Open your Bibles, if you would, to Ezekiel
chapter 37.
I'm assuming that some of you, hopefully most
of you, keep up with the things that
are going on and the current events around
the world.
It's hard not to these days when you
consider all the different websites that have information,
all the blogs that are out there and
all the news channels that are twenty-four
hours playing different things about what's going on
in the world and at the top of
every list when you consider the world news
is what is going on in Israel.
This morning, a vote of twenty-four to
zero with one abstention, the Israeli Knesset, the
governing body of Israel voted to accept the
UN ceasefire agreement and so Hezbollah, the leaders
of Hezbollah have grudgingly said that they'll abide
by it as well, the Lebanese government said
that they'll abide by it and so by
eight o'clock tomorrow morning there's to be
a stand down of military activities in southern
Lebanon, Israels to remove their thirty thousand troops
as the Lebanese put fifteen thousand of their
troops and the UN peacekeeping forces put fifteen
thousand of their troops into southern Lebanon to
create a buffer zone so that Hezbollah doesn't
fire any more rockets into northern Israel.
As to this point there's been four thousand
rockets that have been fired into northern Israel
since July twelfth and when we consider all
the things that are going on there we
have to consider what the Bible has to
say about these days.
So let's pray and we'll look into the
word.
Father we thank you that you have told
us the end from the beginning you who
are outside of time, the alpha and omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and
the last, you have shown us things before
they happen it's your divine fingerprint upon your
word to prove that this truly is inspired
of you and so Lord we ask that
you'd speak to us this morning from this
passage help us to understand what your spirit
would be saying to us the church in
these last days for we ask it in
Jesus name.
Amen.
Ezekiel chapter thirty seven starting at verse one
it says the hand of the Lord was
upon me and carried me out in the
spirit of the Lord and set me down
in the midst of a valley which was
full of bones and caused me to pass
by them round about and behold there were
very many in the open valley and lo
they were very dry and he said unto
me son of man can these bones live
and I answered oh Lord you know again
he said unto me prophesy upon these bones
and say unto them oh you dry bones
hear the word of the Lord thus says
the Lord God unto these bones behold I
will cause breath to enter into you and
you shall live I will lay sinews upon
you and will bring flesh up upon you
and cover you with skin and put breath
in you and you shall live and you
shall know that I am the Lord so
I prophesied as I was commanded and as
I prophesied there was a noise and behold
a shaking and the bones came together bone
to his bone and when I beheld lo
sinews and flesh came upon them and skin
covered them above but there was no breath
in them then said he unto me prophesy
unto the wind prophesy son of man and
say to the wind thus says the Lord
God come from the four winds oh breath
and breathe upon these slain that they may
live so I prophesied as he commanded me
and the breath came into them and they
lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding
great army then he said unto me son
of man these bones are the whole house
of Israel behold they say our bones are
dried and our hope is lost we are
cut off from our parts therefore prophesy and
say unto them thus says the Lord God
behold oh my people I will open up
your graves and cause you to come up
out of your graves and bring you into
the land of Israel and you shall know
that I am the Lord when I have
opened your graves oh my people and brought
you up out of your graves and you
shall and I shall put my spirit in
you you shall live and I shall place
you in your own land and you shall
know that I the Lord has spoken it
and performed it says the Lord this passage
is an interesting passage in fact if you
were to pick up a commentary written before
the nineteen hundreds you would see that just
about every commentator as they wrote on this
passage would say that this has spiritual application
that this prophecy is fulfilled spiritually in the
church today that the church has been brought
together being dead as Ephesians chapter two says
that we were dead in our trespasses and
sins and yet he quickened us together with
Christ and so even if you picked up
Matthew Henry's commentary one of the probably the
greatest commentators on the bible written around the
fifteen hundreds even he applies this to a
spiritual context that it speaks spiritually of the
church because they couldn't in their minds grasp
a literal translation of the nation of Israel
which was not a nation at that time
becoming a nation again until nineteen forty eight
when almost in an instant it seems they
became a nation in Matthew chapter twenty four
just before Jesus's crucifixion he predicted to his
disciples the destruction of the city of Jerusalem
and the destruction of the temple in Matthew
chapter twenty three Jesus was speaking to all
the leaders of Israel and he declared woe
to the nation certain judgment to the leadership
because they departed from the Lord because they
had not recognized their Messiah when he came
and in Matthew chapter twenty four verse one
it says and Jesus went out and departed
from the temple I want you to note
that right there in Matthew chapter twenty four
verse one because it is the last time
that the presence of God was in the
temple of God in Jerusalem you remember when
Jesus was crucified he cried at the end
of that crucifixion to tell us that it
is finished and what notable thing happened in
the temple the veil of the temple was
ripped from top to bottom and it exposed
the holy place and the only thing it
showed was that the presence of God was
no longer in the holy of holies because
the presence of God had departed from the
temple right here in Matthew chapter twenty four
when Jesus left it says Jesus went out
and departed from the temple and his disciples
