Lesson 121                                                                 April 10, 2008

 

NKJ Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

 

We’re continuing our study on the New Covenant taking a large detour.  It is not a rabbit trail, but taking a large detour to understand this whole concept of the New Covenant.  It is so important to understand this and there is so much said in the Old Testament that really we have taken a lot more time on this than I anticipated.  But, it’s been good.  I hope it’s been as instructive for you as it has been for me because it’s really helped me go through and put together a lot of things in the Old Testament that I don’t normally get a chance to work through and come to understand. 

 

As I show in this chart related to God’s covenants is that in the Old Testament God made a covenant with Abraham that is the foundation of everything that happens in human history since Genesis 12.  This is fundamental to understand and for the understanding and interpretation of history because it puts Israel and the Jews at the center of history.  They are God’s people whether they are in obedience to God or whether they are in apostasy.  The promise of God in Genesis 12:3 that “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” is just as true today though Israel is out of the land and in apostasy.  It’s just as true today as it was when they were walking with the Lord at the times of David and Solomon in the Old Testament. 

 

So the Abrahamic Covenant was given to Abraham. It had three basic provisions – land, seed and blessing. God promised them a specific piece of real estate, gave the boundaries in the Old Testament.  He promised that there would be a – a blessing would flow through a seed and it was through that seed that all nations would be blessed.  Each of these aspects is expanded in subsequent covenants.  There was the real estate covenant in Deuteronomy 29 and 30 in which you have the first hint of a covenant that would replace the Mosaic Covenant that would provide not only the land, but would also provide them with the internal dynamics to be obedient to God to experience all the blessings that God promised them in the Mosaic Covenant.

 

Then you have the Davidic Covenant which was a promise to David that through him a seed would come.  Ultimately that is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ by Paul in Galatians. 

 

Then you have the New Covenant which what will provide for a change in Israel. 

 

So we have the real estate covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant.  These three covenants (which give more specifics than the Abrahamic Covenant) will all be fulfilled at the same time when Jesus Christ returns to the earth at the Second Coming to establish His kingdom.  The New Covenant in fact (as we will see tonight0 connects its fulfillment to the fulfillment of the land covenant and the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.  By virtue of our relationship to Jesus Christ as we saw in the first part of Hebrews 8, we are related to the New Covenant.  His high priestly ministry is established by what He did on the cross.  It is a high priestly ministry established in relation to the New Covenant.  The blood that was shed on the cross as a sacrifice established the foundation for the New Covenant, but its enactment does not come until Jesus Christ returns.  It is not in full force or any force today because the Jews aren’t in the land and they’re not - they don’t have the Son of David and they don’t have the Davidic seed leading them.  So we will see this.

 

Now just a couple of other passages that we haven’t looked at before…  Ezekiel 16:60-62 God says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 16:60 " Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth,

 

That’s a reference back to the Mosaic Covenant. 

 

and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

 

That is the New Covenant because it’s everlasting.  The New Covenant replaces the Mosaic Covenant.  Then God says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 16:61 "Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters;

 

That is a reference to believers from other dispensations – from Gentiles.  Those who are older would be believers prior to Israel’s calling under Abraham. Subsequently would be those in the Church Age. 

 

for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

 

…in other words, not on the basis of the Mosaic Covenant. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 16:62 "And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD,

 

That is future tense and that is the New Covenant. 

 

Then in Jeremiah 30, the chapter before the main statement of the New Covenant which is Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

NKJ Jeremiah 30:10 ' Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,' says the LORD, 'Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar,

 

This is going to give us the time when the New Covenant is put into effect. 

 

Deuteronomy 29 says that God would remove them from the land. 

 

And your seed from the land of their captivity.

 

This isn’t just Babylon.  This is broader than that.  When He restores them to the land…

 

Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make him afraid.

 

NKJ Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with you,' says the LORD, 'to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you.

 

This has not happened yet.  That occurs at the end of the tribulation period when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to defeat the armies of the nations under the Antichrist.  This is seen prophetically in Psalm 2 that the kings of the nations rage against the Lord and His anointed. 

 

But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.'

