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And the Bible reads Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him when Jacob saw them He said this is God's hosts They called the name of that place Mahanayim and Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of seer and the country of Edom And he commanded them saying thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau thy servant Jacob saith thus I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now And I have oxen and asses flocks and men servants and women servants And I've sent to tell my lord that I might find grace in thy sight The messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to thy brother Esau and also he cometh to meet thee 400 men with him then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed And he divided the people that was with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two bands And said if Esau come to the one company and smite it then the other company which is left shall escape And Jacob said Oh God of my father Abraham and Lord and God God of my father Isaac and Lord which said his son to me return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will Deal well with thee I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed me unto thy servant For with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I've become two bands Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I fear him lest he will come and smite Me and the mother with the children Now saidest I will surely do thee good and make thee seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude And he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau's brother 200 she goats and 20 he goats 200 ewes and 20 rams 30 milk camels with their colts 40 kine and 10 bulls 20 she-asses and 10 foals And he delivered them into the hand of his servants every drove by Themselves and sent into his servants pass over before me and put a space betwixt drove and drove He commanded the foremost saying when Esau my brother meeteth thee and asketh thee saying whose art thou and whither thou goest thou And whose art these before thee then that shall say they be thy servant Jacobs It is a present sent unto my lord Esau and behold also he is behind us and so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed the droves saying on this manner shall you speak unto Esau when You find him and say you moreover behold thy servant Jacob is behind us for he said I will appease him with the present that goeth before me and afterward. I will see his face per adventure He will accept of me So went the present over before him and himself lodged that night in the company And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two women servants and his 11 sons and passed over the Ford Jabok and he took them and sent them over the brook and sent them over that he had And Jacob was left alone There wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day And when he saw that he prevailed not against him He touched the hollow of his thigh and the hall of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him And he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me And he said unto him What is thy name and he said Jacob and he said thy name shall be called no more Jacob But Israel for as a prince has thou power with God and with men and has prevailed Jacob asked him and said tell me I pray thee thy name and he said wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name and he blessed him there and Jacob called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved and As he passed over Penuel the Sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sino which shrink Which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and the sino that shrink Let's pray dear Lord God. Thank you for everything that you bless us with Lord Just thank you for the King James Bible Lord and just thank you for pastor We pray that you bless him right now as he preaches unto us your word Lord and just pray that we could take these truths that Pastors prepared for us and apply it to our lives Lord. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen Amen Okay, we're in Genesis chapter 32 this evening and I'm gonna preach on the subject of the eras of Israel the eras of Israel and this evening there's gonna be more so of a teaching type of a sermon and So you're gonna have to discipline yourself to pay attention and make sure that you are Grasping a lot of the truths are gonna be said tonight because of the fact that I'm really gonna just give you a synopsis of the history of Israel, okay, and You know, obviously I might get preachy and some of the parts because I can't help it however, no promises I'm just gonna give you a lot of information and just go through literally Genesis to Revelation Regarding the history of Israel now, why is a sermon like this important? well because of the fact that you know, a lot of Christians today think that everything is about Israel and They think that Israel is essentially the centerpiece of the Bible. It's the centerpiece of Christianity and it's all about Israel But no, sorry, you know, the Bible is all about Jesus Christ and Jesus is the centerpiece of Christianity He is the centerpiece of the Word of God and even of the history of Israel Old Testament and New Testament. He's the most important person in the Word of God And so sometimes people give this inordinate amount of affection Towards the nation of Israel and the people of Israel even though they're simply a tool that God used to get the Word of God out there and Really the most important person as the Bible puts it in Colossians chapter 1 the preeminent one is Jesus Christ Okay, and all of Israel's history is for the purpose of pointing us towards Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about And so I want to go through the history of Israel and I'm gonna cover about seven different eras briefly and Spend most of my time in the latter end of the list But we're gonna talk about Israel the person the nation the monarchy the divided Kingdom the remnant the Israel of God and ultimately the restoration of Israel so let's start off by talking about Israel the person now what's funny about this is that You know when you talk to people who are very much pro-zionist They're pro Israel and they think that the Bible is all about Israel You know He kind of points you like what's your text verse and they always go to where Genesis chapter 12 But the thing is is that Israel actually isn't mentioned until Genesis chapter 32 And in fact Israel that even exists in Genesis chapter 12 Genesis chapter 12 is all about Abraham Who is obviously that patriarch? He is Jacob's great-grandfather Excuse me He's his grandfather, but yet people seem to point to Genesis chapter 12 Promises made to Abraham and to his seed as though it somehow applies to the current state Of Israel and it has nothing to do with it. We find the first mention of Israel in Genesis chapter 32 now hold your place or go to Genesis chapter 25 if you would Genesis chapter 25 So let's look at the person Israel and of course prior to him being called Israel by God His name was Jacob look at verse 22 of Genesis 25 It says here and the children struggled together within her and she said if it be So why am I thus and she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels the one and the one people shall be stronger than the other and the Elder shall serve the younger and obviously what's being mentioned here is the fact that Jacob and Esau would be born from her right and Essentially what he's referring to what God is referring to here is that Esau though He's the elder will be serving Jacob the younger now I believe that that was God's original intent But yet when you read the story of Jacob He kind of obtains those promises by deceitful means right by taking the birthright deceitfully Which is one of the reasons why he's essentially referred to as a supplanter. He's somewhat of a deceiver He has unjust balances and you look at Jacob as a person Before he really starts getting serious about the things of God. He's really dishonest. He's really conniving He's just not necessarily a good person and obviously he's not a necessary evil person But he's not someone who is noble or honorary in the Old Testament prior to his encounter with the Lord And so, you know, he is that nation That would be served by Esau, but he went about it his own way and did it unjustly now go to Genesis chapter 32 Genesis chapter 32 and We're not gonna read throughout the whole the whole story of Jacob, but obviously he's obtaining the birth rights unjustly He's being dishonest and these types of things come with consequences So it gets to a point where Esau wants to kill Jacob his brother for Robbing him of his birthright and he's very bitter towards Jacob. He's very angry towards him He's threatened