Allen Jackson - God In Our Midst - Part 2
See the mercy of God is he makes us aware of our sin, he makes us aware of our shortcoming, he makes us aware of our cowardice so that we can repent and change. Change how we think, change how we behave, and then we stand in a place where the blessings of God come to us. Isn’t that the story we read when we look at the journey of the Jewish people? That when they honored God in obedience, he brought blessings to them, and when they wandered off the path into the weeds and disobedience and compromise that he would bring judgment to them. The character of God has not changed. The assignment for us as the people of God has not changed. 2 Corinthians 6, same church, it’s another letter to them. He says, «Don’t be yoked together with unbelievers,» wow, «for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? What fellowship can light have with darkness»?
That’s very similar to what God said repeatedly to the Jewish people, «Don’t intermingle». And when we have almost the opposite message in contemporary Christian. We mingle a lot. I’m gonna read a bit more of this, but I’m gonna give you the shorthand. I wouldn’t give my discretionary time, my voluntary time to being with people who practice ungodliness and immorality. And I would do my best not to get into binding relationships with people who are ungodly and immoral. It won’t bring God’s best to you. «What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and the devil? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we’re the temple of the living God».
There’s that idea again. «As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they’ll be my people.'» Why do we not do those things? Why would we make those decisions? Because God walks amongst us. We get really heated up. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve had with people that, you know, this isn’t appropriate at church or that’s not appropriate church and we shouldn’t have coffee or we shouldn’t have seen that on the screen or we, you know, and I’ve, you know, well, let me ask you, do you drink coffee at home? You’re the temple. «Well, it’s different». Okay. This notion of being my people, God said, «The Jewish people are my people». That sobers me and my attitudes towards them.
In 2 Samuel 7, and verse 8, he said, «Tell my servant David, 'This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.'» I have that notion in my role with you. You’re the people of God. And when I’m tired and grumpy and I wanna snap at you, very rarely, I pray that the Holy Spirit helps me to always remember it’s the people of God that I’ve been invited to serve. So, telling the truth is so important. If you don’t tell the people of God the truth, and they wander into a bad place, then we’re accountable. And that’s not just pastors, folks. Again, the church has… we have lived with this attitude towards the Jewish people of their enormous failure, the gross darkness in which they’ve lived, and we’ve been unable to see the beam in our own eyes.
Isaiah 43, «The wild animals honor me and the jackals and the owls. I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise». God said, «They’re my people. I formed them for myself that they could show my praise in the earth». We read the same thing in the New Testament, about the body of Christ just a moment ago. The Jewish people, I can tell you, one of the reasons there’s so much angst in the Middle East towards the Jewish people is God has blessed them in such a profound way that it’s inspired the nations around them to jealousy. It’s like inexplicable. They got the same desert we’ve got.
Why is their desert green? We have the same shortage of water they have, and now they’re making fresh water out of the ocean. That’s not fair. We’ve got oil and they don’t have oil. Wait a minute, they found natural gas. There’s no explanation other than the blessings of God. There truly isn’t. See, if you and I will awaken to the reality of what it means to be the people of God, God’s desire is to bring his blessings to us so that it will cause the secular community to look at us and go, «What’s wrong? That’s not fair». But if we continue to compromise so to we walk more closely with the world than we do with the kingdom of God. We want to point at our born again date and say, «Really, there’s not much beyond that,» and we get obsessed with that one event and we don’t really focus on growing up in the Lord and yielding to the Lord and surrendering to the Lord and separating ourselves from the world, then God’s blessings don’t come.
God is moving in the earth. God’s attentive concern, it feels parental to me, and I think it’s an appropriate image to use. In Joel chapter 3, it says, «In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,» there’s times and episodes when Judah and Jerusalem have not been stellar. Mark Twain visited and he said, «It’s a dusty pile of rocks. Why would anybody go there»? It’s not a dusty pile of rocks any longer. He said, «I will gather all the nations and bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat and I’ll enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and they divided up my land».
I’m fascinated. We are watching for the first time in my lifetime, a conversation break into the public square where it says that a two-state solution is no longer adequate. It’s been a significant concern to me that our nation has been a very powerful voice for the dividing up the land that God said, «You better not divide». That’s not our business. It’s not our business to dictate to the Jewish people what they choose to do with the land God gave them. If they choose to do something with it, you can pray for them that they’ll be led by the spirit of God. But a nation that forces a solution for the land of Israel that God promised to them will receive the judgment of God. I don’t have the time to walk you through the history of that, but it is a very easily established principle.
