Dale Partridge - June 18, 2025


How Should Christians View Israel？


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Length

59 minutes

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115.13646

Word count

6,799

Sentence count

397

Harmful content

Toxicity

26

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Hate speech

91

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Summary

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Well, for the last few weeks I have delivered a three-part sermon series on how to navigate
00:00:17.720 the differences between Christian liberties and convictions. That was Romans chapter 14
00:00:23.480 verses 1, all the way through chapter 15, verses 7. In that section,
00:00:31.400 we learned about the unity between strong and weaker Christians.
00:00:40.440 Today, we are shifting into a section of Romans chapter 15 that is on the unity between Jews
00:00:48.840 and Gentiles. So the theme is still unity, but it's shifting its focus from strong and weak
00:00:55.520 to Jew and Gentile. Now, the timing for this sermon is certainly providential. 0.97
00:01:02.400 As we just saw Thursday night, Israel launched a preemptive attack on Iran, and Iran responded with
00:01:11.680 an attack on Israel. This, of course, has magnified the already intense cultural discussion around
00:01:19.060 ethnic Israel, the Jews, the church, our relationship with Israel as America,
00:01:25.700 America's fascination with Zionism. This has been magnified by this new war. 0.57
00:01:34.020 and as you know many americans are convinced that ethnic jews are god's quote chosen people
00:01:46.420 every one of us knows somebody who has and holds that understanding that ethnic israel is god's
00:01:55.540 chosen people glenn beck who is the prominent political commentator and mormon he has a show
00:02:03.180 with the blaze. I think he actually owns the blaze. He wrote this week, quote,
00:02:10.620 Heavenly Father, please protect Israel and her people, your chosen people. Forgive them and
00:02:17.760 guide them as they strike at the head of the snake. We pray that you spare innocent lives
00:02:24.500 and provide swift justice to those who forsake your name. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
00:02:30.840 This is a well-intended but theologically confused prayer.
00:02:37.500 It's well-intended and theologically confused. 0.52
00:02:41.220 It's a call for Christian and Jewish unity because it confuses identity.
00:02:49.940 Now, this will be the entire focus of this sermon, 0.75
00:02:54.960 is identity must precede unity.
00:02:59.920 I'm going to say it one more time because you cannot leave today without remembering
00:03:03.760 that identity must precede unity.
00:03:09.000 I want you to consider an example.
00:03:12.480 At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., at the heart of the debate at that council was
00:03:20.940 the identity of Jesus.
00:03:23.300 Was he God?
00:03:25.460 Was he man?
00:03:26.640 Was he some sort of mixture of the two?
00:03:29.920 The church had been wrestling with that discussion for decades, and false teachers like Nestorius or Eutychius tried to unify the church around a flawed definition, around partial truths with blurred distinctions.
00:03:49.120 But true unity could not come until Christ's identity was made clear.
00:03:56.400 it's very difficult to have unity around ambiguity
00:04:01.140 you need clarity for unity
00:04:03.680 it was only after articulating
00:04:07.160 that Jesus is one person with two natures
00:04:10.760 fully God, fully man
00:04:13.160 that genuine unity was actually possible
00:04:15.860 now, misidentifying Christ
00:04:19.400 led to division
00:04:20.480 clarifying his identity led to unity
00:04:24.980 unity must occur only after identity is clarified so as i said it before identity must precede
00:04:38.400 unity so if you or if someone you know because we all know someone who holds the position of
00:04:48.500 Glenn Beck, and believes that ethnic Jews are God's chosen people, God's chosen people.
00:04:59.520 You're going to form, from that perspective, from that understanding of identity, you're
00:05:05.520 going to form political alliances, theological alliances, that you would otherwise not, if
00:05:13.700 you did not hold that view of the identity of the nation of Israel.
00:05:20.440 You'll feel this need to defend their state,
00:05:25.320 unify with their causes,
00:05:27.160 reinterpret scripture to accommodate their position.
00:05:31.640 Not because of theological clarity,
00:05:34.160 but because you've misunderstood their identity.
00:05:38.960 In fact, it's the exact reason,
00:05:41.080 that's the exact reason, that
00:05:44.840 has caused America to invent this phrase, which
00:05:49.340 many of us have used, I remember using it about 10 years ago,
00:05:53.360 Judeo-Christian. This phrase, Judeo-Christian. 0.83
00:05:59.300 We've been told
00:06:00.460 that America was founded on a Judeo-Christian worldview.
00:06:05.960 I watched a video about this from Ben Shapiro last night.
00:06:09.380 that we have been founded on a judeo-christian worldview that is just flat false we have not
00:06:18.420 been founded on a judeo-christian worldview we have been founded on a christian worldview
00:06:23.920 the term judeo-christian actually didn't even come into play until around the year 1930
00:06:33.080 and it wasn't widely adopted until after World War II,
00:06:37.720 America was built on a distinctly Christian worldview.
00:06:42.940 Shaped by Protestant theology and ethics, 0.68
00:06:46.260 nothing was blended with Judaism.
00:06:49.600 Now there is so much there that we can't go into
00:06:51.960 and there's much deeper discussion to be had there.
00:06:54.540 But it was only in the rise of dispensational theology.
00:06:58.800 Dispensational theology coming in in the mid-1800s
00:07:01.920 under John Nelson Darby, popularized by the Schofield Reference Bible,
00:07:06.120 and then, you know, preachers like Billy Graham,
00:07:09.100 and then you start to get the Jesus Movement and Calvary Chapel,
