Participants: Pr. Jac Colon
Series Code: RN
Program Code: RN000004
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01:05 Before we get into the message tonight, I just want
01:07 to, I'll tell you a little story. It was in April 1986, 01:14 my wife and I and our two small boys climbed down from 01:18 the big jet at the Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan. 01:21 We were going there to do a Revelation Now meeting. 01:23 We noticed a flurry of activity in the skies overhead, 01:26 helicopters, jets flying around and armed guards just every 01:30 few feet around the perimeter of the airport after an 01:33 incredibly stringent security check, we finally got our 01:37 baggage and we were greeted at the curve by a van full of 01:41 people that came to take us to the place where we would be 01:43 staying. And we finally, we got our stuff loaded in the van and 01:47 we were off on our way to the apartment and the driver said 01:51 we are kind of surprised that they let you in. We said, 01:56 surprised! Why? Well, haven't you heard? Heard what? 02:04 The Americans bombed Tripoli today, and we think they got 02:08 Gaddafi's daughter. And suddenly we were wishing we 02:14 were back in the United States of America. 02:17 But, you know the reason I'm telling you this little 02:19 story is because one of the Arab ladies sitting in the van 02:23 with us said, bravo! And I thought, bravo! Where is the 02:37 United Arab Brotherhood? We weren't over there very 02:42 long and we discovered that the Jordanians were not that 02:47 fond of the Palestinians and the Egyptians didn't like the 02:53 Jordanians, they didn't like the, the Saudi Arabians and 02:58 nobody liked the Palestinians. It reminded me of 03:04 a Bible text, Ishmael, father of the Arab race, he will be 03:09 a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone 03:13 everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility 03:15 against all of his brothers. But you know no matter how much 03:18 they fought, no matter how much they dislike one another, 03:22 they were united in one thing and that was their hatred and 03:25 animosity against that one little country, small enough 03:28 to drive across in half an afternoon, Israel, twice in 03:37 their past nearly totally destroyed and now once again, 03:42 Israel is a nation and practically the whole Christian 03:45 world is looking to Israel and the Middle East as a sign of 03:48 the end of this world's history. What is the truth about 03:51 Israel in prophecy? Let's pray together. 03:58 O' Lord we are about to open your word and once again 04:01 we can't, we can't even begin without asking you to open our 04:07 eyes, open our minds, open our hearts, let us see and 04:12 understand and believe the truth that you have for us in 04:15 these last days Lord, we want to understand the truth about 04:19 Israel in prophecy and the rebuilding of the Temple 04:23 we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. 04:35 Rabbi Tsion Ben Judah, was a Jew who converted over to Jesus 04:46 after the rapture of the church published his ministry on the 04:51 Internet was a major player in the Tribulation Force intending 04:55 to reap a harvest, a soul harvest of 144,000 Jewish 05:01 evangelists to cover the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ 05:05 and to publish on the Internet his interpretations of 05:09 the Prophecies as way marks, as signs for people to see how 05:13 they were progressing through the great tribulation. That's 05:21 a major player in the novel series Left Behind. In the end, 05:32 the Left Behind series, one of the greatest signs that 05:38 the whole world was looking to was to indicate the end of 05:43 time was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. And then 05:50 the antichrist would come and defile the temple that was 05:54 rebuilt. It's interesting, Left Behind is a novel, it says 06:07 so on the back, a novel of of the Earth's last days. 06:14 Practically the whole world is following the lead of this 06:16 novel series. In fact its supposed to be based on the 06:22 Bible when I was, when I bought this particular copy of the 06:25 book, I was in the airport and a lady saw me with it in my 06:30 hand as I was up at the cash register and she said, oh! 06:33 That's a wonderful book, every word is based on the Bible. 