[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:15] Well, a very appropriate song for what we're doing. Brother Sam, if you'll come this way. The gentlemen have a handout for you, and they're going to give that out. That'll be for Brother Sam Wilson's message.
[0:25] Brother Sam is a missionary with the International Board of Jewish Missions, and he is a great blessing to our church here. And we met him the first time in Moscow when we were over on a trip, and we have been fast friends since the Lord brought him here to Vision two or three years ago.
[0:42] And so I hope you'll pay attention, and I know the Lord's going to deal with our hearts. Thank you, Brother Sam. Thank you, sir. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to be here with you today.
[0:53] I am thrilled to death. We have Thursday evening, then Friday 9 to 1, Saturday 9 to 1, and then this morning and this evening, we're doing what we're calling the City on a Hill, I don't know, seminar, conference, whatever it is, basically trying to strengthen our ability to share Christ with our neighbors.
[1:14] Our ministry is ministering to the Jewish people, so we make a special emphasis on reaching out to Jewish people, but we want to reach out to everyone. We want to get the gospel to everyone. And so the whole point of what we've been doing from Thursday through this evening is how we can do a better job of sharing Christ with our neighbors, Jewish and Gentile.
[1:34] And I hope it's been a blessing to you. This has been just a wonderful time for me. I cannot tell you how blessed I've been. And I'm concerned that we do a better job, that I do a better job, and that each one of us does a better job of getting the gospel out to the people that we know, to our neighbors.
[1:53] And especially that we get the gospel out to the Jewish people. 120,000 Jewish people in Atlanta. And they don't have the gospel. Nobody's taking the gospel to them.
[2:04] By the way, Brother Way, I'm so thrilled that you're here. 158,000 Jewish people in London that need the gospel. And more Jewish people there than even here in Atlanta, although none of us can compete with New York.
[2:17] They've got 2 million there. So there's plenty of Jewish people there. But I want, in the time that we've got this morning, I want to spend some time talking to you about something that happened to me.
[2:29] When the Lord first called us to minister to the Jewish people, I was a beginner at this, and I wasn't sure how one goes about doing it. And so I found myself in Israel trying to minister to Jewish people, studying like mad, trying to figure out how best to do that.
[2:45] If we could, can we bring up the first slide? So we're going to do a PowerPoint with the service this morning. I hope that will be a help and not a distraction. But the message that I want to talk about today is God's promise to the Jews.
[2:58] And it's what I'm going to do. We're going to do three things in the next few minutes. Number one, I'm going to tell you the story of what happened one day when God gave me the opportunity to speak to a lady named Elizabeth.
[3:12] Number two, I'm going to teach you how to present the gospel using the Old Testament scriptures. Because Jewish people, that's their Bible. That's what they believe in. And so it's useful to be able to do that.
[3:24] Number three, I want to talk to you about the example of a lady named Olga. Okay? Please go to the next slide. One of the things that I've been stressing every chance I get since we began this City on the Hill seminar is that the way to reach Jewish people with Christ or the way to reach anyone with Christ is love and prayer and sowing and patience.
[3:48] What do you mean by that? Some people have this paradigm in their head that sharing Christ means I grab somebody and I take about seven minutes and I go through the Romans road and then I'm done and they get saved and then I go home.
[3:59] Okay? I would really like you to throw that out the window. Okay? I want you to begin to think about soul winning as something that I don't do as a one-time seven-minute event but something that I do continuously.
[4:13] Okay? And it starts with love. There has to be genuine love in our hearts to do it. Secondly, it requires prayer. I cannot change the soul of any man.
[4:25] Okay? God alone can do that. Now, He uses us and we are a necessary part of what's being done but only He can bring the fruit. You know, when David went out against Goliath, if there hadn't been a David, Goliath wouldn't have fallen.
[4:39] But David alone could never have taken down Goliath. Man has to do his part but success comes only when God does God's part. And so there's got to be prayer.
[4:49] Sowing. What do I mean by that? What I mean is continually sharing the truth of how God saves a soul. Maybe I don't go through the whole plan of salvation but every chance I get, sharing a little more truth, sowing a little more seed, just sowing and sowing and sowing and patience.
