The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: The True Israel of God (Part 4 of 4)
What if the kind of peace you crave isn’t a feeling but a fact secured by a Person? We open with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego staring down a furnace and refusing to bow, then follow that courage to its source: reconciliation with God through Jesus that turns every outcome into a win. That’s why believers can smile through loss; not because life is soft, but because the war with God is over and Christ stands as our advocate.
From there, we dig into mercy with precision. Mercy isn’t vague kindness; it’s divine compassion that refuses to give us what our sins deserve. Lamentations 3 becomes our anchor—new mercies, every morning. We ask what this demands of us in real life: fewer thunderbolts in our comments, more restraint with people who may deserve our sharpest words. Mercy becomes discipleship: durable love that feels like Jesus.
We also wade into contested terrain—temple, abomination of desolation, and the millennium—without getting lost in speculation. Centering on Christ as the true temple and His present reign resets the conversation: our hope isn’t a calendar, it’s a King. That insight sets up the heart of the episode: the Israel of God is the single family God promised, made of Jew and Gentile who trust Christ by faith. No nationalism, no sectarian labels, no dividing the body. We challenge one another to test the spirits, look for the fruit of the Spirit, and live the five solas with humility.
If you’re hungry for peace that holds, mercy that transforms, and a church that looks like one family, press play. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review with the scripture that anchors your hope. What’s the one passage you turn to when the heat rises?
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Better known as Shakrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And in short, uh, King Nebuchadnezzar had lost his mind. And he had uh set up an image, and he had commanded when the sounds of music and so forth had begun to play, that everyone that was on the land were to bow down and worship this God, uh, that this this image that he had set up. Uh, and and in regards to peace, listen to this to this level of peace, uh uh uh which is eternal and external security in Christ. You are set. The Bible says that you receive the peace that surpasses all understanding. It won't even make sense how you're smiling and you just lost a job. It won't even make sense how you you don't know where your child is, but yet you still have confidence. It will not line up with logic, with the kind of peace that you have because you know that God has your back. But let me continue. So the Bible says that uh when he played this music, he confronted these three young men, Shepherd and Michigan. And if you ever get time, look at Daniel 3.16. The Bible says that they look this king in the face. You've got to be able to picture this to understand what peace in God is. They looked this king in the face while everyone around them was bowed down, terrified that if you don't do what he says, you're gonna get thrown into a giant fireplace or a giant fiery furnace. The Bible says that these boys said in Daniel 3.16, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve will deliver us from this fiery furnace. But if not, oh King, we still won't do what you asked us to do. So these men, ladies and gentlemen, they understood that when you have your life hidden in God in the name of Jesus, you literally are in a win-win situation. If you remain on this planet, you're gonna be in, you're gonna have a win because God is gonna give you a testimony. And if by any reason, God decides to bring you home, you still won because you are now in glory with Him. And so the peace of God, in my humble opinion, is an external and an eternal security in Christ Jesus because you know that no matter what, God has got your back and he's gonna give you a good outcome.
