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[0:00] We welcome you to our September 8th session of our Men's Fellowship Bible class, and we are going to continue our theme of the Minor Prophets.

[0:13] This is a subject that you yourselves selected several months ago. We've had a number of interruptions that have prevented us from making better time as we go through it, but we are now in Zechariah, closing in, only got a little bit further to go, and we'll have the Minor Prophets under our belt.

[0:34] Started some time ago, probably a year ago or more, maybe a couple of years, I don't know, I didn't write it down. But in dealing with the subject of prophecy, what I would like to do for this particular session, and by the way, speaking of prophecy, I've got three CDs here.

[0:57] Several hundred of these have been made, but they've been all gone. I think these are just left, but most of them have been mailed out. But the subject of prophecy is one of the most very confirming aspects for the inspiration of Scripture.

[1:17] And by far and away, the best evidence and the best reason to believe that unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled, precisely as they have been predicted, is because of those that already have.

[1:34] And we will see in just a few minutes that we spend together this morning, how many times this has come to pass in ways that simply cannot be considered coincidental.

[1:48] So fulfilled prophecy is the best evidence that we have, not only for the authority of Scripture and the inspiration of Scripture, but also for confidence in believing that other things that have been prophesied will also come to pass as well.

[2:03] And, remarkable thing about it is, they have not been fulfilled in some kind of an esoteric, you have to really look hard to find it, and you have to break the laws of language here and there, and use a lot of spiritual get-up-and-go in order to make it fit.

[2:21] But, it is quite obvious, and you will see what I'm talking about as we get into it this morning. The subject of hermeneutics, which is literally the science and art of interpreting the Bible, was a little two-hour course that I took at Cedarville College in 1959, and it was taught by Dr. Arthur Williams, and he's with the Lord now.

[2:52] But, that little two-hour course did more for me in my study and understanding of the Bible than anything since, and it really turned me on to the subject of hermeneutics.

[3:06] And, this is the beginning, this volume 26, is the beginning of that subject addressing hermeneutics, and it's got 20 sessions on it, but each session is just three and a half minutes.

[3:21] And, what people seem to appreciate most of all is having these CDs when they're commuting or driving, because you don't have a long storyline to follow like you do in a 30-minute message where everything is connected, but you get this in just three and a half hour, three and a half minute segments, and 20 of them, and it covers so many different aspects of interpreting the Bible, and approaching it, literal language, and figurative language, and figures of speech, and everything, and I have never had anything come alive in my life that has meant so much for the study, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible of that little course.

[4:05] So, there are three of these left, and we can have more made up next week, and I'll just put them there on the sofa. You're welcome to them if you want. I would recommend them. You would really, really appreciate the content.

[4:17] So, even though we are dealing, actually, with the minor prophets, yet everything in the Bible is connected with everything in the Bible, and before we return to Zechariah and undertake chapter 9, I want to give you a couple of other illustrations regarding fulfilled prophecy that we'll be looking at, in connection with what we just mentioned.

[4:41] And first of all, would you turn, please, to Isaiah, far from a minor prophet. I guess you'd call him a major prophet. And the reason they're called the major prophets is simply because their content is much more lengthy, much more involved, and the minor prophets, for the most part, are generally shorter.

[5:00] There are some exceptions because Daniel's got 12 chapters in it, and Zechariah's got quite a few chapters in it as well. So, in actuality, fellas, there is nothing minor about anything in the Scriptures.

[5:16] Everything is major. But we just give names to them like minor prophets to identify or to designate. But in Isaiah chapter 61, I want to simply give you a couple of examples of Messianic prophecy because that's what we'll be dealing with when we get to Zechariah 9.

[5:34] And here in chapter 61 of Isaiah, be reminded, Isaiah wrote his prophecies about 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

[5:51] And this is what he said as chapter 61 opens up. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

[6:26] I want you to note that phrase. Favorable year of the Lord. And the day of vengeance. And remember that word. The day of vengeance of our God.

