Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson, Arkansas. This is Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. This morning I have a subject on my mind that I've been thinking about for several weeks. The subject continues to come up in our conversations with our friends. It's even come up here in this church concerning Israel. and the continual fighting we see over there. And so the question that I hope to answer this morning is how should we regard Israel today as Christians? How should we support them or should we? And so I wanna go back and look at Israel. I want us to see where Israel came from. I want us to see their relationship with God in the Old Testament and bring us up to the present day. Now I've got five points this morning, and I don't like to use that many points because I don't want to be too long and lengthy. But for us to get to the end of this subject, I have to use at least five points to get there. So I'm going to do more reading today than I usually do. And the reason I'm going to do that is because a lot of times people will say, well, this is what I think. But when we can give it to you straight out of the Bible and I can read to you scriptures, then you know it's not my personal opinion. Then you know that it's God's opinion. Sometimes people say, well, what do you think about this? And I say, well, I don't think anything about it. I said, but this is what God thinks about it. And I'll give them the scripture on it. So my thoughts may not be God's thoughts, but as long as we can stay with the scriptures, then we can learn about Israel. Now, this last week we had our grandkids with us and I was riding down the road with our youngest grandson. And so we're riding down the road, I was taking him somewhere and he was just talking away and talking away. And he finally looked at me and he said, Grandpa, I'll be back in a minute. I thought, well, where are you going? We're driving down the road. I said, well, where are you going, Bryson? He said, well, I'm going to think about my video game a little bit, and then I'll be back. I said, OK. So if you're going to leave me this morning, you may get lost in this message. I've done that in church too, by the way. I've been off thinking about something else. But hopefully you'll be interested in this this morning. Here's my five points, by the way. First of all is where Israel came from according to the Bible. This is pretty basic doctrine, theology there. Most anybody that is a casual reader of the scriptures, they know that. Secondly, Israel's relationship with God before Christ, which was a covenant relationship. Thirdly, we're going to look at Israel's relationship with God when Christ arrived, the condition they were in. Then I want to come to this point is what kind of relationship that we as Christians should have with Israel today. And then finally, in a very small point at the very end, I am going to mention why there is persistent fighting in Israel today. Now, all of this comes from the Bible, by the way. This isn't politics we're talking about this morning. I'm not gonna get involved in the political arena about Israel and about Islam. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to go through the Bible and bring us to a place that we as Christians can have a intelligent conversation with other people about Israel and not get caught up in some of the political things today. So first of all where the nation of Israel came from? Now this is important to should be important to every Christian because the reason we want to know that is because that's the lineage Through which Christ came right? So that's why that one family seed Comes all the way through Israel until Christ is born. That's the importance of that family So God could have gone you may have wondered Why God chronicles the history of Israel, and you've got all these other families out there. It mentions so-and-so begets so-and-so, and you've got all these families out there. Well, why this one tribe? And it's because Christ is coming through the lineage of Israel. So, just as the entire human race Just as we all spring from one person who is Adam, okay, the nation of Israel sprang from one person whose name was Abraham. Now you probably already know that, but we're gonna go back and I want you to see where he was born and how the nation of Israel came from him. So Abraham, his first name was Abram. So we find him appearing on the scene just after the flood, okay? This is back way back. In the very beginning of time, when Abraham appears on the scene, it was about 2200 years before Christ. and it was right after the flood. So in Genesis 11, 26, here's where we find the beginning of this lineage. And Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. So here he is, he comes on the scene about 2200 years before Christ. His name is Abram. And so God makes a promise to him in Genesis 12, which is the promise of this great nation that's gonna spring from Abraham. In Genesis 12, one and two, it says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee and I will make thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. So here's this promise to a person named Abram. that God is going to make him a great nation. And we know that that great nation is going to become the nation of Israel. Now this promise that God, this is very interesting point because this promise that God is going to make to Abram is I'm gonna make you a great nation. And I'm going to give you a great land, the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. You're gonna have houses you didn't build, vineyards you didn't plant, wells you didn't dig. But I want you to remember something in that promise. There is