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  UNDER HIS ALMIGHTY WINGS
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into Luke 13:31-35, where Jesus responds to
the Pharisees' warning about Herod wanting to kill him. Jesus asserts
his commitment to God's plan, emphasizing the importance of staying on
God's program despite threats or distractions. The passage also
highlights Jesus' longing to gather and protect Israel, paralleling it
with the need for individuals to seek refuge under God's wings.
Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes the significance of recognizing Jesus
as Savior and Lord, echoing the prophetic promise of Israel's
restoration upon acknowledging Jesus.

Topics: "Commitment to God's Plan", "Seeking Refuge in Jesus"
Scripture References: Luke 13:31, Isaiah 31:5, Matthew 23:37, Zechariah 12:10, Romans 11:25, 1 Corinthians 10:11

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into Luke 13:31-35, where Jesus responds to the
Pharisees' warning about Herod wanting to kill him. Jesus asserts his
commitment to God's plan, emphasizing the importance of staying on God's
program despite threats or distractions. The passage also highlights
Jesus' longing to gather and protect Israel, paralleling it with the
need for individuals to seek refuge under God's wings. Ultimately, the
sermon emphasizes the significance of recognizing Jesus as Savior and
Lord, echoing the prophetic promise of Israel's restoration upon
acknowledging Jesus.

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CONTENT
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So we're in Luke chapter 13 and I want to look at and read from 31
through 35. Luke chapter 13 reading 31 through 35. On that very day some
Pharisees came saying to him, get out and depart from here for Herod
wants to kill you.

And he said to them, go tell that fox, behold I cast out demons and
perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected.
Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow and the day following for it
cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. Oh
Jerusalem, Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who
are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
brood under her wings but you were not willing. See your house is left
to you desolate and assuredly I say to you you shall not see me until
the time comes when you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord. So the Pharisees were opposed to Jesus.

There were obviously a few Pharisees who liked him and who believed his
message. Nicodemus was one of those, Joseph of Arimathea was another,
but generally they opposed him. And so they come with this warning that
Herod wants to kill him.

We don't know what their motive was. There's a lot of speculation. Some
say, well you know, it was a trick to get Jesus to move to another area
where Herod could more easily get to him.

The point of him going to Jerusalem wouldn't help Herod because Herod
had no jurisdiction in Jerusalem. His jurisdiction was in Galilee. And
so as long as Jesus was in that sort of area, he would be at Herod's
mercy.

And remember Herod had killed John the Baptist. We're not sure whether
Herod really wants to kill Jesus. Obviously he doesn't particularly love
Jesus, but he's fascinated by him.

He wants to hear from him. He wants to see him perform miracles. But
remember that he had killed John the Baptist.

And while he maybe had not initiated that process and he had been
tricked into killing John by his wife, this had bought him a lot of
acrimony and enmity from the people of Israel who thought that John was
a prophet, as indeed he was. And so I personally think it's unlikely
that Herod would repeat the same mistake again. Remember that these
Roman rulers were there at the good graces of Rome, and just one foot
wrong, and they would be deposed and kicked out.

Remember this was behind the whole issue of Pilate having Jesus
crucified. Pilate didn't believe that Jesus was worthy of crucifixion,
and yet he knew that if there was a rebellion, if there was trouble in
Jerusalem, he would lose his job. And so these guys were more concerned
about their jobs than any kind of righteousness or any kind of other
decisions.

So personally I don't think that Herod particularly wouldn't have been
politically expedient for him to kill Jesus. Nevertheless, the Pharisees
come with this warning. So part of it may be to play into Herod's hands,
but part of it may be a genuine warning.

They may have been genuinely concerned for Jesus' safety. It really
doesn't matter. It seems that they were conveying some kind of message,
but the text doesn't tell us what that message is.

And so they say to him, get out and depart from here, because Herod
wants to kill you. And Jesus' response is very significant. So he says,
go and tell that fox.

Now, that's not a very kind thing to say. Obviously, Jesus not sinning
and being perfect in all that he said and did, did not cross the line.
What he was doing was speaking the truth.

And he speaks the truth without any malice. It's possible to speak the
truth without malice. Today, we seem to confuse these things, and we get
our own emotions and our own anger and frustration mixed up when we
speak the truth.

And it comes out, and even though it may be the truth, we're speaking it
with an agenda. And Jesus has no agenda, but his commitment to truth.
This is also the only time—and obviously, the word fox obviously means a
cunning character, somebody who is not to be trusted.