[6:38] To comfort all who mourn. And when the text says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, I suspect that the ordinary person would think that Isaiah is writing first person.

[6:53] He's talking about himself. But Isaiah isn't talking about Isaiah. Isaiah is talking about someone else. And this is referred to as a messianic prophecy, because it relates, of course, to the Messiah.

[7:09] And to see how this plays out, we've got to come back to the New Testament, because this is the prophecy. And the fulfillment is in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, and verse 14.

[7:23] Luke's Gospel, chapter 4. And verse 14. And before we read, let me just make these comments by way of brief introduction.

[7:38] Early here in Luke, chapter 4, Jesus is just beginning his earthly ministry. If you read in chapter 3, you will see that he was just baptized by John.

[7:51] And John baptized Jesus and made that the initial point of his public introduction. John says the reason he came baptizing and the reason he baptized Jesus was that he, John, might introduce Jesus to Israel as their Messiah.

[8:14] And this is the one of whom he spoke when he saw him coming down the road. And remember that Jesus was John's second cousin.

[8:24] And John saw him coming down the road and he exclaimed that immortal statement, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[8:35] And he baptized Jesus and that was his official introduction not only to the priesthood at the age of 30, which is what Jesus was and dawned before him, six months older.

[8:48] But Jesus was introduced and inducted into the priesthood of Melchizedek as opposed to other priests. And that was the official beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry.

[9:01] It will last approximately three to three and a half years until it ends at Calvary or at the empty tomb for his earthly ministry. And then beginning in chapter 4 and verse 14, we read Jesus returned to Galilee, that is, from the area where he was when John baptized him and where he underwent the temptation.

[9:27] That too was part of his initial introduction to Israel, the 40 days and nights of temptation. Jesus returned to Galilee, which is where he started from in Nazareth, of course, in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through all the surrounding district.

[9:46] One thing I'd just like to inject here that needs to be noted and that is Galilee is way up north in Israel. In fact, it is so far north that most of the Jews referred to Galilee as Galilee of the Gentiles.

[10:04] Well, it wasn't in Gentile territory. It was in Israeli territory. But, it was right on the edge. It was right on the border of Gentile territory.

[10:14] Consequently, there were border crossings both ways and there was more influence of Gentilism that filtered over into Galilee than what you would find in Jerusalem because Jerusalem was way down south in the center and Jerusalem was considered the purity of Judaism.

[10:38] But Galilee, well, this is what this is what led Nathaniel when he was told you've got to come and hear this guy. I'm telling you I'm thinking that maybe he's the Messiah.

[10:50] Who are you talking about? I'm talking about Jesus of Nazareth. Nazareth. Nazareth? Nazareth, that's in Galilee. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

[11:03] And you're telling me that you think the Messiah is from you? Give me a break. And when Nathaniel was introduced to Jesus, Jesus looked at Nathaniel and this is in John chapter 1.

[11:16] It's beside. This is no extra charge for this. Nathaniel, John, Jesus looked at Nathaniel and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.

[11:31] What a statement. He didn't know this man from Adam, did he? Well, he knew him. He knew him. And he said, How do you know?

[11:45] And he says, I knew you before you when you were under the fig tree. I knew you. What a statement. You know, under the fig tree, you know, that's where mothers would take their little infant baby out and put him in the playpen and put him under the fig tree where it was shady for him.

[12:07] And Jesus told Nathaniel, I knew you from the time you were under the fig tree. And Nathaniel was completely perplexed. Of course, he ends up being one of the twelve.

[12:19] But let's get back to our story. All right. So, we read in verse 16 that Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

[12:32] Now, you've got to remember he was born in Bethlehem. And that is in just a few miles, just a few miles from Jerusalem.

[12:43] That's in the city of David. Bethlehem is referred to as the city of David. And that is in the territory that was revered as the territory.

[12:54] This is part of the southern kingdom. And Benjamin was the tribe that he was actually from there. And we read that he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.