SPEAKER_03:Amen, brother. Amen. You know, so here's the thing about peace. And so, you know, I ask these questions, and and and I want my brother Lefty to notice. These things are designed for us to grow. These conversations, the fact that we can have them the way we're having them is for all of us to grow, to challenge one another. Because when someone that we are witnessing to or sharing to, sharing with. And they ask us the question, we need to be able to give an adequate answer. And I will say even more so than just an adequate question, but an answer, but an answer that is that is sufficient, that is, that is easily understood. And and and this is why it's so important for us to be able to articulate these things. When we talk about peace, and because everybody here says something that contributed. Everybody. You know, the word came up what Michael brought up, enmity. And by the way, when I'm looking down, it's because I'm writing notes, things that you guys are saying that I want to bring to my own recall. Michael mentioned enmity. Brother Jeff mentioned peace, that peace is reconciliation, and he's right. Peace is reconciliation. And then Meg mentioned removing that middle wall of partition. Christ removed that wall which established peace. And it comes to the Christian church. Christ removes walls. He doesn't build them. Let that sink in for a second. And then Brother Stubbs, when he brings in about the external and the eternal, see, here's what we need to understand. Like Michael was saying, there was a war, there was enmity between man and God. The relationship had been severed, broken. And now we were listed as far as we knew, among those in John chapter three, when Christ says that those who don't believe are condemned already. So what is peace? Peace means reconciliation. Christ brought about by his death, burial, and resurrection, he brought about peace between those of us who believe in him, who are justified by faith in him. He established peace between us and God. And right now stands between God and us as our intercessor and our advocate. Not only did he bring peace, but he preserves it. The war between us and God is over. Peace has been established. No war to ever break out again between us who believe and the Father, who Christ who sent Christ to be, as somebody mentioned, I can't remember who it was, that said Christ is our peace. He is our peace. The war between us who believe and God is over. We have peace. Now, in the same verse, I would be amiss if I did not address this as well. And I'm gonna start with my sister Lisa. What does he mean by mercy? And as many as walk according to this rule, which is that works has no place in our salvation. Peace be upon them and mercy. It's funny because everybody understood the Israel of God part, and that's beautiful because that's usually the hardest part for most people to lay hold of. What does that mean? Who is he talking about? So, what does he mean by mercy? Let's take something that would ordinarily seem simple. So, what does he mean by sister?
SPEAKER_08:He doesn't give us what we deserve. He doesn't for the yeah, the sin we've committed, he he doesn't give us the um the punishment we deserve. He's absolutely so good.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, absolutely, sister Evie. Mercy, what is it?
SPEAKER_05:The way that I look at mercy is God understands the intricate detail of the heart of humanity. And so mercy is something that he gives us that is undeserving, like Sister Lisa said.
SPEAKER_03:But what is the mercy?
SPEAKER_05:The mercy is what is the mercy?
SPEAKER_03:What is what is mercy? Define mercy.
SPEAKER_05:No, no. Mercy is God's love, God's compassion towards his people.
SPEAKER_03:Compassion. Compassion. That's what his mercy is. His compassion.
SPEAKER_05:Amen.
SPEAKER_03:That's what it is. Mercy is his compassion. And what Lisa said is right. I got to stop this at two people. Is his compassion and it is his compassion that warrants not giving us what we deserve. That's what it is. We Christians, brethren, we are expected by our Lord, our shepherd, to be compassionate. And that means when we need for us to be compassionate toward others, it means not giving them necessarily what they deserve, or not giving them what they necessarily deserve. There are certain people that come into our lives, there's certain people that come into our social media lives, there's certain many people that deal with us a certain way, and they may deserve thunderbolts from us. They may deserve our, like my brother uh lefty said, violence in a certain in a certain way. I don't mean in a literal way, but compassion means not giving them what they deserve. Christ did not give us what we deserve, and it is for that that we are thankful and show endless, endless gratitude if we are truly in him. Evie nailed it on the head.
SPEAKER_05:Can I say something, Brother Jonathan? That's that that just is it's going all round and around and around in my head.
SPEAKER_02:Go ahead.
