The Coming Kingdom 25. The Church is Distinct From Israel Matthew 16:18

all right good to see everybody tonight we've got some more people coming in there should be a hand out there in that box let's see are we good to go up there all right thumbs up well let's open our Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 19 and verse 5 and as you know we're continuing on talking about what does the Bible say about the kingdom which is really a sneaky trick on my part because if you have to study the kingdom in the Bible you've got to study the whole what the whole Bible what a dirty trick that is [Laughter] so we're kind of learning how to put the whole Bible together since the kingdom you know is Pro is really the dominant theme of the Bible so we've traced the kingdom all the way through the Old Testament we saw in the New Testament in the Gospels it was offered to Israel and rejected and consequently at that point the kingdom was what postponed yeah so we're sort of in that section where we're trying to figure out what does the Bible teach about the present program of God well the kingdom is in a state of postponement and that's a an an age of time we call the interim age the intervening age and it's revealed really in two places in the scripture the first are the Matthew 13 parables those two eight of them together collectively tell you exactly what's happening today while the kingdom is not here and then the second area and we've we've completed the Matthew 13 parables a few weeks ago the second area is the age of the church the church began in acts 2 and ends with the rapture so it's a period of time that's a little tighter fit it's included in the inner Advent age but it's more more specific so to help us understand the church and what God is dealing today even though it's not the kingdom but he's at work through the church we've looked at number one the definition of the church what is the church it consists of all people juror Gentile who have trusted in the Messiah that national Israel rejected so God used national Israel in the first century her rejection of her own Messiah turning her over to the Romans for crucifixion to pay the sin debt for the world so God took lemons and turned them into what lemonade and beginning in acts two he created a new spiritual man called the church and anyone that's trusted in that Messiah rejected by national Israel in the first century is part of this new man this body of Christ the church which has been going on for about 2,000 years number two we saw the beginning of the church which is which chapter in the Bible acts 2 and I gave you I think 6 reasons why that was so and then we looked at number three the purposes of the church the church has three basic purposes to glorify God to edify the Saints and to fulfill the Great Commission we talked about those last time we were together we talked about why the church is not the kingdom remember we talked about that and there are thirteen reasons we gave why the church is not the kingdom theirs if you're into geometry there's really not enough points of correspondence between what the scripture reveals about the kingdom and what God is doing currently in the church the differences are insurmountable so you know it's hard to argue that the is the kingdom as many people are doing today and what I want to start talking about tonight is number five that the church is not Israel one of the most important things you could ever learn in Bible study interpretation is the Israel church distinction Israel is Israel and the church is the church and never shall the two trains meet they are two programs of God that are completely separate and understanding that saves you from so much confusion and theological error you know that's happening today but how does this Israel church distinction relate to the subject of the kingdom well in the passages that we've looked at in the Old Testament the kingdom cannot come until who repents first Israel so and this goes right back to Sinai with the Mosaic Covenant God says if you do this then I will do that it's a conditional covenant that God entered into with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai and what is being held up if the condition is not met is the kingdom and we talked about that passage didn't we Exodus 19 verses five and six and the thing that Israel has to do and all of the kingdom program is being held up because they have not done this is they must enthroned the king of God's own choosing and they had a golden opportunity in the first century didn't die with Jesus and they turned it down and so the way the covenants are structured and we've gone through this very carefully the kingdom was in a state of postponement at that point so Jesus just before he left the earth says to Israel Jerusalem Jerusalem I wanted to gather you but you were not willing behold your house is left to you desolate verse 39 of Matthew 23 the last verse in the chapter for I say to you from now on you will not see me until and the until is very important right until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord which is a messianic Psalm you notice it's in quotations its psalm 118 verse 26 so until Israel by reciting psalm 118 verse 26 until Israel does that in in so doing in Thrones Christ nationally the kingdom will remain in a state of postponement and Jesus is not coming back for that nation until that condition is met the purpose of the Great Tribulation Period is to invoke Israel under divine pressure to do this but those are events yet future and because Israel has not done