God’s Covenant With Israel Has Not Expired: Dr. Darryl DelHousaye

We walk through the Bible’s storyline to ask what Israel is, how Israel differs from the church, and why God’s covenant faithfulness still shapes how we think about the modern nation of Israel. We push back on political discipleship and choose a Scripture-first view rooted in Ezekiel 36, Romans 11, and God’s Hesed love. 
• why the church needs a biblical lens on geopolitics instead of cable news instincts 
• Israel’s origins in the Abrahamic covenant through Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes 
• the Davidic covenant and the promise of an eternal throne in the land 
• unconditional covenants versus the conditional Mosaic covenant 
• Hesed as God’s steadfast covenant love that explains His faithfulness 
• why the church is a “mystery” revealed in the New Testament 
• Romans 11 and the claim that God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable 
• Zechariah 12 and the promise of repentance at the second coming of Christ 
• Ezekiel 37 as regathering before regenerating, bones then breath 
• Israel’s preservation through exile, persecution, and return as a historical signpost 
• how we love Jewish people and refuse to despise what God loves while still thinking clearly about modern politics 
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Transcript

Welcome And Series Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Real Life Ministries, where we are dedicated to teaching and encouraging Christians to live free and live strong. Your host today is Ryan Rice, a Bible teacher, a pastor, entrepreneur, and a writer. Join us as we dive into various topics and how they relate to faith, values, and making a positive impact in America. Let's dive into it.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of Real Life Ministry. So glad that you've joined us. We are going to do a four-part series that's going to be thinking biblical about the geopolitical. I have written a book all about that. Think Biblical about the geopolitical, Israel, Iran, America's future. And in this series, I'm going to just unfold to you a special event that we did at North Valley, Real Life Ministry, put it together. And North Valley was gracious to host it and uh really big, a huge supporter of it. So um want to encourage you to uh get the book, pre-order the book. You can get it on Amazon at uh just put in think biblical about the geopolitical, and boom, you can get it. Uh if you've already read a copy, an advanced copy, I'd encourage you just to go ahead and uh um share it with a friend, give it with a friend, and then get your copy as well. Help me get these materials out. This today's church is facing a growing crisis of confusion. Many believers are being shaped more by cable news than and political talking points, social media than the truth of scripture. And political division is creating tensions inside churches, while fear and anger drowning out all faith and hope and love. And so that's why I wrote the book, Think Biblical about the geopolitical. The goal was simple to equip Christians, to encourage Christians to put the Bible first in every area of life, including culture, politics, all of it. Uh, Israel and America, world events, all that's going on. So um this in this podcast, you're gonna hear from keynote session, Dr. Daryl Del Hussey. This was keynote session one in our event. He wrote uh did an unbelievable job uh just as a setup to Del Hussey. He is pastor emeritus of Scotchdale Bible, longtime friend of mine. Um he is very much uh used by God for me, even being here in Phoenix, Arizona, planting the church. He is the godfather of the valley to many pastors. Uh he's a chancellor of Phoenix Seminary, former president of the seminary for over two decades. He's an author, speaker, pastor, theologian with more than 50 years of ministry experience. He's helped equip thousands of pastors and believers through biblical exposition and practical theology. So, in this keynote session, Delhussey walked through the scriptures to answer foundational questions about Israel, the church, and God's covenant of faithfulness throughout history, anchoring the discussion in Ezekiel 36, Romans 11, the covenant promises of God. He explained why Israel still matters biblically and how Christians should think carefully and faithfully about Jewish people and the modern nation of Israel. So, I mean, in this series, in this section, he's going to cover biblical origins of Israel through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 12 tribes, the differences between unconditional covenants, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, God's promises to the eternal throne, the meaning of Hesed, God's covenant, love and faithfulness, why the church is described as a mystery. I mean, this stuff is loaded. Romans 11 and the reminders of God's gifts and calling are irrevocable. He walks through Zechariah 12, Israel's future, a repentance and restoration, Israel's survival through exile, persecution, regathering, and then just lessons from history, including attempts of to sever Christianity from its Jewish roots during the Nazi era. Del Hussei hammers it. He nails it. How believers can disagree politically while refusing to despise what God loves is a mystery. This guy crushes it, does an unbelievable job. So want to encourage you to listen in and share this episode with others. Thanks so much.

Meet Dr. Daryl Del Hussey

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Well, good morning. Actually, I was uh speaking to the well, good morning. Actually, I was uh speaking to a colleagues not that long ago and they introduced me as the OG. And I thought OG means old guy, but I guess it means original gangster. Which I thought, well, what is an original gangster? And I guess everybody under 20 knows exactly what that that is. Is uh I guess this means that I'm probably the oldest pastor in the valley that's still functioning. And uh when we fall, we fall forward. So it's a privilege to be able to come. And and like I say, I'm not here to start a fight. Uh I'm here to basically as a teacher of the word of God to just walk you through the scriptures. I I've been assigned the state of theology, how the church should view Israel. And I wanted to get a little help on this to make sure I get this thing right. So I want to show some appreciation to Dr. Kyle Swanson over at Redeemer Seminary, who helped me with a lot of this research. So I'm gonna walk you through it. My desire this morning is to try to attempt to answer four questions to bring some clarity to this whole issue of the state of Israel and our Jewish friends and what is the political thing? How should we view it as a church, as Christians? And so I would like to attempt to answer four questions. One, what is Israel biblically? Two, how is Israel different from the church? Three, how has Israel been preserved for the last 2,000 years? And four, how should the church view Israel? So buckle up and we're gonna run through this, and uh then you can ask your questions so we get together and I'll let the colonel answer all the hard ones.

