In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the lack of understanding and appreciation for the deeper meaning of biblical passages in modern Western culture. He emphasizes the importance of contemplating and meditating on the word of God, rather than seeking immediate sensory satisfaction or entertainment. The speaker also highlights the need for believers to discern between the works of God and the works of the flesh, and to ask difficult questions in order to truly know God. He concludes by discussing the role of believers in the last days, calling for a theocratic recovery of all that the prophets have spoken.

Yeah, let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Great God in heaven, we bless you this evening. We turn to your throne. We turn to you. We ask, Lord, that as we open up the scriptures this evening and look at Israel, that you would grant to us a spirit of grace and understanding. Lord, that you would speak something tonight that would be foundational, that would be life-giving, that would grant to us a greater revelation of your purpose and of your nature. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I just felt stirred to take up this article that I wrote last year and read through some of it and just see where things go from there. You may have read it, but I don't know if any, I know Samuel has read it, but I'm not sure if anybody else has. It's called, what is it called? Yahweh is coming with fire, a word on the knowledge of God, Israel, and the church's eschatological calling. And the springboard passage that I wrote out of was Isaiah 66, verses 15 through 18. So I'm going to read that. See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind. He will bring down his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword, the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord. Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things, they will meet their end together, declares the Lord. And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. We are suffering from a terrible theological famine these days. I refer not to the need for lofty religious speech and intellectual striving, though I'm convinced that we modern believers are far too lazy a bunch when it comes to studying the scriptures. I'm speaking instead of the fact that we are languishing in immaturity, lovelessness, and lawlessness, being pulled and jerked by the powers of entertainment, wealth, and various forms of idolatry, and we scarcely realize that a famine of hearing the word of the Lord is upon us. We are inundated with words about the Lord, but it is still rare for us to hear a word of the Lord. One of the obvious rotten fruits of this condition is our conspicuous inability to discern the difference between the works of God and the works of the flesh. And in this regard, we are nearly as guilty as the atheists next door. We have been unwilling to ask painful questions, even if they are of the kind set forth in the scriptures, and have thus robbed ourselves of the knowledge of God as He is. Passages such as this from Isaiah 66 are mostly unfamiliar to we modern Westerners, and they do not fit into our Walmart-McDonald's-HDTV culture. How can it be relevant if I don't understand it, and if it doesn't appeal to my immediate sensory needs, if it doesn't make me immediately happy, if it doesn't bring immediate resolution to my curiosity, if it isn't presented in a manner that entertains and keeps my attention, what have I to do with it? We have lost the ability to muse and contemplate, and succumbing to what C.S. Lewis called a post-human state, we have sought to shirk the truth, especially when it is difficult to consider or receive. This article sprung out of a burden that came upon me about a year ago when I was just looking at the issue of Israel and reflecting on Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 10, where he instructed the church at Corinth to look at the nation Israel, for these things have happened to them for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And I had just heard a report of a minister that had fallen at that time, and was just asking the Lord, what is it in the makeup of the church that is missing a certain character that seemed to mark the prophets of old, and all of the men of the scriptures for that matter? It seems as if our knowledge of God is deficient, and maybe in the most drastic way in the charismatic world that I'm a part of. And so I was just being broken over this consideration and thinking about these things, and this is the article that flowed out of that burden in prayer, calling us back to consider God's dealings with Israel, and the revelation of God that comes to us in a unique way through that people, and that we can't get in a full orb sense unless we receive it as it's been given through that people. So what in the world am I talking about? Well let's go on. Little do we know that nothing is more relevant to our lives upon the earth than the radically theological nature of passages such as this, in Isaiah 66 and other like passages. Again, when I say theological, I do not mean that this is the stuff of advanced intellectuals. What I mean is, these portions of scripture are not meant only to fill up space in our Bibles, or even to give us a grid on the end times, but chiefly to reveal the nature and character of God himself. In that sense they are intensely theological, for theology is simply the study of God. If we do not know the Lord as he has revealed himself, and if we have failed to love him as he has revealed himself, what will change our disposition toward him when darker days are upon us? Do we really love the God of the scriptures, or have we been guilty of making him after our own liking? In Isaiah 66, the Lord reveals himself as fire, and this is not merely a sentimental description of himself as passionate and fervent. Though no one is more passionate or fervent than the Lord, he is here revealing himself as holy and as judge. And if we have only loved him as savior, and have failed to love him as judge, we have not yet loved him as he is. What do we know of the God who comes with fire? He was and is and is to come with fire, and we need to prayerfully reflect on him in this way, and to ask him for the necessary understanding of his nature in this context. Well I'm sure that some of you in this room have already spent years reflecting on the things that I'm speaking of, and have prayed into them, and have written on them, but I think we need reminders. We need the perspective of the prophets brought back to the fore of our consideration, because these are the foundational men who came into a revelation of God by revelation, and not only by the formulation of a system of thought. I'm convinced that in America even, we've reduced the nature of God and the gospel to something that fits our culture, and a convenient expression and experience of life that does not give the Lord the opportunity to break in and bring the demand of Lordship. And so there's a necessary call and a need in our day for voices to be formed in the scriptures, and in the knit and grit reality of life, who would actually be raised up in these days to set him forth again as he is. I'm thinking even of Amos the prophet, who was even unwilling to be called a prophet, but would prefer to be called a farmer, or someone who was putting his hand to practical things, but who against his own initiation came into the calling of a prophetic and foundational reality out of the place of communion with the Lord. Not because he had sought it, not because he had desired it, not because he wanted some kind of an image to portray prophetically speaking, or to function as one of the professional prophets in Jerusalem, but because he was thrust into that calling on the basis of his union with the Lord. And we're in need of men again in our day who come into that reality of a true knowledge of God and a true setting forth of God as he is, and it applies in a very intense way, I think, in