[5:07] I just stay at it. I don't get discouraged. I just sow truth and the next time I sow truth and I do it today and I do it tomorrow, I do it all week, I do it all month, I do it all year. If it requires it, I'll do it for 30 years.
[5:18] I'm just going to keep loving you and praying for you and sowing truth and I'm going to stay at it until you come to Christ. That is the idea. And one day we were in Tel Aviv at Messiah Baptist Tabernacle in downtown Tel Aviv and we were having our midweek Bible study.
[5:36] That's the Russian Bible study and so we were sitting around the table and we were studying the scriptures and we were talking about witnessing to our loved ones and there's this dear lady in the church there. She's not the squeaky wheel.
[5:49] She's a quiet lady. Just faithful, solid, steady, loves Jesus, but doesn't really have a lot to say. She broke down and began to weep. And I said, Olga, what's wrong?
[6:01] And she said, my mother-in-law. Her name is Elizaveta. She lives with us in the home. So it was Elizaveta lived there in the home of her son, Gidali, who was married to Olga and all of their kids.
[6:14] Gidali is lost. Olga is saved. Some of the kids are saved. Some are lost. But Olga began to weep and she said, Elizaveta is old. She's sick. She doesn't have long left.
[6:25] I have been loving her and praying for her and talking to her about Christ for years and years and years, but she will not receive my witness. Pastor, could you go talk to her?
[6:38] Duh. I would be delighted to go talk to her. Yes, ma'am. I would be thrilled. And so we set up a time and we went to talk to Elizaveta about Christ.
[6:49] Now, Elizaveta is actually Elizabeth. Okay. And in Russian, it's Elizaveta. And as I was preparing to go, I was agonizing because I was like, I got one shot.
[7:01] I have one opportunity to share Christ with this lady. Probably there's not going to, she's probably not going to be willing to listen to me twice. She doesn't have long left. I need to get the gospel to her. Lord, how can I do this?
[7:12] Now, there's a lot of different ideas about how to share Christ with people, a lot of different ideas about how to share Christ with Jewish people, but I was really, you know, you have one opportunity.
[7:23] You want to make the most of it. And so I was agonizing and I was saying, Lord, what is the best way to share Christ with a Jewish person? And completely unexpectedly, this thought popped into my head.
[7:35] When that happens, that's usually not me. That's usually the Lord. And what popped into my head was, if you want to know how to share Christ with Jewish people, why don't you look and see how it's done in the Bible?
[7:47] Oh, now there's an idea. And so I opened up the scriptures and I went to Acts and I thought, you know, the apostles were all the time preaching to the Jewish people. How did they go about doing it? And you know what I found out?
[7:59] You've probably noticed this as you've read through Acts. Did you notice that some of the chapters are like so long because, and it kind of, I shouldn't admit to this, but I'm kind of like, okay, could you guys get over it already?
[8:10] Because they get up and they preach and when they do, they start out with Abraham and they have to go through the whole story of Israel and Moses and Egypt and David and I'm like, okay, we already knew that story. Can we please get to the gospel?
[8:22] But every time the apostles get up and they're preaching to the Jews, they go through this whole history of Israel thing. And God said, there's a reason for that. And so, let's go to the next slide.
[8:33] I want to, I want to speak to you. I ought to get my notes out. That'd just be really useful. I want, what I want to speak to you is about the plan that God gave me to speak to Elizabeth about Christ and there are three parts to the plan.
[8:47] Okay, the first part is the history of Israel. The second part is the promise of the new covenant and the third part is the prophecies of the Messiah. Now, I'm going to repeat that and then you're going to repeat it.
[8:59] I am giving a test. You should be ready. History of Israel, promise of the new covenant, prophecies of the Messiah. All right, class, let's say that together out loud. History of Israel, promise of the new covenant, prophecies of the Messiah.
[9:13] And so, why would we start with the history of Israel? Why would we even do that? That's what I always thought when I was reading through Acts. Come on, come on, come on. Because, first of all, when I'm talking to a Jewish person, if I come and I say, I want to tell you about Jesus, automatically defenses come up.
[9:30] But if I say, I want to tell you about Abraham and Moses, they go, oh, that's our guys. I like them. Yeah, what do you got to say? Doors open up. But not just that.
