Have you ever wondered why God's heart beats so strongly for Israel? Through an unbreakable covenant, God chose Israel not for their greatness, but to display His faithfulness to all nations. Pastor Jeff unpacks how God initiated, secured, and promises to restore His relationship with Israel—a relationship as eternal as the stars in the sky. For Christians today, standing with Israel isn't political; it's biblical. Through Israel came our Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. Discover God's unchanging love for His chosen people in this enlightening message.
Sermon Transcript
Thanks. As we welcome all of our campuses today, I wanted to give a special shout out to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit that is watching from Camp Pendleton in California this morning, streaming it. So excited to have you with us. Excited about that. Yesterday in this building, we had our Warrior Summit.
Just shy of 2,000 men that were here. It could not have been better. Right, men?
This was our third time doing the Warrior Summit after Victory Marks. He spoke first. After watching him, there were several people. Like, if nothing else happened, that was a great day. And then it just kept getting better and better and better.
There's a variety of guys. I could tell you all about it, but we put together a little video just to show you what yesterday was about so that you can see what took place yesterday. So check out the screens.
The Warrior Summit was amazing. There's so many things that I got from all the speakers. The one that really stuck out to me was the anatomy of the courageous disciple that Pastor Jeff talked about. What it means to be a man, how to act like a man, to take charge of my life, and to be a blessing to my world. Some of the prayers have just been incredible.
Just praying with that small group, sharing our lives together really is probably one of the best things. Papa Nick's talking about how we've seen the damage of what an absent father can do, but how amazing the power of a present. Father Victor gave us permission as men to attack our situation in a godly way. Clearly, he's done it himself. It's incredible to have fellow believers around you, especially men who are able to encourage you and just pour into your life.
And that's something that's just been really powerful today and awesome to see.
Amen.
One of the things that we do at our men's conference that I don't see done at a lot of men's conferences around the country is we do kind of a first Tuesday element of prayer and worship. And it's fun to watch guys, especially guys that haven't really been to church before or haven't been part of what we do here before, to just take steps of faith and pray with other guys. It was a super powerful day. I also know that events like that cannot happen without the help of serving teams. We had so many people serving yesterday, so on all our campuses, if you served yesterday, would you please stand so we can recognize you?
And for your service to our team. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, so much. One final announcement. My good friend Seth Gruber is bringing his event here Called the Last stand on June 4th and 5th.
Kim and I were out in California. I spoke at the event last year. I'll be speaking this year. There's several speakers, many of them that, you know, nationally that will be here. And Kim leaned over to me last year while the event was going on.
She's like, if this was at Brave, we would pack the place. Like, why does he want to do it in California? And I'm like, well, I'm not gonna call him. Four months later, he called me and he said, would you guys be willing to host it there? I'm like, yeah, we've already prayed about it.
Come. So. So they're coming. It's a great opportunity. There's a code for you if you wanna get a discount to be part of that.
I'm not sure when the discount goes away, but we'd love to have as many of you kind of in and out and be a part of that on Friday night and all day Saturday as we stand with Seth and his ministry, the White Rose Resistance, for all that they're doing to support the life of the unborn. Okay, so with that, let's continue our worship this morning. Let's go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living word among us. Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor, all the praise for who you are. Lord, we pray right now.
We're called and commanded to pray for our leaders and those in authority over us. We pray for President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of War, all of the entire cabinet. Lord, there's a lot of decisions that are being made right now that affect the entire world, and we pray for them. We pray for the leaders and heads of states of other nations.
Lord, would you just have your way? What sometimes seems to us as unraveling is simply you unfolding your plan right at the feet of Jesus. So, Lord, we trust you. We bless you. We ask protection over our nation and our allies.
Lord, we just pray that you would do a great work. And, Lord, we're excited together here this morning because we get a chance to hear you. We get a chance to hear from your living and active word. And, Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is, speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear.
And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith, put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly by saying the word Amen? Amen. As I told you, today I'm going to begin a series on Israel and God's plan for Israel. When I woke up yesterday morning and saw all of the strikes that had been done on Iran, it was almost as if I realized every time I get ready to preach on a topic, the Lord makes it more prominent that this is a topic that needs to be preached on.
This topic about Israel is super important for us as believers in Christ to know what God says. And what I want to let you know is I really don't care if you agree with my opinion and you shouldn't care that I agree with yours. But as born again believers, we should care very much about what God has to say about Israel. Would you all agree? And here's what I find.
What I find is when I'm watching talking heads, social media, people on the news, a lot of people have a lot of opinions. And they usually talk about their opinions, what they think, what they believe, what they discern. But I rarely. It's very rare that I hear somebody open the word of God and say, but this is what God says. And this is what God means when God says what he says.
