Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 3

I think of God's word in 1 Kings 8:56: "Praise the Lord for the rest he has given to his people just as he promised."

Doesn't that make you hopeful? A better world is coming, and it's going to be ruled over by Jesus the Messiah.

Yes, he said, "I am the Messiah."

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and Dr. Robert Jeffress. Most people think of Bible prophecy in terms of specific events like the Rapture, Tribulation, or Second Coming.

But prophecy? It isn't just about events; it's about a person. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares how Jesus Christ fulfills his divine role as Messiah and what that means for us today and in the future.

Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Speaker 2

Dr. JEFFRESS thanks David and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Today I'm pleased to tell you about my brand new book which has been decades in the making. I say decades because I've been preaching and teaching about the end times for more than 40 years. My new book, *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*, represents the culmination of my studies.

But more than that, I believe this book represents a core message about Bible prophecy. Simply put, Bible prophecy is widely known for events like the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Millennium. However, Bible prophecy is really about the one who is revealed in those events. In my new book called *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*, I'll help you see the last days through the lens of Jesus Christ. By doing so, you'll find yourself reveling in his presence rather than fretting over your future.

My book is the perfect choice for personal study or to use with your small group Bible study. I'm prepared to send you my new book, *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*, when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. The book is hardbound, and when you respond today, I'll be sure to include a collection of encouragement cards. Each card can be displayed on your desk or in your kitchen as a constant reminder that Jesus is coming again and he is your hope.

More details about my book and other resources later in today's program. But right now, let's open our Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 11. I titled today's message *Jesus the Messiah*.

Speaker 3

Tim Gagnon said the theme of the Bible is Jesus as Messiah. We're in a new series we're calling Jesus Revealed in the End Times. And the only way you're going to understand who Jesus Christ is and the way he appears now and how he's coming back again is to understand his role as Messiah. Now, when we talk about Messiah, what do we mean by Messiah? Write it down. Messiah means anointed one.

Now, what is the evidence that Jesus is that anointed one? Well, here are just a few. First of all, his place of birth and his connectivity to David. Secondly, consider the testimony of John the Baptist. You know, the Bible prophesied that there would be a forerunner to Jesus who would announce his arrival. What is it that John the Baptist said when he first saw Christ? Behold the Lamb of God. He's here who takes away the sin of the world.

Consider also thirdly the claims of Jesus himself. Now, one of the things you hear from liberal theologians all the time is that Jesus himself never claimed to be the Son of God. That's something that happened hundreds of years after Jesus died, that people tried to claim he was the Son of God. No, throughout the Scripture he claimed to be the Son of God. Consider the confession of the apostle Peter. He said, you are the what? The Christos, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And then consider the evidence from the book of Revelation. Nine different times in the Book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to as the Christos the Christ. Just consider three of these passages. Revelation 1:1, the revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christos Messiah which God gave him to show his BondServants or Revelation 11:15. The angel proclaims, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his what? Christos Christ Messiah. Revelation chapter 12:10. Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our Lord and the authority of his Christ have come. Jesus is the Messiah.

Now just don't think the Messiahship of Jesus has to do with what he did in the past. It is also found in what he is yet to do. Jesus has promised two things. And this is the promise related to the future Messiah. A king with a kingdom. A king with a kingdom. And that is the promise that is yet to be fulfilled. Every kingdom has to have a king.

Let's break that down for a moment. First of all, to have a kingdom, you have to have a location for the kingdom. There has to be a location. And there is actually an earthly location for the coming kingdom of God. Now, this is where people get all mixed up. There are some people who would say, well, the kingdom of God is not a literal kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's not on earth. It is in people's hearts. Now, if that were true, then Jesus should not have misled his disciples. If people were thinking the wrong thing about a literal kingdom, he could have straightened that out.

In Acts, chapter one. Remember, before he ascended into heaven, the disciples said, lord, are you not at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He could have clearly said at that time, boys, you've gotten it all wrong. You've misinterpreted what I've said these last three years. There's not a literal kingdom coming. It's a spiritual kingdom in your heart. But he didn't do that. When they said, what about the kingdom? Jesus said, it's not for you to know the time of the kingdom. It's coming. I'm just not gonna tell you when. But here's what you need to know.

Now, when Jesus came to earth and presented himself as messiah, he would have set up his kingdom on earth right then had the Jews accepted him. That wasn't a fake offer of a kingdom. It is a real offer that Jesus made of the kingdom. But because they refused Jesus as messiah, Jesus didn't cancel his promise of a future kingdom, he just delayed it. Matthew 13 says that right now the kingdom of God is invisible. It's in the hearts of every believer who willingly submits to the rule of Christ in his own life. But there is a coming kingdom. First of all, it's gonna be a location here on earth.