 

Okay.  Now we’ve gone through the Scriptures.  We looked at Hosea; then we looked at Isaiah.  Now we’re in Ezekiel looking at all these various passages where God mentions the fact that He is going to give them this New Covenant.  The term “new covenant” is only used in Jeremiah 31:31, but the other passages refer to a future covenant that is eternal. So what we’ve seen so far is that the terminology seems to relate to regeneration, but that the Jews individually have already been regenerate in terms of personal salvation, justification-salvation.  But nationally, there has to be a cleansing in preparation for God’s future plans during the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

So this regeneration is a regeneration that is going to supply new spiritual dynamics.  They will have the Holy Spirit and manifestations of the Holy Spirit that we do not have in the Church Age and there will be an internalization of God’s Word and the truth of God that goes beyond anything we can imagine and all Jews will be believers in the Millennial Kingdom and will be obedient to them because God promises to give them a new heart (which I think indicates a new mind), a new internal dynamic; and He is going to put His Spirit within them.  We will again review some of these passages and what we will see coming up. 

 

These passages as I’ve said before are connected to both the land covenant and the Davidic Covenant. Now I want you to open your Bibles with me to Ezekiel.  Tonight we are going to move from Ezekiel 36 into Ezekiel 37. 

 

If you are a fan of the oldies stations, every now and then they will play a song from the 50’s called Them Bones.  This is the chapter that they got that idea from – the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is connected to the thigh bone…that is what this is based on. 

 

The picture here in the first 14 verses is how God is going to begin to bring the Jews back to the land.  Before He breathes His spirit upon them which is the New Covenant (It’s not regeneration.) He is going to bring them back to the land bit-by-bit.  First He will bring them back as bones.  Then He will put sinew on them and gradually pull the nation back together again.  I believe that is what we are beginning to see today.  The image there is that Ezekiel is set down in the midst of a valley.  It’s full of bones. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.

 

I’m not sure about this, but I have heard a number of people think, “Well, what is it that the bones represent…the nation of Israel and what dried out the bones other than the ovens of Auschwitz?”  That may be poetic license, but I think there is possibly an application there because there is this emphasis on the fact that they are dry and it could simply mean that it is emphasizing the fact that there is no life there and it has been a very long time since there was life there.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:3 And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:5 'Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

 

And there is an order given. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:6 "I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD." ' "

 

…which is the last stage.  So there is a process of pulling these bones back together and then putting sinews upon them and then flesh upon them and then skin and last of all breath.  This is related to the giving of the Holy Spirit which I believe occurs with the New Covenant.  It fits with what we read in Ezekiel 36 that God would give them a new heart and a new Spirit and put a new Spirit within them. 

 

Now all that is just introduction to the chapter.  Verse 15 is where it starts to get interesting.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:15 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

 

So this is the second vision related to this restoration of Israel as a spiritually vital people. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:16 "As for you, son of man,

 

So God is speaking. 

 

take a stick for yourself and write on it:

 

So he takes a first stick and he writes upon it. 

 

'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.'

 

So the first stick is Judah.  He is instructed to take another stick and write on it for Joseph.

 

Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.'

 

Now what does that mean?  Y’all are fairly educated and you can probably figure that out.  The first time I saw this verse (I don’t think I had read through Ezekiel.) was when a Mormon missionary used it.  It is important to understand this. 

 

What they will do is come and say, “See a stick is what they use for a scroll and all books were written on sticks.  There is one stick here that is related to Judah and one that’s related to Joseph.  Joseph is the northern tribes.  So you have one stick. That’s the Old Testament related to Judah and the other stick is a second book of revelation that’s related to the ten lost tribes which ended up over in North American and became the Mormons.” 

 

Now I knew that wasn’t right, but I didn’t know why it wasn’t right.  Like I have pointed out several times – it’s one thing to know what’s right, but you can still get deceived if you don’t know why the other view is wrong.  So in order to think you not only need to understand to some degree what truth is; but you need to understand why when you hear error, it is error.  Not just because you go, “Well, that doesn’t feel right.”

 

We saw that the other night when we watched the video on Oprah’s new religion and she said, “Well, I heard this preacher talk about God who was a jealous God and that just didn’t feel right.”

 

I can tell you there are a lot of things in life we should do that don’t feel right.  A colostomy is one of those things.  There are a lot of things that don’t feel right. 

 

I thought of that the other day and I said, “You know I’ve got to have an earthy description here for this New Earth thing that Oprah has.”

 

A colostomy just doesn’t feel good.  So, we’ve got to use something other than feelings to determine truth. (Well, I got everybody awake again.)  You can’t base your thinking on feeling.  You have to know what is wrong and why it is wrong to understand what is going on and be thinking clearly. 