not a promise to Abraham anywhere that all of his people, his nation, are going to go to heaven. We have this idea among Christians today that because a Jew comes from Abraham, that means they're all going to heaven. Well, there's no promise like that in the Bible. This is a covenant promise. to a person in his lineage about a promised land and that God will be with them if they will keep his laws. So let's keep that in mind. That has to do with the covenant. So God chose this person and from him, this nation is going to spring up. And the nation of Israel is there for a purpose, not only for the lineage of Christ, But the nation of Israel is gonna dwell in the land of Canaan, and they are going to represent God in a dark world, okay? They're gonna have a church. I think it was in the New Testament that someone spoke of it as the church in the wilderness. So they had laws that God gave them, moral laws. And they had laws in how they were supposed to worship under the Old Testament system. So ceremonial laws, we call them. And so here we got them coming into existence. And so God changes his name in Genesis 17. As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, But thy name shall be called Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee." Now here is a promise that's expanded. First of all, he makes this promise to Abram that you're going to be a great nation. But now this promise is expanded, and this is a spiritual promise that's going to go beyond the nation of Israel. and it's gonna be many nations. So he changes his name. His name Abram means high father. So Abram, high father of all the people of Israel. But Abraham means the father of a multitude, which is a figure of the person of Jesus Christ that we see being a promise here. Now this promise is not known at this time. Abraham doesn't fully understand it, nor did anyone until Christ came. But anyway, we can go back now, after we have the light of the New Testament, and we can understand what this promise means. So, let's just kind of skip down here a little bit. Abraham and Sarah have a son, right? A promised child, Isaac, that was born when he was actually physically too old to bear a son, so he's a child of promise. And then Isaac had a son who was Jacob. Okay, so we got three people Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now these three names are going to come up as you read the Bible over and over again in succession in that lineage. And the reason it comes up over and over again as God appears and says, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all through the Bible, is because God wants to make sure that we understand and that everybody understands and that the Jews understand when Christ comes, that this is the lineage through which Christ is going to come. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not Abraham, Ishmael, or somebody else. This is the lineage through which Christ is going to come. Now, we have the nation of Israel now coming into being. So, his name is changed. And so we get a little further in the Bible, and obviously I'm skipping over a lot of Hebrew history, because I got to making these notes and looking at all this, and I'm thinking, there's no way I'm gonna get through this message if I get all these little nuances here and there, but I'm just staying with the main theme here. So you go to Genesis 32, and God changes Jacob's name, okay? We've had Abraham's name changed, now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so here we got Jacob, And he changes his name and he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel for as a prince has felt power with God and with men and has prevailed. So and then God confirms that in Genesis 35, thy name is Jacob and it shall not be called anymore Jacob. So here we have the beginning of the nation of Israel. So we got Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's name is changed to Israel. So, okay, here we got a person whose name now is Israel. We don't have the nation yet, but we've got a person whose name is Israel. And so you read down through there and it says, Israel journeyed through the land, and it's not talking about the nation, but it's talking about the person. So we're addressing a person whose name is Israel now. And so then, as you understand the story about, them going into Egypt, receiving the land of Goshen for Israel to dwell in. but he has 12 sons. Jacob has 12 sons. Israel has 12 sons. And each son became the head of the 12 tribes of Israel. Okay, those are Jacob's 12 sons, or Israel's 12 sons. The sons of Leah, well, let me go back here. Now the sons of Jacob were 12, the sons of Leah, who were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, Dan and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, Gad, Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Paddan Aram. Okay, so here we've got the 12 tribes of Israel springing from Israel. So you see where the nation of Israel is coming from through the lineage, through the sons, and through these 12 tribes. Now, then you go to the book of Matthew, And the book of Matthew begins with this very lineage of these people. And the book of Matthew is many times referred to as the book that was written to the Jews specifically. Matthew was a Jew. He writes it to the Jews. It's a lot of their history. And it begins like this, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And so then you come down to seeing that it's confirming The Jewish nation and where they came from. Okay, so you still with me this morning? So we got we're getting close to the end of the first point Okay, if we need to carry this on we will so there's two other terms I want to give you though for Israel which