You are listening to Megiddo Radio. Megiddo Radio is a radio ministry of Megiddo Films. For more, visit our website at www.megiddofilms.org. Good evening everybody and welcome. This is Megiddo Radio for the 1st of November 2013. Thank you all for tuning in. Hope you had a very good Reformation Day yesterday. And I just pray that the Lord is working in all of people's lives that are listening to this show and that these Radio shows can be in some way beneficial or a blessing to you. And I just pray also that if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, that these shows will also point towards your need. Your need to turn and to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. A couple of days ago I put up a video of my testimony. which dealt with about an hour long video that I did. It's called Delivered from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ Jesus and the subtitle is A Testimony by Paul Flynn. It was something that I meant to do. I was thinking about doing for a couple of years and I remember I was asked to give my testimony at Iron Reform Baptist Church and the 10-minute clip is on the YouTube page as well and also on the Iron Reform Baptist page YouTube page. And I remember thinking, reminding myself of, I wanted to put up a long version of what happened to me around the time of conversion, how the Lord used these events, and how much the Lord has changed me. I suppose before I forget, and I've shot it with two videos, I borrowed a friend's camera, and I think this sounds pretty good, and I shot it with two cameras and the camera angle changes and I go through a lot of things. I might have left out a few things here and there but by and large it's pretty much my testimony and all it's strangeness. I didn't want to go into too much detail into certain things because often there's a tendency to overly go into detail. As in, there's sin in a certain area, but also if you go into too much detail in an area, you're sinning in making people think about that by going into too much detail, if you know what I mean. So I wanted to keep it in such a way that it could be a blessing and that the Lord may use it to convict and draw people into his kingdom. Draw them out of the power of darkness, the power of Satan. But realizing that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all those that believe. Also, I was hoping to do a radio show yesterday being that it was Reformation Day but due to work and I wasn't feeling very good actually for most of the week and I'd ask also that you keep Iron Reform Baptist Church in your prayers. We preach, we street preach every Thursday Um, almost every Thursday would have fail. And we were preaching yesterday. It was Halloween, very busy. It was fairly, wasn't that bad. Actually could be a lot worse. You know, like people are drinking and things like that. This is in Dublin city in case anybody's not aware of where we're located. We would go to Grafton street. Grafton street is one of the biggest, busiest. shopping streets, probably in Europe, maybe in the world, I'm not too sure. That might be busier. But a lot of people are passing by. And we would just pray We just ask for your prayers, that the words of truth that these people heard, that it would make an impression upon their hearts, and that God would show mercy. We're crying out for God to show mercy. We're crying out for the ear of the Lord that God would show mercy on these people, because none of these people are seeking after God. None of these people even want God, and none of these people see their need. This is the radical depravity of man where he's completely blind and ignorant and unwilling to turn. As I was before I was converted, as any of us Christians were before we were converted and drawn in and brought into His marvelous, glorious kingdom. Oh, it is wonderful to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And that has to be your attitude. Is Christ precious to us? Because if He is precious to us, I'm just going to go a little bit closer to the microphone because I think I'm, yeah, actually that's going to help the volume a lot. Apologies for anybody listening to the podcast. And is he precious to you? If he is precious to you, then you will share him. You will not be ashamed of him. Oh, may the Lord quench all our and wishes to be seen well by men and I would just also pray especially, ask that you would pray especially for people who heard the message. A good friend of mine I hadn't seen in years and it was great to see him and I would just ask that you keep him in your prayers and it was wonderful to see him. It's weird when you're street preaching and you a guy you know you practically one of your closest friends is right in front of you and it's it kind of knocks you off balance so it asks that you keep him in your prayers and and the guy well I'd seen him the week before but I hadn't seen him somebody I hadn't seen in six years somebody who has seen me go through all sorts of things in my past somebody would have known especially that's why I did the video From the power of darkness or from the King delivered from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, based off of mainly Colossians 1.13, that the gospel is truly the power of God unto salvation, and in a twofold way, as in encouraging believers to continuously preach the gospel to all creatures, but also in another way, that those who are lost may watch it, those who probably know me, know me from being in metal bands and all that kind of stuff, and may be curious what what happened to Paul because I did sing for like four metal bands for four years and then I just for a lot of these people I think I disappeared off the face of the earth so I just ask that you keep them in your prayers that God could use that video in such a way to reach them because I think a lot of them are all over the world now some are in Australia and things like that And as people know who have been gloriously saved, it's not always possible to reach everybody or even talk to everybody. And sometimes people don't even want to listen. But sometimes people watch a video. And I just pray that that is the case. Now, getting on to the main topic of today's show. We were looking at Revelation 12, the woman of Revelation 12, and just for anybody who doesn't have the context, I would strongly urge people to listen to the last two shows. I often don't do that because