Netanyahu at the UN, empty chairs, and the God who still keeps covenant
Hi folks, I want us to open the Word and share some scriptures with you and look at this week with honest hearts.
I am a Scotsman living in the United Kingdom. I sat prayfully and watched Benjamin Netanyahu stand before the United Nations. I wasn’t surprised as I watched row after row of delegates get up and walk out. Israel counted seventy-seven countries gone from the hall. Outside, crowds raged against the Jewish people. Inside, empty seats. And the world called it virtue.
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Now look, friends. I knew about this a few days ago. I waited. I let the righteous anger settle before the Lord. Then I wrote. Then I preached. I am writing again because the facts have not changed, and the Word of God has not changed.
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Read more: When a Church Honours a Bin Laden Apologist on 9/11
Hair, Vows, and the Heart
Paul at Cenchrea and the women in Corinth
Acts 18:18 and 1 Corinthians 11:6 (NKJV)
Now look at this with me, looking at these verses for you Bible-strong folk; we read Paul stayed a good while in Corinth. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow.
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A Warning from Philippi
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.
Acts 16:16–18, NKJV
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A simple look at Jeremiah 31:9
Now look at Jeremiah 31:9. I was reading it in the CSB and I came across a word that is not in my usual NKJV. The word is wadis. So I went to the Blue Letter Bible, and I looked at the Hebrew, and I compared a few other translations. What I found is a beautiful picture of God as a Father, leading His people home.
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Now I want us to look at Acts chapter 12. Herod has already killed James. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he took Peter also. Peter is in prison, chained between two soldiers, with guards at the door. And the church is praying. Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
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A simple look at the trades in Acts — and at 1 Corinthians 3:10
Now I want you to look with me at something very practical in the book of Acts. We meet two ordinary working men. One is Simon the tanner in Joppa. The other is Paul the tentmaker in Corinth. Some folk put those two jobs together as if they were the same thing. They were not. The Greek makes that plain. And then, if you follow it through, you come to a beautiful picture in 1 Corinthians 3. The Lord Jesus, who worked with His hands, became the Master Builder of the church.
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Read more: The Tanner, the Tentmaker, and the Master Builder
Now friends, I want us to look at this with open Bibles as I share some scriptures and honest prayerful hearts. The murder of two little boys is not complex history. It is sin and pure evil. And the church of Jesus Christ ought to say so without stammering.
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The coming system, the Blessed Hope, and a word for those left behind
You know friends, we are living in exciting days. I know they can also feel heavy. But Jesus never told us to wring our hands. He told us to watch, and then He told us to look up.
“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:28)
That is where I want your heart to rest. Not on the buildings going up on the Scottish hills. Not on the names of world leaders. Not on the latest video that kept you awake. On Jesus. He is coming for His Church.
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You know, folks, sometimes a name stays with you after the news has moved on. This week it is Marzieh Ebrahimi Shamsabadi. Many know her as Sevda. She is about 33. She is from Bandar Abbas. An Iranian court has sentenced her to death.
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Read more: A Young Woman in Bandar Abbas - Remembering Marzieh “Sevda” Ebrahimi Shamsabadi
Now… the shofar has sounded.
Rosh Hashanah has come and gone, and we are in those Ten Days—the Days of Awe, they call them. The days that lead right up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
And I want to talk to you about that. Because I love the Jewish people. God loves the Jewish people. He called them. He chose them. He made covenant with them. And we stand with them.
But I have a problem. And it’s the same problem I used to have when I would talk with my Jewish friends.
I would say, “How do you get your sins forgiven now?”
Because there is no temple. There is no high priest walking into the Holy of Holies. There is no blood being sprinkled on the mercy seat. There is no scapegoat being led out into the wilderness.
And they would say, “Well, we reflect. We repent. We ask one another for forgiveness. We hope our names are written in the Book of Life.”
And I would say, “But that’s not what God said.”
Look at it.
Leviticus 17:11:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”
That’s not my idea. That’s God.
Hebrews 9:22:
“And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
Without the shedding of blood… there is no remission.
Now, the Ten Days of Awe are a beautiful thing in their way. Searching the heart. Making things right with your brother. That’s good. We should all do that.
But it will not take away sin.
It never could.
You go back to Leviticus 16—the Day of Atonement. Two goats. One is killed. Its blood is taken behind the veil and sprinkled on the mercy seat. The other goat—the high priest lays both hands on its head, confesses all the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions, all their sins, and that goat is led away into the wilderness. Never to return.
That’s the picture.
And the picture has a Person.
Jesus is both goats.
He is the One whose blood was shed. He is the One who carried our sins away—as far as the east is from the west. That’s Psalm 103:12. And they are not coming back.
Hebrews 10:4 says it so clearly.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.”
It is not possible.
Those sacrifices were shadows. They were pointing. They were saying, “Look! Something greater is coming.”
And He came.
He offered one sacrifice for sins forever. And then He sat down. The priest in the temple never sat down. The work was never finished. Jesus sat down. It is finished.
So I say it with a full heart, and I say it with tears:
The Ten Days of Repentance will not save you.
Yom Kippur without the blood God required cannot cover you.
You need Jesus.
Not next year.
Not after more days of searching.
Now.
He is the Messiah of Israel. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the only High Priest who ever finished the work.
Romans 1:16:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
For the Jew first.
That’s the order God set. We don’t change it.
If you are Jewish and you are reading this—we are not against you. We are for you. The same Book you honour is pointing to Yeshua. Come to Him. His blood is enough.
And if you already know Him… pray for them. Love them. Tell them the truth without the hype. Just the Word.
The trumpet they are blowing is still only a shadow.
We are waiting for another trumpet.
The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
God bless you.
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