Podcasts about jewish god

Acts. 10:23-48, note especially verses 44-46. [Read in the context of Luke 24:49 & Acts 2:1-4, The Jewish Pentecost].The Jewish believers in Jerusalem, after the resurrection of Jesus, were admonished to be in quasi hiding which refer to as an “”upper room” (1:4, 2:1).. They were told to not go anywhere until they received “power from on high”” (Luke 24:49) or baptized, immersed, bathed in the Holy Spirit's power: only then go out in His direction and power(1:4). They were not told when this would happen or that it would happen in 50 days later, at the Jewish feast of Pentecost: note the word “suddenly”(2:1). The Spirit came in His time and manner and in grand fashion(read 2:1-4, The primary sign was “Other tongues”(Verse 4), not also verse 3, “Tongues of fire”. Tongues have to do with communication, Supernatural Communication. It's not just the words of the gospel preached but the anointing or power of the Spirit behind them even in their praying (1 Corinthians 13:1; 14:1-2).The time and manner for the Gentiles Spirit Baptism comes a little later in Acts 10 where God uses the Jewish believer, Peter, to reach out to the nations predicted in the Old Testament(Isaiah 49:6). Peter was not very opened minded so God had to give him a vision, or to open his religious mind; That Christ sacrificed is the cleansing, atoning for all people: 10:15 “...Don't call anything impure that God has made clean “(repeated 3x - he's a little stubborn). At this point the centurion's men came to beckon Peter: God thought their devotion to the Jewish God deserved the progressive revelation to them, Peter was doing a pretty comprehensive job(10:23-43), but spoke too long according to the Spirit who was eager to empower the gentiles, so He interrupted Peter - (See verse 43) and similar to Acts 2:1-4, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on them (verses 44-46)Notice that their experience was exactly like the Jewish Pentecost. Peter and his circumcised entourage were “astonished” and pleased when they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God just like them (see 2:1-4; also Galatians 3:26-29)The Spirit is depicted here as being very eager to Baptize them, but He couldn't wait for Peter to finish his verbal dissertation in the Gospel. Peter was convinced(note verses 47-48) at least for a time:consider the confrontation Paul had with him in Galatians 2:11-21. Peter's openness seems to have suffered a set-back in Galatia. He and we need to keep growing in our liberality towards those different from us.  What can we today learn from this powerful story in Acts 10:1)That God Prepares His people for further experiences in His Holy Spirit: a time of prayer and preparation (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4,8; Peter and all involved had to be prepared.Peter had to experience divine trance, or vision unrequested by him. He had to experience it; ex. To get him ready and be willing to go preach to the gentiles. Cornelius's household were devout and clearly open Acts. 10:1-7. More prepared than Peter pre-vision.II. God expects His people to be obedient even if what He asks of them is challenging. And He is willing to do His part, by His Spirit, to gift them to action: He did this to the early Spirit filled Jewish believers; He did it to Peter by His visions. THe promise of Luke:24:49 and Acts 2 is enacted through the book of Acts and Christian history by the Spirit's power we also need in our day in His time and manner.III. God is eager, is His time, to extend His call to the Gentile that He interrupts, even Peter's eloquent sermon. It's not only about his or our words, dogmas etc. it's by His Spirit(read Zechariah 4:4:6… Not by [human] might [only] but by my Spirit, says the Lord.Read also Acts 1:8Amen

There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right? Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Amazing Grace is Amazing." Now, our word for today from the Word of God actually comes right out of the Christmas Story. It's the story of God coming to earth really and it's found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware that the story of God coming to earth actually begins with a genealogy; a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's the most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way on down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you. "Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab? Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life. But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree - these are the ones you cover up. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation and a relationship with Him. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise - what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing there? We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who cannot be forgiven by Him. After all, Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today. But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand, my child." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins. That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want You to be my personal Savior from my personal sin." Go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him. Just go to ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.

Religions emphasize, in different measure at different times and for different reasons, belief/theology and practice/ritual/tradition.  Judaism, in general, is a religion that focuses more on practice than belief. And it famously has multiple ways to remain “tied in” to the ethnoreligious tribe: To be Jewish is to do Jewish religion, to be Jewish is to be a part of the tribal nation of Israel (as differentiated from the secular state today), and to be Jewish is to be a part of the tribe of Jewish people. Religion. Nation. Tribe.  Traditionally, you are a Jew whether you believe in God or not, but other religions aren't so forgiving on the point. Can you be a Christian without believing Christ is Lord? Can you be a Muslim if you don't believe Muhammad was a prophet? But you can deny God and remain in the Jewish people.  All that to say, when I was studying for conversion more than 20 years ago, one of my favorite books was not about the practice of Judaism, but the range of belief systems available to those under the umbrella of Judaism: Finding God by Rabbi Rifat Sonsino. When a student of mine said she was questioning the existence of the Jewish God, I offered her parents a few books to read with her, and one of them was this one. I was happy to see Rabbi Sonsino had updated the book as well as written others.  When I reached out to him, and this was me really reaching for the stands, I was thrilled to hear he'd talk to me about theology and his books. This podcast episode is the result.  If you're interested in Jewish theology and thinking about God in general, our conversation will be interesting and enlightening. If you, like Rabbi Sonsino, find the rational/scientific/modern world is quite impressive, and your ideas about God are flavored or curtailed by that, Rabbi Sonsino is your jam.  In the ideal world, you'd want to read more after hearing this. Great! Start with Rabbi Sonsino himself. His blog is free and updated at least monthly.  Want to dig into books covering the wide range of Jewish theology in Rabbi Sonsino's bibliography? Consider:  Finding God: Selected Responses (Behrman House);  or The Many Faces of God (Behrman House), which relies on wonderfully chosen direct excerpts from modern thinkers.  Interested in Rabbi Sonsino's own exploration of theology and the God-wrestling he describes in this episode? Try:  6 Jewish Spiritual Paths: A Rationalist Looks at Spirituality (Jewish Lights);  And God Spoke These Words: The Ten Commandments and Contemporary Ethics (Behrman House), a perfect one for Christians and Jews who draw from these teachings;   or, last but not least, his most recent book, A God We Can Believe In, co-written with Rabbi Richard Agler. This comes with a lengthy, free book-club-like set of discussion questions to put the book's content to work for you in rolling the idea of God around in your own head.  Whether you believe in God, believe in something god-like, or think the idea has outlived its usefulness, well, hear what Rabbi Sonsino has to say first ...  

There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right? Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Amazing Grace, Amazing Christmas." Now, our word for today from the Word of God, comes right out of the Christmas Story, is found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware of the fact that the Christmas Story begins actually with a genealogy - a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's this most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you. "Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab? Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life. But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree; these are the ones you cover up. This is scandalous. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here in the Christmas Story. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise; what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing in His family? We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who can not be forgiven by Him. Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today. But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, this Christmas season, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins. That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want the Savior you came to be, to be my Savior. You came into the world at Christmas. Come into my life this Christmas season." And, go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him - ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us this Christmas that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2018-04-11/ty-article-magazine/.premium/jewish-god-yahweh-originated-in-canaanite-vulcan-says-new-theory/0000017f-dc86-d3ff-a7ff-fda6aa390000?v=1698996960917 https://www.eoht.info/page/Yahweh https://pantheon.org/articles/y/yahweh.html https://www.thetorah.com/article/yhwh-the-kenite-god-of-metallurgy she comin... #2023 #art #music #movies #poetry #poem #food #photooftheday #volcano #news #weather #monkeys #climate #horse #puppy #fyp #love #instagood #onelove #eyes #getyoked #horsie #gotmilk #book #shecomin #getready

Jay Michaelson brings to life the charlatan and heretical Jewish leader Jacob Frank. The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jew­ish Mes­sian­ism to Eso­teric Myth - Winner, National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship. Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting scholar at the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. His most recent book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Antinomianism to Esoteric Myth, was published by Oxford University Press and won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship. Dr. Michaelson's scholarly work on Jewish mysticism and messianism has been published in journals including Theology and Sexuality, Modern Judaism, and Shofar, and anthologized in volumes including Queer Religion, Imagining the Jewish God, and Jews and the Law. Outside the academy, Dr. Michaelson is the author of nine books, including Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He directs the Hazon Jewish Meditation Retreat, and is authorized to teach in a Sri Lankan Buddhist lineage. He lives outside of New York City.

Lesson 48 Part 1 Adonai, the Lord, His name is probably pronounced Yahvay (there is NO "W" sound in Hebrew), has just completed giving the words of His Covenant (see Exod. 34:28) in Hebrew עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים Aseret HaDevarim or the Ten Statements or Words.  We know them as the Ten Commandments (NOTE: the phrase the Ten Commandments is not in the Bible only עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים Aseret HaDevarim).  It was an amazing event but the Lord now makes known to all of us that this event was beyond amazing, beyond miraculous.  It was incomprehensible.  It was beyond understanding.  There is more to this event at Mt. Sinai than we imagined.  I t had to do to what they saw the day God came to give them the words of the covenant.  What did they see?     More than that God shows us that the giving of the Ten Commandments is tied to His feast we read about in Acts 2.  It seems related to what the Hebrews SAW when God gave them the Ten Commandments.  In Acts 2 all the religious Jews, the Gentile converts to Judaism called proselytes, and other Gentiles who believed in the Jewish God and were called God Fearers, were celebrating God's “appointed time” of Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks.  In Greek it is named Pentecost.  It is so awesome to see that the words God inspired Moses to write in Exod. 20:18-26 and the words God inspired Luke to write in Acts 2 suggest a connection between Sinai and Jerusalem.  We missed of course since few of us have had Bible studies that focus on the Jewish culture in 1446 B.C., in 30 A.D. or studies that help us understand the Greek and the Hebrew.  But, the good news is that the Lord will not let this continue.  Today He is moving to bring us tools and teachers to take us deeper into His word.  In this lesson I mentioned a number of articles that sadly discuss that many Christian churches today neglect to teach the word of God.  It is one this to read the Bible but quite another to understand it.  An example is you read the Bible and you believe that Jesus is God.  OK, the Bible never uses the phrase, “Jesus is God” or Jesus never says “I am God.”  OK, so you read the Bible.  Big deal.  You now need a teacher to help get at how the Bible shows that Jesus is God.  So, one just can't read the Bible.  It needs to be taught.  Both are critical for all Christians.  And yet, many churches have given up on teaching the Bible.  Check out the superb articles at the links below. https://www.gotquestions.org/purpose-church.html https://albertmohler.com/2014/05/14/why-so-many-churches-hear-so-little-of-the-bible https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/02/17/whatever-happened-to-teaching-in-the-churches/ https://versebyverseministry.org/bible-answers/my-church-doesnt-teach-the-bible Rev. Ferret - who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0  

Show notes and Transcript... Dr Sebastian Gorka joins Hearts of Oak to discuss the latest bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Dr Gorka is a unique figure in the US media and political scene as he is originally a Londoner with Hungarian background which gives him a deep understanding of European culture and politics.  And as someone who served in the Trump White House he has seen many attacks from the left and from The GOP on DJT.  The most recent indictment (No 3) is just the latest attack from the establishment who fear President Trump more than anyone else. There is no end to their hate and fear of MAGA.  Dr Gorka also discusses election integrity and the lack of action to protect this process before moving onto the latest sorry saga in the Hunter soap opera (an appointed special counsel) and we finish up by looking at Dr Gorka's 2016 book "Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War" and why this topic is no longer part of the conversation. Dr. Sebastian Gorka was named as the newest Talk Show Host on the Salem Radio Network Platform, and began his show AMERICA FIRST on New Years Day, 2019. His ascent to this role could not have been more unusual, or more of a true “American Story.” To find out how it began, you have to go back to the 1950s, to Communist controlled Hungary. Hoping for freedom after the utter devastation of the Second War, the proud nation of Hungary was instead taken over by a Stalinist dictatorship subordinate to Moscow. One young man, who had suffered under the Nazis, decided to resist and so Paul Gorka created a secret Christian student organization to subvert the Communist stranglehold of his homeland. Paul was eventually betrayed by the British double-agent Kim Philby, arrested by the Secret Police, tortured and then given a life sentence for fighting for democracy and liberty. After two years in solitary confinement, two years down a prison coal mine, and two years in the central political prison in Budapest, Paul was eventually liberated by the brave freedom fighters of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. With the 17-year old daughter of a fellow political prisoner, Paul escaped across the minefields along the border of Western Hungary to a life of liberty in the UK, where Paul and Susan would be married and their son, Sebastian, was born. With parents who had lived as children under fascism and then escaped Communist Hungary, Sebastian was raised to love freedom. And his love of talk-radio developed early. As a child he would listen late into the night to the shows of the London Broadcasting Company with a small transistor radio under his pillow. It was with this special family background, and growing up under the influence of the Conservative warrior Margaret Thatcher, that Sebastian learned how to fight totalitarian ideologies, be they Fascism, Communism, or Global Jihadism. He would end up serving in the British Army reserve in a Military Intelligence unit, then after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the first freely-elected Conservative administration in Hungary. The after the 9/11 attacks he became a professor on a Pentagon-funded counter-terrorism program run out of Germany. In 2008 he moved to America with his family where he continued to work for the Defense Department and become a proud American citizen in 2012. He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from Corvinus University in Budapest and was a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In Washington, he served as Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at National Defense University and has also taught on the Masters program at Georgetown University. In 2020, President Donald Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board. This board provides strategic consultation and was established by congressional act in 1991. Dr. Gorka has briefed the CIA, the DIA, the US Navy Seals, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, served as an expert for the DoJ during the Boston Bombing trial, and testified before Congress on the threat of Global Jihadism. He remains a guest instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, at Fort Bragg, the home of the Green Berets. Connect with Dr Gorka.... X:  https://twitter.com/SebGorka?s=20 GETTR:  https://gettr.com/user/sebgorka TRUTH:  https://truthsocial.com/@SebGorka SUBSTACK:  https://substack.com/@sebastiangorka WEBSITE:  https://www.sebgorka.com/ Interview recorded 16.8.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share!   Subscribe now Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview coming up in a moment with Dr. Sebastian Gorka. You will, of course, know him from his media time, but also his time in the White House. But we start this conversation looking at his background. He was born in the UK, grew up in London, also lived in Budapest for 16 years. Hungarian is his first language, and he brings a unique perspective, I think, to the US, understanding UK and US culture and politics more than most others. But then we of course get on to President Trump and his latest indictment. Number three, he will need a trophy cabinet to collect these. We discuss what exactly is happening. We discuss election integrity. We discuss David Wise being the special counsel, on the Hunter Biden case. And then we end up with something completely different, looking at Islam or Islamism or Jihad. The first book I read of Sebastian was Defeating Jihad, The Winnable War. A lot to pack in, in 45 minutes.  Dr. Sebastian Gorka, it is wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you for your time.  (Dr Sebastian Gorka) Thank you for inviting me today.  Not all. And obviously, @SebGorka on Twitter, GETTR, Substack is there, Sebastian Gorka, America first, what, every day, Monday to Friday, 3 p.m. Eastern Time. There's a lot. And of course your latest book, The War for America's Soul, is out and available. Lots to discuss, but if I can mention your website on your merchandise. I loved it. sebastiangorkastore.com. First of all, your FBI, Fascist Bureau of Intimidation, but then your LGBTQ, which I thought was lovely. You looked well in LGBTQ, let's get Biden to quit. I loved it. Yeah, it's sad. The FBI t-shirt, Fascist Bureau of Intimidation is now our second hottest selling item on the website, SebGorkaStore.com. And even before that, I designed a mug. With a photograph of the Gestapo and an FBI agent in his raid jacket with the big letters FBI. And this was six months ago, or maybe it was after the raid on President Trump's home. And I said, you know, 80 years from Germany to the United States, the FBI, Biden's Gestapo. And my producer, who's a pretty forward-leaning guy, pretty hardcore conservative, he said, that's a little bit too much, Seb. Yeah, that's a little bit. That is like the number one item, because sadly, and this kind of, I don't wanna go into too much detail here, but before I joined the White House, I did a lot of work with the FBI. I trained them. I trained literally thousands of agents and intelligence analysts on the ideology of Jihad. That was my job with my wife. We had the only external contract providing that kind of training to the Bureau. And I was proud to do that. Now, after what the FBI has become, raiding the homes of pro-life ministers, raiding President Trump's home on a trumped up garbage documents charge. If the FBI knocked on my door right now, Peter, I'd tell them, go talk to my lawyers, sod off. I mean, this is what has happened to America under the radical leftist neo-Marxist cabal that is today's Democrat Party. Its bonkers and I want to end with that touch on the Islam on the jihad because Defeating Jihad was at the first time I came across a book by you and I remember, it is this book here Defeating Jihad, fantastic book but we'll we will end off on that but if I can maybe start with, I mean you don't you don't need an introduction even for a UK audience, it's your, but you're not the typical, U.S. media or political personality. Your military, national security and political background is British and European. Do you want to touch on that because that sets you apart from many others? Yeah, I appreciate it. So yeah, I've had a pretty crazy whirlwind of a career. My parents escaped communist Hungary during the revolution in 56. My father created a secret Catholic student's organization in college to undermine the communist takeover. He was betrayed by Kim Philby, one of the Cambridge Apostles, one of the worst traitors of the Cold War. He was arrested at the age of 20, tortured and given a life sentence in a political prison. After six years, he was liberated literally by the revolutionaries who captured a Soviet tank in 56. And with the 17-year-old daughter of a fellow prisoner, he escaped to the West over a minefield, They made it to the UK. A few years later, they were married and those are my parents. I grew up in the UK, speaking Hungarian. My first language was Hungarian. I learned English in preschool and kindergarten. Hungarian is a difficult language. It is, yeah. According to the State Department, it is the hardest non-pictographic language. So if you leave out Chinese and Korean, it's the hardest non-pictographic because it's not related to anything. You can learn the Romance languages, the Indo-European languages. It's irrelevant. it is this kind of Martian language in the middle of Europe. I think it wires your brain differently. It's good for cognitive capacity if you can speak that language and other ones. Then in college, so I went to London University. In college, a buddy of ours used to disappear every two weeks and wouldn't come out drinking with us. One Friday, I said to him, dude, you're coming out with us this weekend. He said, no, I can't. Where are you going? And he refused to tell me. And I said, well, I'm not going to let you go unless you tell me where you're going. And he said, I can't tell you, but why don't you come with me? And I was this long-haired philosophy and theology student. I had hair down to my chin and kind of like on a bet, on a dare, I said, oh, okay. So I followed my buddy to this unmarked building in downtown London, this red brick building. And it turned out to be the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Reserve. So the intelligence cause TA element in London, and it was selection weekend. And I was given a pair of overalls with about 30 other people. And I'd driven in a lorry to the middle of nowhere. And I did selection for this weird iconoclastic bunch of eccentrics in the intelligence core. And I loved it. I mean, linguists, interrogators, photographic interpreters. So I joined the territorial army intelligence core in college, loved it. Then the whole communist system collapses. And because I spoke Hungarian, French, German, and English and had served in a British military unit. That parlayed itself into a job working for the first conservative, freely elected government in Hungary. So I ended up working as an assistant to the deputy minister of defense, helping the former Warsaw Pact Hungary get into NATO. So, that was milestone number two. And then just to cut it short, 9-11 hits, I had a bit of background in counterterrorism. And I'm invited to teach on a Pentagon-funded counterterrorism training course out of Germany. There's this beautiful base the Americans never gave back to the Germans after World War II. It's called Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Marshall Center. And for four years, I would commute between Budapest and Bavaria. And I teach counterterrorism to a group of international officers. And eventually that translated to me and my American wife and our kids moving to America. I became a U.S. citizen, a professor of irregular warfare at National Defense University, at the Marine Corps University. And the last kind of milestone is the book you held up. The book, Defeating Jihad, got onto people's radar screens and helped me to get a job in the White House working for President Trump. I was deputy assistant to the president for strategy based upon all the work I'd done in counter-terrorism. And now I have a national radio show, And God's been very good to me, Peter. Funny, from Ealing to Budapest to D.C, it's quite a journey.  Can I, because in the US, I think probably from my point of view, there's only maybe Steve Hilton and Raheem Kassam who have an understanding of what happens over in Europe, both in being heavily involved in politics in the UK. So you're kind of a fish out of water there, and see things quite differently. I mean, the whole election integrity stuff, I know watching the votes coming in in London many times, it is a paper ballot. We would never consider an electronic voting machine. So you see things quite differently that way. Well, I do. And I'm kind of galled by the fact that, look, there's only one flag on the moon, and it's America's flag. And there's six of them. So we managed, out of all the nations on God's green earth, to send men to the moon half a dozen times. And we can't have modern elections run in ways that are fitting for a superpower. I mean, think about it. We don't have voter ID. In many states of the union, you don't have to prove who you are when you go and vote. You say who you are. They look up your name and your address. And if you can confirm the address in the big record in front of the poll worker, you're given a ballot and you vote, which is asinine. Democrats say showing an ID at the polling station is voter suppression of minorities, which of course is the most bigoted thing you can say because you're saying black people and brown people are too stupid to get a driver's license is really what the Democrats are saying. And not only that, thanks to COVID and many other things, we don't have an election day. Here in Virginia, I live just outside Washington, D.C. in Virginia, which is now run by a conservative governor, but even he has failed to change the fact that in the Commonwealth of Virginia, this probably shock your listeners, and if you don't believe anything I say, please do look it up. We have 45 days of voting. We vote for a month and a half before the election, which is just asinine. I mean, Mexico, which is in the midst of a drug-fueled insurgency, has voter ID. India, with a billion people, has voter ID. And the fact that we can't count our votes on election day and it's one day, and we don't have voter ID, it tells you why things like 2020 can happen. Okay, let's talk about President Trump. We've just seen another indictment. I'm kind of thinking he's gonna have to have a trophy cabinet of all these indictments because they're building up. What on earth is going on? Well, yeah, he posted on his social media site, Truth Social, last week after the third indictment here in Washington, DC. He, you know, tongue-in-cheek, he said, well, one more indictment and I've got this election sewn up. It's insane, I mean, utterly insane. And he's right. I mean, every time, you know, they drop another, you know, facetious, false indictment, his popularity actually increases. What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. President Trump is a force of nature. In 2016, he got 64 million votes. Four years later, after being called a racist, a misogynist, an Islamophobe, a Nazi, and a white supremacist for four years by the mainstream media, he got 10 million more votes, which is unheard of. He got 74 million votes, the most of any incumbent president in history, despite the fact that the Democrats mailed out 81 million ballots to be not voted on on election day, but to be filled in by somebody somewhere and then posted back or dropped into collective ballot harvesting boxes. So despite all of the shenanigans, he gets more votes than any incumbent president. Now they don't have COVID, to have that cover of mailing out ballots, and they're very worried. The Uni-party, and look, I said this when I was in the White House. I said it when I left the White House, Donald Trump won despite the Republican Party and not thanks to the Republican Party. He is a deadly threat to the vested interests of the Uni-party, as Steve Bannon calls it. Why? Because he's not owned by any of their special interests. He's not owned by the Chamber of Commerce that owns the GOP. He's not owned by Big Oil or Big Pharma. He's not owned by the unions like the Democrats are. He is a clear and present danger to the quote-unquote political elite that just wants to control the lives of 330 million people, irrespective of what those people want. So, you know, the Democrats have to put him in prison. He's now, depending on which poll you look at, Peter, he's 20 to 40 points ahead of his nearest rival, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. I mean, he is the de facto Republican nominee, and in the latest polling, he's beating Biden as well. So they're just desperate. They are throwing everything at him. This latest indictment, I know your listeners probably won't watch it or read it. This latest indictment is so Kafka-esque. It's so KGB tactics. They have indicted Mayor Giuliani, one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, who put five Mafia dons in prison when he was a prosecutor in New York prior to becoming the mayor of New York. They have indicted him for conspiracy because he retweeted a tweet saying, please call your state representatives and senators to request a special session so we can verify the results of the election. That tweet is deemed to be a felony by this woman, this prosecutor in Fulton County, who by the way, a little bit of a delicious tidbit, is the daughter of a former Black Panther extremist. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up. They have to stop him because he's not controlled by them.  And I mean what happened to Rudy was intriguing living through 9-11 watching America's mayor as he became and absolutely loved and yet because of his support for Trump the establishment just turns on him. I mean apart from Trump that he is the biggest example of the lunacy of the establishment. Yeah I mean look at you know go back and just Google 9-11 and Rudy Giuliani, and you'll see the cover of Newsweek, the cover of Time. He's standing there at ground zero on the pile of rubble. He's getting the New Yorkers back on their feet after 3,000 Americans and others were murdered by jihadi terrorists. And now he's some kind of traitor who should be given 200 years in prison. But look, it's not about Rudy. I mean, it happens to everybody. It happens to me or anybody else who works for the president or supports the president. But look at what happened to him. Remember Donald Trump five years ago. No, no, let's go six years ago. Let's go 10 years ago. Donald Trump was loved by everybody. I mean, rap singers rapped about being the Donald. You know, he would have lauded cameo appearances in, you know, Home Alone 2, the movie. He had, for 14 years, the most popular reality TV show in America. The Apprentice was the most popular reality TV show in America. He was loved. Everybody wanted to be the Donald. Everybody. The second he comes down the escalator, The second, he says, I'm a conservative and I want to be your president, he's the devil incarnate. This tells you what you're dealing with. This is who the left have become. This isn't your grandfather or even your father's Democrat party. Strong national security, pro-life, Catholics. The likes of JFK or Scoop Jackson, they would not be allowed into today's Democrat party. Today's left is open borders, if you're white, you're an oppressor, America is bad. This is what we're dealing with. So I've long said on my radio show, forget political labels, forget little r or little d, it's not conservative or liberal, it's not Republican or Democrat. The dividing line today in America and for much of our civilization is whether you love the country or not. If you love America, then you're in one tribe. If you hate America, then you're going to vote Democrat. Think about Obama, and it all starts with Obama. Obama said what during the election campaign? He said, I am going to fundamentally change this nation. Now, I don't know if you're married, Peter, but imagine if you said to your wife, I'm going to fundamentally change you, right? I don't think your wife would be too happy. You don't fundamentally change anything you love. You fundamentally change things you don't like or you hate. This is the perverse situation our civilization is in. We are being lorded over by people who hate the countries they come from and the civilizations they live in. I mean, translate it into another sector. Imagine you're a businessman and you utterly detest Coca-Cola. Why would you want to become the CEO of Coca-Cola, right? I mean, I don't know how these – it's perverse. Why would you wish to be in charge of that which you detest, unless, of course, you want to destroy it? Well, we're seeing that self-hatred across Europe, all on the left, where the left has abandoned its working class roots and become part of this woke agenda. But then the whole MAGA is a pushback on that and it's something different. It's not just the normal Republicans wanting states to be read. It's actually winning back the country and as someone in the UK it's fascinating watching the rise of the MAGA movement that puts your own country first which should be the norm. Yeah, I mean, think about it. You are lambasted. People are literally cancelled if they're public figures and they put on a red hat with the, letters M A G A. And what does that hat say? Is it a swastika? Is it the hammer and sickle, which would be fine, of course, for the left? No, it means make America great again. So you must be excoriated. You must be completely isolated and shunned from polite society if you want to make your country great again. I mean, it's truly beggar's belief, and again, it's not politics. I don't read autobiographies. I don't have the patience for autobiographies, but there's two. If you want to understand what's happened to America, there's two that I can't recommend more, and they're really life-changing, especially Andrew Breitbart's Righteous Indignation. His book on how as a drunk, mindless student at Tulane University, he suddenly became a conservative because he saw what they were doing to a black judge because he dared to be a nominee to the Supreme Court, and a conservative. This is the Clarence Thomas hearings. And chapter six of his book, Righteous Indignation, if you want to understand what the left has become, he paints it all from Antonio Gramsci in an Italian prison cell all the way through the Frankfurt School to Alinsky to Clinton to Obama. It is a masterpiece. So his book, Read Righteous Indignation. If you want to know what happened to conservative politics and to America, I was in the White House and it was Thanksgiving weekend and my boss Steve Bannon said, hey, you've got to read this book by J.D. Vance called Hillbilly Elegy. And I'm like, not interested. My wife had a copy of it. And it was Thanksgiving weekend. Went away for the long weekend. And I read the whole book that weekend. And the interesting about J.D. is, he's from a hillbilly family. He's from a real country, working class family. And he was no Trump supporter. When he wrote this, he was not a fan of Trump. Now he's a very Trumpian senator in DC. He's one of only two senators out of a hundred that I'll let on my show because he's a citizen politician, not a career politician. And in his book, which you can read in two days, three days. He just chronicles what happened to the working class in America through the eyes of his family. So how the people who literally built America, who travelled from Tennessee, from Kentucky to Ohio, became the factory workers, facilitated this incredible blossoming of prosperity and freedom after World War II, how basically the Republican Party took a massive dump on them 50 years ago and said, we can make stuff cheaper in China, we can make stuff cheaper in Mexico, we don't need factories in America, and consciously destroyed these families and said, yeah, fentanyl, who cares about fentanyl? Who cares about working class overdoses? We need to get the next shareholder meeting to demonstrate double digit growth for our companies. So this is why MAGA, this is why Brexit, this is why Maloney, this is why Modi. Because it's not party politics, it's people saying, you know what, my nation matters, and the people who built that nation matter, and we don't want to have career politicians who don't give a crap about the will of the people who say, I will represent you, become elected, and then do the polar opposite of what they were elected to do. So it's not about President Trump. It's about a global phenomenon, of the recrudescence of national sovereignty. And it's so fascinating that, you know, the word populism is a dirty word, which is, you have to stop for a second. Populism? You mean policies that are popular with the majority of the people, that's bad. If that's bad, you're either a communist or a fascist. And by the way, let's be clear, fascism is a left-wing policy. If you look at who Mussolini was, who invented fascism, it wasn't Hitler. The fasces is an ancient Roman symbol. If you look at the fact that he was an ardent communist before he invented fascism in the 1920s, you have to understand what these people are, whether they're AOC, whether they're Bernie Sanders, or whether they're Obama, whether they're you know, Klaus Schwab. These are fascists. No completely. We're seeing, actually it's exciting, the rise in populism, with many populist parties doing extremely well in Europe, until the poll, until the election, often in Spain, once we're going to have a majority with the party on the right, and suddenly they don't get that. Now the AFD, they're discussing banning the AFD because they're polling second in Germany. It's kind of the same tactics that we're seeing in America, more brazen, but we're seeing those same tactics to silence populism in Europe as well. Yeah, there's, this isn't well understood, so how we got here and what happened in 15 and 16, I strongly recommend to your viewers, there's a genius level guy who's been on my show several times, he was the head of cyber for the State Department in the Trump administration, His name is Mike Benz, B-E-N-Z, and you should get him on your show. I'm happy to connect you. And Mike Benz kind of, he made the light bulb go off for me because he explains, and he has a website called the Foundation for Freedom Online, where he has all the receipts, all the documents, all the inside video conferences from, you know, the global elitists admitting what they're doing. And Mike Benz, his huge contribution is the following. The foreign policy elite, which is totally Uniparty, right? I mean, let's be clear. The Republicans, the Democrats, when it comes to being a global police and blah, blah, blah, there's been a unanimity on that since the 1990s. And the foreign policy elite, quote unquote, built a complete superstructure to target and undermine populism abroad, whether it's Orbán in Hungary, whether it's Brexit with Obama coming and telling the British, you better not vote for independence because you'll be at the back of the queue, giggle, giggle, right? So for 30 years, they've created a system to undermine populist movements in other countries saying, oh, that's not good for us. So let's have a system where we're funding these NGOs, undermining conservatives because they're scary and fascist. And then what happened after 30 years of building this infrastructure to target the likes of Orbán or Brexiteers, when Trump comes along, what do they do? It's like the gun turrets of the ship turn from facing outwards to facing inwards. And the quote-unquote disinformation tools, the censorship tools, were targeted against populists at home. Again, do not take my word for it. Go and look at the unclassified documentation of how the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were meeting with Twitter executives in Palo Alto on a weekly basis to have individual accounts deleted. How the story of Hunter Biden's laptop, which is, you know, all of the crimes of the Biden family, was suppressed by Palo Alto. And when that story broke, when the Hunter Biden laptop story broke four weeks before the election in 2020, you know, I tried to retweet it on my account. You couldn't, if you cut and paste the link onto your Twitter and you try to press post, it would refuse to post. Now that, you know, that's okay, I guess, I guess if you're trying to undermine an election in Cuba, but if you're doing it at home in front of your own citizens, that's when the light bulb goes off and you realize, yeah, these are fascists using fascist tools to control information to what end? Not to protect us from some boogeyman, but to maintain their grasp on power. Well, let me ask you on that issue, because I think a few days ago, program was sweetheart deal, David Wise is now special counsel. And I was trying to scratch my head trying to understand this because it seemed to be good, but then why is this happening now? For what reason? What is Biden playing at in putting this in play now? And then it was really David Wise was good, then not. So what is happening on that? But we've had Miranda Devine, Garrett Ziegler. We've discussed the stuff on Hunter, but suddenly this appears out of nowhere. Well, it's very easy to explain why, because they have to protect the Biden's for the next 15 months. I mean, remember, David Weiss is the Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. attorney who investigated Hunter Biden for four years, waited until last month to give him a sweetheart deal with universal immunity that he didn't disclose to the judge, and the judge exploded in Wilmington, Delaware, to give him a universal immunity deal on the felonious handgun purchase, the non-payment of taxes. He waited for all the other crimes to expire past their five-year statute of limitations. So he's the guy who's protected the Biden's for five years. And now, because of the pressure on the Biden's, his boss at the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, makes him, quote-unquote, special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden even further. Why? Well, very simply, if he's still under investigation, you can't ask questions about him in Congress. That's the buried lead. If an individual is under quote-unquote active investigation, when the attorney general is next testifying in front of Congress, and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee says, We want to talk about the $20 million that was sent to Hunter Biden from China and then split up amongst the family, including Joe. The attorney general says, excuse me, Mr. Chairman, this is an ongoing case I cannot comment. So it's just blatant political top cover from an existing biased individual. And by the way, it's also fascinating, if you read the statute, the statute in black and white says a special counsel is appointed when there is conflict of interest. The reigning regime, because of their implied connections, cannot fairly investigate a case. You hire somebody from outside of government. You find a lawyer, an attorney, a judge who's not part of the federal government to be the ombudsman, to be the fair investigator. You can't hire your flunky deputy from Wilmington. So the whole thing is in contravention of statute itself. But why? Because they have to protect Biden for the next 15 months. On to, at CPAC, I heard many of the candidates speak, except DeSantis, and I heard him speak in Florida a month before at CNP. And as much as I love what DeSantis has done in Florida, but my thinking is if Trump is in the ring, you don't get in the ring. You can't win. And like some of the other candidates, they're maybe looking for a position in the White House. DeSantis thinks he can beat Trump or, I mean, explain that because Trump has an unassailable lead. Why would you be crazy enough to step into the ring and try and beat him? Well, look, ego. I mean, why are people like that fat embarrassment, Chris Christie, or losers like Asha Hutchinson that nobody's heard of? Why are they running? Or Mike Pence. Mike Pence's political career after January 6th is dead. I mean, it is forever dead. The guy who said 48 hours, I played the video on my show multiple times last week, the guy who says two days before January 6th. Yes, there were serious problems with the election, and we're going to find out, and I'm going to do my duty as president of the Senate. And then he caves, the yellow belly completely collapses. That guy, nobody's, anybody who supported President Trump, or 74 million of them, none of them are going to vote for him, who ran and hid. So why the heck is he running? So there's a saying in Hungary that these are the people who if they jumped off their ego onto their IQ, they'd be committing suicide. So a lot of these people, it's just totally out of touch ego. For Vivek, who's been very deferential to President Trump, but has said, look, there are people who will vote for me who won't vote for Trump, which is fine. You can say that. But he's the guy who went to Miami the day of the president's arraignment, said, if I'm elected, I'm going to pardon President Trump. And he's sitting there with a truth social hat on, President Trump's media app. This guy is playing it very smart. I had him on my show multiple times and said, Vivek, you're not going to win, But I'd love to see you as the Jared Kushner of a second Trump term. You're an incredibly successful private business entrepreneur. You should be the innovation guy in the next Trump cabinet. So he's playing a very canny game. When it comes to DeSantis, I said on my radio show maybe two years ago, or at least a year and a half ago, if he's smart. He comes in as the vice president. He supports President Trump, he runs with him, and then in 2028, he just slides into the top slot. If he knows what he's doing, that's what he does. And he has just, it's like, you know, during the Vietnam War, it's like there's peace protesters that poured gasoline on themselves, poured petrol on themselves, and then, you know, self-immolated. This campaign has self-immolated for a couple of very clear reasons. Number one, and even off the record, his fans will tell you this, he's a charismatic black hole. I mean, he has no charisma. I think he's on the scale. I think he's a little bit on the scale and he doesn't have, he has a little bit of that autistic incapacity to socialize. That's why his wife is essential. His wife is this beautiful, charming, erudite woman. She kind of makes up for his complete lack of charm. So number one, you gotta charm voters. Number two, his, I call it his honour deficit. I mean, what he said on the Monday after the brag, the New York indictments were leaked against President Trump was appalling. I mean, just utterly appalling. He made two quips about, I don't know about hush money for porn stars, giggle, giggle, right, as the governor of Florida. And then he says, I'm not gonna get involved because I've got business in Florida. Hey, dickhead, President Trump lives in Florida. Look at the map. Mar-a-Lago is in Florida. He is a citizen of the state over which you preside, and you're not gonna get involved. And lastly, if you know his backstory, the most galling of all, he's a former JAG. He's a former member of the Judge Advocate Corps, which means what? He's a former military prosecutor. Of all people, the probity of the judiciary should be of importance to him. And he says, I'm not gonna get involved. When a prosecutor in Manhattan deletes the statute of limitations. Expunges it so he can charge President Trump with something that happened years ago that didn't happen, and you don't have an opinion? I mean, utter, utter honesty and integrity deficit. And you know, the dumbest thing of all? All he needed to say, just one sentence, this is an outrage and it should outrage all conservatives and I will not stand for it as governor of the Florida, of the state in which President Trump lives. One sentence and he would have looked like a leader. And then one additional thing, I'm not sure percentage wise, but for a lot of people who care about foreign policy, his utter U-turn on Ukraine was a disaster. When he says on, I think it was Tucker's show, So, we don't care about this, it's not relevant, he gets a lot of crap, and then 72 hours later he says, oh yes, Ukraine is important, dude. This is the only thing you had to prove something on, okay? You've been running Florida, you've got a little bit of domestic credentials, the one thing you have to convince people of is your foreign affairs national security credentials. When you do a 180 on war in Europe, not a good look, not a good look. What are your thoughts on how we've seen three indictments, as I said, the more they do, the more Trump's support goes up. And I guess every MAGA wants that mugshot of Trump because what they're trying is not working. His support going up and they thought they could I guess embarrass conservative voters to make them think he was too toxic. It's not working and yet they keep trying. Do they keep on that tactic? Do they try something else? Because at the moment it's not working.  Well look you're trying you're trying to get me to, channel lunatics. What they're doing isn't rational. What they're doing is. When you believe, I mean, let's just say one example. This individual has been labelled by the left, by Democrats, and by the mainstream media, the mainstream media, as a Nazi and a white supremacist, as an anti-Semite. This is the man who, after 23 years of broken promises from Clinton to Bush to Obama, 23 years of presidents saying, yeah, yeah, we're going to move the embassy, broken promises for 23 years, President Trump comes in and says, yeah, we're going to move the embassy and we're going to recognize Jerusalem. That guy whose daughter converted to Judaism, whose grandchildren are Jewish, he's the anti-Semite? I mean, it is a cult. I mean, TDS used to be a joke. Trump derangement syndrome, we threw that around as a joke. It's not a joke. It's a clinical condition. When you accuse a man of being a dictator. Who did nothing dictatorial, in fact, had the most open administration ever, was giving impromptu press conferences for 40 minutes as he's getting on Marine One, the helicopter, That guy's a dictator?, but the people you voted for are literally sending teams of armed FBI agents to bust down the door of a pro-life preacher in Philadelphia in front of his seven screaming kids. But that administration, they're the good guys. So I can't, look, my job, my whole life has been strategy. That's the thing I do. That was my title in the White House. That's based upon reality, empirical evidence, on logic. I can't tell you what their strategy is because it's based upon rank hatred, recuperation, and just irrationality. I mean think about this every indictment, every indictment has made him more popular and raised him more money. I had Lord Black on my show yesterday, Lord Conrad Black, and he said, he made this point that kind of like, boom, you know, kind of obvious, but yeah. Nothing they've done, nothing they've done has hurt him. Zero. So why are they doing it? Because they're insane, and because they think that if they can actually put him in prison, they can get Biden re-elected. And the joy of it all, and this is what I say with some, you know, frequency on my show, is the other side, they're evil bastards. I mean, really, if you are okay with having a 14-year-old girl, healthy girls, breasts removed in the name of transgenderism or chemically castrating a 12-year-old boy because he thinks he's a girl. If you're okay with that, you're actually demonic. I mean, you are pure evil in league with the dark one. So no doubt, evil, cunning evil bastards. But they're also stupid. This is the nice thing about... It's also dangerous because stupid people can be dangerous, but they're really dumb. They don't have a Newt Gingrich. They don't have a Victor Davis Hanson on their side. Thank the good Lord, all right? I mean, they're really dumb because they haven't even read the Constitution, Peter. The Constitution of the United States is pretty clear about who can be president. You have to be in your 30s. You have to be 35 or older. You have to be a natural born citizen, born to Americans. You don't have to be born in America. That's not correct. You have to be born to American citizens and you have to be a permanent resident in America for at least the last 14 years before the election. That's it. You can be a felon. You can have been charged and convicted of crimes that would lead to 400 years in prison. It doesn't matter. You can still be the president. That's how stupid they are. I just want to finish off on the book I mentioned, obviously your latest book, The War for America's Soul, I think that was 2019, and that is available. But I said at the beginning, defeating jihad, the winnable war. Just to finish, just on a completely different subject, the issue of, and for years I've studied Islam, for 10, 12, 13 years, and it's that cultural clash between the freedoms that Islam has and the freedoms the West have and then jihad, Islamism coming out of that. And it's not a topic that seems to be on the table for discussion a lot. And I was intrigued going to CPAC and it wasn't even mentioned and yet that is a threat just as China is a threat, just like many other issues are a threat. And I wanted just to finish on kind of your thoughts on that and why it is not part of the mainstream discussion. Well, it's not part of the mainstream discussion here in America, and for a very good reason. I mean, think about it. ISIS was on the front pages for years and years and years. I mean, American citizens being beheaded on video, the Yazidi Christian hostage-taking, Jordanian fighter pilots being burnt alive in cages. People forget ISIS was a thing. This was the biggest jihadi insurgency in history. I mean, they controlled multiple countries in the Middle East. And when we came in, we said no. President Trump said, unleash Special Operations Command, unleash Fort Bragg, unleash Delta, and get the stinking lawyers out of the way. I mean, like Shakespeare said, kill the lawyers first. We got the lawyers out of the way, and what happened? We have been told by Obama that ISIS is a generational issue. You're just going to have to suck it up and live with it. He actually said a generational issue. President Trump said, no, kill them all. Within five months of us coming into the administration, the caliphate, the caliphate of ISIS had ceased to be. People forget that. I mean, who talks about ISIS now? Nobody because we let our boys give them all a dirt nap. That's why it's not on the radar screen. Does it mean it's over? No, absolutely not. Does it mean that there won't be jihadi attacks in America because this administration is letting 6,000 illegal immigrants across the border every single day? You think you got it bad with a couple of rubber dinghies in the channel? Try 6,000 a day. We've had at least 40 people on the terrorist watch list come across the border that we know of, that we know of. So I'm not saying it won't come back. Why it's not on the radar screen? Because of the bloody good job our guys did back in 2016 and 2017 and 2018. But no, if you want to understand the threat of jihad, you have to understand that... The biggest lie since 9-11 is that they're not Muslims, right? That Al-Qaeda and ISIS are not Muslims.  Well, no, that's actually a lie. Read the Quran. Read chapter 9, verse 29. Hunt down the infidel after the holy month and kill them all unless they surrender. That's not Seb Gorka speaking. That's not Bin Laden. that's actually the word of God as quote-unquote dictated to the illiterate merchant Muhammad you know in Medina in Mecca 1400 years ago. The idea that these are perversions of Islam. Yeah you're an apologist for those who are living a very pure form of Islam because who was Muhammad? He wasn't quote-unquote the last prophet. Muhammad was, if he existed at all, he was what? He was a warrior. He is a man who went to Medina and literally wiped out a whole Jewish tribe, literally wiped out whole Arab polytheistic tribes. To the last man jackal, he killed them. That's who Muhammad was. The idea that it's the religion of peace. Well, then learn Arabic. Islam doesn't mean peace. It means submission. Submission to what? To the will of Allah. And what kind of God is that? It's a very different God from the Jewish God. It's a very, very different God from the Christian God. It is a God of zero relationship to the believer and a man, not a man, a deity who can be utterly capricious. If Allah says murder is good tomorrow, it's good. And he can change his mind the day after and say it's bad. He's not truth. God for Christians is the good. There's no such conceptualization of the good. You're not allowed to describe God, right? You're not allowed to talk about his essence. That is blasphemy. To say that you know God, or you are in relationship with God is totally haram. It is total blasphemy in the Islamic faith. But these are the ground truths that you're not allowed to talk about. But people need to read the Quran, read the Quran, read the reliance of the traveller, read the actual Muslim texts about Muhammad, and then understand why... Here's the last example. Why? There's no such thing as an Arab motorcar. Not only is there no such thing as an Arab motorcar, Peter, there isn't an Arab bicycle. Think about that. That tells you about what this deformed theology has done, to knowledge, truth, and science. The best book on all of this, and it's a short read, it's about 250 pages, is my friend Robert Riley's The Closing of the Muslim Mind. His discussion on the deformed theology that explains why Al-Qaeda, why no Muslim bicycles, Why 9-11? It is mandatory. It was one of the texts I made mandatory for the officers that I trained when I was still a professor.  Dr. Sebastian Gorka, I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. God bless all of you, all of your viewers. Thank you, Peter. Keep doing what you do.

