This morning, we'd like to draw your attention
to Mark's Gospel, and you're going to be
in chapters 13 and 14 for a few
weeks now, and so you ought to have
them pretty well down by the time we
move on to the end of the book
of Mark.
But we'd like to look this morning at
verses, beginning with verse 32, where Jesus is
talking to his disciples about his coming again
and the establishing of his kingdom here on
earth.
But of that day and that hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels which are
in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take heed, watch, and pray, for you know
not when the time is.
For the Son of Man is as a
man taking a far journey, who left his
house and gave authority to his servants, and
to every man his work, and he commanded
the porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore, for you know not when
the master of the house is coming, at
evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster
is crowing, or in the morning, lest coming
suddenly he find you sleeping.
And so what I say unto you, I
say unto all, watch.
Now the Bible does not teach that the
end of the world is near.
The world is going to go on for
at least another thousand years, that thousand years
known as the millennium.
It's going to be far different from the
present time, actually the world does, I mean
the Bible does teach that this age is
coming to an end.
This is the age of man, man's rule
over the world.
That's coming to an end, I believe very
soon.
This is the age of the church, where
the Holy Spirit is drawing out from among
the Gentile nations, the bride for Jesus Christ.
But this age is rapidly coming to an
end.
In fact, Jesus in speaking about it in
Luke's gospel, said Jerusalem will be trodden under
the foot of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles is fulfilled.
Jerusalem was trodden under the foot of the
Gentiles, until 1967, when again it came under
the control of the new Israeli government.
We are seeing prophecy fulfilled before our very
eyes.
The very fact that the nation of Israel
does exist, is one of the chief signs
that we are in the last days.
So many of the last days prophecies center
around the nation of Israel, and it's being
again established as a nation in the last
days.
It's interesting how that the world's attention is
focused on different things.
Just a short time ago, the world's focus
was on underwater earthquakes that created tsunamis that
destroyed so many people.
And then the world's attention was focused on
Katrina and the created down in the southern
part of our nation.
Our attention has been focused upon airplanes flying
into Twin Towers and the destruction that it
brought.
And different things become center stage for a
time.
But God has an interesting way of redirecting
our focus back upon the nation of Israel,
because this is where the end of this
age will happen, and the beginning of the
new age, the kingdom of God.
And of course the prophets tell us that
Jesus will come, he will set his foot
upon the Mount of Olives, and he will
establish God's kingdom upon the earth, and he
will reign for 1,000 years.
It will be a time of peace, a
time of righteousness, a time when there will
be no wars.
They will beat their swords into plowshares, their
spears into pruning hooks.
They will study wars no more.
There will be no infant dying.
There will be no infirmities.
It will be a time of glorious peace
under the reign of Jesus Christ as he
comes to establish God's kingdom upon the earth.
It is that for which we pray.
When we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will
be done in earth as it is in
heaven.
So presently we are in the church age,
but that is wrapping up quite rapidly.
In fact, we are told in the scriptures
that this age in which we are living,
the age of the church, the thrust of
God's spirit is mainly among the Gentiles as
he is drawing together the church.
And that blindness has happened in part to
the nation of Israel until the fullness of
the Gentiles is come in.
But then all Israel will be saved, for
there shall arise a deliverer out of Zion.
So wrapping up the age of man, man's
rule over the and the anticipation for the
wonderful new age when the Lord himself shall
come and establish God's kingdom here.
The age of the Gentiles will end with
the greatest chaos and bloodshed that the world
has ever known.
Jesus described it as a time of great
tribulation.
He said, such as was not experienced from
the beginning of the world till this time,
no, nor ever shall be.
And unless those days would be shortened, no
flesh would remain.
But for the elect's sake, those days shall
be shortened.
The time of the Gentiles actually began way
back when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and destroyed Jerusalem
and took the Jews as captives unto Babylon.
That was the beginning of the times of
the Gentiles.
Among those that were taken captive to Babylon
was Daniel, the prophet of God.
And the Lord revealed to Daniel that God
had established a covenant with the nation of
Israel.
The covenant would be divided into 77 year
cycles.
And that from the time that the commandment
would go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
until the coming of the Messiah, the prince
would be 69, seven year cycles or 483
years.
445 BC, Artaxerxes gave the commandment to Nehemiah
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
483 years later, Jesus made his entry into
Jerusalem riding on a donkey on what we
call Palm Sunday, as he presented himself to
the nation as their Messiah.
