In this sermon, the speaker discusses the experience of the Messiah, who was despised and rejected by men. He emphasizes that the Jewish people, who are called to be a light to the nations, will also face similar hardships and be despised by others. The speaker refers to a passage in Isaiah 52 and 53, which describes the suffering and exaltation of the servant of God. He suggests that the purpose of the Jewish people's wilderness exodus is to strip them of their worldly comforts and confront them with the reality of God. The speaker concludes by urging the audience to embrace their suffering and trust in God's strength, as it will have eternal consequences for all nations.

Good morning, saints. Shall we say Shabbat Shalom to the Lord? I'm going to make that my prayer. Because I want to speak to you out of the rest of God. Because I did not get any practical rest to speak of last night. So this is a necessity to speak out of His rest. Because we prophetic men are not only called to proclaim something, but to demonstrate something. Not only to give you the challenge of the Word, but to demonstrate the means whereby it will be fulfilled. That's why I am sleepless. And shwach. That it might demonstrate to you that there's another energy and another power, another life. That it might demonstrate to you that there's another power and another energy that was raised from the dead. And by which we are called also to live. We're the people of the resurrection, or the Jews have not a chance. Well-meaning intention will not save them. Only the inexhaustible life of God, which is also the unconditional love of God. You see what the Jews do for us? They compel us to become the church. That we would have been too lazy to have obtained. We would have been content only with success. Good meetings. How was the speaker? Did you like him? You are the center of every consideration. You are the center of every thought. But did you like him? Did you enjoy the service? We remain the center of our own consideration. And we call that egocentric. And we are as guilty of it in the church as those that are in the world. Only one thing can save us from its power. The cross laid to the root. And a greater motive than our own enjoyment. The glory of God. Forever. As we say in Yiddish. Mamma Mia! I am beside myself. For your sake and for the Lord's sake. I had not a thought to speak any of the things that I have already mentioned. But my life is not my own. My thoughts are not my own. My life is not my own. One more mistake and she is out. Don't look at this. Every morning I ask the Lord for his thoughts which are above my thoughts. He waits only to be asked. Because his thoughts are so much greater. And his ways also. So Lord we say Shabbat Shalom to you. The great God who has given us peace. The Shalom that is more than the absence of conflict. It's something positive and given. The rest of God. Which we labor to enter. Lest we fall short of the rest. As was Israel's mistake. So Lord let your labor, your work today proceed out of your rest. I'll tell you how ambitious I am Lord. For more than a message. However much I love messages. I'm asking more than a message. A work. Even a work that was established before the foundations of the earth were laid. Let it be fulfilled this morning. By the inexhaustible power of your life. That will have consequence for the church. And the people of Israel. Even the issue of life or death. Eternity itself. Who is sufficient for these things. So show yourself strong Lord. Take us by surprise. Beyond our expectation. That we will be privileged participants in an act of history. An event. Given in Holland. On Saturday morning April 22nd. But it will resonate to eternity. And have consequence for all nations. And I'm not ashamed to ask this. One because the time is short. The issues are great. And nothing is too difficult for you. And God's people said. Well. Would you turn to Isaiah 53. Would you turn to Isaiah 53 with me. And the Lord brought Philip up to the chariot in which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the scroll of Isaiah. This very text. Ethiopian. I want to say it in English. Ethiopian is in his carriage. And he reads about it from Isaiah. And where does the prophet speak about this? He asks. About himself or about another. And Philip steps into the carriage. And shares with him the things about Jesus. And there is a difference between the interpretation here between the Jewish people and the Christians here. I showed this text to my Jewish mother. She had never heard it. Who is faithful in her synagogue attendance. And she said. Where in the New Testament is this found? I said. It's an Old Testament prophet. Why then she said. Did I not hear it in the Haftorah readings on the Shabbat mornings? I said. You never will. It is omitted from the synagogue. You know what the Haftorah is? That's the reading out of the prophets. Selected by the rabbis. In keeping with the selection out of the five books of Moses. And that they do together with the Torah. And this text. This text. Is studiously avoided. It is too evidently Christological. But the oldest rabbinical comments said it describes the Messiah. Until Rabbi Rashi. Who was reacting to Christian. Controversy. And gave it another interpretation. He says. This speaks of suffering Israel. It describes the nation's suffering. Although we can see from many places in the text. He was wounded for our transgression. That he was wounded for our transgression. And that does not speak of a nation. But about someone else. And yet this morning. I'm