 

What is happening here is simply an image.  This is how God operates all the way through Ezekiel.  He tells Ezekiel to do certain things because the enactment pictures something.  What he is going to do by taking these two sticks and one does represent the Northern Kingdom and that’s Joseph.  Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.  Ephraim and Manasseh were both part of the northern ten tribes.  Ephraim was more dominant and often the Northern Kingdom not only is referred to as Israel but in other places it is referred to as Ephraim.  So Ephraim stands for the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom is Judah.  So they are to take these two sticks. 

 

In verse 17 God says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:17 "Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

 

It’s a very simple image that God is going to take the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom which were separated and divided at the tax revolt of Jeroboam I when Solomon died and Rehoboam (his son) became the king of Israel.  He increased the taxes and the northern 10 tribes separated, had a tax revolt led by Jeroboam I.  From that time up to and including the present (until the return of Christ) the nation would remain divided.  So what this is to symbolize is there would be a time in the future when God would reunite the tribes and restore them to the land.    

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:17 "Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:18 " And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?' –

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:19 "say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand." '

 

This is not talking about the canon of Scripture or scrolls.  It is simply a picture that God would in the future restore the nations.   In verse 20 God says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:20 "And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:21 "Then say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:

 

Now this is where we start getting into a little more specifics related to the New Covenant. 

 

"Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations,

 

So at this particular time they are out among the nations, scattered among the nations.

 

wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;

 

This is not the return of 538 from Babylon.  It is from all the nations.  It has not yet occurred. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:22 "and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

 

Critical statement!  That explains the imagery. See God doesn’t leave us to guess what His Word means.  He tells us what it means so that we’re not left to contemplate our navels or wait for a little liver-quiver to figure out what God might be telling us.  He explains the imagery precisely.  He is going to restore the unity of the people.  There will be one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel.  The repetition there reinforces that He is talking about the traditional historical piece of real estate.  He’s not talking about putting them in Kenya or finding some piece of real estate in South America for all the Jews to go to, but their traditional homeland. 

 

they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

 

So this has never happened.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:23 "They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things,

 

The word for defile here is translated in the Greek miano, but it is the opposite of being cleansed which we looked at last time.  It is ritual cleansing.  If you recall (and you can make a cross reference in your own notes to go back and check this0 that in chapter 36 when we looked at verse 25 and God says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

 

This is talking about the same thing.  It is a cleansing and the result of this and it’s a ceremonial cleansing.  This isn’t talking about them getting saved.  They are already saved.   It is now a national cleansing that takes place because of the national disobedience of idolatry and the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:23 …nor with any of their transgressions;

 

They will not do this anymore.  They’re not going to sin in this way anymore.  Period!  That’s hard for us to understand because we want to say, “What about volition?” 

 

Well, I don’t know, but it’s a different dispensation with different dynamics so we have to figure out God knows what He’s doing and has His lessons that He’s going to demonstrate. What He is demonstrating here is that ultimately for man to experience the blessing of God he can’t do it on his own at all.  God’s the one who not only has to do the work of salvation, but He has to change the internal dynamics so that man will be obedient.

 

but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

 

This is what happens at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

In these previous verses 15 down to 19, the emphasis has been on reuniting them where?  In the land, fulfillment of the land covenant.  Now starting in verse 24 when they’re reunited in the land, David becomes their king again.  This is a resurrected David.  Jesus Christ is ruling the earth, but David will be resurrected and David will be ruler over his people.  This is not talking about the seed of David or a descendent of David.    He says:

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:24 " David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.

 

Now if I were to take the time I would go back to look at these phrases like “walk in My judgments”, “observe My statutes and do them” and I would see that in the Mosaic Law these were commands that they were to do these things.  They were to walk and observe and do.  But, if they didn’t, there would be disciplinary consequences.  But we don’t see that kind of if-then terminology here in these verses.  It is “then they will do this”.  There will not be sin.  There will not be disobedience.  There will not be a failure among any of the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:25 "Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there,

 

Notice where the fathers dwelt; they didn’t dwell in Kenya. 

 

You know there was an attempt to establish when the Jews were returning trying to find a homeland back in the early days of Zionism in the late 1800’s. 

