10-29-2023 Sunday Sermon Message

Devotional of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Psalm 83:1-18

Title: Why? The world hates Israel and bible believing Church without cause?

      Long time years ago, Asaph, a Levite who sang and served God in the temple, interceded, bearing witness to the accusations and hatred that the Israelites would receive from all the nations of the world.

      He foresaw in the Holy Spirit  that the bible believing churches of God shall be accused and hated by the world, and the churches of the world, which are so called churches united with the world will persecute and hate the true churches.

      We see this prayer becoming a reality today:

“They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.⁴ They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.⁵ For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:⁶ The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;⁷ Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;⁸ Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.”(Psalm 83:3-8)

        Furthermore, Asaph appealed to God to judge them:

”  Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.¹³ O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.¹⁴ As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;¹⁵ So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord.¹⁷ Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:¹⁸ That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth.”(Psalm 83:12-18)

       When the prophet Isaiah saw Asaph’s prayer answered by God to avenge Israel, he testified and prophesied:

“Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.² For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.³ Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.⁴ And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.⁵ For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment….For it is the day of the Lord‘s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.⁹ And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.”(Isaiah 34:1-5, 8-10)

       Then, through God’s Word, we must understand why the nations of the world hate God’s chosen Israel and God’s church without cause, and where the source of their hatred lies.

       Once upon a time, when God spoke to Satan about Job walking honestly, He said,  “Without cause”:

” And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.”(Job 2:3)

       Jesus spoke to wicked people who hate and accuse Him without cause:

“ If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.²³ He that hateth me hateth my Father also.²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.²⁵ But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. .”(John 15:22-25)

         Jesus cried out that those who accused and hated him were children of the Devil:

” Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”(Matthew 23:33)

       Through God’s words, we can see that behind those who hate Israel and the Church of God without cause, Satan the Devil is in control. Then we need to know the spiritual reason why Satan the Devil hates, accuses, and persecuts Israel and the Church of God. We need to know our enemy and know of us in order to win the spiritual warfares.

      Ever since Satan the Devil brought sin, death, and curses into the Garden of Eden, Satan has ruled over the earth created by God for six thousand years of human history, using his controlling principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and evil spirits in the high places over all the nations and creations in it. When the God who created the earth appeared to the world in the name of Jesus, Satan the Devil told Jesus that he had rightfully taken possession of the earth. At this time, Jesus did not deny what he was saying. Of course, He did not say anything at the time, because He had in mind that He would take away the sins of the world and judge Him through his resurrection on the third day:

“ All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.⁷ If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” (Luke 4:6-7)

        But the Devil knew that God had promised to give the Israelites the land he had temporarily occupied. Therefore, he is persecuting Israel without cause. God told Moses that in due time Israel would become a nation of priests over the whole earth:

“ Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel…. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”(Exodus 19:5-6, Deuteronomy 14:2)

        Not only that, but God also spoke in advance of His body, the church, which He would establish in the world. This is why the Church of God has been persecuted and hated by the world for the past two thousand years:

“ A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.³¹ They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”( Psalm 22:30-31)

       The Apostle Paul, writing to the Hebrews, testified that the Church of God is the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy children of God:

”  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,¹² Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.¹³ And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.‘(Hebrews 2:11-13)

       The Apostle Peter testified that the Church of God shall be a royal priesthood that will rule the earth in the future, just like the Israelites:

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;”.(1 Peter 2:9)

       The Church of God, who believed according to the Bible and was born again by the Holy Spirit and became the bride of Christ, shall be raptured on the day of Christ before the Great Tribulation, and shall have a marriage ceremony in heaven, and at the end of the Great Tribulation, when the Lord Jesus Christ opens the windows of heaven and returns to the earth, They shall come down with Christ to judge all nations at the Armageddon.

      But the Israelites, who still do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, shall enter the Great Tribulation that is the time of Jacob’s trouble, prophesied through the prophet Jeremiah, suffer terribly by the Antichrist, and then repent and believe in their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and enter the millennial kingdom of Christ.

       Satan the Devil, who was finally cast out of heaven and used his followers for the past six thousand years to persecute Israel and the Church of God without cause, shall be judged in the lake of fire for all eternity.

      At this time, God will fulfill His will, which He had planned before the foundation of the world. Sanctified Israel shall live forever in the new earth, the Church of God in the holy New Jerusalem, and all repentant Gentiles shall ascend to the new heavens to live forever. At this time, the will of the Father, who fills all things (Ephesians 1:23), is fulfilled through the church. Amen! Hallelujah!