PART EIGHT
7. GOD WILL RESTORE ISRAEL WITH A NEW COVENANT. (Heb. 8:9-12)
Lets go over to Hebrews Chapter 8, in verse 9 it says.
| Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. |
Now does that sound like God’s bringing Israel back into the center of His will ? Yes, absolutely.
8. GOD IS THE GOD OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE EVEN WHEN THEY ARE GOING IN THE WRONG PATH.
In Malachi chapter 2, verse 16, it says
| For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. |
“The God of Israel.” Now Malachi was written at the time when God said, “I am fed up with Israel. I am really disgusted with them.” I mean if you want to look at a low point for Israel, Malachi was written right before a four hundred year period when there was no teaching priest, there was no prophet. It was written four hundred years before John the Baptist came along. So this is a long period of time that was meant as a curse upon Israel because they wouldn’t listen. And Malachi was the one who would seal this and say “Ok, this is what God is going to bring and this is your condition.”
But when he had addresses the people he still says “The God of Israel says this. He’s still your God Israel.” If God wanted to do away with Israel and replace them why was it that all the Disciples were chosen from among the Twelve Tribes of Israel ? There wasn’t a Gentile in the whole bunch. All of them were Jews. The Early Church was composed almost exclusively of Jews.
Lets go over to Acts Chapter 7. The Early Church was almost entirely composed of Jews. And what are they preaching to the Children of Israel ? Are they preaching that Israel is no more ? Verse 32.
| Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. |
And he goes on and then in verse 37.
| This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. |
Well, it doesn’t mean that they were going to hear immediately. It just says that they are going to hear. And no they weren’t too interested in hearing when Jesus was walking on the face of the earth. But that’s who He talking about and one day they will hear. There’s no question about it. The Bible predicts it. The earliest converts to faith in Christ by the message of John the Baptist, who were they ? They were Jews. Luke Chapter 1, verse 16
| And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. |
Now this is a promise that was given to John’s father Zechariah.
9. THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION SHOW THE ANOINTING OF THE JEWS FOR THE WORK OF GOD.
Revelation Chapter 7, Verse 3 says:
| Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. |
“Til we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Now if you believe Replacement Theology these servants of God could not have been Jews. Because God has no business dealing with them any more. According to Replacement Theology. But according to the Bible we read this in the next verse.
| And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. |
And then it names the tribes. Now let just share with you what this does. If you are in a church that is teaching Replacement Theology and they’re teaching the Book of Revelation, how do they get around this ? See you have twelve tribes that are named, so you just can’t say “Well, we’re all spiritual Israel,” because then you have a problem identifying who’s a member of what tribe. So they don’t do it that way, they symbolize everything. I caught somebody on this one time and I said “Well, symbolically what do those tribes mean ? I mean the tribe of Judah, Asher, what do each one of those mean ?” And they said “Well, there’s somewhere in the Old Testament where each of those tribes had a characteristic and that’s they type of people that would fit in to that particular group.”
I’m sorry for those who misrepresent the Scriptures. The Bible says what it means and it means what it says, and when it says twelve thousand out of each of the tribes of the Children of Israel, it’s out of Israel. These aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses either. This is out of the tribes of Israel.
10. JESUS INCLUDED THE JEWISH PEOPLE WITH HIS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.
The twelve tribes will be judged by the apostles. Matthew 19:28
By the way, one of the ingredients is that they say that there is going to be a distinction, and their doctrine is so contrary, it has so many loopholes. But they say that there is going to be a distinction between Israel and the Church, in the last days. Well, here we have something where there is a distinction and you know you have to take the Bible for what it says.
Either it’s this way all the way through, or it isn’t. It’s just like salvation. A lot of people want to chop it up and say Abraham go saved differently than we do, David got saved differently than we do. No, salvation has always been by faith. Old or New Testament, exactly the same way. It’s just that in the Old Testament they were looking ahead to the Lamb of God and in the New Testament and up until now we’re looking backward and saying “It’s already done, Jesus, our Lamb of God died and rose again.”