[9:41] We're not just trying to make them happy. The history of Israel is a story that leads in a straight line to Jesus Christ. Okay? And so, it's the perfect way to take them from the thing that they know and they like right to Jesus.
[9:53] And so, we start with the history. And so, we're going to cover the history of Israel and then the promise of the new covenant and the prophecies of the Messiah. And we're going to tell this story. So, we got to Elizabeth's house.
[10:05] We went in. She came in, arrayed in her finery as a queen. Sat down at her humble little kitchen table and said, you may speak to me. It was really funny.
[10:16] And so, we chit-chatted for a couple of minutes and then I said, well, Elizabeth, can I share with you some things from God's word? And she said, certainly, because she knew that's why I came. And so, I opened up the scriptures to Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.
[10:32] And I said, according to the Tanakh, that's what they call the Old Testament, okay? I said, according to the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[10:43] She said, oh, okay, I've heard that. Yeah, okay, I'm good with that. I said, well, good, good. God created things and everything was perfect and everything was wonderful, but it didn't last long because we turn over to the next page on Genesis chapter 3 and man fell into sin.
[10:57] God gave one commandment, man broke it, and man fell into sin. Now, I didn't tell her I slipped in a little bit of New Testament truth. I said, sin came into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men.
[11:10] So, it's Romans 5.12. You don't have to tell people that. And I said, and you can see that. You look out the window, you turn on the television, you open the newspaper and we see there is crime, there is hatred, there is strife, there is sickness.
[11:23] The world is in deplorable condition. It's easy to see that this world is just falling apart. Isn't that right? And she said, well, yeah, that's certainly true. So, sin came in, man fell, man was separated from God and God said, this is a terrible, this is a terrible thing and God said, I'm going to make a way to reconcile man to myself.
[11:44] I'm going to make a way, let's forward the slide to that, click twice, there we go, and then go to the next one. He said, I'm going to make a way to bring man back to myself and he said, I'm going to do that through, I'm going to start that process with one man and his name was Abraham with one people, the people of Israel and we opened up to Genesis chapter 12 and we said, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country from thy kindred from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
[12:25] Now, we could preach all day long just on what's in those verses. That's the Abrahamic covenant but I want to bring out one thing. I just didn't tell her and I want to tell you. It says, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
[12:37] Okay, what does that mean? Abraham, that in you, from you is going to come Israel. Through Israel is going to come Messiah, come the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and through him, all the families of the earth are going to have the opportunity to receive forgiveness of sins and be reconciled with God and so, that's what God is saying.
[12:56] Abraham, here it is. This is the beginning of my plan of redemption. It starts with one guy, with Abraham. Now, when I said, with one guy, Abraham, with his people, Israel, you think she was offended?
[13:07] Oh, no. She's eating that up. She's liking that. She's saying, yeah, Abraham, they like Abraham real good and she was excited about that and I said, but you know what? Something horrible happened that wasn't long after Abraham that the people of Israel found themselves down in Egypt in slavery.
[13:23] Pharaoh was trying to destroy them. It was horrible and right in the middle of all of that time, God sent forth a great deliverer, Moshe, Moses.
[13:34] And Moses came into the throne room of Pharaoh and he said, thus saith the Lord God, let my people go. And Pharaoh proudly and arrogantly said, I know not the Lord, neither will I let the people go.
[13:48] And God said, I want to bet. And God sent 10 horrible plagues on Egypt until finally when the firstborn perished, Pharaoh said, get out, get out, we're dying, get out of our land.
[14:03] And he sent forth the people of Israel and the people of Israel delivered. They went out free from Egypt and they went down, they came to the Red Sea. Pharaoh decided to kill him. He followed him with the army. God opened the sea.
[14:13] The people passed over. Egyptians tried to do it. Sea closed and killed them. The people of Israel then went winding down through the, yeah, it's hard to keep up with the slides when I'm going this fast. Went down through the desert. They came to Mount Sinai and there at Mount Sinai, Moses goes up the mountain and God gives him the law.
[14:29] Now I'm going to say a couple of things about the law that are pretty specific. God wrote the law on tablets of stone and he gave it to Moses. And then, next slide please, the people of Israel made a covenant with God.
