What I Believe!

And so what I want to do is I want to read the verses 1 through 12. But I want to speak and commentary on these words as I go. So I’ve put the words spirit of truth in front of verse 1. Because it’s the Holy Spirit who’s speaking. 

All three persons of the Trinity speak in Psalm 2. For those who do not believe in the Trinity, I don’t know how they handle three distinct persons in this chapter. Three persons of the Trinity, it’s throughout the Bible. So to begin with, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, is asking a question. 

Why? Why are the nations so shaken up and the people planning foolish things? The kings of the earth stand in a line ready to fight. And all the leaders are against the Lord and against his chosen one. And this is what they say. 

Let’s break their chains and throw them away from us. And then the next verse, the Holy Spirit is continuing as he says, he who sits in the heavens laughs. So we’ve already discovered what the world is saying, the world leaders, in fact, the prime ministers and the few kings that there are.

The United Nations, the great council that’s supposed to keep everything at a nice course in this world. But now the Lord God, the Father is responding. The Holy Spirit is telling us, he who sits in the heavens laughs. 

The Lord’s making fun of them right now. But then he will speak to them in his anger. So the Lord’s temperament changes from humor as he’s laughing and mocking at them saying, as they said, we’ll break the chains.

We’re going to be set free. He mocks them for so saying. But then his anger is riled.

He will speak to them in his anger. And in his speech to them, they will become afraid. Then God himself is speaking. 

But as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will make known the words of the Lord. This is now the son speaking.

The Holy Spirit has spoken. The Father has spoken of his son, who he says, I’m making him king. Now the son responds and he says, I will make known the words of the Lord.

He said to me, you are my son. Today I have become your father. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for you to own. 

The ends of the earth will belong to you. You will break them using a piece of iron and they will be broken in pieces like clay. Then the spirit responds again. 

So kings, Democrats, politicians, United Nations, self-serving people, be wise. Listen, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear.

Be full of joy as you shake in fear. Kiss the son. Be afraid. 

He may be angry and destroy you in the way. For his anger is quick. Happy are all who put their trust in him.

The nations are lining up even as we speak. And they’re telling Israel what they ought to do. There is so much misinformation. 

There are politicians, powerful world leaders who have no concept of the history of that part of the world. They dare to take the side of the Palestinians and say, look, that’s their land. You ought to just kind of get over it.

But somebody needs to realize something and that’s this, that the Hamas people driven by an Islamic theology are not interested in a piece of land called Gaza. They’re not interested in land at all. They’re interested in a race of people known as the Jews and they are calling for their demise. 

We’re going to drive them from the river to the sea. And they’ve gone a little farther than that. If a nation should even dare to whisper support for Israel, then that nation pays also. 

So they’re in the streets of the United States and they’ve also shown up in the streets of Canada and they’re shouting death to America, death to Canada and death to everyone who would stand on the side of Israel. And so the response of the United Nations is we need to appease these people. They’re nice folk. 

They’re just tired of shuffling around and not having a proper home. There is not an Arab nation that will take one of them. The King of Jordan says, not one Palestinian is going to come in my country and stay for more than a day.

Egypt won’t. Nobody, nobody wants them because wherever they go, their trouble follows them. So the nations are lining up right in the United Nations and they’re saying to Israel, you’ve got to stop this. 

You’re starving those people. And the CNN and the CBC and the CTV and all these major networks, they’re not telling you that the food has gone in and that it’s rotting in the desert. Israel has taken the food in, trying to help these people, but Hamas is either stealing it or with guns, they’re stopping anybody from delivering it. 

And United Nations is unable even to step in and do anything about it. Or in fact, maybe the United Nations are cooperating with Hamas. So Hamas are terrorists, they’re rapists, they’re murderers, and we’re going to reward them. 

We’re going to reward them. We’re going to take care of them because actually they’re just good people. So I want to talk about this morning what I believe.

I believe that God specifically chose the Jewish people and granted them the land of Israel through a covenant that he made with Abraham. He confirmed it with Isaac and he confirmed it again with Jacob. And I believe that Gaza is included as well as the entire West Bank, as Gaza has been a part of Israel for thousands of years. 

