Gooding, David: 1 - Matthew 1-4

One small reading might, uh, suffice to introduce us to our topic this morning from Matthew three, beginning in verse one. And in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now, it is very generous of you to give up your time this Monday morning, my dear brethren and sisters, to come and help me in the understanding of Holy Scripture. What I have proposed for our studies this week is that we could look, as we have time, at the narrative sections of the gospel by Matthew. As we shall all know, Matthew has a very orderly way in writing down his material and has a number of collections of our Lord's teachings, such as in chapters five to seven, the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter ten, the detailed briefing of the apostles, in chapter thirteen, the parables of the kingdom, and in chapter eighteen, regulations about the church, and then subsequently in chapters, uh, twenty four, twenty five, for instance, the prophetic discourse. Those things have been, by and large, of the contras, very, uh, uh, uh, thoroughly expounded. I would like us this week to look at the narrative sections that intersperse these, those great collections of teaching, and ask what is the point of the narrative? What are its general themes? If indeed those narratives have any general themes. They might, of course, simply be collections of things that happened, and Matthew has decided to put them in, in between his collections of teaching. But at least I shall start out with the assumption that they may have some general themes, and those themes be important for the theme of the gospel. Now, I've set a very heavy program, but we are not under any laws of Medes or Persians either, nor even of Semenel. To complete the narrative sections, we may take our own time, my brethren and sisters, and I am completely in your hands as to how fast we travel. So, uh, let's begin this morning with the first four chapters with which Matthew opens his gospel, before he then proceeds in chapters five, six, and seven to give us the great Sermon on the Mount. And we might care to notice how carefully Luke, uh, Matthew has, uh, selected his material. Here on this sheet, uh, you have, I have simply listed for your convenience the major stories, the major elements in that first, those first four chapters. And my own general suggestion would be, borrowing the phrase that John the Baptist himself borrowed from Isaiah in chapter three. the general theme of these first four chapters might well be said to be the preparation of the way of the Lord. Matthew is about to tell us of that tremendous miracle that is the incarnation of our blessed Lord. The visit, the visitation by God of our planet. And it seems to me, in these early chapters, Matthew gives us in stories one to four the preparation of the way of the Lord, historically. The great preparations that God made in the course of history to prepare the way for the coming of his son into our world. Then in stories five to eight, we have explicitly the preparation of the way of the Lord, not so much historically as morally and spiritually. Historical preparation, therefore, then moral and spirit. But they are only vague suggestions, and I'm looking forward to hear what you have to say, what you have to contribute on these chapters. I notice then, if we can look at the paper in front of us, that Matthew gives us, first of all, two stories relative to the birth of the Lord Jesus. First, from verses one to seventeen, the great genealogy of our Lord, preparation of the way of Messiah, preparation depending on physical generation. Abraham begat physical generation along the human chain of our Lord's ancestors. Then when you come to story two, the actual conception and birth, you have the supernatural generation, yes? Mary was found the child of the Holy Spirit. Two paragraphs, and I shall, you'll find out, my dear president, that as far as my comments, you see, I have the privilege of making all the easy comments, saying the obvious things about these paragraphs. I shall leave to you to say the hard things, you'll see. I'm saying the obvious and the easy. Two paragraphs, one of them concerned with the physical generation that prepared the way of the Lord. The second one concerned mainly with the supernatural, but still physical generation. The natural, the supernatural. Then if we look at stories three and four, they go together, don't they? They tell us that when our Lord Jesus was born into this world, he met with opposition. There was a false king upon the throne, his name was Herod. And though, of course, he consulted scripture and professed to be wish- willing to worship the new Messiah. His heart was filled with murder, and he became a veritable antichrist. And that's going to be interesting, isn't it, in the light of Israel's history, both past and future. The coming into the world of our Lord as Messiah, called the Christ, David's son. Then the opposition. First of all, the human opposition through Herod, in his day a great antichrist. And the reaction of our Lord's parents to that opposition in story four, how that they withdrew into Egypt. And he departed, he withdrew into Egypt. And then eventually, when Herod was dead, verse nineteen, chapter two, instructed by the angel, Joseph returns and withdrew, verse twenty two, being warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets that he should be called a Nazarene. His dwelling in Nazareth, therefore, put in this context of the tactics adopted by our Lord's parents and by God himself, in view of the opposition. Then just to, uh, survey the rest of the section, story five and story six, beginning of chapter three, two stories devoted to the ministry