All right, great singing.
Hopefully you've got Zechariah chapter eight still open.
There's Zechariah chapter eight.
Just look at the last verse there for a minute,
the last verse, verse number 23.
It says,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
in those days it shall come to pass
that 10 men shall take hold
out of all languages of the nations,
even shall take hold of the skirt of him
that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you
for we have heard that God is with you.
So you see, this chapter here is referring,
the whole chapter is about the millennial reign
of Jesus Christ, the thousand years
when Jesus Christ comes back.
In fact, when you look at verse number one,
it says, look at verse number three,
Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion
and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem
and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth
and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.
This is a picture here of the millennial reign of Christ.
And it talks about them, you know,
old men and old women dwelling in the streets,
in the cities of a very old age, these kinds of things,
because they, in that millennial reign,
they're gonna live for hundreds of years,
just like we saw in the book of Genesis,
the first generations, they lived many,
many hundreds of years.
But you notice at the end there are verse number 23,
you know, these people are excited to catch
the skirt of one that is a Jew.
And he says about that Jew, he says,
look, we've heard that God is with you.
All right, so I wanna talk about the Jews tonight.
You know, we're going through our rightly dividing series.
And today I wanna talk about the Jews
and the title for the Jew, sorry, title for the sermon,
tonight is The True Jew, The True Jew.
Now, when it comes to this term, the Jew,
we often think about the Hebrews or the children of Israel.
And of course, these terms can be used interchangeably.
But you know, that term Jew can mean many things.
In fact, even as we look at the Bible,
it can mean three different things
when you look at it from the scriptures.
And I wanna basically start off
just using the Bible as our foundation
and define these three areas of what a Jew is.
You know, many people are slack concerning this phrase.
What is it called, this word, the Jew?
You know, I mean, many preachers, many pastors,
even of our own Baptist churches
are guilty of not defining this term clearly, okay?
And my goal is we seek to rightly divide the word of truth,
you know, seeking to rightly divide.
I want to, you know, give you a breakdown
of how the Bible uses the term Jew, okay, or Jews.
And it's quite interesting
because those Baptist brethren of a dispensational nature,
they love the term the Jew.
When they talk about rightly dividing the word of truth,
they say you gotta rightly divide between the Jew,
the Gentile, and the church.
That's how you rightly divide, they say.
But they forget to rightly divide just the Jew
because that's what we'll look soon.
And I'll prove this to you,
it can mean three different things.
So you might want to just keep a finger on Zechariah 8.
We're going to come back to this at the end of the sermon.
But let's start off in 2 Kings 16, please.
2 Kings 16.
And let's just look at the first mention of the word Jew, okay?
Now, many of you probably don't even realize
what the first mention of the word Jew
because you've been brainwashed into thinking
that Abraham was a Jew, or that Isaac was a Jew,
or that King David was a Jew.
And you know, there's an element that they were Jews,
there is a certain truth to that.
But in reality, they don't really identify as a Jew
because the term Jew was not used till many years later,
even after the King Solomon when the two nations,
the nation of Israel was divided into two,
the southern kingdom of Judah
and the northern kingdom of Israel.
And if you know the story,
sometimes these two nations did not get along.
Many times the kings of Judah,
they were more, usually the more godly ones.
Of course, there were some ungodly kings
in the nation of Judah as well.
And the nation of Israel was very ungodly.
I mean, I think Jehu is the only one
that kind of stands out as a king
in the northern kingdom of Israel as a decent guy.
It's probably not the best guy,
but quite a decent guy that we read about in the Bible.
And so because you have these two nations,
many times they were at odds with one another,
even though they are the same children of Israel,
but many times they were at odds with each other.
And we pick it up here in 2 Kings 16,
where there's actually a war
between the northern kingdom of Israel
and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Look at 2 Kings 16, verse five.
It says here,
"'Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah.'"
Now Pekah is the king of Israel.
We shouldn't say,
"'And Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel.'"
So this is the southern king.
Israel is not one nation.
It's been split into the two.
So it's the king of Israel, the northern kingdom,
came up to Jerusalem to war.
Now Jerusalem was in the southern kingdom
in what they called Judah.
So they're coming to war against who?
Against their own brothers, right?
They're their own, you know,
the two tribes that make up,
and the Levites because of the temple in Jerusalem,
they make war against the southern kingdom of Judah.
And it says here,
"'And they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
"'At that time, Rezin king of Syria
"'recovered Elath to Syria.'"
Look at this.
"'And drove the Jews from Elath,
"'and the Syrians came to Elath
"'and dwelt there unto this day.'"
This is the first time your Bible mentions the word Jew.
And what is it referring to?
Who are the Jews?
Well, it's not the kingdom of Israel.
The Jews are the southern kingdom of Judah.
The northern kingdom of Israel
was going to war against the southern kingdom of Judah,
and the people of the southern kingdom
at this point in time have been now known as the Jews.
So think about this.
At this point in time, was the northern kingdom,
the 10 tribes that made up the northern kingdom,
are they Jews?
No, not if we take what the Bible says.
Only the southern kingdom, the two tribes,
and the tribe of Levi,
because they were there serving in the temple,
make up the Jews, all right?
Now, so the idea that the first mention is that
it's the people that make up the national identity
or the nation of Judah,
if you want to look at it from that perspective.
And there is that truth to it.
You know, the word Jew has a national identity.
That's one aspect of it, okay?
But more often, when we look at the word,
later on in the Bible,
the term Jew started to be used sort of synonymous
as just a Hebrew or a child of Israel.
So these terms sometimes develop over time, okay?
That's something we need to remember.