The Bible is there to teach us. Do you know recently, archaeologists, before this mess started up, it’s about three years ago, I believe four years ago, that archaeologists were working in Gaza there somewhere, and they found the remnants, the parts of a place where the Jews used to worship centuries, centuries, centuries ago. The Jewish people have always been there.

I believe that they have a right to that property and we need to look at it in historical context. The Israelites journey to the eventual possession of the promised land is the central theme of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. The topic of them going and possessing the land takes in all of those books and one topic being addressed in the Word of God to such grandeur can only be matched as you go to the Gospels. 

All those books, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they’re all about the transition of the Jewish people because God was leading them. Because you see, the whole world says, what right do the Jews have to that land? And the answer is, God gave it to them. Why would God give it to them? Because God is sovereign. 

Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. 

Sing praises. For God is the King of all of the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. 

God reigns over all of the nations. God sits on His holy throne. Psalm 47. 

God chooses who He will choose. God chose Abraham. What was it about Abraham that God fell in love with? Well, I don’t think there was anything about Abraham that was to love. 

God simply said, you’re my choice. You’re my man. I’m going to make out of you a great nation. 

And that nation is going to serve my purposes. The redemption of whosoever will would come. And the significance of the promised land, it represents for the Jewish people a place of rest. 

This has been a cry of their hearts forever and ever. I never knew about this. This just came out recently. 

I saw a commentary that when Israel became broken up back historically, and it became Judea, Judea and Samaria, and then Israel, it actually became two nations. And then during the reign of Rehoboam, there was an exodus as the people were taken out of that country, out of Israel. They were scattered all over the world. 

Many of them just ran for their lives. And there were tribes of the people of Israel, ran for their life. And they ended up everywhere. 

And many of them, a few thousand, ended up in Ethiopia. And they believe, in fact, that among them are the descendants of an offspring that came about because of Solomon, not Solomon. Yes, Solomon and Bathsheba, that a son was born. 

And all of these people have been living up in the north of Ethiopia. They were driven there by the church. They were persecuted. 

They were killed. Terrible things. And you would say, why would the church do that? Well, I’ve been to Ethiopia. 

I’ve done a lot of ministry. My last three years of traveling as a missionary evangelist, I spent in Ethiopia. And I saw the difficulties that are going on there because of one church, the Orthodox Church. 

I was financing 100 church planting evangelists. And there was always the concern that they were going to get picked off. They were going to get killed. 

They got bludgeoned. They got threatened. I experienced threats because I was there, not under their auspices.

And so this group of people who were Jews, who were living in Ethiopia, when the church got established after the resurrection and going forward, the Orthodox Church chased them. They went up into the north and they’d been in this remote place. And people have gone there and found them and spoken to them. 

And they’ve discovered that these people never knew that the temple, back in Jesus’ day, he said, this temple will be torn down. They didn’t know that that had taken place. There they are in this remote place. 

They have no contact with the outer world. And they’re practicing all of the feasts and all the rest of it, that the word of God, they only know the laws of Moses. They only know that part. 

And they actually took parchments with them. They keep the Sabbath. They circumcise on the eighth day.

They do everything that the Lord gave to Moses. These people have been living totally alone, but they didn’t establish a library or anything like this, even African culture. How do they know who they were from centuries ago? It’s all about generation teaches the next generation. 

The elders teach the next generation, all the way down. So these people who are very dark-skinned live way up in the north of Ethiopia. Their prayer every day is, soon Jerusalem. 

They cry unto the Lord for a couple of thousand years. We want to go home. We want to go home.

And it became knowledge. It got to the people of Israel. And so some rabbis did some studies and did some investigation. 

I don’t know how extensive it was, but they in Israel, the top religious leaders of Israel have declared, these people are authentic and they’re welcome to come home. And they said the moment they get off of an airplane, they send airplanes to bring them, thousands of them. They said the moment their feet touch Israel, they are citizens of Israel.

When you look at the promised land, there’s something in Jewish people that’s drawing them back like never before. People are leaving Canada and heading for Israel. And what’s it all about? Israel is a powder keg. 