SPEAKER_05:Taking the immense detail in the in the unalivement, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, right? Right, I cannot see him coming and there being an actual like abomination of desolation and all of that stuff happening if his detail in what happened for humanity is finished. We are just waiting for the coming. I just can't see it. Like, I can't see, like, you're telling me all that's all that happened, and then he's gonna come back, and all this blasphemous craziness is gonna be happening at the same time.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_05:There's no way. I just can't. I'm sorry, that's completely out of like what we're talking about, but I just can't. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, appreciate it, sister. Appreciate that. Uh, brother Stubbs, Stubbs is in Jeffrey, man of God. But go ahead, Stubbs, you next.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir. Uh, in Lamentations chapter three, I just want to read a verse to you guys. In Lamentations 3, 21 through 23, it says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
SPEAKER_03:Amen. Amen, brother. That's a good one. Brother Kyle's do exactly where you're going with that one. So that's that's a great one. Brother Jeff, man of God, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say something to what Evie said. Uh, you know, I lots of people believe certain things. I believe that the description of the abomination of desolation and everything described in Revelation has already occurred. Uh it occurred in AD 70. Uh, when the temple was destroyed. Titus entered the temple before they destroyed it, and he was the abomination of desolation. But Nero actually was a personification in the way of that. But, you know, I think those things have passed. All we're waiting for now, there's gonna be no third temple. There's gonna be no, you know, I I don't think there's gonna be an antichrist as a person. I think what we're waiting for is we're waiting for Jesus to come back, period. And for people to say, what about the millennium? The Jews tend to do say hyperbolic things. I had a Bible study earlier today where, you know, they tend to say things like everything when they when they're not really meaning that. Just they just want you to understand the magnitude of what they're saying. And a thousand is ten times ten times ten. It's the perfect number tripled. And it's a sign of a time, not an actual time. And the millennium is now. Christ is reigning now. He is on the throne. He will become when he the next thing that's gonna happen is when he comes back. I mean, that's what I believe, and that's what I believe the scripture tells me in my reading of Daniel's revelation. That's what's gonna happen. So I mean, I give that out. I used to struggle with this thing, and I even read the Left Behind series years ago, and it was very entertaining, but it's false. It's false. You know, it's it's wrong. So anyway, anyway, and you know, I may step on a toe or two here, but I mean, you know, I I don't mean to. I'm just saying that's what I believe. And I and I think that's great. We should be anticipating the return of Christ. It could be tonight, folks. It could be tonight.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know what? You know, I I agree with you, and and anybody that knows me knows one thing, and and I and I, and as far as supporting this whole thing, when we're telling the truth, if you're gonna tell the truth, you're gonna step on toes. There is no way. There's no way to tell the truth and not step on toes. That's just an impossibility. You know, and and and my my thoughts on on the the rebuild temple, Christ was that temple. We are his body. We make up that temple. We are Naos, that spiritual temple. And the desecration, the abomination of the temple was when they put our Lord, who is our temple, on that cross. This is another, this is this is something we'll deal with on another day. But I will make an argument that he was the temple. Christ said in John 10, 2.19, destroy this temple. And what did he say? Raise it up. It was that temple that was designated.
SPEAKER_01:That makes perfect sense.
SPEAKER_03:He was the temple that was desecrated.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:And so, and so, and so that was that was the ultimate. There is no abomination of desolation that can be greater or that can supersede his temple being desecrated. Made him empty. It ended his life, but they didn't know he would raise up on that third day. But they thought that he might. They thought something was to that because they were like, go put a guard over there on that tomb so we can make sure that if he rises up, or that if they take him out of that tomb, there won't be some lie going around saying that um um that he resurrected. But I will argue to anybody that he was that rebuilt, that temple, and he rebuilt it the day he resurrected. And and he built that temple by his resurrection on top of the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, which was the foundation, he himself being the chief cornerstone, and we being the living stones, built up into a holy temple.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll go further than that. That that verse where Jesus talks, uh, you know, he goes to prepare a place in my father's house. There are many mansions. He's referring to himself. He's not referring to building a bunch of houses, right? We are gonna be part of the temple, like you say, and that's what we're going to be. We're gonna be all one unit unified part. Yep, those are the mansions he's talking about, himself.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, Sister Candy. Go ahead. You had something you want to say. Go ahead, sister.
SPEAKER_06:It was about when he was talking about the mercy. Um, I was like, Noah. Noah is an example of mercy, Noah and his family. Lot was an example of mercy. So just those few people that were saved because of their faith, that's love, that's God's mercy, that's his compassion, that is everything he is nature. That's that's just who he is, and we are so blessed. And I just want to say out of 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 15, says, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Because we so don't deserve it, but we he loves us so much. He does, and it's sad to see somebody not accept accept him for who he is and what he's about and what he does and what he's did.
