Sermon Tone Analysis

March 29, 2012

By: John Barnett

Read, print, or listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

The God who recorded the beginning, that no one but Him witnessed in Genesis; is also the God gives us the ending, that no one but Him could have ever written, in Revelation.

Isn’t it amazing that God devotes 1/4th or 25% of the Bible to the indivisible union that the world’s destiny has with God’s Chosen People of Promise, Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jews?

Never forget:

*The Centrality of Israel In the Bible*

Israel is the 3rd largest topic is the Bible right after: God/Lord Himself mentioned 12,000 times (God 4094x/Lord 6781x/plus Jesus, Christ, Spirit, etc.); and salvation (man 3323x/sin 1016x/Jesus 942x); Israel is mentioned over 2900x and Jerusalem 767x.

The church 111x, prayer 128x, and the cross 29x are much less mentioned.

Over 200 times God introduces Himself as the Great I am, the God of Israel (plus 17x the God of Abraham, and 25x the God of Jacob).

He is not the “I was”, He is the “I AM”; and He is, His was, and has promised in the future that He will be the God of Israel.

Using just a normal Bible with no study notes (my Bible is 1100 pages long) you find that:

• 600 pages (Genesis to Song of Solomon) are Israel’s origin, history, wanderings away from God, and worship (that is 600/1100 pages or) 54%; and

• 250 pages are devoted to the prophets (Isaiah to Malachi) that speak of the doom coming first to Israel then and the world in the future (that is 250/1100 pages or) 23%; and then we get

• 110 pages devoted to the Life of Christ (Matthew to John) that lasts for (110/1100 pages or) 10% of the Bible; and then

• 120 pages devoted to the record of Acts to Jude that explains Christ's Church’s birth and mission for 120/1100 pages or 11%; and then the

• 20 pages of Revelation describing the centrality of Israel and Jerusalem in end of the world take up almost (20/1100 pages or) 2% of the Bible.

So just a simple glance at the Table of Contents of God's Word would make a reader conclude that Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jews are very important to God.

He has chosen to devote fully (4/5ths or) 79% of the Bible to Israel’s origin, calling, chastisement, return, and future troubles that engulf the whole world.

And also, just the layout of the Bible that opens and closes with Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jews with the Church’s 21 % of the Word sandwiched importantly, but intentionally between the opening and closing

When the Old Testament prophets explained the future they universally began with Israel and all details revolved around Jerusalem and the Land.

Each times Jesus explained how the world would end He starts with Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jewish people (Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21).

Paul does the same in Romans 9-11, First and Second Thessalonians (II Th. 2:4); as does John in Revelation 11, 13, 16, 19.

*God Keeps His Promises To Israel Literally*

Tonight, we are on the 10th of 12 promises God made to Israel.

When God makes a promise, He keeps it.

We cling to Him keeping His Word, like “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, and I will come again for you”.

As we open to Ezekiel 36 always remember the purpose of prophecy is for God to authenticate His identity.

Prophecy is the proof that God is God alone!

Ezekiel 36 and 39 says God will restore Israel in the last days, for the sake of HIS NAME (36:20-21; 39:7, 25)

Ezekiel 36:20, 25-21 /"When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned *My holy name*—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

21 But I had concern for *My holy name*, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

Ezekiel 39:7, 25 So I will make *My holy name* known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane* My holy name* anymore.

Then the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for* My holy name*—"/

So, to understand what God meant with the 10th promise He made to Israel (concerning Jerusalem and the end of the world), we need to note how God kept His other promises He gave to Israel in His Word.

These promises identify Israel as the nation that will signal the end of days.

God has verified, each time He keeps these promises that the Jews, and the nation of Israel, are His Chosen People of Promise:

This may be one of the most important studies we have ever undertaken, so feel free to trace these points and verses in your Bibles as we go along!

*1.

God promised Abraham: descendants who would the chosen people of God; and property for them with clearly defined boundaries *in Genesis 12:1; 13:15; 15:7, 18-21.

Genesis 15:7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans *to give you this land to take possession of it.*”

He renewed that promise to Abraham's son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), to his grandson Jacob (Genesis 28:13), and to their descendants after them forever (Leviticus 25:46; Joshua 14:9; etc.).

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

2. *God promised Moses that He would Divinely bring His chosen people of destiny to the Promised Land.*

Exodus 6:7-8 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

8* And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham*, to Isaac and to Jacob.

I will give it to you as a possession.

I am the LORD.

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY*.

3. *God stakes His future reputation on people He identified as His chosen people of destiny, the Jews, the descendents of Abraham, and He named them Israel.*

Deuteronomy 7:6-7 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God;* the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself,* a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;

And that is the* literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

4. *God promised to judge His chosen people of destiny if they forgot Him in the Promised Land.* 2 Chronicles 7:20* then I will uproot Israel from my land*, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.

I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said* LITERALLY.*

5. *God promised to scatter His unfaithful but chosen people of destiny from the Promised Land.*

Deuteronomy 28:64 Then* the LORD will scatter you* among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.

There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

6. *God promised a curse upon His unfaithful but chosen people of destiny as they wandered the world without their Promised Land.*

Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.

And that is the* literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

7. *God promised to chasten His unfaithful but chosen people of destiny.*

My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto Him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations (Hosea 9:17).

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY*.

8. *God promised to preserve His chosen people of destiny from annihilation*.

Jeremiah 30:11 "I am with you and will save you," declares the LORD.

"Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you,* I will not completely destroy you.*

I will discipline you but only with justice; I will not let you go entirely unpunished."

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

9. *God promised to re-gather His chosen people of destiny back to the Promised Land*.

Ezekiel 36:24, 35 ‘For I will take you out of the nations; *I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.*

35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.”

And that is the *literal history* of the Jews from any historical, secular source.

So God kept His promise and fulfilled what He said *LITERALLY.*

*God Has Kept His Word To Israel Each Time*

So, how has God kept the first 9 promises?

He fulfilled them exactly as He promised, with each specific detail He described in His Word, and in each case:* literally.*

1) God gave Abraham a son through the succeeding generations, countless descendents; and

2) God took them out Egypt and literally into the Promised Land; and

3) God conquered a literal physical Land for them by fighting alongside of them; and

4) God delivered them into literal captivity among their enemies; and

5) God saw that the Jews were literally displaced, enslaved, sold, and scattered to the ends of the earth from The Promised Land across the Middle East, by caravan to Asia and Africa, and by boat to Europe and America.

There is almost no spot on earth that Jews could not be found; and

6) God allowed vicious, literal prejudice and hatred to be poured out on the Jews ever since, in every land they have settled in; and

7) God has made them feel after a while persecuted, unsettled, insecure, and homeless in every land; and

8) God has kept them from literal extermination, from planned Holocausts, and has not allowed them to go extinct; and

9) God has stirred their hearts, gathered them bit-by-bit back into their geographic Land, and has allowed them for the first time in 2600 years to have their own sovereignty over literal territorial boundaries.

So what is the next promise God made?

Turn with me to the 38th book of the Bible, just a couple of pages before Matthew.