And obviously, that was true about Herod. And I'm not going to get into
the history of all the different Herods. There were five different
Herods in the New Testament.

This is Herod Antipas. He took for himself the title King of the Jews.
While he was not Jewish, he was, in fact, an Edomite, which were related
to the Jews and the people against whom the Lord has indignation
forever, according to Malachi.

So he was of the enemies of Israel, and yet he took the title King of
the Jews. He wasn't a Jew. He wasn't of the royal line.

He had no right to that title. But he had cleverly married a woman who
would get him a foot in the door. He had manipulated his political
connections, and he had, by trickery and craft, he had got himself in
this position.

And so that was his character. That was who he was. Now, this is the
only time Jesus uses a term like this for someone.

Jesus speaks to the Pharisees, and he says, you're a brood of vipers. He
speaks to the Israelites, and he says, you are of your sons, of your
father the devil. And so Jesus speaks these things of groups of people,
and here he speaks of Herod.

I want us to be careful that this does not give us permission to use bad
language concerning people we don't like. There are two reasons for
this. The first is our judgment is not righteous.

It doesn't matter how righteous you think you are and how righteous I
think I am. The fact is that we find it very difficult to separate our
judgment from our personal ideas and our personal opinion and agendas.
And so when we judge, our judgment is by definition tainted.

Doesn't mean we're always wrong, but we can be wrong. Jesus could not be
wrong. Jesus's judgment is 100% righteous.

So when he makes a judgment, it is a righteous judgment. When we make a
judgment, it may be righteous, it may not be. So we have to be careful
the judgment that we pass on others.

But also the New Testament and Jesus's own teachings are clear about
loving our enemies. Jesus does not hate Herod. Jesus did not hate those
who crucified him.

He loved them, and he wanted to see them saved. Our problem is that we
tend to hate so easily. We have this sort of black and white situation.

So if somebody isn't on our side, well then they're our enemy, and we're
going to hate them, and we're going to say whatever we want about them.
And that creates all sorts of other problems. We can use this, as many
do, as an excuse to call people all sorts of names.

No matter how much of a heretic they may be, no matter how much of a
false preacher or teacher they may be, we need to be careful how we
address other people. But Jesus calls him a fox because that was who he
was. So Jesus's response is, he says, now go and tell Herod.

Now it's interesting that these guys seem to have a relationship with
Herod, who really was their enemy. He was the enemy of the Jews. He
wasn't there for their sake.

He wasn't there to help them or bless them in any way. He was just there
for his own sake. And while the Herods had built the temple, or rebuilt
the temple, they didn't do it because of the people.

They did it for their own glory, to be able to say, look what I've
built. And so Jesus's response is, I cast out demons and I perform cures
today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. So what is
Jesus saying? I'm going to deal with the cures and demons first, and
then the perfected, because there's a technical difficulty there.

What was Jesus—what had Jesus been doing all along? He'd been casting
out demons and healing the sick. So what is Jesus's response to Herod?
He says, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm not going to change
my program.

This is what I'm doing, and I'm going to do it today, and I'm going to
do it tomorrow and on the third day. We're going to come back to that in
a moment. I believe in this is a very important lesson.

In fact, there are a number of important lessons here. The first here is
that we cannot be dissuaded from doing what God has called us to do by
the threats of men. We so easily don't do what we should be doing
because we're afraid of people.

We're afraid of what they will say to us. We're afraid of what they will
do to us. We're afraid of whatever influence they may have.

Jesus is not afraid of Herod. He says, I'm going to do what I need to
do. I'm going to do the will of my Father who has called me to heal the
sick and to deliver those that are bound.

And obviously attached to that is the preaching of the gospel to the
poor, as we saw in Luke chapter 4 and Isaiah chapter 61. So Jesus says,
I'm going to do what I need to do. I'm not going to be dissuaded by you.

I'm not going to be threatened by you. At the same time, Jesus wasn't
going to be bribed by anyone into doing something other than what God
had called Him to do. Now I'm going to come back to the third day, but I
need to deal with the last word.

On the third day I shall be perfected. Now the problem here is that this
is the only translation that King James and New King James are the only
translations that use the word perfected there. The same Greek word is
used in Hebrews, and in Hebrews it is correctly translated perfected.

Remember that words have different meanings in different contexts. The
English Standard Version says, and he said to them, let's get down to
the bottom, and the third day I finish my course. On the third day I
finish my course.

