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Now, in Galatians chapter 3, we have this passage that talks a lot about salvation being only by faith, it's not of works, we're not justified by the works of the law and so forth. And also in this passage, he talks a lot about Abraham and how Abraham is the father of faith and he's the father of those that believe. Let me point out a few specific things about this passage. It says in verse 16, Galatians 3, 16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Sayeth not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. So here when the Bible talks about God making promises unto Abraham in the Old Testament, it says that those promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. Now it doesn't say seeds as of many, it says singular seed and it says that that seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ. So basically what it's saying is that the promises were not made to Abraham and his physical descendants, but rather that the promises were made unto Abraham and his seed Christ. Now jump down to the bottom of the chapter, verse 28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond 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. So this chapter is really clear that the seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ, and if we are in Christ, then that makes us the seed of Abraham. If you're not in Christ, you're not of the seed of Abraham. And if you're not in Christ, even if you're a physical descendant of Abraham, those promises do not apply unto you, according to Galatians chapter 3. Now let me prove this to you further from scripture. Go back to John chapter 8. Let's look at John chapter 8, and I'm going to explain to you why this is so important in a little bit, but John chapter 8, we find a passage that also makes this very clear. And by the way, this is a clear teaching of the New Testament all the way from Matthew to Revelation. This is hammered in almost every single book between Matthew and Revelation. This doctrine is brought up over and over and over and over again, yet let me tell you this, 90 some percent of Baptists don't believe the doctrine that I'm preaching this morning. 90 some percent of Evangelical Christians don't believe the doctrine that I'm teaching this morning. Virtually almost any church you go to that's a Christian church that's a Baptist church is wrong about this doctrine that I'm preaching to you this morning, even though it's something that the Bible talks about literally over and over again in virtually every book from Matthew to Revelation. In fact, it's a major theme of the New Testament. I mean, it's nothing less than a major theme. You say, how can that be, Pastor Anderson? How can it be that all these people are wrong then? Because when you hear something over and over again, sometimes you get ingrained with a false teaching and you get ingrained with a preconceived idea and it's hard to let go of that idea. And I know that when I was a child and when I was a young man growing up, I was wrong about this doctrine because you hear so much of the wrong teaching on it, you hear so much of it wrong in church that it's hard to break free of that, but let me just ask you this morning to do me a favor and just put aside all your preconceived ideas of what you think you know about this subject. We're going to look at a lot of scripture this morning. I want you to just see what the Bible says and just believe it and not be held back by a preconceived idea. Look at John chapter 8 and let me show you what Jesus Christ says in John 8 beginning in verse 32. It says, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever comitteth sin is the servant of sin and the servant abideth not in the house forever but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. And he answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham. Now let me ask you this, just look in there at verse 39, does Jesus believe that they are the children of Abraham? No because he says if you were the children of Abraham you would do the works of Abraham. He just finished telling them that they don't. So he's saying you're not the children of Abraham. He said in verse 40, but now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham, ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself but he sent me. So far he said, you're not the children of Abraham and you're not the children of God. Now he gets a little more explicit because they're not catching his drift. So in verse 43 he says, why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word, ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him. He speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Now right there Jesus Christ is confronted with people who are Jews. Now these are unbelieving Jews, they did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? These are the Pharisees, etc. that are saying to him, Abraham's our father, we're the children of Abraham. And he says, well I know you're Abraham's seed, meaning I know that physically you're descended from Abraham, but he says if you were Abraham's children you'd do the works of Abraham. If you were God's children you would love me. He said, you are of your father the devil. Now when I talked about this spanning from Matthew to Revelation, even in the very first pages of the book of Matthew, when you get to the first preaching of the book of Matthew, the first preaching in the book of Matthew is about this subject, go to Matthew chapter 3. John the Baptist comes on the scene preaching. Chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew, this is right at the beginning of the New Testament, chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew give a narrative about the events surrounding the birth of Christ. They give a narrative surrounding the wise men coming to visit Jesus Christ and presenting gifts unto him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They give us the story about the shepherds that are, you know, keeping watch of their flocks by night. Okay, we get that where Jesus fled into Egypt to escape Herod who was going to slay all the children. So that story is covered in chapters 1 and 2. But when we get into chapter 3, the preaching begins. It says in verse 1, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now let's jump down to verse 7 and see what he said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now let me ask you this. What nationality are the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the Bible? These are the Jews. Look what he says to them in verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits made for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. I mean, right away, right out of the gate, you open the New Testament and you say, okay, let's