of John the Baptist. Story five, calling attent- calling the people to prepare the way of the Lord and to get ready for the coming of the Messiah. Story six, the baptism. Two stories then about the ministry of John the Baptist. And finally, two stories, seven and eight, once more about the opposition. For story seven is the story of the temptation, where now our Lord is opposed, not by some human king, but by the devil himself, set to oppose and, if possible, destroy the Son of God at his coming. Then you'll notice chapter four verse twelve, the final story. When Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee. Again, what you might call a tactical withdrawal in light of the opposition. One further remark about the, uh, superficial remark about those eight stories. It becomes apparent, doesn't it, in story seven, for instance. Look at that about the devil coming to tempt the Lord Jesus. Look at all the similarities there are in that story to the story of Herod. When the wise men came to Herod saying, where is he that's born king of the Jews? Herod consulted the Jewish authorities, and they got out the scripture, and they, the scribes quoted and said, it is written thus and thus and thus. And when the devil came to Christ, we observed, he started quoting scripture, and our Lord replied likewise by quoting scripture. It stands written. Notice that Herod professed his intention of coming to worship the Lord. Go and tell me where he is, and come back and tell me so that I might go and worship him. One of the major temptations, of course, offered by the devil to the Lord Jesus was that I'll give you the whole kingdoms of the earth if you fall down and worship me. So obviously, when we come to them, those stories will eventually be linked in our minds. Notice, however, another example of that story one at the top there. Everything depends in that genealogy, doesn't it, until you come to the last link, on physical descent from Abraham. Abraham begat, Abraham begat, Isaac begat, David begat. Everything depends all down those verses for fourteen generations on physical descent from Abraham. Obviously, that is regarded by Matthew as exceedingly important, as he wouldn't have spent the time talking about it. Yes, but you look at, uh, story five. When John stands to address the people and call them to prepare the way of the Lord, he tells them quite straightly that physical descent from Abraham means absolutely nothing. Do not begin to say in your hearts, he said, do not think to say in your hearts, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Physical descent from Abraham counts absolutely nothing. Interesting that, isn't it? We've now got two sides of the story. So that at that juncture is where I call on you to help me now to make sense of these facts. I merely reported the simple superficial facts so far. Let's take them in order, shall we, and I, if you'll allow me to put questions. Uh, let's come to the genealogy. My good brethren and sisters. There are, so I find, seventeen verses. In chapter one, um the verse, first 17 verses of this great gospel, given over to the genealogy of our Lord, physical descent from Abraham and David. Why, my dear brethren, do tell me, why is that important? If you were going as missionaries, and some of you have anyway, I'd be interested to know, do you find it the first thing you ought to say to the folks that you are missionaries to? Now look here, get hold of the genealogy, our Lord was son, descended from Abraham and David. And if not, who do you find it important to tell this to? Do you tell your neighbor next door, I'd like you to know the gospel, my dear friend, now get hold of this first, our Lord was descended from, from Abraham and David. Mm. Who are the people you preach this kind of thing to, and what would, what would you be doing if you preached it? Why is it important? Jews. He's writing to the Jews. Yes? So he's got to prove. He has to prove the Jews, and uh, also uh, Genesis twenty two eighteen, uh, the promise to Abraham, in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Mm-hmm. In other words, uh, the coming of the Lord Jesus is a fulfillment of Old Testament pro- prophecy and promise. Yes? Establish his right to the throne. Establish his right to the throne. Yes. And this would, uh, cut ice with Jews. Because if you were talking to atheists, you would say, well, they wouldn't believe the Old Testament anyway, so there's no good quoting it. Yes? Is there any difference between the genealogy in Matthew and the genealogy in Luke chapter 4? Ah, Mr. Wilson, sir, I'm sure there is, and I have labored long sometimes to understand it, and I have that kind of a brain that in these matters resembles a sieve, and I can't retain the deeper facts, but I'm sure you would, sir. Yes, what do you feel the difference is? So would it be that in Matthew it's a legal genealogy of Joseph? Yes. And in Luke it's genealogy of Mary the virgin. Yes, that would be interesting. And the marriage between the two established his right. Mm-hmm. As the son of David, the sitting of God. Yes, yes, that's true. Let me, uh, repeat that, Mr. Wilson. The legal one, uh, through Joseph, you're saying, establishes... The marriage between Joseph and Mary. Yes. Establishes his right to sit on the throne. Oh, I see, yes. Uh, born of Mary, not, not, uh, Joseph wasn't his father, but if, if Joseph marries the Lord's mother, then our Lord becomes his rightful heir. Mm-hmm. Yes. And, uh, Matthew, sir, you feel, uh, concentrates on the legal side in the genealogy because, uh, he's going to present our Lord as the king. And Luke, why does Luke concentrate on Mary's genealogy, sir? I see, so that Luke is, is urging us, is depicting for us not so much the