SPEAKER_03:Amen, sister, amen. You know, so he he so he goes on and he talks about the Israel of God, which I think everyone understands clearly. This blessing extends to the Israel of God. That's plain. There's no way to not see that unless you just willfully uh close your eyes. But what is what does this Israel of God, what does it denote? It speaks to the true spiritual seed of Abraham. And remember, Abraham's name, what it means, the father of many nations. So the fact that his name was changed to Abraham and that he was the father of many nations presupposes that the Israel, the true Israel of God, would be those spiritual seed who believed by faith the same way Abraham did. And all of these people are united to Christ by faith, whether they be Jew or Gentile. So the situation is this the Israel of God, those who prevail with God, those who have power with God, or all people, whether they be Jew or Gentile, who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and as their Savior. And with this phrase, Israel of God, it speaks to the genuine, the genuine people of God, the genuinely faithful people of God, whether they bear the name of Israel outwardly or are strangers from the outside. All those who believe and trust in Him, these are the composite body of Christ and the true believers, and these are Israel. This collective is the Israel of God, the church made up of Jew and Gentile. This is the true Israel of God, and these are God's sheep. And these are those who Christ laid down his life to redeem. To redeem. So the apostle gathers all of the faithful into this body, just an Israel of God. He gathers all of the faithful, not by nationality, not by bloodline, not by the will of man, but by regeneration, not by natural generation, by spiritual regeneration, and it makes us one blessed family under the covenant of grace. These are the Israel of God. The nation over there in the Middle East has zero nothing to do with the future of God's work of providence. Only to the extent that they believe by faith the way all of us must believe by faith. I know there are a lot of Christians out there that want to believe that there's something special about that nation. There isn't. There isn't. God does not care about Israel in the Middle East. God does not care about South America. God does not care about China. He doesn't care about, get this, America. He cares about the Israel of God, his people who put their faith in him by Jesus Christ. Anything outside of that, God is not concerned in. The world continues, this globe continues to spin, or whatever you think it does spin, whatever, flat, round, whatever. Whatever you want to call, whatever it is, God's only concern is his people who are believers, whether they be Jew or whether they be Gentile. Plain and simple. These are they that believe He is not coming to save America. He is not coming to save. Listen, listen to this. Lisa sent me something the other day that I thought I thought was just the most one of the most sickening things I ever heard a pastor say. He's not coming back to save the white church, or the Latin church, or the African church, or the Chinese church. He's coming to save the church, the body of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who believe, these are they who are justified by grace through faith, as the Apostle Paul clearly stated, as all of the apostles clearly stated. And no one who believes is excluded from that body. And everyone who is part of that body, they should be looked upon as your brother and sister in Christ. All of you here are my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one family, like Brother Stubb says, we are solid, one big family. And don't let anybody cause you to look at your brother or sister any other way, in any other way, other than your brother or sister in Christ. Don't let them try to divide and conquer us. Let them have their political churches, their black churches, the white churches, the yellow churches, the red churches. But we are going to be the church that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. We are united together, and the scripture tells us to test the spirits. Sister Meg and I talked about this the other day. We're supposed to, John tells us to test the spirits to see whether they be of God. He doesn't say test their words. He doesn't say test their theology, test their doctrine, test their creed, test their church. He doesn't say test their race. Test their income, test their political uh uh affiliations, test the spirit. Do they have the heart of Christ? Do they have the heart of the spirit? Are they led by the spirit of God? The spiritual illumination exists with them. Do they produce fruit, like Brother Kai says? Do they produce the fruit? We need to love our brethren, and we need to love them all. Not because of anything other than the fact that they trust in the same Lord that you do, and they trust in Him for their salvation and their salvation only. Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone. Nothing more, nothing less. Be provoked and be persuaded. With that, I will ask everyone here for their last word before we close. Meg, if you don't mind, I'd ask for you to pray first before we close. But in the meantime, I want to get everybody's last word. No sermons. Just your last word. Let's start with Brother Michael. Last word, Michael.