And I think it's important for us as believers in Christ to know the Word. I think it's important for us to realize that when God wrote this book, this isn't a suggestion. This is his living and inerrant word. The Bible says that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our Lord stands forever. The the Word of the Lord is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Jesus said, thy word is truth. And above all you must understand that no prophecy had its origin in the will of man. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is God's word. This is God's book.
This is eternal, this is inerrant, this is unchanging. All 66 books make up one story of God and who he is and how he's worked out redemption. So when we read this book, this book is God speaking. When this book is preached, this is God speaking. And we need to take God at His word.
And it's important that we understand what God says about Israel. I was out in Washington D.C. last year to meet the Deputy Director for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And while we were There, a couple of us met with a New York Times reporter that I had met before, and she asked me, what do you think the biggest issue in the church going forward is? I said, simple. Said, it's your view on Israel, it's what God says about Israel, and you're actually going to believe it or not.
I don't know how long this series is. I don't know if it's going to be two weeks or three weeks. It'll be exhaustive enough to give you handles for where we're going, but it won't be exhaustive enough or we'd be spending the next two years just talking about the nation and God's God's purpose and plan for them. So I want you to. I want to remind you, let's just let the Word of God speak.
Let's let the Word of God teach. I'm going to give you five truths today from God's perspective of what he believes about Israel. So we're going to start in Genesis chapter 12. If you want to turn your Bible there. And while you turn your Bible there, let me just give you a brief history.
That when God created the world in Genesis chapter one and two, we read in Genesis chapter one that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. This might be a good time for me to pause and tell you about a hallmark of my ministry and what I believe is super important. I believe that teachers of the Word of God will be judged more harshly. And the reason for that is the scripture says that. The other reason for that is when the Word of God is being taught, people are being persuaded to go in a direction.
I take that charge very seriously. And a hallmark of my ministry has always been what the Word of God says is what the word of God means. I don't try to twist it, turn it, change it. Sometimes that comes across challenging, sometimes offensive, sometimes gracious, sometimes encouraging. But if I've been faithful to the text, I feel like I've done my job.
So when I taught in the Book of Genesis and I taught about Genesis chapter one, and I taught that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, I told you what day meant. Do you know what day means in Hebrew? Day. And it means day. And it's 24 hours.
And God even goes so far as to say, and there was evening and there was morning. And then he says, day one. And then there was evening and morning day two. I mean, he's so explicit. So I'm just the kind of guy that's gonna take the word at face value and say, this is what it means.
So you need to understand that in my hermeneutic, the way I'm coming to the text is when God says it, it's clear, it's understandable. You can understand it if you can read. And the reason for that is when I get around people that read Genesis 1 and say, well, it's a day, but you don't understand, that's like millions of years. I'm like, if that means millions of years, then why would I want to go on and read Genesis chapter two? I mean, why would any of it make sense?
Why would John 3:16 really mean what it says? Why would anything work right? I mean, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. If it had been millions of years and there had been sin and all this, that's not very good. So nothing fits if you don't take the word at what the word says.
So that's where I'm coming from, this text to teach you about the nation of Israel and God's plan for Israel. So what you have when you get to Genesis 12, just so you know, is God creates the world. The world population begins to boom, but the world lives so wickedly that God raises up Noah, who preaches for 120 years, a preacher of righteousness. And the only people that listen to him are his three sons and their wives. And he, along with his wife, their three sons and their three wives, get in an ark that Noah built over that 120 year period.
And God destroys the world. And he starts to repopulate it, and then he repopulates it. And you think now they're going to get it right and they don't because they say we don't need God. Actually, we'll be our own gods and we'll build our own tower to God and we'll decide everything. And God sees the heart of man and how wicked it is and how man can accomplish anything if they put their heads together and they're united.
And so God scatters them. And when God scatters them, that's where you get all the languages and that's where you get all the different nations. And so God, because he loves the world, had a plan of redemption. And this is where we are when we get to Genesis chapter 12. So I want to read the first three verses because God has sought out a man.
His name's Abram. Abram literally means exalted father, who has a wife named Sarah. And here's what he's going to say to this man. I'm going to read the first three verses, then we'll unpack them. It says now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you.
And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Bible scholars call that the Abrahamic covenant. Why? Because God's making a covenant or a promise with Abram, whose name is going to become Abraham, which means father of a multitude. But let's look at these words and let's unpack these words together so we can see what God wants to do.
And here's what I want you to see. First of all, here's my first point. I'm gonna give you five. This is point number one. God initiates his relationship with Israel.
God initiates his relationship with Israel. Okay? Notice this. Now, the Lord said to Abram, who's initiating that conversation? God is.