But again, this is long after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
you know, long after Moses,
long after King David, long after Solomon.
You can't even rightly call these guys Jews
because, you know, the children of Israel,
they were one nation, you know?
And when Israel was at its peak of power and prosperity
and blessings of God,
it wasn't, there was no one known as Jews back then.
It wasn't till later when the kingdoms were divided,
they went to war.
The southern kingdom was known as,
the people of the southern kingdom were known as the Jews.
All right, now, please go to Leviticus 19 for me.
Leviticus 19.
And while you're turning there,
I'll give you a quick history.
And many of you know this.
I probably want to preach an entire sermon
on the history of Israel at some point.
But in the future, the northern kingdom of Israel
would be seized or taken over by the Assyrians.
And they would be driven out of the land.
I mean, many of the Jews,
many of the Israelites of the northern kingdom
did stay on the land.
And they named Samaria as the capital city of them.
That's why when we get to Jesus Christ,
they're known as the Samaritans.
It's those that made up the 10 kingdoms of the northern,
sorry, the 10 tribes that made up
the northern kingdom of Israel
and mixed with other people of the Assyrian,
you know, the people of Syria had conquered.
Just a mix of people were known as the Samaritans.
But sometimes some of these people from the northern kingdom
did also make their way to the southern kingdom, okay?
And you probably know the story
of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Eventually they would be overtaken.
They would be taken into captivity by Babylon, wouldn't they?
And they'd been in Babylon for 70 years.
And if you know the story, after 70 years,
they would return back to Jerusalem,
rebuild the city, rebuild a new temple,
because that first temple had been destroyed.
And then after that,
we have a quiet period of about 400 years,
and then we get to the New Testament of Jesus Christ's birth.
All right, that's a little snapshot there.
But while you're turning to Leviticus 19,
I just want to prove this to you that some of the,
because people talk about the lost tribes of Israel,
like what happened to them,
but many of them actually went to Judah, okay?
And I'll just prove this to you,
because you remember when Jesus was going to,
prophesied to come into the world,
we have a prophetess, Anna, if you remember, in the temple.
And I'll just quickly read to you from Luke 2.36.
Luke 2.36, and it says,
"'And there was one Anna, a prophetess,
"'the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asa.'"
And that tribe Asa in the Old Testament
is the tribe of Asher that you read about in the Old Testament.
They drop the H.
And many times you see that
between the New Testament and the Old Testament.
They drop the H.
In the Old Testament, it was the tribe of Asher,
which is one of the 10 tribes
that made up the northern kingdom.
And you read about it as Asa in the New Testament.
And it says here,
"'She was of great age and had lived
"'and 107 years from her virginity.'"
So we do see people that even in the time of Christ
that did make up that northern kingdom,
and that they're found there,
especially this lady prophetess,
as one from the tribe of Asa.
Just to show you that, okay?
Now, the reason I wanted to point that to you,
because when we think of the term Jew,
we tend to think about a physical descendency.
This is one way we can allocate the term Jew
as a physical people.
I mean, today, when you think of the Jews,
don't you think about a physical people?
Don't you think of people that so-called
descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
so-called, they claim?
That's what we tend to think about.
When you have your Baptist churches
and you have your preacher and say,
man, I stand with Israel, I'm here to bless the Jews,
and they say these things,
they're talking about a physical people
that may not even be on the land.
They may be even living in Australia,
but if they find out they're a Jew,
oh man, I've gotta bless you,
because you're a special child of God.
God has a special eye upon you.
People think about that physical lineage,
or the DNA, right, of what makes a Jew.
And there is a truth to that, of course.
The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
were, like we saw the Southern Kingdom as the Jews,
yeah, they were a physical people
descended from those patriarchs.
The next thought that we think about,
you guys are in Leviticus 19, verse 33,
is a national identity, a national identity.
Leviticus 19, verse 33, the Bible reads,
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land,
ye shall not vex him,
but the stranger that dwelleth with you,
so this is an immigrant, someone from another nation,
from a stranger, that comes to live on the land,
that comes to live in the nation,
but the stranger that dwelleth with you
shall be unto you as one born among you,
and thou shalt love him as thyself.
For ye were strangers in the land of Egypt,
I am the Lord your God.
So you see, somebody could migrate into the land,
the Holy Land, if you wanna choose that,
the land of Canaan, and they were to be received
as someone born in the land.
God was open to Israel being a nation
where immigrants could come in, okay?
And that goes against the teaching, I know,
it goes against, no, no, the Jews kept themselves pure,
you know, they only married amongst themselves.
No, come on, man, you read the Bible,
they kept mixing all the time.
I mean, not even the 12 tribes from the beginning,
you know, Joseph married an Egyptian woman, right?
Moses marries an Ethiopian woman.
I mean, just from the very beginning, right?
As they come down to Egypt,
you see that they're already a mixed people.
It doesn't matter, that's not important.
Jesus, why is that such a big deal?
But you know, our Baptist preachers out there,
they love to say these falsehoods,
oh no, they kept themselves pure.
You know, they're always a special kind of people,
not that they're mixed,
you read about it continually in the Bible, okay?
And so there's no big deal about that,
I'm not making a big deal of that,
it's just a normal thing, people are migrating,
then what, what would happen to them?
We can read other passages,
they were expected to be circumcised,
if they're gonna be worshiping in the temple,
all those kinds of things,
were to do the same practices
as those that were physical descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
You could label them eventually,
as the generations go by,
they would be labeled as Jews as well.
I mean, we're talking about Leviticus here.
If they migrated back then,
by the time we got to the southern kingdom
being called Jews, yeah, many of those,
the descendants of those people,
the strangers of the land, would be Jews as well.
