Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120603.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XLI: Overcoming Fears About The Future In God's Program
(Numbers 29:1-6 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    (1) A number of leaders in Christendom believe God no longer has future plans for the nation Israel, so they oppose the State of Israel:

    (a) In 2002, "dozens" of evangelical leaders like "D. James Kennedy and R. C. Sproul" openly "declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God's land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.'" (Dave Hunt, "A Call to Repentance," The Berean Call, November 2006, p. 1)

    (b) In the July 2005 issue of Christianity Today, next to a masthead that declared Billy Graham was its founder and James I. Packer an Executive Editor, the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible was advertised as "The Bible As It Was Intended To Be," and in its notes, scholars "treat Israel as replaced by the church." (Ibid., p. 2)

    (2) However, if the Church replaces Israel, one adopts the amillennial or postmillennial stances on future prophecy, leading to unrest and disillusionment in view of the troubles in our current world:

    (a) If one holds that the Church replaces Israel, then the promised Revelation 20 Messianic Kingdom is not a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ at His Second Coming, but the time between Christ's first and second coming, especially the last 1,000 years of the Church age, a position known as amillennialism, John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, 1976, p. 13-14; Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1970, p. 159.

    (b) A related view is the postmillennial belief that the Church will usher in a 1,000 year golden era climaxed by Christ's Second Coming to the earth, Ibid., Walvoord.

    However, adopting either amillennialism or postmillennialism in light of the world's current troubled state creates confusion and disillusionment, not to mention concern on how to face the future: if we have to view the current world either constitutes God's Messianic Kingdom of blessing, or think we are about to usher in a golden era of the Church, how come the world is in such a wretched state?!



    Need: "If key Christians say the Church replaces Israel so that we are in or are now ready for a golden Kingdom age of divine blessing, how can the present wretched world be that age of blessing, and how can I possibly plan for the future with any sense of hope?!"