[14:44] Okay? This is important. They made a covenant with God. They said, all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. We call this the covenant of law.
[14:55] God, God and the people made a covenant. Okay? And so that covenant was made at that time. And, and so we've come to that place. Now, I said, we're going to start with the history of Israel.
[15:06] Done with that part. Okay? Now, you know what? That wasn't really that complicated, it wasn't. I mean, I think the kids in the Sunday school know the stories I just told. There's nothing, nothing complex about this.
[15:17] Okay? And so, we're just telling the story, but we're going to stop right at this point and then I'm going to ask questions. I like to ask questions. Okay? And so my question was, did Israel keep God's covenant?
[15:28] Did he keep God's law? Now, all the people of Israel know the answer to that question because they know that they went into bondage into Babylon because Israel broke the law.
[15:40] And Elizabeth was sitting there on her throne and she said, no, they broke God's law. She clearly was not in approval of what they did.
[15:51] That was pretty bad. I was setting her up. Second question is, Elizabeth, have you kept God's covenant? Have you kept God's law? And I want to explain something here.
[16:04] This is true of everyone. It's particularly true of Jewish people. If somebody doesn't understand that they're a sinner, if there's no conviction of sin, if there's no awareness of their sin, they're not going to get saved. Okay?
[16:15] You don't need a redeemer unless you're a sinner. So you, they've got to understand their need. And so I said, have you kept God's covenant? Have you kept God's law? And she said, yes, I try to.
[16:27] And I said, I'm sure that you do. But I didn't ask if you try to. I asked, have you kept God's law? And she said, I'm a very good person. And I said, undoubtedly, you're a very good person.
[16:39] And I tried not to roll my eyes. I said, but I didn't ask if you're a good person. I said, have you kept God's law? And she squirmed and she twisted and she turned and she tried every way to get out of admitting, but I wouldn't let her go.
[16:56] And she came to the place where she dropped her head and she said, no, I haven't kept God's law. And I said, you're right. You haven't kept God's law and neither have I. None of us have.
[17:08] The scriptures say that none of us are righteous. We have all broken God's law. We've got real trouble because we made a covenant with God and we promised that we would obey all that he said, but we have broken his law.
[17:19] What are we going to do about it? I've got really, really good news. Next slide. God has promised to send us a new covenant. So we finished with the history of Israel.
[17:29] Now we're on the promise of the new covenant. I want you to open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 38. This is a wonderful passage of scripture. You need to know this. Jeremiah 31 verse 31.
[17:41] Kind of easy to remember like that. Jeremiah 31, 31. I said, Elizabeth, did you know that God promised a new covenant to the people of Israel? And she said, I never heard anything about that.
[17:53] I didn't. Do you know that it's interesting that it says right here that God promised a new covenant, but there in a lot of Jewish, a very famous Jewish rabbi has put out his principles of basic truths of Judaism.
[18:04] And one of them is there is no new covenant. Even though it says right in his Bible, here's a new covenant. This is the new covenant. And I said, now I was afraid when we read this that she would think that I was reading something from the New Testament.
[18:19] And so I told her, this is from the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah in the Tanakh, the same one that they read every week at the synagogue. Okay? This is Jewish stuff, not Christian stuff. Look what it says in Jeremiah 31, 31.
[18:31] Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.
[18:46] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
[18:57] Okay? Now, this is a fantastic passage of scripture. This is a glorious, glorious promise of God. And I want us to see several things about it.
[19:08] Let's look back over it. First of all, God promises a new covenant. That's a wonderful thing. He made a promise of a new covenant. But why? Why did he promise a new covenant?
[19:18] Oh, excuse me. Before we go to why, with whom is the new covenant? Is the new covenant for Gentiles? Is it for Christians? No, look what it says right here in verse 30, 31. It says, I will make a new covenant with who?
[19:29] With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This new covenant is primarily for the Jewish people. God said, I'm going to make a new covenant with my people Israel. Now, that leads to a very obvious question.
[19:41] Well, what in the world do we need a new covenant for? Why do we need a new covenant? Well, it says right here, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
[19:52] Not like that covenant that they made. Remember, we just talked about the covenant they made there at Mount Sinai. He said, not like that covenant. Well, why not? Well, he says, which covenant they break.