00:07:11.540 and everybody jumping in on this theology that was completely foreign to America
00:07:16.320 and the church prior to that period of time.
00:07:20.300 But it was because the rise of dispensational theology in the 20th century
00:07:23.820 that Christians began to favor Jews and began using this term as an extension of their theology.
00:07:31.920 that formed a Zionistic worldview in America.
00:07:38.420 Now, what's so shocking is that the vast majority of Jews do not like the term Judeo-Christian.
00:07:46.240 A lot of Christians don't know that, but they do not like that term.
00:07:52.080 One Jewish man said, quote, 0.72
00:07:54.940 Judeo-Christian really means that we stole the culture of the Jews, twisted it, bastardized it, 0.85
00:07:59.840 used it to slaughter them, then tried to sell it back to them when it was convenient, end quote. 0.99
00:08:05.220 Another Jewish man said, it's offensive as all hell. 0.92
00:08:09.420 First off, Jewish values and Christian values are not the same.
00:08:13.760 And secondly, it's used by Christians to speak for and over Jews
00:08:18.060 and assumes that Jews should fall in line and support their positions, end quote.
00:08:23.700 Another Jewish man said, Judeo-Christian values are not a thing.
00:08:27.260 this is reflected in the radically different views between Jews and Christians on issues
00:08:33.500 such as abortion and same-sex marriage end quote now if you're not aware this is important because
00:08:40.620 a lot of people don't know this but if you're not aware Jews do not share the same view that
00:08:46.160 Christians hold on abortion and homosexuality in fact if you look back just to 2020 Pew Research
00:08:53.720 did a survey, and 83% of American Jews said abortion should be legal in almost all or most
00:09:03.420 cases. 79% of American Jews said they are for homosexual marriage. I recently heard
00:09:12.240 a conversation between a Talmudic rabbi and a dispensational Christian, and the question was
00:09:21.580 asked, did the Jews murder Christ? The dispensationalists emphasized that, well, it was 0.95
00:09:29.220 more the Romans, it was the sin of people, of humanity, that was the cause and murder of Jesus
00:09:36.220 on the cross. The rabbi, the Talmudic rabbi, responded with, yes, and we're proud of it. 1.00
00:09:44.560 He was a sorcerer, demon-possessed, and is now in hell, boiling in excrement. 1.00
00:09:52.560 The point I'm trying to make, which is very interesting that it even has to be made. 0.99
00:10:00.380 The point I'm trying to make is that America's very recent theological union with Israel and with the Jews is very strange.
00:10:13.260 In fact, it's very much like oil and water in church history.
00:10:16.340 in fact jesus confirms this incompatibility when he says in matthew 12 30 he says
00:10:23.540 whoever is not with me is against me there is no lines by the way people
00:10:30.380 you there's no there's no like blurred line gray area with christ
00:10:35.540 he says
00:10:39.180 whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters
00:10:46.340 In John 8, 42 through 44, he tells the unbelieving Jews, he says, if God were your father, you would love me. 0.90
00:10:57.220 But you are not of your father, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
00:11:06.180 Those are strong, strong words. 0.97
00:11:09.880 So again, before we talk about unity between the Jews and the Gentiles, we must first correct our categories, America's categories and definitions.
00:11:27.120 Because misidentifying God's people, God's chosen people, not only pollutes unity, but it upholds error. 0.75
00:11:37.340 Again, identity precedes unity.
00:11:44.980 Who are God's people?
00:11:49.300 That will be the answer or the question that we answer today in this sermon.
00:11:55.600 And my hope is to demonstrate by Scripture, though I could use church history just as easily,
00:12:04.800 but by Scripture, that the nation-state of Israel and its Christ-rejecting population are not God's chosen people,
00:12:18.120 and that Christians unifying with them is not God's will. 0.71
00:12:23.440 And then next week, pay attention here, I will demonstrate by Scripture how believing Jews,
00:12:30.300 believing jews and believing gentiles are god's chosen people and that their unity is god's will
00:12:42.140 it's a very very important distinction so today i'm going to make four extremely
00:12:53.080 offensive claims to an American theological position, but I'm going to defend them with
00:13:01.380 scripture, and I hope that you guys follow along. Those four claims are these. Number one,
00:13:10.400 the Jews do not love God. Big claim. Number two, the Jews are not God's covenant people. 1.00
00:13:20.720 Number three, the Jews are not the true Israel. 0.99
00:13:25.520 And number four, the Jews are not a holy nation. 0.96
00:13:30.460 Those are very intense claims. 0.86
00:13:34.040 Now, to be clear, I do not hate the Jews.
00:13:37.460 In fact, if I had an opportunity to go to Israel, I would spend the vast majority of my time talking to them, using the Old Testament,
00:13:44.120 trying to reason with them lovingly, carefully, compassionately,
00:13:49.280 talking to them about the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
00:13:53.360 My intention today is simply to align our understanding of the Jews
00:14:01.960 with Scripture's understanding of the Jews.
00:14:06.560 That is my only hope today. 1.00
00:14:09.880 So number one, the Jews do not love God. 1.00
00:14:15.020 Now, you might be wondering, how can I even say that? 1.00
00:14:17.140 How can I even say that phrase? 1.00
00:14:21.040 The Jews don't love God?
00:14:22.940 Not all Jews hate Christ, right? 0.74
00:14:25.480 In fact, some Jews even believe in Christ.
00:14:29.360 Now, first, I am speaking of the term the Jews in the exact same way that the Gospel of John speaks of the Jews.
00:14:39.560 The exact same way.
00:14:41.100 Not as an ethnic slur, but as a theological category of those who reject Jesus as the Messiah.
