, he was as wicked as they come. You mean because they were circumcised by mitzvah, they were saved. You mean that Judas, that Jesus himself called the son of perdition, going to his own place, he was circumcised. And bar mitzvah, Caiaphas, who actually prophesied somewhere in the line of Balaam's ass. I mean that he actually was a child of God simply because he was circumcised. No, the apostle says, they are not all Israel who are of Israel. And then he says something even more shocking. He says in verse seven, neither because they were Abraham seed, are they all children. But in Isaac, what shall thy seed be called? That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are the children of God, but the children of the promise. Now if that's all he said, then we could say, well, that's all right. We know the real Israel is within Israel. It's still totally jewish. But then he carries on. You take verses 24 and to 26, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people, and her beloved that was not beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living God. This is pure replacement theology, because the Jews that were saved were the original Jews, that is, the early church. I'll come to that in a moment. And then the rest are gentiles who were not his people, who were outside, who were alienated, divorced from God without hope. Now he says, they shall be called my people, who were not my people, people and sons of the living God. Look at verse 30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by works, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. Are you following me? So don't be too harsh on those who believe in replacement theology. They have not understood the mystery of Israel in my estimation, but it is here in the book. Now we have an enormous problem. If you take chapter ten and you take verse 19, but I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation with a nation void of understanding will I anger you. And Isaiah is very bold and said, I was found of them that sought me not. I became manifest unto them that ask not of me, but as to Israel. He says, all day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Therefore, it is absolutely logical that when you come to chapter eleven and verse one, the apostle asked the question, has God finished with Israel? So strong is his argument, so clear, his exposition, that he can do no other than ask the question. Then has God finished with Israel? And he answers it by saying, God forbid, I also am an Israeli. I don't know why all these modern versions say israelite. I've never been able to ask, who are the Israelites? Can anyone tell me? Apparently they are another breed. They are not Israelis. I don't understand it. I mean, never mind. That's just by aside, he says, I also am an Israeli. Of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not, he said, cast off those whom he foreknew. And then he speaks in verse five. Even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This remnant, according to the election of grace is exactly what the apostle has already spoken of in verse 27 of chapter nine. And Israel. And Isaiah Crieth concerning Israel. If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved. For the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord had left us a seed, we had become a sodom and had been like unto Gomorrah. Now it's interesting. This remnant, according to the election of grace, is the early church. Now I know it's like preaching to the converted here this evening, but I want to, since it's God's prophetic agenda, I want to underline with as much power as God can give me, that the foundation of all God's dealings with the nations is centered in two people, the church and the Jews. They are at the heart of everything that God does. And you cannot understand gods prophetic agenda without understanding this, at least in my estimation. This remnant, according to the election of grace, was the early church. People often think that all those wonderful ethnic groups named in acts chapter two, when the Holy Spirit fell upon that day of Shavuot some 1900 years ago, were actually gentiles. There wasn't a single gentile amongst them. They were all Jews, every single one of them. So that that early church on the end of that Shavuotei numbered 3120 Jews. Within a matter of a month or two they had come to number 5000 jewish men. And within a few more months they had come to number 8000. And a great company of priests had believed. I've often wondered whether that came from the priests on duty in the temple on the day that Jesus died who actually saw with their eyes the veil torn from top to bottom and began to wonder what in the world could have happened. It was not human hands. It was not a human reproduced act. And found out that it was at the exact moment Jesus died when he cried. With that loud cry it is finished. They were all Jews. All those early apostles, all twelve of them were Jews. The one who replaced Judas was jewish. Not half jewish. Three quarter jewish, quarter jewish. They were totally jewish. I'm only just saying to underline the fact. All those marvelous early church leaders with glorious greek names. Philip, Stephen, Nicholas, Timothy, Apollos. All Jews, every one of them. They were greek speaking Jews. Hellenistic Jews, we called them. Today we call them Romanio. I mean, it is extremely extraordinary