"Why Israel?" | Guest Speaker Ps. Jim Stretchberry | AEBM (American European BETHEL Mission)

I am delighted to be here again. You know, when you come to WA,

it's like no place on earth. And I've been to a lot of

places. Just as Pastor Keith said, just

last month I was in Israel for a short visit.

We had some issues there that we're trying to deal with and

I'll be speaking more about that tonight about what's going on in

Israel and my perspective and also what's going on with our

ministries there and also bringing a message about how

good our loving Father is talking about our Father.

Just before I start this morning, excuse me, I have a

couple of things that I brought here for you.

As I did last year, I bought actually my, my wood maker is

back in business. So I brought you some really

better crosses than I did last year up here and a little prayer

card. And please help yourself after

the service on the condition that you take this.

So that and you'll keep it somewhere that you'll pray for

Israel. And that's kind of our heart is

that we just get people just to pray for Israel.

It is the only really, really viable.

Solution. Also there there's a few maps of

Israel and a few little gifts that we had I brought for the

people that are interested in going on the Israel tour that we

couldn't be here yesterday. And please come talk to me

afterwards. I'll be glad to give you any

information as far as our feelings about going to Israel.

I have a tour in Israel right now as we speak.

I just talked to Garrett this morning.

They're having a wonderful time. The weather is beautiful and

they feel that they're supposed to be there.

So that group is doing well. So you can see that there's

there's some movement forward. Your past is looking at a trip

for January 27. And you know, by that time

certainly we'll know what what's really going on in Israel and

what it would look like. For me, it's been a busy year

this year. Ever since October 7th, I've

really been called to really try to communicate about Israel more

and more. I mean, I love to teach the

Bible as, as, as a coward Chapel verse by verse, but I like to, I

feel the Lord's really leading me to do what I'm doing here

today. Your pastors have invited me to

do specifically what I'm doing today and I'm really encouraged

to be able to do that because I just feel that it's just so

important that we understand why Israel, you know, and my, my

title for you today is actually why Israel and the purpose of

Israel, because I think the purpose of Israel has a great

purpose for all of us as believers in Jesus Christ.

Before I start, I want to just thank you so much for your

commitment to us and to our our well to be a partner with us in

our ministry, your commitment to us, to inviting me here, your

commitment to us and your support of our ministry, our

vision, our purpose. It means a great deal to us.

And believe me, it really does. I look forward to and we're

developing kind of some ideas or maybe doing some other things

together in the next couple of years.

So we're looking forward to that opportunity and maybe I'll

bring. Some more charming personalities

than myself. The anti Semitic anti Israel

sentiments have been growing rapidly it.

Seems monthly. The attitudes are changing every

day. I spent about 45 minutes kind of

reading the papers from from Germany to England to New York

to Los Angeles and to Asia and, and you can see that there is a

thread in there of anti Semitic sentiment that is pretty

incredible and I'll talk to you more about that this morning and

why that has come about. I'll be speaking more directly

about what we're doing and what we can do this evening.

I want to mention to you as I begin this morning that in my 36

years in ministry, difficult times and situations seem to

come to me quite often. But you know, for me, I have

never seen these these situations or circumstances as

nothing more than opportunities, opportunities to proclaim the

message of an endlessly loving God, opportunities to to

communicate that are loving. Saving is the premise and the

priority of life. And the Holy Spirit will always

allow us to be everything we could never be in a very

complicated world. And I think that's the problem

from the mental gymnastics that go on in our world today with

the current events is just incredible.

And I spend much, much of my time speaking to people.

About that but. Hopefully, I'm always bringing

it back to the beacon. The beacon is right here in the

Word of God. So why Israel and the purpose of

Israel? And my message today is I've

been encouraging it pastors, many pastors, to really address

this and use this title. For the message.

It's a little controversial in our culture, but it's something

that basically the church, it needs to address.

It's essential for us as believers to really understand

this issue that has become so prominent and basically.

Is kind of a runaway issue is I would define it.

We need to remember and understand that Israel with a

clear and concise narrative. It's not just a land that's

unique, it's a people. That are unique.

And most of what I'm going to say today is it's, it's not from

my tiny brain, but it's from a lot of study, a lot of research,

listening to a lot of people. I, I really try to digest all

that's going on and come to some conclusions that are accurate,

number one. But #2 follow along with what

the Word of God would say about these issues that have become

such a problem. History can give us nothing that

is even remotely comparable to the history of the Jews.

It is one of wonder. It is one of tragedy.

It is one of defying worldly expectations.