this the kingdom remains in a state of postponement for 2,000 years it's in a state of postponement today see the thing to understand is the whole world could get saved but if tiny Israel has never fulfilled her condition then the kingdom can't come that's how the covenants are set up by God himself conversely the whole world could reject Christ but if tiny Israel fulfills her condition then the kingdom will come so we know from these types of statements putting all the data together that the kingdom is in a state of postponement and today because the condition is not met God has never leaves the earth without a witness of himself he is working in and through the church which is what you're part of it's what I'm part of but the thing to understand is the church is not Israel so follow me on this if the kingdom comes through Israel as I've tried to explain if the kingdom comes because Israel fulfills her condition and the church is not the kingdom today then the kingdom can't be what present so the more you understand that the church and Israel are two different things the more you become solidified in your belief that the kingdom can't be present since the kingdom is going to come only through Israel fulfilling her condition if that makes any sense so the big question is is is the church Israel many people will tell you that well guess what the name Israel is mentioned 73 times in the New Testament and guess what it means every single time means Israel you do a word study arnold fruchtenbaum in his book israel ology the missing link in systematic theology has a wonderful word study on the word Israel in the New Testament and he shows that every single time the word Israel is used it's a technical word meaning it always refers to the same thing every time it's used it refers to the physical descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob sometimes in faith sometimes not in faith but at Israel in the New Testament always means Israel it's never used anywhere as a synonym for the church it's never used as a synonym for the Gentile believers even in the famous Galatians 6:16 passage which I wish we had time to look at tonight where the church is called the Israel of God in fact when you study that carefully the church is not called the Israel of God there's a double epi there in the Greek peace be upon them that's one epi upon peace be upon them and upon the Israel of God Paul when he uses the expression Israel of God is not referring to the whole church in Galatians 6:16 he's referring to the Jewish Christians within the church so that's what he means by the expression Israel of God Israel of God is a very limited term so in the New Testament Israel always means Israel never means the church and beyond that when you get into the book of Acts keep in mind that the book of Acts records history right up to foot Paul's first imprisonment beginning in AD 62 now when was the nation of Israel pushed into worldwide dispersion by the Romans in AD what 70 so Acts is written at a time when Israel is functioning in unbelief and guess what else is functioning the church they're functioning side by side in that book Israel is mentioned 20 times and the church is R which is the Greek word ekklesia is referred to 19 times they're always separate never does Luke in the book of Acts merge Israel in the church together so you look at some of these introductory facts you know concerning how the New Testament treats the nation of Israel and the church and never does it commingle the to never is Israel used as a synonym for the church Israel always means Israel so to help us grow in that what I have for you tonight and I won't be able to get through all of it tonight are 24 differences between Israel and the church I got this number 24 from Lewis Sperry chafer he has a list of 24 I kind of tweaked a few things here and there and he's dead now so he can't complain that I did that but you know and you can probably find more as you study this on your own there are at a bare minimum 24 differences between Israel and the church now the number 24 I don't mean to get too allegorical on you is very interesting to me because how many elders are there in heaven representing the church in the book of Revelation 24 that's kind of interesting isn't it I don't know how far to push that 24 elders 24 differences between Israel and the church but at least you won't forget that right you won't forget the number 24 so I'm trying to convince you and I'm not trying to convince you the Bible's trying to convince you that Israel in the church are separate programs so let's go through this list of 24 shall we I don't think we'll get through all 24 tonight but we'll give it a good run see how far we can go difference number one Israel is the wife of Jehovah you'll see that in a passage like Isaiah 54 and verse 5 but the church is not the wife of Jehovah but it is the what Bride of Christ Ephesians 5:22 through 33 so we Israel as pictured is married to God we are pictured as engaged to God not having gone through the formal marriage ceremony yet but the marriage ceremony is right around the corner it begins with the rapture of the church and at some point I'll show you that the 10 similarities between God's endtime program for the church and a Jewish wedding the serum the parallels are uncanny in terms of what the future is for the church and how God has patterned it after a Jewish wedding but because the wedding ceremony hasn't materialized yet we are not yet the wife we are the bride so as the bride how are we supposed to act well like any woman