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which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places they feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from next unto this day they do after the former manners they fear not the Lord neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob whom he named Israel with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them saying you shall not fear of the gods nor bow yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them but the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and and stretch down on him shall you fear and him shall you worship him shall you do sacrifice and statutes and ordinances and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you you shall observe to do forevermore and you shall not fear of the gods and the covenant that I have made with you shall you shall not forget neither shall you fear of the gods but the Lord your God you shall fear shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies how be it they did not harken but they did after their former manner so these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images both their children and their children's children as did their fathers so do they and to this day thank you Lord for your word thank you Lord for bringing us all here together in the middle of our busy schedules Lord to hear your word be preached or let us all be edified by the message that you've laid on pastors heart and Lord just bless them and fill in with your Holy Spirit as it comes forward to preach it preach the message that you laid on his heart and Lord we love you Jesus name we pray amen amen so if I didn't shake your hand this evening I'm not being rude I just I'm pretty sure that that lint either gave me a cold or it was just a coincidence and I have a cold so not trying to get anybody sick so that's what's going on there so tonight we're taking a look at second Kings chapter 17 which deals primarily with the captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel now if you have your chart take a look at the the right side there and you'll see that King number 19 which is Hosea was the last king to ever reign over the northern kingdom of Israel and you say why is this important well what you need to understand is why they went into captivity it's really important understand this because this is what's going to help you understand the rest of the Bible this is what's going to help you understand how to refute Zionism this is what's going to help you keep things in perspective as you read through the rest of the Bible I mean if you're in second Kings 17 right here in your Bible reading I mean by the time you get past the Psalms the Proverbs the Ecclesiastes and you get into you know Isaiah you need to really understand where you're at you need to be able to jump back and forth into these different time slots so that's what this chart is here for that's why we gave it to you if anybody needs an extra one just let me know and I'll bring one with me next week so like I said the important thing here is to understand who went into captivity we're talking about the northern kingdom of Israel they went into captivity and that means that ten tribes went in to captivity we're going to take a look at that in great detail and so you ask well does that mean that the Jews went into captivity no we're going to deal with that next week but in fact keep your place there in second Kings 17 go back one chapter to chapter number 16 so today what we're dealing with is the northern kingdoms captivity right and so just before we get started I just want to go over a quick review of what is a Jew you know what's the difference here what's a Jew during this time frame and what is just somebody who's you know an Israelite because somebody who doesn't believe in God who's in the northern kingdom of Israel you would not have called them a Jew during this time frame and I'll show you that here so real quick look at verse number one second Kings 16 verse 1 it says in the 17th year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign and so right there just stop and then look at your chart so it says Pekah son of Remaliah so that's king number 18 on your chart on the Israeli side right on the northern kingdom of Israel side so it's just giving you a clue hey this is the king who's reigning in the northern kingdom of Israel but it's also now flipping over to the kingdom of Judah and it's telling you that Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign well if you look over at the left on your chart you'll see number 12 that's Ahaz he reigns for 16 years and he was an evil wicked King so let's keep reading verse 2 20 years old was Ahaz when he began to reign and reign 16 years in Jerusalem and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God like David his father verse 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel yea and made his son to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree verse 5 now pay attention to this it says then reason king of Syria now we're not talking about a Syria we're talking about the nation of Syria so then reason king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war so what you're about to read here is the first time the word Jew appears in the Bible and the important thing to remember is that it's the nation of Israel and the Syrians coming against the kingdom of Judah right so let's read that verse again verse 5 then reason king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him now keep in mind here if Ahaz had maybe had been serving God he would have probably been able to get some help here and not get besieged a little bit but nonetheless he was a wicked king and so he's not under the protection of God right now look at verse 6 at that time reason king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and notice this next part and drave the Jews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day and so you could see the first time the word Jew is used in the Bible it is a term to describe the people who were reigning in the kingdom of Judah not the kingdom of Israel okay now does that mean that they're not the children Israel no there are there's still Israel right I mean it's 12 tribes but the point that you need to understand is we're dealing with a divided Kingdom and it's important to keep these things fresh in your mind or at least know where to go because you never know when some dispensational bozo is gonna try to pull something out at you you know and try to make you look stupid you know these stories you're ahead of most Christianity today I can promise you that you know a lot of Christianity today they don't like to read these stories because it really just slapped Zionism in the face and that's what we're gonna be doing you know the next couple of weeks we're gonna be doing it today and next week not to be mean it's you know it's what we're studying it's in the Bible you know it's truth and we should always be willing to put truth before preconceived ideas that we may have grown up with or been taught by people we know and maybe like whatever the case may be if the Bible says it's true then that's what we need to go with verse 7 so a has sent messengers to Tiglath plizer king of Assyria saying I am thy servant and thy son come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel which rise up