When Politics Rewrites Theology

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In the wake of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, as you know in your own history in 1933, the national leadership at that time decided they wanted to consolidate church life under a newly established Reich church by causing what they call a positive Christianity formulated with Aryan ideals. They wanted to divorce the Christian faith from its Jewish roots in doctrine as well as in tradition. While this movement sought to remove what they thought was a quote, subversive Jewish element, recasting the Bible in Aryan terms and portraying Jesus as a militant, radicalized Jesus, which would match the naturalistic fervor of the day. So you wonder, well, what was the church doing during the Nazi era? Uh they were reformulating their doctrine and reformulating basically, praise God, for men like Bonhoeffer who stood against that, and of course, cost him his life. Well, there's the same danger today, I fear, of redesigning our faith and rewriting the Bible storyline much after a nationalistic fervor of certain people and evangelicals. The one wise man said, quote, if a Christian has extremely strong opinions on Israel and foreign policy, it is most likely not an opinion formed on years of careful theological study of the Bible. But like I said, this morning I'm not looking for a fight. All I want to do is rightly divide the word of truth. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 15 uh be not ashamed, do not be ashamed, but rightly divide the word of God. Study to show thyself a workman who need not be ashamed of himself, rightly dividing the word of truth. That's all we want to do is what does the Bible actually say? Now, because it could take lots of hours to go through all this, I refer you to Ryan's new book, you know, which you'll be able to purchase uh at the very end. But I want to just take a really uh an overview, and this overview may give you a little bit of a headache, but we're gonna, like I say, buckle up and let me just take you through an overview of what the scriptures

Ezekiel 36 And God’s Name

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have to say. And I want to begin this with basically the most classic passage that we take base all of this on. It's in Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 36. You're gonna find Ezekiel chapter 36, 37, big battleground need not be. In verse 22, he says, Therefore, God says, Say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. But I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. Then he says, For I will take you from all the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, you will be clean and will be cleansed, and from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I'm going to give you a new heart. I'll put a new heart within you, and I'll remove that heart of stone from your flesh and give you the heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, cause you to walk in the statutes, which you will carry by observing my ordinances. Now, that's the mystery. What in the world is God talking about through Ezekiel? These words are the words of the Lord through Ezekiel, and it's about Judah, the people of Judah and their distant future. And we want to understand the biblical story of Israel. That is, what is God's plan for them? Not some political party, but what is God's plan for the people of Israel? And we want to do that because we want to see is there a difference from Israel and the church? Or as some of my friends believe, that the church has replaced Israel. And all the promises of Israel now have been symbolized and are fulfilled in us. So it won't be a literal temple. Your body is the temple. We live in the kingdom now. Of course, I look around and say, boy, if this is the kingdom. Well, anyhow. Thirdly, we want to also see how God is preserved. Has God preserved a people? And is that supernatural in any way by just observing history? And then, last of all, how we as a church should view Israel. So here's the first question: What is Israel biblically? We need to understand that first of all, Israel as a people began with a gentile. Understand that. Began with a gentile in Genesis 12. He called, uh God calls a man named Abram out of the city of Ur. That's a Gentile of the Chaldeans. That's in modern day Babylon. Along with his father and household, they were to leave and travel to Aram, that which is a modern-day northern Syria. Well, there Abraham's father died, and God gave to Abram what would be known later as the Abrahamic covenant. And in his first giving, God promised to make Abram a great nation and to give him a land, the land of Canaan, as a possession forever. Well, Abram was a flawed and sinful man. Read about his life. And yet God chose him and take note, never broke covenant with him. Now, 20 years later, in Genesis 15, God restates the same promise. Only he promises now that Abram's descendants would become many nations and changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means the father of multitude nations. Now, as we see in the New Testament, for example, in Luke 1.72 or Acts 3.25, you can write these down later. Galatians 3.16 or Romans 11, this fulfillment that through Abraham's seed, which would be Judah, David, Jesus, and through Jesus, all nations would be blessed and come to a personal relationship with God. Well, this was all fulfilled. These promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. These Gentiles in the new covenant connected here to the promise of salvation by faith alone. And who was the first one to model that a relationship with God would be by faith alone? Based on Romans, Paul's writing, Romans 4, verses 1 to 3. It was Abraham who was saved by faith. And this is what it was going to be because God knew we'd always be about works. That somehow we got to earn a relationship with God. And so somehow he's from the very beginning. It's going to be modeled by Abraham's. It's going to be salvation through faith and faith alone. But follow me here. As God then gives the covenant again in Genesis 17, and Abraham now takes on a covenant with the sign of circumcision, distinguishing him confidentially as a new ethnicity. This is when they become a different people. The founding of a new nation, fulfilling his first name, which was Abraham, which means exalted national father. And the guarantee of this was very interesting because we don't really see the guarantee till you get to the New Testament. And you have a comment in Hebrews chapter 6. And it's just listen to verses 13 to 18. Here's God making reference to those covenants, the one he made to Abraham. He said, and when God made the promises, the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you. And thus having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as an affirmation is the end of every dispute. But in the same way, God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that he might do unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, he who has fled for refuge, laying hold on the hope that is before us. In other words, God swore by himself to secure that his promises would be never, never broken. So there's the guarantee of the covenant that God makes to Abraham. It's going to be that kind of covenant. Covenant. Well, the seeds of a unique set-apart ethne, a nation founded by Abraham, Abraham, serves as the perfect forerunner of the storyline because what happens is that we have this promise that through this Abraham, all nations will be blessed. And that's fulfilled through Jesus Christ. But what about Abraham being a father of a great nation? And all of a sudden there's one nation in the rest of the Old Testament that is actually focused on one nation. It mentions Gentiles and nations, but one nation, and that's the nation of descendants, the blood descendants of Abraham, the Jews. Now, the promises of God's blessing and salvation is built into the covenant. It would be by faith. And yet, let's see how God's going to focus a unique line of promises down to

