In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of parents taking responsibility for teaching their children about God and His ways. He highlights the failure of previous generations in passing down this knowledge and warns that the current generation is also at risk of perishing without proper guidance. The speaker references the story of Israel as an example of a nation that was appointed to pass on God's teachings to future generations. He urges young people who are starting families to recognize their responsibility in raising children who will continue to pass on the faith.

I want you to turn to Psalm 78. Thank you Lord. A remarkable psalm depicting the entire history of Israel and being celebrated by whoever is the author, ASAP, I suppose, and carries a great prophetic bent in this whole psalm that we're considering here together. So we're asking the Lord to once again bring something into our hearts and once again reveal some perspective for our consideration. So Lord, we're thankful again and we're indebted to all that you are to us. And our God, we're thankful. So as we stand, as the people before you, we're asking once again for instruction, for counsel. Lord, for yourself to bring to us in these times the great issues of our faith, your faith in us that is needing, Lord, clarity, needing, Lord, unfolding and understanding and perception, Lord, that has consequences. We're thankful you spoke to Israel so long ago. We thank you that our lives and all that we are is tied up with the destiny of this nation upon which, Lord, even at the end, the church and the nations of the world, Lord, are going to have encounter with this one people. So we thank you for your faithfulness and for your covenant. And here we are as Gentiles. You have saved us and has indeed, Lord, blessed us, grafted us in as the wild branch, even as you and together with us await, Lord, the grafting of the natural branch. So we are grateful here and we're needing wisdom, Lord, so that the church will be built, so that your people, Lord, will enter into wisdom and understanding in these days. So help us, we pray, and our people so long ago whom you call forth unto yourself for a relationship have all of the tragedy and the mistake and the failure, and yet we have not learned. And so here we are again as a church. We're asking you to give us the grace and the mercy to learn, lest we ourselves will fall into the same tragedy and the mistake and that we will go the full circle, even as Israel did as a people. So Lord, we're thankful this day. Help us, we pray, and give to us your counsel and your wisdom. Teach us your ways so that, Lord, we will not just hear you with our ears. We will hear you, Lord, with our whole being. We thank you again because we don't hear. We don't listen. We think we hear and we listen, but we don't because our lives have never entered into that center with you yet. So our God, we thank you. Come, magnify yourself. We thank you for this great, great historical psalm given so long ago, not just for Israel, but even for every living creature who will ever come into covenant relationship with you, for you are the God of the covenant. We thank you and we ask of you to bless this text and those things that will proceed, Lord, in these days, leading up probably even to the table talk, that you would once again bear your heart to us, unburden your counsel, that we might once again intuit those intimate things in your heart that has significance, Lord, for time and even for eternity. We thank you and we are, Lord, ever grateful to all that you are to us in Jesus' name. Amen. Now I'm going to read the Psalms in just a while, but just before we do that, I want to read you something. And you just hear me pray it, that the Gentiles or the church has gone a full circle throughout history and we have not learned from the lessons so long ago taught to a people. And we again, you know, human all to human and men all to men. And we take a long time in the processes of God to wean us from our creaturehood. And so we need to learn, we need to be instructed. And I think that if I am on course, this could be leading even into whatever the Lord intends, even for the coming week up in the hills. So God can be the God of Israel, but not all Israel is of God. And so that was the whole purpose that I think when Paul make mention of that statement to the church in Galatia, when he uses the phrase the Israel of God, he appropriately use it was because until Israel enter once again into that covenant relationship that God has so long ago called her, God can be the Israel of God. But what will it take for an Israel to become the Israel of God? If it is not through the chastisement, the discipline, the judgment that awaits a people of such. And so I want to read something out here to you and see where this is going to lead us before we come back to Psalm 78. It's actually written by a Jew long ago. I don't know who he is. He goes by the name of Micah Beers, but this is what he wrote and this has been quoted by this Messianic Jew. Messianic Jew means a Jew that has come into the knowledge of the Messiah by David Barrett, who's known as David Barrett. He says something like this concerning the Jewish nation. He said, braving all kinds of torments, the pangs of death, and still more terrible, even the pangs of life. He said, we have withstood the impetuous storm of time, sweeping indiscriminately in its course nations, religions, and even countries. And what has become of those celebrated empires whose very name still excites our admiration and by the idea of splendid greatness attached to them and whose power embrace the whole surface of the known globe. So questioned, where are all these empires and kings and kingdoms today? They're all gone. They're not with us anymore. They did and they served the purpose in which they were there then, but today they have just passed on, on the face of the earth. In comparison to the nation of Israel upon which God is pursuing, a nation that cannot be forgotten, a nation that cannot be wiped off, though has been the target of every persecution, every pogrom, every extermination, every destruction throughout the last 3,000 years. So in comparison to all of these nations, empires, kings, and kingdoms, as great as they were, that has been attached to them, their powers that have embraced the whole surface of the known globe, where are they today? They are only remembered as monuments of the vanity of human greatness, such as Rome and Greece are no more. Their descendants are now mixed with other nations. They have lost even the traces of the origin, while a population of a few millions of men, in comparison to just a few million of men, who are they? Jews. So often subjugated stands the test of revolving ages and the fiery ordeal of 18 centuries of persecution. We still preserve laws that were given to us in the first days of the war, in the infancy of nature. The last followers of a religion which had embraced the universe have disappeared these 18 centuries, and our temples are still standing. We alone have been spared by the indiscriminating hand of time, like a column that is left standing amid the wreck of the wars and the ruins of nature. The history of our people, the history of Israel, the history of the Jewish people, connects present times with the first ages of the war by the testimony it bears to the existence of those early periods. It begins at the cradle of the mankind, of mankind, and it is likely to be preserved to the very day of universal destruction. Written by a Jew, remarkable statement. And how would you read a psalm like we've been reading here in Psalm 78, and yet not begin to understand the whole divine significance and the purpose of the nation of Israel. And why is that so? Because God intended it to be so, saints. God intended it to be so in a way that is appointed for nations, for humanity. So it's interesting that in the whole election of Israel as a people, God intended that he was to be the center of that nation. And that is the whole celebration of Psalm 78. It was the psalmist once again in retrospect and in remembrance of what the nation of Israel was before God. Because God chose them, God elected them. And it was a rehearsal and a reminder to a people that they, Israel, was not to be like any other people on the face of the earth. They were to understand that God was at the very center of that nation. They were not to live to compare themselves with any other nation. Israel did not choose herself. Israel did not in any way found favor with God on the basis of their natural goodness, or their natural strength, or their ability, or whatever there seems to merit for God to choose them. God chose them sovereignly. And upon the choice and upon that election, Israel was defined for the rest of all of the history to understand the whole premise of God's theocracy. All right? And that's the word that you understand by now in comparison to the word democracy. Democracy is men's rule, theocracy. It's God's rule. Israel was not to become like any other nation, autonomous, or what we have the word autonomy. Autonomy means self-rule. All of the nations of the world like to have self-rule. It's called autonomy. Israel was to understand what it means to be Fionami, which means God is the one that is to rule. So at the very center of this nation was to be God. And the whole history of Israel was the whole history of this centrality. And that's what I said in our last meeting together, that the history of Israel is the history of a relationship. No nation on the face of the earth has a history like Israel did. Every nation today has a history that is unique in its own. And however unique it may be, it is common amongst men. That's why when you read the history of America, Russia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Germany, all these nations today, if you pick up the history books about them, or how they begin as a people, or be identified as, you know, a race, or so on and so forth, they're quite common. They are the usual path that nations will take. But unlike Israel, because Israel's history is not between men and men. Whereas the histories of nations has to do with the affairs of men. But with Israel, her history is the history of a relationship with God. Because the issue of Israel is the issue of who God is. Because God chose Israel as a nation to be a nation of salvation. Because through Israel, salvation will be revealed. So when Jesus spoke to that woman, that Samaritan woman, at Jacob's well, Jesus made reference to the statement when he said, salvation is of the Jew. He's basically pinpointing to the whole issue of God's choice for Israel. Salvation is of the Jew. Jesus himself was of the tribe of Judah. And Judah himself was one of the sons of Jacob, out of which the word Jew derived from, as I said to you. So just in case if you didn't know that way, there's the word Jew, J-E-W, existed. The root word