[13:11] And the reason he did, of course, was, the text doesn't say this, but it was a common practice and it was tradition that when somebody entered the Jewish synagogue and they had either never been there before or had not been there for quite some time, it was considered standard protocol for the leader of the synagogue to go over and approach that person and invite them to address the congregation, kind of like a guest speaker.

[13:38] And that's exactly what happened when Jesus was there. and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. It says a book, but it wasn't a book like we've got.

[13:50] It was a scroll, a rolled up scroll. And you'd have to unroll it one end and roll it up at the other end. And it would be very long and continuous.

[14:01] And some of the scrolls were written on both sides because that saved paper, you know, the content. And the scroll was opened to a particular portion and it's in verse 18.

[14:15] He opened the book and found the place where it was written. And here's what he read. Now, if you've got a New American Standard, you will see that here is where capital letters begin with verse 18.

[14:31] If you don't have a New American Standard, it might not be capitalized, but mine is. And that indicates whenever you see in the New American Standard, whenever you see all capital letters being used in the verse, that is a tip-off that it's a quote from the Old Testament.

[14:49] And you've got a marginal note that will tell you exactly where in the Old Testament that quote is found. And here we've got this and it's, of course, it's from Isaiah 61, which we read earlier.

[15:03] And we read, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He, the Spirit of the Lord, anointed me to preach the gospel, the good news to the poor.

[15:15] He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. This is miraculous stuff. I mean, how else can the blind recover their sight?

[15:28] to set free those who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

[15:39] And I told you I want you to note that term, the favorable year of the Lord, because we're going to see that favorable year of the Lord referred to a little later on here also in Luke's gospel.

[15:54] and it is quite remarkable. And then he says, he closed the book, he stopped reading there, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

[16:12] But Isaiah continued to quote, continued saying, and the day of vengeance of our God. Now, the favorable year of the Lord is a plus.

[16:27] The day of vengeance is a minus. It's a negative. The day of the Lord, favorable year of the Lord, sounds good.

[16:38] And it was good. But the day of vengeance sounds retribution, judgment.

[16:48] judgment. And that's exactly what is involved here. He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.

[17:01] And I can never read that passage without thinking to myself, I just know that the silence in that place was deafening.

[17:13] When he read that passage and sat down, and everybody sat there and looked, what is this? Understand, this is a local boy makes good. Jesus grew up in Nazareth.

[17:26] Now he's back in Nazareth in his hometown. And the people know him. They know his father, they know his mother. Is this not Jesus? Joseph his father? Mary? Yeah, absolutely.

[17:39] And verse 21, he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

[17:50] That is an absolutely monumental statement to make. I mean, these people are sitting here and they are saying to themselves, what's he saying? Is he saying we are actually witnessing the fulfillment of something that was promised and prophesied 700 years ago and now here in this place in this time we are witnesses to the fulfillment of that?

[18:18] Is that what he's saying? That's exactly what he was saying. this was an electrifying time. I'm not going to read the rest of it because it turns sour.

[18:32] And the reason it does is because Jesus brings into this picture of all people Gentiles!

[18:46] Ah! What are they doing here? Away with this man! Gentile! These are people who had an ingrained hatred for Gentiles. And I guess you could call that racism because that's exactly what it was.

[19:06] You know people people have always found reasons to hate other groups of people. It's just systemic to humanity and we tend to think that whatever it is that we are we are the superior and everybody else is the inferior below and probably nobody in our generation demonstrated that more than Adolf Hitler and his Aryan race baloney and all of that stuff that went along with it.

[19:35] So anyway they are actually going to turn on him and they try to do away with him and they're pushing jostling shoveling him shoving him out to the edge of town where there is a cliff and they were going to throw him over.