against me so because a has is wicked because he's just not under the protection of God and the wisdom of his worldly mind he says you know what I'm gonna go to Assyria for help right instead of going to God so he goes and he hires the Assyrians he says I'm your servant I'm yours you know I'm just like you are let's go to battle help me out here verse 8 in a has took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria and the king of Assyria hearken unto him for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it and carried the people of it captive to cure and slew reason now go back to chapter 17 and the reason why that's important so that gives you some insight on how the Assyrians did business what they would often do is they would roll into a place and they would take the people that were living in the land they would take them out bring them into their land and then they would take other people and place them in the land and they would basically just breed them out and so that is what the Assyrians were doing here and that's important because you're going to see that in chapter number 17 as well and so I just wanted to keep that fresh in your mind so that you understand what we're dealing with what's going on here who's ruling in Israel and who's ruling in Judah and understanding that it's kind of sloppy sometimes and I and I do this myself you know when we when we call just anybody you know during this time period of Jew you know and it's not really entirely accurate you know we want to keep our our speech and the words that we use you know in the correct perspective so that way we can understand and be always be reminded of what's going on and and how to rightly divide the word of truth and this is this is hard stuff to understand you know if you just read this through one time you know you're probably not going to get it it takes time you know take several times reading it through and it takes study it takes sitting down and thinking about these things and meditating on these kings to really get the full picture in your mind and so just keep that in mind you know if a lot of this goes over your head just you know just you'll be okay keep your chart and just keep plugging away keep reading through the Bible over and over again and you know what it's gonna come to you and it's gonna stick with you okay so keep that in mind here so back to second Kings chapter 17 look at verse number one so now we're dealing with the last king of Israel Hosea okay the last king number 19 on your chart there he's the last king to reign over Israel the northern kingdom of Israel that is first number one says in the 12th year of a has King of Judah began Hosea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years remember Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah first number two and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord but not as the kings of Israel that were before him now that's interesting this guy's wicked but he's not as wicked as a lot of the other kings were but nonetheless it's too late God's had enough he's done and God's gonna tell us exactly why he sends them into captivity verse number three against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria and Hosea became his servant and gave him presence the Assyrians love presence you can see that in chapter 16 you can see that here and the world loves their presence don't they you know if you're if you're uh you know you're backslidden you're compromising and you feel like God's not helping you there's always gonna be a temptation to give presence to give your time to give your your your worth to the world you know and it'll work for a season but the end result is always going to be your own destruction and so that's an important lesson that we need to remember as we go through these stories so first number four it says in the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hosea for he had sent messengers to sow king of Egypt and brought no present to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years so now there's this three year war going on here before they get led into captivity verse six we're gonna see the fall look at verse six it says in the ninth year of Hosea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes and it's interesting because one of the world empires obviously after this after Assyria and after Babylon takes Judah captive then what happens in the Persians and the Medes take over and that's the next world kingdom but you know it kind of mentions here kind of gives you some foreshadowing here talks about the Medes and you got to understand that there was people that were brought from the northern kingdom of Israel to this location so look at verse number seven God's gonna tell us why he removed them from being a nation it says for so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt and had feared other gods now really pay attention as we go through this this is a detailed chapter there's a lot of stuff we don't have time to write down every little single thing and compare it to Israel today but I'll tell you what there's a I mean everything that the northern kingdom of Israel is doing that we're reading about tonight you can find that in modern-day Israel today okay but you know what you can't find are the ten tribes okay you can't find the ten tribes over there and that's an interesting subject we're gonna talk about that here in a little more a little bit look at verse number eight and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and of the kings of Israel which they had made and so you know the stories we've been dealing with it since we started this series ever since I mean pretty much ever since David left the throne right it's been you know the northern kingdom the sins of Jeroboam worshiping other gods forsaking God and it's just you know on the is on the the northern kingdom of Israel side I mean everybody was wicked I mean the best king that they had was Jehu and even he still couldn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat so look at verse 9 it says in the children of Israel did secretly those things they were not right against the Lord their God he's and then it goes on it says and they built them high places and all their cities from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city you know and I will tell you right now the nation of Israel today are still doing secret things against the Lord God you know I mean you want to talk about human trafficking all that stuff and it's not just them obviously these things go on in our country and our country works with their country to do this evil as well but you know if you were to be able to go over there and be a fly on the wall and some of these high-level type individuals in Israel I bet you would see some pretty nasty sick disgusting perverted abomination type things they were doing it back then right they're doing it during the time we're reading about now what makes you think that they've changed what makes you think that they have gotten any better you know it's what blows my mind when we study these things and we compare them to what's going on today and you still have a majority of Bible supposedly Bible believing Christians today right telling you oh Israel's the apple of God's eye right they're gonna say well you know when when the Antichrist comes back they're gonna realize that