This is the way this word is used in every other case in the New
Testament except in Hebrews. In the American Standard, New American
Standard Version, it says, on the third day I reach my goal. Now
remember the word, the idea of being perfected means also to be
completed.

And so Jesus says, Jesus didn't need to be perfected. He was perfect in
every way. So there's no sense in which Jesus needs to attain perfection
the same way as we need to attain perfection.

But he has a job to do, and he says, on the third day I'm going to
finish my course. I'm going to reach my goal. Now when we look at the
idea of third day, there are two things that we need to understand.

The first is that obviously this is an inference or a reference to the
resurrection. I don't believe that there are times when the third day,
when Jesus refers to the third day, it always refers to the
resurrection. So he's saying, I'm going to do my work, and on the third
day the work will be completed at the resurrection.

Now we understand that at the cross he says it is finished. But in a
sense it wasn't yet complete because the resurrection had not yet
happened. And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that without the
resurrection our faith is in vain.

So the work is actually finally completed as Jesus is raised on the
third day. So he says the job's going to be done. But now let's come
back to where Jesus is at now.

He's six, seven months away from Jerusalem, from the cross. And he says,
I'm going to do this for two days, and then on the third day. So we
don't even know what day of the week this is.

But clearly this is not literal as far as Herod is concerned. For those
who understood, for those who had heard Jesus speak about Jonah being in
the belly of the fish for three days and being brought back to life on
the third day, about the resurrection that Jesus had spoken about, they
caught the inference. But as far as the Pharisees and Herod was
concerned, Jesus was saying something different.

And when he says then the second and the third day, the first, second,
and third day, when he's speaking to them he's not meaning the
resurrection. He's simply saying, I have a schedule, or a schedule,
depending on your language. I have a program, and I'm going to work
along that program.

And when I have finished the first part, which will be finished on the
second day, then I'm going to get to the third day. And so Jesus is just
saying the same thing again. He is saying, I'm going to finish the
program.

I'm going to finish the course that God has set for me. And so he is
showing an absolute determination to do the will of God. Now verse 33.

Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following,
third day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of
Jerusalem. Now I know this is a maybe a technical passage, and it's not
so exciting, but I think it's very important, because Jesus is teaching
us some very important lessons. So nevertheless, I must journey.

And again, the days here are not literal, because it's not going to take
him three days to get to Jerusalem. It's going to take him some more
months. So, but there's a program.

So first of all, he says, you're not going to make me do what I don't
want to do. Now, he says, but I will still do what I must do. And I will
go to Jerusalem, and I will not be deterred by any threats, or by any
pleas.

Remember Simon, Lord, don't go to the cross. I will go, and I will do
what I've been called to do. I will die on the cross.

But there's this very scathing thing. He says, it cannot be that a
prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. Now, we'll see in the next
verses, Jesus says, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets.

Remember, Jerusalem is the capital. Jerusalem represents the nation.
Galilee doesn't represent the nation.

Nazareth doesn't represent the nation. If he was killed in some other
place, in a sense, it wouldn't be representative of the nation. If you
have something happen in Los Angeles, it doesn't have the same—and we're
talking about a political event happening in LA—it doesn't have the same
meaning as the same thing happening in Washington, DC.

Because you're dealing with something that represents the whole nation,
versus a city that represents just itself. Jesus is really being
sarcastic. What he is saying is, all the other prophets got killed in
Jerusalem.

Now, that's not technically correct, in the sense that they didn't all
die in Jerusalem, but the nation was responsible for their deaths.
Remember that Hebrews chapter 11 speaks about these prophets, and how
they were sown asunder, and they were fed to lions, and they were
starved, and they were hacked with swords, and all sorts of things. And
Israel treated the prophets miserably.

Well, obviously, the false prophets, they loved them, but the true
prophets who spoke the truth, they didn't like them at all. And they
persecuted them and silenced them through death. And so Jesus says every
other prophet was killed representative by the nation in Jerusalem.

And now he's calling himself a prophet. Was Jesus a prophet? Yes, he
was. Remember Moses.

Thousands of years before had predicted, and he said, a prophet like
unto me will the Lord raise up. And so Jesus is a prophet. Remember,
Jesus is an apostle.

He is a priest. He is a king. He's a prophet.

He's all of these things. He's an evangelist. He is a shepherd.

He's all of those things. So he's a prophet. And he says, if I'm a So
Jesus understood the timescale.