But why are they Jews?
Because of their physical descendency?
No, because they've got a national identity.
They migrated into that nation, okay?
So that's the second criteria of what a Jew is.
A physical descendant,
yes, we read about it in the Bible,
also one of a national identity.
You know, and you don't have to be one
that's a physical descendant
to make up the national nation of Israel,
because they allowed immigration back then.
And now please go to Esther chapter eight.
Esther chapter eight.
The story of Esther is very famous.
The setting of Esther is roughly around the time
when the Jews came out of Babylonian captivity,
when they went back into Jerusalem
to rebuild the city and the temple.
Around that same time is when the events
of Esther takes place, okay?
So it's toward the end of the Old Testament stories.
She's probably about 500 years before Jesus Christ, okay?
Just to give you a sort of rough idea there.
And I mean, in Esther chapter eight,
if you know the story,
there was an attempt to basically slaughter
all the Jews of the land in Persia, okay?
And Esther becomes a queen.
She's able to stand up and defend her people.
And the Jews have a great victory.
I won't go into the story in any great depth here.
But look at Esther chapter eight, verse 15.
Esther chapter eight, verse 15.
It says, and Mordecai,
so Mordecai was the uncle of Esther.
And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king
in royal apparel.
This is after the great victory
when they delivered the Jews out of being slaughtered.
Parable of blue and white and with a great crown of gold
and with a garment of fine linen and purple.
And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.
The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.
And in every province and in every city,
whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came,
the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day.
And pay attention to the next words.
And many of the people of the land,
who were the people of the land?
The Persians.
Many of the Persians or people of the land became Jews.
What?
Yeah, that's what the Bible says.
They became Jews for the fear of all the Jews fell upon them.
So what's the next criteria that we have of this?
What do you think this is referring to?
Did they physically become a Jew?
No.
Did they sign their, did they fill out their part?
You know, sign immigration papers and, you know,
did they get citizenship in the nation of Israel?
Is that what happened then?
No, they're still living in Persia, all right?
How did they become Jews at this point in time?
Well, they became Jews spiritually.
Spiritual Jews, okay?
In other words, the God of Esther and Mordecai,
the God of Israel, many of the Persians saw
what they were able to achieve,
what Esther was able to achieve,
how the Jews were delivered from the hands of the enemy.
And they said, well, your God is gonna become my God.
I'm gonna worship your God.
Well, look at the power that we see of the God of Israel,
the God of the Jews.
And that's how they became Jews.
They didn't just change physically.
They didn't migrate to a new country.
The Persians became Jews is what I'm trying to say to you.
Okay?
So this is the third criteria that we see in the Bible.
We're just using the Bible as our platform right now,
our foundation, that there are physical Jews
that are physically descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
There are national Jews,
people that migrated into the nation.
And number three, there are spiritual Jews
that have no physical or national identity with the nation,
but were believers of God of Israel
and they became Jews spiritually.
Okay, this is important for us to understand
because if we can use this as our platform,
as our foundation,
we can then apply these same principles
to how we use the term today, the term, the Jews.
All right?
So there is today a new teaching,
a new theology known as dispensationalism.
It's been prominent in the Baptist
and many of the popular denominations
for the last hundred years,
but it's been operating roughly over the last 200 years
started by the brethren,
the exclusive brethren and John Nelson Darby
when he put together dispensationalism
as a systemic way to interpret the Bible.
And we've now come through generations,
generations and generations and generations
of preachers and pastors that have taken this theology
and have basically applied it to the Bible
and then apply it to our world today.
And this kind of changes how they view the term Jews.
But you know what?
Not a lot has changed.
If we start with the word of God,
we see these criteria,
the physical, the national and the spiritual Jews,
we can still take this,
use the Bible instead of some man-made theology,
use the Bible and help us understand this term today.
How is it that we can use this term today?
Please go to Matthew chapter three, verse seven.
It is a bit of a Bible study today.
I really, I want this to be my slam dunk sermon
on this topic of the Jews, okay?
I know I've preached on it here and there,
but I just want to focus on this alone today.
Look at Matthew chapter three, verse seven.
Because again, there are Baptist brethren,
my saved brethren, many of them,
that if they came across a Jew,
they'd almost worship them by how much love
and oh man, I've got to be so graces and mercy upon you
just because of the fact that you're a Jew
or a physical Jew, okay?
But what does John the Baptist say about the physical Jews?
As we approach the time of Jesus Christ,
Christ coming into the world,
Matthew chapter three, verse seven,
this is what John the Baptist says about them,
about these people that think they're something special
because of their physical descendency.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
come to his baptism, he said unto them,
"'O generation of vipers, who have warned you to flee
"'from the wrath to come?
"'Bring therefore fruits, meat for repentance,
"'and think not to say within yourselves,
"'we have Abraham to our father.'"
He says, stop thinking that you're important
because you're a physical descendant of Abraham.
He says, "'For I say unto you that God is able
"'of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.'"
You know, and again, my Baptist brethren,
oh man, the Jews, look, just be like, man, the stones,
the stones are so important
because God can use those stones
and raise up children to unto Abraham.
There's no difference, all right?
It's just material, physical DNA.
It doesn't matter when it comes to God,
when it comes to your relationship with God.
Now, did God use the physical descendants
and the nation of Israel in Old Testament times?
Absolutely, you know, the goal was to get, you know,
the gospel out and shine the light, you know,
and for people to be prepared for Jesus Christ when he came.
But here we see John the Baptist dealing with the same issue
we're dealing with today, okay?