can be confusing to people and One of those terms is Hebrew And the other term is Jew. So have you ever thought about that? So we've got Hebrew, Jew, and Israelite. So these terms basically refer to the one and the same people. The term Hebrew comes from the word Eber, H-E-B-E-R-E-W. And it means that an Eberite. Now if you go back and look at the genealogy of Abraham, Eber is six generations back from Abraham. So it'd be his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. So you're still talking about the same lineage. So a Hebrew is an Eberite who was the great, great, great, great, great, great father of Abraham. Now then you get the term Jew. And the term Jew means a citizen of Judah. Remember, after Israel split, you had the two southern tribes, which were called Judah, the 10 northern tribes, which were called Israel. And so somebody that is referred to as a Jew means that they were either a citizen of Judah or of Judah or a descendant of Judah, who was one of the 12 tribes. So they all refer to one and the same people. As a matter of fact, Jeremiah 34 and 9. This is an interesting little passage of scripture. I've got to give it to you this morning because in this you find the term Jew and Hebrew used as synonymous terms. It says that every man should let his manservant and every man his maidservant being a Hebrew or a Hebrewist go free that none should serve himself or of them to wit of a Jew, his brother. So you find all these terms begin to be intermingled and used through the centuries and they refer to one and the same people. So now we see where the nation of Israel came from and these terms that we use to describe them. Now we come to the second point and this is Israel's relationship with God before Christ, and this is according to scripture, and this is a covenant relationship, okay? Because God makes a covenant with Abraham, and he confirms it later with Moses and other people. And so if we go to the book of Genesis, we find that it ends with Israel in bondage to Egypt, okay? Remember that? They were dwelling in the land of Goshen. Abraham is dead, and God raises up Moses, and the time has come for Israel to exit Egypt, and to make their way to the promised land through the wilderness. So God makes this promise, and let's look at Exodus 19 and one. It says, in the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. And God said unto them, if you will obey my voice, indeed, Keep my covenant, then ye shall be a particular treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." So there you see what his intent is for them, holy nation, to represent him, a light in the world. But there's something about that covenant that I want you to pay close attention to. It's one little two-letter word. It's the word if. If you keep my covenant, if you keep my laws, if you obey the things I ask you to do, Then, you're going to receive the land of Canaan. I will be to you a God. I will protect you. I will overshadow you." And you know God was with them. He provided them food in the wilderness. Gave them water out of a rock. The Shekinah light of God shone down upon the Ark of the Covenant to show His presence. A pillar of cloud in the daytime to show that God was with them as they traversed through the wilderness. It was a beautiful picture of God being with His people and keeping his part of the covenant as they kept their part of the covenant. God gave them moral laws. As I said, you can go to the book of in the Old Testament, go to Exodus 20 through Leviticus, and that is their law. I mean, it is very complicated. You offer this, you offer that, you do this on this day, here's the holy day, you gotta do this. I mean, I understand how difficult that law must have been to keep, but then again, you will understand how difficult it is for us to keep God's law. It basically shows that you're not going to get to heaven by keeping the law because you can't We need God's grace. But anyway, it is a beautiful picture of that and but they still were supposed to keep it now There's a lot of stuff as I said that they were supposed to do But if you go to the book of Deuteronomy this is a kind of a transitional book when they're about to enter into the land of Cain and the book of Deuteronomy is We find that Moses is going to rehearse the law to them in case they didn't get it the first time from Moses We're gonna have uh I mean from Abraham we're gonna get it Rehearse to them from Moses and notice in Deuteronomy 11 26 verse 26 behold. I said before you this day a blessing and a curse now that's that covenant they were in a Blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day and a curse If you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God But turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which ye have not known Now, when I was making my notes on this subject, I found myself going over to compare the old covenant with the new covenant. And I thought, there's no way we're gonna get that in here today. I'm just focusing on Israel today and their covenant, okay? I'm thinking about maybe next time I preach to preach on the two covenants, but we're not gonna get into that today. It's very interesting. And I think a lot of Christians maybe have misunderstood it. But anyway, So Moses rehearses all of this to Israel, but the interesting and intriguing thing you're going to find in the book of Deuteronomy that is so amazing. is that God tells them and prophesies to them through Moses in the book of Deuteronomy exactly what they are going to do. Now let me ask you something. If I told you today you're going to go out there and you're going to walk across the street and get run over by a truck, would you walk across the street? Well, you could say, well, I better not walk across the street. Somebody's already told me I'm going to get run over by a truck, so I'm not going to do it. Somebody told you you're going to go and you're going to steal something at the hardware store tomorrow. Would you go in the hardware store and steal something and be punished for it? But God is doing exactly that to Israel in the book of Deuteronomy. Notice in chapter 31, verse 16. Now remember, don't be thinking about the video game right now because you're about to get lost here. But this is interesting. The Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a-whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land. Where do they go to be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them? Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day, are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils They shall have wrought in that they are turned unto other gods. And if you read this chapter in chapter 32, you're gonna see what is going to happen. And all of this came to pass. Now we've talked about that from the pulpit many times, how that Israel rose up, they turned from God, they went a whoring after other gods, they sacrificed their children. They committed all kinds of whoredoms and atrocities, worshipping other gods, intermarrying, forsaking God's covenant, not remembering where their blessings came from, not going to the holy day, not worshipping God as they should have. God sent prophets to them, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all these prophets went to them, prophesied against them, told them what they were doing, and they prophesied lies and said, no, this isn't gonna happen, this isn't gonna happen. Jeremiah doesn't know what he's talking about. So they no longer listened to the men that God had called and sent to them. So God turned from them. You can read in the Bible how they were first overtaken by the Babylonians. Their temple was destroyed, burned. They stole all their golden vessels, the Ark of the Covenant, all the things that were in the Ark of the Covenant. And then the Persians overtook the Babylonians. And so then there was 400 years of silence. God didn't speak to them. Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament. The next prophet that's going to speak to them is going to be one coming in the power of Elijah. And that would be who? John the Baptist. He's going to be the next prophet after 400 years. There's an interesting thing about that. If John the Baptist is the next prophet to come after 400 years, how many of the scribes and Pharisees did God actually call? None. None of them were called of God. The next prophet to come would be John the Baptist. So, here we got 400 years of silence. God is no longer obligated to them. Now, this is where we're coming to understand something about Israel today. They've broken the covenant, okay? You read in the book of Jeremiah that he actually gave them a bill of divorcement. God is no longer obligated to Israel in any form or fashion. They have broken their covenant with God. They've lost their land. They've lost everything. They've been taken over by the Persians. And then, I think it was around B.C. 60, 60 years before Christ came, Rome seized Jerusalem and took it over as their property. So they were under the subjection of the Roman government when Jesus Christ appeared on the scene. So they've lost everything, and now we see that Israel, our God is no longer obligated to Israel anymore. That covenant is abrogated. It's over. It's done. It's over today. It's done. Now let's get to where Israel is when Christ came, according to the scriptures. So Christ is now going to appear on the scene. Israel is in subjection to Rome. The only way they can do anything they want to do is to get their permission. Remember, they had to get permission from Pilate. to crucify Jesus Christ. I mean, in their old law, if they were in their own land in Jerusalem, they could stone somebody to death for whatever reason that was in the Bible, you know, of their law. They could carry out their own executions and carry out their own laws. But now since they're in Rome, they can't do that anymore. They've got to get permission from the Roman government to carry out their own laws. And of course, we know that was a kangaroo court anyway when they crucified Christ. So, 400 years of silence, and so here we've got the first prophet coming on the scene after 400 years, whose name was John the Baptist, and he's gonna speak the truth. Then Christ is going to preach, and he's gonna speak the truth. Of course, not everything that John the Baptist preached or Christ preached was condemnatory towards the Jews, but both of them preached the message of condemnation of their impending destruction. See, they're going to be destroyed because the covenant is over with. God's not obligated to them anymore. And in Matthew chapter 3, Here's John the Baptist, verse 8, bring forth fruits meet for repentance and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham and now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed baptize you with water into repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Now there is a message from John the Baptist on the very beginning of the time when Christ is about to appear on the scene of what is going to happen to the Jews, Israel. He says, God can raise up stones into Abraham. That means that, and that tells us a lot theologically, that, you know, Abraham was a people, I mean, Israel was a people after the flesh. They weren't spiritually people, they weren't spiritually born, they were after Abraham. Some of them were God's children, some of them weren't. Just like today, some