they messed up and they're all gonna get saved you know and they'll take chat they'll take verses out of Romans 11 and Romans chapter 9 they'll take them out of context and say see all Israel shall be saved and so they're all gonna get saved but the problem with that is so what about all the ones that died today right well what about them do they go to purgatory and they get a second chance you know what I'll bet you that there are some Christian leaders that would rather say that and it would probably even hint towards that then to just give you the hard core truth which is they are not God's chosen people they are not you know what we're we just we're just reading about them getting delivered into captivity right our is God like saying okay you know you're just gonna go into a timeout basically you're just gonna you know like you're just getting kicked out of church to see if you're gonna repent no he says I'm removing them out of my sight I am done with him I mean think about all the chances he's given them right the Bible says in verses 14 through 16 right that they didn't even believe in God so do you think that these people just all went to heaven that they're you know even just because they are they're they're their race or their their DNA can be traced back to the you know Abraham Isaac and Jacob Jacob that is foolishness right but that's what the world wants us to believe that's what the devil would rather have us to believe today and you know what you know we're not gonna believe because it's not what's in the Bible so let's look let's move on here and we'll take a look at the false religions that get set up look at verse 10 says and they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree verse 11 we're gonna see that they're conformed to the world right so these people at this point you know God's like hey look they're not even really trying to hide their false religion right they set up these images they set up these growths and they do it under every green tree they make it proclaimed throughout the entire country so that everybody can see it so that it's not a hidden thing and to make matters worse the things that they were doing in secret were far worse than what you're reading about here now look at verse 11 and there they burnt incense in all the high places as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger and so there you go they rejected God and decided to conform to the world instead and what does the Bible say about conform to the world it's a bad thing right it's going to cause you to go into spiritual captivity it's gonna cause your mind to go into captivity and you're gonna find yourself in a snare that's gonna be very difficult for you to get out of look at verse 12 for they served idols where of the Lord had said unto them ye shall not do this thing yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers saying turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statues according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets now we read this a couple weeks ago what did a Isaiah tell Emma's he said go prophesy in Jerusalem right take that stuff out of here for this is the king's court and you in the Bible told us during that time frame that judgment was viewed as wormwood right the judgment was viewed as a bitter thing but you know what we need judgment God's given us his words his statutes and his laws so that we could judge between good and evil so that we could tell what is right and what is wrong but these people decided to harden their necks they decided to forsake all of that and just go their own way verse 13 I'm sorry look at look down at verse number 14 he says notwithstanding they would not hear but hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God and they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the heathen that were round about them concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them and you know what you're gonna see as we move on that's the exact picture that you have in the nation of Israel today we'll come back to that look at verse 16 says and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God and made them molten images even two calves and made a grove and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal now does any of this stuff at any point in time make God happy no it doesn't right just because he sends them prophets and he sends them seers and he gives them opportunities and he gives them chances does not mean that he's happy about this so if he wasn't happy about it then why is he happy about it today in 2019 it really is foolishness and it's embarrassing I mean it's embarrassing that we have people that call themselves Christians that will that will know these things and then tell you well there's still the apple of God's eye there's still God's chosen people look they weren't chosen during this time and they sure chosen in 2019 look at verse number 17 says and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire and use divination and enchant enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger so actually during this time yes they are still God's chosen nation but that doesn't mean that they were all saved and what we just read is that a lot of them didn't believe just like their fathers and so you can see and now does that mean that they all died and went to hell no you know God said that 7,000 not bowed the knee to bail back when Elijah was around so you can you know you can bet the same thing was going on to you know during during this time frame as well so look at verse number 18 it says therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight there was none left but the tribe of Judah only verse 19 also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made and so the important thing to also understand is that after this chapter here right because we're reading about the captivity the rest of second Kings basically just goes over the kings of Judah because they Kingdom of Israel is no more verse number 21 for he rent Israel from the house of David and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them sin a great sin for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did they departed not from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight as he had said by all his servants the prophets so was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day and then by the time that you get to the New Testament and you read about the tension between the people in Judea versus the Samaritans this is where it comes from right you know sometimes you know we'll say well the Samaritans were half Jew really they're just half northern Kingdom of Israel and half Assyrian because what the Assyrians did is they came in they took them out and they brought other people in and then the rest of the chapter you can see how God sent lions among them and the Assyrians are like well it's because they don't know the manner of the gods of the people that we moved out so we got to send them a prophet you know and then it's still not good enough for them right the heathen they don't want anything to do with God's laws so you know they they send in their property teaches them God statutes and like all right we'll just add that to what we've got going on here I know everybody's getting eaten alive by lions and stuff but I'm surely it'll get better surely it'll go away now that we