king, but the true son of Adam, his true humanity, yeah? Very good. Now I press you a little bit more. Uh... if the genealogy in Matthew proves to an Orthodox Jew who believes the Old Testament, the legal right of our Lord to the throne of David. Um, is the scripture completely relevant to people who don't believe the Old Testament? I understand that, uh, in Maybe Mm-hmm. when the temple was burned, all the genealogical tables were destroyed. Yeah. And the only person that can prove his right to the throne of God is the Lord. Aha. Yes, that- that's interesting. That's interesting. Yes, I- I- I- what I feel myself in my bones is, you'll say, if you look over the other side, uh, when John is talking to the people, fi- physical descent there from Abraham is irrelevant. Don't you begin to say with Abraham for our father, that's- that's not the end of there. Why? Because John is talking there about moral things, the need for repentance on the part of the people. Doesn't matter who you are, whether you're descended from Abraham, David, or whoever, uh, that counts for nothing in the sight of God. But on this, uh, story, one, the genealogy, physical descent is everything, and it seems to me that even to our atheist friends, the matter is of e- e- exceeding great evidential value. You'll say, if Christianity were a philosophy, well, anybody who's got the wit can invent a philosophy. You don't have to be all that clever, you'll see. I'm a little bit crazy, but, uh, if you're a Wittgenstein or you're a, a, a, a Kierkegaard or Nietzsche or somebody, you can invent a system of philosophy. And if you want to, anybody can start a religion. Old Simon Magus, whom we meet in the Acts of the Apostles, do see, he started a religion. Now, any folks who started a religion, anybody can do that. They've got a bit of wit and advertising ability, and they're not, uh, slow at coming forward and praising themselves and so forth, you can start a religion. The evidence that Christianity is true would lie here in one of, uh, in one of its aspects, wouldn't it? You can't arrange to be born of the house of David, can you? No, you cannot. And this great claim, uh, uh, Matthew points out that our Lord was born of that physical line, physical generation, in the past as arbitrary as it can be. However great and clever you are, you cannot, I repeat, arrange to be born of the line of David or a descendant from Abraham. And this points to this vast movement in history all down the generations, whether you believe the Old Testament's inspired or you don't believe it's inspired, it is the fact. Israel is a fact among the nations, and the prophecies that Sam was quoting, of course, multiplied many times down the Old Testament, as the Old Testament went on. Abraham's seed, David's son. You can read them. It is a matter of history that Old Testament was written before Jesus Christ was born. And the fact that he is descended from that special movement in history that nobody can deny, seems to me to be one of the very fundamentals of the Christian evidences of the truth of Jesus Christ our Lord, and reminds us at the very start that Christianity is not just a philosophy, and it isn't just a religion. Christianity is the final flowering of this tremendous movement in history that is Israel, and in particular is the line of David. At least I'm in the habit myself of using it with my atheist friends like this. And if they say, what evidence have you that Jesus is this Christ Messiah? I say, well, haven't you read Genesis? Well, no, um, well, so who are you talking then if you haven't read the evidence? You profess to be scientific and interested in history? Why don't you start reading the history then? And collating the historic fact with the actual fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And you see, nowadays it seems to me in our modern world fairly important, because we do have a tendency, at least in some circles, to treat Christianity as though it were merely a religion. And very often, as now in modern Britain, teach, uh, treating it as though it were mere ethics. We even have the Prime Minister quoting a Bible, which I suppose isn't a bad thing for Prime Ministers to do. But you see, people regard Christianity as ethics do good, and then they say, well, the Muslims say the same, do they, and the Hindus say the same, and anybody with any sense in their heads, they all say the same, being good, and we should recognize how all religions are really saying the same thing. But Christianity isn't just a religion. It is a full flowering of this tremendous movement in history, and one of the evidences of the view of God. I know, my brothers and sisters, would you, would you care to say anything at all? If not, we pass on. Oh, what am I going to think about the three divisions of the genealogy? Why does Matthew think it's important, uh, to stop and tell us that from Abraham to David there were fourteen generations, and from David to the exile were fourteen generations, and from the exile to the coming of Jesus the Messiah, uh fourteen generations. I say very reverently, but so what? Have you ever got anybody by the scruff of the collar and said, now look here, there were fourteen generations, my man, get hold of this. Fourteen generations from Adam to David, now get hold of that. Ever done that? Yes? No? Would believe it's inspired, so you preached it. It's amazing, these Jews, that they hadn't thought that. God gave them the, uh, special ability of entrepreneurship, mechanical mind. They knew the story of J- of creation, six days, seventh day, God rested. They knew only too well six days shall no labor when Moses gave them the law from God, seven they would rest. Now here, Matthew is pointing out