And you know, it's honestly,
if we had John the Baptist today,
he'll be preaching this sermon
and be preaching it better than I am anyway, right?
But look, you know, this is the crazy thing about this
is that the Jews in the Old Testament,
they could trace their lineage.
They had books of genealogy
pointing all the way back through the tribes,
all the way back to Abraham,
and they could rightly say, yes, look, I'm a descendant.
I'm a physical descendant.
Great, all right?
But the Jews today have no such thing.
We don't know
if they even are physical descendants of Abraham.
We don't know.
In fact, there are many studies,
there are DNA research even done in Israel itself
that point to that, you know,
many of the Israelites
probably not even have anything to do with Abraham.
I mean, many of them are white, okay?
They're clearly European, you know,
with a Polish background or something like that.
Many of them, right?
But what is it about them that makes them Jews?
You know, again, our churches think
it's because they're a descendant of Abraham.
In fact, the reason they're Jews,
the reason why we call them Jews
is because they've taken on the religion of the Jews,
of Judaism.
That's basically why they're Jews today
is because of their religion.
We'll look at that shortly.
And I got you bouncing around a lot,
but please go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, please.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 15.
And so did John the Baptist care about the physical Jew?
Was that important to him?
He was a physical Jew himself.
He doesn't make it a big deal, right?
So we see that things have changed, you know,
when it comes to the New Testament times
as Christ comes into the world,
what about national Israel?
What about the national Jews, you know?
We have this Zionist movement today.
Once again, this worship,
this man worship of Jewish people
and churches saying, look,
we need to get these people back into the land.
It's called the Zionist movement, okay?
It does go hand in hand with dispensationalism.
And the idea is where we need to, you know,
get rid of these Palestinians.
We need to chase them off the land
so we can get some Jews in there.
And because, you know,
we believe we're fulfilling prophecy
or we're doing something that God wants us to do.
And people send money, people send their prayers,
and they base entire church services,
entire church conferences, you know,
praying for Zionism, basically,
which is a political movement,
which has nothing to do with Christianity.
Nothing to do with Christianity, okay?
Because we're not about the physical descendants.
We're not a political party.
You know, what Christians,
what Bible-believing Christians ought to care about
is getting the gospel to these Jews, okay?
Gospel to the Chinese, the gospel to the Palestinians,
the gospel to the Persians, the gospel to whatever,
you know, that's what our mandate should be.
The Great Commission, not, you know,
trying to, you know, fulfill some political movement
or something like this, okay?
But look at Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 15.
God, through Moses, gives the nation,
the physical nation, you know,
blessings if they were to obey
under the Old Testament covenant, okay?
But he also gives them a bunch of curses as well
if they don't obey.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 15.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 15.
Now we're gonna skip down to verse number 63.
We haven't got time to read all the curses.
There's a lot of curses, all right?
Drop down to verse number 63.
So if the nation of Israel does not follow through
with the commands that God has asked them,
he's going to curse them, okay?
And what is one way that he curses them?
Verse number 63.
Do you see that?
When the nation of Israel will turn against the Lord God,
when they would break commands of God,
God will destroy them, but he says he'll rejoice about it.
Just as much as he'll rejoice to bless them,
he's going to rejoice when he curses them, all right?
Hey, you're not always gonna have the land, Israel.
You're not always gonna have the land, nation, okay?
If you go against the Lord God,
he's gonna pluck you out of it.
Verse number 64.
And let me say to you right now,
the religion of the Jews, Judaism,
is a worship of other gods.
The curse is still upon them.
It's not that they just worship God the Father
and are ignorant of the Son.
No, they don't have the Father if they don't have the Son.
Okay?
And we're trying to, I'm not trying,
but our churches, our friends are trying
to get them back on the land.
Why?
When God's curse is to scatter them from the land,
they're trying to get them back on the land.
Why?
When God's curse is to scatter them from the land,
they've rejected Jesus Christ.
They deserve to be scattered.
Okay?
And if God's able to rejoice about it,
I'm gonna rejoice about it.
I'm not gonna, why would I bring them back into the land
when I'm rejoicing by the fact that they're scattered?
Because I ought to rejoice how God rejoices.
If they're going to disobey God,
if they're going to reject Jesus Christ,
they're not going to walk after his ways.
And look, they hate Jesus Christ.
They don't even respect him.
They don't even think highly of him.
They hate the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Jewish religion, Judaism, okay?
They deserve to be scattered.
I'm with God in this one.
I'm standing where God stands.
I'm not gonna stand with my Baptist brethren
where they stand.
I'm gonna stand where God stands.
And this church is always going to stand where God stands.
If Pastor Kevin doesn't stand where God stands,
that doesn't stop you guys from standing where God stands.
Okay?
Where God stands is where we need to be.
That's where we need to be.
Please go to Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one verse 11.
So we talked about today, 2019,
what's going on today in the, you know,
ever since the Zionist movement has really come
into fruition in the early 1900s.
And even before in the late 1800s,
there was a push towards Zionism as well.
But a lot of this stuff,
the religion of the Jews and all these kinds of things
stem back even to the times of Jesus Christ.
Okay?
And now I want to look at spiritual Jews.
What about the spiritual Jews today?
Okay?
Now, one thing I want to be very clear about,
I don't want you guys to get this mixed up.
The spiritual Jews of the Old Testament were right.
They were right.
They worshiped the one true God of Israel.
They were right, the spiritual Jews.
Okay?
And here's the thing.
When believers would see Jesus Christ walk the earth,
those Old Testament saints, they'd be like,
oh, there's Jesus.
All right, there he is.