Let me give you a reminder and I will do that several times this

morning because we need to remember what we're talking

about here. Stretching back 4000 years to

the patriarch Abraham, it traced forwards in time through his son

Isaac, his grandson Jacob, then Jacob's twelve sons, the years

of slavery in Egypt, the wilderness wanderings unto

Moses, the taking of the promised land under Josiah, the

rise of the monarchy under Saul and David, the splitting of the

kingdoms N Israel and S Judah, the Assyrian, Babylonian

captivities, and the long waited return to the land under Asia

and Nehemiah. The unbroken story of the Jewish

people continued and continued into the days of the Maccabees

and the heroic fight for freedom.

Then came the mighty Roman Empire.

Yet still the Jews remain. During the Roman occupation, as

we all know very well, the birth, death, and resurrection

of our precious Jesus took place.

The story continues with the great Jewish Revolt of AD 70,

when the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were

scattered throughout the world. Yet unlike many nations in

history who have been conquered, who have been exiled among the

nations, the Jewish people maintained and basically kept

their distinct identities wherever they went.

The story continues throughout the worldwide diaspora at times

of the great sages of Israel into the Talmudic era.

And now we continue to witness today the story this day with

the reestablishment of the state of Israel in 1948 after nearly

1900 years of exile and the regathering of Jews from the

Diaspora is nothing short of miraculous.

If you kind of look at that timeline all the way from

Abraham right here into 2025, there is no precedent in history

for something like this. In fact, there are really no

earthly explanations, no earthly explanation how this happened

other than the God of heaven is in charge.

God made a covenant with Abraham.

God made a covenant with Abraham all those ages ago, and that

covenant stands to this day. And we'll talk about that today.

Why is it Israel, as I said, is a title that I encourage.

I've seen so many passes being able to do this, embrace this

idea, and really have rectified a lot of questions within

congregations. I don't believe that we're

trying to be anybody that's divisive, but we're trying to

be. We're trying to be people of God

that would follow the Word of God and try to understand what

the Word of God says about this very complicated issue.

It shouldn't. It certainly should cause us to

pause and again to consider the powerful truth that we can find

in this word regarding this issue that has become so

prominent in all our cultures. Paul writes to us in Romans 11,

and my message today will be from Romans 11 chapter, verses

24 to 29. He write.

Paul writes to us in Romans 11. I say then, God has not rejected

his people, has he? May it never be Romans 11/1.

The gentle, the Gentile church needs to understand that this

present state of hardening, the hardening that you see and

people talk so much about in Israel was necessary, is

necessary for the salvation to come to the Gentiles.

Given this situation that Gentiles must be careful not to

become foolish or arrogant about this as we see today as many are

embracing the culture, many are embracing progressive thought

and thinking towards those natural branches.

You know just. Let me a little little.

Side thing here, we got bad people.

We got bad people everywhere. I'm a history nut.

We have bad people since the days of Cain and Abel.

And we can't, because bad people are bad today.

We can't basically dismiss everything that God says about

them. There's bad people within

Judaism, lots of bad people in our history.

You see, the Jews are here for God, then here for God, here for

God, then here for God. But that's, that's who we are.

That's who we are. Think about us.

Think about Christendom for the last 2000 years.

That's who man is. The heart of man is exceedingly

wicked and deceitful, says the word of the Lord.

That isn't that isn't just say speak about us.

It speaks about all, all men, including Israel.

So it's important to understand that Israel is the apple of

God's eye, and understanding and accepting the fact needs to

provoke a response from unbelieving Israel and make them

jealous. You know, because of our

intimate relationship with the loving God, they think they're

the only. Ones that have that intimate,

intimate relationship. And I'll speak a little bit more

about that in a moment, but look at 11, Romans 11 and 11 when

when Paul says that, he clearly speaks it out.

Romans 1111 say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?

Certainly not. But through their fall to

provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the

Gentiles. You, you see this whole thing

and, and it is a reality. It just is a reality today.

I mean, all my life, going to Israel, living, growing up as a

Jew, but as a believer in the last 30 years going to Israel,

I'll tell you, I could feel the antagonism 30 years ago.

I'm a believer. You're what, what would your

grandmother say type of thing. But now, and I really am

purposeful of trying to find Jewish people.

When I'm in Jerusalem, I find 1 taxi driver that I feel I can

connect with. And with that taxi driver,

basically, we eventually get to, you know, if you're a Jew,

where's your mother from, Where's your grandmother from?

Where do they start to live? It's a very common thing.

And then eventually we get to the fact that I'm a believer.