But as the prophecy of Daniel went on
to say, the Messiah would be cut off
and not receive the kingdom.
And we know that before the week was
over that Jesus presented himself as the Messiah,
he was crucified and did not receive the
kingdom.
The prophecy of Daniel goes on to say,
and the Jews will be dispersed.
And within 40 years of Jesus being crucified,
the Romans came under Titus in 70 AD
conquered and destroyed Jerusalem.
And the Jews were dispersed throughout the world
and remained as such people without a nation
until 1948, when Israel became a nation once
again.
And so we see how God's word being
fulfilled before our very eyes as Israel became
a nation in 48, 67, Jerusalem became a
Israeli territory.
And so we see the prophecies being fulfilled
just as the Lord had declared they would.
Now, 77 were determined upon the nation of
Israel.
69 of them were already fulfilled.
Exactly precisely from the commandment to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah
was 483 years.
But that leaves us one seven-year cycle
unfulfilled.
When Israel was cut off as being a
nation, or as the Messiah was cut off
actually, it seems like God's time clock was
stopped.
It is not yet started again, but I
do believe we'll be starting again very soon.
And Ezekiel tells us the circumstances by which
God's time clock will start moving once again.
It will be in the latter years, Ezekiel
said, when God has gathered them back into
the land and they are dwelling there, that
Russia will back Iran and Turkey and other
Muslim nations who will seek to destroy the
nation of Israel.
Interestingly enough, this week on Monday, the Muslim,
actually on Thursday later than that, Muslim leaders
Thursday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and
the Hezbollah meeting in an emergency summit where
Iran's president said the solution was to obliterate
the Jewish state.
Of course, we know that he's been talking
like this of late, the total destruction of
the nation of Israel.
And this is the intention and this is
the plan of the leader of Iran at
the present time.
Now, Ezekiel talks about Iran backed by Russia
attempting to obliterate Israel in these last days.
They will amass a tremendous army to try
to destroy the nation of Israel.
And God said at this time, he will
rise to the defense of Israel and he
will turn back these invaders who are coming
against Israel.
In fact, he even describes in how they
will be destroyed.
God tells us that he will plead against
them with pestilence, with blood.
He will rain upon them and upon their
bands and upon the many people that are
with them and overflowing rain of great hailstones,
fire and brimstone.
And God said that he would thus magnify
himself and sanctify himself and will be known
in the eyes of many nations and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
So the prophet went on to say, Ezekiel
that is, that God promised to Israel that
when he has brought them again from the
people and gathered them out of their enemy's
lands and he has sanctified in them in
the sight of many nations and that is
when he destroys this invading army of Muslim
nations backed by Russia, when he destroys them
and he is sanctified in the eyes of
many nations, then shall they that is Israel
know that I am the Lord their God
which caused them to be led into captivity
among the heathen, but I've gathered them into
their own land.
I've left none of them anymore in the
foreign lands and neither will I hide my
face anymore from them.
So God's promise that he will again hold
Israel sort of as his people and that
will begin the last seven-year cycle.
And of course the Bible goes on to
tell us of many events that will transpire
in that seven years, how that they will
rebuild their temple and how that as they
begin their worship in the temple again after
three and a half years that the leader
of Europe who brokered this peace treaty will
come and declare that he is God and
demand to be worshipped as God and the
nation of Israel will realize they've been deceived
by this man and then as the scripture
tells us the great tribulation period which will
culminate in the great bloodshed of the battle
of Armageddon which will actually be stopped by
Jesus return establishing the kingdom of God upon
the earth.
So the Lord said that at that time
he's going to pour out his spirit upon
the house of Israel.
It seems like the whole nation whole world
actually is gathered together against Israel.
The prophet Zechariah predicted of that time he
said behold I will make Jerusalem a cup
of trembling unto all of the people round
about when they shall be in siege both
against Judah and against Jerusalem and in that
day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
for all people and all that burden themselves
with it will be cut in pieces and
though all of the people of the earth
be gathered together against it.
It would appear that the world media is
turning people against the nation of Israel.
Interesting how that the media is sort of
twisting things making Israel the evil one and
the Hezbollah the poor innocent victims and and
how they're trying to brainwash people in rising
against Israel.
Whenever you see the little babies that being
held in arms they are always little you
know Palestinian babies or Lebanese babies.
They don't show you the Israelis and the
damage that is being done by these rockets
and so forth and the babies that are
being killed in Israel but it's always to
evoke our sympathy towards the Muslim cause rather
than toward Israel.