to the Spirit of God that there are six sets of seven generations. Christ came at the start of seven. You'd have thought they were four. They would have expected. And you, of course, can carry out the. That's the power of skin. six thousand years after I was sitting on these chairs. Since Christ's coming at seven I would do a stitch. You can't, as you say, uh, choose to be born a Jew, neither can you one choose what generation they are to be found in. So it's significant that the Lord came at the commencement of the fifty seven. Mm-hmm. It's an amazing thing too, that so many names are left out. Ah, and why is that so? I see, that's interesting, yes. Yeah, pardon? The names are left out to make the equal to kings. Yes. But the reason that they are left out from a kind of their conduct, from a kind of sin. Mm-hmm. I see. They were, uh, notorious sinners, right? Especially bad sinners. It's interesting. What about the sinners that are included. Mr. Wilson. Yes, yes. Hold forth on those, Mr. Wilson. Three, three of those women were not a very good rebuke. Yes. List them for us, Sam, please. Amar, Rahab. Mm-hmm. Uh, and Bathsheba. Mm-hmm. Certainly weren't of the very best reputation. Of course, then you had Ruth, who's the exam- the exception. Mm-hmm. Even she was a Gentile, wasn't she? Right. Mm-hmm. Weren't they all Gentiles? Weren't all four women Gentiles? Oh, do you think Bathsheba was a Gentile, perhaps? Husband of... I just, I, I, I have, I wondered if she was, but I, I maybe don't. Mm-hmm. Was he rather Hittite, wasn't he? You're right. So he was a Gentile. He was a Hittite. So his wife may have been a Hittite. That's very interesting. And what would you deduce from that? I mean, further than the point of interest, is there some principle involved? He demonstrates the grace of God. Yes. Apart from the law. Mm-hmm. So the genealogy of Christ is doing two things. Mr. Wilson points out that, that some notorious sinners are omitted, and then this other matter that some erstwhile sinners and those that were afar off included, yes? Anything, Father, the three series of, uh, uh, uh, fourteen generations, sixth, seventh. Anything else? He came, uh, from the benefit, whose way the jewel. Yes, boy. When's your, uh, figuring come to the end of this generation, this sixth uh, thousand year? How did I figure that out? Very close to now. He is very close to me. Not bad. It seems very obvious. It was coming very soon. It helped, I think, when it comes to rain a thousand years, it will be rest. The children of Israel never enter. That's very striking, I think. The The settings. second. Any other observation? In the first four chapters, there are a number of credentials. Mm. Most of the king. Mm. It's such an interesting to see how the, at the end of chapter 4, that all the credentials give them the life that they desire. Yes, this is interesting. Yes, could, might you care to list them, Mr. Wilson? Just mention three. Yes, please. Yes. I think there are seven altogether. Well, let, we'll just go seven, so I do the generous. The first three are, first of all, a genealogy. Yeah. And secondly, virgin birth. Yeah. And thirdly, the fulfillment of perfect speech. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But there is quite a number of them there, and at the end of chapter four, there's not a doubt in the world. That he is in the sun. That he is in the sun. Mm-hmm. Surely. Surely. Good. Right here we've had the, the, the f- the importance then of the physical descent, the genealogy, establishing one of his credentials, the importance of the, of the natural generation, Abraham through David to Joseph. Now in the birth story. Before we move on to that, Yeah. Would you like to give us some about what you feel is the significance of the preceptive? Oh. Well, I think I would, I would start perhaps by looking at the reasons why, uh, Israel, Israel's history is, um, divided, the, the, the moral and spiritual lessons. If you say to yourself, what was God doing from Abram to David? What was God doing with Israel? He called Israel out. He put Abram and the nation through tremendous experiences. It wasn't just a question of physical generation, was it? Because you take Abraham begat Isaac, but behind that physical generation, Abraham begat Isaac, lies a tremendous story and a tremendous lesson that God taught Abraham and taught millions of folk ever since. It was, of course, the what first of all, the basic lesson of justification by faith. Yes? That was taught through Abraham's generation of Isaac. And eventually justification by works. And the promise of the inheritance given to Abraham. So it wasn't just a question of physical generation, but God having called Abraham out of sheer idolatry and started a new thing in the world that hadn't been there before, the nation, the Hebrew nation, now began to build into that nation certain major truths about, um, uh, justification by faith and how we can be right with God. And if you follow Abraham through David, I suspect everybody, all of us here in this room, would praise God incessantly for the lessons that God has taught us through that journey. The time in Egypt, the question of redemption. Oh, and then the laws of holiness in Leviticus and the access into the holiest of all. Yeah? And then the, um, warnings of the apostasy in the wilderness and final entry into the land under Joshua. And not only entry into the land and possessing the land and having rest of soul, but the tremendous climax of David the king. Why didn't Messiah come then? Hadn't God taught his people enough lessons? I mean, why, why, why didn't David turn out to be the Messiah? Well, at that time, it was just limited to Israel, God's attention. Well, yes, doozy. Abraham's