SPEAKER_04:All right. So you were hitting on some things real quick on that. Talking about the Israel of God. There is no replacement theory going on here when it comes to the Israel of God. It has always been by faith through grace. We see that in Abraham. We see that all through the remnant coming out of the nation of Israel there, considering all the apostles were Jews. Right. So there's no replacement. There has always been, since the instant when God brought Israel out of Egypt, there has always been a visible and invisible church. Right. Even with them. We saw parts of them be judged and condemned and so forth. So it has always been this way. This is how God's plan from the get-go. It's never changed. If the lamb was slain before the foundations of the world, this plan right here was also at that same time. So with that, let's be those new creatures that we're created to be and live in the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_03:Amen, brother. Appreciate the good words. Last word for tonight, brother.
SPEAKER_00:I just want to tell you, man, thank you. I had a great time. Rather edifying. I'm really blessed with tremendously. It's good to fellowship with all the ladies and gentlemen. And host, man, just let me know when you're back on, man. I love fellowshiping with you guys. That's all I've got to say, sir.
SPEAKER_03:All right, brother. Thanks a lot. We we're here most almost every night. I try not to miss more than two nights in a week. But other than that, it's like 745. But if you can make it, I love it because I love I love the way you get down with the word. I just love that.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, and my name is Jonathan Stubbs, by the way. I'm Jonathan Eubanks. That's easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard him call you Jonathan. Threw me off because I thought they were calling me. But yeah, my name is Jonathan Stubbs, man. So I live in Osmana, Georgia.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay. I'm out here in Mississippi. By Helly, Mississippi, right now. So God bless you.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. Gotcha. God bless you, my brother.
SPEAKER_03:All right. Brother Lefty. Come on with it, brother.
SPEAKER_02:Man, I this was an awesome, awesome, um, awesome night. I I like I said, me, me and Nathan, we were we were in a couple lives uh before. And this is just like like that other brother said, he it's it's just so refreshing to hear this. Um that's why I keep coming back, man, just just to learn more, grow more, and uh to know that you know I got other I got I got all these brothers and sisters in here uh to help out with that. And uh any anytime you ever need any help, just just just let me know and I'll be here and I'll be here every every time you have a live.
SPEAKER_03:I appreciate that, man. God bless you, brother. I love you, man. And and and I'll say it one more time, man. I'm I'm so blessed by your um your live last night, your uh your um testimony, and I'll be posting it tonight. So it'll be on it'll be on my profile. Uh oh, that's awesome. Awesome. So you you'll be able to see it, and if you want me to send it to you, I can do that too.
SPEAKER_02:So uh I definitely appreciate that, bro. Um again, like I said, I'll be here and here every every time you're on uh to learn.
SPEAKER_03:I look forward to it, bro. I look forward to that. Sister Lisa, what you got?
SPEAKER_08:Well, I just was thinking about as we were talking about, you know, who Israel really is and you know, about the believers. Um, I'm reminded about the whole chapter in Hebrews 11 that talks about the saints in the old testament, all of whom were saved by faith. Right because they trusted in God. There were Jew among them and Gentile. So it's um the plan all along. I I'm I'm just super um excited about tonight. I got really excited by all the you just all the truth, all the truth. Um it's very, very much lacking on this app. So when I hear it, it I get super excited. And I thank everybody who contributed. Thank you all so much. I learn so much each time I come to these. Um, in fact, I I just wait. I was so excited to see you were on tonight. So thank you again. Thank you, Jonathan. You know I love you with all my heart. Love you all.