Feminists have long held that God must be a woman, particularly because many of our ancestors lived in matriarchal communities. The atheistic non-faith of progressive activists suggests, with sacrilegious intention, that God is either dead or a combination of both male and female, i.e., androgynous. Traditionalists say God is a man. All of these views fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the universal hermaphrodite, however, believing that IT is something of gender or sex. God could not be anything further from this delusional perversion of the esoteric. By male and female it is to be understood that God is THE ALL. Creation is thus the separation of ONE into MANY. When these ideas leave philosophy they can be used by zealots to horrid ends. Recently the Archbishop of York said that we should stop using the word ‘father' to refer to God, something liberal feminists agreed with, stating: “because Jesus called God ‘daddy', we think we have to call God ‘daddy'.” In contrast, conservative Christians criticised the Archbishop for taking his “cue from culture rather than scripture”. Both are incorrect. The fact is that we call God what is familiar to us and if we have poor relationships with women or men we refer to God as the opposite. It is no different than calling the ocean ‘she' or a car ‘her'. God's identity is largely determined today by tribal notions rather than universal notions of nature. The Jewish God is the best example of a deity with human attributes and emotional outbursts. God is MANY from ONE, and therefore GOD is HE, SHE, and IT, all at the same time, and yet none of these things likewise. God is only a hermaphrodite when men and women copulate as in the Yin-Yang or Yab-Yum.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5328407/advertisement

Joe and Matt are back at it again. Bobby is still on the lam, so Kelly Taylor is here along with guest, from the Risqué Business Podcast, Mae Planert! They talk about Cape Cod, Joan Rivers, and Braille. Mae gets called racist on Twitter, Kelly's family hates Bon Jovi, Matt has an idea for a Shallow Hal Remake, and Joe stands up for Roseanne. Jewish God vs. Christian God, Quakers vs. Shakers, Kids in Florida watching gay movies. This episode has it all!Support us on Patreon for bonus content:https://www.patreon.com/JustSomeLockerRoomTalk?fan_landing=trueTwitter:@L0ckerRoomTa1kInstagram:@justsomelockerroomtalkSpotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/38on5DGj89NZiyhinsPdrK?si=Xze0Edt5S_SrBYsR9BKUwA&nd=1iTunes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locker-room-talk/id1611681173Joe GormanTwitter and Instagram: @JoeWGormanMatt MaranTwitter and Instagram: @REALMattMaranBobby SheehanTwitter and Instagram: @BobbySheehanLOL

Scripture Reading: John 20:24-21:8 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!”26 Eight days later the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.” 28 Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”30 Now Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. Now this is how he did so. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael (who was from Cana in Galilee), the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of his were together. 3 Simon Peter told them, “I am going fishing.” “We will go with you,” they replied. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.4 When it was already very early morning, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 So Jesus said to them, “Children, you don't have any fish, do you?” They replied, “No.” 6 He told them, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they threw the net and were not able to pull it in because of the large number of fish.7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” So Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, tucked in his outer garment (for he had nothing on underneath it), and plunged into the sea. 8 Meanwhile the other disciples came with the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from land, only about a hundred yards.Main ThemesDoubting ThomasIf you have ever heard of the Apostle Thomas in a church setting, you have probably heard him called “Doubting Thomas.” This scene in chapter 20 is the reason. When Jesus appears to the apostles, Thomas was missing. Later, when the apostles inform Thomas that they had “seen the Lord,” he refuses to believe “unless [he] see[s] the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put[s] [his] finger[s] into the wounds from the nails”! Otherwise, “he will never believe it.”Before we judge Thomas too harshly, I think his response in chapter 20 has to be considered in light of his devotion to Jesus earlier in the gospel. Remember chapter 11:So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. 7 Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?” . . . Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas (called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.” (John 11:6-8, 11:14-16)Thomas was ready to die for Jesus. Thomas was as committed to the cause, if not more so, than the other apostles. The death of Jesus had to be devastating for him. Not only did Thomas lose a beloved friend and teacher, he lost his purpose in life, his biggest hope, and his object of faith. Thomas must have been confused and unwilling to trust again.Notice also that Thomas's unwillingness to believe is paradigmatic of John's gospel. Through the story, many only believe after witnessing a sign. “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves.” (John 14:11) Many will not believe without a sign. “So Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe!'” (John 4:48) The sign in chapter 20, however, is different. This is the definitive sign that should lead beyond the “signs faith” we have seen earlier in the gospel to a deeper, permanent faith.Jesus Meets ThomasEight days later, meaning the next Sunday (what we would call seven days later), the apostles are gathered again. The doors were locked and Jesus “came and stood among them.” We discussed the detail of locked doors last session. The fact that Jesus is not contained by such measures hints to heavenly properties of his glorified body.The timeline described in chapter 20 suggests that the disciples remained in Judea for longer than the Feast of Unleavened Bread, perhaps waiting for Pentecost.As Jesus did when he appeared to the other apostles, he opens with a comforting statement, “Peace be with you.” Then Jesus addresses Thomas and his demand for proof. “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.” This is a beautiful moment. Jesus could have chastised Thomas. Indeed, Jesus could have cast him out. However, Jesus continues his mission to invite all to believe.Notice the proof that is demanded and provided. Thomas puts his hands in Jesus' wounds, confirming this was the same Jesus who died. There is no trickery. Jesus is not a ghost; Jesus is not merely the apparition of a god (like the Greeks may have envisioned). Jesus is Jesus, body and all. He is resurrected in the flesh.Thomas's unbelief is not particular to himself. In the gospels, other disciples and apostles doubt as well. Some of them request the very same proof that Thomas requested. Consider the following verses (all post-resurrection):So the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16-17)Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed like pure nonsense to them, and they did not believe them. (Luke 24:10-11)Then some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” So he said to them, “You foolish people—how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. (Luke 24:24-27)While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified, thinking they saw a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; it's me! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones like you see I have.” (Luke 24:36-39, emphasis added)Perhaps we should reconsider casting only Thomas as the “Doubting Disciple.”The Christological ConfessionAs Thomas sees, he no longer ‘continue[s] in [his] unbelief, but believe[s],” leading to verse 28. Verse 28 is arguably the climax of the entire Gospel of John. This is what the whole story has been building towards. Jesus has taught; Jesus has died; Jesus has been resurrected and come again; the Holy Spirit has been granted; the apostles have believed; and, what is the conclusion? “My Lord and my God.”Why is this statement—my Lord and my God—climactic? As commentators show, it closes the inclusio that begins with verse 1:1. Study note 52 in the NET Bible explains this well:With the proclamation by Thomas here, it is difficult to see how any more profound analysis of Jesus' person could be given. It echoes 1:1 and 1:14 together: The Word was God, and the Word became flesh (Jesus of Nazareth). The Fourth Gospel opened with many other titles for Jesus: the Lamb of God (1:29, 36); the Son of God (1:34, 49); Rabbi (1:38); Messiah (1:41); the King of Israel (1:49); the Son of Man (1:51). Now the climax is reached with the proclamation by Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” and the reader has come full circle from 1:1, where the author had introduced him to who Jesus was, to 20:28, where the last of the disciples has come to the full realization of who Jesus was. What Jesus had predicted in John 8:28 had come to pass: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he” (Grk “I am”). By being lifted up in crucifixion (which led in turn to his death, resurrection, and exaltation with the Father) Jesus has revealed his true identity as both Lord (κύριος [kurios], used by the LXX to translate Yahweh) and God (θεός [theos], used by the LXX to translate Elohim).I need to emphasize the importance of Thomas using the words Lord and God in one statement. The word translated as Lord in English is the word kurios in Greek. Kurios can be used as a generic title of authority. However, kurios is the word that Jews used to translate the name of God in the Old Testament—Yahweh. So, in a Jewish setting, the term kurios takes a distinctive nature.The word translated as God in English is the word theos in Greek. Theos means god, and it does not necessarily refer to the Jewish God. Context is needed to determine to which god the word theos is referring. But, just like kurios was used in a particular way to translate the Hebrew scriptures, so did theos. Theos was the word used to translate Elohim, the Hebrew word for god or gods. In the Old Testament, Elohim was most often used to refer to the Jewish God. (Elohim could be used in a more generic sense. The identity of the particular god being referenced would be determined by context.)Here's the kicker though. Any ambiguity regarding the terms kurios and theos is obliterated when they are paired together. The use of the two words—the kurios and theos—is a distinctive and unmistakable reference to the Jewish God. It appears countless times in the Old Testament and it is translated with those exact Greek terms in the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament that was already available at the time of Jesus).Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us and we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3, emphasis added)[F]or I am the Lord your God, and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44, emphasis added)Also, in the time when you rejoice, such as on your appointed festivals or at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may become a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God. (Numbers 10:10, emphasis added)I am the Lord your God—he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery. (Deuteronomy 5:6, emphasis added)When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! The Lord is the true God!” (1 Kings 18:39, emphasis added)When Thomas calls Jesus, “my Lord and my God,” he is calling Jesus God, the God, the God of the Jews, the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, the great I AM! This is the great confession that Jesus “was with God,” and “was fully God.” (John 1:1) Notice as well that Thomas's statement is clearly confessional. Jesus says, “believe,” and this is Thomas's response. One cannot believe in the Gospel of John and believe that Jesus and Yahweh are separate gods. This is the great truth of the Gospel.Blessed Are the People Who Have Not SeenJesus does not reject Thomas, but Jesus does clarify one point. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”Thomas had the privilege of touching the hands of Jesus to make sure his wounds were there and even extend his arm into Jesus' side! Most believers do not have that opportunity. Except for the first few apostles and disciples, only people who have had a dramatic revelation from God can claim a similar experience. For the most part, Christians must believe without seeing.Notice two things. First, believing without seeing is not believing without evidence. Sadly, many people today, including Christians, use an incorrect definition of faith that is exactly that—believing without evidence. However, think of the disciples during the time of Jesus' resurrection to whom Jesus did not appear. These disciples, the ones to whom Jesus did not appear, had to believe based on the testimony of their fellow disciples. And that's not all they had. They had the scriptures that spoke of a coming messiah; they had Jesus' ministry that was filled with miracles; and, they had the general revelation in the world that points all mankind to a personal creator. Moreover, they could observe the change in behavior of the disciples (including the apostles) who saw Jesus. That is not believing without evidence, that is believing without seeing.Think of all the things you and I believe without seeing. I believe Mongolia exists. Why? Someone told me so. I believe that vitamin C improves the immune system. Why? Because someone told me so. I believe that in the 1400 and 1500s there was a renaissance of interest in the Greek and Roman classic disciplines. Why? Someone told me so. In fact, most things we believe we do so without seeing.The second noteworthy fact is that Jesus gives us an unexpected beatitude. There are only two beatitudes in John—so we ought to pay attention. Jesus says blessed are those “who have not seen and yet have believed.” This would have made sense to his Jewish audience. For example, as Craig Keener points out, “in one tradition a proselyte is more praiseworthy than one born a Jew because he converted without the signs at Sinai.” I think this is intelligible for us as well. Imagine two children. One cleans his room because his mom offers him 10 dollars. The other cleans his room simply because his mother asked him to do so. Blessed is the child who cleans his room without a bribe. It demonstrates a humility of spirit.This beatitude, to be clear, does not reject signs-faith. But signs are not always available, and when they are they do not guarantee faith. Recall:Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted. (John 6:26)Then many of the people, who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done. (John 11:45-46)Many More MiraclesJohn ends chapter 20 by pointing out that many more miraculous signs were performed that are not recorded in his book. Ancient texts often spoke with similar praise towards the hero of the story. But is there reason to believe that John's statement is more than a mere compliment? Certainly. Throughout John's gospel we are told of the many works Jesus was performing that were not being specifically recorded. Consider the verses we just read, but let's add two more verses:Then many of the people, who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.” (John 11:45-48)Moreover, the other gospels describe miracles that John did not record. So, yes, Jesus did perform many other miraculous signs, “which are not recorded in this book.”This begs the question, why did John record the miracles he did and leave the other ones out? Before we answer that question, we must keep in mind the media with which John was working. He probably wrote the gospel on a scroll. There was only so much writing space in a scroll. To expand the book into a second scroll severely minimized the chances that whole book would be preserved (the scrolls could be separated) and made copying the book more difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Like writing a college paper, John had a word limit. He had to leave material out. So, how did he choose what to include? “[T]hese are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”John wrote his book that we may know who Jesus is—the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah) and the Son of God—and that by believing we may have life “in his name.” It makes sense. Jesus' words are only true if he is who he said he was, the one and only (meaning one-of-a-kind) son of God. If his words are true, then we can rely upon them. Jesus said that those who trust him will have eternal and abundant life and become children (i.e., heirs) of God. And how shall we become heirs? In his name, by claiming that Jesus met whatever requirements needed to be met to gain that status.As Craig Keener puts it:Thomas had been a disciple; he was prepared to die for Jesus (11:16) and to follow where he led (14:5); but his faith was insufficient (20:29). Only when Thomas embraced the full testimony of the resurrection and offered the climactic christological confession that Jesus was Lord and God (20:28) had he become a developed model of faith for John's audience. John is calling his audience to a full confession of resurrection faith: Jesus is God in the flesh, and therefore his claims cannot be compromised, for synagogue or for Caesar. John will settle for no faith less secure than this. Further, while Thomas's faith by sight is accepted, the faith without sight expected of John's audience is greater (20:29; cf. 2 Cor 5:6–7; 1 Pet 1:8). It is grounded in the beloved disciple's testimony sampled in the Gospel (20:30–31), confirmed to hearers by the Paraclete (15:26–16:15). (Keener, Craig S.. The Gospel of John : 2 Volumes p. 1216)As a quick side note, the verb tenses in verse 20:31 and some variations in the manuscripts have led scholars to debate whether John's book is meant for coming to believe or to continue to believe. Put another way, is the book for proselytism or for encouragement? The aorist subjunctive tense found in the general text supports the former conclusion, the present subjunctive found in the critical (and older) texts supports the latter conclusion.Epilogue: A Later Addition?Many regard chapter 21 of John as a later addition. Why? The arguments are either for stylistic reasons or because the chapter is anticlimactic.The stylistic argument is so weak, one is hard-pressed to “steel man” it. The chapter works as a literary unit, which could indicate it was not part of a larger narrative, and it uses special vocabulary, e.g., regarding fishing. However, the reason the chapter uses special vocabulary—that is, vocabulary not used elsewhere in the book—is because it deals with a novel scene, fishing. Moreover, the variation of synonyms in verses 15, 16, and 17, the double “Amen” in verse 18, the phrase “this he said, indicating” in verse 19, and the name “Sea of Tiberias” in verse 1 are distinctly Johannine. Consequently, most scholars today no longer think there are stylistic reasons to believe chapter 21 was a later addition.The second argument, and truly the main argument, against chapter 21's authenticity is its anticlimactic nature. The argument generally claims that the main motifs of John's Gospel find their conclusion in chapter 20, therefore chapter 21 is unnecessary and probably a later addition. If the argument is to be persuasive, one would need to establish that an ancient author like John would have ended a book immediately after its climax. Yet, this is plainly not the case. For example, the most popular book in the Greek East was the Illiad. The closing book of the Illiad (book 24), recounts Priam's rescue of Hector's body, and is completely anticlimactic. Moreover, we know that ancient authors were probably writing on scrolls. The author generally wished to use the entire scroll, so he might add some “bonus” information after the natural conclusion of his book if there was any room left.We know of some ancient books that had a final chapter added illegitimately. The reason we know that is because those chapters are not cohesive with the books in which they were included and they even reverse the authors' views. Chapter 21 is in line with the rest of John's gospel, and it even provides a supplementary view on ecclesiology.Whereas we have good reason to believe, for example, that the longer ending of Mark was not originally part of the book, there is no good reason to believe that about chapter 21 of John.Fishermen in GalileeChapter 21 opens with several disciples fishing in the Sea of Tiberias—that is, in Galilee—at night. The primary occupation near the lake was agriculture, but fishing was also an important industry. The other gospels mention the fact that several of the apostles were fishermen. John does not mention that detail until the very end.We often hear the disciples described in somewhat derogatory terms as ignorant, uneducated, backwards fishermen—like the stereotype of the modern redneck or hick. This may seem like a detail, but I wish to clarify that that characterization is not entirely fair.For example, the “sons of Zebedee” had a fishing enterprise, with employees and all.Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1:20)Peter and Andrew seemed to have formed a business partnership or cooperative enterprise with the sons of Zebedee.For Peter and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's business partners. (Luke 5:9-10)Moreover, all these fishermen were Jews. They would have been educated on reading, writing, Hebrew, and the Old Testament scriptures since they were young boys. My point is, the redneck stereotype does not generally involve a bilingual, perhaps trilingual (they probably knew Greek), maybe even quadrilingual (if they knew some Latin as well), person who has spent hundreds of hours reading, interpreting, and memorizing text. (By the way, this is not meant to be an insult on so-called rednecks. I am simply using the stereotype to make a point. In my experience, I have found the average “redneck” to be smarter than I will ever be.)The apostles were fishing at night, which was not unusual. Some sources imply that night fishing may have been more profitable than day finishing. Not only could the catch be better, but the fisherman could sell his catch first thing in the morning, getting a jump on his competitors. Night fishing, when fish were more prone to be in deep water, would be done with a dragnet between two boats, unless a second boat was not available. When fishing on shallower water, a circular throwing net was used.Apostasy and Weird FishingSome commentators critique the apostles as apostates, inferring that the apostles had given up on their commitment to follow Jesus and had returned to fishing. This criticism, although plausible, is not intimated in chapter 21. It is an assumption by the commentators. We need to keep in mind that the story of Jesus happens in the real world, where people need clothing, food, and shelter; they need to make a living and, so-to-speak, pay bills. For example, the Apostle Paul kept making tents to sustain himself financially (Acts 18:3). The apostles probably kept fishing for the same reason.When Jesus approaches the fishermen, he uses the common idiom to ask fishermen or hunters whether they had any success. He phrases the question expecting a negative answer. A modern example would be, “The fish weren't biting, were they?”Then Jesus asks the apostles to “throw [their] net on the right side of the boat.” The oar would generally be on the right side of the boat, so the net would be cast on the left. If we are understanding the scene correctly (i.e., the set up of the boats and the net being used), then Jesus is asking the apostles to fish in an unusual way. This request would fit the general Johannine narrative.The apostles throw the net as Jesus tells them and suddenly are not able to pull it in because of the large number of fish caught in it. The story works as a lesson in obedience and God's plan and provision. As the chapter progresses, we will learn that it implies God has a plan to reconcile men to himself and the apostles need merely follow that plan.Naked Peter?When Jesus' fishing plan works miraculously well, the apostles recognize Jesus. Peter exclaims, “It is the Lord!”, tucks in his outer garment, and swims to shore. Verse 21:7 could imply that Peter was working completely naked. Although this is possible, it is not in line with Jewish inhibitions. The term naked (“nothing on underneath it,” gymnos) often referred to having on little clothing or being less than fully clothed. But Peter had his outer garment, i.e., his full clothing, available and makes sure to grab it before leaving the boat. Perhaps Peter wanted to put it on once he reached shore so he could be dressed properly once he met up with Jesus. Perhaps, given the inconvenience of getting his outer garment wet, Peter was recalling Jesus' action of service.Because Jesus knew that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, he got up from the meal, removed his outer clothes, took a towel and tied it around himself. He poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel he had wrapped around himself. (John 13:3-5)Once Peter meets up with Jesus, the final scene of the Gospel of John begins. We will cover that in our last session.

In this episode, Barbara takes us on a trip down memory lane. She gives us a glimpse into her childhood, sharing many of the ups and downs that she faced along the way. She talks about how when she entered adulthood she felt like the rug was pulled up from under her and how she had to hustle to stay afloat. And then she shares the quest she pursued in search of a feeling of home and where she ended up landing. This episode highlights Barbara's road of healing and so much more.Barbara Heller is an award winning songwriter, podcaster, filmmaker, and educator.  She is also a published author, playwright, and voice over artist.   Subscribe to her award winning podcast See One Beautiful Soul. Barbra leads "Meditate & Create”  Workshops that Ignite Great Healing and Wonderful Creations from the hearts of her students and colleagues. She is committed to making this world more mentally well, safe, and comfortable for all ages!You can grab some of Barb's original guided mindful meditations here. Email her at info@BarbHeller.com for more information on her Classes, Coaching and Workshops!

A tragic helicopter accident yesterday took the lives of two WBTV employees. A pilot and meteorologist with the WBTV news station in Charlotte died in a helicopter crash around noon Tuesday in Charlotte, off Interstate 77 South. Just after 3 p.m., WBTV confirmed that the victims were meteorologist Jason Myers and Sky3 pilot Chip Tayag. In a piece at Persuasion, Michael Ignatieff writes: Consolation has also lost its institutional setting. The churches, synagogues, and mosques, where we once consoled each other in collective rituals of grief and mourning, have been emptying out. If we seek help in times of misery, we seek it alone, from each other, and from therapeutic professionals. They treat our suffering as an illness from which we need to recover. Yet when suffering becomes understood as an illness with a cure, something is lost. The old traditions of consolation were able to situate individual suffering within a wider frame and to offer a grieving person an account of where an individual life fit into a divine or cosmic plan. Such frames remain available to us even now: the Jewish God who demands obedience but whose covenant with his people promises that he will protect us; the Christian God who so loved the world that he sacrificed his own son and offered us the hope of eternal life; classical Roman Stoics who promised that life would hurt less if we could learn how to renounce the vanity of human wishes. A prayer for our WBTV colleagues: Lord, please grant peace, comfort, and support to the families, friends, and colleagues of James and Chip. May they be surrounded by love and kindness in their time of grief and pain. May their memories be celebrated and bring solace. We know this will be a very difficult time… losses are felt more acutely during this time of year… as they are for so many people. We pray for your people - our brothers and sisters – for strength and consolation… and assurance that they are loved.            Get exclusive content here!: https://thepetekalinershow.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acts 16:13-15 ESV 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. LYDIA, THE FIRST CONVERT IN EUROPE It was divine appointment that Paul and team met Lydia. However, it should have not happened should they didn't go where people were gathering by the riverside. It was place of prayer in Philippi where they found women praying during Sabbath. They looked for an opportunity to proclaim the word[gospel]. Normally, when entering a new city, Paul attends the local synagogue and waits for an opportunity to speak (see also Acts 13:5; 18:4). And, there was a requisite ten Jews needed to maintain a synagogue. Most probably, there were not enough Jewish men in Philippi to open a synagogue there. All it had was a group of women who worshiped the Jewish God and met on the Sabbath at the river to pray. Paul and team had no idea who among the ladies would the Spiriit would convict until Lydia responded upon hearing the word preached. Indeed, faith comes by hearing the word[Rom 10:17]. God had rerouted Paul and friends and also ensured that Lydia would be in the right place at the right time to encounter Paul and hear the good news of Jesus. Definitely, the Lord had opened her blinded heart to believe the gospel. Let's not forget that ‘the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.'[2 Cor 4:4] But, God is light so that he could open eyes and dispel darkness. [1 John 1:5] Lydia was from the city of Thyatira, who was a seller of purple goods, must be a wealthy businesswoman. Thyatira was famous for, being a center of indigo trade. Lydia apparently had moved to Philippi to ply her trade in that city. And, she was a worshiper of God. Was Lydia a Jewish woman because she was worshipping God during Sabbath or a Jewish proselyte. What could we learn from her story? We see the sovereignty of God in salvation. As Jesus has claimed, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44). She and her household were baptized. The gospel is too good not to be shared to her household. Moreover, we also see the immediate bond that a new believer has with other believers in Christ. Lydia showed hospitality to Paul and the team, and she wouldn't take “no” for an answer. Interestingly, the early church was filled with "firsts." The church in Jerusalem was the first church (Acts 2:1–4). Cornelius and his household were the first large group of Gentiles to come to faith in Christ (Acts 10:44–48). The church in Syrian Antioch was the first to be home to large numbers of Gentiles (Acts 11:19–26). The church in Philippi was the first church in Europe, and the first documented to start with a Gentile household, and the first that began with a woman. ------------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

Acts 15:6-11 ESV 6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” AN UNNECESSARY YOKE At Jerusalem, the church leaders [apostles and elders] met together in order to deliberate about the issue that Paul and Barnabas had raised. The "apostles" mentioned here are believed to be the ten remaining disciples of Jesus plus Matthias who replaced Judas.[Acts 1:26] James had been martyred.[Acts 12:2) The elders were presumably lay leaders of the church in Jerusalem. They would be Jews who had been taught directly by the apostles, or, possibly, by Jesus before His ascension. What was the particular issue debated? That, the Gentiles should be circumcised in order to be saved aside from trusting Jesus according to some Jews. After much debate, Peter stood up. He clearly explained that the Gentiles could believe the gospel and be saved as any Jew like them. That, the Holy Spirit also was given to them, so that they too could be born again. They could be born again so that there won't be no distinction between them and have their hearts cleansed their hearts by faith. This was the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy that Peter quoted, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,”[Acts 2:17] Notedly, Peter had witnessed firsthand the conversion of Cornelius and his household. They don't need to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. All his prejudices against were erased. There was no doubt anymore in his mind. Peter had agreed with Paul, Barnabas, and the other representatives from the church in Syrian Antioch. A church that is largely comprised of Gentiles who had not previously worshiped the Jewish God as Cornelius had. Clearly, Peter went on to say that even Jews were never able to fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic law. Everyone, Jew or Gentile, can only be saved through grace alone. Thus, he said, “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” [v.10,11] In short, this is an unnecessary yoke. For those who are freed in Christ are free indeed. -------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

Acts 14:24-28 ESV 24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples. FOLLOWING UP THE BELIEVERS On their way back home in this first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas revisited their new friends. From Derbe, they could have crossed the Tarsus mountain range and taken a short boat ride. Instead, they backtrack through the cities where they have established churches to give more instruction and select leaders (v.23). Thus, they passed through Pisidia to Pamphylia to Perga to Attali and to Antioch, where they were commissioned. They knew that preaching the gospel and making converts is not enough to establish strong local churches. The new believers need leadership, more training, and answers to their questions (v. 22–23). They know they can't directly pastor every church they plant. They must trust that God will equip local people to take on leadership roles so the church can grow. The qualifications for elders are given in 1 Tim 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9, but other notes can be found in Jas 5:14, 1 Pet 5:1–4, and Heb 13:17. Push forward, Paul will visit these churches again on his second journey, meeting Timothy in Derbe of Lystra (Acts 16:1–6), and his third (Acts 18:23). He'll also write the book of Galatians to make sure the Gentiles understand they are saved without following the Jewish law. Paul's job is to establish the churches well. It's the Holy Spirit's work to keep them. Paul and Barnabas have arrived home in Antioch of Syria after spreading Jesus' offer of salvation and establishing churches in the territory of Galatia in central modern-day Asia Minor (Acts 13:1–3). This is the first report of Gentile followers of Jesus, who had not previously worshiped the Jewish God in Europe. The first was in Syrian Antioch. God has promised Abraham that He would bless the world through him (Gen 12:3). Isaiah prophesied God telling the Messiah, "I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isa 49:6). God's plan was always to save Gentiles as well as Jews. -------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

Mordecai and JD speak with the fascinating Sara Yoheved Rigler. We learn about her spiritual journey from conservative Judaism to living in an ashram and being introduced to the life of the soul. She explains how the Hindu goddess of death brough her back to the Jewish God, and how she is currently fulfilling her purpose in life.You can find Sara at her website: sararigler.comTimestamps0:01-3:52                 Sara Yoheved Rigler Introduction5:13-19:52              From Brandeis to the Ashram19:55-28:00           Spirituality28:01-30:25           Humanistic Psychology: God as The Most Noble Part of a Human Being30:51- 39:34          Religion of Law or a Religion of Love?39:35- 47:39         Thank God for 5 Things You've Never Thanked Him For47:32-54:13          Religion of Detachment vs Religion of Connection54:14- 1:02.15      Goal of Judaism1:04.39-1:11.19   Sara's God-Given Mission

Acts 7:1-8 ESV And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.' 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,' said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.' 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. ABRAHAM, THE SOJOURNER In his defense that he desecrated the temple, Stephen brought them back to their historical background. Stephen confirmed his own Jewish faith starting from their forefather, Abraham. The God of glory had appointed him several hundreds of years before the temple was built. Abraham was one of three sons (one died) of a man named Terah who lived in a town called Ur on the Euphrates river in modern-day Iraq. Ur was home to the Chaldeans, a people-group that included Nebuchadnezzar several hundred years later. God called him to leave and go to another land that God would give unto him and his descendants. Thus, Abraham, his wife Sarah, Terah, and Abraham's nephew Lot left Ur and traveled up the Euphrates to Haran, a settlement in modern-day eastern Turkey. There, Terah died (Genesis 11:27–32). After Terah's death, Abraham followed God's call to leave Haran and head south into the land of Canaan. Eventually, this land became Israel, but not yet. God has promised Abraham his descendants would possess this land even though he had no son and would never possess it in his lifetime (Genesis 12:1–3). Abraham traveled as a sojourner around the area. His descendants became slaves in Egypt for 400 years. It wasn't until the time of Joshua that God gave Canaan to the Israelites as their inheritance. Stephen reminds his accusers that in the time of their forefathers, including Abraham, the twelve patriarchs, and the Jews who spent four hundred years in Egyptian slavery, the temple didn't exist. The distinguishing mark of the Jews' separation from the world was the circumcision (Genesis 17:9–14). It was God's covenant for Abraham that His promise would happen. The tabernacle and the temple came later, to confine the worship of God in a way meant to exclude any pagan practices. In summary, Stephen was explaining to the Sanhedrin and the crowd in Jerusalem that neither the Mosaic law nor the temple are required for Jews to worship God. The first Jewish God-worshiper, Abraham, did not inherit the land where his descendants were in order to worship God, did he? He did not have a temple to worship in, in the first place. And he did not have a law to tell him how to worship. And, yet, he is the founding patriarch from whom all God-worshiping Jews come, including Stephen's accusers. -------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

Acts 2:5-13 ESV 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” THE NEW WINE As the Holy Spirit descended and alighted unto the disciples, they began to speak in tongues. The Jewish pilgrims, who were devout men from the neighboring nations heard them. Devout means "pious and dutiful." This covers religiously observant Jews as well as proselytes (Acts 2:11). A proselyte is a Gentile who worships the Jewish God in the Jewish way, to the point that he agrees to become circumcised. When applied to a Gentile, "devout" or "righteous" may mean he follows Judaism but is not circumcised. Why were they bewildered when they hear them? As they come together, each one was hearing them speak in his own language. They were hearing the mighty works of God from the disciples. Apparently, their speaking in tongues are languages the disciples spoke which they haven't previously learned. The understanding of what "speaking in tongues" means is a controversial topic today. Many think it is a special language that only God can understand. Passages like 1 Corinthians 14:2 seem to say speaking tongues is uttering "mysteries in the Spirit." This passage is clear that when someone is inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, they are speaking an established, earthly language. It was a miracle. The multitude, perhaps close to a million, was comprised of people speaking diversely to about 15 distinct languages as recorded. All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Indeed, they were both right and wrong at the same time. Firstly, they were wrong for they were not drinking wine. On the other hand, they were right because being drunk with wine is a metaphor of being filled with the Spirit. Paul said, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”[Eph 5:18] A drunk person who is controlled by the spirit of the wine will display a different behavior and attitude much different than when he is not. These disciples were not anymore timid as before. They were bold in their witness for Jesus because of the control of the Spirit. -------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

This episode seeks to understand the origins of the Jewish God, Yahweh. How does a low-level national deity become king, reigning over all other gods and deities. What events helped promote him to a supreme universal deity and why was this God so obsessed (jealous) with (of) Canaan? These are the questions that we try to answer while using new discoveries and the Bible itself. Artwork provided by Mary_lifreu on IG called, "Read between the lines".

# Introduction In his introduction to _The Death of Death in the Death of Christ_, J. I. Packer summarizes the gospel in three words: **God saves sinners**. It's true from start to finish. It acknowledges man's depravity and inability (man is a sinner who needs saving). It exalts God's sovereignty and grace (He plans for and provides salvation). It proclaims the Son's effective propitiation (all for whom the Son atones will be saved). And it has practical consequences for what we say. We have no defense for our sinfulness (Romans 3:19). We have no boast for our righteousness (Romans 3:27). I've already asserted a few times through these first few chapters of Romans that the greater challenge for the gospel (using “challenge” only from the human perspective) is not unrighteousness, but self-righteousness. When God saves sinners, He saves the ones who realize that they've done everything wrong, and He saves the ones who think they haven't messed up quite as bad. Paul has demonstrated quite persistently that judging others for what we also do is its own kind of evidence against us. He's held up the perfect standard of God's law to prove that none of us meet it. And he's said that not only have all sinned, we have all have fallen short of the glory of God. We've failed to live up to the original image. We've colored outside the lines (transgression), and haven't filled in the lines (omission). It's why we need someone else's righteousness. This is the *alien* righteousness we considered a couple weeks ago, a righteousness that isn't ours that gets credited to us. God justifies sinners when He *imputes* righteousness to us, meaning that He regards Christ's righteousness as ours. In God's accounting books He has records of all our sins/offenses/wrongs, and none of us could erase them. Have you investigated (or even invested in) cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology? Lay aside the question of whether or not it's a useful workaround to government fiat, it provides an interesting analogy. The blockchain only works in one direction; it does not go backward. There is no undo button, no do-overs or restarts. A mistake can only be fixed by a second transaction, there is no reversal. God justifies us not by forgetting our sin but by paying for it in His Son. He doesn't undo the consequences, He satisfies His own wrath. This is what makes Him just and the one justifying believers (Romans 3:26). When God forgives He will never use our sin against us (think Psalm 103:12), but that's because He won't forget the atonement price paid by Christ. All we can do is rely on Jesus; we add nothing good to the chain. This is why we have nothing to boast about. In this paragraph, Romans 3:27-31, we see that believing means no boasting in ourselves (salvation is monergistic), that believing is the (only) way to salvation for everyone (salvation is monotheistic), and believing leads to obedience (salvation is unto morality). This is all part of the law of faith, and it's a law about, and against, boasting. # Faith Leaves No Room for Boasting (verses 27-28) The word **boasting** is only written once in verse 27 but it is assumed five more times. Paul's original writing is punchy, but if we wrote it all out, "boasting" would be the subject of six independent clauses, and it would be the subject of the verb **excluded** five times. Here's the compact version: > Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Here's what it would be extended into complete sentences: "Therefore boasting is where? Boasting is excluded. Boasting is excluded through the law of what? Boasting is excluded through the law of works? Boasting is not excluded through the law of works, but boasting is excluded through the law of faith." There's three questions, and the first is expected after the previous paragraph. **Where is boasting?** Boasting is taking pride in something, bragging, self-congrats, patting ourselves on the back. Where does boasting belong? It's as if we were looking for her somewhere. But boasting is not invited. In verses 21-26 all we “got” was verse 23. Everything else was about what God did, what Jesus did. We see God's grace, God's justifying, God's gift, God's redeeming in Jesus, God's propitiation in Jesus, God's patience with sinners, God's constant work of showing His righteousness in *saving* sinners. So man's boasting is right out. Then we get more contrast on how boasting is excluded, and there are two options: **the law of works** or **the law of faith**. First, it's usually "works of the law" not "the law of works," even as it must be in verse 28. Second, "the law of faith" seems odd after all the limitations we've seen about the law. Law of faith refers to the defining standard, a presiding principle. This law is higher than the law of works. Our works won't actually let us boast, but let's say we wanted to try to boast in our works, which, a lot of men do. Fine. *Faith, by definition, looks away from self.* Faith leaves no breath for blowing our own trumpet. If we are justified by faith then God has done all the work. Verse 28 explains it: > for we calculate (that) a man is justified by faith without works of law. The ESV translates it as **we hold**, but the verb refers to counting, to calculating, as belongs in the sphere of accounting. When we add up how justification works, the works side is zero and the faith side is full. Justification is entirely God's work. This is *monergism* (from *mono* meaning one and *ergon* meaning work, so “the work of one), not synergism (the work of more than one). We don't work together with Him to save ourselves. We add zero merit. The law of faith rules our boasting out. # Faith Leaves No Room for Polytheism (verses 29-30) Two more questions in verse 29 scratch at the universal law of faith, a law that excludes boasting from Jews and Gentiles. > Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is God not also God of the Gentiles? Yes, God is also God of the Gentiles, since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith and will justify the uncircumcised through (the same) faith. Who is this aimed at? Doesn't it seem aimed at those most likely to boast? And aren't the ones most likely to boast the ones Paul took a couple chapters to poke at? The truth is good news for Gentiles, but the rhetoric challenges the Jews. The **since** starting verse 30 is especially Jewish: **God is one**. This is *the* Jewish thing. Jews were monotheists, believing in “The LORD our God the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Paul uses this very reality to point out that salvation by faith argues for monotheism. All the ones believing, Jew first and also Greek, are saved by the power of one and the same God. Verse 29 differentiates between the groups ethnically (Jew and Gentile), verse 30 differentiates between them religiously, **circumcised** and **uncircumcised**. **By** faith and **through** faith may not be as distinguished as the significance of the article in the second phrase, as if to point out *the very same* faith. *Monotheism* is the argument. There is only one God and God is one. May God's “way be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations…let all the peoples praise you!” (Psalm 67:2-3). There are not many gods, polytheism, nor is everything god, pantheism. God promised the Jews that He would save them. God did not promise the Gentiles that He would save them, though, God did promise the Jews that He would save the Gentiles. # Faith Leaves No Room for Lawlessness (verse 31) Obviously this paragraph, following the emphasis of the previous paragraph, has been a lot about faith, even recognizing the the law of faith. The faith-standard leaves us no room for boasting in our works. Does the faith-standard also mean that our works don't matter at all? > Therefore, do we overthrow the law through the faith? May it never be! But we uphold the law. The law shows us what God wants; it reveals His will. When we look at our lives in the light of the law, we always find that we have missed the mark. We need forgiveness for our disobedience, and no amount of attempted obedience can make up for it. The law points out our need for a Savior (Galatians 3:21-22), and God tells us the only way we can have the Savior is by faith. *And* all those believing in the Savior are saved from the penalty of sin, and they are being saved from the power of sin. When Paul says, **we uphold the law** he isn't saying that we keep using the law in our evangelism (though we do that, too). He's saying we look to the law differently, as it serves the law of faith. Just as there are whole chapters devoted to showing God's seriousness about saving Israel (just as He promised, Romans 9-11), so there are entire chapters to show God's graciousness in saving us from slavery to sin (Romans 6-7). We don't do good works to get justified, we do good works as those who are justified. We are saved by faith alone, and also the gospel brings about “the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5). If you've read our larger "What We Believe" statement, you may remember that the largest section is about how justifying faith is not dead faith, but alive to righteousness. See also Romans 8:3-4. Faith eliminates man's boasting, not man's morality. # Conclusion Romans is a ministry of the gospel for believers, for those with faith. If it is true that faith comes by hearing (and it is, Romans 10:17), then as we Christians live from faith to faith, we still need to keep hearing the gospel. There is more joy without trying to boast in something necessarily inferior. There is more joy with greater understanding by grace and of grace. Boasting is a killer, it is usually a half truth at best, a potential idolatry at worst, and it never increases fellowship between two people. The reason that the righteous live by faith (Romans 1:17), and that we cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), that we walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), is that faith is the law of the world for worshipers in God. ---------- ## Charge The charge to you today is to live by faith, and as you live by faith you will do great obediences (in prayer, in projects of blessing, in sacrificial partying), and you will boast in God not in your obediences. As you believe, obey, and boast in God, His name will be great among the nations. As Isaiah said, the root of Jesse is the hope of the Gentiles (Romans 15:12), and so we hope in His rule. ## Benediction: > May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13, ESV)

This has been an interesting week in our household   My two boys are enrolled in One Wild Life Learning Community for school   They began this school group last year and continue this year   This week their two teachers have been home recovering from covid   All of the kids have remained healthy, and I've had an up-close opportunity to observe their learning this week   One Wild Life promotes student-led   And place-based modes of learning   One Wild Life uplifts and respects the kids' ideas   One Wild Life focuses on discovering and cultivating one's passion   This week I've had seven kids age 9 – 14 continuing their learning in my basement   They connect with their teachers on zoom a few times per day   But mostly, amazingly, they are the drivers of their learning   I've served as the adult upstairs if I'm needed,   But I'm not   Except as a privileged witness to this incredible community   Little gems drift up from the basement throughout my day   Celebrations like “We're so smart!”   Support like “Oh, here, I can help with that!”   And words of encouragement like “Don't worry, you got this!”   Warm my heart   I'm stunned by the silence of these kids working diligently on the next step along their learning path   As I continue my own learning in my Masters of Divinity program upstairs   I'm in awe of the parallel between their self-driven learning and mine   They are young   They are so very capable   They can do hard things   They are empowered to learn…  and grow…  and thrive…   Outside of the traditional systems and structures of authority                 It's within this heartwarming week that I reflect on today's Gospel encounter between Jesus and Pilate   This encounter is all about   Authority                      Identity                         and Power                      Brene Brown deeply explores dynamics of power in Dare to Lead   She distinguishes between   Power over – which is quite a traditional hierarchical top-down power dynamic   And Power with – which is collective power, power that is empathy-driven and shared   Power-with is collaborative   Power-with leadership looks like service to others   One Wild Life Learning Community is an in-my-face example of power-with this week   This empowerment didn't occur just on Monday as the kids gathered independently   This empowerment has been cultivated throughout their time together,   with the teachers creating space and releasing control to the kids   growing their confidence in their ability to drive their own learning                   As I engage the Gospel and consider Jesus Christ the King   I observe that God is a power-with God   God refuses to participate in power-over dynamics   God denies that power is finite, and promotes power shared with all   God will not use fear as a tool to exercise power-over others   God refuses violence to achieve power   Let's explore the context of this Gospel reading and identify how power is used   This encounter occurs in the time just preceding the Jewish Passover   The Jewish leaders, specifically the high priestly authorities Annas and Caiaphas,   have Jesus arrested and questioned about his teaching – exerting power over Jesus   Jesus responds that he's done everything in public,   And questions the intent behind this arrest and interrogation – an attempt to balance power between them   The nearby police strike him in the face – reinforcing the power-over dynamic between the high priest and Jesus   Jesus is then taken from the high priests to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea   Pilate's there, in Jerusalem, to keep Roman order during the time of Jewish Passover   Pilate is not Jewish, but a gentile   This collaboration between the Jewish authorities and the Roman governor builds power over Jesus   This next interaction is fascinating   There has been much cultural tension between the Jewish authorities and the gentile Roman rulers as they vie for power over one another   Pilate initially responds that the Jewish authorities should take care of their own business   and judge Jesus according to Jewish law, however,   Roman rulers didn't allow Jewish authorities to carry out death penalties   And so the Jewish authorities submit to Roman rule by requesting Pilate's support   This seems to further Roman leadership's power-over Jewish leadership as they acknowledge Pilate's authority   Through Pilate's dealing with Jesus, the Jews recognize the Roman emperor as their king   Can you feel the tension within this power struggle?   This brings us to the scene we hear about today where Pilate questions Jesus   The hierarchy of power-over kingship is interwoven throughout this entire story,   From the arrest of Jesus by the Jewish authorities   Through the questioning by the high priest   To turning Jesus over to the governor, Pilate   And now Pilate's questioning of Jesus   The Roman rulers didn't necessarily think of Jesus as a threat as he compassionately went around healing and preaching throughout the region.   But now the leaders within Jesus own religious group are alarmed   They find his behavior – and perhaps his power – out of the ordinary   This alarms the Roman empire because they're afraid of the Jewish God   Jesus was perceived as a threat by the empire because   his ministry served as a sign of God's inbreaking kingdom   God's action within the world had a reputation,   and God's kingdom didn't side with power-over empire dynamics   God's power is with the marginalized and strangers of the land who are oppressed by the system   Remember what happened with Pharoah and Moses in Egypt?   So King Herod and Governor Pilate worried about the thinness of their thread of power-over the people   They worried about the end of their ability to oppress and exploit people within their kingdom   They feared a time when the nobodies could rise up in power against them   This is the context of Pilate's question:  “Are you the King of the Jews?”   And Jesus the Christ's response:   “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.” (Jn 18:36)   Jesus' kingdom is not of this world   Jesus followers don't, and will not, fight   What kind of a king is this?   Jesus embodies the power of God that refuses power-over others   even others like Pilate, Herod and the high priests   Jesus the Christ is the kind of king that ushers in a different power dynamic   A power dynamic that is out of this world   A power that is with and for abundant life for all   “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (Jn 18:37)   Jesus indicates that the incarnation is about to culminate within this time and space   The next question that Pilate asks is the question that remains for us:   “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38)   The truth is:   The power of God's presence within humankind is about to be revealed through Jesus the Christ   This is a collaborative power that flows within and through all of God's creation   The truth is   Within creation God designed humankind to not be alone   The truth is   God breathes power into creation through the Holy Spirit to co-create with God   The truth is   We worship God who chose to be enfleshed in human skin   As Jesus is headed toward crucifixion   The truth is   that the God we worship takes all of this authoritarian power   From the Jewish authorities   From the Roman empire   Into God's self   God transforms and re-creates this power-over   Through the resurrection   Into power-with   The truth is   that Jesus the Christ, resurrected and made new   breathes into us, God's followers,   This collaborative power of the Holy Spirit                   And sometimes the truth is too much to grasp   Sometimes the truth overwhelms   Sometimes the truth is diminished by the reality that we continue to live within a power-over society   Sometimes we forget the power we have   And I think back to the precious words that have drifted up from my basement this week   From these kids living One Wild Life   “Oh, here, I can help with that!”   “We're so smart!”   “Don't worry, you got this!”   And I am encouraged…   With Jesus as our teacher we are empowered   We are so very capable   We can do hard things   The Holy Spirit is with us as we learn…  and grow…  and thrive…   As we participate in, work toward, and even demand power-with systems   This is our inheritance,   This is our call   Amen.

