Who Is Your Father?

(gentle music) ♪ I can't wait for eternity ♪ ♪ Join the song they're already singing ♪ ♪ Oh, holy are you Lord ♪ ♪ Just bow down before your throne ♪ ♪ See your face I cry out because you're home ♪ ♪ Holy, holy are you Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, King of King ♪ ♪ Jesus, man just in ♪ ♪ I can't wait for eternity ♪ ♪ Join the song they're already singing ♪ ♪ Holy, holy are you Lord ♪ ♪ Just bow down before your throne ♪ ♪ See your face I cry out because you're home ♪ ♪ Holy, holy are you Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, King of kings ♪ ♪ We stand in all of you Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, man just in ♪ ♪ We say the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, King of kings ♪ ♪ We say the Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, man just in ♪ ♪ Standing we go to have her well done ♪ ♪ You claim me forever that you're the one who's faithful ♪ ♪ Faithful, faithful are you Lord ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ God, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪

♪ You're another name, Jesus ♪ ♪ He's the King ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ He's the Lord and the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ God, Jesus ♪ ♪ He's the Lord ♪ ♪ We're the, we're the Lord ♪ ♪ Another glimpse of glory ♪ ♪ We sing once more ♪ ♪ We're the, we're the Lord ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ Forever help me sing ♪ ♪ Word, word, worthy Lord ♪ ♪ With Himself glory ♪ ♪ We sing once more ♪ ♪ So worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ Word is Lord ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ ♪ And ever and ever ♪ ♪ You worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ For no shame, worthy Lord ♪ ♪ Let Himself glory ♪ ♪ We sing once more ♪ ♪ Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ ♪ Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord ♪ Jesus, the people of Jesus Majesty, there's nothing left

Jesus, the people of Jesus Jesus, the people of Jesus Majesty Oh, oh, oh, oh You're worthy Lord So worthy, Jesus, you're worthy Lord Hallelujah Oh, hallelujah Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Worthy is the land Worthy is the land You are holy It's not holy Are you Lord God All mighty Worthy is the land Worthy is the land You are holy Holy Are you Lord God All mighty Worthy is the land Worthy is the land Holy is the land Worthy Worthy is the land Oh, my God, He's righteous Worthy is the land Worthy is the land

Jesus is the land Jesus is the land Holy This morning we're going to John John the gospel, and I want to begin in chapter 8 verse 37 And since you're in chapter 8 beginning with verse 37 We have older people trying to find it on their phones I'm not looking in any particular direction, but Okay, everybody join me please I know that you are Abraham's descendants But you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you I speak what I have seen with my father And you do what you have seen with your father They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children You would do the works of Abraham But now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth Which I heard from God Abraham did not do this You do the deeds of your father Then they said to him, we were not born a fornication We have one father, God Jesus said to them, if God were your children but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Amen. You can be seated.

Did you notice how many times he referred to a father, my father, your father, children? This is a family affair Jesus is talking about. Now last week, I said something at the end of the message that made some people wince. I can see that. It was when I said that God, if you don't know Christ sees you as his enemy, and you are disgusting to God. And people went, "Pastor, I know you did." Then I said, "You are the seed of Satan." And the looks God even worse, seed of Satan. Because again, we've been told all of our lives, God loves you just the way you are. And we forget that in our preaching, we know that if you don't accept Christ, God is going to throw unbelievers into the lake of fire. It's as simple as that. So when I read here from the words in the mouth of Jesus about your father, the devil, and my father, it just automatically draws me back to Genesis chapter 3. We were there last week, and I told you that everything kind of stems from this passage right here where man and woman, Adam and Eve, fail into sin because of disobedience. And now the Lord is addressing Satan and he says, "I will put enmity or hatred between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed." Notice, your seed is not capitalized. It's a small s. Her seed is capitalized because he's talking about Jesus Christ. Your seed, her seed. We're talking about two strains. When he uses the word seed, he means offspring, children, descendants. So God Himself said to Satan, I'm going to put hatred between you and your children for her seed or her children because she's going to bring the Messiah into the world and do it through a nation called Israel. Now that hasn't developed yet, but that's what He's saying. They're going to hate each other. Brothers and sisters, the world hates righteousness. When you talk about the descendants of Satan, you're talking about the world and Paul uses that term quite a bit in John 15. If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hates you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own yet because you were not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. So there is a spiritual animosity between the because it was through a woman that our Lord came into this world. There is such vitriol between the two. Well, let me show you what it looks like. Look at the world. Look at the intolerance that the world has, especially today, for holiness, morality, for everything that has the odor of righteousness about it.

