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[0:00] What a dreary, dreary world this would be without music. Someone has said, God gave us music for when just words won't do.

[0:15] And I thank the Rambeck family and Sherry and Chris for that special number. The tune of Pachelbel. I have fond memories of that.

[0:27] The first time I ever heard that music was in a restaurant in Nova Scotia, probably 20 years ago.

[0:40] And I was so taken by it, I just stopped eating and listened to that music. I'd never heard that before. And I asked Barbara, what is that?

[0:50] She said, I don't know. The waitress came over and I said, could you do me a favor? Could you get the name of that song that was just playing?

[1:02] And she said, certainly. And a couple of minutes later, she brought it back with it, scribbled on a piece of paper. It's called Pachelbel. P-A-C-H-A-L-B-E-L.

[1:16] Pachelbel. I thought, well, surely that is new music. I've never heard that before. When I got home, I looked it up. It was new as of something like the 14 or 1500s.

[1:29] Was I ever embarrassed. But that's just, I tell you, music is such, it's just indescribable. It's, it's, atheism has no song.

[1:44] They have nothing to sing about. They have no one to sing it to or for. Isn't that sad? I tell you. And speaking of atheism, I happen to have a handout for you.

[2:01] Okay. And it is a three-page article that I really urge you to read. Because it features a gentleman and his attitude who is probably the world's best known atheist.

[2:18] His name is Richard Dawkins. And you'll find this article in the literature rack near the door, the back. And it's called, Atheists Agree.

[2:32] Truth is a moral issue. Well, it is. And you'll want to read that. It is, it is really remarkable. Want to go to prayer now and want to remind you or inform you that Sarah Davis is in a Dayton hospital.

[2:52] Well, she is, this dear lady has had just unbelievable bouts with migraine headaches. Now, a lot of you folks can identify because you know what a migraine headache is and how, how it just puts you out of commission.

[3:10] But she is an extraordinary case. And she's received all kinds of help and assistance from Ohio State. And now she's in the hospital in Dayton trying to get a handle on these because they are just wicked the way she experiences.

[3:26] They just completely put her out of commission. And she's dealt with this for several years and has never been able to really get on top of it. And her mother Nellie and Sarah live alone together.

[3:39] And Nellie is up in years and is not all that able physically to be doing for herself. So she depends a lot on Sarah. And I talked with Nellie just yesterday.

[3:50] And I talked to her like a Dutch uncle about letting us know if there's something we can do, some way we can help. And she promised that she would. So I hope you'll be hearing from her soon.

[4:01] But we want to remember Sarah and Nellie. And my sweet Marie is out of commission this morning. She is at home with uncooperative hips and is having some real hip pain.

[4:14] So lots of aches and pains to go around, especially when you get advanced in the years a little bit. So we want to remember them in prayer as well. And Jamie, happy birthday.

[4:29] Where'd she go? Oh, okay. Happy birthday. Oh, to be 29 again. My, my, my. So let's pray, shall we? Father, it is a great, great privilege the world does not understand to be able to come together like this and fellowship and enjoy each other's encouragement and uplifting presence.

[4:53] Most of all, thank you for your presence. We do not understand how you are able to be in the midst of groups of believers like ours all over the world.

[5:03] But that's part of your job description. And even though we don't understand it, we appreciate it. Thank you for being the God that you are. And for those who we've already mentioned, we pray your special direction and blessing upon them.

[5:19] We know that the medical community is completely puzzled by Sarah's difficulty. And yet we know that there's nothing that touches these frail bodies of ours that are a puzzlement to you.

[5:32] So would you be pleased to intervene on her behalf and give those who are attending her the wisdom, the understanding, and the treatment, medication, or whatever that is needed to really resolve this issue and give this dear lady some, some peace.

[5:50] And we continue to pray as well for her love for her love for her. And for most of all, your love for her. And we ask that any way that we might be of assistance as individuals or as a congregation, we want to be at the ready.

[6:05] Thank you for sweet Marie and for the provision that you've made for her. And we pray that you'll undertake for her physically as well and enable her to be restored to us quickly.

[6:18] Most of all, we thank you for the incredible relationship we have with Jesus Christ and the awesome price that he was willing to pay to make it possible.

[6:30] We don't understand that either, but we are grateful recipients of that love. We are gathered here this morning that we might uplift him in our midst in any and every way we can.

[6:42] Thank you for the presence of each one. And thank you for mere privilege that is ours, despite what's going on in our country now with the COVID and all that it involves.

[6:56] We are grateful to be together and we thank you for being in the midst of it. In Christ's wonderful name. Amen. This is an article I shared with you last week.

[7:10] And I'm not going to read the entire article, but I just thought it was just so well put. And it addresses what we're dealing with by way of the confusion and the post-election controversy and everything that surrounds that.

[7:25] And this article is from Marv Rosenthal's publication, Zion's Fire. And the author of it, I don't even know who the author is, but that's one of their editors.

[7:40] It says, finding truth in a world of confusion. Even as we praise him for all he has done in our lives, we also must face the reality that our world is in chaos and humanity is lost and confused.

[7:59] In America, the foundations are cracking and our nation remains deeply divided over issues too numerous to detail in this brief letter.