[19:50] Imagine that? Now that is what mob rule and mob psychology is capable of. This is like a lynch mob. That's what it became. And the only reason they didn't and this phrase is going to be repeated a number of times when efforts were made to destroy Jesus one way or another prematurely each time he was saved from it and here he's going to be saved from it he's just going to pass through their midst and out his way and they're going to be unable to do what they want to do and the whole reason for it is mine hour has not yet come and Jesus was indestructible until his hour came and the night that he is praying in the garden Gethsemane when the soldiers are going to be coming in just moments to arrest him Jesus is in prayer his disciples are fast asleep and Jesus prays and says father the hour has come for three years he was saying mine hour has not yet come now he's saying the hour is come he was not going to die by being cast over a cliff he was not going to die by drowning at sea he was going to die in the father's plan on that old rugged cross and until that time he was indestructible so in chapter 21 let's come back to Luke chapter 21 if we may for just a moment we'll get back to the old testament as quickly as I can get there but this is such such good stuff I tell you let's look at chapter 21 and no I don't want to bring that we won't have time

[22:05] I want to get all of this in one setting so let's come to 19 first okay 19 and beginning with 28 this is called the triumphal entry as I told you before a better name for it is the tearful entry it wasn't exactly a triumph even though some were claiming at that and verse 28 we read that he said these things he was going on ahead ascending to Jerusalem and he's going to Jerusalem for the last time this is going to end in his crucifixion came about that when he approached Bethphage and Bethany near the mount that is called Olivet he sent two of his disciples and told them about the colt etc so and come down to verse 37 if you would and as he was now approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen Jesus had been performing them for three years and these people are solidly behind him and they are the ones that are shouting blessed is the king who comes in the name of the

[23:15] Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest and some of the Pharisees and the multitude said to him of course this this is the and Jesus answered and said I tell you if these become silent the stones will cry out he would not be denied that and when he approached he saw the city and wept over it saying if you talking about Jerusalem if you had known in this day this is the day that Isaiah was speaking of in 61 this was the favorable year of the Lord this was it and they didn't recognize it they didn't see it if you had known in this day even you the things which make for peace but now they have been hidden from your eyes and remember

[24:21] Isaiah went on to say and the day of vengeance of our God that was the rest of the quote read on for the day shall come upon you when your enemies that will be the Romans and the time will be forty years down the road from the time Jesus is speaking this the Romans the Romans and destroy the temple and everything in it your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side after a five month siege of the city being closed no one could get in and no one could get out the Romans broke through and destroy the city and tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered and many were sold into slavery and they will level you to the ground and your children within you and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation that time of visitation was the day of blessing they did not know they did not receive or accept their hour and he entered the temple and a couple of later he's going to be on the cross that is from the first week to the last week when he was introduced by

[25:45] John and he delivered that sermon in Nazareth in his hometown that was very early in his ministry what he just shared with you is very late in his ministry now if you will also come back to Luke 19 and well no I've got trying to watch the clock here I want to get you guys out of here at a reasonable time so let's skip that let's come back to Zechariah 9 back to Zechariah 9 sorry I'm not better organized with this content but sometimes I get maybe you can tell sometimes I get a little excited about it and yeah Zechariah Zechariah 9 and this all has to do with the neighboring enemies of Israel and they have been such for centuries in fact for millennia Israel has hot and cold relationships with their neighbors sometimes they'd have through the years they'd have good relationships with Syria like for instance when Paul or Saul of Tarsus went to

[27:02] Damascus Syria that's a foreign government foreign country yet he had some kind of cooperation I guess you would say they had diplomatic relations and he was received there by the authorities and so on and the Jews had synagogues Jewish synagogues in Syria in Damascus and other places and every now and then things would flare up and remember Naaman the Syrian back in 2 Kings chapter 5 the guy the army general with leprosy and Elijah healed him and everything there was a cold war going on then between Syria so that was an off again on again thing I think it was Golda Meir who said that Israel is surrounded by enemies that want to do them in on the north and on the south and on the east and the only friendly neighbor they have is to the west and that's the Mediterranean Sea and everybody else has it in for them and you know in many respects they still do