06:38 I said is that so, said it says here, that it's a novel, 06:43 but every word is based on the Bible, you see the problem 06:45 is that sometimes it's difficult to know where the truth ends 06:49 and the novel begins and so today following the lead of 06:54 Left Behind and many of the popular evangelists and 06:57 teachers practically the whole Christian World is looking to 06:59 the Middle East, to Jerusalem, to the Temple and 07:03 the rebuilding of the temple. Because you see in A.D. 70 07:07 the temple was destroyed, the temple was the focal point of 07:10 Israel's worship, it was the place where Israel met 07:13 with God, it was the place where sacrifices were offered 07:16 that were pointing forward to Jesus, but then in A.D. 70, 07:19 Titus, a Roman General marched into Jerusalem, he destroyed 07:22 the temple and just as Jesus said, there was not one stone 07:25 left standing on another. And then taking the lead from the 07:29 prophet Amos in the 9th Chapter, in the 11th Verse, 07:33 in that day the last day I will restore David's fallen tent, 07:37 I will repair its broken places, I'll restore its ruins 07:40 and build it as it used to be and once again the whole world 07:44 is looking, waiting for the rebuilding of the temple as 07:47 a sign of the end of this world's history. Only problem 07:52 is that today there is a Muslim mosque standing on the 07:55 spot were the temple is supposed to go. And the rumors 08:00 and speculations run rapid as to how will that temple be 08:05 rebuilt when the mosque is there because the Arabs are 08:08 not that interested in tearing down their mosque to build 08:11 a Jewish temple. There is much speculation today about men 08:19 seeking for just the slightest little clue as to how the 08:24 rebuilding of the temple is going to take place, but I'm 08:27 telling you tonight its crystal clear from the word of God that 08:30 the building of the temple is going on right now as we sit 08:35 here this evening and I'm going to prove it to you tonight. 08:41 As I began to study this subject, rebuilding of the 08:45 temple, years ago I found a couple of what I call curious 08:53 Bible texts, you ever find a text that you read and it's 08:56 just curious what does it mean and I found, let me share 09:00 with you both of them in Revelation the 2nd Chapter 09:02 Verse 9, Revelation Chapter 2 Verse 9, this is in the letter 09:06 to the church in Smyrna, he says in the ninth Verse, 09:08 I know the slander of those who say that they are Jews, 09:13 but they are not, they are synagogue of Satan. Now that 09:17 was curious to me, who would say I am a Jew when he is not 09:22 a Jew. In fact not only is he not a Jew, but he is 09:29 a synagogue of Satan, interesting, because 09:34 the synagogue is a temple. Who would say I'm a Jew when 09:41 he is the temple of Satan? Another curious text in Romans, 09:46 this one, this time in Romans the second Chapter, Romans 09:49 Chapter 2 Verse 28, a man is not a Jew if he is only one 09:55 outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 09:59 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is 10:04 circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit and not by the 10:07 written code. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly 10:12 in other words it means that it's possible for a person to 10:14 be a physical Jew, but not be a Jew at all because he is not 10:17 one inwardly, spiritually, and not by the written code. 10:25 What does it mean? A Jew who isn't a Jew, one who says that 10:30 he is a Jew when he is not, circumcision that's not 10:32 circumcision, could it be that perhaps these curious texts 10:38 are telling us that may be we are missing something very, 10:42 very important about Israel in prophecy today? And so what 10:47 I want to do is go back to the beginning, all the way back to 10:50 Genesis in the very beginning, we are gonna go from Genesis 10:54 all the way through the Revelation tonight, we are 10:56 gonna cover a lot of Bible, a lot of texts, not a lot of 10:59 stories, we are going to go deep into God's word, so fasten 11:02 your seat belts and hold on, because you are going to get 11:04 so excited, you want to just join and jump up out of your 11:07 seats when you see the truth about Israel. Let's take a look, 11:10 what does the Bible say, the best kept secret about 11:14 Israel in Bible Prophecy, Genesis Chapter three, Genesis 11:18 the 3rd Chapter the 15th Verse, we read it last night, lets 11:21 