that's spoken for right Paul says to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 11 2 and 3 for I am jealous with you with a godly jealousy for I betrothed you to one husband so that I might present you as a pure virgin but I fear lest house somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ and he basically says you know a woman when she walks down that aisle is wearing white for a reason white speaks of purity by putting herself in white basically she is saying I have you know kept myself pure sexually and morally for this man that I'm about to marry that's the whole significance of the woman in white when she walks down the aisle so since we are engaged spiritually than we are to put aside sins and things that would cause us to be unfaithful to the one that were engaged to to the one that were betrothed to that's why sin in the life of the Christian is analogized to fornication here sexually and at James 4 and verse 4 makes that case and so forth so what is the church the church is the Bride of Christ difference number two is Israel birthed Christ Jesus came into this world through which nation the nation of Israel and that's why Matthew in his genealogy in Matthew 1 verses 1 through 18 is very clear that Jesus lineage goes back first of all to David ultimately to Abraham his genealogy written to a Jewish audience goes back to Abraham the beginning of the nation of Israel so Jesus was not a presbyterian he was not a Methodist he was not a Southern Baptist he wasn't even a member of a Bible Church he was as Jewish as they come because the nation of Israel gave birth to Christ God said I will bless the world through Israel and one of those blessings the most dominant blessing is the Messiah himself Jewish all the way Jewish blood through his veins from beginning to end you go through the Gospels you see Jesus doing what going to Jerusalem to honor the various feasts which was what Jewish people do did and to some extent continue to do now compare that to the church did the church give birth to Jesus Christ and so the way around isn't it Christ gave birth to the what the church in matthew 16 and verse 18 jesus said i say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church so the church is a product of Christ with Israel it's the exact opposite Christ is a product of Israel and so that would be to my mind a major major major distinction which takes us to a third difference between Israel and the church when is Jesus coming back for the nation of Israel he's coming back for the nation of Israel at the end of the Tribulation Period when they cite psalm 118 verse 26 as we talked about earlier Jerusalem Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her how often I have longed to gather now that word gathers very important it's the Greek verb epi soon ah go soon ah go kind of sounds like synagogue doesn't it what is a synagogue a Jewish gathering and what Jesus is saying is when I came to the first time to Israel I wanted to have synagogue with the nation I wanted to gather you together and be with you and he gives us beautiful metaphor how often I wanted to gather you together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings the problem wasn't me jesus says the problem was who you first century Israel you were unwilling so behold your house is left to you desolate for I say to you from now on you will not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord I'm not gonna have synagogue with you I'm not going to come back and gather you nationally until you acknowledge me as your Messiah which you've never done Matthew 23 which is the end these verses are at the end of Matthew 23 Matthew 23 is followed by Matthew 24 very good which is a description of the tribulation period which is the instrument that God is going to use to induce Israel to trust in him it's the instrument God uses in every person's life he brings people to himself through tribulation it's what he's done in my life it's probably what he's done doing or done in your life and the Tribulation Period is described there in verses 21 and 22 for there will be great tribulation since has not occurred from the beginning of the world until now nor ever will be unless those days be cut short no life would have survived but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short it's a time of unparalleled distress and what's the end result verse 31 he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will what's the next word 24:31 gather them together see that what's the word for gather Eppie soon ah go where we get the word what synagogue I wanted to do this when I came to you the first time but you wouldn't have me so you're going into a time of unparalleled distress where you're gonna recognize that everything you've trusted in has failed then you're gonna acknowledge me as the Messiah psalm 118 verse 26 you will sight and then I will gather you and he returns not in the rapture not talking about the rapture here we're talking about the second Advent at the end of the Tribulation Period to gather them and protect them from the Satanic Lee energized Antichrist who was trying to kill them so that what you start to see is Christ is coming back for Israel in his second Advent at the end of the Tribulation Period now how about the church when's he coming for the church he's not coming back for us at the end of the Tribulation Period he's coming back for us in an event called the rapture where he is going to take us to the father's house for seven years which precedes the Tribulation Period and you see a description of