1 00:00:06,450 --> 00:00:11,600 By the we come before you together as a church, as a as an 2 00:00:11,610 --> 00:00:14,100 assembly, as a congregation of your people. 3 00:00:14,170 --> 00:00:16,980 Lord, our heart this morning is to worship you. 4 00:00:17,030 --> 00:00:20,140 Thank you for who you are. Thank you that you are Jehovah 5 00:00:20,150 --> 00:00:22,070 Jira, the, the Lord who provides. 6 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:24,560 Thank you for everything you've provided to us. 7 00:00:24,770 --> 00:00:27,720 Thank you for this building that we're sitting in in the middle 8 00:00:27,730 --> 00:00:31,890 of stormy weather where we can together worship you and thank 9 00:00:31,900 --> 00:00:34,540 you for all your provision. Lord, we don't take it lightly. 10 00:00:34,550 --> 00:00:37,680 Lord, we, we present our offering to you this morning as 11 00:00:37,690 --> 00:00:40,100 a token of, of that understanding that it all comes 12 00:00:40,110 --> 00:00:42,680 from you anyway. And the show that that is our 13 00:00:42,690 --> 00:00:45,500 trust as we put this offering to you. 14 00:00:45,510 --> 00:00:48,120 We, we, we have this understanding that that every 15 00:00:48,130 --> 00:00:49,520 good thing we have comes from you. 16 00:00:49,610 --> 00:00:51,240 And we thank you for that this morning. 17 00:00:51,310 --> 00:00:55,350 Lord, we thank you that in the beginning was the word and the 18 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,040 word was, was with God and the word was God. 19 00:00:58,050 --> 00:01:00,320 Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ, the living word. 20 00:01:00,390 --> 00:01:02,000 We thank you for your written word. 21 00:01:02,050 --> 00:01:05,660 Lord, we thank you for Jeff and his his love for you, his love 22 00:01:05,670 --> 00:01:07,520 for your word and his deep insights into it. 23 00:01:07,530 --> 00:01:11,020 And we just pray as He brings your word to us this morning, 24 00:01:11,030 --> 00:01:13,330 Lord, that we would all be transformed by it, that we would 25 00:01:13,340 --> 00:01:17,380 be changed by it, that we would lean more towards Christ because 26 00:01:17,390 --> 00:01:18,810 of it. Lord, thank you for our church 27 00:01:18,820 --> 00:01:22,630 family, for the way we can love and support each other and build 28 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:25,030 each other up. Lord, again, thank you for a 29 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,290 chance to be here this morning. We pray these things in Jesus 30 00:01:27,300 --> 00:01:30,470 name, Amen. Okay, well, good morning church. 31 00:01:30,540 --> 00:01:33,520 We're taking a break from Luke. And so for the next two weeks, 32 00:01:33,530 --> 00:01:37,390 they're just open topics and then we're gonna go back into 33 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:39,670 Luke. So the trouble with an open 34 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,610 topic has it's open. And so I found lots of things 35 00:01:43,620 --> 00:01:46,430 that I thought would be really interesting and I thought, ohh, 36 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:48,430 I could go this way and I could do that. 37 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:51,830 But something kept coming back, which just, you know, some 38 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,330 sometimes things can get like you feel a burden or a, 39 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,980 something that God's doing. And so I try it actually to get 40 00:01:58,990 --> 00:02:01,310 away from it. I tried to do other things, but 41 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,030 I keep coming back to this. So that's what we're going to to 42 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,800 go through this morning. So what I'm going to do this 43 00:02:07,810 --> 00:02:09,870 morning is something maybe a little bit different, but we're 44 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,250 going to go through a topic and I'm going to use it as an 45 00:02:13,260 --> 00:02:16,300 illustration to see what I see as part of the plan of God. 46 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,610 Now that can be quite spirit scary to speak on. 47 00:02:19,660 --> 00:02:23,230 There's a guy called Jobin the Bible, if you remember him, and 48 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:28,540 Jobe has much positions God through Satan will Satan would 49 00:02:28,550 --> 00:02:31,760 allow the allowed to remove all of the positions that he has. 50 00:02:31,770 --> 00:02:35,840 He takes everything from him and then he takes his family. 51 00:02:35,890 --> 00:02:39,610 Only his wife was left with him, and then he'll take his health 52 00:02:39,970 --> 00:02:42,750 and the rest of the chapter. The books as it goes through as 53 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:47,420 a conversation between Joe and his three friends and the three 54 00:02:47,430 --> 00:02:50,220 friends is Eliphaz, Bildad and Sohar. 55 00:02:50,830 --> 00:02:54,000 And the whole part of the Bible is this back and forward 56 00:02:54,010 --> 00:02:57,860 speaking on behalf of God. And at the end of the book it 57 00:02:57,870 --> 00:03:00,800 gets to the place where God will actually speak. 58 00:03:00,810 --> 00:03:04,460 And he would say of these three friends, he said they didn't 59 00:03:04,470 --> 00:03:07,600 speak for me. They didn't actually know my 60 00:03:07,610 --> 00:03:10,500 plans, my purposes. They didn't speak on my behalf. 61 00:03:11,220 --> 00:03:14,350 And so Joe will actually be asked to do a sacrifice for his 62 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,200 three friends so that they will be forgiven in front of God. 63 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:22,370 But there's a fourth guy and his name is Elijah, who which means 64 00:03:22,380 --> 00:03:25,150 he is God. And he turns up in the chapter 65 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:28,010 at the exhaustion of the three friends trying to understand 66 00:03:28,020 --> 00:03:32,250 what Job was going through and and trying to get it. 67 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,830 It's exhausted. And so Ellie, who will speak and 68 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,670 he will just speak about Job's wrong and that he's being 69 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:41,700 self-righteous. But also he sees the problems of 70 00:03:41,710 --> 00:03:44,150 the other three friends that they're not speaking on behalf 71 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:48,050 of God of the speaking on their own thoughts about how God 72 00:03:48,060 --> 00:03:50,620 works. And so this morning that's why 73 00:03:50,630 --> 00:03:54,100 it's a little bit of fear is because I'm presenting or trying 74 00:03:54,110 --> 00:03:57,300 to talk to you about is what I think as God's plan and his 75 00:03:57,310 --> 00:03:59,340 purposes. And that can be scary. 76 00:03:59,350 --> 00:04:02,960 And my speaking on the side of Ali who or Ali Fez Bill dead and 77 00:04:02,970 --> 00:04:07,560 so far or am I speaking on the side of the Lahu and you'll have 78 00:04:07,570 --> 00:04:10,400 to weigh these things up. But my speaking about the plan 79 00:04:10,410 --> 00:04:13,760 of God and his purposes because it's coming from God or is it 80 00:04:13,770 --> 00:04:16,839 coming from maybe my own just knowledge of the Bible and 81 00:04:16,850 --> 00:04:19,510 things that I think of and you're going to be able to 82 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:21,120 wrestle with these things this morning. 83 00:04:21,529 --> 00:04:24,910 So what I'm wanting to do is to walk through the plan of God, 84 00:04:25,250 --> 00:04:27,770 but I'm wanting to do it in two relationships. 85 00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:31,930 The first relationship is Jehovah or God with his wife, 86 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,040 the nation of Israel. And then look at the second 87 00:04:35,050 --> 00:04:38,350 relationship with this, which is Christ and his bride, which is 88 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,020 the church, and see how the stages of the relationship has 89 00:04:42,030 --> 00:04:45,720 walked, walked or towards transversed through history so 90 00:04:45,730 --> 00:04:48,170 that we can come to this place in which we Live Today. 91 00:04:48,180 --> 00:04:53,140 There's so much about this topic that is in the world's news and 92 00:04:53,150 --> 00:04:55,910 everything that's going on. So we're going to try and go 93 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:58,470 through a through it in this sort of way. 94 00:04:58,530 --> 00:05:01,210 So the first thing that we're going to go right back to the 95 00:05:01,220 --> 00:05:03,480 time of the OHH. Sorry. 96 00:05:03,490 --> 00:05:05,480 What I want to do is walk through the various stages of a 97 00:05:05,490 --> 00:05:09,110 relationship between God as it relates and and the church as 98 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,300 well. So we're gonna go right back to 99 00:05:11,310 --> 00:05:13,690 the time of the flood. So God does a reset. 100 00:05:13,780 --> 00:05:17,250 We all understand that the great flood, he resets this world. 101 00:05:18,050 --> 00:05:21,780 He starts eight people in the boat, the reset happens and then 102 00:05:21,790 --> 00:05:24,850 God will do something quite miraculous, which is different 103 00:05:24,860 --> 00:05:28,560 to previously because he's going to draw out a people for 104 00:05:28,570 --> 00:05:32,000 himself. And that people will be known as 105 00:05:32,010 --> 00:05:34,460 the tribe or the nation of Israel. 106 00:05:34,810 --> 00:05:37,860 But primarily it comes from one person whose name is Abraham. 107 00:05:38,430 --> 00:05:40,540 He was Abraham. He will have his son who will be 108 00:05:40,550 --> 00:05:43,180 Isaac. Isaac will have his son who will 109 00:05:43,190 --> 00:05:45,640 be Jacob. And Jacob's name has changed to 110 00:05:45,650 --> 00:05:47,940 Israel. And from that point on, we have 111 00:05:47,950 --> 00:05:51,860 this idea of this, this Jewish nation, the nation of Israel. 112 00:05:52,070 --> 00:05:56,810 And so the idea is that what I really want you to to grabs or 113 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,450 get to grips with is that that the covenant that we're talking 114 00:06:00,460 --> 00:06:03,210 about was called an unconditional covenant when it 115 00:06:03,220 --> 00:06:06,150 comes to Abraham. It's found in Genesis chapter 116 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:11,010 12, Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 17, Genesis chapter 22. 117 00:06:11,460 --> 00:06:15,270 It's the promises of God, irrespective of what Abraham is 118 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:19,250 going to do or what Isaac or Jacob will do and has nothing to 119 00:06:19,260 --> 00:06:20,770 do with what they are going to do. 120 00:06:20,780 --> 00:06:23,550 It's all to do with God's plans and his purposes. 121 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,070 And he makes the covenant so much if you can remember what he 122 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,140 does when he actually comes time to making the covenant is he 123 00:06:30,150 --> 00:06:32,380 gets animals. He they cut them in half and 124 00:06:32,390 --> 00:06:34,710 they put them beside. And then the usual practise is 125 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,960 that you would walk through together as you make the 126 00:06:36,970 --> 00:06:38,670 promises of the covenants that you make. 127 00:06:40,060 --> 00:06:41,850 What God does is something very different. 