Hello and welcome to Lechem Panim!  You will remember from our passage last week in Acts chapter 13 that Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark have been sharing the Gospel on the island of Cyprus. And from there it says in… Acts 13:13 (ESV)— 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,  John Mark Leaves— Now Luke doesn't go into further detail at this point about why John Mark left them. But we come to see later that John Mark seems to have had a yellow streak in him. When they arrive and John Mark gets a glimpse into the interior of Asia Minor and sees all the paganism and all the danger that lay ahead, he decides to turn back. You will remember that his mother was a prominent member of the Church in Jerusalem; and that is where and to whom he turns back to. He runs home to momma. And we will find out later that Paul was very unhappy about it. He implicitly accuses John Mark of lacking courage and commitment and refuses to take him along on another missionary journey (see 15:37-38). And he and Barnabas have a very heated argument over this and end up separating because of it; Barnabas going one way and Paul another. Now Paul was wrong on this issue. God hadn't thrown John Mark away because of one failure. And neither does He reject us when we fail. God gives John Mark another chance. And Paul later comes to realize this and is man enough to admit that he was wrong. When we come to Paul's later letters, we find that he actually grew to respect John Mark a lot (Colossians 4:10) and came to understand how much he needed Mark to be involved in his ministry (2 Timothy 4:11). In fact, he writes in… 2 Timothy 4:11 (ESV)— 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. A 2nd Chance— And so we will see that God always gives us a second chance. And we need to be careful not to write people off for their mistakes. We need to allow them the opportunity to grow out of them; to change in our eyes. And that can be hard to do; but it is often our encouragement (not our judgment) that can most help them to do that. Now at this point John Mark leaves and Paul and Barnabas (and those with them) head for the interior of Asia Minor, as it says they set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And then it says… Acts 13:14 (ESV)— 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. Antioch of Pisidia— Now [Antioch of Pisidia was a different city from Antioch of Syria, where {they had been ministering before and where} there was already a flourishing church (11:26). This Antioch, in the region of Pisidia, was a hub of good roads and trade, with a large Jewish population.] The Synagogue First— And that is who they try to reach first. As we talked about before, whenever Paul and Barnabas would go to a new city to share the Gospel of Christ, they would start first in the synagogue. And that was very strategic for a number of reasons. First and foremost, those who attended synagogue believed in the Jewish God and studied the Hebrew Scriptures; the Old Testament. And so Paul and Barnabas remain heavily attached to the synagogues because they wanted to show the Jewish people that Christianity was not some new religious cult. No, Christianity is a fulfillment of Judaism. The Old Testament, almost on every page, points to the hope of a Redeemer (a Messiah) who would come to atone for the sins of the world.  A Wrong View of Messiah— Now tragically, we know that many of the Jews they witnessed to did not accept the fact that Jesus is the Messiah because they had very different expectations as to who the Messiah would be. They thought that the Messiah would be a great military king who would overthrow and deliver them from Rome. They did not recognize what Old Testament passages like Isaiah 53 were talking about when they talked about the Messiah as a suffering servant; a servant-king whose primary goal was not to defeat physical kingdoms (at least at first) but rather the sin that rules in the hearts of people, which is what causes enslavement and oppression to begin with. Would He judge the nations and the world? Yes, but that will happen when He returns in the future.  A Typical Synagogue Service— And so Paul and Barnabas come to the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch on the Sabbath. And in a few moments we will hear one of Paul's first sermons; and it is one of his best. Now I don't actually want to offer to much commentary on our passage today because Paul's message is so clear, it doesn't warrant too much explanation. But there are a few things I'll add as we move through the text; things that will help to augment our understanding just a little bit. And the first of these things has to do with what a synagogue service would look like in the 1st century world. The way that we structure our services today is founded on these synagogues; and so there are a lot of similarities. The first thing they would do in service would be that they would recite the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4); and that was something the Jewish people actually did several times throughout the day. Next, certain prayers would be spoken; and then there would be a reading from the law (the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy). Then there would be a reading from the Prophets with the intention of helping to illustrate the law, and then finally there would come the sermon. Now the synagogue leaders would decide who would lead the service and give the sermon; and that person would change from week to week. But there was also another custom; and this one is the key custom for understanding our passage today, as it was another reason that Paul and Barnabas implemented the strategy that they did. And that was that synagogue leaders would customarily invite visiting rabbis to speak. And this was great because pretty much everywhere they went, Paul and Barnabas were visitors; and so they could always go into a synagogue knowing that there was probably going to be an open door to share the Gospel. Now that door did not always remain open once they started speaking about Jesus as the Messiah; sometimes the door would quickly slam shut in their faces, and they would not be invited invited back. Sometimes they were even thrown out of town. But nevertheless, they took advantage of the opportunities they had and trusted God with the results, not allowing the rejection of some to discourage them. And so now they have reached that key part of the service. And it says in… Acts 13:15 (ESV)— 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” “any word of encouragement”— Now I will say this about that word “encouragement”, which jumped out at me in a special way as I was preparing for this message; because of some of the issues the people in my own church are facing, but also what people in general have been facing this past year and a half; because (as you know) it has been difficult. But when I came across that word “encouragement”, I thought about the audience Paul and Barnabas were preaching to. This was a crowd that was living under constant threat; constant persecution. This was a crowd that wondered (like we do at times) where God was in the midst of all that they were facing. And so note what the synagogue leaders ask Paul and Barnabas for. They don't ask for just any message; no, they ask for it says “any word of encouragement”. Here was a crowd that needed a word of encouragement. And Paul is about to give them the greatest Word of encouragement they could ever hope for; the encouragement of the Word made flesh; the Messiah having come in the person of Jesus Christ to bring forgiveness and redemption from sin. And he begins with what he knew would be a point of agreement with them, emphasizing God's covenant with Israel; because all Jews were proud to be God's chosen people; and the Good News Paul was preparing to share was that that covenant had been fulfilled in Jesus. So that was the appropriate place to begin. And so it says in… Acts 13:16-30 (ESV)— 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. {Apparently there were some visitors there, probably Gentiles, as they are distinguished from the “Men of Israel”.} 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. {Now what is Paul doing? Well, he's beginning to do the same thing that Stephen did before the Sanhedrin. He begins recounting their history as a nation. And he continues, saying…} 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. {And so we see that he is beginning to present the person of Jesus Christ to them. And he says…} 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. {Now these people had apparently heard of John the Baptist and were familiar with his ministry. And so Paul builds on what they already know and continues…} 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.' 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. {Now he is getting to the heart of the message. Listen to him. He says…} 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. {And so Paul's recounting the history, saying that all of this was in fulfillment of prophecy. These people in Pisidian Antioch had been reading the prophets, but did not yet understand what they were reading or to whom the prophets ultimately pointed: and that was Jesus. He continues…} 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead,  The Central Message— And you know, that is what was at the core (the center) of every New Testament sermon; the resurrection of Jesus and how it is His death and resurrection that makes it possible for us to receive from God the free gift of salvation offered through belief and faith in Jesus. Simon Peter had preached this; now Paul preaches this. And that is the message that remains central in and throughout the book of Acts (and really all of the New Testament). Now Paul continues, saying… Acts 13:31-39 (ESV)— 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' {And it is important to note that this verse is not referencing the birth of Christ, but the resurrection of Christ. This word “begotten” is not referring to the virgin birth of Jesus, but to His being raised from the dead.} 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' {Notice how Paul enlarges upon the resurrection…} 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' {Same thing Peter had said on the day of Pentecost.} 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers {(and here is where Paul begins to pin them down and ask for a decision; to believe in the Lord Jesus)}, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41 “‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.'” 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism {(and these were Gentiles)} followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. A Personal Decision— Now what Paul was saying was that anyone can experience forgiveness of sins and freedom from both its guilt and its power over our lives in and through faith in Jesus Christ. But it is not something that is forced upon us; it is a gift that is offered to us. And it is only ours if we come to the point of making a decision to receive Christ and place our faith and trust in Him for salvation. Now not everyone who came to Church that day was saved; and not everyone who comes to Church nowadays is saved. No, we have to make a decision. And so where are you today? Have you received that forgiveness? Do you have washing over you every day the peace of knowing that you are right with God? If not, place your faith in Jesus today and you will also will have eternal life. Amen.

Let us take our imaginations back to the day the King's guards showed up at Mordecai's home. The news had gone round alright and the hope was that the guards would skip their house, but they showed up and Esther was taken but not before Mordecai pulled her aside and gave her a Persian name, Esther, meaning ‘star.' He gave her strict orders that she was not to reveal her identity as a Jew to anyone. The unfolding events could not have afforded her the opportunity to argue, there was no time. She just has to accent and trust the Jewish God to find a way of using the situation for His glory. Mordecai instructed her some more and released her to the hand of providence. “‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. ”' “So, they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”(Numbers 6:24-27) The pull must have tugged at his heart, perhaps the feeling of failing her parents by not protecting her enough plagued his thoughts? Surely, they would understand, they also lived in Persia before they died, and they were conversant with Persian ways. Esther found herself in the company of so many young virgins, none of them knowing what would become of them. The emotions were mixed. Some were happy at the prospect of being exposed to the palace and others were sad, the rule of their lives was being taken over. Esther's emotions was all over the place, she was afraid, intrigued, curious all at the same time. She thought about her cousin's instructions, suppose something went wrong and her secret became known? What were the odds that this plan was foolproof? All she could do was hope and wait. Her chances were one in four hundred or so and who said she stood any chance to be the next queen especially since the one she replacing was reported to be beautiful and loved by her husband? Only providence would tell. Providence was waiting for Esther to show up as he ensured she found favor with the head of the eunuchs, Hegai. The sign of God's blessing on the children of Israel was His mark and for Esther, that showed up in the way Hegai distinguished her and gave her special treatment. She was put in a special part of the palace and assigned seven servants to make her stay in the harem more comfortable. If we closed the curtain at this point in Esther's story, all we would see is darkness, gloom and uncertainty. We could even go as far judging the story as unfair. It is the same with us when we face dark times, the times life chooses to throw a spanner in the works or when we take a wrong turn, and everything tumbles out of control. We would be quick to wander who we offended and why things were taking that kind of turn. Think about it. Esther, orphan, adopted, exiled, abducted, all in her youth. All of those attributes were weighty enough on their own. One person, a young maiden bearing all that weight. What did she do? What kind of attention was her life seeking? How you saw the glass, half filled or a half empty, would determine how you interpret the events of Esther's life. If you saw it as half full, you determined it was favor at work. And if on the contrary, you saw a half empty glass, you would see the whole story as life dealing the poor girl a very hard hand. For you, the question would be; was there a need to have all that drama before a plot could be revealed? Did life have to distinguish her by misfortune? What are the strands in the story of your life? How are you dealing with them? Are you able to piece them apart and weave them into something into a beautiful tapestry? Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon) Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus Heart Matters Life Matters Navigating The Night Season You Will Marry Well Strength For The Journey God's Lady In Waiting Prayer Works

The Nu Class Sunday School presents "A Day With A Theologian" from their annual theology weekend. The event was held in our Contemporary Worship Center on September 11, 2021 _____________________________________________________ John Dominic Crossan, Bible scholar and author How Can We Christians Choose to Follow Jesus, The Prince of Peace, in a Chaotic World? The theme for Crossan's remarks is Divine Violence in the Christian Bible. The morning lecture, from the Old Testament, is on Sanction Theology or Sabbath Theology. The afternoon lecture, from the New Testament, is on Peace through Victory or Peace through Justice. There are two competing visions within the Christian Bible of the Jewish God of Creation, developed side by side from Genesis to Revelation: violent or nonviolent. Jesus chose one model to follow. The basis for the theme and lectures is Crossan's book, How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian. It is readily available from numerous sources and in new and used versions. John Dominic Crossan, an Irish-American former Catholic priest and retired university professor, is an acclaimed Bible scholar and author. He is a major New Testament researcher, and historian of early Christianity and of culture of the Ancient Mediterranean and New Testament worlds. He is a past president of the Society of Biblical Literature. Want to see more from First Church, visit our website at www.firstchurchorlando.org

The Nu Class Sunday School presents "A Day With A Theologian" from their annual theology weekend. The event was held in our Contemporary Worship Center on September 11, 2021 _____________________________________________________ John Dominic Crossan, Bible scholar and author How Can We Christians Choose to Follow Jesus, The Prince of Peace, in a Chaotic World? The theme for Crossan's remarks is Divine Violence in the Christian Bible. The morning lecture, from the Old Testament, is on Sanction Theology or Sabbath Theology. The afternoon lecture, from the New Testament, is on Peace through Victory or Peace through Justice. There are two competing visions within the Christian Bible of the Jewish God of Creation, developed side by side from Genesis to Revelation: violent or nonviolent. Jesus chose one model to follow. The basis for the theme and lectures is Crossan's book, How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian. It is readily available from numerous sources and in new and used versions. John Dominic Crossan, an Irish-American former Catholic priest and retired university professor, is an acclaimed Bible scholar and author. He is a major New Testament researcher, and historian of early Christianity and of culture of the Ancient Mediterranean and New Testament worlds. He is a past president of the Society of Biblical Literature. Want to see more from First Church, visit our website at www.firstchurchorlando.org

Scripture For Today:Isaiah 38:2“Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,”Changing the Nation Through Prayer pt 3Yesterday, we talked about how the prayers of righteous people can change a nation. And then we're going to be continuing down this path today as well. We discussed how Isaiah under the inspiration of the holy spirit went to the King's palace to just to, to walk in and say, I want to see the king. And he just didn't do that. Okay. It's you're, you're just not supposed to do. That, but yet he did. And how he told us how he told Hezekiah, “God says, get your affairs in order because you are going to die.” And he turned around and walked out and Hezekiah prayed. And it wasn't some little cutesy prayer like, “Oh Lord, just bless me and bless my family and bless this palace. And bless the servants.”  He prayed and he truly repented of his sins! So God stopped Isaiah before he could leave the palace grounds and told him “I've heard Hezekiah's prayer. Go back and tell him I've heard him. And I will grant his request and I will extend his life for 15 more years.” Folks, our prayers go to the Throne Room of Heaven. Our prayers are presented as a prayer of petition before the creator of the universe.  Do you think if you had the authority walk into the President's Office, on any given day, if you just showed up whenever you needed to talk to him, and you say, “Sir, I want to present this petition to you.” Do you think he'd look it over? And he had already promised you before, he had given his word, that if you ever come into his office and give him a written prayer of petition that he could take actionable work on, He would grant you whatever you wanted? As long as it was legal, as long as it lined up with the constitution, do you think for even one second, you could walk in like that and then he would just wad it up and throw it away? Maybe today's president would do that. Maybe the politicians today would do that. But if he was your father, do you think he would do that?  Of course not. Which is why God says, “Whatsoever things you desire, Put it down into a prayer petition and whatsoever petitions you desire, I will grant to you.  Folks Hezekiah was definitely a king that was Ordained by God. He may not have been perfect and all that, but he was still a Jewish person who obeyed the Jewish customs who believed in the Jewish God.  He understood who Isaiah was. Isaiah was a prophet of the most high God. And when Isaiah just showed up and said, “Get your affairs in order, thus saith, the Lord, you are not coming down off that bed,” He believed him! And he prayed and he repented of his sins.  And God heard him. And God still could use him, now that he had his attention! Folks, you just do not understand the power and the authority you have in the Kingdom of God! Demons tremble, or they should be, when you walk by! Demons, have no authority over you, unless you give them that authority.  When you come on the scene to assist a brother or sister in the Lord, and you put yourself in agreement with their prayer and you start speaking the word of God, you begin to resist the devil and he will what? Flee! He's not going to sit there and take it. He's not going to sit there and try and fight you over it. If he's fighting you, it's because there's some doubt and unbelief in your heart. That's the only reason. Every demon must flee. When you resist him with the word of God, they have no choice in that matter. The only person that has a choice is you. You are the only one that can choose to pray or not the pray. You're the only one that can choose to believe or not to believe.  The angels believe and the devils believe, but it doesn't do them any good.  You are the only one that has the authority to change things in this nation, without firing a single shot.  You are the only one that has the authority to pray to the creator of the...

Acts 14 is a major milestone and threshold in Church history. In our series and study so far in Acts, we've witnessed the lead-up to this pivotal moment. For years the church wrestled with their mandate to spread beyond Judea and begin welcoming Gentiles into their community. The church plant at Antioch finally made this a reality, and from Acts 13 onward, the Apostles set course to evangelize the known world. Alas as Acts 14 begins, Luke tells us that the Gospel was beginning to reach as many Gentiles as it was Jews. The chapter begins by telling us that BOTH a great multitude of Jews AND Greeks were trusting in Jesus. It's hard to overstate how huge this moment would have been. A spin-off of Judaism, led by Jews, preaching from Jewish Scriptures about the Jewish God was now making a sizable impact amongst an audience that had zero context for their message. This, of course is an obvious testament to the inclusiveness of the Gospel, but also an insight into how God's plans from the beginning. In this message, we discuss why many Jews in fact rejected the Gospel, and why Gentiles were so receptive to it. We unpack our quests for identity in this world, and discover that Christianity is indeed a better belonging for all people.

Acts chapter nine records the most significant event in the history of the church since the coming of the Holy Spirit. The apostles' teaching that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah has blistered and enraged Jewish leadership. A short while ago, a man named Stephen preached Jesus to this stiff necked crowd. The mob is unable to refute his logic and they murder him under the authority of the Sanhedrin. There is one notable man present. A Pharisee-trained young man from Tarsus, the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. He kept watch over the event and became inspired. He won the chief priests' permission to hunt Jesus-followers in Jerusalem. He imprisoned them, voted that they be executed, and tried to force them to blaspheme. In response, the Jesus-followers fled Jerusalem, scattering over Judea, Samaria, and as far as Syrian Antioch, not too far from Tarsus. Along the way, they discovered that God's salvation is for more than the Jews. The Holy Spirit came on Samaritans and an Ethiopian government official who worshiped the Jewish God…and he was a eunuch. Formerly, these men were excluded from the worship of God. Not anymore. Truly, Jesus is for everyone. The young Pharisee would become famous by writers referring to him as Paul. He personally encountered the resurrected Jesus and was forever changed. He would go on to become the most successful church planter of all time. The hunter has become the hunted. His peers want him dead. He is after all, a traitor. But Paul would use his zeal for Jesus. In other words, he became a sanctified version of himself. He didn't change his “foot on the gas" ways. He simply turned the car in a new direction. How about you? Are you thinking you have to be someone you're not. No one can be you better than you. So be yourself for God's glory and you'll discover what you were truly designed to do.

Mark chapter 12 offers much data regarding monotheism, Christology, and Jesus' relationship to God. In this episode, we first explore the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, where Jesus is sent by God and God is portrayed in an interesting manner. Second, we look closely at how Jesus defined the Jewish God, and in doing so, expresses his commitment to unitary monotheism. Lastly, we explore how to make sense of Jesus' statement that the son of David is also the exalted Lord alongside God.  Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: https://www.paypal.me/10mintruthtalks                             To view the notes from this episode please click the link below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kgvcTKGuBMtWZFvVHaCxQgjrGhwIxzyejsjgKiFo2zg/edit?usp=sharing   Check out some of my videos on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5H6oqEnhFjdUryhDOYSvQ 

Puritan preacher Thomas Brookes once said, “A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.” Praying as a family can be challenging. But when a family learns to pray together, amazing things can happen. Such was the case for Cornelius and his family as they feared the Jewish God and prayed to Him regularly. In Acts 10, we meet Cornelius, a Roman centurion. He and his family prayed regularly to God (v. 2). They would have been part of a small minority of Gentiles who worshiped Yahweh. During one of his prayer times, the Lord gave Cornelius a vision to meet Simon Peter (vv. 3–6). The next day, Peter was praying when he too had a vision from the Lord (v. 9). Peter’s vision was not about food laws, but rather God’s attitude toward the Gentiles. The Lord was signaling a new era for Jesus’ followers that would include Jews and non-Jews into one family. Without Peter’s vision, it is unlikely the apostle would have ventured to Cornelius’s home and met this God-fearing family. Peter was able to comprehend the Lord’s message because he was in a spirit of prayer. He quickly determined to obey God. Similarly, in prayer, Cornelius and his family sought after the Triune God even though they had very little knowledge of everything that happened in Jerusalem. Because Peter, Cornelius, and his family were all in prayer, they were able to build bridges that broke through division. The saving grace of Jesus was now offered to all. The family table had been extended for all to come and have a place. >> Do you pray with your family? Spend time together this week asking God to work in your family and to use you for His purpose. Even if you are praying together for the first time when a family prays together, amazing things can happen.

The Gospel is on display and detailed in every book of the Bible, but Ruth 2's presentation is especially rich. Ruth came into the land of Israel having heard about the Jewish God, hoping to experience His goodness. However, she never could've expected the favor that was about to be poured out for her. She meets a one of a kind man, who unbeknownst to her, has the ability to redeem her story for an incredible purpose. Boaz shows Ruth a brand of kindness that is beyond measure, that leaves her speechless again and again. This of course, is a picture of God's Kindness towards us all, and the love He has demonstrated for us through Christ. He purposely lays handfuls of grace before us day after day. His intention is to get our attention and to capture our affection, so that we would put our total trust in Him.

The word kalimah, as in the first kalimah, means affirmation of the faith. It's very similar to the word shahādah, witnessing. And the first kalimah in Islam, the first affirmation is Lā ilāha illallāhu Muhammadur-Rasūlullāh. The typical Islamic translation is, there is no deity but God and Muhammad is the Prophet of God. I'm going to deal with the first part of the kalimah, Lā ilāha illallāhu. The standard Islamic translation is, there is no God, but God, or there is no God but Allah. There is no deity but Allah. Essentially making the statement that there is no other God than Allah. The Sufi interpretation, translation, meaning, is different. It says, nothing exists but God, or I do not exist, only God exists.It takes the level of understanding to a different place. There is no deity but Allah, begins a competition, your God doesn't exist, only my God exists. Anybody else who worships any other God is not worshiping God appropriately. Well, within the monotheistic understanding, if there is only one God, then in fact there can be no other God. And if anybody worships God, they are worshiping that one God because there is nothing else to worship. Now, unless you have a fixation about your language and you want everybody to call God by the same name you call God, you should be able to assume immediately that everybody is worshiping the same God, especially if they are also monotheists.It's astonishing that people think that Allah is somehow a different God than Jehovah, the Jewish God, or the Christian God or the Muslim God, that they are somehow different. All of them believe that there is but one God. So why does culture, language and the way we name Him, the words we use for it, have so much to do with our emotional attachment and a reaction to that? Within that understanding is a big part of the religious problems that exist in the world. The need for your language, your culture, to be predominant in the understanding of God and that everyone sees God through your culture's eyes, your language's eyes, has a lot more to do with personal ego and the sustenance sustaining of one's own culture, one's own language, one's own way of seeing things, one's own pride, that it has to do with belief in God. And we have to come to grips with that understanding.

How did early Christians understand the exalted Jesus alongside the one true God of Israel in 2 Thessalonians? This episode examines the contents of this epistle in order to see if the Jewish God is anything other than a single self--the Father. Furthermore, we look at how the exalted Jesus is described with titles, roles, and acts of judgment. Lastly, we consider whether the Lord Jesus Christ is "our God" in a disputed passage. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: https://www.paypal.me/10mintruthtalks     To view the notes from this episode please click the link below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v2yEJgtV1CZ6lOO6H5KYLFRGWOIscMwigRV2fdGkOYY/edit?usp=sharing  Check out some of my videos on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/allegiancetotheking 

How did the blind Rabbi from Aleppo turn a popular Egyptian song into a Messianic hymn? How did the melody of a blind Iraqi Sufi get to be played by an Israeli musician as an opening for Radiohead? Why do synagogues in Jerusalem recite Kaddish to the melody of an Umm Kulthum song? The new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast is about a quaint relationship of Judaism with Arab music.Detailed descriptionDownload the episode00:10 Lamma bada || Lamma haketz (Haim Louk & David Menachem)06:18 Foq ilna hal foq (David Menachem)08:43 Awedt einy; Zikrayati; Enta Omri (Basem al-Ashkar)Как слепой раввин из Алеппо превратил популярную египетскую песню в мессианский гимн? Как мелодия слепого иракского суфия в исполнении израильского музыканта попала на разогрев к Radiohead? Почему в синагогах Иерусалима читают кадиш на мелодии из песен Умм Культум?Новый выпуск подкаста Radio Eshkolot посвящен нетривиальному взаимодействию иудаизма с классической арабской музыкой.Подробное описаниеСкачать весь эпизод

Cornelius the non-Jewish God seeker

PODCAST #9: JEWS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE QUR'AN by Martin Bidney The Be-loving Imaginer, seeking to be the scripture he sings, is delighted to discover ways that a love for already be-loved scriptures can be startlingly expanded. The Qur'an is chiefly a storybook, where you encounter participants in the stories of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Qur'an shows you these people in new episodes and adventures. I'll focus on the new perspectives I love the most. I'll be using as sourcebooks my A Unifying Light and East-West Poetry. Poem 1 UL shows an inclusive attitude: God offers three religions co-equally. Adam and Eve (poems 6, 7 UL) are co-equal in their eating of the forbidden fruit (wheat seed?) and are soon forgiven. But one offense remains (poem 5 UL); Adam is a failure at stewardship. Abraham is not only founder of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; for the Qur'an he pardons his father for trying to burn him alive (see Qur'an intro, poem 95 E-W P) and becomes a martyr hero who teaches forgiveness (poem 75 UL). Joseph has no coat of many colors but acquires a miracle shirt. When the official's wife at Pharaoh's court tries to tempt him, she rips the back of his shirt, which turns into a miracle cure for the blindness of his grieving father Jacob. She accuses Joseph of the misdeed and he's sent to jail (poem 44 UL, no intro). When the court ladies call her to account, she introduces Joseph, and in a comic scene they're overcome by his beauty (intro to poem 42 UL). Moses' cordial welcome by Pharaoh's wife may have engendered the love that later drew her to convert to the Jewish God and to condemn Pharaoh (poem 79 UL). Pharaoh's wife Asiya is a wonderful new character in the Qur'anic story of Moses. King Solomon – a bad steward? I raise the question, as the Qur'an does (poem 87 UL). Virgin Mary receives miraculous nourishment to soothe her horrendous labor pains (poem 93 E-W P). According to Sufi poet Rumi, we are each a Mary who must bear a Jesus. The Qur'anic Jesus offers a sermon while still in cradle (2nd half of intro plus poem 30 E-W P). He models a clay bird and it flies (poem 27 UL). This latter story is told in a Chrstian gospel, as the idol-smashing narrative occurs in a Jewish Midrash. But Torah, Gospel, and Qur'an are all Divinely created, as shown way back in Poem 1 UL.

Join Curt Landry as he gives meaning and insight into the “Restoration of Israel.” Timing and synergy with the Lord are important. It is important know about God's justice and alignment in this year of judgement, 5779—to know that God is moving to restore not only Israel but give restoration and realignment to all of His children. Curt takes us on a journey through Romans 11, as the Apostle Paul teaches the relationship between non-Jews and the Jewish God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul wanted the Believers to discover and know a lifestyle of living in covenant with God, of understanding His timing and His alignment within that covenant. Whether Jewish or non-Jewish, as a Believer in Jesus Christ the Messiah, you have a covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is time to discover that covenant designed by God for you and for His chosen and move in agreement with God. - Does God still have covenant with Israel? Do you? Are you in covenant with the Jewish people? - How can I learn to trust and move into covenant with God; into alignment with His purposes for my life? - How do I discover and live in the alignment of that covenant with God? God is bringing alignment from heaven to earth because He is fulfilling covenants on the earth that are written in the books of Heaven! It is in this time—in the “Restoration of Israel”—that you can discover God's divine restoration of His covenant with your life. For it is within that covenant that God has planned for your protection and provision—a double portion in Him! Are you ready to receive the double portion?

The NSA has Google by the Balls? When Will the Universe End? Also, more thoughts on pop music, Facebook, Judaism, and much, much more… Special Guest: None Stories of the Week: --Rapidfire Stories: Sovryn Tech Now Accepts Bitcoin and Will Soon Accept Litecoin, the Nexus 5 is Real, Blackberry Possibly Getting Bought by Facebook, Motorola Project Ara/Phoneblocks, Michael Dell Buys His Company Back but Certainly Dell Ultrabook 6430u’s Are Smelling Like Cat Urine--”Facebook Requiring Government ID from Users” Links: goo.gl/ZfGvSC, goo.gl/7UPAjH Tech Roulette:--”When Will the Universe End?” Link: goo.gl/v4oq7p Website of the Week:--”Historical Software Archive” Link: archive.org/details/historicalsoftware Listener E-Mail:--”Why Are There 18,000 Planets? I Heard You Like Pop Music, Part 2? The Best Liberty Books and Why Won’t You Start Incendiarism?” Software of the Week:--”Cupcake/Tor Flashproxy Badge” Link: crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/ Game Talk:--”Dayson’s Board Game Theory” Hacker Stories:--”Google is No Longer Safe” Link: goo.gl/tR3ze5 Game of the Week:--”Rise of the Triad” Pick of the Week:--”Thoughts On Judaism” Don’t forget you can e-mail the show at: sovryntech@riseup.net www.sovryntech.comwww.twitter.com/sovryntech

The NSA has Google by the Balls? When Will the Universe End? Also, more thoughts on pop music, Facebook, Judaism, and much, much more… Special Guest: None Stories of the Week: --Rapidfire Stories: Sovryn Tech Now Accepts Bitcoin and Will Soon Accept Litecoin, the Nexus 5 is Real, Blackberry Possibly Getting Bought by Facebook, Motorola Project Ara/Phoneblocks, Michael Dell Buys His Company Back but Certainly Dell Ultrabook 6430u’s Are Smelling Like Cat Urine--”Facebook Requiring Government ID from Users” Links: goo.gl/ZfGvSC, goo.gl/7UPAjH Tech Roulette:--”When Will the Universe End?” Link: goo.gl/v4oq7p Website of the Week:--”Historical Software Archive” Link: archive.org/details/historicalsoftware Listener E-Mail:--”Why Are There 18,000 Planets? I Heard You Like Pop Music, Part 2? The Best Liberty Books and Why Won’t You Start Incendiarism?” Software of the Week:--”Cupcake/Tor Flashproxy Badge” Link: crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/ Game Talk:--”Dayson’s Board Game Theory” Hacker Stories:--”Google is No Longer Safe” Link: goo.gl/tR3ze5 Game of the Week:--”Rise of the Triad” Pick of the Week:--”Thoughts On Judaism” Don’t forget you can e-mail the show at: sovryntech@riseup.net www.sovryntech.comwww.twitter.com/sovryntech

In this episode Danny Anderson interviews Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College and author of The Jewish God Question. Pessin's book explores “what Jewish thinkers have said about God, The Book, The People, and The Land.” Divided into many micro-essays that condense difficult philosophical ideas into conversation-starting summaries, the book is aimed at bringing philosophy to the people. How has Jewish philosophy reacted to Western thought since the Greeks? What changed in the Enlightenment period? How did Spinoza upend centuries of Jewish philosophy? What have Jewish thinkers focused on in the Twentieth Century and beyond? In addition, we find out why it is so important to take philosophy out of the academy and into the general public. Plus, hear about Andrew's recurring role on The Late Show with David Letterman! Links: The Jewish God Question Andrewpessin.com