that event first hinted at in John 14 1 through 4 so what you start to see is oh my goodness is Rick God is for Israel in one time period but he's coming back for the church at a completely different time period and you see this is the birth of a doctrine which is very attacked today and one of the reasons it's attacked as the devil hates it the Blessed hope of the church now how did this doctrine come into existence it's always been there but the man who sort of brought it out into the forefront was a man named John Nelson Darby who it was not one of the bad guys in my estimation despite what you read about him on the Internet he was one of the good guys in Ireland in the 1800s he was a man of God he was baptizing probably a hundred people a week God was using him greatly in his parish but he got into a horse riding accident and I believe it was his leg that was broken now this is the 1800s this is prior to x-rays and you know hyperbaric chambers and all of the things all of these medical advances that we have today so the only thing you could do is be immobilized try to heal so he's a man of God and what do you think he was studying what book do you think he was studying this is before cable it was before Christian bestsellers maybe there were some but he was studying his Bible right and what he starts to see is oh my goodness Israel and the church are different which made him happy because the government of that day was coercing him to make his converts loyal to Ireland I think it was and he hated that because he felt that that was a hindrance put on his ministry that God never put on his ministry and this idea that the church is the state the state as the church is always something that bothered him well in this time of convalescence he saw that Israel and the church are different because they're described completely different I'll be giving you more differences that he saw and just emit a little bit later as we continue through the list but if Israel and the church are different if they are two trains on different railroad tracks if they are separate programs of God guess what God is coming back Christ is coming back at a different time for the church than he is Israel so his understanding John Nelson Darby of the Israel Church distinction led him in the direction of the pre-tribulation rapture you see that if you believe that Israel and the church are different not just different people different programs then the stage has already been set see for you to be a convert to the pre-tribulation rapture and that's the way it worked for Darby and that's what I believe to this day I don't put the church in Israel's endtime program because Israel in the church are basically separate programs so a third difference is he's coming back for Israel in the second Advent at the end of the Tribulation Period he's coming back for the church and what's called the rapture now I only underlined the ones where I have extended slides so if I don't have any underlining on there that means we're just moving to the next one down the fourth difference is leadership how is Christ's leadership role described relative to Israel he is described as their what their king all the way through the Old Testament he's described as their king over and over again for example in the book of Isaiah chapter 33 in verse 22 Isaiah 33 verse 22 it says of Israel for the Lord is our judge the Lord is our lawgiver the Lord is our what king he will save us now you get into the New Testament and the imagery that's used to describe Christ's relationship to the church is never King subject the way it is for Israel other images are used he is the groom we are the what the bride the book of Ephesians develops that quite a bit another imagery that's used he is the head we are the body so ephesians and colossians were written about the same time from the same place rome paul's first imprisonment in Rome and colossi and Ephesus are probably about a hundred miles apart when you look at them on a map so you have to take Ephesians and Colossians together to get the whole picture but Colossians is really all about the body excuse me look how that wrong Ephesians is all about the body which is the church colossians on the other hand is all about not the body but the what the head so the emphasis of Ephesians is body Church the emphasis of Colossians is Christ the head and if you want to understand what we are relative to Christ you flush out those two metaphors it's not King subject King Kingdom the way the analogy is used for God in Israel in the scripture how about the beginning when did the wind of the nation of Israel start anybody remember what's that Genesis 12 the calling of Abraham why did God call Abraham we've talked about because of the spread of the mother-child cult that affected every nation because of what happened in Genesis 11 which describes the Tower of Babel so Genesis 11 is followed by Genesis 12 Genesis 11 is the crisis Genesis 12 is the solution you see that so God has to have a nation to channel his blessings to the world so he separates Abram you'll notice I've got Joshua 24 verses 2 and 3 on that map there towards the bottom it's a verse that tells you that Abraham whose name at that time was Abram was an idolatrous like any anybody else in the world at that time but God separated him from the ur of the chaldeans told him to walk by faith he got saved he learned the life of separation and gradually God began to unfold to this man various promises and ultimately a covenant called the Abrahamic covenant Genesis 15 and and from that whole structure