[8:13] Judeo-Christian values are no longer respected, let alone viewed as essential, by ever-growing numbers within our society. In fact, many are antagonistic toward them.

[8:28] Incivility and outright disdain for authority have been on full display these recent months. The daily headlines we've seen throughout 2020 provide ample evidence of the turmoil, a global pandemic, economic upheaval, racial tension, urban rioting, rolling lockdowns, judicial battles, and the most contentious presidential election of our lifetimes have all punctuated a year we won't soon forget.

[9:07] Wow. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be looking forward to saying good riddance to 2020 come New Year's Eve.

[9:19] And in keeping with that, another article that just happens to be addressing the confusion that we were just talking about. And it's an outstanding article.

[9:30] And it's an outstanding article. And it too was in Zion's Fire magazine. And it's called A Perfect Right Now Passage.

[9:41] So, avail yourself of it, if you will. And it too is in the literature rack outside. Along with Marv Rosenthal's article on the Incarnation.

[9:53] I not only distributed these last week, but I do this every year because I have never found an article anywhere, written by anyone, that so wonderfully explains the Incarnation and how it is that Jesus Christ was the only one eligible to sit on that throne of David.

[10:15] And do you know, to this day, he is still the only one eligible in the bloodline of David the king to sit on the throne of David.

[10:29] And one day he will. That's going to be something. So, it too is back there. And it's simply called the Incarnation. Make sure that you get a copy of it.

[10:40] And you will appreciate that so much. We are dealing with some items that are found in this little pamphlet called Prophecy and Mystery.

[10:52] Basic Distinctions Between Prophecy and the Mystery. It's written by Mr. Stamm. And he is with the Lord now. So, he knows more about this than what he wrote. But at any rate, we are simply making our way through it.

[11:06] And pointing out to you the dramatic contrast that exists as set forth in the Bible between these two elements, prophecy and mystery.

[11:18] And it is absolutely astounding as to how little this is understood and how much it is the absolute key to the whole plan and program of God.

[11:32] And we are talking about the Jew. I probably mentioned before an anecdote that took place many years ago in the 1700s when Napoleon Bonaparte from France was the emperor of France and much of Europe at the time.

[11:49] And he was ravaging his way through one conquest after another. And one day, he confronted his chaplain to his troops.

[12:04] And he asked his chaplain as he held up the Bible and said, Give me just one reason why I should believe this book.

[12:18] And the chaplain said, The Jew, your majesty, the Jew. And that was really all the answer that's needed.

[12:29] Because contrary to what a lot of people think, The Jew always has been and always will be the most strategic player in the whole plan and program of God.

[12:49] We just have little idea how strategic the Jew really is. And let me tell you this, because I find this most ironic. And that is, Most Jews have no idea how strategic and critical they are to the plan and program of God.

[13:11] Judaism today is just in a complete upheaval. There is so much division. They're struggling with issues like intermarriage.

[13:22] So many of the young Jewish boys and girls are attaching themselves to Gentile mates and thus disturbing the old order of Jews marrying Jews.

[13:35] And it's an item of great concern to a lot of the rabbis throughout the country. In fact, throughout the world. And if you don't understand the strategic nature of the Jew, You might as well just leave the Bible as a closed book because it's never going to make any sense to you.

[13:54] This began so long ago and is so critical and is so much a part of culture, both European and here. It's just remarkable that people don't know more about this just by accident.

[14:06] Rather than just studying it. But the information is there. And as we were singing just this morning, We three kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse so far.

[14:21] This is found in the Gospel, Matthew. And these magi, they're called magi, The wise kings. We don't know a whole lot about them, But we know that they are the subject of Christmas carols that we sing every year.

[14:40] And what's that all about? Well, when you read the account in the Gospels, You see that these three dignitaries bearing their gifts, Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, Were coming from a far country.

[14:53] And they arrived in Jerusalem because they had seen this star. And we still don't know the exact nature of that star.

[15:05] All we know is that it was something phenomenal, Apparently some special thing that God provided. And when they saw the star, it said something to them.

[15:16] These men were not astrologers. Understand that. They were astronomers. And there's a huge difference.

[15:30] Astrology is the nonsensical belief that your destiny and your future Is somehow connected to the movement of the stars.

[15:41] And people who are astrologists plot this stuff out. And they have it published virtually every day in a newspaper. Your horoscope. And you're supposed to look up the sign under which you were born, Whatever month it is that coincides with it.

[15:58] And then you're supposed to plan your day's activities with that. And it's a good day for investing. Or it's a good day for... And that's so much hogwash. But you would be surprised how people fall for that stuff.

[16:10] So these were not astrologers. These were astronomers. And astronomy is a very important, legitimate science. It studies the movement of the planets, the stars, etc.

[16:24] And all of the things in the galaxies. And it's just an incredible study that has no bottom to it. It's just amazing. And that's a very legitimate thing. Anyway, these three individuals, referred to as kings.

[16:38] And there isn't anything in the Bible that calls them kings. But they were just three individuals who saw this star and made a connection. And we read that they came to Jerusalem.

[16:49] And they were ushered into the presence of Herod. Probably just because they'd come from such a long distance. And the locals wanted to take advantage of who they were or whatever they had to say in the news, etc.

[17:03] And they said, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.