going to take my inspiration from Rashi. And say that there is an application also. That is yet future for Israel. Because I believe in the view of Israel's call. Like its Lord. To be a suffering servant. It must walk this road to Calvary. When you read the text carefully. There are three voices. One is the prophet who is the commentator. The narrator. And one place it's God himself speaking directly. And in yet another place. It seems to be a people coming to a certain recognition. That is breaking upon their consciousness for the first time. That he was stricken for the transgression of my people. That all we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So here is what I am suspecting. The Jacob's trouble of which I spoke last night. Which will not be confined to Jews in Israel only. But wherever Jacob is to be found in the world. Though surely there is a problem. And that it will also be found in Israel. Because I believe that Israel at this moment must be called Jacob before Israel. Because it has not yet met the Lord. And received his indelible mark in its thigh. That would make it to be lame all the days of its life. And recognize that the Lord is its strength. For it has been made weak. In the very nexus of its humanity. In the joint here. Where I understand the blood cell itself is formed. Where the cowboys keep their six shooters. And the modern day businessmen their cell phones. We like to have something on our hip. It is very macho, masculine. It gives us a sense of power. That is why God must touch that place. And cripple us. And then our name can be changed. From Jacob to Israel. Then we will build an altar in his name. And sacrifice to the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. And the God of Israel also. That encounter is coming. There will be a night of wrestling. With the man. When we have sent everything over. All our Jewish confidences. In the gods of this world. Intellect. Our own ability. Culture. Send everything over. And then he will meet with us. And we will not let him go until he blesses us. Because only as Israel. Can we bless all the families of the earth. And never as Jacob. However much Jacob is attractive to you. There must be a road to Calvary. You see the way the prophetic mind works. It brings together certain texts. Isaiah 53. Marked more than any man. He has no beauty that any should desire him. Someone who is just ground to powder. Robbed of all human dignity. An outcast. Despised and rejected of men. Was the Messiah's experience. And must be Israel's also. When they will become the least of these his brethren. Steven Spielberg. The great movie producer. With his billion dollar dream factory. We Jews are entertaining the world. With fantasy. And unreality. Who have called to be a light to the nations. Will find himself somewhere in northern Minnesota. Or some remote place in Holland. Or Africa. In some dirt road. With nothing more than the stinking shirt on his back. Broken and dejected. Suddenly uprooted. Everything lost. Despised of men. Hated. Beaten. Marred. And that's how they will come to us. The least of these his brethren. This text really begins in chapter 52. From verse 13. See my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up. He shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him. So marred was his appearance beyond any human form. And his form beyond that of mortals of men. I just want to change one pronoun. From he to they. More wrong. So shall they startle many nations. King shall shut their mouths because of them. For that which had not been told them they shall see. And that which they had not heard they shall observe. When they see. The sufferings of Jesus reiterated in his people. King shall shut their mouths. Because of them. And what mankind had not recognized 2000 years ago. And have dismissed from their consideration. Or made it an Easter egg and chocolate bunny hat. And then God will again demonstrate. The profound meaning of that suffering. For the consideration of all nations. Through another servant's son. Israel. In its last day's sufferings. They will have no form or majesty that anyone should look at them. Nothing in their appearance that anyone should desire them. They will be more despised and rejected by men. A people of suffering acquainted with infirmity. As one from whom others will hide their faces. When did we see you naked and thirsty and hungry and in prison? Is hiding their face. From an afflicted Israel. Because there'll be no beauty that you should desire them. The romantic aura that you should desire them. And the romantic aura that you now appreciate so much about Israel. The heroic way in which you like to envision them. Will be lost. And you'll see them reduced. Without any beauty. That you should desire them. And verse four, the voice changes. Someone else is now speaking. Someone upon whom a new realization has come. Out of the kindred experience of that kind of suffering. It opens a new vista, a new way of perceiving. There's something about suffering that reveals things as they in fact are. That's why we are going to pass through the wilderness of the nations. Have you ever been lost in one? Is there one in Holland to be found? Where you will find yourself lost. Terrified. Alone. In dark, fearful circumstances. Stripped of everything. Reduced from all the amenities of life. Face to face with ultimate reality. Man and God. What is it about? There's a reason for this wilderness. It's to reduce men. To strip them from all their categories. That they might be confronted with the God