sometimes you don't necessarily need the last two shows, but I think with these you do. If you're starting from a presupposition that the last days is the last generation and you haven't seen the last days or end times biblically defined video, I would urge you to go there first. Also, if you have in any way not seen the last one, you won't know necessarily what I'm dealing with here, so in case people email me, often people haven't listened to the previous show, so listen to those two ones first, they'll probably be... I'm gonna try and record this show as much as possible and get up as many shows on this issue because I really feel that this issue, I'm not really big on everybody has to agree in eschatology or anything like that, But at the same time, there's some eschatologies that lead to a wrong understanding of the gospel, especially classic dispensationalism, 1800s dispensationalism. various offshoots like the Holiness Movement, etc. lead to a false understanding of the Gospel. The Gospel is not just, get saved. The Gospel talks about a myriad of other things. And if you read the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith in 1689, if you read the Westminster Confession, if you read the Savoy Declaration, all these great declarations of the Christian faith, or the Belgian Confession, or whatever else, these go through the doctrinal truths that lay out the Gospel. The Gospel is not just four spiritual laws, or as I heard one person state, the four spiritual flaws. I don't know exactly who that is original with, but I like that. It is not just say uh-huh to four different things and now you're a Christian. Your heart has been completely changed 180 degrees from sin to Christ's righteousness, as in directionally. Repentance means a change of mind, but it's not just a slight twinge, a couple of degrees, and you just add Jesus to your other idols. It is a complete turning from your idols and throwing yourself upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is true biblical repentance. Repentance and faith that is mixed in such a way that it saves. But that faith and that repentance is a gift from God. That's why you must cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why you must cry out to God to have mercy upon you, to enable you to believe. Because the thing is, you're crying out to the one that you have hated all to this point. And He must give you a new nature. Otherwise... And this is where modern evangelicalism has gone. And we have become so... There's been systems of theology that have come out in the last 200 years. that have so blocked the understanding of a lot of these truths and they have to be studied again. Unfortunately, I know and I understand why brothers in the Lord will not necessarily maybe study Revelation, not necessarily study certain passages, because so many ludicrous Interpretations have arisen over the years. They get worse with each generation because of the lack of understanding of biblical typology. People think they can read, for example, just Revelation chapter 17 alone and just read it as it is and come up with the interpretation. Well, they're interpreting it. They're not letting God interpret it as As Joseph said, does not interpretation belong unto God? And that's the thing, we are not comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. We're comparing spiritual things with the things of this world, and we're superimposing our carnal ideas on the things of the Bible. The thing that I'm going to deal with today in Revelation 12, the question that arises is this. Is the symbology, is the woman described in Revelation 12, which I'll read in a second, is it dealing with Israel or the church? And I would argue both. And I have to go through this show in order, before I go forward with Revelation 12 any further, and talk about the two Israels, the two Israels of the church. Often when I hear a refutation of some sort of, say, dispensationalism, which puts ethnic Israel, and just the term Israel is used, And there's kind of this battlism set up that there's a complete separation between Israel and the church. I hope to show that the people of God is one. There is no covenant relationship between God now and ethnic Israel, but there is a covenant relationship between spiritual Israel. The beautiful thing about Revelation 12 is it shows that organic relationship. This issue must be dealt with. I'm not saying this is an easy issue. I'm not saying that this is an issue that even throughout the history of the Christian church that everybody's agreed on at certain points. But people have always seen the organic relation or that the people of God is one people. We're going to start off with a passage here. Actually, I'm just going to read from Revelation 12 because this is the thing we're trying to... I'm trying to show here that the right understanding of Revelation 12 shows that it is not in the future. It cannot be. A plain literal reading of the passage shows all of Revelation 12 is in the past and is not in the future. Now, Revelation is not all in the past. This is not promoting any sort of preterism or anything like that in relation to Revelation. I would be very much in what is termed today, historicist. Now, what does that mean? It means that from the time John penned the book of Revelation on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, holy men moved their spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, as it is in the King James, that Prophecy was unveiled, unfulfilled throughout history. And I hope to show that Revelation 12 is probably the clearest example, at least that I can see, of that occurring. Especially when you see Revelation 12.5 clearly referring to Jesus Christ, the man-child who shall rule the nations, and who was caught up onto his throne. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of His Father right now on His throne. He is not waiting for His throne. He is on His throne. He must reign until He subdues all enemies, as 1 Corinthians chapter 15 goes through, verses 24 to about 28, when it talks about how Christ returns at the end of time. I'll get into that in another show, but if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 24 to 28, it's clear that Christ returns at the end of time. Not at the end of a period, or whatever people want to call it, an epoch. That it is just before the eternal state. And whatever millennial understanding you want to come to after that, you realize it reduces it a great deal. Revelation 12 reads as follows, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being with child, cried, travailed in birth, and paid to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head, his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast him to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, and to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations. with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne." This is all we kind of dealt with. We're going to be going through this. This is a lot in Revelation 12. I love Revelation 12. I think it's such an encouraging... Revelation is such an encouraging book, properly understood. Shows victories for the church, when I believe properly understood. It is not just a, oh, judgment of the... There is. There is calamities that the Christian church has already gone through. It's kind of staggering when we hear, oh, the church won't go through tribulation, but the church has gone through tribulation after tribulation. I won't get into a lot of the quagmires and the various questions that are going to pop up as soon as I mention that. I'm going to take this through step by step. Let's go through this step by step. The question that arises in the dispensationist literature at this point, and I want to be fair to them, I don't want to be strawmanning any, and these are good believers, or these are good men of God who did a lot of things. Here we are inside. From what I can see, a lot of his writings were very good. But I have to completely disagree with him on a lot of things here and there. And I've looked up William Kelly, another man who popularized greatly the writings of dispensationalism in the late 1800s, around the time of Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon, by the way, was not a dispensationalist at all. He saw this spiritual relationship with Israel, and the travesty of this is not seen anymore. What I am saying here is, it is clear from Revelation 12.1, as I discussed in the last show, this is talking about Israel. This is symbolic of Israel, Jacob and his 12 sons. The woman with the sun, the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. Look up Genesis 37.9 and it talks about the 11 stars because it's left Joseph out. The 11 stars are bowing before Joseph in that passage. So there's 12 stars in total. Now, this is the thing where they say, oh it's Israel. Now here's the problem. Dispensationalists don't see spiritual Israel. And often on the Reform side it appears, now I'm not saying that people are doing this, but it appears at times that certain, especially various people within especially Amillennialism, have undervalued also Ethnic Israel. Now this is not saying that Ethnic Israel is a people of God. They're not, they don't know God. By and large, only if a person is in Christ is he truly in Abraham as Galatians 3.29 states. A spiritual offspring, you could say, of Abraham. Now let's go to We have to determine. So I'm saying right before I begin, this is spiritual Israel. Often it's called true Israel with certain people, but I prefer to call it spiritual Israel and ethnic Israel. Ethnic Israel is all the descendants of those who are Jewish by birth, by the flesh. Israel according to the flesh, you may call them. And they are, it is in the New Testament. And I also want to show that too. I want to show that I am not one of these people who is saying that God is done with ethnic Israel. I am not saying that in any way, shape or form. In fact, I'm one of the few people in my point of, well, no, this is their, You could say the Reform camp is really much split down the middle at times. Is Romans 11 for example talking about ethnic Israel or spiritual Israel? We may or may not get into this in this show. Maybe in the next show. So, the symbology is clearly referring to Israel, but when you read through to the end of the chapter and it's talking about the same woman, and verse 17 says, "...and the dragon was wrought with the woman," and the dragon is the Antichrist system, the Roman Catholic Church, "...and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which kept the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ." This cannot be talking about ethnic Israel. Now the problem is, this is Israel in the future. Let's clearly show, first of all, the two Israels. And I think the best passage for that is Romans 9.4, so let's turn there. Now this, brethren, this is not an easy issue. This issue, when you bring it up, and I believe it needs to be brought up in the modern day, not to be shirked away, not to also be attacking people either. Let us not get into back-and-forth name-calling. Let's sit down with the text and look at what it says. Look at the implications of it. Let's stay away from the ideas, oh, well, this is going to be anti-Semitic if you come to this conclusion. Let's stay faithful to the text of God. Let's stay faithful to glorify His Lord Jesus Christ, not, dare I say it, a piece of land. We should witness to the Jews, we should reach out to them, but unless they are converted, Now unless they throw themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, they will die and perish and go to hell. There is no special... and I'm not even saying, like a lot of dispensationalists believe exactly the same thing as that. That you witness to the Jews, and it's their interpretation in the hermeneutic, especially if you're a more progressive dispensationalist like John MacArthur is, or various means of understanding it. The problem is the biblical typology has gone out the window. Now, in Romans 9, a very contentious chapter, but we better read it. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh." Now who is he talking about? Kinsmen according to the flesh. This is one of the reasons why this is really a difficult passage and you have to take your time with it. Paul is saying here, and I don't have a lot of time to go through this, but Paul is saying here that he wished himself to be accursed of Christ because he so wanted his brethren in the flesh, kinsmen according to the flesh, to be converted, to be saved. And then he asks the question, who are Israelites? To whom pertaineth the adoption? Right? Who is the people who have been adopted by God the Father? Who can cry out, Abba, Father? Even that is contentious, and you cannot say that of an unconverted Jew. And we'll go through various passages, as many as possible, hopefully, to further emphasize this point. And the glory, and the covenants, Often it's a faulty understanding of Genesis 12, and I'll go back to that in a minute. and the giving of the law, and I think this is the most important thing here, and the service of God and the promises, and the service of God, even in ethnic Israel of all covenant times, when the nation of Israel as a covenant people were under the covenant of works, when they were under the Mosaic law, when they were under that system, The only people who were in the service of God was the priesthood, the Levites primarily. I'm not saying it was the only people, but it was the priesthood of God. I'm just going to, speaking on the priesthood, just going to slip back and set the context for this. Exodus 19.6. He's talking here to Israel, right? And he says, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. Not everyone was, in ethnic Israel, was in spiritual Israel. Often people call it true Israel. I think people need to make their terms more clear or clearer. Sorry, not more clear, bad grammar there. I'm an English teacher these days, so I seem to pick up on this stuff quicker than I used to. And ye shall be, or I'm picking up bad habits from my students, I'm not too sure. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. Not everyone in ethicism was a priest. And in a holy nation, and these words would thou speakest unto the children of Israel. Very sort of passages we go to. In the old covenant system, spiritual Israel, People also call it true Israel. Spiritual Israel was a kingdom of priests, primarily the Levites, and a holy nation. If you skip forward then, I don't want to jump around too much, but 2 Peter There's so many passages to support this. The problem is the time. It's 25 to, and I'm going to try and keep going until this is being recorded at about half six at the moment, Irish time. So I'm going to try and keep going for at least another 40 minutes and get as much into the show as possible about the two Israels, ethnic and spiritual. And I just pray that it will help people not to go to one extreme or the other. But in order to look, when they see the word Israel in a passage, or when something is pointing towards Israel as being the foundation of something, what does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean hermeneutically? Isn't this the most important thing, that we can rightly divide the Word of Truth? Okay? 2 Peter... Actually, sorry, not 2 Peter, 1 Peter. 1 Peter 2.9. But ye are a chosen generation." Now, he is speaking to Christians. But ye are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. Notice how in Exodus 19.6, a priesthood. Not a royal priesthood that did not come yet. In the Old Testament, the kingdom of God was there in types and shadows through the covenant, the Davidic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. These were pointing towards and being types and shadows for the new covenant that will come. Pointing towards that which will come. Talks about it in Hebrews in glorious detail. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a particular people. A particular people. Peculiar in Old English. Particular people. Actually, I remember I was reading this, a little side note, when I was reading this in my Italian Bible about a year or two ago, in the old Italian Bible, this isn't the old Italian Bible, the good Italian Bible, the new one's not so great, but it talks about The word is aquistatuntuto, which means acquired in total. A people bought. A peculiar people bought. Sounds a lot like particular redemption, but we won't say that much more. Study it out for yourselves. I don't have a lot of time to go through it here, and I hope that study will bear much fruit for a lot of people. And ye shall shew forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Look at the language being used. Chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. This is why we've got to be very careful with the end of Isaiah 66. What's it talking about? Is it spiritual Israel or ethnic Israel? Another title that the reformers used to often give spiritual Israel, especially if you look up their notes at the bottom of the Geneva Bible or anything, they called it the Jewish Church. There was a congregation, there was what we translated into Greek, Ekklesia. A called out people, an assembly, in the Old Covenant. It didn't just arrive after Matthew 16. Christ said, upon this rock I shall build my church. This concept of the church wasn't new, but what came was the new covenant, that which was promised and prophesied in Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 33. I will pour out my spirit, not pour out my spirit on all flesh, but I will write my laws in your hearts and you shall be my people and I will be your God. This talking about the new covenant, And he says also in 1 Peter 2.10, which in time past were not a people, remember, they were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have attained mercy. Okay, so let's go back to our passage in one of our many passages we'll be dealing with today. And I apologize in advance if I'm going through things too quickly. This is not an easy issue. This is an issue I just pray that people will go through prayerfully on their knees in such a way that they're not trying to think about just the nation state of Israel or the modern geopolitical nation of Israel. And look, we should treat, we should obviously send missionaries out there. We should care for them. We should love them. When Muslims are wanting to wipe them off the face of the earth, I think we should definitely stand up for them. There's no doubt about that. I'm not against that in any way, shape or form. In fact, I emphatically defend Israel's right to defend itself in a geopolitical sense. This is not in any way trying to attack that. I'm not saying anybody robbed their land. Israel was completely desolate and wasteland. Mark Twain actually in his book in 1867 talks about how Jerusalem was a complete wasteland and really wasn't inhabitable up until about the time many Jews returned to the land. This is not, and often people get sidelined by this kind of stuff. What is the text talking about? We need to see, because in Revelation 12, which is what I was dealing with last week, and really dealing with here, It's spiritual Israel. Because it