him. So Jacob flees for a time. He ends up getting married He becomes a polygamist unfortunately, and he ends up getting married to Rachel and Leah Okay, Laban's daughters and of course, he ends up having children Well when he finally realizes that Esau is coming to meet him he has in his mind. Oh, man Esau's coming to kill me. He's gonna destroy me. And so therefore, you know, I need to appease him, right? So what he does is he essentially sends three companies Previous to him going to Esau to go and bring Esau gifts essentially to kind of ease the wrath of Esau So that when he finally sees Jacob, he's cool with him, right? What he doesn't know is that Esau is actually pretty happy to go and see his brother He hasn't seen him in a couple years, but Jacob obviously has a guilty conscience Okay, he has a guilty conscience for what he's done. He understands that what he's done is wrong And so he sends that company. Well previous before Right before he meets Esau. He meets God. Okay, and This is where he picked up in verse 27. It says he said unto him, of course, he begins to wrestle with him He says he said to him. What is thy name? He said Jacob now It says here that he's wrestling with the angel But we know based upon the latter end of the chapter that he's actually wrestling with God himself and more specifically We would say Jesus Christ now How do we know that? Because of the fact that he sees him face to face and no one can see the face of God the Father and live Right. So this is a Incarnate Christ so to speak where you where you have the angel of the Lord Appearing he's wrestling with Jacob and it's not that you know, the Lord isn't strong enough It's not like the Lord couldn't just snap them in two Obviously this has a purpose behind it and that is that he needs to wrestle with God and really be changed through that encounter Okay, because Jacob is not necessarily an honest person and God's trying to make an honest person out of him So in order for him to do that, he has to break him He has to change something physically within him so that he comes out a different person And so as he's wrestling with him, he doesn't prevail against him He wrestles with them throughout the night and then what the Lord does is he touches the hollow of his thigh To the point where he makes some handicap for the rest of his life He has a limp somewhat of a limp when he's walking and it is a perpetual sign That he had a meeting with the Lord that God essentially broke him and humbled him for his pride Arrogancy deceitfulness and it says in verse 28. He said thy name shall be called no more Jacob, you know the deceiver the supplanter This guy who is just dishonest but Israel For as a prince has now power with God and with men and hast Prevailed and it goes on to say look at verse 29 says Jacob asked him and said tell me I pray thee thy name And he said wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name and he blessed them there and Jacob called the name of the place penuel for I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved now obviously when you look at The story there's a lot of principles that we can learn from this And one of the main principles that we can learn from Jacob's encounter with the Lord here is the fact that you know Ask Christians in order for us to change Maybe we have bad conduct or bad habits or as we mentioned this morning bad ideologies You know, we need to wrestle with God and sometimes God has to kind of take the carpet out from under us Kick us off our high horse in order to humble us so we can change right because sometimes, you know Christians For whatever reason because of our sin nature we become prideful arrogant. We think we know everything We think that we're just all that and sometimes God has to humble us He has to touch these the hollow of our thigh and shrink that sin you and essentially Affect you for the rest of your life in order to get your attention and so you could be humbled And so we see that that that's essentially the principle there that you know Even though previous to getting serious about serving God you might be a dishonest dishonest person You might be a lazy person You might be a person who's just carnal, but you can become like an Israel right where God essentially changes your name He changes your reputation as being a supplant from being a supplanters to being a prince God can make a prince out of you, right? and so it's important for us as Christians that we are looking for that type of encounter with with the Lord as we read the Word of God and wrestle with God through prayer Wrestle with God through reading the Bible wrestle with God as we strive for that process of sanctification To be what the Lord wants us to be which is essentially that new man Okay And so we see that there now look at Genesis chapter 35 Genesis 35 if you would and look at verse number one Because that's the first time that God tells Jacob thy name shall no more called Jacob, but Israel, right? But here's the second time look at verse 1 of Genesis 35 it says God said unto Jacob arise go up to Bethel and Dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau thy brother Then Jacob sent into his household and to all that were with him Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise And go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with Me in the way Which I went and they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in the land in their hand and all their Earrings which were in their ears and Jacob hid them under the oak Which was by Shechem look at verse number nine if you would verse number nine and God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out Of Pendan around and blessed him and God sent him thy name is Jacob thy name shall not be called any more Jacob But Israel shall be thy name and he called his name Israel now. What's the principle there? Well, you know what? So one of the things when it comes to Encountering God wrestling with God having God change your reputation of who you are You know requires you to kind of like let go of some things, right? We see that Jacob had to put away the strange gods they changed their garments and then he went to Bethel What does Bethel mean the house of God? One of the sure ways to change into what God wants you to be is you got to be in the house of God And you can't really become what God wants you to be and Uphold the reputation that God wants you to have without being in the house of God I know those people out there they want to minimize the importance of church attendance but folks being in God's house being in church is Essential for Christian growth. It's essential for transforming you from being Jacob the supplanter to being Israel Okay, and so we see the good Exodus chapter 1 if you would Exodus chapter 1 So we have that story with Jacob and That is the first mention of Israel is when his name is completely changed. You know, God does this throughout the Bible Abraham became Abraham Sarah became Sarah Jacob became Israel and in fact the Bible even says that in the new heaven a new earth We're all gonna receive new names. Okay Likened unto our new nature. So God wants to change your name your reputation who you are and That is a beautiful picture there that we see with Jacob So Jacob, you know, he's not a perfect guy Made a lot of mistakes one of which is the fact that he became a polygamist You know, he married Leah and Rachel and obviously we can say well, you know, I was layman's fault You know what I mean? Because he wanted Rachel but they gave him Leah who's the older sister and he ended up just taking both well Throughout that turn of events those turn of events He ends up having 12 children 13 to be exact because if you include Dinah in that number and Rachel gives birth to two of his children Bilhah her maidservant who he also marries ends up having two children by him So, you know, what are you doing? you know and it's one of those things where it's just like don't you think that God could have just done it if He if he told you he was gonna do it if he told you he was gonna bless you you know, you could have gone about it God's way and You would have arrived to that specific destination of God's blessing the twelve tribes and you could have got him from one woman Right, but of course all things work together for good And so he has two children by Rachel two of which are Joseph and Benjamin through Bilhah his mate or his wife's maidservant Dan and of Tali and then Leah had six children, okay Six sons should I say the seventh being Dinah that's Reuben if Simeon Levi Judah Issachar and Zebulun and Then of course, he also ended up marrying her handmaid Zilpah and had Gad and Asher So collectively these are the twelve children of Israel. Okay, and this is not a Blueprint of how we should be doing things Okay, oh man Jacob's such a great man of God God