Abraham To David And The Promise

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one nation, Israel. And that's what I want to understand. What is God promising still to the people of Israel? Now, fast forward to Genesis 27, where the promises there focus on one nation and it's one nation to Israel. This promises to Israel and it's passed down through Isaac, Abraham's son, Isaac. But I Abraham had an older, Isaac had an older uh brother who was Ishmael. But God purposely skips Ishmael and gives that promise of of land and a kingdom to Isaac. Now, what do we know about Isaac? He is flawed as well and sinful, and yet God chooses him and never breaks covenant with him. Now, following this, we go to Genesis 28. And here Abram promises, focuses on one nation. And this these promises are passed to Jacob, who God promises will inherit the land. Jacob will inherit the land promised to Abraham, but it's going to come through his twelve sons. And his 12 sons will become the 12 what? 12 tribes of Israel. Now God passed over the older son in that case as well. And remember his name was Esau. But God chooses the line of Jacob, specifically the line of Jacob, one nation. And Jacob, he was flawed, sinful, and yet God chose him and never broke covenant with him. So for Abraham, many nations, but for Abram, it was a promise to a line of people that went through Isaac and then Jacob and then his twelve sons, singularly focused on one nation. This has a lot to do with how do we view this one nation today, the nation of Israel. Now, from Jacob and through his sons, God establishes a nation, a distinct ethnic identity that really began with the circumcision and the promise confirmed as a sign of circumcision through uh to Abraham. Now, what about these people? Well, we find that they sojourn through Egypt, they're in slavery in Egypt, and then they go through the Exodus, and then the wilderness wanderings, and then the rebellion against God, and yet with all of that, God brings them safely to the promised land, Canaan, through the conquest of Joshua. So God still keeps the covenant, and even though they were rebellious and unbelieving, God still was faithful to his covenant because he swore to covenant to himself, not to them. He established them and protected them even through the rebellious times of the book of Judges. If you ever read the book of Judges, it's a real bore because it is all about they screwed up and then God raised somebody and delivered it. And then they screwed up again and screwed up. They just and you kind of wonder, God, when are you going to give up on these people? And yet God still has protects them as a national entity established in their homeland. They're never booted out. Then they then ask God for a king. Now, Israel as a nation, why do they want a king? Because everybody else has got a king. So Israel was flawed, Israel was sinfully wicked as a nation, but God chose them anyway and never broke what? Never broke covenant with them. They chose Saul as king, which ended up being a real disaster. But God chose whom? He chose David because David was a man after God's own heart. Now, catch this. Through David, God establishes the Davidic covenant. You find this in 2 Samuel chapter 7. David's bummed out because he wants he has a big, beautiful palace. He wants to build a temple, a house for God. And yet God says, through Nathan, the prophet, I mean, I love that kind of pastor, speaks right to the king. Not gonna happen. You're a man of blood, a warrior, but it's gonna be your son. And who was David's son who built the temple? Solomon. So David's kind of moping about that. But God says, Stop your picking mofin, because I'm gonna make a covenant to you. And he gives what's called the Davidic covenant that he promises. As the land was promised to Isaac and Jacob and the 12 sons, this land now is going to be added a royal house, a throne forever. And that the Davidic throne, somebody from the line of David would sit on this throne in that land forever. And the word forever in the original Hebrew means forever. Now there's a promised descendant that's in this Davidic covenant, a promised descendant who would redeem this rebellious nation. Now, David, read his life. Remember for Christmas, he got some binoculars, watched a gal take a bath on top. Didn't do well, put a contract on her husband, had him killed. David is flawed and he's sinful, and yet God chose him and never broke what? Never broke covenant with him. Now we know through a look at the life of Jesus that Jesus fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy regarding this descendant who would be the Messiah, the promised descendant of David, who would, and what was the promise? Reign forever on the throne in the land. Now we need to ask at this point if any, does a nation become irredeemable or or does it Unilateral covenant ever become breakable by God? Because that's really the issue. Is God want to say, forget it, Israel? I want nothing to do with you. I'm not going to go with the church. Is that possible? Well, it got close once. Moses argued in Exodus 32 at the golden calf thing. Remember when Moses led the people out of slavery, out of Egypt? You got to remember the people didn't know anything about God, other than the fact that he could send 10 plagues and he could split the sea. Other than that, they've been worshiping all kinds of other gods. So they don't have a clue who was this God who delivered us. So Moses goes up Mount Sinai, Sinai, Sinai, and he's going to get some instructions called the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. He's up there for 40 days. The people think he's dead. So they bring out the old golden calf and they have a big party. Moses comes down and he's ticked. Talking about breaking the Ten Commandments, he busts both tablets right there. Now he's got to go back up. Now, what's interesting about this incident is in his conversation with God in Exodus 32, uh, God threatened to destroy Israel. I've had enough of these people, and God's going to destroy Israel. And who defends Israel? And talks, talks God out of it. God knew what he was going to do. He wanted Moses to understand. And basically, Moses argues that God, you destroy your people who you made a covenant with, a promise, and people knew about it. He said, You would be profane by all the nations. So at what point would God ever alter or revoke his promises to a rebellious nation when it all would reflect on him breaking his covenant to his people? You see, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve sons, David, the nation were all deeply flawed. And yet God chose them and never what? Broke covenant. Doesn't it stand the reason that a holy God would revoke his promises and start all over again? If I was God, you'd be in trouble, but we would not have this lecture. Because it would be over for them. You hurt me, I'll hurt you. I learned that in junior high, right? And it's still sadment tour. Well, they were undeserving. Come on, they're undeserving. They rejected most of their own prophets, and later they would reject their own Messiah. They don't deserve God to keep his covenant. But God swore his covenant to whom? To them or to himself. That's the issue. We need to see why would God set a unilateral, indissolvable covenant with this ethne?