came to him to show forth the buildings
of the temple he had just declared that
the city was going to be destroyed certain
destruction is what the word woe means and
his disciples come to him and say but
look at these great buildings look at this
wonderful temple and Jesus said unto them see
you not all these things truly I say
to you there shall not be left here
one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down he looked at that temple as
his disciples said consider this great temple this
temple that had taken some forty six years
to construct at that point and he says
behold this temple I tell you the truth
not one stone shall be left upon another
they're all going to be torn down and
Jesus continued walking out of the temple courts
and went up to the Mount of Olives
there and I imagine that his disciples stood
there gazing at this thing thinking you're crazy
that's not possible and so they came to
Jesus in verse three as he sat upon
the Mount of Olives and the disciples came
to him privately saying tell us when shall
these things be when is this going to
happen Jesus looking at that great temple which
was the center of all Jewish life to
the Jews if the temple was destroyed then
life as they knew it would go away
as well and so they asked him when
shall these things be and what shall be
the sign of your coming and of the
end of the world in their mind they
figured this temple coming down is like the
end of the world and so when is
this going to happen Lord and he began
to talk with them about those things and
did you know just a short period of
time just a little bit over forty years
later in the year A.D. seventy Jesus's
words of the destruction of the temple came
to pass as the Roman general Titus Flavius
came into Jerusalem with four legions of Roman
troops and he surrounded the city in April
of A.D. seventy and they besieged the
city for the next several months until August
which when by August the entire city and
all the hills that were around it lay
bare there were no more trees on the
hills because the Romans had cut down every
single tree to build their besieging towers and
so the city lay as just this naked
bare city in the middle of nothing and
the Jews that remained in the city that
still stayed there to try and hold in
and try and fight the Romans back they
hold up in the temple and at the
end of August in the year A.D.
seventy one of the Roman soldiers fired a
flaming arrow at the temple and it landed
amongst all the timbers in the top of
the temple and it started it on fire
and that temple was filled with all kinds
of gold ornate gold and silver everywhere not
only did they have all the gold that
they had put on the timbers and on
the walls but in the back of the
temple was the temple treasury it was considered
during that day to be the second largest
bank in the entire world the first bank
was in Rome it was the largest bank
at that time in the the capital of
the Roman Empire but the second largest bank
was there in the city of Jerusalem gold
filled the treasuries of that temple and as
it burnt the gold melted and went down
into the cracks of the rocks and so
the Roman soldiers to get the gold out
they tore the temple apart piece by piece
now Titus the Roman governor he didn't want
to do that to the temple he wanted
to keep the temple and he wanted to
give it as a gift to the Caesar
of Rome at that point in time which
ultimately if the temple had stayed there they
would have used it as a pagan temple
to the Roman Emperor but it was God's
grace that he had it torn down he
wasn't going to have his house there used
and defiled for Roman pagan worship and so
it burnt down and the Romans to obtain
the gold to get the gold they tore
every rock apart to get the gold out
just as Jesus had prophesied there in Matthew
chapter 24 he told that it would come
to pass that you see all these things
I say to you truly that not one
stone shall be left upon another they all
shall be thrown down and his disciples said
when is this going to happen they had
no idea that it would happen in their
own lifetime that they would see that take
place but at that moment in AD 70
when the temple was destroyed the Jewish people
were dispersed it's called the Diaspora they began
to just move out into the rest of
the parts of the world as the Roman
Romans took over the empire there they took
over the city of Jerusalem in the area
of Israel they changed all of the maps
and they renamed the area it was no
longer called Israel from that point in time
I believe it was called Avelina Capitolina or
something like that that they renamed it and
they also named it Philistine country or Palestine
they changed every one of the maps but
the Jews were dispersed they were pushed up
into the north into Europe into Russia and
to China all over the world they were
removed from that area their language began to
die the Hebrew language they were persecuted throughout
their time of travels and so when commentators
would read the passage of Ezekiel chapter 37
about the nation of Israel these dry bones
that were in this valley being gathered together
and God breathing life into them and Ezekiel
chapter 36 talks about the regathering of the
Jewish people into the land they'd say it's
not possible it will never happen but then
in the late 1800s a man took his
family back to the land of Canaan this
area called Palestine at that point in time
a Jewish man and he began to send
letters to his family and friends in other
parts of Europe saying come back to the
land and they called themselves the Zionists a
name you've probably heard in our day if
you follow the news at all and so
these Zionists they came back to the land
they started what was called a kibbutz which
was basically like a large communal living environment
where they had farms in the northern area
of what is known as Israel today and
they started to grow as a people and
they revived the Hebrew language a language that
hadn't been really spoken for nearly 2,000
years and they began to speak it completely
among themselves the Hebrew language and they kept
calling to their brothers to come back to
the land of Israel Eretz Israel, the land
of Israel.
