Art Katz's sermon emphasizes the unchanging nature of God and the implications of covenant breaking for Israel and the church's role in prophetic awareness and repentance.
In this sermon, the preacher discusses the resistance faced when speaking about eternity and eternal reward. He shares his personal experience of struggling to communicate this subject and the need for fasting and prayer to overcome the powers of darkness. The preacher also highlights the continuous sin and disobedience of Israel throughout history and the tragic consequence of unbelief. He emphasizes that belief is not merely an intellectual accomplishment but a gift from God, and criticizes the idolization of reason and mind over God. The sermon concludes by questioning the extent to which the Church mirrors Israel's reliance on humanistic efforts for security rather than trusting in God's supernatural power.
Full Transcript
If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why should his response to Israel differ presently from what it was historically? If God is unchanged, and Israel is essentially unchanged, why should the issue of his judgment remain? And if the causative factors remain unchanged, that is, covenant breaking, sin, and apostasy, why should the penalty be unchanged? So, we're asking biblical and prophetic questions about it. The real flying ointment is this, is that we are not biblically and prophetically minded. We, I'm speaking of the corporate church at large and the world, there's a certain attitude that makes judgment unthinkable.
And that, I think, gave to the Holocaust much of its sting. How could this happen in modern times? With great upheavals of warring and of a way of life. The pre-World War II world is extinct.
The Polish villages. So, it's a remarkable thing to think that maybe you'll understand that they're being brought to ruin. Well, that's the going.
So, I'm raising this question. Should there at least be a note of caution that the judgments that now very much look, you know, our phrases in the scripture from Micah 4, miraculous reprieve, Jeremiah 8, 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem, Slit, Slit, Jeremiah 3, 20. We lie down in our shame and our contempt.
We and our forefathers died by poor Nobel prizes and poor surprises. Out of proportion, nevertheless, they are young. I saw the Lord high and lifted up.
And woe is me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live in a mystery. Isaiah is called the prince.
Woe unto Israel, woe unto you who build houses side by side. You've seen all of Israel's sins. Woe is me, I am undone.
Israel's blindness to its own historic character and even its present condition is altogether relative. You know yourself only in proportion that a nation will repair and to rebuild the city. What is there in human nature.
So what concludes the age, the final. So we will have. So in a word, it lives only in the present.
And that's by definition no longer church. The church is already in, already living in the anticipation of the things to come. These are not doctrinal truths.
These are things for which we already have. So the church lacks the spirit, the self-sacrificing. So I don't know if we're going to speak on this.
But I ran right into a bridge. I tried again the next week. We're not going to get it.
I don't know why it is, but there's something about the subject of eternity. That is so powerfully resisted that we're going to have to fail. So these things are lost.
Sufficient to bear the pain of the apocalyptic. It may be an institution. Lose its ex.
That knows that it is ex. Even a doormat. So something like what we said.
Doing its first priority. Even over. It has to decrease.
It will suffer defeat. In its own fulfillment. In its own identity.
Everything rests with the church. Willing to decrease. That Israel.
That showed over. Our own highfalutin contempt. That we have the law.
And Moses and the prophets. And you're a bunch of dumb. That when the Gentiles.
Holy as he is holy. That we might be the son. Whatever the answer is.
That's where the church is. The Jew is God. Unfailingly.
Even if the Jews were exemplary. That we are. We're willing for them to have the preeminence.
We're willing to decrease. That they might. The issue is not Israel.
The issue is the church. Israel is fixed in its own. The answer that comes must.
Namely. To rule and reign. So.
If there's a historic dispute. That makes Israel as susceptible now. To the judge.
God's cry. Is only acknowledged by. Jeremiah.
That is to say. The national. Evil.
Unilaterally. And super. Even gives us.
The gift. He has first got to give. Man.
If we are anything. We are man. Savior.
Independence from. The vilest. And ultimate.
He reminds us. I'm the one who created you. I'm the one who.
Has established the expanse of us. That power. Will create them a new.
For how else. Shall they bless. All the families of the earth.
If their disposition has never changed. Only by being created. A new.
Which is exactly what happened to us. We were born again. A new.
You must be born again. The only point is. That it's moving from an individual.
Birthing to a new. The demonstration. In the affairs of men and women.
This intervention of God. Which is it. Is so manifest.
Not only will you know in that day. That I am the Lord. Who has.
All flesh shall know. That I am the Lord. Who has.
Perhaps it's the. The. Reluctance of.
So this is a part of. Instruments. In opposing.
Israel. See again. Everything is related to Israel.
I make an end of all nations. Especially those nations. That opposed Israel.
And went beyond God's intention. Some of them will actually be obliterated as nations. But I will not make a full end of you.
It will look like. Virtually. Israel is going to be.
Extirpated and moved out. But God will save a remnant. And that remnant.
Restored. In it's day to day realistic. Alma does not mean virgin.
It means a young maiden. And so. You think it means.
Jesus was born by a virgin. In fulfillment of that prophecy. But the word really means.
Young girl. So. There.
See it's not supernatural after all. And if Jesus. I mean Julia.
Don't go on to the next. If the birth of Jesus. Was not utterly supernatural.
In fulfillment of a prophetic word. Written a thousand years before the event. How then is that birth.
And I will tell you how it has been. What kind of a sign is it. That a young woman.
Every young woman has a child. That's no sign. But a young woman who is a virgin.
But Israel staggered. In unbelief. They did not enter into their rest.
Because of unbelief. And unbelief is the consequence of sin. The ability to believe.
Repent and believe. Believing is not an intellect. We celebrate.
Unless it is the mind. Celebrating reason. So that virtually requires.
What is repentance? Metanoia. The Greek word. What's the definition? Change of mind.
The change of mind. Is a whole mindset. A secular.
Modern. Rationalistic. That is confronted.
So as I said before. There is orthopraxy. That so wins.
So showing the list of churches. All the promotional things. Why do these mass mailings work? Because if you send out expedients.
Utilitarianism. Israel is divided. Poetic.
All you have to do is translate. Living in the land. Let alone Israel.
For what reason could you say.
Sermon Outline
-
I
- God's unchanging nature and its implications for Israel
- Historical context of Israel's covenant breaking
- Judgment as a consistent response to sin
-
II
- The church's lack of prophetic awareness
- Caution against complacency in judgment
- The need for self-examination within the church
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III
- The role of Israel in God's plan
- Understanding the significance of remnant theology
- The church's responsibility towards Israel
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IV
- The necessity of being born again
- The relationship between belief and repentance
- The challenge of modern rationalism
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V
- The prophetic significance of Israel's future
- The consequences of opposing God's intention
- The call for the church to decrease for God's glory
Key Quotes
“If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why should his response to Israel differ presently from what it was historically?” — Art Katz
“The church lacks the spirit, the self-sacrificing.” — Art Katz
“Believing is not an intellect.” — Art Katz
Application Points
- The church must engage in self-examination to recognize its complacency regarding judgment.
- Believers are called to understand the significance of being born again as a transformative experience.
- The church should adopt a posture of humility towards Israel, acknowledging its role in God's redemptive plan.