our day with the way that we perceive Israel, the issue of Israel, and even the modern state of Israel. So let's read on and see what unfolds. I've got a little quotation from J. Alec Motyer from his commentary on Isaiah. On this portion he says, With fire, or as fire, has the same construction as Exodus 3.2, where fire is defined as a motif of the unapproachable, deadly holiness of God. I want to read that again. With fire, or as fire, in Isaiah 66, has the same construction in the original language as Exodus 3.2, where fire is defined as a motif of the unapproachable, deadly holiness of God. What's a motif? It's a way of viewing. It's a mode of communicating a certain aspect of something. So he's saying that the prophet's usage of the word fire, in alignment with Exodus 3.2, carries on that thread of the knowledge of God throughout the scriptures that our God is a consuming fire. But the motif is that of an unapproachable and holy God, and he coins the holiness of God in this way, the deadly holiness of God. He goes on to say, The whole of human history, from the fall to the last day, is bracketed about by the sword of holiness. In Isaiah 59.17, he says, Righteousness was the first garment the Lord put on. In 61.10, it was among the garments passed on to the Anointed One, who, returning from treading the winepress of wrath, speaks in righteousness. In 63.1. So I go on to ask, What do we know of the deadly holiness of God? Is this some heretical teaching? Some sadistic description given by an armchair theologian who has been locked in his study too long, removed from the real world? Or have we been so devoid of the biblical view that we cannot recognize the God who will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord? I recently heard a lecture by a somewhat critical Old Testament theologian whose commentaries I have appreciated over the years. In the middle of his lecture, he actually stated that he was embarrassed about the violence of Yahweh, as it is set forth in the scriptures. With all of his advanced training, he could not reconcile the mercy of God with the God who will bring down his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. This same theologian whose commentaries I have so delighted in over the years, not too long ago, within the last year, became a part of a campaign to support homosexual activity in the Church. I was baffled, I was flabbergasted, I couldn't believe it. His commentaries have been so rich on Jeremiah and other Old Testament commentaries, and there I see him holding the banner of this new esteem for homosexuality within the Church. I just couldn't believe it. I wrote a Hebrew scholar friend of mine, I said, how does an Old Testament scholar of his stature come to that? And you know what he said? He said, a slightly critical theological grid and a whole lot of homosexual friends. His experience of life and even a light critical approach toward the scripture opened the gate for him to lower the bar to the degree that he was willing to say homosexuals ought to be esteemed as believers alongside all the other saints. After all, all saints struggle with sin on some level. But to the total neglect of statements from Paul that homosexuals and idolaters and others will not inherit the kingdom of God. So I'm watching the lecture from this guy and he says that he's embarrassed about the violence of Yahweh. Embarrassed about the militaristic advances of Joshua. Embarrassed about the statements of eschatological judgment. Embarrassed about what he coined as the violence of Yahweh. And I say with all of his advanced training, he could not reconcile the mercy of God with the God who will bring down his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. I understand that this is not an easy subject, but it needs to be prayerfully approached for the Jesus of the Gospels who blessed children and healed all manner of disease is also the Jesus of Isaiah 63 who tramples the nations in his anger. His mercies and his judgments are intricately linked for they are the expression of his nature full of grace and truth. Therefore Paul writes in Romans 11, behold then the kindness and severity of God to those who fell severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in his kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off. Is this archaic? Is this just some, you know, traditionalist Jewish apocalyptic view that's out of touch with reality and out of touch with who God really is and what his nature is like and how he views mankind and how he views sin and how he views Israel and how he views the nations? Or have we deviated from the foundational expression of God that has come to us through the prophets and through the apostles of scripture? And are we in need of a radical recovery of that revelation that we might be the voices in these last days that the Lord has desired the church to be both to Israel and the nations? Have we, has our knowledge of God so diminished that we've just become an echo and a byword? And our voice is one opinion amongst many opinions and we've lost the edge and that dynamic that rested upon the prophets of old and men like John the Baptist who could speak to rulers and kings and their ears perked up and their whole kingdom and their whole way and mode of being was threatened by the very presence of one 30-something year old Jewish man who had nothing to his name except fire resting on his soul. I'm remembering the story of the old, I think a Catholic leader when they built a cathedral. You guys might know who it was. I don't remember who it was, but they built an exquisite cathedral and they brought, it might've been Francis of Assisi or one of those guys. They brought him before the cathedral and said, look, neither must, no longer must we say with Paul, with Peter and John, silver and gold have we none. And then the old saint replied and neither can we say with them, rise up and walk. And the wisdom of God has infiltrated the church and we're in need of foundational recovery again. So I've written here because we have failed to see him as the one who is both fiery and holy. We have been reduced to a casual understanding of the gospel and the fear of the Lord is foreign to our common Christian existence. We make light of sin and we are mostly unwilling to give a real place to the consideration of God's dealings with Israel and the church. I realized the weight of a statement like this and I realized that this subject is vast and fraught with all kinds of perils and misunderstandings. But the fact that believers have been satisfied to consider the modern establishment of Israel state, the fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures regarding the final return is a disclosure of how hollow our understanding of God is. We are not jealous for truth nor jealous for salvation, so we jump at any apparent fulfillment because the pain of judgment is too difficult to bear. I'm not encouraging some kind of deathly fatalism regarding Israel and this is certainly not an anti-Semitic rant. I'm raising a larger question here. We are more patriotic than we are apostolic and our perceptions have been formed much more through media and popular Christian thought than they have through a true and prayerful perusal of the scriptures. We are eager for convenience much more than we are jealous for truth. What can be said of the church who is called to be the pillar and ground of truth but has failed to obtain a jealousy for truth in her inmost parts? How does this tie in then with Israel? We mentioned the modern state and the question of whether or not it's the final fulfillment regarding a return to the land. I believe it is a partial fulfillment of certain prophecies, but the common teaching has been that it's the final return, that there would never be a dispersion of any kind, that there would never be even a great suffering upon the land. And it seems as if in the 20th century the majority of the saints who were even saying that any trouble at all would come to Israel were