and God's dealings with Abram who later became Abraham you have the beginning of the nation of Israel so the the birthday of Israel is Genesis 12 that's when it started when did the church start as we've studied acts 2 so Israel and the church have two different birthdays how about Scripture how much of the scripture deals with the nation of Israel four fifths or 80 percent of the Bible deals with the nation of Israel a mere one-fifth or twenty percent of the Bible deals with the church now just to kind of get this point across you might want to take your Bible and open it to Genesis 12 the birthday of Israel actually put it yeah Genesis 12 would be good and just put your index finger of your left hand I guess in Genesis 12 and then keep turning in your Bible to Acts chapter one go over to acts 1 locate x1 if you could and with the same hand with your thumb of the same hand put your thumb in acts 1 so you should have your index finger in Genesis 12 same hand thumb in acts 1 now without wrecking your Bible you want to pull it up gently by the bottom because these Bibles are some of them aren't well put together particularly if they get older which is a good thing a Bible that's falling apart is usually owned by a person who is not falling apart amen so if your Bible is falling apart that's a good thing so hold hold it up and just go like this to you and hold this up to your face is that not staggering look at how much of the Bible deals with Israel and and look how much of the Bible deals with the church this this little dinky bit over here you know even that little dinky part not all of that deals with the church after you get outside of Revelation for the rest of it continues on with the nation of Israel primarily so what I'm saying is there is a voluminous amount of information in yours Bible about the nation of Israel the church is a wonderful thing and it's the part of the Bible we're most comfortable with because it directly affects us but only one-fifth of the Bible deals with the church yet most Christians today know I would say next to nothing about that 80% in fact most of the sermons that you get today in modern-day Christendom in modern day Christianity do not come from that giant part they come from that small part and I'm wondering sometimes if that should be true given the amount of information God devoted to the nation of Israel so you have a guy like arnold fruchtenbaum who comes along and he's a Hebrew Christian and he says you know we've got all these areas of systematic theology we've got pneumatology the study of the spirit Christology the study of christ ecclesiology the study of the church why don't we have an area called Israel ology and it's like duh of course we should have an area called Israel gee why didn't I think of that we should have an area of theology that systematically related arranges everything that God has said about the nation of Israel which is a major undertaking since 80% of the Bible deals with that so that becomes the basis of fruit in Baum's doctoral dissertation which he completed at NYU New York University and the title of it and some of you own it and I own it I recommend you buy it Israel ology the missing link in systematic theology and his dissertation committee made him cut out about a thousand pages so it should be a thousand pages longer than the published volume bid that you possess but obviously Israel in the church are very different in terms of the amount of space that is used in the Bible one to the other what about the covenants haven't we studied the covenants in this class the Abrahamic covenant the Davidic covenant the new covenant the the land covenant what's our what is Israel's relationship to those covenants what is our relationship to those covenants well Israel was a direct party to the Covenant take a look if you could at the Book of Jeremiah chapter 31 and notice if you will verses 31 and 32 when God entered into these covenants he always intended to bless the world through these covenants but he entered into them with one nation the nation of Israel the nation of Israel is the only nation in the history of mankind that the god of the universe made a contract with Jeremiah 31 and verses 31 and 32 it says behold the days are coming declares the Lord I will make a new covenant with First Baptist of Houston doesn't say that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the Covenant which I made with their forefathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares law by the way did you see the husband imagery there he never calls himself the groom to Israel he calls himself the what the husband to Israel so Israel is a party to the covenants well what are we relative to these covenants I mean don't we take communion are we getting ready to take communion this Sunday in celebration of the what starts with an N New Covenant so obviously we have some kind of relationship to these covenants well here is the best conceptual tool I know of to explain this we are not a party to these covenants for the for the simple reason that Church wasn't there when these covenants were made the church's birthday hasn't even occurred until acts 2 right so we are not a party to the Covenant we are if you put this in contract terms in law third party beneficiaries you say what in the world are you talking about well let me use an illustration there's any anybody's car in here need to be washed although I've seen your car all your riot that doesn't need a little wash and you know I'm driving in and I look at all this car and I said that's a nice car but