You know, the son of David,
I'm going to go and follow after him.
You know, just by default, they believed on him.
I'll approve that to you later on.
Okay, but look at Galatians chapter one, verse 11.
But these are the writings of Paul to the Galatian church.
"'But I certify you, brethren,
"'that the gospel which was preached of me
"'is not after man.'"
So the gospel that Paul has received
is not something that he got from man.
"'For I neither received it of man,
"'neither was I taught it,
"'but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.'"
So who taught the gospel to Paul?
Jesus Christ.
Verse number 13.
"'For ye have heard of my conversation
"'in time past in the Jews' religion,
"'how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God
"'and wasted it.'"
Okay?
So here now in the New Testament times,
we see Paul writes a Galatian church.
And he says, look, I now have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It was given to me by Jesus Christ.
And he compares it to his previous religion,
which he calls the religion of the Jews,
which caused him to persecute the church of God.
Okay?
Let's think about that for a moment.
Is the Jews' religion, and what was Paul?
He was a Pharisee, remember that?
He was trained to be a Pharisee.
Okay?
And so when we read about the Pharisees
and the Sadducees in the Bible,
these are basically the beginnings of Judaism,
modern day Judaism that we have today.
Okay?
It's the same thing.
They hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
They want nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
It's the Jews' religion.
So when we use this term, the Jews' religion
in the New Testament, are we talking about Christianity?
No, we're talking about a false religion.
We're talking about Judaism.
So this is why we need to rightly divide this term, you know?
And I would say the preachers that get up here and preach,
whenever you use that term Jew, be thoughtful.
Make sure you try to communicate.
Like I said, many times as preachers,
we fail to communicate clearly what we mean
by certain terms.
So I hope this sermon sort of helps you understand that.
And here's the thing that, like I said,
modern day Judaism traces its roots back to the Pharisees
and the Sadducees.
And you know, the Sadducees were a sect
that did not believe in the resurrection,
if you remember that.
We can read that in the Bible, okay?
They did not believe in the resurrection.
You know, many Jews today of Judaism, of the religion,
don't believe in the afterlife.
Many of them don't believe in heaven or hell, right?
Where do you think they got that from?
The Sadducees, that's what the Sadducees taught.
And what their religion is really based on,
you thought it was based on the Old Testament,
or it was based on the first five books of the Bible,
you know, the books of Moses.
No, no, no, their teachings, their religion
is based on the Talmud, okay?
It's also known as the Babylonian Talmud, okay?
It's not based on the Bible, all right?
So what I wanna show you right now is,
if you guys go to, or you guys are in Galatians, aren't you?
Go to Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter three,
verse six, and I know these passages
are very familiar to you, okay?
But the Jews today, Judaism is not based
on the Old Testament, okay?
It's based on the Babylonian Talmud,
which is a series of writings and verbal communications
from roughly the time, it's not as Babylon told me,
because remember the nation of, the southern nation
of Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon?
And so a lot of these teachings came around that time,
and then eventually, it was a lot of verbal teachings,
eventually they were written down into books,
and you go into any synagogue today,
any Jewish synagogue today,
and they'll have these books written out.
They will prioritize those books over the Bible, okay?
They don't believe in the scriptures whatsoever.
But the title for the sermon tonight was The True Jew.
You know, I want to say, what does God say
about the true Jews today, okay?
Let's have a look at this in Galatians chapter three,
verse six, Galatians chapter three, verse six.
The Bible says, even as Abraham believed God,
and he was accounted to him for righteousness,
know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
brethren, are you of faith?
Can you say to me that I've placed my faith on Jesus Christ?
Then this is about you.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham.
Just accept it.
What's wrong with these Baptist brethren that I have today?
They think that's blasphemy.
They think you're saying something.
Look, I just read the Bible.
I don't have to explain it any further than that, okay?
You're a child of Abraham, okay?
That's what the Bible says.
I didn't make it up.
The same are the children of Abraham,
and the scripture, verse number eight,
foreseen that God would justify the heathen through faith,
preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Praise God.
Just how God blessed Abraham because of his faith,
you too have inherited that same blessing
because you're a child of Abraham.
Drop down to verse number 16, Galatians 3, 16.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
Oh, the seed, that's the nation of Israel.
That's the physical people.
Let's keep reading.
He saith not unto seeds as of many,
but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
That's who the seed of Abraham is, okay?
Is this complicated?
No, Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham.
When God promised Abraham and his seed the promises,
guess who he promised it to?
Abraham and Jesus Christ, all right?
And if you're a faith, you're of Abraham as well,
child of Abraham.
Look at verse number 26, verse number 26.
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,
for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ, and look, this is the best,
these are the most beautiful words in the Bible.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither born nor free.
There is neither male nor female,
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed,
and heirs according to the promise.
Praise God, okay?
When we're in Christ, there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek.
Why am I gonna go around?
Well, the Jew's gotta bless the Jews.
That's not important.
What's important is Jesus Christ.
Are you in Christ or not?
You wanna bless the Jews, the physical Jews?
Go give them the gospel, get them in Christ,
so they can be blessed with faithful Abraham.
They're not gonna be blessed with Abraham
if they're not in Christ.
That's the promise from the book of Genesis.
That's what we're going through.
The book of, you think it's gonna change now?
Does God change?
No, the promise has always been in Jesus Christ.
I'm going to read to you guys, stay there in Galatians.
I'll read to you from Colossians 3, 10.
The Bible says that I have put on the new man.
We've talked about the new man,
the difference between the new man and the old man,
which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,
but Christ is all and in all.
You know what makes us all the same?
Not the flesh, the flesh doesn't matter.