dispensational, pre-tribulational men with popular, best-selling books. But where has it been trumpeted that the church has a responsibility in the time of Jacob's trouble as a resurrection witness to the Jew? Well, I'm happy to say that that witness is rising in our day in many locations that I'm aware of. Even 10 years ago when I began looking into these things you could find hardly anyone, at least I could find hardly anyone, who was even considering this. But I'm seeing in our day, I think we're seeing these things come to light. So this article is heavy and I don't want to reduce the heaviness of it, but I'm also thankful that it seems as if the Lord is stirring something in the church over the last several years along these lines. But I still think that there's a need for us to recognize the centrality of what is truly prophetic with regard to the issue of Israel. That's where I still think we're walking in an anemic place. So I go on to write, Carl Barth has declared that the church is the only entity with the authority to actually speak of the Lord. But what can be said of the world's conception of him when we ourselves have deviated from or failed to come into a revelation of him as he has set himself forth in the scriptures? Are we willing to give prayerful contemplation to his declaration of coming judgment upon Israel and upon the nations of the world? It is right to rejoice in the promises of Israel's present salvation as Jewish souls come to faith one by one around the world and to anticipate the glory of the thoughts of their future salvation when a nation will be born in a day at the end of this age, but not without understanding that the final salvific reality will not be established without a staggering time of purging and sifting as the prophets have declared. I've referenced Amos 9, Jeremiah 30, verse 7, Daniel 12, 1 and 2, Matthew 24, some of the most commonly noted passages pertaining to Jacob's trouble. Are we expecting this? Have we taken time to pour over the scriptures in this light or is our theological box already sealed and unwilling to make room for this kind of consideration, painful though it is? Who is the God of the scriptures? What is his true heart with regard to the issue of Israel and are we truly in alignment with him along these lines? What a question. Who is the God of the scriptures? Even this passage, Isaiah 66, is a statement of the times to come and we are too apt to celebrate the present state without considering all that the scriptures have declared with regard to the end of this age and Israel's experience in it. It is much easier to spiritualize or make mystical these kinds of passages for it absolves us from a sense of responsibility to the Jew in the present. I'm going to read that again. It is much easier to spiritualize or make mystical these kinds of passages for it absolves us from a sense of responsibility to the Jew in the present. I've been in dialogue with some preterists lately and partial preterists and then full preterists and they want to debate and I'm not much of a debater. Only when I have a special grace for it do I even enter into it otherwise I just move along. But the chief question that I have for those men is how do you reckon with the issue of Israel? Because the majority of them are replacement theologians. How do you reckon with these passages? You give a glib quotation of things, you spiritualize things, you make them mystical, you apply them all to the church or you just write them off or apply them to AD 70 when the vast majority of these prophetic statements given in the prophets and in the New Testament regarding Israel's eschatological experience were barely touched at all in AD 70. You can't make a case if you're really going to give a survey unless you cheapen everything that the prophets have said and put it onto spiritualized grounds rather than taking them seriously at their word and at face value. It's much easier but maybe underneath the radical spiritualization of these passages is not so much a good exegetical grid that they're working with but an unconscious anti-Semitism or an unconscious desire to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the Jew in our day or to identify with the fact that we may have some responsibility of laying our lives down on their behalf in the time leading up to the return of the Lord. I don't want to make a sweeping statement against all of them in that regard but I believe that's very prevalent. There's an anti-Semitism underneath the surface of the church and we think that this whole thing is about our ministries, it's about our books that are to be sold, it's about our names, it's about the Gentile church in America and it has little if any relation to the glory of what the prophets were foreseeing, namely the messianic figure, the son of David himself ruling and reigning literally from the land and his glory and his law and his word going out from Jerusalem to the nations that they might know God's government. Preterism truncates and cuts off any expectation for that reality and says no we're in a post-millennial state and we're going to Christianize the whole world and the only significance that the Jew has and that Israel has is that they need the gospel just like any other. And yet interestingly enough I find there are very few preterists at least that I've run into who have a real burden for the salvation of the Jew. So for them that's the only purpose of God for the Jew is that they would hear the gospel and be saved. And yet the fervency and the burden for that is often lacking in my experience of interacting with them. Well that's the condition of the church across the board, it's not just preterists. We've got a dim view and a very light burden for the salvation of Israel and our involvement with the Jew, our understanding of the Jews who are in diaspora, who are in our cities, our burden for those that are in the land for their salvation is often burning very dimly and the Lord is wanting to bring a recovery of that Pauline burden but it's not going to happen immediately. But we've got to lean into this on a regular basis and be praying into this, Lord my jealousy for the salvation of your kinsmen is dim, it's weak. Could you increase the fire of that longing and that jealousy and that burden? What was it that Paul was possessed with? What was it that marked his life? What was it that caused him to say I am in these chains because of the hope of Israel? That even amongst his labors in Rome and in Galatia and in Gentile regions he was saying I'm doing all of this and pouring out my blood, my sweat and my tears with the hopes that your salvation and your formation into the fullness of Christ would move some of my own kinsmen to jealousy. For Paul who labored 99% of the time maybe amongst Gentiles once he finally was sent out of Antioch, his jealousy was not for the establishment of a ministry or for the establishment of his name or of the first assembly of Pauline congregations but that the formation of communities of faith in mostly Gentile areas would serve as a foretaste of the kingdom which is to come and would thereby move his own kinsmen to jealousy at least some of them in the days and years leading up to the return of the Lord. Do we have that jealousy? Are we even considering it? Are we even aware of it? In our day-to-day life are we even praying into that? As a church there's pockets where that's happening but as a church we're mostly lacking that reality maybe as an entirety and we're in a radical need of recovery. It is much easier to spiritualize or make these things mystical for if the present state is the promised return to the land then things must be progressing positively toward the promised end and God must be bringing things to a close. All this is occurring quite detached from us in our minds and we see no responsibility to weep for the salvation of the Jew nor to make every effort to bring him the gospel nor to live in such a way as would demonstrate the nature of God and