is actually from the word Judah, from a tribe of Judah. So that was the very beginning of the nation of Israel. As I said again, that the history of Israel is the history of a relationship with God. And on this basis, Israel was to understand as long as she exists on the face of the earth, that God is at the very center of that nation. The whole nationhood, the very existence of this nation, the whole maintenance of this nation, the whole purpose of this nation, the whole direction of this nation, the whole destiny of this nation was forever connected with God. God was to be at the center. And we found out as history began to traverse, as we read the pages of the history of the nation of Israel, what do you see? We see that a nation was in constant conflict with this God. Was it a good relationship? It wasn't. Was it a successful relationship? It wasn't. Was it a pretty relationship? No, it wasn't. It was a relationship that suffered all of its breakdown, all of its sins, and all of its indifference, and perversity, and depravity, and all that comes with it. And that's the history of Israel. Why? It's because it reveals something. It reveals something in Israel. It reveals something in men. Now that's where I want to take the picture further now. Did Israel ever live to acknowledge that God is at its very center? So where's the proof to answer that question? Or how do you answer that question? Answer the question even today. Where is Israel today in relationship with the very centrality of God? No more, saints. Look at modern Israel. Look at modern Jews. From Jerusalem to New York, to Belgium, to Brussels, to Luxembourg, to Austria, to Vienna, to Prague, to Kiev, to Ukraine, to Moscow, wherever they are today, to Argentina and Buenos Aires. Is God at the center of this nation? God is at the center of those who has been saved, who have come into the knowledge of the Messiah, and thank God for them. Men like the one that I just read a while ago, David Barron, and so on and so forth, like Arketz. They became Messianic Jew as we know them. But by and large, as a nation, is God at the very center of this nation? No. And why is that so? After 3,000 years of existence, surely a people like Israel by now would have known God intimately. When you have 3,000 years of relationship with the Divine, with the Majesty on high, with the Most High God, with the Shepherd of Israel, don't you think that of all people on the face of the earth, they should be the closest to God? They should be the one that know such intimacy between a people and his God. But yet Israel is in a state of apostasy, backslidden, drifted, far away from everything that God is. So God was the very center of Israel, but Israel would not have him as her center. He is the God of Israel, but is Israel of God? No. So prophetically, that is awaiting fulfillment. Prophetically, God will bring a people, this people, into that relationship, and restore himself as indeed at the very center of that nation. And that nation will finally acknowledge and have him to be indeed at the very center of each one of them. Not just each individual Jews, but even a nation as a whole. And that's why Paul, of all persons, was the one who understood, and all Israel shall be saved. Remember that great statement in Romans 11, that has baffled scholars throughout the years? How Paul used that statement, all Israel shall be saved, all Israel shall be saved. That's what he meant, a nation. Because when God founded this people, and when he came to this people by grace, he came to them as a people, as a nation. That's why I said that in 1948, when the League of Nations, before it became the United Nations, got together and declared the independence of the Jewish people, and gave them, or acknowledged them as a people finally. In other words, Jews can return to their homeland. And finally, that little piece of land that was given to them so long ago, their forefathers and their patriots have dwelt there, the land of Palestine. And in 1948, when they got back together as a people, that's how they announced it. They announced it there in the League of Nations by calling them, they say, the State of Israel. 1948 was the return of Jews after so many, many years, so many, many centuries. The last time they were together as a Jewish nation was 70 AD, 70 years after the death of Jesus Christ. And on the 70th year after the death of Jesus Christ, the Romans, through General Titus, marched into Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus said to the disciples when Jesus came out one day. And they asked Jesus, Jesus, Lord, look at the temple, how wonderful is Herod's temple. And Jesus said, every stone of this temple will be in its ruins. He said, not one of the stone in this city that will not be turned. Prophesying of the invasion of the Romans in 70 AD. And when they marched in, they lay siege of that city for three years, and one million Jews were murdered. Blood was as high to the knee of every man and every woman in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus prophesied to them and told them of what was to come. And that came the Diaspora, D-I-A-S-P-O-R-A. Diaspora means the scattering of the nation. 70 AD was the scattering of the Jews, the final one. Almost likened to the final one preceding all of the years and the centuries before they saw this Diaspora and this scattering. And from 70 AD onwards, Jews never had an identity of a nation. Jews never found, once again, the returning to Jerusalem and make it their holy city and their nation. And from 70 AD onwards until 1948, the Jews were scattered. They were adrift and they were found in all of the wilderness of the nations that the Prophet so prophesied. So in 1948 they returned and it is strange that even the League of Nations would give them the name the State of Israel. They didn't call them the Nation of Israel. Why? Because 1948 was not the divine hand of God gathering Israel as a restored people. Not yet. Not yet as a nation. Not yet all Israel shall be saved. They got their states. They got what they wanted. They returned there. They built their homes and their families. They returned from Ukraine and from all nations of the world, many of them. Before you know it, they became a threat to the entire peace of the Middle East, which is still being fought to this very day. But are they indeed, as Paul said in Romans 11, and all Israel shall be saved. They look as if in 1948, all Israel is indeed saved. No, they are not saved, saints. Why? Because from 1948 until now, in 2012 coming to 2013, is God at the center of Israel? As a nation and as a people? No. So in a sense, if you think of it, it was rightly said when they said that they shall be called the State of Israel and not the Nation of Israel. They have independence. They have a nation, but saints, they are still independent from God. As long as they are independent from God, as long as they will not acknowledge God as their center, as indeed their theocratic ruler, then Israel will never be indeed as God intended her to be. It shall be a nation of priests unto the nations of the earth. So if God is to be at the center of Israel, it was because God intended, and that's where your whole Old Testament comes about. He intended the nations. If God is at the center of Israel, then Israel is the center of the nations. You understand that? If God is at the center of Israel, Israel is at the center of the nations. Are we clear with this? That's where I'm going to read Psalm 78 with you. I have this kind of look upon. Whatever that you perceive this to be in your heart, we will deal with this in the days to come. So why is Israel so central to the nations of the world? You know by now, isn't it? So when Jesus said to that Samaritan woman at the well, he said, For salvation is of the Jews. Why did he said that? Because he was referring to what? Israel as the what? The center of nations. That's why when Jesus finally arose and spent those 40 days manifesting in that resurrected state to the disciples, and then at the conclusion of those 40 days, you may remember the whole event of his return to glory to the Father. The scripture says that 500 were gathered on that day to see him being lifted right out of Jerusalem and Mount Olive. The same place upon which Jesus chose the site and the location of his first sermon. And he stood there. And Jesus knowing now he has accomplished the will of the Father and it's time for him to return. Because without that, then the Spirit of God cannot be sent forth. And he was lifted. And as he was lifted, and these were witnesses. This is what discussed. This was not something that was secretive or clandestine. It was opened and 500 witnesses, according to Luke, saw the ascension of the Messiah in his glorified state. Spirit, soul and body upon resurrection. And then as he was lifted in that cloud, two angels appeared and spoke to these men and women watching him go. He said, why do you look surprised? Why do you look as if that you are startled and you are surprised? He said, for this Messiah who is being lifted up now, who now ascends to the Father will also be the same who shall descend. And as he has been lifted on the spot, so he will also what? Return and where will he return? On the same spot. And where would that be? Mount Olive. And where would that be in Mount Olive in exact location? In Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem shall become the governing centers of the nation. Jerusalem will be the eternal capital of the kingdom of God. Prophesying already of his second coming. He has just come to accomplish what he accomplished in his first coming. And now upon his return to the Father was already anticipating for his second return. That's why Peter on the day of Pentecost was able to say, he said, now where is he? He is at the right hand of the Father. Doing what? He is being held back. He is being waited. He is patiently being held back. He wants to come. He cannot come. Why? Because he can only come when all things has been restored. There are things to be restored. What is to be restored? Jesus has been held back in the heavens according to Peter. He wants to come and he will come. But he cannot come until all things will be restored. What things will be restored? What? So that what? Steve Jobs will live longer. So that Apple is going to have more devices. So that computers will get more advanced. So that our trains will go faster. Our aeroplanes can be more sophisticated. What is going to be restored? So that man is going to grow his economy. So that America will continue to become an imperialistic state. And have dominance in the four corners of the world. What? So that Japan once again will rise. What? What is to be restored? So when Peter make that statement, he said, he is being held back in the heavens waiting for the restoration of all things. Spoken by the prophets. So what was to be restored? There is only one thing to be restored. And what is that? God