open the New Testament. And by the way, the book of Matthew, people will tell you, hey, that's the book that's most geared toward the Jews. Because it quotes so much of the Old Testament, wouldn't they tell you that? And in this book that is geared toward the Jews, it says in chapter 3, think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham, and now also the ax is laid under the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Look, it's so clear, and if we follow this through the book of Matthew, we're going to see the same thing over and over again. Go to chapter 21 quickly, and let me just show you one more thing in chapter 21, where basically you'll find a similar story. Really the whole chapter keeps touching on this subject throughout chapter 21. For example, he talks about a fig tree in verses 17 through 23. It says, let's just look there first before we get to what I was actually going to. Look at verse 18, it says, now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? So again, the concept of, you know, if they don't bring forth good fruit, they're hewn down and cast into the fire. That same concept is here with the fig tree, where it withers up, it's gone. Then he goes to another parable, where he talks about in verses 28 and onward, about, you know, the two sons, the one that obeyed and the one that didn't obey. And there's a symbolic meaning there about Israel and the Gentiles, okay? Israel paid lip service to obeying, but did not. The Gentiles did eventually obey. But let me show you the main portion that I wanted to show you. In Matthew 21, look at verse number 33. It says, Hear another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and led it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his sons, saying, They will reverence my son. When the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. It's interesting because here Jesus is prophesying his own death. Jesus hasn't died yet, but he's talking about how they're going to kill the son. Look what it says in verse 40. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Watch verse 43, Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. He said look, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is going to be hewn down and cast into the fire. And he said it doesn't matter whether you say, Oh Abraham's our father, meaningless, cut down, withered away, no fruit, you're gone. And he says here that the kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. He's saying I'm taking it from one nation and giving it to another. Does he say here, but then later I'm going to come back and give it back to that nation? He said no fruit on thee from henceforward forever, is what he actually said earlier in the passage about the fig tree. There's so much scripture on this, we're going to look at so much of this, but if you would go to Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12. How does this apply unto us today? You know, why even preach about this? Well first of all we need to preach about it because it's a major theme of the New Testament. And so if something is a major theme of the New Testament that is talked about over and over again about how the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the kingdom of God is taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof, if the promises of God went from being to Abraham's physical descendants, the nation of Israel, where he says no, that's now, it's Christ that's the seed. And if you're in Christ you're going to inherit the promises. That matters today for a lot of reasons because a lot of people today are stuck in a time warp, they think they're living in the Old Testament today. And the Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now let me ask this, is there a major division in the Bible? Where is the biggest, most major division in your Bible? There's a big division between the Old Testament and the New Testament, isn't there? And Jesus Christ said that where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of the testator. He says a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. So when did the New Testament come into force? When did the New Covenant become in action? At the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, at His death, burial, and resurrection we went from Old Testament to New Testament. Now here's the thing, in the Old Testament, God chose Abraham and He told Abraham, I will make you a father of many nations. I will bless them that bless you, I will curse them that curse you. Let's look at the famous passage in Genesis 12 one through three. It says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. Now what do the words thee, thou, and thy all have in common? They're all singular. This is the great thing about the King James Bible, thee, thou, thy, thine are singular words, whereas ye, you, your are plural. So if you're reading one of these modern Bible versions you never really know whether it's singular or plural, but when you're reading King James you always know, because thee and thou are singular, ye, you, your are plural. So he's saying this all to Abraham, singular. I will make of thee, verse two, a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now is he saying there, I'm going to bless every single one of your descendants, no matter how blasphemous they are, no matter how wicked they are, no matter whether they believe on me or not, no matter whether they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or not, they're just blessed until doomsday because they're your physical descendant, Abraham. Is there anything like that in this passage? Is there anything in this passage that says, I'm going to bless a nation called Israel that will be founded in 1948, everybody who lives there is going to be blessed and they're going to be my chosen people. No, but yet that's what 90 some percent of evangelical Christians and Baptists will get out of these verses. But hold on a second, look at the last words of verse three. It says, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now that's a pretty important statement, isn't it? In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Turn to Galatians chapter three, in Galatians chapter three that is quoted and I want to show you how that is quoted and how it's applied in the New Testament when that is quoted. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you a passage from Genesis 22, okay? Here's another passage where God reiterates that blessing he gave in chapter 12. In Genesis 22 he says this, that in blessing I will bless thee, he's talking to Abraham, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed because thou has obeyed my voice. Now who's the seed according to Galatians three? Jesus Christ and everyone who's in Christ, okay? Now in this passage in Genesis 12 one through three, the most famous passage about Abraham in the entire Bible, it said in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And in chapter 22 he reiterated that same promise and said in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed, okay? Let's look at Galatians three verse number eight to find a biblical interpretation. Now I know that there are all kinds of commentaries that could tell you what Genesis 12 and Genesis 22 mean and you could get your Scofield reference Bible and all the different study Bibles that can tell you what it means, but you know those are all written by man. We don't know whether that stuff's true or not. I don't read any commentaries ever for any reason. No study Bibles, no commentaries. Why? Because the Holy Spirit should teach us the word of God and God has in due times manifested his word through preaching, not theological books. Preaching. What's the difference? Okay, preaching is preaching. Books are books. Any questions? Okay let's just do a little test here. Is this preaching? What is this? A book. This is a book, right? Okay. Is what I'm doing right now a book? What is it? Okay. Does everybody understand? What's the difference between reading a commentary and preaching? Well one of them is sound. One of them is a verb. One of them is an object. What's the difference between reading a book and listening to preaching? One of them, you're coming to a church and listening to a spirit-filled man of God expound the word of God verbally. Another one, you're reading a book written by a man that usually wasn't even Baptist. You don't know where he came from. You don't know who he is and you just treat it as an authority because it's right there in black and white. It's written on the page right there. Whereas when you come and listen to preaching, you're supposed to be listening and judging. And by the way, here's what's wrong with study Bibles. Because you should read the Bible by yourself to have some alone time with the Lord. Now when you come to church, you're hearing God's word but you're also interacting with the preacher. That's a third party. Now the Bible is real clear that we should come to church and listen to preaching. But we also need to have some alone time with the Lord. Get Schofield out of your private time with the Lord. Get Matthew Henry out of your private time with the Lord. Look, I have a relationship with my wife and when my children are around, we can still build our relationship with the children around, can't we? We can still have good times together and grow in our love for one another. We can go out to eat and bring the children. We can go to the park and bring the children. But wait a minute, what if my wife and I were just... The only time we interacted was around the children. That's not going to be a very good relationship. We also need some alone time with each other, don't we? We need some alone time and then there's also times where we interact in a group, let's say our eight children, which is quite a group, okay? So that's the way it is with God. If we're going to have the right relationship with God, we need to spend some time alone with God. We need to enter into the closet, shut the door and pray to our Father in secret. We need to sit down with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and no interloper, no third party. What's the difference? What's the difference? Because you're never alone with the Lord. You've always got some commentary. You've always got some steady Bible. It doesn't make any sense. But why don't we let the Bible be its own commentary? Why don't we compare spiritual things with spiritual? And if we do that, we can allow Galatians chapter 3 to be a commentary on Genesis 12 and Genesis 22. And let me tell you something. It's going to say something dramatically different than what the commentaries are saying. Look at Galatians 3 verse 8. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. Now look, the statement, thee shall all nations be blessed. Is God leaving us to wonder what he meant by that? I wonder what he meant by that. In thee shall all nations be blessed. I wonder what he meant by that. We don't have to wonder. What he meant by that is that all nations would have people who would get saved through putting their faith in Jesus Christ who came from Abraham. Foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith. The gospel was preached unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. But you know how I've heard this verse frequently interpreted? Here's what they say. In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. That means any nation that blesses Israel will be blessed by God. So that means if America is the ally of Israel, God's going to bless us. Who's heard that? If America is Israel's ally, God will bless us. Because he said to Israel, I'll bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. Did he say that to Israel? Who did he say that to? It is, who's the seed? Who else is in Christ? Us. Okay. So it's so clear. It's so crystal clear. But it's not what people are teaching today because there is an agenda going on. There's a political agenda. There's a religious agenda. There's a teaching out there and it's a newer teaching. It's from the 1800s and forward. This teaching that says, hey, the Jews are still God's chosen people. They're still the seed of Abraham. They are still under God's blessing. If we bless them, God will bless us. If we curse them, God will curse us. If our nation is going to be blessed, our nation is going to be blessed by doing good unto Israel wrong. Our nation is going to be blessed when we're justified by faith. I mean if our nation is going to be blessed today, it's because we believe on Jesus Christ. And that's what the Bible says in Galatians chapter 3. He says in verse 16, to Abraham and to his seed where the promise is made, he saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ. I've always noticed how many important verses are a 3-16. I mean if you want to read some of the coolest verses in the Bible, just read all the 3-16s. I mean I'm not saying all of them are going to jump out at you. But honestly there are a lot of important 3-16s, John 3-16, right? Best verse in the whole Bible, greatest verse, most famous verse. How about 1 Timothy 3-16, 2 Timothy 3-16. I mean these are major, major Bible verses. Doctrinal, pivotal verses. Galatians 3-16 is right up there with them, okay? Genesis 3-16 is a great verse. There's so many important scriptures that are 3-16. Makes it easy to find, okay? But anyway, look now at verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. Well the Jew this, what are you talking about? Oh but you don't understand Pastor, it's the Jews, it's talking to the Jews. No, no, you're living