It Begins And Ends With Israel – Part 1

0:33 On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Now, we know from history that Israel has never possessed all of the land yet that God has promised. But one day they will. That was God's promise to Abraham and to his believing descendants. And I don't have to tell you all of the conflict we read about every day in the Middle East. When you boil it down to a set sentence, it's over this promise. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. From the very beginning, it's been clear that God has a special plan and purpose for the nation of Israel. So what does the future of this ancient nation have to do with the future of the world? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shows how God's promise to Abraham more than 2,000 years ago directly connects to our present and future. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

1:31 Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In recent days, the eyes of the world have turned to the Middle East, where chaos continues to ensue and tensions are rising at catastrophic levels. In these days, I've been flooded with questions about the end times and how the warfare might tie into biblical prophecy. Well, today and again tomorrow on Pathway to Victory, I'm presenting a message that's designed to put conflicts like this into perspective. More importantly, I intend to bring you hope. You see, we don't need to fear the future. Even though it appears that evil is advancing in our world, make no mistake, Jesus Christ is coming back to settle the score. Few places on earth stay as volatile as the Middle East. That's why the nation of Israel is one of the major themes here on Pathway to Victory.

2:27 Not because it's popular, but because the Bible clearly describes it. It's our responsibility to teach you what God's Word says. And we will never veer from that mission. That's why people like you trust us. Now, we couldn't provide these daily programs without partnership with friends like you. And just after our study, I'm going to describe a highly personal book that I've written for you. It's my way of saying thanks when you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory. All right, take your Bible now and turn to Genesis chapter 12 for a message I've titled, It Begins and Ends with Israel. I want you to imagine for just a moment that a friend of yours says, you need to get a copy of John Grisham's latest novel. It is a real spellbinder. And so you go out and purchase the book, Grisham's latest lawyer tale. And one night before you go to bed, you decide to start reading it and you open it up in the middle of the book. And suddenly you're confronted with names and locations that are unfamiliar to you. Who are in the world are Joan and Jill and Judge Mills? And what are they doing in the Caribbean? And why did Bill just dump a million dollars over into the ocean out of his boat? You're confused. And so to make sense out of it, you go to the end of the book.

3:55 you're reading there in the end and suddenly the action has shifted to a funeral home it's the funeral of bill and joan and judge mills were seated there and joan leans over to judge mills and says you know bill shouldn't have dropped that million dollars over the boat in the caribbean judge mills says well he didn't know the mafia was after him You think, mafia? Where did the mafia come from? You're hopelessly confused, and so you slam the book shut in disgust, and you think to yourself, you know, old Grisham has lost his touch, hasn't he? Now, I realize that analogy is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it illustrates a very important point, and that is why so many people are confused by the Bible in general, and certainly by the subject of Bible prophecy. You know, if you want to understand the Bible, you want to understand Bible prophecy, the place to begin is not at the end in the book of Revelation.

4:56 It's not in the middle in Ezekiel and Daniel. If you want to understand the Bible and Bible prophecy, you start where? At the beginning. You start at the beginning of the book. Now that makes sense, doesn't it? Well, that's what we're going to do today as we launch into our series, Perfect Ending, Why Your Eternal Future Matters Today. The way to understand prophecy is to start at the beginning. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to the book of Genesis. In fact, the word Genesis literally means beginnings. And in Genesis, we find the beginning of everything. Now, when you think of the book of Genesis, what comes to mind immediately? You probably think of these great momentous events like the creation of the world, or the fall of man, or the flood, or the tower of Babel. And yet all of those magnificent events we think about when we think about Genesis, you know they're all compressed into the first 11 chapters of the book.