God sought out Abram. God's seeking Abram. And here's what he tells him. Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house. God calls him and he says, here's my command.
Leave. Go. You're going to go somewhere. And Hebrews 11:8 says Abraham went, even though he didn't know where he was going. That was his faith step to do what God called him to do.
Now, what's he gonna promise? He said to leave your father's house to the land which I will show you. Now, I want you to underline that word, land in your Bible to the land that I will show you. When anybody hazard a guess what the word land means in Hebrew, it means land. It's a geographic spot of dirt.
That's what land is. That's what it means. You need to know that because in the coming weeks, land still means land. Just so you know, not trying to pull any punches or fast one on you. So he's promised him a land that he's going to give him.
And then he says, this the land I will show you and I will make you a great nation. A nation, okay. What makes a nation okay? To have a nation, you need an economy, you need governments, and you need a border. Now, that's an unpopular opinion in some places, but that's What a nation is.
You have an economy, you have governments, and you have a border. And in order to be a nation, you have to have a people group in that economy with that nation with those borders. I mean, that. That's what you have to have. So he's promising him a land where there's going to be a people, where there's going to be a government and economy and borders.
That's. That's what he's telling them. He goes, that's what I'm going to do for you. Then he continues to say, I'll make you a great nation, and I will bless you. Okay, underline, bless.
Bless means this. It means to favor. It means to be gracious unto you. It means to give you what you don't deserve and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. So they're going to have influence.
They're going to have influence. This nation is going to be known. This nation is going to be great. This nation is going to have influence. And so you shall be a blessing.
Now, notice what he says next. I will bless those. That means I will favor those who bless you. I will favor those who favor you. I will be gracious to those who are gracious to you.
And what else does he say? And the one who curses you, I will curse. Curse means to speak bad of. Curse means to do bad things. To curse means to mistreat.
The one who mistreats you speaks bad of you. I will mistreat and speak bad of as well. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is called the Abrahamic covenant. So let's just unpack it.
What's he promising Abram? First of all, here's the question. Why would God pick Abram? Like that becomes a question like, why Abram? Why?
Why? Why the Jews? Why not somebody else? Because God's the one who initiated it. And everybody God picks.
He picks by grace. How many people here are born again? Why did he pick you? He didn't pick you because you're great. He didn't pick you because you were awesome.
He picked you in spite of all that. He picked you by his grace. So he calls Abram, says, I've got to get the message out somehow. I got to get it through a group of people. Somehow.
I'm starting with you. And here's what I'm going to promise you. Land people, which are an ethnicity, a nation, influence and blessing to all the nations. So here's what you have. You have a people.
You have a place. And you have a purpose. All the nations of the earth will be blessed. Now, if you read through your Bible and you know it really well, you see Leviticus 26, you can read all the blessings and curses there. You can read in Deuteronomy 28 all the blessings and curses there.
And what you notice in Israel's history, is there a light to the nations. When Israel, which was rare by the way, and still is rare, does what God wants them to do and God blesses them. The purpose of that is so other nations would look on, watch how Israel is behaving, and say, their God's awesome. We want to behave like that because if we get that kind of favor for behaving like that, we want to do that. When Israel didn't do what God wanted them to do and they disobeyed and God punished them severely, like had the Assyrians and the Babylonians and everybody come in and torture them, they would look at Israel and say, whoever their God is, is the most powerful God in the universe.
We don't want to act like that. And God was saying, you're going to have influence. You can do it my way and receive blessing and the world will see that they can be blessed. Or, you're not going to do it my way. You're going to get curses.
And the world will say, I don't want to do that because we don't want to be cursed like you. So this is what he promises them. He promises them a land, a people, a nation, influence and blessing. And notice at the end, you can't miss this. And the one who blesses and favors that people group, that nation, those borders, those things God says, I'll bless the one who doesn't and is mistreating, cursing, speaking bad of God says, yeah, I'm against you too, right?
And all throughout the Scriptures, this Abrahamic covenant remains. And you need to see this. I mean, is this clear to you? Am I making it up or do you see it right in your text? I mean, this is God saying, I'm initiating a relationship with Abram.
And we're going to see it in the come in the coming points that I'm going to make. We'll see how God continues to ratify that and continues to make that everlasting. But I want you just to see this right now. And it's interesting that from the time of this inception, that from the time that. I mean, it's really interesting when you think about this.
I mean, God says he's going to form a great nation. He Calls on Abram. Abram's wife Sarah was barren. I mean, if you're God and you're going to pick somebody to form a nation through, you might want to pick a fertile couple. But why did God pick that?