I. The Ridicule of the Worldly Wisdom I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1. We continue to make our way through this incredible book. Three times in these first two chapters, it is made plain that the cross is foolishness to those on the outside. We saw it last week in verse 18 of chapter 1. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." And in this text, this morning, verse 23-24, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God and the wisdom of God." In the next chapter in chapter 2, verse 14, it says, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." Since the very beginning of Christianity, the church has had to endure the mockery of the unbelieving world concerning our message. This goes even before the time of the apostles. It goes to the very circumstances of our Lord's crucifixion, when the Romans wrapped Jesus up with a purple robe and wove together a crown of thorns, and smashed it on his head and then knelt down in front of him, the Roman soldiers, and praised Him and worshipped him as King. They were mocking him. They did not know who He was. And when He was up on the cross, the citizenship there, the Jewish citizenship of Jerusalem came by and mocked Him the leaders mocked Him and "He saved others… but he can’t save himself…Let Him come down now from the cross and we will believe in Him." They mocked him that very day. And in that song we sang earlier, "Ashamed, I hear my own mocking voice cry out among the scoffers." We also were of the same disposition. We're no better than those people. The world has this kind of mocking reaction to Christ and to the things of God. And we see that in every generation, also when the best and the brightest of that generation lead out in mocking Christianity, and it's very intimidating. The intelligentsia, the cultured elite in every generation, have generally mocked Christianity and Christians and the world's laughter can be very painful to endure and it can actually throw us back a bit. To be back on our heels, "Could we be wrong, could Christianity be wrong. Is it actually worthy of scorn? Am I weird? Is there something wrong with me that I'm a Christian?" The mocking has been going on a long time. In the ancient catacombs of Rome, there is found a mocking cartoon done by some unbeliever, of a man on a cross with a donkey's head. And someone else bowing down and worshipping. Felix worships his God, mocking the idea of God on the cross. The Scoffing of Voltaire Ancient, it's been around a long time. And in every generation, the brilliant ones use satire and mockery to lay low Christianity. I mentioned Voltaire last week, the French philosopher, skeptic writer, moralist lived during the last half of the 1700s in around the time of Ben Franklin, the American Revolution around that time. He had nothing but scorn and mockery for the established church there in France. He was speaking of the second coming of Christ, He said, "Why had not Christ kept His promise to come in a cloud with power and great glory, to establish the kingdom of God before that generation should pass away? What had detained him? Was the fog too thick?" I can just hear the laughter. People just laughing and mocking. The Scoffing of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson same thing. He was talking about the Trinity, he said, "There's nothing I can do for an idea I can't conceptualize. Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions like the trinity, ideas must be distinct before reason can act on them, and no man ever had a distinct idea of the Trinity. It is the mere abracadabra of the charlatans calling themselves the priests of Jesus." Thomas Jefferson. Best and the brightest. The Scoffing of Mark Twain Mark Twain a century later was obsessed with the Bible and with mocking it. It was like almost his central life work. Mark Twain said, "If Christ had really been God, he could have proved it since nothing's impossible with God. When God wants to prove that the sun and the moon may be depended upon to do their daily work, day and night, he has no difficulty about it. It's only when He apparently wants to prove a future life beyond the grave to us that His invention fails and He comes up against a problem that is beyond the reach of His alleged omnipotence. He can't seem to convince the world that we can live after death, that Christ rose from the dead." Well he couldn't convince Mark Twain anyway. The Scoffing of Thomas Edison Thomas Edison inventor of the light bulb and a thousand other patentable inventions. Brilliant practical scientist, had no patience for Christianity, he said "Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind or merciful or loving. If God made me the fabled God of the three qualities mercy, kindness, and love. He also made the fish I catch and eat, and where do his mercy, kindness and love for that fish come in? No, nature made us, nature did it all. Not the gods of the religions, I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul, I am an aggregate of cells as for instance New York City is an aggregate of individuals. Will New York City go to Heaven? No all this talk of existence beyond the grave is wrong. It is born in the imagination of men." The Scoffing of Steve Jobs Even in our generation, Steve Jobs, who recently died… He was the CEO of Apple and inventor of the iPhones and iPads that have shaped the experience of people all over the world in our generation, one of the most influential people in the world. He was raised in a church-going Lutheran family. But in 1968 when he was 13 years old, he saw a photograph in an issue of Life Magazine, a cover photograph of a pair of starving children in Africa, in Biafra. And he was understandably deeply troubled by this photo and went to his Lutheran pastor for an explanation. And in that conversation with the pastor, Jobs held up a finger, and he said to the pastor, "Did God know I would hold up this finger before I did? The pastor rightly said, "Yes, God knows everything." Then Jobs produced the Life magazine photo, "Well, does God know about this? And did he... And does He know what's going to happen to these children? Well the pastor at this point simply said, "Steve, I know you don't understand, but yes, God knows about this." But the pastor at that time gave no biblical explanation of the problem of evil, or how the cross of Christ is God's answer to the problem of evil, he just said, it's beyond your ability to understand. And so this young brilliant searching soul, Steve Jobs, announced he could never have anything to do with worshipping such a god, and he never went back to church again. Now, Jobs pursued spirituality, Buddhism, gurus, hallucinogenic drugs, right to the end of his life, there was a guru by his bedside. He didn't mock Jesus, he sought to live after a moralistic Jesus that he could understand, not the one of the Bible. I could multiply stories of amazingly brilliant men and women who reject biblical Christianity. You know what I'm talking about. Late night talk show hosts, make a living mocking Christianity and Christians. It's on the internet, it's everywhere. It's especially hard on the college campus. I remember shortly after I came to Christ at MIT, I took a Bible class at MIT. I mean, you might say, "What were you thinking? What did you expect?" But me and some of my friends from crew, from Campus Crusade for Christ thought we would go ahead and take it. We ended up calling it blasphemy and heresy 101. I actually went on to take blasphemy and heresy 102 as well. There were two Bible classes, two consecutive semesters. You were like, "What, did you hope the second class would be better than the first?" I don't know, I think I was hoping to evangelize the professor. But the college campus can be very intimidating. Some time ago, I came across a quote by a Princeton Philosophy professor. Guy named Richard Rorty, openly declared to Christian parents of evangelical kids, his commitment to mock their faith and to change their kids. "We try to arrange things, so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists, will leave college with views more like our own. But we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization. So we're going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly, worthy of mockery rather than discussable. We are not so inclusivist in our Liberal Arts education. Liberal means free, a free exchange of ideas. We are not so inclusivist as to tolerate intolerance such as yours. I think those students are actually lucky to find themselves under the benevolent dictatorship of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents." But please send us the tuition money. So for us Christians it can be very distressing to find the cultured elite, the best and the brightest, mocking Christianity. In every generation, it is the case. The Scoffing of the Athenians Now, the Apostle Paul had to face that mockery in his day, and he's writing out of that context here to the Corinthians. He endured it in Acts 17 before he came to Corinth he was in Athens, and he preached there on Mars Hill. A select group of Epicureans and stoic philosophers assembled there to hear him preach the gospel. And so he made the case, he preached Christ and him crucified and resurrected. And they mocked him at the beginning, they said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" And they mocked him at the end, some of them sneered but others did say "We'd like to hear you again on this topic." But that's the kind of mockery. Now Paul addresses this mockery, this foolishness that the world sees of Christianity of the cross here in the text we're looking at today, look again, at verses 22-25, "The Jews demand a miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." II. We Preach Christ Crucified (verse 23) What is the “Message of the Cross”? Let's begin in the middle of verse 23, "We preach Christ crucified." So here we're asking back in verse 18. What is the message of the cross? The testimony about God. What is he talking about here? Paul says, "We preach Christ crucified." Well this is the center of the gospel, which God ordained for the salvation of the world and it centers on the person of Christ, we preach Christ. What does that mean? Well, Christ, the word means Anointed One, the Messiah. It's the Greek word for the anointed one, and Paul said Jews demand miraculous signs. Judaism is a supernatural religion. It's a religion birthed in the supernatural, in the interference so to speak of God into this world miraculously. It's a religion-based not just on miracles, but also on miraculous predictions of the future. Miraculous prophecies and the Christ, the coming Son of David was a prophesied figure, a miraculously predicted figure. So we preach that this predicted figure, Christ has come, that God has fulfilled centuries of prophecies in this person of Christ, we preach Christ. Moses, the founder of the national religion of the Jews was a miraculous figure himself. He had been predicted 400 years before that to Abraham in Genesis 15, that Abraham's descendants would be strangers in a country not their own, they would be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. "But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions." Genesis 15. So Moses had been predicted though not specifically by name, that there would be a deliverer, someone had to lead them out. And so Moses was predicted and when he came, he did signs, and wonders, miraculous signs and wonders to establish his credibility and so that the people would follow him. He was a miraculous, a wonder working figure. His staff turned into a serpent, he put his hand in his cloak and it came out leprous then he put it back in and it was healed again. But even more he predicted, and then God used him to perform 10 miraculous plagues on Egypt, and then he led them through the Red Sea. He was a wonder working leader, a miraculous leader. He fed them with manna from heaven, and with water that came out of a rock. These were miracles. Now, the next great leader in Jewish history was King David, and David had it in his heart to build a permanent residence for the Ark of the Covenant. It had been in a tent. He wanted to build a temple. God basically said "You're not going to build a house for me, I'm going to build a house for you." And then he made what's known as the Davidic covenant, a promise to David, 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, "I will raise up your offspring to succeed you… I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever." the Son of David, the descendant of David. And that's who the Jews were waiting for, and when the Jews were expelled out of the Promised Land because of their sins and their idolatries, the prophets had warned that it would happen. But then the time came, there was the diaspora, the spreading of the Jews all around that region of the world and their desire, their interest in the Messiah, the Christ intensified. They wanted the Christ to come, they were expecting the Christ to come. So in Jesus's day, especially under the total domination of the Roman Empire. The Jews were eager for the Christ to come. You see this again and again, like in John's Gospel, the Samaritan woman remember her? And she said toward the end of that interaction with Jesus, "I know that Messiah called Christ is coming and when He comes, He will explain everything to us." A few chapters later, in John's gospel in John 7:27 they said, "When the Christ comes no one will know where he is from." Well, whether that's true or not, they're expecting the Christ to come. In that same chapter, and it says of the crowd, "Many in the crowd put their faith in him." Because of his miracles, they said "when the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?" So you see they're expecting, they're waiting for the Christ to come. So he was a figure of prophecy, and Paul says "We preach Christ. We preached that the one that the Jews had been waiting for centuries, has now come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. At the right time, God fulfilled these predictions, these prophecies by sending His son. The very first thing we learn about Jesus in the New Testament is amazingly in a genealogy. Study the genealogies, it's how the New Testament begins. The best genealogy to memorize, and you say Pastor, "Why would I memorize a genealogy?" I'm not saying it's the first thing you should memorize, but the best genealogy to memorize is Matthew 1:1 cause it's really short. "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, son of Abraham," says it all. So the first thing said about Jesus in the New Testament is he is the fulfillment of the prediction, the long-awaited Jesus has come now, the Messiah has come. He is the Son of David. Now, Jesus was more however, than just the Son of David, and that's what the Jews could not accept, they were not ready for it. But Mary understood, the virgin Mary, when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would give birth to the Son of David, He told her more than that though. Gabriel said "The Holy Spirit will come upon you. And the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born of you will be called the Son of God." Wow, that's a lot for a teenage girl to ponder. It says that Mary treasured these things up in her heart and pondered them, but he was the Son of David. Yes, fully human, but he was also the Son of God, fully God. Now, in the course of time, when he was about 30 years old, he began his public ministry and the Holy Spirit came on him and empowered him to do miraculous signs and wonders, a river of them. And as a matter of fact, no one in the history of the Bible, or in the history of the Church has ever done anywhere near as many miracles as Jesus did. A river of miracles were done through Jesus, such as Matthew 4:24. "News about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him, all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, the epileptics and the paralytics, and He healed them." We have absolutely no idea how many miracles that is. As a matter of fact, John, at the end of his gospel, said that if all the stories about the miracles were written, the whole world couldn't contain the books that would be written. But the central reason why Jesus came was to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That's why God sent him, above any other reason. John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus, the last of the old covenant Jewish prophets, pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Incredibly important statement. Effectively, John was saying this one, this man, is the Son of God, and He has come to be the fulfillment of the animal sacrificial system. All of those animal sacrifices that were the center of the Jewish religion, have been fulfilled in this man, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. You remember the lessons of the animal sacrificial system? Number one: All sin deserves the death penalty. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins, that's lesson number one. Lesson number two: The death penalty can be paid by a substitute, so that the guilt can be transferred off the people and put on the substitute and the substitute dies the bloody death they deserved to die, and they go free. The third lesson of the animal sacrificial system is, the substitute cannot be an animal. The endless repetition shows it's just symbolic. The table was set for the true substitute, the true atoning sacrifice, and that's Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." And that substitution of Jesus at the cross is the essence of the message of the cross. As Isaiah the prophet had predicted so clearly seven centuries before, in Isaiah 53:5-6, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Those two verses are the clearest in all the Bible, including the New Testament, on substitutionary atonement. That Jesus, by dying under the wrath of God in our place, has taken away our penalty and freed us from guilt and hell, and given us eternal life. That's the message of the cross. That's what the Jews found to be a stumbling block, and that's what the Greeks said was foolishness. Why Did Paul Preach the Message of the Cross? Now, why did Paul preach it? So we covered, "We preach Christ," that's the message. Why did he preach it? He went from place to place; everywhere he went, if there was a Jewish synagogue, he would go there first. Said in Romans chapter one, to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles. So he'd go there and he would try to reason with them on Sabbath days, from the Scripture, trying to prove that Jesus was the Christ. He also went out in the Gentile market places and he would explain and reason with them and try to prove that this Christ was their Savior as well, not just for the Jews, but also for Gentiles. Why did he do that? Well, because God has willed that sinners, like you and me, be made right by hearing a preached message and believing it in our hearts, and that's it. Not by works, but by hearing, with faith, are our sins forgiven. That's the way that God has always justified, or made right, sinners with Him. Not by works, but by hearing a promise with faith. As it says in Romans 3:23-25, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely, that is forgiven of their sins and made right with God, justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, or a propitiation, through faith in His blood." That's how sinners are made right with God. And so that faith comes not by doing any good works. It says later in that same chapter, Romans 3:28, "We maintain that a person is justified by faith and not by works of the law." Now, Romans 10:17 tells us later, in that book of Romans, "Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." So it's times just like this, in which the gospel is simply and clearly proclaimed, that people hear and believe. That's how it happens. Now, Paul says earlier than that, Romans 10:8-10, he says, "‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." As he says a few verses later, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But then he asks a series of important questions. I'm asking the question, why did Paul preach Christ? This is why: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but he said, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in someone they've never heard of? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach, unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’" That's Paul's personal life mission. That we should take the message of the gospel to those who have not yet heard or not yet believed. That's why he preached it. So, verse 23, "We preach Christ crucified." But neither Jews nor Greeks naturally were disposed to receive such a message. So look at verse 22, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom." That's what they were ready for. So he was preaching to a hostile audience everywhere he went. Now, the Jews demand miraculous signs because their religion, as I said, is a supernatural religion. God birthed the Jewish nation through a miracle done by an elderly couple, a man who was 100 years old and a woman, a barren wife, who was 90 years old and they, together, had a miracle baby named Isaac. And so the Jewish nation was birthed through supernatural power. God also did signs and wonders, as I mentioned, through Moses, in delivering them out of bondage to Egypt, a miraculous religion. And again and again, God raised up prophets, many of whom, not all of whom, but many of whom did miracles. All of them did miracles in predicting the future. But some of them, like Elijah and Elisha, also did signs and wonders. So when Jesus came, making amazing claims about himself, the Jews demanded to see miracles so that he should prove himself. Now, as I said, Jesus did more miracles than could ever be cataloged or written about. But they still demanded more; it was never enough! Day after day, they came and wanted more miracles. Matthew 12:38-40, it says, "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law came to him and said, ‘Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.’" This is after all those healings. This is after feeding the 5,000. This is after all of the things he'd done. "We want to see a miraculous sign from you." Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation asked for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So the miraculous sign the Jews were demanding is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's it, that's the sign to the nation. The resurrection. Now, the miracles were, and still are valid evidences, on which we can base our faith in Him that he's the Son of God. John 14:11, Jesus said, "Believe me when I say to you, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." John 14:11. So they are a valid basis for faith. Now, the apostles, when they would go out and preach, they would occasionally do miracles as well. Not anywhere near as many as Jesus, but they did them. Paul healed some people. As a matter of fact, some handkerchiefs were taken from Paul to a sick person, the sick person was made well. Now, I'm not advocating that today, not at all. I mean, you can see this kind of stuff on TV. But it actually happened back in Paul's days. The things that mark an apostle, signs and wonders, were done among you with great perseverance. So Paul did miracles, so did they all, but still, it's never enough. They're always demanding more miraculous signs. You remember the greatest miracle in Jesus's life, not counting his own resurrection, was the resurrection of Lazarus from the grave. Remember? He'd been dead for four days, now he's alive. He had quite a story to tell. I'd want to ask him questions about those four days, so would you, I know you would. He probably had no memory, I'm thinking he had no memory of those four days, because then he would be filled with misery. "Why am I back here?" But he had a job to do and that was to testify to the greatness of Jesus in his life. But you know what the Jews did? Instead of believing in Jesus, they conspired to kill, not only Jesus, but now Lazarus too. Let's kill him. Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks are looking for wisdom. By that, Paul means a polished system of philosophy, with rhetorical public speaking experts, that went around from place to place, they were called the Sophists, and they would get money for preaching polished, high-sounding philosophies. And the Greeks loved this kind of thing, it was their entertainment and they would pay well if the guy was good. So that's what the Greeks are looking for, they're not looking for somebody like me. But what both Jewish skeptics and Greek skeptics did not realize is that Christ crucified is the infinite answer to both. Jesus is the greatest display of power there has ever been on planet Earth. He is also the greatest display of wisdom there ever has been on planet earth. III. Jewish Rejection: The Cross is a Stumbling Block Now, Jewish rejection was based on the fact that the cross was a stumbling block. Do you see that? Look at verse 23, "We preach Christ crucified: A stumbling block to the Jews." A "scandalon" in the Greek. Scandalized by this. The message of the cross was deeply offensive to the Jews of Jesus's day and of Paul's day. So much so that Paul would frequently start, inadvertently start riots, almost everywhere he preached. His Jewish opponents got so violent in Jerusalem that they were throwing off their cloaks and kicking up dust in the air with their eagerness to kill this man. Earlier, a number of them took an oath not to eat again until they had assassinated Paul. Now that's a high level of commitment, because they hated his message so much. The Incarnation Was Offensive Why? Well first, the incarnation itself was offensive. The Jews believed in one God and only one God, the Shema, "Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, there is one God and only one God." But Jesus claimed to be that one God. He claimed to be the son of the eternal God, and he openly said in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." And when the Jews heard this, they picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said, "I've shown you many great miracles signs from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We're not stoning you for any of these… but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." That's offensive; that's a scandalon; that's a stumbling block to us. Not only that, they were told, they were instructed in their law, what to do with even a wonder-working prophet who predicted things that actually came true, but told Israel to worship another God. This is in Deuteronomy 13. If any a dreamer or prophet comes and he's working miracles, but he's telling you to worship gods, gods neither you nor your fathers have known, then you must kill him. God is testing you to see whether you love him with all your heart. That's Deuteronomy 13:1-5. But Jesus wasn't preaching another god, he was preaching to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Son of God, and that was deeply offensive, but even worse, by far, was the idea of a crucified messiah. The Crucified Messiah Was Offensive That their messiah, their Son of David, could end up dead on a Roman cross, was infinitely offensive to them. It was a stumbling block more than we can possibly imagine. They were waiting for a Son of David who would destroy the Romans, throw off the Roman yoke and set up a kingdom from sea to shining sea. Psalm 72:8-11 is their scriptural support among any verses. Listen to this, "He will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The desert tribes will bow down before him and his enemies will lick the dust. All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him." They were waiting for that. And oh, how sick they were of the Romans. So when Jesus rides in with a triumphal entry and they're cheering and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David," what is it they're expecting? They're expecting the revolution is imminent. Instead, that same week, Jesus was crucified, he was dead on a Roman cross. And this was so offensive to them. You remember how Pontius Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened over the head of Jesus on the cross, This is Jesus, the "King of the Jews." And he had it written in three languages, so that everyone could get his message. Do you remember the Jewish leaders came to Pilate said, "Take it down, it's offensive. Do not write, ‘King of the Jews,’ but, this man claimed to be the King of the Jews." Pilate said, "What I have written, I have written." Interesting guy, Pilate. That's another sermon for another day. But they were so offended that this, the King of the Jews, could actually be dead on a Roman cross. And the clearest proof of all was a statement in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, "If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse." So there's no way, in the Jewish mindset, that the Son of David, the ultimate blessed one of God, could be ultimately cursed by God. Made no sense, so that's a done deal, he's not the Messiah. Well, how did Paul work it out? Paul was bothered by this, wasn't he? Saul of Tarsus, he was deeply offended by this, you remember? And he had it in his mind, he had to destroy this religion of Christianity. And so he's on the road to Damascus, you know the story. Suddenly, a blinding light flashed around him and a voice came from heaven. "Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute me?" "who are you, Lord?" He asked. "I am Jesus." Those words changed everything for Paul. Everything. Changed everything for the world. "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do." He was blinded, literally blinded, by that brilliant light. But some things were very clear. First of all, Jesus was alive, so therefore he had risen from the dead. He's in glory, therefore he is Lord. And he didn't kill him, though he was persecuting him. He had work for him to do. But what about that whole curse thing? And I don't know when the Holy Spirit instructed him about the cross and made it no longer a stumbling block, but now the wisdom of God, but somewhere in there, he came to understand how it is that Jesus could be both the blessed one of God, and still a curse from God. And so he wrote about it in Galatians 3:13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’" So Jesus took our curse. We deserved to die under the wrath of God. Jesus stood in our place, the lightning rod, and took the lightning strike for us, that we might not be cursed. So that's, to the Jews, a stumbling block. IV. Greek Rejection: The Cross is Foolishness To the Greeks, the cross is foolishness. Made no sense why a sublime spirit being like God, the God of Plato and Aristotle and Socrates would take on a human body. They were trying to get up out of the body and get into a spiritual realm. Why would God do that? And even worse, if He did that, He would be very famous, I think. He would be the glorious king of the world. Instead, he gets born in some obscure place to some Jewish peasant girl and then it doesn't go well for him, he actually ends up arrested and dead like a slave on a Roman cross. Really hard to believe. And even beyond that, you're telling me that if I as a Greek believe in this Jewish carpenter, my sins will be saved before a Jewish God? Doesn't make much sense, seems pretty foolish to me. So, the audience is set against this message and friends, it's still true today. When we go out this week to share the Gospel, you're going to meet the same kinds of reactions, foolishness worthy of mockery or that's offensive to me. What you're sharing is offensive. You're going to meet the same responses and this is the answer. V. For the Called: The Cross is the Power and Wisdom of God Now, your outline says, "The cross is the power and wisdom of God," but the text actually... Got the outline wrong, sorry. "Christ is the power and the wisdom of God." To some degree in this text, they seem to be one and the same. The Cross and Christ are united. Look at verse 23,24, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles." Verse 24, "But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." The sovereign calling of God is everything here. God has the power to call you out of darkness into light. He has the power to take out your heart of stone through the Holy Spirit and give you a heart of flesh. He has the power to give eyes, give the eyes of your heart light so that you can see the truth. That's the calling of God to the called, to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks. Now, there are two calls in the gospel one of them is external, it's heard through sound. You've been hearing that since you've heard me preaching today, your ear drums vibrate. That's the external call. That goes on all over the world. That's the external call only though. That doesn't save your soul. Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." This is referring to, I think the internal call of the Holy Spirit of God. And the thing that's so powerful about that is God has the power to call things into existence, that didn't exist a moment before. Remember at creation, God says, "Let there be light." He says the word light before there is light and then there is light. God says, "Let the waters on the earth be gathered together in one place and let dry ground appear and behold it's so." God had the power to say to a barren couple, Abraham and Sarah, "Be pregnant Sarah. A year from now, Sarah, you will hold a son and Abraham will be the father." One year from now. Paul talking about that in Romans 4:17, speaks about "the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." So before God calls you the cross is foolishness or a stumbling block. But then when He calls you, when He says to Lazarus, "Lazarus come forth," then suddenly there's life, and there is light and there is power. The Holy Spirit of God does that. Look again at 1 Corinthians 2:14, the next chapter. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." So I took that verse and turned it around. Let's turn it around. The person with the Spirit does accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are no longer foolishness to him, but have become wisdom. The cross of Christ is no longer weakness or a stumbling block, but it has become the power of God to save their souls. So the Spirit enables a person to understand the cross of Christ and see it spiritually for what it really is. And notice that the called are from both Jews and Greeks. There are, I don't know what, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Jews who believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God. Called the Messianic Jews are some of the most delightful people you'll ever meet. And there are Greeks too, that's all of us non Jews, literally hundreds of millions of those, who believe that Jesus actually is the Son of God, and is their Savior. We are the called of God, and to us, the cross has become the power of God for our salvation, and wisdom of God. VI. The Superiority of God’s Wisdom and Power And finally in verse 25, we see the superiority of God's wisdom and power. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." That's better than the ESV translation that says, "Wiser than man…" "Stronger than man…" It's in the genitive form, so it's the man's what? It's ellipsis, it leaves a word out. So I think the NIV does a good job translating here. "The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom [that of man] and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." So even the tiniest bit of God's wisdom, even what we might think of as foolishness, is still wiser than anything we'd ever do. Jesus said, "Consider how the lilies grow. They don't labor or spin. …not even Solomon in all his splendor is dressed like one of these." Have you ever picked a wild flower, and just looked at it? I did it some time ago with a violet, little purple flower. And I studied it for a long time. I don't know what I was hoping to learn, but I was doing what Jesus said. "Consider the lilies of the field." I was just looking at it and I said, "This is a wonderful, marvelous creation of God." It's just a piece of foolishness from God. It's here today, and tomorrow is thrown in the fire. And you could say, "God, do you realize people are going to heaven and hell every day? There's big things going on here in the world God, and you're making a little flower." Yes, God does that kind of thing. He's causing flowers to grow all over the world, He loves them and He just makes them pretty. Even the smallest bit of God's foolishness is wiser than anything we could do. All we do is observe and study, and use things. God made them. But this foolishness here isn't talking about the wild flower. It's talking about the cross. That which seems to be foolishness to us actually is infinite wisdom. That which seems to be weak, is actually the most powerful thing that has ever been. VII. Applications Applications. First, if you're not yet a Christian, I'm delighted you're here I prayed that you would come this morning. You overcame a battle probably to get up and keep the promise to your friend, or to walk in here. I prayed that God would help you do that. I remember that battle when I was 19, a junior at MIT, I had that battle. It was hard. So I'm praising God that you're here. It could be that in the call of the Gospel, that external thing you've been hearing, that God has moved something in your heart and that you actually are beginning to see the cross of Christ differently than you've ever seen before. Friends, that's how salvation happens, that's exactly how it occurs. Don't wait to call on the name of the Lord. In your heart cry out and say, "Oh God, save me from my sins through Jesus. I want to trust in Christ as my Lord and Savior, and He will save you. Because everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Now, if you're a Christian, I'm delighted you're here. I'm not just delighted for non-Christians. I'm glad you're here because we're not done being saved either. The cross is still the power of God for our salvation as well. So start with this: Be confident that God is going to vindicate the cross at the end of time. You're not on the wrong side of this thing. The mockery of the world will fade away like the crackling of thorns in a fire. The proverb says that the fool's laughter is like the crackling of thorns in a fire. It's nothing. And then it will be gone. And Christ... The wisdom of Christ at the cross and the power of God and the cross will be vindicated on Judgment Day. So, don't be intimidated by the really shrewd, clever, funny, talk show host type people or professors that mock our religion. It cannot be mocked. Secondly, see the wisdom of God and humbling pride at the cross, and be more humble than you are. I'm not done being humbled yet. I can't believe how strong my pride is. The cross needs to keep slaying my pride and yours too. So be humbled by the cross. Thirdly, trust in the power of God, to finish saving you. The cross isn't done with you yet. And so He who began a good work in you, by calling you out of darkness into light, He will complete it, until the day of Christ Jesus. He will not stop saving you by the power of the cross. Be confident of that. No one can snatch you out of the Father's hand, or out of Jesus's hand. Fourthly, speak the message of Christ and him crucified, to people who are set against it. Don't be intimidated, don't be afraid. They may mock you they may become angry at you. More likely they'll be indifferent and say, "That's good for you. I've got my own thing." But persevere. Let's speak the message of the cross this week to someone here in the Durham area, the Raleigh area. Let's speak Christ... And let's trust in it and not be ashamed. Fifth, the message of the cross teaches us that God's ways are different, than ours, and that God sometimes offends us by what he does. John the Baptist was tempted to be offended at the cross. Jesus said, "Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me." The things that God does are sometimes difficult for us to accept. So if you're going through suffering, affliction, you're having a financial trouble, a medical problem, you've been praying and God is not doing what you want. Just understand that God's ways are not your ways, God is working a higher purpose in your life, trust in His wisdom. Trust in His power even though it's perhaps initially offensive to you, what he's doing. And then finally, understand that this message of the cross is for the whole world. Not just for us here in the Raleigh/Durham area. Let's be a missions church, a church that's committed to taking the message of the gospel to those who have never heard the name of Christ. Close with me in prayer. Father, We thank you for the time that we've had to study this incredible passage. We thank you for all the things that we've learned in it. And we ask Lord, that You would please sustain and strengthen each of us to see the message and the truth of the cross. That it's not foolishness, but actual perfect wisdom. It's not weakness, but actually it's perfect power. Lord, we thank You for the way that the Word of God teaches us the truth. Help us, O Lord by the Spirit to see it working in our lives. God I pray, give us a heart of compassion to the lost that surround us in the college campus, in the workplace, in our neighborhoods, just people we meet here in the triangle area. Help us to share this message of the cross with them in Jesus name, Amen.

In part 1 (0- 14:00), Paul was a zealous Pharisee before he converted to following Jesus. Tim says this “zeal” that Paul showed as a Pharisee is a hyperlink to an Old Testament story in Numbers 25 where the priest Phineas exercised “zeal” to preserve the Jewish law. Jon comments that zeal is an interesting emotion that is complicated to understand in religious movements. Tim comments that Paul never lost his zeal; he just redirected it upon his conversion to Jesus. In part 2 (14:00-25:30), the guys discuss Acts 13 and the missionary journeys. Tim explains that there were more missionary journeys going on than just those recounted in the book of Acts. He references a book called “The Lost History of Christianity” by Philip Jenkins. Regarding Paul’s missionary journeys, Tim recounts that Paul bridged the gap between Jews and Gentiles, and Luke recounts this with all these short stories about converts like Lydia the Gentile purple merchant, Timothy the child of a Jewish mother and Greek father, the Philippian jailer, a rough and tough character, and Dionysius the Areopagite an ancient intellectual aristocrat. Luke desires to portray Paul as a person who reaches a diverse group of people with the message of Jesus. In part 3 (25:30-36:00), the guys discuss the circumcision controversy portrayed in Acts 15. Should Gentile converts to Christianity be required to observe traditional Jewish customs? This is one of the fundamental questions underpinning the whole New Testament, but it’s largely missed today because Christianity is now majorly non Jewish. Tim says the disciples determined what to do by using a passage from the Old Testament prophet Amos found in Amos 9:11-15. In part 4 (36:00-48:45), the guys discuss what ancient Rome was like and why Christianity was viewed as a threat to the Roman empire. The Roman economy was made up largely of indentured servants and slaves. Roman religion was polytheistic. Tim cites quotes by scholars Kavin Rowe and Larry Hurtado saying that Christians posed both an economic and religious threat to the Roman society. Why? Because they refused to participate in communal worship of the Roman gods or in the economy built on violent nationalism. Tim says this is evident in the stories Luke shares, like the one about the silversmith Demetrius in Acts 19. He views Christianity as a threat to the entire religious and economic system of the world and incites a riot in Ephesus against Paul. In part 6 (48:45-53:05), Tim shares a few quotes from NT Wright. The guys discuss how modern Americans’ lives look very similar to Roman lives. We tend to worship sex and money as a culture, but without the mythology wrapped around it. Are Americans or modern westerners that much different from our historical Roman predecessors? Perhaps we’re more alike than we care to believe. In part 7 (53:05-59:50), the guys cover Acts 17. Wherever Christianity spread, there tended to be riots as the local communities felt the Christians were disrupting their way of life. Tim says that Luke was purposefully portraying the Jesus movement on a collision course with the Roman world. Paul and other Christians would create disruption wherever they went, yet they were preaching a gospel of peace. In part 8 (59:50-end), the guys make an interesting historical observation that the foundation for religious liberty and the separation of church and state comes from the ancient church fathers like Tertullian arguing for their right to worship the Jewish God, but serve a Roman emperor. Thank you to all our supporters! Produced By: Dan Gummel, Jon Collins, Matthew Halbert-Howen Resources: Philip Jenkins, Lost Christianity Kavin Rowe, World Upside-Down: Reading Acts in a Graeco-Roman Age Larry Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods Larry Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become Christian? N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God Music: Beautiful Eulogy, The Fear of God Beautiful Eulogy, Come Alive (Hidden) Beautiful Eulogy, Come Alive Moby, Shot in the Back of the Head Shipwrecked, Noah Dixon KV, Wild Rosasharn Music, Defender Instrumental

Mark 1:21-28  Jesus and his followers went into Capernaum. Immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and started teaching. The people were amazed by his teaching, for he was teaching them with authority, not like the legal experts. Suddenly, there in the synagogue, a person with an evil spirit screamed, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.”   “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out.   Everyone was shaken and questioned among themselves, “What’s this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him!” Right away the news about him spread throughout the entire region of Galilee.   I’d like to begin our look today at our Scriptural text by sharing a story about my grandmother, my father’s mother, Inez Jones, who lived most of her life in Meridian, Mississippi, which is the closest thing I too have to a hometown.  She was quite a woman in many ways, being divorced as she was early in her life during a time when such things were not done, and then working multiple jobs while trying to raise three kids on her own.  She would tell me stories of her nightly work at the local movie theater after finishing her day job, scrapping together a living, until she saved enough to open up her own business, a Hallmark Card shop in the late fifties, a store that thrived through much of the sixties and early seventies, when she finally sold it someone else.  She certainly had the prejudices of her time, but altogether she was feisty, hard-working woman in an era when divorced women didn’t open up business by themselves – she always seemed fearless to me, with her fiery dyed red hair and her certainty about how the world should work.  But she wasn’t completely fearless, as I eventually came to see, when I first saw fear etched on her face for the first time when I was maybe 12 or so. I was staying with her in Meridian, and my parents were away from the house, and there was a persistent knock on the door, which my grandmother answered. And yet, she didn’t open the door fully, and she kept the chain lock on, speaking only through the partially opened door.  Words were exchanged, voices were raise, and this man seemed to want in, and she wouldn’t do it, she would let him in, even though it was clear that she knew this man in early forties, who was disheveled, hair a mess, with a face ravaged by time and a world weariness.  Eventually, after a few minutes, he left, and she turned around from facing the door to facing me, her face flushed with both fear and relief.  I asked her who that man was, but she ignored my question, but later, when I asked my mother about who this stranger might have been, she told me that it was one of my grandmother’s nephews, a man who mentally ill, likely schizophrenic I would later guess, and who, when off his meds, could become violent and belligerent.  He would often end up homeless during these times, and show up my grandmother’s door, asking for money or food, which she sometime provided, though not that day, perhaps because my sister and I were at her house. I had never heard of him until that day, never knew of him, and later it would become clear that he become an intentionally forgotten member of our family, perhaps because some were ashamed of him, and others because they were afraid of him. I still don’t know what ever happened to him, this secret shame that my family thought he was, but though I wish now that they and we knew better about how to handle and understand my relative’s mental illness, I don’t know if I can blame them or my grandmother too much – this was all so scary to them, and they did not understand what had happened to him, this sudden shift that likely happened when he was a young man, perhaps even a teenager, when the voices in his head suddenly made themselves known and began to wreak havoc in his life. As I’ve often said, people usually do the best they can in this life, but sometimes the best they – and we - can do is not all that great.    I thought of him this week, whose name I cannot even remember, much to my shame, when reading this story from the Gospel of Mark, the first account of Jesus healing someone in this Gospel. I thought of the fear that my grandmother’s nephew provoked in her and in the rest of my family, this mental illness within him that they couldn’t understand, and couldn’t quite deal with.  This strange thing had overtaken him, had possessed him somehow, these relentless voices in his head that scared people around him, which up to only recently couldn’t really be treated, not until newish medicine came out that helps those living with schizophrenia live fuller and more manageable lives.  When we read the stories of Jesus interacting with people who often manifest signs of mental illness and yet are diagnosed as being possessed by demons by our ancestors, well, I can see why it seem to our ancestors that some outside force had taken hold of their loved one, their friend, the stranger walking the streets of Capernaum, Nazareth, Bethel, and Jerusalem.  It’s clear that in the Gospels, in much of them anyway, mental illness was associated with the demonic forces, with either one or multiple beings believed to possess the human body, torturing both body and soul, and it seems that Jesus believed this as well.  As much as some of us argue for the divinity of Jesus, the uniqueness of Jesus, we must hold onto to the other side of the doctrine of the incarnation – that Jesus was as human as we are, and was as held captive to the ideas and beliefs of his particular culture and time and place as we all are. If we believe that Jesus is less human than we are, and less prone to believe what others believed, less captured by the culturally and historically bound world than we are, then we ultimately dehumanize him, we strip him of his humanity.  That may seem odd to those of us who want Jesus to know better, who want Jesus to understand that these voices emanating from his fellow human beings were a manifestation of a mental illness rooted in the something going awry in the brain. But if Jesus is human, and he certainly was, then he cannot be somehow exempted from the reality that all humans are shaped by the culture and belief systems that they and we historically find ourselves living within. Jesus cannot be less human than we are – otherwise, he simply becomes a superhuman being, a religious superhero with powers to help others – and the church has warned us against that idea for centuries.    But where and when and how did the idea of the demonic enter into the biblical narrative, into our Bible, and into ancient Jewish thought?  Well, from what scholars have deduced based on historical records, the term “demon” was first used in the Jewish Bible, our own Old Testament, as a way of describing other deities, other gods, who were competitors to Yahweh, to the Jewish God, from other tribes, nations, and countries. These were simply beings who stood against God since God was the one true God, the name above all names, so to speak.  But when the northern tribes of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE and were ruled by them for almost a hundred years, the Jewish people began to adopt some Assyrian ideas, including their belief in what we now commonly understand as demons – entities, invisible spiritual beings that can wreck damage on human beings, and actually take control of them, but who are not necessarily gods. Still, unlike the Assyrians, these beliefs about the demonic never became a centerpiece of the Jewish religion – the demonic, demons are actually rarely mentioned in the Old Testament. And yet, by the first century, during Jesus’ time, it was clear that demons and the demonic had become a way of explaining what seemed unexplainable, especially around mental illness.  It’s important to note that people in the first century seemed to understand that some physical illness were just illnesses – rarely, if ever, does something like a highly feared disease such as leprosy get attributed to the demonic. And yet, surely we can understand why ancient people tried to explain the impulses, the actions of those living with mental illness in terms of external forces, or who even tried to explain the push and pull of their own wayward desires, their own wandering hearts, their own particular hatreds in the language of the demonic. Who hasn’t thought, after a moment when we were less than our best selves, who hasn’t felt and voiced that we felt we were somehow under the control of something that was surely not us, not me.  For example, the addict can surely can testify that the desire for drugs or alcohol feels as if it has a life of its own, a pull that seems more external than internal, a craving that has an almost supernatural power.  Even Paul sometimes speaks of sin this ways, as if it was entity unto itself, had a life of its own, a disease that invaded us from the outside and caused all sort of wrongheaded behavior in us and through us.    So, with this understanding of how the idea of the demonic entered into our faith, it’s interesting to note that the earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, is replete with stories of Jesus dealing with those believed to be possessed with demonic spirits, and with stories of him confronting those demonic spirits who wish to unmask him as the Son of God, during which Jesus always shuts them up – it is not yet time for him to be revealed as God’s own child.  In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke these encounters with the demonic continue, and yet, by the time the Gospel of John was written, which was likely the last Gospel written, around about 50-60 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the demonic as an explanation of human mental illness seems to have been discarded by the Christian community that helped produce this Gospel and is absent from the text of John, though Jesus continues to heal human beings in John’s telling of the story of Jesus. Demons and demonic possession are rarely brought up in the letters of the New Testament, and writers like Paul tend to understand demonic forces more broadly, using such phrases as “the principalities and the powers,” forces less focused on particular human beings, and more focused on standing in the way of God’s reign, of God’s emerging realm and kingdom in this world.    And it is that idea of forces arrayed against God’s will, God’s desire for wholeness, for salvation, salvation and wholeness being interchangeable words for the same thing, God’s desire for the new world of love and justice, that I think you can actually find in our text today, despite the powerful drama found this story that reflects an earlier understanding of those living with mental illness during Jesus’ day. Jesus has his cohort, his disciples and then he enter into Capernaum and immediately – as everything in the Gospel of Mark is done immediately, quickly – immediately he goes to the synagogue and begins to teach. Amazement fills the place because Jesus teaches as if he had the right to teach, that he knew what he saying and doing, unlike the religious legal experts of the time. Suddenly, the scriptures say - and again, note the immediacy, suddenly a person who is believed to be possessed by a demon, an evil spirit, starts yelling at him, screaming at Jesus, saying “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.” The evil spirit recognizes Jesus, sees him for who is he is, unlike everyone else in the room. But Jesus doesn’t want to come out yet, so to speak, and this constant admonishment to the demons to be silent, said to both demons and people alike, is something scholars have named as the “Markan Secret.”  It’s simply not the right time for Jesus to be revealed as the Son of God, and so this truth needs be kept quiet, kept hidden, at least for the moment.  And then Jesus commands the demon to depart out of this person and the spirit screams and shakes this poor person until finally the evil spirit comes out of him.  The crowd is stunned, is shaken by this display of power, and they begin asking themselves who this person is, that even the unclean spirits obey him.  It is Jesus’ first display of his spiritual power – and it is, as they say, quite a stunner!   But what are we to do with this story, we who know that schizophrenia is not caused by demons, but an illness in the brain, one that can be controlled by medicine, which is surely proof that it is a physical and not spiritual disease? How do we navigate the meaning of this text, in light of who we are and what we now know of the world? For me, there are still multiple lessons to be learned here, the first being a somewhat odd one but, if you think about it, a fairly obvious one.  First, this truth: out of surprising moments and from surprising people there can come the great truth. The crowd gathered couldn’t see the truth about Jesus and who he was, but the demon, the evil spirit, it saw, it beheld the truth, and that uis this Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God.  From this struggling soul, from this one wracked with voices he could not understand, came a truth, one that others, those with sounder minds, could not see. I know this analogy is an incredibly imperfect one, but what would it mean to really listen to those who were struggling with mental illness, including common ones like depression, which is sometimes called the noonday demon, referencing a text from Psalm 91?  Out of the pain and hurt that comes from mental illness can come some powerful truths about life, the human experience, and perhaps we should listen, listen to those voices that sometimes can tell us some difficult and uncomfortable truths.  I wonder if my grandmother had been able to sit with my nephew, been able to work through her fear, and not just quite literally shut the door to keep out what she could not understand, what we could not understand, I wonder what lessons she and my larger family could have learned?  My own family, including myself, have a long history of depression, sometimes acute depression, but it was so often left untreated, especially in my parents because we also had a long history of not listening to others on this matter, of sweeping the problem under the rug, of literally closing the door to what we could not understand or maybe just deal with, thinking the shadows we were experiencing was just our failure somehow, some external burden we should just be able shake off with some effort, of just feeling sorry for ourselves. That meant we couldn’t just deal with the depression and understand it for what it actually was: a symptom of our brains sometimes going awry, reacting a particular situation or reacting to something deeper, something that went as deep as our own DNA. So, I would say that surely this story from Mark shows that one must face our demons, one must name the truth, as the evil spirit did in this story and one must be able to hear that truth before one can have any hope of casting the demonic out of our lives, through getting help from others, others, which includes healers of both mind and body who so often become the very instruments of the Divine, of God’s healing of us.    But there is another, perhaps an even more powerful second truth that I think should be heard in this story, and it again comes from this unexpected truth teller, this unclean spirit, and it comes in the form of a question: “have you come to destroy us?” the demon asks Jesus, before Jesus silences it, before Jesus shuts him down and casts him out of this poor soul.  Here again, the demon speaks a truth, the truth about a part of Jesus’ mission, which was surely to confront the principalities and powers of this world, a mission that includes freeing us from the delusional system that has held us in bondage, as Walter Wink in our Modern Lesson reminds us. Jesus has come to destroy the demonic through non-violent means, through love, and a justice that sets the world right.  I know, I know, for some of you, it’s a fool’s hope I offer you on Jesus’ behalf, but it is a fueled by what the demons names here in this text – the truth that all that is evil, both within us and within the institutions that compose the principalities and powers, will ultimately be destroyed by this Jesus, this poor peasant from some nowhere town, this Son of God walking the dirty streets of ancient Capernaum. I do not offer a cheap hope, but one born of hope, and a trust in this Jesus, a hope that even the demons of this world, all those forces that stand against goodness and love and justice, can see, which is this truth: that love wins, that God wins, love being simply another word for God, at least according to Jesus.  If even the forces of chaos and cruelty, the demonic in this world, can see their reign of darkness will one-day end, surely we are invited to see the same, we who are possessed not by the demonic but by the very Spirit of God, this gift of God who is within us, surely we can see the traces of light, of goodness emerging even here, even there, in us, and in this sometimes cruel and broken and yet beautiful world we live in.  “Have you come to destroy us?” the demon asks, already knowing the answer. “Yes, yes, I have,” Jesus must have thought before silencing this truth telling voice – perhaps not right now, but soon, very, very soon. Amen.     

What is the story of Joseph about? There is a lot going on, but what Joseph realizes in the end is that his life is ultimately a story about God thwarting the devastating effects of a famine. This is a tale about how the Jewish God saved Egyptians lives.

BRING BACK EA SPORTS BIG. On this episode we finally get to the important stuff. Will Thor Ragnarok be good? What’s the deal with Doom (2016)? What’s Jewish God called? Find out all of this and more on the number one Post Malone fanboy podcast. The OK Beast Podcast is a weekly gaming and nerd […] The post Blessing Spoils Arrow For Ian (Also Blessing’s Played Uncharted 4) – OK Beast Podcast Ep. 54 appeared first on OK Beast.

As we enter the Christmas season, and songs about God are playing everywhere, we might ask ours – who does God belong to? Is He a Christian God, a Jewish God, a Muslim God? Today's talk will explore these questions with the Bhakti theology and the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.