00:14:49.120 For example, I'm going to give you some scripture.
00:14:52.140 John chapter 5, verses 16 through 18. 0.93
00:14:55.280 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus. 0.79
00:15:01.100 Because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 0.96
00:15:05.100 The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. 0.98
00:15:08.980 John 7, 1. 0.93
00:15:10.600 After this, Jesus went about in Galilee.
00:15:13.520 He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
00:15:18.920 John 9, 22 says of the healed blind man,
00:15:23.080 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.
00:15:27.560 For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ,
00:15:33.340 he was to be put out of the synagogue. 0.57
00:15:35.080 any time the apostle john uses the term the jews he is using it as a reference for the people that
00:15:44.520 are against jesus that's just a biblical fact i don't care what background you're from you can
00:15:51.680 look that up on chat gpt on google that is just a fact of john's writing there are many many many
00:15:59.400 many more verses in the gospel of john that support what i'm talking about the point i'm
00:16:04.300 trying to make is that the gospel of John consistently uses the Jews as a collective
00:16:09.820 term for those who oppose Christ. He does not pause to distinguish between different types of
00:16:19.000 Jews. He doesn't. He just says the Jews. He simply refers to their entire ethnicity as being hostile 0.60
00:16:26.800 to Jesus. So when I say the Jews do not love God, I only mean what John and Jesus said about the
00:16:39.060 Jews and to the Jews. I'm going to give you more scripture. John 15, 23. Jesus says, whoever hates
00:16:48.480 me hates my father also. What do you do with that if you're a Jew who doesn't believe in
00:16:56.720 Jesus? Whoever hates me hates my father also. This means that a Jew cannot claim to love 0.80
00:17:09.920 the Father and hate the Son. That's not
00:17:13.960 a thing. Not if you're a Christian. 1.00
00:17:18.240 1 John 8.19 records a conversation
00:17:22.100 between, sorry, not 1 John, John 8.19
00:17:25.860 records a conversation between Jews and Jesus.
00:17:30.480 Jesus says, they said to him, therefore
00:17:33.840 where is your father? Jesus answered,
00:17:37.580 you know neither me nor my father.
00:17:40.580 If you knew me, you would know my father also.
00:17:47.480 1 John 2, 23 says,
00:17:51.820 No one who denies the Son has the Father. 1.00
00:17:59.280 So can a Jew say they love God according to Jesus? 1.00
00:18:04.160 No. 1.00
00:18:05.840 No. 1.00
00:18:07.580 The Jews do not love God.
00:18:12.420 1 John 8, 42, Jesus says to the Jews, 0.57
00:18:14.960 If God were your father, implying that he is not,
00:18:19.260 if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God.
00:18:23.540 Do you understand now why the Jews killed Jesus?
00:18:26.420 Do you understand the claims that he's making here?
00:18:29.360 These are intense claims.
00:18:31.300 So to deny Christ is to deny the Father.
00:18:41.100 Period.
00:18:43.700 No one can love God and reject Jesus.
00:18:48.780 I am the way and the truth and the life.
00:18:53.080 And no man comes to the Father except through Christ.
00:18:57.220 So, the claim that the Jews do not love God is an undeniable claim of Scripture. 0.89
00:19:07.300 The Jews do not love God. 0.83
00:19:09.320 Let the theology of the Bible form that reality for you. 1.00
00:19:15.220 Point number one, the Jews do not love God. 1.00
00:19:20.560 Now again, I'm speaking of the Jews that reject Christ. 1.00
00:19:24.380 Number two category, the Jews are not God's covenant people. 1.00
00:19:33.740 Yesterday, I shared a few scriptures online demonstrating how the Jews are not God's chosen people. 0.95
00:19:42.380 A woman messaged me saying, God is a covenant-keeping God.
00:19:49.380 He is faithful even when we are faithless.
00:19:51.280 He has not forgotten about Israel or his plans for their nation, end quote.
00:19:56.420 Now, this woman is referring to the Abrahamic covenant.
00:20:00.900 Now, I've preached on this topic many times over the years.
00:20:05.140 You might be wondering why I'm preaching on it again.
00:20:08.660 Here's why.
00:20:11.360 How you interpret the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12, Genesis 17,
00:20:18.080 is the central point of disagreement
00:20:24.760 between covenant theology and dispensationalism.
00:20:27.160 Now, the church from basically Jesus until about 1870
00:20:35.420 held covenant theology.
00:20:38.580 Not just Reformed, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, everybody.
00:20:43.840 Every denomination on earth held that position.
00:20:47.540 Covenant theology.
00:20:49.300 It wasn't until the mid to late 1800s, and especially the early 1900s,
00:20:55.060 that you start to see dispensational theology enter into the church
00:20:59.740 and change the entire framework of the landscape of covenantal interpretation.
00:21:06.960 Now, your interpretation on this matter is upstream.
00:21:10.140 It's an upstream issue.
00:21:11.340 And why is it important?
00:21:12.900 Because how you interpret the Abrahamic covenant will flow and affect everything downstream.
00:21:22.200 So here's the thing. 0.95
00:21:24.920 I agree with this woman's statement.
00:21:30.060 I agree with much of what she said.
00:21:32.780 Yes, God is a covenant-keeping God.
00:21:36.440 Yes, God is a...
00:21:37.900 He remains faithful when we are faithless.
00:21:42.900 And yes, God has not forgiven or has not forgotten about his holy nation, Israel.
00:21:49.580 I agree with all of those things.
00:21:51.480 You might go, well, where's the contention?
00:21:54.420 So there's four questions that we need to really answer.
00:21:58.700 One, who is Israel?
00:22:02.920 Number two, who are God's covenant people?
00:22:07.700 Number three, does God keep covenant with those who hate his son?
00:22:12.900 Number four, what nation does God promise to preserve?
00:22:19.720 These are very important questions that a lot of Christians don't understand.