look at it again, because I told you we'd finish it 11:24 tonight. In the 3rd Chapter 15th Verse 11:26 God speaking to the Serpent, who had just deceived the woman 11:30 and Adam into plunging the world into the depths of sin 11:33 and despair and God was there with a promise, he said, 11:36 I would put enmity between you, the Serpent and the woman and 11:41 between your offspring and between hers and he will crush 11:45 your head and you will strike his heel. Now we learned last 11:51 night that the Serpent is the devil and the seed of the 11:54 Serpent is not baby snakes running around on the ground, 11:56 but the seed of the Serpent is those who choose to follow 12:00 after the devil. The Serpent, the seed of woman is the one 12:07 who has a bruise on the heel then we learned last night that 12:10 this was Jesus, he received a bruise on the heel when he 12:13 died on the cross, but three days later he was raised up 12:16 again ascended to heaven and he is going to come back 12:20 according to this prophecy and crush the head of 12:23 the Serpent. And remember all of the rest of the Bible 12:27 from Genesis 3:15, all the way to Revelation Chapter 22, 12:31 all the rest of the Bible unpacks this one 12:35 prophecy, answering the question, how is God going to 12:40 eventually crush the head of the Serpent through 12:43 Jesus Christ. How is he going to do it? We got a clue, 12:47 didn't we last night? Remember the Lord God in Verse 21:4, 12:51 garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothe them with skin, 12:55 for the first time, we see for the first time in all of the 12:59 Universe, in the history of eternity for the first time, 13:03 an innocent life, innocent blood had to be shed in order 13:08 to cover sinful human beings and here was just a little 13:11 glimpse into the future of how God would be crushing 13:15 the head of the Serpent. The seed of the woman would 13:20 crush the head of the Serpent. Now when God made that promise 13:29 to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there was only one 13:34 woman on the planet and that was Eve. They took God 13:44 literally and interpreted his promise to mean that they would 13:54 literally have a son and their son would literally be 14:00 the one to crush the head of the Serpent. They took it 14:05 literally and named their son Cain. Because Cain means 14:10 acquired and they thought that they had acquired 14:12 the fulfillment of the promise, they thought Cain would 14:15 crush the head of the Serpent, but you know that tragic story, 14:18 don't you? Cain failed. He murdered his own brother. 14:26 And then they began to understand that that promise 14:30 was not to be in fulfilled literally, but in a different 14:36 way. Genesis Chapter 12, we see the seed again, in Genesis the 14:45 12th Chapter the 1st Verse, the Lord said to Abram, leave 14:51 your country, your people and your father's household and go 14:55 to the land that I will show you. I will make you into 15:00 a great nation and I will bless you and your name will 15:04 be great and you will be a blessing and underline this, 15:10 in Verse 3, all of the people on Earth will be blessed 15:14 through you Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham. 15:21 What a promise! Leave your home, leave your country go to 15:25 a place that I'll show you, he didn't even know where he 15:28 was going when he left, he just knew God, trusted God, 15:31 followed God, and then God said all of the people on the Earth 15:36 will be blessed through you. Underline it. Remember that, 15:40 we are going to come back to it in a few moments. Verse 6, 15:43 Abraham traveled through the land. At that time, 15:47 the Canaanites were living in the land. Verse 7, the Lord 15:51 appeared to Abraham and he said, to your offspring, 15:54 to your seed I will give this land and there is the promise, 16:02 two-fold promise. Abraham, through you all the nations of 16:07 the Earth would be blessed and to your offspring I will give 16:12 this land, the Bible says. The problem was Abraham had 16:22 no offspring, he had no seed, he was almost 100 years old, 16:29 his wife almost 100 years old, couldn't have children there 16:32 was no hope for them to have an offspring that could become 16:37 a mighty nation. So Abraham, his wife Sarah began to discuss 16:41 the matter. And they decided that God needed a little help 16:47 from them to fulfill this