to me that any jewish parents would ever name their son Apollos. The fact that he came from Alexandria explains everything. But nevertheless, can you imagine two jewish parents, father and mother, calling their son at his circumcision that he must have had a hebrew name, but I mean that he would be called Apostle. And I found it even more remarkable that he kept his name after he got saved. I found that quite extraordinary. But he was a jew. And of course you all know that of the 27 writings of the New Testament, all but two written by the one person, Luke. The gospel of Luke and the book of acts. All the rest were written, humanly speaking, by a jewish hand. Beloved friends, this early church had a passion. It was not shared totally by all, but it was a passion that became the catalyst for outreach to the nation. They went to the ends of the earth within half a generation, that is only 20 years, they had taken the gospel to Ethiopia and the whole of Ethiopia had turned to the Lord. They had taken the gospel to Armenia and the whole kingdom turned to the Lord. Thomas took the gospel, if we believe tradition, to southern India. Paul took it all over the place and so did the others. To Italy, to Turkey, modern Turkey, to Yugoslavia, to Bulgaria, to Romania, to France, to Spain. And if we bleed tradition, Joseph of Arimathea preached the gospel in London 14 years after the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It is incredible. It was the fulfillment of a prophetic vision that Israel should be a vessel that would carry the salvation of God to the ends of the earth. The knowledge of God's salvation to the ends of the earth. That vision, that prophetic vision found in Isaiah, found in Jeremiah, found in Ezekiel, found in Zechariah, found everywhere you look. That prophetic vision was fulfilled in the early church. The biggest shock that early church ever had was when the Holy Spirit fell on the Samaritans. That was a colossal shock to the early church. They looked upon the Samaritans as a mongrel breed, a hotchpotch of all kinds of things, with a little bit of jewish blood somewhere or other mixed in. You will remember that Nehemiah wouldn't even allow them to have any part in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. You will remember the story of the woman of Samaria at the well and how surprised she was that her jewish rabbi should talk to her in the middle of the day. No one ever went through. No one ever stayed in Samaria. They never rested for a moment. If you had to go through Samaria, it was simply because someone was dying in Galilee and you had to get their very pass. And the way through was two days either to see them before they died or get a signature. That was the only reason. Otherwise you went the long way down over the river Jordan on the east bank. And that which took seven to eight days. But when the Holy Spirit fell upon the Samaritans, it was an enormous shock to the early church. And they sent no less than Peter and John to investigate. And they came back and said, indeed, the Holy Spirit has fallen upon the Samaritans. They then got used to that. But when the Holy Spirit fell upon those gentiles, absolute gentiles, with not a drop of jewish blood in them in that drawing room in Caesarea, no less than a roman officer of the occupying army. And Peter, you know the story better than I. You know how Peter was on the roof and had the vision three times a sheet let down with all non kosher things in it. And the Lord said, the voice, the heavenly voice said, rise, kill and eat. And he said, I've never eaten anything unkosher in my life. And as soon as the last time it went up, there was a knocking on the door. And there were the gentiles, a batman and two other servants. All gentiles, full blooded gentiles, wild as they come, wild olive branches, and said, our master has said he's had a vision of you, Peter, and you are to come, if you would, and stay with us. Now, this meant that the apostle Peter was going to stay in a non kosher home under a non kosher roof with non kosher host and hostess. And he went like a lamb. And of course, I personally don't think Peter had an inkling of what was in store, as so often is the case in great historic turning points in the history of God's dealings. And Peter went like a lamb to rehearse what he had been an eyewitness to in the land. And whilst he was rehearsing the whole story concerning Jesus and in one sense preaching, he had the experience that many of us preachers had. The congregation was no longer listening to him, for the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the whole audience and they were all speaking in tongues and prophesying. Peter was, I imagine, shocked to his foundations that the Holy Spirit had fallen upon full blooded gentiles for the first time in history. It was bad enough for the Holy Spirit to fall upon the Samaritans, but at least they had a little bit of jewish blood up as they were. We can make an excuse for them maybe, but to fall upon that whole company in that gentile home in Caesarea, the military and naval headquarters of the province called Syria, I mean, its unbelievable. It was the most successful mission ever launched by the church. It has gone to the ends of the earth. Everywhere men and women of every tongue and ethnic group and nation have been redeemed so successful that the vast majority of