in the past. We're in the New Testament. There is no Jew. There is neither Jew nor Greek. To sit there and say that this person is blessed by God or that we need to be allied with this person or we need to do good under this person or give them preferential treatment because they are a Jew, there is no Jew or Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus and if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So when it comes to the promises made to Abraham, is there Jew or Greek? When it comes to the promises made to Abraham, is there male or female? No, I mean it doesn't matter. Whether you're male or female, whether you're bond or free, whether you're Jew or Greek, red and yellow, black and white, if you are in Christ, you are Abraham's seed and you inherit these promises. Let me tell you something. You have been ripped off for years by Christianity that has been ripping you off and and gypping you out of your promises. All these great promises that God made to you. I mean how would you like to have a promise that God will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you? Who would like that promise? Oh yeah, God will bless everybody who blesses me and curse everybody. You know what, preachers have been telling you for years, that's not about you, that's about Jews. Have they been telling you that or not? Oh yeah, that's the Jews, that's the Jews, that's the nation of Israel. They're ripping you off. I mean it was a good day when I finally, after years and years of being wrong as growing up with this false doctrine, just one day when it dawned on me, that promise is mine? Before I was praising God, it was like Hallelujah. You know God will bless those that bless me, he will curse those that curse me, I am one of God's chosen people today. Great! Now, why are you Jewish? Well when it comes to the promises made to Abraham, there is no Jew or Gentile. Now flip back if you went to Romans chapter 2. It says in Romans chapter 2 verse 28, and again these scriptures are so crystal clear, there's no way around it. We're all over the New Testament, we're in the four gospels, we're in the epistles of Paul, let's go to Revelation, let's go wherever you want in the New Testament, this teaching is consistent. Look at Romans chapter 2 verse 28, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Now I don't understand what people don't understand about that statement. So when you see a guy who says, I'm Jewish, I'm a Jew, but when he doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't understand what people don't get about the fact that he's not really a Jew. Now keep your finger here, and I want you to put another finger in Philippians chapter 3, because this is so clear, it's taught throughout the New Testament, it's very consistent. Put your finger in Philippians 3, and let's look at Romans 2 verse 28 there. It says, for 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, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now keep your finger there and look at Philippians 3 verse 3. Now this is Paul speaking unto the Philippians. The Philippians are from a city called Philippi, which is the chief city of Macedonia. This is not a Jewish city, this is a city in what would be today modern Greece, okay? Philippi in Macedonia, and I know there's a little country called Macedonia today, and there's a great big country called Greece. Back then, you know, Macedonia had a bigger piece of the pie there. But anyway, you understand the general region, right? Macedonia, northern Greece, that's the area, okay? Philippi is a city up in Europe, basically. Northern Greece, Macedonia, that's what he says in verse 3 of chapter 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now let me ask you this, what about the guy who doesn't rejoice in Christ Jesus? Now look at Romans 2.28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. He's saying look, if the outside of your flesh is circumcised, if you're outwardly a Jew, you're not a Jew unless you're a Jew inwardly, and he said we are the circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus. It's that simple folks. The true Jews are the ones who believe on Jesus Christ and rejoice in Christ Jesus. They're the ones who are God's chosen people. You say well who are all these people wearing funny hats? I thought they were the Jews. Who are all these people living in the nation of Israel? Who are they? Now go if you would to Revelation chapter number 2 because first of all let me say this, and I want to say several things about the people that are living over in Israel today or even people living in the United States who say that they are Jews. First of all, let me say this, most Jews live in Israel or the United States. That's pretty much where they live. Those are the two places. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but there are millions of Jews in Israel and there are millions of Jews in the United States. Those are the two primary places where they reside, but they are also all throughout Europe and other places, and these people will say I'm a Jew, I'm Jewish. Now first of all, in God's eyes, they're not children of Abraham unless they believe on Jesus Christ. Now couldn't these people who are the so-called Jews today, if they believe on Jesus Christ, wouldn't that make them one of God's chosen people if they believe on him? Of course. Okay, what about the disciples? I mean they were Jewish, right? Except for Simon the Canaanite, but other than Simon the Canaanite, Jesus' disciples were of Jewish descent, and yet they believed on Christ. They were his chosen people. They were saved. They were part of the holy nation. But those who did not believe on Jesus Christ, he said you're of your father the devil. You know, the ones who claim to be Jews, but were actually rejecting of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said you're of your father who? The devil, okay. Now look at Revelation chapter 2 and look at verse number 9. It says, I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. So according to scripture, are there people out there who say they are Jews but they're not? But they're actually the synagogue of Satan? Now let me ask you this. Who today fits the bill of Revelation chapter 2? Well, first of all, who is saying they're a Jew? Do the Jews fit that bill? Yeah, they say they're Jews, okay. Are they Jews biblically? No. So the Bible says they say they are Jews and are not, okay, so far fits the bill, okay, but are the synagogue of Satan. Do they have synagogues? These people who say they're Jews and they're really not? There's one in Tempe, you know, do they have a synagogue? Yes. Okay, did Jesus tell Jews that had a false religion, a false form of Judaism that did not include the Lord, Jesus Christ, did he say that they were