added God unto our religion you know and that's so much like the world today right you know my mom was like that for a lot of her life you know it's just just added Jesus unto you know her traditions of being a Catholic and so on and so forth you know and we go out soul winning all the time when we talk to people and you can tell that they've just added Jesus to what they believe and it has you know it's mixed with works or they believe well yeah you know Buddha could be the only way to heaven or not the only way but Buddha is another avenue of getting to heaven I remember I was so winning in Sacramento and I was guy's door and you know asked him the questions he answered all the questions right you know and something just wasn't sitting right with me and I was like you know the Bible says that I don't remember at one point I said this but I said the Bible says that Jesus said I am the way the truth in life no man cometh to the Father but by me and he's like well I don't know I don't know about that I'm like wait a minute you said that you believe on Jesus Christ that you're saved you can never lose your salvation and it's like yeah but you see the Dead Sea Scrolls right they say something totally different and so if you take everything that Jesus ever said you know and he said well if you take everything that Jesus said and you use the Dead Sea Scrolls it makes more sense and it's different the only problem that the Dead Sea Scrolls don't have the New Testament but you know he didn't want to hear that the guy but he's like he's like I think if somebody follows Buddha right that that's basically gonna get accredited to their account or if somebody you know in another country all they know is about you know Islam and Muhammad and all that junk you know then they're gonna get to heaven because that's the only light they have sound familiar Billy Graham yeah that's what Billy Graham taught right and in this guy lo and behold loved Billy Graham and wanted to proceed and tell me how great he was and and so on and so forth and basically you know I'm you know I'm talking with this guy realized okay he's not saved he's just been to enough church to give you the right answers then he said basically I just add Jesus unto what I already believe I believe in Buddha I believe you know I believe that all of these things I even believe that there's alien forces out there that could have possibly created the human race you know but as long as I've added Jesus I'll be safe that's what he told me you know and I was just like okay we've got to go because the guy just would not listen to anything I said and that's what basically you can see here with the Assyrians right they figure well we'll just add God we'll just add his statutes and we'll be okay we'll be safe but obviously if you study out the rest of these chapters you'll see that the Assyrians wind up going getting knocked down a few pegs by the Babylonians and they're no longer going to be a world power God used them for his purpose you know and think about this they were exposed to God's Word during this time you know I mean you know whether you like it or not you know the the the nation of Israel the nation of Judah you know they were still familiar with the things of God they still had people amongst them prophets and seers that knew about God's laws and you know when these guys got carried away captive you know those things were still spoken of so God's Word still went forth out through the rest of the world it didn't get buried into the ground and still required to be dug up in today's day and age so where we leave off verse 23 look at verse 23 again says until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight as he had said by all his servants the prophets so was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day and so that's it the northern kingdom of Israel is no longer a nation no longer a kingdom with them going into captivity is the ten tribes now obviously some of the people came out and went back to to Judah and so on and so forth and you get to the New Testament you can read a couple people that are from Asher and so on but by and large the tribes are done they're gone and that's what we're dealing with today now I want to I wanted to stop here because I think you get the point right we just read all the abominations all the sins that led up to this moment here up to the point to where Israel is no longer a nation God has carried them away and then fast forward in your mind to 1948 right Israel becomes its own nation right and then the Christians and then some of the you know obviously all the Zionists are happy and you know Schofield's rolling over in his grave and Darby's doing jumping jacks in hell because their Zionist teachings have finally permeated the world and infected most of Christianity today right fast forward again to 2019 what you have today right you have a nation that called us calls itself Israel they live in the land right but nobody knows what tribe they're from they don't believe on Jesus Christ they don't even believe in the God of the Bible right don't let these people tell you well we believe in Jesus and they believe in the God of the Bible I heard a preacher one time say this he said you know what you know they got carried away into captivity under Hoshea's reign but they've never worshiped another God since that's what he said so what he's saying is that they still worship God the Father today whereas we worship Jesus and they're still gonna get a free pass that is that is a not true it's false doctrine but you know what you'd be surprised at how many people really do believe that now I'm gonna read some articles from the Jerusalem Post about Israel and as I didn't copy and paste all of the article in there but these articles are funny because they start off saying if only the Christian Zionists knew what Mother Israel is really like they might withhold their finances and it's kind of funny how they mock the people to support him like John Hagee you know he's a big one that has used I don't know if he still does we used to have commercials you know send bring a Jew home from Russia or bring a Jew home from Ethiopia you know send us your money and we'll fly a Jew to Israel you know and so on and so forth you know and and I think about all the thousands of people maybe even millions that have contributed money to doing that thinking that they're pleasing God but in reality it's all vain it's all vanity it's for nothing you didn't do anything you all you did was help some pagan secular heathen who's not saved relocate out of his country that's all you did so let's start off here so remember how we read that the children of Israel one of the things that God was upset with him for was causing their children to pass through the fire right sacrificing their children well we have the same thing today in our society I'm sure some people are you know some of these rich people are still burning children to Molech and so on and so forth but the the big one is abortion right now abortion obviously we all understand it you know it's a big deal here there's more abortions done in America than there are in Israel but there's also a lot more people in America than there are in Israel so I want to read to you an article from the Jerusalem Post about abortion in Israel all right it says Israeli abortion law has something for everyone a