christians have no idea their jewish roof. Such was this story of the remnant according to the election of grace. Now, my beloved friends, all of you, if not most of you at least, have traveled, and I imagine you're tired. You don't want me to go on too long tonight. You know, I'm a long preacher, but you know, this is an amazing thing when you begin to look at this whole question. If it was not for romans eleven and a few intimations in romans nine and ten, you could understand replacement of theology. You have a marvelous little intimation in the very first verses of romans nine where he says, to whom belong this, this, this? Not in the past, not whose were the fathers? But whose are the fathers? To who is this, this? And this? Very interesting. And then you have this other wonderful word about their fall in order to provoke, to jealousy the jewish people. You had those intimations already that there is more to this than meets the end. Now do you begin to understand why it's called the mystery of Israel? You come down on one side and you have only half the truth come down only on the other side. You have only half the truth. I take the beginning and the end of the Bible. I find an amazing correspondence. When I first discovered it, I was brought up to believe that the Bible was a collection of myths and legends and that it was full of inaccuracies. In fact, I was always told that the Jews, by nature, exaggerate, and that therefore, the Old Testament particularly is full of exaggerations. And, of course, it is very true. You all know when you're being sold a bit of cloth, this is the finest bit of cloth in the world. 30 years ahead, you'll still be wearing this cheapest best. So they always say the Jews exaggerate. I have studied the Bible now for nearly 50 years, since I was saved and as a boy, and I have failed to find all these exaggerations and inaccuracies and legends and myths. Instead, what I have discovered is an incredible theme that runs through the whole Bible from beginning to end. And if I take the first three chapters and the last three chapters of the Bible, I have the most incredible, interlocked, complimenting, unbelievable. I don't want to take too much time, but I've noted them down. Heaven and earth. New heaven and new earth. Paradise lost. Paradise regains. Satan enters. Satan cast out forever. Earth cursed no more. Curse. Adam and Eve. An innumerable number that no man. An innumerable crowd that no man can number. A garden and the end. A city. A tree of life. A tree of life. A river of life. A river of life. God walking in the midst. God dwelling in the midst. Earthly marriage, Adam and Eve till death parts. Heavenly marriage. The lamb and the bride of the lamb forever. Incredible. Even more remarkable is the fact that God put Adam to sleep. And before he did so, he brought before Adam all the animals. And I used to wonder when I first read the Bible, what is this story? Why did God do this? I mean, why does it say there was no help meat found for Adam. That is, no one who answered him, a very good description. Nobody who answered him like a mirror in water, a face in water. And then God brought before him all the animals. It was because God didn't want to say to Adam, you're incomplete. All he wanted to do was to bring something out of him. And he brought before him all the animals. I used to wonder when I first read it, why did God not name the animals? I mean, after all, God knows what an elephant is. If he'd said to Adam, this is an elephant. You have it. Adam, elephant, elephant. And Adam would have said, elephant, lord. Yes. And he would have lumbered by and then another came in and the lord said, this is a hippopotamus. Hippopotamus. You got it. Hippopotamus, lord. And it lumbered by and so on. So. But he didn't. He said to Adam as the elephant came, now, what about this? And Adam looked and said, elephant, lord. I'll call it an elephant. The lord said, very well, elephant it is. And he went on and then came the hippo. And he said, hippo. Hippopotamus. Very well, said the lord. Hippopotamus it is. And then came a giraffe. Giraffe. Said Adam. Very well. The lord said, giraffe it is. You can let them go, Adam. Yes, of course. Wonderful creatures. Then came an orangutan, which in Bahasa Malay means man of the forest. And I suppose Adam looked and thought, could I, could I live with this? I sat up home with it. And then he said, no, Lord, that's an orangutang. And the Lord said, aurangutang it is. And it went. And then the Lord put him to sleep. Put him to sleep. You know the story. And opened his side and took out rib and flesh and created Eve. And when he awoke, he said, not, this is woman. Goodbye. He said, I am ish. She is Isha. This is me. She answers to me. And it says, the two shall become one flesh. Thats at the beginning when you come to the cross, after Jesus had died, after he had finished his work on the cross of our salvation, when he cried, it is finished. And the veil of the temple was torn in two. John says, I saw, I beheld witness. My witness is true, as if it's tremendously important. He said, a soldier came and pierced his side and out of his side flowed blood and water. And he makes so much of it. So people say, oh, this is salvation. No, no, no. It is the bride. It is the last Adam and the second man. His side is open. He has been, he is asleep. And out of his side, God has produced a