at the what? At the center of this nation. And is God at the center of this nation yet? No. And until that is restored, spoken by the prophets. And that is where all of the agony and the anguish and the heartbreak of the prophecies and the prophets is given to you and I as Gentiles. Saints to read, to meditate, to embrace and to enter into all of its desire intentions. So that the church can be prepared. So that the church throughout these past 2000 years upon the ascension of Jesus Christ is going to become instrument in that restoration. Because for God to restore all things, saints, he needs the instrumentality of the church. He needs the agency of the church. That's why he created the church. He created the church so that the church can serve the purpose of God. Can serve the very intentions of God. The church was never meant to do its own thing. The church is never supposed to become what it has become in the last 2000 years. And that's why we wonder why the church has grown large, has grown in importance, has gone into prominence. But look at the state of the church. Look at our moral state. Look at the state of the life of Christians everywhere. Look at the failure. Look at the defeat. Look at the sin. Look at the sham. Look at all of the play acting of the church saints in 2000 years. Why? Because we have not served the purposes of God. Because the church has not been in alliance to what God intended the church to be in the nations of the world throughout the last centuries of her existence. She was supposed to be in alliance with the mind and the will of God to express the intentions of God. And what is God's intention but the restoration of all things. Why? Because the restoration of all things is going to bring once again God as the center of this people. And when God once again becomes the center of this people, listen, what will happen? When God becomes the center of this people, what will happen? Come on, think. Pontius Pilate asked him, you're king of the Jew? Jesus said, you said it. Is he king of the Jews? Why is he king of the Jew? Why is it that they mock him with that name? Because he is. It's just this king is a lousy king. This king is a king that can be beaten. This king can be humiliated. This king can be stripped naked. This king can be whacked. This king can be whipped upon with 39 whip on his back. This is a king who is hanging on a Roman cross. They can't even save himself. What kind of king are you? This is a king who sits on donkey. It's a mockery for him. Is he king of the Jews? Yes, he is. So different from the way that the world acknowledged kings today. So different from every nation today that call their pontiates and their rulers as kings. Which king today has a king that looks like Jesus? Which nation has a king who wants the king to be like that? Come on, tell me. Can you imagine saints, Queen Elizabeth sitting on a donkey? And ride along the river dams? Come on, think. Just imagine saints. Can you imagine all of these nations that still have monarchies today? From Denmark to Holland. Holland has a monarchy. Can you imagine sitting on a donkey? Being stripped naked, being beaten, being abused, being humiliated, being spit at, being treated like worse than an animal. What kind of a nation will have a king like that? Because Israel did not know. That's not where they are supposed to compare themselves with. Israel was never to be like any other kingdom, any other nations. Every other nation will have kings in the way that they choose their king, in the way that they crown their king, in the way in which they exalt their king. But the king over Israel is not chosen like the nations of the world, like the kingdoms of the world. This king is a servant king. This king is a king that goes to the cross. This is a king that can be humiliated and will be humiliated. This is a king that will understand what it means to be identified with the sins of men. This is a king that will enter into death itself, even into hell itself and be raised from the dead. This is a king of another kind. This is the king of another realm. Israel was to understand that as a nation, they were not to compare themselves to any other nations because they were not like any other nations. They were a nation identified by God. They were a nation that was to be in relationship with God and therefore to understand all of God's nature, all of God's character. Israel was to find her identity in her relationship with God, not in her relationship with the affairs of the world. And yet while they don't have a relationship with God, look at the nation of Israel in the affairs of the world. I believe you know that every other Nobel Prize on a yearly basis is never without a Jewish man. They just got another one two weeks ago. I think it's what? I think it's economics. You can't even award any Nobel Prize every year without one, two or three Jews, be it from America or England or wherever, that has to take a prize. And this is a nation and a people that is without God at their center, saints, and they're being celebrated and they're being called successful. Just imagine one day when they had been restored with God at the center of their lives. What would they become to the nations of the world? And so God intended that he was to be at the center of this nation. And his return, more so, is to establish that eternal kingdom, upon which Jerusalem, Mount Olive, he says, this is where he's going to put his two feet again. And in that place and in that center, saints, his kingdom will then begin. So prophetically, this is how it looks like. Not only will God be at the center of Israel, but that Israel will also one day be at the center of what? Of the nations, which is the nation on the face of the earth that garnished more attention than any other nation of the world. Isn't it? No U.S. president in the last 120 years has more to do with this nation than a nation of Israel. No nation is more controversial than this nation. No nation is more troublesome than this nation. And today, is it strange? Every president, every European leader, every leader of the nation have in some way or another, direct or indirectly, been linked to this nation? Israel is to be, in God's appointment, the center of the nation. So just imagine now, I'm going to close with this before we go to the psalm. And when God is restored as the center of Israel, and if Israel is to be the center of the nations, will also then one day that God will become the center of the world? There you are. When God is center in this nation, one day God shall be center, or at the center of what? Of the nations of the world. And thereby fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah that says, on that day, the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as water covers the sea. When God has become the center of the nations. But God cannot be the center of the nations until He's restored Himself as the center of what? Of Israel. So can I say something here? To deal with Israel is to deal with the nations. Is that right? To speak to Israel is to speak to the nations. What is in the Jews is also in you Chinese. You don't agree. It's in the Indians. It's in the Americans. It's in the Japanese. It's in the Koreans. It's in the East Timorese. It's in the Filipinos. It's in the Vietnamese. It's in the Cambodians. It's in the Maoris. To deal with this people is to deal with the peoples of the nations. Because the issue of Israel is not the issue of race. The issue of Israel is the issue of what? It's the issue of God. The issue of Israel is not about race. It's about what? It's about who God is to men and women. To you. But he said, why did God choose one? I don't know. He chose as He chose. He's sovereign. Some of you, you come from a family of six. Why is it that you are the one who got saved and the rest of your brothers and sisters has been aging and growing old and some of them are even dead and buried and they're not saved? Have you ever asked that question? Huh? Saints, all your years. Why you in the family? You Li, you Tan, you Kong, you Lim, you Tan. Why of all persons, you? Have you ever stood up and asked, Lord, why? I have. I came from a family of six. Why me? He's sovereign. He chose you. He saved you. You would to God that God, why did you save me? Why me? I'm not worthy. And so on and so forth. But you, so no use trying to play a game with it and trying to use it to whatever advantage you want. The fact of the matter is, saints, you don't know why. God in His mercy chose you, saved you, came to you, love you, and gave Himself to you and revealed Himself to you. The same way that He could do it with one person, Wong Chin Ming, He could do it to a nation. He chose these people, not because these people were better. They were the least of the people, according to Deuteronomy, and God chose them. So I wrote here, maybe you want to write this. It is God in a nation. In this case, the nation of Israel. It is God in a nation for all nation. That's the principle. That's the divine principle. It is God in a nation for all nations. So meaning, does it mean that when God chose Israel, He discarded other nations? He discarded other people? Does it mean that He loved Jews and then therefore, He loved Chinese and Indians and Americans? Listen, no. It is just that it was His way of coming into human history. It was His way, redemptively, to approach the nations of the world and the humankind of the face of the earth. It's for Him, first of all, to choose one nation. It is God Himself to one nation for all nations. Meaning, however God comes to this one people, saints, this nation has every relation with the nations of the world. When God comes to this one people, it is to use this one people to reveal to all other people, Saints, we are all in the same boat. Sin is sin, regardless if it's Jewish sin or Chinese sin. Can you understand that? Rebellion is rebellion, regardless whether it's Jewish rebellion, or Chinese or Japanese rebellion. Unrighteousness is unrighteousness, unlike whether it is unrighteousness in Jews, or it's unrighteousness, saints, in Norwegian or Polish. And it's just that God has to be as He intends and as He chose, or as He preferred and as He providentially come to men. He came into a nation, but with the purpose that that one nation is for all nations. That's why you and I have hope. That's why you and I are grafted in as wild branch into this great olive tree. That's why He loves you too. He not only loves the Jews, He loves you. So on this basis, we can now quickly come to Psalm 78. Shall we? Listen, all my people. I'm reading now in verse 1, quickly as I run through this reading. There are times when we need to stop, and there will be stopping, as we begin to read the history of these people. Now notice, as I said to you, that the history of Israel is the history of a relationship with God. And His relationship with Israel, saints, has everything to do with also His history with any