Israel is ready for war 24 hours a day. You’ve all watched it with, when they had a two state solution, buses were being bombed and people were being knifed and killed. It’s just been a powder keg. 

And Jewish people are selling out and they’re heading home. They feel the need to be there. The promised land to them because of God’s promise to Abraham was, it’s going to be a place of rest. 

It’s going to be a place of refuge. It’s going to be a place where the Israelites will be blessed and a symbol of God’s faithfulness to his covenant. But that promise about the promised land, the opportunity to experience rest and peace and blessing, it comes with conditions attached. 

And the condition is that for God to fulfill his covenant with them, they must comply with his word. I look this up this week again, just to be up to date. And 45% of the people currently living in Israel want to be there. 

They love the country, but they show no interest in anything religious whatsoever. The next 33%, I believe, is people of ultra orthodoxy. So they’re very much committed to their understanding.

And then I think there’s another 10% that don’t claim to believe in anything. That’s not a good report for a country that’s known as a place blessed by God. So while the promise is eternal and it will be eventually completed, and the possession of the land is going to be, it’s going to be fulfilled. 

And I’m quite taken with the fact that God, that Jesus, when he comes and he establishes his kingdom, he’s actually going to put, he’s going to bring David back to life. And David is going to rule in Jerusalem. I found that. 

That’s such an exciting concept for me. So going on, second what I believe, that God promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. That’s quite a thought.

So what the United Nations is doing right now, they’re telling Israel, lay down your arms, and we’re sure that those people known as Hamas, they’ll lay down their arms. Everything’s going to be hunky-dory. What really is happening is if Israel follows through, and you know they won’t, but if they did, the word curse would be an appropriate word. 

Because Hamas has stated again and again and again, October the 7th, we never finished. We want to do it again and again until every last one of them is dead. So to tell Israel, you’ve got to, you’ve got to submit.

What it really is, it’s rewarding Hamas for what they did on October the 7th. To me, what the nation’s leaders are doing right now is they’re speaking a curse over Israel. And I believe there’s going to be trouble to pay for that. 

I believe that God does bless those who bless Israel, and he sends a lot of trouble in the way of those who speak negatively. Are you excited about this message yet? Somebody said, couldn’t wait to get back here and hear you. And I said, I don’t think it’s going to be that way today.

Number three, I believe that Jerusalem is a holy city. If you haven’t been there, you should go. You say at a time like this, yeah, I have friends that are there right now. 

It’s okay. It’s okay. It is a holy city. 

If you ever go there, you’ll be awestruck. You’ll be awestruck by it all. It’s just Old Testament, New Testament, it’s a holy city.

It’s a gravity point of the entire Bible of biblical history. And it will always be the gravity point going forward. It’s always going to be a holy city. 

And by the way, that city cannot be destroyed. Don’t worry about Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem is where Jesus is coming back. 

His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives. And the Golden Gate, which was sealed by Arabs, I don’t know how long ago, when they were in control of things, the Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate, it was sealed. Why? Because they wanted to stop the Messiah from going through. 

Somehow that gate is going to fall apart. I think there’s going to be an earthquake, and all the brick, and the stone, everything else, the mortar that they put it to block that gate, it’s going to fall apart. Jesus is going to enter the city. 

That’s the gate he went through riding on the donkey. And they’re shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. He’s not going to be riding on a donkey the next time.

It’s the future site of Jesus’ return. Number four, I believe that Israel’s existence and actions are playing a crucial role in end times prophecy, and will do so in the impending war of Gog and Magog. Number five, I believe that as a Christian, I believe that you as a Christian have a responsibility to support Israel and the Jewish people. 

For those who are listening in on the internet, the place has gone totally silent. People are staring at me. I believe I have a responsibility to pray for the peace of Israel.

I believe that with all my heart, and every opportunity. When I’m in an airport, I’ve told you this before, whenever I’m in an airport, Jewish people are quite easily identifiable. It’s not just their nose.

They’re wonderful people. But the men who wear this hat, I don’t know where they get this hat. It’s a wide brim hat, a kind of a fedora. 