prophecy. So, Sarah got the 16:53 idea, look, I can't have babies and you are getting old, we 16:56 better do something pretty quick here, why don't you just 16:58 take my maid, why don't you take my maid Hagar, you go with 17:05 her and let her have a child and then God can fulfill his 17:10 promise, while it made sense to Abraham. So, Hagar conceived 17:15 gave birth to a son, Ishmael. Now Abraham had a son, now 17:23 Abraham had a descendant, now Abraham had a seed, now God 17:28 could fulfill his promise through Ishmael that he made 17:31 to Abraham, but God said no, your wife Sarah will conceive 17:36 and bear a son and I'll fulfill my promise through him. And 17:44 she did, miraculously, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Isaac 17:50 was born in a miraculous way and God said I'll fulfill my 17:55 promise through Isaac and not Ishmael. Question, an important 18:04 question, why? Why did God say yes to Isaac and no to Ishmael? 18:17 Ishmael was Abraham's descendent, God said, Abraham 18:23 through your seed all the nations of the Earth will 18:26 be blessed. Abraham, your seed will possess the land and 18:30 Ishmael was a seed of Abraham. Just as much as Isaac was 18:35 in fact he was the first born, he was even more entitled to 18:40 the rights that come as a descendant of Abraham. So, 18:44 why did God say no to Ishmael and yes to Isaac? Can't you see 18:49 that already here in the Old Testament the Bible is 18:52 giving us a glimpse of the fact that when God said Abraham 18:57 through you all the nations on the Earth will be blessed, 18:59 when God said Abraham your seed will be possess this land, God 19:03 meant something more than simply being a flesh and blood 19:09 descendent of Abraham. If that was the only criteria then it 19:14 should have been Ishmael. Well, what about Ishmael? Already 19:24 read it, look at it again, Chapter 16, Verse 12, he will be 19:27 a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and 19:31 everyone's hand against him and he will live in hostility 19:33 towards all of his brothers, Ishmael became the father of 19:37 the Arab race and Ishmael was the father of the Arab race, 19:41 Isaac the father of the Jewish race. You see Abraham instead 19:51 of trusting God to fulfill his promise, instead of having 19:55 faith in God to fulfill his promise he did it his own way 19:59 by his own works, instead of faith and grace and living 20:04 under the grace of God, he did it by works and we are paying 20:07 the price for that yet today, because Ishmael and Isaac are 20:11 still fighting today. Listen, everyday the battle rages. 20:17 Everyday you see the tanks rumbling through the streets of 20:20 Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jenin or wherever there are. Everyday 20:25 you see the news of the war in the Middle East, it should 20:28 be a reminder that we are saved by grace through 20:32 faith in Jesus Christ and not by works, everyday. 20:41 Isaac married Rebekah and Rebekah bore two sons, Jacob 20:50 and Esau, twins born from the same womb at the same time. 20:59 And yet God said, no to Esau. Yes to Jacob. 21:09 Again, why? If the promise that God made 21:15 to Abraham and his seed was simply literal physical, flesh 21:21 and blood descendants of Abraham, it should have been 21:23 Esau, because even though they were twins, he was born first. 21:28 It should have been Esau. The fact that God said no to 21:33 Esau and yes to Jacob proves that that promise was 21:39 something more than literal physical descendants of 21:42 Abraham, has to be something else. Jacob, wrestled with 21:52 an angel at the river Jabbok came as a result of that had 21:54 a new born again conversion type experience with God and 21:59 so God gave him a new name to match his new character. 22:03 God named him Israel. Israel, a name coined by God himself. 