flows in that it is the church. It is the church. It is bringing forth, if you want to use that term, because the word church just means ekklesia, spiritual Israel, or the Israel of God according to Galatians 6.16. And we should also go through that as well if we get time. Who are the Israelites? The service of God, that priesthood. And even in Old Covenant Israel, this is the point I'm making, not everyone that was in, not everybody was a priest. Not everyone was servicing God. Actually, the tithing system was from gathered from all of Israel in order to support the Levitical priesthood who were in the service of God. It was the priesthood. It wasn't every Jew according to the flesh. and the promises. Who are the fathers and who as concerning the flesh Christ came? Who is over all, God blessed forever, amen. And then it quotes here, I believe it's from, it's also repeated in Isaiah and another part, Romans 9, 6. Not as though the word of God had taken none effect. The word of God goes out and achieves exactly what it sets out to do. Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And all this friend, either God will get glory out of your life when you throw your, when you repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he gets glory from you because you, you are changed and sanctified and you point towards the Lord Jesus Christ through your life and your deeds. And it's acceptable to the father through his son in whom he is well pleased, nothing you can do. Your, your, your righteousness, your greatest works is nothing but filthy rags. That's what the Bible declares. We can do nothing that will even be acceptable. It's not just that we've sinned, it is we've done nothing but sin. And then, here's the best verse, I think, probably of all the things that points out the two Israels. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. They are not all spiritual Israel, which are of ethnic Israel. That's one way of putting it. Obviously, there's different titles you put on it. There's two Israels spoken about here. They are not all Israel. They're not all spiritual Israel. They're not all the Jewish church, as the Reformers would have said. They're not all in the Jewish church and the congregation of believers that are of ethnic Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, just because they're the physical line of Abraham does not mean they are this Israel of God. They are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That line that passed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The blessings of the Lord. Israel according to the promise. The promise being passed down. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. It makes it very clear here. And I think it's because we've got glasses on when it comes to Romans at times. Just read it for what it says and accept it, brethren. This is the clearest thing. If there's something in the Word of God you don't understand fully, just say, Lord, help my non-belief. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. What's the seed? Remember, there is one people of God, Galatians, and just to really further emphasize this, Galatians 3. And I brought this up last week a little bit, but I went through too quickly through it. And I want to read a lot of this in, especially in context, where I'm accused of not putting it in context. Wherefore then serveth the law. This is Galatians 3.19. It was added because of transgression till the seed shall come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. The mediator is Lord Jesus Christ, that one who bore the sins of his people, that man of sorrows, prophesied in Isaiah 53. Till the seed shall come prophesied back in earliest Genesis 3 15. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given to which had been given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Basically saying the law you cannot earn in any way shape or form your righteousness by the law. You cannot obey the law. The law is a schoolmaster to drive you to the cross of Christ. Continue on verse 22. Romans 9, 4. Who are the Israelites? The promise. spiritual Israel. I also want to look at ethnic Israel, I don't want to knock that out yet. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, but ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." No idea of Christians there, but that's another issue. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. They're all one. There is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And then here's the verse that basically stopped me being a dispensationalist. And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If you're in Abraham, you're in Christ. If you're in Christ, you're in Abraham, spiritually, spiritually. The problem with a lot of the Old Testament scripture now, let's go back to the Old Testament. One of the most misunderstood passages of the entire Bible. With that typology in mind, with what you saw in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, when it talks about a royal priest, a holy nation, the way the Bible uses the word nation in the New Testament, that kind of anti-type, but I don't want to kind of... the typology of a nation then being fulfilled in the church. holy nation the church is not a parentheses it is what was prophesied that in will come in the latter days then mountain that should fill the earth as Isaiah to prophesize and also Daniel 2 verses 35 onwards now in Genesis 12 this is the one which says okay no matter what ethic this is put on ethic Israel now from what we have seen Does this make sense? Now the Lord had said unto Abram, this is before Abraham had changed his name, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house. He was in a pagan land, was not seeking after God. He was called, was in God's effectual calling, showing mercy upon that sinner, and onto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thine name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Who is that talking about? the scriptures declare see the problem is there's no scripture with scripture going on there's no it is just well it's it says well who's abraham oh it's israel it's We are making the same mistake as the first century Jews, who believed, especially the Pharisees, who believed, just because they were part of Abraham's physical seed, that they have some sort of special privileges. Now, I do not believe that there is no significance in the Jews