[28:02] I mean how how has Israel run hot and cold with diplomatic relations with other nations and now we see some improvement going on who knows how long that will last so these first few verses here in chapter 9 are prophecies against neighboring nations this is God going to deal with those who have harassed Israel and have persecuted Israel and the manner in which that ultimately is going to be done is in connection with the bright spot that we saw earlier in our last session in Zechariah chapter 8 when we told you that Israel has a glorious joyful future and that's what's coming that's God's promise to them it goes all the way back to Abraham it ultimately will be fulfilled but in the meanwhile they've had all kinds of ostracism and persecution and isolation and you name it one third of the Jews were destroyed one third of the Jewish population in the world was destroyed under Adolf Hitler the Antichrist will destroy two thirds and all that will be left will be that remnant when that time comes and that's going to be

[29:16] God taking care of the enemies of Israel and the basis for which that is going to be done of course we'll begin with verse 9 of chapter 9 and yet there is an interim period here that is referred to as the mystery or as the church age and what has kept this thing from going on a pace in chronological order is that when Israel delivered their final answer as to Jesus being their Messiah and their final answer was thanks but no thanks we will not have this mandarin over us then everything regarding Israel and the messianic promises and the claims and all that was promised to them came to a screeching halt it stopped right there and it has not been realized our friends who are of the replacement theology conviction believe that no it didn't stop there that all of the blessings that God promised for Israel he has withdrawn from Israel because of their disobedience and rejection of the

[30:32] Messiah and he has instead placed them upon the Christian church and we are now the Christian church the new Israel and the only way you can reach that conclusion is you have to change hermeneutical horses in the middle of the stream and no longer allow Israel to mean Israel but it means the church and no longer allow the Jew to mean the Jew but it means the Christian we just cannot play fast and loose with language like that and our position is here at Grace Bible Church is that the promises that God made to Israel he most definitely will fulfill in a literal way but he is not doing that now he has brought in something totally different that nobody ever imagined was not predicted prophesied promised expected or anything else it just boom came right out of the blue and that's called the mystery the mystery is something that was a secret that could not be known or understood unless you had the key to the secret then you could unlock it and understand it we the Christian church we are that mystery and I'm not going to take time to read it but I would impress upon you the importance do so at your leisure if you will read

[32:11] Ephesians chapter 3 and there you will discover the most incredible thing that nobody would ever have believed could happen that would be putting Jews and Gentiles together on the same plane calling them one body and they are both in Christ because of their faith and trust in Christ whether Jew or Gentile whether male or female whether bond or free and listen fellas these are the categories that always separated people always divided people Jews over here Gentiles over here near the twain shall meet slave here free over here no connection between them male here female here no connection between them well you know what I mean by that and that's that's the way it had always been but this mystery this new thing that was never prophesied never expected puts everybody on the same footing and unites them all together in the person of

[33:28] Jesus Christ so there is no distinction between Jew or Gentile all have been made to drink of one spirit there is neither separation between Jew Gentile male female bond or free they are all one in Christ Jesus and there isn't any chapter that explains that so concisely as Ephesians chapter three and I would urge you to read it and Paul says in times past and he's talking about the Old Testament because the new when he said that the new didn't even exist he was talking about the Old Testament and he said in times past this was not made known to the sons of men the prophets didn't know it they didn't prophesy because they didn't know it and they didn't know it because it wasn't revealed to them and Paul goes on to say there in Ephesians 3 that God had this thing of togetherness for the Jew and the Gentile in his heart and mind all along but he never revealed it and never let it be known to anyone until the most unlikely one to reveal it came along and that was Saul of

[34:46] Tarsus wow what a time yeah Joe didn't he really have a plan for that to happen but it was way down the line in the kingdom on earth when they were the priests the Israelites would be the priests that would win the Gentiles to God and they'd all have the same God right in other words the timing wasn't what they expected yeah this is this this exactly what that that is predicted that is prophesied and we will see that in Zechariah where that is going to come to pass and let's get back here to Zechariah I want to I want you to see this we've got to kind of wrap this up quickly here as we can Zechariah chapter nine and he's talking about in in verse nine shout in triumph oh daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you he is just and of course this is all messianic and endowed with salvation humble and mounted on a donkey even on a colt the foal of a donkey and this is by the way this is about 500 years before Jesus was born okay even on a colt the foal of a donkey and I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from

