Take your Bibles and open back with me this morning to Matthew chapter 23. I'm actually gonna finish the chapter this morning and prepare in the weeks ahead to move into chapter 24. If you thought Matthew chapter 23 was rough, put your seat belts on, it's coming. As Jesus gets into chapter 24 and begins to show what the judgment, the woes that he has pronounced, he's going to show us in graphic detail what that means both for Israel and for the world. Now, I have to stop and I have to proclaim this morning, there's no coincidence in God's timetable. And I have to be honest that Matthew 23 has been tough the last couple of weeks because of Jesus's condemnation of the religious leaders. And I'm wanting to be so careful because of what's going on in the world. We have to express support for Israel, and we have to pray for Israel and for Gaza. Thousands of people on both sides have died and stepped into eternity, some with some without Christ. But while we look at what's happening, I don't want you to fix your eyes on what's happening in Israel. I want you to look for Jesus, look for him in all of this. I wanna ask you specifically this week, be praying for our dear brother, fellow fire pastor, Baruch Moaz, who is from Israel and who has returned to Israel for a time to be serving in some medical capacity and in the capacity of ministry. Be praying for him and for his safety and for his work there. But as we look at the condemnation here on Jerusalem, on the leaders of Israel, I also want to be very careful and very clear that while Christ is judging the religious leaders and he's about to pronounce horrible judgments upon Israel, we need to understand two things within the context here. One is that if anybody can judge you rightly, it's Jesus Christ. And there are those who will say, only God can judge me. Yes, and he will. But I also want to stress this. And again, in God's sovereignty, It's made so obvious in our text this morning. Jesus is pronouncing judgment on the wicked in Israel who have twisted the gospel, who have perverted the word of God. And yet Jesus does not then say we should all hate the Jews as a result. His response is to weep over Jerusalem, to proclaim, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We understand that Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and he preaches that there were those who by lawless hands took and murdered the Son of God. And those who have taken the word of God there and said that that's a reason then that we should see that the Jews are revolting and they should be hated and persecuted. This is not what the word of God teaches. That is an absolute perversion. And I want to be clear. The word of God does not give us license to hate anyone. We hate what God hates. What does he hate? Sin. And he's right to be angry with sinners. But what does he then tell us to do because of his grace and because of his holiness and because of his sovereignty? Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Bless those who revile you. Pray for those who are coming after you. We understand from the scriptures that we have no excuse whatsoever to hate another human being for any reason. Now, we know we can come up with all sorts of reasons to hate people, and we do. And some of them are really silly. Your melanin counts higher than mine. You don't burn so easily in the sun. You don't look like a ghost. Some people say, I'm so white, I'm transparent. It's the Irish in me, right? We look at people and we see that they are different than us. And you know what? Hallelujah. Every one of us, different as we are, are all created in the image of God. And for Christ to pronounce judgment and in that judgment to weep. You see, we have this image sometimes of God coming in judgment and enjoying judgment. Now, does God laugh at the wicked? Yes, he holds them in derision. But does God take pleasure in judging the wicked? We're told the Bible says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Now, is God glorified in the death of the wicked? Yes. Does he take pleasure in the fact that that happens? No, that would be sadistic. He weeps. There's mourning here in Christ as he's pronounced these judgment as getting ready to go on into chapter 24 and describe the destruction of the temple. To describe what's happening. This is a lament. Jesus laments over Israel's rejection of God's blessings. He laments over their rebellion against his word. It gives him no pleasure to pronounce these judgments. And in the midst of the proclamation of ruin, we actually find hope for a remnant elected by grace. As we look at turmoil and hatred and war in the world, we have to understand that there are times that nations should defend themselves. I tell you, there's a time and place coming where I sure wish our nation would defend itself because we're being invaded. Let me address that, too. Before we get into the text, let me address that, too. The people coming across our border are people created in the image of God. and they need to be ministered to, and they need to be cared for, and they need to be loved, and they need to be treated medically, and they need to be given the gospel. Why? Why are they lining up at our border? Well, Fox News would tell you they're here to attack us. I'm here to tell you that the majority of them are here because they want what we've got and what we take for granted, and that's freedom and opportunity. Now, are there a bunch of political stuff at stake here and a bunch of stuff going on that shouldn't be going on? And should a nation secure its borders? Yes, absolutely. But don't blame the people coming across the border for our country's failure to uphold justice. As they come, they're human beings and they're dying to get here. Literally, men, women, and children dying to get here. As we address that, we have to step out of our role as citizens of a nation and realize that we're citizens of the kingdom of God. And where there is injustice and pain and sickness and death, the care for those souls should mean more