How Should Christians View Israel？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
115.13646
Harmful content
Toxicity
26
sentences flagged
Hate speech
91
sentences flagged
Summary
In today's sermon, Pastor Ken teaches that identity precedes unity in the Christian and Jewish worldviews, and that in order to achieve unity, we need to unify around a common identity. This sermon is a continuation of a sermon series on how to navigate the differences between Christian liberties and convictions that Ken delivered a few weeks ago.
Transcript
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
00:02:59.920
I'm going to say it one more time because you cannot leave today without remembering
00:03:12.480
At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., at the heart of the debate at that council was
00:03:29.920
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
00:04:24.980
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.
00:05:27.160
reinterpret scripture to accommodate their position.
00:05:34.160
but because you've misunderstood their identity.
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
00:06:00.460
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.
00:06:49.600
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
00:07:20.300
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.
00:07:38.420
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.
00:07:54.940
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
00:10:39.180
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.
00:11:09.880
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
00:11:49.300
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
00:13:37.460
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
00:14:15.020
Now, you might be wondering, how can I even say that?
1.00
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.
00:14:41.100
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.
00:14:55.280
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
00:15:13.520
He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
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,
00:15:35.080
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
00:17:59.280
So can a Jew say they love God according to Jesus?
1.00
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?
00:18:53.080
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
00:19:09.320
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.
00:19:51.280
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.
00:20:11.360
How you interpret the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12, Genesis 17,
00:20:24.760
between covenant theology and dispensationalism.
00:20:27.160
Now, the church from basically Jesus until about 1870
00:20:38.580
Not just Reformed, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, everybody.
00:20:43.840
Every denomination on earth held that position.
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.
00:21:12.900
Because how you interpret the Abrahamic covenant will flow and affect everything downstream.
00:21:42.900
And yes, God has not forgiven or has not forgotten about his holy nation, Israel.
00:21:54.420
So there's four questions that we need to really answer.
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.
00:22:39.880
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.
00:22:57.180
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
00:23:27.200
and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers,
00:23:35.260
that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand
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
00:24:06.780
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.
00:24:33.800
It was based on God's sovereign love and his covenant faithfulness.
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.
00:25:20.680
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.
00:25:37.240
They were looking forward, we were looking backward.
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.
00:26:03.740
Once that is clear, we can begin to see how Gentiles are covenantally included in Israel.
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.
00:26:49.640
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.
00:27:11.200
To those who were the true children of Abraham,
00:27:13.580
who shared Abraham's faith, not merely his bloodline.
00:27:22.640
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,
00:28:04.960
God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
00:28:12.500
do not presume that just because you're ethnically Jewish,
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
00:29:23.140
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
00:30:38.100
It was about a spiritual nation that began within
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
00:31:38.720
not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel
00:32:18.820
Quote, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
00:32:31.400
It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
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,
00:32:52.980
Because many Americans like Glenn Beck look to faithless ethnic Jews and believe they are God's chosen people and heirs of the covenant.
00:33:10.160
We are God's covenant people because we are born of Abraham.
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.
00:33:37.500
But their substance was never limited to the physical or ethnic state.
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.
00:35:49.520
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
00:36:02.060
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.
00:36:35.040
now I'm going to show you a passage of scripture
00:37:30.540
and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt
00:37:38.520
This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,
00:38:08.840
and makes the protovangelium in Genesis 3.15 and promises
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.
00:39:39.040
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
00:40:05.060
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
00:41:02.400
and then there are people who are of the covenant
00:41:07.480
I know a lot of people that are baptized that probably aren't born again
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.
00:41:57.160
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?
00:42:30.460
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.
00:43:14.060
And what happens in America when Israel starts getting into war?
0.65
00:43:27.460
It shifts our eyes from the spiritual and the universal to the physical and to the national.
00:43:40.280
In fact, if it gets worse fast, then maybe Jesus will come back soon.
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.
00:44:37.900
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.
00:46:04.120
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
00:46:25.920
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
00:46:48.080
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.
00:47:05.460
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.
00:47:20.220
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
00:48:19.300
under the old covenant, which I'll explain in a second
00:48:21.100
and then in fullness through Christ and his church.
00:48:39.820
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.
00:50:34.900
We know that because Jesus was resurrected and people recognized him.
00:50:51.620
You can go grab some dirt, put it in your hand.
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.
00:51:22.020
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.
00:51:38.480
and I'm getting ready to close here in a few minutes.
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.
00:51:56.520
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
00:52:14.060
And that promised land, the earth, it now belongs to Christ and his body, the church.
00:52:29.340
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,
00:52:52.180
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
00:53:19.080
and you're pacing through the Garden of Gethsemane,
00:53:38.680
In short, 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.
00:53:59.820
The true Israel, the church, inherits not just the plot in Palestine, but the entire world.
0.95
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?
00:55:08.140
Well, it leaves us with clarity and not confusion, understood by faith.
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.
00:55:46.880
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.
00:56:04.860
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.
00:56:42.860
No one comes to the Father except through the Son.
0.99
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
00:57:08.360
We are to compel them to come and trust in Christ.
00:57:11.900
Not because they're already God's chosen people.
00:57:20.220
And that the only way to have peace with God is to trust in Christ.
00:57:29.880
Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have grafted us in to that early seed.
00:57:48.680
Lord, we thank you that we have been chosen to be children of the promise by faith.
00:58:13.040
only by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith
00:58:51.880
her theology, that we would return to a robust Christian outlook on this nation.