There's Israel's ultimate possession of the promised land. There's going to be a land in Israel where Messiah is going to reign on the literal throne of David for a thousand years. That promise was promised, first of all to the patriarchs, to Abraham. Genesis 12. Go to the land that I will show you. Genesis 13. After Abraham separated from Lot, the Lord said to Abram, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, north, south, east, and west. I will give you all of this land and to your descendants forever. I will give this to you forever. This is a land that was forever promised to the patriarchs.

Secondly, it was promised to Jeremiah and to Joshua. God said, I'm gonna uproot you from this place, temporarily take you to Babylon, but you will still eventually dwell in this place. Jeremiah 7:7. It was affirmed by the apostle Paul. Yes, in Romans chapter 11:25, God said that Israel has been hardened, that they've turned away from this offer. But it's not a forever hardening. One day Israel will be saved. All Israel will be saved. The land will be reclaimed. And what's the basis for that? Look at verse 29 of Romans 11. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Isn't that a great promise? That's not just a promise for Jews, it's a promise for all of us.

How do we know God is going to give us what he promised? How do we know when we die and get to heaven that God doesn't change the rules and say, I know I promised you eternal life based on grace, but I'm changing the rules. It's going to be by works. And guess what? You don't have enough of them. How do I know God won't do that? Because of his character. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. That's the best verse I know of for the security of the believer. Yes, Israel would ultimately dwell in the land, but temporarily they would be displaced from the land.

That's what God said to Moses. Remember in Deuteronomy 28, it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you, to prosper you and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you, to make you perish and destroy you, and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. He said to Moses, you're going to possess this land, but because of Israel's disobedience, she will be uprooted from this land. And you see that in the history of Israel, there was a rebellion of Israel. Once they entered the land, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The Book of Judges says, then there was a clamor for a king. We want a king. Even though God said no, he acquiesced to their wishes and that led to a division of the kingdom.

There were only three kings in the united history of Israel: Saul, David, Solomon. Then there was a Civil War. In 922 B.C. the kingdom was split into the northern kingdom, which is known as Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. The northern Kingdom fell in 722 B.C. when the Assyrians invaded and took the Israelites captive. Judah lasted a little longer until 586, when the Babylonians came, destroyed the temple and took Israel captive. For 70 years they were in Babylonian exile. And then the order was given to return and they rebuilt the city and the temple. Over the next hundreds of years they lived under the rule of the Medes and Persians, the Greeks and finally the Romans.

And it was in the Romans that the fullness of time came. Remember, God sent forth his son. Son born of a woman, born under the law. When Jesus came, as I said earlier, he legitimately offered the kingdom to the Israelites. But the Bible says in Luke 13, he came. His own did not receive him. They rejected him. And listen to Luke 13:34. This is Jesus lament over Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. How often I wanted to gather you as children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under the wings. But you would not have it.

And then Jesus predicted the terrible consequence of their rejection in Luke 13:35. He predicted in Matthew 24 that the temple would be destroyed. Not one stone will be left unturned. That happened just a few years later, in 70 AD under Titus, the Roman general, the temple was destroyed. And in 132 A.D. under the Emperor Hadrian, the Jews were dispersed. Some were sold into slavery, taken as captives and sold to slave traders around the world. Other Jews ran for their own lives. But that began the great nearly 2000 year dispersion of the Jewish people.

But God wasn't finished. He had made a promise. And we see the next phase in Israel's history, their repossession of the Promised Land. They were promised it. Ultimately they were displaced, but God says they will repossess it again. And we see that beginning with the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948. You know, during this dispersion time, the American writer Mark Twain visited what we call the holy land in 1867. But there wasn't much holy about it. It didn't appear that way anyway. In his book Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain wrote, the hills are barren. They are dull of color. They are not picturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it of being sorrowful and despondent. It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land.

But that began to change on May 14, 1948, when the nation of Israel was reconstituted as a nation and the people began to return, just as Ezekiel promised in Ezekiel 36:22. Thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went for. I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. And we've witnessed that regathering of Israel that began in 1948. Israel is back in the land. She's not in all the land, though yet that God has promised her. That is something future that is yet to come.

The kingdom of God is a location. It's an actual earthly location from which Christ will rule for a thousand years. But you don't only need a location in a kingdom. Guess what? You need a king. You need somebody to rule. And the Bible promises that Messiah will in the future reign from the promised land. Of course, as you know, back in May of 2018, I had the privilege of giving the opening prayer for the dedication of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. It was a historic day. People say, what was the big deal about moving the embassy and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital? When we, the United States, recognized Jerusalem as the legitimate capital of Israel, we were recognizing Israel's right to possess that land and their right to name their own country, a right every other nation in the world has. That's what made it historic. It was an unbelievable day.

But you know what? That embassy's not gonna last forever. There doesn't need to be an embassy forever. There's a day coming when there'll be no embassies anywhere. You know why? Because there'll no longer be any threat of war. There will be perfect peace in the world because the prince of peace will be reigning. That's what you see pictured in Isaiah 11:4-9. Let me just begin with verse 6. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. Verse 9. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. As the waters cover the sea, there will be perfect peace in the world. Not because the United Nations is reigning, but because the Prince of Peace is reigning.