that we have so long been avoiding. Even in our orthodoxy. Something in that time. And in those circumstances. And the suffering of those days. The scriptures say about three and a half year period of time. Will give Jews ample opportunity to reflect. On the meaning of our existence. And why we have so suddenly experienced this. Another dispersion. Cast out. Rejected. Imagine them saying from verse four. Surely he had borne our infirmities and carried our diseases. Yet we had accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. We had practiced revisionism on Jesus. The kind that is being practiced today. Against the holocaust. A big trial going on now in Great Britain and London. Of a historian suing a critic. For ruining his reputation. Because he has written a book critical of the holocaust. Saying it was greatly exaggerated. The numbers of the casualties are exaggerated. It was used as a political instrument to obtain the state of Israel. It was to dismiss the historicity of the holocaust. One of the most documented and detailed events in time. Men want to dismiss as not having taken place. All the events of the holocaust. The Jewish community is outraged. After all they have spent millions on museums. Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. And the holocaust memorial in Washington D.C. They want to keep the memory alive. And then people say it never happened. And we call that revisionism. What the people sow. That too shall he reap. And we have also done that with the crucifixion of Jesus. People have denied it. It was only an insignificant event somewhere in history. And we have denied that as Jews. Because it does not suit us that it happened. And now we see the same thing happening with that which is happening to us. We have the first holocaust. Men are dismissing our holocaust. But his holocaust is not something that you want to dismiss. Because suffering reveals. And nothing has revealed God more profoundly than the cross. The righteousness of God is revealed at the cross. The mercy of God is revealed at the cross. The son of God is revealed at the cross. And the father to whom he cries. And the giving up of his Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Godhead are profoundly manifested in the crucifixion of Jesus. That to dismiss that is to dismiss God. And if you dismiss that, you dismiss God. As God. Or you can talk about the monotheistic God. But the God who is monotheistic is not God. It is a Jewish construct. It is a God of convenience. But it is not the God who is God that is demonstrated at the cross. Profoundly as in no other place. So to dismiss that is to dismiss everything. That is why we have ourselves to experience his suffering. Are you keeping eternity in view? We have a millennial destiny that goes beyond history. It will be an everlasting call. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. They cannot be taken back. God is not fitting us for some short term assignment. But that which is eternal. And for that he will invest and require much. You do err. In your consideration of Israel. Because you have only considered Israel in the context of time. But you have not considered Israel in the context of eternity. This is not too extravagant. To require this suffering. This is not some arbitrary God. Deciding to be mean. It was for Jesus. That was the righteousness of God. Paying for the sin of mankind. Because man could not himself pay it. Only God could. And suffer the judgment. That a righteous God must require. Our road to Calvary. Our suffering. Our time of Jacob's trouble. The past holocaust. The future holocaust. In exact proportion to our sin. To a people who have no concept of sin. Because sin by its nature disguises itself as sin. And only the magnitude of judgment reveals it. You want to know how great our Jewish sin is? And the sins of our fathers. Which are our sins also. Because we have never severed ourselves from their sins. Because we have never separated ourselves from the past. And our silence does not speak to us. Judges us. And makes it our rejection of Jesus. They will also reject us. It is not God who punishes us a little bit. Because we missed that one moment by accident. But the reproach of Christ is the total sum of all the sins of the past. It reveals the truth of our apostasy. In our failure to recognize Him. To hear the Father in His speaking. To see the Father in His countenance. Because we did not know God. Nor could we recognize His Son. We were too long apostate. Even in the continuation of our religious practice. The rejection and the crucifixion of Jesus. Is not some momentary lapse. It is a statement of our longstanding and historic sin. It is the sum of all the time we have been apostates. And finally came to an end. In this historic moment. If you do not believe that I am here. Then you will also come to die in your sins. No man spoke as this man spoke. And give permission to what our fathers have done. Make it also our own decision. And that is why the Lord also says. When you confess the sin of your father. And your own sin. Then I will remember my covenant with you. Because we are involved. With our whole history and past. Sins that we have not so much as acknowledged. Let alone made any attempt to repent. And what does God do in His mercy? He sends preliminary judgments. The destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem. A great catastrophe. That Jews could not believe could happen. And dispersed again into the nations. And there to suffer in every nation where we have been cast. Where the Passover