The openness today is 180° to what it was 30 years ago.

And pretty much across the board.

I can talk to hyper religious Jews, black hats, little curls.

I can. And they and they talked to me.

I sat with next to one on an aeroplane 2 trips ago.

We talked the entire time about his faith and my faith.

Never before have we seen this. But basically what what?

Is this it? Is this jealousy?

That Paul has talked about is this jealousy because you have

to be blind to see, not to see what's going on in the world of

Christendom today. I mean, there is a revival going

on in the world today. Everywhere I go in Germany, in

our congregations, I see it in churches and what it is, it's

young people. Young people like this are

finally seeing that this world is hopeless and Jesus can bring

the response with this response in mind.

What Paul was just saying, it's important to understand how the

church has become foolish against the natural branches

because Israel in their unbelief has caused them to think they

don't exist, they don't matter anymore.

And this actively promotes a theology that is anti Semitic,

stands little chance of provoking Israel in a state of

jealousy. You know, Pastor Keith was

telling me this this week that you know what's happening, What,

what, what that is. And there's many, many

congregations in my city. We have 160 congregation.

I would say that basically 90% of not not pro Israel, 90% are

either pro Palestinian or don't want to talk about the issue

anymore. They're totally replacement

theology. It's interesting how often

unintentionally we don't as a body of Christ recognise these

issues. We just turn a blind eye to it.

And this jealousy, basically this jealousy of the Jews is

part of end time scenario. It will usher in, as I would

demonstrate this morning, it will usher in the Kingdom.

And yet the church has some for some reason taken this position

that is really very problematic. Israel that remains at the elect

nation beloved by God for the sake of the fathers on account

of the promises of God were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The dual status of Israel is key to understanding the the mystery

that we talked about in the Scripture.

Let me give you a couple of wonderful quotes that I

discovered Mark Twain. I don't know if you in Australia

you know Mark Twain, but he's one of the phenomenal writers of

of my lifetime. I maybe one of some of you young

people don't connect with Mark Twain, but I would suggest he

wrote some things that would really, really delight you.

Mark Twain. Miss Arthur wrote the Egyptian,

the Babylonian and the Persian rose, filled the planet with

sound and splendour, then faded to a past dream and passed away

to nothing. The Greek and the Roman followed

and made a very vast noise, and they are gone.

Other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a

time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or

have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them

all, and is now what the Jew always was exploiting,

exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening

of its parts, no slowing of its energies, no dulling of his

alertness and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the

Jew. All other forces passed, but he

remains. What is the secret of this

immortality? We will consider this today

because I think we need to really understand these people

have been around for 4000 years and my friends, I will tell you

these people will be around till the day that the Lord comes back

and claims His Church. The controversy surrounding is

it will continue, it will continue in a world and it will

continue in the church. This I can tell you.

I'm not a prophet, but I can tell you it will continue.

Politically, the nation of Israel remains in a very

precarious position, surrounded by all sides, by those who want

to eradicate them. We see that Israel is surrounded

by hundreds of millions of people who desire this

eradication. And Israel still stands as a

nation with only 7 million Jewish people in this country.

The remainder is 8 million Jewish people around the world.

So we have a world today that has 15,000,000 Jewish people.

Friends, this is extraordinary. We live in a world today with

8.26 billion people. You can never pick up the news

any day. You could not pick up the news

where there's something isn't about Israel.

I was talking to one of your cognizants outside before and

they said show me that I just picked up.

I had this this thing on my phone which has a headlines of

that day. Two things about Israel in there

8.26 billion people 15,000,000 people.

Why is this such a such a prominent issue in our news

religiously within Jerusalem's wall.

They are eclectic mix of ancient traditions.

Jerusalem is the epicentre of three monolithic faith and the

home of a largely secular population who simply desire to

live in peace with all their neighbours.

We need to clearly understand that the security concerns are

enormous and basically the attempted political situations

are enormous, the solutions are not coming and the inevitable

clashes from time to time. Will continue.

This I'm sure of. I've seen it for 30 years.

We've gone here, we've gone here, we've gone here, we've

gone here. The influence of opinions, of

people's opinions matter. But there is something here far

larger than man can control that doesn't actually make sense.

And I'll talk more about that tonight.

What is the essential task of the church?