semblance of regulation for conservatives but a reality in which almost any woman who wants an abortion is able to have one and an estimated 40,000 Israeli women annually have abortions okay now what are you gonna say to your grandma that gives John Hagee $500 a month to support the Jews over in Israel what do you say to the Christians in this Valley that give their money to their church because their churches sending checks over to Israel what these people don't realize and what they're doing is they're supporting these abominations they're supporting the very abominations they got them kicked out of the land in the first place okay it goes on to say this for an Israeli woman who wishes to end a pregnancy the process is not only legal but is heavily subsidized or free covered under is Israel's national health care system so the government will help you get an abortion in Israel if you if you decide that you need one or that you want one okay that's what it means by subsidized there's programs there's ways to get financing to carry out this atrocity goes on to say for teenagers and soldiers serving in the Israeli Defense Forces abortions are fully funded by the state and in a revision of the national health coverage law in 2014 abortions became free to all women between 20 and 33 regardless of circumstances in order to help young women who cannot afford to pay even a heavily subsidized fee for the procedure and so there you have it they are still sacrificing their children only instead of making them pass through the fire they're making them pass through these slaughter clinics and they're sacrificing their children to the god of convenience it goes on to say this in practice this means that legal abortion is easy to obtain at no cost except for those who are married and are of standard childbearing age between 18 and 40 but even though abortion is legal and often free this does not mean the state gives all Israeli women the right to choose right and so what your Zionist is gonna do is he's just gonna pick that sentence and tell you that that's he could do not gonna read to you all the other stuff that I just read to you he goes on to say any healthy married woman between 18 and 40 who wants a free or heavily subsidized abortion in a public facility must face a pregnancy termination committee composed of social workers and doctors giving them justifications for the decision in order to have the abortion approved the fact that it's even considered the fact that they've selected a panel of people that you can go before and that they would even consider this should give you some insight on to how wicked and evil the leadership is and you know what not just the leadership but even the people that are there right the sins of Jeroboam are alive and well in today's modern-day Israel it goes on to say often women resort to white lies in order to meet the official criteria saying they are mentally unstable or that the husband is not the father of the child even when that is not the case so all you got to do I guess if you're over there you're married you decide you know what we've already got our two kids we don't want a third one all you got to do is just say well you know my husband's not the father and apparently they don't even test you I'm guessing they just take your word for it because if they were to test you and and maybe try to try to prove whether or not you're you're telling the truth it would be mentioned in this article but it's not it goes on to say a study by the Central Bureau of Statistics examining all abortions in Israel in 2016 found that nine percent of pregnancies in Israel are legally terminated that year 18,000 32 women applied for approval to abortion committees to end their pregnancies of those ninety two point three percent were approved nearly half of these women told the committee they had been impregnated by a man they were not married to and in some cases it's probably true because I mean think about it if they're not following God's laws and any of his laws what makes you think that they're not you know horn around you know I'm sure that's what's going on here now go back hopefully you're still in second King 17 look at verse number 10 you know this is the beginning of why God removed them out of the land it says and they set them up images and groves and every high hill and under every green tree and you know what that makes me think of it makes me think that they probably have set up abortion clinics on every high hill right on the high billboards advertising it proclaiming it to be the truth proclaiming it a good thing and setting these clinics up under every green tree that's in the land it's the same exact thing and I'm gonna move on here I clicked on another article about religions in Israel and it says that Judaism makes up seventy four point seven percent of the nation's religion and out of those two-thirds are what is described as secular Jews right you know what a secular Jew is a Jew that doesn't believe in God you know what a regular Jew is it doesn't believe the God of the Bible okay so do with that which you will it goes on to say the majority of the population in Israel are follow followers of Orthodox Judaism Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism according to Orthodox Judaism the Jewish law and Torah are divine therefore followers believe these laws are unalterable and should be adhered to fully well they're not really doing a very good job in Israel today are they because if they really were following the Torah the first five books of the Bible right following God's laws why are they allowing abortion where where's the rabbi's outcry against abortion then you watch somebody's gonna send me a stupid link of some rabbi with a Dixie cup on his head banging his head against the wall you know oh he's praying against abortion okay maybe one or two are but you know what the vast majority sure aren't right they're secular Jews they don't believe in God what makes you think they believe in the Bible those things go hand in hand goes on to say therefore followers believe these laws are unalterable and should be adhered to fully unlike Orthodox Judaism Reform and Conservative Judaism are more liberal reform how could you get more liberal than that reform and Conservative Judaism and consider Jewish laws as guidelines instead of restrictions that all Jews should follow and I know it keeps saying Jews and because you know that's that's just what they're called today right they're just called you know they like to be referred to as being Jewish or being Jews it's a religion it's not a race okay I mean think about it it's been said these people left brown and came back in 1948 white okay somebody's been lying to the world and it's not us okay we want it you know people want to accuse us of long you know you're an anti-semi you're hateful you're against Jews you're gonna get destroyed really really after reading all this that's the conclusion that you would come to I think they're the ones that are lying to people I think either that or they're just not saved I mean it's it's really insane and it's a to read this stuff and to and to think in your mind well these are God's chosen people this is the apple of God's eye it's it's disturbing it's a man like I said earlier it's embarrassing it's embarrassing that people might find out that you and I are Christians and think