man, any woman, or one day even any nation that will also enter into this relationship with Him. So look at the application of this relationship. How many of you know that in relationships, there are facets? And we need this. We need to see the facets of this relationship between God and His own people. And I don't know, for years, maybe that was one of the anguish, I think that Art Ketz was actually speaking to the university students in Berlin. Was it in Berlin or was it in, what was that place called, Nuremberg? There you are, it's Nuremberg, not in Berlin, sorry. Nuremberg was in 1933 of April of that year, because Adolf Hitler came into power just barely about two years, and he immediately took the opportunity, two years or one and a half or two years into his chancellorship, and he had a meeting in a place called Nuremberg, and it was then known as the Nuremberg Law. It was there together with the Nazi party, Nazi party mean all of his Nazi cronies, and together with the entire, virtually tens and hundreds of thousands of followers, were gathered in Nuremberg, and there he officially declared the law that Jews could not even believe in Germany, you know, for a hundred years. And he finally said, from this day forward, Jews are no longer citizens of Germany. Jews no longer have rights in Germany, Jews no longer can marry any Germans anymore, Jews can no longer walk our streets and old stores, and become lawyers and doctors in our institutions anymore, you cannot teach, you cannot be a professor or a lecturer, you cannot be a musician in our orchestra anymore, you cannot be a director of orchestra or film industry in Germany, known as the Nuremberg Law. And Jews were shocked, they couldn't even believe that it could happen, it was in Nuremberg. Years ago, when Art had the privilege of being invited to Nuremberg in a historical way, he spoke to a group of students in the University of Nuremberg, I suppose, and almost pleading, he told me, he said, I pleaded, and there was such a moment as if God would come and just settle upon that congregation. He said, how is it that your fathers, your people, the German church of that day did not recognize that the very Jews in which they were treating, were the very people written in this book? They were this people. How is it that when your fathers, when you folks were reading your Bible, didn't you read they were here in this book? The very Christianity you were practicing, he said, came from this book. That this gospel that you have, that you enjoy, that you're reaping all of its benefits, is connected with this people. That God has a purpose and a plan. How is it that you could hate them to the point that you treated them like animals? How is it that we don't see this? Look for Germany. And these German boys were weeping after that. They came up, pastors were coming up to the front and asking for forgiveness. And on behalf of Germany, he said, why is it that you didn't know it? You didn't see this. You took the gospel and you fractured the gospel. You disjuncted the gospel. You truncated the gospel and took it out of contact and its roots until it became something of its own. And these people were left to fend for themselves. And you could treat them as if they were non-entities. They were not even humans. They were actually called subhumans. That's exactly what Hitler called them. Jews were subhumans. They are a burden to the nations. They need to be eliminated. They need to be exterminated. And that was the whole premise. The Nuremberg Law was the beginning of the end of the 6 million Jews that were incarcerated and they were eliminated and exterminated in the death camps all over Europe. That's where it all begins. That was the seed that was sown, the Nuremberg Law. I hope that one day I could visit that city, the city of Nuremberg. Psalm 78, hear this now. Listen, all my people, to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parable. I said that this was all in a place called Sinai. Listen, that's how they all begin as a nation. In Sinai, in the desert, in the wilderness. That's exactly how God begins with a nation. I wonder if you know that nations don't begin in wilderness. They begin in palace. They begin in Istana. They begin in all of this great place called Buckingham Palace. That this nation begins in the wilderness. You see how the ways of God are different from the ways of men? Are you here, some of you? You like to begin in all of the grandeur. God begins in the desert. He begins with scorpions and snakes and vipers. He begins with that which is in ground zero. He begins with that with nothing. That's who God is. You like that? He even calls Jerusalem Zion. You know what the name Zion is? It's a poetic name for Jerusalem. What do you think God called the place Zion? Zion means a place, a dry place. A place that is dry. Would God choose something dead, something insignificant, dry, to be the very capital one day of His everlasting kingdom and rule and reign over the nations of the world? You see, I'm speaking to you. I'm wondering whether you catch what I'm saying. Right at the very beginning with this nation, Israel was already appointed as a cruciform nation. There's already a picture of the cross right at the beginning of the very seat of this nation. You see that? The cross was already invaded in this nation. It's just that this nation was so backslidden and so blind, they didn't see it. God appointed this nation to house and embody within them the principle of the cross. Jesus coming one day in the flesh and dying on the cross was only the physical manifestation of a spiritual principle even in the people. It's just that they didn't see it. That's cross. The physical cross was only finally the outward and the final demonstration of an inward reality. And that reality was already even in this people at the beginning. That's why they were there in the Sinai desert. And that's why they were murmuring and they were complaining. All they care about is their dressing and their food, their manner, their water. That's all they care about, like us. Don't you care about these things? Come on, Chinese. Don't you care about your existence? Don't you care about where you live? What food you have? What clothes you wear? What car you drive? What jobs you have? Whether your bank is full of money? Don't you think you care about these things? It's in the Jews. It's in you. It's in the nations of the world. And it's causing the collapse of nations on the face of the earth. You care about these things. And God said, I want you to care about me. I want you to see me. I want you to look upon me. I'm the center of your existence. Not your food. Not your drink. You care about these things. You don't care about me who created you, who chose you, who loved you, who let you, who preserved you for 430 years while you were slaved in the house of bondment. See the point? Right at the very beginning, God was speaking to a nation, Listen! That's why I said in my prayer this morning, We hear and we hear. We don't listen. We don't listen, saints, because to listen is more than just a pair of ears. To listen is because something has been put right in your heart. Something in you has been put right. Something in you is finally hearing. Your nature now is in harmony. Your nature has been corrected. Your nature has been right to hear God. It's not a Jewish problem. It's an international problem today. Listen to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and we have known. Our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but to tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous work that He has done. That was what they were supposed to do. They were to announce. They were to proclaim. That's why Israel was a witness nation. Now, I'm jumping the queue now. I'm going even beyond Psalm 78. I'm quoting to you from the prophets. That's why God said to the prophets, He said, I appointed you as a light to the nations. You are my witness nation. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to proclaim me. You're supposed to announce me. Your life is to be a testimony of all that I am in your middle. So that you can tell of the generations to come. Look at the generations of Jews today. Look, saints, walk into the streets of Jerusalem and you'll be sick to your guts. You have never dreamed Jews can become wife beater. You can never dream Jews in the streets of Jerusalem holding hands with skirt men, walking down the streets of Jerusalem, saints, with M16s on their back. You have never in your life ever looked at something so heartbreaking. Jewish, a people of God, that's what they were supposed. Not about their survival and how to build walls to stop the PLOs and the Palestinians from attacking their homes. They're more concerned about survival today. He established, verse 5, a testimony in Jacob, appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach to their children that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born. No nation has been appointed to live like this. No nation has been called upon for each generation not to live for itself but to live for another generation. Again, saints, this is the whole principle of the cross. I'm watching in my own lifetime, a 1950 year old kid, I'm watching my whole generation perishing because, saints, we don't have generations to teach our generation how to live. My father and mother never taught me the way they should. My father and mother failed us like your father and mother have failed you. And you're going to fail the next generation? So I look at us today. I sit down sometimes with my wife in restaurants and coffee shops and I hear some of these young generations talk. I used to tell my wife, isn't it tragic just to hear them talk? You look at our kids today, you look at our generations today, they're worthless. Not W-O-R-T-H, W-O-R-D. They are worthless. Look at the content of their conversation. Look at our behavior today. Look at the generations, there's no one to tell them. Israel was appointed as a nation to bring forth whatever the God has established in them and to tell it to the generations now. So that the generations to come can tell it to their children. Counsel for some of you here who are young, looking forward to start a family and raise up children, saints, you have responsibility. This is a principle laid for Israel at the very beginning. That's why scholars and theologians would tell you so much of Israel's theology was known as narrative theology. You know narrative or narration? They talk. Alright, they talk. That's the reason why the Hebrew language is one of the richest language on the face of the earth. It's one of the most phenomenal language ever known to man. If you are linguist, you study language, you understand that. Because God spoke Hebrew to His people here in Deuteronomy. Alright? So they were supposed to do that. I'm not going to even go any further. How many of you know that our generations today don't talk anymore? We text. We SMS. What else do they do? I don't even understand some of the things that comes into my cell phone. I'm a whore at the language. It took me a long time. What was BDW. BTW. Long time. Finally found out. By the way. Stupid. And we call that communication. No wonder our kids today are worthless. Listen, when a life is worthless, since the whole formation of your mind and your soul and the character is impaired. Do you know that? That's why they wonder why the generations that raise up such men in the days of the British Empire were such men of character that would lead nations. You know why they could? Because they had Shakespeare and Charles Deacon. They knew words. They know how to employ words. This generation has no words anymore. Like hearing cows. Don't know how to communicate anymore. Worthless. This nation was a nation established on the law and the testimony of God. That should tell you why, saints. I can stand up here and read you some of the articles for the commentary magazines from the Jew. I've been reading on the journal study of antisemitism. Those English will blow you away. You can read for days in one paragraph. You don't even know what they're saying in that paragraph. That is the extent of the Jewish mind. Because they gave themselves to the word. Today we've become a worthless generation. You wonder why, saints? Look at our lives today. Look at the shallowness of the family. That's why many of these men and women go out there and get married to men and women. Saints, they produce children. And you wonder why. Saints, we have massive problems in our hands. 