season was a time already of fright. Because it will be followed by Easter. And the cry of Christ killer. And the ravaging of our communities. So that blood would flow through the streets of every German hamlet. And blood flowed in all these ghettos. And God's judgments are not cruel. They are redemptive. They are calculated to bring us to an awareness. Of those things which we would not otherwise have considered. Why do we continue to suffer? Why does God permit it? Have we offended against Him? Is there some sin for which He holds us accountable? The question is not so much as asked. And so there will be a final suffering. In which I believe the question will be asked. But eventually the question will be asked. Maybe we made a mistake in rejecting that one who suffered 2000 years ago. Was he suffering for himself? Was it his own sin and his own transgression? Who said to his accusers, which of you can convict me of sin? He was a lamb without spot and without blemish. Verse 4. Surely He had borne our infirmities. 53, 4. And carried out diseases. But we thought of Him as being stricken and struck down by God and afflicted. But now we are willing to reconsider. Maybe He was wounded for our transgressions. Maybe He was crushed for our iniquities. And maybe with His stripes we were made whole. And He has healed our bruises. Because all we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on Him. The iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted. But He did not open His mouth. He went like a lamb to the slaughter. Like a sheep before His shearers is silent. He did not open His mouth. But we? Full of complaint. Full of murmurs. Full of indignation. How come? Why? Where? But He? As a lamb to the slaughter, silently. He was cut out and off from the land of the living. Verse 8. Stricken for the transgression of His people. Although He had done no violence. And unlike us. There was no deceit in His mouth. Suffering reveals. And absolute suffering will reveal absolutely. Where we have not learned from the Word. We'll have to learn from the experience of our own suffering. It's a chastisement of God. It will break us as a nation. In a brokenness that will never heal. It will be a perpetual disfigurement. That we cannot again be a Jacob people. Grasping. Grasping the land. Rather than inheriting it. We will be another people. And we will bless all the families of the earth. In my holocaust book I speak of this chastisement. Of a kind for which a father does not spare his son. Not the kind of fathers that we are. Who are condescending. Look the other way. Avoid encounter. We don't want to be cruel. We don't want to threaten the affection of our children for ourselves. And so they go wild. Because they have not experienced the kind of love that can only come through chastisement. We don't love them enough to punish them. When they deserve it. And their spirits intuit that. So they put nose rings in their tongue and in their belly button. And tattoo themselves. In defiant rebellion. Against a generation that has not loved them enough. To chastise them. But God is not a man. His love chastises. And in all our affliction he is afflicted. He is not looking down from some ethereal height. Indifferent and untouched. In all our afflictions he is afflicted. But he does not withhold the affliction. Because an eternal destiny is at stake. So in the book I quote from another author. Who describes Israel as the chastised son. Cruelly dealt with. Recognizing that in that chastisement. Is the righteousness of God. For our own good. And the father is weeping. At the necessity to have to afflict it. And something happens in that moment. Between an afflicted son and an afflicting father. A bond of love. Of an ultimate kind. That shall never be broken. The knowledge of God. In the depth of his father's love. That Israel will communicate to all nations. For all posterity. Because his knowledge will not be Talmudic or academic. But real. To itself. If you don't understand this. You are going to be offended by God. Where is he? To allow this to happen a second time in the 20th century? To allow this to happen again in the 20th century? In the next century? Don't we have enough to live? Where are the promises? To be fulfilled. Can we trust the scriptures more? Where is his love? The righteous are powerful. One of the great signs of the end of the age. Is the great fall of the church. In disappointment. Because God failed Israel. A failing God. A failing reception. Because they didn't understand. The essence of God's principle. Which is important for all realities. There is a must. That the Messiah must suffer. Servant sons must suffer. Before they ascend to their glory. So to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who has believed this report? Those who have understood the centrality of suffering. As being intrinsic to sainthood. The very thing that we have shunned. The very thing that we avoid. The very thing for which we carefully defend ourselves. Is the very thing given of God. To bring us to sainthood. To bring us to become equal to Christ. And if we don't see this suffering for ourselves. And have separated ourselves from it. Then we don't want it to fall on Israel either. But then the honor of the Lord will not be revealed. We will have to come to the realization. That God in his strongest castings. That it is his greatest love. Have you never experienced it? Have you never experienced the chastisement of God? Are you then an illegitimate? That he has passed you by? Or you did not desire to become a son? When