Yes, the flesh, you know, or my nationality,
I'm Australian, and yes, people can look at my flesh
and recognise you must be South American.
Some people can look at my face and pin,
oh, you must be Chilean,
because they look at my facial structure
and they say, oh, you know, you must be Chilean.
Yeah, but that's not going to profit anything, who cares?
We need to concern ourselves about the new man.
And in the new man, when you're saved,
there's neither Greek nor Jew,
or circumcision or non-circumcision.
That's insignificant, all the outward flesh,
your appearance on the outside,
your physical descendency, your ethnicity
is irrelevant when it comes to Jesus Christ.
We're all one in Jesus Christ, okay?
And sometimes I might tease you guys for your fair skin,
you know, about getting sunburned and stuff,
who cares, all right?
You have the new man, that's the most important part, okay?
The new man.
And you guys are in Galatians, Galatians chapter six,
Galatians chapter six, verse 15.
Galatians chapter six, please, verse 15.
For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision
avallif anything, nor uncircumcision.
That's not important, but a new creature.
That's what's important, the new creature, the new man.
And as many as walk according to this rule,
peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God.
Guess who makes up the Israel of God?
The new creature, the new man.
That's the Israel of God.
And this is what's wonderful,
is that you are not a physical, necessarily,
maybe some of you are, maybe have some of it,
you know, physical descendency of Abraham,
nor do you make up, nor is your nationality,
a nation there in the Middle East of Israel.
But here's the thing, as soon as you're a true Jew,
a child of God in Christ Jesus,
God does put you into Israel, the Israel of God,
the spiritual nation of Israel.
That's the most important nation to be part of.
Why are we wasting time with Zionism,
getting the Jews back into the land?
Look, the best nation to be part of is the Israel of God.
If that's the Israel of God,
then what's the Israel over there in the Middle East?
It's not the Israel of God, it's Israel of someone else.
And that religion is the religion of Antichrist.
It's a religion of Antichrist.
They're getting ready to receive the Antichrist
as their Jesus Christ.
So please go to Romans chapter two now, Romans chapter two,
verse 28, Romans chapter two, verse 28.
Who is the true Jew?
The new creature, the new man.
If you're saved, born again, that's the true Jew.
That's the Israel of God.
That's the one that's a child of Abraham.
That's the one that's blessed with Jesus Christ
and with Abraham.
That's the one that's going to inherit the blessings
and the promises of God.
Romans chapter two, verse 28.
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.
Isn't that what we just read?
The outward doesn't matter.
The physical descendants, it doesn't matter.
He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly.
Accept that.
Believe the Bible, please, for a change.
Believe the Bible.
I don't know how many of you guys believe this anyway.
But those that don't believe it, if there's anyone here,
believe it, all right?
He is a Jew, which is one inwardly.
The new man, the new creature, remember,
and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men,
but of God.
And of course, I haven't got time to go through this
right now, but Revelation chapter three,
we read about the synagogue of Satan,
which say they are Jews and are not, okay?
That say they are Jews, the synagogue of Satan, okay?
There's a religion of the Jews, which is Antichrist,
which meet in synagogues.
The Bible calls it, God calls it the synagogue of Satan.
Man, you want to go bless these people
that worship Satan?
That's who they worship in.
It's Satan's synagogue.
What a waste of your spiritual life.
You know, worrying about the Middle East and Zionism,
this, this, and all the people of God,
you've got to bless them.
What are you wasting your time on, okay?
If you love them like you say you love them,
you get out there and you give them
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's how you love people.
That's how you love these people, okay?
Stop being a racist and elevating one people
over another people.
It's the most ridiculous thing.
That's a ridiculous thing.
Go to Zechariah chapter eight, please.
Zechariah chapter eight, which is what we started with.
Zechariah chapter eight.
And as we were reading this, we're looking at how,
you know, this is a fulfillment,
or this will be fulfilled in the millennial reign
of Jesus Christ, yeah?
Zechariah chapter eight.
And this is the one that, you know,
the Zionists and the dispensationalists love to quote.
Let's have a look at it, verse number 23.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
in those days it shall come to pass that 10 men
shall take hold of all languages of the nations,
even shall take hold of the skirt of him
that is a Jew saying, we will go with you
for we have heard that God is with you.
See, see, you've got to bless the Jews.
Look, there are Christians that would literally,
if a Jew walks past, would try to grab his skirt,
you know, grab his coat.
Man, I know God's with you, let me touch you a little bit
because you're special chosen people of God.
There's a lot of Christians like that,
even in our Baptist churches.
Is that what it's been, is that what's been taught here?
This is the millennium.
What have we gone through before we get to the millennium?
The New Testament, who are the Jews
according to the New Testament?
Those that are born again, those that are in Christ Jesus.
Okay, and look, the Old Testament saints,
the Old Testament saints, you know, those that were saved,
guess what, they were a true Jew as well.
They weren't a true Jew because they were physical there,
physical descendant.
They weren't a true Jew because they were in that nation.
They were a true Jew in the Old Testament,
just like we're a true Jew in the New Testament
because they were born again, they received a new creature.
They were in Christ Jesus, they were children of Abraham
because they were in Christ.
And they didn't have all the knowledge like we do.
They didn't have all the revelation.
But we can have the New Testament
and the New Testament is a commentary of the Old Testament.
We can understand the Old Testament
when we first understand the New Testament, okay?
These things are defined for us.
So when we look at Zechariah chapter eight, verse number 23,
don't you think we should see
what the New Testament has to say about this?
Instead of you just coming up with your crazy, you know,
Jew worshiping racist ideas, all right?