Because God wanted to know he's the one that's going to open the womb. God's always the one that opens the womb. For you ladies that can't get pregnant, that are trying to, God is the one that opens wombs. Pray to him. Ask him to open your womb.
We've seen it over and over again. Happy to pray with you. But here's the truth. He wants to know that I'm the one that's going to provide all that. I'm the one that's going to do that.
I am the Lord. I'm going to be known. I'm going to have my name. Great. And you read through the Scriptures, and God's always the glorious one.
And yet this nation's always been under attack. And I want to take you back in your Bible. Just hold your finger there. Turn back to Genesis chapter two real quick, because I want you to see this. It's so important.
It's so important. As we get started in Genesis chapter one, we see the six days of creation. We see God rests on the seventh. And in Genesis chapter two, we begin to see day six unfold. God gives us more information as to what happened that day.
And he shows us what happened prior to Eve's creation. Out of Abram, out of Adam's rib. And it says this. Before Eve was created, in Genesis 2:15, then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree in the garden, you may eat freely.
I mean, most people miss that. Do you see what God did? You see how gracious God is? Everything I've created is for you. I just want you to know I made it so that you can enjoy it.
That's the kind of God that I am. But he does make one caveat. He says in verse 17, but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. Is God being clear?
I mean, did God say, eat whatever you want, but there's a tree in the middle called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that has fruit on it. Of that fruit, do not eat. Cause on that day that you eat that fruit, you will die. Was he clear? How clear Was he crystal clear?
Right. Feel like I'm doing a Few Good Men movie.
So he was crystal clear. And then what happens? I want you to fast forward Genesis, chapter three, verse one, where you see the enemy take the form of a serpent. It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden.
Here's what he says. I mean, was God clear? What was Satan's first voice? Did God really say that?
When God makes something clear, there's a voice from the pit of hell that says, did God really say that? When God tells you that sexual intimacy is only between a man and a woman in marriage, we tend to say, did God really mean that? Did he really say, yeah, he did. I mean, everything God says, he means. But we tend to get that voice from the pit of hell said, did God really say that?
Now I want you to keep that voice in mind when you think about what we just said, that God's going to give Israel a land, a people, a nation, influence and blessing. So there's going to be a people, a place and a purpose. What do you hear in our culture today about the nation of Israel? They say stuff like this, Those aren't real Jews. They're not really Jews.
Those can't be the real Jews. What are they attacking? They're attacking the ethnicity in the nation. Then they say stuff like this. This isn't their country.
What are they attacking? The land. You need to understand something just, just to get a little history here. Israel is not an occupier. They're not a colonizer.
God gave them the land about 2,000 years before the name Palestine even existed. Okay? And you'll see it in the text today. You'll see it.
And then they say, because these people aren't real Jews and this really isn't their, their land. And they say they're not a blessing, they're a what? They're a curse. So when people talk like that, here's what they're saying. Did God really say that he's going to bless the Jews?
Did God really say that that's their land? Did God really say that they're a blessing? Born again believer. What's the answer? Yes, he did.
That's God's word. That's not my word. I'm not making this up. I'm just telling you what God established with Israel. God initiates his relationship with Israel through his pursuing grace.
And what You've seen in history for the nation of Israel is they're always under attack. From the time their nation formed until now, they're always under attack. We see it in the Old Testament where Pharaoh, when Israel got big, was like, we need to take them out. And you know what? We need to keep them from reproducing.
Good people. So let's kill all the baby boys and drown them when they're born. You see it happen with Herod at about the time where Jesus was born, when he got wind that a king was going to be born. What did he do? He slaughtered all the Jewish boys under the age of two.
You see it in the Old Testament when Haman's going to kill all the Jews and God raises up Esther and the wisdom of Mordecai to save them from the Jews, and Haman gets hung on his own gallows that he built. And then you see it in modern day history. I mean, you see even before modern day history, you see it with Nero to the Jews in the first century, you see it with Hitler to the Jews in the 20th century, and you see it with Hamas to the Jews on October 7th of 2023. It never ends. I mean, you have a state the size of New Jersey or smaller, and you have seven nations all around it that want them all dead every single day.
Now, just before you say this, like, who cares about the Jews? Who really cares about that? Can I answer that for you? God does. God does.
And if you love the God of the Bible, so do you.
So do you.
And I get why it's a golf clap. Cause it's not a popular opinion. Because God's not popular in our culture and his opinions don't matter in our culture. But I'm telling you what God's saying, so you can think about it and you can act the way God wants you to act. I got to listen to Mike Huckabee, who's our ambassador to Israel, talk about.
What people in the west don't understand is when people want to see Israelis die, they're just the appetizer.