Jesus understood the plan. And he says, I'm going to Jerusalem. Now
remember that we've emphasized this over these months that we've been in
these verses in Luke, as Jesus begins his journey towards Jerusalem.

That he has set his face as a flint towards Jerusalem. He knows what's
waiting for him there, but he is not deterred. And one of the important
things about these chapters is that it shows us how Jesus is determined
to fulfill the will of God.

And obviously, that is compared to how easily we are distracted from
doing what we ought to do. How easily we are tempted or threatened to
not do what God wants us to do. So then in verse 34, he says, O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, a statement of love, and of care, and of concern.

Absalom, Absalom, my son. Many times the scripture uses this idea of
using someone's name or a place's name twice in a row. And it's an
expression of deep emotion.

It's not just, hey, Jerusalem. No, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He's crying
out, and he's saying, the one who kills the prophets and stoned those
who were sent to her.

Remember, Jesus told a parable of a man who owned a piece of land, and
he put a vineyard in there, and he leases the vineyard out to farmers,
and he sends his servants, and he says, it's time to pay the rent. Give
me my rent. And they beat the servants up, and they chased them away.

He sends other servants, and eventually he sends his son, and he says,
maybe they'll hear my son. And they take the son, and they kill him, and
kill him. And so the prophets were the messengers.

God had sent the prophets over thousands of years. And over thousands of
years, God had pleaded with Israel to give him his due, to give him the
work, to give him the love that he was entitled to. But Israel refused
to do that.

And in fact, what they did is not only do they not respond to the
message of the prophets that is calling Israel back into a relationship
with God, but they in fact kill the prophets, one after the other. And
of course, the same is still true today. False prophets are readily
accepted in the world today, in the churches today.

But you speak the truth, and they will kill you. Maybe not physically,
but they will—what's this new idea?—cancel culture. They will cancel
you, and kill your reputation, and kill your platform.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
brood under her wing. We're not willing. Jesus is expressing the heart
of God for 2,000 years, just short of 2,000 years.

From the day he brought them out of Egypt, God was pleading with Israel.
God was reaching out to Israel, and he's saying, come, let's have a
relationship. Come under my wings.

And as we read through the Psalms and the prophets, you find this idea
of sheltering under the wings of God over and over, sometimes as a hen,
sometimes as an eagle, but sheltering under the protective wings of God.
And yet Israel is God. And the same thing is happening today.

God is calling out to the church, and I mean the universal church, and
he's saying, come and have a relationship with me. Forget about your
relationship with your denomination, or with your guru, or with your
favorite teaching, but have a relationship with me. Come under my wings.

And yet Christians are resisting God, because they have their own
agenda. They have their own gods, and they say, yeah, we'll give you
your, but we're going to worship Baal as well. And the spirit in their
age today is that Christians are saying, yeah, we'll serve God, but
we're going to serve ourselves in our own pride, in our own agenda, in
our own hedonism, and our own pleasures at the same time.

And God says, no, come and have a relationship with me. You find the
same spirit in the book of Revelation chapter 3, the last church, the
church of Laodicea, where Jesus stands at the door, and he's knocking.
Remember, we've said that over and over, it's not the sinner's door that
he's knocking at.

While he does want to enter into the sinner's heart, Revelation 3 speaks
about the church that had locked him out. They said, we're rich and
engaged with goods. We have need of nothing.

They had no need and no time for Jesus. And Jesus says, I'm standing at
the door of the church, and I'm knocking, and I want to come in, but if
any man will hear my voice, I will come into him and sup with him and
him with me. You see, he'd been to the church, seven churches, to the
church, the church, the church, the church, read Revelation 2 and 3.
Now, finally, he comes down, and he says, if any one.

I believe that's where we're at today in God's timing. He's no longer
calling churches. He's calling individuals, and he's saying, if you will
come, hear my voice, open your door, I will come and fellowship with
you.

I will sit down and sup with him, dine with him, and him with me. Again,
he's trying to reach out. He's reaching out to the churches, and yet the
church is too busy with programs, too busy with their politics, too busy
with their doctrines, too busy with whatever it is that they're doing.

There's no time for Jesus. How often would I have gathered you? And
obviously, I must ask the question this morning. How often has he
reached out to you, and have you resisted him? Is he reaching out to you
again this morning and saying, come under my protection, come under my
shelter, come and be under my care? My grandfather told me a story when
he was a missionary up in the mountains of Lesotho.