It's to make sure that we can see all this with spiritual

eyes, and it means that we understand the role of Israel is

to play in God's larger redemptive plan for the

nation's. Only then can we truly interpret

the world around us and basically what Scripture is

trying to tell us. Let me just remind you again

what Moses said in God's Word about Israel in Deuteronomy

11/8. Observe therefore, all the

commands I have given you today, so that you may have the

strength to go in and take over the land you are crossing the

Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the lands

of the Lord, swore to your ancestors to give to them and

their descendants a land flowing with milk and honey.

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land

of Egypt in which you have come when you planted seeds and

irrigated it by food, as in a vegetable garden.

But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take is in

possession of its land. There are mountains and valleys,

and that drink the reign of heaven.

It is the land of the Lord your God.

And the land the Lord your God cares for, the eyes of the Lord

your God are continuously honoured from the beginning of

the year till the end of the year.

And I would suggest to you the eyes of the Lord on that land

from the beginning of the time of Abraham till the end of all

time as we know it. There's another powerful

statement that I'll share with you.

I don't know if you have ever read Leon Tolstoy.

He's a quite a renowned Russian author and it's I was kind of

digging around looking to many, many different things, but I

found this very interesting and so complementary with his

perspective. He says the Jew is the sacred

being who has brought, who has, who has been brought down from

heaven, the everlasting fire and has illuminated it with the

entire world. He is the religious source, the

spring, the fountain out of which all the rest of the

peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions.

The quote from Tosa basically praises Jewish people for

several quantities, qualities that we need to really think

about. The source of divinity describes

a Jew as a sacred being who was brought down from heaven, like

everlasting fire to illuminate the world.

The moral source It portrays Jews as a religious spring from

which other people have drawn their beliefs.

A symbol of eternity. The text emphasises the Jewish

nation was a remarkable nation that would survive despite

centuries of persecution, murder and oppression.

A guardian of prophecy. It highlights the role of the

Jewish people in persevering and transmitting prophetic messages.

Now I'm going to given a great deal of thought to people's

writing and people's opinion. I've given, given a great deal

of thought to toast those words. And I was thinking where, where

does he come from this? Where does that all come from?

Well, obviously it's not all inclusive, we know that.

But it was his observation with a very large, large Jewish

communities within the Russians. He observed this, what he

observed in those communities, many dating back all the way to

the diaspora in 70 AD. So this morning I'm going to

focus on 4 verses. This is the biblical theology of

Israel in my opinions, Romans 1125 to 29 Romans 11/25.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of

this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.

The blindness in part has happened to is until the

fullness of the Gentiles has come. 26 And so we all, and so

all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will

come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from

Jacob. 27 For this is my covenant with them when I take

away their sins. 28 Considering the gospel, they are enemies for

your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for

the sake of the fathers or the patriarchs.

And finally, 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are

irrevocable. 29 The gifts and the calling of God are

irrevocable. This section of Romans is the

final. Portion of a much larger.

Communication through chapters 9 through 11, which expounds on

the subject of God's dealing with Israel.

But let's consider these 4 verses quickly this morning,

verse 25, and I will read this a few times because I think it's

pretty predominant in these 4 verses.

For I do not desire whether that you should be ignorant of this

mystery. Let's you should be wise in your

own opinion. The blindness in part has

happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has

come. Excuse me?

As I mentioned before, the text states that the Church must be

careful not to display an attitude of ignorance concerning

Israel's current position of blindness.

Now are we to allow this position on an attitude?

To show us that we're superior, that we have some kind of

knowledge with God that basically they've lost.

No, never be its soul. Unfortunately, today as far as

Israel's concerned, the ugly mixture in my opinion of

foolishness, arrogance and ignorance is part of this.

The attitude of the church with Israel.

Much of history indicating that Paul's writings here in these 4

verses have basically gone unheeded and you can see that if

you study church history. The theologic position that

replacement theology has been a majority view.

Since the 4th century. Creating quite a problem within

Christendom. This changed around the 8th

century and now basically the idea that the Church has

replaced Israel in the future of God's plans is a debate with

many, many congregations and many, many congregations are

going on the move that the Church has replaced Israel.

Those who hold this view believe that the promises regarding

Israel's future has been transferred to the Church or the

of Christendom. It has become the new spiritual

Israel. The position quickly became

dominant in the stance post Apostolic times and the

influence of super replacement theology gurus.

They brought it into a shameful legacy of Christian anti

semitism that persisted and some would say culminated in the

terrible events of the 20 and 21st century.

Confronting the theological anti semitism today is a very big

issue, for it tells us especially that there is trouble

here. See it, there is trouble here.

If you're a war student, there is trouble here.

And for messianic believers like myself and Jewish believers, we

see trouble, we feel trouble. It's it's it's disheartening.