the wisdom of God to him thus moving into jealousy after the God of Abraham. We are happy to continue building up our deferred comp preparing for retirement or bulking up our all to American ministries to the neglect of our responsibility to the Jew and to the neglect of any consideration of our responsibility to him in the Corrie ten Boom type trials that I'm convinced are on the horizon. I've been looking at Zechariah 12 through 14 today and I'm wondering why in many commentaries that I've read Zechariah 12 is considered an eschatological passage. Much of Zechariah 14 is considered an eschatological passage. The beginning of Zechariah 13 is considered considered eschatological but the statements about the end time shakings of that land and of that people are often spiritualized or written off as something that has either been symbolically fulfilled throughout history or must not have a future fulfillment. And I think it has everything to do with the fact that our theology has been based on what is convenient and easy for us to build ministries upon and not based on a jealousy for the knowledge of God as he is. But Zechariah 12 through 14 is one of the most staggering portions in the scriptures which speak about Israel's last day suffering and the glory of her salvation. You see we've no jealousy for the glory of her salvation because we don't have any understanding of the depth of her sin nationally or the price that will be required for that purgation to take place that will bring about her salvation. You guys read David Barron? David Barron and Adolph Saphir. If you can get a hold you can get a hold of their writings I would recommend them. David Barron lived from 1857 to 1926 and he ministered primarily in London. He was a Messianic Jewish preacher and theologian. Passed away in 1926. I'm going to read from him and I'm going to read a little bit from Adolph Saphir who lived from 1831 to 1891 also a Messianic Jew and a kind of revival preacher and theologian. He was he was born in Hungary and he pastored for 27 years in Glasgow and London. But just these two guys I'm not I've not found anything like what they've written and they were quite intellectual men but they wrote in very simple terms and they were Messianic Jews before the establishment of the modern state of Israel who had a view of the scriptures. I'm wondering if it didn't come directly from the Holy Spirit because the kinds of things they wrote about were not commonly spoken of in their day. Charles Spurgeon said that Adolph Saphir was one of the greatest preachers of his day but he was a Messianic Jew proclaiming the word primarily in London. But listen to what David Barron says in this booklet, the Jewish problem and its solution. Now remember he passed away in 1926 so this is 22 years before the establishment of the modern state of Israel. He says the great ordeal described in Ezekiel 22 17 through 22 the melting of the metal of Israel in judgment. He says that great ordeal ends in their salvation but listen to this he says it is clear that there is a time of purging by fiery judgment awaiting Israel after the return to their land by which will immediately proceed their national conversion and the revelation to them of the Messiah whom as a nation they have so long rejected. He writes this years before he wrote this 60 years before so he wrote this in the late 1800s 60 years before modern Israel was established. What have we I'm sorry what we have in the last chapters of Zechariah is this Israel in their land not necessarily the entire nation but the bulk of it evidently restored in a state of unbelief so in the late 1800s David Barron based on his interpretation of the prophetic scriptures was anticipating a return to the land mostly in a state of unbelief of many many Jews that he said would set the context for a final judgment and purging that would result in their eschatological salvation and an establishment of that people in the land that would never be destroyed or removed or affected again. He goes on to say this Oh fellow Christians time is short already there are abundant signs that long-scattered and long-neglected Israel is hastening back to his land to pass through air long that fiery ordeal and furnace awaiting him in Zion. Most of the people in his day were either post-millennial or dispensationalists who believed in a pre tribulational rapture but here is a post-tribulational messianic Jew proclaiming that a return to the land is taking place in his day that he believed was the fulfillment of Ezekiel 22 verses 17 through 22 that would set up the context of his own kinsmen in the land which would eventuate into a time of judgment and trial and fire about which Isaiah 66 is speaking Jeremiah 30 is speaking Daniel 12 is speaking Matthew 24 is speaking Zechariah 12 through 14 is speaking Amos 9 is speaking have we considered these portions of Scripture and and if we've considered them what has been our conclusion I'm convinced that the majority of Saints who will lay their souls low before these passages cross-reference them pray through them give themselves to fasting and prayer will come to conclusions similar to what these men came to and I'm not breaking fellowship with Saints who come to different conclusions but I'm convinced of this after 10 years of looking into this myself listen to what he says already there are abundant signs that long-scattered and long-neglected Israel is hastening back to his land to pass through air long that fiery ordeal and furnace awaiting him in Zion he talks about the Zionist movement and he goes on to say perhaps the most significant fact in this connection is the now almost universally known and rapidly spreading Zionist movement which seems destined after centuries of dispersion to bind all the scattered fragments of the people into one national force with their ostensible aim of regaining possession of the land of their fathers did you catch that with their ostensible aim of regaining possession of the land of their fathers what does ostensible mean it means their hopeful aim it could almost mean their presumptuous aim that we're going to go back reestablish the state reestablish a government that will be fitting to our mode of being that we prefer but the vast majority of them setting that thing into motion without having returned to the God of their fathers wanting to regain possession of the land of their fathers without yet returning to the God of their fathers this is the prophetic distinctive this is the prophetic call that a people would be in the earth who would bear a jealousy enough for the glory of God and the knowledge of God that they would not be satisfied with skeletal fulfillments of the scripture but would instead desire a full orbed fulfillment that would result in the glorification of God and the earth ultimately the return of his son and the salvation of the people Israel the establishing of his government in the earth in reality from Jerusalem and unto the nations Baron sums this up by asking the question of the church who will be up and doing who will rise to the Lord's help against the mighty who by their prayers and substance will help to carry the gospel message to poor scattered Israel this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then the end shall come so Baron gives his interpretation of the prophets and says that Israel the Jewish people are returning to the land in an ostensible aim at recovering and repossessing the land of their fathers but then he says who shall be up and doing doing what sitting around making theories about eschatological Israel in his mind he says the church's chief calling to Israel in the time leading up to that for up to that return is prayer and proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom that's how Baron sums it up so how much is the church in our day given to a true intercession for that people Israel to a true burden in prayer to to an identification at least on some level with Paul's statement that he was broken and even willing to