than the security of a border. We've gotten so national in what we do that we missed the point that desperate sinners are dying. They're dying in Israel and in Gaza. They're dying at the border. They're dying in Russia and in Ukraine. And we have to remember this, too, that wherever these conflicts are going on and wherever there is war and rumors of war, wherever there is. And this, you understand all of this, all of this in the world. This is not the triumph of evil. This is the outpouring of the wrath of God on sinful nations. And as it happens, we have to mourn the fact that people are dying, that believers are dying. So you have the believers on all sides. There's believers in Russia, there's believers in the Ukraine, there's believers in Mexico and Guatemala and Venezuela. There's believers all around the world in whatever nation they're in. And as they get caught up in these conflicts and as bombs that are dropped and as missiles fly, Christians are losing family members. Churches are being burned and destroyed. Is that gonna hurt the gospel? Is that gonna stop the witness of the church? No, it's not. But we've gotta have a perspective here that looks through the chaos of this fallen world and see that God's will will be done. The church needs to stand up for justice and against injustice. But I promise you when you say that, I'm not by any means saying go woke because that is using injustice to bring justice and it doesn't work that way. We as the church need to stand for justice and mercy and faith. And that's Christ's example here to look over Jerusalem He's condemned them. These seven or eight woes in chapter 23, there is nowhere for them to hide. He has completely stripped away all of the falsehoods about what they have believed and preached and taught and done. He's laid them bare to show that they're the false teachers that they really are. And his response then is not to say, there, I showed you. His response is to weep. When he says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, using the double there, first, we know that it's interesting. The word Jerusalem means the foundation of peace, or it means the city of peace. We know that. And it meant that long before Jerusalem belonged to the Jews. In fact, there was a king and priest that came from there that Abraham met. You remember? Melchizedek. It was already Jerusalem, the city of peace. Why? Because God's sovereign. but to call the city of peace, to call their name twice and then to declare for the city of peace, the city of peace, double peace. And yet you kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. This is no real peace. This is why he can say to the scribes and to the Pharisees, you're hypocrites. You're representing the worship of the true God in Jerusalem, the city of peace. And the way you claim to worship him is by murdering the prophets. That's not peace. To use the double for emphasis here, Jesus does this a few times. And trust me, usually when Jesus does it, it's not good. Now we know the verily, verily, the truly, truly, we know that means pay attention. This means something. But when he's using a name twice, I almost think this is the equivalent of Jesus using your first and middle name, like your mama used to do when she had to get your attention. As long as it was Phil, I was fine. When it suddenly turned into Philip Michael, all bets were off. Well, here it's Jerusalem, Jerusalem. In Luke 10, it was Martha, Martha. You're worried and troubled about many things. In Luke 22, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. What did Paul hear when he fell off his horse? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Well here Jesus calls out to the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The one who kills the prophets, who stones those who are sent to her, How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. This is truly a lament of weeping, Luke records it. As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. for days will come upon you and your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem. He says, I wanna cover you with my wings. I wish that you would come to me for protection and for covering. Psalm 36 verse seven says, how precious is your loving kindness, O God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. You may have seen the pictures. the nature programs that show you what a mother hen does or what a mother bird will do when there's a storm or when there's a threat. My favorite is a bunch of chickens running around in the yard like chickens do and they all run around like they've had their heads cut off until a hawk shows up and a shadow comes across and the mother immediately raises her wings and all those chicks from every corner of that little hen house, right under mama. And she snuggles down with them and covers them and protects them. Jesus is saying what he said in Matthew 11. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Come to me for cover. Now some have asked what does it mean that Jesus say I wanted. I mean, he's God. If he wanted, why didn't he do it? Well, yes, he says he wants, he desires. This is the outcome he wishes for, that they would come. But what does he say? You were not willing. And the term there is the same. I desired for you to come and you desired not to come. It was not your desire to come to me when I called. You could have come to me for ransom, for redemption, for safety, for salvation, but you did not want to come. Now, some have a problem with that because we believe in divine sovereignty. And we believe that God is going to do what God wants to do. And if God wishes it, it will be. What does Paul answer to that? Paul tells us, what should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. And we say, amen. God is sovereign. So then it's not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I may show you my power in you and that my name may be declared at all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and on whom he wills he hardens. And we preach that and