[36:09] Jerusalem and the bow the bow of war will be cut off and he will speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea this is millennial stuff this is when that kingdom that John the Baptist preached repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand is right around the corner it's been held in obedience it has never come to pass it's never come to fruition because there are two things two things that must occur before the kingdom of heaven can come to earth and the first is the redemption price for the earth has to be paid Jesus paid it on the cross you see when Adam and Eve rebelled way back in chapter 3 of Genesis when they rebelled against God they in effect relinquished the dominion that God had given them he told them have dominion over the animals over the fish over everything

[37:14] Adam and Eve you are the boss you are the federal head you're in charge of everything and when they disobeyed and rebelled against God they surrendered that they lost their dominion and the one who took it up was the adversary Satan he took it up this is why he is referred to as the God of this age in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4 he's called the God of this age and in John's gospel 12 and 14 and 16 Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world and in case you didn't know it we live on a fallen planet as fallen people and we are presided over by a fallen angel Lucifer himself and he is responsible for so much of the evil that goes on I just want to inject this one thing for you because I've been thinking about this a lot and that is Satan doesn't have to do anything one thing just one thing all he has to do is deceive deceive and because we in our fallenness come equipped with a fallen intellect and a fallen logic as well that prevents us from thinking the thoughts of God after him we think so many things that are wrong and we draw so many wrong conclusions this is one reason fellas why we have a

[39:00] Bible is to give us something to straighten out our thinking because our thinking is skewed our thinking is a fallen logic the Bible is designed to address that and it does and when Satan deceives all he has to do is make people think that things are other than they are and then they take it from there and they turn it into to evil desires and evil acts and he doesn't have to do anything he just deceives people and let them do it and we do all over the world don't you have a comment that's true absolutely well he does he does God remains God remains the ultimate sovereign there's no doubt about that and we find that we find that exemplified dramatically in the story of Job where God actually tells Satan and this is another subject that will come out later but why Satan has access even now to heaven and apparently he does I don't know why but he does we'll be looking at that later but he told he told

[40:22] Satan Satan challenged God and he said of course Job is your poster boy you look at look at how you've blessed him you've given him everything you've enriched him he's got it made he's living the life of Riley why why wouldn't he be obedient to you why wouldn't he serve you and then and then Satan said I'll tell you this you strike him down and you take those things from him and he will curse you to your face and God says okay you can have your way with Job you can do with him to him anything you want but I will not allow you to take his life and boy he brought the roof down on Job he lost his family he lost his wealth he lost his animals lastly he lost his health he lost everything and he's sitting on a pile of ashes and he's scraping the boils on his skin with a broken piece of pottery and his wife comes over to him and you know wives go through things with husbands sometimes it hurts them as much as it does him and she didn't want to see her husband suffering like that and she told him don't you know when you've had enough why don't you just curse God and die and get it over with she was at the end of her rope she'd given up and Job said you speak like a foolish woman shall not we who have received good from the Lord also receive adversity woman the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the

[42:14] Lord and in all this Job became the poster boy for patience and suffering under adversity as an example to all of us so the first thing that has to be done before the kingdom of heaven can come to earth is that the redemption price for it has to be paid that's what Jesus did on the cross and he could do that because of who he was and he's the only one who could do it nobody else could have died on that cross and accomplish what he did Jesus was able to do what he did because of who he was and it was because who he was that he was willing to do what he did that speaks of love that is incredible beyond anything that we can imagine so he picked up the tab for a fallen world and the second thing that has to be fulfilled is God in his wisdom and in his grace had deigned from the time in the beginning to make Israel this tiniest of nations