So, why would that be true? God chose them. Psalm 121, God said, «He’ll not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep,» and that sounds like a parent to me. Watch parents when their little ones are learning to walk. They photograph him, they video tape him, they send them out. «Look, he’s walking». I’m pretty sure that’s a stagger at best. It’s like a half a step and a… You’re walking. God watches over us, that we won’t stumble. And the one who watches over us won’t slumber or sleep.
Now, I wanna point out something and my time is gonna slip away, but the attention of a good parent also includes discipline. A parent that doesn’t discipline their child doesn’t love them. The absence of discipline is not an abundance of love. It’s a passive form of hatred because we all need discipline. Oh, that’s a very biblical… Discipline in our lives does not imply rejection. When God disciplines us, it is not to suggest that he’s rejected us. And when we see the history of the Jewish people and their relationship with God and those seasons when he’s brought discipline to them, it would be inappropriate to interpret that as total rejection of them. Because time and again through scripture, God says, «I will restore your fortunes».
And we get to the book of Revelation before we get to the end of the age they’re right back in the center of the story leading the way. The times of the Gentiles will fade, and God will bring once again the Jewish people to the forefront of being advocates for Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. So, discipline does not imply rejection. I would add to that one other idea that the refusal of discipline results in the forfeiture of the blessings of God. When God shows us discipline, when he expresses discipline towards us, if we don’t cooperate, you see, discipline has to be received. You can be disciplined and not benefit by it because you don’t intend to be changed. You can endure it, you can suffer it, but you can be just more determined than ever that you’ll not be bent by it. It’s like a little boy in church, you’ve heard the story, I’m sure it’s not new. He was standing up in the chair next to his father and he said, «Sit in that chair».
Little boy stood there, «You better sit in that chair. And If you don’t sit in that chair I’ll take you out of this room, and it won’t be a blessing». Little boy sits down. He looks over to him and he says, «I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside». I think we’ve all done that with God. We cooperated with a biblical idea that we knew around morality or generosity or serving, but on the inside we resented it. On the inside, we wished we were a pagan acting in a pagan way. We envy ungodly behavior. Oftentimes we don’t participate, but in our hearts we wish we could. We’re not benefiting from the discipline, we’re forfeiting the blessings that come from our false sense of presentation. It was exactly what Jesus talked about all through the Gospels. He said, «You know, you have all these rules around the Sabbath, but you’ve missed the point».
And when we find ourselves keeping rules, but the objective isn’t to please God with a pure heart, we forfeit the benefit of observing an empty rule. Discipline. It comes into all of our lives. We get so… again, we get so hung up on some of these messages around the good, the grace, and I’m an advocate for it. If you look grace or mercy up, you’ll probably find my picture. I have needed it, but I don’t wanna treat God casually. Look at Hebrews 12, «Endure hardship as discipline, this is New Testament just if you’re tracking, God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you’re not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you’re an illegitimate child and not true sons». We’ve had human fathers who disciplined us. We respected them. How much more should we submit to the father of our spirits and live?
Look at verse 11, «No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful». Do you have a category in your journey with the Lord where you have God inspired seasons that are painful? I think we typically are default positions. «That’s got to be the devil». No, it might be God trying to orchestrate a course correction. How would I know? Well, are you being willfully disobedient if you ask the Holy Spirit? A little doge checkup. «Well, I’m not under law». Well, I agree. Look, «No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it». See, it’s possible to be disciplined and not be trained by it. I trained horses for a time in my life and I can tell you some were better learners than others. I want to learn to be trained by the spirit of God. I want to cooperate with him. It’s important to me.
So, I will practice spiritual disciplines just to introduce opportunities to be trained. Things like the the discipline of reading my Bible, the discipline of praying on a regular basis, the discipline of fasting, the discipline of giving, the discipline of serving, those are all ways to introduce discipline into my life so that I can be trained by them. Because by nature I’m a rebel, I don’t wanna give, I don’t wanna serve, I don’t wanna fast. I prefer gluttonous self-fulfillment. I do. That’s my default setting, but I would miss the best of God. And we have this perverted Gospel that says, «Well, I’m born again».
Okay, you childish, childlike baby Christian. Pop in your pacifier. We’re called to grow up, to be, submit ourselves to discipline. You don’t discipline newborn infants with a great deal of severity, they’re not capable of learning yet. But if you don’t introduce some discipline to a two year old, you don’t wanna be around them when they’re six. And God help you if you get to 16. I learned it with horses. If you’ll discipline them when they are a few weeks old and a few months old, it’s a lot safer than if you initiate that process for the first time when they’re two. They’re big enough and strong enough then. They will hurt you. This parental idea is where this discipline fits in.