It's offensive to the world. The church disgusts, I mean the true church, disgusts the world, they want nothing to do with it. And John, the very verse you will read this week, says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is light. God is truth. God is verity, purity, and there's not one sintilla of darkness or a deceit about the God that has called us to serve him." And as you saw on the screen this morning, Karen is teaching a class on holiness, and I've been preaching on holiness, and God calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And that's the life and the light we're supposed to walk in. But you see, those lines, that line, the seed, the offspring, the descendants of Satan, as I've said, always opposes and despises the seed of the woman. And since that very day, Satan has been trying to integrate his ideas, his beliefs, into the thinking of those who belong to the woman. It's an unending thing. He has been trying to infiltrate the ranks of the godly, to get into the church, to draw people away from the purity and the power and the truth of a holy god. He's making massive strides today, as so many churches have turned away from biblical truth and have turned around to try to please people and build up the egos of people. But this is the way God puts it. It's not a difficult thing. This is not complicated at all. There is light, and there is dark, and nothing in between. You're either in the light or you're in the dark, but you're not sometimes one or the other. There's holy and unholy, and there is no in between. You're either washed in the blood and set apart for Christ or you're lost in your sins. There is no in between. Let me say it again, you're either saved or you're lost. You're not somewhat saved and you can't be somewhat lost. You are either in Christ or you are out of Christ. That's the Bible. Paul writes and says, you cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and of the cup of devils. You can't mix and ningle. You can't be a believer sometimes, like on the weekend and just another person during the week. You serve the Lord with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. He is your life. You cannot drink of two cups at the table. Jesus even said, two masters. You can't serve two masters emphatically. He said, you will either love this one and hate this one or you will love this one and hate this one. There's no in between. You can't serve but one master. Jesus talked about two general resurrections. There's a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust. There's a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the unrighteous. You will be in one of those as will I.

Everybody hearing me today and every human being that has ever lived or ever will is the one that delineates the righteous and the evil. It's not man. The Lord gives the definition. Jesus even speaks of two eternal destinations, heaven or hell. It's one or the other. It's either the city of God in the presence of Jesus for eternity or it's the lake of fire with the devil and his angels and every other unbeliever for eternity. It's the glory of the light of God forever or it's the deep darkness of fire forever. One or the other. Jesus speaks of two final judgments. Praise God. One of those judgments is at the judgment seat of Christ, the bema they call it. That's when all the believers, all the saints will be in heaven and the Lord will pass out rewards. I plan to be there and I plan to be there because he already took that other judgment. That judgment of the unrighteous, that judgment, I will never have to go to what they call the white throne judgment. Why? Because he took it for me. I need to take just a minute right here in front of you and say thank you Jesus for taking my sins, my condemnation, my damn nation. Thank you Jesus for taking my sickness and my disease and my foolishness and my failures. And you took him in your body and the wrath of God the Father came upon you and it will never come upon me because you already paid the price. And now the judgment that I face is a judgment when I stand before Christ and hear him say well done good and faithful servant. But there's another judgment. It is called the white throne judgment. It's when every unbeliever, every person that rejected the offer of salvation through grace, every person that chose to live his own life and go his own way. All that said the Bible is not for today and church is not for me and I'm not that bad to start with. You'll be in that line. You'll stand before Holy God and the Bible says he will open books and a book. He will open books that have recorded everything you've ever done, every word you've ever said. Folks you don't just say things they don't just evaporate. You don't just do things. God notices everything. For the Christian when we do the wrong thing we tell him about it we confess it and he forgives us of our sins. But I want those to know who don't know Christ who think this is a joke who think this is just old time religion being forced down people's throats. I want you to know that one day you will stand and look into the eyes of him that offered you the greatest gift that a human being could have ever had. You will look over and see his son Jesus Christ with nail prints in his hand and scars on his forehead where they placed a crown of thorns and you will see that that man, that man called Jesus who is God, died for you and offered you