we proclaim that and Spurgeon says, we're right to do that. But then Spurgeon follows that up with this. And he says, don't ever think that the doctrines of divine sovereignty remove the doctrine of human responsibility. Jesus gives a command and he expects it to be obeyed. Now, when we get into the decrees of God, into the mysterious things, we have to realize God's ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. We know that Pharaoh hardened his heart. We also know that God hardened his heart. Either way, it was working out for God's purposes so that his will would be done. We know we can't blame God for evil because that originated in Pharaoh as a fallen human being. Whom God wills, he hardens. Whom he wills, he shows mercy to. Spurgeon says what we do is we take divine sovereignty on one hand and we take human responsibility on the other and we think one negates the other. And if God is sovereign, man can't be responsible. No, God in his sovereignty said man is responsible. Can we figure that out? Listen, I'm already behind in my doctoral studies. If you can figure that out, write it up for me, I'll turn it in. But here's the point, divine sovereignty and human responsibility don't contradict one another because this is God's design. God is sovereign and human beings are responsible. And we see that demonstrated here when Jesus says, I wanted to gather you, but you were not willing. Isaiah 30 verse 15 says, for this says the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel in returning and rest, you shall be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength, but you would not. There was a call that went out. We know this call, it goes out to the whole world. Many are called. but few were chosen. Even when he came to his own, when we realize he called and appointed the children of Israel so that he might be born in Bethlehem from the lineage and the line of David, John 1 11 says he came to his own and his own did not receive him. This is not a surprise because we've seen the trajectory. They've rejected the prophets from the start. They groaned and complained against Moses. If you look at all of the rest of the prophets, I don't know any of the prophets that were praised that weren't persecuted, that weren't chased, killed, run out, ignored. It's the false prophets who the people loved. Those who spoke the word of God were rejected so that when Christ finally came, he came to his own and his own did not receive them. They didn't want anything to do with what he was preaching, what he was saying, what he was doing. The result then is, verse 38, see your house is left to you desolate. Verse 38 is actually a devastating verse of scripture. Because what was this house that he's talking about? We know he picks it up in chapter 24, verses one and two. He's talking about the temple. Whose house is the temple? Well, Matthew 21, 13, just two chapters back, what did Jesus say? He said to them, it is written, my house should be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Jesus appropriated what God said in the Old Testament to himself. And he said, God's house is my house. So he comes and he overturns the tables and he is declaring his deity. He's declaring you're misusing my house. Not just my father's house, my house. My house should be called a house of prayer. But now after going through chapter 22 and chapter 23 and going through the woes and the curses and the exposure of the hypocrisy, now he says, your house is left to you desolate. Jesus did something in verse 38 that we miss. He turned the temple over to them and says, now it's yours. It had been the father's house. It had been his house. Now it's being given to them. It's Romans 1. It's Romans 2. This is Jesus turning the people over to destruction. It's not my house anymore. It's your house. And it's become desolate. The word desolate there. Void of spiritual life, it's similar in the Old Testament to the phrase Ichabod. We're familiar with this in 1 Samuel. About the time of her death, the woman who stood by her said, do not fear, you have born a son, but she did not answer nor did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying the glory has departed from Israel because the ark of God has been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, the glory has departed from Israel. With the death of Eli, the glory has departed from Israel for the ark of God has been captured. Ichabod, the glory is departed. This is prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 10. Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple. This is at a point when you could actually see this kind of glory above the temple. By the time we get to Jesus's day, you couldn't see the glory anymore. It had departed. There was still the semblance of spiritual life by what was going on in the temple. But the presence of God, the visible presence of God, the glory of God had departed. Now, why is this significant that the visible presence of the glory of God departed when Jesus was there? Because guess what Jesus is? The physical manifestation of the presence of the glory of God. The glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim, and the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. God's Shekinah glory was removed by the cherubim as a sign of the curse that had fallen on the people. they were going to be taken into judgment, into captivity. What we're going to learn at the end of this is chapter 24, after Jesus makes this pronouncement, he leaves the temple. The glory departed. And within 40 years, the temple wouldn't even be standing anymore. Why? Because it had been turned over to the people. It was now their house. The glory departed. They had rejected the glory of God. So their house now was left to them desolate. We have a familiar scene in Revelation of the same thing happening or being threatened to happen to the churches in Asia Minor. In Revelation 1, verse 20, John writes there, the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. He's talking about seven churches. The angel is the messenger of the church. More than likely, that's a reference to the pastor of the church who is preaching the word of God, but they are seen to be a church of God because they have the lampstand. Now, what is the lampstand? Let's go back through the imagery. What is the lampstand in the Old Testament in the tabernacle and later in the temple? That menorah that is fed with the oil represents the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit represents all of it. The menorah, the oil, the light, all of it. When the light goes out, the spirit has departed, the glory is gone. For the lamp stands to be there in the church means the spirit is present in the life of the church. What happens if the spirit departs? It's no longer a true church. It's dead. It's died. This is the threat in Revelation 2, chapter 2, verse 5. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, do the church at Ephesus, repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Jesus says to his church, you will no longer be my church. I'll remove the spirit. A.W. Tozer said something that was pretty amazing. middle of the last century, he said, I'm afraid that the Holy Spirit could depart the average evangelical church and people wouldn't miss him for six months. Everything is so programmed. Everybody knows what to do. Everybody knows where to go. Everybody knows what to say. And there's no dependence on the Holy Spirit. What happens when the spirit is removed? I think we can look through history and we can see through the great awakenings, the first and second great awakening and through things that have happened in our country since then. I think we can see whole denominations where the lampstand has been removed. Where God has said, you are no longer my people. You're no longer my church. I've removed my spirit because of the embrace of the heresy and the error and the paganism. and they claim to be a church, but they're not. We can declare over them, Ichabod, the glory is departed. The lampstand's been removed. But what a grievous thing. We understand why Jesus is weeping. When he says, your house is left to you desolate, he's turning them over to what they want. And that is a religious life without bowing to him. It is the ultimate in serving themselves. And to say it's desolate means literally, here's your house. It's uninhabited now. It doesn't matter that they're there. What matters is who's not there. God's not. Not in the sense of omnipresence. He is everywhere. But in his personal presence, in his blessing, he's abandoned the house. It could now be as if the temple is a ghost town, not a holy ghost town, just a ghost town. Jeremiah chapter 12, verse 7 says, I have forsaken my house. I have left my heritage. This is God speaking. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. You know, Jeremiah's nickname, by the way, Jeremiah is where we're going next when we get done with Matthew. You know, Jeremiah's nickname. As the people were judged, as God fulfilled his word, as they were taken into Babylon, he was known as the weeping prophet. Because he saw the judgment and he heard the Lord declare, I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of our enemies. In Jeremiah 26, verse 6, it says, Then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. First Kings 9. explains it to us in verses six through nine, if you or your sons at all turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes as I've set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them. And this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among the peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss and will say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will answer because they forsook the Lord, their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt. and have embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, the Lord has brought all this calamity on them. It's not my house anymore, it's yours. And it's going to be uninhabited. Destruction is coming. Judgment is coming. We're going to read about it in chapter 24. He's going to take it to the destruction of Jerusalem and take it from there to the great tribulation and take it from there to the second coming, the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he's going to show how one builds upon another and how one points to another. But look at verse 39. Your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, you shall see me no more. That sounds pretty definitive. You will see me no more. Now, the religious leaders would have cheered, yay, no more Jesus. And they don't understand the devastation that this means. But there's a conditional clause here. I know your eyes just glazed over. He said, here he goes. Here comes the grammar lesson. There's a conditional clause. I say to you, you shall see me no more until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now, several commentators took this and they said, this is a conditional clause, but it's a condition where we don't know if the conditions are ever going to be met. They say, Jesus said this, and for what all we know, Jesus could have been saying, I'm leaving and you'll never see me again unless you proclaim, blessed is you, comes the name of the Lord, but you probably won't, so I'm gone. That's not what the text says. Jesus here gives a conditional. You wanna see me again? Confess who I am. Now, we know the mechanism of how this works. How can you see him for who he is? You have to be born again. When you're born of the spirit, you see him for who he is. And then you bless his name. This was what the crowd shouted when he came into Jerusalem. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the proclamation. You are the Messiah. What were they rejecting? You're not the Messiah. You can't be the Messiah. We won't allow you to be the Messiah. We're not gonna bow to you. We're not going to follow you. We're gonna reject you. And if it means rejecting everything that God has said in his word to do that, it's no big deal for us to continue to twist God's word. We will not confess who you are. And so he says, your house is left to you, uninhabited, desolate, judgment's coming, and you will not see me again unless you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now, Spurgeon said something about this that I really didn't find fascinating, and not that I doubt Spurgeon, but I went back and checked. I just wanted to be sure. After Jesus says this and goes through chapter 24 to chapter 25, gets put on trial, gets crucified, gets buried, after he is raised, do you realize that Jesus only ever appeared to disciples? Jesus did not appear to any of the lost, not the religious leaders. He didn't go prove himself to the priests. He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The 11 gathered in the upper room. To 500 who were believers, to Peter and the apostles, after his resurrection, he did not appear to anyone who was lost. Do you know the next time lost people will see him? When they die or when he comes back, when they stand before him in judgment, or he appears in the sky. That's the next time they're going to see Jesus. His word is going to be fulfilled. But for him to say this, to give this statement, the question is, can we fully expect Israel to welcome Jesus as the Messiah? Do we really have a reason biblically to hope? I mean, they didn't say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Galileans did, but the religious leaders in Jerusalem didn't. And when Pilate stood Jesus up with Barabbas, He asked the crowd, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Pilate's own words. I want you to understand how offensive this should have been. Pilate's own words to the religious leaders of the people gathered there in the courtyard. What should I do with Jesus, your self-professed Messiah? Christ, the anointed one. Pilate is proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah. What should I do with him? They said to him, let him be crucified. The governor said, why, what evil has he done? But they cried out all the more saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. Now, what Pilate didn't understand is you can wash your hands of it all you want, but he was still the man in charge. He was the one that was required to give the decree to put him to death. But when he washes his hands, he doesn't want responsibility. What do the people say? The people answered and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Can you imagine cursing your children like that? To put to death the innocent son of God and say, let me and my children bear the guilt for that bloodshed. So he released Barabbas to them. And when he obscured Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Now you think about Israel. You think of all that's happened to Israel, you think about judgment and destruction, you think about hatred and persecution. There's only one way to explain the hatred in the world that's out there for people just because they're Jewish. But Jesus said, all the nations are going to hate you. You're going to be mistreated until you cry out, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You see, the Bible teaches there is a future and a hope for Israel. The Bible's clear in Romans chapter 11. Paul says, what then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded, just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day. David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always. I say that have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. He goes on in verse 25, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as is written. The deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you once were disobedient to God, you have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. This is the program. The program is not, oh, the Jews have rejected the Messiah. Let's kill them all. It's the point that they rejected the Messiah. The gospel's been preached to the world. You and I who are not Israeli or Jewish by birth, we have now come into the family of God. We've been grafted into the work that God started by his election of grace. And while they were judged so that we could have mercy, we've been given mercy so that they may obtain mercy. Guess what our calling is now in the world? Not future salvation for Israel, but salvation today by the church reaching Israel with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And saying, because you rejected the Messiah, I've come to know Him, and so let me tell you about the Messiah you don't know, but who you need to know. We don't just take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We need to take the gospel to the Jews. We need to preach the grace and the mercy of God. We need to understand we've been given mercy so that they might be given mercy. What we understand here is that even a nation under judgment, divine judgment, there's still hope for a remnant of the elect by grace. And so we preach to everyone that that remnant might come to believe. When we see that the elect are drawn from every tribe and every tongue, you understand we may be waiting for a future event in the life of Israel. We'll look at Zechariah in just a minute. But you don't have to wait for that future event to preach the gospel now to everybody, Gentiles and Jews. Preach the gospel everywhere we go. Zechariah tells us in chapter 12, in that day, the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. Can you imagine that day when Israel looks up on him whom they pierced and realizes who he is? This, by the way, is why when you pray for the peace of Israel, it's not a military peace. It's for peace with God through Christ. It's not for victory or territory or land or borders. It's for salvation. Yes, we want God to protect Israel. But even more than that, we want him to save Israel. This is his promise. This is what he tells us he's going to do. That's why Paul can write in Romans 9, Isaiah also cried out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. This is the promise. This