It would not be accurate to characterization to imply that

everyone who holds some sort of replacement theology is guilty

of anti Semitism. This is definitely not the case.

Yet at the same time, as biblical scholar Michael Vlog

concludes, it's undeniable that anti Jewish bias has gone often

hand in hand with replacements theology views.

As Jewish authors Prager and Toskan have written no,

Christianity did not create the Holocaust, but it made it

possible. Without Christian anti Semitism,

the Holocaust would have been inconceivable.

They continued that for nearly 2000 years the Christian world

dehumanised the Jew, ultimately helping lay the groundwork for

the Holocaust. Much of the external imagery

that is associated with traditional anti Semitic actions

are a tragedy, but they owe their origins to the Third Reich

and the Muftis, the Islamic Jewish but not the church.

We have a wonderful ministry in Germany.

I love it. I I revived it in my January is

my 2520 fifth year at AEBM and over the years I've been able to

revive that ministry. It was really big pre World War

2 and we have a wonderful ministry there now.

But what's incredible to me as I travel and see the endless

number of cities around Germany as we minister to is the endless

number of churches. There are churches.

Practically on every square mile you'll find a church, old

churches, church buildings that have been there forever.

And you have to ask yourself, and I do often, what happened

for nearly 25 years, 1923 to 1947, for 25 years.

Whatever was going on in those churches seem to change in a way

that should be very sobering for us as we Live Today.

The ghettos in reinforce the meaning of what it meant to be a

Jew, the yellow star. And by the way, let me just show

you something. I brought this the yellow star

was a badge that you were Jew and you would separated from

society. Here's one my mother's and

before the yellow star there was this emblem was before this

became the prominent symbol. But they still had to wear this

before that, and I bought that because I want to really speak

to Holocaust deniers. You cannot deny the Holocaust

when you see this. And when you touch it, you'll,

when you see it, you'll see that it is 70 years old.

What went on after that? Pointed hats?

Segregation banishment, job restrictions?

Synagogue booth burnings all had distressing historical

precedence throughout Christendom, but it happened

slowly, slowly, slowly. It progressed from 1923 until

the horrors of the late the mid 1940s.

After the tragic events of the Holocaust, many churches

actively sought to remove any trace of replacement theology

from their myths, and in the most part, they let a successful

reappraisal of Christian theology in many areas.

However, Christians need to be aware that there is a new form

of replacement theology and it's gaining popularity all over the

world and especially in the evangelical church in recent

times. They run the risk of reviving,

as I said, the shameful legacy of Christian anti Semitism which

will affect the entire world. One social commentator suggests

that the ancient doctrine of superseding, superseding Israel,

which has only been suppressed after the Holocaust, has now

been revised under the influence of the Middle East conflict.

And that's the elephant in the room.

The Middle East conflict, the resurgence has been inflamed by

the ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict and the support of

those advocates imposing social justice and a narrow social

justice narrative that basically supersedes scripture.

It puts it portrays the Palestinians as helpless

underdogs trying to resist the mighty power of Israel and their

imperialist overlords. In Israel.

The moment the movement is known as the new superseding Israel

and fuses together traditional replacement documents with

Palestinian nationalism and Palestinian liberation theology.

The move is unapologetically anti Zionist.

It is politics and their new problems have arisen.

Listen, I work with Arabs, we work with a lot of Arabs.

We have a big heart for Arabs. I work in Jordan, I work in

Syria, I have friends in Saudi Arabia.

I'm not an anti Arab Jew. I love Arabs.

I preach in Arab churches. They welcome me, but there is a

big, big issue going on here, not only with the idea of what's

going on in Palestine, but what's going on in the world

around us as we see this. But there are many, many Arabs

that we need to really, really be sensitive to, and that is the

Christian Arabs. They have the worst of the

worst. The majority of the help that we

were able to provide this lat this last two years went to Arab

congregations because that's where we felt the majority of

the need was. Because in Israel, the Arab

congregations that we work for, and I've been working with some

of these congregations for 15 years, the Jews hate them, the

Muslims hate them, and the secular people hate them.

So they get hate them. They get 33 bangs.

And hopefully I'm going to be taking your pastor to Israel

soon. I'm going to have them teach at

the biggest Arab congregation in Jerusalem.

These people love Jesus, but the politics of course is something

that makes life very messy. The line between anti Zionism

and anti semitism has quickly become blurred and dangerous.

Too often the 2 are seen as one in the same.

My cousins in England were very prominent Jewish people.