that this is what we might believe that's the embarrassing thing so also what did we learn we learned that they hardened their necks and they would not hear right that's what the Bible said they hardened their necks well guess what their necks are hardened today over there I mean with 74 percent of the population being Jewish or secular Jews not believing on Jesus Christ not saved not believing the Bible I mean what other conclusion would you come to and then it goes on to say this number two Islam they make up 17.7 percent among the Muslims residing in Israel Sunni Arabs constitute a majority while the Ahmadiyya sect is the second largest the Ahmadiyya sect movement operates from Hafa Israel where the Middle Eastern headquarters are located the al-wati and Shia Muslims are other minority Islam sects within the country the population of all the whites is about 4,000 Drew ease is another Islamic sect so you've got your your Jewish religions right in the different branches thereof and then the next biggest religion that you have dwelling in Israel today is Islam and the sad thing is Islam is kinder to the Lord Jesus Christ than the Jews are right and then number three at a whopping 2% is Christianity it says the majority of Christians living in Israel are Arabs or have come from other countries to work and live in monasteries or churches there are ten churches which have been officially recognized to provide guidance on issues such as divorce and marriage these churches include the Armenian Syriac Roman Melkite Maronite East Eastern Greek Orthodox Syriac Orthodox in Anglicanism churches so there you have it their Christianity in Israel is non-existent there you go they hardened their necks in the time period that we're reading in they hardened our necks from Jeroboam all the way to Hosea right and guess what they've got their necks hardened today under Netanyahu's rule it's it's no difference it goes on to say this religious tolerance in Israel there are seven cases of tensions or I'm sorry several cases of tensions between the different religious groups in Israel for instance there have been strained relationships within the Jewish community and between the Jews and Christians and it's kind of like you gotta kind of ask yourself why why because the the Christian organizations that I read to you they don't believe the Bible either right what do they believe well you know you just got to dig up the latest scroll and do the best you can with what you got that's their attitude they're not fundamental you know there's not they're not standing upon the shoes that we are they don't believe these things they're nothing but people with stones in their ears you know what they went and they banged their heads on that wall over there so hard that the rocks fell off and just got stuffed in their ears that's the only way you could come to the conclusion that they are the apple of God's eye today it goes on to say politically Christians and Muslims both agree that Israel cannot be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time though Judaism is a religion of the majority the state of Israel does respect all other religions or allow the freedom for its people to practice the religion of their choice so turn to Romans chapter number two Romans chapter two and while you're turning there I'm gonna refuse Psalm chapter 33 verse 12 which says blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord now was Israel under Hosea's reign blessed no they weren't how do you know because they got carried away into captivity right they got destroyed the nation got destroyed blessed is the nation whose God is Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance you know what that verse is fitting for the time period we're dealing with here regarding the northern kingdom of Israel and it is also fitting for today's day and age you know what America is not blessed I don't care what anybody says Oh God bless America you know what yeah right we do we we excel the abortions that Israel does on it probably on it by a daily basis I mean only God really knows the real numbers right but you know don't don't be saying that old blessed as a nation you know blesses America you know because of the honor of money it says in God we trust yeah the God that the people that rule this nation trust is not the God of the Bible so let's move on here you're there in Romans chapter 2 look at verse number 28 see because the whole point of doing this is I just wanted to compare Israel the northern kingdom of Israel with what we have today today it's Israel right and it's the same thing they were there they're not God's chosen people they're not a blessed nation they're not above you they're not above me they're not above us they're not they're not even above America they're all in the same cesspool of sin right God is not a respecter of persons but no matter how many times you tell these people that they just don't get it and why is that because there's something inside of them that's called pride you see and it comes from not reading your Bible that's what it comes it comes from that's what it boils down to it boils down to not reading your Bible or going to churches where somebody does read the Bible but they're not saved okay that's what's going on here Romans chapter 2 verse 28 we're gonna read these verses to kind of prepare ourselves for next week so what is a Jew well let's let's look at what Paul said Romans 2 look at verse 28 says for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh verse 29 but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God so is a Jew a guy who has the long little hair things dangling by his cheeks in the hat and in hates Jesus Christ is that a Jew well you might call him a Jew because that's what our vernacular does but not according to God so who's a Jew according to God somebody who is saved somebody who has the new man the new creature turn to Galatians chapter 6 Galatians chapter 6 so Paul I mean Paul Paul has to spend a lot of his life dealing with this doctrine you know he makes sure and he tells the Romans this you know it comes up again in Acts it comes up again in Galatians look at chapter 6 verse 11 this is what Paul's leaves the Galatians off with he says Galatians 6 11 says you see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ you know it in that verse right there kind of sums up why people today get a rise out of teaching Zionism right because they can make a fair show in the flesh they can glory in the flesh you know mankind wants to be known for achievement right there's it's been said there's only two religions in the world there's salvation by grace through faith and there's human achievement right what is human achievement I turn from my sins or I live my life and didn't do as bad as you or I gave to the church I did whatever right it's works there's works and then there's the free gift right and people that are trusting in their works they inherently want to lift up man so in their minds by lifting up a race of people so they say it's not a race it's a religion and we're gonna take a look at that in greater detail next week right but it but nonetheless by raising these people up what they're doing is basically just lifting up mankind you know saying hey you know we're so good these these these people it's possible that man is so good and so awesome and so creative and so whatever that