128 00:06:41,860 --> 00:06:45,530 He puts Abraham to sleep, if you remember the story, he puts him 129 00:06:45,540 --> 00:06:48,030 to the side. And God will walk through the 130 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:51,890 pieces himself as a torch, showing that no matter what 131 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,310 Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob will do, God will keep his promises 132 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,110 because he promised to keep them. 133 00:06:57,500 --> 00:07:00,040 And so that's what we call the Abrahamic covenant. 134 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:03,980 So from there, and in the Abrahamic Covenant, you remember 135 00:07:03,990 --> 00:07:06,960 that he says that through Abraham, all of the nations of 136 00:07:06,970 --> 00:07:09,190 the earth will be blessed. That's part of what's there. 137 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:11,230 There's many other things that are in there as well. 138 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:12,940 I just wanted to highlight that point. 139 00:07:13,710 --> 00:07:16,860 So from there, God does something else. 140 00:07:16,870 --> 00:07:19,860 He goes, you know what? Because of that covenant, I'm 141 00:07:19,870 --> 00:07:23,620 gonna even further something and I'm actually going to make 142 00:07:23,630 --> 00:07:28,480 myself connected to you in a way that I am going to call you my 143 00:07:28,490 --> 00:07:30,500 wife. And so if you've got your 144 00:07:30,510 --> 00:07:34,800 Bibles, if you turn with me to Jeromy Chapter 5, we're going to 145 00:07:34,810 --> 00:07:38,970 start there. So God furthers this and he says 146 00:07:38,980 --> 00:07:41,140 because of the promise that I made, I'm actually going to do 147 00:07:41,150 --> 00:07:43,870 something else as well. I'm actually going to make this 148 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,550 covenant. Have you ever thought of the 149 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:48,190 first five books of the Bible? Genesis, What's it about? 150 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,250 Beginnings. That's the word Genesis makes. 151 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:53,750 Okay, fine. Exodus is about exiting 152 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,030 Leviticus about the Levitical priesthood, Numbers about the 153 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:00,910 numbers that were travelling in. What's Deuteronomy? 154 00:08:02,580 --> 00:08:03,870 It's like a different word, right? 155 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:07,550 All the others you know Jude. Aeronomy literally means second 156 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,590 law. That's the meaning of the word. 157 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,510 You know what the problem with the Judah like we often don't. 158 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:15,190 We find it quite as a boring book. 159 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,790 I get that, but due to aeronomy. The reason that has the name 160 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,590 second law is it's because primarily it's a repeat of 161 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,910 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Know if you've realised that all 162 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:29,060 the content that's in Deuteronomy, there is a little 163 00:08:29,070 --> 00:08:32,330 bit that's different, but primarily it's all from Exodus, 164 00:08:32,340 --> 00:08:35,510 Leviticus and Numbers. But it's rearranged. 165 00:08:35,659 --> 00:08:39,370 Rearranged is what? It's rearranged as a marriage 166 00:08:39,429 --> 00:08:42,270 covenant. That's the purpose of the book 167 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:46,170 of Deuteronomy where God will sit out to his people Israel, a 168 00:08:46,180 --> 00:08:50,170 marriage contract. So Jerome chapter 5, this one 169 00:08:50,180 --> 00:08:53,800 says, and Moses summoned all Israel. 170 00:08:54,890 --> 00:08:57,720 If you can just grab that, understand what that's saying. 171 00:08:57,780 --> 00:09:02,010 All of Israel, the covenant that God will make is not just with 172 00:09:02,020 --> 00:09:06,210 the believers of Israel. You need to understand that it's 173 00:09:06,220 --> 00:09:09,870 with all of Israel, whether you're a believer, Jewish 174 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:13,730 believer or an unbeliever. The contract, this marriage 175 00:09:13,740 --> 00:09:17,470 covenant is with all of Israel. Okay, so Moses summoned all 176 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,790 Israel and said to them, hero Israel, the the statutes and the 177 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,530 rules that I speak in your hearing today and you shall 178 00:09:23,540 --> 00:09:25,650 learn them and be careful to do them. 179 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:30,080 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in hort and whore, which 180 00:09:30,090 --> 00:09:34,290 is the same as Mount Sinai. So this is the what we call the 181 00:09:34,300 --> 00:09:36,490 second covenant. We have the Abrahamic, which is 182 00:09:36,500 --> 00:09:39,530 unconditional. This covenant is something 183 00:09:39,540 --> 00:09:42,410 that's called conditional, and the picture is a marriage 184 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:46,170 winning where there's two groups, there is the Lord and 185 00:09:46,180 --> 00:09:49,580 there is the nation of Israel. Again, it's all of Israel and 186 00:09:49,590 --> 00:09:53,380 they are seen as his wife and and this there's going to be if 187 00:09:53,390 --> 00:09:55,380 you do this, then you will get these blessings. 188 00:09:55,390 --> 00:09:57,940 If you don't do this, you will get these curses. 189 00:09:58,290 --> 00:10:00,380 It's different to the Abrahamic covenant. 190 00:10:00,390 --> 00:10:03,640 It's a relationship based on if you then you'll get this. 191 00:10:03,650 --> 00:10:05,700 If you don't, you'll receive this. 192 00:10:05,750 --> 00:10:08,990 Jeromy Chapter 7. Have a look at what God says 193 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,800 when he's calling them. So Jeromy Chapter 7, verse 6, he 194 00:10:13,810 --> 00:10:16,950 says, for you are a people wholly to the Lord your God. 195 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,630 The Lord your God has chosen you as a people for His treasured 196 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:24,090 position. So out of all the people who are 197 00:10:24,100 --> 00:10:27,100 on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more a 198 00:10:27,110 --> 00:10:29,970 number than any of the other people that the Lord has set His 199 00:10:29,980 --> 00:10:33,070 love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all 200 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,060 peoples. But it is because the Lord loves 201 00:10:36,070 --> 00:10:40,710 you and is keeping the oath, okay, The covenant that He swore 202 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:44,390 to your fathers, OK. And now what I want you to do is 203 00:10:44,680 --> 00:10:47,710 go to me with me, please. Ezekiel chapter 16. 204 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,120 Majority of the time now we're going to stay in Ezekiel, move 205 00:10:51,130 --> 00:10:53,850 there other passages. But if you hold your fingers in 206 00:10:53,860 --> 00:10:56,710 the sequel, we're going to go back and forwards as we look up 207 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:01,780 this thing O Ezekiel chapter 16 and I'm going to read for this 208 00:11:01,850 --> 00:11:05,210 from verse 8. This is seen like the marriage 209 00:11:05,220 --> 00:11:08,950 night. This is what is Ezekiel 16 is 210 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,030 pictured as. And we're just going to show you 211 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,750 what God says in relation to this covenant that he makes, 212 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:17,010 which we call the Mosaic covenant. 213 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:22,550 So Ezekiel 16 verse 8 says when I pass to buy you again and saw 214 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:27,330 you the whole you were at the age for love, and I spread the 215 00:11:27,340 --> 00:11:31,130 corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. 216 00:11:31,830 --> 00:11:35,760 I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, 217 00:11:36,030 --> 00:11:39,940 declares the Lord God, and you became mine. 218 00:11:40,650 --> 00:11:43,540 Judah, Romy, the whole book of Jude, Aeronomy is the marriage 219 00:11:43,550 --> 00:11:46,940 covenant that God would make with the nation of Israel. 220 00:11:48,030 --> 00:11:51,560 All of them, not just the believers, it would be with that 221 00:11:51,570 --> 00:11:54,780 nation. And so that's the first stage of 222 00:11:54,790 --> 00:11:56,550 the marriage. It's the marriage that God would 223 00:11:56,560 --> 00:12:00,460 have that's separate from the Abrahamic covenant, separate 224 00:12:00,470 --> 00:12:04,340 than the unconditional promises, but it's an agreement between 225 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:08,300 the two groups, the wife of Jehovah and the Lord himself. 226 00:12:08,410 --> 00:12:12,000 Stage 2 is where Israel or just if I pause there. 227 00:12:12,010 --> 00:12:17,180 Just imagine if, if I was to say if God made the covenant with 228 00:12:17,190 --> 00:12:20,450 New Zealand, with us in that way, like, how would we stand? 229 00:12:20,460 --> 00:12:23,680 Remember, it's not just with the believers, but with the whole of 230 00:12:23,690 --> 00:12:25,570 New Zealand. How would God see us? 231 00:12:26,380 --> 00:12:30,780 And we often think when it comes to God's dealing with Israel, we 232 00:12:30,790 --> 00:12:32,950 think of it as numbers or percentages. 233 00:12:33,060 --> 00:12:36,200 If 80% of Israel were following God, then God is pleased with 234 00:12:36,210 --> 00:12:38,570 Israel. And if 10% were only following 235 00:12:38,580 --> 00:12:41,530 God will God would do all these judgments and things like that. 236 00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:45,480 That's biblically not true. You know what the percentage is. 237 00:12:46,010 --> 00:12:48,160 Remember what happens with the nation of Israel? 238 00:12:48,170 --> 00:12:50,380 They go from Egypt. They go towards the promised 239 00:12:50,390 --> 00:12:53,130 land. God is angry with them because 240 00:12:53,140 --> 00:12:54,850 of their unbelief of not going in the land. 241 00:12:54,860 --> 00:12:57,770 There will be only two people that will be over the age of 20 242 00:12:57,780 --> 00:13:00,870 when God makes their promise to them, which will be Joseph and 243 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:03,620 Caleb. The rest of all of the Jewish 244 00:13:03,630 --> 00:13:05,480 people will die in the wilderness. 