America's the entree. So when you hear Death to America and you watch Muslims coming in and you watch all this stuff, and yes, we're to love everybody and care for everybody and all that stuff is great. But you're seeing what's going on in New York. You're watching what's going on in Texas. It's going to happen here.
You cannot be passive on this stuff. The Muslim God and Jesus Christ are different gods. They're different forms of religion. They're different ways. One is going to heaven and one's going to hell.
Period. End of story.
So here's what you see. I want you. I want you to see this. When you hear people talk and they say, well, my opinion is the Jews aren't really who they say they are. That's not really their land.
They're not really a blessing. That's the spirit, but that's not the Holy Spirit. That is a wicked, demonic, evil spirit. That is getting them to speak those evil, demonic, wicked words. If you are a born again believer, you stand with Israel.
Period. End of story. Period.
Now I should make one caveat because some people are listening. I want to clap, but I don't know that I can because I don't know that I agree with everything Israel's done. To which I would say, good. Even God doesn't agree with everything Israel's done. This whole book is about everything Israel's done wrong.
And God still loves them, right? So do you have. Do you have to agree with everything the state of Israel does? No, you do not. Do you agree with everything the United States of America does?
No, you do not. Do you agree with everything your family does? I mean, how. You don't have to agree with everything. What you have to agree with is that God has made a covenant with Israel and they're special of all the nations of the world.
Now let me just say this because I'm a patriot. I love America. I will stand for the pledge. I put my hand in my heart. I'm grateful for all of you that have served and will serve.
I am a patriot. I've been told that my great grandfather who was governor of Delaware is one of six people that signed both the Declaration and the Constitution. I'm very proud of my heritage. I'm also aware of how our nation was formed. I'm also aware of how many born again Christians signed those documents.
I'm also aware of how our Constitution was formed with a Judeo Christian ethic. And I'm for it. And I do believe we live in the greatest nation in the world. There's no question you can applaud that. That's good.
But God has a special relationship with Israel that He does not have with the United States of America. He has a covenant relationship with them that he sought out. That makes it different than us. Do you see the difference? Because the difference is in the word of God.
What you don't read about in the book of Revelation is America. What you read about is Israel. That's his covenant people. That's his point of view. That's who he's looking at.
That's his heart. You'll see that in the coming weeks. But I want you to see that God initiates his relationship with Israel, too. Is this God chooses Israel by grace? God chooses Israel by grace.
We've already talked about this, but I just want to give you some scripture to back it. In Deuteronomy, chapter 7. Deuteronomy, chapter 7, starting in verse 6, he says this. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession.
Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth now, notice this. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than all the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples. He's like, I didn't choose you because of your great size. I didn't choose you because of your great ability. I chose you because you didn't have it.
I basically chose you because if I could do it with you, people could see I could do it with anybody. It's the same reason you got saved. Same reason I got saved. If I can do something with Jeff, I can do something with anybody. Right?
That's. That's the message. But it goes on. I'll give you some other scriptures too. How About Deuteronomy, chapter 9, verse starting in verse 4, he tells him this.
Do not say in your heart. He tells Israel, do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you. He's talking about the nations that he's going to drive out when Joshua takes people in the land. Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you. Because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me in to possess the land.
But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the unrighteousness of your heart that you are going to possess the land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. So he tells them, it's not because you're big. It's also not because you're righteous.
It's because the other nations are wicked. I'm opening the door for you. I waited 400 years for their wickedness to reach a point where it was time to bring you back in. But don't say in your heart, the Lord's given us the victory because we're mighty, mighty in number. The Lord's given us the victory because we're so righteous.
Don't you dare say that I'm giving you the victory because I'm the Lord. That's what he says. Or how about In Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verses 15 and 16 said, yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them. And he chose their descendants after them. Even you above all peoples to this day.
So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. What's he telling them? Hey, because I chose you. If you really knew how much I loved you. You're such a stiff necked people.
You're so bold and going the wrong way. He goes, I'm trying to get you to go my way. So soften your heart and let me lead you. So what's God saying? He didn't choose Israel because they're good and because they're righteous and because they're awesome.
He chose them because of his grace. Amen. It's God's sovereign love. It's the same way he chooses people to believe in Him. He does not choose us because of our goodness or because of our great efforts.
He chooses us in spite of those things. Amen. So God initiates His relationship with Israel. God chooses Israel by grace. Let me give you a third one.
God secures an eternal covenant with Israel. Now we're going to get into this more next week and we'll look at new passages, New Testament passages to take a look at what God says. So you can hear what he says in the New Testament as well. But I want you to see how binding this Abrahamic covenant is. Because for many Christians, they would say, that's Old Testament, we don't even need it.