see his own soul accursed that his own kinsmen might be saved we've not come into that because we've not been willing to consider it and most of our preachers have not been willing to give themselves to it that by the grace of God they might be able to pastor and help the Saints come these kinds of things without being intimidated without seeing them as irrelevant without feeling too heavy about it that they can't even approach it we've not had the wisdom because we've not even asked the Lord for that wisdom and an hour is now upon us where that wisdom will be required of us and if we're not bearing that wisdom as the oil of the five wise virgins we may be found in that company who would when the greater shakings come fall away out of disillusionment because our knowledge of God was made up of something that we have configured or men have configured and given to us as a mere echo and it has not come out from the place of communion and from the place of Scripture and from the from the grit and mitt of real living in this life of faith well we'll get to that in a minute I want to read a brief portion from Adolf Saphir we're actually doing pretty good on time this man I've never known another man to write quite like Adolf Saphir if you can get his books get a hold of them commentary on the Hebrews a book on the hidden life of prayer a book on the Lord's Prayer he's got Christ and Israel he's got another one Christ and the Scriptures when you when you bump into a guy like this raised as a Hungarian Jew and then coming to faith in his Messiah who has then given himself to prayer and long hours of study and proclamation of the word there's a wealth that is there that even Spurgeon as as considered to be the prince of preachers would raise up Adolf Saphir for our consideration as a gift to the body but listen to this as a matter of fact let me go back to my article for a moment we need to lay another statement for what Adolf Saphir is going to give us I raised the question in the article do we wish for Israel to be restored on the grounds of man-centered politics is our knee-jerk celebration of the modern state a revelation that we are somehow self-sufficient in our Christianity and therefore want the self-sufficiency of the modern state to go on so that our own Christian ministries and our own egotistical names in ministry can be carried on is there a counterfeit wisdom being displayed in our acceptance of the state as the final fulfillment of the scriptures that we want that false wisdom wisdom also to be maintained and preserved in our own mode of ministry in our own understanding of what life is and what it means to have a professional preaching or worship ministry or whatever it is are we preserving something out of a self-preservation and therefore we desire the state of Israel to go on and prosper and only to improve not being jealous for them to return to the God of their fathers but being satisfied that many of them have returned to the land of their fathers you see the question I'm asking this is the foundational question of what is prophetic and maybe even many of our prophetic ministries as they've been called have lacked this reality and have thereby only been ministries carried on by men that from time to time were marked by a spirit of or a gift of prophecy but because someone had a gift of prophecy or seemed to we poked them up as men that were foundational for the church and called them prophets though they themselves did not have this jealousy that the church would return to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but wanted instead to promote their ministries and see to the preservation of their names and their salaries and their careers to the extent that they would even hold conferences and charge money for personal prophecies now you tell me if we haven't deviated entirely from the spirit of New Testament faith and of Old Testament prophetic foundations when we're charging for personal prophecies and when we are giving all kinds of words but the church is languishing and perishing in the grips of sin immorality not considering the foundational things to which the called us we're without foundations if that's the mode of our function in ministry and we need to return to the Lord I don't want to I don't want to discount the gift of prophecy or discourage the need for it we're in need of an increase of all of the gifts of the spirit but I think our great error has come and that some gifts of the spirit were flourishing and functioning here or there and we immediately attributed to these men the office and title of prophet when they were not foundational men with an adequate knowledge of God and of the scriptures to lay those foundations in the church that would make for the maturation and development of the saints so that we in our lives would be a demonstration of God's wisdom to the principalities and powers of darkness instead we've learned the art of building successful ministries and we've not known the first thing about how to put one foot in front of the other in walking with the Lord in the realm of real life and in places of suffering and trial only the knowledge of God as he is can produce a body of that kind in the earth that would be a demonstration of his wisdom to the principalities and powers if we haven't got that knowledge of God we can do ministries and God in his mercy will even respond to our faith to give a gift of this of the spirit when we ask for it because we're his children but we may yet be found in the same condition as the Corinthian church who had gifts flourishing but who had judgment in her midst at the same time even to the point that the Lord was allowing sickness to come upon many of the members in first Corinthians 11 and some of them even falling asleep as a judgment of their lack of the adequate knowledge of God and government and way of God in their community have we as the charismatic church been something similar to that even for the most part over the last several decades to my chagrin I have to say I believe that's the case and that we're in need of foundations again to hold high in esteem again what it is to have in the church prophetic men and even apostles as I sat in a meeting not too long ago where people were talking about apostles and my own soul felt this is still a regurgitation of our understanding that apostles are just men that have some kind of an oversight from a distance of 10 or 12 congregations and who approve one another and who hold conferences and fly in and fly out we've lost the reality of what the men in the scriptures who the Lord called apostles were in the grit and substance of their communion with the Lord their message their life with the Lord their ability and grace to bear up a life in God in the midst of sufferings and trials of kinds that we can't even imagine in our day and we are calling men apostles and we're holding conferences apostolic summits apostolic uh you put put the whatever word you want with it we're not seeing sent ones who are going into cities with a word and a life and a motive being sufficient to confront the principalities and powers of darkness as did Paul as did Peter as did these broken Jewish men in the first century who opened their mouths and and men came to the Lord set down their idols to serve the living God and others picked up stones to hit them in the face with we haven't seen that kind of ultimate man in the earth and I don't want to say that it's impossible to get to I believe the Lord is wanting to form those kinds of men but the question is have we been willing to give ourselves to the pursuit of the knowledge of God and to a reception of his spirit and of God as God to the extent that would be sufficient to form us into men and women who would set forth that reality that wisdom in the earth and not for the mere formulation of ministries whatever those ministries might be our consideration of Israel will either qualify us to come into that reality or disqualify us as a group of Gentiles who have a