He would watch how the hawks would come, and the moment the hen saw the
hawks, or a hawk, she would make a sound, and the little chickens would
all run, and she would put her wings over, and she would sit there, and
the chickens would be there, protected, because she was too big for the
hawk. And they were safe as long as they were under her wings. And,
folk, we're safe as long as we're under the almighty wings of Almighty
God.

But you think you can go it on your own. You're in a very, very
dangerous place. And so there is safety, there is protection, there is
warmth, there is joy, there's fellowship in his presence.

And yet we resist him, and we want to do our own thing, and live our own
lives, and flee to him only when we're desperate. How often would I have
gathered you as a hen gathers a brood under her wings, but you were not
willing. Now, he says, very, very important prophecy, and I need to
spend a little bit of time here.

See, your house is left to you desolate, and assuredly I say to you, you
shall not see me until the day comes, when you say, blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord. When would this happen? Obviously, they
didn't understand, because they were looking forward, we're able to look
back, and we understand it didn't happen until AD 70, AD 68, AD 70, when
Israel rebelled against Rome, and Rome came in and destroyed the city
and scattered Israel, and the nation has been until 1948, when they came
back together, or started going back to the land of Israel. But for
almost 2,000 years, Jerusalem has been desolate.

It's been trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. And even today, we see
what's going on in Israel. We see the enemy surrounding it.

Even now, we see that Jerusalem is a divided city, with sections ruled
by Jews, and sections ruled by Arabs. Even have an Arab in the cabinet
right now. For 2,000 years, Israel has been desolate, under God's
judgment, because Jesus said, I've pleaded with you, and you would not.

And so, he eventually turns away from Israel, and hands her over to her
persecutors. But it's going to end. Your house will be left to you
desolate, and assuredly, I say to you, very, very assuredly, I say to
you, you shall not see me again, or see me until—Matthew says again,
until the time comes, when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord.

So Jesus is saying two important things. I'm not going to be too much
longer, but this is important to stitch these together. Your house is
going to be left desolate, and you won't see me.

So, Israel being desolate, and not seeing the Lord, are synonymous. When
will they see the Lord? When they say, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. When will Israel be restored? When they see him, and
they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Remember, just by the way, that when Jesus comes into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday, they say these words, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. But, it made no difference. Israel was not restored.

They did not see him. They may have seen him physically, but they did
not see him. How did Israel need to see him? They need to see him as the
Messiah.

But they didn't see him. And the house was not restored. In fact, the
house was not even destroyed yet.

So clearly, Jesus is not speaking about Palm Sunday. He's speaking about
another event, when Israel will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. This
is what Jesus is speaking about.

So, how long will Jerusalem and Israel be left desolate until she
recognizes her Messiah? Until she says, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Now, this is very important, because many Christians
are praying earnestly for peace of Jerusalem, as the Old Testament says
we should do. Many Christians are fighting for Israel, for the
restoration of Israel.

Now, I know I'm going to lose some friends here, but where is Israel now
in relation to God? Israel is still under God's judgment. Israel has not
been restored in its relationship to God. She's back in her land since
1948.

She may be back in the land. The stage is being set for the end time.
But Israel has not recognized her Messiah.

Israel is a secular nation, a secular state. It is not a religious
state. It does not acknowledge God very much, let alone Jesus.

Jesus is still a false prophet, as far as they're concerned. So, Israel
will remain under the judgment and the wrath of God until she finally
acknowledges Jesus. So, you can pray for the restoration of Jerusalem as
much as you like.

And I'm sorry, because I know I'm touching a sacred cow here. But you
cannot pray against the will of God. God will not lift his judgment of
Israel until Israel acknowledges Jesus.

So, you say, shouldn't we pray for Israel? Yes, we should. But what do
we pray for Israel? Not for the restoration of a secular state. We pray
for the salvation of Israel, the same way as we pray for the salvation
of America and of other and other nations.

God save Israel. Lord, help those who are preaching the gospel in
Israel, that they may bring people into a relationship with Jesus. That
needs to be our prayer.

And folk, we need to get with the program. Isn't this the point that
what Jesus is making, as far as Herod is concerned? He says, I have a
program. And I'm not going to run according to your program.

I'm running on God's program. And God has a program for Israel, and you
cannot make God change His mind because your program doesn't fit with
His program. The best we can do is get with God's program.