returning to the land, the valley. I believe, look up Exodus, no, sorry, Ezekiel 37, and it talks about the valley of bones. I believe strongly that is relating to, as Spurgeon did as well, and I believe others, that that is referring, as it says, these dead bones are the house of Israel. The church is not a body of dead bones. The church has been made alive. The church has been given breath. The church has been given sinews. The church has been given flesh. As Ezekiel 37 goes through, it's often an amazing picture of the power of regeneration and how man is dead in trespasses and sins, but it's also a future how they will be gathered into the valley and they're told the house of Israel. Sometimes when it says Israel, it really is talking about ethnic Israel. Let's not go one extreme to the other. Let us not think that. Let's look at each passage in their own right. Often when people discover these truths and say, okay, Genesis 12, one to three is clearly talking about what is that nation now today? First, first Peter two, nine, who is in Abraham. Oh, they're also in Christ. What is that nation? What is that priesthood? What is that royal priesthood today? It is the church. Now, the problem is, whenever people discover this, I think, I'm not saying always, but a lot of the time, people tend, every time they see Israel from that point onwards, especially in the New Testament, then they say, oh, well, that's just spiritual Israel. We have to just be careful. I think a lot of the time that is true. And I think good men of faith, especially John Calvin and Martin Luther and all those kind of people, looked at it that way. Sometimes when we're looking at Romans 11, 26, and people sometimes now don't really see Ezekiel 37, I think it's, we have to be careful and look at the context of these things. The church is not dead bones, Ezekiel 37. People, I believe, like many of the Puritans before me believed, that in the future restoration of the Jewish kingdom, or not the Jewish kingdom, but the kingdom of Israel, or not the kingdom of Israel, I'm trying to use my terminology properly, that Israel, ethnic Israel, not every single person that is a physical Jew, will be saved in the future. I do believe that. I'm not denying that. I'm not denying what Romans 11 and a lot of Reform people don't. They see this. I don't know what the percentages are, but people are split one way or the other. Often it's kind of a little bit of a contentious issue. People get excited on either side. I think people need to just take their time with it. And I want to show you, maybe if I could time about 45 minutes into it, I got another 15 minutes maximum that I can talk, that So the danger is every time you see Israel you think the church. Not so. And this showing that this organic relationship, this is the great thing about Revelation 12, is this organic relationship with spiritual Israel and the church. It is one people. And I want to show you another passage that even shows this even clearer than what we've looked at already. Turn to Ephesians 2. I have been looking at this issue on and off, probably for the last couple of years, ever since I've been reading my Bible, going back and forth, and I remember staring, not because somebody told me to, but I was staring at Genesis 12, and I was going, is this really talking about ethnic Israel? Is it? And I remember, it just didn't make sense. And I remember going through the Abrahamic Covenant, looking at all the references to it. And then once I saw Galatians 3.29, I was like, whoa, this is not what we're being told. Okay? Now, just to even show that my view, and I'm only going to quote here from Matthew Henry's view on Revelation 12, and again, this is all talk about futurism at the moment. Not that we necessarily want to get into, not that I necessarily want to get into necessarily, Israels and all that kind of stuff, but to understand this passage and to show that it's clearly in the past at this point, and that it's not all in the future in some seven year period, This is not a new idea. What I am talking about is a very old idea. Matthew Henry, when he talked about this, it is generally agreed by most learned expositors that the narrative we have in this and the two following chapters, from the sounding of the seventh trumpet to the opening of the vials, is not a prediction of things to come. but rather a recapitulation and a representation of things past, which, as God would have the Apostle to foresee while future, He would have him to review now that they were past, that he might have a more perfect idea of them in his mind, and might observe the agreement between the prophecy and that providence, which is always fulfilling the Scriptures. In this chapter we have an account, and this is the important thing, of the contrast between the church and Antichrist. The seed of the woman, remember that seed, the seed that was prophesied in Genesis 3.15. See the continuity and the flow of scripture all the way through. Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. as it begun in heaven, as it will carry on in the wilderness, verse 12 onwards. This is not a new view at all. This is a very old view. And I encourage people to go back to older commentaries, but even just compare Scripture with Scripture. Really sit down with these things, because people want quick answers nowadays, and it's why we are where we are. The only way we're gonna get revival in our day is when you get the men who are willing to sit down days and days on end and exposit, exposit, exposit in such a way that the Word of God is more important to them than their daily food. It's the only way. There's no quick ways. Revival does not come in a vacuum. Ephesians 2 Often what has disappeared from the Church of God is the knowledge of God. The glory of God is left. I'm going to deal with Ephesians 2. Verse 11, up until the end of the chapter. And this is going to deal with a lot of issues and a lot of typology. The tragedy is, this typology is not taught in many circles. It was never taught in the churches I was part of up until recently. I mean, I moved, primarily the main reason I moved was because the Reformed church I joined was much more in line with what I believed about the Bible. There's no two ways about it. The plain truths that we're going through, not that we're saying that we're a perfect church, but we must labor for reformation. We must make difficult