of my family's God's children, and some of them may not be, I don't know. But the same then. He's making a difference here. He's basically telling the Jews that just because you're a Jew does not mean that you belong to God, nor that you are keeping his commandments. But somebody's coming, mightier than I, whose fan is in his hand, and he's speaking of the person of Jesus Christ, and he's gonna gather his wheat, and he's gonna burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, which is really referring to this destruction of Jerusalem, which we're gonna see here in just a moment. So here comes Jesus, and he starts to preach himself, and we're gonna go to Matthew 23 now, 31. And Jesus is condemning them as well. And I'm not going to read everything he said. Like I said, I can't read. I'm reading more than I usually do already today. But I'm hoping you're staying with me because this is the Bible. This is God's Word. He says in Matthew 23, 31, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves. OK, you know this, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. And they did. Fill ye up then the measure of your father. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, snakes, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify. Some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, that upon you," now here, listen to this, "'Upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barakias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.'" So Jesus Christ is preaching the impending doom of Israel and of the destruction of them and their temple that is about to come up. It's going to happen in 70 AD, recorded by Josephus, the historian. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let them which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as not seen the beginning of the world. To this time nor ever shall be, and except those days should be shortened. There should be no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake these days shall be shortened. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be, for whosoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Now there is definitely within that, again, a prophecy of the impending destruction of Jerusalem that may be intermingled with the future prophecy of Christ's return, but definitely referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, whosoever the carcass is, Carcasses, the eagles, will be gathered together. Now, when you got a dead carcass, what do you see? You see a buzzard, and that's what he's referring to. Gonna be a lot of dead carcasses. And then in Luke 21, he says, and they shall fall by the edge of a sword, shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down at the Gentiles, and the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now, these are not messages that God is gonna save Israel, is it? These are not messages of a God that's speaking to a covenant-keeping people, and their lands are going to be given back to them, and that he still has a relationship. No, these are condemnatory messages about what's about to happen to Israel. So, Jesus is warning them to get out of Jerusalem. Get out of there when you start seeing the abomination of desolation. When you start seeing the Roman soldiers coming and surrounding your city, It's time for you to leave. And I believe God's left those people that believed in Christ, knew who He was. I'm not saying every one of them, but I know that for the most part, they understood the words of Christ. They believed John the Baptist, and they left Jerusalem. In 70 AD, their temple was burned down. Titus, I think his last name, Vespasian, I think that was his name, surrounded Jerusalem. They burned down their temple. There's not a Jew today that has a record of birth to prove that he is descendant of Abraham. Every record was burned and destroyed. Now, I met a Jew a couple of years ago when we were on a trip, and he said he could trace his lineage all the way back thousands of years. I didn't go into it with him. I didn't want to get in an argument with him, but the only thing they have is a plenary record, mouth to mouth. Now, when I was in grade school, we did this little thing, and the teacher whispered in the ear of one student a red ruler with a green something. And we were to repeat it all around the class and see what we got at the end of the class. Well, by the time you got through 30 people, it wasn't even the same thing. So you can imagine, by plenary record, that the Jews cannot possibly know where they came from. After I left, I thought, well, I need to tell them. I can trace my lineage further back. Right to Adam. So can you. And they came through Adam too, by the way. But anyway, it was burned down. He circled Jerusalem with his army, starved them to death. They ate their own children. That's how bad it was. 1.1 million Jews died. according to Josephus, and 97,000 of them were enslaved. Isn't that what Jesus just prophesied? They're gonna take your children, you're gonna be slaves, and et cetera. I don't think God's doing that to a people abiding in his covenant that still own their land. They don't even have it anymore. They've broken their covenant, lost their temple, and so on and so on. So here we see their relationship then. So what kind of relationship should we as Christians have with the Jews today? First of all, we're not tied to them in any way. We never were. We were Gentiles, basically. That's a term that's used for anybody that's not a Jew in the Bible. So we're a Gentile to them. We were never involved in their covenant. We were never their brothers by the flesh. So I see signs on churches today that we should support Israel, and that's fine