[17:20] Now, I want you to think about that. Just what's included in that text. First of all, who were these people? And why did they care?

[17:33] And if there was somebody who was born king of the Jews, so what? Somebody's born to somebody all the time. What's the news about that? Well, I think I know who those men were.

[17:44] And they give them even names. But that's beside the point. Personal names. I'm confident that these men who came from the east, were coming from Babylon.

[17:58] And the reason they were coming from Babylon is because that's where they lived. In 586 B.C., almost 600 years before Jesus was born, the Babylonian army under the king Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, just like Jeremiah the prophet said they would.

[18:26] He even named them long before it happened and gave the people of Israel time to repent and get their act together so that God wouldn't use these pagan Babylonians to come against his own people and defeat them and carry them off into captivity.

[18:46] And I've told you before the story about how they caught the last king of Israel. His name was Zedekiah. And they make him watch the execution of all of his sons.

[19:00] And then they put out his eyes and they made him walk all the way to Babylon along with thousands of other Jews. So when they got to Babylon, they sang that song.

[19:13] How can we sing the songs of Zion? They sat down by the stream and when they're in captivity and all the sadness and everything that went with it. Long story short, they were there for several years.

[19:24] God raised up one particular boy. He was about 12 years old and taken prisoner by the Babylonians and carried off to Babylon. His name was Daniel. And he had a remarkable life.

[19:37] And after 70 years, just as God informed Jeremiah to inform the people, they were going to be able to return. And Nehemiah would come back and a man by the name of Zerubbabel would be the governor.

[19:54] And they were going to rebuild the walls and rebuild the city and start life all over again. Because you see, the reason they were doing this is because the Babylonians who had conquered the Jews had themselves been conquered by the Medes and the Persians.

[20:12] So that made them in a friendly posture toward those whom the Babylonians had conquered. And they said, you can go home. And what's more, we will help you.

[20:23] We're going to dip into the treasury of the Medes and the Persians and we're going to provide the materials, the building materials, and all the rest of it. And we're going to send along engineers to help you rebuild it.

[20:37] And that was the job of Nehemiah and of Zerubbabel, who was the governor. But from what we learned, it was only about 20% of the Jews returned.

[20:48] Most of them stayed in Babylon because they'd put down roots. They had families. They had children and grandchildren.

[21:00] Remember, they were there for 70 years. So the original ones that were carried off, it all died off. And that was the generation that God was disciplining and punishing. And the main thing that he was punishing them for was their idolatry.

[21:14] Well, who were the Babylonians? They were idolaters too. In fact, probably worse than the Jews were. And it's kind of ironic because God says, actually, what I'm going to do is I'm going to use a people who are worse than you are to wind your clock.

[21:34] And it's going to be 70 years before you return with a whole new generation. So, in around 500 BC, they started returning or maybe a little bit before that, they started returning.

[21:48] But those that stayed started businesses, had real estate, bought things, sold things, had families, had grandchildren, et cetera. And I am satisfied that eventually, after a few hundred years, there were three individuals came along who were Jews, who were wise men, who were very well educated.

[22:13] They saw this star. And let me ask you this. Why in the world would any foreign people who lived hundreds and hundreds of miles away care in the least about somebody who was born king of the Jews?

[22:31] Well, I'll tell you who would care. Jews would care. Jews would care because they knew something about prophecy and how this thing was going to work and that God was behind it.

[22:42] And they saw this star and they said, and this is priceless. This is absolutely priceless. They said to Herod, we have seen his star.

[22:56] We have come from afar and we have come to worship him. To what? To worship him? Now, every Jew knows and learned the hard way through their punishment in Babylon.

[23:18] Idols are off limits. You don't worship anyone except the true God. And this all started with Moses and the law and the very first commandment.

[23:29] You shall have no other gods before me. No make any graven images, et cetera. Well, they did. They did. And they learned the lesson that was very sorely learned.

[23:41] But when they said that they have come to worship him, that is really significant because these wise men, whoever they were, I'm confident they were Jews, although the text does not say they were Jews, but you have to have a rationale for them being there and they are there because it is a Jew who is born king of the Jews.

[24:06] Of course they're interested. They know something about messianic promises. They know something about what Moses and the prophets said and they're excited about this.

[24:17] So they come and Herod, who is one of the most butcherous madmen who ever lived, saw this king of the Jews that they're talking about.

[24:29] The guy was absolutely, what shall I say? Well, he was, he was demented in a lot of ways but he was an architectural genius in a lot of ways too.

[24:41] Anyway, he was concerned because if there is somebody who is supposed to be born king of the Jews, that strikes me as unwanted competition because I am the king.

[24:58] I'm the king of Judea here and there isn't room for another king. So, his mischievous mind began wandering and he came to it and he told the men, he says, well, you go and find him and when you find him, come and let me know where he is so that I can come and worship him too.

[25:17] Well, of course, that was all put up job and they came and they found him and they brought the gifts and Joseph and Mary were there and they left the gifts, the gold, frankincense and myrrh, all of which are very significant by the way and rather than return to Herod and say, we found him, we know right where he is, we'll tell you how to find him.