hankering for good ministries and good fun and want to produce something in the earth that everyone will say is is groovy and is a great new movement but the powers of darkness won't be threatened by it we won't have the authority and the power to preach the gospel to prostitutes crack addicts and millionaire atheists and to see them fall on their faces before the living God unless we become these kinds of servants who in hidden places have been formed through prayer through obedience through servitude through the gathering up of oil when it's difficult to gather up oil so I'm raising that question do we wish for Israel to be restored on the grounds of man-centered politics and is our knee-jerk celebration of the modern state a revelation that we are somehow self-sufficient in our own Christianity I'm not declaring down with the state of Israel but I am suggesting that the scriptures seem clear whatever the condition might be politically in the events leading up to the return of the Lord there will be a devastation the likes of which we have not seen so that Jesus himself declared for then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will in Matthew 24 and how do we know that this great tribulation has not to do with the events of 70 AD or the horrors of the crusades or even the more recent devastation of the Nazi holocaust the Lord himself gives the answer but immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sight of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory so our calling is not primarily with supporting the political entity known as modern Israel not primarily but with preaching the gospel to the Jew weeping and praying for the salvation of the people and preparing for a time of great distress whereby we will be called to stand with them even to the point of death that the remnant might be saved this is our eschatological destiny to be a Corrie ten Boom type corporate witness to the people of Israel in a time when the nations are raging against the Lord and against his chosen ones in our enthusiasm for the modern state of Israel are we incapable of receiving the Lord who deals out judgment upon those who reject him let me read that again that's a big question in our enthusiasm for the modern state of Israel are we incapable of receiving the Lord who deals out judgment upon those who reject him could it be that the falling away which Paul predicted could have to do with the disillusionment of believers who cannot fathom that a God of love would go so far in sifting his own people until all the sinners of his people have perished that's the wording of Amos 9 9 through 10 he says there's a sifting that will take place until all the sinners of my people have perished then I raised the question how were we saved did we come into the experience of new life without also experiencing death what do we expect for them that somehow they would be saved and made into priests by the power of human government without coming first to terms with the requirements of their God we are Christians by profession and secular humanists by our truest feelings and we need to be delivered from that condition if ever we would be to Israel what the Lord has desired us to be I'm going to read from Saphir now remember this was written decades before the state of Israel also it is written in the prophet Ezekiel he says that the dead bones shall live it will require all the attributes of deity to bring about the wonderful wonderful things which God has promised to us in the scriptures but God will do it in the word of God the restoration of Israel is always based upon the power and love and the unchanging character of the promises of the everlasting God and just as God says I even I have created the world so it is only God who himself is able to restore his people Israel for my own namesake I will do it and how will the Lord do it he writes the Lord is a holy God and Israel having departed from God there are these two principles which seem to be conflicting the holiness of God and the sin of Israel but God is able to subdue their iniquities and forgive all their sins and renew their hearts and to put a right spirit within them do not imagine any temporal glory or power will be entrusted by God to Israel as an unconverted nation isn't that staggering he writes this decades before that would not be for the glory of God nor would it be for the welfare of Israel and the world they must be led through deep waters they must be brought through fearful judgments remember this is a Jewish man writing about his own kinsmen this is not some replacement theologian with anti-semitism in the 21st century this is a guy writing 150 roughly years ago and he's Jewish he's saying my own kinsmen must be brought through fearful judgments they must experience the wrath and the indignation of the Lord they must be led into the valley of humiliation then will the Lord appear unto them even as Joseph appeared unto his brethren and the spirit of grace and of supplication will be poured out upon them and there will be weeping such as this world has never heard and there will be repenting and contrition more profound than the angels have ever witnessed upon the earth for they shall mourn over him as over their only child and then God having cast them into the fire of his indignation and having by the Holy Ghost worked in them repentance and granted them the remission of sin shall fit them for the wonderful work that is before them in the future for a nation that has come through such repentance and through such faith a nation that has so tasted the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of the infinite love of God which is stronger than death will then go on for a thousand years without ever looking back in the Old Testament you always read oh backsliding Israel they are always backsliders they have always been restored but there are so many passages in the prophets which tell us that after Israel has been brought back the second time they will never look back there will be no backsliding anymore but for a thousand years Israel shall go on in the fear of the Lord and in the love of the Lord and from Israel shall flow forth blessings in all the world praise the Lord he goes on to quote from Isaiah chapter 11 and chapter 66 which he calls the first return and he applies it to a return to the land that will come after his day which we would apply to 1948 in a state of unbelief but then he goes on to 66 chapter 66 which we've been reading from which speaks of a return that he calls the last and final return how often have you even heard that because of the brevity of the modern state's establishment we hear the the quotation can a nation be born in a day out of Isaiah 66 in reference to the establishment of the modern state but this brother quotes it and I believe it behooves the church to see it in this light the nation being born in a day is in reference to their restoration to the land and their restoration to their God at the end of the age this has not yet occurred and we need to be jealous for it we need to be preparing for the shakings which lead up to it and see the apostolic mandate that Paul carried as our own responsibility in the days and years and decades leading up to that time of shaking he says in Isaiah 11 and 66 it is declared that there shall be a second and more general ingathering of Israel out of all nations and that after the light of Israel has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon her and after the great judgments of the ungodly after the great judgments upon the ungodly there are thus two restorations one before the other after the crisis tracking with me still one partial the other complete one which provokes the enmity of the nations the other in which the nations rejoice and even cooperate so that nations in that eschatological context will be laying up their treasures to see to the full restoration and glory of Zion having seen the national conversion of this people after they've passed through the greatest time of