THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD,
NOT FLESHLY BUT SPIRITUAL
 

February 28, 2010 am
MF Blume
Genesis 12:1-3 KJV  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:  (2)  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:  (3)  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 15:1-6 KJV  After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.  (2)  And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?  (3)  And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.  (4)  And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.  (5)  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.  (6)  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

1 Chronicles 29:18 KJV  O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:


We preached last week about a NATURAL HEAVEN AND EARTH, followed by a NATURAL ADAM made from the dust of the ground, followed by Adam entering the Garden, where he later sinned and threw all man into sin.
  • We showed there is a New Spiritual Heaven and Earth under the New Covenant of the New Testament teachings of the church.
  • And there is a SECOND ADAM, Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 KJV  (45)  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.  (46)  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.  (47)  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

And there is also a NEW GARDEN so to speak.

Hebrews 9:24 KJV  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:


The NEW ADAM’s entrance into Heaven was just like the first Adam was put into the GARDEN TO RULE THE WORLD.
  • Christ is said to sit on the right hand throne of God now.
  • He has dominion over everything.
  • Adam was given dominion over the earth, too.

Genesis 1:28 KJV  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Ephesians 1:18-21 KJV  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,  (19)  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,  (20)  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,  (21)  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

But instead of Adam going on in victory to experience the dominion God gave to him, we know the sad story that he sinned.
  • He would never know the thrill of seeing all of humanity who came from him to be born and rule in that kingdom.
  • He was thrown out of the throneroom of the Garden.
  • And the wonderful thing is that when Jesus ascended into glory and sat on the throne of the SPIRITUAL Kingdom we enjoy today, HE UNDID THE DAMAGE THAT ADAM CAUSED when Adam yielded to the serpent in the Garden and sinned.
  • JESUS WASHED AWAY OUR SINS!

Hebrews 9:12 KJV  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

And after we read about all these things in Genesis, and realize they show a pattern of the same thing IN A SPIRITUAL VERSION SINCE JESUS CAME, there is the overall truths of the rest of the Old Testament that teach us something very important.

God accomplished many things until he finally called out a particular man to begin a particular nation, called Israel.
  • And the church in this NEW COVENANT and NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH is like the NEW ISRAEL, or the SPIRITUAL ISRAEL.

Watch how there is a spiritual ISRAEL today.
  • And we are especially going to show how all the stories in the Old Testament about Israel actually help us understand HOW TO LIVE SPIRITUALLY NOW in this New Kingdom.

God told ABRAM He would make his name great in the earth and make a great nation from him.

But Abram was an old man and had no children.
  • How could he be the father of a great multitude?
  • He resorted to asking God to allow his servant to be his heir, as was custom in the couture then.
  • GOD SAID NO.
  • Abram would father a child.


Genesis 16:1 KJV  Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

After God tells him he would father a child, himself, THE IDEA STILL DOES NOT LEAVE about getting someone from the FLESHLY manner.
  • The natural manner.

Instead of considering his servant Eliezer as his heir, God told him he would father an actual heir.
  • And instead of Sarai mothering this heir, he knew he would father the child but he considers SARAI’S servant as mother, since culture also allowed the servant of the woman of the house to mother a child for her if she was barren.
  • That idea of taking a SERVANT to see the promise of God fulfilled is being stressed in this story.
  • And it is an incorrect concept God seems to be having a hard time in shaking from Abram.

Hagar is from Arabia, and Paul said this is where fleshly law of Moses came from in the Arabian desert on Mt Sinai.

And this is exactly what we see emphasized in the NEW TESTAMENT regarding our spiritual lives.
  • FLESHLINESS and human ingenuity can easily replace true spirituality.
  • Our bodies are meant to be considered SERVANTS and not LORDS IN OUR LIVES.

People are SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY.
  • Spirit is mentioned first since it should be the dominant part of our lives.
  • It is the part that died in Adam that is reborn in new birth and contexts God.
  • GOD WORKS THROUGH SPIRITS.
  • And that is why all the things in truly godly people are GOOD THINGS.
  • BODY is meant to SERVE all of this.
  • Not RUN OUR LIVES.
  • Mankind is in trouble now since the BODY aspect was blown out of proportion when eve ate the forbidden fruit.
  • SHE BECAME FOCUSED ON SELF.

We are meant to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.

Galatians 5:16-17 Complete Apostles' Bible  (16)  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.  (17)  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things oppose each other, so that you do not do the things that you wish.


The flesh produces things that are called works of the flesh and are all the nasty things in our lives.

Galatians 5:19-23 Complete Apostles' Bible  (19)  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, immorality, lewdness,  (20)  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions,  (21)  envies, murders, drinking bouts, revelries, and the like; which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  (22)  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  (23)  gentleness, self-control--against such things there is no law.

And when Sarai offered Abram her handmaid HAGAR, a servant, to mother her child from Abram, we see trouble began.

Genesis 16:4-5 KJV  And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.  (5)  And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.

Hagar begins causing tension and suddenly bad feelings and moods enter the home that are not of God.
  • Not only that, but the child would be wild.

Genesis 16:11-12 KJV  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.  (12)  And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.


Ishmael is born and Abram gets straightened out.

Abram is renamed ABRAHAM – from HIGH FATHER to FATHER OF MULTITUDES.

Genesis 17:15-21 KJV  And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.  (16)  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.  (17)  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?  (18)  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!  (19)  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.  (20)  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.  (21)  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Genesis 21:2-3 KJV  For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.  (3)  And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

Genesis 21:8-10 KJV  And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.  (9)  And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.  (10)  Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.


Ishmael torments Isaac.
  • The NATURAL means of gaining a child for Abraham turned out to produce PROBLEMS.
  • The child born through supernatural means is attacked and slighted by the fleshly child.

This is a grand message in our lives as believers.
  • This natural aspect of our lives attacks and hinders the spirituality in us.
  • The part of us that produces fruit of the Spirit, is stifled by the fleshly works of all the negative things in our lives.

Galatians 5:5 KJV  For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Galatians 5:7-8 KJV  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?  (8)  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

Galatians 5:15-17 KJV  But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.  (16)  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  (17)  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.