245 00:13:05,830 --> 00:13:09,740 God will refresh them and bring them to himself, and then they 246 00:13:09,750 --> 00:13:12,780 would go into the promised land. As they go into the promised 247 00:13:12,790 --> 00:13:14,710 land, they have this great victory against Jericho. 248 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,670 You might remember the story The walls fall Down. 249 00:13:17,780 --> 00:13:20,210 Fantastic victory as God goes in there. 250 00:13:20,300 --> 00:13:26,670 But there's a sin of one man less than 1% ascend just from 251 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,520 one man out of all of the nation of Israel. 252 00:13:28,530 --> 00:13:31,900 And his name is Aiken, and he takes something that he's not 253 00:13:31,910 --> 00:13:34,720 supposed to take. God promised that you shouldn't, 254 00:13:34,730 --> 00:13:36,630 will sit to him that you shouldn't take certain things. 255 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:38,520 He takes it and hides it for himself. 256 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:44,570 The very next battle that they go into, which is against I, I, 257 00:13:44,580 --> 00:13:50,250 I, they go there to try and take it and as they move towards it, 258 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:54,210 they get defeated. 36 of them die and they face a real big 259 00:13:54,220 --> 00:13:58,130 defeat. God would judge the nation of 260 00:13:58,140 --> 00:14:02,860 Israel for less than 1% of a people. 261 00:14:02,870 --> 00:14:06,150 That would not be righteous. What if God did that to New 262 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:08,940 Zealand? What would our percentage be? 263 00:14:09,270 --> 00:14:11,830 How would he deal with us? That's how we dealt with in our 264 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,100 nation of Israel. That's what we have to grab as 265 00:14:14,110 --> 00:14:17,670 Christians, that God made a covenant with Israel, the 266 00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:22,780 nation, believers, unbelievers. It's never on percentages or 267 00:14:22,790 --> 00:14:24,980 numbers. It was on the entirety of the 268 00:14:24,990 --> 00:14:27,840 nation of Israel, something that's really important. 269 00:14:28,250 --> 00:14:33,660 Second stage, what did Israel do with this with this position as 270 00:14:33,670 --> 00:14:35,460 the wife of Jehovah? What did they do with it? 271 00:14:35,540 --> 00:14:37,820 So we're going to go back to the just read one verse before we go 272 00:14:37,830 --> 00:14:40,120 there. Jeremiah 320 is surely A 273 00:14:40,130 --> 00:14:43,160 treacherous wife leaves her husband. 274 00:14:43,370 --> 00:14:45,520 So you have been treacherous to me. 275 00:14:45,530 --> 00:14:47,080 Ohh. House of Israel declares the 276 00:14:47,090 --> 00:14:50,180 Lord. The whole summarisation of what 277 00:14:50,190 --> 00:14:54,460 happened where the God would send judges, whether he would 278 00:14:54,470 --> 00:14:57,920 send kings, whether he would send prophets is that Israel 279 00:14:57,930 --> 00:15:02,360 would be an adulterous nation. Even if it was less than 1%, 280 00:15:03,020 --> 00:15:05,430 they would still be considered an adulterous nation. 281 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,520 So Ezekiel chapter 16 going to read from verse 23. 282 00:15:10,170 --> 00:15:14,510 I had to find a place in the passage that's that I could read 283 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:16,290 from because the, the language is so strong. 284 00:15:16,300 --> 00:15:21,550 And this part of Ezekiel, it's so strong in fact, that, you 285 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:24,450 know, we, we have the situation which is the Bible translation 286 00:15:24,460 --> 00:15:27,420 from the Hebrew into the Greek. It was done by Jewish people 287 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,950 when they came to Ezekiel 16. They won't. 288 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:35,250 They haven't translated it as actually Ezekiel 16 says. 289 00:15:35,260 --> 00:15:37,730 Do you know why? Because the language in this 290 00:15:37,740 --> 00:15:41,930 chapter is so strong that even the Jewish people recognise. 291 00:15:41,940 --> 00:15:44,440 And so that's one of the rules. Even today in Israel, they don't 292 00:15:44,450 --> 00:15:48,090 translate this passage because they get the meaning of it and 293 00:15:48,100 --> 00:15:51,040 it's so strong. It's watered down and the 294 00:15:51,100 --> 00:15:54,200 situations and in most of our Bible translations come from 295 00:15:54,210 --> 00:15:56,230 that. And so this is where we get 296 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,280 ours. But even even for in English, 297 00:15:58,290 --> 00:16:02,050 you'll see the words are so strong, but it's even stronger 298 00:16:02,060 --> 00:16:04,480 in Hebrew and we're not going to go there at all. 299 00:16:04,540 --> 00:16:08,010 So I found a passage where I can read from and this, so it's 300 00:16:08,020 --> 00:16:10,590 hopefully a little bit more tangible to your ears. 301 00:16:10,700 --> 00:16:15,950 So a sequel chapter 16 and read from verse 23 and it says, and 302 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,590 after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, declares the Lord 303 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:21,330 God. You built for yourselves A 304 00:16:21,340 --> 00:16:25,190 vaulted chamber and made for yourself a lofty place in every 305 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,550 square at the heart of every street. 306 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:29,830 You built your lofty place and made your beauty and 307 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:34,510 abomination, offering yourself to any passerby by multiplying 308 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,700 your harlotry. You also played the harlot with 309 00:16:37,710 --> 00:16:41,150 the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your 310 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:45,080 harlotry to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched 311 00:16:45,090 --> 00:16:47,770 out my hand against you and diminished your allocated 312 00:16:47,780 --> 00:16:51,060 portion, and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the 313 00:16:51,070 --> 00:16:54,120 daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your Lord 314 00:16:54,130 --> 00:16:57,200 behaviour. You played the harlot also with 315 00:16:57,210 --> 00:16:59,580 the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. 316 00:16:59,590 --> 00:17:02,900 Yes, you played the harlot with them and still were not 317 00:17:02,910 --> 00:17:06,000 satisfied. You multiplied your Hartree also 318 00:17:06,010 --> 00:17:07,839 with the trading land of Chaldea. 319 00:17:07,849 --> 00:17:10,770 Even with this, you were not satisfied. 320 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,839 You know, the countries that he's naming here, it's the 321 00:17:14,849 --> 00:17:18,530 countries that God would send on judgement or for judgement 322 00:17:18,540 --> 00:17:21,310 against the nation of Israel because of the idolatry. 323 00:17:22,530 --> 00:17:25,940 So Egypt, God would bring them there, they would get puffed up, 324 00:17:25,950 --> 00:17:28,440 and then God would change it so that they would have become 325 00:17:28,450 --> 00:17:30,620 slaves. You know what they were supposed 326 00:17:30,630 --> 00:17:32,140 to do to make them turn to the Lord. 327 00:17:32,150 --> 00:17:35,530 But instead of turning to the Lord, they worship the gods of 328 00:17:35,540 --> 00:17:39,030 the Egyptians. The next one, the Philistines, 329 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:40,250 that's when they went into the land. 330 00:17:40,260 --> 00:17:41,630 That was where the Philistines were. 331 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,710 They were supposed to go there. And because of the disobedience 332 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,250 of Israel, God said that I'm going to leave them in the land 333 00:17:47,260 --> 00:17:50,560 to be a thorn to you because of your disobedience. 334 00:17:50,570 --> 00:17:53,150 What it Israel do in return? They didn't accept the 335 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,290 acknowledgement of what was going, what was done as a 336 00:17:55,300 --> 00:17:58,210 punishment, but instead they followed the gods of the 337 00:17:58,220 --> 00:18:01,970 Philistines, who was the nation that took away the OR the empire 338 00:18:01,980 --> 00:18:04,850 that took away the northern 12 or 10 tribes of Israel. 339 00:18:05,260 --> 00:18:07,490 It's the one that's mentioned here, the Assyrians. 340 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,840 God says I sent them to judge you and I removed you out of the 341 00:18:10,850 --> 00:18:14,720 land, but instead of being coming back to me, you actually 342 00:18:14,730 --> 00:18:17,320 worship their gods. And then the last one that's 343 00:18:17,330 --> 00:18:21,460 mentioned here is the Chaldeans. That's the Babylonians, exactly 344 00:18:21,470 --> 00:18:25,480 the same. The Babylonians, they were taken 345 00:18:25,490 --> 00:18:27,500 because of God's judgement on the people were moved to 346 00:18:27,510 --> 00:18:30,340 Babylon. And instead of recognising what 347 00:18:30,350 --> 00:18:33,440 God was doing, they worship the gods of the Babylonians. 348 00:18:33,650 --> 00:18:38,820 That was the the problem. And so in verse 30 of chapter 349 00:18:38,830 --> 00:18:42,020 16, we have like really, it sums up the whole thing. 350 00:18:42,030 --> 00:18:47,130 He says how sick is your heart? That's how God sees the nation 351 00:18:47,140 --> 00:18:49,050 of Israel at this particular time. 352 00:18:49,780 --> 00:18:53,370 How sick is your heart? That's who you are. 353 00:18:53,940 --> 00:18:59,680 And verse 32, he says adulterous wife who receives strangers 354 00:18:59,690 --> 00:19:03,310 instead of her husband. That's God speaking, this is his 355 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:05,150 wife. And he says you're adulterous 356 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,130 wife. That's who you receive. 357 00:19:07,140 --> 00:19:10,060 You receive the Assyrians, you receive the Babylonians, the 358 00:19:10,780 --> 00:19:15,550 that the Egyptians were full of things because they are too just 359 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,410 quickly will say upon the children also, I have no mercy, 360 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,970 he says, because they are children of harlotry, for their 361 00:19:22,980 --> 00:19:25,840 mother has played the harlot. So she who conceived them has 362 00:19:25,850 --> 00:19:29,190 acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my 363 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:33,450 lovers who gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my flex, 364 00:19:33,460 --> 00:19:37,450 my wool and my drink. That is the sin of Israel, a 365 00:19:37,460 --> 00:19:41,370 Dollar Tree and adultery. And so we move on to the third 366 00:19:41,380 --> 00:19:42,770 stage. What happened in all these 367 00:19:42,780 --> 00:19:45,010 periods of time? The judges, we move into the 368 00:19:45,020 --> 00:19:47,790 third stage. If you tuned in with me, but 369 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,740 keep your fingers in the Q, When I come back to the air, I want 370 00:19:50,750 --> 00:19:53,620 you to have a look at Isaiah chapter 50 and we're going to 371 00:19:53,630 --> 00:19:57,420 read from verse one with the idolatry of Israel. 