[20:03] Why do you need a new covenant? Well, because you went and broke the old one. That's why you broke it. It doesn't work. It can't save you because you didn't fulfill the conditions.
[20:14] God made a covenant. You made a covenant with God, but you broke the covenant and therefore you cannot be saved through that covenant. But God could have just said, okay, that's it. Fine. You don't want to follow the rules.
[20:26] You can perish. But our God is so loving and so gracious that he said, okay, you broke the covenant. We'll make you a new covenant.
[20:37] Praise God. What kind of covenant is it? What is it going to be? The new covenant is fantastic. It is wonderful. Let's look at what it says about the new covenant. He says, this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
[20:49] He said, after these days, I'll put my law on their inward parts and write it in their hearts. First covenant was written on tablets of stone. The new covenant is going to be written on our hearts.
[21:00] It's going to be in our soul. That's neat. Okay. What else about it? And I will be their God and they shall be my people. The new covenant has to do with a personal relationship with almighty God.
[21:12] Wow. That's exciting. Can I tell you the best part? Look down at the bottom of verse 34. He says, thus saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.
[21:26] The first covenant said, don't sin. Here is the law. Follow it and you'll be okay. Yeah, that's pretty tough. We didn't accomplish that.
[21:38] The new covenant doesn't say, okay, here are some more laws. Follow these ones and you'll be okay. No, it doesn't do that. Instead of saying, be righteous and follow the law, it says, you already aren't righteous.
[21:50] You've already broken the law. So the new covenant is like this. I'll tell you what. I will forgive your sin. That one says, don't sin. This one says, I'll forgive your sin.
[22:03] Wow. This one is justice. This one is mercy and grace. Praise the Lord. That's what we need. And so the promise of the new covenant, a new covenant, God promised a new covenant with the people of Israel that was made because they broke the old one and it's a wonderful one, a covenant of grace that God has made with them.
[22:26] Now, I said the new covenant has everything to do with the Jewish Messiah. Okay? And now we finish the second part. Remember, there's three parts. History of Israel, promise of the new covenant, prophecies of the Messiah.
[22:39] We've already finished two. Boy, time just flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? Okay? And so then, next question, prophecies of the Messiah. I have this question that I just love that I'm trying to convince everybody they need to memorize.
[22:51] What is it that the Jewish Bible says about the Jewish Messiah? Okay? Now, I spoke to Elizabeth and I said, the new covenant has everything to do with the Messiah.
[23:01] Tell me, what does your Jewish Bible say about the Jewish Messiah? And Elizabeth said, I'm not sure.
[23:12] And I said, would you like me to show you? And I said, let's look at what the Tanakh says about the Messiah. Now, I'm not going to tell you who the Messiah is.
[23:23] You're not going to hear it from me. I refuse to tell you who the Messiah is. Let's see what your Bible, what your Tanakh, what the Old Testament says about the Messiah. Let's see what your Bible says about him.
[23:36] Now, my friend Mark Oshman is really smart and he knows over a hundred Messianic prophecies, a hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that talk about the Messiah. I'm not real smart like Mark.
[23:46] I know five. Okay? I just go with five. Five works really good for me. And so let's look at five. By the way, you know most of these. I mean, you think, I'm not an expert on prophecy. I bet you know most of these.
[23:57] Okay? So I said, what does the Tanakh say about the Messiah? First question, where will Messiah be born? Well, we can go right over to Micah chapter five, verse two, and we can see where Messiah is going to be born.
[24:08] But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shalt he come forth who is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Okay?
[24:18] By the way, do you remember a time when wise men came to Jerusalem and said, where is he that is born king of the Jews? And Herod said, I got no idea. Where's Messiah supposed to be born?
[24:30] Called the priest in. Hey, priest, where's Messiah going to be born? Priests were like, duh, everybody knows that. Kind of embarrassing, you don't know that. It's in Micah five, two, he's going to be born in Bethlehem. Everybody knows that.