20, 30, 35 years old, 40 years old. They can't even resolve basic conflicts in their home because they're shallow and they're immature. That's why we need psychologists. And we need drugs. We need pills. Saints, we need counseling. We need therapy. So that they may arise to tell their children that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God. But keep his commandments and not be like their fathers. A stubborn and a rebellious generation. Is it a Jewish problem? Or is it an international problem? Stubbornness? Stubborn and rebellious. Is it an international problem? Or a Jewish problem? International problem. God at the center of Israel so that Israel can be at the center of the nations. From this nation, God was to speak to all other nations. It is God in a nation for all of the nations. That's the principle. No way are we supposed to read such scriptures today and disconnect ourselves as a church and come into some kind of a spirituality of its own. Saints, without having to consider that there is yet something that God is after with this people. Got the point here? In the course of the days probably you'll get a little bit more clearer for some of us. You are stubborn and the rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The word there, prepare its heart, is also the word, put right. That's what happens, saints. Once you are stubborn and you're rebellious, your heart will never be in the right place. Your spirit will never be faithful. One atom of stubbornness in you, it will prepare you for a heart that will hear Him. That's why I said to you right from the very on start, listen, O Israel. Remember the great Shemar, chapter 6 of Deuteronomy? Hear ye, O Israel, for the Lord thy God is one God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul and with all thy strength. Yes or no? Hear ye, O Israel. Hear, you can't hear, saints. Until and unless, saints, you have been prepared in your heart and your spirit has been faithful to God. The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows and yet they turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God. They refused to walk in His law. Is it a Jewish problem? Or is this also a Chinese problem? We don't keep the covenant of God and we refuse to walk in His law. Answer me. Is it an international problem or a Jewish problem? It's just that God has to use them to speak to you and speak to me. They forgot His deeds and His miracles that He has shown them. He wrought wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zion. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through. He made the water stand up like a heap. He let them, look at the emphasis I'm doing, He let them with the cloud by day and all the night with the light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness. He gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused water to run down like rivers. Look up here, folks. Don't you think that all of you, if you were there, you become great lovers of God? The issue of Israel is not the issue of a race. It's the issue of truth. It's the issue of the intrinsic nature of human men. It is not God specifically choosing a people and preferring a race more than the other. This is not racism going on here. And that's why so many today have got into trouble. Maybe that's the reason why today the church have got into replacement theology and take this thing called Israel out of its vocabulary and call the church as the new Israel. It's because they don't want all this racial thing, race issue. The issue of Israel is not the issue of race. It's the issue of who God is. It's the issue of even us as men intrinsically in our makeup. Would you be, saints? Would you be? You know, I grew up as a Christian, having hear people tell me things like that again and again. When we all fire up in our religious mood and our religious excitement and euphoria. If I were Jews, if I was there in the wilderness, I wouldn't have forsaken God. I would have loved God with all my heart. If God can come and do these things to me and gave me such a miracle, such a prophet and such demonstration. You want to hear something? You want to hear what God said? Just when you people think, people like us think, if I was there to see what God did, I would have loved Him, I would have followed Him all my life. I would have pledged my covenant and my promise with God that I would never hurt Him and never pain Him as long as I live as an individual. And yet, verse 17 has this word called yet. Yet, they still continue to sin against Him and to rebel against the Most High in the desert. That's you. Ever felt sorry? Every time when you told yourself you're not going to do it, you did that thing? Right? Ever want to come and use your head and knock against the wall? Couldn't forgive yourself? You summon all of your strength and your power and all of your charismatic and your Pentecostal, you know, hoo-ha and whatever, hoorah you have and find yourself, you're back in the mud hole again. Yet, this is the scripture testifying concerning your, you and mine and Israel's true nature. They say yet. They still continue to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert. And in their heart, they put God to the test by asking for food according to their desire. Every time when God listens, isn't it strange? It has this word that says, could you read this word for me please? Can be very certain that once when God is no longer at the center of a people, center of a man, center of a woman, saying, your desire will have the upper hand. Your desire will have the upper hand. Your desire will rule the day. Your desire will rule your moments. Your desire will rule your mind. Your desire will rule your heart. Your desire will rule your emotions. Your desire is going to be the utmost. God is going to become secondary. Your desire will become primary. Everything will be subservient to your desire. Look at me, some of you here. Have you wondered why some of your desires cannot be controlled? Your mind cannot be controlled? Some of you have been fighting with things in your mind for years. You have no control. You have no power over it. Do you know why? Got the answer finally because God is not at the center of your life. It's not at the center. Your desires are. You know why they are ruling you? Because God is not at the center. Because no two reality rules at one time. No two things can rule in your heart. Either one or the other. And once desire is at its uppermost, then you're on the road to idolatry. You're on the road to a form of idolatry. You don't have to cut out a little figure and put in front like your father and your mother did. And put just sticks. You already have an adulterous thing in your life. Whatever that desire may be. It could be your bicycle. It could be your pair of socks. It could be your wife. It could be your piano. It could be your badminton racket. It could even be your ministry. It could even be your church and your Sunday school. And your missionary work to Cambodia. It will become your idolatry. God is not at the center. Your mission work is. Your drug rehab center is. Your dedication to the poor and the orphan is. Not God. Your desire. Saints, the Jews were not worshipping Kuan Yin and Hara Krishna. The Jews were not worshipping any of this deity on the face of the earth. How in the world did they got into idolatry? It began here. When their desires was at the uppermost. Was at a place of ascendance. And this is a testimony of the prophets and of the saints. Let's read this. And their hearts, they put God to the test by asking food according. The issue here is not just the food. The issue here is something has gone weary. Something has gone in distortion. Their desires are starting to first. Of course, what else can be the first frontier of expression of one's desire? Food. As any father and mother who raise children. One of the first thing you fight the most with a kid is food. Food. Forcing your kid to eat vegetable. To do this, to drink milk, to do the other. Food. Because they have a desire of their own. And it's first manifested at the very frontier of their bodily life through food. But it reveals a larger problem. A kid will fight you with food. You can be very certain one day the kid will fight you in every other area. Food is only the beginning. Of a larger issue. Of an iceberg sinking at the depth that you cannot see. It's called self. It's called stubbornness. You hear that? Is it a Jewish problem or a Chinese problem? They spoke against God. And they say, can God prepare a table in the wilderness? It started to become even cynical. Sarcasm. Becoming very sarcastic. Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock so that waters would gush out. Streams were overflowing. Can he give bread also? And will you also provide meat for his people? From bread now even to meat. Therefore God heard and was full of wrath. And a fire was kindled against Jacob. And anger also mounted against God. Israel wants to know that God has character. Israel wants to know that God gives. But the God who forgives is also the God that can have anger. Can have wrath. God can be provoked. God can be tested. To the point of anger. God has anger. No nation on the face of the earth wants to know a God as Israel is. As Israel was. Or as Israel known him to be. And God was indeed provoked. A fire was kindled against God. And anger was mounted against Israel. Because they did not believe in God. And they did not trust in his salvation. You think it's only just your problem? You don't believe him. You don't trust him. It's there at the very beginning. And yet, after all of this, you would have thought, isn't it? And this is why he was still in his anger. This is why God is still in his wrath. And this is beyond human understanding. This is beyond the human analytical and cognitive ability. This is not within the realm of your celibro. You know, celibro means all on your head. How is it possible that God who is now being provoked to anger, to wrath. And yet, he commanded the clouds above. He opened the doors of the heavens. He rained down manna upon them to eat. And gave them food from heaven. Can you imagine? This was exactly what they wanted. They wanted these things even in their cynicism. Even while they were sarcastic to God. And God, in his anger, gave to them. Tell me something here, please. When was the last time in anger you gave? When was the last time in anger you loved? When was the last time when you were angry and yet you were so compassionate? When was the last time you were so angry and yet you were so loving? You see the contradiction? This is all the language of the cross. This is cruciform. This is the whole display of a cruciform God coming to the nation of Israel. No wonder when Paul finally saw him at the road to Damascus. Saints, no wonder he cried out to the Corinthians. I'm determined not to know anything amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He saw the cross not only because of that cross that the Messiah died. Yes, that was at the center of it all. But he saw now the whole cruciform perspective. He saw that the entire beginning of his people, Israel, began on the premise of a cruciform mentality. On a cruciform matrix. If you understand that word. If not, don't worry. And yet, he did this. He opened the heavens. He rained down food from the heavens. And men did eat even the bread of angels. Can you imagine there were angels' bread? You said, angels eat? Well, it looks like it. And God even shared angels' food with men. Not with good men. With rebellious men. Like Chinese. Like Indian. Like Japanese. Like Korean. Like American. He rained down manner upon them to eat. And then he gave them food. He sent them food. Verse 25. In abundance, he caused even the east wind. Remember they said? Bread? And then from bread, they actually kind of like upgraded. You know? Like some of you here from economy to first class. To business class. And so we are like that, isn't it? Just when we thought that we can play around with one thing. And then we push the boundary. We want another thing. Bread? How about meat? Can I? You can't give to me even a table in the wilderness. You see, there's no table in the wilderness. Because it's a moving people. It was a moving generation. It was a moving crowd. How in the world would they have interior design? How would they have tables and chairs? And shellac, mahogany, antique wood furniture? How could they have? Come on, some of you here. How could they have? They were supposed to be a moving people. Will you prepare a table before us in the wilderness? Because they used to have tables back in Egypt. They were cynical. They were mocking God. Just that they didn't know they were mocking. They thought it was funny. They could get away with it. And they went on. And God, in His wrath and anger, gave them. He opens the heaven, pour down the manor. And now they upgraded to even flesh. They want meat. Bread is not enough. This is angel's bread. It's quite obvious, isn't it? That if God can give them angel's bread, it's quite obvious all the vitamins were there. The wilderness would not kill them. The lack of vitamin A, B, C, D would not be lacking. Every complex would be there. All the minerals would be there. Don't you know God knows how to feed you? If He created you, don't you know He knows exactly what you need? He gave them. If angels can live, you can live too. But that wasn't enough. So He said, how about meat? And the meat came. And the east wind blew in the heavens, and the power directed the south wind. And when He rained meat upon them like dust, the winged fowls, quails, I suppose in another translation, like the sand of the sea, and He let them fall in the midst of their camp, and round about their dwelling. And so they ate, and they were filled. And their desires, or their desire, He gave them. Isn't it interesting, saints? What is that? What's that, saints? Grace. Grace is not when Jesus came. Grace is not only confined when Jesus came. You know how long you've been listening, isn't it? You've been told all the years of your growing up, Oh, Old Testament is all law. Who said Old Testament is law? Old Testament is grace too. Oh, Jesus is grace. New Testament is grace. We don't need to read the Old Testament anymore, because it's all old-fashioned, discarded, as some of the people who are saying now, not too far from this church. Not too far from this nation. There's preaching going on. There are churches going on today. There's teaching going on now that says, the Old Testament, it's all law. It's all do's and don'ts. It's for Holy Joe. You can't keep that. It's all gone. Moses is all over. All the laws is over, because now it's the time of grace. Jesus has come. It's all grace. How about this? How about this, saints? When God was angry with a people for what they desire more than Him, and God said, I'll give it to you. I'll give to you. And He gave to them. Is that grace? It's grace. Listen, look up here. It's grace with a heartbreak. It is a grace with pain. It is a grace with a broken heart. It is grace, saints, in the midst of anger. It is grace waiting to search and find out for people who are stubborn, who are deep-rooted in its own sin. That's why, saints, never ever say anything about grace in your life unless you're prepared to know that when grace reaches you, God's going to show you who you are. Real grace will show what you are on the inside. Real grace will expose your sin and your rebellion against God. Real grace will show you you broke the heart of God. That's grace. It's not a grace today that has this cheapness that makes people proud, that makes people have the air, saints, of self-sufficiency and some kind of an arrogance, as if this grace given to me is as if it gives an appearance that I deserve it. No, you don't deserve it. You deserve hell. I deserve to go to hell. That's why Oswald Chambers said, If you knew that God loved you, you would know in your heart you don't deserve to be loved. If you knew who you are. If you knew the grace of God in your life, you knew, you know that you don't deserve to be saved. You deserve to die. And even while you are forgiven and you are changed, it will still make you so unworthy that out of your unworthiness, you begin to appreciate how worthy He is. That's what makes you love God. That's grace. It comes with a broken heart. It comes with character. Not the grace that I'm hearing that makes men become self-serving and arrogant, and looks like a celebrity from Hollywood. It's a grace that breaks your heart. If that grace that reaches you hasn't break your heart yet, you have even to doubt whether you have really touched grace. It's still something of your own merit. It's still something that you think you deserve it. There's something in you, there's self-confidence in you that makes you feel as if, you know, you deserve it. I'm better off than other people. Yeah, I may be a sinner, but you know, I'm quite a bad sinner. That's why God loves me a little bit more. So He gave this. There's still something about the self, the poison of self that is inside this thing when we talk about grace. Not here. Not in the way in which grace was revealed to Israel. This was a grace that Israel have to find out. That while you wanted what you want, I will love you, I'll follow you, and I'll keep you, and I'll still bless you. I will even answer your desire. You wanted this. You exalted your desire more than myself. I'll give it to you. And God gave it to them. And their desires were fulfilled. Let's read it, shall we? And their desire He gave to them. And it's one of the most fulfilling words, statement ever used in the Psalms, in the Old Testament, is when the Scriptures say, And He gave them their desire. Look at me, saints. It's one of the worst things that can ever happen to any man. It happened to a nation. And sometimes you wonder whether we've ever learned from this nation, God gave them their desire. Have you ever wanted things and finally you got it? And the Scripture says, As they were eating that manna in their mouth. As they were eating, they haven't even swallowed yet. They were eating, and the judgment fell upon them. Because you wanted it. Ever wonder why sometimes? You wanted what you want, but the judgment didn't come immediately. It came ten years later. You wanted that ministry. You wanted that wife. You wanted that woman. You wanted that man. You wanted that child. You wanted that nation. You wanted to migrate there. You wanted to do these things. You wanted that house. You wanted that car. And God gave it to you. To one day, the very thing in which God gave you. Remember the Scripture that says, In wrath He gave to you, in anger He took it away. And God takes it away from you. Why? So that He will save your soul. So that He will change you. So that your heart will be made right. You will never wrong Him again. You will understand grace for the first time. Who you are. What you are made up of. So that you finally will love Him. You will never fall away from Him. And submit yourself to Him as the center, as the King of everything you are. That's why He does it. He's not mocking you. He's not playing the fool with you. He's not tricking you. He gives to you. He gives you that man. He gives you the marriage. Until the marriage hurts you. Until the marriage fools you. Until that son is going to break your heart. Until the thing breaks. Until your career is collapsed. And you are looking at blank, at naked, at ground zero. And then you know, Lord, I'm so thankful. You took the money from me. You took the empire from me. You took these things from me. But Lord, You saved me. You changed my heart. You saved me. You saw. You made my heart see You. Now I'm listening for the first time. Got the point there? You're not been listening. Now I'm listening, Lord. I'm listening. Ever come to that yet? That's grace. How can you read something like this, Ains? I can't. For the weeks and the days of sitting in my room. How can I read something like this? And not clench your own chest. And know that this. You're part of this. You want to make. You're in this whole thing here. That's why I understand, Ains. That's why when I shared this one day in SOL. Listen. A special people. I'm not going to use the word. A special people. Was a convert. Was