372 00:19:57,470 --> 00:20:01,080 God does something else and now He's going to separate Himself 373 00:20:01,090 --> 00:20:03,960 from Israel, and this is the separation. 374 00:20:04,820 --> 00:20:11,840 So Isaiah chapter 50 verse one, and it starts off by saying, 375 00:20:12,090 --> 00:20:16,080 thus says the Lord, where is your mother's certificate of 376 00:20:16,090 --> 00:20:19,320 divorce with which I have sent her away. 377 00:20:19,830 --> 00:20:23,660 At this stage in Isaiah, God has not given Israel the certificate 378 00:20:23,670 --> 00:20:26,940 of divorce. Okay, but He is separating 379 00:20:26,950 --> 00:20:29,480 Himself from her. I want you to recognise the 380 00:20:29,490 --> 00:20:31,520 difference. So He goes, where is the 381 00:20:31,530 --> 00:20:33,180 certificate of divorce that I gave you? 382 00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:35,660 Where is it? And he says, well, which of my 383 00:20:35,670 --> 00:20:38,560 career says is it? To whom I have sold you meaning 384 00:20:38,610 --> 00:20:41,300 who is God and debt to that He actually sold the nation of 385 00:20:41,310 --> 00:20:44,100 Israel to someone else. And then he says what actually 386 00:20:44,110 --> 00:20:45,440 happened? Read the verses. 387 00:20:45,450 --> 00:20:48,700 It says, behold, for your iniquities, for the iniquities 388 00:20:48,710 --> 00:20:52,310 of the the Jewish nation, for your iniquities you were sold, 389 00:20:52,370 --> 00:20:56,890 meaning you sold yourselves to the other lovers and for your 390 00:20:56,900 --> 00:20:59,230 transgressions your mother was sent away. 391 00:21:00,390 --> 00:21:03,920 And that's the idea. The picture is in Ezekiel 392 00:21:03,930 --> 00:21:06,620 chapter 10. God's presence, if you remember, 393 00:21:06,630 --> 00:21:11,040 was in the first Temple, and he's stayed there until Ezekiel 394 00:21:11,050 --> 00:21:15,060 10 sees that God's presence is removed from the temple. 395 00:21:15,590 --> 00:21:18,940 That's the separation of God from the people of Israel. 396 00:21:19,110 --> 00:21:22,450 He hasn't yet divorced them, but he has separated himself from 397 00:21:22,460 --> 00:21:24,610 them, which is why His presence leaves the temple. 398 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:28,890 We come into the fourth stage after the separation, which 399 00:21:28,900 --> 00:21:33,190 lasted for about 100 years. We now come into something that 400 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,530 gets serious, which is the bill of divorcement. 401 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:39,350 And so if you turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 3, I'm going to 402 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:42,410 read from verse 6 to 10, and then we'll go back to equal. 403 00:21:42,420 --> 00:21:44,800 So still hold your fingers there. 404 00:21:46,170 --> 00:21:49,500 And this is the bill of divorce, you know, and Deuteronomy, it 405 00:21:49,510 --> 00:21:51,840 steps out the four ways of what you're supposed to do in a 406 00:21:51,850 --> 00:21:53,160 divorce. This is how you're to do it 407 00:21:53,170 --> 00:21:55,620 according to Jeromy. First of all, there's some, 408 00:21:55,690 --> 00:21:57,520 there's a problem or there's some iniquity. 409 00:21:57,890 --> 00:22:00,030 That's step one. The second step is that you're 410 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,660 to write out a divorce certificate. 411 00:22:03,050 --> 00:22:06,040 So you actually write it out. The third step, according to 412 00:22:06,050 --> 00:22:08,390 Judea irony, is that you would take that divorce and you would 413 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,470 place it physically into her hand and then on the foot. 414 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,870 The last step was that you would then send her out. 415 00:22:15,370 --> 00:22:17,610 That's the four steps that's listed in Deuteronomy. 416 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:22,410 Now when we get to Jeremiah, you're going to see these things 417 00:22:22,420 --> 00:22:25,610 played out. So Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 6. 418 00:22:25,620 --> 00:22:30,000 And it says, the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, have 419 00:22:30,010 --> 00:22:34,320 you seen what she did, that faithless one Israel, how she 420 00:22:34,330 --> 00:22:37,880 went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and 421 00:22:37,890 --> 00:22:41,760 there played the harlot? And I thought she has done all 422 00:22:41,770 --> 00:22:45,340 this and she has after she has done all this, she will return 423 00:22:45,350 --> 00:22:47,860 to me. But she did not return. 424 00:22:47,870 --> 00:22:50,320 And who? Treacherous sister Judas or it 425 00:22:51,060 --> 00:22:54,150 she saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one 426 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:59,430 Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. 427 00:23:01,210 --> 00:23:05,560 What God is saying in, in the history of it, we had the one 428 00:23:05,630 --> 00:23:08,960 nation, the nation of Israel, but inside there, there was a 429 00:23:08,970 --> 00:23:12,500 split where we had the 10 tribes of the northern Kingdom, 10 430 00:23:12,510 --> 00:23:14,230 tribes of Israel and one in the South. 431 00:23:14,990 --> 00:23:17,660 Now the, the northern one kept the name Israel. 432 00:23:17,670 --> 00:23:20,230 But Israel, and we talk about it biblically, it's, it's the whole 433 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,750 12 tribes. But sometimes in the Bible 434 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,790 you'll see it was only talking about these ones, the tin in the 435 00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:26,880 north. And then you had the predominant 436 00:23:26,890 --> 00:23:28,640 one in the South. There were two tribes, but it's 437 00:23:28,650 --> 00:23:31,640 called the tribe of Judah. So just be aware of that. 438 00:23:31,990 --> 00:23:34,600 So when we're talking about it, it's a portion of Israel in this 439 00:23:34,610 --> 00:23:38,460 in this context. And he says and diversity again, 440 00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:42,140 she saw that for all of her adulteries, that faithful one 441 00:23:42,150 --> 00:23:46,200 Israel I sent away. I sent her away with a degree of 442 00:23:46,210 --> 00:23:48,720 divorce. Who is the prophet? 443 00:23:48,730 --> 00:23:52,700 At the time of when the northern 10 tribes get removed from 444 00:23:52,710 --> 00:23:55,860 Israel and they're taken to Assyria, guess who the prophet 445 00:23:55,870 --> 00:23:57,860 is? It's Josiah. 446 00:23:58,830 --> 00:24:02,710 What does the book of Hosea about someone that is a husband 447 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:06,410 to his wife? The book of Josiah is the 448 00:24:06,420 --> 00:24:11,040 written degree of divorce that he hands to the northern tin 449 00:24:11,050 --> 00:24:14,060 tribes and says here is your divorce document. 450 00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:19,250 And so with that, the northern 10 tribes are now divorced from 451 00:24:19,260 --> 00:24:22,650 the Lord, according to the Mosaic covenant that he had made 452 00:24:22,660 --> 00:24:25,200 in marriage. But it's not just with him. 453 00:24:25,210 --> 00:24:28,420 Keep reading. So and verse 8 halfway through 454 00:24:28,430 --> 00:24:30,720 it says you too treacherous sister. 455 00:24:30,730 --> 00:24:34,790 Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the Hallett 456 00:24:35,540 --> 00:24:37,270 because she took her harlotry lightly. 457 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:40,090 She polluted the land, committing adultery with stone 458 00:24:40,100 --> 00:24:42,230 and tree. She committed idolatry, 459 00:24:42,370 --> 00:24:46,460 adultery, this teen. Yet for all this who treacherous 460 00:24:46,470 --> 00:24:50,440 sister Judah did not return to me with their whole heart, but 461 00:24:50,450 --> 00:24:54,930 in pretence to clears the Lord, which is the book of divorcement 462 00:24:54,940 --> 00:24:58,790 for the night tribe of Judah. Who was The Who was that the 463 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:03,150 prophet at the time when Judah got removed to Babylon and she 464 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,520 was sent out? It's Jeremiah. 465 00:25:05,530 --> 00:25:07,610 Why do you think we call them the weeping prophet? 466 00:25:09,100 --> 00:25:13,250 It's the divorce. It's a writing of divorce. 467 00:25:13,260 --> 00:25:16,690 Josiah is the written divorce for the northern Israel. 468 00:25:17,310 --> 00:25:21,110 This is the divorce, Jeremiah, for the southern part of Israel, 469 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:22,790 and they are removed and sent out. 470 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:27,200 God has now divorced Israel and those don't know if you ever 471 00:25:27,210 --> 00:25:30,490 considered that what these books are actually about and why He's 472 00:25:30,500 --> 00:25:34,380 got them in this in this way. So with the divorce they removed 473 00:25:34,390 --> 00:25:38,720 out, now comes the amazing part of how God works things. 474 00:25:39,170 --> 00:25:44,880 They're divorced. Why then would God bring back 475 00:25:45,130 --> 00:25:49,650 Zerubbabel to build the temple? Why would he then bring back the 476 00:25:49,660 --> 00:25:52,740 people through Israel, from Babylon to the back to the 477 00:25:52,750 --> 00:25:55,610 nation of Israel? Or he would give Nehemiah, build 478 00:25:55,620 --> 00:25:59,290 the walls of that period. He's divorced from his wife now. 479 00:25:59,300 --> 00:26:03,170 He's sent her out and it's only a portion of the Jewish people 480 00:26:03,180 --> 00:26:06,120 that actually come back at that time that it's it's coming, 481 00:26:06,940 --> 00:26:10,400 coming back. But this is where for me that 482 00:26:10,410 --> 00:26:12,970 interesting or where it gets or sorry. 483 00:26:12,980 --> 00:26:14,890 Let me get to the stage first before we go. 484 00:26:15,730 --> 00:26:17,660 So once that's sent out, that's the divorce. 485 00:26:17,670 --> 00:26:19,800 The next stage is God's punishment. 486 00:26:20,270 --> 00:26:22,700 Now want you to understand, I've been divorced. 487 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,790 The punishment for the nation of Israel, including Judah, is from 488 00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,210 the time of Babylon all the way through to the present time in 489 00:26:32,220 --> 00:26:36,410 which we live now. That is the punishment that God 490 00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:39,970 would do. It's called biblically the time 491 00:26:39,980 --> 00:26:43,410 of the Gentiles. The book of Zechariah is 492 00:26:43,460 --> 00:26:47,010 completely I know some of you are going through that BC if the 493 00:26:47,020 --> 00:26:50,450 book of Zechariah is that book, which is what it's what it's 494 00:26:50,460 --> 00:26:52,470 about. It's about Israel and the times 495 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:54,710 of the Gentiles. That's how the book is 496 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,950 presented. That's why it's so starts where 497 00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:58,740 it doesn't finishes also where it does. 498 00:26:59,530 --> 00:27:03,060 So Zechariah, is this this grouping of understanding of 499 00:27:03,130 --> 00:27:05,840 where Israel is, but Israel are under punishment. 