5:54 There are 50 chapters in Genesis. All of those big things are told in the first 11 chapters. It's almost as if God is saying, hey, by the way, this is how these things happened. It's an introduction. The theme of the first 11 chapters of Genesis is man's alienation from God. God created man perfectly, placed him in a perfect garden, yet man chose to rebel against God. And in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, you find man moving further and further away from God until that climactic event in Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, man's ultimate defiance of his creator. Now at that point, God would have been completely justified in condemning man forever, allowing man to suffer the consequences of his alienation from God. But God being rich in love didn't do that. Instead he instituted a rescue plan for both mankind and the world that God created. And that rescue plan begins in Genesis 12. And write this down the theme of Genesis 12 all the way to the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 is God's reconciliation with man. God's reconciliation with man. That's Genesis 12 all the way to Revelation 22. Now God's rescue plan for man and his plan for the restoration of the entire world all centered on one man. His name was Abraham. That's where the rescue plan began with this man called Abraham. And the remaining 39 chapters of Genesis have to do with Abraham and his descendants. The beginning of this plan of reconciliation. And so when we come to Genesis chapter 12, we are introduced to Abraham and to the specific promise that God made to Abraham. We call it the Abrahamic covenant. It was the promise of redemption for mankind and for all of creation. Now to understand this promise, you have to understand the context of the promise that God made to Abraham. We're first introduced actually

8:00 to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 11. And when we come to Genesis 11, we find Abraham and his family living in a city called Ur of the Chaldeans. Now Ur was a metropolitan city, much like London or New York is today. Ur was known as a center of mathematics and astronomy. But one thing archaeology has revealed to us as well is Ur of the Chaldeans was a center of idolatry. The residents of Ur were involved in idol worship. Now we want to think that Abraham was different from everybody else. We want to think that the reason God reached down and called Abraham because unlike the other residents of Ur who worship false gods, Abraham was looking for the true God. but that's not the case. In fact the Bible tells us that Abraham was no different than any other resident of Ur. He worshiped false gods as well. You say where do you get that pastor? Joshua 24 verses 2 to 3 Joshua said that Abraham was an idol worshiper. Joshua said to all the people verse 2 thus says the Lord the God of Israel from ancient times your fathers lived beyond the river namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahar, and they served other gods.

9:21 It doesn't say they except for Abraham served other gods. They served other gods. Abraham was an idol worshiper. So the question is, why did God choose to save Abraham? Why did he choose to make Abraham the focal point of his plan for redemption for the world? It had nothing to do with the goodness of Abraham. It had everything to do with the goodness of God. God, out of his mercy, chose to save Abram, and he gave this command. Look at verse 1, Genesis chapter 12. Then the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. God was saying to Abraham, I want you to uproot everything you have, your family, your possessions, and I want you to move to a distant land that I will eventually show you. You're to get up and you're to start moving. Now think what that must have been to Abraham, to leave everyone and everything familiar to him to go to this unnamed country. I remember in our last church, Amy and I had dinner one evening with a Hispanic couple, and they told us their story. Two years earlier, they had both been living in Mexico. They had fabulous jobs, a large house. They had a child on the way. They said God spoke to them and said to leave their home and move to the United States. They didn't speak at that time one word of English. They had no job prospects, but they said, Pastor, God told us to go. So we came.

10:53 We left our house. We left with only what we could carry in two suitcases and came to the United States. But eventually, after being here, we realized why God had sent us. That's what God did to Abraham. He said, I want you to move. It didn't make any sense. F.B. Meyer, the great biographer, one time said about Abraham and this command to leave, he said, God's commands are not always followed or accompanied by reason, but God's commands are always accompanied by a promise, whether spoken or unspoken. Some of you here today know what I'm talking about. God has given you a command. He's told you clearly what he wants you to do. It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't seem reasonable, but God has spoken. He said, it's time to get up and move. Remember, whenever God gives a command, that command doesn't always make sense, but it is always accompanied by a promise. That was true for Abraham. And we find those promises that followed God's command in verses one to three of Genesis 12. Look at it with me. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I want you to jot down here the three components of this Abrahamic promise or covenant. First of all, God promised to Abraham a land, a land. Verse one, he said, go forth from your country to the land which I will show you. God was saying to Abraham, I've got a piece of real estate for you and your descendants, and it will be yours forever. Later in Genesis 15, God gives us the geographical boundaries of that real estate that was to belong to Abraham and his descendants. In Ezekiel 37, we find a further expansion of those boundaries. God said, this is going to be yours, Abraham, and your descendants