 

There were a few groups here and there that said, “Well maybe we could go get some land in Africa or maybe we could go to South America.  A few other places were suggested.  But the final decision was no.  The Jews need to be in the traditional homeland of Jews and we need to go back to Zion.  And that’s where they will dwell.  They have God-given right to the land.  But they don’t have a right to experience blessing unless there is an obedient heart.  So they’re in the land now.  You see this gradual return, but they’re in apostasy.  They have rejected Jesus as the Messiah.    

 

The last point, the last part of that verse:

 

they, their children, and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.

 

…a restatement of the fact that David is going to rule them.  In none of these passages in Ezekiel that talk about David is there a suggestion of a descendent of David.  It calls him David.  That means that David is going to be resurrected and he will be the prince (the ruler) over Israel in the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

God says;

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:26 "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them;

 

We’ve seen this terminology used several times before in relation to the New Covenant. 

 

I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

 

Now remember what I said.  The people have to be regathered.  They come back to the land mostly in apostasy.  Then they will be in the land during the tribulation period and there will be tremendous judgments on them though there will be hundreds of thousands (I believe) that will trust Christ as their Savior.  They will flee into the wilderness when they see the abomination of desolation.  Then they will unite as a people in hiding down near Petra.  The Bible calls it Basra which is in that hill country of southern Jordan, actually it’s to the southeast of the Dead Sea.  There they will call upon the name of the Lord.  We’ll see that I think before we are done tonight.  They will call upon the name of the Lord and Jesus Christ will come and rescue them and lead an army out of Edom.  The Scripture says that “blood is dripping from His robes as he is destroying the enemies of Israel” leading them with the tribe of Judah in the vanguard leading them in a victorious assault on Jerusalem which is now where the Antichrist is located.  After all this death and the defilement of the Temple by the Antichrist during the tribulation period with the abomination of desolation there has to be a cleansing of the land because God is once again going to take up His dwelling presence on the land of Israel.  He will establish a temple and He will dwell with His people there.  That’s what this is talking about. That’s why there has to be this national cleansing.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:27 "My tabernacle

 

This is the word for dwelling place. 

 

also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:28 "The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore." ' "

 

So this becomes a testimony for them. 

 

Just hold your place there for just a minute.  I want to show a corollary passage that’s very important.  We haven’t gone to this before.  This is in Isaiah 2.  We can even drop back a little bit into the end of chapter 1 because it talks about how He is going to judge and purify Israel.  In 1:24:

 

NKJ Isaiah 1:24 Therefore the Lord says, The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies.

 

NKJ Isaiah 1:25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross,

 

That’s all the impurities that are there.  That’s the cleansing.   That’s part of the judgments in revelation. 

 

And take away all your alloy.

 

NKJ Isaiah 1:26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city."

 

NKJ Isaiah 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with righteousness.

 

NKJ Isaiah 1:28 The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, And those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

 

Okay, skip down to 2:1.

 

.NKJ Isaiah 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

 2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days

 

That puts us in the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains,

 

There will be an earthquake that occurs at the end of the tribulation period that splits the Mt. of Olives.  I think there is going to be a massive upheaval land which is going to provide this new location for the mountain of the Lord.  It’s not the present Temple Mount.  It’s going to be much larger.  The Millennial Temple is going to be one mile square.  It is one mile on each side so it’s going to be much, much larger. 

 

And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.

 

That’s the same thing we’re reading in Ezekiel 37.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:26 "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

 

NKJ Isaiah 2:3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths."

 

Now these are Gentiles.  What we have read about the New Covenant is that there will be no cause for a man to teach his neighbor.  But that’s among Israel.  But now the Gentiles are going to have to come and they’re going to have to be taught.

    

For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

 

NKJ Isaiah 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

This is what will happen under the Messiah in the Millennial Kingdom.  Now this verse is ripped out of context and placed over the entrance to the United Nations building in New York which shows that they are claiming for themselves a religious messianic purpose.  When I was there in the past, they have in the courtyard various statues to Greek gods and goddesses (mythological figures).  So it’s clear that this is a religious entity making religious claims.   

 

Yet Americans walk around and go, “Everybody is secular in the whole world like we are.  We need to let the UN take away our national identify and our national security.” 

 

We’re playing into the kind of scenario that will dominate to feed into the rise of the Antichrist. 

 

So let’s go to our next passage on the New Covenant in Amos – Amos 9.   Again this is a prophetic passage related to the establishment of the New Covenant.

 

NKJ Amos 9:13 " Behold, the days are coming,"

 

This is a traditional, standard opening for prophesy. 