500 00:27:06,270 --> 00:27:09,140 So with Israel under punishment, what does God do next? 501 00:27:09,150 --> 00:27:11,100 And this is the amazing thing that he does. 502 00:27:11,110 --> 00:27:12,980 He's divorced his wife at this stage. 503 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,810 So Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 58 is the the idea of the 504 00:27:18,820 --> 00:27:20,110 punishment. I'm just going to read that 505 00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,430 verse. He says you bear the penalty of 506 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,610 your loudness and you're abominations declares the Lord 507 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,710 for thus says the Lord, I will deal with you as you have done 508 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:33,090 and you are you have been you have despised the oath breaking 509 00:27:33,100 --> 00:27:35,240 the covenant. He's talking about the marriage 510 00:27:35,250 --> 00:27:36,360 covenant. You've broken it. 511 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,320 I separated from you. I've divorced the northern 512 00:27:41,410 --> 00:27:43,770 tribes. I've now divorced the southern 513 00:27:43,780 --> 00:27:46,370 tribes. What are we to do with all this 514 00:27:46,380 --> 00:27:48,790 information? Have a look at the next verse. 515 00:27:49,940 --> 00:27:52,510 So from this Israel gets punished. 516 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,090 Just again, to be clear, it's from Babylon all the way through 517 00:27:56,100 --> 00:27:59,190 to the present day is where this punishment is sitting. 518 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,320 But there's something that's amazing and what God will do 519 00:28:03,330 --> 00:28:06,260 next under this punishment is Ezekiel chapter 16. 520 00:28:06,300 --> 00:28:09,260 And I'm going to reverse 60, he says. 521 00:28:09,270 --> 00:28:14,810 Yet I will remember my covenant with you after he's divorced 522 00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:17,480 them. Yet I'm gonna remember my 523 00:28:17,490 --> 00:28:20,120 covenant with you and the days of your youth. 524 00:28:20,130 --> 00:28:23,260 What shall we talking about? It's not the marriage covenant. 525 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:29,350 He's divorced them, but remember there was a previous covenant to 526 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:31,770 Abraham which wasn't conditional. 527 00:28:32,060 --> 00:28:35,430 And he says in the Abrahamic covenant, through you all of the 528 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,330 people of the earth will be blessed. 529 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,010 And that's what he's saying. Yet I will remember my covenant 530 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:42,930 with you in the days of your youth. 531 00:28:42,940 --> 00:28:47,550 I will establish it as a what? Recognise the words everlasting 532 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,840 covenant image. John 316 For God so loved the 533 00:28:50,850 --> 00:28:53,060 world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whoever 534 00:28:53,070 --> 00:28:56,800 believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal 535 00:28:56,810 --> 00:29:00,020 everlasting life. The same words. 536 00:29:00,610 --> 00:29:03,120 This is where the covenant starting to come in. 537 00:29:03,130 --> 00:29:08,490 That you know of term with me to Jeremiah chapter 31 and we're 538 00:29:08,500 --> 00:29:13,120 going to read from verse 31 with Israel being divorced. 539 00:29:13,290 --> 00:29:16,560 God in his mercy and in in his grace, is gonna do something 540 00:29:16,570 --> 00:29:20,340 absolutely miraculous and he pulls these people back. 541 00:29:20,350 --> 00:29:24,510 Zaruba Bell comes back from Babylon to build the temple, and 542 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:26,440 this is mentioned. Thermia builds the walls. 543 00:29:26,450 --> 00:29:29,940 Israel brings the people back. Why does God do this when he 544 00:29:29,950 --> 00:29:33,400 divorced Israel? It's because of his covenant, 545 00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:38,420 the Abrahamic 1, not the Mosaic. He pulls them back and a 546 00:29:38,430 --> 00:29:40,970 Jeremiah 31. He says, Behold, the days are 547 00:29:40,980 --> 00:29:43,980 coming, declares the Lord, that I'm going to make a new 548 00:29:43,990 --> 00:29:45,490 covenant. With who? 549 00:29:46,170 --> 00:29:49,320 The House of Israel and with the House of Judah. 550 00:29:50,450 --> 00:29:52,740 Can you please recognise what that's saying? 551 00:29:53,410 --> 00:29:56,630 The New Covenant in your hands, if you have the Bible, not the 552 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,410 electronic one, but if you have the Bible, you have two 553 00:29:59,420 --> 00:30:02,070 portions, the Old Testament and what's the new one? 554 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,420 The New Covenant, the New Testament. 555 00:30:05,430 --> 00:30:06,760 That's what you're holding your hands. 556 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,630 This is where the new covenant comes from in the Bible. 557 00:30:11,350 --> 00:30:13,650 It doesn't come from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 558 00:30:13,660 --> 00:30:16,110 It's actually found in Jeremiah 31. 559 00:30:16,460 --> 00:30:18,210 Read the verses again. Behold, the days are coming, 560 00:30:18,220 --> 00:30:20,510 declares the Lord. Then I'll make a new covenant. 561 00:30:20,620 --> 00:30:23,490 With who? Not with the church. 562 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,980 Now that might be hard for some of you to hear. 563 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,750 It doesn't say I'm making the new covenant with the church, 564 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:32,750 but he says I make it with who? With the House of Israel and 565 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:34,930 with the House of Judah. Okay. 566 00:30:34,940 --> 00:30:37,570 And he says, not like the covenant that I made with their 567 00:30:37,580 --> 00:30:41,270 fathers in Egypt, the covenant that they broke, though I was a 568 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,520 husband to them. Again, you can see now the the 569 00:30:43,530 --> 00:30:45,900 language, what it's saying. He's divorced them through the 570 00:30:45,910 --> 00:30:48,690 Mosaic Law, but now he's creating something new. 571 00:30:48,700 --> 00:30:51,880 The new covenant, he says, for this is the covenant that I will 572 00:30:51,890 --> 00:30:54,750 make with the House of Israel after those days, declares the 573 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,410 Lord. I will put my law within them, 574 00:30:56,420 --> 00:30:59,570 and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God 575 00:30:59,580 --> 00:31:05,520 and they will be my people. The New Testament is Jeremiah 576 00:31:05,530 --> 00:31:08,120 chapter 31, and it's not made with us. 577 00:31:08,130 --> 00:31:10,280 It was made with the House of Israel and with the House of 578 00:31:10,290 --> 00:31:12,740 Judah. In all the differences, when God 579 00:31:12,750 --> 00:31:14,800 made the marriage covenant with the nation of Israel, He 580 00:31:14,810 --> 00:31:17,990 included all believers, unbelievers. 581 00:31:18,660 --> 00:31:20,670 That's who he made the covenant with. 582 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,570 The new covenant is not so. The New Covenant is only made 583 00:31:25,580 --> 00:31:30,500 with those of faith. Whether you're Jewish or whether 584 00:31:30,510 --> 00:31:35,040 you're a Gentile, you're pulled in because of what God has done 585 00:31:35,050 --> 00:31:38,600 with the New Covenant. But he didn't make it with us. 586 00:31:38,610 --> 00:31:41,320 That's what we have to realise. And it's based off again, the 587 00:31:41,330 --> 00:31:45,520 Abrahamic covenant that it was. So the real thing is we we know 588 00:31:45,530 --> 00:31:48,650 for us as believers, it's all about faith. 589 00:31:48,660 --> 00:31:51,540 It's our putting our trust in Jesus Christ and his death and 590 00:31:51,550 --> 00:31:53,230 his resurrection. That's 100% true. 591 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,050 You don't need to know all of this theology or the nuts and 592 00:31:56,060 --> 00:31:59,270 bolts of how it works. So Steve was fantastic this 593 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:00,600 morning. He said like when you get to 594 00:32:00,610 --> 00:32:03,370 these emblems, he can be lots of depth, but it can also be so 595 00:32:03,380 --> 00:32:06,090 simplistic, just trusting it's a faith. 596 00:32:06,460 --> 00:32:08,430 But what we do often as Christians is we take the 597 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:13,030 surface level and we stay there. It's just about the surface. 598 00:32:13,340 --> 00:32:16,390 But there is so much more in God's plans and purposes. 599 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,210 And So what he did is that he, because of the promises that he 600 00:32:20,220 --> 00:32:23,470 made to Abraham as he drew some people back, which were there. 601 00:32:23,550 --> 00:32:26,110 And then God says, I'm going to do something new in your eyes, 602 00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,420 and I'm making a covenant with Israel and with the House of 603 00:32:28,430 --> 00:32:30,520 Judah. And he made the new covenant. 604 00:32:30,650 --> 00:32:33,060 That's the covenant that Jesus says when he's at the Passover 605 00:32:33,070 --> 00:32:34,640 table, Do this in remembrance of me. 606 00:32:34,650 --> 00:32:37,760 This is my body. This is my bread for the new 607 00:32:37,810 --> 00:32:40,640 covenant. It's all the reference to what's 608 00:32:40,650 --> 00:32:43,820 there in Jeremiah. And so the real question then is 609 00:32:43,830 --> 00:32:46,260 the nuts and bolts of it. We just come by faith to God. 610 00:32:46,270 --> 00:32:48,460 And it's absolutely true. It's it's the gospel 611 00:32:48,470 --> 00:32:50,930 understanding that Jesus died, that he was buried. 612 00:32:50,940 --> 00:32:53,960 He rose again the third day for our sins and that he lives and 613 00:32:53,970 --> 00:32:57,360 one day he's coming back again. The gospel can be really simple. 614 00:32:58,290 --> 00:33:02,840 So in this relationship we have something else that now happens. 615 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:05,950 We have the pause on Israel, on their punishment. 616 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,690 Well, that's still from Babylon all the way to the current time. 617 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,700 But what happens now is that we as Gentiles for the first time, 618 00:33:13,710 --> 00:33:16,670 how do we connect to this? Well, that's what a Romans are 619 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:18,130 living. I'm just going to read Romans 11 620 00:33:18,140 --> 00:33:20,880 verse 13 so that you can actually see how this works. 621 00:33:22,250 --> 00:33:25,700 This is the Jewish person that went out to the Gentiles to tell 622 00:33:25,710 --> 00:33:28,840 us about the covenant that you hold in your hands. 