blessed him so let me go ahead and get myself four wives Well, here's the thing folks is that you know, there's a lot of problems that came with this Okay, and it's funny how people want to exalt these men as examples of you know, oh man, you know That guy had four wives. So I'm gonna get me four wives. Well, first of all, how are you gonna afford four wives? Okay, one wife is expensive enough a man Two is like really and then you got three or four is a good night and then you got twelve kids on top of that I mean, you know, it's a lot but here's the thing people want to exalt that as like, you know An illustration of how we can do it But they never really want to talk about all the negative stuff that came attached with it Which is why God told us from the beginning that he made a male and female Right and they twain shall be one flesh Not they three not they four not they five they twain and you know We're getting to a point in this country Where we got to talk about that again because of the fact that now, you know Not only is polygamy being from being permitted in society But even just a dude, you know dating like two girls or something where they're all worth all three of them Are just living together. Okay, they call it like a throuple or something. Okay, it's disgusting But you know you talk to those people they want to point to the men of God in the Bible Who did these things and say oh, well, they did it. Oh, well, just let's just forget everything that God said Regarding marriage and regarding what is what is permissible according to the Word of God and let me just remind you that just because God was silenced regarding these things. It doesn't mean that he put a stamp of approval on it Don't mistake God's permissible silence as his stamp of approval when people did stupid stuff like this Okay, you know these are given to us as an example of what not to do He allowed people to make these mistakes so that when we read the Word of God, we see their examples We're like, well that was dumb Well, I'm not gonna get man. I I'm just gonna stick to one wife I'm definitely not gonna get it I was thinking about getting a second one, but you know after reading about Jacob and Abraham and all these wonderful patriarchs I'm not going down that route because God already gave me all these clear examples of men who married multiple wives and You know, they had horrible lives thereafter now obviously God blessed them He blessed their descendants and he worked it out together for good because he obviously loves them and these people love the Lord But folks that does not mean that they didn't suffer some severe consequences because of it. Okay, so he has these 12 children So now we go from Israel the person to now Israel the nation Okay, and this is God's original intent He wanted to create a nation of these 12 tribes because out of these 12 tribes one particular tribe Would end up producing the Messiah the Christ. Okay now you're an exodus chapter one Look at verse number one says now These are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt every man and his household came with Jacob now Let me just give you a synopsis here of what's taking place So from the time that Jacob had his 12 kids up until this point you have of course the 12 children of Israel they've grown up they have families of their own and One son in particular named Joseph was hated amongst his brethren So when it comes to Israel the person the main focus of that story is Jacob But when it comes to Israel the nation the main focus of that is actually Joseph Okay And the reason we know that is because of the fact that when you read the story of Joseph You see how much it parallels the Lord Jesus Christ and how many symbolic representations we get of the Lord through Joseph Okay, because Joseph is hated of his brethren. He's sold into slavery. He's sold into Egypt He basically receives a lot of persecution at the hands of his brothers at the hands of Egypt and Potiphar But then ultimately he ends up becoming the vice-pharaoh of Egypt through those turns of events He becomes an important person and he ends up saving not just Egypt throughout the famine But even his own family who are back in Canaan land from the famine as well his father and the twelve tribes and their children Okay, because at this point the twelve children of Israel have grown to be large families You know, they have lots of children and so they're growing Well, he ends up saving them because they come to Egypt to buy corn They find out that Joseph is the vice-pharaoh and then they all end up moving to Egypt So this is like the golden era so to speak of the twelve tribes, right? Because they're in Egypt They're there's they're dwelling in the fat of the land. They have Pharaoh's favor. They have they have a Joseph's favor I mean, they're kind of living large in spite of the fact that there's a major famine. Okay? And It's because of Joseph Now Joseph has two children Ephraim and Manasseh Ephraim and Manasseh essentially ended up getting adopted by Jacob, which is why? When the twelve tribes are distributed their particular inheritance and lots Ephraim and Manasseh get their own lot Essentially Joseph is split in two. Okay But there are they are in Egypt and when that Pharaoh was alive I mean everything was good, but then that Pharaoh dies and another Pharaoh arises which knew not Joseph Okay, so now we're entering into a new era of the history of Israel. It's no longer favorable towards Jacob It's no longer favorable towards his children. Now. They become the enemy of the state so to speak Okay This is a verse to Ruben Simeon Levi Judah is to car Zebulun Benjamin Dan and enough to Ali Gaddon Asher and all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were 70 souls For Joseph was in Egypt already and Joseph died and all his brethren and all that generation and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and Multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them now There arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. So now we're no longer talking about The twelve children of Israel like the physical children of Israel that came from Jacob now We're talking about the descendants of those men because those men are dead now, they're gone, right? I'm talking about, you know, Joseph's gone Levi's gone Judah's gone the actual people they're gone themselves but they produce these tribes of people that make up collectively the nation of Israel and You know, they came into Egypt with 70 people But now as we're as we will see it towards the the exodus of Egypt now It's like a million people. Okay, so you have tons and tons of Israelites and of course, they're having babies They're you know married and given in marriage and because the Egyptians Practice abortion and the Israelites do not the Israeli numbers are overpowering the Egyptian numbers So Pharaoh is very much against this. He wants to kill him off He wants to kill off the first males and this is where we find the story of Moses And of course Moses ends up growing up delivering the children of Israel out of the hand of Pharaoh and This is essentially where God's promise comes into play to deliver them into what's known as the promised land Okay. Now this is very important. I'll go to first Sammy chapter 8 if you would first Sammy chapter 8 You said well, how do they go from 70 people? To like a million. Well, they were in Egypt for 430 years Okay From the time that Jacob and his sons went into Egypt to the time that they literally stepped out of Egypt They were forced out of Egypt because they became essentially I want to say a plague unto them But they essentially became like a thorn in their side because of the plagues because God was chasing Egypt and Pharaoh It's literally four hundred and thirty years to the day And in fact the Bible says you don't have to turn their exit is 1240 says now the so journey Which is kind of funny because so journey means like you go there for like a short time, okay 430 years is not a short time, you know now the so journey of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years and It came to pass at the end of 430 years even the self same day It came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt So even now you can kind of see God's hand in all this Situation Because God's original will was not that the children of Israel would be in Egypt. He doesn't want them to be in, okay That's not the land that he promised unto them Egypt is a picture of the world Pharaoh is a picture of the devil that is not the land that he wanted him to inherit but he wanted them to be there Temporarily to grow them as a nation because is or excuse me Egypt at that time Was very much fruitful as a fat land. It's a land where they can increase in numbers So he wanted to use that but ultimately he wanted to take him to what's commonly referred