In London they could see that there was always a big

difference between the whole position about Israel and

Zionism and them as Jews. Now it's all in one.

Basically, they are enabled just as well as anybody in Israel

regarding those issues today. Anti Semitism sheltering under

the banner of anti Zionism is now referred to as the New Anti

Semitism. Israel is now seen as the

collection of Jews that can be hated there or anywhere in the

world. This is not my opinion, this is

a general consensus among those I read.

The late Professor Robert Welsh Dick was the world's foremost

authority on anti Semitism as the head of the International

Centre of Anti Semitism at Hebrew University.

Here's the way he put it. You have the denial for

instance, that there is any relationship between the so

called criticism of Israel and anti Semitism.

But in fact, most of what goes by the name of criticism of

Israel is feeding on a daily basis the growing demonization

of the Jewish state and Jewish people, which in turn spills

over, I would say, almost with mathematical inevitable

inevitability into the form of dislike, of hostility, and even

today of loathing of Jews. But regardless of this,

regardless of the culture, regardless of progressive

thoughts and thinking, God's plan for Israel includes the

restoration of Israel. Psalm 251125 to 27 says that the

promises for that all Israel will be saved.

Again. Romans 11/25 For I do not

desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this

mystery, mystery, let, lest you should be wise in your own

opinion. The blindness in part has

happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has

come in, and so all Israel will be saved as it's written.

Isaiah wrote that so clearly in Isaiah 5920.

The delivery will come out of Zion, and he will turn away

ungodliness from Jacob for this. This is my covenant with them

when I take away their sins. Looking at these few verses,

let's just unpack them a little bit more.

But think about this, lest you be wise in your own opinion.

This is a warning. It's a warning to be sober as

Christians, and we must not be ignorant of this mystery,

because it is. It is a mystery, and we need to

really consider it and think about it.

We live in a world today which is driven by events, which is

driven by this. What happened October 7th has

forever, forever changed the feelings about Israel and the

Middle East. For the rest of my life.

The entire question of the Israel Palestinian conflict is a

monster. The first week of that horrific

event, many comments I made to Israel, to others.

Here's my heart. I am the son of a survivor.

I have lived with the memories of what these people went

through my whole life, killed 13150 Jews.

Hell will visit you because as I told you, the population

numbers, just think of what 13150 represent to that

population number. And secondly, the majority of

the people that make the decisions in Israel are me.

They're children of survivors and I don't want to go into the

whole thing, but being a child of a survivor was not an easy

life. My sister and I am the only

believer in my family. My sister and brother, they

still live in the bitterness of our childhood to this day, 70

years later. So we need to understand that

these people that are making these decisions are people that

are products of parents who've suffered under the Third Reich.

I have lived and heard so much of the strong sentiments of my

life. It is really big.

And I also will say the response from Israel was also horrific

and has renewed a hate for Israel and Jews, which is

considered unprecedented since the 1930s.

We as believers must embrace this precious word regardless of

the world events. That never changes God's plan

for Israel and for Jews. In spite of the foolishness of

man. The Scripture goes on to tell us

blindness in part has happened to Israel.

Paul summarises this in Romans 1111 through 24.

God's purpose for allowing blindness in part to come to

Israel is for the fullness of us, for the fullness of the

Gentiles to come in. And I love what the pastor Keith

was telling me this week, but he could considers as there are

those that are for and those that are against and this this

is really setting the stage for what it's basically talking

about in my opinion, in New Omens 11.

In part the idea of temporary blindness is there.

It's temporary blindness. One day the Jew will realise

that their blindness and folly and they will accept Jesus

Christ as Lord and Saviour and the the glorious national

restoration that is written here in the word will bring about the

Kingdom age. So the more we understand these

things, we're moving forward the Kingdom age, the more I think we

what are we doing? Going the other way is a good

question that we should ask yourself.

So until the fullness of the Gentiles has come at that time,

God will once again restore Israel to his attention.

Think about this. God's full attention will be on

these people for His plan for the ages, specifically for

Israel again, so that all Israel will be saved.

Basically, we need to see that God has a plan for Israel and

the Jews will be saved. We read in the text that in the

text that all Israel will be saved.

This all is not spiritual Israel.

It isn't spiritual Israel as we read in Romans 1125.

You have heard this verse many times.

It's purposeful that I read it to you, that it speaks loudly

for our, for our attention. For I do not desire, brother,

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. We can see so clearly because

Israel is spiritually blind. They are spiritually blind.

You know the way I love the Lord with all my heart.