All we need is the Bible. Starting in Matthew the last 27 books. I would say no. All of the Bible tells the story of who our God is and how he works. So what you see in Genesis 15, we're going back to Genesis after the Abrahamic covenant, God comes back and establishes a covenant with Abraham.
He makes sure that he does this and what he has him do is take certain kinds of animals and split them open and carve them open. And then the way they would form a covenant is two people would walk down the center of that aisle and in covenant together throughout these Animals. That was kind of how they secured the covenant. And in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 13, I'll read this to you. God said to Abram, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs.
And they will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. Guess what happened? His ancestors were enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. His descendants were rather. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve.
And afterward, they will come out with many possessions. Guess what happened? God judged that nation of Egypt, and they came out with many possessions. As for you, you should go to your fathers in peace. You'll be buried at a good old age.
Guess what happened? He was buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation, they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. In other words, when I bring you here, their. Their sin will have risen to a place.
I can't deal with it any longer. And it says it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark. And behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. And on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given this land. You say that word again.
Land. Land means what everybody. Okay. I gave you this land. From the river of Egypt as far as the great river Euphrates, to the Kenite and the Kenizite and the Kedemite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and to Raphaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgizite and the Jebusite.
Pause. All these ites that I stumble over reading. You ever meet one? You ever meet Amorite, Edomite, Moabite, Jebusite? They're not here.
You ever meet an Israelite? Yeah. Because God's covenant is still with them. Amen. God has sustained their lineage because he said he was going to.
Because he made a covenant which is a promise. And how true is God to his promises? 100% true. 100% true.
So when he tells them the amount of land they're going to have, Israel's never had that amount of land. We're going to talk about that in the coming weeks. But they will. Do you know why? Because God said they will.
And God doesn't lie, and God doesn't mince words. If you go to Genesis chapter 17 just to say for some of you, next week, when we get in the New Testament, you're going to need to come back here in Genesis 17:7. Notice what? He says, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. For an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
Question. Listen. Listen, class. How long is everlasting? It's everlasting.
It's forever. So how long is this covenant binding? Forever. What does that mean? It's not going away.
Aren't you glad? I mean, if we're eternally secure in Christ, Kind of. That wouldn't be salvation. Like, what if God gets tired of you 500 years after he has you in heaven? Like, yeah, I'm kind of tired.
I'm done. Well, he won't do that. Why? Because His Word says He won't. Then why would he break this covenant when the Word says He won't?
God doesn't change his mind. God can't lie. It's an eternal, everlasting covenant. Verse 8. Just to tell you I'm not making it up.
I will give to you and your descendants after you, the land. You see that word again? Land. Land means class, thank you of your sojournings. All the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.
And I will be their God. So I'm making an everlasting covenant that this land is your everlasting possession. So whose land is that? According to God. Not according to politics.
Not according to. Just according to God. Whose land does that belong to? If you read the Bible at face value, Israel's. It's their land.
It always has been, it always will be. God will give them their land because he promised that he will. Amen. So he secures an eternal covenant. But it's not just Genesis 15 and 17.
Let's just take a look at a couple other places. How About Jeremiah, chapter 31? After he gives the new covenant, which has been inaugurated, but it certainly hasn't been completely fulfilled, because in the new covenant it says, you'll no longer need to teach your neighbor because they'll always walk in all the fullness of everything God does. And that has not happened yet. That will happen in the millennial kingdom.
But notice what he says in verse 35. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves war? The Lord of hosts is his name. So who's the one that holds the sun in place? The moon, the stars?
Who's that? That's God. And here's what he says. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also cease from being a nation before me forever. So God says, if I'm not able to hold the sun, the moon and the stars in place, that's about the only time Israel is not going to be mine.
And here's what he's saying. The sun, the moon and the stars aren't going anywhere, right? I hold the fixed order of everything together, verse 37. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundation of the earth searched out below, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord. How far does heaven stretch out?
I don't know. But if you can measure it, if you can measure all the earth, if you know all the intricacies of the world at that point in time, God says, then I'll no longer have a relationship with Israel. In other words, he's using metaphorical language to say, I will always have a relationship with Israel. I am their God. I will always be their God, because I made a covenant, I made a promise, and that's the way it's going to be.
Amen. Are we. Are we clear in what the Word is saying? Are you seeing where I'm getting this from? How about in the Psalms?
Psalms are a great place that we go to worship, but how about Psalm chapter 89 in verse 34? Psalm chapter 89, verse 34. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips.
Can you be more clear than that? Hey, God, are you going to change your love for Israel? Here's what I'm going to say. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. I'm not changing my word.