to as the promised land Okay, which would later be the land of Israel. Okay Canaan land as it's referred to also So what you have is the Exodus and then it's been 40 years in the wilderness of sin God punishing them because of the rebellion against God and then you have Joshua and judges essentially dealing with the children of Israel going into the promised land Joshua mainly dealing with them Inheriting their lands and their lots things of that nature. So when they actually go into the promised land It's already inhabited by a bunch of heathens and pagans. Okay Houses already built there wells already exist. You have vineyards there pretty much It's like a Airbnb type thing. You know, I mean, it's like oh, it's just like a really massive Airbnb foods The fridge is already stocked. I don't know if Airbnb's yeah, but you know the fridge is stocked, you know, there's fruit everywhere It's just like already made for you That's how God wanted it and he basically told the children of Israel you're gonna go into this land But you're not just gonna inherit it like you have to like work for it though Like you have to destroy all these people. Okay remove all of the inhabitants of the land you take over and Then that'll be your land So essentially what Joshua does is he designates specific areas of Canaan land for each particular tribe and What you have is that all of the tribes? Except for Levi actually get a lamb. Okay, so you have all the tribes we're talking about Ruben Simeon Judah Dan they all get a particular plot so to speak Okay but the only ones who don't get it is is Levi the reason for that is because Levi is The tribe that God selects for the priesthood and the only inheritance that they were gonna receive was the Lord Okay, their job was essentially to they oversaw the work of the house of God So they were essentially scattered throughout the twelve tribes of Israel They kind of lived everywhere, but they didn't really have an inheritance themselves. So to speak Okay, and then of course Joseph was split in two So you have Manasseh and Ephraim getting their own little plot there as well. Okay, so you have Israel the person who produces the twelve tribes of Israel those twelve men die But they produce an entire nation throughout the four hundred and thirty years that they are in Egypt that nation relocates to Canaan land Where they inherit the land then you have the history of the judges and this is a really dark time in the history of Israel, okay Because essentially what's taking place throughout the system of the judges is there's no earthly King But they have men who essentially teach them the Word of God. They're judging Israel But you have generations of the children of Israel during this time who are getting involved in paganism They're getting involved in idolatry So God ends up delivering them to foreigners to oppress them to take them captive To persecute them they cry on and to God because of it then God raises up a deliverer We get a cool story like a HUD He delivers them and then the cycle essentially continues over and over again in the book of Judges That's what judges is about the judge being that particular deliverer Okay And it gets so dark during that time that you have even a tribe of Israel known as the tribe of Benjamin Who ends up being just this reprobate tribe who is raping and they're killing They're just the worst scum of the earth They're children of Belial because they're so far removed from the Bible They end up getting involved in some of the most wicked things ever. That's Judges chapter 19 So the system of the judges though working Wasn't necessarily optimal per se because they're not they're just kind of like doing their own thing And in fact the Bible literally says that every man was doing that which is right in their own eyes They're not doing that which is right in God's eyes. They're not necessarily adhering to God's Word. That's what you have there So it goes from Jacob or Israel the person to Israel the nation Now we're gonna switch over to Israel being the monarchy and this is very much different because Israel the nation is like a nomadic nation You understand what I'm saying? Meaning like they just they live in tents They're living in the wilderness You know They're just kind of going about and they don't really have a particular place when they're in the in the land In the wilderness of sin, excuse me, but then when they're in the land of Israel, they finally settle They don't have a monarch They don't have someone ruling over them and It gets to a point where the children of Israel don't really like the system of the judges They want to be like the other nations, okay? Now look what it says in first Samuel chapter 8 in Verse number 5. It says and said unto him behold thou are old and thy sons Verse number 5 and thy sons walk not in thy ways now make us a king to judge us like all the nations So they're coming to Samuel and they're basically saying like hey dude, you're old We love you Your sons kind of suck. They're not like you So what we'd like is for you to make us a king so we could be like everyone else Not a good request Because that wasn't God's original intent God is their king You know the Lord they're under a theocracy Essentially from the time of Joshua to the system of the judges God is their king But they're just not operating well under that system and you know It's almost as if they're asking for earthly accountability Because the king is not you know to be to be like the other nations you're basically saying we want someone to rule over us is what they're asking for and Samuel is essentially the last of those judges and he's a righteous judge He he does a fantastic job. He's a righteous man Look at verse 6 says says, but the thing displeased Samuel when they say to give us a king to judge us And Samuel prayed into the Lord and the Lord sent it to Samuel one of the saddest verses in the Bible Harken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee But they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. Isn't that sad? He's like don't take it don't take it personal Samuel and I really against you really what they're doing They don't like me as their king, you know, they haven't rejected you They've rejected me and essentially this will be the stigma of Israel for the rest of their lives Is that they're rejecting the Lord, you know, they don't want God raining over them And in fact, even to the point where the Word of God is made flesh and goes among them They don't want him to reign over them. That's not what they want. Okay, and it goes back all the way to here He says the first aid according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up Out of the out of Egypt even into this day where what they have forsaken me and served other gods So do they also unto thee now therefore hearken unto their voice? How be it yet protest solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them So we're looking at the monarchy Collectively known as Israel and this is essentially when Israel although it is a nation now It is a kingdom. Okay under one particular ruler now it starts off with a good ruler But then he becomes bad at Saul. Okay, who's of the tribe of Benjamin? Then after Saul David takes over and then of course after David you have Solomon and of course you have many others But those particular three kings are probably the most important because of the fact that they were the monarchs When Israel still united? Okay, so they ruled over that kingdom under when Israel was a united kingdom Which is very important and obviously when you really study Saul and David you see a lot of foreshadowing of New Testament truths and doctrines in particular end times doctrines, right because you have Saul who is a king but then the real King shows up later, which is David Okay, and obviously that's figurative that's symbolic of the fact that the Antichrist will appear But then the real King comes afterwards, right which is Jesus Christ, you know The Antichrist is this fake King and it also pictures, you know Jews and believers in the New Testament as well Because you know Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom of God shall be taken that the kingdom shall be taken from you and give it to someone Who is better which echoes what we read in the book of Hebrews? that the kingdom of or excuse me in Matthew chapter 23 that the kingdom of God is taken from the Jews and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and the reason he says Someone better is because Jesus Christ it pictures Jesus who's a better mediator of a better Testament established upon better promises So you see a lot of parallels there? So now Israel is no longer just a person. It's not just a nation from those 12 tribes now it is a united monarchy made up of the 12 tribes of Israel okay now go to first Kings chapter 11 if you