Israel becomes the villain and the Hezbollah and
all become the victims.
Look at what happened this past week in
in the little village of Qana where the
Israelis bombed this building and of course what
was it 53 civilians children and women were
killed as the building collapsed and as it
was reported to the world immediately everyone says
oh this is terrible and of course Israel
had to stop the bombing for a 48
-hour period but we were so ready to
rise up and judge Israel and condemn Israel
for that.
Condemn it without really looking at the evidence.
It reminds us of a few years ago
when the papers were filled with what they
called the Jenin massacre.
How they reported that the Israeli troops went
into Jenin and just slaughtered murdered just hundreds
of people and again the world rose up
against Israel and said you know you must
stop this.
The UN sent in investigators to investigate the
report of the massacre in Jenin and what
did they find?
They found that there was no massacre.
That these innocent civilians were not murdered.
That there were a few of the militants
that were killed but the report was totally
spurious and yet the world was so ready
to receive it and of course the report
of the UN investigators didn't make your news
media as of course the supposed massacre did.
What do we know about Qana and the
situation that happened there?
Well five days before the bombing because this
was a launching site for missiles against Israel,
Israel sent their planes over with dropping leaflets
on the village letting them know that in
five days they were going to send the
military forces and the air force against this
city to destroy these launching sites, giving the
people sufficient time to leave the village.
However the Hezbollah would not allow them to
leave but force them to remain because they
use civilians as a shield.
The Hezbollah consistently stores weapons in residential buildings
and uses civilians as human shields.
So there was the bombing and after the
bombing eight hours later the building collapsed under
an explosion.
My question is why did the people remain
in a building that was damaged by a
bomb supposedly for eight hours before it collapsed
and why is it that there were only
women and children in that building and why
is it that they didn't leave during that
eight hour period when it seemed like there
was a danger of collapse?
It's interesting the man that was photographed holding
the dead child who was dressed as a
rescue worker, that same man has been photographed
many different times in similar scenes since 1996.
It seems like he's a model and he
is used by the press whenever they want
to get out some kind of sensational story
they put a dead baby in his arms
and he is pictured as he's wailing and
all in sorrow over the child in his
arms but he's the same man since 1996
who has been used in photos if you
go back over the photos of the past
press releases.
A blog site in Lebanon declares that the
Hezbollah had filled the house with crippled children
then placed a rocket launcher on the roof
of the house and waited for the Israeli
air force to come.
It was all a setup a propaganda setup
and of course it was effective it caused
the Israelis to cease bombing for 48 hours.
How is it that there were no men?
Why so many women and children?
The United States does seem to be the
only nation that really supports Israel at the
present time but you even question our support.
We've forced Israel to cede territory to the
Hamas and the Hezbollah that they have interpreted
as proving that terrorism is their path to
victory and has only emboldened them to continue
their terroristic tactics.
Now what can you say about the current
situation?
Surely the sides are aligned as the prophet
Ezekiel said they would be 2,500 years
ago.
Russia is allied with Iran and has provided
the technical know-how for them to develop
the atomic bomb.
The only missing link in the scenario in
Ezekiel is Turkey is also listed as one
of the aggressive aggressor nations against Israel and
Israel and Turkey have had friendly relationships and
mutual kinds of agreements but Turkey is listed
in Ezekiel as one of the nations that
will join with Iran and the other Muslim
nations supported by Russia who will attack Israel
in this final kind of a battle before
God really works by his spirit on the
nation of Israel once again.
But an interesting thing this past Monday this
last week Monday Turkey signed an agreement to
give one million dollars to the Palestinians to
help create their Palestinian state.
The donation came amid a push by Turkey
to use international pressure to end Israel's offensive
against the Gaza Strip.
Last Sunday, just a week ago, 20,000
Turks loudly backed the Turkish government's indignant protest
as they staged a massive anti-Israel demonstration
in Istanbul.
The tide seems to be turning and according
to the Bible it definitely will turn as
Turkey will join in the Muslim invasion of
Israel.
As the battle still rages today as the
Israelis are seeking to rid the southern portion
of Lebanon from the Hezbollah, the terrorists, we're
aware that if Israel really begins to thrash
the Hezbollah there is always that threat of
Syria and Iran becoming actively involved in supporting
and in backing up the Hezbollah because the
Hezbollah are actually frontline Iranian troops in their
battle against Israel.
And as soon as it begins to look
bad, if Israel does not enter into the
ceasefire then it is very possible that Iran
and Syria will join with the Hezbollah to
try to protect them from Israel.
