Thank you for joining Alan Jackson Ministries. It's generally understood today that to be Jewish is a matter of biology more than location or faith. But again, it's noteworthy, it's significant. It needs to be a part of your awareness that the criteria have shifted through the centuries depending upon a multitude of factors. How did God determine who His people were? Because they offered sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem.
That was okay until there was no longer a temple in Jerusalem where you could offer a sacrifice. It's a question you need to understand before it becomes too personal for you.
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We need action steps, practical things we can do each day to align our lives with God's plans. That's why Pastor Allen created his new 90-day devotional called, Set Apart for His Purposes. Each day offers a scripture, a short teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and plenty of space to write your response. It's our gift to you when you donate $50 or more today to the ministry. Even better, when you give today, your donation will be matched, doubling its impact so we can reach more people with God's truth.
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We're so glad you're here to listen. Today's program is part one of Pastor Allen's message called, Determining Our Identity. Tune in tomorrow to hear part two. Now, the topic for this session is determining our identity. You know, in a season like this, there's so much focus given to the segments of our society. It really becomes weary soon.
You hear how this subset of our society will make decisions and how this group makes decisions and what this group thinks. I think it brings some confusion to us on how we even understand ourselves. That was really the genesis in my mind is I was praying for the church, not just our congregation, but the broader church to understand that the allegiance of our life was to the Lordship of Jesus. That that supersedes all the other identifiers in our lives.
that his authority in our lives, he sets the principles and the priorities. He establishes the boundaries. That's what it means to be a Christ follower. And the more I prayed around that and thought about that, that's really where there's less than the merge. So that's my target and we're gonna try to answer three questions. What determines if you're Jewish? What determines if you're an American and what determines if you're a Christ follower?
We'll do that in some abbreviated way, at least. The Jewish question was not one I'd ever really considered to be candid until my brother and I were at Hebrew University. And we had a class with one of the most brilliant professors that I ever had the privilege of learning under. And he did multiple sessions on this topic on how the Jewish people understood what it was that identified them. I guess Hebrew University was a good place to introduce that topic.
And he said that the truth was that throughout history, the criteria had varied. It wasn't simple. It wasn't straightforward. It wasn't a single indicator. There had been three primary things throughout history that had been used to identify the people who were Jewish and who was not. It was dissent, your genealogy. A second was location where you lived. And a third was the faith, the religion that you practiced.
And he went to some great lengths to try to help us understand that the emphasis varied at different times through history. But I thought I would start with Exodus 19. This is God, post-deliverance from hundreds of years of Egyptian slavery that if you'll remember the extended family of Abraham went into Egypt, not as a nation, just as an expanded family, Joseph and his brothers. And then at 400 years in Egypt, they multiplied to the point
that the Egyptians were frightened of them, they enslaved them, and then God raises up Moses to deliver them. But they've never been a sovereign nation, they've never occupied a piece of territory. They had no history of civil authority, of internal government structures, they'd not had kings. There's not even a great record of how they practiced their faith
They were in the land of Egypt. I suspect they knew a great deal about Egyptian holidays and Egyptian gods and Egyptian forms of worship. They're referred to as a mixed multitude of people that God delivered out of hundreds of years of Egyptian slavery and said, I will make you into a nation. That's the point of the books of Moses.
All those books you love to read, Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, all those rules and regulations and boundaries. He's taking this mixed multitude of people and fashioning them into a group of people that have a central focus that binds them together, an authority over their lives. I'm the God who feeds you every day. I'm the God who brings water to you in the midst of the desert. I'm the God who delivered you.
from the most power, social, economic, military force on the planet. I'm the God who parted the Red Sea. I will protect you. I'll lead you with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. I'll give you 10 commandments. I'll show you how to worship me. This is what a sacrifice looks like. This is what you're to bring. He is fashioning a people. In Exodus 19, verse five, he said, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you'll be my treasured possession.