[25:37] No, no, they were advised in a dream not to return to Herod but to return to Babylon and go a different way and they did, of course. So, the king of the Jews was born and that was King Jesus and we are told that a certain amount of time had passed because we know that when, that when the wise men came and when they finally found him, they weren't in Bethlehem they were in Nazareth and that's quite a distance from Bethlehem and the reason we know that was because even though Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that's not where his family was from.

[26:30] They were from Nazareth. Remember, they started from Nazareth and they had to go to Bethlehem because of the enrollment for the tax and that's why they were there. So, they had probably gone back to Nazareth and we read two years later.

[26:47] That's probably when the wise men came. They didn't come when Jesus was there in Bethlehem in the manger although that's the way most of the Christmas cards portray him. They came most likely when he was already born and had been born for several months.

[27:03] He may have been a year, year and a half old, maybe two years old. And when the king heard about this, that's why he ordered the massacre of the babies that were two years of age and under.

[27:17] And yet, they were born, these babies were born in Bethlehem so it was babies there that were executed and in every likelihood that was even the wrong city.

[27:31] So there was great weeping in in Ramah, Rachel, reaping for her children because they were not and that has to do with the prophecy that is given about the massacre of the innocents two years of age and under all of the boy babies at least.

[27:47] So all of this, all I'm trying to say is listen, this book called the Bible is the most incredible document on the face of planet Earth and it is God's greatest gift to us and in it, if you study it seriously, you will begin to see and understand how everything in the Bible is connected to everything in the Bible and don't you ever forget it and there is not one jot or one tittle in it that doesn't belong there.

[28:21] Sometimes we have great difficulty understanding it and seeing how it connects and I've been studying this blessed book for well, a long time.

[28:36] A long time and every now and then I have people say something like this, I guess you know about everything in that book. Oh, give me a break.

[28:47] Are you serious? This book has no bottom in it. You don't exhaust this book. You just get in it and wander around and pick up and find what you can and realize that you leave a whole lot more behind than what you bring with you.

[29:02] It is an inexhaustible book and I've had others say, do you believe everything in that book? And I say, I most absolutely do. I don't understand everything in it but I believe everything in it because of what I do understand in it and it's just it's just incredible.

[29:23] It is God's love letter to planet Earth and it has been more published, more produced, more printed, more translated than all other books that you can imagine.

[29:41] Nothing even comes close in all these different languages and it's probably the least understood volume on the planet.

[29:52] Isn't that ironic? Isn't that something? It's amazing. Just absolutely amazing. Most homes have a Bible in them collecting dust on the coffee table and they have no idea what they are depriving themselves of and you know who some of the worst ones about this and I know because I was one of them.

[30:19] Men. I don't know how many men I have had tell me over the years I don't like to read. I can understand that because there was a time when I didn't like to read.

[30:37] You know what got me reading? I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this but as a young man well I wasn't even a man I was a young boy the only thing I was interested in reading was comic books.

[30:54] Superman and Captain Marvel and Green Hornet and all that good educational stuff you know. Gee. I cut my teeth on that and I prided myself all the way through high school of writing book reports without ever having read the book.

[31:18] That makes me wonder sometimes if the teacher ever read my report. But and I would I would read this synopsis you know this little paragraphs of it and then I would just put a snow job on the paper and and maybe that's why I got the C's and D's that could have something to do with but anyway and when I came to faith in Christ in 1956 and I I think I yeah I'm pretty sure I told you this right after we were married just a few days after we were married got back in town back in Olympia Washington I was stationed out in Washington State and we went to the bank and the NBC National Bank of Commerce there in Olympia Washington and took out a joint checking account and then we went around the corner and the first check that I wrote from our personal joint checking account was for a

[32:26] Bible I'd been I'd been a Christian just a few days and I was 21 years old and came to know the Lord on the same day that I was married I tell you what getting married to Christ and marrying a wife in the same day you talk about a double blessing this wouldn't quit that was that was amazing and I I started reading that Bible and I got into Genesis I started with the beginning of the book you know and I got along as I think I got as far as chapter 5 and all I could read was and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and most of the names I couldn't even pronounce and it was a catastrophe but there was something in me that told me I need to get into this and I need to stay with it even though I'm having difficulty with it and I did and the more you read the more you study the more you have to learn with and the next thing you know your learning is coming on top of learning and things start coming together and as a fairly new

[33:43] Christian for a number of years I was putting some things together but I still had a lot of questions and still couldn't make a lot of things fit and then one day it was in 1964 five six in there I got a book in the mail had no idea who it came from and it was a book about that thick called the controversy and the majority of it consisted of a bunch of personal letters that were written back and forth between two men one was Donald Gray Barnhouse and the other was a man by the name of Cornelius Stamm and Barnhouse I knew because at the time I was a manager of the Christian radio station WEC and we aired Dr.