[24:40] Oh, okay. See, they were referring to this verse. This verse, Micah five, two, tells where Messiah has got to be born. They knew that. And it was, it's black and white. It's clear as day. Okay? So where's Messiah going to be born?
[24:51] He's going to be born in Bethlehem. Okay? Now, second question. How will Messiah be born? How, how is he going to come? By what means is he going to come? Well, we go over to the book of Isaiah chapter seven in verse 14, and it tells us how's Messiah going to be born?
[25:07] He's going to be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7, 14 tells us, therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.
[25:22] Messiah is going to be born of a virgin. Says so right there in Isaiah 7, 14. Thirdly, when will Messiah come? When should we expect him?
[25:32] Open your Bibles to Daniel chapter nine. Daniel nine. There is this prophecy here that I would love to teach in great fantastic detail, but I'm going to resist the temptation.
[25:43] We're going to do the simplified version. Look at Daniel 9, 26. It's talking that this prophecy here in this, in Daniel chapter nine, the prophecy in Daniel nine tells when Messiah will come.
[25:56] It actually tells, well, if you want to study out really good, it tells the exact day when Messiah will come, but we're not going to go into that. Let's look at verse 26. It says, after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.
[26:11] And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And so on and so forth. Now, what we're saying is after some period of time here that we're not going to go into right now, Messiah is going to come.
[26:24] And then it says, he's going to be cut off. He's going to be killed, but not for himself. He's going to be killed for someone else. And then it says, the people of the princess shall come shall destroy the city. What's the city?
[26:35] Jerusalem. We're talking. God is talking to Daniel. He was a Jewish man. When he says the city, he's talking about Jerusalem and the sanctuary. What's the sanctuary? That's the temple. And so what do we see in this, in this verse? We see Messiah is going to come.
[26:47] We see that Messiah is going to be cut off, but not for himself. He's going to be killed for somebody else. I wonder who that's for. And then thirdly, we see that Jerusalem and the temple are going to be destroyed. Okay.
[26:58] Those are three pretty simple facts that are easy to see here. Now, we know when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. They were destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus in the legions that came and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the temple.
[27:11] Okay. So we can easily conclude that Messiah must come before 70 AD. Okay. So when will Messiah come? Before 70 AD. Now, I need to explain something to you.
[27:22] The Jewish people have a lot of different Messiahs. Okay. They had a Messiah back between 100 and 200 AD named Simon Bar Kokhba, but that didn't work out so good. And throughout history, they've anointed other people to be Messiah at different times that they thought, well, maybe this guy's the Messiah.
[27:38] In our day, there are many Jewish people who believe that the Messiah is a Rabbi Nachman from Ukraine who lived in the 1800s. And there are many Jewish people who are very serious, believe with all their heart that Rabbi Nachman was the Messiah.
[27:52] Okay. Now, there's an even larger group of Jewish people who believe that, of the Orthodox Jews, who believe that Menachem Schneerson, who served in Brooklyn, New York, is the Messiah.
[28:03] He died during the 1900s. He was born in the 1800s and then lived in the 1900s and then he died. Now, I'm just going to be absolutely, totally bummed if it turns out Messiah is going to be from Brooklyn.
[28:16] I mean, really, seriously from Brooklyn? I mean, no, I don't think so. I just have a real problem with the whole Brooklyn thing. But, but, but they're completely serious about this and very fervent.
[28:29] They are sure he's the Messiah. In fact, they are so sure of it that they've gone to Brooklyn and taken pictures and measured every detail of the home that he lives in. And they've made a perfect replica of that home over in Israel.
[28:39] It's standing there waiting because they have this idea he's going to rise from the dead and then he can move to Israel and live and he'll be right there in his own house. And they're that serious about it. Okay. They are convinced that, that Schneerson is the Messiah.
[28:52] Okay. Other Jewish people say, no, no, no. Messiah is yet to come. Can I tell you something? Neither Schneerson, nor Nachman, nor any of these other birds were born in Bethlehem.
[29:04] None of them were born of a virgin. And these guys were not born before 70 AD. They do not fit the scriptures, what the Jewish scriptures say about the Messiah.
[29:15] Okay. The next thing they really don't fit because the next thing we say, where will he be born? Bethlehem. How's he going to be born? By a virgin. When's he going to come? Before 70 AD. Fourthly, who will he be?