00:22:25.900 So, before we can look at unity between Jew and Gentile, these need to be clarified.
00:22:36.080 Again, identity precedes unity.
00:22:39.880 Let me begin with Deuteronomy, chapter 7, verses 6 through 9.
00:22:47.820 This is a reiteration of the Abrahamic covenant given by Moses as they are getting ready to enter into the promised land.
00:22:55.240 It says,
00:22:57.180 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
00:23:02.100 The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own treasured possession.
00:23:08.860 Out of all the peoples who were on the face of the earth,
00:23:12.560 it was not because you were more in number than any other people
00:23:16.680 that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. 0.96
00:23:21.160 For you were the fewest of all the peoples.
00:23:24.840 But it is because the Lord loves you
00:23:27.200 and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers,
00:23:32.500 speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
00:23:35.260 that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand
00:23:39.920 and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
00:23:43.660 from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
00:23:48.300 Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is God,
00:23:51.720 the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love
00:23:56.320 with those who love him and keep his commandments
00:24:00.800 to a thousand generations.
00:24:04.360 Beautiful.
00:24:05.260 Passage of scripture. 0.55
00:24:06.780 Now, if you're a dispensationalist Christian, that scripture doesn't mean anything to you because it's about the Jews.
00:24:14.740 But if you're a covenant theological theologian holding that position, you get to go, oh, that passage is talking about us, the church.
00:24:25.500 This passage highlights that Israel's election was never based on merit.
00:24:31.160 It was never based on size or ethnicity.
00:24:33.800 It was based on God's sovereign love and his covenant faithfulness.
00:24:40.020 So here's the catch.
00:24:42.660 Here's the catch.
00:24:43.880 If we confuse covenant identity with ethnic identity, we will misread the entire arc of redemptive history.
00:24:54.840 If we confuse covenant identity with ethnic identity, we will confuse the Ark of Redemption.
00:25:06.340 God's covenant people are not grounded in ancestry, but in faith in Christ.
00:25:13.440 Every person, you know how Moses was saved?
00:25:17.860 By grace, through faith in Christ.
00:25:20.680 You know, Abraham was saved by grace through faith in Christ.
00:25:26.460 You know, Joshua was saved by grace through faith in Christ.
00:25:31.640 It was the Christ to come.
00:25:34.160 We have faith in the Christ who came.
00:25:37.240 They were looking forward, we were looking backward.
00:25:39.460 Both require faith.
00:25:44.700 God's covenant people are not defined by birthright, but by rebirth.
00:25:50.680 The beneficiaries of the covenant promises are not physical, but spiritual.
00:25:59.980 Well, I'm going to say not merely physical.
00:26:03.740 Once that is clear, we can begin to see how Gentiles are covenantally included in Israel.
00:26:09.320 How are the Gentiles included in Israel? 0.59
00:26:12.360 Well, if it's not based on ancestry, but faith in Christ, that makes sense.
00:26:17.600 Well, if it's not based on birthright, but rebirth, that makes sense.
00:26:23.300 If it's not based in just the physical, but also the spiritual, that makes sense.
00:26:33.380 It's not through Jewish bloodlines, but through the blood of Christ.
00:26:40.640 Not understanding this is exactly the error of the Pharisees.
00:26:46.280 The Pharisees didn't get this.
00:26:49.640 They misunderstood that the promises given to the nation were only...
00:26:53.860 Okay, I'm going to say this again because this is so important.
00:26:58.420 They misunderstood that the promises given to the nation
00:27:03.520 were only effectual for the remnant within Israel.
00:27:09.300 Okay, follow along with me.
00:27:11.200 To those who were the true children of Abraham,
00:27:13.580 who shared Abraham's faith, not merely his bloodline.
00:27:20.080 That is the mistake of the Pharisee.
00:27:22.640 And I'm going to totally back this up with a bunch of passages of Scripture right now.
00:27:26.140 The Pharisees confused physical descent with covenant descent,
00:27:32.740 assuming that being Abraham's offspring by the flesh
00:27:38.560 guaranteed them the beneficiaries of the covenant promises of God.
00:27:48.200 But Jesus corrects this misunderstanding several times,
00:27:52.520 and I'm going to give you a couple passages.
00:27:54.600 Matthew 3, 9, Jesus says,
00:27:58.040 And do not presume to say to yourselves,
00:28:00.880 We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you,
00:28:04.960 God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
00:28:10.960 What he's saying there is,
00:28:12.500 do not presume that just because you're ethnically Jewish,
00:28:16.100 that the covenant promises apply to you.
00:28:21.100 How do we know that?
00:28:23.620 Well, Romans 4.
00:28:25.140 Why don't you turn there?
00:28:26.060 Romans 4, 13 through 17.
00:28:29.540 Turn there with me.
00:28:34.960 Romans 4, 13 through 17.
00:28:48.320 It says, 0.79
00:29:04.960 The adherents of the law, speaking of the Christ-rejecting Jews, who are to be the heirs, faith is then nullified, and the promise is void. 0.60
00:29:16.580 Verse 15.
00:29:19.060 For the law brings wrath.
00:29:21.520 I'm going to skip to 16.
00:29:23.140 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. 0.93
00:29:31.860 not only to the adherent of the law which is the jews but also pay attention here to the one who
00:29:41.300 shares the faith of abraham those are believing gentiles who is the father of us all both jew and
00:29:50.020 gentile as it is written i have made you the father of many nations not just essentially what
00:29:56.740 saying not just one nation. So Paul is telling us that God's covenant people are not made up