As time went by in the late 1800s
and on into the early 1900s the British
were controlling that area the British Empire was
still alive and well in the early 1900s
and they controlled that area that was at
one point in time the Ottoman Empire and
in 1917 on November 2nd a letter was
written back to the British Parliament by a
man by the name of Arthur James Balfour
and he said I have much pleasure in
conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's
government the following declaration of sympathy with the
Jewish Zionists aspiration which has been submitted and
approved by the cabinet the British government approved
that a Zionist Jewish state could be rebuilt
there in the area of Palestine well the
Arabs in the region didn't really like that
and immediately after this letter sent by James
Balfour to Lord Rothschild in England when he
wrote this letter which is now come to
be known as the Balfour Declaration you may
have heard of it before it started the
ball rolling in the world community to give
the Jews a state, a nation once again
but the Arabs in the region didn't like
that and so they had this big thing
called the Arab-English Revolt and they revolted
against the British Empire that was still holding
that area and the world was largely against
the Zionist plight, their desire for a nation
of their own until this little event took
place in the 1940s something you may have
heard of called World War II and after
World War II when the world began to
see what had taken place in Europe and
in the camps of Germany and Austria and
Poland when they started to see what had
happened to largely the Jews but not only
the Jews but largely to the Jewish people
in that region six million of them killed
as the numbers began to mount more and
more for one time in history the world
began to have pity upon the Jewish people
and there was this newly established governing organization
called the United Nations and they got together
in November of 1947 and they passed what
is called Resolution 181.
Resolution 181 called for the nation of Israel,
the people of Israel to be given a
homeland.
November 29th 1947 and then on May 14th
1948 just about six months later in the
city of Tel Aviv a group of Zionists
gathered together and one of them stood up
a man by the name of David Ben
-Gurion he stand up and he read this
Eretz Israel, the land of Israel was the
birthplace of the Jewish people here their spiritual
religious and political identity was shaped here they
first attained to statehood, created cultural values of
national and universal significance and gave to the
world the eternal book of books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land the
people remained faithful to it and throughout their
dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope
for their return to it and for the
restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment Jews
strove in every successive generation to reestablish themselves
in their ancient homeland.
In recent decades they returned there in mass
pioneers and defenders they made deserts bloom revived
the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, created
a thriving community controlling its own economy and
culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend
itself bringing the blessings of progress to the
country's inhabitants and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 1897 at the summons of
the spiritual father of the Jewish state Theodor
Herzl and his Zionists formed the first Zionist
Congress.
They convened and proclaimed the right of the
Jewish people to national rebirth in its own
country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration
of 2nd of November 1917 and reaffirmed in
the mandate of the League of Nations which
in particular gave international sanction to the historic
connection between the Jewish people and the land
of Israel and to the right of the
Jewish people to rebuild its national home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people
the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe
was another clear demonstration of the urgency of
solving the problem of its homelessness by reestablishing
in the land of Israel the Jewish state
which would open the gates of the homeland
wide to every Jew and confer upon the
Jewish people the status of a fully privileged
member in the Committee of Nations.
Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe as
well as Jews from other parts of the
world continued to migrate to the land of
Israel undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers and
never ceased to assert their right to a
life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in
their national homeland.
In the Second World War the Jewish community
of this country contributed its full share to
the struggle of the freedom and peace-loving
nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and
by the blood of its soldiers and its
war effort gained the right to be reckoned
among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th of November 1947 the United
Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 calling for
the establishment of a Jewish state in the
land of Israel.
The General Assembly required the inhabitants of the
land of Israel to take such steps as
were necessary on their part of the implementation
of that resolution.
This recognition by the United Nations of the
right of the Jewish people to establish their
state is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the
Jewish people to be the masters of their
own fate like all other nations and their
own sovereign state.
Accordingly we members of the People's Council representatives
of the Jewish community of the land of
Israel and of the Zionist movement are here
assembled on the day of the termination of
the British mandate over the land of Israel
and by virtue of our natural and historic
right and on the strength of that resolution
of the United Nations General Assembly hereby declare
the establishment of a Jewish state in the
land of Israel to be known as the
State May 14, 1948.
A nation that was not a nation became
a nation in one day and the next
day on May 15 ten nations that surrounded
them invaded them and sought to destroy them
in which has been called the War of
Independence May 15, 1948.
Every Arabic nation that surrounded them Jordan Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt all of them invaded and tried
to take them out.
It's an amazing thing when you start to
read the history of what took place at
that point in time.