eternal life but you spat in his face you dished him and said not for me. And it's at that point that you will hear God Almighty say depart away with him and next comes eternal hell. So the Lord did not mince words. This is not complicated. This is not a theological brambled bush. It's so simple a child can understand it. And so when I talk to you this morning about the seed, the offspring, the descendants of Satan, I'm talking about the world we are living in, the world without Christ. And when I talk to you about the seed of the woman, I'm talking to you about God's choice to bring his son into the world through a woman, God's choice to call out a nation called Israel that would give us scripture. He gave them the scriptures to give to us. I'm preaching out of a book that God gave Israel to give to us. Without Israel, there would be no Jesus, no Messiah, no Savior, no salvation. I'll give you. genealogies, if you will. And this is the most wonderful news I could tell anybody. When you come to the saving faith of Jesus, when you believe this gospel, the Bible declares that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old is gone and the new has come and that begins with repentance. Last Sunday I used the word repentance. It means to change your mind, to turn around and go in an opposite direction and think with a total new mindset about every thing. And the Bible says when you repent, well, Paul said it in Ephesians 4, you are renewed in the spirit of your mind. You get a new mind. Praise God. One day you're going to have a new body, going to have a new name, going to have a new home. But right now you have a new mind and you don't see things the way you used to see them. Something happened to your eyes when you were saved, when you repented. You got to look into a world, a spirit world that you cannot see until you meet the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you, it dawns on you, you see it that our struggles are not with flesh and blood. It's not with people. What's fighting against us today is not people. They may be puppets of the God of this world, but the real source of all of the warfare is the devil himself. And when you're born again and the scales fall off your eyes and you begin to see, you recognize, hey, this is not coming from people. This is coming from a source beyond them. This is an unseen power at work. And so the devil's job, by the way, he is the, he is the God of this world. Have you read that in Scripture? Yes, the Lord in his sovereignty is allowing Satan to be the God of this world for a while. His days are coming to an end, but right now he's doing his best to mix and mingle and taint and

poison the seed of the woman with every kind of heresy and every kind of worldliness that he possibly can and then to make people think that this is about politics, liberal politics and conservative politics. No, it isn't. It's about morality and immorality. It's about right and wrong thinking, but the devil uses people, you see, and he doesn't want us to know that we're supposed to be getting on our knees and calling prayer meetings to pray for the leadership because they are being manipulated by the God of this world. And now we're mad at that group and that group is mad at us and they're mad at them and Satan's going goody, goody, goody, as long as they're looking at each other and blaming one another and fighting amongst themselves. I can just keep on deceiving the whole world, but God has opened our eyes and God wants us to know that we're not fighting against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness and high places. Some of you hate the leadership right now in Washington. You're so blinded by what is it happening? The war in Russia is still going on and Iran is still in power and hamburgers are still too expensive and gas is still too much. And you forget that all things in every government, by all leaders, are moving towards one conclusive and final climactic event and that it takes all of this to get the world to the place that it's ready for the man of sin and the Antichrist. And we're upset because bread costs too much. And I know we apply this scripture in lots of ways, but it still means the same thing. All things work together. All things are working together for good to them that love the Lord, who are the called according to His purpose. God is arranging and rearranging everything, because one of these days, Hallelujah to God, we're going to see the king. He's going to get us out of here. The devil is going to be exposed. There is going to be a judgment. Yes, sir. It's all taking place right now. Let me get back to the message over in 1 John, which you will be reading this week. 1 John, chapter 5, listen to these telling words, "We know that we are of God." Wow! What arrogance? No, it's not arrogance, it's assurance. John said, "I don't fiddle around trying to figure out whether or not I'm saved. I do struggle with things, but that doesn't make me doubt my salvation. We know we are of God." God doesn't want you to get up every day and say, "I hope I'm saved. I'm wondering if I'm saved." If I'm saved, would I still be struggling with this every time? Why do I have to go through this?