In order to be God's treasured possession, they had to meet the requirements. They had to fully obey Him and keep His covenants. They couldn't be mildly interested. They couldn't say, well, we like your holiday structure. We like your HR plan, so we'll do some of it. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be, for me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you're to speak to the Israelites.
Again, God is fashioning a people, a nation, he's establishing a culture. And when we talk about understanding who the Jewish people are, we need to be aware enough to understand that the points of emphasis have varied at different times through history. There was a time that is God's covenant people living in the land which God had promised them as an inheritance. Their location was a significant characteristic of the Jewish people. They're that people that were delivered from Egypt that occupy the land God promised them.
That was the expression of the covenant they had with him. The period of the judges, they didn't even have a monarchy. There were no kings. When there was an external threat that threatened the well-being of the tribes, God would raise up the leaders they needed, Gideon or Samson or Deborah. The whole period of the monarchy, you read that tension, we've just finished those books. Godly kings, ungodly kings, the suffering that would come because of their wandering into ungodliness.
There were other times in Jewish history that location was not nearly as vital a component. After the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in 70, living in Israel wasn't so important because the majority of their leaders didn't live in Israel. So location wasn't particularly relevant any longer. After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD,
Location wasn't the primary factor in establishing a Jewish identity for more than 2,000 years. There was no Jewish state. In our current setting, the answer is more heavily weighted towards dissent, your genealogy, your DNA. It's a matter of DNA more than location or even religious practice.
In fact, today you can live anywhere in the world and be Jewish. Maybe not safely, but you can live among the nations. You can be Jewish and practice any religion you want. We should be aware enough to recognize the distinction between being Jewish by birth and practicing Judaism as a faith. You can be Jewish and practice Islam.
It's generally understood today that to be Jewish is a matter of biology more than location or faith. But again, it's noteworthy, it's significant. It needs to be a part of your awareness that the criteria have shifted through the centuries depending upon a multitude of factors. How did God determine who his people were? Because they offered sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. That was okay until there was no longer a temple in Jerusalem where you could offer a sacrifice.
It's a question you need to understand before it becomes too personal for you. Thank you for listening to Alan Jackson Ministries. We'll be back to the message in just a moment. But first, Pastor Allen wants to tell you about his new devotional, set apart for his purposes.
I wanna take just a moment to say thank you in a year of political turmoil and confusion and wars and rumors of wars because of your partnership, your generosity, your prayers, your encouragement. We have done more for the gospel than any year in our ministry so far. We started a whole new genre of programming. Alan Jackson now does a daily review of headlines from a biblical worldview. We started a new podcast, Culture and Christianity, to help stabilize God's people in the midst of all the confusion.
All of that, because of your faithfulness, your generosity, your prayers, thank you so much.
As we come to the end of this year, I want to ask you to prayerfully consider making a sacrificial investment in what's next. We want to take those programs, share them in new places with more people. We want to continue to be creative in how we share the good news of Jesus Christ. A generous partner makes it possible. Every gift you give will be matched. It doubles your gift between now and the end of the year. Let me thank you in advance for what we've been doing and what God's going to do with our lives and our partnership together in 2025.
Thank you, and God bless you. The evidence is clear. God is moving, and He has an assignment for you. It's time to draw close to Him, so He can show you why He placed you and your community at this exact time. Pastor Allen's brand-new 90-day devotional offers next steps forward. It's called, set apart for His purposes, and each day includes Scripture, a helpful teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and space to write your responses.
As you go through the devotional, you'll find that journaling daily is a powerful practice. It will help you recognize your spiritual growth and God's responses to you. We'll also send a set of custom page markers so you can flag the prayers, devotionals, and journal entries you want to revisit in the weeks and months ahead. This distinctive hardbound book makes an excellent gift, or keep it for yourself, so you can start the New Year with intentionality.
Set apart for his purposes as our gift to you when you donate $50 or more. Plus, when you give today, your donation will be matched doubling its impact. Request your copy today at alanjaxon.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-5772255.