[29:27] Now, this is a big issue for Jewish people. Jewish people do not believe that the Messiah will be God. They believe that he will be a great leader, sort of like David or Moses. Okay.
[29:37] Kind of a military political type of a leader. Okay. They do not believe that he will be God, but we know that Messiah is God in the flesh. And their Bible says so.
[29:47] You go over to Isaiah chapter nine. We were just in Isaiah seven. We'll go back over here to Isaiah chapter nine. And it says, for unto us, a child is born unto us. A son is given, and his name shall be called the mighty God.
[29:59] Wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Okay. And so what do we see? Their Bible tells us that Messiah is going to be God in the flesh.
[30:13] Okay. And then finally, what is Messiah going to do? What's the whole point? Why is he going? What's the point of him coming? And then we went to Isaiah 53.
[30:25] Now you can read the whole chapter. It's all good. I'll just choose a short part of it. Verses three through six. It says this. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
[30:38] And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
[30:52] Listen to this. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment for our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed.
[31:04] All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord God has laid upon him, upon Messiah, the iniquity of us all.
[31:15] What's Messiah going to do? He's going to suffer and die for the sins of his people. And so we went through these five different prophecies about the Messiah, one right after the other.
[31:27] And then we got to the end of them and I said, let's review. Let's go back over that. Let's review. What does the Tanakh, the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, what does the Jewish Bible say about the Messiah? It says he needs to be born in Bethlehem, before 70 AD of a virgin, that he's going to be God and that he's going to suffer and die for the sins of his people.
[31:48] Okay, now, that's really tough, isn't it? Who could that be? Pretty complicated, isn't it? And I turned to Elizabeth and I said, Elizabeth, who do you think the Messiah might be?
[32:02] Based on what your Jewish Bible says, that he's going to be born in Bethlehem of a virgin before 70 AD, that he's going to be God in the flesh and suffer and die for the sins of his people. Who do you think Messiah is going to be?
[32:15] And she looked at me and her eyes grew wide and she said, Jesus is the Messiah. And I said, yes, he is.
[32:27] Yes, he is. The truth of the matter, folks, the evidence of the scriptures is undeniable. It is overwhelming. It's airtight. Okay, there is no question. If you honestly study the Old Testament scriptures, you'll know who the Messiah is.
[32:41] It's just as clear as day. Okay. And so she said, Jesus is the Messiah. And I said, Elizabeth, would you like to receive him as your savior? And she said, no.
[32:55] I was shocked. I mean, I'd worked so hard to get her to the place where she understood that Jesus was the Messiah and she has confessed, yes, he is the Messiah. And you don't want to receive him? Why don't you want to receive him?
[33:07] And she said, oh, no, no, no, no. I couldn't. I could never receive him. Absolutely not. And I said, why not? And she said, well, if I did, she said, all my relatives would hate me. They would reject me. They would disown me.
[33:17] They would have nothing to do with me. My friends would all walk away. They would hate me. They would spit at me. They would, my name would become a curse. When I die, I couldn't be buried in the Jewish cemetery. There is no way I'm going to believe in Jesus because that would be the end for me if I did that.
[33:33] And I pled with her. I said, listen, Elizabeth, life is short. And I didn't add that hers was particularly short. And eternity is very long.
[33:43] Don't, don't worry about the few days you have left on this earth. Think about your eternity. Don't perish and go to hell because of the opinions of people. And she would not listen to me. And I said, don't fear man, fear God.
[33:55] And she wouldn't listen to me. I begged her. I pleaded with her. Rhonda spoke to her. Rhonda's sitting right next to me. She, she pleaded with her. Olga, Elizabeth's daughter-in-law.
[34:06] She pled with her. And we were just begging her, please, think about your soul. Think about honoring God. Don't you want to get saved? And she was steadfast.
[34:17] She wouldn't even consider it. I was tore up. I was like, what am I going to do? I remembered something that a soul winner told me. An old soul winner one day told me, he said, if you get somebody right up to the point, but they don't want to take that step in, he said, go grab them by the hand and drag them into the throne room of God through prayer.