But we’re both saved by faith in the One Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, you know it’s interesting how they swap around back and forth to these different ideas. One minute there’s a separation, the next minute there isn’t a separation. One of their favorite verses is where it talks about the wall of separation being torn down between us. And some of you I’m sure have read that scripture, where it talks about the wall of separation between the Jew and Gentile being torn down. Well, that doesn’t meant that a person quits being a Jew or a Gentile. It’s talking about fellowship. It used to be that Jews and Gentiles (before they get saved) said a lot of ugly things against one another. They would discriminate, show hatred, and carry out acts of violence against one another.
But, when the wall of separation is torn down, it is talking about being part of the Body of Christ. And so it means that now both can be a part of the Bride until the Bride is completed, and Israel is grafted back in as the chosen branch to carry forth the Gospel. But now the Bible makes a clear distinction on one hand they’re saying that “Oh, we’re all combined, we’re all one. Except that Israel really isn’t a part of us because God doesn’t have anything to do with them anymore.” And then you come along with this thing that if we’re all one, how come there are verses like this ? Matthew 19:28.
| And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. |
Now, when is Jesus going to sit on the throne of His Glory and be able to reign over Israel ? It’s going to be during the Millennium when He returns bodily, right ? So this is a future event and if you’ll notice He says over the twelve tribes of Israel. He doesn’t combine them does He ? He doesn’t say “Oh, they’re all one. And we’re just going to boot out the Jews.”
You see ultimately, Replacement Theology, Kingdom-Now Theology, or Dominion Theology is Anti-Semitic and it will twist and pervert and be dishonest with Scripture to prove that the Jewish people have no place in the plan of God.
This false doctrine really creates a problem. Just as I mentioned before about someone trying to study the Bible. They look at the Book of Revelation. They try to study it, they come across that Scripture we were just reading about the twelve tribes, the 144,000. They come to that and say “Oh, well, we have to symbolize it.” Going by whose system ? Going by whose ideas of what the symbols mean ?
You have to take it for what it says. Can you see how people who go to churches like aren’t going to grow very much ? They’re not going to learn very much because they sit there and say “Oh, it’s symbolized ? Well, I don’t know what that means. Pretty soon, they are trying to symbolize the entire Bible, and get frustrated, and just give up on honest study. Or, then they just jump right over a passage of Scripture they don’t understand, rather than listening to the Holy Spirit. And pretty soon they end up jumping right over everything. And pretty soon they quit bringing their Bibles to church. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in most of those churches. They won’t even bring Bibles, they won’t even study at home. Why ? Because they say “Well, I can’t understand it.”
That’s what Replacement Theology does, because the truth is so evident, that God made an eternal covenant with Abraham. An eternal covenant with Jacob. It is so obvious that when you start denying it and say “Oh, it doesn’t mean what it says,” that the person who’s trying to grow in Christ then concludes, “Well if it doesn’t mean what it says then, man, I just give up. I don’t know what to believe.”
That’s what Replacement Theology does, because the truth is so evident, that God made an eternal covenant with Abraham. An eternal covenant with Jacob. It is so obvious that when you start denying it and say “Oh, it doesn’t mean what it says,” that the person who’s trying to grow in Christ then concludes, “Well if it doesn’t mean what it says then, man, I just give up. I don’t know what to believe.”
And so they just kind of come to church and dance around and say “Oh, I feel good today,” and they go home and what do they get ? Nothing. The Bible makes it so plain about the promises that God gave to Israel. And I would plead with you to be aware of the tentacles that reach out from this false doctrine. They are dangerous. They cause a subtle, hidden antagonism toward the Jewish people. And when that happens the Devil gets his way. Because of that promise that God gave “I will bless them that bless you, and I will curse them that you.” And those that curse the Children of Israel, they’re going to have a curse upon them. So the Devil gets his way, that’s what he wants.
So, it’s no wonder that so many people in the world today who consider themselves Christians are not growing. No wonder so many of them it seem just don’t have the fullness of the Spirit that they need. It’s because they have unwittingly been pulled into a false doctrine. That has brought upon them the condemnation of God. They didn’t even realize it. They didn’t want to get on the wrong side of God. But, it was the TV evangelist they saw, or it was the church they were going to, or it was some book published in the US or the UK that led them astray.
So we need to be aware of this, be understanding, because probably all of us have friends who go to churches like this and we need to be able to communicate with them from what the Bible says, and be able to show them the truth. And once they get that condemnation off from them, they’ll be able to grow, and be Spirit filled and be useful to God. Amen.