I love the Lord. I could never be here today

without the Lord. I can't imagine what I who I

would have been. And my family sees this always.

We have we go to annual Shabbat celebrations in London blind,

blind, blind. It just is like these verses

come alive. Woman's 1126.

The delivery will come out of time and he will turn away

unguarded. This from Jacob.

This is a distinction between national and ethnic Israel and

spiritual Israel. Paul makes it clear in Galatians

37. Therefore, know that only those

who are faith are sons of Abraham, and we see this in

Paul's writing and other passages.

Nonetheless, God, God still has a purpose and a plan for ethnic

Israel and salvation for them all.

We also note that the spiritual Israel, because Paul says that

it is a mystery, it's a mystery and it is now mystery that

basically spiritual Israel will be saved.

We don't know. Speaking of all Israel, it was a

view of Calvin, for example, that the entire company of the

redeem, both Jew and Gentile, is intended but Israel.

And as you read the Scripture, it's not use of Gentiles.

It's basically Paul's talking to Jews.

These chapters in the Scripture are to Jews.

And such is the case in the majority of Paul's writing.

He's not talking to Gentiles. The no Gentiles.

It's practically at that time it's impossible to entertain the

idea that the X to Jesus understands Israel in a

different sense that we read again and again from Romans

1125. So they will be saved as we

finish here today. Think of this.

This states clearly for us that God is not finished with Israel.

And if you don't leave with anything else here today, leave

with that. God is not finished with Israel

as a nation or as a distinct ethnic group.

And I know it. I mean, it's hard.

You watch these things that are going on.

It's hard. But if you want to put some

credibility to it all, start watching some of the October 7th

clips that are coming out and watch it this way.

I've seen clips from October 7th.

I don't wish anybody to ever see never you want to see.

But look at those clips for one reason.

Your parents, you have brothers, you have sisters, you have

mothers, you have grandmothers. Look at those clips and just

imagine what that would do to your heart and your mind and put

on top of that 70 years of life that has been less than

wonderful as a result of the last great horror to God has

turned His focus on saving mercies from us right now.

Israel specifically will be saved because He will turn them

back as He says in His Word. The simple passage refuses those

who insist that God is forever done with Israel, and basically

it is. But let me remind you just one

more time before we finish it today in Genesis 1315, for all

the land which you see is given to you and your descendants

forever. Secondly, Romans 17, seven and

eight, and I will establish my covenant between me and your

descendants after you in their generation, for an everlasting

covenant to be God, to be God to you and your descendants after

you. Also, I give to you and your

descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger.

All the land of Canaan has an everlasting possession, and I

will be their God. God is not finished with Israel.

Israel is not spiritualized as the church.

What we see and rejoice in God's continuing work in the church,

God will do such a marvellous work with Israel that it will be

incredible in Matthew 2329. For I say to you, you shall see

me no more till I say, blessed he who comes in the name of the

Lord. And basically the Scripture is

telling us that until these things happen, we won't see him,

we won't see Jesus. And we need to really consider

what's our role in this. Zechariah 12/10 and 12 says, And

I will pour out on the House of David and the inhabitants of

Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication.

When they look on me whom they pierced, we're talking about

Jesus whom they Pierce. Yes, they will mourn for him as

one mourns for his Son, and grieve for him as one grieves

for a new first born. And verse 11, In that day there

should be a great morning in Jerusalem, like the morning of

Haddad Haman and the plain of Megiddo.

Jesus will not return again until God turns the focus of

saving mercies on Israel again. And Israel responds only one

way. Only one way.

Not this religious Israel, only one way.

Salvation only comes through God, through the salvation of

our Lord Jesus Christ. They must confess Jesus as

Deliverer. The Deliverer will come out of

Zion is a scripture that we've had.

The questions from Israel show that God has a redeeming work to

accomplish yet in Israel and it will not be left undone.

Finally, Romans 11/28 and 29 for God's love and calling for

Israel is still endures. Considering the gospel, they are

the enemies of the gospel. I would suggest these guys that

talk to me most are secular. They're the enemies.

They just want to know they they're jealous.

They want to know how we can live this kind of life when they

don't see it within Judaism, this kind of life.

But they're the enemies for your sake, considering the election.

They are the beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the

sake of the patriots. We can never forget.

They are the beloved for the gifts of calling of and calling

of God are certainly irrevocable.

So what should we do? Well, let me share with you, I

think it's imperative that the church models the heart of the

Apostle Paul for Israel. And listen what Paul said.

Do you know that in Romans 9, three, he said, for the sake of

my brethren, cut my, cut me off, God be done with me for the sake

of Israel. I mean, think about that.