13:02 forever. Now we know from history that Israel has never possessed all of the land yet that God has promised. We certainly know now they're not possessing all of God's promised land. The time in history when they had the greatest percentage of that land was the 10th century BC during Solomon's reign. But even then, they had not yet inhabited all the land, but one day they will. That was God's promise to Abraham and to his believing descendants. And I don't have to tell you all of the conflict we read about every day in the Middle East. When you boil it down to his that sense? It's over this promise. This promise that God made the Israel of a land that would be theirs forever. Either God meant it or he didn't mean it. I believe God meant it. And I believe ultimately God's going to fulfill it. God said, I'm going to give you a land. Not only that, he said, I'm going to give you a seed. He said, I will make you a great nation and I will bless you.

13:59 He was saying to Abraham, you're going to be the father of a tremendous nation. In fact, in Genesis 22, God expounded on how great that nation would be. In Genesis 22, 17, he said, indeed, I will greatly bless you, Abraham. I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and of the sand which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. That is, Abraham, your descendants are going to be innumerable like the stars in the heavens, like the sand on the seashore. That's how great your nation will be. That promise was amazing considering the fact that when God made the promise to Abraham, Abraham was 75 years old. In fact, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11, 12 describes Abraham at that time that God made the promise as being, quote, as good as dead.

14:53 Now, some of you wives know what I'm talking about. You can look over your husband and say, he's as good as dead. He's still breathing, but he might as well be dead. Well, that was how Abraham was. That's how Sarah felt. He was as good as dead. Not only that, Sarah herself was barren. And yet God said to this couple, you're going to be the father, the mother of a great, great nation. And thirdly, he said, not only am I going to give you a land, a seed, I'm going to make you a blessing. Genesis 12, 3 says, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, this is obviously the climax of this promise. A worldwide blessing Abraham and his descendants would be. What is God talking about? Some people say that he's talking about some general spiritual blessing. We know that three major world religions claim Abraham is their father, Islam, and Judaism, and Christianity.

15:50 So maybe that's what he's talking about. In that sense, all of the world is going to be blessed through you, Abraham. I don't think that's what God means at all. I think God had something very specific in mind. He was saying, through you, Abraham, one is going to come who is going to redeem mankind and reverse the curse that has been placed on this earth. Through you, Abraham, the Savior of the world is going to come. And you say, now wait a minute, pastor, how do you get all of that out of verse 3? Where do you find a promise of a Savior who's going to redeem mankind? In this simple phrase, through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. How do I know that's true? It's from the New Testament and the way the New Testament interprets this verse. You know, there are some people who believe that Abraham knew there'd be some general blessing that would come through his descendants, but he never really understood the true nature of that blessing. That's just not true. The Bible tells us Abraham had a very clear understanding of what this blessing would be. Hold your place here and turn over to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter 3 verses 6 through 8. As you're turning there, let me remind you of the setting of the book of Galatians. The churches at Galatia were being infected by false teachers. They were called the Judaizers. And the Judaizers said this, they said, faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation, but it's not sufficient for salvation. That is, you need to trust in Jesus as your Savior and keep the law, be circumcised, on and on and on and on. It's faith and works. That was the teaching of the Judaizers. Today you have the same thing. In fact, in most of Christendom, you find the same thing being taught. Faith in Christ is important, but it's not enough.