Here was this little group of people and
all they had was rifles and Molotov cocktails
and a few planes that they had just
purchased from the Austrians to fight against this
big old group that came against them.
And in ten months they completely fought them
back and took land, destroyed the Lebanese tank
or the the Syrian tanks with Molotov cocktails.
That's a, you know, like a coke bottle
with some gasoline put inside and a wick
put on top of it.
That's how they destroyed them.
Now if anybody doesn't see the hand of
God and them being able to remain through
the War of Independence you're blind.
Not only the War of Independence but in
June of 1967 some of you were alive
during that time when surrounded by Egypt and
Jordan and Lebanon as they were encroaching upon
the nation of Israel, Israel launched a preemptive
attack which was done in six days called
the Six Day War and they took land
when they were fighting against three other nations
on three other fronts and yet by the
hand of God they were able to take
land.
Again they were invaded by Egypt on the
6th of October 1973, the Yom Kippur War
on the Day of Atonement and yet they
fought the Egyptians back and took land.
An interesting thing took place on the 6th
of June 1982.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization had come into southern
Lebanon and they were firing Katyusha rockets into
the northern portion of Israel.
That doesn't sound very familiar, does it?
And so on the 6th of June 1982
the Israeli army led a huge offensive and
they went into southern Lebanon to push the
Lebanese back to the Latani River and to
create a buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel
so that these Katyusha rockets could not be
fired into northern Israel anymore.
It sounds exactly like some of the stuff
we're reading out of the news today but
it's not the Palestinian Liberation Organization anymore, now
it's a group called Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has moved into southern Lebanon and they've
been firing rockets, Katyusha rockets at northern Israel
since July 12th since they invaded Israel and
came into a Israeli defense force camp and
kidnapped some of their soldiers and so Israel
over the last several weeks has had a
combined offensive and they've been pushing into southern
Lebanon with the desire to push the Lebanese
and Hezbollah back to the Latani River to
create an 18-mile buffer zone between Israel
and Lebanon.
Why have these Arabic nations been so set
on destroying this little tiny place that's smaller
than Rhode Island, you can drive from the
northernmost part of Israel to the southernmost part
of Israel in one day.
Why have they been so desirous of destroying
them?
The reason I believe that they've been seeking
to destroy this little nation is because they
are stirred by the enemy of God, Satan.
You see God tells us in Leviticus chapter
25 verse 23 that this land is not
Israel's land.
He says this land is my land for
my sake and for my name's sake.
It is God's land and He says He
Himself will punish anybody who tries to sell
the land or divide the land.
Leviticus 25 verse 23, this is not your
land God says it's my land.
But one of the other reasons that I
believe that God has held this land and
why the enemy has tried by these Arab
groups to push the nation of Israel out
of the land is found in Matthew chapter
24.
Because as I read Matthew chapter 24 in
verse 3 when Jesus' disciples came to Him
they didn't just ask Him when the destruction
of Jerusalem was going to happen, they asked
Him three questions.
They said tell us when shall these things
be and what shall be the sign of
your coming and of the end of the
age.
Now we don't need to ask the question
when shall these things be any longer regarding
the destruction of Israel because we look back
to AD 70 and we can read in
our history books about what took place.
But as a church we continue to ask
these last two questions regarding the Lord's return.
What shall be the sign of your coming
and of the end of the world?
And Jesus goes on to answer these questions
in verse 4 of Matthew 24.
You may have been wondering as I was
reading you that declaration of independence of Israel
what are you reading this for?
This has no importance to us we're a
world away.
It doesn't affect us but it does.
It's very important to us and I hope
this morning in the remaining time that we
have to give you an idea why.
Matthew 24 verse 3, as Jesus sat on
the Mount of Olives his disciples came to
him privately and they said tell us when
shall these things be and what shall be
the sign of your coming and of the
end of the world?
And Jesus answered and he said unto them
take heed that no man deceive you.
Underline that in your Bibles please.
Take heed that no man deceive you.
There's been a lot of deception in our
day regarding these things.
In fact the world talks about these prophecies
all the time.
You know at the end of the year
right as we get to change into the
next year you always hear these people talking
about biblical prophecy or maybe when you're standing
in the checkout line at Vaughn's and you
see the Inquirer or something else and it
says the 10 prophecies the government doesn't want
you to know and they always bring this
stuff up and you'll read these verses if
you ever pick that thing up.
I'll never buy it but I always pick
it up and flip through it and laugh
at it.
But notice what he says take heed that
no man deceive you.
There's lots of deception for many shall come
in my name saying I am the Christ
and shall deceive many and you shall hear
of wars and rumors of wars see that
you're not be troubled for all these things
read this with me out loud all these
things must come to pass but the end
is not yet.