And by the way, listen to this promise of Joshua 1:4. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea, toward the setting of the sun, you find those words from the river to the sea. Today you have Hamas, you have Iran. You have Muslims threaten to destroy every Jew from the river to the sea. Hamas is nothing more than a group of pipsqueaks in the sight of God. They are gnats. They are ants that are going to be destroyed and eliminated one day. God's people are going to dwell forever in that land between the river and the sea. That's the promise of God.

And that leads to the promise of hope. I have a friend who says, with God, a promise made is a promise kept. Why do we get excited about these promises being fulfilled to Israel? Because the same God who's going to be faithful to fulfill his promise to Israel can be counted on to fulfill his promise to you and to me. Just think of all the things God has promised. He's promised there's no condemnation, no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. We never have to worry that God is going to dredge up some past mistake, some past sin and hold us accountable for it. There's no condemnation coming.

He's promised that these bodies that get worn out and infected with cancer and every other malady you can think of, one day we're going to get to exchange these bodies for a new body that is forever free from suffering and sickness. He's promised that those loved ones of ours who have died and gone on to heaven, that we'll see them again. There is a great reunion. Thus we shall be together with the Lord forever and ever. He's promised that those relationships that are broken and so difficult to reconcile now will one day be healed. Those are the promises God has for us.

And that's why the Bible refers to the coming of Christ, whether it's at the rapture or the second coming. It's called the blessed hope. We all need hope, don't we? The only thing that makes living in this world bearable today is the hope of a better world tomorrow. And that's what God gives each one of us. I read an article recently in the New York Times entitled "To Enjoy Life, Embrace Anticipation." The article describes how this woman named Allie Pierce, the elaborate preparation she makes in her vacation every year. Months before her vacation, she starts planning where she's going to visit, the site she's going to see, the hotel she's going to stay in, the restaurant she's going to eat in. She puts it out on a spreadsheet. And then her final act of planning is to take a picture that represents her vacation destination and use it as the screen image on her smartphone.

Every day she looks at that smartphone and she's filled with hope about what's ahead of her. She said, what's so exciting about a trip is the anticipation before. Psychologist Simon Rago agreed, saying, imagining good things ahead of us makes us feel better in the current moment. It can increase motivation, optimism, patience, and decrease irritability. You know what? There's some wisdom in that. We need to be thinking about our destination again. The only thing that makes living in this world bearable today is the promise we're going to live in a better world tomorrow.

I think of God's word in 1 Kings 8:56: "Praise the Lord for the rest he has given to his people just as he promised. Not one word has failed of God's wonderful promises given to us through his servant Moses." Doesn't that make you hopeful? A better world is coming and it's going to be ruled over by Jesus, the Messiah forever and ever.

Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Will you pray this with me? Dear God, thank you for loving me. I know I have failed you in so many ways. I'm truly sorry for the sins in my life. But I believe what I've heard today that you love me so much you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for me to take the punishment I deserve to take for my sins. And right now I'm trusting in what Jesus did for me. Not in my good works, but in what Jesus did for me to save me from my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and help me to live the rest of my life for you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you prayed this prayer with me.

Speaker 2

Today, would you drop me a personal note to let me know in a moment? David will give you our mailing address. Your note will make it to my desk. You can be certain I'd love to celebrate your decision.

Most people know that Jesus arrived as a baby in his first coming. But many people, even Christians, are confused about the second coming of Jesus Christ. In fact, many are frightened by the image of Jesus breaking through the clouds to come back and rule over the earth. Well, after decades of studying the Bible about the last days, I've come to understand that the second coming of Jesus should not invoke fear for believers. Those who know him personally should revel in hope.

And I've included my discoveries in this brand new book I've written for you. It's called *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*. Friends, you don't have to be consumed by the endless cycle of bad news propagated by the media, creating false illusions of future doom and gloom. Our story as Bible-believing Christians is deeply rooted in truth woven throughout the Scriptures and predicted centuries ago. Our story includes a reigning King who will return in glory. He has always been and will always be our Messiah, prophet, Lamb, conqueror, King, Judge, Lord, and friend.

Please let me send you a hardbound copy of my hope-filled book called *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Oh, and by the way, don't underestimate the importance and the impact of your gift. Pathway to Victory has become a major influence for millions of people around the world, but we cannot remain so without the collective generosity of friends like you.

So thank you for responding today.

Speaker 1

David thanks Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress called *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*. Call us toll-free at 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org now. When you give $100 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for the *Jesus Revealed in the End Times* Teaching series. You'll get that along with a helpful study guide.

Now one more time, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could send your donation by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223, 609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. From horoscopes to fortune tellers, people are constantly trying to predict the future. But there's only one prophet whose words we can trust completely. That's Thursday on *Pathway to Victory*. *Pathway to Victory* with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

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