What I say is what I mean. Or how about Psalm 105, Psalm 105, starting in verse 8, Psalm 105 and verse 8. He has remembered his covenant forever, the Word which He commanded to a thousand generations. I mean, this is not an exhaustive study. You can find these texts all over your Old Testament of what God promises and of how God promises to do what he says he's going to do.
Why? Because God has unfailing faithfulness. What he says he's going to do, he always does. What he swears he sustains. It's interesting to me, and I'll just give you a little precursor of where we're going, that so many people will read this as Christians and say, you know what Micah 5:2 says, Jesus the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem.
And guess where he was born. Oh, he was born in Bethlehem. Hey, Zechariah 9 says that Jesus is going to ride. The Messiah is going to ride in on a donkey. And guess what happened?
Jesus rode in on a donkey. I mean, there's like 300 scriptures that talk about what Jesus was going to do. He was gonna die between two thieves. All these things are said. God promised to do that, but when it comes to Israel, hey, he probably didn't mean that.
I mean, are you kidding me right now? I'm gonna go through some of the passages that some of you are thinking about next week. They're like, what about this? And what about the Israel of God? And what about all this stuff?
Let's just walk through it plainly. But I wanted to give you a foundation that God has secured an eternal covenant with Israel. He's initiated the relationship. He's chosen it by his grace. He secures an eternal covenant with him.
And then notice this. I love this. God promises to regather and restore Israel. God promises to regather and restore them. God says they're going to be dispersed.
God says they're going to be punished. They've been dispersed to Assyria, they've been dispersed to Babylonia. They were dispersed in the first century all over the world as they were getting letters written to them. But here's what God says. I will bring you back to the land and I will restore you.
I'm never going to let you go. Even as far as you wander, I'll never let you go. Isn't that good news to know how God feels about us? No matter how far you wander, I'll never let you go. So there's a lot of places we could look, but let's just look at a couple.
How About Isaiah, chapter 11? Isaiah, chapter 11, verses 11 and 12. He says then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover. The second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathras, Kush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea, he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. That's what God promises to do.
How about In Deuteronomy, chapter 30. Deuteronomy, chapter 30. Starting in verse one, he says this. So it shall be when all these things have come upon you, the blessings and curses which I have set before you, and you shall Call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and soul, according to all that I command you today, you and your sons. And then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord has.
God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. And he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. What's that a promise of?
It's a promise of return and restoration. Has that happened yet? Nope, it has not happened yet. If Israel took the covenant land that was promised to them, it would go much bigger than where they are with all the different nations. And I won't get into it today, but if you have time to study the history of Israel, they are not occupiers, right?
They are not colonizers. Every time that they've been conceding to other Arab nations around them, say, go ahead, you take the West Bank. Go ahead, you take Gaza. All it does is shrink them, and all it does is create more violence. I mean, when you look at what Hamas did on October 7th of 2023, I mean, here's the quickest way.
If Hamas put down their guns, there'd be peace. If Israel put down their guns, they would cease to exist. Hamas wants them dead. You hear death to Israel all the time, right? So why do I travel there?
Why is it a safe place to go? Because God's got a covenant promise and nothing's going to happen till he gets back. Israel will always be there. He'll bring them back. He promises to.
I'll give you just a couple others. I won't read all of this because it will take me a while. But if you want to, read Ezekiel, chapter 36, verses 24 to 28, he tells them this. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean.
And I'll cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will be careful to observe all my ordinances.
You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers so that you will be my people and I will be your God. Has that happened yet? Have you seen all Israel come back into the land worshiping the God that we serve, doing it all right? No, it hasn't happened yet. But God promises he's going to do it.
And what God promises, he always fulfills. If you have time this week, I'd encourage you go one more chapter. Read Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 21 to 28, and you'll see the same thing. You'll see God's restoring power of what he wants to do. I'll just read a couple verses.
So say to them, thus says the Lord God. Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into the land. And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king. And I will be their king for all of them. And there will no longer be two nations, there will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.
They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions, but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them, and they will be my people and I will be their God. I mean, that's the promise. All throughout the Scriptures, it's never changed. You won't see it change. When we study the New Testament next week, you won't see it change at all.
God promises to regather and restore Israel. And you need to understand everything I'm telling you is what God has done and God wants to do. He has initiated the relationship with Israel. He's chosen him, chosen Israel by his grace. He secured an eternal, everlasting covenant with Israel.
And he promises to regather and restore Israel. And let me give you the final point. As born again believers, this should be your favorite point of all as to why you stand with Israel. Because God brings salvation through Israel. God brings salvation through Israel.