Jesus said, who do men say that I am? Peter said, thou art the Messiah. The son of the living God. From that time forth. From that time. Jesus began to tell them. That he had to go to Jerusalem. He had to suffer. He had to die. And the moment that the recognition of himself as son. Was the recognition of the necessity for suffering. Because there is no sonship without suffering. What will cure us from this humanistic mentality? Lord let this be far from you. This deep humanism. That the world applauds. It seems so honorific. So kind and condescending. But it stank from Satan. What is going to break the power of this on our life? That makes us polite. A polite society. And renders us non-apostolic. Approved by the world. But offensive to God. And will never recognize his purposes. And will always be offended by them. Because we celebrate what is nice. Lord let this be far from Israel. It is the same kind of sentiment. And the only thing that will break its power. Is the experience of suffering. By which we become the son. And dear children. If you can understand it. Except we become the sons and daughters of God. How shall we comfort Israel? God says I will meet with you face to face. In the wilderness of the nations. And there you will come into the covenant. There you will receive a revelation. Of who I am as God. In mercy that is given unstintingly. In a love that is unconditional. And that cannot be offended against. Even when you are rude and ungrateful. God's face will still be revealed. By sons and daughters. Whose life is in him. And not in their humanistic assumptions. And the values of the world. That's nice. Let this be far from you. Israel's suffering is calculated for us. It's a crisis that requires us to become the church. Because God will not speak to the dry bones. Only a son of man. A son of man. And a son of God. Who can be commanded. To prophesy to those bones. In a faith that works by love. And not well-meaning intention. Only a word of resurrection can raise the dead. And if we are not in that prophetic sonship place. We can say every kind of well-meaning thing. Those bones will not live. It's going to take a resurrection word. A resurrection power. A resurrection authority. By a people of the resurrection. Who have suffered multiple deaths. That they might know him. In the power of his resurrection. And make him known. Resurrection is more than a doctrine to approve. It's a reality to obtain. Have you done it? Consistently? Why should you? What requirement do you have? A Sunday service? A conference? You can do that in your own humanity. Tell me one time in all your Christian years. Where you had to pray as I have prayed this morning. Because I had only three hours sleep. And I knew the magnitude of what was before me this morning. In a work that is going far beyond you. That I have to say again and again. Who is sufficient for these things? Is yours a Christianity that requires you to say that? Continually? Or are you living outside the faith? And beneath the glory of God. Christianity has become a culture. Whether it's practiced on Sunday. Or Saturday. A culture. And it's leaving the Jewish community totally unimpressed. We are not moved to jealousy. Perhaps to contempt. Nourish-kite. Foolishness. For a Gentile to wear tzitzis. An affectation, an externality. They're not impressed. Even the imitation of their culture will not impress them. Only heaven. And heavenly reality. By those who have obtained it. At cost. And maintain it. Consistently. Are you beginning to understand the mystery? Of Israel and the church? How we're locked in with this people. In the genes of God. That they without us cannot obtain to their calling. They without us. Can never obtain to their calling. Nor we without them. They compel us to be the church. Of an apostolic and a resurrection kind. For nothing less will impress them. Or save them. In the ultimate crisis of their last days. I'm speaking to you out of resurrection power in life. Not human ability. Because God is wanting to impress upon you. That the means by which this message has come. Is the means by which it shall be fulfilled. By a people. By a people who can say in truth. For me to live is Christ. Israel could not recognize Jesus. Could not understand his suffering. They had a human anticipation of what a Messiah should be. A military hero. Who will overcome Rome. And restore the glory of Israel. And we the church. Desire the same for present Israel. A heroic nation. With the Entebbe exploits. Hit squad ability. We love it. As Christians. We idealize them. In their humanity. And want to see them to succeed in that. We've come full circle. And we don't understand. That the issue is not the success of a nation state. But the glory of God forever. There's something greater than Israel. There's something greater than the church. It's that for which both the church and Israel have been given. To reveal and to establish. The glory of God forever. If we have any motive that is less than that. There'll be no room in our heart for suffering. We will not understand it. We will be offended by it. But the prophets of old. They searched for what manner of time. The spirit of Christ that was in them. They searched again and again. To find out what these texts mean. What was meant by it. The leading of the Christians. And the glory that would follow. Who wrote that? Peter. The one who betrayed Christ three times before the cross. And after. Ought not Christ to have suffered and then enter his glory? Jesus said. There's a must and an ought. For the nation as a