If you’re gonna be the chosen people of God, if you’re gonna be special to him, if you’re gonna believe he watches over you and he doesn’t slumber or sleep, that’s not just when you need rescued and when you want a blessing. It means he’s watching over you when you hope he’s not. «Well, he understands». Yeah, he understands sin. He made provision for it. Genesis 12:3, «I’ll bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I’ll curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you». What an amazing promise. Everybody on planet Earth will be blessed through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I would submit to you it’s in our best interest to bless them. The Jewish people aren’t perfect. Any expression of sin or ungodliness you can find in Middle Tennessee, you can find in Jerusalem. I promise you. You need to have enough discernment to know the difference between the Jewish people and Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism, it’s a practice of a religion. And it’s one of the most powerful expressions of the spirit of antichrist in the earth today. I wouldn’t encourage you to keep the holidays. I wouldn’t encourage you to try to keep all the rules. It will take you away from the redemptive work of Jesus. I understand the holidays. I appreciate the holidays. I understand the meals, and I have participated in those celebrations, but I’m not reorienting my life to put myself under the authority of something that takes me away from the redemptive work of Jesus. It’ll bring pride and arrogance and self-righteousness.
If you’re Jewish, it’s a part of your heritage. The discussion is a bit different, but the temptation is still present. Being Jewish doesn’t make you special. The ground at the foot of the cross is level for all of us. The Jewish people have to address Jesus as Lord and Savior, just like the rest of the nations. There’s been a lot of confusion in the church, but there’s been so much hatred directed at the Jewish people when they were on our most celebrated university campuses having the most hateful demonstrations in favor of Hamas who butchered human beings in an inhumane way. And hatred against the Jewish people, there was a deafening silence from the churches. Stunning. It’s hard for me to think of another minority that could have suffered that kind of heinous, brutal attack and then seeing demonstrations at those kind of elite universities and the general public would have been quiet. God forgive us. We’re living in the most remarkable time.
God is moving in the earth. I believe we’re gonna see new solutions break out in the Middle East. It’s again, it made me uncomfortable when President Trump said there’s only two genders because I would have preferred to have heard that being thundered from the churches. I stood in equal amazement when President Trump said, «The solution we’ve had in Israel and the Middle East has failed». I mean, I’m beyond blessed that he has the courage to say it, but I’m also a bit uncomfortable that we haven’t been saying it. The two-state solution has failed. It has precipitated a continual steady stream of violence, murder, and hatred. How long will we continue to endorse something that sees the chosen people of God murdered, slaughtered, and hated before we raise our voice and say, «That’s not working»?
God is moving. Let’s decide to go with him. Let’s decide to use our voices. If we will do that, it will bring the blessings of God to our lives. If we will cooperate with his discipline, it will bring his abundance to us. If we refuse to be trained by it, it’ll bring his judgment more completely and we don’t want that. Let’s stand together. Apostle Paul said something I think is appropriate. He said, «There’s one thing I do,» it’s in Philippians, «putting behind me those things that are behind, I press on towards the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus». The goal of tonight is not to lament where we’ve been, it’s to say to the Lord, «I’m gonna finish well».
All the rewards come from how you finish. At the starting line, we all look good. And we got our cute little clothes on, our new little shoes, and we’re stretching, right? Cameras are on us. They’re introducing us and everyone’s applauding. It’s the starting line. We’re just all cute. At the finish line, we can’t breathe, we’re bent over, our hair is like this, right? We lay down. But all the rewards for how you finished. So, what if we say beginning tonight, we’re going to cooperate with God’s discipline. We’ll walk in obedience to what we know. We will bless those that God has called us to bless, and we will not bless sin and ungodliness. We won’t be unequally yoked. We won’t call good evil and evil good. You ready for that? Let’s pray:
Father, thank you for your Word and its truth and authority and power. I thank you for your people in the earth, that you have called us out of darkness into the kingdom of your son. Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem tonight, for the inhabitants of the land. That you will deliver them from this decades-long curse of a division of that land that you’ve given to them. Lord, may we use our voices. Raise up the voices that are needed to bring forward your purposes and your plans. We thank you for the breakthrough that we see emerging, and we stand with you that the purposes of God might come to the Jewish people in the land of Israel. I pray for the church that you’ll awaken us from our slumber. Lord, we have been idolatrous, greedy, and immoral and addicted to our selfish pleasures, forgive us. That we choose to submit to your discipline so that you might bring your very best to us and to our children and to their children after them. We thank you for it in Jesus’s name, amen.