Look at verse number 18, Zechariah eight, verse 18.
Zechariah chapter, let's get some context here.
And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast,
Sorry, let me just check that I've got the bit
that I wanted to read about here.
Actually, let's start with verse number eight,
Zechariah chapter eight, verse eight.
No, sorry, guys, verse 18, Zechariah eight, 18.
I do have a purpose behind this.
And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth month
and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh
and the fast of the 10th shall be to the house of Judah,
joy and gladness and cheerful feasts.
Therefore, love the truth and peace.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass
that there shall come people and the inhabitants
of many cities and the inhabitants of one city
shall go to another saying, let us go speedily to pray
before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts.
I will go also.
I wish we lived in that day today, right?
That the people of the cities around us,
hey, let's go and worship God, you know, that'd be so cool.
That's gonna happen in the millennium, right?
People just say, let's go worship Christ, right?
Verse number 22.
Yea, many people in strong nations shall come to seek
the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come
to pass that 10 men shall take hold of all the nations,
even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew saying,
we'll go with you for we have heard that God is with you.
Now look at verse number six, look at verse number six.
He says this, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
if it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant
of this people in these days,
should it also be marvelous in mine eyes,
saith the Lord of hosts?
Look at this, verse number seven.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold,
I will save my people from the east country
and from the west country.
And again, we get to the end of the chapter,
they're known as the Jews, okay?
Jesus Christ, God says here that he's going to take
his people from where?
From the east country and from the west country.
Now this should come together in your mind
if you know the New Testament pretty well.
Keep your finger there and go to Matthew chapter eight.
Matthew chapter eight.
God's gonna gather his people from where?
The east and from the west.
Callum's already figured it out.
Matthew chapter eight, verse 10.
This is Jesus Christ speaking about the faith
of a Gentile man.
When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed,
verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith.
No, not in Israel.
And I say unto you, look at this,
that many shall come from the east and west
and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out
into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
You see, Jesus Christ defines what's going on here.
The people, his people being taken from the east country
and from the west country, these are Gentile nations.
These are other nations.
These are Gentile people, just like you and I, okay?
He's gonna take his people from all the nations
and they're gonna come, those that are the true Jews,
those that are born again, those that are in Christ Jesus,
and they're going to enter into that millennium.
They're gonna sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and have fun, enjoy themselves, eat together,
spend time together.
And then there it said in verse number 12,
but the children of the kingdom, who's that?
The physical Jews, the national Jews
that think they're important, that are not in Christ Jesus
because they're not true Jews,
those children of the kingdom shall be cast out
into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
They're gonna be cast into hell is what's gonna happen, okay?
Man, these people that make such a big deal
about the physical identity,
man, those people need to be born again in the spirit.
That's what they need, okay?
And this is Jesus Christ defining for us what's going on.
So who's the Jew then that we read in Zechariah chapter eight?
Who is it?
If it all comes together,
it's those from the East and the West, God's people, okay?
Those that are Jew on the inside, the new creature,
the new man, you know?
Those of us that are in there ruling and reigning
with Christ in the millennium,
the people of the nations that live there,
they're gonna be grabbing our skirts.
Hey, tell us about Jesus.
I heard that God's with you.
That's us, okay?
According to Jesus Christ.
And those that interpret this to say, no, it's a physical,
no, no, no, those physical Jews that reject Christ,
they're in hell.
That's what's happening in the millennium, okay?
That's what's happening.
Look at 2 Chronicles 6, please.
Actually, no, no, you're in Zechariah.
Look at verse number eight.
Zechariah chapter eight, verse eight.
It says here, and I will bring them
and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem
and they shall be my people and I will be their God
in truth and in righteousness.
Hmm, where have I heard that before?
They shall be, again, that Jew, okay?
Those from the east and the west, they shall be my people
and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.
2 Corinthians 6, 16.
You guys go to Leviticus 26, you do that.
You go to Leviticus 26,
I'll read to you from 2 Corinthians 6, 16.
You go to Leviticus 26, please.
2 Corinthians 6, 16.
Paul writing to Corinthians, a Gentile church, okay?
Not that he matters, who cares?
All right, but I'm just pointing out
that these are not the Jews.
2 Corinthians 6, 16.
And what agreement have the temple of God with idols?
For ye are the temple of the living God,
as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them
and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
That's the Corinthians, that's the Gentiles.
God said that about them.
And so in the millennium, guess who's his people?
Who's the God?
The church people of the church,
the New Testament believers, the Old Testament believers,
all those that are true Jews are gonna be those people,
you know, walking those streets,
ruling and reigning with Christ forever.
And notice in 2 Corinthians, it said, as God hath said,
and you guys are going to Leviticus 26, verse 12,
wouldn't we say the book of Leviticus
is a book written to Old Testament Israel?
Wouldn't we say that?
Absolutely.
But he said here in 2 Corinthians,
as God had said, I will dwell in them and walk in them,
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Where did God say that?
Well, he said that in Leviticus 26, verse 12,
Leviticus 26, verse 12, identical,
and I will walk among you and will be your God
and you shall be my people.
I am the Lord your God,
which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt,
that you should not be the bondmen.
And I have broken the bands of your yoke
and made you go upright.
That's what's been quoted in 2 Corinthians, okay?
When God said about this, that he will walk among you,
he's talking about the Israelites,
Old Testament Israelites that came out of Egypt.
And then he uses it just like God said,
what God said back then about you Corinthians,
you believers, why?
Because we're just as much the true Jews
as those Old Testament saints were.
That's why, we're the same people.
We're one fold of God.