Unconditional Covenants And Hesed Love

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These covenants were different because there was another covenant made that God made with Israel. It was called the Mosaic covenant. But where the Abrahamic covenant and all the other covenants were unconditional because God swore to himself, the Mosaic covenant was always conditional. Conditioned on simply one thing. Bless you if you honor and obey me. And the whole Old Testament is all about how the people kept breaking and their commitment to follow God. And God did not always prosper Israel, but they still were preserved, but not necessarily blessed. Now there's a Hebrew word. Why would God do this? There's a Hebrew word, it's a major Hebrew word for love in the Old Testament, God's love, it's the word Hesed. And Hesed is translated everlasting love or covenant love. It is what's behind all the covenants God made to the people of Israel. And the basis to these covenants in Deuteronomy 7.9, he says, based on my love, I make this covenant. To David in 2 Samuel 7:15, when he gives the divinity covenant, it's because of my chesed, my love, I do this. And you go to Jeremiah 31, says again, literally, I have loved you with an everlasting love, chesed, and connects all the covenants to. That's why God keeps his side of his covenant, because of not their love, their faithfulness, his chesed, his everlasting love, despite the partial hardening of the whole nation against God, based on Romans, what Paul says would happen in Romans 11:25. There would be a partial hardening, and we see it today. Now, even as God is divorcing Israel, that at that time it was the northern 10 tribes in Hosea 2. God, even though he's divorcing them, disciplining them, this is he promises because of his Hesed, he would redeem them in the future, restore them and catch it, reunite them with the house of Judah. Now remember you had Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons. Basically, he has a king. David becomes king of Judah. Dave does great. Solomon does. So he does okay. But then Rehoboam, his kid, wants to be richer and famous than his dad. He starts a civil war by increasing taxes. Civil war, Israel split. Ten tribes go north, two tribes south. Ten tribes north called Ephraim or Israel, and the two tribes down south, uh, Benjamin and Judah was called Judah. And that was the David's line. So there was a split, but God promises He's going to bring them together. Matter of fact, if later, if you ever study Ezekiel 37, you'll see that we'll talk about two sticks. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he says, now prophesy about the two sticks, because the two sticks are going to be put back together. What do you think he's talking about? What are the two sticks? The northern kingdom, southern kingdom will be reunited, and it's part of God's promise that he made to himself. And in Micah chapter 7, verse 2 tells us that those ten tribes, after a while, God says, okay, that's it. He hauls them off through Assyria and he gathers them, just like it was prophesied in Ezekiel 36 that God, I'm going to scatter you to all the nations. So the first scattering were these ten tribes up north that never had a godly king. Judah had a few godly kings, but none of the kings of Israel, the northern ten tribes, ever had one good king. So God brings Assyria, Sennacherib, and takes them takes them away. And there we got just like it was prophesied that they would be scattered in Ezekiel 36. Well, all of this is because what we see in Ezekiel 36, we cannot make a case that Israel was deserving of God's love. We're kind of thinking well, God's going to still be because God, because they're they're worthy. No, you can't, but you can't make an argument they deserve what God's blessed them and how God's preserved them. But in the same way, we cannot make a case we're deserving of God's new covenant of grace. Anyone want to say you deserved your salvation? No, God's in the business of dealing with undeserving people called human beings. So if you're going to do your own study, look at Ezekiel 36, first 15 verses. You're going to find God shows his displeasure with Judah. This is now the southern tribe, the two. Israel's the northern ten tribes have already been hauled off into captivity by Assyria. But Judah, these bottom two, that's where the Davidic covenant of David rests. And they're still okay. Well, at least for about 130 years. But then we see the purpose of God, and this is basically a summary of Ezekiel 36, verses 16 to 32. And I quote, God has Ezekiel proclaimed, quote, It's not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act. I scattered you to the nations in judgment, and wherever you went, you profaned my holy name. Because all the nations were saying, Aren't these God's people? Yet they sin. They didn't represent God very well wherever they went. Now here's the crux. He goes on to say, quote, but I had concern for my holy name, which you profane among the nations. Therefore, I will take you from the nations, return you to your land, I will sprinkle water on you and make you clean, and then I will give you a new heart, a new spirit, for the sake of my holy name, I will do this. This has nothing to do with whether or not Israel was being deserving. It has everything to do with God made a promise to himself to preserve his holy name. So he says he's going to act, not for their sake, but for his sake. Why is he going to act? Because they've profaned his name around the world, but God's going to do something with them that's going to cause the world to recognize that God has glory and God is holy.