I used to wear one some years ago. But if a Jewish man, a Jewish businessman is wearing a fedora, it’s a unique shape and a unique size. And then there are the ultra Orthodox, and they’re the fellows that wear a lot of head garb and the hair is curly. 

And you know what I do? I can’t be in a waiting room waiting for a flight, and I’m sitting across from a Jewish fellow. I go right over to him and I say, I want to shake your hand. And they don’t, let me tell you, if you threaten them, they know how to handle that. 

They’ve always lived with knives pointing at them. But what the Jewish people can’t handle is friendliness, kindness, and love. And when you say, I want to shake your hand, they think, yeah, you’re going to put a bomb in my hand. 

They don’t know how to handle it. And they want to know, what are you all about? And I say to them, I’m a Christian, and I want to thank you for maintaining the Old Testament for us, the prophets and the comings and the goings of Moses and your people. Your people have blessed us. 

I am a blessed man today. My family, my children are serving God. My kids are doing, and it’s all because of you. 

You people are to be commended, and I’m on your side. I have to tell them that. I told that to a taxi driver when I said to him, we were driving in the evening, and he was taking me to Nazareth. 

And I said, you know, he said, what brings you here to this country? I said, because we love you. And he turned and he looked at me, he said, don’t say that. I said, I’m saying it because I mean it. 

And he actually wept, not audibly, but his eyes filled with tears. He said, you mean that, you love us. I said, you need to know Christians all over the world, they love you. 

They love you. I said, there’s a uniqueness between the Jewish people and us. We belong together. 

I said, we care about you. I believe it’s a responsibility of every Christian not to hide that light under a bushel. Somebody said something to me in a place of commerce just the other day about what’s going on over there. 

And I said, well, I’ll just tell you right now. I said, I’m on the side of Israel. I said, those Hamas guys, they need to be blown up in their caves. 

As a Christian, I have a responsibility to support Israel. Number six, fasten your seat belts. There’s a great deal of argument going on about whether the church will have to go through the tribulation. 

And I’m going to tell you right now, emphatically, absolutely no. Now you say, well, I believe we’re going through. And my answer to you is, look, I guess it’s kind of like, maybe the Lord’s going to take us to heaven. 

Maybe the rapture is going to happen through plane loads, you know, 747s. If that’s how it is, I’m on the first plane. You want to stick around? Think about this. 

Read Revelation chapter one. That’s where John faints at the very sight of Jesus, the man who knew Jesus. He’s known in the gospel of John.

John’s the writer, and he speaks of himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Does that mean that Jesus loved John more than he did the other disciples? Of course it does. That can’t be. 

He didn’t love John more than the rest. Of course he did. How can you say that? We have three grown kids. 

One’s living in Edmonton. One’s living in Niagara Falls. One’s living in Brantford.

The youngest I love the most. What do you mean, Pastor Dave? I mean this. I remember a day when Sherry was very taken up with this fellow that she thought she wanted to marry, and David Jr., he wanted the keys to the car, and Melanie wanted to spend time with her dad.

She’s the only one of the three that wanted to go with me, and I took her to Stratford one evening when I was speaking on missions in that local church, and I was able to minister to my daughter all the way there and all the way back. When I sat down, Melanie always sat beside me. Listen to Pastor. 

Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. For God so loved the world, he felt nice.

No, for God so loved the world, he gave. We are the ones who get the most love. Why? Because we demand it. 

We come to this house, and we sing, I love you Jesus, and when you say I love you Jesus, the love flows back. How come the youngest got the most love? Because she’s the one that demanded it. I love all three, but she’s the one who demands the most. 

She calls us regularly, and sits on the phone and giggles. She’s 54 years of age, already retired, and she says, we’re living the dream out here. Yeah, it’ll be 45 below. 

Live the dream. Winter’s coming. But she calls, and she giggles, and she talks, and she wants to talk to her daddy.

I’m threatening to jump on a plane and go and see her soon. The church is going to be spared the tribulation, because he loves us. We are not appointed to wrath. 

So John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who when they sat down together, would put his head on Jesus’ breast. He wanted to be right there. If Jesus so much as said, boy, I’m thirsty, John would say, I’ll be right back. 