if you wanna support them politically as an ally of the United States of America, but since when do churches get involved in politics? I mean, that's a political thing. Israel no longer owns their land. They own it in the same way we own ours. It was first given to them by God, that's true. but they lost it to the Babylonians and then to the Persians and so it's theirs by right if they can defend it and keep it. But the church here is not involved in politics and that's how it should be in the Christian arena is a political thing, not a spiritual thing. We're not involved or obligated to Israel in any way spiritually in any way. So in Romans 11, 28, let's see what Paul says about all of this. Let's look at the Bible and let's see the distinguishing statements that Paul makes so far as Christians and Jews. In Romans 11, 28, Paul says, as concerning the gospel, they, Israel, are enemies for your sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. So the Jews are your enemy concerning the gospel. They deny the person of Jesus Christ, right? Right. So it's amazing to me how Christians today, in many places, they'll say, well, Israel's God-chosen people, they're all going to heaven. But they all reject Christ. And they'll look at their neighbor down the street, and their neighbor down the street rejects Christ, and they say, oh no, that person's lost, going to hell. What kind of sense does that make? It doesn't make any sense. So we see that, There are enemies concerned. I spoke to the same Jew when I was on that trip, and he said, I don't want to hear anything about Christianity. He said, don't break all that stuff up. And so I didn't. I probably should have. But he threw some of his stuff at me, and I just let him do it. I didn't want to get into an argument with him. But they're your enemy. They don't believe what you believe. Really, for the most part, they don't even like you. I hate to say it like that, but it's basically the truth. So, but the Lord is touching the election of the beloved for the Father's sake. That's an interesting passage, but it's not speaking of election of God's people to heaven. It's speaking about the election of Israel. and they're beloved because of people that we find in Hebrews 11. People like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, these people that were faithful to God, were witnesses of God in a very unfriendly world. That's the reason that they would, in any way, their forefathers were beloved by God. But so far as Christians are concerned, they're not people that, I mean, we should not hate them. I'm not telling you that. But we're not obligated to them is what I'm trying to say. In Colossians 3 and 11, notice what Paul says. He enlarges upon this. He said, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. So he says, you know, it doesn't matter what your race is. All that matters is if Christ is in you, that you belong to the person of Jesus Christ. And he's leveled the playing field here, this Old Testament The law and the ceremonial worship, the moral law is still the moral law. I mean, where it says thou shalt not, it's still thou shalt not. It's still a sin to do those things. But the ceremonial law, the way that they worshiped in that economy has been abrogated. We no longer worship that way. There's a new form of worship, a new covenant. But people are not regarded anymore in God's eyes as a Jew or a Scythian or a barbarian or anything else. We are all people. All people that sprang from Adam. Okay, and so we should read all this in the New Testament again to put all the Jewish covenant stuff in the past. In Romans 2.28, here's another thing Paul wrote. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." So Paul's saying this, that, you know, a real spiritual person, the Jewish word is used in this context, is a person that belongs to God. He's one inwardly, one whose heart has been circumcised, or in other words, a person who has been born of the Spirit. That was the figure of circumcision in the Old Testament. It was a change. It was a figure of the Covenant and the new birth of a person where they're there are born in the Old Testament or New Testament. So Paul is making this very point again. He's leveling the playing field You know a Jew is not any different than anybody else or not any special than anybody else there have no more Covenant blessings any more than you do today as a Gentile God's relationship with everybody So far as his people's concerned is the same now Our relationship, finally, our relationship with Israel today is the same as with any person. We want to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. We want them to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, Paul said their eyes have been blinded. So God has blinded the eyes of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. So we're not going to see the nation of Israel converted into Christianity until God's through with us converting His elect. from the Gentile nation, and when that occurs, there's two speculations. One is that's when Christ is coming back, and the other is that there'll be a great revival. I personally believe that that's when Christ is gonna come back, but we'll see. That's some old theology for you there. Now let's finally get my last point. I got 15 minutes here. I probably won't even need all of it. So if you're not over with your video game, we're gonna get point number five. Why is there persistent fighting over there in Israel? Why does that continue to go on? People want to know why this is going on. Well, actually it was prophesied by God. And so this fighting, by the way, is between Israel and the Muslims, which you probably already know that. And so