is the promise, not for the future, but for the present. Isaiah 10, verse 22, for though your people, O Israel, will be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. Out of judgment comes salvation. Now, why should we be shocked if that's true of Israel? They're judged, and out of that judgment comes salvation. What happened to Christ? He bore God's judgment, and out of judgment comes our salvation. We're no different. We can only be children of God as we're children of Abraham, and you can only be a child of Abraham. How? By faith. by trusting Christ, by seeing who he is, by being born again of the spirit of God. And by realizing this reality, whether we're talking about the church or Israel, you understand nobody replaced anybody. God's elect have always been his elect through time, whether they were in the nation of Israel or whether they're in the church, not all in Israel or Israel, Paul says. And guess what? I hate to break it to you, but not all in the church are Christians. So we look for the remnant of the elect. Jeremiah 23, 3 says, I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase. Ezekiel 6, 8, Yet I will leave a remnant so that they may have some who escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered through the countries. We have to realize that the diaspora of the Jews occurred so that those who were believers might go and take the gospel with them around the world. That means wherever we go. I had a Bible college professor, he used to say this, he said, you read it in Acts that you're gonna go and you're gonna start in Jerusalem and Judea and then Samaria and the outermost part of the world. Go and take the gospel as you go wherever you go. He said, everybody's looking for where to go with the gospel. Well, Acts tells us, Acts 1.8, start with the gospel where you are, because that's where you've been sent. And then if God sends you out from there, if you go out from there, take the gospel with you. And if you go out from there, take the gospel with you. Take the gospel with you. In other words, don't wait to go somewhere to take the gospel. Give it where you are. Go, take the gospel where you are. Every nation, every tribe, every tongue. preach the gospel so that the remnant might hear and be saved. Zechariah 8.12 says, for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their due. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these. Many are called, but few were chosen. Our task is to preach the gospel. And in preaching the gospel, we learn that we are the means through which God calls the remnant to faith. That means you preach the gospel, whether they're a Gentile or a Jew, whether they're a Texan or a Yankee, whether they're a national or a foreigner, whether they're male or female, or don't know which they are, preach the gospel to them. Why? Because they're all lost and they need the certainty of the gospel. Because here's what you learn. You might not know if you're male or female, by the way. If you're non-binary, you're still binary because you've limited yourself to non-binary or binary, and that still means you're one of two. It's logic. So they might not know who you are. You might not know who they are. And they may not be sure about anything, but God knows who they are. And as you preach the gospel to them, they're going to learn that they're not what they once were because they've been saved. But can't we say that about anything? You might be some ethnicity. You might be from some socioeconomic background. You might be Gentile. You might be Jew. You might be male. You might be female. You might be American. You might be Chinese. But when Christ saves you, you're his. No other distinction matters. It doesn't. Are you male or female? Yes, there are roles, but ultimately, it doesn't matter. Are you Jew or Greek? Doesn't matter. Are you American or Chinese? Doesn't matter. Two categories matter. Only two. We can say this biblically. The only ethnic difference that matters, are you the people of God or not? That's it. If you know him, praise the Lord. If you don't, you need to. Now, who do we preach the gospel to? Well, no, you only preach the gospel to the heathen lost who are obviously heathen lost, right? Preach the gospel to everyone. Start with yourself. We all need the gospel daily. We all need to remember that we are but a remnant, that this is the work of Christ, that he does have a future and a hope for all of his people. And what is that future and that hope? That whether we are Jew or great, whether we are Texan or not so blessed, we look for the coming of Jesus. And if we're blessed enough to go to him before he comes back, Spurgeon wrote about it, how glorious to fall asleep in this world and to wake up and find that you're home. This world, is not our home. And brothers and sisters, the church needs to be reminded of that this week. This world is not our home. So what do we do in the meantime? Live like pilgrims and sojourners and call for others to come with us to the promised land. Preach Jesus. Preach Christ and Him crucified. Let's pray together. Father, how we thank you for your word this morning, for the humbling reality that much that we're worried about really just doesn't matter that much in your economy. The world is falling apart and we shouldn't be shocked by it because the world has rejected you. There's no alternative but for them to fall apart. We think that wickedness is on the increase, but you're sovereign. Your church is growing. Sinners are being saved. Let the devil think he's winning. We know he's already defeated. He's already lost. Remind us who we belong to. Remind us this morning whose we are and what really matters. And I pray that you would burden us for lost souls. That whoever they are, however they identify, wherever they come from, that we would love them enough to tell them the truth about Jesus, a savior who has come to seek and save that which is lost. Continue to accomplish that with us and through us all for your glory alone we pray in Jesus name. Amen.