[34:44] Donald Gray Barnhouse's 30 minute radio program five nights a week every weeknight and he was one of the finest speakers that I have ever heard even to this date Donald Gray Barnhouse magnificent magnificent ability to communicate the English language and like nobody I've ever heard since and this book contained personal letters that were written between these two men and Donald Gray Barnhouse was the pastor and had been for several years of 10th Presbyterian church in Philadelphia Pennsylvania it was a very old historic church going back to the 1700s and even though he was a Presbyterian and I was a Baptist I thought and they sprinkled and we immersed but I knew enough to know well the Lord can forgive anything and he can even forgive Donald Gray Barnhouse for sprinkling because everybody knows that when you're baptized you've got to put the whole body under the water you know that's the only way it has to be done and as a Baptist

[35:51] I did that and I baptized people and I was baptized and my wife was baptized I told you before about she was born reared Roman Catholic sprinkled as a baby and then when her mother came to know the Lord and led Barbara to Christ they went to a Nazarene church a Presbyterian church there in a little town and and she was sprinkled as a Presbyterian and then when she joined the Baptist church with me she was immersed baptized as a Baptist and then later when she came to grace she said she got dry cleaned and we've been dry cleaning ever since and I've had people say things and heard things like this how can you be a church if you don't baptize how can you be a church if you don't put people underwater you got it you and anyway this conversation between this Presbyterian pastor Donald Gray

[36:53] Barnhouse in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and C.R. Stamm who was at the time in Chicago Illinois and all these letters were published in there and I was reading these letters with great fascination because even though I had this great respect for Donald Gray Barnhouse I knew nobody had all the truth and Barnhouse might have had all the truth except baptism and he couldn't have the truth on that because he sprinkled you know so anyway and this guy Stamm actually took the position which was about the most weird thing I had ever heard that water baptism is Jewish it's not Christian well if that wasn't the dumbest thing I ever heard so even though Stamm is a Presbyterian he's going to clean this guy's clock because there's no way in the world that he and as I read and read and read and read back and forth read back and forth and it dawned on me that

[37:56] Barnhouse answers were not really very satisfying at all and this guy who is he against Stamm I don't know anything about him never heard of him he's going to see it seems to make more sense than I like and I don't like it because that's not what I've always believed and that's reason enough right there to reject something isn't it that's not what I've always believed and we almost never give any consideration to having believed something wrong certainly not something I mean can millions and millions of people be wrong yes how many were wrong when the eight were saved on the ark how many were wrong everybody but them now that doesn't mean that if you're in the minority you're right no if you're right you're right and if you're wrong you're wrong and it's how many numbers and how many people believe it's got nothing to do with it absolutely nothing because truth is that which is consistent within itself and it corresponds to reality and it doesn't make a bit of difference how many people believe it or how many big shots believe it or how many little shots believe it or anything else truth is truth and that's all you can say about it so anyway what we are talking about is the distinction between the program that God established for his special covenant people the only ones with whom he ever made a covenant and by the way

[39:45] Christianity is not the result of a covenant we are the result of a provision that was made for a covenant that's the new covenant covenant that Jesus initiated the night he was betrayed when he took that cup and said this cup is the new covenant in my blood so we are beneficiaries of that covenant but it has ever never actually been enacted because Israel has never accepted or received that covenant they rejected the one who whose blood was going to provide the basis for that covenant so we're not a people of covenant per se Israel is we are a people that were never imagined never prophesied never promised never predicted never expected we just came on the scene almost like out of nothing and I'm going to give you the best commentary on this that you can read and we won't take time to do it now but I trust you'll do it this afternoon at your leisure if you want to know who and what we really are read Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 3 actually the whole book is great but chapter 3 really spells out who we are as the body of Christ and we are not Israel nor connected to Israel we are an entirely different thing so what I'm telling you now is this contrast that exist and it's on this little sheet that we've distributed and if you don't have one you can get one when you leave because they're all over the place back there and it's called basic distinctions between prophecy and mystery and by the way the fellow who wrote this is the one I was telling you about that wrote all the letters back and forth Donald Ray Barnell's this is Cornelius R. Stamm and I thought well that's another I've never known anybody to be named Cornelius how in the world why do you suppose why do you suppose this man was named Cornelius what were his mother and father thinking of when they named him Cornelius I'll tell you what they were thinking they were thinking of

[41:56] Acts chapter 10 Cornelius a God fear what a blessing Acts chapter 10 is an incredible chapter it's all about Peter and Cornelius you want to read that along with Ephesians chapter 3 so this prophecy and mystery the prophecy involves the Jew exclusively exclusively and when it began was in Genesis chapter 12 when God called Abram who was a direct descendant of Shem one of the three sons of Noah Abram was a Shemite and if you just drop the S like we do in most English spellings you get Semite S-E-M-I-T-E he was a Semite and if you want to talk about people who hate the Jew they are called anti-Semites or anti-Semitic and

[42:58] Abraham as a Semite was given a special promise by God that through him and his seed that is his progeny his descendants all the earth would be blessed well today we are recipients of that blessing because the principal way that that was fulfilled was through the seed and Paul identifies this in Galatians as the seed being Christ and all the earth is blessed through him so this special prophecy and and people say things like well what made Abraham so special why did God choose Abraham we don't have any idea we don't have any idea why he chose Abraham because we're not told what his rationale was all we know was it wasn't on the basis that Abraham is the most honest the most decent the most upright the most wonderful the most loving person on the earth so I'm going to choose him we have no reason to believe that in fact we have every reason to believe that Abraham his name was Abram to start with it was changed to Abraham later Abram means the father of the father and Abraham means the father of many or the father of nations and he went years and years and years without even having one descendant one seed and and Abraham was chosen by God simply out of the mind and heart of God for no reason that we can think of or there's any reason that is revealed and I've often told people that if