seed, Isaac, was a prototype of the Lord Jesus, but he wasn't the Lord Jesus, was he? He wasn't the Messiah. The great promise to David, of David, I'll give you a son, and I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Solomon, but he was only a prototype, and a very poor prototype in some respects, and pointed on to the Messiah. These things were prototypes. If the Mes- David had turned out to be the Messiah, that would have been a very lowly view of the Messiah, wouldn't it? A little king in a few hundred acres, square acres in the Middle East with an old-fashioned spear, pushing Philistines into the Mediterranean, things like that. Very lowly concept of the Messiah. So that first great stage when Israel was on the up and up, the great climax coming in David, preparing Israel's mind for the king, but only a prototype, and obviously still some more lessons to be learned. If when the Messiah came, they would be ready to conceive of what the Messiah would be. There were some s- people when our Lord came that still conceived Messiah as nothing other than King David. He was going to be a super duper King David with a bit stronger chariot, four wheels perhaps instead of two, and a bit longer spear, and uh, but going around slitting people's throats and setting up a kingdom like King David. My dear brethren and sisters, that is still the concept that some folks have of the Messiah. And liberation theology says, yes, that's the thing to do, you know. If need be, arm the gorillas in the name of the church and go around killing the rich if need be, in the struggle. And Barabbas was probably one of them. And the two thieves that died on the cross weren't ho- house thieves, were they? Acor- uh, uh, i- i- if the term is to be understood as Josephus uses it, they were guerrilla activists, political activists. And the World Council of Churches still, uh, supports that kind of thing, feels that this is the way forward. In the end, you've got to use violence and break the structures of society in order to bring in the kingdom of God. They model themselves still on what David, in fact, did, going around very literally killing his enemies. But is that, uh, is that all? There's something more about Messiah than that, surely. The next period is very interesting, if you look from David to Babylon. Whereas in the first thing, first period, things were up and up and up on the whole with some small, uh, lapses. And then, uh, it all went down, well, there's some recovery, but oh dear, the later kings were poor specimens, weren't they? And the whole thing ended in disaster. In Babylon. Still say. And if you say, well, why did God allow that as a part of the preparation for the coming of his son? The Davidic monarchy completely swept aside. The carrying away to Babylon. Why did God allow it? How is all that a preparation for the coming of the Messiah? Any, any ideas? It shows that the inadequacy of man begins. Yes, it does that, of course. Yes, it does that. I, I will, I, I will go on, I think, and take my cue from the big prophets, uh, uh, and in particular Ezekiel. When I talk to my colleagues in university, for instance, or even when I talk to some Jews. I was at tea the other day with an elderly Jew in Belfast. He was brought up in Vienna, eh, under a rabbi who taught the Jewish community in Vienna to drop all their Jewish distinctives and live like Gentiles. You see, and he will say to me very often, he was saying that the other day when I had last Wednesday and had tea with him. Oh, if it weren't for you Christians, we could have let all this Jewish business go. Why be Jews? He also said, as you Christians kept on this, that you've got to have the Jews, because you Christians are dependent on the Jews, aren't you? And all the trouble the state of Israel is in this modern world, why can't we scrap the whole idea of being Jews? You'll say. Uh, and it's you Christians that have kept it up. You're quite annoyed, actually. Of course, there are millions of Jews in the world who, who have been communists, as you know, and atheists, the majority in Israel for this very present. They are not believers in God or anything. Yes? And if you talk to some people, uh, about the Jews, you see, uh, who get their backs up, hmm, look what they're doing to the Arabs and the, the, uh, the folks in Palestine at the moment, you see, and all this idea that one, one nation's favorite of God, they're God's blue-eyed favorites, who can possibly believe it or accept it? I don't know what reaction you find amongst your unconverted friends when you say Jesus is of the seed of David, you know, he's an Hebrew, and this Old Testament history is important. I find a lot of my friends don't like it at all. And therefore I say, uh, uh, I repeat what my normal a- attitude to them would be, to repeat what the prophet said. One of the evidences that Israel is the people of God, specially chosen to be the forerunners, uh, uh, uh, of Messiah and to bring in the Messiah, the Savior of the world. One of the evidences, like Amos said, you only have I known of all the nations of the world, and because of that, now I shall punish you more than all the others. One thing is evident that Israel aren't God's blue-eyed spoiled favorites, isn't that so? You think of the fearful suffering of Israel, and it isn't us, our Gentile anti-Semitism either. You read their Old Testament prophets, and the Old Testament prophets are more severe than any Gentiles could be on Israel. You see, and God says to, through Ezekiel, that this is the reason, and all the nations one day shall know it, that the reason why Israel went into captivity is not because they weren't my people and their claim was false. It is because they were my people, and