Is the World Falling Apart? The current issue of World magazine, you may have seen it recently, (World magazine is a Christian form of Time magazine) has as the cover article Is the World Falling Apart? Thankfully, the magazine answers no, praise God, but we get a strong answer to that question right from Isaiah 45 this morning. Now, the issues that are on the minds of the authors of the article there and of the editors of World have to do with events going on in the Ukraine and events going on in the Near East, events going on in Syria and Iraq and in Israel. It doesn't mention Ebola, but you could extend that as well, as that's reaching a crisis level in parts of the world that are hard to even imagine. I read an article this week, Seven Rational Reasons to Panic About Ebola; it was a very depressing article. Well, I thought throughout history, you could say seven rational reasons to panic about the rise of communism, or before that the invasion of Hitler and Poland, or seven rational reasons to panic about the beginning of World War I, or seven rational reasons to panic about Genghis Khan. Again and again throughout history there have been, it seems, rational reasons to panic. And again and again, God stands in the pages of Scripture and testifies that he is sovereign over all of this. The nations are churning like a roiling sea, and there's all of this discontent, and there's all of this disorder and this sin. But God rules over all of it for his glory. And this morning, we're going to look at how God raises up a temporary empire under Cyrus the Great to serve his purposes in raising up an eternal empire in Jesus Christ. And we need to train ourselves to look at world events, look at world history, the things that are happening, whether crises of a biological nature like Ebola, or a crisis of a political, geopolitical nature like ISIS, or what's going on in Ukraine, or even crisis of weather, like Hurricane Katrina or other things like that, and look at it differently through the eyes of the sovereignty of God over all of these things. And Isaiah 45 is going to give us some significant insights into all of that. The amazing message of this chapter, and indeed of the whole Bible, is that God actively rules over every single event on the surface of the Earth; everything. He actively rules over the rise and fall of nations in particular, and that's something we need to keep in mind. God raises up empires, he raises up emperors and he brings them back down again. And as a matter of fact, no one can be a king, no one can be a ruler, no one can raise up an empire without the power of the sovereign power of God, whether that individual acknowledges God or not. As in this text, it said several times that Cyrus doesn't acknowledge God. And it is very helpful and encouraging and strengthening to our faith to know that God does this, that God is the one that raises up empires and nations. He's the one that determines how long they'll last and when they will sink back down into the dust of history, as the Medo-Persian Empire has done. How do we know that? Well, there are number of places. Isaiah 45, that we're going to look at today, I think teaches it. But for me, probably the number one verse in the Bible that teaches this in a very succinct way is Acts 17:26. This is where the Apostle Paul, speaking at Mars Hill, talked about human history in this way: "From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole Earth. And he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." Now, I'll tell you, if you meditate on that long enough, you'll understand how significant that statement is. God determines how long people live, where they live, what is going to be the extent of their domain. God rules over all of these things. It's amazing, in Deuteronomy 2:20-22, he talks there about some various people; this is where Moses is getting the Jewish nation ready to invade the Promised Land and take from it those Canaanite nations, to take it militarily, and God's going to go before them and give them military success. But God actually says, "I've been doing that with other nations, too, not just your own." He talks, for example, about the Ammonites, who drove out a people called the Zamzummites. And you're like, "Huh. What in the world do the Ammonites and the Zamzummites have to do with me?" Well nothing, they have sunk, as I said, back into the dust heap of history. But this is what Deuteronomy 2:21 says concerning the Zamzummites: "They were a people strong and numerous, as tall as the Anakites." Listen, "The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out, and settled in their place." Do you not realize the significance of that statement? That God was going before the Ammonites and driving out the Zamzummites. He's been doing that ever since. God rules over all of these things. And so here in this chapter, Isaiah 45, God is saying that he gives to Cyrus a kingdom, that he's going to go ahead of Cyrus. That image is powerful, like the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire before the Jews. He's going to go ahead of Cyrus and go before Cyrus and give him a kingdom. He's going to give him military victories. And he's going to do it and he's going to speak of him... God is going to speak of Cyrus as his servant and his shepherd, even his anointed one, his Christ in the Greek translation. Though he does not acknowledge him. And why is he doing all this? I say we step back and look big picture, God is doing this so that his elect people will know him and worship him and come to him for salvation and be saved even to the ends of the earth. That's what God is doing. He's ruling over history for the salvation of his chosen people. That's what this chapter's about. I. God Grants Cyrus an Empire for the Salvation of His Elect (vs. 1-8) So now let's dig in and look verses one through eight, God grants to Cyrus an empire for the salvation of his elect. Now, who is this individual Cyrus? For the second time, we have Cyrus the Great specifically identified by name. We've been looking at this for weeks now. These are the two chapters Isaiah 44 verse 28, "The Lord says of Cyrus," Koresh in the Hebrew, "he is my shepherd, and will accomplish all that I please. He will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt and of the temple let its foundations be laid." And then again, we have Cyrus mentioned in 45 and verse one. Who was Cyrus the Great? So we have this individual mentioned by name, Cyrus, called in history, Cyrus the Great. Notice he's not called Cyrus the Great in the pages of scripture, because he is not great compared to the true king, who is coming, Christ, Christ is great. But Cyrus was a, according to the ancient historian, Herodotus, the grandson of a Median king named Astyages, ruler of the Median empire. Astyages had a dream about his baby grandson that one day he would overthrow him. So similar to King Herod, he sought to kill Cyrus the Great. But he officially delegated the task to an official but he couldn't do it, he couldn't kill this baby, and he gave him, he hit him with a shepherd instead. Wasn't until Cyrus was 10 years old, that king Astyages learned about this deception. But by then Cyrus' qualities had become known and he didn't want to kill him, Astyages didn't. And so he let him and his mother live in exile. Well, in 554 BC, Cyrus led a revolt against his grandfather Astyages in fulfillment of the dream, and we would say in fulfill of the prophecies here in this chapter. He led a revolt and overthrew Astyages and effectively ended the Median empire. He then consolidated the Persians, and the Medes together into one world empire, the first of its kind in world history. And so it's called the Medo-Persian empire. He drew these officials together and they set out to begin conquest. He moved out to control the Mediterranean coastline, smaller kingdoms like the kingdom of Lydia ruled by the fabulously wealthy king Croesus who is one of the... Said to be one of the wealthiest kings in history, conquered all of them, one after the other. They allied themselves to try to stop the Medo-Persian onslaught, but they couldn't do it. On October 12, 539 BC, Cyrus annexed the Chaldean or Babylonian empire, and on October 29th, he entered Babylon and arrested the king and assumed the title, their king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world. I believe that put it all together that's the story told in Daniel 5. That very night, Belshazzar died in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Almost immediately then Cyrus the Great extended his control over the Arabian Peninsula, and over the middle east. They all submitted to Persian rule. Although Cyrus did not conquer Egypt by 535 BC, all the lands right up to the Egyptian border had submitted to him, and they began giving tribute to him. So that's who Cyrus the Great was in history. Cyrus also had some enlightened policies for ruling his empire. He was the first empire to realize that it was in his own best interest to make everybody under his rule as absolutely happy and autonomous as possible. He wanted them to be content under Persian rule. The Romans would perfect that with the Pax Romana. It was a combination of their overpowering military strength, so if you revolt you're going to get crushed. Plus, "Hey life, isn't so bad. Things are going well. We have our own rulers really under the Caesars etcetera." And it was really Cyrus that saw the wisdom of doing that and that extended especially to religion. He wanted the people to be able to worship their own gods and goddesses in their own way, and so he sent money from the treasury to allow temples of gods and goddesses to be rebuilt, and for religions to be established. Now, it was part of this policy that extended to the Jews and enabled them to go back to Palestine and re-build the temple of Yahweh, of Jehovah God. And this is directly recorded for us in Second Chronicles 36:22-23. It says there, "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah," we would add and Isaiah, "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing." Verse 23, "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says, 'The Lord, the God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you may, the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up, let him go up." Now, Cyrus was a Pagan, he was a polytheist, he was a syncretist. He tried to mix as much religion together as possible. The idea of this is, "Who knows whatever gods or goddesses might be upset, let's appease them and make them happy." And you get this, I think, especially in something known as the Cyrus cylinder, which was discovered by an archaeologist in 1878. It's now in the British Museum in London. It's been translated and it shows how Cyrus seemed to believe in all the gods and goddesses. So while the Scripture does show Cyrus giving honor to the Jewish God, he seemed to do the same for every god. The Cyrus cylinder says something like the victorious Cyrus portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god, Marduk, to restore peace and order to the Babylonians, that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and it appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses. The cylinder also says that, he repaired the ruin temples in the various cities that he conquered, restored their cults, their religions, and returned their sacred images as well as their former inhabitants, so that those gods and goddesses could be worshipped. So, as Isaiah says plainly in our text, Cyrus did not acknowledge the true and only, the living God, but God still used it. Do you see? God ruled over this for his own sovereign purposes. God Calls Cyrus His “Anointed” and Grants Him an Empire Now, let's look very specifically at verses 1-3, there it says, "This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." Well, right in verse 1, do you not see how amazing this is, "This is what the Lord says to his anointed"? This is language reserved for a Davidic king. For us as Christians, this is language we reserve for Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. But he says he's going to take his anointed, Cyrus, by the right hand. He's going to lead him and give him success, and he's going to enable Cyrus to subdue every nation that opposes him. He's going to be able to cut through bars of iron and break down gates of bronze. He's going to be militarily successful. And God, he says, is going to go ahead of Cyrus, he's going to go before him to guarantee these victories. Like I said, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire leading the Jews, so God would lead Cyrus to victory, and he'll give him treasures hidden in darkness, maybe that's Croesus's gold down in some vault somewhere. He's going to give him all of the spoils of victory, everything that a pagan emperor could ever want, he's going to hand him the treasures of darkness. But he does this so that Cyrus and Israel and indeed all the earth may know that he alone is the true God. God Does This So That Cyrus, Israel, and All the Earth May Know Him So look at verses 3-6, he says, "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other." And Isn't it powerful how God is speaking directly to Cyrus, talking to him? "I am God and I'm talking to you so that you may know me," speaking very powerfully and directly. That's the goal of all of this, that we may know the only true and living God that there is in the world. "That you may know me, that I have summoned you by name." We know that at the beginning of these conquests, and as he received all of this military victory, Cyrus did not know the Lord. But is it possible that once Daniel got to be the second highest ruler in the Persian kingdom, that he might have evangelized him? Wouldn't it be delightful to find Cyrus up in heaven? Wouldn't it be delightful that God's purpose stated here, "So that you may know me," actually comes true, and that Cyrus is worshipping the true and living God for all eternity? Wouldn't you love to be Daniel rolling open the Isaiah scroll and saying, "Hey here's your name. And it was written a century before you were born." I would think that would have evangelistic power. Amen? Talk about using fulfilled prophecy to win a convert. I would think Cyrus would be easy at that point. Cyrus had not acknowledged him. But do you see the significance of this big picture? God uses the movers and shakers of world history, whether they know him or not, whether they acknowledge him or not, whether it's Julius Caesar or Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan or Tamerlane, or all the way up to the 20th century, all of the great movers and shakers of the terrible events of the 20th century, God ruled over every one of them, whether they knew him or acknowledged him or not, all of them. God gives them power, and then holds them accountable for how they use it. God rules over all of these things. Again, this is taught so plainly. You remember in Daniel chapter 4, when one of those mighty rulers, those emperors, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, did not know God, did not acknowledge him. And so God gave him an education in that chapter. You remember the dream he had of the great tree that was cut down and all that? It led eventually to his mind being changed into that of an animal for seven years? Well, the point of the whole lesson in Daniel 4 was this, the angel said it, "So that you might know, that you might acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to anyone he wishes." Well, he learned that lesson. And at the end, Nebuchadnezzar said these words of God, "His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" That is the sovereign God. So, no, the world is not falling apart. God is ruling over every single event. God Alone Creates Success and Disaster (vs. 7) And Verse 7 is one of those "meat" verses that you can take the rest of your life chewing on, and you'll never fully comprehend it. But we must embrace it, we must read it, and we must take in its truth. Verse 7, "I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things." This is one of the most difficult concepts in the Christian religion, it's under the heading of God's providence, God's sovereign rule over the events of everyday life. And it goes right to the issue of light and darkness, prosperity and disaster, right to that issue. And it says directly that God does all these things. So, let's stick right with Cyrus's Medo-Persian conquests, and bring in the picture... Remember I said it's as though God were leading them as he was leading Israel with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, you remember? You remember the night of the Red Sea crossing, how the pillar stood there and separated out God's people from the Egyptians, who wanted to kill them. You remember that? And how it said in that one night, the same pillar gave light to the one side and darkness to the other. You remember that? And so it is the same event in human history, can be light to the one and darkness to the other. So let's just put it in simple terms. Let's say you were a soldier in the Medo-Persian army. Your conquest of Lydia or of the Scythians or of the Chaldeans, would have been light for you, and would have been prosperity for you. But if you were one of the Lydians or the Scythians or the Chaldeans, it would have been darkness and disaster. It's the same event, and God does it, and he knows exactly the impact it's going to have on your life. He's very well aware of that. This destroys, I think, the immature, the doctrinally immature view of God that he only ever brings prosperity and light and sweetness and happiness to people. This is that "health and wealth" doctrine that we hear about, but I think it lurks in all of our minds. And if you think it doesn't, how do you act when you get what some call an adverse providence? Something comes that crosses you somewhat, that causes you inconvenience... Could be an illness, could be losing your job, a financial issue. It could be some major repair on the car, things that trivial really. Or it could be matters of life and death... And how it is that we are challenged by this statement. But look at it again, "I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord do all these things." Now, here we must be very careful what we're saying. It says in 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him, there is no darkness at all." So God never does evil, ever. But he brings disaster, he kills people, he takes possessions away from people. It's just not evil. It's just a different way of thinking. We have to understand this. God never does evil. I think when Hurricane Katrina came in, all of the bad theology that flowed after that, I couldn't believe it, on all sides of the equation. Those that said that God did bring the hurricane, and those that God... Said God didn't bring it. I'm not sure which hurricanes God brings and which ones he doesn't, which winds he controls. As far as I'm concerned, in the Bible, God's sovereign over weather, over all things. But it's simplistic to say that, let's say because of the great wickedness, specifically of New Orleans, that he brought Hurricane Katrina, as some theologians and pastors said. It's just simplistic. On the same street there are flattened houses, and some of those people are godly people, and some of them are unbelievers, and some of them are nominal Christians, and everything. And they're all getting the same thing. It's just too simplistic. But to say, "God would never do anything, it's only the devil, let's say, that would ever do something like that." It just isn't true. So we have to grow up, and we have to read a verse like this verse 7, and say, "I understand it." The Lord Rains Down Righteousness and Makes It Spring Up Now, look at verse 8, how he couples it. He says basically that everything God does is righteous. It's never evil, it's always righteous. Look at Verse 8, "You heavens above, rain down righteousness. Let the clouds shower it down, let the earth open wide. Let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it. I the Lord have created it." So, God does all these things, the Medo-Persian invasion, Cyrus, all that, hurricanes, earthquakes, everything. Everything that God does, he does so that he can bring about righteous salvation for his elect. That's the ultimate end, that God would be glorified by raining down from heaven whatever is necessary to let righteous salvation spring up. Isn't that beautiful? So, keep verse 7 and verse 8 together. What God is doing, it's apparently light and darkness to us, apparently prosperity and disaster, but look more deeply. In the midst of it, God is working out his saving purposes. He's causing righteous salvation to spring up from the earth, verse 8. II. God Rebukes Arrogant Human Questioning of His Plans (vs. 9-13) Well, verses 9-13, God says, "Okay, now I know you're ready to argue with me. I know you're ready to argue with me because you don't like what I'm saying to you. " This is God saying it, this is not the pastor saying this right now. I'm just saying, this is where we're going in the text, because he's very well aware that a verse like verse 7 is troubling. The idea, to the Jews, that God is going to raise up a pagan and give him the promised land and everything else and go before him and give him all this military success, "God, if you're so mighty and do that, why don't you do it for a Davidic king, a Jewish king? If that's what you can do, then do it for one of us." And God says in verse 9 and 10, "Woe to him who quarrels with his maker. To him, it is but a potsherd among the potsherds of the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?" Does your work say, 'He has no hands?' Woe to him who says to his father, 'What have you begotten?' Or to his mother, 'What have you brought to birth?'" So I think the immediate context here would be Jews, shocked to hear that God is going to use this pagan man to do all this. It's just difficult for them to hear God say to Cyrus, a pagan, "My servant, my anointed one, my shepherd," to call him that? It's difficult. "I don't understand what you're doing, God." And so, they start to question it. Now, more broadly applicable, when we have verse 7 kind of come down on our heads, and God, it seems, is bringing calamity to us, he's bringing darkness into our lives, and we're going through hard times, it is so easy to quarrel with your maker, isn't it? And so God proclaims a woe on those who quarrel with God, argue with God. He challenges us. He calls us "potsherds on the ground" of the workshop, the potter's workshop. What's a potsherd? It's a piece of broken pottery. How is that like us? We were formed from the clay, from the dust of the Earth. And a potsherd's like something broken on the ground. We've been shattered in many ways by sin. And so for us, as a broken piece of pottery on the ground, to argue up to the potter himself is arrogant. Now, the apostle Paul picks up on this exact verse in Romans chapter 9, when he talks about God's sovereignty and salvation. And you remember that passage where God's going through, "Why are some Jews believing and some Jews aren't believing?" and that very deep passage? Romans 9 stands like Mount Everest over the theological landscape, and it's just got so many challenging statements in there. But in Romans 9:18, it says that God has mercy on whom he wills to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wills to harden. And then Paul, the great teacher, says, "Now, one of you will say to me, one of you is going to argue back with me, why does God still find fault? Why does anybody ever get judged, for who resists his will?" But Romans 9:20, "Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes, and some for common use." Friends, that's grown-up theology. If we just take it simply at this point, don't argue with God. God is very patient, but in this text, he's saying, "Woe to you who does it." So don't argue, submit. And if you're going through a terrible trial, adverse circumstances, the quicker you bring yourself humbly and quietly under God's mighty hand, the quicker the healing will flow. The more you resist and fight and chafe and talk back to God, the longer that's going to take. You're just doing damage to your own soul. Woe to Him Questions God About His Plans And so, it's telling us not to argue with him, and not to question him about his plans. Look at verse 11 and 13, "This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, and its maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?" Notice, verse 11 focuses on his children, his elect. God does everything for them. So he's saying, "Are you going to question me, what I'm doing with my children? Do you have the right to do that?" And then Verse 13, "I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness. I will make all his ways straight, he will rebuild my City." That's Jerusalem. Isn't that beautiful that God calls it "my city"? "He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty." So, God does everything for the sake of his elect, for his children. He knows exactly what he's going to do. In verse 12, he says, "Don't forget who I am, don't forget my power." Look at Verse 12. He says, "It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hand stretched out the heavens. I marshalled their starry hosts." So never forget who I am. III. God’s Mysterious Plans for Gentile Salvation (vs. 14-17) Now, in verses 14-17, God speaks of his mysterious plans for gentile salvation. Look at verse 14, "This is what the Lord says, 'The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and those tall Sabeans, they will come over to you and will be yours. They will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, 'Surely God is with you, and there is no other. There is no other God.''" Now, this is not an easy verse. To a Jewish nationalist, let's say a Jewish zealot, they be like, "I love that verse. We've got the Gentiles trudging behind us in chains, and they're bringing us all their merchandise." Yes, but understand. God's purpose, his saving purpose has always been extending to the ends of the earth. Remember the original call of Abram in Ur of the Chaldees? What does he say? He says, "I will bless those who, what? Bless you. And if one of these Egyptians or Cushites or tall Sabeans falls down in front of them, and says, "Truly God is with you, and there is no other, there's no other God," they're going to get blessed, friends. They're going to get blessed with salvation. Paul quotes this very thing in 1 Corinthians 14. You remember about the whole speaking-in-tongues thing? And if an outsider comes in, and they hear prophecy, they hear a clear proclamation of the Word of God, they're going to fall down in your midst and say, "Surely God is among you." he's quoting this exact passage. So ultimately, we're talking about gentile salvation, the Corinthians were Gentiles. And God in their midst, because they repent and believe in Christ. God is a God Who Hides Himself Now, your head may be swimming, saying, "This is just too complicated. This is too deep. God's ways are too high. I don't understand all the things he does. Well, look at the next verse, verse 15 is amazing, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself, oh God and Savior of Israel." So this is, I believe, Isaiah's editorial comment, saying, "Boy, I don't get it." [chuckle] Just like Paul in Romans 11, saying, "Your paths are beyond tracing out." "So you're doing all this stuff with Cyrus so that the people in Cush and the Sabeans can come to faith in Christ, and fall down and worship God?" "Yeah, that's exactly right." "Wow, your ways are difficult." If you look at Verse 15 carefully, we're saying that God is a hidden God. He's a God that must reveal himself, or you will never know him. If God does not reveal himself... If you're, right now, a non-Christian, and God does not reveal himself to you, you'll walk out of here a non-Christian. But if God chooses to reveal his glory to you, in his Son crucified, and resurrection, you'll walk out of here saved. It's up to the sovereign plan of God. God is a hidden God who reveals himself in Scripture, and by the proclamation especially of the gospel. So this hidden God is mysterious. And God's plan is shame for the idolaters and salvation for Israel. Verse 16 and 17, "All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgrace. They'll go off into disgrace together. But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation you'll never be put to shame or disgrace to ages everlasting." Sheep and goats dear friends. It's just wheats and tares, wheat and weeds, good fish and bad fish. God is going to separate out the committed final idolaters and they'll go off into everlasting shame from those who are truly saved, his people, his Israel, whether Jews who have come to faith in Christ, or Gentiles who have been grafted into a Jewish olive tree come to faith in Christ we will be saved with an everlasting salvation to ages everlasting. And how beautiful is that? IV. God’s Gospel Call to the Ends of the Earth: Turn to Christ! (vs. 18-25) And so there is a Gospel call to the ends of the earth, verses 18-25, God's purposes will be fulfilled and all the earth will be filled with worshippers, isn't that awesome? 18 and 19, "For this is what the Lord says. He who created the heavens, he is God, he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it. He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited." Do you hear that? God didn't make this Earth with all of its beauty to be a howling wilderness. He didn't create all of the mountains and the valleys and the rivers and oceans, and all that to not be seen, he wanted the beauty to be seen by people who will immediately worship him for it. He didn't form it to be empty or desolate, he wanted it to be inhabited, inhabited with who? With people created in his image, to know him, to love him, and to worship him. And so he says, "I am the Lord and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret from somewhere in a land of darkness. I have not said to Jacob's descendants, seek me in vain. I the Lord speak the truth. I declare what is right." Now here, a moment ago in verse 15, we had a God who hides himself, but now he says to Jacob, "I've not said to you, seek me in vain." And I'm going to put the two of those together, in just a moment. But God hasn't spoken off here in secret, he has given us this incredible book, and he's very, very good at getting it out. Do you realize what percentage of the Earth's population can understand the scripture in some language that they know? It may not be their heart language, Wycliffe will say, not their heart language, but what percentage of the world population can hear and understand the scripture? 98% of the earth's population. 98%, there's 180 million people left who can't right now hear it in any language and so, Wycliffe's working on that. But God has done a very good job getting this book out. How many Bibles do you think there are on earth? The internet doesn't know. I looked this morning. They have no idea. They're guessing six billion Bibles. How could we even know? The book sale tell you it's about 100 million a year in America. That's amazing. So all over the world, just hundreds and hundreds of millions of these, God is getting this word out. And Isaiah 45 is included, isn't that cool? Right there, God says, "I've not spoken this off in secret. I've gotten the word out." As it says in Romans 10, "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." People are hearing about this and God is saying, and he's saying, "Though I am a hidden God, if you seek me, you will find me, if you seek with all your heart." Isn't that beautiful, as Jeremiah talking to the exiles out in exile he said, "I'm going to send you to another land, and there you will bow down to foreign gods, but if in that land," Deuteronomy 4 says you seek me with all your heart, you will surely find me. God’s Clear Challenge to Idolaters: God Alone Predicted These Things So God gives a clear challenge to the idolaters. We've seen this before, so we don't have to spend much time on it. Verse 20 and 21, "Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it-- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me." So I would love to have been there when Daniel was evangelizing Cyrus and say, "Oh great king. It isn't Marduk, that predicted the future. It isn't Baal or Nebo or any of those false gods, it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's the only God there is." And we can say the same thing in the 21st century scene, it's not the god of the Buddhist or the god of the Hindus or the god of Islam, that's predicted the future, God is the only God who has done this, who has said the name Cyrus. He is throwing down the prophetic gauntlet and saying, "No one else can do this." And why does he do this? So that the ends of the earth will turn to him and be saved for there is no one else. Now, here in this I hear the language of Acts 4:12, don't you? Peter saying to the Sanhedrin, "Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." And so God sends this Gospel call to the ends of the Earth, and I'm going to say it quite plainly, "Turn to Jesus Christ and be saved all you ends of the earth." That's what he's saying. The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ In the fullness of time, we understand what this prophecy is saying. Look, 22 to 25, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself, I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me every knee will bow, by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the Lord alone are righteousness, and strength, and all those who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame, but in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exalt." Well, in the language of American evangelicalism, friends, verse 22 is the altar call of this chapter. Calling on people who have heard these things to turn to the true and living God and be saved, all the ends of the earth. Turn means repent of your idolatries, repent of your sins, and your wickedness. Be saved means saved from the coming judgment and wrath of God. "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth," and God makes a pledge. He swears it by himself, "Before me every knee will bow." And "By me every tongue will swear." Now we don't understand this in terms of universalism, "everyone's going to be saved." But there will come a time that every human being will recognize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God. Now, again, if you're a Christian, these verses will sound familiar. Have you ever heard this before? Speaking of, Jesus Christ, "who being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father." Now, I believe Isaiah 40-49 is the most fiercely monotheistic section of scripture in the entire Bible. God is determined to say he's the only God, and there is no other. He says it again and again and again, multiple times in this chapter. Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that God, the God of the Jews, is the only god there is. But along comes Paul, and takes that and ascribes it to Jesus. That would be blasphemy if Jesus weren't God. V. Applications And so here's the application of this chapter. Look to Christ, turn to Christ and be saved. He is the only savior there is. This is Charles Spurgeon's conversion verse, by the way. When you get to heaven, you can say, "What was your conversion verse?" And Charles Spurgeon will say it's Isaiah 45:22. It was a specific snowy Sunday morning, and a primitive Methodist was there, the ordinary preacher was laid up or couldn't go or something. So they got this guy, Spurgeon... You got to read it. It's one of the funniest accounts in church history. And he just reads about how this thin guy gets up, without any training, and just says in the KJV, "Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." And he said, "You look with eyes of faith, you look to Christ, you turn to Christ and you'll be saved. And Spurgeon, at once he said, "Suddenly the scales were gone from my eyes. I looked and I looked, until I could look my eyes away." He finally saw Christ crucified and resurrected as the only savior there is. Now, I don't know what your spiritual condition is, what brought you here today, but I know this. This Gospel is still powerful today. Look to Christ, there is no other Savior. And then, for us as Christians, we have a responsibility to take this same message out to the ends of the earth, even to the college campus, to the workplace through this week. Now, other applications we've seen along the way, I'll just mention them briefly. Learn not to argue with God when things are going badly. Don't question him. Don't argue with him. Quickly humble yourself under his Hand, trust in him no matter what's going on. Don't argue with him. He knows what he's doing and he loves you. And understand that God brings both prosperity and disaster. Let's not be juvenile or immature in our theology, saying foolish things like that at hurricane times or earthquake times or invasion times. God forms the light and creates darkness. He brings prosperity and disaster. He does all these things. And then finally meditate on the hidden-ness of God. Understand if God doesn't want you to know him, you won't know him. If God doesn't reveal himself, you'll never know him. But God has revealed himself in the Scripture and in Christ. So, though God is a God who hides himself, we are told later in the chapter that he has not told us to seek him in vain. Seek him with all your heart. Make it the daily bent of your life to seek this hidden God and know him. Close with me in prayer.

The Jewish God. Scat. That Crazy Robot. Johnny Movies, Pt 1. Sick Boy (Live at the Troubadour Holiday Benefit). Sex Mama. Chicago Prostitute. Terrified. Johnny Movies, Pt 2. Bang.

Introduction Have you been following current events? Do you have your favorite news outlet? Do you like to watch the news? Maybe it’s CNN, or MSNBC, or maybe you’re reading that, perhaps, soon-to-be-obsolete form of the news known as the newspaper. I don’t know what the future of the newspaper is. Are you tracking current events? If so, then you are susceptible to anxiety. Of course, that’s been true in every generation and every era. As we track current events, we are susceptible to anxiety. As it says in Psalm 11, “When foundations are being shaken, what can the righteous do?” Now, you can read Psalm 11, and say there’s an implication that there’s nothing the righteous can do if the foundations are being shaken. But I tell you, we have a God that delights in shaking unstable foundations. He delights in it because He loves us too much to enable us or to allow us to build on sand. We have a habit of building our houses on the rock that cannot be shaken when the rains come down, and the streams rise, and the winds blow and beat against that house, but then building extensions out on the sand and then living out there because we feel a little more comfortable in that part of the house. The Lord delights in sending the storm and crashing those things down. It’s an uncomfortable process, isn’t it? As we look at what’s happening economically in our country, as we look around and we look ahead to an uncertain future, it’s an uncomfortable thing to try to anticipate where we’re heading as a nation, where the world is heading. We’re not the only ones asking this question. In some places it’s a matter of food shortage, places like Haiti where they don’t have enough to eat because the food distribution systems have broken down. So we believe in a God who delights in shaking foundations and giving instead a solid foundation that can never be shaken, founded on the word of God, on the work of Jesus Christ. When I come to Isaiah 19 and 20, I really think that’s what these two chapters are about. They are an oracle of woe to the nation of Egypt in a certain specific time and place, over twenty-six centuries ago. There are certain things that were going on at that time. We might struggle to find relevance in what was happening at that point. But God had a word to say to the Egyptians, to strip them of their arrogant self-importance and their love for their own wisdom, and to enable them to turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and build on Him. That Egypt would become God’s people through repentance and faith in Christ. Isaiah also, I think, has a message to the Jewish nation. He was a Jewish prophet. He was ministering there in Jerusalem. And he was speaking a word of warning to the Jews, lest they should turn to Egypt for help in times of trouble. Let’s remember what was going on in the geopolitical scene back then, a scene that’s alien to us. So long ago. But elements are still with us today. You had two major super powers vying for control of Palestine, of the ancient near east. You had Assyria, the Nazis of the ancient world, they were in the north. They were powerful and strong. You had Egypt in the south, perennially wealthy, powerful, and strong. In between them, you had all these tiny little nations like Israel and Judah, the two Jewish nations. You had Moab, Edom, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and all these smaller powers that were there in Palestine. Between the two super powers there was always some vying for control and power. The little states were making alliances with one another and were tempted to turn to one of the super powers against the other, etcetera. At one point, King Ahaz was tempted to turn to Assyria for help. You remember when Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel, and the Arameans allied together. Ahaz wanted to make an alliance with the Assyrians, of all things. But then, Hezekiah was being tempted to make an alliance with the Egyptians against the Assyrians. So there is a message of warning here spoken to the Jews. Don’t trust in Egypt because Egypt’s going to be destroyed. Its captives are going to be led away in utter disgrace. Why trust in a nation whose future is like that? Trust rather in God. There was a message to ancient Egypt. There was a message to the Jews of that time. But there’s a timeless message to all of us. Let me ask you this question: What is the foundation of your life? What are you trusting in today? When you look ahead to an uncertain future, how do you comfort yourself when feeling of anxiety rise? That’s your hope right there. If it’s financial, if it’s economic, if it’s your job, if it’s your education, if it’s clever things you’re doing to beat the economic indicators, whatever, that’s what you’re trusting in. If you’re trusting in this: that the Lord has never forsaken His children, then that’s what you’re trusting in. You’re trusting in the Lord. It seems to me that the Lord wants to wean us off of self-trust and trust in things that cannot last, things that will disappoint us. He is in the business of shaking those foundations so that we can trust in Him. We can have a solid foundation from which we can minister hope and trust to others who don’t know that foundation, who is Jesus Christ. That’s what God wants us to do. And I believe that’s why He sends trouble and affliction in every generation. The things we’re facing economically, I’m talking about a $700 billion bailout, the President meeting with members of Congress. Some people say it’s nowhere near enough. It’s an interesting situation. What’ll it look like if the dollar is close to worthless in ten years or ten months? What will our life look like? People are asking those questions. Those are unsettling questions. They are the kind of questions that make you say, “Oh gee, what’s it going to be like if you go to the supermarket and there’s no food at all and gas is ten dollars a gallon?” You learn to ride a bike for the first time in years and you start to wonder, “What is my lifestyle going to look like?” We’ve gotten accustomed to a certain way of living here, haven’t we? Is the Lord shaking those foundations? And a deeper question, is the Lord calling on us to repent? Is the Lord calling on us to turn and face sin, and to deal honestly with Him and His law? To be broken hearted before Him and not arrogant? Those are the questions that come to me from Isaiah 19 and 20. Egypt’s Future Judgment The Lord’s Wrath Against Egypt (v 1) This prophecy is a prediction of future judgment on Egypt. The future at that time, it’s happened now. God fulfills His promises. He predicted through Isaiah that He would judge Egypt in every way imaginable. He would judge their politics. He would judge their religion. He would judge their economy. He would judge the wisdom of their counselors. He would judge them militarily. It was a comprehensive judgment right from the beginning. Look at verse one of Isaiah 19. It says, “An oracle concerning Egypt: Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.” This is a terrifying picture of the coming wrath of God, of God coming on a cloud to destroy Egypt. It’s a wrath they should still well remember from the days of Moses, when He laid Egypt to waste by ten plagues and by the destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. I’m sure they did remember that, years later. Now He’s coming on a swift cloud to bring judgment again on Egypt. He begins, in verse 2, with civil strife and conflict. “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian – brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.” This is civil strife and conflict, perhaps even civil war. And notice it says, “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian.” This is the sovereignty of God over the hearts of Gentile people. It says in Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” The sovereignty of God is over this. This is judgment from God. This isn’t an accident. It’s judgment from God. Their idolatry is exposed in verse 3. “The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.” Egypt was well known for their religion that embraced the occult. The dark mystery religion of Egypt, of Osiris and Isis, had shaved priests, muttering and whispering, like mediums and spiritists trying to contact the dead. The pyramids are a testimony to how they believed in life after death and how they prepared for it. It was a dark and evil religion. Their idolatry was going to be exposed as worthless. In verse 4, we see the power of oppression, of government that would come and would oppress. Verse 4, “I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them.” Well, I don’t know which fierce king this would be. It could be one king after another. All of these conquerors wanted Egypt, the bread basket of the ancient world. And so they would come. Egypt would lose its autonomy, and fierce and powerful masters will rule over them. God would judge Egypt’s economy. It’s not just we in the 21st century, looking at CNNmoney.com (or anything like that), who have been interested in the economy. The Egyptians were interested in their economy, too. God was going to bring a judgment on their economy. Does God do that? Does He actually judge the economies of the nations? The answer is yes, He does. All He has to do with Egypt is hit the Nile. If He can strike the Nile, then the economy withers. It shrivels. Egypt was totally dependent on the Nile for life. I was looking, a few weeks ago, at a NASA satellite photo of Egypt. There is this thin green, slender thread winding its way through the Sahara Desert. It’s the Nile River, the irrigation canals, and the fertility on either side of the Nile River. It goes out to this emerald kind of fan in the Alexandria region where it spills into the Mediterranean Sea. Basically, without the Nile River, there is no Egypt. There’s just more Sahara Desert. So they totally relied on the Nile. And what does God say? He’s going to dry up the Nile River. Look at verses 5-6: “The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry. The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.” Note the death of all plant life. Verses 6-7, “The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched.” That, my friends, is famine right there. That’s famine. “Will blow away and be no more.” Those plants mean life to Egypt. They mean economic power too, because they exported food. Note the economic disaster in verses 8-10. “The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away. Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all wage earners will be sick at heart.” This is all the economy here. These are people who make their living by the Nile and by the things that grow up from the fields that are irrigated by water from the Nile. And it’s all withering up. It’s all going to blow away, like dust in the wind. The question behind all of this is, if the nation of Egypt is so fragile that a judgment on the river causes it to wither and die and blow away like dust, then, oh Israel, why trust in them? Why put your hope in Egypt? Hope in the Lord, not in the Egyptians. Don’t trust in them. They’re fragile, and more than that, they’re under the judgment of God. He actually says, “This will happen.” Not just might happen, He says it’s going to happen. God Judges Egypt’s Wisdom (vs 11-15) God judges Egypt and He judges their wisdom. Look at verses 11-15, “The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice… The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit. There’s nothing Egypt can do – head or tail, palm branches or reed.” Consistently throughout the book of Isaiah, God reserves, through the prophet, His bitterest attacks on human pride and arrogance. He hates it. We see this again and again. Among the aspects of human pride that most offends God is considering yourself wise in your own eyes, clever in your own sight. It says in Isaiah 5:21, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Like any prosperous nation, the Egyptians didn’t have to worry about food. The Nile ran just like clockwork, rose and fell at the same time every year. And it had done so for centuries. So they didn’t need to worry about it. They had plenty of food. Everything gave them leisure time to develop other kinds of industries and all kinds of other pursuits, such as philosophy, religion, music, culture, and all of those things. There were ancient systems of wisdom, philosophy, and religion that concocted together to give Pharaoh his wise counsel, so to speak. They were very proud of it, weren’t they? Very arrogant and prideful about their wisdom and the council that they could give to Pharaoh. I was on the Washington Post website. They edit and publish columns every day submitted by thirteen prominent think tanks on a rotating basis, every other weekday. It’s called Think Tank Town. Now, what is a think tank? It’s a bunch of experts that come together around a certain issue. They talk about it, discuss it, and bring forth all of their wisdom and pour it out onto the table. With everybody pouring out their wisdom, they concoct a brew of collective wisdom at the think tank. It bubbles in a cauldron and out comes the aromas of human wisdom from the think tanks. That’s quite an image, isn’t it? There it is, Think Tank Town. Of all the towns in our country, which would you say is the best city for that? Couldn’t it be Washington, DC? Isn’t that where all the experts are? All the pundits who talk about the future, have a bright plan, and who basically say, “If only the President would listen to me! I have an insight. I know what to do, but I just can’t seem to get his ear.” We can’t seem to do it the right way. Everybody’s got an angle. We can listen to them on the talk shows and all that kind of stuff. The Egyptians had it too, a long time ago. I don’t think they called it a think tank back think, but they had their wise counselors. And the Lord says, “I’m going to frustrate the wisdom of the wise. They want to play chess with Me, they will lose.” It’s quite plain why. Because they don’t know what the Lord is going to do. Look at verse 12. This is really important, friends. “Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the Lord Almighty has planned against Egypt.” Go ahead, wise man, tell me what the Lord is going to do. By the way, why does it matter? Because that’s actually what’s going to happen. Other predictions may or may not happen. The things that the Lord plans to do, they actually happen. The Lord delights to hide His plans from arrogant, boastful counselors like this. They guess wrong. Is that relevant to us? What’s the Lord going to do? What’s He going to do? Is this like Y2K, when nothing comes of it, or is it like September of 1929, when something comes of it? Well, which is it? Can you tell? And if it’s this bad, but no worse, you should do this. But if it’s going to be this bad, then you should do that. But we don’t know, do we, what’s going to happen? Where are you going to turn for your wise counsel? Let me ask you a simple question. What are you relying on for the future? I would urge you to get on your knees and ask the Lord what to do. I’m speaking about as plainly as I can. If you’re the head of a house, and you have economic concerns for the future, get on your knees in the spirit of Isaiah 19:12, or actually the opposite. Say, “Lord, I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I do know I’m your child. I don’t think You have to tell me everything You’re going to do. But tell me what I have to do today.” Then go do it, and God will give you wisdom and council. So yes, we should rely on the Lord for salvation on judgment day. You should get ready for judgment day through faith in Christ, absolutely. But what about today? It’s not more important than judgment day, but it is important. How are you going to provide for your family? How are you going to make wise choices? What are you going to do for yourself in the future? You don’t know what the Lord is planning to do. Do you? Neither do I. But you do have this, you have free access to the throne of grace, and you can obtain mercy and find grace to help you in times of need. Ask Him what to do. Have I spoken it plainly enough? I can’t give you any better economic advice than that, because I don’t know what the Lord’s going to do. Neither did these counselors of Pharaoh. As a matter of fact, the Lord was planning on orchestrating their foolish council to make it foolishness. I think about 1 Corinthians 1:20, where it says, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” He delights in doing that. Christ is God’s wisdom. Christ crucified is the wisdom of God, not some economic plan. It’s Christ crucified that is the wisdom of God. For it says in 1 Corinthians 1:23-25, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” Go to the cross. Go to the cross. If you don’t know whether your sins are forgiven, if you came in here because you were invited, or used to come to church, or you’ve maybe been coming here for years, but you don’t know whether your sins are forgiven, go to the cross. Jesus is the power of God, Christ crucified. Are you ready for judgment day? All the judgments that we face, all the judgments of military or economic or medical emergencies, they’re all just pictures of that final judgment that’s coming. Judgment day, in which we will stand before God and give an account for our souls. He will tell us, “Welcome into my kingdom” or “depart from me, you were cursed.” Now that’s the judgment day. Are you ready for it? Egypt’s Strength Stripped (v 16) Well, Egypt was wise. They trusted in their own wisdom, trusted in their own military and their own strength. That strength was turned into weakness. Look at verse 16, “In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them.” No mighty superpower will Egypt be then. Her military strength will be as nothing. Egypt’s mightiest soldiers will be trembling and hiding. They don’t want to pick up the shield, the sword, the spear and ride out in the chariot. They’re terrified at the judgment God is bringing. Now, we have seen, therefore, the coming judgment on Egypt. Judgment on Egypt, politically, religiously, economically, socially, militarily, in every way. Doesn’t that leave an interesting question if you’re living in Isaiah’s day and you know that they’re actually sending emissaries down to Egypt to conduct an alliance with the Egyptians against the Assyrians? Why in the world would you want to do that? Egypt’s going to get judged. They’re under the judgment of God. Why would you ally yourself with them? Why trust in Egypt? Trust in the Lord. The Shame of Relying on Egypt Put your finger here in Isaiah 19 and turn over to Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30:1-7 has an incredibly relevant cross-passage, or cross-reference, on this. Judah was constantly tempted to run back to Egypt for help, to turn to Egypt when in trouble. This, my friends, is a great insult to Almighty God. In the time of King Ahaziah, Ahab’s wicked son, in the time of Elijah the Prophet, Ahaziah fell through the latticework and was severely wounded. As he lay there, he immediately sent messengers to the pagan city of Eckron to consult Beelzebub and see whether he would live or not. Do you remember that? Remember how Elijah intercepted the messengers. He stopped them in their tracks and said, “Go back and tell the man who sent you, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to Beelzebub in Eckron to find out what’s going to happen?’ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘You will certainly die. You will not recover.’ There, you have your answer. Go back and tell him.” Is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re making an alliance with Egypt? This is a great insult to God. So, Isaiah 30 talks about emissaries, or envoys, that are sent down across the blazing desert with gold and silver on the backs of donkeys and camels to give to Egypt, to hire an army if the Assyrians should come. That’s what they’re doing. And this is what the Lord says, “ ‘Woe to the obstinate children’ declares the Lord, ‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me;’” You can just circle that in your Bible: “without consulting me.” “Who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. But pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame; Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.” (Is 30:1-3) Look at verses 6-7, “The envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.” Go back to Isaiah 19. For me personally, spiritually, it occurs to me that God is offended with me if I ever trust anything but him. I mean about anything. I don’t just mean my soul on judgment day. I mean about the future, my economic future, about anything that I should trust in something and comfort and console myself as I think anxious thoughts, perhaps about the future and say, “yes, but I always have such and such. I’ve always got this laid by.” That’s the trust, my friends. If it isn’t the Lord, it is an idol and the Lord is offended by it. Now, you may say, “I have no idols in my life.” We’ll see. I think, as I said, that the Lord delights in shaking faulty foundations. If you have built your house on the rock, but a back extension out on the sand, it may be that the Lord sends a storm, and it will come crashing down. The Lesson: Shame on All Who Don’t Rely on God Then we’ll see what you’re really trusting in for your joy, and for your security. But for me, I just want to build my house on the rock. I am as tempted as anyone to build back extensions on the sand. But it occurs to me from Isaiah 19 and 20 and Isaiah 30 that God is offended when we do that. He’s not pleased with it. Therefore, we should repent. It is, therefore, a shameful thing to rely on anything but God. In Isaiah 20:5-6, the prophet says, “Those who trusted in Cush and who boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. In that day the people who lived on this coast will say, ‘Behold, what has happened to those we relied on, to those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’” They’re gone. Now, what’s going to happen to us? You’ll see. When the foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do? Well, don’t build your house on Egypt. They’re going down. That’s what the message is. It’s a shameful thing to rely on them. The message, again and again, is that God judges that kind of pride and that kind of arrogance. But you know what? All of that judgment and all of that warning and all of that shame, my friends, that’s not the center of this passage. You know what the center of the passage is? God’s mercy and grace to Egypt in saving them. Hallelujah! The center of this is that God actually has a saving purpose, even toward Egypt and Assyria. He wants to save people out of that. Therefore, He’s giving Egypt this warning. He’s calling on them to turn away from their own wisdom and their own military power and their economic strength, to turn away from that and to trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And do you know why? Because (Jesus said it to the Samaritan woman) salvation is from the Jews. It would be good for Egypt to learn that. He sends affliction so that they would learn that lesson. The Glorious Future of Egypt – and the World (19:17-25) Transformed Hearts: The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom We see the glorious future of Egypt and of the world. Look at Isaiah 19:17-25, which Paul already read for us. God has always had His eye on the whole world, from the beginning of calling Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans. He says, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed because of you.” (Gen 12:3) God intends to save an elect people, a chosen people, from every tribe and language and people and nation, including the Egyptians. He’s going to begin by transforming their hearts, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of that wisdom. Look at verse 17, “And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.” Perhaps it is God’s past reputation for destruction. I mean, the Egyptians had reason to remember. Rahab, the prostitute living in Jericho, had heard what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had done to Egypt. She was afraid. All the Canaanites were afraid. They said, “Okay, it’s over now because he’s a Jew, and we’ve seen this before.” If you start messing with the Jewish people, these kinds of judgments come on you. It’s right there in the book of Esther. God has a reputation for bringing judgment. So, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom for the Egyptians. They start to fear the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Jews. It begins there. Transformed Cities: Swearing Allegiance to the Lord Almighty Secondly, we see some cities being transformed. They’re actually swearing allegiance to the Lord Almighty. Look at verse 18, “In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction.” Under the extreme distresses mentioned in this chapter, the Egyptians will turn to the Lord Almighty. They will seek deliverance. This is what the purpose of affliction is, so that we can learn to trust in the Lord. The Egyptians looked down on the Semites as contemptible sand dwellers. Some of their writings speak that way. Shepherds and herdsmen were contemptible to them. But all of a sudden, these Egyptians are turning and swearing allegiance to the Lord Almighty, the God of the sand dwellers. How they have been humbled! Now, look at what it says: “five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan.” There were perhaps as many as 30,000 cities and towns in Egypt. Five isn’t very many, is it? It is five cities, friends, and they are turning to the Lord and swearing allegiance, right there in the heart of Egypt. “And even though the gate is narrow and the road is difficult to find, and only a few find it,” Jesus said, “still, there’s going to be a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe and language and people and nation.” So, five cities are going to escape the destruction. Let’s put it that way. One of them was called the City of Destruction. Remember “The Pilgrim’s Progress?” That’s where Christian is escaping from. He’s running from the City of Destruction. Transformed Religion: An Altar to the Lord in the Heart of Egypt These five cities are going to be transformed. They’re going to build an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt. Look at verse 19, “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border.” Now, any time I see an altar and I think of animal sacrifice, it always points ahead to the cross of Christ. It points ahead to Jesus’ shed blood. He who is led like a lamb to the slaughter, pointing ahead to Christ. Only by His shed blood can Egyptians, or Israelites, or Assyrians, or any of us, have our sins forgiven before Almighty God. God Sends a Savior But there’s a picture of salvation, the monument at the border, an altar in the heart of Egypt, and then God sends a savior. Amen? Look at verses 20-21, “It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.” Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, my friends, will be saved. So, they are going to cry out and call in the name of the Lord and they will be saved. Verse 21 says, “So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord.” The afflictions had a purpose. Verse 22, “The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.” He’s going to reveal Himself. He’s going to open Himself up to the Egyptians. How? There is no better way than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! Amen. Transformed Hearts: A New Life in Christ Some people cross those sands and they’re not bringing money from the King of Judah trying to make a political alliance. No, no, no. they’re bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They’re coming as emissaries from heaven, not from Jerusalem. They’re coming to say, “If you turn to the Lord and repent of your sins, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (He is the Lord Almighty, the God of all the earth), He will forgive you. He will restore you. You will be His children.” Oh, how sweet is that! They will hear and believe, these five cities. They will cry out to the Lord for deliverance and He will send them a savior and a defender in His name, Jesus Christ. He’s the only savior of the world. Then their hearts will be transformed. They’ll have a new life in Christ. Look at verse 21, “So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them.” They’re going to love Him from a pure heart. They’re going to worship Him in spirit and truth, the Egyptians are. They’re going to worship the Jewish God and turn to Him and believe in Him. Transformed Alliances: Worshipping as One People on the Earth And that’s going to change their alliances, let me tell you. At that point, they’re going to look at the Assyrians differently, aren’t they? All of a sudden, they’re going to hope that they can actually be an instrument in converting the Assyrians. Look at what it says in verses 23-24, “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the whole earth.” The old way was that they were bitter rivals, competing for control over Palestine, fighting with each other, battling with each other. Chapter 20 begins with the Assyrian king coming down the coastland to destroy Egypt. That’s the old way. In the New Covenant, through faith in Jesus Christ, the former enemies have become brothers in Christ. They’re worshipping together. First the millennial kingdom of Christ when Jesus will reign in Jerusalem, then the eternal kingdom, the new heaven and new earth, the new Jerusalem where they will be together forever and worship the Lord face to face. Transformed Status: Outsiders Who Become the People of God Look at the final transformation status: outsiders who had actually become the people of God. Verse 25 says, “The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying: ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’” Can you even fathom that? How would a Jew hear those words? “Blessed be Egypt my people?!? We are the people of the Living God. We are the Jews, not the Egyptians!” But God says right here through the mouth of His prophet, “Blessed be Egypt my people.” This is the very thing that Paul says in Romans 9:23 and following, “’I will call them my people who are not my people; and I will call her my loved one who is not my loved one.’ And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Oh, how sweet is that! The electing love of God, the sovereign love of God to transform rebels, to make them actually children of the Living God. The elected Egyptians who turn to God in faith through Christ will become sons of the living God. So will the elected Assyrians who do the same. So will the elect Israelites who do the same. They will all be together in the new Jerusalem. It says in Revelation 21:3, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’” So He will say, “Blessed by Egypt, my people and blessed be Assyria my handiwork.” Yes, He crafted the Assyrians together in their mothers’ wombs, that’s true. But that’s not what it’s talking about here. Now, He’s going to do a new work in their hearts. For it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance. That’s our future, friends. So yes, we may have some difficult times to go through. We may have some foundations shaken under our feet. We may have some suffering yet to come. But what are you trusting in through all of that? Are you ready for the final shaking of the heavens and the earth when everything that can be removed will be removed? When you stand before God and give Him an account of your life, are you ready? If your soul is ready, are you ready then to trust Him with your wallet, with your checkbook, with your investments, with your real estate, with how you’re going to buy groceries in ten years? Are you able to trust Him to with that too? God may change some things in our lifestyle. Are you able to trust Him with that? Are you able to look to Him and say, “Lord, what you do is good. What I want out of this world, is that I want to be holy like Jesus. I want to be useful to You in Your kingdom building. That’s what I want out of this world. The material stuff doesn’t matter.” Do you want that change in your attitude if you don’t have that attitude now? Are you willing to go through suffering to get there so that you really just trust in the Lord? Please close with me in prayer.