[44:42] God is going to choose anybody he had to choose somebody and he chose Abraham and he pronounced this blessing upon him and he said I'm going to give you this land and I'm going to make your name great and I'm going to make your seed great and Abraham is stunned by all of this and he says but I don't I don't even have one one child my wife Sarah she's she's she's 90 years old and we've never had a baby not even one and God said Abraham come on out here come on side and now this is another subject but the God that was speaking to Abraham was a Christophany it was a pre-incarnate a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus the Messiah long before Bethlehem because you've got to remember that Jesus Jesus never existed before Bethlehem that's when he started call his name Jesus but he existed as the Son of God from eternity past there was no time when he wasn't and in this spirit essence form he took upon him human flesh and was born of Mary and in his humanity he was able to die and in his deity he was able to do the miracles that he did and so on so he was the God man he is the theanthropic individual the only one whoever was and this is the principal seed of Abraham and it actually goes back further than Abraham it goes all the way back goes all the way back to Eve and he made the promise actually he didn't make the promise to Eve he made the promise to Satan to the serpent when he said that the seed of the woman you will strike his heel but he will crush your head and that speaks of two different kinds of injuries the injury that the Satan would inflict upon

[47:06] Christ it's likened to the striking of the heel which is speaking of a non-permanent kind of injury and we know that that's reflected in his coming back in the resurrection three days later but when Christ crushes the head of the serpent that has a note of finality to it there's going to be any recovering from that and all of these things are tied together and it all all centers upon the Jew, the Jew.

[47:38] And Abraham was instructed about sacrifice. You remember the story about Isaac? What was that all about? That was for no other reason than beginning to condition humanity for the principle of substitution.

[47:58] Because sin that is involved is an affront to an utterly holy God. And the bottom line of this is because God is absolutely holy and has a purity that we don't understand, and we are not, that makes us incompatible with God.

[48:25] These are two different elements, the sinful and the sinless. And they cannot coexist. This is why sin is forever excluded from the presence of God, and something has to be done in the heart and mind of the sinful one in order to ever enjoy God's presence.

[48:48] And this is where Jesus comes in, because he was sent to this world for the express purpose of dying for our sin.

[48:58] You know, I've told you in the past that more than anything else, God wants to be believed, and more than anything else, God is into relationships.

[49:09] God is very, very relational. And in the relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they had a perfection there that we don't know anything about, and it was on a completely different level.

[49:23] So please don't think in terms of the Trinity as anything connected with humanity, because God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[49:33] He is the otherness. He's the otherness. He isn't somewhat like us, only bigger and stronger. No, no, no. He isn't anything like us at all. He is God.

[49:47] And that transcends anything that you can imagine. It is just absolutely amazing. And in this, in this being, taking flesh upon him, being a human being, being able to, in his humanity, represent man, and in his deity, represent God, he was able to bring these together.

[50:14] And that's what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 5, when he says, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[50:28] Wow. This means, this means that God is so oriented to relationships.

[50:39] He sent his own son into the world, and his son was willing to come for the express purpose of repairing a damaged, broken relationship.

[50:54] Think of that. It boggles the mind to contemplate that the God who created us couldn't handle the idea of being forever separated from the likes of us.

[51:11] I don't think I'd have any problem with that. But then I'm not God, and you can be glad. God is, I don't know how else to put it other than to say God is stuck on humanity.

[51:30] He's stuck with us, and he's stuck on us. But you know something else? He is stuck on Israel. He is stuck with Israel and stuck on Israel.

[51:43] God has a heart that he cannot use to keep from loving these people who have done everything in the world to make themselves unlovable. And so have we.

[51:57] This is just mind-boggling stuff. And you know, I've already inferred who knows the least about this is the very ones who are the objects of it, the Jewish people.

[52:10] And someone says, Oh, you're that preacher. You love the Jews, don't you? Well, of course I do.

[52:21] Of course I love the Jews. Pray tell me, how can God love the Jews and you not love the Jews? What is wrong with that picture?

[52:32] So you're a Jew lover. Of course I'm a Jew lover. And I'm a Muslim lover too. And I'm a Mormon lover. I even love Jehovah's Witnesses. I even love atheists.

[52:44] I even love Richard Dawkins. I'm sure he does not return the feeling. But that's beside the point. We, if God so loved the world, who are we not to?

[53:00] Where do you get off hating anybody? Granted, it's love that is not returned. But you know what? God is used to that. There is no being anywhere that has been loved more and loved less, that has loved more and loved less in return than the deity who created us.

[53:21] And I've got to quit. I tell you, we're going to have some Q&A. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not finished, but I quit. Ethan, would you, okay, get our microphone back there.

[53:35] And if you've got a question, we've got, we've got seven whole minutes left. So if you have a question or comment, we would be glad to entertain it.

[53:46] And, um, maybe I'll get to my message next week. No, next week will be a different, next week will be more of a Christmas message. Well, today is a Christmas. Well, any time of the year can be a Christmas message.

[54:01] It's all. Yeah. Any comments or questions? Anyone? My goodness. If you don't, if you, you're going to turn me loose again.

[54:15] Okay. In the back. Yeah. I guess I, I know that, and I've heard you mention this a number of times about, why did, uh, God choose Abraham?