You see there's in these magazines or different
people they'll publish and they'll say there's wars
and rumors of wars the end is coming
but notice what Jesus says you shall hear
of wars and rumors of wars don't be
troubled by that that's not the sign there
is a specific sign we're going to get
to it but what Jesus is saying here
is that from the time that he was
speaking until the time that he comes this
is going to be the normal thing wars
rumors of wars but that's not the sign
the end is not yet.
Verse 7 nations shall rise against nation and
kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines
and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places you
pick up those publications and you see there's
famines there's pestilences earthquakes tsunamis all this the
end is coming people have been saying that
for the last 2,000 years but that's
not the sign the end is not yet
you're going to hear of these things nation
rising against nation pestilences earthquakes diverse place this
is the norm of the day all these
things note this verse 8 they are the
beginning of sorrows it's just the beginning it's
not the end the end is not yet
these are the beginning of sorrows and they
shall deliver you up to be afflicted and
shall kill you and shall be you shall
be hated of all nations for my name's
sake and then shall many be offended and
shall betray one another and shall hate one
another we see that today don't we but
we've seen it ever since he spoke these
words and many false prophets shall arise and
and because the that iniquity shall abound the
love of many shall grow cold but he
that shall endure to the end the same
shall be saved and notice what else will
characterize this time from the time that Jesus
spoke these words until the time of his
coming and the end of the age and
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto
all nations and then what's it say then
shall the end come and now he tells
us of the sign which is significant to
us in this day verse 15 says when
you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation
spoken of by daniel the prophet standing in
the holy place whoever reads let him understand
then let him that be in judea flee
to the mountains down in verse 21 it
says for then shall be great tribulation such
as was not seen since the beginning of
the world to this time nor ever shall
be what is the sign of the end
of the age and the second coming of
christ he tells us right there in verse
15 when you see the abomination of desolation
then it's time daniel chapter 9 i believe
right around verse 27 and also in daniel
chapter 11 and daniel chapter 12 daniel receives
this vision from god and he speaks of
this thing calls the called the abomination of
desolation or the abomination which makes desolate standing
in the holy of holies this abomination is
that someone would go into the holy of
holies and desolate it bring an abomination and
exalt himself as god there it's interesting that
jesus speaks of this as a yet future
event when he spoke of it because the
jews of jesus's day believed that this had
already happened because there was a man during
the time of judas maccabeus some of you
have heard of first and second maccabees during
that time there was a man who was
a crazy lunatic by the name of antiochus
epiphanies he was a leader of i want
to say syria and he came into israel
and he overtook jerusalem and he went and
sacrificed pig pigs on the altar in jerusalem
and brought pig blood into the holy of
holies and brought an abomination into desolation into
jerusalem and so the jews of jesus's day
believed that the abomination of desolation that daniel
the prophet spoke of they thought that it
already happened but jesus says no it is
yet a future thing and he says this
is the sign of the end of the
age and of my second coming the abomination
of desolation in fact when you read the
scriptures and you look through daniel chapter 9
11 and 12 and you when you read
revelation you find that you can calculate from
the day of the abomination of desolation exactly
three and a half years until the messiah
the prince comes his second time that's how
specific the prophecies of the scriptures are to
the day i think it's like 1283 days
but he says the end of the age
and the second coming of the messiah will
come immediately after the abomination of desolation that
is the sign what's that got to do
with us well understand this there can be
no abomination of desolation if there is no
holy of holies there can be no holy
of holies if there is no temple in
jerusalem there can be no temple in jerusalem
if there is no jewish presence in the
land of israel and as of may 14
1948 that came to pass we are in
those days the time is near now we
don't know the exact time of what we
call the rapture of the church or the
successive abomination of desolation that's going to take
place what are we waiting for well one
of the things we're waiting for is that
there's no temple built in jerusalem yet will
we be here to see the temple built
in jerusalem i don't know but i will
tell you this there is a group called
the temple foundation in israel and they have
every instrument needed for the temple they have
the large huge golden candlestick already built they
have the altar of incense constructed they have
all of the tools used for carrying the
blood and carrying the ashes from the altar
to the altar of incense everything is constructed
they're just waiting for someone to give them
to go to have a piece of land
on the temple mount so that they can
build their temple and there's going to arise
a man who's going to make way for
that kind of peace to bring some sort
of peace accord it's going to be a
seven-year peace treaty the bible tells us
and the man that establishes this seven-year
peace treaty he's going to be the very
man at the three and a half year
period of that seven-year peace treaty who's
going to go into that temple that's going
to be constructed and establish himself as god
the jews will think at the start that
he's the messiah but they'll come to see
that he's the antichrist we're living in these
days and the establishment of the nation of
israel and on may 14 1948 it is
unbelievably significant and all the stuff that's going