623 00:33:28,930 --> 00:33:33,000 It's Paul writing and he says in Romans 11 verse 13, now I'm 624 00:33:33,010 --> 00:33:35,360 speaking to you Gentiles. That's what he wants us to 625 00:33:35,370 --> 00:33:36,470 understand. That's us. 626 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,450 I'm speaking to you, Gentiles. And as much as I am an apostle 627 00:33:40,460 --> 00:33:43,470 to the Gentiles, that's his purpose in what he was called to 628 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,400 do, He said. I magnify my ministry and order 629 00:33:46,410 --> 00:33:50,060 somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of 630 00:33:50,070 --> 00:33:53,550 them. For if the rejection means the 631 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,810 reconciliation of the world, give what he's saying here. 632 00:33:56,820 --> 00:33:59,610 If the rejection of the Jewish people about Jesus as being the 633 00:33:59,620 --> 00:34:03,770 Messiah resulted in salvation to the whole world, what would it 634 00:34:03,780 --> 00:34:07,060 look like when the Jewish people, if, as we go through 635 00:34:07,070 --> 00:34:11,639 another stage, would actually all accept them as an all, Not 636 00:34:11,650 --> 00:34:14,199 just in part, but all of them? What does he say? 637 00:34:14,210 --> 00:34:16,760 That it's his? If this is the result, salvation 638 00:34:16,770 --> 00:34:19,679 comes through the rejection of Jesus, What will their 639 00:34:19,690 --> 00:34:21,520 acceptance be but life from the dead? 640 00:34:22,260 --> 00:34:24,159 And then he goes on. If the dough is offered in the 641 00:34:24,170 --> 00:34:27,340 first fruits as wholly, so is the lump, and if the route is 642 00:34:27,350 --> 00:34:30,510 wholly, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were 643 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,420 broken off, and you? This is talking about us as 644 00:34:33,429 --> 00:34:37,020 Gentiles, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the 645 00:34:37,030 --> 00:34:40,639 others, now sheer in the nourishing root of the olive 646 00:34:40,650 --> 00:34:41,980 tree. And he says this. 647 00:34:42,090 --> 00:34:45,830 Do not be arrogant toward the branches. 648 00:34:46,550 --> 00:34:49,639 If you are, remember it is not you that supports the root, but 649 00:34:49,650 --> 00:34:53,710 the root supports you. If a Jewish person comes to 650 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,429 faith today, what we often will think in the Christian circles 651 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,030 is that they would come to faith and they'll get folded into the 652 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,890 church. Isn't that usually what your 653 00:35:01,900 --> 00:35:04,070 thoughts and processes are, that Jewish people, if they come to 654 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:05,870 faith, they get folded in the church? 655 00:35:05,940 --> 00:35:09,370 And that's how it works. Biblically, it's the opposite 656 00:35:09,380 --> 00:35:13,030 way round. It says that the covenant was 657 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,450 not made with the church, but it was made with Israel believing 658 00:35:16,460 --> 00:35:19,520 Israel with them, that they were there. 659 00:35:19,530 --> 00:35:24,650 And then we as Gentiles by faith have been grafted in that way. 660 00:35:25,710 --> 00:35:28,660 So they are the branches. And then because of their 661 00:35:28,670 --> 00:35:31,910 unbelief of who Jesus was, because what Jesus was doing, 662 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:35,200 and this is the amazing part of it, he had divorced his wife, 663 00:35:35,210 --> 00:35:36,960 but he had not forgotten his wife. 664 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,870 And he made a covenant to the Jewish people through Israel, 665 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,660 through Judah for the believing part of the Jewish people, not 666 00:35:44,670 --> 00:35:46,920 the unbelieving. And then he said, now I'm going 667 00:35:46,930 --> 00:35:50,640 to invite all of us as Gentiles to be pulled into the thing that 668 00:35:50,650 --> 00:35:54,160 God had made, the covenant. And that's what it's about. 669 00:35:54,170 --> 00:35:57,960 It's actually about us being grafted in or pulled into the 670 00:35:57,970 --> 00:36:01,100 root or the prices, the route or the cornerstone. 671 00:36:01,370 --> 00:36:03,690 The trunk fills up, goes out on the branches, some of them are 672 00:36:03,700 --> 00:36:05,490 broken off, and then we are grafted in. 673 00:36:06,540 --> 00:36:09,810 I honestly believe that is why we struggle so much and we're 674 00:36:09,820 --> 00:36:12,750 gonna struggle even further as we get on in the church age 675 00:36:13,180 --> 00:36:15,840 because we doctrine is so important. 676 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:20,130 And if we think that we are the main ones and God speaks to me 677 00:36:20,140 --> 00:36:23,930 and I'm the I can tell you because God speaking to me and 678 00:36:23,940 --> 00:36:26,620 we don't understand the theology of Harold actually works that 679 00:36:26,630 --> 00:36:28,710 we're grafted and pulled this way. 680 00:36:29,140 --> 00:36:31,560 We we say that's all separate. That's got nothing to do with 681 00:36:31,570 --> 00:36:34,220 me. God speaks to me and I'm the one 682 00:36:34,230 --> 00:36:36,260 that's going to tell you about who God is. 683 00:36:36,370 --> 00:36:39,000 And that's for me really scary because that's what I think 684 00:36:39,010 --> 00:36:42,040 Joe's friends did. They speak on behalf of God 685 00:36:42,050 --> 00:36:46,720 without knowing a depth of what is actually is to work inside 686 00:36:46,730 --> 00:36:49,920 the the the plans or the purposes of how God has got this 687 00:36:49,930 --> 00:36:53,150 working. So we as Gentiles are grafted in 688 00:36:53,580 --> 00:36:56,750 verse 18 again just said do not be arrogant toward the branches. 689 00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,310 If you remember it is not you that supports the root, but the 690 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,830 root supports you. You will say to me branches were 691 00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,850 broken off that I might be grafted and and that is true. 692 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,310 They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand 693 00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:12,440 fast and faith. So do not be proud, but fear. 694 00:37:13,490 --> 00:37:15,890 So now we go into the next relationship which is the Lord 695 00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:17,690 Jesus Christ. You know we as believers with 696 00:37:17,700 --> 00:37:21,310 your Jewish will Gentile, we go into the same body which is the 697 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,210 Church of Christ since X chapter 2, the so again Jesus would give 698 00:37:25,220 --> 00:37:27,470 us the symbol of the bread and the wine saying this is the new 699 00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:29,350 covenant. But it doesn't start until X 700 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,630 chapter 2 in the Holy Spirit comes from that point on. 701 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,850 It's the age of the church. Jews and Gentiles believers will 702 00:37:36,860 --> 00:37:38,780 be in this part. And what are we called now? 703 00:37:38,790 --> 00:37:41,910 We are called betrothed Christ. Do you recognise that we're not 704 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:46,560 actually married to Christ yet? We are betrothed to Him. 705 00:37:46,630 --> 00:37:51,320 We are the bride of Christ, but we aren't actually married to 706 00:37:51,330 --> 00:37:54,070 Him yet. O when do we get married? 707 00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:57,060 And the and the Romans live? And it also says that a personal 708 00:37:57,070 --> 00:38:00,650 hardening has come to Israel until the fullness of the 709 00:38:00,660 --> 00:38:04,460 Gentiles comes in at the time when God will bring the fullness 710 00:38:04,470 --> 00:38:07,960 of the church to himself, being Jewish and Gentiles in this one 711 00:38:07,970 --> 00:38:10,630 body. At the time when he's got all of 712 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,340 the all of us in this one body to the full number that he's 713 00:38:13,350 --> 00:38:17,090 predetermined or that he has, then we're going to be with him 714 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:22,060 and go where he is and we will celebrate what the marriage 715 00:38:22,110 --> 00:38:26,610 supper of the Lamb, which is the actual marriage. 716 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:29,830 That's where we're going to be as the church actually married 717 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,060 to Christ, and that's the picture that's presented. 718 00:38:33,490 --> 00:38:35,020 O this is the age in which we live. 719 00:38:35,030 --> 00:38:38,220 We're in the time of the church from ex Charter 2 to the time 720 00:38:38,230 --> 00:38:41,020 that God will cool the fullness of the church then, and then the 721 00:38:41,030 --> 00:38:44,160 church will be removed and taken up and to be presented with Him. 722 00:38:45,260 --> 00:38:48,730 So what about Israel? Again, like now we've got this, 723 00:38:48,740 --> 00:38:50,960 we know how things work, but what happens to Israel? 724 00:38:50,970 --> 00:38:53,810 So I'm going to go now into the the seventh stage of Israel's 725 00:38:53,820 --> 00:38:55,670 relationship. There's going to be a 726 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:59,710 realisation of what Israel got wrong, and that's found in 727 00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:02,210 Jeremiah as early as Jeremiah. Of the three, I'm just going to 728 00:39:02,220 --> 00:39:05,380 read one verse 3 of Jeremiah 3, verse 11. 729 00:39:06,070 --> 00:39:09,740 And this season the Lord said to me, faithless Israel has shown 730 00:39:09,750 --> 00:39:13,000 herself more righteous than treacherous Judah, even though 731 00:39:13,010 --> 00:39:15,940 God had divorced her. He said, go and proclaim these 732 00:39:15,950 --> 00:39:19,120 words toward the north and say, return faithless Israel, 733 00:39:19,130 --> 00:39:23,050 declares the Lord, I will not look on you in anger, for I am 734 00:39:23,060 --> 00:39:26,180 merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever. 735 00:39:26,650 --> 00:39:32,800 Only acknowledge your guilt. You know the the requirement for 736 00:39:33,290 --> 00:39:37,170 the Jewish people to be grafted and back again as a nation is 737 00:39:37,180 --> 00:39:38,620 that they will acknowledge their guilt. 738 00:39:38,630 --> 00:39:42,160 What is the guilt, the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ? 739 00:39:42,530 --> 00:39:45,380 That's the guilt that the Jewish nation are going to have to 740 00:39:45,610 --> 00:39:48,220 acknowledge. So Kariah says they will look on 741 00:39:48,230 --> 00:39:51,400 me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn as one mourns 742 00:39:51,410 --> 00:39:54,040 for their only child. And when they finally as a 743 00:39:54,050 --> 00:39:57,680 nation will go, yes, God divorced us, but he did 744 00:39:57,690 --> 00:39:59,830 something way more miraculous than that. 745 00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:04,030 He gave us the new covenant. But we rejected that and so God 746 00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,520 has gone and grafted in the Gentiles until the fullness of 747 00:40:07,530 --> 00:40:10,450 the Gentiles become in. And then after that happens, the 748 00:40:10,460 --> 00:40:14,420 church is going to be removed and God is going to then deal 749 00:40:14,430 --> 00:40:18,490 with the nation of Israel until they will acknowledge His guilt. 