Israel And The Church In Romans 11

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So now this brings us to the second question, which is shorter than the first question. So relax. How is Israel different from the church? Because there are those who would have us believe the church has replaced Israel. It's called displacement theology. Well, Paul makes an argument in Romans 11. Romans 11. God is not done with Israel. And he calls the church the mystery of the church. Now, biblically, the word mystery speaks of revelation that has not been revealed yet. That's what makes it a mystery. And so it was not revealed in the Old Testament, only in the New Testament. So this new revelation cannot be allowing the church in any way to exist before the inauguration of the new covenant at the first coming of Christ. So the church is never mentioned or referred to in the Old Testament because it's a mystery, it was revealed when Jesus Christ came and instituted the new covenant, Jeremiah 31, the new covenant to the rest of these nations, to be Gentiles. So, my question: so does this new covenant to the church, to us, nullify the promises God has made to Israel? That's a big question. Well, remember, just being part of an ethne, according to Paul, did not make you a follower of God. Read Romans chapter 2, verse 28 and 29. And that's where Paul says, just because you're Jewish, you have Jewish blood, doesn't make you part of the Abrahamic covenant. He says, Because not only are you to be circumcised, that's the physical part, that's the ethne part, but you need to be circumcised in your what? In your heart. So not all Jews are part of the Abrahamic covenant, but those who do or will follow God are part of it. Only those Jews who sought God were part of the covenant. That's with Romans chapter 9, the first six verses is all about. Those who would still honor God. Now, so Israel is a covenant people as a nation established in Abram, Isaac, Jacob, 12 sons, in David, and we saw them fail in practice in the Mosaic covenant. They failed and failed again, and they suffered because they suffered the basically the purging, the discipline, the lack of blessing from God, because Mosaic covenant was conditional on their following God, but it was the only conditional covenant. The Abrahamic covenant and the covenants made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were never conditional. They were covenants God made to Himself. But many of the covenant promises made to Israel in the Old Testament have yet been fulfilled. Now, the ones that have been fulfilled, catch this. They have been fulfilled literally, not symbolically, literally. So if there's going to be the rest of the prophetic promises to Israel, uh, where are we going to say? But they're going to all be fulfilled symbolically, not literally. Does that make sense to anybody? If all the past ones were literally fulfilled, what would you suspect the ones that are still going to be fulfilled in the future to be what? Symbolic or literal? Literal. That's where we land. So Romans 11 tells us that those gifts, those promises, the calling of God, and he apologize this word, irrevocable. What do you think irrevocable means? Irrevocable. So how is this different from the church? The church. We are the bride of Christ. Catch this. We're heirs of the kingdom. This is the kingdom the Father's given to the Son. Have you ever read our Daniel chapter 7? Daniel basically, it wasn't a bad pizza. He has this vision and he sees an ancient days sitting on the throne. Context is there's going to be judgment. It's a courtroom. And God's about to bring judgment, and all of a sudden, one like the Son of Man appears. By the way, the most favorite description Jesus gave of himself was what? The Son of Man. So it says, the Son of Man comes before the ancient of days. I would be wetting my tunic myself, but he comes right up to the ancient of days. And it says in the ancient of days gives him a dominion, a kingdom, fore and ever and ever and ever. So the son of man receives. That's why when Jesus was asked that question, that kind of messes with some people's brains theologically. When they said, Jesus, when are you going to return? Remember, Jesus says, you know, the angels don't know, and even the son of man doesn't know. How can he's God? Well, that's the mystery that he was all man, all God on this earth. But if the father's giving this the gift of the kingdom to the son, then a gift is a gift, and the father's going to give us a gift. Well, why didn't Jesus return? I don't know about you, but I've laid awake at night thinking, it's been almost 2,000 years, Jesus. When are you gonna show up? I mean, Paul made it sound like Peter made it sound like it's gonna be the first century. But if Jesus did, the Father would have given him the kingdom when Jesus returns to this earth to plant the kingdom. Well, in the first century, it's been a pretty small kingdom and be pretty Jewish. So why? You wonder how come it's been almost 2,000 years? God the Father is filling up the gift with all nations from every tongue, every nation, just like he promised in Daniel 7. And when the kingdom is full and the Father has fulfilled it with those who will adore the Son, then He gives the gift to the Son. Jesus then returns to this earth to plant the kingdom on this earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So at the return of Jesus, and we'll talk a little bit later about Zechariah 12, not much later, real short. I'm coming towards the end. God in Zechariah 12, two big chapters.