 

says the LORD, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it.

 

This is a picture of a blessing. 

 

NKJ Amos 9:14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;

 

It’s focusing on this restoration.

 

They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.

 

NKJ Amos 9:15 I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the LORD your God.

 

So it connects this time of unprecedented blessing and prosperity for Israel with their being back in the land.

 

Other passages such as Zechariah 14:9. 

 

NKJ Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be -- "The LORD is one," And His name one.

 

So we see once again this emphasis on restoration.  Now one of the passages in Zechariah 12:10.  Just turn back two chapters.

 

NKJ Zechariah 12:10 " And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication;

 

This connects back to the fact that...Ezekiel 36 and 37...

 

NKJ Ezekiel 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

 

NKJ Ezekiel 37:14 "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.' "

 

… and now Zechariah…

 

NKJ Zechariah 12:10 " And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him

 

This is not talking about when they finally realize Jesus is the Messiah.  What precedes this is this outpouring of the Spirit and in this outpouring of the Spirit and the new spiritual understanding and reality that these already saved Jews have; they’re going to realize in a much more significant way than they ever have before just exactly what they have done.  They will see how they rejected the Son of God and how they crucified the Son of God.  They will mourn.  This is not when they are saved.  They’re already saved.  But now when they get this new manifestation of the Spirit, they are going to realize just how terrible their failure has been and they will mourn for Him.

 

as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

 

In fact this passage is quoted in the first chapter of Revelation.

 

Now we have one more passage to go to in the Old Testament related to the New Covenant.  That is Joel 2:28-31.  Now this is an important passage as I pointed out in the past because this passage is quoted by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2 just as the disciples are gathered (and there are only 11 of them there) at the Portico of Solomon there at the Temple on the Day of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit descends to give birth to the church and there are flames of fire that appear over the disciples and they speak in languages.  Now there is a whole list people groups and language groups that are present in Jerusalem for one of these festivals.  There are three pilgrim festivals in the Jewish ritual calendar where Jewish males all have to come to Jerusalem and sacrifice.  And, that was the event.  At that event the Holy Spirit descends and they speak in languages.  They are accused. 

 

People are looking at them going, “Aren’t these Galileans?   They must be drunk already.  It’s nine o’clock in the morning.  What’s all this babbling?” 

 

They couldn’t understand some of the languages. 

 

Peter then says, “These men are not drunk as you think, but this is what the prophet Joel said.” 

 

This is the passage.

    

NKJ Joel 2:28 " And it shall come to pass afterward

 

The “after this” if you read the previous verses, describe the horrors of judgment on Israel during the tribulation period and their deliverance.

 

That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.

29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

 30 "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

 

So this is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Israel.  Then if you read into the beginning of chapter 3: 32… 

 

NKJ Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.

 

Not saved (soteriological justification), but deliverance from the calamity that is about to befall those Jews who have survived. 

 

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.

 

So this is a picture in these verses of an event that will happen in the future for Joel and the future for us when God pours out the Holy Spirit upon the Jews.  They call upon the name of the Lord and they will be delivered.  It’s physical deliverance at this particular time.  Now I have belabored this point again and again as we’ve gone through this that this fits all that other New Covenant language that we’ve seen in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 37 and the passages that we just looked at in Amos and in Zechariah that at the time the New Covenant is established God pours forth His Spirit. 

 

Now if you come along and you read Acts 2, when Peter quotes this passage if you think he is saying that the events of Pentecost are literally fulfilling this prophecy; then you have a problem because nothing in this prophecy happened in Acts 2.  What this prophecy talks about and it’s quoted precisely in Acts 2 is that

 

NKJ Acts 2:17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

 

That doesn’t happen at Pentecost. 

 

Your old men shall dream dreams.

 

That didn’t happen on the Day of Pentecost. 

 

Your young men shall see visions,

 

That did not happen on the day of Pentecost. 

 

NKJ Acts 2:18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.

 

NKJ Acts 2:19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

 

That did not happen on the Day of Pentecost. 

 

NKJ Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

 

That did not occur on the Day of Pentecost. 