on there today is important and we need
to understand that these are signs of the
times that everything is getting in order and
things are starting to be built up ezekiel
chapter 38 tells us that a coalition of
nations is going to invade and try to
destroy the nation of israel one of those
nations is to be led by one called
gog who is the the prince it says
there in ezekiel 38 verse 1 and the
word of the lord came to me saying
the son of man set your face against
gog in the land of magog and the
chief prince of meshech and tubal and prophesy
against them now gog he's the prince over
the land of magog the chief prince of
meshech and if you start to chart this
out you can go on the internet and
start to read some of this stuff just
put these names in gog magog and meshech
you start to read about it you find
that meshech is very likely moscow which if
you look at a world map you see
that it's directly north almost perfectly north of
jerusalem and they're going to be invading the
area of israel and so i guarantee you
watch russia because russia is going to become
more involved in what's going on over there
they already are you may not realize it
but they are how many of you guys
know what the g8 summit is you heard
about the g8 summit you know president bush
all these different world leaders met together vladimir
putin was there it's interesting i believe it
was on july 16th just a four days
four days after lebanon had kidnapped these soldiers
out of northern israel and israel started to
move in an offensive towards lebanon vladimir putin
said i don't think that the jews are
only interested in getting their soldiers back they
have higher aspirations and it and he expressed
his concern and the nation of russia their
concern over what's going on over there why
are they concerned about it well an interesting
thing's been taking place as israel's been moving
into southern lebanon they've been finding out that
hezbollah troops have been trained by who by
iran who has been trained by russia who
has been giving nuclear secrets to iran for
the last several years you see the only
thing that keeps israel safe at this moment
since they're surrounded by enemies billions a billion
of them is that they have nuclear superiority
in the area but the president of iran
maybe you've listened to some of his babblings
over the last year he's been saying that
the holocaust never happened but that the jews
need to be pushed into the mediterranean sea
and destroy it and he's been seeking from
russia nuclear secrets which russia says are only
desired they're only desiring to use them for
peaceful ends to make some nuclear power yeah
some very hot nuclear power over jerusalem you
see the things that are going on there
are very interesting when you read on in
ezekiel chapter 38 you find that these invading
nations involve persia in verse 5 what is
modern day persia today iran the bible tells
us that these nations are going to come
together and they're going to invade the nation
of israel but miraculously they're going to be
stopped by god destroyed it is going to
happen the reason i tell you that it
is going to happen is because the bible
says it's going to happen and here's the
thing god makes his prophecies it's really awesome
the way that he does things jesus told
his disciples in matthew chapter 24 jerusalem is
going to be destroyed and then he told
them of a coming abomination of desolation and
as proof that the abomination of desolation is
going to come as proof that these last
days are going to come and his second
coming will happen the first prophecy that he
gave about the destruction of jerusalem happened you
see god always gives these early and latter
fulfillments of prophecies the early fulfillment is proof
that the latter one will come it's as
if i told you i'm going to give
you a hundred dollars but i can only
give you ten dollars today as proof that
i will make good on the hundred dollars
i'm going to give you and so here's
the ten dollars and you can trust in
a couple weeks i'll give you the rest
it's like the lord says here's this prophecy
this huge prophecy about the end of the
age and at the very beginning here's your
ten dollar bill jerusalem is going to be
destroyed but the rest of it is yet
to be fulfilled but he shows us what's
going to come to place he shows us
how things are kind of kind of organized
in the end to make things happen and
we're seeing it right now it began on
may 14th 1948 when in opposition to all
of their neighbors they were established as a
nation israel the land of israel the end
gathering the regathering but ezekiel chapter 36 and
37 tell us that all of israel is
going to be gathered to the land of
israel they're not yet we are still in
the middle of ezekiel chapter 37 in fact
i believe that we're at ezekiel chapter 37
verse 13 because verse 14 has not happened
yet ezekiel 37 13 says and you shall
know that i am the lord when i
have opened the graves of my people and
brought you up out of your graves to
bring you back to the land we're seeing
that but we have not seen this and
shall put my spirit in you and you
shall live and i shall place you in
your own land that you may know that
i the lord have spoken it and performed
it thus says the lord the nation of
israel is largely atheistic today but there's going
to come a point in the center portion
of the seven-year tribulation when the abomination
of desolation happens when the nation of israel
when they see that happen they're going to
flee from jerusalem and they're going to become
these evangelists these 144 000 evangelists named in
the book of revelation but we are in
the midst of ezekiel chapter 37 today there
are six million jews roughly six million jews
that are living in the land of israel
it is a little ironic that the number
of jews killed in the holocaust is pretty
much the same as the number of jews
there in the land of israel today but
do you realize there's 4.5 million jews
in new york city and a whole bunch
more scattered throughout the united states and a
lot of them in hollywood they basically own
hollywood that's kind of why they didn't really
like mel gibson's movie the passion but see
there's all these jews in the united states
in new york because they have great financial