son. As well as the initial son of God himself. And what about us? How does the church fit into this pattern? What kind of requirement is there for us with suffering? Only to the degree that we are identified with Israel. Not sentimentally. That will fail us. But in truth. As ourselves being the Israel of God with them. If they are the least of his brethren. What are they to us? If not also our brethren. Even in their sin. Even in their apostasy. Even in their shame. Even in their judgment. When is the set time to favor Zion come? When has the set time to favor Zion come? Psalm 102 tells us. When my servants have mercy on her stones and compassion on her feet. When my servants have mercy on her stones and compassion on her dust. God is waiting for something. Not in Israel. In the church. An identification with his people. Beyond sentiment. Beyond romantic imagining. Beyond the idealizing of their supposed heroism. Not when they are at their best. When they are at their worst. When they are the least of his brethren. God waits for your identification. When all the world will despise you. When all the world will despise you. You will have compassion upon her stones and mercy upon her dust. The stones and dust of what? Not antiquity. God is not talking about archeology. He is talking about Tiberius. Haifa. Tel Aviv. Jerusalem. Modern Israel. Reduced to stubble, stone and dust. In the judgments of God that must come. That will not offend you. That you will identify with them. Even when the judgment is in proportion to hurt their sins. The set time to favor Zion has come. The church is not looking down from some superior height. Nor out of some sentimental adulation. But as being one with this people. After all, you are grafted into their root. You are the Israel of God. And you are not going to be conveniently spared. In the time of their tribulation. You will have tribulation also. Perhaps even for their sake. Your very identification with them. Will put you in the place of peril. And of suffering. Will the real church please stand up? You know this American television program? Will the real person please stand up? There are four candidates. They all look like a possibility. But only one is the true. Will the true church please stand up? The response to Israel will reveal it. In the time of Jacob's trouble. It's beyond sentiment. The church's hope must be Israel's hope. Paul says, I'm in these chains for the hope of Israel. The blessed hope of which Paul spoke is not a rapture. A convenient escape. Has never been the apostolic hope of the church. But the hope of his coming. Of his kingdom. Of his rule and reign. And of our reward with him. Who have suffered for his namesake. Is a hope that blesses. Do you desire a sonship? This is ultimate. This is more than charismatica. This is more than messianism. This is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To be a son is to be a priest. And to be a priest is to identify. With people in their infirmity. In their weakness. In their brokenness. Sons suffer to obtain sonship. And it says of Jesus, though he was a son. He suffered. In learning obedience. So also for us. He's going to bring many sons to glory. And this is what has not yet been revealed to Israel. Sons in his image. Reflecting his character. His very nature. That is beyond the truisms and the sentimental categories of the world. And those sentimental things will keep us from the attainment of the sonship. It's not your defects that need to be brought to the cross. It's your virtue. It's your being a nice guy. It's having an affinity for Israel. Going to plant trees and going to conferences. This is the very impediment. To the attainment of his life. Because you value what is of man. And not what is of God. You're unwilling to suffer. You don't want to be misunderstood. You don't want to offend Jews. Though we bear a message. That's why it's very nature. Is an inescapable offense. Excuse me. It's very nature. What does it say in Isaiah? Don't hold back. Don't withhold your voice. Like a trumpet. Tell Jacob their transgressions. And Israel their sins. Don't tell them that they are as Christian as any Christian you know. That's the last thing that they need to hear. It reinforces them in their error. They need to be made conscious of this. By those who can confront. And not withhold. And suffer their indignation. Their anger. Their rejection. Though it be very love. Sentiment spares. Love confronts. You'll be eternally ashamed. For being a nice guy. And having fallen short of the glory of God. Where are the reproaches of Christ? That we should be bearing. And don't experience. We set the place for Elijah at the Passover table. And we sent the young son to the door to open if he might come in. As I said to my brother. I think he may already be with us. And already seated at the table. A wilderness prophet. And we've not recognized him. Who is proclaiming the way. For the full coming of the Lord. Who is pent up in the heavens. Waiting for the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets. Since the world began. The restoration of Israel. After a last days affliction. I will return them. And they will rebuild the cities that have been made waste and ruined. And I will dwell with them. And I shall be their God. They shall be my people. It's the climax of the age. That does not wait upon Israel. Israel will be helpless. Unable in any way to affect her own redemption. When the Lord appears in Jerusalem. After two thirds of Israel has been destroyed. And half the city sent into exile. And the women