God just loves them no matter what right and and they because they want to make a fair show in the flesh because they like to glory and what man can do they get a rise out of teaching that look at verse 13 for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh and you know what these Zionist teachers whether they're Jews or whether they're Christians they want to teach us these things they want to force us to believe these things why so that they can glory in the flesh right not just so they can glory in their own flesh but just glory in mankind in general because they really don't have God in the proper perspective at all look at verse 14 but God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world verse 15 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature isn't that what we just read in Romans chapter 2 isn't that the same thing it says for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing so when you have someone teaching you that the circumcision the Jew is the apple of God's eye is God's chosen pupil God's chosen people what are they saying they're saying that Paul was wrong they're saying that Paul was wrong when he wrote to the Galatians he was wrong when he wrote to the Romans and that this verse is null and void having how else are you gonna take it he says nor uncircumcision but a new creature right it's it's it's the new man that's what's important that's what we're what we need to deal with here now real quick you can you can lose keep your place there because we're gonna come back to this general neighborhood but go back to 2nd Kings chapter number 17 real quick I'm gonna finish reading the verse again I'm sorry I'm gonna read the next verse while you're turning there and he says after he says but a new creature in verse 15 verse 16 he says and as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God so if there's an Israel of God and it concerns people who are saved then that means there's an Israel that's not of God right it was true in Paul's day right with with Judea before the Romans came in and completely destroyed him and kicked him out and what and so on but you know what it's true in our day because they're back in the land so to speak and you know what they're not the Israel of God because those people don't have the new man I just read for you the statistics that their own people put out the Jerusalem Post it's their own people admitting and being proud that their nation is made up of people that don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they are not saved they are not the Israel of God but verse 16 says as many as walk according to this rule you know what that's this church we walk according to that rule that's what we teach and Paul said hey peace be upon that right but what does the world say what does Christianity today say they say the opposite no you're cursed you're an anti-semite you're wrong you shouldn't say that again they're calling Paul a liar second Kings chapter 17 look at verse 14 notwithstanding they would not hear but harden their necks like to the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God they didn't believe in them during this time they don't believe in them now what makes you think they are above all the people of the earth verse 15 and they rejected his statutes isn't that what I just read to you from their own paper from their own people from their own statisticians it says and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the heathen that were round about them concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them so the result again of putting away the Bible putting away God's statutes putting away his commandments is what it's vanity it's pride that's what it is and that's why you see that coming through Christianity today because they have put away Galatians they put away Romans and they've exchanged it for Darby and Schofield and their doctrine and their teachings look at verse 16 and they left all the commandments the Lord their God and made them molten images even two calves and made a grove and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and serve Baal you know it's no different today the Jews are serving Satan and people gonna oh I can't believe you said that well you know what it's true it is what it is turn to Romans chapter 9 Romans chapter 9 while you're turning there read for you first John chapter 2 verse 22 and 23 which says who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ Sam get the rest of the verse says he is Antichrist that denieth the father and the son whosoever denieth the son the same hath not the father but he that acknowledges the son hath follow the father also if you're not saved it's very simple you don't have the father the Jews today in Israel don't have the father right the Jews under Hosea's rule they didn't have the father either I'm sorry Jews the the children of Israel that served under Hosea's reign they didn't have the father either Romans chapter number 9 look at verse 27 Isaiah's also cryeth concerning Israel though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved so what are we dealing with here we're dealing with a remnant right he's telling these people hey look don't be discouraged when you read the prophecies in the Bible when you read the promises concerning Israel because there's an Israel of God there's a remnant that's going to be saved verse 28 for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth look at verse 29 and as Isaiah's said before except the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed we had been as Sedoma and been made like unto Gomorrah now we're gonna see Israel's unbelief here look at verse 30 what shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith so he's like he's telling them this hard truth right he's saying hey look guess what hate to break it to you but just because someone's a Jew just because someone was born in Israel or someone's of whatever tribe that doesn't mean they're saved only a remnant right and he's saying hey look does that mean that just any old heathen then's just gonna get righteousness from God just because of that and he's like look that's that's not the case here verse 31 he says but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness right they missed the boat right they they fell at that they've tripped over that stumbling block which was Christ and we see that as we read through the New Testament look at verse 32 wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone so again that's why Paul tells us in Romans chapter 4 verse 14 that if you're trusting in your works plus your faith that your faith is made void and he's basically providing us that same teaching with an example here in the Jews right what did the Jews do they wanted to prop up their traditions they wanted to prop up their laws above God right they had a form of godliness but they denied the power thereof and so God says you know what that's not gonna cut it right it's just it's no different than the Assyrians who said we'll just go ahead and add God you know to our other gods and the Lions will no longer get us well you know what the Lions are gonna come get all the people that are trusting in the works and their faith because it's made void it's made void look at verse 33 as it is written behold I lay inside a stamp a stumbling stone and a rock of offense in whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed like that there Jesus Christ is a rock of offense right but what all the liberals want to tell you know he he loved everyone for every reason it doesn't matter what you do well the Bible says he's a rock of offense okay you know why he's a rock of offense because his way is the only way and that's offensive to people okay it's real easy to understand that so if you would turn to Micah chapter number five go back to the Old Testament Micah chapter number five we went over this we did a brief overview a few weeks ago of Micah and I brought these verses up in chapter five which talked about the Lord Jesus Christ and I wanted to kind of end on this tonight because it's kind of funny how you know we're stuck we're basically cashing out the northern kingdom of Israel we see that they get conquered by the Assyrians right the Assyrians take them into captivity they're no longer a nation they're gone they're bred out they're done they're known as the Samaritans by the time you get to the New Testament but what are we told today well the Jews are just gonna accept the Lord Jesus Christ and you know and they're all gonna get saved and so on and so forth but what did Jesus say remember what Jesus said he said if another comes in his name him you will deceive right well in Micah chapter five it's interesting because Micah talks about a prophecy talks about the Lord Jesus Christ in these verses but you know what else he talks about he talks about an Assyrian and who do you think that is that's the Antichrist and you know what Israel today today's keep this in mind today's nation of Israel is once again going to be conquered by the Assyrian I'll show you that here on the Bible look at verse number one Micah chapter number five look at verse number one says now gather thyself in troops Oh daughter of troops he hath laid siege against us they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek but thou Bethlehem Ephrata thou I'm sorry though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be a ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting that's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and keep in mind that the Israel that he's talking about here is not 1948 Israel it's not 2019 Israel it's not Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel it's the Israel that Paul talked about the one made up of saved Bible believing Christians that's the Israel today that is of God that's the one that's rain or this world reigned by the Lord Jesus Christ look at verse number three therefore will he give them up until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel verse number four and he shall stand and feed the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they shall abide for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth now look at verse number five look at verse five it says and this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our palaces then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men verse six and they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when he treadeth within our borders now keep in mind there what Micah's who Micah was you remember Micah he was a prophet during the same time that Isaiah was a prophet in Judah okay and that I think it's interesting how he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and he's talking about his time frame right he's talking about the time of Christ and beyond but what else does he mention here he mentions the Assyrian you know the Assyrian is gonna make war with us this the Antichrist is gonna make war with the Saints but he's not going to prevail but you know who he is gonna prevail against the people that don't have Christ the Jews that do not have Christ and they are going to get carried away into captivity but only unfortunately this time it's known as hell and they're not getting out look at verse number seven it says in the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grass that tarryeth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men verse 8 and the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest as a young lion among the flocks of sheep who if he go through both treadeth down and tareth in pieces and none can deliver we'll just read the rest of chapter verse 9 says thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries and all thine enemies shall be cut off and it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy chariots and I will cut off the cities of thy land and throw down all thy strongholds and I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand and now shall have no more soothsayers thy graven images also will I cut off and I standing images out of the midst of thee and now shall no more worship the work of thine hands and I will pluck up the thy groves out of the midst of thee so will I destroy thy cities and I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen such as they have not heard so we will get delivered from the Assyrian right the real Israel the Israel of God right the Assyrians coming for us but it's only going to be temporary and we're gonna get redemption the unfortunate thing is the people that reject Christ even the heathen right everybody in the world and this is including Sam Gibbs Jew baby Jew babies over in Israel you know they're gonna get conquered by that Assyrian one more time you know and I just wanted to bring that up because it I think is very significant and very important to know these things why so that we can edify other people you know what you might get somebody saved and they might want to start coming to church you know and they might take a liking to you and you might bond with them and you know what you can set them straight because you know what a lot of people hear these things they aren't even saved you know a lot of people hear these things and they have these preconceived ideas because this is put forth even in the news and on a TV and it's something that you know in this valley it's probably just this church it's probably just us we're the ones that are gonna be able to go out there and teach the right ways you know teach the right commandments and I'm just gonna leave you with this verse here John 5 43 I am coming my father's name and you receive me not if another shall come in his own name him you will receive and that is what the Lord Jesus Christ said about the Jews of his day and that's a prophecy about the Jews of our day you know they are going to receive that Antichrist only they're not gonna worship him as God they just want them to to make them rich and they just want to be the top dog nation and have him be the ruler that they've been looking for since David and then obviously he's gonna say no I'm God and then they're gonna be like well we don't want to sign on to that and the rest will be history but that's all for today like I said if anybody needs a chart let me know I'll print you out another one and next week we're gonna talk about the captivity of Judah and that is it let's pray thank you so much Lord for these these truths and these stories in the Bible I just pray that you help us to keep these things in perspective Lord and help us to to remember these things in the right order as we read through the Bible Lord and please just be with us this week Lord please bless the fellowship and all that we do Lord this week for you in Jesus name I pray amen