SPEAKER_03:All right, thanks a lot, sister. Sister Candy, last word. All right, brother Jeff, man of God, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Well, first of all, I want to say uh brother other Jonathan. When I said go dogs, and then because you said you lived in Georgia, uh, I went to Georgia. That's my alma mater.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay, cool, cool, cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, in fact, I went to high school in Columbus and then I went to college, did my pre-med at uh Georgia. Uh so uh when I say how about them dogs, you know what I mean. But anyway, that that's that's just uh well you got when you meet a fellow dog lover, you gotta you, you know, you gotta you gotta do it. But anyway, my thoughts were the five solas. Okay, faith alone, or grace alone, by faith alone, through Christ alone, and scripture alone, all to the glory of God. And I want to share a piece of trivia that you may not know, that I know. I I actually ended all my correspondence when I was practicing medicine. Uh or actually I had it on my business card, Soli Deo Gloria, which means to God alone be the glory. But it's very interesting to me because Johann Sebastian Bach, that great composer who wrote all that beautiful music for the church, that's how he signed all his comp compositions. S D G. Soli Deo Gloria.
SPEAKER_03:I have his music. Now we got to look at that.
SPEAKER_01:It's true. I'm about to look at that. Yeah, I mean, and you know, I I said, you go, guy. No wonder I like your music.
SPEAKER_03:That's awesome. Um Sister Candy, go ahead.
SPEAKER_06:No siren, but two things. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Then I'm gonna go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 9. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. That whatever we that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. And with that being said, everybody, I love you. Good night. Be careful, brother Stubbs, brother. You need to do your own lives, man. Come on now. Outside of the time frame of Jonathan's, definitely your word is your word is good, brother. Keep doing what you do.
SPEAKER_03:He's blessed.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03:He's blessed. He got he's got it right. Sister Meg, last word and then close us out.
SPEAKER_07:I just wanted to let you know, brother Jonathan. I've been studying the betrothal, and I am blown away. I want to do a study on it. Was I wrong? What was I wrong? What with what?
SPEAKER_03:The betrothal.
SPEAKER_07:No, but what I I will tell you this is the father chooses the bride.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, of course.
SPEAKER_07:Of course he does. That goes with Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4. All right. It's good, it's good. Um, no, I just wanted to say good study tonight. Um, thank you all so much. I love y'all. I just get so excited and revamped up in the Lord. Makes me ready to go out here and lead people to Jesus. All right, I just want to pray real quick. Oh, there's my oaks. Sorry. I just want to pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord God, I just thank you for another wonderful evening, Lord, that you have blessed us and bestowed upon us, Heavenly Father. Lord God, I thank you for all the new brothers and sisters that you're bringing in, Heavenly Father, that you have just given us one mind. And that one mind that is in us is in Christ Jesus, Heavenly Father. And together we are unified with you, Lord God, and learning more about you and just loving you even more every step of the way. I thank you so much for the sanctification process that we have in this life, Lord, where we can become more like you, Lord God, each and every day, knowing that you have set us apart, Lord God, just for your own purpose and your own glory, Lord. And we just give you all honor and praise and thanks for that. And Lord, I thank you for gathering us together, Lord, to just edify each other and build us, build up your church, Lord God. And I just ask, Lord, that in the days ahead that you just continue to use each of us in a mighty way, Lord God, stretch us and send us, Lord God, Lord God. It is we are willing, Heavenly Father, to do whatever you ask, Lord Jesus, for your glory and your honor. And I thank you for that. In Jesus' mighty name I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_03:Amen. Love you guys, man. Be provoked, be persuaded, and come back. Please come back. I enjoyed this. It warms my heart. Big time. Definitely, definitely, definitely.
SPEAKER_01:Be provoked.
SPEAKER_02:Be persuaded.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's be persuaded. Be provoked and be persuaded.
SPEAKER_03:Persuaded. All right. You guys have a great night. Welcome. I'm glad you guys came and I look forward to tomorrow night as well. Love y'all.
SPEAKER_07:Have a good night.
SPEAKER_03:Love ya.
SPEAKER_01:Good night.
SPEAKER_03:Good night, everybody.