750 00:40:19,330 --> 00:40:23,330 And so we finally have the eighth stage is the the 751 00:40:23,340 --> 00:40:27,970 remarriage of the nation of Israel to God the Father. 752 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,630 It's an amazing thing. So the church is removed. 753 00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:35,580 It's taken out of the way, God went to judgement and it ends up 754 00:40:35,590 --> 00:40:37,760 in the tribulation. Didn't know that's what the 755 00:40:37,770 --> 00:40:40,040 tribulations about. Where God will pressurise the 756 00:40:40,050 --> 00:40:46,060 Jewish people so strongly that 2/3 of them will perish, 1/3 757 00:40:46,130 --> 00:40:48,590 will be ready to acknowledge their guilt. 758 00:40:49,670 --> 00:40:52,680 And it's only at that point, when they will finally, after 759 00:40:52,690 --> 00:40:56,510 all this time from Babylon all the way through to the end, that 760 00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:00,380 they will acknowledge this sin and call for the Messiah as the 761 00:41:00,390 --> 00:41:02,000 timing of the Messiah to come back. 762 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:06,120 And so in stage 8, I'm just going to read from Isaiah 54. 763 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:12,440 It's the last was I 54 and verse when I start from verse 4, it's 764 00:41:12,450 --> 00:41:15,540 after Isaiah 53, the actual words that the Jewish people are 765 00:41:15,550 --> 00:41:19,140 gonna acknowledge about Jesus being on the cross. 766 00:41:19,150 --> 00:41:22,090 So after that we have Isaiah 54 and verse 4. 767 00:41:22,100 --> 00:41:26,640 It says fear not, for you will not be ashamed or be confounded, 768 00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:29,720 for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of 769 00:41:29,730 --> 00:41:32,520 your youth and their approach of your widowhood. 770 00:41:32,770 --> 00:41:35,620 That's because of what they've been pushed out from. 771 00:41:35,990 --> 00:41:40,370 You will remember no more. Your Maker is your husband, the 772 00:41:40,380 --> 00:41:43,400 Lord of hosts is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your 773 00:41:43,410 --> 00:41:46,240 Redeemer, the God of the whole earth, as he is called. 774 00:41:46,510 --> 00:41:49,540 For the Lord has called you like a wife, deserted and grieved in 775 00:41:49,550 --> 00:41:52,940 spirit, like a wife of your youth when she is cast off, says 776 00:41:52,950 --> 00:41:57,360 your God for a brief moment, This is from Babylon to where we 777 00:41:57,370 --> 00:41:59,180 are today. For a brief moment. 778 00:41:59,230 --> 00:42:02,440 It's how God describes it. I've deserted you, but with 779 00:42:02,450 --> 00:42:07,340 great compassion I will gather you in overflowing anger. 780 00:42:07,350 --> 00:42:09,900 For a moment I hid my face from you. 781 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,520 Okay, But with everlasting love, again, that's the word we're 782 00:42:13,530 --> 00:42:16,290 looking for, everlasting love. I will have compassion on you, 783 00:42:16,300 --> 00:42:20,640 says the Lord. We'll skip down those verses, 784 00:42:20,650 --> 00:42:25,370 but all I was trying to get you to recognise is that God will 785 00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:28,350 remarry the nation of Israel again after the Tribulation 786 00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:32,740 period. The fault of the Mosaic Law when 787 00:42:32,750 --> 00:42:35,480 God made that marriage covenant with them, as it was with all 788 00:42:35,490 --> 00:42:38,510 Israel, whether they believed in God or not, it was with all of 789 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:40,050 them. You know what God's going to do 790 00:42:40,060 --> 00:42:42,100 in the end after the Tribulation? 791 00:42:42,470 --> 00:42:44,860 It's through pressure, it's through judgement. 792 00:42:44,990 --> 00:42:49,080 He is then going to take them. 2/3 will die, but the third 793 00:42:49,090 --> 00:42:50,820 remaining will acknowledge their guilt. 794 00:42:50,930 --> 00:42:54,380 And then we're going to have the marriage, the remarriage, but 795 00:42:54,390 --> 00:42:58,250 only in faith. They're going to acknowledge 796 00:42:58,260 --> 00:43:01,250 Jesus and he's gonna marry all of them. 797 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:03,450 That's what Romans live and actually says. 798 00:43:03,460 --> 00:43:05,750 I'm just going to read the verse and live in 25. 799 00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,530 He says, look, I want you to understand at least your eyes 800 00:43:08,540 --> 00:43:11,910 and your eyes and your own eyes. I want you to be. 801 00:43:12,020 --> 00:43:15,470 I do not want you to be unaware of this mysteries, this mystery, 802 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:20,030 brothers, a partial hardening has happened upon Israel until 803 00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:23,120 the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, meaning that's when 804 00:43:23,130 --> 00:43:25,890 the the church has come to its full number. 805 00:43:25,940 --> 00:43:28,730 And in this way, what does it say? 806 00:43:28,940 --> 00:43:34,340 All Israel will be saved. You recognise that all, every 807 00:43:34,350 --> 00:43:38,160 single Jewish person at the time of the tribulation there will be 808 00:43:38,170 --> 00:43:42,100 pointed out for this last third. Mildly 2/3 have already gone, 809 00:43:42,110 --> 00:43:46,960 but they will all come to faith and that's where God will again 810 00:43:46,970 --> 00:43:52,340 remarry the nation of Israel. So just as we close, it's just 811 00:43:52,350 --> 00:43:54,490 like, what are we supposed to do with what you see in the world 812 00:43:54,500 --> 00:43:58,140 today? There is a nation of Israel. 813 00:43:58,670 --> 00:44:01,330 God is putting Israel in our faces more and more, and it's 814 00:44:01,340 --> 00:44:06,130 going to become more and more prominent in our in our world so 815 00:44:06,140 --> 00:44:08,140 that we'll have to deal with them at some stage. 816 00:44:08,510 --> 00:44:10,020 You're going to have to do something. 817 00:44:10,290 --> 00:44:12,060 Now, these are the options that you can have. 818 00:44:12,070 --> 00:44:16,790 First one is to let the world dictate who Israel is to you. 819 00:44:17,710 --> 00:44:20,480 Do it through social media, through it, through YouTube. 820 00:44:20,490 --> 00:44:22,420 Do it through whatever tickles your ear. 821 00:44:22,570 --> 00:44:25,990 But listen to the voices and make that judgement on the 822 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,400 nation of Israel. That's one option that you have. 823 00:44:30,150 --> 00:44:33,300 A second one is that you're to recognise that. 824 00:44:33,310 --> 00:44:36,450 What about if you could say why you believe what you think God 825 00:44:36,460 --> 00:44:38,560 is doing with Israel from the Bible? 826 00:44:39,410 --> 00:44:42,010 Remember the God of this world is Satan. 827 00:44:42,100 --> 00:44:44,050 A Satan is the God of this world. 828 00:44:44,100 --> 00:44:47,070 He influences all of the decisions that are in the 829 00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:50,050 Airways that is trying to get you to see Israel in a certain 830 00:44:50,060 --> 00:44:52,760 perspective. The alternative is that you 831 00:44:52,770 --> 00:44:55,860 would know the plan of God for Israel because you know your 832 00:44:55,870 --> 00:44:59,670 Bibles, you know the doctrine, you know what it says regarding 833 00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:04,970 the nation of Israel, not based on XYZ that you see. 834 00:45:06,100 --> 00:45:09,890 The other thing to recognise is the day of our visitation, God 835 00:45:09,900 --> 00:45:12,810 is doing something miraculous. The nation of Israel and Ezekiel 836 00:45:12,820 --> 00:45:16,010 chapter 36, remember, I'm talking in the context of God, 837 00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:18,410 the nation of Israel, as the nation is still under 838 00:45:18,420 --> 00:45:20,060 punishment. It's still under the judgement. 839 00:45:20,900 --> 00:45:23,350 Q 36 days. God says that I'm gonna grab the 840 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:26,330 Jewish people from the four corners of the earth, and I'm 841 00:45:26,340 --> 00:45:29,090 gonna bring them back into the nation of Israel. 842 00:45:29,180 --> 00:45:32,740 And he says with my Roth poured out and with my anger, I'm going 843 00:45:32,750 --> 00:45:35,650 to draw the Jewish people back into the land of Israel. 844 00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:40,060 And I do this not for their namesake, but for my name's 845 00:45:40,070 --> 00:45:41,770 sake. You know why Israel exists 846 00:45:41,780 --> 00:45:46,150 today? It's for God's namesake, not for 847 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:50,870 Israel's namesake, it's for God. God is doing this, but it's in 848 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:52,950 the context that they're still under punishment. 849 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:57,050 But we're supposed to recognise that God is drawn them back for 850 00:45:57,060 --> 00:45:58,950 the plans and purpose that he has. 851 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,050 So that's something also to consider. 852 00:46:01,180 --> 00:46:04,450 CQ36 That's what it talks, the wrath of God drawing them back. 853 00:46:04,460 --> 00:46:07,370 37 The dry bones were God would make life. 854 00:46:07,420 --> 00:46:09,650 And who has ever seen such a thing that a nation would come 855 00:46:09,660 --> 00:46:12,870 back again? Then we lead into hard chapters 856 00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,810 38 and 39, which I believe is where we're sitting right now in 857 00:46:15,820 --> 00:46:18,560 the Bible. We're in this time in the Bible. 858 00:46:18,570 --> 00:46:20,590 We're actually, it's irrelevant to us. 859 00:46:21,300 --> 00:46:25,840 It's actually right there. The other thing to remember is 860 00:46:25,850 --> 00:46:29,380 that, yeah, again, Israel is in the time of punishment as a 861 00:46:29,390 --> 00:46:34,840 nation and to remember also that that we're grafted into them. 862 00:46:34,910 --> 00:46:38,520 Don't make that mistake. Don't think that your your pride 863 00:46:38,530 --> 00:46:43,280 and your position is higher than what God has ordained by them 864 00:46:43,350 --> 00:46:44,900 and we're not talking about Jewish people. 865 00:46:44,910 --> 00:46:47,850 So please make me get understand what I'm talking about. 866 00:46:48,070 --> 00:46:52,060 We're only talking about the believing Jewish people and the 867 00:46:52,070 --> 00:46:55,080 covenant that God has made with Israel and we're grafted into 868 00:46:55,090 --> 00:46:57,320 that. The Jewish people there there as 869 00:46:57,330 --> 00:47:00,440 a nation are still under this judgement. 