it could use a little bit of a wash so what I do without Allah even knowing it is I enter I hire ray you want to wash your car ray I hire Ray and I say ray and she all doesn't even know what I'm doing I say ray I'm gonna pay you money and I want you to wash all his car so we get we get the terms of the agreement spelled out all of the zoom and I have any idea that we've entered into this arrangement so who are the parties to the Covenant me and Ray now in the contractual relationship in the analogy I'll put myself in the place of God which I don't like to do but let's just pretend and if you think I'm God you can ask you my wife and show tell you otherwise so I'm God and Ray would be who Israel all on the other hand would be who the church see how it works there we have been radically blessed by a lot of these covenants but we were never in the in the design of God an actual party to the covenants the very best we are are we get a spillover effect we're third party beneficiaries we celebrate the Lord's table and the covenant not because we were there in the sixth century BC when this covenant was made but we get this spillover effect because God always knew he was going to bless us some way through this covenant although we were never parties so that would be a key distinction Israel is a party to all of these covenants that we've studied the church is not a party to any of these covenants rather the church has been indirectly blessed in a third-party beneficiary relationship by these covenants another difference is the church excuse me Israel is a political nation as such as you study the Old Testament you will discover that she has borders like any other nation would have that are very easily defined Genesis 15 verses 18 through 20 defines Israel's borders from modern-day Egypt ultimately to modern-day Iraq not only does she have borders but she has a capital when the nation of Israel was divided north and south the capital of the north became anybody know Sumeria the capital of the South became what Jerusalem and you go through the Old Testament and you'll see borders you'll see capitals you'll see tribes 12 tribes and then you'll see kings because these two split sections of the nation were governed by various kings most of them weren't that good the southern kingdom had twenty Kings eight of them were good the northern kingdom went oh and nineteen that's a pretty lousy season isn't it they had 19 kings they didn't have a sing good one and actually we have a whole book in our Bible talking about this called the books of first and second Kings because there's a lot of kings in those books so the nation of Israel has kings it has a capital it has borders because the nation of Israel is just that a nation now let's compare that to the church does the church have anything like that not at all in fact Paul calls the church in Romans 10 verse 19 not a nation why are we not a nation because we consists of people whether Jew or Greek slave or free male or female as a body a spiritual man from all the what nations we don't we don't have a race we don't have a nation we don't have a capital we don't have tribes we don't have kings we don't have a border in fact what God has done in the present church age is he has made both groups do and Gentile into one new spiritual spiritual man so the church if it's called anything it's called a pilgrim in this world in the book of first Peter chapter 2 and verse 11 a New Testament epistle describing the church it describes us as strangers and aliens sojourners because this world is not our home Israel is never described that way Israel is right at home in the world why is that because she's a nation just like the United States of America just like Canada Argentina Japan and thus whele Brazil or any other nation you want to talk about in fact when the United Nations meets there is the nation of Israel right there alongside the other nations because she has a place in this world as given by God as a political entity and a political nation not so the church the church is a no nation the church is a non nation now you say well why are you rambling on about things that aren't practical let me tell you how practical this is that the Roman Catholic Church which sees itself as the new Israel as the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth the Roman Catholic Church who believes that all of Israel's blessings have been transferred to her functions and acts like a nation she has a capital doesn't she called what Vatican City in fact the Roman Catholic Church is very active trying to influence the politics of the world now why are they trying to do that why do they have a Capitol why do they have a pope a pope will type papal type leader who goes from place to place you know and the kind of the bulletproof popemobile I mean the whole thing looks very political to me well it makes sense if you understand what they think that they are Israel if they are Israel and they are the new Israel they're acting like a nation see that but you see that's not the calling of the church that's not the New Testament description of the church we transcend borders we are a spiritual man a spiritual body worldwide that has gone into all nations this is how practical what I'm talking about is it's not just pie in the sky theology if the church gets confused on something like this its purpose Changez it becomes a political entity and a political animal now we have a lot of political activists in our church and I say Amen but the reality of the situation is politics is not the primary task of the