their claim is true, and because Israel are the chosen people of the real living God, therefore, when they sinned, he judged them and turned them all out into battle. That seems to me a very important part of our evidences of the truth of Christianity when we consider the historical side of the history of Israel. And the third period? If you say, uh, uh, uh, uh, how like Mr. Tom here says, and that's perfectly true, if the second period of Israel's history was allowed by God to show man's utter inadequacy, complete inadequacy, and therefore the need of a savior, that all that God had done through Abraham and to David, you see, but in the end ruined by man's sin, and God now demonstrates that man is absolutely... Well, once we've demonstrated that, and all the Israelites have been thrown out to Babylon, why didn't the Messiah come? Wouldn't that have been a good time to come? God would have failed. Yeah, pardon? God would have failed in his purposes. Well, that's an interesting comment. I embroidered that a little bit, uh. Well, that that he had started with this plan of taking Israel and making them his people, and they so to- totally failed that he had to throw them away, and Yes. Uh, he wasn't able to complete the job that he began. Ah. But in the restoration, he's continuing that work and bringing them back. Yes. Yes, sir, that I, I, I, I do find my heart warm to you, sir. As I understand it, Ezekiel says the same thing somewhere. If I knew Ezekiel well enough, I'd put my finger on the, uh, passage, but I expect I can't. There's a passage in Ezekiel that runs like this. Says, God, now I'm going to des- I'm going to restore Israel after the exile. And why am I going to restore them? Well, be ashamed, Israelis, be ashamed and confounded. I'm not restoring you for your sake. There are a lot of absolute abominable sinners, and for your sake I'm restoring you. Why will God restore Israel then? Because he says, I have a lesson to teach the nations. You'll say, I'm going to demonstrate to the nations that Israel were my people after all. They are and have a unique role in history, and I'm going to demonstrate it was for their sins that I removed them to Babylon. It wasn't just that the Babylonians had better armies and the biggest armies won. It was because I chastised them and dealt with them for their sins, and to demonstrate it was that reason, I shall restore them again. I think that's what you're saying, sir. God's demonstration to the nation. That all that early history, Abraham to David, from David onward. Was our divine in this world, in the history of Israel. You say, imagine if you went to Mr. Gorbachev the next time he comes to America, and you said to Gorbachev, uh, Gorbachev, old chap, do you believe that Israel were God's chosen people? I mean, what do you think of the Old Testament? You suppose Gorbachev would say, oh, stuff and nonsense. Ah. No, but you say, surely God called out Abram. Uh, uh, Israel were God's chosen people. No, they weren't. Gorbachev would say they got the idea into their head that they were God's favored people, but actually look what came of them. The Babylonians absolutely smashed. There's nothing in it, you see. And in the end, the only forces that count are the who has the biggest army, who has the biggest atomic bomb. That's the only thing that's going to count in history. And all this notion that God has had a divine plan in history is a, is daydreaming nonsense imagination. That's what Gorbachev would say, and millions in the West would say the same thing. Israel had to be restored, says Ezekiel, God through Ezekiel, to demonstrate to the nation that they went into captivity because of their sin, not because the other nations were especially strong. They will be re- restored to show that God is going ahead with his purpose. I imagine Israel will be finally restored for the very same reason when the Lord. Demonstrate to the world that this great movement was of God. Then God will be truthish. Oh, surely. Yeah. It is a fact, isn't it, my brethren and sisters, that if you could show that Israel's history in the Old Testament was after all a mistake, and they weren't the people of God like they thought they were, then Christianity will fall. Yes? A lot of folks, you see, will say, oh, we don't bother with the Old Testament, see, it's enough. Jesus came and taught us the golden rule and do unto others as you should do to yours- would have done to yourself, and uh, uh, you can take the truth of Christianity even without Israel. No, you can't. The great statement of the gospel in Romans chapter one says that it is according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, built on it, and Jesus Christ according to the flesh is the son of David. If that claim of David to be God's Messiah is not true, exit Christianity. It is that important. That's the whole verse about the time you live. Well, so sir. Yes, yes. God is continuing his purposes and will fulfill them. Absolutely so. Because it's not for nothing in some communist country. I was in Czechoslovakia, uh, about a month ago, in some place, the secretary of the party, I mean to say the man in charge of the local religious affairs bureau and in control of all things religious in the area, he decided to come and meet me and come to the meeting. I don't think he was anything more about the scriptures than he knew before, but he was coming to meet me, so he professedly to make me welcome. Sat himself on the front seat, gave me a whole spiel of welcome. And, uh, when my translator found out that I was going to talk about the Lord's coming and the end of the world, he nearly had a stroke. Told me, please not, please not, no, no, no, no, no, nothing about the Lord's coming