Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, day two of the Daily Blade. We are in Galatians chapter 3, verses 7 through 9. The Bible says, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. So those who are in faith, that means those of us who have faith in Jesus Christ, according to Paul's definition here in Galatians chapter 3, that means we are the sons of Abraham. Now, when Jesus has an encounter with the Pharisees in John chapter 8, the Pharisees say, we are sons of Abraham. And Jesus says, No, you're not. You are sons of the devil. Now I'm going to get into something very controversial. So buckle up here. There is so much talk about Israel right now in our media, social media, all the things, okay? And sometimes people will say, Well, what are your thoughts on Israel? Well, let me explain. When the Bible talks about Israel, and when you hear about Israel on the news today, we're not necessarily talking about the exact same thing. So when somebody says, What do you think about Israel? I say, I need you to define what you mean by Israel. Israel could mean, the term Israel could mean at least three things. Sometimes it's talking about the people. That means the people that are genetically descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people, no matter where they live. Sometimes it's talking about the land, the land that is talked about as the promised land in the Old Testament. That's what it's talking about. Sometimes it's talking about the government, the nation state being run by Benjamin Netanyahu right now. And then in the New Testament, especially in the book of Romans, the book of Galatians, sometimes when the Bible says Israel, it's talking about what Paul is talking about here, the sons of faith. So, what about the people? Let me just say this. There is no room for any racism or any type of anti-Semitism in the church. As believers in Jesus, we love all people because God loves the world. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. And the most loving thing that we can do is share the gospel with people. So what if you're nice to people as they are on a road to hell? The most loving thing we could do is share the gospel with anybody who has not surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This includes the Jewish people, because we need Jesus to be saved. Now, when it comes to the land, I will just tell you this: my understanding of the New Testament is the land that is known as Israel today, like Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, plays a very significant role in the end times. The Bible says that when Jesus returns, the trumpet will blast, the heavens will be ripped open, and Jesus' feet will land on the Mount of Olives, and then he will walk into the eastern gate. When you're talking about the government, does that mean it's the same thing? No, not necessarily. Now you may have political views about that, and that's fine, no problem. In fact, you could be a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christian, and still you could be critical of any government that you believe disobeys God's law. And so we're not just talking about the nation-state. Primarily, what the Bible is talking about in Galatians and in Romans, it's talking about the faithful. Like in Romans 10, when it says all Israel will be saved, that doesn't mean that everybody that's got a driver's license from that nation-state gets to go to heaven, nor does it mean that everybody who just happens to be Jewish gets to go to heaven. No, no, no, no. The faithful people in Jesus, that is what Paul redefines it as here. It's the people that trust God, like Abraham did. And what he knew by faith, we know by name. Abraham was putting his faith in the fact that a Messiah would come to save the world. We know that Messiah's name is Jesus. And disciples are recipients of this blessing. We'll talk more about that later this week. Now, sometimes what people will do is they will they've created a term called replacement theology and say, oh, you just believe in replacement theology. I reject that terminology of replacement theology, that the church just replaced Israel. You mean the people? Do you mean the land? Do you mean the government? No, no, no, no. Those people who put their faith and trust in Jesus are grafted into the promises of God. So what you could you could say, I believe in grafted theology. There's no doubt about that. You see, the reality is you need faith in Jesus to be saved. No one is grandfathered in. Your sins must be atoned for by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus, in order for Him, His work on the cross to atone for your sin, you must pestuo or have faith in Him. Now, let me just also say this too. Your belief in Jesus is first tier. Your political beliefs about Israel are second or third tier. First tier theological issues are worth dividing over, like the gospel, the authority of Scripture, the divinity of Jesus, etc. Non-essential things that are not worth dividing over are things like political beliefs, eschatology, age of the earth, the mode of baptism. But know this God always keeps his promises. God is not a promise-breaking God, God is a promise-keeping God. And what he promised to Abraham was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And how do we know this? We know this because Jesus came and did exactly what he said he was going to do. He lived the perfect life. He died in our place, and then on the third day he was resurrected from the grave. Amen.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.