That's the best thing about it.
Oh, it's replacement theology, hate the Jews.
I love the true Jews of the Old Testament.
I love the true Jews of the New Testament.
Jew or Gentile, I don't care.
Okay, Australian or Chilean or Portuguese or New Zealander,
all right, or whatever.
You know, if you're a true Jew, I love you.
I haven't replaced you,
we're going to rule with Christ forever and ever together.
It's gonna be the best part of everything.
Please go to Genesis 28 now.
Genesis 28, and again, I did tell you
it's a bit of a Bible study here, but Genesis 28.
And also if you can, go to Luke 13.
Genesis 28 and Luke 13.
Genesis 28, one finger,
and the other finger there in Luke 13.
Genesis 28.
Now we've been going through Genesis.
We haven't gone into Genesis 28 just yet.
And of course, we've seen how God promises
to Abraham over and over,
that he'll make him a great nation of all people.
And then these promises get passed down
to Isaac and then to Jacob.
And here in Genesis 28, we have Jacob,
whose name becomes Israel.
And it says here in verse number 10,
Genesis 28, verse 10.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran,
and he lighted upon a certain place
and tarried there all night
because the sun was set.
And he took the stones out of that place
and put them for his pillows
and laid down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed and behold,
a ladder set up on the earth
and the top of it reached to heaven
and behold, the angels of God ascending
and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said,
I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father
and the God of Isaac,
the land where on thou liest
to thee will I give it and to thy seed.
Who was the seed we saw before?
Jesus Christ, right?
To thy seed.
Look at this, verse 14.
And those that are in Christ Jesus
are also the seed of Abraham.
We saw that as well.
Verse 14, and I'm not saying just us,
I'm saying even the believing Jews of the past.
I'm saying the true Jews make up the seed.
Okay, verse 14.
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth
and thou shall spread abroad.
Look at this, to the west and to the east
and to the north and to the south.
Say, no, no, this is just the land of Canaan right now.
You know, just north of Canaan, south of Canaan,
west of Canaan, east of Canaan.
Was that really what's going on?
Let's keep reading.
And from the south, sorry, sorry.
And to the south and in thee and in thy seed
shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Of the earth be blessed.
What's north, south, east, west referring to then?
All the nations of the earth.
We can all be blessed because of this seed
that's been promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And of course, Jesus Christ will be born
through that lineage, okay?
Now this is important because I said the New Testament
defines the Old Testament for us, okay?
You guys are in Luke 13, verse 28.
Luke 13, verse 28.
And this basically goes hand in hand
with what we looked at earlier.
But Luke 13, verse 28.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What was that a reference of?
Hell, okay?
When ye, when ye, he's talking about the Jews,
the unbelieving Jews he's talking about.
When ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves thrust out.
Why are they thrust out?
Because they don't believe on Jesus Christ, that's why.
Because they're not true Jews, that's why.
Verse 29, look at verse 29.
And they shall come from the east and from the west
and from the north and from the south
and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
That's how we define the Old Testament.
We see what Jesus said in the New Testament.
Here's the one we ought to listen to.
How does Jesus define these Old Testament passages?
Oh, the physical Jews?
No, the true Jews.
Those that are in Christ Jesus
from north, south, east and west.
We're gonna be once again there,
you know, referring to, you know,
the coming together with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
all the prophets, all King David and Solomon
and who are your favorite men in the Bible?
Samson and man, just the ladies,
great ladies in the Bible.
Sarah and Esther and Ruth and man,
we're gonna be able to just get together
and have church all together with all the brethren.
Man, that'd be such a great time, okay?
But the physical Jews, thrust out.
Physical Jews weeping a gnashing of teeth in hellfire.
Why are you blessing these people?
Why are you worshiping them and I wanna touch them?
They're God's special people.
You are God's special people if you're in Christ Jesus.
You're not special because of what you've done,
you're special because you've believed on Christ.
You have the imputed righteousness of Christ in you, okay?
So guys, in conclusion, in conclusion,
being a physical or national Jew profits you nothing
and it's gonna profit you nothing in this church.
I don't care if you walk in and you're a Jew,
hey, I'm gonna love you, I'm gonna respect you,
but I'm not going to love you
and respect you above anybody else, okay?
Being a physical national Jew profits you nothing.
John the Baptist compares it to dead stones.
God can raise up stones, you know,
like the children of Abraham, we saw that before.
The only true Jew in the Bible,
the one that matters the most, okay,
is the one who was a Jew spiritually,
the new creature, the new man.
And I'll just read to you these passages,
you don't need to turn there.
1 Peter 2.9 says,
"'But ye are a chosen generation,
"'a royal priesthood and holy nation.'"
You know, when you're a true Jew spiritually,
you're also a true Jew nationally
because you are that holy nation, okay?
You are that Israel of God, okay?
So when you're a true Jew, it's not just spiritually,
nationally as well, okay?
And in Romans 8.22, physical also.
Physical also, Romans 8.22,
"'For we know,'" you don't need to turn there,
just read it, "'For we know that the whole creation
"'growneth and travaileth in pain together until now,
"'and not only they, but ourselves also,
"'which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
"'even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
"'waiting for the adoption to witness
"'the redemption of our body.'"
Now one day God's gonna give us a new body, okay?
And not only are we gonna be children of God spiritually,
we're gonna be children of God physically.
Our new resurrected physical body
will be just like the physical resurrected body,
glorified body of Jesus Christ.
So being a true Jew spiritually
already makes you a true Jew nationally.
And the promise is you're gonna be a true Jew
physically as well when you have that new resurrected body.
Let's pray.