He he offered to separate himself for the love of God, for

the sake of Israel. In the same way that Jesus wept

over his people's unbelief in Jerusalem in the Mount of

Olives, we should weep over unbelieving Israel at this time.

The Church should have a theology that acknowledges the

future role of Israel in the plan of God and actively

promotes Jewish evangelism while simultaneously standing against

both theological and political anti Semitism.

A rich, robust theology needs to take place and it will

contribute to the global health of the Church of Jesus Christ,

which is a larger picture of what will happen.

How can you bless Israel? The Gospel in light of theology

is what I discussed today. It is important that the Church

thinks clearly of what it means to probably bless Israel and the

people of Israel. Unfortunately, we've seen this

command as simply a call to support Jewish charities, many

secular, many secular initiatives.

This may be commendable. It causes many worthy of worthy

support that they cannot be seen as the primary fulfilment of

what the Church needs to do to bless Israel.

We must avoid any simplistic understanding which causes some

kind of blind allegiance, that everything that is overtly,

overtly Jewish. As often is the case with many

evangelical churches supporting causes in Israel that have

nothing to do with the gospel and Jesus Christ.

We need to be clear that the greatest need for the people of

Israel is only one need. We will always have the hungry.

We will always have the poor. But the one need that we need to

recognise is we need to recognise the people of Israel

need the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

That was the heart of Paul and that's what he said in Romans

10/1. My hearts desire and my prayer

to God for them is for their salvation.

They should not be our attitude. That would entail

acknowledgement of rabbinic or Talmudic Judaism.

It's not sufficient. This religion, Israel, is not

sufficient. The Rabbi and the Talmud,

Talmudic scholars will not bring Jesus in.

We will bring Jesus to them. We have the message, the only

clear message. That means that the church

should be supporting those ministry who are actively

involved in taking the good news of the Messiah in, even in the

sense of their humanitarian help.

Listen, we've given a tonne of humanitarian help for this over

20 years, once a year we do it, we do.

It's what it's called our food project.

But every bit of food, every cent we give goes with the fact

this is from believers in Jesus Christ, with tracts, with

survivals at times. We don't want to alienate that.

We've been able to penetrate places in Israel that you would

think it was an exaggeration if I told you this morning.

So this is a biblical mandate. It's a biblical mandate for

supporting Israel. We see that in Romans 15 as we

see the contributions that came from Macedonia for the poor

Saints of Jerusalem. And believe me, the Saints in

Jerusalem, the Saints in Israel are persecuted for the cause of

the gospel. This is a good model.

Thank you. I went a little over, sorry.

Thank you for honouring me this morning.

Thank you for invited me again this year.

It's really a pleasure, a delight.

I'd love to be here, love to be here.

There's nothing as peaceful for me as being here.

This is just WA is like Chillville.

It's it's it's very, very nice just to be down about four

level. Very dear to my heart to be

here, but very dear to my heart to be able to share with you

this message. And thank you, Pastor Keith and

Pastor Israel for inviting me to TUSO.

I basically told them that this is kind of what it was my

thinking before I did. So I hope that you can really

understand that what I'm trying to bring is the gospel of Jesus

Christ. In the midst of all this

confusion. I just want to share with you

that the Lord has shown me, my wife and with the blessings of

our Governing Board of ABM, that I will continue in this message

and will continue to teach His precious word until I fail or

have my last breath. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your love today.

Thank you for for your mercy for each one of us today.

Thank you, Lord, that you, you, you sought us, Lord, if you, you

found us, Lord, then Lord, we're, we're, we're yours, Lord,

we belong to you. We belong to the Kingdom of God.

And Lord, thank you that we can address these complicated

issues. And our heart, Lord, is that

just? Lord, your word would speak to

us the truth, and Lord, we would not be impacted or moved by the

world that endlessly promoting culture in a way that conflicts

with you. So, Lord, I pray for each one

here today. Lord, I pray that you've spoken

to them in some way in this issue.

Lord, I pray you just give them wisdom and guidance.

Fill them with your spirit. Lord, I pray for each one in

this congregation. Lord, bless them.

Lord, bless. Bless this congregation as they

move forward. Lord, bless them in their plans

for their expansion. Lord, bless them in their

ministry. Lord, bless them, especially

Lord, as they bring the good news to children.

Father, Lord, thank you. Thank you for Calvary Chapel WA

Lord, give them, give them, give them the power to make a

difference in their community. We love you in Jesus name, Amen.