No, God wants you to get up every day and say, "I'm still in my flesh. I'm still in a mortal body. I've got to battle the fight. I've got to overcome them. And just because I stumble, it doesn't mean I'm not saved. So I'll just do what I did when I got saved. I called on the name of Jesus. I trusted in the shed blood, and I confess today that I'm His righteousness. We know we're of the truth, but we know the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Did you get that? The whole world lies under the sway, the influence, the control of the wicked one. Everybody look at me. All governments are corrupt. All governments are under the influence of the evil one. There's not a righteous government on this planet. All the systems of this world, you name it, whatever you call a system, is under the influence, the control of the evil one. All business is under the control of the evil one. All man-made religions. And that's all of them except one. And I'm in it. That sounded a little country-fied, didn't it? I know whom I have believed. We know we are of the truth. All industries on this whole planet are under the control of the evil one. Satan's effort is to keep your eyes off him. And by that, I mean, not see that he's behind it. It's people. So if we get people in this office, things will change. If we get them out, things will change. So once again, we resort to man-made tactics rather than spiritual authority to see if we cannot create some kind of change in our world. Satan just keeps on masquerading, hiding in the shadows, in the weeds. And people forget that this satanic attack from the offspring of Satan against the offspring of God is designed to do three things. Kill, steal, and destroy. Folks, God's Word doesn't just throw words in. Those are direct, That Satan is busy doing, stealing, killing, and destroying. I came here this morning with a burden because I see that there are three areas that Satan has seemingly targeted and is concentrating on because his absolute hatred for righteousness and God and humanity is most greatly exposed in these three things. Satan hates the human race, Satan hates what brings people into the human race, and Satan hates Israel. Let's deal with it. Same-sex union, again I don't say same-sex marriage, that's not correct. The true definition of marriage is a union between a man and a woman. That's it.

Marriage is not defined by two people, it's defined by the sex of the two people, male and female. And yet there is an empathy for those people who seem to be caught up and confused and are sad and scared. And I want to say to the young people today because this is First Family Sunday, I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you get to hear me, the senior pastor preach today. I want to tell you to be careful where you get your information because there are plenty of influential people out there. They are called influencers, you know. But when they speak, people listen and as though they have some kind of educated authority. So when people become empathetic with the gay community, it even happens to young people and it happens to Christians. I'm sympathetic with these people. Why do we have to beat them down? Even a well-known female country singer that just died, I heard say, "I don't care how people live, it's not my business if what people do behind closed doors. Why don't we leave the gay community alone? Let them be who they are. It's none of our business." That's what she said. And so since she said that, people are going, "Hey, I think she's a Christian. And if she feels that way, then I don't see what the problem is. I have questions about that. That's all I'm going to say." Because you can't make a statement like that and have the truth of the Scripture abiding in your heart. Two men are, I should say, one woman and one man. As trying to skew that plan of God by mixing it up a little bit and all the transgender stuff, he's trying to mix everybody's minds up. If a man feels like a woman, he ought to be able to have an operation and live like

a woman. I've said this so many times, folks, you can cut everything off and you can add everything to it, but you cannot change your DNA. If you came in as a female, you are a female. If you came in as a male, if you were conceived as a male, you are a male. And any other thing is demonic. It's the seed of Satan trying to infiltrate the seed of mankind with these crazy thoughts. And then, of course, naturally, when a man and a woman follow the laws of nature, they can have children. And we know what happens a child is conceived. And for some reason, the world thinks that it's okay to terminate the life of an unborn baby. Are you still with me, I guess? So we've done that. We've killed 80 million, 80. The devil's of the world has convinced the world that human life is accidental. I'll say it the best I know how. You may have a one-night fling and you may accidentally get involved. That may have been an accident. You didn't plan it. But what happens when you do that is not an accident. That's a law of nature. That's how God brings life into the world. God is the author of life. God loves life. And for any human being in this world to think that other human beings have the right to say you don't need to live, you don't have the right to be, is an affront to a holy God. And that's exactly what the devil is doing. And now I'm going to upset you.