holdings here there's nothing really to make them
look at israel and say hey we should
go back to the land of but i
guarantee you world opinion of israel is very
low i don't know if you've noticed the
only two friends of the nation of israel
today are the united kingdom and the united
states but already in the united kingdom there's
this undercurrent of disregard for the jews in
the nation of israel because see something interesting
is happening in europe and especially in the
united kingdom and this really came out this
week with this whole thing in the news
about this terrorist plot and all of these
guys that were plotting together to have this
mass air assault on these planes they all
have british accents but they're all muslim you
see the muslim population is growing rapidly in
europe and the united kingdom i know the
united kingdom is part of europe but they
don't like to be called that in the
netherlands i believe it's an 11 population of
muslims france is 18 percent germany i believe
is nine percent all these countries are growing
very rapidly with an islamic population you see
it a lot when you're over there i
lived in germany for a year i know
matt probably saw it when he was in
germany a lot of turkish muslims in the
netherlands there's a popular t-shirt that islamic
youth are wearing and it says 2030 and
then we take over why do they wear
that because in 2030 it's been surmised that
their population will reach the point where they
can begin to take over some of the
parliaments in europe some of the ruling bodies
in europe they've realized that they can't really
take over with force and so they're taking
over with politics and as they're taking over
there's a shift in europe regarding the nation
of israel and the jews and in the
united kingdom today people are starting to say
we have to stop siding with the united
states and with israel and then they'll stop
bombing our trains and then they'll stop wanting
to bomb our planes and i guarantee you
that shift is going to start in the
united states too i wouldn't be surprised if
the next administration of our nation has a
lot to play in it as well because
see the word is from different islamic groups
that if you stop supporting israel we'll leave
you alone and see that's exactly what satan
would have why because he knows that his
time is up and if israel is in
the land and if the temple is constructed
then satan knows the scriptures he knows that
jesus said the end is going to come
at this abomination of desolation in the temple
in the holy of holies in jerusalem so
if satan can just get the jews out
of jerusalem and get them out of the
whole area of israel then maybe he can
stop with the inevitable fact he thought that
he could do that about 2 000 years
ago too right after he killed the messiah
he thought yeah i got it but he
actually shot himself in the head but we're
living in the last days and the enemy
wants to try and stop the second coming
of our lord because when our lord comes
his reign is done turn in your bibles
to romans chapter 13 and we'll finish there
so we see these things happening in the
world we can see it in prophecy it's
been spoken of for 2 700 years god's
been speaking this to us he told daniel
and daniel prophesied of these things right about
the 5th century bc he told him that
this book would be locked up until the
last days when knowledge would be increased we're
living in those last days and these books
are being opened up to us and we're
beginning to understand what it means as we
look around and see understand that jesus spoke
some things that his disciples didn't understand until
they were fulfilled what am i talking about
well he told his disciples and he told
the men of israel in john chapter 2
destroy this temple and in three days i
will raise it up and they all said
this temple's taken 46 years to construct how
are you going to rebuild it in three
days but this he spoke of his body
which after his resurrection his disciples understood you
see after they saw the fulfillment of it
they understood the words the same with ezekiel
chapter 36 and 37 we are seeing the
fulfillment of it we're starting to understand that
it's literal and not spiritual but what does
it mean for us romans chapter 13 verse
11 and that knowing the time that now
it is high time to awake out of
your sleep for now is our salvation nearer
than when we first believed here's the word
i believe of the lord to us as
the church in america today he says and
knowing the times you know us americans we're
really good about knowing what time it is
we have clocks everywhere we have watches all
over the place some of you are looking
at your watch right now saying how are
you going to finish this in 12 minutes
we know the times but do we really
know the time paul says know the time
it is high time to wake up because
salvation is near the night is far spent
the day is at hand so what should
we do let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on
the armor of light let us walk honestly
as in the day not in rioting and
drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in
strife and envy but put on the lord
jesus christ and make no provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lust thereof what should
we as the church in this day be
doing as we consider the world events and
how they relate to the prophecies of the
scripture two things wake up to holiness and
to evangelism wake up to holiness he says
here put on the lord jesus christ and
make no provision of the for the flesh
walk in honesty as if you're walking in
the day walking in the light john tells
us in first john walk in the light
as he is in the light we are
called to holiness now this is not something
that i believe we can accomplish on our
own because paul speaks of it in romans
chapter seven he says the good that i
want to do i do not do and
the bad things i don't want to do
that i do i find in my flesh
dwells no good thing can anybody relate to
that oh wretched man that i am who
will deliver me from this body of death
but then he gives the answer i thank
god you see god is able to deliver
us from the bondage of darkness in the
flesh and deliver us unto holiness how does
he do it by the washing of the
water by the one by the word how