bride. So that Jesus could say in his resurrection, this is me. Flesh of my flesh and bones of my bone. So John, writing his letter, says, there are three that bear witness. The spirit, the blood and the water. Of course, it's to do with salvation, but much more than salvation, it is to do with that. So you see, I find this correspondence between the beginning of the Bible, end of the Bible. Simply, you have three materials in the first three chapters. Follow the river of life. You have to follow the river of life. You will not see them. They are not all there for you to look at. They are all hidden within the bed of the river, the shore of the river, or in the ground surrounding you will find gold, precious stone and a thing called Bedelium. In Hebrew, Bidulak. And this thing that has been put into Greek and Latin is a little aromatic plant that when you break it out comes something that hardens white like a pearl. I hadn't time to quote Justinius, but Justinius says that he is convinced that the jewish tradition that this is the pearl, the river pearl, is correct. Because he said, there's nothing particularly valuable about bdellium. Why gold, precious stone and bedelium? When you come to the end of the Bible, there are only three materials out of which the new Jerusalem has been produced. Gold, precious stone and pearl. You not think that's remarkable? Do you not think that it's incredible that in the first three chapters you have the spirit of the Lord hovering. And the hebrew word is of a vulture or an eagle hovering, looking for a place to perch, a place to build a nest. There is none. When you come to the end of the Bible, the spirit and the bride say, come. What the Holy Spirit was looking for in the beginning, he is now produced through the finished work of the Messiah. Now I don't want to keep you here for too long, but I just find it so amazing to me, I mean I find it so exciting. Where are all these legends and myths and exaggerations and imprecisions and I don't know what else I find this amazing, especially as the book of Revelation did not occupy the last place for nearly 300 years. And finally it came as the last book, the 66th book of the Canon of Scripture. And then this amazing correspondence between the beginning and the end comes. Now why have I told you all that? You say, isn't he going to speak about his. Yes, but where is Israel? Here? There is no mention of Israel. She's not mentioned in the first three chapters. She's not mentioned in the last three chapters. There must come as a terrible shock to all of us who pray for Israel, that love Israel, long for her salvation. You open your Bible and you have two little books at the heart of the Bible. One is called ecclesiastes, that the rabbis argued for a couple of centuries over saying it has no place in the canon of scripture. Modern theologians call it Jean Paul Sartre. Futility, futility. All is futility. Doesn't matter what you do. Everythings futile. You might as well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. Life is an endless cycle. You go round and round and round and round and round and round and round and you get nowhere. And then in the middle of it, theres one little marvelous God hath set eternity in the heart of man in such a way that he cannot find it out. And then it goes on to say, whatsoever the Lord does, it is forever buried in this amazing little thing that tells us everything is vanity, vanity. Everything is vanity. Futility, futility. Everything is futile, uselessness, uselessness. All is useless. It says that God created, if I put it in my own language, a God shaped blank in the heart of every man. And until that vacuum is filled with God mans life is futile, vain, useless. A circle that goes come to the next little book, the song of songs. Liberal theologians say this is a bawdy ditty. That's how they've described it. I'm not playing funny. That's how they've described it in theological seminary. But suddenly in the song of songs, you find everything has meaning. There is a progress, it's not a circle. She moves from one thing to another. She starts by saying, my beloved is mine and I am he. Mine, mine, mine. That modern Christianity everything is mine, mine, mine, mine. I'm the center of it all, mine. He's mine. I can share him with you, but basically he's mine. My crown, my joy, my satisfaction, my fulfillment, my everything. And she gets dealt with. And the next refrain is, I am my beloved and he is mine. Oh, theres a difference in emphasis there, but its not good enough. The Lord deals with her even more. Then she says, I am my beloved. Mine has gone out. Whatever he wants, it's his will, his inheritance, his joy, his fullness, his satisfaction, his will, his everything. No wonder. In our jewish tradition, this is described as the love between God and Israel. Right at the heart of your Bible, you have a marriage. At the beginning of the Bible, a marriage at the end of the Bible, in the heart of your Bible, you have a marriage. Do you not think its amazing that when Jesus, the very first miracle he performed at the very beginning of his messianic ministry of three and a half years, was at a wedding in Cana when he turned water into wine, which has always been a problem to some christians, they would have wished that he had turned the wine into water, but he turned corruptible water, disease ridden water into incorruptible