sitting in that school. Came up to me. Here you are, Ains. A former Muslim. Looked into my face and said, I've never saw a man who loved Jews like you do. He said, He said, Sir. And you are Chinese. Tell me how is it possible for you to preach like this. And gave me an impression that you have a love for this people that I've not seen. And this man have traveled around the Middle East. I said to him. I said, It's not because I love this people. I said, I don't even know this people. I said, This is the God of this people. The issue is not a race. It's not a people. It's God. I don't have to go to Israel to see a Jew. I don't have to. I don't have to walk the Holy Land. In order to have a burden for Israel. Sometimes I'm now wondering. Would it be better for some of us who have not been there. Because the burden and the love that you have for them. Is of a greater intensity. Of a greater reality. Than just go there and do all kinds of show outwardly. I'm not saying that I won't go. If the opportunity arises. God be praised. I would love to take the opportunity and walk on that piece of land. And feel and understand the whole propheticness. What that nation is now tending towards. And before they had satisfied their desire. Verse 30. While their food was still in their mouths. The angle of God rose against them. And killed some of their stoutest ones. Subdued the choice men of Israel. I've seen some of the best of people have died. Not just physically. They have died spiritually. I've seen some of the best. That's why when I read this last night. I was wondering how many. In those six million that went into the guest chambers. And they were shot by bullets. How many saints? I can't help. As I'm reading these days. The doctors. The philosophers. The psychiatrists. The professors. The rabbis. They were good men. The best. The best of mathematicians. Musicians. Composers. Violinists. Orchestras. Directors. The best of Israel. Marching into those guest chambers. They were the best. Because you wanted your desire. God said. I will allow even your best. And the choices of your sons and your daughters. To perish before you. Do you know that we're supposed to teach this to our children? Saints, look up here. Do you know that? Some of you parents. We're supposed to raise our children to understand. Their desires are never to take precedence. That God has to be in a point. In a place of preeminence. And all human desires are subservient to God. I counseled Adria and Eugene all the days of their life. When they were growing up. I told Adria. I care two hoots if you pick up the broom. And sweep the floors of PJ. I don't care, son. As long as you understand. That everything about you is subservient to the will of God. And that's why the boy said. Dad, it don't matter. That's why when they went to the states to study. They were shocked. They were shocked. Today he's an adjunct professor in the university. He's been appointed for another job. As an intermediary officer. For all foreign students. He has got another job. He said. Dad, look at me. I'm leave. I don't want this. And the president of the university said. Adria, no one is capable to do this. Except you. And this was the boy who barely says. I told this boy. I said. We don't have it to send you out there. So I said. Son, I'm sorry. We don't apologize with a sense of regret. We apologize with a sense of knowledge. Of understanding where we are. Where we stand. As a family. I raised them up like this. We did. I said. Son, I know what you want. I knew in his heart. I knew that he loved to read literature. And he knew that. And there was no possible outlet here. I said. Son, then yield it to the Lord. If the Lord give it. The Lord give it. If the Lord don't. Then the Lord has something in mind. He said. I taught them. Your desire must always be subservient to the will of God. You like the man you like. You like the woman you like. Can it stay subservient to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? I know what you want. You know what you want. Is it a Jewish problem or a Chinese problem? That was the story of this people. That's the story of the nations. Look at Europe today. The desire of Portugal. The desire of Greece. The desire of Spain. Of Italy. Look at it today. Never in the history of humanity. One day. Can one supervisory body control 6,000 banks in Europe? You tell me if that is not the road and the pathway to an Antichrist government. First time. They just approve it. 48 hours ago. Angela Merker and Francois Hollande finally struck the deal with all of the European nations. They sat there for the first time. They finally in principle agreed. One supervisor. One supervisory body to control 6,000 European banks. Unheard before. That is the road to an Antichrist. And they will control it. Preparing him to come. Inviting him to sit on a chair to run the financial. How many of you know who runs the money, runs the nations? You should know that by now. Never before. Historical. According to BBC. Historical. In fact, they thought it would never be agreed upon. Because every nation wants to have their own banks. And call their own shots. And run their own affair. And they gave in. Why? Because of the crisis. Because of what is happening to the nations. They could not handle their debts anymore. 20% of Greece are below poverty line. They cannot live anymore. It is going to be anarchy soon. Press this any further. According to Salamant, the prime minister of Greece. He said, my nation will boil. It will boil over. He said, there will be no man that can control my nation anymore. They were begging Angela Merkel. Could you hold on? Give us two years to pay you. Slow down so that we don't have to press the people like that. They couldn't take it no more. The crisis of the hour. Because nations have exalted their desire above God. And now we're paying a price. No human desire is to be in ascendancy. No human desire is to be above God. All human desire is to be subjected to God. Learn this. We have to teach this even to our children. You don't sit down and tell your children, you want sausage? You want bread? Or you want rice? And the fellow is hardly one and a half years old. I watch parents doing that. Huh, darling? You want sausage? You want sandwich? Or you want bread? You teach a child to have their desire subjected to you. Not the desire of a child running amok in your family. Which dress today, darling? Pink, blue, purple? Which socks, darling? Green, yellow, pockmarked? You choose the socks for them. You choose their meal for them. You choose their school for them. You choose the thing they should do and should not do. You owe it to your children to handle them and to bring desires under the subjection of an authority that you are only a reflection of the greater authority. God himself. And in spite, verse 32, in spite of all this, what can you say, saints? From yet to in spite. Yet. The patience, the endurance. Yet. Yet they would go on the way they were as a people. It's not the story just of Israel. It's the story of nations. It's the story of what I'm watching now before my very eyes. And in spite of all of this, they still sin and did not believe in his wonderful works. And so he brought their days to an end in futility and their years in sudden sorrow. To this very day, I told me while we were in New York together, as we passed the New York library, he said to me, inside this library are the billions and billions of documents that men have written for the last 75 years on the Holocaust. No subject under the sun and on God's earth has demanded more strenuous thinking and writing and debate and unprecedented attempts by men to understand the reason for the Holocaust, the reason for the murder of 6 million Jews to this very day. He said inside that library, which of course he has visited. We didn't have time because he wanted to take me down through the whole corridor, one of the biggest libraries in the world. And they're still having to ask the question, why did all of us, why did our fathers and our mothers, 6 millions of them being incinerated, being burned to death. Here you are in verse 33. And so he brought their days to an end in futility and their years in sudden sorrow. They couldn't believe, how is it that it took less than 4 years for a people in Germany, the best of the European nation has to offer to decimate 6 million Jews in the futility of their days and their time. And it remains a question unanswered to this day in the eyes of many Jews and many men and women in the nations of the world who don't understand that God is the center of this people. And they shall be, even now as it will be to the end, the center of the nations. That's why you and I have the privilege of understanding from Paul as a nation or as any nation that include this nation here. That's why God gave us a thing called, could you read this? Could you read it please? That's why he gave you Chinese and Malaysians and Singaporeans and Indonesians and Japanese, a thing called the time of the Gentiles. You understand the word, the times of the Gentiles? It means, listen saints, God wants to mark the times of the Gentiles. God has set a boundary for the time of the Gentiles. No nation on the face of the earth is to run the affair and think we have forever to do what we want. No Obama, no Mitt Romney, no Orland, no Cameron, no Merkel is allowed to think they can do what they want. It's all within the confine of the time of the Gentiles. That's why Paul says, until the time of the Gentiles be what? Fulfilled. In other words, history has a what? History has a what? Has an end. Human history has an end. What end is that? It's got a pointed end. For what? For Israel. Because one day Israel will end. And when will it end? When God is restored as the center of this nation. And when God is restored at the center of this nation, then the times of the Gentiles will also come to an end. My question to you, just before I pray, how are you managing your time? What are you doing with your days? What are you doing with your desires? You have desires today? From morning at six o'clock that you wake up, I don't know what time you wake up, to the day, to the time you put your body on your bed. Some of you here, don't you know something? Your desire serves so many things. Your desire serves so many people. Your desires become servants to institutions, to companies. Nothing wrong with that. Your desires are stewards of Malaysia, stewards of IBM, stewards of your computer, you're stewards of the whole money-making machines of society. Your desires today are run and ruled and managed by the forces of the world and forces of this age. When will it be one day, when you can finally say and nod your head, Lord, from this day forward, my desire is subservient to you as my king. That's why no nation has got a name like Israel, that says, for I am the shepherd of Israel. I'm growing older now, and the word shepherd is more endearing to my heart than