distress that the nations and the world and the entire cosmos has ever witnessed the nations will then be so convinced of the calling of this people that all of the anti-semites and all of the replacement theologians jaws will be hanging low at the revelation of this distinct calling the Lord has on this people as a nation let me read this last portion from sefir and we'll be wrapping up here he says in the great and final conflicts between the nations headed by antichrist and jerusalem there are several stages which it is difficult to arrange but the great outstanding facts are these a terrible destruction of many of israel even two-thirds of the whole which he quotes out of zechariah 13 the deep humiliation and repentance of the remnant prepared to receive the lord the pride of antichrist and his fierce determination to exalt his throne above the stars of god to sit upon the mount of the congregation and be like the most high then shall be fulfilled the memorable prediction and zechariah to which we have already referred all nations are to be gathered against jerusalem to battle the lord shall go forth to fight against them after the victory the lord is to be king over the whole earth and recognized as such certain physical changes are to take place with regard to the and the neighborhood of jerusalem and the city shall be safely inhabited i have friends in israel who not too long ago were with their children at a playground and not a block or two away a bomb was set off and uh and one of our friends made note of the fact that hardly anyone even flinched on the playground they all ducked down for a few minutes and after a few moments the kids went back to going on the slides climbing up the ladders of the condition of israel with abortion with sin with pornography with drug activity with gangster rap in in modern hebrew and we would presume that this is the fulfillment of the of what the prophets had desired and yearned for he goes on to say not in one single feature does this correspond to the destruction of jerusalem by titus only one nation came then against the city and elsewhere he writes these solemn events have not yet taken place the ravaging of the homes even the raping of women that are described in chapter 14 two-thirds being cut off in the land in chapter 13 these are not issues we can talk about like armchair theologians sipping on coffee and taking them lightly this is heavy prophecy it's it's weighty it ought to break us it ought to cause us to be silent for a while and go into prayer and say lord give us insight enlarge our hearts unite us with your uh with your heart for israel and for this people give us understanding on how we ought to proceed in prayer on how we ought to witness to this people during this time presently and in the time to come but he says all of those events described in zechariah 14 have not yet taken place neither the great battle the physical changes in and about jerusalem nor the spiritual change in the heart of the people we've got to be mindful of this and not be too easily satisfied i think it's the same uh humanistic mixture of our view of god and of the gospel that has caused us either to take the issue of israel lightly or just to uh contend for israel in a political manner rather than moving into this prophetic and apostolic dimension of intercession for israel and uh and an apostolic kind of labor and sharing and preaching the gospel with the kinsmen of our lord who are most of them languishing outside of any true knowledge of their messiah who have been raised outside of it the majority of them not even practicing judaism not even reading the law of moses and the old testament or the hebrew bible as they would call it majority of them either atheistic agnostic new age in the world where is the church that has set forth a witness to them well it's going to start now and what the lord is kindling in prayer around the earth right now and with this these kinds of calls to a foundational consideration and reception of the knowledge of god as the scriptures have set him forth i want to read one last portion from david barron and his commentary on zechariah this is awesome and then i feel the lord has a call for us in conjunction with this he says regarding chapter 13 and the two-thirds being cut off there there is yet a climax to all their sufferings to be reached in the day of jacob's final great trouble when they are once again in the land and god's fire is kindled in zion that his furnace set up in jerusalem you guys familiar with that passage i think isaiah is in isaiah 31 verse 9 where it says that his fire is in zion and his furnace is in jerusalem speaking of the intensity of of judgment and of the issue of jacob's trouble in that hour the hottest point of activity will be jerusalem itself which makes the whole issue of the church contending to help jews make aliyah a questionable issue where uh as the brother that we were in fellowship with used to always say we're taking them out of the frying pan that the nations will be in the last days and putting them directly into the fire if we're contending in kind of just a an ignorant way let's get them back to the land because we have a romantic expectation that if they get to the land revival will come and the lord will return that's not what the prophets have declared and we're setting up the church and setting up israel herself for a destructive possibility but he says the fire is kindled in zion and that's the difference that's why jacob's trouble is not uh fulfilled in uh the nazi holocaust because the nazi holocaust was a european phenomenon and all the prophets have said that the fire of judgment is kindled in the land we've got to remember that and be mindful of that and his furnace is set up in jerusalem for the final purging of the nation and yet in in this very prophecy we see mercy blended with judgment in any true activity of the lord and his work in the earth it will be the kindness and severity of god for jesus always comes whether it be in his spiritual activity in the earth or whether it be his earthly sojourn or whether it be his return he always comes as the apostle john said full of grace and truth two-thirds may be cut off and die he says but the nation can never be utterly destroyed there is always a third or a tenth in isaiah which forms the indestructible holy seed which god takes care to preserve as the nucleus of the great and blessed nation through whom his holy will and his wonderful purpose in relation to this earth shall yet be realized i will make a full end he says of all nations whether i have scattered thee but i will not make a full end of thee he's a covenant keeping god and he will demonstrate his nature and his character and his kingdom and government through this people israel in the last analysis and all of them will pass into that not only through the fire of judgment and trial and suffering and tumult but through a conversion experience on a national level that will that will induce weeping the likes of which the world has never seen repentance at a depth in which the world has never seen and a conversion of a nation the likes of which the world has never seen the greatest of awakenings could not pull off the conversion of a nation yet we shall see it in that day when the lord shall plant his feet on the mount of olives and he will regather all of his kinsmen to function for a thousand years as a nation of priests and a light unto the world to the glory of god forever as our brother said never to turn their backs again how glorious is that prospect it's not even a prospect it's a promise but what is our role in these last days we've spoken of prayer we've spoken of pouring over the scriptures for the gathering up of oil and of the knowledge of god for the formation of servants in these last days who would be voices setting forth the wisdom and character and nature of god to israel and to the nations not mere republicans with an opinion of what america ought to do and how we ought to handle it and