 

Not one thing mentioned in this passage occurs on the Day of Pentecost.  But, Peter says that this is what the prophet Joel talks about.  What did happen on the Day of Pentecost was that the Holy Spirit descended and flames of fire appeared over the heads of the disciples and they spoke in languages that they had not previously learned.  Tongues is a bad translation today.  The word “tongues” refers to languages - still used that way but because of the Pentecostal movement there is a problem there with misunderstanding.  They spoke in the languages of these Jews who had come as pilgrims to Jerusalem so that they could communicate the gospel to them. There was a purpose for that that the Jews were coming to Jerusalem would expect to hear the language of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,  Moses, David and Solomon which was Hebrew.  If they came and they heard the language of Gentiles according to Isaiah 28; it would be a sign of judgment.  This is what Paul talks about in I Corinthians 14.  So they are speaking in these languages and it’s a result of this manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. 

 

And when Peter says, “This is what the prophet Joel said,” he’s not saying this is a fulfillment like Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  This would be fulfilled literally when Jesus is born in Bethlehem.  It is a similarity.  There is only one point of similarity between Joel 2 and Acts 2 – that’s the coming of the Holy Spirit.  That’s what Peter is saying.  These are spiritual manifestations from the Holy Spirit just like those mentioned in Joel 2; but this isn’t the coming of the arrival of the New Covenant and it’s not the arrival of the kingdom although that could come because in the next chapter he says, “If you would repent the times of refreshing would come.”  So Joel 2 is a crucial passage for understanding this because this shows us that the New Covenant comes and is put into effect with the giving of the Holy Spirit at the end of the tribulation period. 

 

Now there is a very important passage to connect this to in order to see how this is fulfilled in the New Testament.  I want you to turn to Romans 11.  Now I’m not going to get involved in a lengthy analysis of Romans 9, 10, and 11.  The focal point of Romans 9, 10, and 11 is on Israel and God’s justice toward Israel.  In Romans 9 the focus is on the past; Romans 10 begins to connect some things together.  In Romans 10 we have a very well-known verse that is usually taken out of context.  But, it also fits this whole repentance framework for Israel.  Remember they need to turn to God before they’re going to begin to be delivered.  If you look at Romans 10, let’s just start in verse 8.

 

NKJ Romans 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

 

The idea is that the message is available.

 

NKJ Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

 

Everybody goes to that last word “saved” and goes, “This is talking about getting into heaven.   This is talking about justification salvation.” 

 

But that’s not the context of Romans 9, 10, and 11.  Romans 9, 10, and 11 are talking about how God’s grace toward Israel is ultimately going to be manifest because at the very beginning of Romans 9 the question is “has God set aside Israel?”  He’s going to come back to that question in Romans 11.   Has God permanently set aside Israel?   He hasn’t.

 

The word sozo sometimes means physical healing.  Sometimes it means deliverance from danger.  I think that’s what it is here because look at the context. 

 

NKJ Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,

 

That’s it.  If you believe in your heart (which is the thinking part of your soul) that Jesus died for your sins, at that instant you receive the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.  At that point you are justified and you have eternal life.  You are born again.  All those things happen at the same time.   

 

and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

 

The Jews that arrive in Basra in the area of Petra are already justified, but they have to call upon the name of the Lord.  Jesus Christ when He’s talking to His disciples and He is on the Mt. of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and He weeps over Jerusalem because of how they have treated the prophets and He says “ I will not come again until you call upon me”…  This is what this is talking about. This is what Joel is talking about in our passage here that…in verse 32.

 

That is quoted right here when we get down to verse 13.

 

NKJ Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

 

NKJ Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

 

NKJ Romans 10:13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

 

Now here it is translated saved, but it’s the same word.  It’s delivered, so that when the Jews come together as a national group (as a corporate group) in the desert of Basra they will be on the verge of mass extinction by the Antichrist and they will call on the name of the Lord.  They have already expressed faith in their hearts and are justified, but they need to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah to deliver them.

 

Now let’s just skip over to chapter 11.  Chapter 11 starts off by saying:

 

NKJ Romans 11:1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

 

He has not permanently cast them away.  In the remainder of this chapter Paul is going to use this analogy to show that God is temporarily set Israel aside so that He can now bless the Gentiles, but in the future Israel will be restored to a place of blessing.  He uses this illustration of the olive tree.  In the olive true the roots represent the Abrahamic Covenant of blessing.  The Jews are temporarily removed.  They are pictured as the natural olive branches that are cut off and that refers to discipline not loss of salvation.  They’re cut off (taken from the path of blessing) and wild olive branches are grafted in.  That’s Gentiles.  We enter in and we receive blessing. 