[54:29] And I, you know, I still don't know, but one of the things is I was reading through Luke and I noticed that Abraham is in the line to Joseph and he's in that whole line. And I wondered if that might have something to do with it because he was in that, that line of whatever genealogy.

[54:45] Yeah. Well, I'm sure. I, yeah, that's good point. Excellent point that you made. Um, maybe we could go so far. And I hadn't thought of it this. I hadn't thought of it in this term at all, but, um, yeah, you, you're probably onto something there because Abraham, Abraham was a direct descendant of Shem.

[55:09] And apparently that was the line God was going to use. And if you read about these boys, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and how they spread out over the earth, the tower of Babel and all of that good stuff, which is responsible for everybody being where they are now, you know, the Europeans, the Africans, the Chinese, et cetera, um, that, yeah, that, that does make a lot of sense.

[55:30] And, and it could very well be that for reasons not revealed, that God zeroed in on Shem.

[55:43] And he could have chosen Ham, or he could have chosen Japheth. But like I said, if God's going to choose anybody, he's got to choose somebody. And he did. And I'm sure he has reasons that we know not of.

[55:58] And then of course, Abraham as a direct descendant of Shem, and Jesus, the Christ is a direct descendant from Abraham and from David, the king.

[56:10] And if you want to read something, it's just mind blowing. Read those two genealogies in Matthew chapter one, which establishes the royal rights, the throne rights that Jesus has to the throne of David.

[56:28] And then read in Luke's gospel, which is a genealogy actually of Jesus through Mary, his mother. And it's just a, well, the article that I shared with you from Marv Rosenthal, it explains it better than I could.

[56:46] And it is masterful. It's just great. Get that article and you'll read it. We've got a few minutes left. Okay. Scott. Yeah. Not a question. Just a comment.

[56:57] Sheila's mom, Mary Rogers is doing very well. She was diagnosed with COVID several weeks back and has been on the prayer chain, but she has, uh, yeah.

[57:11] And she's 93 to boot at Oakwood, but she's done very well. And her symptoms were very much like, uh, bronchitis. And she expects Lord willing to be back with us next week.

[57:25] Oh, and she thinks you for her. Let's, sure. Thank you for mentioning that. Uh, Mary is 93. She, she must be pioneer stock.

[57:35] I tell you, uh, this is, uh, Mary is, is one of the sweet grace ladies, and she just might be the matriarch of the congregation at 93.

[57:50] And she is remarkable. And, uh, her husband was too. Uh, remember very fond memories of, uh, we call him Buck.

[58:02] His nickname was Buck Rogers. And, uh, well, he's written the book, uh, Buck and the Buffalo Nickel. And several of you read it. We circulated book, marvelous book. So that's, that's a great update.

[58:14] Good news about Mary. And it'll be a delight to see her again. I hope she's here next week. Anything else that you would like to mention or any other comments or questions? And if you've got a comment, that's, that's fine too.

[58:27] Uh, I don't want to keep you, uh, behind the hour, uh, 1130, because if I do, then it won't get on the CD because it runs out.

[58:38] Uh, uh, I think 70 minutes, 80 minutes, something like that. And people will be able to tune in this afternoon, a couple of hours later and get the audio of this message because of the efforts of Terry Fisher.

[58:54] And he's been doing this for years. He's our web webmaster and he takes care of all of these things. Does a marvelous job. And by the way, speaking of this content, I keep forgetting to mention this, but there are compact discs back there.

[59:10] And so far there have been, I think, 52 volumes. And each one has 21 segments on it.

[59:21] But each segment is just about three and a half minutes long. So each CD is roughly 65 to 70 minutes. And with there being 50 of them, there's over a thousand segments.

[59:36] And what we are trying to do, and the reason that it's called what it is, is called Christianity clarified. And I'm just trying to clarify Christianity. Because so many things are attributed to it that are not true.

[59:51] And we are simply trying to, we are simply trying to make the biblical case for Christianity, as opposed to the traditional case that many have added to it and so on.

[60:06] Christianity is grossly misrepresented all over the globe. And the distinction between the prophecy and the mystery is remarkable.

[60:20] And let me close with this, because it's something that will reinforce a little bit what we've said, particularly about baptism. And that is, with the Jew, and what is referred to as the plan and program of God under mystery, so very much is physical, material.

[60:38] God is talking to people in a face-to-face, upfront situation. And he did with Moses, and he did with Abraham, and he did with Joshua, and he did with so many.

[60:49] And you find this all throughout the Old Testament. But you don't find it in the New. Why is that? There's a very good reason. The emphasis is on physicality under the dispensation of prophecy and the Jew.

[61:05] And the emphasis is on the land, the land, the land, and the physical blessings, of which there were many, and the miraculous, of which there were so many, beginning with the plagues in Egypt, and the parting of the Dead Sea, or the Red Sea, and the manna from heaven, and all of those things that God provided for Israel.

[61:34] This is why the Apostle Paul said, the Jews require a sign. And he wrote to the Corinthians. And the reason they require a sign is because God accommodated them with signs when he first called them.

[61:46] And he showed them one miracle after another. But they didn't get much mileage out of it because it was always, yeah, but what have you done for me lately? You know? And, but you've got such a tremendous emphasis on the physical and the material.