[34:37] And so I said, well, Elizabeth, can I pray for you? And she said, sure. I think she thought that meant Sunday that we were at prayer for it at church. What she didn't know is that I wasn't planning to wait till Sunday.
[34:47] As soon as she said, sure, I dropped my head and I began to pray. And I prayed a prayer that only a Baptist preacher can pray. I prayed hellfire and brimstone. I prayed salvation from the start to the end.
[34:57] I prayed, dear God, help her not to perish and die in the flames of hell. God, help her that she would see the truth, that she wouldn't fear man, that she'd fear God, that she'd realize that, that, that life is short in eternity.
[35:08] I prayed all over her. I got all done. And I said, Elizabeth, one last time, will you receive Jesus as the Messiah?
[35:20] And she said, no. I was spent. I didn't have, I done shot all the bullets in my gun.
[35:31] I didn't have anything else to say. I didn't have any idea what I could possibly say further. I was just heartbroken. Shot my Bible, sitting there at the kitchen table.
[35:44] And I had my briefcase next to me. And so I leaned down to put my Bible in my briefcase. And when I, when I did, I heard her begin to say something, but it was kind of soft. I couldn't hear what she said. So I, I popped back up to, to hear what she said.
[35:54] And at first I thought she was talking to me, but then it was, you know, she wasn't addressing me. And then I thought maybe, well, maybe she's talking to Rhonda or Olga and she wasn't talking to them. And then her words took form.
[36:05] And I was able to hear her saying, Jesus, I know that I've done many bad things. Please forgive my sins and save my soul. And Elizabeth, at the last moment, received Christ as her savior.
[36:22] It was glorious. Folks, her life transformed. She didn't have long, but it was incredible. The difference in her life. In the final days of her life, she had a hunger for God.
[36:34] Her, her relationships with everybody around her, completely changed. It was wonderful to see how God changed her life. We're so excited about that. And then before very long, she was gone.
[36:46] And she beat us all to heaven. And so that is the story of Elizabeth. Now I wanted to, you know about Elizabeth. One of the reasons I wanted you to know is some people say, well, Jewish people aren't getting saved.
[36:57] Folks, Jewish people are getting saved. They're getting saved one right after the other. There are more Jewish people being saved in our time than any, than there have been at any time since the book, of Acts. God is doing a work among the Jewish people.
[37:09] And you and I are called to go to the Jewish people and take the gospel to them. The second thing is I wanted you to know a plan for presenting the gospel to the Jewish people using the history of Israel, the promise of the new covenant, and the prophecies of the Messiah.
[37:24] Third thing that I want to say though, and this is very important. At the start of this message, we started out by saying that the way to win Jewish people and other people to Christ is you love them and you pray with for them and you sow seed and you stay at it until they come to Christ.
[37:43] Okay. And then I told you a story about how I came in and in one hour led her to Christ. You say, doesn't that contradict everything you said? No, because I'm not the hero of this story.
[37:54] This is not based on my incredible soul winning prowess. Okay. Who's the hero of the story? Well, God is, but humanly speaking, Olga is.
[38:07] And I want you to consider the example of Olga who for 20 years loved her mother-in-law and prayed for her faithfully and constantly sowed seeds of gospel truth.
[38:21] And she did it and did it and did it for 20 years. And then Elizabeth was wonderfully saved. And folks, what I'd like to say to you is, what about you?
[38:36] First of all, if you're not saved, please, please follow the example of Elizabeth in turning to Jesus Christ, the Messiah and receiving forgiveness of your sins.
[38:49] Secondly, Christians think about Olga and say, okay, I'm going to find that lost person, that relative, that neighbor, that coworker, that friend that needs Christ.
[39:02] And I'm not just going to give them a gospel. I'm going to give them gospel tracks. I'm not going to just give them a gospel track. I'm not just going to give them a seven minute presentation of the Romans road. I'm going to go. I'm going to, I'm going to love them. I'm going to pray for them.
[39:13] I'm going to sow seed and sow seed and sow seed. And I'm going to stay at it till they come to Jesus. And folks, you will have fruit. You will have fruit. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[39:32] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[39:43] Thanks. get to the inside. See you next time. See you next time.
[40:08] Bye.