  1. The Feast of Trumpets depicts Israel's return to the Holy Land in a spirit of repentance in preparation for the Messianic Kingdom:
    1. The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the 7th (fall month) of Tishri (Sept.-Oct.; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 12:2) saw the blowing of "the (silver) trumpets" God instituted back in Numbers 10 for Israel's meeting (Num. 10:2a, 3-4, 7), traveling (Num. 10:2b, 5-6) and remembering the things of God (Num. 10:9-10), Numbers 29:1.
    2. Besides the regular monthly and daily sacrifices we before saw depict God's grace in Christ, 1 bull, 1 ram and 7 male lambs were offered, what God set elsewhere only for the Day of Atonement. This links these two feasts, showing the need for the Day of Atonement's spirit of repentance on the Feast of Trumpets, B. K. C., O. T., p. 248, 250.
    3. Two key events have occurred on the Feast of Trumpets, and in light of these facts, both show this feast depicted Israel's return to the Land in a spirit of repentance in accord with God's installing the Kingdom:
      1. In Ezra 3:1-6, Israel met at the Mount Moriah temple site in 536 B. C. after traveling from captivity (Ibid., p. 658), the place where Abraham 1,500 years before offered up Isaac (2 Chron. 3:1; Gen. 22:2, 14; Ibid., Ryrie, p. 2021-2026). So, allied with the things of God in her religious heritage in a spirit of repentance after discipline, Israel built the temple altar in line with God's fulfilling His Genesis 12 Abrahamic Covenant by installing the Kingdom!
      2. In Nehemiah 8:1-3, Israel met at the Jerusalem Water Gate in 444 B. C. after traveling from captivity for sin, meeting at a spot richly endowed with Israel's civil history to read the Law, Ibid., p. 689; Ibid., Ryrie, 1978, ftns. to Nehemiah 2:1; 6:15; 8:2.
        1. The Water Gate was in the City of David south of the temple, The Mac. Bib. Atl., 1968, map 114; Z. P. E. B., v. Five, p. 1063.
        2. It was first called Salem where godly king-priest Melchizedek lived, the man who blessed Abram when God gave him victory over enemy kings in line with God's future Davidic Covenant blessings for the nation Israel, Ibid., v. 3, p. 462; Gen. 14:18-20.
        3. David later defeated the fort's Jebusites by a shaft running from the spring Gihon outside the wall up into the city near the Water Gate, Ibid., p. 464; 1 Sam. 5:7-9; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Sam. 5:8.
        4. David's naming it the City of David solidified his kingdom, for the fortress was in neutral territory in past king Saul's tribal land of Benjamin but close to its border with David's tribe of Judah, Ibid., p. 465; Ibid., Ryrie, Map 4: "The Twelve Tribes of Israel."
        5. 2 Samuel 5:7-17 likely indicates David built his palace near the Water Gate just north of the higher, north wall of the fortress.
        6. In 1 Kings 1:32-40, David crowned Solomon at Gihon, guarding him from Adonijah toward securing a golden age for his reign.
        7. Israel's kings were to have their reigns blessed PROVIDING they daily read the Law (Deut. 17:14, 18-20), the same practice Israel did at the Water Gate on the 444 B. C. Feast of Trumpets!
      3. So, allied with the things of God in her civil heritage so linked to that spot in a spirit of repentance after discipline, Israel met at the Water Gate to read the Law in line with God's fulfilling His 2 Samuel 7 Davidic Covenant by installing the Kingdom!
  2. Yet, tragically, Israel rejected her Messiah Jesus, so God postponed her Kingdom and will again severely discipline her via antichrist in a Great Tribulation, Zech. 11:1-17; Lk. 19:41-44; Matt. 23:37-39.
  3. However, the Feast of Trumpets had REGULAR monthly and daily sacrifices depicting God's GREAT GRACE through CHRIST, so, by GOD'S GRACE, the Feast of Trumpets is YET to BE FULFILLED for Israel in the pretribulational, premillennial format of prophecy!
    1. As the Feast of Trumpets comes after the summer harvests, and as we learned the Feast of Pentecost and these harvests typify the Church, and as the Feast of Trumpets is linked to the Day of Atonement that follows it in its same, 7th month, after the rapture of the Church, and Israel faces antichrist in the Great Tribulation in discipline, she will regather in the Holy Land at Christ's Second Coming in a spirit of repentance, and God in grace will install her Millennial, Messianic Kingdom in fulfillment of His covenants to Abraham and to David!
    2. The Feast of Trumpets then typologically implies the pretribulation rapture of the Church followed by Israel's Millennial Kingdom!
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) In view of our premillennial, pretribulational rapture, may we joyfully serve Christ in this current troubled era!

Thus, we ask, "If key leaders in Christendom think God has no future for Israel, producing the amillennial or postmillennial views that the world is either in or is heading toward a golden era, what should I believe, and how should I plan for the future?!" Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 We noted in our sermon introduction that dozens of Christian leaders in 2002 "declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God's land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.'" (Ibid., Hunt, p. 1)

(1) However, as Dave Hunt accurately noted, Jeremiah 23:7-8 states: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries wither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Ibid.) This passage reveals that long after Joshua's conquest of Canaan, after Israel's Babylonian Captivity, God planned for the nation Israel to be back in the Promised Land. This passage alone undermines the basis for these dozens of Christian leaders claiming that the land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament ended in Joshua's time. If they had, God would not have brought them back to what He called "their own land" centuries later!

(2) Then, as Hunt allued to Jeremiah 31:35-36 (Ibid.), we note it states: "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever." In other words, God said that as long as the sun, the moon, the stars and the roaring sea exist, Israel as a nation will exist in His plan for her. The last time I checked, the institutions of the sun, moon, stars and roaring sea still exist, so Israel still has a role in God's plan as a nation. The Christian leaders and institutions that deny her right to exist as a nation in God's plan greatly err!



May we believe in Christ as Savior to belong to the Church of Christ, and, as believers, honor and love the Jewish people as God's chosen people who have a great, literal future Kingdom!



May we also live affirmatively and joyfully, serving our Lord and anticipating the pretribulation rapture of the Church!