[62:02] And, how physical is circumcision, men? How physical would that be? Well, as physical as it gets.

[62:15] But that too is part and parcel of what God was doing under the mystery, under Judaism. Everything was physical, including the H2O, the water.

[62:28] It was repent and be baptized. And that was H2O. And John, the Baptist that began preaching that, never said, repent.

[62:40] And it would be nice if you were baptized too. We would appreciate that. No. it was, baptism was part of the deal. You had to be baptized, water baptized, and John baptized, and Jesus' disciples baptized, in water.

[62:56] And then, along comes this guy named Saul of Tarsus, who becomes Paul the Apostle, and he actually has the audacity to say, God did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

[63:10] Well, what in the world is that all? And I had the good Baptist interpretation of that for years and years, and I used it. And the Baptist interpretation is, well, it is true that the emphasis is not on baptism.

[63:22] The emphasis is on preaching the gospel. And the water baptism is just an add-on, and if you're not water baptized, it's okay. But under the gospels, it is he that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

[63:38] And we would like to think, and my party line was, that I got from all my Baptist friends, and henceforth I repeated it, was that, well, it was putting an emphasis on, on the preaching of the gospel, not the baptism.

[63:53] And then Paul goes on and makes this statement, that really threw me. And he said, I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius. Well, what was that all about? If you know anything about Baptists, and, and, and I was married in a Baptist church, ordained in a Baptist church, baptized in a Baptist church, deacon in a Baptist church, and the whole party line.

[64:17] And when I first heard that, that was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. And then Paul makes this statement about, Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

[64:29] And I don't know who it was, but was somebody from the grace position said, Marv, do you think that the 12 would have been able to say that? That Jesus didn't send us to baptize, but just to preach?

[64:42] No, no, no. He says, you go, you preach the gospel, and you baptize them in the name of, and all I'm saying, the point that I'm making, and what I want you to think about, and I know if you, if you hear this and you reject it out of hand, I fully understand.

[65:00] So did I. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. But the emphasis is on the physical, the material of which water is a part, of which circumcision is a part, of which animal sacrifices is a part.

[65:17] It all belongs to the same package. But when you come into this thing called the mystery, which is made up of Jew and Gentile, in one body where there's no distinction made between them, and if you look at the Old Testament, there's a huge distinction between Jew and Gentile.

[65:39] But that's erased in the body of Christ. That's what the Ephesians 3 is all about. And we don't find the emphasis on the physical, or the material, or the miracles.

[65:51] Do you know? Sure you know. What Jesus was most famous for is His miracles. Wasn't He? Healing. Sight to the blind.

[66:02] Hearing to the deaf. Raise the dead. All of that good stuff. That's as physical as you can get. And when you come into this thing called the mystery, the emphasis moves from the physical and the material to the spiritual and the immaterial.

[66:21] What is that? It's different. It's different. And it's supposed to be different. Now, I don't want you to get to thinking that before that, in the prophecy and the physical, they were all wrong.

[66:36] No, no. They were right for where they were at the time. They were completely obedient, well, most of them, to God and what He required. But what we're saying is that changed. And now the emphasis is on the spiritual, not the physical, and the material.

[66:52] So the contrast is dramatic. And as you read the two, and you start thinking along this line, it just kind of jumps off the page and grabs you. Hey, this is really different.

[67:04] You better believe it was different. And listen, I want to close with this, because this is so important for you to remember. This is what the book of Acts is all about. It is moving from the physical and material under the prophecy section to the immaterial and the non-physical under the mystery faction.

[67:25] And the transition is taking place in the book of Acts. It connects the Gospels with the epistles. And in the Acts, you find some of both.

[67:38] That's why the book of Acts creates so much confusion in Christianity. And that's why we've got Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and Nazarene and Church of God and on and on and on it goes because each of them see that just a little bit differently and they put their emphasis in a different place.

[67:58] And the next thing you know, you've got a new denomination. And do you realize, 500 years ago, not long at all, 500 years ago, there were no Methodists, no Nazarene, no Presbyterians, no Lutherans, didn't exist.

[68:14] All there was was the Roman Catholic Church and splits and splinters of little groups who had more truth than they, but they had no size, no influence, no numbers behind them.

[68:28] All of this comes together, I tell you, and it is just absolutely amazing. Well, I've got to quit. Would you stand, please? Let's stand. Father, we're so thankful for what you've been willing to provide.

[68:41] And we know, we know that much of what has been said is new to some of these folks and we don't even ask them to agree with us. We just ask them if they would give serious consideration to these things before just rejecting it out of hand as so many are wont to do.

[69:02] We recognize that when we hear things that do not compute with what we've always believed or what we've always taught, we hold it with real suspicion and we probably should because we ought not to be eager to buy into anything that's new.

[69:18] We don't want to be like those who flit from here to there adopting and embracing every strange new doctrine that comes along. We pray for a spirit of discernment and wisdom and a willingness to search the scriptures and see whether these things are so.

[69:34] Thank you for this glorious season of the year despite the complication induced by the COVID. We are still so grateful that Jesus came and did what he did and changed our lives like he did.

[69:46] We'll be forever grateful. Thank you for this time together in Christ's name. Amen. Don't forget your handouts. You and you.