00:30:05.460 of the physical descendants of Abraham, but of the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Does that
00:30:12.920 make sense? That's exactly what that passage is teaching. Paul is telling that God's covenant
00:30:18.580 people are not made up of the physical descendants of Abraham, but the true Israel, the true
00:30:26.080 beneficiaries of the promise are the spiritual
00:30:29.880 children of Abraham. Therefore, God's covenant
00:30:34.180 was never ultimately about a physical nation.
00:30:38.100 It was about a spiritual nation that began within
00:30:41.940 a physical nation. So important.
00:30:46.980 So important.
00:30:49.480 We're going to read more scripture.
00:30:51.080 this is why paul says in romans 9 6 through 8 for not all who are descended from israel
00:31:02.100 belong to israel and not all are children of abraham because they are his offspring
00:31:10.120 he goes on to say he says it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of god
00:31:19.940 like there it is
00:31:22.540 right there, there's your text
00:31:23.860 it is not the children of the flesh
00:31:26.600 who are the children of God
00:31:28.040 but the children of the promise
00:31:30.780 those are the ones of faith
00:31:33.000 that we just read about
00:31:34.500 in Romans 4
00:31:35.040 are accounted as the offspring
00:31:36.880 again
00:31:38.720 not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel
00:31:42.080 there is a group inside of a group
00:31:43.260 that's what's being taught
00:31:46.220 there is a group
00:31:47.120 inside
00:31:49.500 of the group.
00:31:52.280 There is a remnant
00:31:54.060 in the whole.
00:31:56.920 There is a pure
00:31:58.540 group
00:32:00.320 within the larger group.
00:32:03.520 There are wheat
00:32:04.700 and there are chaff.
00:32:11.260 In Galatians 3, 7-9,
00:32:13.980 Paul literally says this.
00:32:16.900 Galatians 3, 7-9,
00:32:18.500 he says,
00:32:18.820 Quote, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
00:32:28.080 There it is.
00:32:31.400 It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
00:32:36.000 He goes on in verse 8, he says,
00:32:37.480 And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
00:32:42.420 preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
00:32:44.640 In you shall the nations be blessed.
00:32:48.820 Now, why is this so important?
00:32:52.980 Because many Americans like Glenn Beck look to faithless ethnic Jews and believe they are God's chosen people and heirs of the covenant.
00:33:06.080 It's exactly how a Pharisee would see it.
00:33:10.160 We are God's covenant people because we are born of Abraham.
00:33:15.500 No, sir.
00:33:18.820 Unless you have the faith of Abraham, you are not an heir of the covenant.
00:33:26.400 Now to be clear, the promises God made to the nation of Israel were real.
00:33:35.140 And they were binding.
00:33:37.500 But their substance was never limited to the physical or ethnic state.
00:33:42.640 It's not just like, it's only to them.
00:33:44.760 No, it's to the group inside of the group that is about to, through Christ, expand from national to international.
00:33:57.380 They were spiritual promises delivered within a physical and ethnic framework.
00:34:04.220 It started with national Israel. 0.55
00:34:08.740 but to think that it ends with national Israel
00:34:13.360 is to miss the entire reality
00:34:16.120 go therefore and make disciples of all nations
00:34:19.380 because I'm taking over the world
00:34:21.560 that's what Christ is doing
00:34:24.200 the nation of Israel was the cradle
00:34:28.860 but not the boundary
00:34:31.480 was the cradle
00:34:33.780 but not the boundary
00:34:35.440 but again we have a question to answer
00:34:38.540 who is Israel
00:34:41.040 who is Israel 0.72
00:34:43.400 and I'm going to say point number three 0.95
00:34:47.560 the Jews 1.00
00:34:48.920 are not the true Israel 1.00
00:34:50.720 alright first 1.00
00:34:53.400 we must
00:34:55.540 understand that the covenant promise
00:34:57.280 was never
00:34:59.220 ultimately about Abraham
00:35:00.960 Isaac
00:35:02.800 or Jacob
00:35:04.340 Jacob's name was changed
00:35:09.300 what? to Israel
00:35:10.320 it was never about those three men
00:35:13.300 these men were types
00:35:17.020 they were shadows
00:35:18.460 pointing forward to the
00:35:21.140 ultimate seed
00:35:22.380 to come through that promise
00:35:24.660 that seed that was promised
00:35:27.040 in Genesis 3.15 1.00
00:35:28.300 the seed of the woman will crush
00:35:30.900 the head of the serpent 0.63
00:35:32.940 preserved in Noah,
00:35:37.380 clarified in Abraham,
00:35:39.560 carried through the patriarchs.
00:35:47.260 That true seed is Jesus Christ.
00:35:49.520 And this should not shock any of us, because why? 0.81
00:35:51.740 Well, Jesus is said to be the true and better Adam,
00:35:54.060 who is our better and righteous federal head. 0.82
00:35:57.040 He is said to be the true and better Moses,
00:35:59.000 who saves us from real spiritual slavery.
00:36:02.060 He is said to be the true and better Joshua, who leads us into the real promised land.
00:36:06.900 He is said to be the true and better David, who is a better king over his people. 0.79
00:36:12.520 So, of course, he would be the true and better Jacob,
00:36:17.500 who wrestled with God not in the desert, but in Gethsemane.
00:36:24.960 Not struck in the hip, but crushed on the cross.
00:36:27.460 Jesus is Israel
00:36:33.240 the true Israel
00:36:35.040 now I'm going to show you a passage of scripture
00:36:36.420 that absolutely confirms what I'm saying
00:36:38.300 Hosea 0.97
00:36:40.320 turn there
00:36:41.500 you can find it
00:36:43.220 Hosea 11
00:36:45.100 verse 1
00:36:46.760 minor prophets
00:36:47.540 towards the back of the Old Testament
00:36:50.020 Hosea 11 1
00:36:54.940 this is a prophecy
00:37:00.920 it says when Israel was a child
00:37:05.180 I loved him 0.98
00:37:08.020 and out of Egypt I called my son 0.96
00:37:11.480 that's important because Matthew 2
00:37:16.920 verses 14 through 15 references Jesus