[43:22] Israel the Jew the Jew how many times have I told you this you probably haven't memorized by now the Jew worldwide does does not constitute even one percent of the world's population not even one percent they comprised two tenths of one percent of the world's population God has always worked with the minority didn't he do that with Noah that was quite a minority wasn't it God's always worked with a minority and when Jesus died on that cross and said it is finished that meant the price of redemption has been paid and he God was in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Wow and that second leg is that Israel the covenant people through whom the redeemer would come and did come must sign on that's the new covenant the new covenant was presented and paid for and there is just one signature on the new covenant and it is the signature of Jesus Christ and he is the party of the first part and the party of the second part has a line drawn on the contract but no signature and the time is coming when Israel will affix their national signature to that contract and then the kingdom of heaven will come to earth it has to come through Israel why why are they so strategic why do they matter so much because it was to Israel God gave the promise Abraham Isaac and Jacob through you and your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed and some in fact as I've told you the majority opinion the majority opinion in Christendom today is that God withdrew that promise that he made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob it's no longer valid and there is no longer there is no longer any more future for Israel as a nation than there is for for Ireland or Mexico or any place there's nothing special about him anymore yes there is the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance and God will fulfill all that he has promised to Israel and his seed and I want you to turn over we're getting here prematurely but I want you to come over to Zechariah 12 and we'll close with this

[46:17] Zechariah 12 oh my this is this is really something 12 10 this we haven't gotten there yet but we'll make it eventually and he says I will pour out God is saying I will pour out on the house of David and by the way how would you Gentile eyes that the house of David my that's not the church that's the Jew and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on me the Messiah whom they or their forefathers have pierced and they will mourn for him these will be that present generation of Jews who are yet future that will repent and mourn over the rejection of their ancestors when they rejected Jesus when he said you did not know the day of your visitation and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn in that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem this is sadness and sorrow and repentance and tears are going to flow why why because of their repentance over their ancestors rejection of Jesus as their Messiah and it's going to be something it'll be like the mourning of hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo and the land will mourn every family by itself the family of the house of David by itself the wives by themselves the house of Levi all of these people you know why they're mourning they're mourning in their repentance and they are under great conviction and they are praying fervently fervently that God will send his Messiah and when Jesus went out of the temple the last time after the second time that he cleansed the temple he said he turned to the Jewish people and he said you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and that's what these people are going to be saying and they are going to cry out to God they are going to mourn and cry out to God to send his Messiah back and he's coming he will come to his people there where they are and that will begin Armageddon that's when the enemies of Christ and the enemies of Israel will be dispatched and Christ will reign victoriously and all the remnant of Israel this is the all Israel that will be saved this is the Israel then and it's going to be a glorious time and we'll see later in in the same Zechariah passage where it's just a beautiful thing in the millennium where where Zechariah says, the time is coming, the time is coming when the hated, persecuted, despised, set aside Jew is going to experience a complete reversal.

[50:04] And we are told that then ten men will take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew and say, we want to go with you for we have heard that God is with you and they're going to Jerusalem to the temple and it's just, that's coming up.

[50:27] And I'm already, it's nine o'clock and I don't want to go beyond this. So if you've got questions, let me put it this way. If anybody needs to get out of here because you've got an appointment or something, feel free to just get up and leave right now.

[50:41] But I want to give somebody an opportunity for questions while we're dealing with this before I leave. So Mike? The idea that the majority opinion in the Christendom as you said, was that the Christian has replaced the Jew in God's plan or the church has replaced Israel.

[50:59] Yeah. When it comes to those, those thought processes, even like the day age, you know, theory and creation of the world or when we, once you take that step to tell me this is a good argument when you discuss things, you know, I'm not a Bible scholar, but when someone says that to me, the replacement theology, I want to say, if this is legit, to say, I want to say, once you begin taking the literal and making it somewhat metaphorical, I don't have a Bible anymore because if you choose this, why can't I choose this and not make it literal?

[51:43] Yep. Why can't, as you know, I've dealt with the homosexuality issue. Yeah. If that's no longer accurate, okay, so because you turned it this way and that or maybe that's your belief, your interpretation, I got 95 interpretations now.