The Second Coming And National Repentance

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Read them yourself. Zechariah 12, Zechariah 14. Because Zechariah 14 talks about when Jesus returns, his feet, his feet will actually land on the Mount of Olives. He lands. Boom! And chapter 12 of Zechariah says that when he returns, most remarkable thing happens. God will pour out to the house of David and all the house of Israel a spirit of grace and mercy and repentance. They will look upon the Messiah. And it says they will mourn the one whom they've pierced, and they'll enter into the kingdom in which God has promised them. That's what Ezekiel 36 is all about. When Paul says, and all Israel shall be saved in Romans 12, you say, when does that happen? That happens when Jesus returns the second time. Because when he returns, the nation of Israel that's alive, the people of Israel that's alive at that time, they will recognize God because he will pour out grace and mercy. He will remove that blindness. He was caused the Jews, the nation of Israel, to recognize this was the Messiah. I had a good friend, a rabbi, a friend of mine, and we decided that the only thing we disagreed on is had Jesus come or not come yet. And we became very, very close. But that was the only difference we had. He said, though, I believe that Messiah is still coming. I said, Oh no, he came, but he's coming again. So let's talk about his coming again part, because that part we really agree on. And both agreed, that's when God and the promise of Zechariah 12, he will pour the Spirit upon the people that they will repent and they'll recognize who their Savior is. And so Revelation chapter 20, verse 6 tells us the church's role in the kingdom. Well, what are we at the church going to do? Because Jesus comes and Israel believes, and then they enter into the kingdom, the promised kingdom for a thousand years. So I'm saying, is it literally a thousand years? Oh, break my back. In Revelation 20, it's like seven times. He mentions a thousand years, you'll reign a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years. That's not symbolic. And that is the millennial, we call the millennium, the millennial kingdom. Christ returns because the Father gives him the kingdom. Christ brings it to the third for a thousand years. Israel, now that they're saved, they're still in physical bodies. They enter into the kingdom and physical bodies. But not all the Gentiles, the nations are killed in the tribulation time. Those who survive, because remember the 144,000 in Revelation 7, they go out and they basically bring people to Christ. And they do so from every nation, every tongue. Well, many of those people are going to live through the trip and they will go into the kingdom. Say what you mean there's gonna be people and physical bodies in the kingdom? Absolutely. Because Isaiah 65 says that if a kid dies at the age of 100, they're gonna go, wow, he died so young. You go, what? There's longevity of life, there's babies born. According to Jesus, when we're when we get our glorified bodies, that's a divine. We're not gonna be able to have babies, all right? And for you ladies, you're probably gonna go, I'm glad I'm not Mormon. So the point being is that this is that we are gonna have glorified bodies at the rapture. When Christ returns, we get glorified bodies. Well, then who's left in physical bodies? And when Jesus says in Revelation 19 that when he returns, he will rule with a rod and iron. Have you wondered why would he have to rule with a rod of iron if all of us are already glorified bodies and have the mind of Christ? It's because Israel, believing Israel at his coming, entered into the kingdom, and all those who survived the tribulation enter into the kingdom. Because remember Revelation? It says at the end of the thousand years, there's a what? There's a revolt. Jesus is on the throne, and then Satan gathers these people and revolt against Jesus. Well, who are these people? These are the grandsons, great-grandsons, and great-great-grandsons of the people who entered into the kingdom a thousand years before. And so it all fits. It all fits. So what about the church? We're going to be in administration, we're going to be executing in our glorified bodies, ruling with Christ. Matter of fact, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6 this blows my mind that we're going to reign over angels. We're going to reign over nations. What nations? The nations in that kingdom. And what angels? I don't know, but angels, they're going to be assisting us in reigning with Christ, co-heirs with Christ. We will be reigning with Christ. And throughout the scripture, look at Revelation 5, 9 and 10. God has brought the church together to reign, to reign with Christ. That's what rewards are all about. Now, Girl, you're getting a little hot. How about the third question? What time is it? Oh, we're cooking.