 

But lest Gentiles become arrogant thinking, “Well, look how good we are; those lousy rotten Jews.”… don’t succumb to anti-Semitism in other words.  If you do, then God can just as easily removed the Gentiles from the path of blessing and restore the natural branches which is what He will do. 

 

Then we come to the main verse down in about 26.  It says:

 

NKJ Romans 11:26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

 

Now the way that’s constructed in English grammar, this looks like Paul has given this discourse on the grafting in of the natural olive branches.  Verse 25 he said:

 

NKJ Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

 

Once that fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then there is going to be another change.  That’s the idea.  But, the “and so” isn’t a conclusion.  The word you have here in the Greek translated “so” in the New American Standard and translated “thus” in the New King James is a word that should be translated “and in this manner that I am getting ready to tell you about, Israel will be saved.”  It’s the same word that’s used in John 3:16 when it says “God so love the world.”  People think that means “for God love the world so much.”  That’s not what it means.  That word “so” is the same word that’s here and it means “For God loved the world in this way that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

 

What Romans 11 is saying “In this manner and thusly all Israel shall be saved.”

 

So this sets it up.  What the verse says is the deliverer will come out of Zion and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.  Who’s the deliverer?  The Lord Jesus Christ.  He turns away ungodliness from Jacob and this is when He is taking away their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh and putting His Spirit within them.  He says:

 

NKJ Romans 11:27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

 

That’s what occurs and we covered this Sunday morning in Daniel 9 when I talked about those 6 purposes that are brought about at the end to Daniel’s 70th weeks that “I will bring an end of transgression and atonement and all of that”.  This is that end of transgression, end of sin for Israel.  This is when He takes away their sin nationally.  He comes back at the Second Coming and the Jews are restored.  Paul goes on to say:

 

NKJ Romans 11:28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

 

NKJ Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

 

That verse is misquoted everywhere.  What that means is that God called out Abraham and made a promise to his descendents that they would be in that land.  He is not going to go back on that word.  He is not going to reject Israel finally and totally. 

 

So what we’ve done tonight is to pull together a lot of these loose threads.  We’ve gone through in the past weeks all the different passages related to the New Covenant as the everlasting covenant.  We have seen all the different promises in Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and now Ezekiel and how they relate to all these different manifestations of what will happen when Israel is brought to the land when the Jews who survive the tribulation are already saved, justified before they escape go down to Basra.  At Basra as a corporate group they call upon the name of the Lord to deliver them.   God delivers them.  He has already poured out His Holy Spirit.  All this happens in a very close timeframe and then He is going to defeat the Antichrist and establish the nation, the kingdom the Millennial Kingdom. All of that happens within that time period.

 

Next time what we’ll do is we’ll come back and I want to go through a summary of all this just give us one last shot to make sure we’ve pulled it all together and then go into those New Testament passages that everybody wants to talk about when Jesus at the Lord’s table (Too bad we didn’t get there today since we have the Lord’s table Sunday) says:

 

NKJ 1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

 

In Matthew it is recorded.

 

NKJ Matthew 26:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

 

What is He talking about in II Corinthians when Paul says:

 

NKJ 2 Corinthians 3:6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 

What is he talking about?  How does the New Covenant relate to the church?  Now that we’ve taken about ten weeks to go through all these Old Testament passages to understand what the New Covenant is, we can be prepared to understand how it relates to the church.  See the problem is (I hope you appreciate this.) that you can’t just come in here and flippantly talk about this stuff because those believers who first received Hebrews understood all this. Most of these people had memorized the Old Testament in Hebrew or Aramaic.  They knew all of these whereas we don’t.  What the writer of Hebrews is doing is he is pulling all this together to make application.  The problem that we have in our modern churches is that we don’t have enough of grounding in all of these passages in the Old Testament to pull all these threads together and truly appreciate and understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying and the application.  This becomes foundational to understand what comes up in the rest of chapter 8, chapter 9 and chapter 10.  As we go into this we’re going to have to take some other detours to go through Exodus, the tabernacle, the articles in the tabernacle, the  sacrifices offerings all these things because they form the backdrop for understanding all these things.  So a lot of times before we can even start appreciating what the circle of application is, we have to understand what (is it) the Bible is actually saying.  Then once we understand what it is saying, then the application just sort of becomes obvious.  The problem with most people and why most people get confused is because they don’t take the time to go through and do this kind of nitty-gritty hard work. 

 

So let’s bow our heads together in closing prayer.