of their father the devil? Okay now look at the next verse, chapter 2 verse 9, it says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer, verse 10, behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days, be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. Let me ask you this, have the Jews persecuted Christians when we look at the New Testament scripture? Now if you read the book of Acts, virtually every chapter, most chapters of the book of Acts contain the Jews persecuting the Christians. And Paul mentions this in Galatians when he says just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the natural children of Abraham will persecute the spiritual children of Abraham and that's why, and a lot of people say, oh the Romans, the Romans threw the Christians in the lines, the Romans persecuted the Christians, but yet if you read the book of Acts, it's 28 chapters long, do it this afternoon and come back to me tonight and show me where the Romans persecuted the Christians in the book of Acts, I'd like to see it. The Acts of the Apostles, it spans many decades of early church history, read it this afternoon and come back to me tonight and tell me, Pastor Anderson, I found the place where the Romans persecuted the Christians. It isn't there. It does not exist in this book. You will not find it. Yet what do we find in the book of Acts almost every chapter? The Jews persecuting the Christians, the Jews stirring up the Gentiles against the Christians, the Jews arresting Paul, delivering him to the Romans. They deliver him to the Romans, the Romans are like, we can't find any fault in this guy. And the Jews are like, you need to kill him, you need to put him to death. And here's the thing, there's even an urban legend that the Apostle Paul was beheaded by Nero. Not scriptural. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul makes it crystal clear, he says, I'm now ready to be offered in the time of my departure is at hand, I've fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith. So he's talking about his imminent death, right? He's talking about the fact that he's about to die. At the end of the chapter, I'm going to flip there just so that I don't quote it wrong. Yet in the same chapter, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says in verse 17, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, do me glory forever and ever, amen. Does that sound like a guy who's about to be executed by the Romans? I was delivered from the mouth of the lion, God's going to deliver me from every evil work, but yet he says, I'm about to die. Why? Because he's about to die of natural causes, because people get old and die. That's why it says in Acts 28, at the very end of the book of Acts, it says that the Apostle Paul, when he's arrested, he's brought to Rome, the Romans are like, who is this? We don't even care. But the Jews are going to kill this guy, kill this guy, kill this guy, and the Romans are, we don't even know what to do with this guy. They send him to Rome, and instead of killing him, you know what it says that happened when Paul got to Rome? They gave him a little house to live in, and just put an ankle bracelet on him, and told him, you know, and I'm making it modern, I'm just kidding, but, you know, they put an ankle bracelet on him and said, hey, just stay in this house, and they said, any of your friends can come visit you, you can pretty much do whatever you want, Paul, just live here. And all his friends came, and he would preach to all his friends all the time, and Jews would come and hear preaching, and unsaved people would come and hear preaching, and it says he continued there. Let's just look at it, just go there, look at Acts 28, look at the last verse. And what I'm saying is you can't just believe everything you read, folks, unless you write it in the Bible, then you believe everything you read, but you can't just believe what people say. Look at Acts 28, it says in verse 30, and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, even though the Romans wouldn't let him, and the Romans wanted to kill him. What's it say? No man forbidding him. The Romans are like, you're in our custody now, just preach whatever you want, just do what you want, but we're just keeping you here, because otherwise the Jews are flipping out. You know, so we're just going to keep you here, you can just preach here and do this two years later, what, does the Bible tell us what happens after two years? But it would be awfully misleading of the Bible to give us such a rosy picture in the last verse, everything's great, two years, he continued, no man forbidding him, and then off with his head. Does anybody actually believe that? It doesn't make any sense, it's not what the Bible teaches anywhere, okay, but there's an agenda behind that teaching, that basically is an agenda to say, hey, you know, the Jews are not the ones who killed Jesus, the Jews are not the ones who persecuted the apostles, but go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, and let's see if that's true. Now you say, why in the world are preachers not talking about this? Why have I never even seen some of these scriptures? I'll tell you why, because if you preach a sermon like I'm preaching right now, you'll be accused of being a racist and an anti-Semite. You're anti-Semitic, you hate Jews, now hold on, does anybody here think I hate Jews? You know what I'm teaching and I want to make this real clear, I want everybody to listen, if you only get one thing out of the sermon, listen to this, the Jews are not better than the Gentiles, and the Jews are not worse than the Gentiles, the Jews are equivalent to the Gentiles. Does everybody get that? Now is it racism to say that the Jews are the same as everybody else? I mean how is it racism to say Jews are the same as everybody else? They don't get special treatment, they don't get a free pass into heaven, they're not automatically God's chosen people, they shouldn't be preferentially treated. You know how we should treat Jews like we treat everybody else? You know who the real racists are? Christians who teach that the Jews are above everyone else, even if they don't believe in Christ. Because see, racism would say, it doesn't matter what the person says or does, here's my opinion of them just based on their nationality. Isn't that what racism would be? To say, well I don't care what that guy's like, you know, well because he's white he must believe this, or because he's black he must do this, or because he's Hispanic he's like this. That's what racism would be. And to sit there and say, the Jews are automatically blessed by God, God's chosen people, no matter what they say or do, that's the racist position. And what I'm preaching today is actually the legitimate biblical position that