Israel’s Survival And A Modern Return

SPEAKER_02 41:38

How has Israel been preserved? Now, here's the question. Just look at history. Do you see any sign of supernatural preservation of a people? Many nations have risen and fallen, and nowhere is there to be found, most of them. Have you ever had lunch recently with a Babylonian? Do you have lunch this afternoon with an Assyrian? How about a Hittite, an Amorite, a Moabite, a Termite? I mean, the fact being is fact, all these great nations and world empires, and they're gone. The people, the ethne, gone. And yet, why has Israel persisted if God is done with them? For example, in AD 70, Tithes Fast Passion set sage on Israel, Jerusalem to destroy it, scattering the Jews to the wind, just as Ezekiel 36 predicted 600 years before. Where they went, they were still identified, catch it, as Jews. Their ethnic national identity, they could not absorb and be absorbed into another culture. They continue to be defining them as Jews. And even though they attempted to be absorbed in other cultures, if God was finished, why were they preserved as a people? I have good friends who are Jews, not Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Moabites, or any kind of aite. The Jewish homeland of Israel was purged of all Jews in AD 125, after the temple destruction in AD 70. Many Jews remained in the land, but after the Bar Kakhbah revolt against Rome in 125 A.D., Emperor Hadrian expelled all Jews from the land. And then catch this. Then it was Hadrian who renamed the land Israel, Syria Palestina, after its arch enemies of the Jews, the Philistines. And it was never called Palestine before that time. But now it's known as Palestine. As Christianity grew and became the Roman state religion in the fourth century under Constantine, Christian theology morphed into a proto Christian nationalism, and Jewish people were heavily persecuted by Emperor Justinian I. Civil rights were removed. They couldn't own property nor hold public office. During the crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries, mass population of Jewish settlers in the Rhineland of Europe were exterminated by crusading mobs raising money to conquer the Holy Land. During the reigns of the pedigent kings of England in the 12th century, Jews were made to wear identifying badges. Their property was confiscated, their money repossed by the crown. They were forced to live in closed communities all before being expelled from England. Then in 1306, Philip IV of France expelled all ethnic Jews, practicing or not, and seized their assets for the Christian king. In 1348 to 1351, the Jews were blamed for guess what? The Black Plague. That resulted in the destruction of hundreds of Jewish communities and thousands executed, forcing mass migrations of Jews to Poland. In 1516, the city of Venice created the first ghetto where Jews were forced to live in squalor and disease and were locked in every evening. Now, with a large population of Jews in Poland, in 1649, the massacres began, seeing tens of thousands of Jews being put to death by the Kozak uprising, angry that this foreign ethnicity of Jews was in their land. In the late 18th century, Russians forced Jews to live in the quote pale of settlement, which was an encouragement to what they called pogroms. Pogrounds were state-sponsored riots against the Jews to steal, rape, and murder the population. The Dreyfus Affair in the late 19th century in France, my homeland, saw a case of a military espionage blamed for a loyal decorated, uh a loyal decorated French officer simply because he had Jewishness in his ethnicity. He was convicted wrongly of treason, sentenced to a remote island prison. The real criminal was a French national who went broke gambling, sold secrets to Germany, but it didn't fit the national hatred for Jews. Finally, the Holocaust, the horrific behavior against Jews in the 20th century by the Nazi regime. The Nuenberg laws first stripped the Jews of German citizenship and then outlawed intermarriage. The yellow star of David isolated and identified them as Jews, no matter how German they tried to be, and then systematically murdered them in extermination camps. You know the story. So here's my question How do you explain the survival of an ethnic identity that has been despised by just about every nation over the past 1900 years? Reason reason with me here. Do you see any supernatural evidence of something going on? In the late 19th and early 20th century, there's a man named Theodore Herzl. He was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist who was following the Dreyfus affair in Paris. Well he watched as no matter how French this man was, because of his Jewish heritage, he wasn't truly French, and his service to the nation mattered nothing. The only solution Herzl saw the need for a geopolitical state for the Jews to possess where they could live and protect themselves. And through the passage of the Belford Declaration, at the end of World War I made Palestine a British protectorate, which would be the future home of a secular state of the Jewish state. Now remember, this was driven ethically, not religiously. Here's the point God predicted Israel would return. And so 1948, 67, 94, 2019, and onwards, other nations have joined in to establish Israel's right to their homeland. Now God often uses the means of ungodly nations to fulfill his will. For example, who brought Israel back after the Babylonian Empire back into their own land to rebuild their temple? It's Persia, a pagan kingdom. Cyrus, a pagan king. So this brings us to