And this could be what Ezekiel describes as
the hook in the jaw that will bring
Russia on into the conflict.
God said he's going to put a hook
in their jaw and he's going to draw
them in because Russia has signed a pact
with Iran and with Syria.
So what Ezekiel has described does seem that
it is at least either being fulfilled and
we're seeing the beginning of its fulfillment or
this is just another one of those times
when God is saying, wake up, this is
what's going to happen, this is where it's
going to happen, these are the nations that
will be involved.
And God will give us maybe a little
more time as they have opportunity to rearm
and get ready for the big major conflict.
As Jesus said, when you see these things
begin to come to pass just look up,
lift up your head for your redemption is
drawing nigh.
While these things are happening it would seem
that as far as the church is concerned,
like Jesus spoke in the parable of the
ten virgins, they were all slumbering and sleeping.
And it would seem that the church is
really asleep at the present time as far
as the severity of the things that are
taking place and we sort of have our
head in the sand.
The church it seems has been looking for
solutions to the problems of the world, trying
to feed the world and nurse the world
rather than bringing Jesus Christ to the world.
Our real mission is to share with the
world the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is
what changes societies.
Not just going in with all kinds of
aid and programs and so forth, that doesn't
change societies.
Societies are changed when the hearts of the
people are changed and wherever the gospel is
gone to take the truth of Jesus Christ
to people you find that there are changes
then in the whole society, the social order.
I hate to be a wet blanket but
my bible tells me that evil men and
seducers are going to get worse and worse
as they are deceived and are being deceived.
Jesus warned, because the iniquity shall abound, the
love of many will wax cold.
And Jesus questioned of whether or not he
would even find faith when he returned.
In Luke 21 Jesus said, take heed to
yourselves lest at any time your hearts are
overcharged with seeking pleasure or with drunkenness or
with the cares of this life and that
day catches you unprepared.
For as a snare shall it come on
all of them that dwell on the face
of the earth and of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, he said, pray always that
you may be accounted worthy to escape all
these things that shall come to pass and
that you might stand before the Son of
Man.
Before World War II there was a group
known as the Moral Rearmament and their theme
was, every day and in every way the
world is getting better and better and better.
My grandmother was a part of that Moral
Rearmament and she would sit there in the
chair and we would be sitting around her
because she could tell fabulous lies and uh
but they were exciting and she would say,
now Charles dear, every day and in every
way the world is getting better and better
and better.
Then Hitler came along and their theme exploded.
Well I'll tell you what, as I look
at the world, every day and in every
way the world is getting worse and worse
and worse and I don't think it's going
to get better until Jesus comes and establishes
the kingdom of God upon the earth and
we're not far off.
Things are winding up.
We're coming to the end of the age,
not the end of the world, but the
end of the age.
The Lord will be returning, I'm certain, very
soon.
The stage is set.
All of the participants seem to be in
place.
We're just waiting for the curtains to open
on the final scene of the age of
the Gentiles and then we look forward to
the glorious coming age of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Father, we thank you that as we look
at the world and the conditions today, a
world in which people are in fear of
what's coming to pass, men's hearts feeling them
for fear, that Lord, we don't need to
fear because we've got the road map, the
true road map to peace and it doesn't
include, Lord, the involvement of armies and man,
but Lord, your road map and how we
long for that day when your kingdom will
come.
That day when your will is done here
on earth, even as it is in heaven.
And Lord, help us that we will not
be sleeping, but that we will be awake,
Lord.
As Paul the
nearer than when we first believed.
Help us, Lord, to wake from our sleep.
Help us, Lord, to be watching even as
you told us there in Mark 13, Lord,
may we be watching and may we be
ready in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Shall we stand?
Amen.
The pastors are down here at the front
to minister to you today who maybe you
are not quite sure of where you stand
in your relationship with the Lord and, you
know, with the events that are taking place.
If Jesus should come for his church today,
where would you be tonight?
If he came this afternoon, raptured the church,
would you be with the church or would
you be left to face the hell that's
going to come upon earth once the church
is taken away?
If you're not sure, we would encourage you
to come on forward as we're dismissed and
let these men pray with you that you
might be a part of those that were
ready, it says, went in and that you
might be a part of those that are
ready watching for our Lord to come.
And so, as soon as we're dismissed, come
on down and get things right with God.
Be ready.
You don't know the day or the hour
he's coming for us.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive
our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.