Introduction We are looking this morning at Isaiah Chapter 18. One commentator called it one of the most obscure chapters in Isaiah. But I think the more you study and the more you understand the circumstances, not only is it not obscure, but it actually is very applicable to our present day. We are in the middle of a series of oracles that the prophet Isaiah has given to the surrounding Gentile nations. The nations of the world make up an astonishing, brilliant, beautiful mosaic to the glory of God. God has created different races, tribes, languages, and peoples all over the world. Together they make up the human race. They bring great glory to God. Some peoples are characterized by their physical strength, some by their military prowess, some by their intellectual achievements, philosophy or science, some by their exquisite artistry, and some by their skill in trade or travel. All of these proclivities, these tendencies, bring glory to God. The differences between the tribes and the peoples and the nations were built into the original genetic code of one man, Adam. The apostle Paul told us in Acts 17:26, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” Actually, God did that twice because you know that He destroyed the entire world in a flood. And so again, through one man, Noah, the entire human race was developed. Now, the differences between the races have come about by the magnificent variety that God built into the genetic code of that one man, Adam, or that one man, Noah. Differences between the races therefore come from God and bring Him glory. Pride between the races comes from sin, and dishonors God. Race is from God, racism is from sin. Racism may be defined as the belief that one race is inherently superior to another, and that race is the primary determining factor of human traits. Closely linked to racism, of course, are all sorts of bad behaviors, prejudices, oppressions, violence, and discrimination that one group foists on another because of racial differences. The 20th century, I think, saw the purest form of this evil of racism in the Nazi movement and their Aryan convictions that they were the purest and best race on the face of the earth, and that everyone else was inferior to them, if not actually subhuman. They believed themselves to be genetically superior and everyone else to be genetically inferior. They took that ideology on the road through military conquest until they were finally defeated by the providence of God. But that doesn’t end the issue of racism itself. This country struggles with it. The end of slavery in the United States did not end the suffering of the African people who were stolen from their homelands. They’ve had to face racism ever since. Christian faith is diametrically opposed to racism, because racism is inherently based on pride. If we haven’t learned anything from the book of Isaiah, we can learn this: God hates pride. He hates it. Pride is the root of all sin, that me-ism. One thing I’ve noticed about racism is that people tend to celebrate the race they’re from. Have you ever noticed that? I’ve never found anyone that was racist on behalf of another race. It was always their own race that they felt was superior. Therefore, I think racism is really a form of self worship. It’s really a form of idolatry, and it is evil. Now, we Christians, we know that. We know that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Amen? Every single one of us depends on the shed blood of Christ to have any standing at all before our creator. It is because Jesus shed His blood that we can have access to the throne of grace. Amen? In that way, all of us are together. We all need a redeemer. And praise God, that Redeemer is available! Jesus Christ is the redeemer of the whole world, of people from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. It says in Revelation 5:9-10, “They sang a new song” up in heaven, speaking of Jesus, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth.” Notice it’s a kingdom, not a multiplicity or a mosaic of kingdoms. We will be one in Jesus. Amen? We will serve the Lord forever. That’s where we’re heading, and that’s a beautiful thing. Now, Isaiah 18 is an oracle about one tribe, one nation, the Cushites. The political events with Assyria have led that distant nation from Africa to send envoys to Jerusalem to seek an alliance with, I believe, King Hezekiah and the Jews. The Cushite envoys come with a purpose, but God speaks through the prophet Isaiah concerning God’s larger purposes. God’s doing something much bigger than defeating the Assyrians. He has a bigger purpose for the Cushites, and He has a bigger purpose for the whole world. That’s what this seven verse oracle is speaking about. In this brief oracle, God reveals His delight in the Cushites. He has pleasure in them. He enjoys their uniqueness and their distinctiveness. He speaks a word as a pleased, or as a delighted Creator about them, not just concerning their little political mission, their military mission, but about, I believe, their future, bringing gifts to almighty God in Jerusalem. I think that speaks of a spiritual purpose, of God’s desire to bring them to faith in Christ through the spread of the Gospel. Ultimately, the cure for racism is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re not going to have any of that in the new heaven and new earth. I’m looking forward to that, to being free forever from racism and frankly from every vestige of pride, to being so completely humble and immersed in a sea of worship that Jesus deserves for what He’s done at the cross. In this brief oracle, we see the delight, the pleasure of God in Cush and His plans for them. It begins with these envoys coming from Ethiopia. Now, I know that Isaiah 18 is not primarily about racism, and this sermon’s not going to be about it. I’m going to give careful exegesis to it and I’m going to describe the political situation. But I tell you this, I think we ought to take every opportunity we can to find out the evils that surround us that may still be in our own hearts, and to preach clearly the truth so that God can be glorified. Sin always brings misery. It brings misery to those who have that locked within their hearts and also to those who receive the bitter fruits of it. So, we’re going to focus on Isaiah 18 and understand the glory of God in the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Envoys from Ethiopia Context: A Rising Power in Africa The envoys are coming from Cush, Ethiopia. In modern history, we think of Ethiopia as a land of starvation and weakness. But in Isaiah’s day, the Cushites were a nation to be reckoned with. They were a rising power in Africa. After the flood, as I mentioned, Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Through them God would repopulate the entire earth. Cush was the eldest son of Ham in the table of nations in Genesis 10:7. His brother Mizraim was the Hebrew name for Egypt, probably the ancestor of the Egyptians. Cush seems to have settled farther south along the Nile River. From him came Seba, Havila, Sabta, Raamah, and Sabteca. All of them seem to have settled in Arabia. But some of his descendants seem to have crossed the Red Sea and settled in what we now know as Ethiopia. One of Cush’s descendants was Nimrod, who was a mighty warrior and who founded what became Babylon and Nineveh, two centers of godless empire-building. The Babylonian Empire and the Assyrian Empire eventually came from these cities that Nimrod, Cush’s descendant, planted. According to Ezekiel 29:10, the southern border of Egypt was its common boundary with Cush. This was the land of the Nile River, stretching almost 2,500 miles by air. But because of its twisting and meandering course, the Nile River is over 4,000 miles long, the longest river on the face of the earth. The Nile Valley was formed as water cut its way through the sandstone and limestone. It made cataracts, or waterfalls, which interfere with navigation and section off portions of the river. In those various valleys and basins, peoples formed. The Cushites were among them. Cushites settled the region of the fourth cataract, or waterfall, and there they flourished. Some commentators believe that the Queen of Sheba, or the Queen of the South in the NIV, was actually a Cushite who came from this very region. She heard of Solomon’s fame and came to see all that Solomon had done. There formed a link, then, between the Cushites and what God was doing in Jerusalem, the glory He was spreading through the Davidic kingships of David and Solomon. She was overwhelmed. As the Old Testament era ended, there is a tradition, perhaps a myth, that it was the Cushites that rescued the Ark of the Covenant. No matter what Indiana Jones thinks, there are some Ethiopians that say they’ve got it. It’s in an Orthodox temple. You can’t see it, but they take care of it. I don’t know what good it would do to see it. God is not in the business of leaving us physical artifacts for us to focus our worship on. He actually tends to destroy those things, like the bronze serpent that was destroyed because it had become an idol. At any rate, there is that tradition. You can follow it on the internet or however would be interesting to you. They say they rescued the lost Ark of the Covenant and that they still have it. Around the time of Isaiah, somewhere around 720 to 715 BC, the Cushites got so strong that they were able to basically conquer Egypt and take it over. They set up the 25th dynasty and they ruled until around 633 BC. So they were in charge of Egypt at this time. And now, these Ethiopian rulers were sending emissaries to Judah to organize an anti-Assyrian coalition. Palestine: the Playground and Battlefield of Egypt and Assyria Let’s set the stage in terms of the geopolitics of the region. Palestine, the ancient near east, that area of Judah and Israel and all those tiny little kingdoms, was between two mighty empires at the time: the Assyrian Empire to the north, and the Egyptian Empire to the south. The Assyrian Empire to the north was between two rivers. The Mesopotamian region literally means “between two rivers.” It was a fertile area, and because of the fertility of the soil, they were strong and powerful militarily and culturally. They sought to take that dominance on the road and build, as they did, the Assyrian Empire. In the south it was Egypt. Again, because of the fertility of the soil through the Nile River, they were strong and powerful and able to project their power as well. Between these two empires was this little region called Palestine. It was their playground, the battlefields, the chessboard between these two empires. There was always stuff going on, always intrigues, emissaries and alliances being formed. This was an opportunity for such an alliance. Isaiah 18: A Message to Ethiopia by Means of Their Emissaries During this time, the Cushites, having gained control of Egypt, wanted to link up with this Judean king. I believe it was King Hezekiah. So they sent emissaries to try to make an arrangement and an alliance against Assyria. They show up in Jerusalem, but there’s a prophet there named Isaiah, and he’s got something to say about this mission and these emissaries. He’s got a prophetic word to speak about the future. And he speaks it. Look at verses 1-2, “Woe to the land of the whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.” This is the land of whirring wings. You can almost hear them, the tsetse flies or perhaps other types of flies. There are lots of flies in Egypt along the marshes where the reeds grow. These folks come from the rivers of Cush, a land, it says, divided by rivers. So Isaiah’s oracle reaches to a land over 1,500 miles away, a land populated by people very different from the Jews, a land that God intended to conquer someday with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They send envoys. As mentioned, Cush takes control of Egypt and sends envoys to curry favor with King Hezekiah. They come in these little papyrus boats. They’re lightweight boats. If you’re going to travel through the cataracts, through the waterfalls, it’s good to have a boat that you can carry. So these are lightweight boats made of reeds, or grass, and that’s how they come. They’re designed to travel lightly and quickly. They had traveled an enormous distance to make their case to King Hezekiah, to check the power of the Assyrians, perhaps even to defeat the Assyrian Empire. The Envoys Sent Back Home with a Message But Isaiah sends the envoys back home with a message. He sends them back. “Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.” The Lord, through Isaiah, describes the Cushites with a pleasure, the pleasure of the Creator. He delights in the Cushites. He enjoys them. He enjoys their uniqueness, their attributes. I have the sense almost of the way God, in the Book of Job, describes the different physical aspects of His creation; of the sun and the moon and the stars, the stability of the earth and different animals He’s created and their attributes. First of all, they are swift. They’re good runners. In the time of the rebellion against King David by Absalom, there was a Cushite man that wanted to run and bring the news that Absalom was dead, and the rebellion had been destroyed. Do you remember that? They’re long-distance runners. They do very well in the Olympics. Have you noticed? It’s the Ethiopians that win the 5,000 and the 10,000 and the marathon if they can. They’re great runners and have been for a long time. They’re swift, and they’re tall, and they’re smooth-skinned, and they’re a people feared far and wide. These envoys represented an unusually tall people. As a matter of fact, some research that I did listed some tribes in Ethiopia and the Sudan as the tallest people on the face of the earth, statistically. In the case of one of these tribes from that area, males can have an average height of six feet four inches tall, women six feet tall. They’re a tall people, and they’re powerful militarily. Herodotus, the first Greek historian, called the Father of History, visited Egypt around 460 to 450 BC. He wrote this about the Ethiopians, he said, “The Ethiopians to whom this embassy was sent are said to be the tallest and handsomest men in the whole world. In their customs they differ greatly from the rest of mankind, and particularly in the way they choose their kings; for they find out the man who is the tallest of all the citizens, and of strength equal to his height, and they appoint him to be ruler over them.” That’s a unique way to choose a leader. It’s the very same thing they noted about Saul, though, that he was a head taller than any of the other people. So it’s not unheard of that the tallest man, the most powerful man, is going to be the king. It says of them that they are smooth-skinned. Now, the Egyptian priests shaved themselves head to toe once every three days. But these people didn’t need to do that. They were smooth-skinned already and had no need to shave themselves. They were, as we said, a people feared far and wide. They were aggressive militarily and strong. They had already taken control of Egypt, and that was no small accomplishment. Ancient historians tell the story of some Persian messengers who went to the Cushite king to discuss a possible alliance with him. This was in the era of the Persian Empire. The Cushite king brought out a standard bow that their archers used, but the bow was unstrung. He challenged the Persian messengers to string the bow, and none of them could do it. And he said, basically, “When you’re able to send men who can string one of our bows, then we’ll talk about an alliance.” They’re powerful and strong, and, you can see, also a little prideful. A modern website speaks of the Ethiopians as the only Black nation in history never to have succumbed to slavery or colonial rule. The Italians, British, Dutch, Portuguese, Turks, Spanish, Arabs, and French tried twenty-seven times to conquer Ethiopia but failed every single time. Yet they easily defeated all other African tribes and empires to carve out a niche for themselves in the Horn of Africa. This speaks of military prowess and the power of this small nation. Because of this, and because of God’s plans for Assyria, God is issuing them a warning. “Military aggression ends in destruction. If you take what you have and you start spreading out, you start conquering other people, you’re going to come under my judgment.” That’s what the woe is at the beginning of the chapter. He’s giving them a warning. He’s going to warn them more than anything though what He’s going to do to the Assyrians. So if you have plans to conquer the world, put them aside, because God has His own plans to conquer the world. You’re just going to be running head to head with Him. The Message to the Peoples of the World Something Magnificent is About to Happen So that’s the warning that He gives to these amazing people. And what is this message? Look at verses 3-6, the message to the peoples of the world. “All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it. This is what the Lord says to me: ‘I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.’ For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, and the wild animals all winter.” Something magnificent, something noteworthy is about to happen, says Isaiah. The message is given to all the nations of the earth. Why? Because they all have the same ambition. They’d like to conquer the world if they could. Now, some nations find themselves in a position to try, but he’s addressing all the peoples of the earth concerning this ambition. God is going to do something dramatic. It’s as if He’s saying, “Drum roll, please. Now, pay attention to what I’m doing.” The Seemingly Silent God Speaks The nations of the world are going to sit up and take notice of what God is about to do. When a banner is raised on a bare hilltop, people from miles around can see it. When a trumpet sounds clearly and loudly, people from miles around, they can hear it. The Lord is going to communicate something to every tribe and language and people and nations about His great power. At this point, the seemingly silent God speaks at last. It seems like God isn’t even there sometimes. Is He even there in the natural disasters and with the rise and fall of the empires? People have asked that again and again when suffering and tragedy come. Is there even a God? It seems like He’s not even there. People cry out to Him and there’s no answer. It just seems like He doesn’t exist to some. But He is there. Oh, He’s there! Right from the very beginning of the book, we have these words, that God is there, and He is not silent. Isaiah 1:2 says, “Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken.” Here in this oracle, verse 4 says, “This is what the Lord says to me: ‘I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” Oh, He’s there! He is powerful, and He’s watching, it seems, very quietly. He’s like the rising heat. You wonder if He’s there, but you can perhaps occasionally see the shimmering. You think, “All right, maybe He really is there.” Now, there’s a legal maxim that says, “Silence means consent.” Well, that doesn’t work when it comes to God, let me tell you right now. Just because God is silent doesn’t mean He agrees. Not at all. It says in Psalms 50:21, “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you.” Oh, but He’s not altogether like us. And just because He’s silent doesn’t mean He agrees. Not at all. God’s silence actually is time to lead us to repentance. His patience means repentance and salvation. That’s what He’s waiting for. 2 Peter 3:15 says, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” Romans 2:4, “Do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you towards repentance?” Here, God is silent like shimmering heat and like a cloud of dew, silent, but ready to act. How unlike the tumultuous kings of the earth that we talked about last week in Isaiah 17:12, “Oh, the raging of many nations – they are like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples – they roar like the roaring of great waters!” That’s what we’re like. We’re noisy, but it’s signifying nothing. God is silent and signifying everything, sitting on His throne. He sits serenely up there on His throne. He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth. The people before Him, they are like grasshoppers. God’s Magnificent Plan: Judgment on the Aggressor God has a magnificent plan, and that is judgment on the aggressor. Look at verses 5-6. “For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter.” This is a bit of an agricultural analogy, perhaps like a parable. There’s a spreading vine, and it’s moving out. It’s advancing itself. Its branches are moving. We might know it as kudzu. Okay, have you ever seen that? It just grows and grows. It seems like it can’t be stopped. But here, there’s even some fruit. It’s a flowering and then a fruitful vine that seeks to move out. Notice that He doesn’t mention Assyria here directly, because it’s a message for all the nations. Right now, it’s Assyria, at the time of the oracle. But it could be the Cushites too. Maybe they have ambitions for the world. It’s anybody who wants to move out with military prowess and take over the face of the earth. God will stand and He will say, “No.” He will cut off with a pruning knife those spreading branches. And what’s going to happen to all of the fruit? The birds are going to come and eat it. It’s a picture of desolation and judgment. It’s God fighting against you. Now, the Cushite envoys have come and they’re trying to play the geopolitical game. They’re trying to make an alliance. They’re going to stop Assyria. Assyria will be thwarted. They’re so clever, they’re so wise, and they come to talk to King Hezekiah about making this kind of an alliance. God says, “I have my own plans for Assyria. I’ve already made them plain through my prophet Isaiah.” We have already read it. Isaiah 10:12 says, “When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, ‘I will punish the King of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.’” This is Isaiah 10:16-17, “Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.’” One day. Just one day. He’ll take care of Assyria. Now we know what that is. That’s when Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem, came right up against it. God sent out the Angel of the Lord, and in one night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian troops were dead. “Cushite envoys, I don’t need you.” There doesn’t need to be any alliance between Judah and Egypt. It’s not necessary. As a matter of fact, it’s sin. We’ll talk about that next week. “Judah doesn’t need you, but you need Judah. A little more specifically, you need a savior coming from Judah.” That’s the message here. God knows His sovereign plan. He knows His own perfect timing. Though He is quiet, though He is silent like shimmering heat in the sunshine and like a cloud of dew, He will act when the time comes, quite boldly. It says in Isaiah 14:25-27, “’I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.’ This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” God is enough, Amen? His power is enough. What matters is what God thinks. What matters is what God is doing, not all these plans, trying something on our own, on the side. It doesn’t matter. What matters is, what is God’s will? What is He doing? That’s what matters. Gifts Sent from the Ends of the Earth The Envoys Return --- to Worship! God gives a prophecy through Isaiah. The envoys are looking for some kind of a political arrangement. Actually, let me tell you what’s going to happen with Cush. There’s going to come a time when they’re going to send gifts from the ends of the earth. They’re going to send it to Zion and they’re going to worship the Lord, the Lord Almighty. Look at verse 7, “At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by the rivers – the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord Almighty.” The gifts will be sent by envoys. They’re going to come back and they’re going to worship. The Cushite envoys first came to recruit for military alliance. These powerful people are described for a second time. God just can’t seem to get enough of saying these words. He enjoys the Cushites. He likes talking about them. But at that time, those Cushites are going to send gifts and they’re going to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They’re going to worship at Mount Zion. Old Testament Fulfillment: 2 Chronicles 32:23 Now, there is a physical fulfillment of this. In 2 Chronicles 32, 21-22, this is what it says: “The Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace.” That’s the defeat of Assyria. One angel, the Angel of the Lord, gets sent out and Assyria gets defeated. He withdraws to his own land in disgrace. “And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others.” That’s the banner raised up on the bare hilltop. That’s the trumpet blast that all nations will hear. And they did hear. That was Assyria. That was Sennacherib. That was almost 200,000 troops killed in one night, while the nations sat up and took notice. He took care of them on every side. 2 Chronicles 32:23, “Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the Lord and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah. From then on he was highly regarded by all nations.” So they’re going to physically come, after Assyria gets crushed, and the Cushites are going to bring gifts. They’re going to link up. Perhaps it’s enlightened self-interest. “It’s good to be on the good side of the Jewish God, we’ve noted.” They want to worship, so they bring gifts. That’s what Isaiah’s predicting. But I think he’s predicting far more than that. By the way, just a note about Hezekiah: at that time, when he was receiving ambassadors and people coming from all over, and they’re bringing gifts, his heart gets puffed up with pride. Can you believe it? Oh, how pestilent is human pride! And Hezekiah’s like, “Ain’t I something?” What did Hezekiah do? When he heard of an overwhelming Assyrian force, he got down on his face and pleaded with God to save the remnant that still survived. He had the good sense to know that he had no chance if God didn’t intervene. That’s all. Hezekiah receives these emissaries, and 2 Chronicles 32:25 says, “Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.” Can I just urge you by way of application to search out pride in your life and destroy it? Wherever you find it, wherever you find it. Start looking in certain places, like when good friends give you some advice on how you can do better. For example, your spouse might have some input on how you could improve some area of your life. That’s a chance for you to find out if there’s any pride in your heart. Oh, there are many such opportunities. Look at your ambitions, look at your hopes and desires. What are you driving for? How many of them are traced back to your own pride? Search it out and destroy it, friends. I need to do the same. God’s Ultimate End: Worship by All Nations But what is God’s ultimate end for the earth? Why does He put up the banner on the bare hilltop? Why the trumpet beckoning? Because He wants to be worshipped, friends. He wants you to forget yourself. He wants you to turn away from your own petty little interest, your own empire building. He wants you to get down on your face and worship Him, and delight in Him in spirit and in truth. That’s what He’s doing. So those little gifts that are brought by the Cushite emissaries after the Assyrians die, that’s just a symbol, friends. That’s yet another prophecy, that’s all it is. It’s a prophecy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the Gospel goes out to the ends of the earth and the true gifts come from the nations, that’s the people themselves bringing their own hearts, their own bodies prostrate before God and saying, “Here I am.” Presenting to God a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, themselves, that’s the gift. They’re going to come from all over the earth. Regarding God’s original purpose in calling Abraham the father of the Jews, He said this in Genesis 12:3, “I bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Now just wait till next week. Wait till next week, when in Isaiah 19 we talk about how God says this, “The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’” Wow, that brings goosebumps, that God would actually call Egypt “His people.” Yes, He will in the new covenant, through the blood of Jesus Christ. So God has some specific purposes for the Cushites. They’re going to come and they’re going to bring gifts. They’re going to come and worship the true God. Psalm 68:29-32 says, “Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts… Envoys will come from Egypt; Cush will submit herself to God. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord.” Zephaniah 3:9-10 says, “Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and may serve Him shoulder to shoulder.” Listen, “From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshippers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings.” Isn’t that sweet? Zephaniah 3:9-10, where God is predicting that some from the Cushites will come and worship Him forever. God’s ultimate aim, then, is worship from all nations. Isaiah 52:10 says “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” Isaiah 60:11-13 says, “Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations – their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined. ‘The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the pine, the fir, and the cypress together, to adorn the place of my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place of my feet.’” And it says in Isaiah 56, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” That’s God’s purpose in Isaiah. That’s God’s purpose to the ends of the earth. New Testament Fulfillment: the Ethiopian Eunuch The Ethiopian Eunuch Came for the Old Covenant, Discovered the New Covenant There is a brief New Testament fulfillment to all this. Ain’t it sweet? In Acts 8, an Ethiopian eunuch has gone up to worship. He’s gone to the temple to worship. Why has he gone there? He’s heard of the fame of the Jewish God, and he wants to worship. He is an important official in charge of the treasury of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. He’s an important man. He’s gone there for the Old Covenant worship. He’s taken part in the animal sacrifice system. He’s on his way back, riding in his chariot, and he’s reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. Oh, Isaiah has converting power, my friends! So there he is, reading Isaiah the prophet, and this is what it says in Isaiah 53:5-6, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” That’s what he was reading. You can’t choose a better portion of Isaiah to be reading, especially if you’re unconverted. So, he was reading Isaiah, and he was reading about Jesus Christ, the substitute, the Son of God who came to shed His blood. But it didn’t make any sense to him. Who is this man who died? Who is this suffering servant? Well, the Holy Spirit leads an emissary, an envoy, a messenger, a missionary named Phillip, one of the original seven. God laid on him, by an angel and by the indwelling spirit, “Go down to that desert road. I’ve got work for you to do.” And he sees the chariot, he runs up alongside it and jumps in. I think actually the Ethiopian invited him in first, all right? You need to be invited in. You need to build that connection relationally. He said, “What are you doing?” “I’m reading.” “Do you understand what you’re reading?” “How can I,” he says, “unless someone explains it to me? Please evangelize me.” Friends, don’t miss one like that. You actually ought to pray for them. If you’re not really being that fruitful in evangelism, pray for an easy one. You know what I mean? A big, slow pitch right down the center of the plate that you can knock over the fence. Ask for something. Say, “God, give me an evangelistic opportunity equal to my immaturity and lack of courage and boldness.” He’ll answer that prayer. But he’s saying, “I need someone to explain Isaiah 53 to me. Can you do it?” Oh, you need to be ready for that moment. “I can do it. God sent His son. His name is Jesus. He entered the world. He lived a sinless life. He did great miracles to prove his deity. He taught great things to prove His wisdom. But the greatest thing He did of all was He took our sins on Himself. He was our substitute. He died in our place. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He’s talking about Jesus.” The Ethiopian man was drawn in. “What do I do? What do I have to do to be saved?” “Repent and believe.” Friend, you may have come here today by the provident hand of God and you’re not saved. You don’t know the forgiveness that this Ethiopian eunuch found. Find it in Christ. It’s the same message. Then gifts will be brought by you. Not just by the Cushites, but by you, to Almighty God. Simply repent and believe in Him. Trust in Him. The Ethiopian man, he did it. He said, “Look, here’s some water, why couldn’t I be baptized?” No reason. So they stopped the chariot, and right there and then Philip baptized. When he came up out of the water, immediately the Lord took Philip away, disappeared, poof! Now that’s an exciting moment in redemptive history. “Whoa, where did he go? He’s gone!” The Beginning of the Church in Ethiopia The Lord dropped Philip at Azatus and he continued his preaching ministry there. But the Ethiopian eunuch went on his way rejoicing. He went down to Ethiopia where Irenaeus tells us that he continued in evangelistic ministry himself. We don’t anything more about this man. He drops from the pages of history. I can’t imagine, however, that he didn’t go back and lead many to Christ. See, God has plans for Ethiopia. In the fourth and fifth centuries AD, after the Gospel had already started to spread around the world, a shipwreck brought two men to the Cushite kingdom. Those two eventually led that king to faith in Christ. Athanasius sent one of them back as the first bishop, orthodox bishop. He set up the church there in Ethiopia, so the Gospel was planted in Ethiopia. But friends, that’s in the past. That’s in the past. The Future of Ethiopian Worship … the New Jerusalem What’s in the future? I’ll tell you what’s in the future, the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, and the new earth. Its gates are going to stand open night and day. It says in Revelation 21, “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it.” Those are the gifts that are going to be brought from a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and wide, whose land is divided by the rivers, an aggressive nation of strange speech. They’re going to bring gifts eternally into the new Jerusalem. Amen? Application Believe the Gospel Like the Ethiopian Eunuch Did So what application can we take from this? Well, let’s start with this: believe in the gospel as the Ethiopian eunuch did. Believe in it the first time today for the forgiveness of your sins, and continue to believe in Christ. He is the focus of Isaiah. He’s the focus of all scripture. Preach the Gospel Like Philip Did Secondly, be ready to preach the gospel as Philip did. Are you prepared? Suppose you were reading something a little more obscure than Isaiah 53, would you be ready? Are you ready to share the gospel? Get yourself ready. Pray that prayer. You can laugh, but pray it. Say, “Lord, make me a witness today. Give me a chance. I’m weak.” He knows you’re weak. “Lord, I’ve been fruitless.” He knows that. “Oh God, give me a chance today to witness. Help me to be ready.” And pray for the advance of the gospel, not just in Cush, in Ethiopia, but to the ends of the earth. God has plans for people from all over the world. Pray for it, and get involved in it. Delight in the Races as God Does Delight in the races as God does. I have a theory. I was talking to Matthew Hodges about it this week. I have a theory that we will have our racial distinctions up in Heaven, in the new Jerusalem. I think we’ll retain them. I think God loves variety. I think He created them for His own glory. That’s why there’s people from every tribe and language and people and nation. It says in Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Oh, that’s the end of racism there, friends; it’s gone. We will delight in the variety of what God has done. People will be coming from many different roads, many different places to believe in Christ. Despise Racism as God Does Finally, despise racism as God does. Be open to what God is doing through this church in the urban ministry. Get involved in it. Ask Matthew how you can get involved in the urban ministry. We have a health fair coming up, get involved. Wouldn’t it be delightful to see, as much as possible, here in this local church, the variety that we’re going to see in heaven? Close with me in prayer.

Introduction "Whoever rules the waves rules the world," that is the thesis of Alfred Thayer Mahan's book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History. He was Naval strategist who wrote in 1890 saying,"Whoever rules the waves rules the world.” He was meditating on the effect of British sea power on confining Napoleon to the continent about 80 years before that. Because the French did not have a strong navy, not strong enough at least, compared to the British, they couldn't expand Napoleon's reign. He was just extending it beyond that, several centuries back and just talking about the need for naval might. He was writing at a time toward the end of the 19th century, when the British Empire was at its absolute apex, when the sun never set on the British Empire, and in which British people sang a somewhat unofficial national anthem written in 1740 by the British poet, James Thomson entitled "Rule Britannia". In the refrain it says, "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, Britains never will be slaves." British power was projected by naval might all around the world. It's an interesting thesis, the one who rules the waves rules the world. I happen to think it's true, I just happen to think Jesus rules the waves. I think he displays that in the text today. It's interesting in Daniel's prophecy and vision, he had a vision of the rise and fall of the world. Nebuchadnezzar had the dream of the statue, with the gold and the silver and the bronze and the iron and the clay and it was a picture of the rise and fall of world empires. Later in his book, in Daniel 7, he's looking out over the sea and the sea is troubled by the waves, the four winds of Heaven are churning up the great sea and up out of it come four beasts, each of them representing four world empires. John saw the same thing in Revelation 13, as the dragon was standing by the shore and up out of the sea, comes the Beast, which I think is the final world empire, the rule of the anti-Christ in Revelation 13. It's interesting that both the four beasts of Daniel, and this final beast, in Revelation 13, come out up out of the troubled sea, the churning sea and I think it represents humanity. The churning of the nations in its rise and fall, in its ebbing and all of its wickedness, and rebellion, and all of the lack of peace we feel inside our hearts. I think a turbulent sea is a good representation of human history, and I think the theme of the Book of Daniel is really the theme of all of world history, and that is that God almighty reigns over Heaven and Earth, and He will someday clearly establish the kingdom of Jesus Christ over all the Earth. It says in Daniel 2:44, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end but will itself endure forever." This is the theme, I think, of the whole gospel of Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven and especially the King of the Kingdom of Heaven who is Jesus, He will reign forever and ever. What is the nature of His power, how great is it? The nature of His omnipotence? I think we see it in our text today. "Whoever rules the waves rules the world, and I say that Jesus, Jesus rules the waves, and He will forever more. Isn't that encouraging as we look at the turbulence of our present day and we think that it's still true, that it's a fit metaphor for human history, the churning of the waves that cannot rest, that churn up mire and mud as Isaiah said, "There is no peace says my God for the wicked.” But there is Jesus, the Prince of Peace and what an image in our text today, Jesus walking on the water, walking through the waves through the bellows with omnipotence holding him up. The power of God. There was another British poet who wrote something else about an Empire, and it was Isaac Watts. Long before James Thomson wrote "Rule Britannia”, Isaac Watts wrote, "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run, His kingdom spread from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more.” That I believe is the true theme of the great passage we're looking at today. This passage shows and displays, so beautifully, the power of Jesus Christ over all things, and is my purpose today to beguile you into a greater estimation of that power that you would have a sense of just how powerful Jesus is, over the winds and the waves. The Importance of Solitary Prayer We begin with Jesus's essential quiet and peaceful communion with His Heavenly Father. Let's set the thing in context. We already saw in John chapter 14, the martyrdom of John the Baptist, how John was beheaded at King Herod's birthday party after the dance of a dancing girl, when she said, “Give me here on a platter, the head of John the Baptist.” Then John's disciples came and took John's body and buried it, and then they went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard this, He got in a boat and withdrew privately to a solitary place. He’s wanting to be alone for prayer. Unfortunately, for that purpose, at least at that moment when He lands, He sees a huge crowd, 5000 men plus women and children. We saw last week the great compassion of Jesus to put his own needs aside and to minister in a three-fold way to that crowd in Mark's gospel. He had great compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, so He taught them many things. First His teaching ministry, and then we saw Jesus's healing ministry, a river of miracles, flowing out and there was nothing He could not do. There was no sickness He could not heal. We see that great power and then He wasn't done. The disciples wanted to send the crowds away so they could buy themselves some food, but Jesus said, "They don't need to go.” Then we see the great miracle of the feeding of the 5000 that was a full coverage of all of their needs by Jesus, the preaching of the gospel, the healing of the sick, the feeding of the hungry every need met. Now it's Jesus's time. The time has come for him to send the crowd away and for Him to get back into that place of great power and communion with his Heavenly Father, the essential communion of Jesus, so He sends the crowd away. Look at verse 22, it says immediately that Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while He dismissed the crowd. There's really somewhat of a battle of wills going on here because in John 6:14, it says, "After Jesus had fed the 5000, the crowds wanted to take Him by force and make Him king.” They want to force Jesus to be king right there and then in their own way, after their own patter. Jesus forces the disciples to get in the boat and then forcefully dismisses the crowd. Who's in charge here? Jesus is in charge. He's not going to be made king in their way. He has his own timetable, and He must go to the cross. He does it his way because if He didn't do it that way, none of us would be saved. He's not going to be king that way, but He will be king, He is king, and He will reign forever and ever, but first He must go to the cross. He’s not going to follow their way; He's not going to be forced into their agenda. No, instead He's going to force the disciples to get on the boat. The Greek word is strong; He's going to dismiss the crowd and so off they go, and then Jesus returns to solitary prayer. He goes up by himself alone. It's night by this time, it's dark, and you can imagine Jesus by the light of the moon or by the light of the stars, making His way up the mountain side, and there He is in solitary prayer with His Heavenly Father. This was His regular habit. In Mark 1:35, it says that Jesus, a great while before dawn while it was still dark, got up and left the house, where He was staying, and went off to a solitary place where He prayed. Another time, after healing a leper, such a huge crowd surrounded Jesus, that He couldn't get any rest. In Luke 5: 15-16, it says, “News about this healed leper spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” This was His regular habit. He would withdraw from the crowd to get alone, and He'd spend time in prayer. Crowds were overwhelming. Another time in Luke 6:12, He spent all night alone in solitary prayer to his Heavenly Father, then came down off the mountain, and designated his twelve apostles, after spending the whole night in prayer with His Father. Jesus regularly had this pattern of withdrawal into solitary places, sometimes mountains. This was his essential communion with his father, and I believe this was the true source of Jesus's power for ministry. This was the true source of the way that He ministered in power. Jesus did a river of miracles before. Toward the end of our text here everybody who comes, even those who just touched the hem of His garment, are healed. It’s a river of power flowing through Jesus. What was the source of that river? Well, Jesus told us He openly claimed it was the father working in him that accomplished these things. That's what he said. And we have to take his word for it, in consistent solitary communion with His Father, Jesus got his daily work assignments. And he also got from his Heavenly Father, the power in order to do those assignments and then went out in the power of the Spirit and did the things the Father told him to do. This is precisely what Jesus said happen in John 14, he said, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me." There's a perfect union between the Father and the Son. "The words I say to you are not just my own rather it is the Father living in me who's doing his work.” He says, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” Jesus claimed that the very words He spoke and certainly the miracles He did were the result of the Father living in him powerfully. He also said in John 10:32 to His enemies. "I have shown you many great works from the Father, for which of these do you stone me?” The Father is doing his work in Jesus again in John 8:28 when Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am the one I claimed to be, and then I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me." Jesus got alone with his heavenly Father and He listened to the Father. The Father gave him the words to speak and the works to do, and he went and did it. Let me stop for a moment and ask about your own personal life. Is this your regular habit? Do you regularly get alone with the Heavenly Father in solitary prayer? Do you spend time alone with him to renew yourself spiritually or are you stronger than Jesus? Are you wiser than Him? You know just what to do and you've got the strength to do it. I think we're easily deceived in this. Do we really know just what to do and do we really have the strength to do it? Maybe you don't have a mountain side or some solitary place where you can go. Jesus, in Matthew 6 said, "Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father is unseen." That could be your solitary place. The question is, are you doing it? Jesus did this regularly. This was his essential communion with his father. Next in our account, however we see the disciples’ peril and fear. Jesus is up there in serenity and in peaceful fellowship with his heavenly Father, but the disciples are in a boat in the middle of a storm. What a beautiful contrast that is. it. I want to apply it to our lives. Fear: The Enemy of Faith What a picture we have of Jesus up on the mountain, the disciples way down below in a boat. They're being tossed and turned by the waves, and Jesus, in peaceful a heavenly communion with his father, sees the problem and descends to help them. Hebrews 7 tells us that Jesus is at the right hand of God and is always living to intercede for us no matter what trouble we're going through. I think it's right for us to think that way, and that Jesus is able to help us in the midst of our troubles. Now we have the disciples in fear of peril. Now fear is intrinsic to our suffering here. Few of us go through a week without feeling some fear, perhaps some of us don't go through a day without feeling some kind of fear. Fears are connected to the danger of physical or psychological pain for us as people. Animals have physiological reactions. You see a deer drinking at a pond or something like that, and then jerking up its head and looking sniffing and then back down jerking up again, or a squirrel. Try to catch a squirrel. Squirrels are quick and they know what they're all about. They're all about survival; they have instincts towards survival. I don't know if we call it fear, but they're designed to be able to save themselves. Human fear is different though. It has to do with our intellect, it has to do with our imaginations and our anxieties as much as thinking that we're an imminent physical danger. Most of the time that's not the case, most of the time it's not the case that we think we're about to perish. Sometimes happens, like in a car situation when something unexpected quickly happens, but most of our fears are tied to our thoughts about the future and something's about to happen to us that we don't want to happen. It might be a sickness, it might take something from us or a loved one from us, or our own health, our ability to thrive in this world, we might be afraid of that. It might be financial dangers, thinking that ruin is facing us. Many times, however, our fear amounts to nothing at all, isn't that the case? We fear for no reason. We spent a lot of emotion, a lot of time, a lot of anxiety, afraid about something that never even happens. Wouldn't you admit that that's the way it is with most of your fears? But some of them are genuine, some of them really are genuine things we're afraid of, and they actually do come to pass and cause great harm, and they bring us great pain and suffering. Some of it doesn't go away for a long time, if it ever does go away in this world. It’s painful, we go through these experiences and we're afraid to go through them again. Once burned twice shy. We become afraid. Fear is part of life in this sin cursed world. The disciples were afraid, I think, in the midst of the storm. If you look at verse 24, it says, “The boat was already a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” John 6: 18 says, “A strong wind was blowing in the water.” The peaceful calm of the Sea of Galilee can quickly be transformed by a violent storm. It has to do with the way that the hills and mountains around are shaped. It can just kind of a funnel wind down in there. It swirls around and really can whip it up into quite a storm. The disciples were rightly afraid. But it wouldn't be long in this account before they're more afraid of Jesus than they are of the storm. Look at verses 25 through 27, "During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake when the disciples saw him walking on the lake.” They are terrified; “It's a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear, but Jesus immediately said to them, "Take courage. It is. Don't be afraid.” Their superstitions fit into this fear that they think it's a ghost. The theology of ghost does not receive much support from the Bible, but they thought it was a ghost. As a matter of fact, at a more significant moment in redemptive history, this issue is going to come up again namely, at the resurrection when doubts arise in their minds. They thought they were seeing a ghost. It was Jesus risen, and He has to prove to them that he's not a spirit. This is in Luke 24 when He eats a piece of broiled fish, and shows them his hands, and side. He wants them to interact with him physically to prove He has actually defeated death and that He's not a spirit. He's not a ghost. But here they're being afraid, and they cry out in fear. They're afraid that Jesus is a ghost. Fear is the great enemy of our faith. Over 100 times in the Bible, God or an angel of God or a prophet of God, or a leader from God assures the people of God not to be afraid. It is a repeated theme. Fear is a great enemy of our faith. God is constantly laboring through the Word against our fears, because, like termites, fears are constantly laboring against the structure of our faith. So, we have to work on this issue of fear. God wants us to trust and not be afraid. How many Psalms pick this up as a theme? Psalm 56:3-4, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God whose word I praise. In God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" I get the sense there that the psalmist in Psalm 56 is preaching to himself, he's proclaiming truth to himself, he’s talking himself out of fear, and we need to do that. It is important in the Christian life to learn how to take scriptural truth and preach it to yourself. You are definitely your own most important preacher, far more than I am. Preach to yourself against your own fears. Jesus’ Compassion for the Fearful Next, we see Christ's compassion and power as He is sitting up on the mountain. He sees his disciples. We don't get that in Matthew's account, but we do get it in Mark's account. Mark 6:47-48, says, "When evening came the boat was in the middle of the lake and He, Jesus was alone in the land.” Verse 48, "He saw the disciple straining at their oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he went out to them walking on the lake." What an image. Jesus is up on the mountain and He looks down and sees the trouble the disciples are in. I tell you that God sees everything you're going through, He sees all things. The Lord Jesus sees everything you're going through. I don't know the nature of his vision at that time and in the days of His incarnate ministry on earth. Maybe God the Father, gave him a supernatural vision of the disciples in the middle of the lake. But He saw them. He looked, and seeing their peril, comes to their rescue. There is such a unifying theme in this text. He sees the disciples' peril and comes to their rescue. He sees Simon Peter's peril and comes to his rescue. He sees the people of Gennesaret and their peril, and He comes to their rescue. Above all, He sees your peril and mine, and He comes to our rescue. He comes to them walking on the water. Now we use that expression “walk on water” to do something extraordinary, something that can't be explained. Talk even about politicians, you know, they expected him or her to walk on water, this kind of thing. It's really blasphemous. Only Jesus can do it and those empowered by Jesus apparently. I have to add that because of this text. Now, people talk about the laws of physics, that expression you'll not find in the Bible. That's just the way God consistently chooses to work in this world. I'm not saying that science isn't something we can pursue, we can, but God isn't subject to those so-called laws, He can do whatever he wants. He's not asking permission of the water to hold them up, he's not doing a study on buoyancy or surface tension. My goodness, what some unbelievers will do to passages like this: The ever present and moving sandbar just below the surface. I've never seen a sandbar like that and certainly not one that went all the way across the whole lake. What a strange thing. One study group at Florida State University led by one particularly creative professor was talking about how, if the atmospheric and water conditions are right, you can actually get small chunks of ice floating, and that explains what happened. Imagine Jesus kind of surfing on the ice getting across. That's not convincing to me. And then, how does Peter get his own little piece of ice just outside the boat? It doesn't make any sense. The lengths that people will do to undercut what the Spirit of God is doing in this text, which is giving us a display of Jesus' power. He can do all things. He's walking on the water, because He's God, because He can do it. When they see Jesus they cry out, thinking he's a ghost, and He assures them that He is Christ, that He is God. He sees Peter's peril and comes to his rescue. We'll deal with that in a moment, but when He gets across the lake and lands of Gennesaret, his heart is moved with compassion for those people as well. He sees their peril, and his ministry extends to them as well. Look at verses 34-36. “When they crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and when the men of that place recognized Jesus they sent word to all the surrounding country.” People brought all their sick to Him and begged Him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak. All who touched Him were healed. The crush of people resumed, that's Jesus' life, that was his ministry. He has those occasional times alone with his father, but mostly He's surrounded by needy people and He sees the peril. He's moved out of compassion and He wants to heal them and to take care of them. There is nothing that our Savior cannot do. Touching the hem of the garment, they're cured. The power of Jesus, that's what's displayed in Matthew 14. But above all, He looks and sees our peril and He come to our rescues. What is the nature of our peril? We could talk about the winds and the waves of your life. We can talk about the trials that you're facing, but let's go right to the heart of the matter. Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came, rose... Rains fell, and the streams rose and blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock, but everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice, like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains fell on that house and the streams rose and the wind blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. I think this is Judgment Day and the only way we're going to survive Judgment Day is Jesus seeing our peril and coming to our rescue. This is precisely what He has done at the cross. Do you know Him as your Savior, have you trusted in Him? Do you know for certain that your house is built on a foundation that will survive the peril of Judgment Day? Has Jesus reached down and drawn you up out of judgment by His saving grace? Trust in Him, don't leave this place without trusting in Christ. Call on Him as Peter does, “Lord save me.” Call on Him and He will rescue you. This is Jesus' ministry, He sees peril and He rescue, He saves, trust in Him. Now, let's talk for a moment about Peter's supernatural journey. What a fascinating thing. Let me ask you a question, if you had been with them in the boat would you have been Peter getting up and walking, or will you have been those that stayed in the boat and waited to see how it turned out with Peter? First of all, would the idea have popped in your mind, “You tell me to come to you on the water.” Would that have even come to your mind? What an amazing man Peter was. Aren't you glad for Peter and all of his successes, and even more perhaps for his failures? Aren't you glad to see what God can do through a person like him? What God can do through someone like you. Look at Peter’s supernatural journey, look at its beginning, its middle, and its end. First the beginning. "Lord if it's you, Peter replied, "Tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," said Jesus. Then Peter got down on the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus. Peter was willing to ask something that no one else thought to ask or was willing to ask. And Jesus granted to him a supernatural power that no other human being has ever had, as far as we know. The power to walk on water. We forget that it's not only true that God himself can do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine but he actually can do through us immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine. Isn't it true? And how much we forget that, because we forget to ask, we don't ask him to do great things through us. But Jesus himself said in John 14, the night before he was crucified. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing, he will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it." We under-asked. Let's just stop and apply it for a moment. What are you trusting God for that only God can do? What ministry are you stepping out to do and you know if God doesn't support you, you will fail? I think we're just living natural lives and we really called to live super naturalized. We're called to do things that only God could do through us. Verse 30, "But when he [Peter]saw the wind and the waves, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out. Lord, save me." He steps out, he's doing well, but then all of a sudden, he maybe gets smacked in the face by a wave or some sound occurs, and he gets distracted. He stops looking at Jesus, and he starts to esteem the power of the waves to kill them as greater than the power of Jesus to save him. He starts to look at his situation and then he looks inward and says, "Can I do this? No, I cannot do this." And he sinks. Quickly. It's an issue of his faith. He has stopped focusing on Jesus' power and instead he's sinking because he’s sitting on his own strength and he knows he can't do it. He begins to sink and cries out, "Lord, save me," and Jesus says at that particular moment, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" You will never find anywhere in the gospels or in all of scripture where Jesus cuddles unbelief, where he comforts the unbeliever. He doesn't, He rebukes it. "Why did you doubt? Don't you know who I am?" "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come." “It is me. I'm still me, I'm still here.” He never cuddles unbelief. The end of the journey is that Jesus is powerful to rescue. In the end, He gets the glory. He will get the glory for your supernatural journey also. He'll get the glory from mine. In the end, He gets all the glory. Beginning to sink, Peter cries out, Jesus reaches out and draws him up. What kind of strength would that take? But this is a supernatural power of almighty God working through them, and He draws him up instantly. He doesn't let him flounder, He doesn't let him sputter, He doesn't let him drown, He immediately rescues him. This is the compassion of Jesus. He's not going to let you drown either. The real issue going on in your life and mine right now is an issue of faith. Satan's real design on you is to destroy your faith in Jesus. That's what he’s after, he wants to kill your faith, so Jesus goes to the heart of the matter, “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” These are issues of faith. Peter has not yet had at this point his hardest trial of faith. We know when it is. It's the night that Jesus was arrested, and Jesus predicted, "Simon, Simon. Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat.” It's plural, just sift all of them like wheat, “but I have prayed for you, Simon, particularly that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back, then strengthen your brothers." Jesus in that statement shows us the center of his intercessory prayer ministry for us while we're going through trials. You may be going through the biggest trials of your life, you may not. You may have just gotten through some of those winds and waves and all the stuff that was happening, and the water is coming in the boat and you think you're going to drown. But now you've gotten on the other side of it. Or this may yet be in your future. But the object of all of that from Satan's point of view, is to destroy your faith in Jesus. You say, "That's impossible. Isn't it true? Once saved, always saved.” Are we going to continue to believe in Jesus right to the end? Yes, we will. If we have been justified by faith, we will continue right to the end. But you know what? It's a dynamic process. Jesus had to reach up and grab Peter and hold him. Do you have faith independent of Jesus' energetic intercessory prayer in your behalf? Do you have it on your own? Is this your own faith? He gave the faith to you; He is the vine where the branch keeps sustaining that faith. He's interceding for you in the middle of your trial. “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” He's saying, "Oh Father, don't let our faith fail. Oh, Father, don't let his faith fail." He continues to intercede at the right hand of God, that our faith may not fail. This is the issue. The ultimate inevitable conclusion is worshipping Jesus as God. Someday I'll get to see Jesus and I will get to worship Him. I'll get to fall down in His presence and say, "You are God, You are Almighty God." That's the outcome of this whole journey, that's where we're heading. What could be better than that? The outcome even in this account is they're worshiping him as God. In verse 27, when they cry out, Jesus literally says, "Take courage. I AM. Do not be afraid." What are the words “I AM” mean to you? This is God's name, he's saying, "I AM, I am God." This is the name by which the Jewish God, Yahweh, is known. He revealed himself to Moses, in the flames of the burning bush. Saying, "Tell them that I AM sent you, I AM that I AM.” This is what he says, "I AM. Don't be afraid, I AM God." The disciples, react naturally to a supernatural power, verse 33, "Then those who are in the boat worshipped him saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” This is God's end. His purpose is worship, in spirit and truth, and there's no jealousy in the trinity. It's not like the father says, "Hey, hey, wait about me, what about me? I'm the one who gave him the power." No, He wants us to honor the Son, even as we honor the Father, that's his yearning. It says in Philippians 2, that, “Jesus being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.” There's no jealousy in the trinity, He's delighted to see the disciples’ worship and say, "Truly, you are the Son of God." Application What application do we take from this? First, I've already given you, solitary prayer. Do not think that you can get along better without solitary prayer than Jesus did. Look at your prayer life. How is it? I had to do that just as I was preparing this sermon. How is my prayer life? Is it what it needs to be? I was convicted, that I need to spend more time in solitary prayer. I take comfort in Matthew 6, where Jesus said, "Go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father unseen.” That's good, but it's still good to have a special place where you can go to be refreshed and renewed spiritually to strengthen yourself. He restores my soul. Do you have that regular habit of private prayer? What about this whole issue of allegory? Is He the Lord of our rocking boat? Jesus will rescue from the storms of your life. What are the storms of your life? The problem with allegories it denies that this ever really happened historically. I tell you, it happened, there are details. It was about the fourth watch of the night. The disciples are straining at their oars. Peter starts, but it starts to sink. Who makes this kind of stuff up? This actually occurred in space and time. But that doesn't mean that there are not spiritual connections, the stuff you will face in your life, even if you never get into a boat the rest of your life. We have permission to do that because in Ephesians 4, it says if you get good teaching ministry, a good pastor and teacher to teach you, then you will no longer be infants, blown and tossed back and forth by the waves. You won’t be blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men that are deceitful, scheming false doctrine, being under the influence of false doctrines, like being in a storm-tossed sea, says Paul in Ephesians 4. James says, "If you lack wisdom, then ask God, but you better believe that He'll give it to you, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man unstable in all he does.” This is a way of speaking. We know what storms are like, we know what it's like to be under the influence of something that's more powerful than we are that seems to mean harm. We call those things trials. Jesus is watching over you in the middle of your trials to rescue you and help you. But I'm going to go further than that. He actually is bringing the trials to you. He has brought the storm into your life. He is not just managing the storm, he brought it, he has certain purposes in your life. Nothing comes to you except directly by the will of your Heavenly Father, and He is managing and protecting you in the middle of that storm and that trouble. Finally, look at Peter as a commendable example of faith. I know he failed in the middle of it, but he got up out of the boat. How comfortable do we get in our Christian lives? You know what I'm talking about? How comfortable? We don't want to witness; we don't want to go to the far reaches on a mission trip. He may be calling you to get up out of your boat and walk to Jesus. He may be calling on you to go to foreign lands. But there are applications to be courageous, to step out in faith and do things that only God can do in and through you. What are you doing like that? I want to close with the example of DL Moody who made two commitments in his life that carried him the rest of his life. DL Moody made a commitment after hearing Henry Varley who was a fellow evangelist say this, the world is yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him. He resolved to be that man. A man fully consecrated Jesus. That means at every moment, I'm given over to doing the will of God. He said to RA Torrey, his co-worker, he said, "If I believe that God wanted me to jump out that window, I would jump." Fully consecrated, whatever God told me to do, I want to do. He made a second commitment, and this is very interesting. This came out in RA Torrey's funeral sermon for Moody. He preached why God used DL Moody. Moody made a commitment that he would not allow 24 hours to pass over his head without witnessing to somebody about Christ. That's pretty practical, isn't it? Are you courageous enough to make a commitment like that? Try a week, let's start with one week, alright? For one week, you won't let 24 hours pass over your head without witnessing to somebody. There are amazing stories about Moody's commitment. Once, late, late in the day, he hadn't witnessed anybody. It was about 11 o'clock, and he was going back to his hotel. He doesn't know what to do, and he sees a man by a lamp post, and he goes up and he starts sharing and says, "Friend. Are you a Christian?" The man is immediately offended, he says, "How dare you? You don't even know me; you don't know anything about me. And you're asking me that question?" The man knew that Moody was a preacher. He said, "If you weren't some kind of preacher, I'd knock you into the gutter right now." That man went and told some of DL Moody's sponsors that Moody had a zeal without knowledge, and that he was rude and was actually under cutting the work of Christ. The organizer called DL Moody in, he was a young man at this point and said, “You're doing more damage than good.” It caused Moody to doubt some of his own convictions. It was very tough time until three weeks later, late in the night, there’s a loud knock on the door and it's the same man. He said, I've not been able to get your question [ Are you a Christian?] out of my mind. I've come to the conclusion, I'm not a Christian, and I've given my life to Christ, and I just wanted to thank you. There was another time again late at night. Moody hadn't witnessed and thinking that it’s too late, he goes out and is pouring rain. He sees a man immediately, a man who is walking with an umbrella, so he runs out of his little hotel area, and goes out in the pouring rain, and says, “Do you mind if I share your umbrella? He said, "No, come on." So, there are two of them walking along under the umbrella and he gets an idea and says, "Do you know the security and the shelter that comes from following Christ? He uses the umbrella as a picture of salvation and led the man to Christ. I just think we don't step out in faith because we're afraid of what will happen. We're afraid of what will happen if we make a commitment to go to foreign places or to not let one day go by in seven that we don't witness for Jesus. We're afraid to try new ministries. Don't be. When you step out in faith, you will find the ground under your feet secured by the power of God, by the power of Jesus.