I know I will. I have people have said to me at times, "I am a Christian but I'm a liberal Christian and I am pro-choice." There is no such thing as a liberal Christian. Just like there's no such thing as a gay Christian or a gay church. Have I ever said that before? None of those things are real. So someone to tell me, "I'm more empathetic and sympathetic than you are and I believe the same God you do and I love the same Jesus you do but I believe that a woman has the right to terminate a baby in her womb." Folks, you do not have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ says, "This belongs to God and this is eternal." So having said that and having sprinkled real cold water all over the congregation, just let me move on. The third thing, and not only to Satan hate the man and the woman thing and not only does he hate the more human beings come into the world thing, let's mess them up, let's mix them up, let's steal from them, let's destroy them, but he hates Israel. Three years ago this Wednesday, one of the most horrific attacks took place on the nation of Israel when terrorists moved in and killed, murdered, raped and captured Jewish people, killed little babies, cut their heads off. And for months and months and months after that, hail hostages in dark caves and dungeons and tortured them and rape the women repeatedly. That's an anniversary coming up. So this double standard that the world has for Israel, double standard, because any other nation in the world had they been attacked that way, would have gone after the attackers and they would have tried to kill them, but Israel had to get permission, get permission from us because I don't know what the leadership will do towards Israel right now, but they had to do that three years ago. To defend themselves, there is a double standard. They don't get to defend themselves the way every other nation does.

They're the smallest nation over there, they're but a pinhead over there and everybody's trying to wipe them out and Satan is trying to destroy the seed of the woman. And the whole world says, "No, you can't abuse people like that, no, you're in a land you ought not to be in, no, you're not really Israel anyway, I want to tell you something brothers and sisters." God gave that land to Israel. God made a promise to Israel through Abraham and said, "If I break my covenant, the sun moon and the stars will stop shining." God made a covenant. But that's Palestine. That belongs to the Palestinians, no, it was always Israel until AD 135 when Hadrian, the the emperor hated Israel so much that he tried to intimidate and to the Philistines who were their greatest enemy. You can change the name all you want to, but God gave them that land. And God said from the Nile to the Euphrates, you're going to get it one of these days. And your 12 tribes are going to rule over there. And they're going to come back and that nation is going to flourish and that land is going to bring forth, it's going to happen brothers and sisters. But here's what I fear, and I want to talk to the young people this morning. Most of your thinking is influenced by social media. Most of your thinking is influenced by social media. And if you watch social media, you will see that Israel is a tyrant, they're bloodthirsty, and they need to be destroyed. That's what you hear. Now I tried to do this at the 830 service and I did a terrible job. We've sectioned up age groups to Gen X and Gen Z, and I found out this morning. They was alpha, what? And what are you trying to tell me Tony, what's another one? Millennials and all of that. Let me tell you, there's a group of young people out there that is sympathetic.