would first Kings chapter 11 Now the rule this era of a United Kingdom is very short-lived. It's only 75 years actually Saul came Started off good Finished bad. Okay He ends up killing himself. Just put it just you know, that's a summary of his life right there Okay, David comes though and David is one of the strongest Symbolic representations of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament he's from the tribe of Judah and You know, of course Jesus Christ is also from the tribe of Judah but David is so makes such a Powerful impact as a king in the Old Testament that essentially he ends up becoming this perpetual symbol of Jesus Christ Throughout the Old Testament even up until the New Testament. Okay, very powerful Representation of him well David is a warrior right? He's a man of war He knows how to fight. He knows how to conquer. He knows how to lead He loves the Lord with all his heart. And even though he did some pretty stupid stuff like, you know adultery and murder stuff like that and A lot of other stuff like his heart never really departed from loving the Lord is God you know, he's the sweet psalmist of Israel and He does a lot of great exploits, but obviously he has a lot of mistakes But at the end of it at the end of the day like at the end of his life We can summarize his life and say that's a man who was after God's own heart. He's the sweet psalmist of Israel David like we all want to strive to be like David To have a heart like David and you can when you read a be like man David loves the Lord and I want to love the Lord like David loves the Lord. He has this just unwavering passion of love for God, which is wonderful But then, you know, you know David has a lot of sons and a lot of them are bad and one particular son he ends up having which is essentially kind of like a byproduct of Of an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. He ends up producing Solomon and the Lord loves Solomon Well, Solomon ends up taking over the kingdom So he is the successor of this united monarchy that we're looking at known as Israel, right? But Solomon didn't really experience those same battles that David experienced He didn't really experience rough times and he is a man who loves the Lord though And he is definitely a man who essentially submits to the instructions and commandments of his father Because when David is dying David's like David's about to pass off the scene He tells Solomon is like I want all these guys dead right here Write it down before you forget, you know, and he gives them like a hit list of all these guys And they're all wicked people He tells them he's just like make sure they don't go down to the grave in peace And he's just like, you know one in particular is Joab, right? I think we all kind of enjoy that story where Joab gets it Whereas he's holding on to the horns of the altar and Benaiah just comes and slays him He's just like fall upon him there, you know And so Solomon is very much thorough in his execution pun intended of you know His father's commands, you know, and in fact once all of those men are destroyed Then the kingdom is established in the hand of Solomon obviously picturing the fact that you know Revelation 19 when Jesus Christ comes once the enemies of God are destroyed then the kingdom is established the millennial reign So you have those right and Solomon is essentially like his father His father's we could say is the godliest man in the Bible He's almost likened unto one of the most godliest men in the Bible whereas Solomon is like the wisest man of the Bible Right in the book of Proverbs, you know, he has the book of Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon. He spoke of many Proverbs and songs very wise man, and he was a very righteous man It was only just one little problem though. And the little problem is just that he likes women multiple women he's got that problem of polygamy and The issue is is like, you know, it wouldn't necessarily be an issue if He wasn't so rich about it Because you know, he has all this money so he could afford all that You know if he was a man who's just like I want multiple wives, but you couldn't afford it Who cares if you want it? You're not gonna have it, but this man can have it he had like 700 of them And you know, there's dudes there like oh man sounds great. No, it doesn't no, it doesn't and Again you read his story and look God was displeased with him because of the fact that he knew That if you're picking up 700 wives the vast majority of them are probably pagans He thens women who don't love the Lord And what they're gonna end up doing is they're gonna end up stealing your heart away from the Lord Which is exactly what happened to Solomon his heart was turned away from serving the Lord his God and Ended up not necessarily worshipping idols, but kind of basically because his wives are worshipping idols He's building altars for his wives to worship these idols and that made God really mad Because you know God endowed Solomon with such unique and anointed wisdom and You know you read the life of Solomon then you read his writings. It's like Like They don't match you know you you it's like you pull out socks from a drawer you know and They're they're like black socks, but one shade is like lighter than the other and it's just like He's like you know hopefully no one sees it, but we all see it. No, I'm just kidding It's just like you know what you're writing in Proverbs chapter 6 chapter 7 You're not really practicing that Solomon you got 700 you know And it's like all this stuff that you wrote about you're actually like violating But you know what you'd be surprised what people do when they go down that road of disobedience towards God It's like the sermon this morning. It's like he put on those little shades again He's not looking at the world and the service of God through the lens Of the Bible so he begins he begins to become very disobedient his heart is taken away And God is very much displeased with it go to first Kings chapter 11. Are you in first Kings 11? Okay cool? All right, so we have listen we have Israel the person then we have Israel the twelve tribes, which is the nation After the nation now you have Israel the United Kingdom under one monarch with Jacob with Israel the person Jacob is the most important person in that story and When you come to when it comes to the tribes Joseph is the important person When it comes to the United Kingdom David is the most important person so when we talk about Israel It's like Israel is just a kingdom. That's under the king which is David David is the most important person So this lasts for 75 years, but then of course Solomon is disobeying so now God is gonna rend the kingdom from Solomon And he's gonna split it in two parts look at first Kings 11 28 it says the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor and Solomon seen the young man that he was industrious He made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph And it came to pass at the time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that the prophet Ahijah the Shiloh night found him in the way, and he had clad himself with a new garment and They too were alone in the field and Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and rented in 12 pieces And he said to Jeroboam take thee ten pieces for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to thee But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake the city Which I have chosen out of the tribes of Israel because that they have forsaken me and have worshiped Ashtaroth the goddess of the Zidonians Chemosh the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways To do that which is right in mine eyes and to keep my statutes and my judgments as David did his father Habed I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand But I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake Whom I chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes last verse But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and will give it unto thee even ten tribes So what you have here is God essentially giving Ten tribes of the twelve to Jeroboam this essentially becomes the northern kingdom Okay, so it's no longer United Kingdom. It's no longer Israel the United Kingdom now It's Israel the northern kingdom and Judah the southern kingdom Israel the northern kingdom is made of ten tribes Judah is made up of Judah and Benjamin and of course you have Levi It's kind of scattered in both and you even have some people from the northern kingdom Fleeing to northern kingdom to come to Judah because of the apostasy that's taking place in Israel in the northern kingdom But it's not necessarily a large group of numbers where it where it's just like, okay cool We have Issachar here or something, you know, they're just kind of integrating into the southern kingdom Jeroboam