Introduction: The Most Obnoxious Human Attitude... Pride We are looking at Romans chapter 11. I just love Thanksgiving, I love to think about it. I like to think about the different many things that there are to be thankful for. And I think the more you go on, the more delightful it is. And as a matter of fact, I think that thankfulness is one of the most delightful states of the human soul to God. I think God loves to see us thankful. I think about how it says in Hebrews 12, "Since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." In other words, that God looks at acceptable worship as the same as thanksgiving in that verse. I know that there's more things besides that are involved, but thankfulness is at the core of our Christian love and faith. And so therefore, I look on it as one of the sweetest spiritual states there is, the state of thankfulness, of thanksgiving. Conversely, in our text, I believe that Paul is dealing with one of the most repugnant and obnoxious states that the human soul can be in, and that is spiritual pride, arrogance. He is fighting against it in Romans 11:16-24, as you read. I believe that pride is one of the most obnoxious states that we can be in because it means that we do not understand the grace of God, we do not understand what God is giving us. We think we deserve it, and therefore we really cannot be thankful for it. Paul, I believe, is giving a warning to Gentiles in Romans 11:16-24, that they should not be arrogant over the Jews given their spiritual situation. Remember the context of Romans 9-11, Paul is dealing with the almost universal rejection of the gospel by his countrymen, the Jews. He's struggling with that, he's working with it, he's explaining it from all different angles. I. Paul’s Goals: The Destruction of Gentile Boasting Over Israel and the Unity of the Church But as he comes now to Romans 11:16-24, I think his heart is getting pastoral. He is being pastoral at this moment toward both Jews and Gentiles alike. And I believe his goal in this section is the destruction of Gentile boasting over Israel, and the unity of the church. That's what he's getting at here. Now, I believe that pride is rooted in human nature. Saint Augustine said that it is the root of all sin. I don't know if that's true, but I see that it is the root of many of my sins. It is true. Now, what is pride? Well, I think pride starts in infancy. Now, I'm not saying anything against my newborn, she's a sweet little girl, we love her, we think she's wonderful. She's been with us now almost two months, she's doing great. Nothing but a blessing. But we've noticed something about her, as about our other five children, or four children, all together five. And that is that she is intensely self-focused. She is just thinking about number one and there is no number two, except that number two might do something for number one. Number two is definitely my wife, we all disappear. We're not there. We bring her to number two, but she is number one. And it develops from there, doesn't it? The toddler sitting in the sand box and there are the toys and there are these other beings in the sand box and they are competition. I want all the toys in the sand box and I want it when I want it. And it goes on from there to self-exaltation over others. It escalates into feelings of superiority over other people. Competitiveness comes, boasting and arrogance toward other people, and eventually a desire to exalt oneself by putting other people down. But its most obnoxious form is found in our relationship with God. Pride's ugliest form comes in its manifestation toward God himself. Basically, pride says to God, "You will not rule over me." Pride desires to take God's rightful place to rule over one's own life so that we can determine to do what we wanna do with our lives. Pride displays especially an independent spirit toward God that says to the Almighty, "I don't need you." And it ultimately reveals itself in our religion. In atheism, which says, "I am and there is no other, there is no God." Or in works righteousness, which says, "I can work my way to God on my own. I can do things that are pleasing to Him, and He will accept me on the basis of what I've done." Or in idolatry which says, "I can make God however I want, and then I can worship the God that I've made." All of this is religious pride. Heavenly Enemy #1: Pride Now, I believe that God has made pride, as we might say, heavenly enemy number one. It says in Isaiah 2:12 and following, "The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, and they will be humbled. The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day and the idols will totally disappear." Therefore, I believe that the ultimate goal of the gospel is the glory of God in a salvation done in such a way that human pride is humbled. God is glorifying himself by saving us in a way that we will all only be able to say, "Praise be to his name and to his name alone. Praise be to the name of Jesus." "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." That's what the Lord is working out here. And that I think is the purpose of the climax of this whole chapter. In verse 32 it says, "God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on us all." He humbled the Gentiles by revealing that we were on the outside, that we were unfit for citizenship in Israel because of our uncircumcised hearts and our uncircumcised lives. And now he humbles the Jews by binding them over to a spirit of stupor to spiritual blindness so that they cannot see in Jesus their own Messiah, their own Christ. So both Gentiles and Jews alike, nationally, are humbled. God has bound all of them over to disobedience so that He can have mercy on them all, so that when we are on that final day, when we stand before God, we will know as we are escorted into heaven, and as we are welcomed there, that it was not through our own merit or our own righteousness but only through the mercy of God, and we will honor Jesus as our Savior in a way that would be impossible if any of the shred of arrogance and pride were left. Now, Jewish arrogance over Gentiles was addressed earlier in Romans. Jewish arrogance over the Gentiles was addressed earlier. In Romans chapter 2, Paul deals with it there. Now, the Jews might have had a temptation to be arrogant based on certain lavish things that God had said to them as a people. For example, in Exodus chapter 19 it says, God spoke to Israel and said, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession, although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Now God had given Moses many laws that excluded Gentiles from worship, among them was circumcision. Therefore, the Jews felt that they had ample reason perhaps to boast over their Gentile neighbors. They sometimes would even call them uncircumcised dogs. But Paul strips Israel, strips the Jews of their boasting based on a simple fact, they were unable to keep the law. They could not keep the law of Moses. And so he says in Romans 2, "Now you, if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God," he says, "You then who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." And then later in Romans 2, again, it says, "Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as if you were uncircumcised." In effect, that sets the image for the branches being stripped off. He's saying if you don't keep the law, if you do not follow God, you become as though you were not circumcised. So there Paul is laboring to strip Jews of any boasting they might have over Gentiles. But now here he is addressing Gentiles who claim to be believers in Christ. And he's using Romans 11 to ward off any reverse Gentile boasting over the Jews. The whole problem of Romans 9-11 is based on the overwhelming success of the gospel among the Gentiles in every tribe, and language, and people, and nation which just seems to flourish, and the overwhelming failure of the gospel among the Jews. And that might leave the Gentiles to get the feeling that they had actually replaced the Jews in God's affections. Look at verse 19 and 20, "You will say then, Branches were broken off so I could be grafted in. Granted," he says. Actually there is a school of theology called replacement theology in which the church just replaces the ethnic Jews. Really, God has literally no concern whatsoever anymore for the physical descendants of Abraham. I think Romans 11 totally rejects that, it's impossible, but there's this idea of replacement. And so, I think Paul here is seeking to put the Gentiles in their place. Look at verse 13, he says very directly, "I am talking to you Gentiles." He's addressing the Gentiles directly. Now, I think if you read between the lines here and also later in Romans, when you get to chapter 14 for example, when it's talking about some people hold one day more sacred than another. Others think everyday is alike. I really think that the church in Rome was made up of both Jews and Gentiles. A numbers of times in Romans, he addresses the Jews and then another time he's addressing the Gentiles. I think that the Roman church was made up of both Jews and Gentiles. And if you read between the lines, it's possible that there was some tension there, perhaps some controversies or some disagreements. And I think he really wants the unity of the church. He wants Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians really to love each other and to honor God in their relationship with each other. So he's seeking pastorally here for unity. But I believe his biggest concern has to do with the glory of God in salvation. If you are arrogant spiritually, it shows something about you. It says something about how you think you are made right with God. And so he's dealing with the issue of the glory of God in salvation. II. The Sordid History of Anti-Semitism in Christendom Now, as we look at the history of the church of what we could call Christendom, there is a sordid history of anti-semitism. There is, in my opinion, a sordid history of the very kind of boasting over the fallen Jewish branches that Paul is warning against here. Now, as I begin to talk about this painful topic of Anti-semitism within those who claim to be Christians, I wanna begin by being very careful about what is not anti-semitic. The Bible, specifically let's say the New Testament, is not anti-semitic. The Gospel of John is not anti-semitic when it claims that the Jews had a role in the death of Christ. It is true. So also did the Romans. And evangelism of Jews in the name of Christ is not anti-semitic. Perhaps you saw recently a story concerning the chaplain to the Washington Nationals baseball team? His name was Jon Moeller. He was dismissed from his ministry by the team because he affirmed with a nod only, he affirmed that Jews who do not trust in Christ will be lost eternally if they do not repent. A Washington Post reporter put this story on the front page of the Washington Post, and a Washington Rabbi loudly stated that the Washington Nationals' locker room was now being used, listen to this, to preach hatred. I guess, done with a nod. To say that Jews and Gentiles need to trust in Christ for their salvation is not anti-semitism. It is the truth. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost in Israel first. Paul says, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, the gospel is for salvation, for everyone who believes. It is not anti-semitic to say to a Jewish person, you must repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul. It is true that his blood was shed for both Jew and for Gentile alike and it is not anti-semitic to tell them the truth. But that does not mean that there has not been anti-semitism in the history of Christianity.That is false. If we were to say that the church has never been guilty of this. You could look for example at the crusades. Beginning in the 11th century, around 1096 Christian leaders launched a series of crusades against Muslims to win control of Palestine back from the Muslims. On their way to the Middle East, the crusader armies attacked Jewish communities along the route. The first crusade was especially bloody. Entire communities of Jews were forced to choose between baptism and death, and because most of the Jews refused to choose baptism, there was a slaughter. Maybe as many as 10,000 Jews were killed in the first crusade, in the first six months alone. Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first crusade, vowed this, to leave no single member of the Jewish race alive and ordered the synagogue in Jerusalem burned to the ground with its entire Jewish congregation inside. The first crusade. Then medieval Europe. In many cities in medieval Europe the Jews were gathered into communities and high walls were put around them. This led to further, obviously, separation and alienation 'cause they didn't interact much. And when the black plagues swept through and killed a third of the population, it was the Jews that were blamed. Then there was the inquisition in the Roman Catholic church in Spain. The original purpose was to root out heresy, but it spread to include Jews, and they were forced to wear ridiculous looking conical hats and subject to public ridicule and some of them were even tortured. Therefore, many Jews fled Spain to live in North Africa. Martin Luther, during the time of the reformation, wrote a terrible treatise against the Jews. As a matter of fact, as you read it you wonder if it's the same man that wrote the things you're reading at another time in his life. I think he originally had hoped that with the gospel openly having been reclaimed and now preached in its purity that the Jews would now flock into the church. And so he was very open and friendly and welcoming early in his ministry, but toward the end he wrote this terrible document which was later used by the Nazis. In the late 1800s, there were pogroms against the Jews in Russia and Poland, organized with at least complicity from the church. She didn't speak out against it. And then, of course, the worst example of all is in supposedly Christianized Germany during the rise of Nazism. And we all know what happened as 6 million Jews were murdered simply for being Jewish. Adolf Hitler had visited the Passion Play at Oberammergau in 1934, that's just a reenactment of the Passion of Christ, the death of Christ, and it's done every 10 years. And he was there in 1934 and this is what he said, he said, "It is vital that the Passion Play be continued at Oberammergau, for never has the menace of Jewry been so convincingly portrayed as in this presentation of what happened in the time of the Romans." So, it's a dreadful history. The kind of boasting over the stripped off branches that Paul is talking about here has actually happened, it's actually occurred. Now there is a very serious threat in the text to those who boast. Look at verses 20 and 21, he says, "Do not be arrogant but be afraid, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either." In other words, and we'll talk about this, God willing, next time. But if you're the kind of person who boasts over people who are stripped off from God, what does it say about your own heart? I'll talk more about that later in this message next week, but be afraid. There's a threat of eternal condemnation for those who act this way and have an arrogant attitude. III. Six Reasons for Gentile Humility Toward Unbelieving Jewish People Well, Paul, instead of just stating that we should not boast over these branches gives six reasons for Gentile humility toward unbelieving Jewish people. 1) Israel’s Lasting Consecration as God’s Chosen People (vs. 16) Look at the first one in verse 16, and that is Israel's lasting consecration as God's chosen people. Verse 16 there, he says, "If the part of the dough offered his first fruit is holy, then the whole batch is holy. If the root is holy then so are the branches." He takes here that sacrificial language, where in Numbers 15 a part of the dough was offered to God, but the implication is that the whole lump belongs to God. The first fruit offering really represents the whole being really God's ultimately. Now, when it says if the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. The word holy means sacred or set apart unto God for his special use. And I believe that the part of the dough offered as first fruit to God refers to the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were the first, and to them, the promises were made. With them, the covenants were made. They were set apart to God as holy and therefore, the lineage that comes from them is set apart to God as well. If you look down at verse 28, it says, "As far as the gospel is concerned, the Jews are enemies on your account. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the fathers," on account of the patriarchs. That's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So what do we get out of that? What it means is that we Gentile Christians are actually seen to be children of Abraham, he's actually our father in the faith. We've become somewhat spiritually adopted children of Abraham. This was already covered in Romans chapter 4. It says in verse 16 and 17, "The promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who have the law, but to those who are the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations." We are Abraham's children, we Gentile believers. And we should understand that as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were broken off and given to God, holy and sacred to him, then their lineage as well is in some sense set apart unto God for his sacred use. And so therefore, Gentiles should not boast over the fallen state of the Jewish nation because the nation as a whole is still holy to the Lord, even if individual Jews have not believed and have been broken off. The whole is still sacred or special unto God. 2) The “Olive Tree” Is Jewish in Heritage (vs. 17-20) Secondly, is this image of the olive tree. Look at verses 17-20, the olive tree is Jewish in heritage. And so Paul picks up on this gardening image and speaks of roots and of a tree, an olive tree. It's an unforgettable image. Now, the olive tree is a living entity, it's got a development, it's got a history, it grows year by year with developing branches coming up off the trunk. And on those branches, the gardener that's tending the olive tree expect to see some fruit. Now, some fruitless branches have been stripped off, it is true, and some wild branches have mysteriously been grafted in. Yes, that's true, but the tree itself remains a tree, it remains alive, it's drawing up the nourishing nutrients and moisture from the soil, and it's sucking it up through the trunk and out it goes. It's an olive tree, and it is Jewish in nature. And therefore, I believe the tree represents God's people, his children by faith. And until recently in Paul's day, it was exclusively a Jewish tree. It is the Jewish history, it's the patriarchs', it's the law of Moses, it is the prophets', it is the history of God's loving provision for the Jews. God's people found their identity from the development of God's promises to the Jews. Now, the tree is not Israel per se. In other words, we would not say the tree, the olive tree is every physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's already dealt with that in Romans 9, not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. So, it's not every biological descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but rather it's a heritage that flowed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it's a Jewish tree. And Jesus made it very, very clear, salvation is from the Jews. We get saved by this Jewish tree, and therefore, Gentile Christians should not boast over fallen Jews because the tree of salvation is Jewish in nature, essentially Jewish, through the promises made to the Jewish patriarchs and through the development of Moses, David, and the prophets. 3) Gentiles Are Wild, by Nature Excluded, by Grace Included (vs. 17-20) The third reason that we Gentiles should not boast over Jews who do not believe in Christ is, that the Scripture says here that we Gentiles are wild by nature, excluded, only by grace included. I hope that doesn't offend you, it doesn't offend me, I'm a Gentile, to be called the wild olive branch that was grafted in contrary to nature to a tree that's not my own. But that's what Paul says. Look at verses 17-20. "If some of the branches," he says, "have been broken off, and you, the wild olive shoot have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.' Granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid." And look down at verse 24 for more of the same image. "After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" The picture here is of the wild by nature Gentiles. That's what Paul says. "The tree from which the Gentiles was cut was wild." Now, what does that mean? It means it's not tended, it's not cultivated, it doesn't have a gardener, it's not handled with care and with skill and with intelligence. It's just left to go. You can imagine if you went on one of those long treks through the mountains of West Virginia, or some wild place that you could go for several days, into a place where perhaps nobody had been in decades. And let's say you came to a clearing, and you found an apple tree there. And clearly it's a wild apple tree, you look and see, and it's just sprung up somehow, the birds carry the seeds there, there's no evidence of a human being having been there for years. And you pluck one of the apples off and you notice that the insects have kind of gotten to it. It's not like the apples you see in the supermarket, and you might, if you were up to it and you're organic kind of person, just go ahead and eat the apple such as it is, with everything found inside. But that would be a wild apple tree, uncultivated, untended, left alone. Let's say, conversely, you went to an orchard. You drove there, and you parked, and you get out and there are the workers in the orchard, and they hand you a bag that you buy for $5 or $10, and you can fill it as full as you want, and they lead you to a certain place where are these long lines of trees, almost laser perfect, like this, and you look and all of the apples are perfectly round, untouched by insects, they are just cultivated and perfect. This is clearly a cultivated apple tree. This is the image that Paul is using. The Gentiles were not tended by God, they were basically left to go to hell whatever way they chose. They developed their own mystics, they developed their own histories, they developed their own sinful habits and shrines and priests and priestesses. They were never confronted by God through the law and the prophets, they were never judged, they were never restored by the loving heavenly Father, they were left to grow wild, and they did grow wild. But Israel is a tended, cultivated, olive tree. Tended by the promises of God, by the commands of God, through the law of Moses, by the warnings of God through the prophets, by the leadership of God through holy men like Joshua and Samuel and David, and disciplined by the judgments of God as he brought the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and then restored back to the promised land. It is a cultivated olive tree. But the Gentiles are wild, they're just left to go. And therefore, Paul in Acts 14, talking to the pagans at Lystra, you remember that? He goes and preaches the gospel, and there's this great big response. And then when they see the healings, they say, "Oh, well, Paul must be Hermes and Barnabas must be Zeus." And they start offering sacrifices to them like they're the gods come down in human form. And Paul and Barnabas are just so upset, and they go out and they confront these pagans, these Gentiles, and they say this, "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We're bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made heaven, and earth, and sea, and everything in them. [Listen] In the past, God let all nations go their own way." Now, you tell me what that means. That is exactly what he's saying here in Romans 11. They're wild, they're just left to go however they saw fit. He just let them go their own way. And yet, contrary to nature, some have been cut out of their wild olive trees and have been grafted into this Jewish tree. It's an incredible thing, that they are cut out of their wild by nature trees, and they're grafted in. And now, contrary to nature, they're sucking life giving sap from this Jewish tree. Abraham has become our father, Jesus the King of the Jews, has become our King and our Messiah. The Jewish Bible has become for us the very word of God, the promises made to Abraham have become the hope of our future and the joy of our hearts. How could it be? And the Holy Spirit has been given to previously wild Gentiles to make them conform now to the perfections of God's holy law, to give up their sexual immorality, and their idolatry, and their emptiness, and their wild revelry, to give it up. To actually that God has written his holy law on our own hearts, he's done that to us, we who are wild by nature. And this is done, it says, contrary to nature. What an interesting expression. It's the second time in Romans that's come up. The first time was to talk about what I believe is Gentile perversions, even homosexuality. That they give up the natural relations and do what is contrary to nature. Now, here, he uses it for our salvation. It is contrary to nature for us Gentiles to think of ourselves as spiritual Jews, but so it is. And so, contrary to nature, we have been grafted into this Jewish tree. Therefore, Gentiles must not boast over the fallen branches of the cultivated olive tree, because we were by nature excluded, we were on the outside, we were rejected. We should be very, very, very humble about that process, because the only difference between us and them is the sovereignty and the grace of Almighty God. That's how it happened to us. So, where then is boasting? It's excluded, it cannot be. 4) Israel Supports Gentile Christians, Not the Other Way Around (vs. 17-18) Fourth, Israel supports Gentile Christians, not the other way around. Look what he says in verse 17 and 18, "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, the wild olive shoot have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap drawn from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this, you do not support the root, but the root supports you." What do I get out of this? It means that I as a Gentile, I derive all of my spiritual life and vitality from being grafted into this Jewish tree. Everyday, I suck nourishing sap from this tree. I do it by coming to Christ and calling him my Savior. He is the vine and I am the branch, another image from John 15. And apart from him, I can do nothing, but I'm in him, and his sap is flowing through me, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And also, when I read the Scripture, when I come to this Jewish book, when I open up the law of Moses and the prophets, when I read Job, when I read the Psalms of David, when I read the New Testament written by the apostles, I am deriving nourishing sap from this olive tree. So therefore, Gentile Christians should not boast over the fallen branches, the rejected Jews, because we derive our moment by moment life and health and spirituality from being included in this Jewish olive tree. We are supported by it, we're lifted up off the ground, off the muck and mire of our Gentile pagan ways, we're lifted up into a better life, and ultimately will be lifted up into heaven itself. Where then is boasting? How can we boast over the branches that were stripped off through unbelief? We should be humble, everyday we should turn to that Jewish book, the Bible, and we should draw our life giving nourishment from its pages, and we should turn to Christ. And in this Jewish God, we live and move and have our being. And so the tree supports us, we do not support the tree. 5) Gentiles Will Get No More Special Treatment Than Jews Did (vs. 19-23) Fifth, Gentiles will get no more special treatment than the Jews got, if we boast and are arrogant. Look at verses 19-23, Paul concedes that individual Jews were cut off from their own olive tree. He says it's true, and he says, "Yes, they're now lying on the ground," metaphorically. But Paul goes deeper and asks why did it happen? What happened to them? Look in verse 19-23. "You will say then, Branches were broken off so I could be grafted in. Granted, it's true, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid." We'll talk about that next week. "For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God. Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." Now, the clear teaching that Paul gives here is, the Jews were cut off from their own olive tree because of unbelief. They refused to trust in Christ. In my opinion, the root of that, Augustine was right, is pride. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, who is Christ. Pride in their national heritage, pride in their own law keeping, pride in their religious achievements, even pride in their national sufferings. And therefore, when Christ came and said so offensively, do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than the others? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. They were very offended, very offended. And when Jesus died on the cross, when he was nailed to the cross and hung up on a tree under a curse of God, and had a sign over his head, 'This is Jesus, the King of the Jews', they were so offended. They went to Pilate and said, "Take that sign off, or say do not say he is the King of the Jews, but he claimed to be the King of the Jews." They were so offended, the death of Jesus was offensive. And when the apostles preached that he died taking their curse on himself, dying the death of a condemned man, because Jews and Gentiles are alike, equally sinful in the sight of God, they were brutally offended by this, very offensive to them. And so therefore, Jesus was the stumbling block to Israel because of one wretched state of the sinful human soul, and that is pride. That's what led them to reject Christ, that's why they didn't believe. But Paul says, "What would the root of Gentile boasting over fallen Jews be?" What's the root of that? Is it not the same? Is it not pride that would cause you or I to boast over Jews who don't believe in Jesus? To say, "Oh, look at them. There they are praying and God doesn't hear their prayers. They don't know the right way. If only they'd come talk to me, I'd tell them the right way." Isn't that pride? Now, next week, we'll talk about the meaning of the severe warning to Gentiles who boast. We'll deal with the question of how this fits into the doctrine of 'Once saved, always saved.' I do not believe that Paul is teaching here, that a living branch sucking nourishing sap from the olive tree can't ever be cut off and thrown away. I do not believe it, but I do believe that arrogant boasting proves they were never truly grafted in at all. And therefore, Gentile Christians should not boast over unbelieving Jews, because God will not spare fake Christians any more than he spared fake Jews. And boasting people are not truly saved people. 6) God Is Able to Graft Jews Back In, and Someday He Will Finally, God is able to graft the Jews back in, and friends, some day he will. Isn't that exciting? Someday, he's going to take branches up off the ground in one generation, and he's going to graft them back into their own olive tree. That's the mystery we're getting to. I've mentioned this mystery, I read it before, and I've mentioned it a few times, but it's coming. God is gonna scoop those branches up and he's gonna graft them back into their own olive tree. Verse 23-24, "If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature and contrary to nature, were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" The whole issue in Romans 9, 10 and 11 is God's sovereign grace. God can do anything he wants to do with his grace. He has that kind of power. And if God can take us from our wild background that had nothing to do with this Jewish olive tree and all of its heritage, how can we possibly imagine he can't graft the Jews back into their own olive tree? Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He wakes up thinking another good day to kill Christians. What are the odds he's going to lay down that night or go to sleep that night a Christian? What are the odds he's going to believe in Jesus that day? Well, God doesn't do odds, have you noticed? What He does is, he confronts Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus with resurrection glory and says, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "Your world's about to change." "I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting." He is able to take a branch off the ground and graft it back in again. So how can you boast over somebody who might later today be your own brother or sister in Christ? And furthermore, what kind of Gentile believer will it take to get that done? What kind of Gentile evangelist will he send to do the job? One who's arrogant and boasting over the Jews in their broken off state? No, but one who, like Paul, has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart for the Jewish condition, 1ho is praying in chapter 10, verse 1, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." One who, in chapter 10, is willing to go and preach the gospel, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." That's the kind of Gentile it's going to take to bring these Jews to faith in Christ. And boasting over the stripped off branches is totally inconsistent with that evangelical work. IV. Applications What applications can we take from this? First, can I urge you... You may think, "Hmm, boasting over Jews that don't believe in Jesus. This is not my number one topic in my life. I'm facing this, I'm facing that, I'm facing the other." A. Search Your Heart and Your Life for Spiritual Pride Let me ask you a question, do you really think you're so free from spiritual pride? Do you really think that there is no spiritual pride in you at all? You really totally embraced the doctrine of grace, that you are saved contrary to what you deserve, not because of what you've done? Is it possible that there is no vestige of spiritual pride in you at all? I think it's impossible, and frankly, the longer I go on in my Christian life, the more I see what a monster it is. And so I want to say in Psalm 139, "O Lord, search me and know me and try me and see if there's anything offensive inside." Show me my spiritual pride. Perhaps, you've said when you heard of some sinful thing, "I'd never do something like that." Be careful. Be careful what you say like that. Perhaps you've comforted yourself with at least you haven't murdered or stolen or committed adultery, at least not with your body. Perhaps you've heard a story about some sin that another Christian has committed, and you excused yourself and felt superior. But have you forgotten how many sins you are cleansed from? Sins of the mouth, gossip, slander, deceit, sins of the mind, unclean thoughts, arrogant thoughts, sins of the wallet, selfishness, and greed, sins of the passions, anger, and lust, and pride. Have you forgotten? Oh, that we might never boast except in the cross of Jesus Christ. Come to the cross again, because it says in Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart O God, you will not despise." B. Search Your Heart and Your Life for Anti-Semitism Secondly, can I urge you to search your heart for anti-semitism? Is it impossible that you have no attitude of boasting over the branches that are stripped off? That you have no sense of mockery toward the Jews? Are you where Paul was, where he has great sorrow and unceasing anguish for their present situation? Is there no anti-semitism inside you? C. Ask God to Give You Paul’s Stance Toward Lost Jews and Gentiles Thirdly, ask God to give you Paul's stance toward lost people, both Jews and Gentiles. That you could be the kind of person who would have great sorrow over the lost, who would pray for them, and who would be willing to go and witness to them. D. Take God’s Warnings to Heart Fourth, as we're going to talk about next time, take God's warnings to heart. You're commanded in this text, "Do not be arrogant, but fear." And we're going to talk about what fear Paul has in mind here, but it is a good state of the soul. Finally, if I can speak to any that are here that have never trusted in Christ, come to Christ today. We will not survive the kind of scrutiny that this Holy God will give us on judgment day on our own. We need Jesus. You need to trust in Christ, believe in Him, trust in Him. Don't leave this room without trusting in Christ. You don't need to go anywhere, all you have to do is bend in your heart and acknowledge to God, "I am a sinner, Lord. And apart from the blood shed on the cross by Jesus, apart from the blood shed in the cross, I will have no hope of surviving judgment day." Acknowledge it, trust in him. Jesus is a wonderful Savior, magnificent Savior, trust in him today. Close with me in prayer.