church I think it can be a task in terms of holding back evil but the reality of the situation is Jesus didn't tell us to go into the world and subdue the political systems of the world I love it when I see Christians involved in that but the primary purpose of the church is to go and make what disciples of all ethnos all the nations it's it's we're not into collective salvation we're into personal salvation and when the church gets confused on this what it starts to talk about more and more is social causes right or left pro-life or left type causes health care environment and these kind of things become the focus not that the church can't have some kind of minor influence on those things but those things by the design of God were never intended to be our focus the focus is to reach and teach we don't waste our time communicating collective salvation for nations what we're talking about is personal salvation for human beings and individuals so the problem with the human race is not the fact that they don't have the right political system the problem with the human race is personal sin which separates them from a holy God and human beings are headed towards a crisis eternity unless they trust in the gospel that's the message of the church and you see these things get lost when we stop seeing ourselves as a spiritual entity but a political entity another difference between Israel and the church Israel went out and fought political Wars with who with the Philistines with the Hittites with the girgashites with the amorite with the Amalekites with the Jebusites with the electric lights and the out of sights and the termites and the mosquito bites and all of those groups that's you read the Old Testament and there's actual physical conflict going on there is Wars there's armor there's casualty counts there's real people dying there is no such New Testament description of the church not that I don't support people and honor people that want to go out and defend their country in a patriotic sense praise the Lord but the reality is that's not the institution of the church that's the institution of human government what kind of wars does the church fight we wrestle not against flesh and blood see the difference but against principalities and powers and rulers in this dark world in other words put on the full armor of God our whole conflict is spiritual Israel's whole conflict was political and physical and you say well there Andy goes again rambling on about subjects that don't matter well here's why it matters you've got situations in church history where the church sees itself as the political vehicle of God to go over to the Middle East and and through the Crusades and liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims and they're all siding as they go a bunch of passages from the Old Testament well the reality of the situation is maybe God told Israel to do that in Old Testament times but there's no such instructions for the church because the church is not involved in physical political warfare she's involved in what spiritual warfare here's another difference timing statements and this is really the thing that switched John Nelson Darby into his belief that Israel and the church are different during his time of convalescence you see Darby who was baptizing about a hundred people per week was having a great effect there in Dublin Ireland and what the Lord did is said I'm gonna help you have a greater effect how you gonna do that Lord I'm gonna allow your leg to get broken and I'm gonna put you in a place of convalescence where you're not busy anymore and the only thing you have to do is to study the Word of God because in that place of convalescence the Holy Spirit is going to illuminate to you something the Israel Church distinction and from the Israel Church distinction comes forth the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture which has been a doctrine transgenerational II since the time of Darby you see that the Lord could have used Darby in his generation to do great things but the Lord says I want I'm gonna do something greater through your life but it's going to take a broken leg to do that you see that's a different way of looking at Trials isn't it you know we think being sidelined being sick being taken out of the game so to speak we think that's some great setback let me tell you something without the sovereignty of God in Darby's life via the broken leg his transgenerational affect couldn't have happened so one of the things that Darby started to see in the scripture is what in Latin are called ah quo odd quymn statements what does that mean it's just a Latin word that means beginning and end what Darby started to see in the scripture were the fact that the nation of Israel always had a number for example in the book of Genesis chapter 15 and verses 13 through 16 God said Israel is going to go into Egyptian bondage for how many years 400 years and then in the Book of Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 11 and chapter 29 verse 10 he says you're going to go into captivity for how many years seven years and then when you go over to the Book of Ezekiel chapter four in verses 5 through 7 it says for I have assigned to you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity three hundred and ninety days thus you shall bear the house of Israel when you have completed these you shall lie down a second time but on your right side to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah I have assigned it to you for 40 days then you shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem with your arm barred and prophesy against it so in other words Ezekiel I want you to lie on your side for 390 days and then I want you to turn over and I want you to lie on your side for 40 days well why am i doing that lord well the 390 days corrala corresponds with 390 years of Israel's disobedience and the 40 years of 40 days corresponds with the 40 years of the southern kingdoms disobedience you see what's going on in the Old Testament you've got actual years and then God gave Israel a clock called the 70 weeks of Daniel which I hope you know something about now since we've spent six weeks Sunday morning going over it it's a four hundred and ninety or stopwatch see how Israel keeps having a number not only that the nation of Israel is given a calendar for spring feasts three fall feasts here's where they fall on the calendar system a few feasts were added later in Israel's history so Israel has numbers Israel has calendars Darby is looking at his New Testament the 20% of it that relates to the church and he says you know what there is not one calendar in the New Testament related to the church there is no number why is it that Israel has all of these numbers and how all these dates and has all of these calendars and yet you go into the New Testament and you read what God says about the New Testament church and there's not one date given there's not even a calendar so you have acqua odd clem statements related to Israel but not a single one related to the church and Darby the light goes on it says you know what Israel and the church are different spiritual organisms and if they are different spiritual organisms then Christ is coming back at a different time for the church than he is for Israel and thus you see from the Israel Church distinction the corollary position of the pre-tribulation rapture see that if you believe what I'm saying about Israel in the church being different the pre-trib rapture is a cinch well you know why is Andy talking about all these kinds of things and not talking about anything practical you want to know how practical it is you know how many churches there are out there that try to impose a Christian calendar on their congregations I mean they've got the whole thing working out we've got the Advent season we've got this season we've got that season I grew up in a church like this we're gonna celebrate Pentecost at this particular day and this particular date and they've got a whole calendar worked out and then you start to say well why in the world are we doing that when God never gave the church a calendar not that a calendar can't be a nice organizing tool just to see where we are in the season the reality is we are of such a different DNA spiritually that we don't have a calendar Israel had all the calendars the church doesn't have a calendar now let me take this one step further I just got back from a prophecy conference I've done two prophecy conferences in October do you realize how how confused people are about all this stuff out there do you realize how many people there are that think the rapture is going to occur on Rosh Hashanah which is the Feast of what trumpets and this is how they think they think well Paul talks about a trumpet associated with the rapture and let's connect that trumpet with Israel's Feast of Trumpets on the Jewish calendar so there are people and I know a guy in particular he puts out extra food for his animals and things extra milk for his cat on Rosh Hashanah the Feast of Trumpets because he thinks he's going to be raptured on that particular calendar day and I'm thinking well the cat is still going to starve because you're going to be gone permanently but there is all these there's all these people doing this they're trying to set these dates for the rapture the reality is when you do that what do you just co-mingled Israel in the church why would you take the rapture which is an event for the church and the church by nature is dateless why would you impose upon that new spiritual man a calendar system for something to occur in church history which concerns Israel this is how practical this is there are churches today that are completely wrapped up in these Jewish feasts and they make it sound as if as if you don't celebrate these you're outside the will of God some Messianic fellowships push the envelope greatly in this direction in my estimation now don't get me wrong as we've been studying the Book of Daniel we've made reference to these feasts I want you to know they're there you have to understand these feasts nor understand the Bible but they were never designed to be imposed directly on the church why is that because Israel and the church are what separate how could you set a calendar date for the rapture when the church by nature is calendar less and dateless you follow and the reason i interject these things is i want us to understand that what we're talking about here the israel church distinction saves you from a ton of confusion that is widespread out there in the body of Christ well I'm speaking of clocks and count I guess we don't have a calendar I can just keep going right now I'm just I think in human terms it's 804 so I better stop talking so we will dismiss people too pick up their kids if they need to do that and we'll pick it up here next time with priests priesthood

Channel: Andy Woods

Views: 10,999

Rating: 4.7269077 out of 5

Keywords: bible study, Andy Woods, Kingdom Now, Israel, church, dispensationalism

Id: p8b2zHTUhTk

Length: 66min 29sec (3989 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2017