ravaged and raped. The Lord will come. And they shall see him whom they have pierced. And mourn for him as one mourns for one's only son. And the world is going to see the greatest national repentance in the history of mankind. Every family apart. Husbands and wives apart. We shall be prostrate before God. Utterly shattered. At the revelation of him. And whose coming has saved us. We shall look upon him whom we have pierced. But the depth of that broken repentance. Is not even for us to perform. Unless we shall one day boast in it. That we Jews have a special capacity toward God. He will not even grant us that. Repentance is the gift of God. And if he does not pour on the city of Jerusalem the spirit of supplication and of prayer. There will be no repentance at all. God is all in all. In us is no good thing at all. And Israel will not bless all the families of the earth. Until it knows it. In it's own experience. Even in it's own repentance. It's the gift of God. God is not waiting for anything from Israel. They will be dry bones. Without hope cut off. It's what shall be performed upon them and for them. From another. That is the issue of Israel's restoration. A son of man who can prophesy. In resurrection power. That those bones can live. A servant people who can have compassion and pity for the ruins of Israel in her judgment. God is sending the Elijah ministry. Wilderness prophets. Who are not recognized by the establishment. To prepare the way. For the full coming of the body of Christ. The way. For when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. All Israel shall be saved as it is written. Israel's restoration is the issue of the church. That has come to fullness. That has put away all of it's immaturities. All of it's cute programs. It's Yiddishkeit and it's culture. And it's deep into the root of God. Drawing it's life out of that divine sap. For it's compassion is the compassion of God. And it's mercy is the mercy of God. Beyond anything religious. That we can perform. That he might be all in all. This is what it means to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Not a little cheap momentary afterthought. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the judgment of God that must come. For the order of God that must come over this city. For the suffering that must come. That suffering that must go for God. And that precedes the restoration. Do you know what my prayer was before I left Minnesota? It needs to be all our prayer. Lord save me from being a superficial expresser of truths. Make me the thing in itself. The reality. That you're wanting for the church. In the fullness. That will release Israel. Our speaking will come out of our being. A sonship that we cannot obtain independent of each other. By which we preserve carefully our privacy. And our dignity. But a church that has become community. Going from house to house daily breaking bread. Seeing ourselves as we really are. Confessing our sins. To find release only from a brother to whom a confession can be made. Everything which we have feared. And want to protect in our privacy. That condemns us to Sunday culture. Or a Saturday equivalent. Keeps the Lord contained in the heavens. Waiting for the restoration of all things. Spoken by the prophets. The issue of Israel's return is the issue of the church. But a church of what kind? An ultimate kind. Found at the cross. That has surrendered to the inescapable truth. That in this life. There's a must and an ought. Of a suffering that is intrinsic to the faith. And precedes the glory. Help us to that Lord. To surrender to that. For Israel's sake. For your name's sake. For your glory. Let's pray for such a church. In every nation. And in this nation. Thank you Lord. Precious God. Oh the depth of the riches. Both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. Who has been his counselor. And who shall give to him that it shall be given again. For of him. And through him. And to him. Are all things. To whom be glory forever. Lord I ask. That this word this morning. Constitute a work. An event. Whose time has come. To pierce our hearts. To give us a jealousy for your glory. That exceeds our affection for Israel. Thank you for your life. This is beyond us. Who can attain to this? Who is sufficient for this? But we thank you. Something was wrought at the cross. More than the forgiveness of sins. But an exchanged life. The ultimate good news. That as many as have been baptized into Jesus Christ. Have been buried with him. Sentiment and all. And raised with him. To the newness of life. That serves God. Exclusively. Oh we thank you Lord. Grant us the grace. And the faith. To appropriate that reality. By virtue of our baptism. As being more than getting wet. More than a religious obligation. But a burial. Of that which will always contradict you. That will always say the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Will always say let this be far from you Lord. Crucify it. And bury it. Then we might be raised to a newness of life. That knows that it knows. That there is an Israel that must suffer. That there is a church that must suffer. Before it ascends to its glory. And counts it all joy to do so. Thank you my God. Oh work a work. And raise us from the dead. Wake us from our sleep. Lift us from our dry bones condition. Breathe the spirit of your life into us. That we might be for them what we ought. It's the whole purpose for our being. It's the whole reason for our salvation. That you might be glorified. Forever. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.