you have two different religions there. You've got Judaism, which is Israel, and you've got Islam, which is the Muslims. And so the Muslims trace their lineage through Abraham, okay? Through Ishmael. Abraham had two sons. One was Ishmael. Well, he had at least two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. So the Jewish people trace their lineage through Isaac. Islam traces their lineage through Ishmael. So the Muslims, according to the Quran, they claim that Palestine belongs to them through God's promise to Ishmael. Okay? Now, you can look this up and read it if you want to, but it's out there. Now, that's not really true, because God did not give Canaan to Ishmael. He told that he was going to be a great nation, but he didn't promise any land to them. That land was promised to Israel, which, by the way, that land, they lost it. So, it's really a moot point, really, who it really belongs to. It belongs to whoever can win it by their military force, just like any other land. But Israel claimed that the land belonged to them through the covenant with God. Well, that's not true either because it was given to them initially like that, but it no longer belongs to them like that. Do y'all understand? That covenant is over. So the land doesn't belong to anybody by God's promise anymore. So why are they always fighting? You're beginning to understand why they're always fighting. They're claiming the land to be theirs. But in Genesis 16, there's a very interesting statement made here about Ishmael when he's out in his, his mother has been cast out into the desert by Abraham's wife, and they're about to die, and an angel appears into her and tells her about her son, and here's what he says. The angel of the Lord said unto Hagar, Behold, thou art with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael. This is Genesis 16. This is all happening the very morning of time. shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction, and he will be," notice this, a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all of his brethren. So this is made a long time ago, Ishmael, and this nation that's gonna spring from him is gonna be against everybody, everybody's against him, he's gonna dwell in his brother Tent, who is Israel, and there's gonna be this persistent fighting. So this is something that God said a long time ago. They both claimed the land is their own. They've been fighting. And really today, it's like the Hatfields and McCoys. If you ever heard that story, you know, somebody from the Hatfields killed one of the McCoys and they're going to get vengeance. And now they're going to get vengeance back. And it's back and forth and back and forth. And I don't believe there'll ever be an end to it until Jesus Christ comes back. And there's one other little nitpick, nit-nit bit of a thing in there that I want to mention, which is interesting. There's something very valuable under the soil over there. And you know what it is. It's oil. And so I think that's how our, and this is just a personal thought. This isn't biblical. But that's why I think our government gets involved in it so much. They might want to appear to be friends and allies with Israel, which we are. but there's something about making a little money over there that they're interested in. But that's not in the Bible, and I'm not going to say that's the way that it is, but it's something that we could speculate about for a long time. So God in his infinite foreknowledge knew that Israel would break their covenant. He told them in Deuteronomy, right? He told them what they were going to do. They did it. He told them they were gonna lose their land. They lost it. He told them they were gonna worship other gods. They worshiped them. Judaism is nothing that resembles what God gave Moses in the very beginning. If it was, then they would have received Christ. It was already so, they'd put laws around the gates of God, or gates around the laws of God. It was so changed when Christ came that they didn't even know their own Messiah. They didn't know their own scriptures. Remember when Jesus preached, he said, it has been said, but I say unto you, He said, this is what the Pharisees and Sadducees are teaching you, but I say unto you, this is what it should be. They didn't even know him. They didn't even know the truth. And a lot of God's good people that belong to God were listening to all of that, all that time. I'll give you a little internet statement here as I close concerning Hamas. Hamas was formed in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. A transnational Sunni Islamist group that first formed in Egypt, Hamas, the Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistant Movement, wants to create a Palestine state. And it says in another place, Hamas is a Palestinian militant group which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007. The group has sworn to Israel's destruction. wants to replace it with an Islamic state. Hamas has fought several wars with Israel since it took power." So Hamas is a part of Ishmael that God told us about way back in Genesis. So I appreciate your attention today. I hope that's given you an understanding of where Israel came from. our relationship with it, what it should be, and any obligations we're not obligated to them and that you'll be able to carry on a conversation with anybody today concerning that. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching from one of our regular meetings. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson, Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many things that are so common in the religion of our day, but we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.