And God is not going to restore Israel until Israel acknowledges her
Savior. And so, Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10, and the whole of
Zechariah 12 is relevant here. You can go back and you should read this
whole chapter.

He says, I will pour on the house of David, on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on
me whom they have pierced. Clearly, Jesus.

And specifically, the crucified Christ that they pierced. Remember what
Peter says on the day of Pentecost. You, speaking to the Jews, took him
with evil hands and crucified him.

And so, you will look upon me whom you have pierced, and they will mourn
for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one
grieves for a firstborn. This is the point when Israel repents. This is
the point in which Israel recognizes who Jesus is.

When Israel recognizes who they crucified. And obviously, I'm not saying
that the Gentiles and the Romans and each one of us didn't have a part
in his crucifixion. Obviously, we did.

But on that day, they will see him. And they will say, blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord. Now, that's not in the passage, but
that's inferred.

Because, who is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Jesus. The
prophets came in God's name, but Jesus is the ultimate prophet. And he
is the ultimate one who says that if you've heard me, you've heard the
Father.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And so, as he presents his
message, he is coming as God in the flesh. Now, if we go to Romans
chapter 11, there's many, many passages that we need to look at.

I'm just giving you two or three important ones, and I trust that you
can put this stuff together. For I do not desire, brethren, Paul
speaking about Israel, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest
you should be wise in your own opinion. He's just spoken about the
branches of the olive tree being broken off.

In other words, Israel being cut off from God, that the wild branches,
the Gentiles, may be grafted in. And now, he says in that same context,
lest you be wise in your own opinion. In other words, don't think you're
something because Israel has been cast off and you've been grafted in.

That blindness in part doesn't mean they're half blind, it means for a
while. So Israel will not always be blind. You will not see me again
until you say.

In other words, the time will come when Israel will see, when she will
see Jesus and recognize who he is. That blindness in part has happened
to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Verse 26, and
so all Israel will be saved.

All right, now, I don't want to get too far sidetracked here. Remember,
when he speaks of this moment when Israel looks and recognizes who Jesus
is, most of Israel is dead. We've come through the Tribulation, the War
of Armageddon, and there is very few, say, left in Israel.

Very few people left in the world. Less than a third of the world's
population survived that period, and less than that survived in Israel.
So there's a remnant that are still left over in Israel, but it seems
that they all turned to him.

Remember, we dealt with this very recently in a different context. They
are not saved because they are Jews. They are not saved because of the
covenant.

They are saved because they recognize Jesus as their Savior. There is no
salvation, whether you Jew or Gentile, in any other way except through
Jesus Christ. The covenants does not save them.

Their ethnicity does not save them, but because they recognize him and
they weep over what they had done, they are saved. As it is written, the
Deliverer will come out of Zion, out of Jerusalem, and will turn away
ungodliness from Jacob. Verse 27, For this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.

The comparison between Israel and the church keeps coming back to me.
I've mentioned this over and over in recent months. And, folk, we must
learn 1 Corinthians 10 says these things, speaking of Israel, were
written for our admonition, for our learning, that the things that
happen to Israel can happen to us and do happen to us.

And I keep being shocked at how similar to Israel the church has become.
Yes, we have a tradition, a form of godliness, but there's no power to
it. And yes, we serve God on the Sabbath or on the Sunday, but we serve
other gods on the other days.

And Jesus is reaching out his hands and he's saying, Come unto me. Come,
let us reason together. Come and shelter under my wings.

And yet we're resisting. Is he calling you this morning? And if he is,
stop resisting him. Come to him.

Flee to him and enter into that relationship with him. Father, we thank
you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for these examples from the Old
Testament and from Israel.

Lord, we pray that we may be hearers of your word. Lord, the Jews knew
your word. They heard the Lord Jesus speak, and yet they resisted.

In fact, the same people who cried, Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord, the very next day cried, Crucify him. Lord, we pray that we
may be those who recognize you, not just as our Savior, but as our Lord.
And Lord, that we may flee to you and enter into that real relationship
with you.

Pray, Lord, that this may be real in Jesus' name. And so, Lord, I pray
for those who may have been offended by this message, particularly those
who are watching online. Pray, Lord, that you would give us each grace
that we may understand your purposes and your will according to your
word and not according to our traditions.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Go with us now, Lord. Keep us, protect us.

Bring us together again safely on Thursday, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
♪♪♪

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Fe09u0QuBk0.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/under-his-almighty-wings/
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