00:37:20.620 as fulfilling this prophecy
00:37:23.240 It says,
00:37:25.400 And he rose, talking about Joseph,
00:37:30.540 and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt
00:37:35.000 and remained there until the death of Herod.
00:37:38.520 This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,
00:37:43.380 quote,
00:37:43.800 Out of Egypt I called my son, end quote.
00:37:48.260 Okay.
00:37:48.940 Jesus is
00:37:52.380 Israel. He is the true
00:37:56.880 Israel. He is the ultimate 0.90
00:38:01.020 substance of the covenant. Everything from
00:38:04.400 as soon as God intervenes and says to Eve
00:38:08.840 and makes the protovangelium in Genesis 3.15 and promises
00:38:12.980 a savior to come. Everything
00:38:16.960 is working to prepare us for and point us to
00:38:22.440 that seed, Christ.
00:38:25.820 He is the ultimate fulfillment and substance
00:38:29.320 of the entire covenantal promise system.
00:38:35.240 And through Christ,
00:38:38.280 the covenant has expanded
00:38:40.800 beyond national Israel
00:38:43.780 to everyone who has faith from every tribe, nation, and tongue.
00:38:53.440 So what was started as a seed of faith in a national group
00:38:58.160 has bloomed into a harvest of faith in an international group.
00:39:06.140 This is again why Jesus says in the Great Commission,
00:39:09.220 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
00:39:12.140 baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
00:39:14.660 teaching them to obey all that I have commanded.
00:39:19.620 The gospel was this kind of expansion from national to international.
00:39:29.740 It was, I have just redeemed humanity, and I have just redeemed the world.
00:39:35.380 Go get those nations. They are mine.
00:39:39.040 It's basically what's being said in the Great Commission.
00:39:41.600 now the church does not replace israel you're going to get some person that says oh that's
00:39:52.100 replacement theology that the church replaces israel no the church is israel in its matured form
00:40:00.540 okay i would call it fulfillment theology
00:40:05.060 okay the church does not replace israel the church is israel in its matured form let me explain
00:40:13.320 the old testament promises to israel are not nullified they're not nullified they are fulfilled
00:40:20.760 in christ and his body the church so to be very clear be very very clear here when god was making
00:40:29.220 covenant promises
00:40:30.060 to Israel in the Old Testament
00:40:32.940 when God was making covenant promises
00:40:35.480 to Israel in the Old Testament
00:40:36.960 the recipients or beneficiaries
00:40:39.400 of those promises were not
00:40:41.120 everyone in that nation
00:40:42.480 they were only 0.98
00:40:49.040 those Jews within
00:40:51.020 that ethnic group
00:40:53.040 that had faith
00:40:54.960 so he's speaking to them
00:40:58.660 and there are people who are in the covenant
00:41:02.400 and then there are people who are of the covenant
00:41:05.060 same today by the way
00:41:07.480 I know a lot of people that are baptized that probably aren't born again
00:41:11.240 and when I talk about
00:41:13.920 eternal salvation
00:41:15.340 there are people in the covenant
00:41:18.280 through baptism
00:41:19.560 and then there are people of the covenant
00:41:22.460 who have faith
00:41:23.880 those Christ-believing
00:41:30.560 faith-filled Jews of the Old Testament
00:41:35.180 were the early church
00:41:38.080 the church didn't begin at Pentecost
00:41:41.900 the expansion of the Gentile
00:41:45.740 into the Gentile world, yes 0.97
00:41:47.180 but the early church, you can go back to Genesis
00:41:51.580 where I believe that Adam is the first member of the church.
00:41:56.520 You know why?
00:41:57.160 Because in Genesis chapter 4 is the first prayer ever recorded in Scripture.
00:42:02.600 And he is begging by faith, trusting in God for them to send that promise to serpent crusher.
00:42:11.180 You don't make prayers like that without faith.
00:42:15.480 And so, while we don't have absolute clarity, I believe the early church starts with Adam.
00:42:21.580 Do you not believe that Moses is part of the early church?
00:42:25.940 Certainly he is.
00:42:27.720 Do you expect to see him in glory?
00:42:29.960 Certainly.
00:42:30.460 And every other Old Testament saint that you read of in Scripture.
00:42:37.880 They were the early church, the early body of Christ, the true Israel.
00:42:46.220 so to equate
00:42:49.400 the modern geopolitical
00:42:53.240 nation of Israel
00:42:54.240 with the true Israel of God
00:42:56.900 to confuse those two realities
00:42:58.640 is to commit a serious
00:43:01.220 theological error
00:43:02.660 it shifts
00:43:05.180 our eyes from the spiritual
00:43:07.240 and the universal
00:43:09.160 to the physical
00:43:10.640 and the national
00:43:11.600 it really does
00:43:14.060 And what happens in America when Israel starts getting into war? 0.65
00:43:17.980 Everybody goes, let's watch over there. 0.93
00:43:22.540 Maybe Jesus is coming back on Friday.
00:43:26.100 Okay?
00:43:27.460 It shifts our eyes from the spiritual and the universal to the physical and to the national.
00:43:31.960 It's an excellent strategy of the enemy.
00:43:35.980 Let's all focus it there.
00:43:37.860 You know what?
00:43:38.200 It's going to just get worse and worse.
00:43:39.400 Let's just wait for that.
00:43:40.280 In fact, if it gets worse fast, then maybe Jesus will come back soon.
00:43:46.320 We start hoping in failure. 1.00
00:43:54.320 It reduces the glorious Christ-centered fulfillment of God's covenant promises to an ethnic nationalism 1.00
00:44:01.700 that bears no resemblance of the gospel that is saving people all over the world. 0.94
00:44:08.520 It takes one people of God in Christ and produces two peoples of God, ethnic Israel and the church.
00:44:18.020 It really, truly creates polygamy as God has two brides, Israel and the church.
00:44:29.020 This is not how the scriptures defines his people.
00:44:34.040 Ephesians 2, 14 through 16 says,
00:44:37.900 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both, Jews and Gentiles, one,