ever, not because I'm shepherding a flock. It's because I'm beginning to understand the marvel. I'm starting to begin to understand the preciousness, the depth of it, how God could even shepherd a nation, how tender, how sweet, how personal, how intimate that must be. And God intends to shepherd individual. If He can shepherd a nation, can He shepherd an individual? That's why we gave Him His name, Adriel, the shepherd of God. Let's hope you live up to it. That's what His name means. God gave that name to me, for Adriel when he was born, because when he came out, he was ugly, he was like a papaya. God, can I ever make a papaya into a shepherd one day? And I always tell the mother, I say, your son is more of a shepherd than I am. He's got a real shepherd heart. He's got even the face of a shepherd. He has been invited to his former church to shepherd again, just when he has left. And when he saw the church in Christ's eyes, he went back and spoke to a PhD pastor, now in the process of getting his doctorate, and he looked at Adriel, you know, twice the age of Adriel, and he said, Brother Adriel, I'm so thankful that you came and talked to me like this. He said, Pastor, would you give me a chance? I'll come and help you. Let me help you. Let me give you a hand in these troubled times. So when Richard, the pastor, went back and met with the board members and announced, Adriel is returning to help us the shepherd. He said, all of the board members started to clap their hands. I told Adriel, I wish, I said, I wish I had such people around me who clapped their hands when they announced I'm coming. I said, even Jared runs away from me. Are we? So what? Your desire is all fulfilled. Thy verse is fulfilled. Remarkable, the story of this nation. I'm giving you a kind of a prophetic prelude to this nation. Something that we know in this ministry, but we need to sometimes, once again, shine the light on some of these intricacy and the details of these things that are relevant to our own lives. And now, I suppose, this is what's happening. So part of what we're going to do next year, up in the hills on a permanent basis, is to have a fortnight called day, the day of prayer for Israel. Would that be good? You should be happy. Just one night where we get together. Maybe on a Shabbat, on a Friday, because it's their day. We'll come together just for one hour, one and a half hours. And our prayers is only nothing but for the promised people of God. I love them, not because they are a race, but because of what they are before God. And their restoration is the restoration of the nations. We cannot neglect that. So Lord, we ask you to help us today. We're Chinese, but we're no different than Jews. Stubborn, stiff-necked. We have desires that are greater than you. Not only here, but in every nation. In particular, the nations now that is in turmoil. We're thankful this day. Lord, I'm asking that you give us something very personal here for our lives. Thank you again. May all that is within us be called upon to serve you. May all that is within us be called upon to be subservient to you. That only then do we have the hope of ever one day speaking to a nation and to a people scattered in the wilderness of the nations and say, your God reigns. Because your God has first reigned in me. He has now and has been king over you. And now he shall be king even over you too. Our God, we thank you. Come, we pray. Communicate this into our hearts here. And we're grateful that our salvation was never meant to be, Lord, kept within ourselves and for ourselves as a Chinese or any race for that matter. The church was never meant to be a little private club so that we can play our little own evangelical or charismatic games. We are being saved and we have been constituted as a church to serve the end time programs of God and to bring glory to your name in the restoration of all things so spoken by your prophets so long ago. So, Lord, we thank you that you have indeed inducted us in this great symphony of prophetic fulfillment by which, Lord, this generation is only a part of the many generations that have preceded us. So, Lord, here we are in this place, in this locality, seeking you and asking you, Lord, to put grace within our hearts. Come and deal with our desires. Come and deal with our inner man. Come and settle issues within us, Lord, where we don't even trust you, where our daily lives are not lived in accordance to your purpose and your will. Come and change our hearts so that everything in us, once again, will have the semblance of the reign and the kingship of God, Lord, in every area. So, Lord, thank you again. Give us a semblance of that. Give us a taste of that here in this life, even as we await the fulfillment of all things. My God, we thank you again. So thank you for the relevancy of this text. We ask you to continue to speak as you have. We continue to seek you today and in the days to come. Bless this and enrich this, Lord, for all of our hearts. And your voice is always greater than just the words that has come. And so let your voice continue to speak. Words, things, issues, areas that your light will shine, fingers in which, Lord, you yourself will come and lay it on and point, Lord, so that somehow those things are arrested in our lives. And, Lord, there are things in us that is needing to be arrested, needing to be finally conquered once and for all, so that once again you'll be indeed center of every man and every woman, before you can be center over a nation, and before that nation one day will be your center for the nations of the world. My God, we thank you. We praise you. We magnify you. We thank you for this time and for this privilege in Jesus' name. Amen. Can we hear a little bit of your prayer time here, saints? Please don't patronize the Lord, that which is genuine from your heart. If you could just wait for a while from some of your hearts to respond, we'll come to the table right after a period of waiting. Yeah. We give you praise. Yes. Let's come to the table, shall we? Thank you, Lord. Yeah. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in presence, due in wonder. Who is like unto thee? Who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in presence, due in wonder. Who is like unto thee? Who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in presence, due in wonder. Who is like unto thee? Praise the Lord. That will I see after there. I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in His temper, the temper of the Lord. To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in His temper, the temper of the Lord. Just you pray for the cup and the bread for us. Great God. Yes. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. That's right. Great God. Yeah. That's right. Praise you, Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yes. That's right. Yeah. That's right. It's true. Yes. Oh, yes. It's true. That's right. It is. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Amen. Yeah. Yes. Hallelujah. Yes. It's very true. Yeah. Amen. That's right. Amen. It's true. Yes. Amen. Yes. That's right. Yes. Yes. Amen. That's right. Yes. Thank you, Lord. Yes. Oh, holy God. Amen. Amen. Yes. That's right. Yes. Yes. Yep. Amen. Yes. Thank you, Lord. Yes. That's right. Amen. It's true. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. That's right. That's right. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. That's right. Oh, that's right. Oh, hallelujah. That's right. Absolutely. Amen. Yes. Hallelujah. So true. That's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Amen. Oh, thank you, Lord. So true. Amen. Amen. We thank you, Lord, as we eat and drink this together. Great God, we praise you. We magnify you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Come on, let's give him thanks. Lift your heart. Lift your voices, saints. Just give him praise between you and God. Just give him praise. Just give him thanks, saints. Just worship him. Thank you, Lord. Minister to him, saints. Give him what's due to him. Holy God, we praise you. We honor you. We magnify you. You are good. You are good, Lord. Thou shepherd of Israel. Now our good shepherd. My God, we thank you. Oh, thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. May you have a flock who is already the testimony of your shepherding. Before, Lord, we are indeed a testimony of your shepherding grace to the nation of Israel. Oh, God, come. Come, Lord. Give to lives. Give to lives, Lord. Oh, springs of living water. Path of righteousness. Green pastures that we have laid down. So many today have been, Lord, shepherdless. We're not churchless, but we've become shepherdless. So many are going to churches without a shepherd. So many are sitting in meetings without the reality of a shepherd. Over their desires. Over the desires of their mind. Desires of their heart. Desires, Lord, of their behavior. Of their bodies. My God, we thank you. Shepherdless people all over the nations. Even in your own church. Come and shepherd the people. Lord, we thank you. We praise you. We worship you. We praise you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. A table indeed in the wilderness. May you give a table in the wilderness to the church in the nations of the world. May you even provide a table in the wilderness even for your people wherever they are today. In some form, in some way or another, that have been persecuted, that have been pursued, that have been misunderstood, and that have been, Lord, been afflicted. We thank you, Lord, for your people awaiting for the time of their salvation. So, our God, we thank you. Before that day comes, we're here with you. May you raise up a church that once again will return, Lord, to this prophetic ground so that, Lord, the church will indeed be a voice and be a people for us prepared for that day coming. Lord, which has all of eternity, Lord, hanging there in the balance. We praise you. We thank you. Go with us this day. Even as we meet, even as we pen this day out, we pray that, Lord, a sense of your heart will continue to reverberate within us. Let your word speak and even find a far greater footing and a grip within all of our hearts. As we share, as we eat, or we drink, or we lunch, and throughout the course of the week, may this word come back, Lord, in echoes. Lord, that will indeed, Lord, affect every part of our being, Lord, in every way. We thank you for you are indeed a complete God over a complete man so that all that you are, we ourself, Lord, is indeed yielded and given to you. We praise you. We thank you. Let this word, Lord, reverberate even for those that will hear this through the Dropbox. Speak to them to bring a sense of your heart even as they hear it, Lord, in their rooms and in their cars, wherever they are. God, we thank you. We bless you for each of the saints here. Let your face shine upon us, O God of Israel, and be to us as you would. And for this we give you praise. I give you thanks in Yeshua's name. Amen. Amen.