decisions. We must join churches that are truly proclaiming the gospel as it is in the Bible. We must go to churches that men must stand up in this generation and proclaim regardless the truth, regardless of who likes it or who doesn't like it, who it hair-lips or who it doesn't hair-lip. Whether therefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh. Now here's the use of this language. Ephesians 2.11 onwards. Who are called on circumcision. Here is Gentiles in the flesh. See Gentiles in the flesh. Also sometimes in scripture there's Gentiles, spiritual Gentiles, which means those who are lost. There are also spiritual Jews at the end of Romans chapter 2. You gotta look, compare scripture with scripture. "...who call them circumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands." Made by hands is always a term, uses all things earthly. That's why it says in Daniel 2.35, "...the stone cut without hands, or the tabernacle made without hands." This made without hands is an interesting study all of itself. Made by hands or made without hands? One heavenly, one earthly. that at that time you were without Christ. So, you were Gentiles, according to the flesh, right? You were lost. And at that time you were without Christ. Being aliens from, what, the church? Well, it doesn't actually say that here. The commonwealth of Israel. And strangers from the covenants of promise. Does it say they're two separate covenants? No, it does not say that here. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who are sometimes or far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You're made nigh by the blood of Christ. To what? The commonwealth of Israel. It goes further. And I say to people who talk about, well, we take this Bible literally, and those reformed folks only take it spiritually, and they spiritualize everything away, and they make the church spiritually Israel, and they spiritualize Israel. That is not true. And people need to challenge that view and show clearly, read this literally. I challenge people to read Galatians 3 literally. Read Ephesians 2 literally. But He is our peace. Ephesians 2.14, But He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having one people, both one. God's people are one people. There's no parallel universe between Israel and the churches. There's organic continuation between the two. The church is spiritual Israel and spiritual Israel is the church is the Israel of God. But there's also another Israel, ethnic Israel, that does not know primarily God because it's talking according to the flesh. You must look at the context. having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, to make in himself twain of one new man so making peace, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby." And came and preached the enmities there, going right back to Genesis 3.15. See that continuity of scripture? This is the problem when we only preach the New Testament. Isn't it a tragedy in our day? But people won't preach often the Old Testament. "...and came and preached peace to you which were far off and to them which are nigh. And through him we both have accessed by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, ye are now no more strangers and foreigners." Look at the language being used here. No longer strangers, no longer foreigners. He uses national language here. But fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. The household of God. When it goes into 1 Corinthians 3, it says, ye are the temple of God. the type, the true temple came with the church. This is why the papacy is truly the Antichrist, because he stands in the temple of God, the people of God, but that's getting into another issue altogether. But that's where the Reformers believe what they believe. The temple of God refers to the household of God, the people of God, those who are made nigh by the blood of Christ. In whom, oh, I skipped on a little bit, and we, and are built upon, but look at fellow citizens. Royal priesthood a holy nation first Peter 2 9 see this language the continuity of the language all the way throughout the scriptures and Are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone Obviously this is speaking figuratively. He's not literally a block And in whom, because figuratively, the people who are added to the church to build the temple of God are the stones, are those kind of building blocks on which what Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple. Read that literally. Spiritualize that away. in the Lord, a holy temple. The holy temple, from the time that the veil is ranked onwards, is speaking about the fulfillment of the temple of God, which is the people of God, in whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Okay, we've only got another five minutes left. That is spiritual Israel. That is the Israel spoken of in Revelation 12, just to give more clarity, Lord willing, to the last show that I did. Now, let's briefly, and I've only got about five minutes, look at Romans 11, and I'm probably going to call some People will say, no, no Paul, I completely don't agree with that, especially if you do believe in spiritual Israel. And a lot of people see this as the church. I'm going to show you ethnic Israel and the future restoration of the Jews just in five minutes, and I'm actually going to do it in more detail. This will give you just a little taster before I begin the next one. Just so people aren't saying, well he's saying everywhere it says Israel is clearly nothing to do with ethnic Israel. I'm not saying that. But in the context, especially in Revelation 12, it is clearly talking about that one people of God going through. When it says, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, it is talking about the house of Judah. But remember in Acts 2, who was there? Jews. Look at the end of Romans 2, where it talks about, he is not a Jew who is one according to the flesh. Romans 2, 28 and 29, if I'm not mistaken. I'm just gonna read this really quickly. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now, it depends who you talk to, and good brothers will sometimes say, well, that is talking about the church within form circles. That is not a new view, that has gone back a long way. For example, I believe Luther, Calvin had that view. It changed from Beza onwards. Beza saw that as a future restoration of the Jews. Onwards, Theodor Beza in Geneva, a lot of the Westminster Vines, a lot of the Second Reformation, a lot of the Puritans of the 17th century. It was the majority view and this is something I probably should go into the next one because this kind of logically follows and then we'll kind of go back to our study in Revelation 12. Because once you open a can of worms like this it's very hard to really state what you believe because a lot of questions I know are going to come up from different people. The reason why I say this is ethnic Israel, and it has to be ethnic Israel, is for two reasons. Now, there are other passages that talk about this exact same thing. Number one, in verse 28 it talks about, as concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. And just like in Ezekiel 37, the church is not dead bones, they're alive. but they are enemies for the gospel's sake. So clearly, this is an Israel that does not know God. It is not the Israel of God. And, but as touching the election that have been chosen before the foundation of the earth, as a corporal body or whatever you want to call it, they are beloved for the Father's sake. So clearly, they have been chosen, but they are an Israel that currently does not know God. Ethnic Israel. Okay? That is not a dispensationalist understanding. That is a historic reformed understanding. That is a view that's gone right back through the church. Okay? At various times, and it's dwindled at times, and it's gotten more popular. Especially in the 17th century, it was a very popular view. Also, it makes the illustration of the Olytrian. I don't have a lot of time to go through this. I've got like a minute or two. All I will say about this, it talks about the wild branches being grafted in and the natural branches being grafted out. I cannot be talking about individuals for one reason. For this reason, that if you're talking about individuals, it comes with the implication that you can lose your salvation. Now, unless Fightpoint Armenians are listening to me here right now, you're probably going to say, well, of course you can lose your salvation. No, you cannot. God is sovereign. God preserves a person until the end. He doesn't shut the door until the end. She'll be saved. That is because somebody is kept by the power of God, not their own power. Praise the Lord. We cannot lose our salvation in any way, shape, or form. So that is out the window. And it obviously makes way more sense when you bring in verse 28. It talks about them being enemies for the gospel's sake, but that it talks about in verse 23, that they also, if they abide still in unbelief, they shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again, again. It makes much more sense, this is talking about ethnic Israel, that they will again, that they will in the future, be saved. Not every individual person. And the view I'm putting forth, just before I leave you, because this show was to deal with the two Israels, I wanted to show both of them, and I really probably spent more time on, I did spend more time on spiritual Israel, but it's so important that we see this. I believe in our day. So, especially with a lot of things that are going on, And I just want to show you the Geneva Bible view. It's not that just because the Geneva Bible says this that it's true, but this is the view that goes back a long way. Again, anything I'm presenting is not new. I'm not trying to come up with new speculative theories. There's so many of them out there, and there's so many weird views on so many different things. It has to be said. It has to stop. People are just going wild with fantasies at the moment when it comes into biblical interpretation, and they're ignoring history to the detriment of many. Revelation 26. I'm going to leave it with this on this note. Let's get the I have a 1599 as well, but the 1599 Geneva Bible does not have a note on this. Okay. For some reason that actually doesn't have that. Okay. They saw that, the Geneva notes of 1560 also saw this. 1599 didn't actually make a footnote, but it was clear that many of the Puritans saw a future restoration of the kingdom for the Jewish nation. that Israel would be saved. So they're the two Israels. And to show you that it isn't just say, well, there's no future for Israel, or if you see a future for Israel in some of the passages, which I do as well, and like the Puritan hope, it was the Puritan hope, as Ian Murray wrote about, I don't know how many decades ago. but that it is not just, well, it's either dispensationalism or a form of amillennial covenantalism. There is other answers. Some covenantalists actually historically did, or covenantal amillennialists did see a future restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. There's about four different camps and I don't have time to go into it here, but suffice to say that there is ways of answering all these questions. You gotta be patient, you gotta allow the Bible to speak, try not to go into extremes one way or the other, to run into, well, everything's talking about ethnic Israel, the dispensationalist extreme, or the other extreme, which says, which is much closer to the truth, I'll admit, and I have no problem with these brothers who do this, but every time it talks about Israel, well, clearly it must be talking about spiritual Israel, i.e. the church and the ecclesy of God. I hope, Lord willing, and I'll be able to demonstrate that next week, probably a little bit more controversial, who knows with some people. May whatever we believe, may we believe in the truth of God's word, may we believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, may we believe that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and may we look to Him and Him alone. Let's get away from the speculative eschatology. Let's go with what the Bible repeats over and over in typologies. Let's return to biblical truths. Let us delight ourselves in the word of God. Let's keep away from a lot of the movements of modern day. Let's get back into the scriptures. I know it sounds like a cliche, but this is the only reason I'm doing these shows. And I pray that the Lord will use it mightily, not because of me or anything else, but because He has willed to do so in His pleasing and His sight. May God bless you all. See you next week. Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. The only thing that will tie me in victory continually through the blood of Christ is my personal devotion to Him, the Son of God.