Now, let's get back to Pastor Allen as he wraps up part one of his message called, Determining Identity. Tune in tomorrow to Hear Part 2. In 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter is quoting really the idea of Exodus 19. And I didn't put it in your notes, but the letter of 1 Peter was written to both Jews and Gentiles. He labels them strangers and aliens in this world that because of their allegiance to Jesus,
He said, that makes you an alien in this world. Now again, Peter is an observant Jewish man, writing to Jews and Gentiles. It's in your nose, 1 Peter 2, 9. He says, you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. A people belonging to God. Sounds a lot like what we just read. That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness, and it was wonderful light. Once you were not a people,
But now you're the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Again, very similar language to Deuteronomy 7. God preparing a people for himself is the fundamental story of this book.
And it isn't left to us to decide how much we'll be obedient to God or how much of his truth we embrace. If we intend the benefits of the covenant, we have to yield fully to his covenant, to his lordship. It was that way in the actionists and it's that way in the 21st century. I wanna answer a second question and it may seem unrelated, but I don't believe it is. I think it is on point. It's certainly on theme. What determines if you're an American?
If I borrow the criteria we used a moment ago, is it the location where you live? Is it the faith you practice? Is it your genealogy? I think we can understand pretty quickly that none of those would be the primary criteria. You can be an American living someplace other than on the continental United States or in one of the 50 states. You can be an American and practice any number of faiths. There's not a faith criteria.
There never has been. We wouldn't suggest it. We have been predominantly a Christian nation. That was the value set, the worldview that was used with our founding documents and our educational systems and our legal systems. It has caused us to be one of the most prosperous and free nations in human history. It's caused us to become the envy of the nations. The reason we have millions of people pouring into our borders is not because we're systemically racist or economically unfair.
There's no place else on the planet that provides the opportunities we have provided. And that has been because of the worldview, the church should be more aware of the value we represent to the cultures in which we live. Now I would submit what fundamentally has determined our role in this nation is our citizenship.
We've come from the nations of the world. We're a nation of immigrants. We are the ultimate melting pot. We don't all look the same. We don't sound the same. We've had very many different faiths. We've come from very different nations. There's not like a food that is uniquely American. It's our citizenship.
which reflects an underlying principle which is very important and the church has to be a voice in this, we have been a nation of laws. And it's that commitment to authority and laws that were derived from the law of God that has brought the freedom and the liberty to us. Again, not saying we have to be exclusively Christian, I don't believe that's true.
God gives all of us a choice and they should have the choice to worship however we see fed. But the great challenge before us, I would submit to you, is lawlessness. And I would point that back at the community where I've spent most of my adult life, I believe the lawlessness has arrived to the degree it is currently present because the voice of God's people has been so small.
We've imagined that civil authority would protect us and keep us secure. Therefore, we didn't have to be vocal about our biblical worldview. We didn't have to be advocates for the principles of the kingdom to which we belong because we thought the civil authority would protect us until it won't.
And if the church will be light and salt, not that everybody will be Christian, but the values that emerge from that will bring freedom and liberty to all the people in a greater way. There is much evidence through history to support that thesis. So this challenge of lawlessness, I gave you some verses because it is very much a biblical principle. We are warned about this with the same kind of frequency and intensity
the frequency that Jesus warned his disciples about what would happen to him ultimately in Jerusalem. The question is, are we paying attention? Do we understand our role? In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, even though that Jesus is coming back to the earth.
The timing of that is beyond our purview. We don't know that. The very best we could know would be something seasonally, but you understand how difficult seasons are to anticipate. This is November and you can wear shorts in Tennessee. Seasons are not precise things. They give us some awareness to leaves or turning colors and falling off the trees. It's not that the world is dying. The season is changing.