with a zeal for the establishment of democracy in the east but a radical jealousy for a theocratic recovery of of all of what the prophets have spoken well the early apostles saw their labors in the church as the foretaste and the first fruits of that final reality that will come after the smoke of jacob's trouble clears and i love this portion i'm going to read regarding the last two verses of zechariah 14 i gave a message on this some years ago because it says at the very end of of these things after some millennial glory has been described in zechariah 14 the lord says in that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses holy to the lord and on the cooking pots in the lord's house and the cooking pots in the lord's house will be like the bowls before the altar every cooking pot in jerusalem and in judah will be holy to the lord of hosts and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them and there will no longer be a canaanite in the house of the of the lord of hosts in that day david barron he goes on to say and this staggered me when i opened this up years ago i've never recovered from it he says in the last two verses we reach the glorious goal and climax of vision and prophecy i thought okay mr baron your commentary is rich but how can a portion about the pots and pans and bells on the horses be the glorious climax of vision and prophecy altogether and i began reflecting on it and of course i read his explanation god's original purpose in the calling of an election of israel you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and holy nation shall at last be realized the aim and purpose of the whole law namely that his people might learn the meaning of holiness and become holy because jehovah their god is holy but to which so long as they were in bondage to the law they could not attain shall at last be fulfilled when they are brought into a condition of grace and when god shall put his law into their inward parts and write it on their hearts then the world shall witness for the first time the glorious spectacle of a whole nation and every individual member of it wholly consecrated to jehovah and an earthly capital which shall truly answer to its name the holy city because it shall in many ways be the earthly counterpart and reflection of the glory of the new jerusalem which will come down out of heaven from god isn't that awesome goes on to write the whole external here's here's what he means by this and this is what the lord is saying to us in this hour because he's giving us a call and requirement by the grace that he gives to come into an entirely new mode of being which is resurrectional because we ourselves have allowed our own ambitions our own self lives that are still so alive in little pockets of our existence we've allowed those things still to continue to fester and remain alive and uh not come to a necessary death so that we could also come into the resurrectional authority and life that the apostles and prophets of old carried and duncan campbell said years ago beware of the cross which leaves you uncrucified and we're in through communion with the lord not through some sadistic religious performance but through communion to come into a greater death in those areas still existing that we've permitted to exist that have kept us from resurrectional glory and the vast majority of them have nothing to do with what we're performing religiously but have to do with the mundane day-to-day issues and affairs of life and that's why this is such a foundational and awesome statement that zechariah is sharing with us but here's what he says hear this the whole external character of life that which is exhibited in the streets of a city represented by the tinkling sounds of the bells of the passing horses shall bear in all its parts throughout all its detail the impress of holiness unto the lord oh as a glorious statement religious life and fellowship shall be holy also for the pots in the lord's house vessels which of old the priests had so often defiled shall be like the bowls of the altar private and domestic life shall be hallowed too for every pot in jerusalem and in judah that is throughout the holy land shall be holy unto jehovah of hosts and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seed or boil in them for everything alike shall be holy and all such distinctions as profane holy and most holy shall completely cease in that day isn't that awesome our categories our religious performance our striving to be something before certain men and something else before others will be totally diminished in the millennial age and when the church has resurrected bodies all of those propensities will have diminished but the lord is wanting a church in the earth before the time of the great resurrection that is bearing the same spirit that will be resting upon the land of israel the people of israel in that eschatological picture that's the already not yet that's paul saying the kingdom of god is not a matter of talk but of power power for demonstration of miracles yes but power also to walk in the rest and reality of the knowledge of god of communion with god of demonstrating his wisdom both through the principalities and powers of darkness and to israel and the nations and our neighborhoods and our kids and our wives and our husbands the pots and the pans have become holy in that community that is marked with this kind of reality and that's what the lord is calling us to an expression of a kind that we have scarcely seen in the earth and mostly when it happens it's an individual heroes of the faith but the lord is saying i'm wanting an entire body now and you shall not be fit to move my people to jealousy in a time of jacob's trouble or nor in times of present witness unless you come into that reality now and you won't come into it through a rigid clinical attempt through an 80-day fast through reading through the whole bible in two days some other lofty thing that you make an attempt at but they're going down in surrender in the mode of your life and going into the place of prayer back into the place of prayer back into the place of prayer worship honoring the lord going through the scriptures learning to abide with him in the midst of the daily affairs so that we're not clanking the pots and pans around and plowing over one another in all kinds of vain pursuits but walking with trepidation through life with a humility of meekness a love of purity that can only be described as theocratic the kingdom of god expressed through a mostly gentile people in the realm of real life that will result in a voice being issued in the earth not through one ministry but through a body so lord we ask that that reality would increase in the church we ask that you would walk with us through this pilgrimage that you would help us lord to identify those things that we've put up or allowed to remain as hurdles in this great race we ask lord that you would have for yourself a people jealous for your glory in the earth marked with a spirit of prayer weak vessels conscious of their weakness but more conscious even yet of your strength that is demonstrated as the result of that surrender to your life we ask lord that you would have families in the earth marked by the knowledge of god even 12 year olds who have a wisdom like the son of god himself at the age of 12 confounding the wisest in the temple peace marking the house of god again holiness marking the house of god again a hatred for sin a love for righteousness a love for one another that's transcendent that that goes beyond offense and inconvenience and is itself a demonstration of your very wisdom to the principalities and powers of darkness and issues forth as a witness in these last days of the man christ jesus in all his glory let the church be in the earth again the fullness of him which fills everything in every way that the pots and pans the bells on the horses the occupations the automobiles the parenting the study of scripture is all holy holy holy unto the lord