00:44:45.860 and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility,
00:44:49.660 that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two,
00:44:55.280 so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.
00:45:00.480 I don't know how you arrive 0.53
00:45:04.640 at two peoples of God
00:45:07.240 from passages of scripture like this
00:45:09.860 Jesus said in John 10 16
00:45:14.300 and I have other sheep
00:45:15.780 that are not of this fold
00:45:17.740 I must bring them also
00:45:19.700 that they will listen to my voice 1.00
00:45:22.200 so there will be one flock
00:45:25.180 one shepherd end quote
00:45:27.240 that one verse should just do it
00:45:32.960 to view faithless
00:45:39.020 Jesus hating ethnic Israel
00:45:43.740 as God's chosen people
00:45:46.320 and the church as some kind of temporary
00:45:51.300 parenthetical pause of redeeming the Gentiles
00:45:55.920 in separation from Israel 0.94
00:45:59.980 only so that Jesus can come back
00:46:02.580 and restore the kingdom 0.82
00:46:04.120 and have two separate peoples in heaven and earth.
00:46:09.400 It is moving the eyes from faith to the flesh. 0.99
00:46:16.180 The true Israel is not a nation
00:46:18.920 defined by borders, lineage, or ethnicity.
00:46:25.920 It is the body of Christ composed of all who believe, both Jew and Gentile.
00:46:35.320 It's why Paul says in Galatians 3, 28-29, there is neither Jew nor Greek. 0.86
00:46:42.460 In fact, you've lost your identity.
00:46:46.220 You're in Christ.
00:46:48.080 Not that you're not American or not that you're not Japanese or whatever it may be,
00:46:52.340 But the primary identification that you have is not your skin color or your country, but it's Christ.
00:47:01.620 Everything else falls below that.
00:47:05.460 There is neither Jew nor Greek, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
00:47:12.420 And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.
00:47:17.720 Heirs according to the promise. 0.78
00:47:20.220 get your systematic helmet on and just let that all kind of soak in and make sense to you
00:47:28.580 but what about the promises god made about land and the national aspect of israel
00:47:37.660 point number four the jews are not a holy nation
00:47:42.920 that's a fair and important question to ask 0.78
00:47:47.540 well what about those, the land
00:47:49.180 the promised land, Canaan
00:47:50.940 Palestine
00:47:52.040 because we know that God doesn't break
00:47:55.320 his promises
00:47:55.840 so what about that land
00:47:59.260 the national promises of the Old Testament
00:48:00.980 the reformed understanding
00:48:03.060 I would say also
00:48:05.020 just generally the church history
00:48:06.940 understanding
00:48:07.880 is not that God revoked those
00:48:11.320 promises. God never changes
00:48:13.540 his promises. He's kept his promises
00:48:15.200 but that he has fulfilled them first
00:48:17.160 in type
00:48:19.300 under the old covenant, which I'll explain in a second
00:48:21.100 and then in fullness through Christ and his church.
00:48:23.840 Let me explain what I mean by that.
00:48:25.340 The land of Canaan
00:48:26.520 was always meant 0.99
00:48:29.180 to be a shadow
00:48:31.520 pointing
00:48:33.720 toward a greater reality.
00:48:36.820 The promised
00:48:37.660 land is
00:48:39.820 a shadow pointing to a greater reality. Just as the temple
00:48:43.440 pointed to Christ. Just as the priesthood pointed to Christ.
00:48:47.380 Just as the sacrificial system pointed to Christ.
00:48:51.000 Just as land
00:48:53.200 beyond itself points to something more
00:48:59.460 expansive. The Old Testament is the
00:49:03.380 seed. The New Testament is the blossom. 0.90
00:49:06.420 now what is
00:49:10.580 the expansion
00:49:12.000 of the promised land
00:49:14.280 in the new covenant
00:49:16.280 well it's the entire earth
00:49:18.660 it's the whole earth
00:49:20.660 how do I mean
00:49:22.260 or what do I mean by that
00:49:23.240 Jesus confirms this
00:49:24.620 when he says in Matthew 5
00:49:27.580 blessed are the meek
00:49:28.760 for they shall inherit the earth
00:49:30.360 the true promised land
00:49:33.800 is not a silver
00:49:35.280 or sorry not a sliver of land
00:49:37.460 in Palestine or the Middle East
00:49:39.220 it is the redeemed
00:49:41.300 earth
00:49:41.800 which will be inherited
00:49:45.300 by the saints
00:49:46.100 in the new heavens and the new earth.
00:49:49.120 You know that this
00:49:51.320 earth outside right
00:49:53.320 here
00:49:53.580 will be redeemed one day.
00:49:57.380 And heaven is not up there
00:49:59.340 heaven will be right
00:50:01.260 here. We will dwell
00:50:03.360 on this earth
00:50:04.680 it'll be made new
00:50:06.520 it'll be purified of sin
00:50:09.400 and fall
00:50:11.460 there will be
00:50:13.620 no more pain and suffering
00:50:14.900 you won't
00:50:17.440 see dead branches anymore
00:50:19.160 or dead animals anymore
00:50:21.480 but it's
00:50:23.420 this earth that'll be renewed
00:50:24.980 in the same way your body
00:50:27.580 when you die
00:50:29.040 you don't get a different
00:50:31.320 body, you get your body
00:50:33.400 made new
00:50:34.900 We know that because Jesus was resurrected and people recognized him.
00:50:39.280 It wasn't a different body.
00:50:41.280 It was his body that will never die again.
00:50:46.940 This earth will also be resurrected.
00:50:51.620 You can go grab some dirt, put it in your hand.
00:50:55.240 That dirt will be in heaven for eternity.
00:51:00.180 It'll be redeemed.
00:51:01.660 It might feel different.
00:51:02.800 It might look different, but we will stand on the earth for eternity.
00:51:12.140 You will have all the time in the world to do those things that you want to do.
00:51:16.560 I like Randy Alcorn's thing.
00:51:18.180 He says, I don't have a bucket list.
00:51:19.400 I have all the time in the world.
00:51:22.020 Because if he doesn't get it done on this time on the earth, he gets to do it in heaven.