If you believe in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe in the God man who's Jewish, you believe in a Jewish Messiah. That's who I'm placing all my eternal hope in, is a Jewish Messiah. And I'm grateful for my Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You remember when Jesus was talking to the the Woman at the well in Samaria. What did he say? We know salvation is from the Jews. Paul said this. For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.
To the Jew first and also to the Gentile. I mean, salvation comes from the Jews. The covenant promises were to the Jews. The Jews were where Jesus came. He was born of a virgin Jewish mother and grew up in a Jewish home and had Jewish disciples and died as a Jew on the cross.
As a matter of fact, do you remember what they hung above Jesus head when he was crucified on the cross? What was he wasn't King of America. What did it say? King of the Jews is Jesus, for the Jews is Jesus pro Israel. Then as a born again believer, what must you be?
You have to be. There's no other option. I do not understand. And I'm spiritually agitated when I see people twist the text to say, that was then, it's not now. I'm like, well, if God broke his eternal covenant there and he's broken it with Israel, what makes you think you're saved?
Saved because you're taking the word of God and breaking it and twisting it into origami to make it say what you want to say, but it doesn't say that the word of God is clear that God loves Israel. As a born again believer, you should stand for Israel too. You have to.
You see this all throughout God's redemptive plan. You see, he's always had a plan for Israel, even up and through May 14th of 1948, where the state of Israel became a nation again. I don't believe that was a complete fulfillment of prophecy. There's way more land that God's promised them to have. But I do see it as the start to something pretty special, right?
I do see it as something that God is doing. I mean, you can't get away from the covenant promises. God cares about covenant so much that even when we take communion, what are we celebrating? We're celebrating a covenant and a promise that by his body and his blood we will be saved. That's a promise.
When God makes a promise, he keeps his promises. So you can't just say, well, those promises were for the Jews, but that's not anymore because we're Christians and we're better than the Jews. That's such garbage. And I will show you why that sloppy exegesis next week as we get into the text where people use those things, I. And again, I'll let you decide for Yourself.
I care about this. I care that you stand before the Lord. And here's the line. I want you to stand in God. I believed your word the best I could.
And what you said, I believe is what you meant. So I live that way. That's what I care about. If you choose not to do that, you do that at your own peril. You do it at your own peril.
So I just want to make this clear to you because we live in a day and age, and it's always been this day and age where it's unpopular to stand with Israel. It's unpopular to preach this message. Maybe not here at Brave, but when it goes on Social, it'll be unpopular. I promise you that. Because there's a lot of people that will even say, I love Jesus.
I just don't love the Jews. I'm like, well, Jesus is Jewish and Jesus is protecting the nation of Israel. And Jesus still has a future for Israel because he said that he would. And he has an eternal covenant with them that can't be broken by mankind or their disobedience or their unrighteousness or anything else that they've done wrong. So it leads us to the question, like, how must we live?
Like, what must we do? Like, what are you asking of me? I'm not asking anything of you. I'm just telling you how God thinks, feels, and expresses his love for Israel. And if you love the God of the Bible, then your response should be exactly the same way.
You should recognize that God's the one that established the nation of Israel. God's the one that made a covenant promise to them. God chose them by his grace. God made that covenant everlasting, which means forever. God is the one who said he's going to restore and redeem all of Israel and how all Israel will be saved.
You even see it in the New Testament. We'll look at that in the coming weeks. And then this, our salvation. It's from the Jews. Does this mean every Jew is saved and they get a hall pass because they're Jewish and they all go to heaven?
No. May it never be the whole Book of Acts. Are Jewish men who've been converted wanting to go to their friends and tell them about Jesus? We should evangelize the Jews. We should.
But we should also stand with them and love them. Because the God that we say we serve, he loves them, too. Amen. God is for Israel. I'm for Israel.
Brave church is for Israel. Amen. He is.
May I invite you to stand as we pray? Our Father in heaven, we do give you praise for your word, Lord, I just pray that many of those scriptures that we could meditate on as a congregation this week and our cadres and individually in our quiet times. Lord, just bring to mind all the truth of your word, Lord, show your people how much you love them. Show your people how much you love Israel. And Lord, in the coming weeks as we look at text Lord, help me as a pastor to be clear in my teaching from the word.
Lord, I have no desire, I have no agenda. I just want your word to be clear. And Lord, help us as a church to stand for and stand with who you stand for and who you stand with. And Lord, we just want you to know today we love you, we bless you, we praise you. We're grateful for the Jews, we're grateful for Israel.
We stand with your people. We love them. We look to forward, forward to the day that they're converted and you come back and grant them the land that you promised them you would always give them. Lord, we love you and thank you for your for your faithfulness to Israel, for your faithfulness to us. We give you all the praise in Jesus name.
Amen and amen. Can we give God praise for his word today?