Introduction: The Enemy of Human Pride We are looking this morning at some magnificent verses, Romans 10:11-13, and as I was considering the message that's here, I was thinking about what I consider to be one of the greatest enemies, entrenched enemies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is human pride. Human pride opposes the Gospel, human pride opposes the Gospel at every turn. And the Apostle Paul, I believe, is taking on some unique aspects of human pride found in the Jews and revealing them for what they are. I can think of three in particular, as he's dealing in Romans 9, 10 and 11, with the great question of why the Jews are not trusting in Christ, why they have not embraced Jesus as their savior and their Messiah, despite the fact that Christ was so clearly predicted in the Prophets. Why were they not embracing Christ? And I think we get to three aspects of pride that Paul is opposing that are unique to the Jews. The first is the concept based on pride, that salvation is automatic for the Jews, that all the descendants of Abraham, are automatically going to be saved. And that was not true, He dealt with that in Romans 9, "for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel," he's dealing with that. Secondly, especially, that you find this in the Pharisees, but I think it was in the minds of the Jews, that salvation could be earned through obedience to the law, salvation could be earned through our own efforts, that's based on pride too, and Paul's dealing with that here saying that it is not. It's simply hearing with faith. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not something you have to ascend up into the heavens for, or cross the other side of the sea for, or go down to the depths. It is really essentially simple, as you just heard Chris read, "that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." It's that simple. Well, for the Pharisees and the law keepers, the legalist it wasn't that simple, they had to keep all the laws of Moses, and therefore it was essentially a pride based salvation at the end you could boast. But there was a third element of Jewish national pride that Paul is taking on right here and that is salvation is impossible for the Gentiles. The Gentiles cannot be saved unless they become Jews in some way, but God has no saving intent for the Gentiles, not as such. And what Paul is doing here is he is showing that God has had a timeless universal saving concern, and he does it in the way he always does, by citing His scripture. Now, there's another kind of pride, that's universal really, it fits with both Jew and Gentile and it's the pride of denying that you need to be saved at all. "We don't need a Savior, we're fine as we are," and Paul deals with that as well. And so we are facing human pride here, and we're doing it with the power of the gospel and with the Old Testament scripture that Paul is quoting. God has a timeless a universal saving concern. Look at Verse 11, it says, "as the scripture says, 'Anyone who trust in Him will never be put to shame.'" Now, there were Jews who are opposing Paul at every city, everywhere he went. There were Jewish opponents, and there were also some Jewish folks that were believing in Christ, and trusting in Him. But there were many opponents. They looked on Paul as a doctrinal innovator, really as a heretic, he was a pestilence, he was teaching new doctrines he was really urging Israel to follow false gods, he was a rebel. I believe that Paul's constant appeal to scripture again, and again, makes that charge ridiculous. Verse 11 is by my count the 42nd time that Paul has quoted an Old Testament scripture in the Book of Romans. That's incredible. over and over, he is seeking to root his gospel in the Old Testament in the Scripture. If you look, you don't have to turn there, but just right at the very beginning of Romans, which I did preach on a number of millennia ago. I know it's been a long time, but way, way, way back when, Romans 1:1-2 it says, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God," verse two "The Gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures." As he will prove in verse after verse. I. God’s Timeless, Universal Saving Concern And so we have right here, verse 11, begins "as the scripture says…" He's rooting God's timeless universal saving concern in the Old Testament scriptures. Now what is the context of this quote? "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." Well, it's Isaiah 28:16, and their Israel is facing a great danger, God is bringing a Gentile nation to invade Judah, to invade them and to destroy them. This is clearly prophesied in the song of Moses, that if they did not obey the law, if they did not follow the covenant that God would bring a people of a strange language in they would invade and there would be a destruction. And so, in Isaiah 28, the context there is that the Jews are facing their own destruction, they're basically facing Judgment Day of a smaller level. In time and space, they're facing their own condemnation, now God sent profits especially Isaiah to warn them again and again that this was coming, but the Jews mocked the profits they refused to listen to them, including Isaiah. The Jews claimed to have made some kind of special arrangement to avoid the scourge that was about to come on them. They thought that they had made some kind of an alliance. I think it's tied to an alliance they had made with Egypt. They thought the Egyptians were going to come and face the Assyrians in Isaiah's time, and then later the Babylonians. So it says in Isaiah 28:15, "You boast, 'we have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood, our hiding place.'" You know what this is? This is salvation by works, salvation by ingenuity, salvation by a separate covenant apart from God, it's one way to be saved. And the prophet Isaiah says; it's no salvation at all because the water is going to fill up your hiding place and you'll be drowned. There is no way to escape. There is another refuge however, and he says, it right here in Isaiah 28:16. "So this is what the Sovereign Lord says, 'see I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious corner stone for a sure foundation and the one who trusts will never be dismayed.'" And that's what it says. Now in the New Testament, we have learned what that tested precious cornerstone is, or we should say who it is. It is none other than Jesus Christ the Son of God, as the Apostle Paul quoted in Romans 9:33, you can look back a few verses, into the end of chapter nine. "As it is written, 'see I lay a stone in Zion that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts, in Him will never be put to shame.'" The stone of salvation is none other than Jesus Christ, and if you trust in Him, the overwhelming scourge will sweep by you, and you will be saved, but if you try to make a separate covenant with death, try to make some separate arrangement, try to save yourself some other way, you will be destroyed, and Paul takes that whole concept and brings it over here into Romans 10. Now, here he adds something else in Romans 10:11. He adds this little word again, to the quote. So two words are added, and He's emphasizing it here, he says, "As the scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.'" This is God's universal saving concern, God has a concern both for Jew and Gentile not for Jew only. He has a saving concern for Gentiles. This is the principle that he's learning. So therefore, it's a universal concern and the reason for that is because there is one and only one God, there is a universal God, a God of Jews and gentiles alike. Look at verse 12-13. "For there is no difference, between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on Him, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Now the Jews believed and rightly so, that there is one God and only one God. Most of the pagan world at that time, the world of the Gentiles, was polytheistic. They believed in gods that had their own little domains, kind of like a government bureaucracy, the under secretary in charge of whatever. And you go to this god and he or she would take care of this or that problem for you. They also believed in national gods. There'd be a god of the Ammonites and a god of the Moabites and a god of the Romans, or of the Greeks. That was the polytheistic way of thinking. Now the Jews understood that that was all foolishness, they understood that there was one God, and only one God. "Here Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, He rules over all things. When Jonah was sent as the reluctant missionary to the hated Assyrians, and the storm came on the Mediterranean Sea, the polytheistic pagan sailors were asking basically "What God do you worship?" He said, "I worshipped the Lord who made the sea and everything in it, who made the sky and the earth and all things." They believed in a universal creator, God. They also believe through their prophets that this one God was Judge of all the Earth as well, remember how Abraham said, concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, "Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?" They believed in that, they believed that the Jewish God was actually judge of all the earth. And so Amos the prophet is saying, "For three sins of Damascus, and even for four, I will not hold back my wrath, for three sins of Egypt, and even four, I will not hold back my wrath, for three sins of Babylon, and four I'll not hold... " He's involved in everybody's business, they didn’t have any problems with that, with a God who created all things, and a God who will judge all nations. But they had a severe problem with the concept of a God who had a saving concern for all nations. They couldn't accept it, that was Jonah's problem. "Throw me in the sea Lord. I have no interest in seeing a single Assyrian come to faith, none." And they hated that concept that God would not just judge the nations, but actually would save some. Now Paul had made this point abundantly clear, the God of the Jews is also the God of the Gentiles. He said it in Romans 3:29-30 says, "Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too?" Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised through faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith." There is one God, and only one God, and just as there is one universal God, there is one universal need, all of us, Jew and Gentile alike, we have the same need. Now Paul had made that very plain also in Romans 3, "What shall we conclude then?" He says here in Romans 3:9, "Are we any better?" Speaking of the Jews. "Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin as it is written… 'there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside…. There is no one who does good, not even one.'" He makes it very plain there in Romans 3, Jew and Gentile alike. We hold this in common, we are under sin, and thus there is one universal need. And you know what it is? That one universal need for us Sinners is mercy, we all need mercy, we need to be saved by grace and by mercy and no other way, and that's exactly where Paul's going here in Romans 9:10-11. Why is God doing all this? Why, with the Jews, why with the Gentile? What is His ultimate end? And the ultimate end is, it's right there in Romans 11:32, and you can look there, it's just one page over perhaps, but it says that, "God has bound all men over to disobedience, in order that He may have mercy on them all." Isn't that incredible? Basically there's not going to be anybody in Heaven saying, "I didn't get here by mercy and grace." There's not going to be a single person, Jew or Gentile, that's going to say, "I didn't need a savior." There's not going to be anybody there who's going to say, "I didn't need the mercy and the grace of God," because everybody will have been so thoroughly educated in their own sin, that they will see that they needed Christ, they needed a savior, the needed the mercy of God. So there is one universal God. There's one universal need, there's one universal Savior, therefore, and that is Jesus Christ. Christ came, not just as a Savior of the Jews, but it was a universal saving concern. It says in 1 John 2:2, that Christ "is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." He's not just a Jewish Savior, but there is saving intent to people in every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Isaiah saw this plainly, for God the Father spoke through Isaiah to the son in this way, it says, Isaiah 49:6, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, and bring back those of Israel that I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." It's too small, Jesus for you, just to save Jews, it's too small a thing for your glory and for the accomplishment of your purposes, you have to be a universal savior to the ends of the earth. And so therefore there is one and only one Gospel, everybody gets saved the same way, by believing in Jesus. As it says, "Anyone who trusts in Him, will never be put to shame, for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Anyone and Everyone Who Calls… And now we come to this beautiful language. Anyone... Everyone. Do you notice it? It's stressed. He puts it in there, and the quote, that's what He's emphasizing here. Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now I know what you're thinking, you're thinking we just got done with Romans 9. How in the world does anyone and everyone fit in the Romans 9? Well, I'll say that there's no contradiction here, no contradiction. Anyone who trusts in Him, it's true will never be put to shame. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will most certainly be saved. There is a wideness and an open invitation here, that's culminating at the end of this chapter, and we'll talk about it in due time, in Romans 10:21, where it says, "All day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." That's what you get in the Gospel, you get Jesus holding out his hand saying, anyone everyone come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and it's there. And we'll talk about it when we get to 10:21. But there's a wideness to the mercy and grace and to the appeal here. But that was the wideness the Jews hated, they didn't want to see it applying to the Ninevites, they didn't want to see it applied to the Greeks and to the Romans, they hated that thought, which I think is a glorious thought, that there's a wideness of the mercy and grace of God. Furthermore, there's no contradiction here because Romans 9 has told us, who it is that's going to call on the name of the Lord. Who it is that's going to trust in Him and not be put to shame. And is those people that God calls by His sovereign grace he's going to be working a miracle in them, There's a wideness to God's appeal here, anyone and everyone, and we must emphasize it now what is promised for anyone who trusts in him, what is extended to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. II. Escaping Judgment Day Shame First he says We're going to escape shame. Look again at verse 11. "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." Now, from the very beginning of our history with sin, sin and shame, have been linked together isn't that so? Remember what it said in Genesis 2:25, it says the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame, and it's really kind of a tragic statement because Moses writing it way after the fact, was writing something about which his readers would know everything about. We know all about shame, but isn't it amazing how Adam and Eve in their early stages, the stage of purity and innocence, didn't know anything of shame? They were free from it. Oh, wouldn't it be sweet to be there again? Brothers and sisters in Christ believers in Christ. Someday you will be, you'll be totally free of shame forever for the scripture says "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." But from the very beginning, there's been a link between sin and shame. I've been trying to meditate on what's the difference between shame and guilt. Some say we've become more of a shame oriented culture than a guilt oriented culture. What I think guilt is an objective sense inside ourselves that we are guilty in front of an objective standard, a sense of law, We feel guilty because we are guilty, we have violated some laws of God. But shame is much more relational, it's the emotional content of that connection at the human level horizontally and up even more toward God. We're ashamed toward one another and we feel a sense of shame up toward God and you see that in the Garden of Eden don't you? Right away, as soon as they eat from the fruit. Listen to this Genesis 3, you've heard it before, but it says, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?' and He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' Do you see the shame all over that passage, they're ashamed with each other and hiding from each other, and they're ashamed toward God, and they're hiding from God. AW Tozer said this, "Brethren, I am not ashamed of this world that God created, I am only ashamed of man's sin. If you could take all of man's sin out of this world, there would be nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be afraid of. Our apologies therefore, must be for humanity and for our sins." So there's a link between sin and shame. Now, fear of shame, I think, is one of the most powerful forces in society, isn't it? Think about yourself, all the things you'll do to avoid being embarrassed, all the things you'll do to avoid being ashamed. We've mentioned before, if a man or a woman is arrested and the television cameras are there, they're going to want to hide their face with their coat. There's a sense of shame there. Some people will commit suicide rather than face the consequences of a crime that they've committed. They'd rather die than face the societal shame of what they've done. Teens, young people, will readily admit one of the things that they fear the most is being ashamed in front of their peers. They'd rather die a thousand deaths than to have everyone in their group laugh at them. And so they'll do anything they can to avoid feeling shame. Christie and I were missionaries in Japan, one of the major features of that culture is saving face, the need to maintain your reputation in the eyes of your peers. And one of the greatest things you can do to hurt somebody is to cause them to lose face. All of this is related to shame, but friends, that's all at the human level, isn't it? It's not horizontal. How much infinitely greater will the feeling be when we stand in front of the Holy God on judgment day, when he looks at us with those pure and holy eyes that cannot even look at evil, when he knows everything that we have ever said or done and lays it bare for all to see? And there it says in Romans 2:16, this will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as the gospel declares. Or as Jesus put it this way, in Luke 12:3-5, "What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops. I tell you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more, but I will show you whom you should fear, fear him who after the killing of the body has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you fear him." So that's a picture of judgment day in which our secrets are laid bare and the audience there and just other human beings, it is God Almighty, it is Christ sitting on his throne. And it says, concerning God as judge, "nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." On earth, it is terrifying to have our sins exposed, isn't it? The last thing any of us would want. But it's the ministry of the gospel to get us to think ahead to what it's going to feel like to have that happen in front of God and his holy angels. And so we need this don't we? We need verse 11, "Anyone who trusts in Him will not be put to shame." We need a refuge from judgment day shame. And friends, what the glorious good news of the gospel is that there is such a refuge, there's a place we can hide and the overwhelming scourge will sweep by and not touch us, and that refuge is Jesus Christ. Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. Now, there's a way that some people try to avoid it, get away from it and that's to deny that they have anything to be ashamed of. There's a German proverb that says not to be ashamed of sin is to sin double. I think there are some people that are actually trying to turn the whole thing around and be proud of sin. You think about, for example, Isaiah 3:9 which says, "The look on their faces terrifies against them, they parade their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them. They brought disaster upon themselves." Now, God is not saying through Isaiah, "It's better to cover it over, but it's better that it not be there at all." But it's even worse when you put darkness for light and light for darkness, you put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, you put evil for good and good for evil, you turn the whole thing around and say that what is a cause for shame is now a cause of pride. Now, that we cannot do. No, rather we need to face head on the fact that there is a Holy God who has standards and we have violated them and we need to be safe from them. And verse 11 tells us how, "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." Now, in context in Isaiah, the most straightforward way to understand this, to be put to shame means to trust in something that ultimately fails you. To trust in something that collapses, in the end you're destroyed. This is a big theme and Isaiah comes in again and again, Isaiah 20:5-6, it says, "Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. In that day, the people who live on the coast will say, Look what's happened to those we relied on, to those we fled to for help and deliverance from the King. How then can we escape?" In that case, it was Assyria, they were trying to escape Assyria, later will be Babylon. And so they're making a connection, and he says, "You're going to be put to shame because in the end, the King of Egypt is like a splintered staff that pierces a man's hand and wounds him if you lean on it." So it is also at the spiritual realm when you try to save yourself. When you rely on yourself, you try to save yourself by your good works, by religion, by meditation of the mind and all kinds of other things, religiosity, you're going to try to save it, that's your refuge from the overwhelming scourge. It will not save but rather you'll be put to shame on judgment day. Another major theme in Scripture of being put to shame is in reference to a personal enemy who wants to seek your very life. Now you may say I don't have many of those. Well, maybe you don't, maybe you do. King David had them all the time, David was surrounded by enemies. And so you heard Elijah reading earlier from Psalm 25 and was one of the many times that David is thinking about his personal enemies who would love to have stripped David and put him to shame. And so what he says here is, "To you O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust O my God, do not let me be put to shame nor let my enemies triumph over me." Well, the Scripture says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." You have a personal enemy. You may not think you did, but you do. And what would it be like to have him triumph over you on judgment day, to have him vindicated? But I say to you in verse 11, Anyone who trust in Christ will not be put to shame on judgment day. And so, our personal enemy is going to be there to accuse and the Lord has already said in Romans 8:31, "What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who could be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?" Or in my more irreverent kind of paraphrase, "Who cares who condemns when God justifies?" Amen. We don't fear Satan's accusation on judgment day. As a matter of fact, it says in Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Praise be to God. So our personal accuser, the one who was actually the one enticing us to do all that wickedness and then turns around like some righteous being, pointing a finger of accusation, he's going to be crushed on judgment day. He's going to be crushed by the overwhelming righteousness ascribed to our account on that day, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Amen! I saw, I heard one of you say it, but amen! I know you're not allowed to, but you are actually. Go ahead. This is glorious. We're not going to be put to shame, but our personal enemy who had sought everyday of our lives to destroy us by sin will himself be destroyed and we will be vindicated. Christ came to remove our shame. He came to claim us as his own, to say, "He is mine. She is mine. My own. I bought them with my blood." And He will rebuke any who seek to accuse them. All of their sins will be removed from them as far as the east is from the west. And how is that possible? Is it because there wasn't a real shame connected with our sin? No, there was. More than we think, friends. More than we think. But the fact is, Jesus Christ drank it to the bottom. He drank our shame when he was arrested. He drank our shame when he was accused by his own people falsely. He drank our shame when he was condemned. He drank our shame when he was spat upon and had the crown of thorns beat around his brow and when he was struck with a stick. He drank our shame when he was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem. He drank our shame when he was nailed to the cross and hung suspended between sky and earth and His blood mingled with the mud, he was drinking our shame. And when you look at that story, you need to say that is what I deserved and worse. But Jesus has taken my shame. And friends, He was actually glad to do it. For it says that "Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame," thinking nothing of the shame that he was willing to drink on our behalf. Our shame is gone if we have trusted in Him. Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. III. Christ’s Richness for Anyone Who Believes And what do we get? Do we get more than just not being ashamed? That's rather neutral, isn't it? You cannot be ashamed and still get nothing else. But God has far more than that for us. Look what it says, "There is no difference," verse 12, "between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on him." Oh, Christian brother and sister, you are rich, you are wealthy, far more than you can imagine. You are infinitely wealthy in Christ. You may not feel like you are, but you are. And frankly, I think we're supposed to be meditating on our inheritance. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be, and I say should be. And how rich are you? Well Ephesians describes riches over and over. Listen to this, Ephesians 1:7-8, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." Ephesians 1:18, he says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Oh, how rich you are. It says in Ephesians 2:4-5, "Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions." And then Ephesians 2:6-7, I love this one. Oh, think about this. "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that," now get this, "in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." We haven't seen anything yet. In the coming ages, he might be showing you how rich you are. In the new heavens, he's going to show you how rich you are. In the new earth he's going to show you how rich you are, through his kindness to you in Christ Jesus. Calling on the Name of the Lord You, friends, are rich. You're not just not ashamed, you are rich in the gospel if you are a Christian. How do we receive it? How will we get it? Well, it's already said in verse 11, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." And again, here in verse 13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now what does it mean to call in the name of the Lord? Maybe you've never thought of that before. I asked my kids as we're driving in and one of them said, "Well, it means to pray." Right, it does. It does. In a simple way, it does but it goes so much deeper than that, doesn't it? It means a lot more than that. We're talking about an ancient practice here. Listen to Genesis 4:25-26, "Adam lay with his wife again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth saying, God has granted me another child in the place of Abel since Cain killed him. Seth also had a son and he named him Enosh, and at that time, men began to call on the name of the Lord." That is an ancient practice, and I say to you that there is a universally uniting fact that everyone who has ever been saved is saved the same way. We're all saved the same way. Everyone in every generation who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, what does it mean? Well, later on in redemptive history, Joel quoted it. And it says, "Then afterward I'll pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my Spirit in those days, I will show wonders in the heavens above, and blood and fire and billows a smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Peter picked up on this and preached to them the day of Pentecost. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and 3000 Jews were saved that day and baptized. So Jews can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. They were that day. But not even Peter fully understood that God really did mean everyone. And so, it took later in Acts 10 at Cornelius's house when the Holy Spirit came down on a bunch of Romans, of all things, and it was clear then that they understood, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, Jew or Gentile alike will be saved. Now, to call on the name of the Lord means to call on God's character. His name is his character. You think about how in the old days with the Indians or even with the Hebrews, you would choose a name that would connect in some way to the character of the person. We don't do that as much anymore, but they did it. And so, there's a link between the name and the character. God has in Scripture revealed his character. He is good and trustworthy, he is faithful and kind, and compassionate. He is powerful. That's the kind of God. And so, to call on the name of the Lord means be good and compassionate and faithful and trustworthy for me, it means that it relates to God's character. And secondly, it relates to God's history, to his reputation. To make a name for yourself means to craft a personal history that people can tap into and learn what kind of person you are. Your resume is how you've made a name for yourself in a way that's relevant to you getting this job. To make a name for yourself means to present your history and it relates to the kind of person you are. God has made a name for himself in history, it says in Nehemiah 9:10, speaking of the Exodus, "You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and against all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself which lasts to this very day." So God has made a name for himself in creation, he's a powerful God who created the heavens and the earth with just a word. God made a name for himself in the flood and at Sodom and Gomorrah saying, "I am a bitter and dreadful enemy of sin." God made a name for himself when he made promises to Abram under the starry sky and then kept them, and God made a name for himself at the time of the Exodus, when by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with plagues, 10 plagues, and with the journey through the Red Sea, with the water walled up on the left and the right, God destroyed Egypt and Pharaoh, to display his power and his intention on saving the Jews. Why Does God Make a Name for Himself? Now, why does God make a name for himself? So that a woman like Rahab can hear the stories, to hear the reputation of God and fear for herself and for her family, and say to the spies that Joshua had sent in there, "Now make a covenant with me that you will spare my life and my family." And so, the Book of James says she trusted in Christ. She was believing in Christ as He had been revealed to her at that point, and through faith she was justified. Through faith she was saved. God makes a glorious name for himself so sinners like Rahab the prostitute, and people all over the world, idolaters and pagans and Jews and us can hear of the stories and call on that name and be saved. It's not because he need some reputation or anything for himself, but so that sinners can be saved. And God's name is his promise as well. When you make a covenant or a contract and you sign your name, you don't sign your favorite vegetable at the bottom, you don't sign your favorite Bible verse, that won't do. You're going to put your name at the bottom of your promise that you're going to act a certain way. God has signed in his name the promises that He's made. "I am the Lord," he says it over and over. And it's a point of honor to his name to keep His promises. As one Puritan said, "Show him his handwriting, God is partial to his handwriting, show it to him." So you said you would do this. You show him his promises and He is faithful to keep them. Call on the name of the Lord and God's name ultimately and finally is his son, Jesus Christ. All of these things, his character, his history, his promises come together in Christ and in Him are all the promises of God. Yes and amen in Christ. And so Jesus's personal life, his righteousness, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, that is God's name. Now finally, what does it mean to call on that name? Well, I'm going to close with an illustration. A number of years ago, I was on a evangelistic project at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and a tropical storm similar to what's going on now, a hurricane was making its way north and it got as far as New Hampshire where we were on a summer project, Hampton Beach Project. And it churned up the waves, it looked like Oahu out there, and the beach was basically, totally vacant, even though it was middle of August, there was no one there. So my friend and I thought this would be a great opportunity for some body surfing. Now if you think that I had a screw loose or whatever, you're right, but you know when you're that age you don't think you're ever going to die, you think you're kind of fine. And so the two of us went out there, and we started body surfing. It was a lot of fun for the first six or seven minutes. And then we noticed that the hotels were getting smaller and smaller as we were caught in some kind of a rip tide and we're being pulled out to the ocean. And then we started being afraid. And I have no idea how long it took, but for the next long period of time, we would ride some waves in, and then swim to hold more or less our place, and then ride the next wave in and swim to hold our place, and ride the next wave in and swim to hold our place. Now you may ask, "Why didn't it occur to you to scream, "Help. Help. Help?" Well, pride kicks in at a certain point. It is no good in front of all your friends and your peers and male and female alike, to be dragged sputtering from the ocean, when not another of God's souls is swimming except the two of you, you were the only ones swimming. It just will not do to be dragged sputtering from the ocean. And so you will try to save yourself as long as you can, won't you? And so it is in reference to this salvation. As long as you think you can save yourself, you're going to try. But when the Holy Spirit convicts you, you cannot, and you're going to stand in front of a Holy God and nothing you have done will avail to save you before His holy gaze, and you will be condemned and you will die eternally in hell. When you come to that point, you call on the name of the Lord, and you say, "Save me Jesus. Save me from my sins." And He does. Won't you close with me in prayer?

I. Our Meticulous God When I was a student at MIT, I worked in the carpentry shop. And there were many carpenters there of various skill levels, but the best ones were from Europe. They had come over... This one man, in particular, was an Italian man. And he used to, after making a day's worth of shelves for offices and doors and all that kind of boring thing, which I'm sure was no challenge to his amazing skill, then after hours he would use the equipment to build furniture for relatives or to sell. And he was especially good at inlaying wood... You know, two different shades of wood putting it in there. And the way he would work, it was amazing. I used to love just watching what he would do with the chisels. It was all handmade things. And he would just carve and just fit each piece of wood in, then just buff it until there was... It just felt like silk. It was amazing to watch the meticulous approach that he took to his work. And what that means is he was attentive to detail. He was meticulous. He was careful. But he's nothing compared to our God. Amen. Meticulous as Creator Our God is a meticulous God. That means he gives careful attention to detail. And as I come to our passage today, Daniel 9:20-27, I see more evidence of that meticulous nature of God. Our God is meticulous. He is carefully attentive to detail. It's woven into the creation around us. He was meticulous as a creator. Do you realize that the atomic nucleus is exactly balanced? The proton just a little bit more massive than the neutron, or else life itself would be impossible. The solar system. If the earth were just 1% closer to the sun, or 1% further away, life would be impossible on this planet. Meticulously arranged. God is a meticulous creator. Meticulous as Provider He's also meticulous as a provider. He's created trillions of life-forms on this earth and feeds them every day. Now some of you are good at administration, but I can't imagine that kind of provision, every day providing for those things that he's made. It says in Psalm 145, "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." From the little plankton, all the way up to the huge whale that eats the plankton, it's all been meticulously arranged. Our God is a meticulous provider. Meticulous as Protector He's also meticulous as protector of his people. He's a meticulous Good Shepherd. He leaves the 99 on the hills and goes to look for the one that wandered off. Most of us would be satisfied with 99%. That's not a bad grade. Our God is not that way. And so, it says, in John chapter 6, "This is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all he has given me, but shall raise them up at the last day." Aren't you glad that he's meticulously watching over you and doesn't let you just wander off? "Oh, well. My statistics are pretty good. I've still got most of them." But he goes and leaves those that are still there and goes and gets you and brings you back. He's a meticulous protector. Meticulous as Judge He's also a meticulous judge, is he not? Well, what did we learn from Daniel, chapter 7? The court was seated and the books were opened. And what's in the books? Well, Jesus told us that you'll have to give an account for every careless word you have spoken. So the books are full of a meticulous account of everything you have ever said or done. And so, we need a meticulous salvation, don't we? Every sin atoned for, every transgression covered. He's a meticulous judge. Meticulous as Prophet He's also a meticulous prophet, Careful attention to detail. I don't have time to go into all the detail and the prophecy from the tiny little town where Jesus would be born, Micah 5:2, Bethlehem, up to the exact way that Jesus would die. "They have pierced my hands and my feet," Psalm 22. And the fact that there'd be a little pot of wine vinegar at the foot of the cross for him to taste, Psalm 69 verse 21. And the fact that Judas would betray him with 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah 11. Meticulous detail. Well, does that kind of meticulous detail extend to the actual time of Jesus' first arrival on earth? The beginning of his ministry. Could it be that God laid out in prophetic perspective exactly when Jesus would come to redeem Israel? Could it be that this passage that we're going to study this morning is what Peter meant when he said in 1 Peter 1:10 and following, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time... " Stop right there. "The time and the circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow." The time? Is that actually in there? Can we figure out when Jesus was to come? Is it in the Old Testament? I, actually, don't think it can be found anywhere else but the passage I'm preaching on today. I believe that God did predict the coming of Jesus Christ, down to the time. And that's what we're going to focus on today. Our God is a meticulous God. And my goal, today, is that you understand the beauty of this passage, that you may see, not so much the exact working out of the decrees and the timeline and the history. That's interesting. But that you may know what kind of salvation has covered you completely. What kind of salvation it is that's going to bring you all the way into the presence of God. You can't see him in the face now. You wouldn't survive. But God has big plans for you, and he's got it all worked out. And if you trust in Jesus Christ, this meticulous, this careful God will bring you all the way right into his presence. So that's what I want you to see in this. But there's some details along the way. And this passage has crushed me with all there is to say. I don't have time to go into all the details, so some of the things that I've learned in this passage we're going to be discussing tonight. Alright, we're going to take a break from our study in Proverbs and I'm going to take some of the details and move it over. It'd be well worth your time to come tonight and listen to that. But today, I want to focus on the four major aspects of this prophecy. There are four of them. Number one is the specific details about what Jesus Christ would accomplish when he came. There's a six-fold unfolding of what Jesus would accomplish. Number two is the prediction about when Jesus would come. The 70 weeks, at the end of the 69 weeks, we'll try to figure that out. Number three, a specific prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem after it was rebuilt after Daniel's time, that Jerusalem would be destroyed again. And then number four a prediction, I believe, about the anti-Christ in the final seven years of history in this world. And so that's quite a challenge to lay out before us in half an hour, isn't it? So I'm going to take off my watch and I'm going to lay it down here, I'm not going to look at it again. But I'm going to put it down here, and then we're going to do what we can with this passage. Why don't you read along with me in Daniel 9:20-27. "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill, while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, 'Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore consider the message and understand the vision. Seventy sevens [or weeks] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this. From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens [or weeks] and sixty-two sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood. War will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven, or week. In the middle of the week, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.'" II. The “Experts” Disagree Now, as we come to this passage, I have to be honest with you that the experts disagree about this passage. People are all over the map and why? Because this is an extraordinary passage. There's all kinds of things, and wherever God gets extraordinary in his word, Satan brings people to bring division and distress and trouble so that we're not really sure what it's saying. And that's true here as well. But there's just different ways to approach this. And therefore, some of what I'm going to say is more certain than other things. I am absolutely certain that verse 24 is talking about Jesus Christ and the atoning sacrifice is a sacrifice that he offered and the full accomplishment of the end of sin. There's no doubt in my mind about that at all. I am a little less certain about the sixty-nine weeks and the decree, but I'm fairly certain about that. I'm a little more certain about the same level, about the destruction of Jerusalem, and about the anti-Christ a little less. That's how it works. But I'd like to explain to you, we don't have time to give all the varying details and the different approaches, so we're just going to kind of go with mine today. And this evening, I'll talk about some of the other views and the other ways to look at this passage. Fair enough? Unless you want to stay 'til 2:00 or 3:00, we could do it all right now, but... Well, alright, but we'll do it this way. III. Context: Daniel’s Prayer, Gabriel’s Answer (vs. 20-23) Alright, let's start with the context, verses 20-23. The context is Daniel's prayer. Remember last week that we looked at Daniel's prayer, verses 1-19, and Daniel came before God because there was a specific thing that happened. Daniel unrolled the scroll of Jeremiah and read in there a specific prophecy that the desolation of Jerusalem would last for seventy years, and at the end of that seventy years, God would restore the people to the promised land and Jerusalem would be rebuilt. And so as he read that and counted off the time that he'd been in there, Daniel, now an old man in his 80s, maybe even later, fell to praying. He said, "God has made it clear what he's going to do," and rather than just sit back, as some of us would say, "Well, God, you're going to do what you're going to do anyway, what do you need me for?" Not at all. He was motivated to pray. The very certainty of the scripture motivated him to pray. And so he got down on his knees and said, "God, do the very thing that you promised to do. Bring the people back, restore Jerusalem." And in the middle of all that, he couldn't help but confess his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of his people that had brought on that desolation. Jeremiah the prophet had warned about it. He said the people of God were breaking the commandments of God. They were breaking the covenant and therefore, God was going to bring the covenant punishments on them, the desolation of Jerusalem. And so if you were to see Lamentations 1, 1 and 3, it says Jeremiah... Just envision him sitting looking out, perhaps on the Mount of Olives looking down over the city. A smoldering heap of ruins, the walls destroyed, the temple destroyed, it's all ruined. And this is what he says. "How desolate lies the city once so full of people. After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile." So the desolation of Jerusalem, the emptiness of it. This was to be God's holy, set apart city, and now it's desolate, a smoldering ruin. And how it must have brought grief to the weeping prophet, the prophet Jeremiah. And it brought grief to Daniel many years later as well, and so he fell to praying, and he was confessing sin and just fasting and seeking God and asking that he might please fulfill the promise that he'd made and bring the Jews back to the promised land. And so he's praying. In verse 20 he says, "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill," that's Mount Zion, that's Jerusalem, he's praying for his people, and he's praying for Jerusalem, and you need to keep that in mind. I don't think you'll interpret this passage properly if you don't keep that in mind. He's praying for his people and for Jerusalem. Verse 21, "While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man [he calls him a man, but we know he's an angel] I had seen in the earlier vision came to me," it says either "in swift flight" or "in the time of extreme weariness," difficult Hebrew, "About the time of the evening sacrifice." So Gabriel is dispatched, he's sent from heaven. You know Gabriel. We meet him in Luke chapter 1. Gabriel is the one who stood in the altar of incense, and announced to Zechariah that his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son in her old age, John the Baptist. And then later on at that time, he went to Mary, the Virgin Mary, and announced to Mary that she would have a son, though she was a virgin and she would be carrying the very son of God. And so, Gabriel is an angel to whom it has been committed these important messages. The word angel, by the way, in the Greek, angelos means messenger. And so, they're given these messages and so Gabriel is coming. Now, I don't like that translation in swift flight. It imagines that he's flying down, the Hebrew won't bear that, I think. It really looks more like a sense of weariness. So it could be that Daniel was in extreme weariness after all his prayer. So at just the right time, when he's just about worn out, Gabriel appears. Don't stop praying too soon, keep praying, keep praying until God answers and that's what he does, he just, he lingers, he waits in his prayer, and he keeps praying. And then, Gabriel shows up. Now, the last time that you were praying, did you have an angel come and give you the answer? [chuckle] What would that be like? And so he's startled by the appearance and he's already seen Gabriel. It's not the first time we've met him, we met him back in the Alexander the Great chapter, he was the one that gave the information about Alexander. And so, here's Gabriel again, to give an even more astounding answer and this what he says in verse 22, "He instructed me and said to me, 'Daniel, I have now come to give you insights and understanding. As soon as you began to pray an answer was given.'" Isn't that interesting. Right away the answer is given, you just haven't heard it yet. And God held it back until the right time. Now, in chapter 10, we're going to see something of a spiritual struggle and some warfare in the heavenly realms over that. We're going to talk about that. But right now the answer had been given right away, and now I'm here, alright. And he says, "An answer was given for which I have come to tell you," and then he says, "For you are highly esteemed." Now, I'm going to preach more fully on that next week, because he says it again in chapter 10 and there's too much this week, to go into this, but I would like to set in front of you a yearning, a hunger and a thirst that this be the thing you live for that you be highly esteemed by God. That God look at your life work and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That God be pleased with you, that that be the goal of your life that you be highly esteemed. We'll talk about this more, but this is extraordinary. That God would say this about a human being, you are highly esteemed. And therefore he says, "Consider the message and understand the vision." To summarize the context, Daniel is praying to God intensely about the fate of his people, the Jews, and Jerusalem. Remember how he used to get down on his knees three times a day, he used to open the shutters and face where? Where would he face? Jerusalem, he's facing Jerusalem and so his mind is focused on his people and the holy city. And so the answer's going to come regarding that. IV. The Six-Fold Purpose of the Seventy Weeks (vs. 24) Now, in verse 24, we get into the seventy weeks. Now, in verse 24, we have the six-fold purpose of the seventy weeks. There's a reason for the seventy weeks and what are they. It says in verse 24, "Seventy sevens" or weeks we can just stop right there and say that the Hebrew literally says sevens, but that's the common word for week or weeks, okay. And almost every conservative commentator agrees that this is talking about seven-year periods, just like Jacob served a seven-year period for Rachel. Got Leah at the end of that and then had to do it again, for Rachel, the one he loves. So there's a stretch of seven weeks or seven years and then seven years, so I believe we're talking about years here. "Seventy sevens [of years, therefore a total 490 years] are decreed for your people and your Holy City." And here he lists these things. First of all, notice they're decreed for your people and your Holy City, we're focused on what? Jerusalem and the Jews, that's the zeroing in of this, okay. You want to know what's going to happen to Jerusalem, Daniel, you want to know what's going to happen to your people. I'm going to answer you. Seventy weeks are decreed for six things, look at what it says. Three of them are negative, and three positive. 1) "To finish transgression," 2) "To put an end of sin," and 3) "To atone for wickedness." So this is a full covering, a full provision for the sins of the Jews. If you read Daniel's prayer, 1-19, it's just... He almost can't get through a verse without mentioning his sinfulness and that of his people. He's just overwhelmed with a sense of wickedness before God and this is the way it is, the holier you are, the more you walk with God, the more you'll feel this to be true of yourself. Don't expect the opposite. You're going to feel yourself to be broken before God and sinful, because that's just how holy God is. It's when you're far from God that you don't feel that. And so if today you don't feel your sense of sinfulness before God, even if forgiven through Christ, even if forgiven, completely covered, still a sense like Daniel did of unworthiness to be in the presence of God, then you're far from God. You must repent and come close to him, because God is holy, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all, and so he's confessing sin, and so, this is glorious good news. We're going to have a full provision for all sin. Read these things like they're promises for you. I know you're not Jewish, most of you anyway, and that you're not concerned or intensely wondering what's going to happen to Jerusalem the way Daniel was. But this reads for you as well, because there is one atoning sacrifice for all the world, not more than one, but only one, Jesus Christ. And this is what it says, "To finish transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for wickedness." Now, the Jews tend to think of their sacrificial system, they did back then, the sacrificial system as the way that sin could be atoned for. With the temple having been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, how could sin be atoned for? This was a problem. And remember what Daniel just said a moment ago, he said that Gabriel came to him, when? At the time of the evening sacrifice. Well, is there an evening sacrifice in the exile? No, there's no temple. But he remembers, he remembers the morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice. He's still on that timetable, that sense of the sacrificial system. And it had been given by God. God invented it as a picture for the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ. And so what he's saying here is that there's going to be a full provision for sin. Daniel, you are so concerned about your sin? Good, well, you should be. Because that's the problem. That's why the city is desolate. Well, seventy weeks are decreed to finish it all. To finish sin, to finish transgression, make an end of sin and make an atonement for iniquity. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away human sin. You know that, don't you? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so there's a full complete provision atoning for sin, and then he says to bring in everlasting righteousness. Oh, everlasting righteousness, not temporary righteousness. And to my conservative pre millennial friends, not thousand-year righteousness, but everlasting righteousness. This is not the millennial kingdom. This is eternal righteousness before God, and nothing can be done for that but the blood of Jesus Christ, the cleansing. What does it say in Romans 1:16-17, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God has been revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith." Are you clothed in that righteousness, the Gospel righteousness of Jesus Christ? It is not yours, it's a robe that Jesus offers to you. Put it on by faith. Everlasting righteousness. And then it says to seal up vision and prophecy. All vision and all prophecy centers on the person of Jesus Christ, doesn't it? He's the center of it all, it all revolves around Jesus. It says in the Book of Revelation that the spirit of prophecy is a testimony about Christ. And so it's all zeroed in on Jesus, and so there's going to be a fulfillment of all vision and prophecy. It's all going to be fulfilled. Do you remember when Jesus went to Nazareth and preached and they read a passage from Isaiah and he said, "Today in your hearing, this scripture is," what? "Fulfilled." To seal it up. And so Jesus came to fulfill and to seal up vision and prophecy, and then finally to anoint the most holy. The Hebrew says a most holy thing or perhaps even the Holy of Holies. To anoint the Holy of Holies. Now, this could be several things. It could be, if it's A, most holy thing, it could be the anointing of Jesus Christ, because when Jesus preached in Nazareth, he said, from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." So he is the Anointed One, he's the Messiah. But I don't think that's what this means. Neither do I think it's referring to the Millennial Temple, the anointing of a Holy of Holies in the Millennial Temple. I don't know why we need a temple. The Book of Hebrews ends that. There's now a spiritual temple, and therefore, I think it's probably the spiritual, heavenly Holy of Holies. It's a big theme in the Book of Hebrews. Do you realize the temple itself was a pattern of a heavenly one? It was an imitation of a heavenly one, and therefore when it was finished, we don't need it anymore. And so therefore, in Hebrews 9:11-12, it says, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle," or temple. He went into a spiritual, heavenly temple "that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of bulls and goats, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." So what happened is, when they built the tabernacle, got it all ready, they had to anoint it, didn't they? With, not oil, but with blood for sacrifice. Jesus went and anointed the heavenly tabernacle with what? With his own blood, once for all that we might have eternal redemption. Yeah, verse 24, that's a sermon in itself, isn't it? We haven't even gotten to the seventy weeks, but that's what Jesus came to accomplish. Okay, but when, when would it be? Now we get to the sparkly stuff. I actually this... Well, I just preached the spiritual center of it. You don't need anything more than this, because this is full provision for your sins as well. If you're a sinner, you're going to find your salvation in verse 24 of Daniel 9. It's right here. There's no other salvation, there's no other name under heaven given a man by which we must be saved. You will give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Hebrews 9:24 tells us that. V. The Unfolding of the Seventy Weeks: Messiah Comes!! (vs. 25-26) Okay, you want to know what's the date? Alright, I want to know, it's in here, okay. And it says, "Know and understand this. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One... " As far as I can tell this is the only place in the Old Testament that the word Messiah is used, Anointed One, of Christ. It speaks of Cyrus as God's Anointed One in a different way, but this is the Messiah now, this is the Christ. Okay, "From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble." So God decrees, now, it's interesting, he says 70 weeks have been decreed, verse 24. The Hebrew literally says, "seventy weeks have been divided out for you." That's the literal translation. So he's going to parcel out these 70 weeks. And that comes important because it comes 7, 62, and 1, doesn't it? No matter what you do with it, you're dealing with 7, 62, and then 1. At the end of the 69 weeks, the Messiah's cut off, and then we've got this one last week. It's divided out in a certain way. So first, from the time of the decree, we'll talk about that in a minute, until the Anointed One, the Messiah, comes, there will be 7 weeks and 62. 7 plus 62 equals 69. Alright, so we got 69 weeks. But why does he divide 7 and 62? Well, realize, the decree, which I believe, and we'll talk about this more this evening if you're interested. The decree that best fits this is Artaxerxes the First's decree in 457 BC. There are other options, and we'll talk about that this evening if you're willing. But this one's the best one. Now, he measures out the seven weeks and then the sixty-two from that degree. Now, what is prophesied? Look across verse 25 and 26, and we can just kind of gather together all the things that the prophecy says are going to happen. There will be a decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, number one. Number two, Jerusalem will be rebuilt with its streets and its walls and a moat or a trench of some sort. 69 weeks after that decree, the Anointed One, the ruler, will come. That's Jesus. That ruler will be... I mean, sorry, the Anointed One, will be cut off, I think that means killed, doesn't that make sense? Cut off, but not for himself, for any transgression of his own. Or it could read, Hebrew-wise it could read that he will have nothing, cut off and have nothing, none of the glory or honor, perhaps, that he deserves. And then there will be another ruler who will come, and the people of that ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary again. Rubble again. And then, during the time when the temple is destroyed, war will come like a flood until the measured out desolations have been completed. That's verse 25 and 26. We haven't even gotten to verse 27 yet, alright? That's a huge bunch of prophecy right there, isn't it? Well, let's see, did history fulfill the prophecy, did it work out? Well, we don't know exactly how long the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem took. But it says here seven weeks of years, so that would be 49 years. And so, from the issuing of the decree, which was 457 to about 408 BC, Jerusalem was rebuilt. Now, only God knows when he thinks, "There, it's done." But we knew that was during the time of Nehemiah, remember? And it says it will be rebuilt during time of trouble. Do you remember what was in Nehemiah's hands? One in each hand, what did he have? He had a sword in one hand and what did he have in the other hand? Trowel to do the building. Why the sword in the one hand? It was a time of trouble. And so he rebuilt it. Fulfilled. Alright, from 408 BC on, we've got these 62 weeks. Now, you all have your bulletins there, don't you? I've given you a little chart. Someone once said, "If you can't chart it, don't believe it," especially when it comes to eschatology. Well, I don't think that's true, but I think it's helpful for you to look at the timeline now here. We've got 457 BC to 408 BC, and then we've got sixty-two weeks left. 62 times 7 is 434, is it? So we've got 434 years from 408 BC, and that brings us to 27 AD. Now, if you're doing the calculation you wonder how do we end up with the extra year, you subtract it out as it should have gone to 26? The reason is there's no zero year from BC to AD. We skip over zero. So on a numerical line, there'd be a zero there, but on the timeline, there's no zero year. So we go from 1 BC to 1 AD. And so we end up with 27 AD. Did anything happen in 27 AD? Well, yeah, Jesus came. He began his ministry that year. How do we know that? Well, we don't know it for sure. Realize these kind of dates and chronologies aren't in the Bible. We kind of have to look outside of them. But we know that Jesus was born when Herod the Great was king. Herod the Great died in 4 BC. It says from Luke chapter 3 that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. That puts us at 27 AD. You see what I'm saying? Right at that time. And then this has been corroborated by other ways, so that's a good estimation. Be amazed. The time is right there. And you say, "Now, listen. You worked backwards. You went and tried to find some decree and see if you could make it work and all that kind of thing." Well, yes, we did work backwards, and frankly, I think it was given for that purpose. If you were to read 1 Peter 1 again, it says there it was revealed to them that "they were not serving themselves, but you," future generations who look backward. We couldn't have looked ahead and predicted it, but we can look backward and see it. There were only three decrees, and we can choose one of them, and guess what? One of them works out perfectly. Be amazed. Our God is a meticulous God who knows the end from the beginning. And he has testified to you through faith in Christ that you're going to Heaven. Praise God, if you have faith in Christ. VI. The Interruption of the Seventy Weeks: One Desolation After Another (26-27) Alright, so, now we have an interruption in the seventy weeks, verse 26 and 27. Remember it said in verse 24, seventy weeks are divided out for your people. So we've got the seven weeks and the sixty-two. Any of you can figure out that 7 plus 62 doesn't equal 70, it equals 69. But we have from verse 24 that it's going to take a full seventy weeks to finish the transgression of the people of God and to restore Jerusalem completely. And so therefore we have an interruption, don't we? It says after the sixty-ninth week, doesn't say when, but after the sixty-ninth week, the Messiah will be cut off and we'll have nothing. We don't know how far after, but I think it was three years after. Three years after, he was cut off, he died. Why stop at 69? Well, this is the so-called parentheses or gap, and I think it's right because there's got to be a gap anyway. There's already a gap between when Jesus dies and when Jerusalem is destroyed. But I think that gap has extended out now 2000 years. This is what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles, when the Gentiles are trampling the city of Jerusalem one after the other. And when Gentile people like you and me are getting saved, to believe in a Jewish God, believe in Jewish scriptures, are reading Jewish prophets like Daniel and claiming the name of a son of David, Jesus Christ, as our Savior. We are the Gentiles who are getting grafted into a Jewish tree. Romans 11, this is the times of the Gentile. So there's this extending period out between the 69th and the 70th week. And it's a time of desolation for the people of God, the Jews. It's a time of emptiness. Remember what we said when Jeremiah looked out over the city, Lamentations 1:1, he said, "How desolate lies the city, once so full of people." Daniel, you know, you're praying and praying for your city and your people that it wouldn't be desolate anymore, but you know something? Even if the city gets rebuilt, it will be desolate if they don't understand who I am. And so there are two desolations, I believe, in this passage. The first is the desolation spiritually of the Jews when they rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, when they cut him off from the people, when they killed him. That's the first desolation. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, Luke 19:41 following, and he says, "Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you," this is your time of desolation. And Jesus said so beautifully... We're going to talk about this more tonight. He's in the temple and he's teaching in the temple, and the scribes and the Pharisees are standing there opposing him and hating him. They've seen all his miracles, but they don't understand that the spirit of God has anointed him to do this, and so they reject him, and Jesus issues seven woes on them. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you," seven times. Do you think the number's an accident? It's a seven-fold woe in the house of Israel. And then he finishes up with this. He says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not. Look, your house is left to you desolate." It brings hairs in the back of my neck. "Your house is left desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And what's the next thing that Jesus did? He walked out of the temple, never to return. And just at that moment, the disciples came up to him and they said, "Master, what incredible stones. What a beautiful building. Isn't this incredible?" Oh, bad timing. Bad timing. I mean, did they not understand? No, they did not understand what the desolation of that house meant. And Jesus looked and he said, "You see all these things? Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." Well, that's prophesied right here in Daniel, isn't it? The sanctuary is going to be destroyed. Look what it says. It says in verse 26, "The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and... " The what? "The sanctuary." The temple." It's been predicted. Jesus knew Daniel. Jesus inspired Daniel to write this, and so he said, "I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." Well, they're obviously very distressed about this. They really figured the temple was going to have a big part in Jesus' kingdom and so they didn't understand, and so they come to him on the Mount of Olives, and they said, "Tell us when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And then we get the great Olivet Discourse. We'll talk more tonight. There isn't time. But in the middle of it, Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation, doesn't he? This is the second desolation now in this passage. Not only is there a spiritual desolation of rejecting Jesus, there's a physical desolation of what's going to happen to Jerusalem, and this is what he says. Luke 21, we write this down. It's not in your outlook, I mean your pamphlet, but this is what it says. Luke 21:20-24, "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near." Wow, the consistency of Scripture. Desolation number two, armies surrounding Jerusalem. Well, what armies surrounded Jerusalem? Well, 70 AD, the Romans came. The emperor Vespasian had about enough of these Jews. I mean, just enough is enough with the zealots and all that, enough is enough. And so, he sent four legions plus some other auxiliaries, about 80,000 men, and they surrounded Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's tough to take. It's a hard city to conquer. But he surrounds them, and after a holdout and after a fight, finally the city is destroyed. And according to Josephus, approximately 1.1 million Jews perished during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. Now, think about that: 1.1 million by sword, famine, and plague. That's a ton of dead people. And Jesus speaking to the Christians said, "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel, "So when you see standing in the holy place `the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Pray that it may... The flight may not take place on the Sabbath. Pray that you may not be pregnant or nursing at the time. "Run, run, run," he says, because it's a time of slaughter. And so, they did run. The Christians actually escaped to a place called Pella and they sat out the siege of Jerusalem there and they were spared because they believed Jesus' words. The Jews stayed and they were wiped out, and the temple was destroyed, physical desolation, physical desolation, and the times of the Gentiles openly was revealed. The Romans trampled Jerusalem until 637 AD. And what happened in 637 AD? The Muslims took over and they trampled Jerusalem. About 50 years after the Muslims took over, they built a shrine there, a place where Abraham was said to have sacrificed Isaac. Probably it's true. It's called the Dome of the Rock. Have you ever seen it? It's still there right on the Temple site, and it goes right on today. The Gentiles continue to trample. You say, "Well, the Muslims had it until World War I, the Ottoman Empire, right? Then the British took over. The British had it until the end of World War II. And then, who did they give it to?" Well, the Jews kind of. But remember a man is not a Jew if he's only one outwardly nor a circumcision really out and physical. A man is a Jew if he's one inwardly, so it's kind of a secular state over there, isn't it? Okay, but we'll give it the Jews there, but are they in charge of Jerusalem? Do you remember what Colin Powell said about this on March 7, 2001? Talk about relevant. He said it's the policy of the Bush administration to regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. How did that go over among the League of Arab nations? There was a hue and cry. Do you remember that? Do you read the newspaper? Alright. I mean, it was huge. Absolutely, they rejected that. Why? Because that's a Muslim holy site. They don't want the Jews in charge of Jerusalem. And so, no, it's still not free. Jerusalem's not been redeemed. It's not free. It's still the time of the Gentiles. They don't have control. Alright. Well, we brought you up to the sixty-nine weeks. VII. The Completion of the Seventy Weeks: The Final Desolation (vs. 27) What about that final seventieth week? Look down at verse 27. "He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." Now, who are we talking about here? Well, the ruler who is to come, in verse 26. He's going to put an end to sacrifice. Now, some commentators, conservative ones, who love the Lord, say this was fulfilled when the Romans destroyed the temple. But I don't think so. Because the 70 weeks are... The purpose of the entire 70 weeks, as stated back in verse 24, to put an end to transgression for the people of God, the Jews, and for Jerusalem. Has that happened? No. The Jews have not as a nation turned to their Messiah. Will they? Yes. Romans 11 says, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the gentiles has come in. Then all Israel will be saved. As it is written, 'The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness from Jacob. And this is the covenant I will make with them when I take away their sins.'" That has not been fulfilled yet. Paul looked on it as yet future. The seventy weeks have not been completed. So we're waiting for a seven-year period, and we believe, we call this the tribulation time when this man of sin, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:4, will "set himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God," he'll put an end to sacrifice and offering, and he will defile it by accepting worship. As a human being accepting worship as God. And that'll go on for a while, three and a half years, exactly. Verse 27, "Until the end that is decreed has been poured out on him." And what is that? Nothing other than the second coming of Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 tells us, "The lawless one," that's the antichrist, "will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth." And how perfect is that? He created heaven and earth with the breath of his mouth. And then he'll just say, "Your time is over. You're finished." And it's over, just like that. It's done. And then Jesus Christ returns. Well, obviously, there's lots of details we have not covered. There's lots of things, but do you see the scope and the grandeur of this passage? Do you see in verse 24 the total and complete... The author of Hebrews calls it the "great salvation" that God has provided for our sins? Do you see in verses 25 and 26? Secondly, the time of the coming of Jesus laid out beautifully? Remarkably. Do you see, also, in those verses, the destruction of Jerusalem, even after it had been rebuilt a second time. And then do you see, finally, the final seven-year period, in which the antichrist will come and follow in the footsteps of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Romans, the abomination of desolation, all of it is there. VIII. Applications Well, so what? What does this do? What does this do for me? Does this help me to be a better father, a better husband, or a better wife, a better worker? Well, one thing's for sure. God has carefully figured this thing out, hasn't he? He's looked over this whole thing. And he's laid out much of it, not all of it, but much of it in his word. You can rely on the promises that God has made, because he is a meticulously careful God. And if you find your salvation in a God like this, he will never let you go. You will most certainly be saved. He will leave that 99 on the hills. As often as you wander, he will bring you back if you truly trust in him. But now, can I urge you, don't wander? What caused the desolation of Jerusalem, but rejection of God? Rejection of his ways. Sin. Sin brings desolation, sin brings desolation. And for those who have never been redeemed through faith in Christ, it brings the ultimate desolation: Eternity in hell apart from God. May you not find that desolation, but rather, may you understand what Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." Why don't you close with me in prayer?