says there is neither Jew nor Greek, it says in Romans 3 there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. Okay, that's what we teach, that's what we believe. But here's the thing, a lot of preachers are afraid of their own shadow. And here's the thing, if you preach what I'm preaching this morning, you will be labeled, even though it makes no sense, even though it's just crazy, you will be labeled anti-Semitic and you're a racist and a Nazi. But here's the thing, I don't care what people label me. I don't care, call me whatever you want. This is what the Bible says, and I will faithfully preach what the Bible says, and people can walk out here and say whatever they want about me. You know, and if people speak evil of me, you know, wrongfully for Christ's sake then that just increases my rewards in heaven. If people lie and say, Pastor Anderson's racist, Pastor Anderson's anti-Semitic, rewards in heaven, piling up, bring it on. Call me more names, send me more hateful messages, because it's just rewards in heaven, okay? That's what the Bible says. What does 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 say? Verse 14, for ye brethren became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus. So who killed the Lord Jesus? The Jews. Killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God and are contrary to all men. Are the Jews pleasing to God? Okay, look at verse 16, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. Let me ask some, are the Jews under God's blessing? They're under his wrath. Why are they under his wrath? Is it because they're Jews? No, because they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some, very few, a tiny minority that do believe on Jesus Christ. They're under God's blessing. They're God's people. Not because they're Jews, but because they're in Christ. But not just by virtue of the fact that they are a Jew. Now let me show you a really important passage on this subject. First Peter chapter 2, go to First Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter number 2. Now the reason this becomes important is because first of all, a lot of people are robbing you of the promises of God. You have all these wonderful promises in the Bible that are for you, and they're taking them and stealing them from you and giving them to David Lee Roth, who is Jewish. David Lee Roth is Jewish. He's Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise is Jewish. Spock was Jewish. The Three Stooges are Jewish. So basically Steven Spielberg, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, okay, Hollywood actors, I'm just naming people that you know of, right? Those are God's chosen people. When God gathers the elect in Matthew 24, it's going to be like a reunion of Van Halen. When God gathers the elect, because he's going to gather David Lee Roth, right? He's going to gather all these different Jews, right? Jews like Steven Spielberg. Does anybody really think that's what God means when he says the elect? Now first of all, there's a question of whether the people today who call themselves Jews are even really Jews in the first place. You say, what in the world? Of course they're Jews. Yeah, they're Jews, right? Well, wait a minute. How do you really know that they're Jews? How do you really know that they're not just complete Europeans or Asians? How do you know that they're really the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What would be the one way that we could know for sure whether or not they are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? A genealogy, right? Now if they had a genealogy that says, I'm the son of, who was the son of, who was the son of, all the way back to the Bible times and we could pick up the genealogy in scripture and say, okay, that's what you're a genealogy of. What does the Bible tell us to avoid in the New Testament? Avoid genealogies. So if God thought that it mattered whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, why would he tell you to avoid genealogies? Now were the people in the Old Testament told to avoid genealogies? There are a lot of genealogies in the Old Testament and when people showed up after the 70 year captivity of the children of Judah, when they showed up and wanted to be priests and wanted to step into their roles, they said they had to show their genealogy. And if they couldn't show that genealogy, they couldn't tell which family they were of and verify it, it said that they were put from the priesthood. You can't prove it with the genealogy. We don't know if you're really even a Jew. We don't even know if you're really a Levite. You're put from the priesthood. Okay, how long were they gone? Seventy years. So in 70 years they're saying, hey, if you can't prove it, we don't know. Okay, how about 700 years? How about 1700 years? How about 2000 years later? Do you think that we really know exactly who has descended from who? Let me ask you this. I know that we're supposed to avoid genealogies, but who has looked up your genealogy for fun? Who's done a little work on your family tree, okay? Keep your hands up real high. About how many hundred years were you able to go back, Brother Miller? About 200 years. Maybe 100. About 100 years. Yeah, a little over 100. Little over 100, right? Okay, so I actually, just for fun, I did some tracing of my genealogy. I used to travel all over the United States for my job, so I had a little bit of a hobby of looking up my genealogy and trying to find clues as I traveled. So for example, I was driving through the middle of West Texas, and I knew that a bunch of my relatives had been from a certain town. So I went to the cemetery in that town as a little pit stop, and I found the gravestones of my ancestors from about 150 years ago. One of them even had a picture on it, you know, an old black and white that was encased in the tombstone, and you could still see the picture. And I would learn more about my genealogy just from traveling around the country and just going to these places. So I was actually, you know, I did definitely run into some dead ends on certain avenues, but on one avenue I was able to trace it back to the 1600s. So you know, I was able to go back like 400 years into Switzerland, okay, the Knutty family that I descend from, okay, which by the way was an important family, the Knuttys. So I traced it back, you know, but here's the thing, you can't go back much further. It's going to be tough to go back further than that, and that was just on one branch. Most branches, you get to 100 years, dead end, 150 years, dead end, 200 years, dead end, okay. It's pretty hard to go back that far. Now do you think it's possible that a lot of people think that they're one nationality when they're really another? Oh yeah, I grew up my whole life being told, oh yeah, we