wine that gets better as it gets older. Take that, you grey haired. It gets better as you get older because the Lord does a deeper work and a deeper work and a deeper work in you. Water cannot stand, it deteriorates. Wine gets better and better and better. But I better not say anymore. You might think I'm an expert on wine. I mean, the fact of the matter is, it's so wonderful when you see this kind of thing. How did John the Baptist describe himself? He described himself as the best man of the bridegroom. His whole ministry of repentance and preparation. He said, I am the friend of the bridegroom who stands by and rejoices. Do you see this whole marvelous picture, this bird's eye view of the whole word of God? It's 66 books contained in this little bird's eye view that by the grace of God I have shared with you. Where is Israel? Where is Israel in this? No wonder people believe in replacement theology. They say, no, Israel doesn't fit in here at all. That nation in the Middle east causing all that problem there, those settlers in Samaria and Judea and Gaza, they shouldn't be there in the first place. What does this got to do with the purpose of God and the salvation of God? Now you begin to understand the mystery of Israel. To this mind it is stupidity. To this mind it is to the humanistic spirit it is an irritation, it's something that brings out an antagonism within us. God chose a man called Abraham and he said to him, when he called him in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And the apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy spirit in the galatian letter says it was the gospel that was preached to him when God said to him, in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Not one family. All the families of the earth were blessed. In the gospel of John, Jesus said that Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. AbrahAM is called twice in the word of God, father of all who believe. I find it amazing to quote Stephen in that amazing, unbelievable message he preached that ended in his martyrdom. He said, the God of glory appeared to our father abraham whilst he was yet in MESOPOtAMIa, in Ur of the chaldees. Listen to me. When the God of glory appeared to Abraham, Abraham saw the city of glory in the God of glory. And he was never the same again. The Hebrew letter says, by faith he went out and it says, for he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. City, God of glory. Abraham, city of glory. Got it all to me. It is quite amazing when you see it in this waY. But just wait, just wait. Now we come to Israel, when God chose Abraham, he chose a people, and that people that were to come out of him were to be called by his grandsons name Israel. And that people were to be a vessel through which the heart and mind of God would be revealed to all the nations of the world. It was to be the receptacle, if you like, the agent. I don't like word, but you understand what I mean. The means by which the Messiah would be born into this world and become the savior of the world. I like the word better. Witness and testimony. That people who were to be a witness and a testimony. Testimony. It failed in the majority. It was fulfilled in the remnant according to the election of grace. Well, I hope I haven't bored you too much this evening, but you see, I'm going to leave it here the second time. I'll talk about the 11th chapter a little more. Indeed, detail. Because when you come to the 11th chapter, everything he said in the first two chapters is qualified. Then we suddenly discover that these people who've been hardened, who are blind, who are deaf, who have fallen, who are lost, there is a coming fullness. This people who have been cast away, they are to be received again. This good olive tree into which the wild olive branches, by the gift of living faith, have been engrafted, the natural branches will come back to it. All I want to underline now in closing is in chapter eleven and verse 25. Listen to me, for I would not, brothers, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits that a heartening in part has befallen Israel until the full number of the gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. Is it any wonder that the powers of darkness are mobilizing? Did you hear it? Listen. Hardened in part, meaning they have not been hardened forever, damned forever, thrown away forever, everything to do with them cancelled, transferred to the church. No, hardened impart. That is a time limit. A time limit to the hardening. Something to do with that mission that began in caesarea, in that drawing room. When the fullness of the gentiles become, in not meaning the very last gentile to be saved, but when we come coming to the end, as it were, of this great operation of the Holy Spirit to bring the gentiles to salvation, God will turn back again to the jewish people with the most glorious results. He will melt the hardening, it will vanish. He will turn the blindness to sight and deafness to hearing. I think these three chapters are unbelievable. Would to God that this mystery of Israel dawned upon every child of God would to God there was such an understanding of this that would revolutionize our whole concept of what God is doing. May the Lord touch your heart and my heart and give us illumination. There's only one thing that can stop such revelation. It is pride. Thank you.