And it would be John that would go and bring a cask of water for Jesus to drink. John was right there all the time. I believe that if any one of the disciples had sat down beside Jesus, and John showed up, he would have said, excuse me, you’re in my chair. 

Hello? That’s my chair. He got more love because he craved it, because he asked for it. Go on to chapter 2 and chapter 3. It’s the Lord speaking to seven churches. 

Listen now. It’s the Lord speaking to seven churches, chapter 2 and chapter 3. Chapter 4, no mention of the church. Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, all the way up to Revelation 22. 

The church shows up again at the very end in chapter 22. Look it, the tribulation is not about the church. The tribulation is being put together, not just to punish the world, but it’s to discipline and bring the Jews close to the Lord. 

It’s going to take the tribulation to cause those people to cry out and say, where is the Lord God of Moses? Where is the God of our father, Abraham? When they cry out, he will show up. But it’s going to take trial and difficulty. A nation’s going to be attacked from every side, and the Lord will show up for them.

The tribulation is not designed for the church. It’s designed to draw Israel in. 28 countries are demanding that Israel surrender to the demands of Hamas.

These are the nations that are lining up right now against Israel and accusing them of starving the people of Gaza. That’s a lie. Austria and Australia, Belgium. 

Oh, Canada. Why would we do such a thing? Do we as Canadians actually believe that we have such knowledge of what’s going on? I’ve never gone to Gaza. Is anybody going to go over there and really have a look and see what’s going on? To see the piles of food rotting in the desert.

Thousands of tons of food. They can’t get it because the place is controlled. Cyprus and Denmark, Estonia. 

Shame on you, Finland. Shame on you, Macron from France. Greece and Iceland and Ireland and Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and even the UK. 

I will bless those who bless you. And I’m going to take nations that are unkind to Israel. I’m going to make life very difficult for them.

And in you, Israel, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God, help us to be faithful. I don’t listen to the news anymore. 

I don’t listen to CBC. I don’t trust CNN. I don’t trust them anymore because they’ve lied too many times. 

I just don’t trust them. I have other ways that I’m finding news. I search the whole world for news. 

I listen to Israel TV. Sometimes I listen to Al Jazeera, but not very often. I’m not sure that they’re not one-sided. 

I’m going to ask my friend from Japan in the back row to come up and help me. Will you come, brother? I know this has not been the kind of sermon that you people, many of you come from a long ways to be a part of. Oh, I did not collaborate with this guy ahead, but this guy is ahead of me. 

He’s going to do it. I just felt compelled to talk to you this morning. I know pulpits are silent.

Pulpits are, pastors are afraid. I can’t believe that pastors are afraid to talk about such issues. Jesus is coming soon, folks. 

It’s important that we look at it and all of these, about the Ethiopians going home, that’s all part of the end time. The Lord says at the end, he’s going to be drawing people from all over the world. He’s doing it. 

It’s happening right now. Everything is lining up absolutely on purpose. The fact that we are coming unraveled as a society, the riots that are going on in England, the riots that are going on in France, everywhere. 

The world is rocking, I mean, torn up. Wars and rumors of wars. The whole thing is just coming unraveled. 

Don’t get disturbed by that. Look up your redemption draft. He’s coming soon, and we’re all going to go to Jerusalem. 

How many have never been there? You missed it, but there’s still another load going. I’m not lining up. I’m not going to take people but you know who’s going to take us to Jerusalem? King Jesus. 

We’re all going to see it. It’s going to be marvelous. Have you got a song about Jerusalem? I bet you do. 

Last night he lay asleep and he saw the old Jerusalem and he describes it. Children playing, people coming and going. It’s open wide. 

Then he saw the second scene that was destroyed and the cross was there and then destruction. No singing and that’s how Jerusalem’s been for a long time. Then he saw the third image, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared for his bride as a bridegroom is. 

And there people and nations come and go and the world is blessed and that’s the story of this song. It says it in three verses. So did you know the third temple is going to be built? And do you know that Israel right now is preparing to build the temple? They’re assembling the pieces, that they’re assembling all of the the accoutrements that have to go with.

And in order to sanctify the new temple, there has to be a red heifer. The red heifer has to be, and do you know what? They’ve got red, they brought, they found, nobody knew where red heifers were. That’s a cow, that’s a cow, right? That’s a cow.

And sorry, I’m not putting you down, it’s just not everybody knows. So the red heifers were found somewhere in the world and they shipped them in and they’re taking care of them. And if another generation has to come along with another red heifer, that they’re keeping them alive and regenerating. 

And so in order to restore the temple, they have to have a red heifer. And they’ve got a red heifer. After hundreds of years, they’ve got a red heifer. 

I tell you, it’s exciting, it’s exciting, it’s exciting. Okay, the holy city. Is it on? I think so.

He wants to transpose. So we’re going to close, close this morning with praying for Jerusalem, praying for the peace of Jerusalem. And it occurred to me while you’re playing that, the ladies across the street, when they first opened up that store, right after COVID was concluding, I went over, introduced myself to them and said, look, my name is David and I’m the pastor of the church across the road. 

And I said, my wife is four foot 11 and a half. I said, she’s got pure white hair and she loves dresses. If she comes in here, you do not sell her a dress. 

And so we became friends right then and there. They’re wonderful people. They are special people. 

And you know what? In my closing prayer today, I’m going to include them specifically. I’ve never talked to them. I’ve never gone to them and talked to them on their Jewish people. 

I’ve never talked to them in a religious tone, but I now have a reason because in my prayer now, I’m going to pray for those people. I don’t know what they’re going through. I have no idea what category they would be in, whether they are, I mean, you won’t get them open on a Saturday. 

I mean, they’re very, very religious in that way. So I’m going to let them know that as a congregation today, we prayed for them and you know what? There’s no defense. I’m going to tell them, Jesus loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Heavenly Father, we’re a very troubled people. The whole world is troubled with all of the difficulties, the strains. And in particular, Lord, we’re troubled about what’s going on in the Middle East. 

We have no feelings of hatred, anything that even comes near to that. When we think about the Palestinian people, they’re trapped. They are trapped. 

And many of them have been schooled to hate us and to hate Christians and to hate the whole world. We know that. They’re a product of great difficulty. 

But Lord, we pray for the Gazans today who are struggling to just make ends meet. They are trapped. They’re in the middle of this. 

And Lord God, we pray for them somehow that their needs will be met and that there will be some kind of an armistice, some kind of a peacetime. We don’t know how that comes about. We’re not smart enough to figure it all out. 

We just pray for them. And then Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for Mr. Niyat Nahu. 

I can’t think of a person in the world that’s more pressured, that’s getting more phone calls and more ugliness thrown at them. Dear God, I just pray for this man that you will strengthen him and keep him. Bless him, I pray. 

He’s a Jewish man in charge of the most important nation on the world today. I pray for him and those who are around him that you will give them wisdom to know how to navigate this very, very difficult water. And then lastly, Lord, we pray for the people who have that beautiful store across the street. 

Don’t even know their names, I forget. But Lord, you know them and you know their history. Lord, we pray for these children of Abraham who have a place of commerce across the street. 

I pray you’ll bless them. I pray that you’ll make their store wonderfully bountiful in success. I pray for their success. 

But more than that, I pray for their spirit. I pray for their spirit that somehow Jesus will find his way in there. Lord, it would be something if some of us could have a part in that.

We ask these mercies in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, I’m almost ready to apologize for preaching like I did today, but I shouldn’t. 

Well, because it wasn’t what you’re accustomed to. But I really felt I had to. I felt that it’s my responsibility to try and show you. 

People are saying, do we go through the tribulation? Well, I threw that little part in there too. So the Lord bless you and keep you. And before you go now, just pray over one another. 

You know how that works, right? If you’re visiting today and you don’t know how this works, we always pray for people as they’re leaving. You can’t get out of here without being prayed for. And this is the prayer. 

And it is a prayer. The prayer is God bless you. And I’ve already preached sermons on that about the meaning of it. 

It’s wonderful. It’s full of grace. So I pray that prayer over to you today. 

God bless you.