870 00:47:00,890 --> 00:47:03,360 And remember, it's not on percentages, It's on the 871 00:47:03,370 --> 00:47:07,320 totality of them entirely. Okay then finally it's what I 872 00:47:07,330 --> 00:47:09,960 would you really just to close with is the way we should deal 873 00:47:09,970 --> 00:47:14,120 with the nation of Israel. Israel that exists today is 874 00:47:14,130 --> 00:47:17,340 because God is doing it, not because mankind are doing it. 875 00:47:17,410 --> 00:47:19,590 So what should be our relationship to Israel? 876 00:47:21,330 --> 00:47:23,230 Israel do not do everything right. 877 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,070 If you the pendulum, if it's sitting here, if we go too far 878 00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:30,450 on this one, we say everything that Israel is, everything that 879 00:47:30,460 --> 00:47:33,530 they do is because they're God's people and there's nothing that 880 00:47:33,540 --> 00:47:35,970 they can do that's wrong. You've swung their pension on 881 00:47:35,980 --> 00:47:39,880 way too far to the side. You've gone in the wrong place 882 00:47:39,890 --> 00:47:42,010 because you're not listening to the scriptures that says that 883 00:47:42,020 --> 00:47:44,370 God is judging them and he's doing things with them. 884 00:47:44,420 --> 00:47:47,770 You'll pendulum is sitting here. You can call them out. 885 00:47:47,780 --> 00:47:51,050 Guys like Yuval Harari, who was a Jewish like academic, sort of 886 00:47:51,060 --> 00:47:54,530 considered very high up in World Economic forums, he actually 887 00:47:54,540 --> 00:47:57,850 despises God. Should we court not call them 888 00:47:57,860 --> 00:48:00,140 out because he's Jewish? Course we shouldn't. 889 00:48:00,860 --> 00:48:03,690 We should say yes, what he's doing is absolutely wrong. 890 00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,030 So that's the side. But does that mean you wish stay 891 00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:07,810 over here and say, ohh, this is what we should do? 892 00:48:07,820 --> 00:48:12,150 We should just absolutely hammer away or we can come over to this 893 00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,870 side and we say, you know what's happening in the Bible today. 894 00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:17,890 Even like passages like Ezekiel 36 or God dealing with Israel. 895 00:48:17,900 --> 00:48:19,750 It's got no relevance at all in the Bible. 896 00:48:20,710 --> 00:48:24,490 Means nothing in that way. We swing the pendulum this side 897 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,790 and we say no, they have nothing to do and there's no mention or 898 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:32,750 purposes for God. The centre point is right here, 899 00:48:33,670 --> 00:48:36,620 and the centre point is this, acknowledging that God is one 900 00:48:36,630 --> 00:48:39,420 day going to marry his wife again, which is the nation of 901 00:48:39,430 --> 00:48:42,180 Israel. Do you want to go against the 902 00:48:42,190 --> 00:48:45,370 Lord's anointed? Remember Saul. 903 00:48:45,540 --> 00:48:51,420 Saul was called from God and he was anointed, and he wasn't a 904 00:48:51,430 --> 00:48:54,420 good king. Israel has called back to the 905 00:48:54,430 --> 00:48:56,500 nation of Israel. They're there right now. 906 00:48:56,580 --> 00:49:00,100 They're called back, but they're not necessarily in a believing 907 00:49:00,110 --> 00:49:01,900 state. In fact, it's the opposite. 908 00:49:02,750 --> 00:49:05,150 But God has called them back. So that's the the picture. 909 00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,030 Like of Saul, the next king is King David. 910 00:49:08,970 --> 00:49:11,620 What was King David's relationship like to us all? 911 00:49:12,190 --> 00:49:14,300 What did he do? He said. 912 00:49:14,310 --> 00:49:18,370 I'm not going to go against the Lord's anointed. 913 00:49:19,190 --> 00:49:21,270 That should be our position as a church. 914 00:49:21,940 --> 00:49:24,230 We're not for him that everything that Jewish people do 915 00:49:24,240 --> 00:49:26,030 is 100%. That's too far. 916 00:49:26,100 --> 00:49:28,850 We're not totally against them because that's again too far. 917 00:49:28,860 --> 00:49:31,850 The pendulum that sits right in the middle is that we go, yes, 918 00:49:31,860 --> 00:49:35,490 we recognise that God is dealing with them, but I am not going to 919 00:49:35,500 --> 00:49:37,960 put my hand against God's anointed. 920 00:49:38,090 --> 00:49:40,820 Just like David would not put his hand against Saul. 921 00:49:41,290 --> 00:49:44,050 He would call out Saul, so he would say, so why are you trying 922 00:49:44,060 --> 00:49:46,180 to take my life? There's no problems calling out 923 00:49:46,190 --> 00:49:48,180 people that you see that Jewish people are doing something 924 00:49:48,190 --> 00:49:50,900 that's wrong. No problems at all, but don't 925 00:49:50,910 --> 00:49:54,220 put your hand against them. Don't go too far where you swing 926 00:49:54,230 --> 00:49:57,210 that pendulum. All I can say is in these coming 927 00:49:57,220 --> 00:49:59,810 days, in these coming years, Israel is going to be what God 928 00:49:59,820 --> 00:50:03,130 is doing is He's putting them up, up and up more in our face 929 00:50:03,260 --> 00:50:06,350 so that you will have to make a call sometime of where you stand 930 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,980 with them. And with that pendulum is going 931 00:50:08,990 --> 00:50:10,340 to swing. You can be over this side, you 932 00:50:10,350 --> 00:50:13,320 can be on that side, or you can set, I think where the Bible 933 00:50:13,330 --> 00:50:14,660 sets, which is right in the centre. 934 00:50:15,590 --> 00:50:17,920 And so that's the way that I think we should do that. 935 00:50:17,930 --> 00:50:21,540 We should deal with them is do the things that God says it's 936 00:50:21,550 --> 00:50:25,180 recognise their future plan. Don't curse them, but neither 937 00:50:25,220 --> 00:50:26,780 should we do it. You know the thing that I prayed 938 00:50:26,790 --> 00:50:30,050 for like was amazing when all the nations were they going 939 00:50:30,060 --> 00:50:31,960 through this process. Should we recognise the 940 00:50:31,970 --> 00:50:34,760 Palestinian, the separate state and all those things. 941 00:50:35,230 --> 00:50:37,840 I remember seeing all the other countries going that way, 942 00:50:37,850 --> 00:50:41,550 Canada, Australia, many other countries, UK all going for that 943 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:43,760 way. Remember specifically praying in 944 00:50:43,770 --> 00:50:46,820 the night to the Lord on my knees and saying Lord, please 945 00:50:46,830 --> 00:50:52,340 just make if if we could make New Zealand pendulum sit in the 946 00:50:52,350 --> 00:50:54,300 middle. I didn't think that it could 947 00:50:54,310 --> 00:50:56,610 actually happen. I thought they would just swing 948 00:50:56,620 --> 00:50:59,110 with every other state and nation had gone, would just 949 00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:01,610 automatically go there, but that's what I prayed. 950 00:51:01,620 --> 00:51:03,890 Lord, please let us stay in this middle. 951 00:51:03,980 --> 00:51:06,710 Let us not be for Israel that everything they do is perfect. 952 00:51:06,720 --> 00:51:09,290 That's not correct. It's not biblically correct, but 953 00:51:09,300 --> 00:51:11,300 neither let us put our hand against them. 954 00:51:12,030 --> 00:51:15,500 Let us just be neutral and let the Lord do something. 955 00:51:15,590 --> 00:51:19,620 Isaiah 6211 says the Lord has declared to the end of the 956 00:51:19,630 --> 00:51:21,380 earth, which is where we are in New Zealand. 957 00:51:21,510 --> 00:51:24,880 He says, say to the daughter of Zion, that's the Jewish people, 958 00:51:25,210 --> 00:51:28,240 your salvation is coming. It's exactly what's going to 959 00:51:28,250 --> 00:51:30,980 happen in the future. And we need to know our theology 960 00:51:30,990 --> 00:51:32,720 on some of this stuff. We're going to be taken. 961 00:51:32,730 --> 00:51:35,600 We're going to get swept. And the more we get swept away, 962 00:51:35,610 --> 00:51:38,000 the lesser we're going to be able to stand on the principles 963 00:51:38,010 --> 00:51:40,300 of God. Sorry, I know it's a long time, 964 00:51:40,310 --> 00:51:43,120 but it's been something that's been burdening on my heart for a 965 00:51:43,130 --> 00:51:45,620 long time. And I just, yeah, I pray that I 966 00:51:45,630 --> 00:51:50,130 won't be speaking on the other three friends of Job, but maybe, 967 00:51:50,180 --> 00:51:52,790 Lord, if you're willing, may I speak on the side of Allaho. 968 00:51:53,060 --> 00:51:55,570 It's close. And Priya, Father, we thank you 969 00:51:55,580 --> 00:51:58,950 for your plans and your purposes, your arrangement and 970 00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:02,190 marriage. Lord, what I just pray that we 971 00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,510 might be able to. We thank so thankful all that 972 00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:08,070 the simplicity of the gospel and what it actually means to come 973 00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,790 to faith is just accepting you, Lord Jesus, the with sinners 974 00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:14,370 that you died for us, that you rose again and you live, Lord, 975 00:52:14,380 --> 00:52:16,450 and you're seated at the right hand side of the Father. 976 00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:19,350 And Lord, that we just have to, we can accept you for what 977 00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:21,950 you've done. But Lord, I also pray that we 978 00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:23,930 might also know deeper things of your word. 979 00:52:23,940 --> 00:52:27,370 Lord, leave us not on the milk. Let us not sit on the surface. 980 00:52:27,380 --> 00:52:30,240 Lord, help us to understand the deeper plans and purposes of 981 00:52:30,250 --> 00:52:32,520 you. Help us to rightly divide the 982 00:52:32,530 --> 00:52:34,660 word of truth. Help us to see your plans and 983 00:52:34,670 --> 00:52:37,490 your purposes and how we can be part of that even in a far away 984 00:52:37,500 --> 00:52:40,650 country like New Zealand. Lord, I thank you for our the 985 00:52:40,660 --> 00:52:42,340 people or the leaders that are in New Zealand. 986 00:52:42,350 --> 00:52:45,230 I pray for our government, Lord. I do pray, Lord, that we will 987 00:52:45,240 --> 00:52:47,840 stay in a neutral position. Would help us to keep the 988 00:52:47,850 --> 00:52:51,240 pendulum where it should be, Lord, and help us to see the 989 00:52:51,250 --> 00:52:53,190 opportunities that you're presenting to us. 990 00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:55,930 But Lord, we do pray for the peace of Jerusalem as you've 991 00:52:55,940 --> 00:52:58,840 asked us to do in sounds. Lord, I pray that you would help 992 00:52:58,850 --> 00:53:02,080 our eyes to be opened, Lord, to recognise that you grafted us 993 00:53:02,090 --> 00:53:04,470 then as Gentiles into the promises of God. 994 00:53:04,700 --> 00:53:07,530 We're so thankful for what you were willing to do for us, Lord, 995 00:53:07,700 --> 00:53:09,390 when we were so far away from you. 996 00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:12,450 But Lord, I just thank you for this time, the opportunity, 997 00:53:12,460 --> 00:53:14,290 Lord, and the burden that's been on my heart. 998 00:53:14,300 --> 00:53:17,210 So just thank you for all of these things in Jesus name, 999 00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:17,770 Amen.