or the end of the world. Oh, well, they explained to me afterwards, you'll see, that, uh, I had to change, I was hopeless, I had to change what I was going to say. I said, well... But the, uh, communist authorities in Czechoslovakia hold that all this talk of Israel is, one, political, and two, the talk of Israel and the Armageddon and so forth is made the excuse in America for stockpiling atomic bombs against the Russians, you'll see. And all this about Gog and Magog coming up against Israel, hmm, is anti-Soviet propaganda. Oh yeah, so. Commonists who think, perceive that if this Old Testament story about the God's choosing of Israel and God's purpose for Israel in the future is true. Because it does carry, in the end, very big implications for an atheistic interpretation of life. See. Uh, and of course, I- I- I- I'll pass on, oh, what time has gone, I'll pass on. You see, if you look at the period of return, my brethren and my sisters. Uh, that is given us partly in the Old Testament, and then for part you'd have to go to secular history, wouldn't you? From the return to Jesus Christ. One of the biggest and most traumatic events in Israel's history in that period of the return was the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, according to Daniel's prophecy, set up the abomination of desolation, desecrated the very temple of God, put an image of Baal Hashemayim on the alt sacrifice of pig in the temple, introduced temple prostitutes into the court. And the high priests of the time of, uh, being apostate high priests were hand in glove with Antiochus Epiphanes and his government to try and turn Jerusalem into a Hellenistic state and deny the specificities of Israel's faith, deny that Israel was special, deny that Jehovah was unique among the gods. Jehovah was just another name, according to them, for Baal HaShamayim. You see, it was a fearful time of apostasy in Israel when the high priests themselves were hand in glove with secularism, and, uh, as I say, uh, gave up the specificities of Israel, and circumcision was banned, and possession of Holy Scripture was banned. And idolatrous shrines set up along the streets, times when if women had their chil- Jewish women had their children circumcised and the authorities caught them, the woman and the child would be thrown over the walls or to crush their brains out on the rocks below. You see. And the attempt, therefore, to turn Israel into a Hellenistic city and the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem into one more idolatrous shrine. It was a fearful time. And for three and a half years, nothing happened. Israel's claim that, uh, she was the chosen people of God and served the living God, and the living God pre- presenced himself in that temple in Jerusalem. That was their claim. Well, what now comes of the claim when Antiochus Epiphanes thus desecrates the temple? Well, nothing happens. It was a fearful time, and if I'm right in saying, am I not, that the New Testament, in looking forward to the great Antichrist or the beast or whatever you call him, borrows the language what originally used of Antiochus Epiphanes, or the great figure that will come in the future, exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. Sits in the temple of God, giving himself out that he is God, and exalts himself above all that is, is called God. And just as it happened in that period of the return, when Israel had come back to the land, but the Messiah hadn't yet come. So, of course, it will happen again. And Israel and her leaders makes her covenant with the man of sin. So that even in that part of Israel, the third part of Israel's history, the restoration, Messiah didn't come to the end of that either. It seems to me that that also has a prototype of the days yet to come. Well, ladies and gentlemen, uh, uh, it is now half past, and I mustn't worry you. You've been so kind to, uh, come along. Thank you very much for your help and contributions. Um, would it be your wish to continue one more day with this before we move on, or would you say now we've had enough of the first four chapters, let's move on to the next chapter? What would your wish? Obviously, with an eminent, um, with an eminent, uh, assemblage of folks, my brothers and sisters here, you're not us wanting me to, to teach. It's a question of sharing together, isn't it? Uh, of, um, of being fed in the Lord. Uh, would you like to continue with this tomorrow, or do you say no, enough of that, and go on to chapters eight, nine, and ten tomorrow? Right here. It's Which now now are up after for forever. ever on the feast. Would you, do you want to go on, or do you want to stay at this? Have you divided the whole gospel into to the pure gospel? What I thought was to pick your brains, you see, I- I'm only now honestly confessing it. What I thought was to pick your brains on the narrative portions, you see, to try and come at the general question of how relevant are they? You'll see. What is the point of them? That's what I meant. So that, eh, the next passage after this one would be eight and nine, if not ten, Those series of miracles. What are they doing there? What is Matthew trying to get across? If here he is introducing the Messiah and showing the things that went into the preparing the way of the Lord and the credentials of the Messiah, therefore, and how when he came, the opposition was dealt with, what the opposition was. Uh, then we should move on. Eight, nine, and ten seem to me to be talking about the nature of his authority, but move on, shall we? Vote is move on tomorrow. Thank you so very much indeed. Might I just make one comment? Mm. In nineteen sixty seven, when Israel was taken, when Jerusalem was taken for the Israelite family, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem wrote an article that was published in Time Magazine in the month of July, and it is a most remarkable. The title of the article is, Will There Be Another Temple? And he points out, first of all, the difficulties in such a thing. Mm. He said the first thing is we must have an authentic priest that will be able to prove that they're the sons of error. And of course, the Messiah too is credentialed. And then he said, here is this Moslem mosque, right on the very site of the temple of Solomon stood. And he said, that must be enough. He said, we must have a temple on the authentic side. How is it going to happen? And he ended up with starting by collapse. He said it must be divine intervention, but he said we'll have a temple, we'll have an authentic priest too, but he said it will have to be the intervention of God. I quite like that. Very, very. It's a remarkable thing that there is a random day on the argument of the Messiah. Oh, surely. That's interesting, isn't it? It's interesting for this initial setting that Matthew puts, that when the Messiah was born with his credentials, there was an imposter on, well, there was a Herod on the throne. He was an Edomite, an Idumean. The authorities with the scriptures in their hand were able to advise Herod where the Messiah would be born. They weren't interested to get up off their seats and go and find him. And God brought Gentiles, and all they had was a star to guide them, they had no scriptures. And while Israel was standing on the side with Herod, the Gentiles came and found the Messiah. The result of Israel's apathy at that stage and standing with Herod was a small example of the genocide of Israel. For Herod, in order to keep his rule, was prepared to massacre innocents under two years old to stop this Messiah and to stop scripture being fulfilled. And the whole horrible story, so to speak, of Israel's genocide. And the infant Lord was taken down to Egypt. Oh, what a period in Israel's history that was, when mothers and fathers had to s- had to see their their male children thrown into the Nile and the crocodiles eating. But you see, Israel will apostatize from her Messiah and stand with the Herons. That leads to the virtual genocide of Israel and Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are not. Yes. How now, uh, uh, would we find hope in the, in our, in our Lord as the true Messiah? Well, Israel have not yet got to recognize him. When I talked to my friend Otto, uh, Goldberg in Belfast, ah, he said, your Jesus, no, David, your Jesus is no good. Nah. Anyway, where was he when Hitler was gassing six million of my, my, my compatriots anyway? And anyway, your Jesus is too soft, you know, all this business of forgiving your enemies. You want to clout them hard when they clout you. Yeah, well, he nearly got in the gas chambers himself, that one. What is the way forward? What kind of government would you want? And what are the conditions for the govern- uh, the government? And in those next two paragraphs, of course, here comes John the Baptist preparing the way of the law. What kind of a government? And Israel have got yet to come and recognize, haven't they, that the meek and lowly Jesus who suffered at Calvary is their Messiah. Yes. And is not only arbitrarily so, but is the kind of Messiah that they would want. And perhaps Israel must learn it, that as our Lord said, I come in my Father's name, and you won't have me. Another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. They must learn first the terror of the Antichrist, the Herods of this world, the future man of sin, to be shown that their, their true Messiah Jesus is indeed the true anointed of God, and his government, the kind of government that can bring peace to our world. And it's interesting to watch as the, as the stage gets nearer, isn't it, uh, you'll see our... In Britain, some of the upper crust are getting alarmed because they've discovered that the bishops of the Anglican Church no longer believe the Bible, and they don't believe the fundamentals of the faith, you see. And in part and also to show their disapproval, the Prime Minister has ennobled the chief. He now sits as a Lord in the House of Lords. It's a very interesting phenomenon that whereas, uh, many of the theologians doubt whether God exists, the Jewish Rabbi stands both for the true God existence and for the morality of the Mosaic law. That's a very interesting phenomenon. But he is still a minority amongst his people. The vast majority of Jews are in absolute unbelief of him. Actually, where we do is to see again what was in, uh, um, Antiochus Epiphanes' time. The patterns of history, in other words, repeat. And if this was the pattern of Messiah's coming, his credentials, but the opposition he meant, he met, so it will be in the future. Let me not keep going longer. Where's the chap? Our Father, we thank thee for thy holy word. It stimulates our minds, it reaches our hearts, but we praise thee that it is true. These are the true sayings of God. We thank thee for the witness of thy purposes in history. We thank thee for every prophecy fulfilled in thy dear Son. We praise thee for the confidence that gives us that all the prophecies that are in him shall all of them eventually be fulfilled. And as our world hastens on to its terrible crisis, we praise thee for the blessed hope that we shall see the Savior again. Confirm the fate of thy people, we beseech thee, through thy word, and grant that through comfort of the scriptures we may have hope. And make us, we beseech thee, through thy word, more effective witnesses to the godless world that lies around us. We ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.