have some Cherokee Indian blood in us. We're part Cherokee. It seems like everybody in the world you talk to is part Cherokee, you know, those Cherokees, I tell you. But anyway, you know, it's just like, oh little Cherokee, little Cherokee, little Cherokee. Turns out, not true at all. Totally false. I grew up my whole life being taught that John Adams and Samuel Adams of the American Revolution were close relatives. Not true. It was a different guy named Samuel Adams, and he wasn't the beer guy. The beer guy was the American Revolution guy. But anyway, you know, you can get a lot of false ideas. I grew up telling me people, you know, I told people, I think I'm about half Irish, half Swedish. But then when I actually looked at it, it turned out I was like, you know, 70% English. And maybe, you know, a quarter Scandinavian, a little Irish, you know, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but it's different than what you're told sometimes. And sometimes people get mixed up by the way they are. Now here's where it's really confusing. Jewish is not just a nationality. What else is it? It's a religion because Madonna is a Jew. Madonna converted to being a Jew, and she's into the Kabbalah and all this other Satan worship, but she is a Jew, right? So here's the thing. If you have a whole bunch of people who switch to the religion of being a Jew, it's not their nationality, but that's their religion. Just like you say, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian, right? But there's no confusion there because there's no Christian nationality. But they say, oh, oh, we're Jewish. Our family's Jewish. We're, you know, light a bunch of candles, you put on the funny hat. Let's do all this stuff. Okay, well, here's the thing. Don't you think in the course of 2,000 years, a lot of people who just converted to Judaism and are just saying we're Jewish, we're Jewish, we're Jewish, teaching their kids to be Jewish, pretty soon they're going to start thinking that they're Jewish nationality also, when really they're East Europeans. You know, because a lot of, there was a whole nation in fact, and this is a historical fact, that there was a whole nation called the Khazars that was located in basically what today would be southern Russia near Ukraine and near Kazakhstan that were located there in central Asia. There was a whole group of people there who as a nation, the leadership of the nation converted to Judaism, the leadership of the nation. And of course when the leadership converts, you know, a lot of the people, now not all the people converted, but a huge number of the people of the nation converted because the leadership, the nobility, the king, he embraced Judaism and he made it the official religion, and so you have all these just tons of people switching to Judaism. And when did that occur? In the 700s. So don't you think there could be a lot of confusion between the 700s and now of a lot of people who are Jewish and just a lot of mixing and just, you know, I mean how do we really know for sure if we don't have a genealogy and God said to avoid genealogies because it doesn't matter. Because if you are in Christ, you're the elect. You're God's chosen people. If you're not in Christ, you're not the elect. You're not God's chosen people. Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father. So it is doubtful that all of the people living in Israel today or even most of the people that are living in Israel today are even really Jews. That's doubtful. Maybe they are. Maybe they're not. It doesn't matter. But not only that, what about all the Jews who were scattered abroad all over the world? And what about all the lost ten tribes of the northern kingdom, tribes like Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali? What about them when they were scattered by the Assyrians? They intermarried with all other nationalities. And so honestly, I would not be surprised if every single person in this room who is of some kind of European descent or some kind of Central Asian descent, probably every single one of us has some connection back to Abraham physically. Just because they are scattered all over the world. In fact, I did my genealogy and 300 years ago there was somebody with a Jewish name. Did you hear that everybody? I'm one of the special chosen ones. You're not impressed by that? I mean, I am one thousandth Jew up here. I'm 999 parts something else. I'm about a thousandth part Jew, give or take. Okay, so I want to go claim my land now over in the Holy Land because I'm part Jew. But see, here's the thing though. We don't know how much Jew they are or how much they're not. We don't know how much Jew the Palestinians are. You know, I mean, obviously they have Jewish ancestors too or at least from the ten tribes. I mean, those people are all been intermingling for thousands of years. No, no, they stayed really separate. Oh, all of them stayed separate, huh? You believe that? Yeah, nobody's ever married anyone of another nationality, right? No German would ever marry a French person. You know, no, I mean, it just doesn't happen, folks. You know, no Hispanic person would ever marry a Native American. Just doesn't happen. Of course it happens. Of course people are going to marry and there's going to be mixing and there's going to be a confusion of where exactly people come from. That's why I guarantee you that 99% of the people in this room could probably not tell me exactly what nationality you are. I mean, who here could tell me just exactly, you could give me the percentages and tell me exactly what nationality you are. Put up your hand if you can. You can't? What are you? I knew you were going to say that. Yeah, see, he's all Korean, right? One guy. Is anybody else just 100% something? It's okay. You're not ruining my sermon. 100% Navajo right here. Is she married to a Navajo? Okay, there goes that, you know. She's been preserving that for thousands of years. It's about to go out the window, right? Okay. Okay, what about our pure 100% Korean over here? Is he married to a Korean? There goes that genealogy. So here's what I'm saying. In our whole auditorium, we can only find two people that are purely one nationality and then they're mixing right now. So you know, it's ridiculous to think that for 2,000 years, these people have just stayed 100% separate from everybody else. When there's all these people converting to Judaism, they're getting scattered all over. Who knows? Better question than who knows is this. Who cares? You know what I care about? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? It doesn't matter whether you're black, it doesn't matter whether you're Jewish. And look, why should the Jews be the chosen people? When just as much, if you're Hispanic today, if you're white today, if you're Indian today, if you're black today, you can say, I'm one of God's chosen people. Because God is not a respecter of persons. And God doesn't look down and judge you based upon your nationality or ethnicity. God looks down upon you and judges you on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ? That's what matters. Now I'm out of time, there's so much scripture. So much scripture. If you say, Pastor Anderson, I'm not convinced, read Ephesians 2 later. Don't even have time to read Ephesians 2 that tells us we're all citizens of Israel. Give me a passport, I'm a citizen of Israel. I want to read for you from 1 Peter chapter 2. I don't even have time to show you everything about 1 Peter 2, but this is just the last thing here. It says in verse number 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Now here's what's so interesting about that. If you go back to the Old Testament, we don't have time to do it, but in Exodus and Deuteronomy, God tells the nation of Israel, the physical nation of Israel, he says, you will be a peculiar treasure unto me if you keep my commandments. He says in Deuteronomy, you're my peculiar people. He says to them, you're a holy nation, you're a chosen generation. That's what he said to the physical nation of Israel back then. Today he's saying to all believers, you are a chosen, I mean, how many, how many times have you heard a pastor get up and say, hey, the Bible tells us we're a peculiar people. Okay, how about the rest of the verse? I mean, why stop there? Oh, we're peculiar people, amen. That's why it's so good to turn to the scriptures and look at them because it doesn't just say we're a peculiar people, it also says that we're a holy nation. In the same verse it says we're a chosen generation. Promises that were given to the nation back then, if they would walk in his commandments, they didn't. They continued not in his covenant and God said, I regarded them not. They didn't continue my covenant, I regarded them not, the kingdom of God is taken from them. And everybody says the promises made unto the Old Testament nation of Israel were unconditional. God gave them an unconditional promise to that land. It was unconditional. Now there's tons of conditions, read it. If, if you keep my commandments, if you worship the Lord, if you turn unto me, and that's why whenever they didn't believe on the Lord, they're taken out of the land. Look when they got to the promised land that God promised them, when they didn't believe God, what did he say? You're all going to die in the wilderness. You're going to wander for 40 years, you will not come into the land. Did he not let them in? What did it say in Hebrews 4? They could not enter in because of unbelief. Why could the children of Israel not enter into the land? They could not enter in because of unbelief. When that generation died, the children of that generation believed the Lord, they entered, right? What happened when they turned to other gods? They're removed from the land eventually, right? What happened when they turned back to the Lord? They're put back in the land after the times of Jeremiah, right? After the 70 years of exile. They're brought back to the land. Okay, then they're back in the land, right? Then Jesus comes and they reject Jesus. What did God do to them after they rejected Jesus? Out of the land. And then in 1948, they all believed on Jesus, and they all came back to the land. Is that what happened? No. So then why did they come back? Was it God that brought them back to the land in 1948 then? Why would he when he told them you can't enter because of unbelief? Why would he when 99.9% of them reject and blaspheme the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? Who brought them back? Satan. Oh, aka the United Nations. That's who created the nation of Israel, the United Nations. So basically we have a nation that was not created by God, but rather an anti-Christ nation that, look, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son. So much more we could look at, but today, I'm going to close my Bible today, otherwise I'm just going to be tempted to just turn to like 30 more scriptures. But listen to me, today people have this really warped view of the world that we live in. It's a worldview that says that we're not God's chosen people, the Jews are. Even though they don't even believe in Christ. Even though they believe that Jesus Christ was a quote, bastard. That's what they teach because they teach that he was the illegitimate bastard son of a German soldier. That's what the Jews believe. They call the Virgin Mary a quote, whore in the Talmud. Okay, these people blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ in the most extreme way. My sister was out soul winning and had a Jewish person tell her that Jesus Christ was Beelzebub. Okay, I mean, you know, but yeah, well, God's chosen people. God's chosen people, support Israel, support Israel. That Star of David, God never told them to have that. That's not in the Bible. So what I'm saying is, they have this worldview that says this, all Arabs are from Ishmael. The Arabs are from Ishmael. The Jews are from Isaac. No, wrong. Because what about everybody else? What about Midian? What about Moab? What about Ammon? What about Edom? I mean, there's so many other nations. What about the Assyrians? Who are they? The bottom line is that none of it matters. And we need to get off this Zionist, Jew worshiping, bizarre doctrine and just get off this thing of, are you a Jew, are you a Gentile? I'm neither. I'm a Christian. If anything, I'm a Jew. That's why when I went through the border patrol checkpoint, they said, what country are you a citizen of? I say, Israel. They said, show me your documentation. I pulled out the Bible and showed them. I did. I said, let's turn to Ephesians 2, buddy. I'll show you where I'm a citizen of Israel. Because look, if anything, I'm a Jew. I'm definitely not a Gentile. But you know what? I'm in Christ. I'm Abraham's seed. Father Abraham had many sons, who knows the song? That song is biblically correct. I am one of them and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. Right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for the promises that you've given us. Lord, our promises have been stolen from us and given to unbelievers. God forbid that you would just give people a free pass because of their ethnicity, Lord. You chose a Canaanite as one of your disciples, Lord. We know you're not a respecter of persons. Thank you for giving us the opportunity not to be a second class citizen in the kingdom of God, but to be a first class citizen. Father, we are red, yellow, black, white. We are a first class citizen in your kingdom, Lord. Thank you for the blessings of Abraham. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.