can a young man cleanse his ways by
taking heed to the word of god turn
not from the right hand or to the
left hand from it joshua for in walking
in the word you shall be prosperous and
have good success hide the word of the
lord in your heart that you might not
sin against him holiness comes through the word
of god and so god says to his
church wake up put on the lord jesus
christ who john chapter 1 tells us is
the word of god he is the word
put on the lord jesus and make no
provision for the flesh first peter chapter 2
verse 9 says but you are a chosen
generation and a royal priesthood a holy nation
and a peculiar people why why has god
called us the church not just the priests
or the pastors of the church but the
entire church he has called us all as
a chosen generation and a royal priesthood his
peculiar or strange people i'm looking around we
fit the bill myself included but what has
he called us for verse 9 the end
of the verse says that you should show
forth the praises of him who called you
out of darkness and into his marvelous light
god has called us as his people who
at one point in time were not a
people it says in verse 10 which in
times past were not a people but now
you are a people you did not obtain
mercy in the past but now you have
obtained mercy and as those who have received
mercy from god and a calling from god
we are now to declare his praises the
one who's called us out of darkness and
into his marvelous light we live in the
midst of a dark world and he's called
us to stand as lights in this dark
world not wrapped up in the darkness of
the world but in the light of christ
put on the lord jesus christ and shine
so that the rest of the world can
see now see unfortunately over the years the
church has largely just put this over in
the hands of the pastors and the leadership
of the church and said you shine we'll
just listen to you you shine we'll watch
you shine but i want you to note
what the bible says that the pastors of
this church are called to do in ephesians
chapter 4 ephesians 4 verse 11 it says
that god gave some to be apostles or
missionaries those who are sent and some to
be prophets those who speak forth the word
of god some to be evangelists some those
who share the word of god with others
who do not know he's given some apostles
some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers
why for the perfecting or the equipping of
the saints that's the church for the working
of the ministry for the edifying of the
body of christ until we all come to
the unity of the faith and to the
knowledge of the son of god unto a
perfect man unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of christ paul tells the
church at ephesus that god has given pastors
teachers apostles evangelists prophets for the purpose of
equipping the body of christ to do the
ministry of declaring the praises of god and
the darkness of this world understand that the
declaring of the praises showing forth the praises
of him who called you out of darkness
and into this marvelous light doesn't really happen
in the confines of the walls of this
building it happens in your job it happens
at your school it happens at von's it
happens at chevron it happens in your living
room it happens wherever whenever you the church
are assembled anywhere and when we consider what's
going on in the world it should stir
us to realize that the time is short
listen satan knows his time is short that's
why all these crazy things are going on
in the world tsunamis and earthquakes and all
that stuff he's the one who governs it
every time we say it's an act of
god you're calling him god but he's the
one who has the rule over this whole
world he knows his time is short he's
trying to destroy it as much as he
can and stop the hand of god that's
what rebellion is all about he is trying
to stop god from accomplishing his will and
yet we pray your kingdom come your will
be done on earth as it already is
accomplished in heaven and his will will be
accomplished here because of his namesake in fact
as you read ezekiel 36 and 37 you
find that he tells the people the nation
of israel he says i'm going to regather
you back to the land of israel not
for you not for your namesake but for
my namesake because it's my land it's my
land the land of israel is god's land
it's high time that we awake out of
our sleepy haze awake towards holiness awake towards
righteousness awake towards evangelism you may say i
don't know how to evangelize i don't know
how to get into the word well i
just told you the pastors of this church
we've been called by god to equip you
if you feel ill equipped for the work
come talk to us you want to learn
how to evangelize josh has been doing the
evangelism class you want to learn what it
means to walk in the word of god
we've got these home fellowships which are which
are a great opportunity for you to be
equipped for the work of the ministry because
every one of you are called to the
ministry of god all of us are called
to take forth his word into a dark
world let's stand and pray i did it
in six minutes not bad let's pray together
lord we thank you for the fact that
you have shown us the end from the
beginning you who are the alpha and the
omega the first and the last the beginning
and the end who was and is and
is to come you know all things and
you've revealed them to us in your word
teach us to be those who study to
show ourselves approved unto you men and women
who are workers who rightly divide your word
of truth lord we pray your kingdom come
your will be done in my life and
in the lives of my brothers and sisters
this week lord help us to have our
eyes open and see what's going on in
the world and make the connection that these
aren't just coincidences these aren't just happenstances this
is all according to what you said would
happen but we know that the end is
near your people are in the land a
temple will be erected nations will rise up
against them lord you already told us it
would happen and god we know that there
will be no peace in jerusalem no peace
in israel even though the un may declare
peace there will be no peace until you
the prince of peace stands upon the mount
of olives and so lord we pray come
quickly for we ask it in jesus name