[52:01] I don't need this Bible. I need to find a new Bible that once you've gone beyond the literal. Absolutely. You're right. You're right. Isn't that an argument that you could say? Yep. How do you explain the house of David and all this other stuff if the Jews aren't involved anymore?

[52:15] Yeah, there is no explanation. Maybe they're right. There is no explanation. And you know, Origen. What did they say? Origen was a 4th century theologian and he was probably more responsible for this than anyone.

[52:26] Very controversial and obviously a very brilliant man. But I want to make this, I want to make this, what shall I call it? I'll make it, I'll call it an admission because it is an admission. I can very easily see how replacement theology came into being and I would go so far as to say had I been living back then at that time, I probably would have come to the same conclusion as they because that's the way everything looked.

[52:54] I mean, Israel, Israel rejected opportunity after opportunity to receive Jesus as their Messiah and, you know, God went all out to make it as possible and as easy for them as possible and they still rejected.

[53:13] So, all day long I stretched forth my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people and then when, when God allowed the Romans, pagans, pagans mind you, far from God to destroy Jerusalem and the temple and haul off the loot and the standard, the standard interpretation of all of that was aha!

[53:45] The God of Rome is greater than the God of Israel. See who won? And they took those trophies back and you can still see them in bold relief on the Arch of Triumph in Rome where the emperor brought those things back.

[54:03] There's treasures from the Jewish temple as objects of conquest and, and, and then there was another revolt of the Jews, the Bar Kokhba revolt in one, 130 AD.

[54:18] That would be another, almost another 70 years after the first temple was destroyed in 70 AD and they leveled it again. The Romans did it again and this time they were so fed up with the Jews they made it off limits that the Jews couldn't even be in Jerusalem at all.

[54:33] They had to get completely out, completely out of the area. Wouldn't even allow a Jew in there and they even changed the name of the town. from Jerusalem to capital Tina and made it as Roman as they could and anybody witnessing all of that could very simply and very logically come to the conclusion well, God has certainly written off the Jew.

[54:56] He's sure finished with them. God is fed up with them and He's done with the Jew. Look at what He allowed to happen and that's proof positive and I can understand them coming to that conclusion. Absolutely.

[55:06] Absolutely. But, what would their biblical response be as to why they're taking this as a metaphor not literal? If that's that common they might have a biblical response.

[55:17] Yeah, well, I think the best response is that consistency of interpretation is essential. and those who embrace replacement theology do so by spiritualizing or allegorizing prophetic portions that are promised to Israel and when you read in the Old Testament what God is going to do for Israel it is I-S-R-A-E-L Israel and they say well, I know it says Israel but it doesn't mean Israel it means the church.

[55:54] You mean Israel means the church? Yeah, that's the spiritual interpretation of it. Well, the point is they interpret all the rest of the Bible the same way we do.

[56:11] Exactly the same way we do. They let it mean what it says except when it comes to prophecy and there they jump ship and they make it spiritual.

[56:23] And our contention is the only logical consistent way to approach this is you take everything in the Bible literally at face value unless the context makes it clear that it is intended to be figurative and not literal when it says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro on the earth.

[56:46] That's a figurative expression but it's a poetic way of saying God sees everything but it's put in figurative language. Nobody is going to say well if you're going to take the Bible literally you've got to take care God's got these two big eyeballs out of his head and they're rolling around all over the earth.

[57:04] Well, that's nonsense. You know what the Swedes are doing? They're taking Israel, the word Israel out of the Bible. Well, they're changing it to the church. Yeah, absolutely. They say all of the promises that God intended for Israel they have forfeited and God is instead fulfilling all of his promises in the church.

[57:28] But when you look at what has been promised of Israel and you try to make the church the recipient of that you've got huge problems. Nothing fits.

[57:39] And the scriptures fit. Sometimes we don't always see how they fit but they fit because everything in this book is connected with everything in this book.

[57:50]  And thank you for your kind attention. I appreciate your presence here. We'll continue, Zachariah. Eventually we're going to get finished with this book. little stories from Rinesw付