And all they've heard is how the Palestinians are suffering. And they are. But there's war going on. And everybody suffers. When terrorists are embedded in there, terrorists are bringing this on the Palestinian people. This young group, they are for the underdog. They are moved when they see people oppressed in any way. When people are marginalized and left out and cheated and persecuted, this young group must have stand up and fight for them. Problem is, when you see campuses with demonstrators and they're crying from the river to the sea, wait now, you're saying that's over, Pastor, that was last year. It's never over. It's just not being reported. Anti-Semitism, hatred for the Jewish people has been going on since Abraham left earth of the Chaldis. And it will not stop until I get ready to read a scripture to you. It's just not reported, but it's always going on and Jewish people always have to deal with it. But what you're seeing on the internet are pro-Palestinian liberal, Israel-hating influencers and all of a sudden, you say something needs to be done. And kids are walking around with signs from the river to the sea, they don't know what river, and they don't know what sea. Worse than that, they don't realize that that means kill 10 million Jewish people, exterminate a nation, 10 million, just kill them all and drive them into the sea. Folks, I want to tell you something, this is the seed of Satan. It hates Israel. Israel is not a righteous nation. I just told you all governments are corrupt, but God has a remnant in that nation. God has a people in that nation. He's not finished with Israel, and it just angers me to hear reformed, Calvinist people

say, "Oh, we don't believe that the church replaced Israel. We just believe that Israel's fulfilled in the church." What does that mean? It means that church replaced Israel. They've got all kinds of fancy words to do away with the nation of Israel. I'm going to tell you this, and I'm not going to get out of hand. God has a plan for the church, and God has a plan for Israel. I'm in the church, and I'm looking for God's plan to get me out of this place one of these days. Soon, it could happen, but when we're gone, God will continue His work with the Israelis, the Jewish people and mark my word according to the One-third will be left, but that one-third will look on him whom they have pierced. They will realize that their Messiah is the brother that they defected. They will come to the knowledge of Jesus and the Spirit of God will come upon them and they will carry the gospel of the kingdom all over this world. They will be mighty spirit-filled evangelists. Folks, God's not finished with Israel and I will not stand with those who say that Israel is a tyrant and a criminal. I stand with the word of God. Listen to me. The same is everybody listening to me. The same Bible that says John 3, 16, "For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes that him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The same Bible says, "Yet out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Same Bible. So what's going to happen to Israel? I'll tell you, I can read it to you. Revelation chapter 12, I'm not going much longer, so don't. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman. Has anybody heard that this morning? A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars, then being with child she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven, behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diodems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven. Who is that? Satan and a third of the angels he deceived through them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to desire her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, my mind. Who is that? And her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that she should feed her their 1,260 days. That means in the last three and a half years of the tribulation God has a place prepared for that remnant. God's going to make sure they make it. Now in verses 7 through 12 we have Satan being cast out of the atmosphere down to the earth by Michael and his army. And what is the first thing that Satan does when he's cast out of heaven onto the earth? Verse 13 when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, three and a half years from the presence of the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Those are the tribulation saints that heard that remnant preaching the gospel. So what's going to happen? Oh they're going to be persecuted but God has never taken his hand off Israel and I will not speak against something or someone that God has blessed. Oh let me just do this then since you can't leave without people going oh they didn't like it they're mad they're leaving. For all of those theologians who are totally wrong about Israel let me read this. I said idol of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Verse 5, even so then at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. I'm about to lose it now, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. The times that I've been to Israel and walked around, I've been to every site over there. I've been all over the place, restaurants and hotels and tourist sites. Every time I go, I think, you know, that person just might be one of the 144,000 that's going to preach the gospel. They don't even believe in God yet or that one or that lady or that guy. Wow. Wonder who it is. Who could it be? But it's going to happen, brothers and sisters. There is an election of grace for the remnant. And Paul says, I say then, have they stumbled

that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their, through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. You can do better than that, my Lord. God let them fall so he could pick you up. I got that old preacher's voice going now. I said, God let them fall so he could pick you up. God let them be blind so you could see. God let them be deaf so you could hear. And here you are. You can see. You can hear. You are alive in Jesus. Hey, hallelujah. And if their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? Oh, when they come in. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them for if their being cast away is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Folks, we have no idea what's going to happen. When God restores Israel and they are in their land and he comes and sits on a throne, Jesus coming to sit on a throne and the twelve apostles are going to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel and the nation of Israel is going to carry on, conduct the business of the king in the millennial reign of Christ. Oh, I has not seen. Here has not heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. We pray that today as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's Jail and Prison Correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center, 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching. [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle music)