Loving What God Loves Without Naivety

SPEAKER_02 48:16

the final question. You go, oh, thank you, God. How should the church view Israel? It is only by divine fiat that nations so despised by a nation, so despised by nations, could survive 1900 years of persecution as a people, not ever being absorbed by a culture. The point is not that they deserved it or didn't deserve this persecution. The fact is that they survived as a people. Israel is still under the Mosaic covenant in its unfaithfulness to God. That's why they are not being blessed by God because it's Zionism. Zionism is what drives the nation of Israel today. Their protection desire to be a people ethically, but not religiously. They're still under the Mosaic conditional covenant. So the guarantee of their security and blessing of God is not guaranteed based on the Mosaic covenant. Yet their persistence, you see, God's Hasid, that God's still preserving them. Sometimes it appears almost supernaturally. But I want you to see something one more time. Here in Ezekiel 36, verse 24 says, I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. God says, I will do this, and he can use any means he wants. But now look at verse 25, and here's my point. He says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. Question. Has this happened? Say no. No. Did this happen in 1948? No. They were regathered, but there was no spiritual aspect to it at all. Then look at verse 26. He says, I will give you a new heart, a new spirit, I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone, that hardness, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Jeremiah 31 says, At that time I will place my law within your heart, and you will follow my statutes. Now look at verses 27, 28. And I will put my spirit within you, cause you to be careful to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your forefathers, so you will be my people, and I'll be your God. Has that happened? No. No. Now, if you look, and again, I gotta go quickly here. Ezekiel 37. Remember the valley of the bones? Just read it for yourself. Ezekiel 37, something very interesting if you read it carefully. God says, Ezekiel, prophesy over these bones. He says, Give them flesh and sinews and muscle and skin. And so Ezekiel prophesies over them. And all of a sudden they're given these dry bones or given sinews and flesh and muscles and skin. But very clear it says, and no breath. It's not till later Ezekiel prophesies again, then later God gives his breath. In other words, God regathers before he regenerates. In other words, I believe today what we're seeing is a regathering. And it began in 1948. And God is bringing Jews from all these other nations, and they are coming to their homeland. God is doing a regathering, but he has not regenerated them. In some sense, when is that going to happen? Zechariah 12, 10. When Jesus Christ returns, he will give and pour out a spirit of mercy, repentance, and that's when all Israel will be saved, but not till the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that's the fulfillment of God's promise to David. Because in the kingdom, who'll be reigning? A descendant of David. And who is that descendant that will be reigning on that kingdom? That then will move into new heavens, new earth. Revelation 21, 22. That's Jesus. So how do we view uh the Jews today? The modern state of Israel is a mission field. Paul makes it clear that when a Jew comes Christ now in this age, they're part of the church. Paul says, neither Jew nor Gentile, or one body, the church. But when Jesus returns, the church has been raptured, either pre, post, mid, partial, whatever view you want to take. All right. But we now receive our glorified body. We're going to reign with Christ. Whole different story. How do we view the nation of Israel with the hope of redemption when Jesus returns? To replace Israel with the church would be to violate God's Hasid to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. So it comes down to this, and I bring this to a close. In Romans 11 28, here's what Paul says. From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. The more they reject, the more Gentiles come to Christ. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of their fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. So we recognize that the modern state of Israel is dead in their sins under the Mosaic Code, not under the blessing of God. Therefore, it is led by men who are not honoring God, and we don't have to agree with all their behavior. We do not have to agree with everything they do. Get that. But we still love them because of their place in God's plan of future promise restoration. I close with this statement. We cannot despise what God has chosen to love. We cannot despise the Hesed covenant God's love for these people. And therefore, we're between two verses. Between a verse of God's that is marvelously regathering them together in a supernatural way, preserving them 2,000 years in the most supernatural way, gathering them together, but right now they're basically bones with maybe skin, sinews, and muscle, but no breath. And they will not receive that breath and come alive and honor and be the people God created them to be, his chosen people, until Jesus Christ, their Messiah, returns. They will then prophesy through Ezekiel, receive the breath. And God, when Christ comes, he'll pour out that that uh removal of their hardness of heart. And so we don't hate what God loves. We can't despise or persecute. So how do we feel about our Jewish friends and Israel? We pray for them. Pray for Jerusalem. Do not despise what God loves, not for that they deserve it, but because our love for their father. And therefore we honor the Father by loving them, praying for them, and doing everything we can to bring them to Christ. God bless you. I hope this was helpful. Thank you.

Share The Message And Join Us

SPEAKER_00 55:06

All right. I hope that you've enjoyed some of what you listened to right there. Del Hussey did a fantastic job. Um man. So make sure that you share this with a friend. Let somebody know about it. Do what you can to get the word out. God's truth is brings freedom. It brings health and healing in our churches, and Christians need to be governed by God's word and the authority thereof it. So I love what Del Huse said at the very end of the series. You're going to hear, I asked him, what's the final word that you would just share with everybody? Because you know, so many people are divided, and he said, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. So there's a lot of hate going on in the world right now. But fill it with God's truth and God's love. So good. Hey, listen, friends, I wanted to tell you, I am taking a trip to Israel and got a lot of folks joining me. Um I know there's a lot of tensions that are going on over there, and you see that in the news. But if Homeland Security says you can go, we're gonna go. And so we've got a trip planned this fall. You can visit and find out all the details at reallifeministry.us. It's an unbelievable trip, trip of a lifetime. There's nothing like it. It's like the gospel, the fourth, the the fifth gospel. You got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And this is like the the good news unfolded of Jesus through the Holy Land tour. So I want to encourage you to join me. My wife and I are gonna be there. We've got a lot of folks going with us, and um Homeland Security says we're gonna we're able to get it's we're in. And so you can sign up. And if anything happens and Homeland Security says, No, it can't go, then we won't go, and you'll get a full refund. So um get signed up. Spots are limited, and when they're filled, they're filled. And so I would love to have you come and join us and experience just an unbelievable uh opportunity. I'm gonna be teaching uh in the sites as well. We'll stay in some of the best hotels and places that you could possibly stay in in Israel. We're going with signature tours. They've been doing tours over there for decades and decades. Some of the greatest and the best uh guides that we'll be with. I'll be teaching as well the prophetic implications of all the sites and uh seeing where what God has done in the past and not only the past, but in the future as well. So hope that you join us and uh look forward to being with you in Israel. That'd be so cool. So check out more information at reallifeministry.us and you can contact uh signature tours and talk to them directly if you'd like. And love to see you there, Leslie and I both. So, anyway, as always, live free and live strong.

SPEAKER_01 58:05

Thank you for listening to Real Life Ministries. If you found any of what you heard today helpful, please share it with others who may benefit. And if you would like to support the content that we put out, please consider making a donation at reallifeministries.us. While you're there, check out some of our episodes. And together, let's continue to educate and encourage Christians to live free and live strong.