becomes the king of that northern kingdom Rehoboam who's the son of Solomon takes over the southern kingdom Now you are in first Kings yellow go to chapter 12 go to chapter 12 and look at verse 19 of chapter 12 It says in verse 19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day and it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come Again that they sent and called unto the congregation and made him king over all Israel There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only So go to second Kings 17. So why did God split the kingdom? Well, he split the kingdom because the ten tribes Are becoming Apostate they're worshipping false gods. It's like why even call yourself Israel anymore If you're not even worshipping listen to this the God of Israel The worshipping all these pagans Kemosh, it's just like why call yourself a Christian if you're gonna worship the Virgin Mary Right. Why car yourself a Christian if you are going to worship some saint It's like you might as well just car yourself. I don't like a Catholic and not a Christian, right? Because they don't you don't remember the socks. It's like that doesn't really go together, right? So it's it's of my opinion that the reason he split those ten is because it's those specific ten They're actually involved in pagan worship He's kind of like just just removing them and you have Judah obviously Benjamin's a smaller tribe And there might be Benjamin's there who are worshipping the Lord. That's why they stayed there. But Judah is Cleaving unto David. They're cleaving unto the Lord. Okay. So now you have this split Kingdom which eventually becomes the Remnant, okay, so you have Judah the person Then you have Judah the Nate are excuse you have Israel the person you have Israel the nation Israel the United Kingdom Then you have Israel the divided Kingdom. Now you have Israel the remnants referring to those who ended up staying and Essentially being blessed of God. They're still worshipping the Lord things of that nature. Look at 2nd Kings chapter 17 And verse number 1 It says in the 12th year of a has king of Judah began Hoshia the son of Elah To reign in Samaria over Israel nine years and he did that which was evil on the side of the Lord But not as the kings of Israel that were before him against him came of Shalman ester king of Assyria and Hoshia became his servant and gave him presents and the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshia Free had sent messengers to sow king of Egypt and brought no presence 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 went up to Samaria and besieged the three years in the ninth year of Hoshia the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and Placed them in halah in habor by the river gozan and in the cities of the Medes now what's taking place here? Now this is very important. Okay, because this is a major turning point in the history of these Israelites. Why? Well, remember you have those ten tribes that northern kingdom you have the two tribes at the bottom the southern kingdom Well, the southern the northern kingdom have become so wicked That God basically allows them to go into captivity and we kind of hear that a lot right when you read the Bible You hear me preaching. Well, we often talk about the captivity of Israel and Judah This particular captivity was for the Israelites because the capital of the northern kingdom is Samaria so you have the Assyrians coming Besieging it taking it over and then taking all ten tribes captive into Assyria Now about 200 years later is when you have the Babylonian captivity for Judah, okay? Now The Assyrians after they took the northern kingdom captive They try to do the same thing to the southern kingdom But it didn't work and the reason why is because God was with them They had a righteous King named Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord and they were delivered from them Okay, we talked about that in our Bible study in the book of Isaiah but here's the thing is that when Judah is taken captive by the Babylonians. They actually still exist as People who are from Judah and Benjamin even while they're in exile and He what is what does God tell them in the book of Jeremiah? I know the thoughts that I think of you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end meaning that He was gonna return them after what does anybody remember the years? 70 years You say well, what's what's your point? Here's the point the ten tribes never come back They go into captivity and guess what they remain in captivity And never come back Bye it's like like this is the last time you'll ever be Israelites ever those ten tribes He's like, you know what Judah is just like you're going into captivity, but for 70 years You know you're going out there for 70 years then you'll come back and obviously they still had issues when they came back But they were still somewhat of a righteous people when they came back There's people who still wanted to serve the Lord Whereas those ten tribes went into a Syrian captivity, and they never came back Ten entire tribes never came back, and this is what's commonly referred to as the lost tribes meaning It's a car who? Some Jew tells you today. I'm of the tribe. He'd be like dude. You're no you're not those tribes are gone tribes are lost You know what are you doing here? You should be in a Syria? Now Just to further prove this in the New Testament When Jesus Christ is in his ministry he tells his disciples Go on to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but don't go into the way of the what? Samaritans and the Samaritans are the descendants of the Assyrian and the ten tribes mixing together You know because they're me remember if you're if you've read the Gospels you see that you know the Israelites You know those of actual Israel. They were not very fond of the Samaritans why they call them like dogs They're like you guys are mixed people Because they actually were There are mixed with Assyrians and with the ten tribes so by that point By the Lord's ministry the ten tribes didn't exist they were just kind of mingle you might have had a like a couple people Who were still abiding in the land of Israel you know you you have? What's her name the prophetess Who knows here come on shout it out in the New Testament come on what Anna did you say Anna? Did you say yeah, Anna the prophetess and You know she's she's of one of the lost ten tribes, but here's the thing though. He said well there you go Yeah, but she she's in Israel She's one of the ones that state because there's some that actually stayed When Israel the northern kingdom was going to posse and they're like nah forget that I'm not being a part of that I served the God of the Bible and and here's proof that Anna You know didn't just come from Assyria. She's worshiping Jesus Christ The ten tribes do not worship Jesus Christ they worship Kimahash and Asherah, that's their gods So essentially those ten tribes were were made reprobate he's like oh, oh you like those gods, okay, then get out of my land Get out of here. I'm evicting you from the land and when can we come back never? hit the road Jack and never come back and They never did They never came back so Judah and Benjamin that southern kingdom Retained the title of Israelites Why because they are the true Israel At that point you understand they're part of the nation of Israel, but really they're like the only ones they are the remnants Okay, they are the house of Israel when Jesus Christ was on this earth preaching the Word of God He said go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's talking about those Jews and Benjamites and people who retained that particular pedigree so to speak okay Does that make sense to everyone I know it's exciting I know you love this stuff, so I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going here, okay Let me see did I miss anything By the way, you know the the That's actually where the term Jew comes from it's from the Assyrians. He's the one who actually started calling them Jews Okay in the book of the Kings because Jews are from Judah So if you have a Jew is just like well, I'm from Instacart like then you're not a Jew What are you talking about well, I could trace my lineage back to the tribe of Dan then don't call yourself a Jew Cuz Jews are from Judah. Why are you on the book of Revelations 144,000 Jews? No, there's not What in the world doesn't say 144,000 Jews of Israel? Yes, and I'll explain that what that means in just a bit now Go to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew chapter 10 actually skipping Matthew 10 go to Romans 9 Romans chapter 9 All right, so we have Israel the person Israel the nation Israel the United Kingdom Israel the divided Kingdom which ends up becoming Israel the remnant and That essentially carries over to the New Testament And now we have Israel the Israel