And the best the scripture says we can know about the return of the Lord would be seasonally. That is less than precise, but he is coming back as certainly as he was born in Bethlehem and will be gathered to him. We ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come. There have been religious clowns,
prophetic manipulators for as long as there have been people of faith. Not new. Paul's addressing the church that he helped bring into existence, warning them.
and it's beneficial to us two millennia later. Know that anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion or the apostases either wake. The Greek word is apostasia occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. Paul is warning the church at Thessaloniki that Jesus' return will be preceded by the emergence of a man of lawlessness.
With some of the rest of the material in the New Testament, we know to be the Antichrist, his global leader, who will set aside those biblical principles, that biblical worldview, that Judeo-Christian worldview. And will be the most beastly leader that the world has ever known. It's not a small thing to push those values aside. I won't do the word study because I don't think you've had enough caffeine to stay awake.
but the word for lawlessness that's used in the passages I've given you refers specifically to the rejecting of or the breaking of God's laws, the idea that we live under the law of God. Matthew 7, 23, Jesus is speaking, I'll declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
If you reject God's boundaries, if you don't uphold those biblical principles, you shouldn't imagine you belong to the kingdom of God. This isn't a political discussion at all. The lawlessness that is growing amongst us.
is growing because we're stepping further and further away from a biblical worldview in how we understand family, human sexuality, marriage, the sanctity of human life for the very young or the very old.
And we were told, Matthew 13, just as the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jesus is speaking, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire. So shall it be at the end of the age. The son of man will send forth his angels. They'll gather out of his kingdom, all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness. And he'll throw them into the furnace of fire.
You cannot reject the principles of God and imagine you can participate in His kingdom. Matthew 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees your hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Outwardly you appear righteous, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and
Lawlessness. He's talking to the religious leaders, the biblical scholars, the conveners of religious services, the interpreters of Scripture. And he said, on the outside, you look a marvelous. But he said, on the inside, you're full of corruption. You practice lawlessness. You hand burdens to other people that you yourself will not make any attempt to carry.
Matthew 24, many false prophets will arise and mislead many because lawlessness is increased. Most people's love will grow cold. In the Greek language, there are multiple words for love. In English, we don't have that. We just have love. You can love your dog and love your kids. There's a little bit of a language break there, you understand? If your dog makes a mess in the house, you can put him outside.
If your kids make a mess in the house, don't do that. But in the Greek language, there are multiple words for love. There's a love for physical love. There's a love for the love of God, which is the word that's used here. The most people, people's love, it'll be the love in the hearts of God's people will grow cold. Why? Because of the great increase in lawlessness.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and in the end will come. There's this contrast, we've seen that in the gospels of late, where at the time where lawlessness is ratcheting up and the love of many in the God's community is growing cold, the gospel of the kingdom is preaching in an unprecedented way. We have a choice to make, we have to decide where we will stand, who we will become, what we're gonna use our voice for.
So I have a question to you. Do you perceive lawlessness to be increasing? You don't have to answer out loud. I can walk you through some ideas. It seems to me, sanctuary cities we've lived with now. That's not about anything currently happening. They've been on the menu for decades. Some of our largest and most beautiful and influential cities declared themselves sanctuary cities. They chose to ignore or refuse to enforce federal laws. But they demanded federal funding. By definition, that's lawlessness.
We've heard the cries for quite a time now, not focused on anybody that's currently doing anything to defund the police. We took the inappropriate behavior of some individuals, and it was amplified into a rejection of authority across the board. And the outcome of that has been a significant increase in lawlessness.
Find practical steps you can take to seek the Lord in Pastor Allen's new 90-day devotional and prayer journal called Set Apart for His purposes. Each day you'll find a scripture, a short teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and a place to write your response.
Request your copy when you donate $50 or more today at alanjaxon.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-5772255. And don't forget, your donation today will be matched, doubling your investment in the ministry. That's all for today on Alan Jackson Ministries. Thanks for listening. Tune in next time for another encouraging message.
This program is sponsored by Alan Jackson Ministries.