22:14 Israel, a name that had spiritual significance from 22:19 its very beginning, a name that symbolize a new walk 22:24 with God, a new life with God, a name that symbolizes 22:28 the grace of God, Israel. And his family began to grow 22:37 until a drought came into the land and Israel fled out of 22:44 the land down into Egypt where they were slaves of 22:47 Pharaoh for over 400 years. Now think about it. God said 22:54 Abraham you and your seed will possess the land forever, but 23:03 400 years went by and the seed of Abraham was in 23:07 Egypt. How could they possess the land? Something else has 23:14 to be entering into the picture here, we are gonna see it 23:17 in a moment. After 400 years God raised up a leader, a man, 23:22 Moses who parted the waters of the Red Sea miraculously by 23:26 the power of the Holy Spirit, lead God's people through 23:29 the Red Sea, across the Sinai Peninsula 40 years 23:32 until finally there they are standing on the bank of 23:35 the Jordan river and God gave Moses his final, his last 23:40 message for the people of Israel, before they cross 23:43 the Jordan to take possession of the land that hundreds of years 23:46 ago God had promised Abraham and Moses comes down among 23:53 the people to preach his farewell sermon because he did 23:57 not cross over the river. He did not take possession of 24:00 the land himself in Moses, in Deuteronomy, Chapter 28 24:04 Verse 1, Moses said to the people and I want you to 24:07 notice the key phrase that keeps recurring over and over 24:09 again, if you fully obey the Lord your God and follow 24:13 all of his commandments that I give you today, then the Lord 24:16 your God will set you high above all the nations of 24:19 the Earth and all of these blessings will come upon you 24:22 and accompany you if you obey the Lord, your God, five 24:26 times in this passage he says that you will be blessed, 24:29 you'll be blessed in the country, you will be 24:31 blessed in the city, the fruit of your womb, 24:33 your babies will be blessed, your crops will be blessed, your 24:36 livestock will be blessed, if you obey the commandments of 24:40 the Lord your God. Says if you obey my commands I'll gather 24:45 you into the land, I will bless you in every way, why? 24:49 Why did God want to gather Israel into the land and 24:52 bless Israel? Because you see God wanted all of the other 24:57 nations of the Earth to look at Israel and see that Israel 25:01 was stronger, that Israel's corn grew taller, that her 25:05 cows got fatter, that her babies didn't get sick and die, 25:08 that Israel was a wealthy nation, a powerful nation, 25:11 and they would want to come to Israel to find her secret 25:14 and when they came to Israel to find her secret, there 25:17 they would meet Israel's God and all the nations of 25:22 the Earth would be blessed. But there was another side 25:27 to that promise, just like a coin that has two sides, 25:33 and God said in Verse 15, however if you do not obey 25:39 the Lord your God and carefully follow all of his commands and 25:42 decrees I'm giving you today, all of these curses will 25:45 overcome you and overtake you, and he list all the curses, 25:49 I won't go through them all now, but in Verse 64 then 25:51 the Lord your God, will scatter you among all 25:55 the nations of the Earth from one end of the Earth 25:57 to the other. Now think about it, if you obey my commands 26:03 I will gather you into the land and I will bless you, but if 26:06 you disobey my commands I will scatter you among all 26:10 the nations of the Earth and you will be cursed. Now 26:16 please understand that the curse was just as much 26:22 a promise from God as the blessing was. But that 26:32 wasn't the last that God had to say through Moses, because 26:35 in the 30th Chapter in Verse 1, he says that when you are 26:39 scattered, when you are scattered among all 26:44 the nations of the Earth, wherever the Lord your God 26:46 disperses you among the nations, in Verse 2 when you and your 26:50 children return to the Lord your God with all of your 26:53 heart and all of your soul according to everything 26:56 I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore 27:00 your fortunes and gather you again back into the land from 27:06 which he is scattered. Praise God, he gives us 27:09 another chance. He said look if you follow me, if you 27:14 keep my commands, I will gather you in the land, 27:17 I'll pour out a blessing on you, you will be a mighty 27:20 nation, a powerful nation, a wealthy nation, a healthy 27:22 nation and all the nations of the Earth will be blessed 27:25 through you, but if you disobey my commands, I will curse you 27:29 and scatter you among the nations of the Earth, but 27:31 even then it isn't over I'm going to give you another 27:34 chance, if you disobey and you are cursed and you are 27:37 scattered among the nations, then if you turn to me with 27:42 all of your heart and all of your soul. |
Revised 2014-12-17