17:50 To be saved, you need to trust in Christ as your Savior and be baptized and partake of the sacraments and joined this particular church and, and, and, and. It's faith in Christ and for salvation. Paul says no. In Galatians 1.8, he says, if any man preaches another gospel, that is another gospel besides faith in Christ alone, let that man be anathema. Let him be damned. The Bible says it is faith in Christ alone that saves. And to prove that to the Galatians, he uses the story of Abraham. Look at verse 6. Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Remember, he's talking to Jews here. He's saying, you want to know how a person is saved? Let's go back to the father, our father Abraham, and see how he was saved. Was he saved by faith and works and circumcision? No. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Verse 7, therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

18:55 Now I'm going to talk about this more in the weeks ahead. To be a recipient of the Abrahamic covenant and blessing, you don't just need to be a physical descendant of Abraham. Being a Jew by birth, by nationality, that doesn't get you anything. But true sons of Abraham are those who are related to him by faith. By faith, the promise is made to God and to believing Israel. Be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Verse 8, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations shall be blessed in you. It's that last verse I want you to get. what message was preached to Abraham it was the gospel God preached the gospel to Abraham saying all the nation shall be blessed in you in other words Abraham had a much deeper understanding of the gospel it wasn't some general idea of a blessing Abraham understood the gospel of Jesus Christ and Abraham was saved not because of his works but because of God's grace that was received through faith. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, everybody get ready to put your boots on, okay? We're going to wade in some deep theological waters here for five minutes. I promise we will make it to the other side, okay? But this is so key to understand. This isn't in your notes. This is bonus, okay?

20:35 this is bonus. You know, I'm asked all the time, how are people in the Old Testament saved? Have you ever been asked that question before? Have you ever wondered in the days before Jesus Christ came and died, how were people in the Old Testament saved? They were saved the same way you and I are saved. Now, I want you to write down these three statements somewhere on the side of your outline. It doesn't matter whether you're in the Old Testament or the New Testament. the basis of salvation is God's grace. The basis of salvation is God's grace. Doesn't matter when you lived, we're all saved, not by our works, but by God's grace, God giving us what we don't deserve. The basis for salvation is God's grace. Secondly, the means of salvation is Christ's death. The means of salvation is Christ's death. That is, God's grace, his willingness to give us what we don't deserve, actually had an expression in time and history. It occurred at Calvary at the cross of Jesus Christ. Romans 5 says, God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Because of God's grace, God sent his son Jesus to be the means of our salvation. And when Jesus died on the cross, that act by God provided the opportunity for anyone to be saved. The basis of our salvation is God's grace. The means of salvation is Christ's death. The channel of salvation, number three, is our faith. The channel of salvation is by our faith.

22:16 The way God's grace through the death of Jesus Christ applies or is applied to our life is through our faith. Now get this, we're not saved by faith. We are saved by God's grace. God's grace that was demonstrated by Christ's death. But we receive salvation through faith. It was Paul who said in Ephesians 2, for by what? Grace you are saved through faith. And that's what was through of Abraham. The Bible says here in Galatians 3, 8, Abraham believed God and his belief, his faith was reckoned as righteousness. Perhaps you've already had a few aha moments in today's study as we trace the roots of Bible prophecy back to the Abrahamic covenant. We're not finished with this topic.

23:10 There's much more to discover ahead. So please tune in tomorrow. By now, you've probably heard that Pathway to Victory has reached a milestone, our 30th anniversary. And for three decades, Pathway to Victory has never shied away from hard questions and topics like Bible prophecy. That's why listeners around the world have come to trust this program. And as we celebrate our 30th anniversary this year, I want to invite you to stand with us. You see, when you give a special anniversary gift, you help ensure that this trusted voice remains on the air. Plus, when you give a special anniversary gift, I'm going to say thanks by providing my brand new and exclusive book. It's called Seven Lessons from My 70 Years. Reaching this personal milestone of my 70th birthday, I decided to share with you seven honest lessons from my own life and a few nostalgic photographs as well.

24:12 It makes me realize that time is running short. And one day, perhaps very soon, the trumpet will sound, the heavens will part, and we will see the King of kings and Lord of lords. Until that moment, may you and I proclaim the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. Here's David to tell you how to get in touch today.