00:51:25.800 Because we're going to have all types of time on this earth to explore this place to the glory of God.
00:51:32.800 the author of Hebrews makes this clear,
00:51:38.480 and I'm getting ready to close here in a few minutes.
00:51:40.740 Author of Hebrews 11 makes this clear.
00:51:43.360 It says, Abraham and the patriarchs were not ultimately looking for an earthly country.
00:51:46.480 It says, but for a better country, that is a heavenly one.
00:51:51.620 Hebrews 11, verse 6.
00:51:53.680 Peter, writing to the church, declares,
00:51:56.520 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
00:52:04.820 Wait, the church is a holy nation?
00:52:09.800 The church is a holy nation.
00:52:14.060 And that promised land, the earth, it now belongs to Christ and his body, the church.
00:52:24.660 Now, what happens in Palestine does matter.
00:52:29.340 I do care about what happens there, not because of the geopolitical state of Israel,
00:52:36.940 not because I believe that they are God's chosen people,
00:52:40.680 but because the land itself is a memorial to Christ.
00:52:46.780 Now, if you know anything about church history,
00:52:48.780 you'll quickly learn
00:52:52.180 that the reason the crusaders fought for Jerusalem
00:52:55.700 is not because they believed that Jews were God's chosen people
00:53:00.960 but because they believed that Jerusalem and the Holy Land
00:53:04.600 belonged to the church. 0.87
00:53:09.520 When you go there to Israel
00:53:12.100 and you're walking through the Jordan River
00:53:15.960 and you're looking at the temple
00:53:19.080 and you're pacing through the Garden of Gethsemane,
00:53:22.700 that land is your land.
00:53:26.500 You know why?
00:53:27.460 Because it's Christ's.
00:53:29.940 It is Christ's land.
00:53:38.680 In short, Christ is the true heir of all things.
00:53:43.660 Christ is the true heir of all things.
00:53:45.960 And all who are united to him by faith, whether Jew or Gentile, are co-heirs with him, according to Romans 8, verses 17.
00:53:53.260 So, the land promises were not broken.
00:53:56.280 They're not broken.
00:53:58.020 It was expanded. 0.96
00:53:59.820 The true Israel, the church, inherits not just the plot in Palestine, but the entire world. 0.95
00:54:08.060 So, here's my conclusion. 0.86
00:54:09.180 Can people who do not love God, who are not God's covenant people, who are not the true Israel by faith, and who are not a holy nation be God's chosen people?
00:54:34.500 Does that make any systematic sense at all? 0.85
00:54:39.180 Can the millions, millions of Christ-rejecting Jews that have died, hating Jesus, and are now justly burning in hell, 0.89
00:54:50.440 can they be said to have been God's chosen people?
00:54:55.420 Think about how insane that is. 0.99
00:54:59.180 Oh, God's chosen people burning in hell.
00:55:04.420 So where does covenant theology leave us?
00:55:08.140 Well, it leaves us with clarity and not confusion, understood by faith.
00:55:15.320 The promises of God to Israel have not failed.
00:55:19.400 They have not failed.
00:55:21.000 They have been fulfilled and expanded in Christ through the church.
00:55:26.920 Jesus is the true Israel, and all who are united to him, Jew and Gentile, by faith, are heirs of those promises.
00:55:36.380 The church is not a parenthetical plan, as I said before.
00:55:39.420 It is the plan.
00:55:41.540 It is the plan.
00:55:46.880 God is not rebuilding some geopolitical nation of Israel.
00:55:54.540 He's building the true Israel, his church, across the entire earth.
00:56:01.100 And that church may include ethnic Jews.
00:56:04.860 And in fact, at the close of history, it may include a huge number of ethnic Jews.
00:56:12.220 But their inclusion will not come through bloodlines, through land claims, or political alliances with America. 0.76
00:56:22.080 Okay, it will come through the same door as every other sinner that will be preached the gospel,
00:56:27.180 that you are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.
00:56:29.880 And that's critical because there is no other way for Jews to be saved.
00:56:40.160 Those who reject the Son reject the Father.
00:56:42.860 No one comes to the Father except through the Son. 0.99
00:56:47.180 The Jews who deny Jesus do not love God. 0.97
00:56:54.040 Our mission is to be the same as it is with the Muslims. 0.97
00:56:59.880 It's to be the same that it is with the Hindus. 0.89
00:57:02.900 To be the same that it is with the atheists. 0.94
00:57:04.820 We are to pray for them.
00:57:05.780 We are to evangelize them.
00:57:08.360 We are to compel them to come and trust in Christ.
00:57:11.900 Not because they're already God's chosen people.
00:57:15.480 No.
00:57:16.300 Because they are under God's wrath.
00:57:20.220 And that the only way to have peace with God is to trust in Christ.
00:57:26.480 Amen?
00:57:27.460 Amen.
00:57:28.320 Let's pray.
00:57:29.880 Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have grafted us in to that early seed.
00:57:43.380 Lord, that started with Abraham.
00:57:48.680 Lord, we thank you that we have been chosen to be children of the promise by faith.
00:57:54.420 Lord that you have expanded
00:57:56.980 so far beyond
00:57:58.240 one nation
00:58:00.280 but you are saving the world
00:58:03.340 Father we ask that you would help us to
00:58:09.000 understand the systematic
00:58:11.140 nature the complexity Lord that
00:58:13.040 only by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith
00:58:15.200 can these things be seen
00:58:17.120 Lord we ask that you'd give us wisdom
00:58:22.280 a heart and a passion
00:58:27.360 that more Jews would come to Christ,
00:58:31.280 that they would see their Messiah.
00:58:35.120 Lord, that they have been given
00:58:36.620 so much substance in the Old Testament.
00:58:40.540 To have them come to Christ by faith
00:58:43.580 would be a blessing.
00:58:46.280 Lord, we ask that you would
00:58:47.680 help America to straighten out
00:58:51.880 her theology, that we would return to a robust Christian outlook on this nation.
00:59:00.460 We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.