of God Okay, because the Bible talks about the book of Galatians the Israel of God now There's a major turning point from Old Testament to New Testament when it comes to the term Israel When it comes to the term Jew Israel, there's a major turning point and that is you know, Jesus He kind of just he's like the wrench That is thrown into this Judaism and the superiority complex of the Israelites because he essentially Does away with the Old Covenant? not the moral law the Old Covenant and He brings in the New Covenant through his death he is the testator of that New Testament bringing in the New Testament and redefining what it is to be an Israelite and a Jew according to the Bible and You know, I know people want to ignore that and they don't like when Jesus says things like that But who cares what people think let's go with what Jesus says He redefines what it is to be an Israelite He redefines what it is to be a Jew and his disciples and the Apostle Paul are also preached the same exact thing Okay Now in the New Testament the Israel of God is referring to believers because of the fact that the transition of Old and New Testament when it comes to Israelite is the fact that those Who were Israelites in the Old Testament were considered the people of God based upon that Old Covenant But once they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ transitioning into the New Testament now they retain the title of people of God and anybody who's a Gentile who believes on Jesus Christ Adopts that title as well as being the people of God now look at Romans 9 if you would Romans chapter number 9 and verse number 1 He says I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart For I could wish that myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen accorded to the flesh Who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service? of God and the promises Whose are the fathers and of whom as concern in the flesh Christ came who is overall God bless forever. Amen So what is Paul saying? He's basically saying like I really want my Israelite brothers to be saved Because unto them were committed the oracles of God they got the Bible they had the promises and so I want them to be saved and Then he kind of like switches gears here in verse 6 and he says not as though the Word of God had taken Out of fact for they are not all Israel which are of Israel Now people hate people were Zionists hate this passage Because they want Israel to only be Israel, but it's saying here. There's some who are of Israel who are not of Israel He's not being like, you know He's not he's not being crazy. He's not speaking in a crazy manner He's not going through a state of psychosis. He's implying that there are certain Israelites Who even though they think that they're Israelites have not retained the title of an Israelite because they have not believed on the Lord Well, you know the Apostle Paul, yeah, but the Apostle Paul retained the title of Israelite Because of the fact that he believed He says in verse 7 neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children But in Isaac's shall thy seed be called that is they which are the children of the flesh These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted for the seed look at verse 27 Isaiah's also cried concerning Israel though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a Remnant shall be saved. So just as God spared a physical remnant during the time of Isaiah Meaning Judah that remnant from the judgment that came upon the northern Kingdom, which is Israel in like manner We see that today and I'm speaking in Paul's day and obviously even today there is a remnant of Israelites who are actually saved Who Peter John? James many of the disciples Paul That's the remnant. Well, that's only a few that's what a remnant is a Remnants like only a few group of people So that means that if only a remnant is saved That means the vast majority of the people who claim to be Israelites are not Israelites Because Israelites according to God's new standard of definition in the New Testament is that they are believers in the Christ of the New Covenant if They reject the Christ of the New Covenant then you may no longer be an Israelite We will remove that title from you because you don't deserve it because you don't believe on the Lord Turn in your uniform turn in your badge You know, you're you're you're fired So either you you know make McDonald's burgers or give us the uniform You're trying to make you know big not big max. Well, if you try to make whoppers here This ain't Burger King You have to do what the boss says You can't be like well, you know, I'm a whopper employee and I'm so I'm gonna make whopper burgers here at McDonald's or something Like that. It's like no we only make double cheeseburgers and Big Macs here. You know, we don't make stale burgers Nasty or how about let's do a bit of better illustration. Okay, I Like the illustration I'm gonna give right now, you know, it's just like well, you know what? I think I'm gonna make water burner at in and now Water burger being like those who are not Israelites and in and out being the true the Israel of God Okay, the true Jews the people of God Because you know the scripture on the actual food itself It's always nice to be able to look at scripture references as you're enjoying a fine meal Water burger is just the Texas version of Burger King it's crazy what it is And so, you know, so it's like a water burn well back a water burger. We used to do it this way This is in and out You know, we don't use styrofoam cups over here We serve good food here So here's the thing, you know, you can you know, these Jews can say why I'm a Jew. No, you're not You can you can say that as much as you want, but we don't believe in the power of positive thinking or so You can't manifest You can't manifest that thought just because you say it enough times Because at the end of the day in order for you to remain an Israelite if you want to be grandfathered Into the New Testament as an Israel as a Jew you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ If you don't then you can't go join those 12 tribes. They got lost hundreds of years ago Go join Chemosh and Ashtoreth and all these false gods if you want to remain if you if that's what you want because you know What at the end of the day, you know the true believers are those who recognize that Jesus is the Christ Okay So he's leaving that remnant go to Romans 11 if you would Romans chapter 11 Now, you know when you talk about the subject people get really uptight if they're Zionists And they're like Romans 11 though You know as if that like scares us or something, but Romans 11 is a powerful chapter to prove Zionism Or excuse me to prove anti-zionism You don't let me finish to prove Zionism is whacking garbage and un-biblical And now how is it how does it work in their favor? Well, the only way it works in their favor is if they only quote the first verse Right because it says in verse 1 I say then hath God cast away his people God forbid Not even the first verse they only quote that part, right? God forbid Well, let's keep reading for I referring to Paul am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin God hath not cast away his people Which he foreknew and to define foreknew according to Romans 8 it's referring to people who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ Now what's funny about this is that if you read what is it? Look at verse 15 because when people say had God cast away his people God forbid Okay, then explain verse 15 where it says for if the casting away of them Be the reconciling of the world Of course you don't When it says had God cast away his people he's not gonna cast away believers But he is casting away Unbelieving Israel, why do you know that because he removed ten tribes and allowed them to go into captivity and never come back Isn't that a great picture of how he just passed them away. He just got rid of a large chunk a large percentage of Israel he just see ya What is that? It's casting them away Now go back up to Verse 2 says God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew What you not with the scripture saith of Elias how he maketh intercessions to God against Israel, how is that possible if Elijah is an Israelite How is he making intercessions against Israel because they're not all of Israel who are of Israel. That's why So you have Elias praying against Israel He says in verse Three this is what he says Lord. They have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone And they seek my life But what saith the answer of God unto him I reserve to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image Of Baal, you know people seem to forget when they when we talk about the story of Elijah Yeah, you know Zionists seem to forget this is that those prophets of Baal were Israelites Did you know that you know those false prophets all those people who were against Elijah they were Israelites Well, how can that be if they were worshipping the false gods because that's what they do That's their manner They're not worshipping the God of the Bible and people seem to forget that Romans 11 teaches us that Elijah prayed against Israel the same Israel who are bowing down to Baal who's a false god He says in verse number five even so at this present time. Also, there's a remnant according to the election of grace Verse seven what then Israel hath not obtained that which is seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were Blinded now, let me skip down a couple verses here Look at verse number Look at verse number actually we'll start in verse number 15 for if the casting away of them Be the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead For if the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy if the root be holy so also the branches So you're saying, you know, if if they're attached to the vine and they're holy So, you know what that means the Apostle Paul is holy You know what that means James Peter John Any Israelite that believes on the Lord they're holy because they're actually attached to the vine the root which is Jesus And if some of the branches be broken off and thou being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them and with them Partake us of the root and fattness of the olive tree boast not against the branches But if thou boast thou bearest not the root, but the root thee now What does that really mean there when it says don't boast against the branches in other words don't have a nationalistic Superiority complex, which is exactly what the Israelites had We're not better than Jews because of our Nationality we're better off because we are actually believe on the Lord. That's what it's referring to Verse 19 says that will say then the branches were broken out that I may be grafted in Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith be not high minded But fear for if God spare not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee What is that referring to well in the New Testament? if you Decide to live a life of disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're not abiding in the in the vine What does the Bible say in John chapter 15 you should be cast forth as a branch and they shall be burned In other words you just become a useless Christian cast out Trodden under the foot of men you're just worthless. Okay, you'll be humbled is what it's referring to Look what it says in verse 23 if they also verse 23 if they abide not still and unbelief Shall be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again So that leads me to believe that Jews can be saved today So if a Jew believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, they'll be grafted in the promise is still available to them All right, I'm gonna skip some of this because we already know the interpretation of all Israel being saved It's not referring to that physical nation in the Middle East right now. And here's my last passage I had a lot more to say but I must hasten because the time is right now go to Ezekiel 37 Ezekiel 37 and This is in conjunction with what I wanted to say about Romans 11 because Romans 11 tells us that When the fullness of the Gentiles become in it says that all Israel shall be saved Right the Jacob that got ungodliness shall be removed from Jacob and then all Israel shall be saved and people will often take that verse as an interpretation to say well what that means is that In the end times Jews are gonna see Jesus Christ coming in the clouds and then they'll believe but that's not true because Jesus came Physically in this world in the first century AD and they rejected them. And in fact, they crucified them So that doesn't work. Okay He said then what does it refer to when it says all Israel shall be saved Well, if you remember in Romans 11 we read it What shall be what shall be the receiving of them but life from the dead the Bible says So, how is God gonna receive Israel? How is that promise of all Israel being saved? Gonna be fulfilled exactly. Well Romans 11 told us that they shall be received life They were she were excuse me. They shall receive life from the dead now look at Ezekiel 37 Because Ezekiel 37 is a powerful image that God gives Ezekiel the Prophet He sees this great valley of dry bones an army of bones that have just they've been dead for a very long time you know as indicated by the fact that they're dry and Obviously, this is a vision that God is giving to Ezekiel and he's basically asking Ezekiel can these bones live Can these bones come to life and Ezekiel is like thou knowest, you know So God performs this miracle within this vision and he brings this army back to life. Look what it says in verse 10 so I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and They lived and stood upon their feet and exceeding great army Then he said unto me son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say our bones are dried. Our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts Therefore prophesy and saying to them thus saith the Lord God behold. Oh my people I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and Bring you into the land of Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves On my people and brought you up out of your graves and shall put my spirit in you and he shall live and I shall Place you in your own land Then shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it saith the Lord That is a prophetic statement of the rapture Because he's given in the promise like you see these bones. They've been dead. Well, that's basically the house of Israel Because there's plenty of Israelites from the Old Testament who were saved Who love God they love the Lord, but they're dead their bones are in the ground and you know that You know who's going to inherit the land not what's over there right now the jerry curl crowd over there The jerry curl sideburn crowd over there You so who's gonna do it? Well, it says here that he's gonna bring the bones out of the grave Those who actually love the Lord from the Old Testament Those Israelites who believed on Christ even though they didn't know the name of Jesus They believed on the Lord and they look for his coming. That is a prophetic statement regarding That because at the resurrection The rapture not just believers from the first, you know last couple hundred years. We're talking about thousands of years We're talking about even from Israel Dan and you know Daniel shall stand in his lot the Bible says and So God has given that vision to you is he get to tell him like hey It doesn't matter how dry the bones are They're still gonna get the promise. I Don't care how long you know these Israelites these people of Judah and Benjamin have been dead for I'm bringing them back and I will bring them out of their grave and It says there and I will put them in their land. So this is obviously referring to that end times Understand that's what it's referring to and that is of course the restoration of Israel. So what's the sermon this evening? I just wanted to go through the history of Israel. So we have a clear understanding that when we talk about Israel What are we talking about specifically? Talk about the person we're talking about the twelve tribes the nomadic twelve tribes Or we talk about the United Kingdom Are we talking about the divided Kingdom or we're talking more specifically regarding the remnant and not the ten tribes who are kicked out excommunicated and We're never able to come back or we talk about the Israel of God Or if you want to talk about the physical Israelites, then you must be referring to the restoration of Israel Referring to the Old Testament Israelites that are gonna inherit the land in the end times That's the only Israel Israelites that we should be talking about According to the Bible. Let's pray father We thank you so much for your word Lord And we're so thankful for all the believers throughout history Lord biblical history who loved you they believed on you Lord and One day we're gonna meet them and we have so much in common with them Lord We've read their story so many times and their lives have inspired us. It's gave it's given us instructions Sermons and ideas Lord and helped us to live more righteously. I pray God that you'd help us to appreciate that but recognize Simultaneously that the most important thing about the Bible is not Israel It's it's the Lord Jesus Christ and help us to not soon forget that Lord bless us as we go on our way We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen Turn the song book to song number four zero six Four zero six who is on the Lord's side? song number four zero six on that first verse Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve?