Some of our commentators, referring to the fact
that we should be standing, or conquering, as
one commentator put it, in the very brink
of Armageddon, pointed through our reading of the
scriptures with this great line of prophetic truth,
that we realize that Armageddon represents an unprecedented
holocaust that shall break upon the world to
give this world its greatest bloodbath that the
world has ever seen.
And every time we hear the rattling of
swords and the rustling of sabers, we begin
to wonder if this presages for us and
heralds the coming of this great battle of
Armageddon.
It is our purpose to have you think
with us for the time of our study
this evening on the subject of Armageddon.
Who, when, and where?
We are seeking to present a line of
prophetic truth soberly and sanely, without trying to
be spectacular, yet to acquaint you with that
which the Word of God reveals as the
culmination of God's program for the nations during
the tribulation period.
We recognize that when God chose the nation
Israel back at the time of Abraham as
a repository for divine truth, and the instrument
through which God would make Himself known to
the nations of the earth, that nation, by
virtue of its choice by God, became the
particular subject of satanic attack.
And the history of Israel in the Old
Testament is the history of Satan's purpose and
program to try to wipe out his chosen
people because of the use to which God
would put them, because of the great destiny
which God has ordained for them in the
day when Jesus Christ shall reign on the
earth.
When we come down to the time of
Christ, we find this nation oppressed by the
cruel oppressor, the Roman Empire.
Their rights of self-government and self-determination
nationally have been abrogated, and they are subjected
to the iron fists of Rome.
And yet, Jesus Christ came to reaffirm and
reiterate his promises, the promises of God to
the nation Israel, that God would raise up
to them a king, and that that king
should bring them deliverance from sin and should
bring them into the millennial kingdom.
But the nation of the Jews rejected Jesus
Christ as their Messiah, and when they were
confronted with a choice between Jesus and the
Roman Emperor, they said, away with this man,
we will have no king but Jesus.
God announced through the son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that desolation was determined upon Jerusalem and
upon the Jewish nation, because they had rejected
the Son of God who had come to
redeem and erase.
As we turn to the prophetic scriptures, we
find that the plight of the nation Israel
must become increasingly more serious.
They must suffer a great deal more before
the comes when the Son of God will
redeem them, bring them into their land as
a free and a redeemed people, and institute
God's governing reign over them.
And we find it during the tribulation period
which, if you have been studying with us,
you will instantly recognize as that seven-year
period on this earth, following the translation or
the rapture of the church out of this
earth's into the heavenly to be with Christ.
During that tribulation period, Satan is going to
let loose upon this earth a time of
unprecedented persecution, and the prophet John, in the
book of the Revelation and chapter 12, writes
of the inception of this satanic movement that
has as its purpose the obliteration of every
Jew from the face of the earth.
And I am reading in Revelation chapter 12
and verse 13, when the dragon, that is
Satan, saw that he was cast unto the
earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth
the man-child, that is the nation Israel.
To the woman Israel were given two wings
as a great eagle that she might fly
into the wilderness, into her place where she
is nourished for a time and times and
half a time, that is for three and
a half years, from the face of the
serpent.
And so, thus far in our reading, we
find that in the middle of that seven
-year tribulation period, or three and a half
years before the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to come back to this earth, there is
going to come a movement of unprecedented fierceness
and wrath that will try to exterminate every
Jew that is living at that time.
We read in verse 15, the serpent, that
is Satan, cast out of his mouth waters
of flood after the woman, that is Israel,
that he might cause her to be carried
away of the flood.
And the earth, or the nation, or the
Gentiles as it is normally translated, helped the
woman, and the earth opened her mouth and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast
out of his mouth.
And the dragon was wroth with the woman,
for Satan now has openly declared war against
the nation Israel, and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed which keep
the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
And turning again into Revelation chapter 16, and
verse 13, we have something of this movement
again.
As John writes in 1613, I saw three
unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon.
Frogs are referred to here as dwellers in
the deep, or in the mire, and here
is that which comes out of the pit
itself as the expression of the purpose and
the plan of Satan.
And we find that coming from Satan, Satan
works through the mouth of the beast and
the mouth of the false prophet.
We have identified these in our previous studies.
The beast, the head of the Roman Empire,
the political power, and the false prophet, the
head of the great world religious system.
And these two, together with Satan, form a
trinity from the pit.
We read in verse 14, they are the
spirits of demons working miracles which go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of
the whole world to gather them to the
battle of that great day of God Almighty.
And here we find now the plan of
Satan being put into operation.
He has as his purpose to exterminate every
Jew, for you will remember that the Lord
Jesus Christ is coming to reign on this
earth over the seed of Abraham, the seed
of David.
If Jesus Christ reigns, it is evident that
Satan is no longer a world ruler.
Satan's purpose is this, and Satan's plan is
this.
If I can wipe out every Jew, there
will be no kingdom over which Jesus Christ
can reign, and if he has no Jewish
nation over which he can reign, I can
continue as the world ruler.
And so, to defeat God's avowed purpose of
setting his son Jesus Christ on the throne
of this earth to reign, Satan says, I
will wipe out the people of the throne,
and then there can be no earthly kingdom.
So, Satan's purpose is, I will move nations
against Palestine, and I will bring organized military
powers against the people of Israel to exterminate
them through invasion and a counter-invasion with
the result that every Jew will be wiped
out.
And so, through the beast and the false
prophet, he goes forth to the kings of
the earth and the whole world to gather
them to the battle of that great day
of God Almighty, and verse 16, he gathered
them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.
And here we find a movement that is
so great that it almost staggers and overwhelms
the imagination.
It is called in verse 14, the battle
of that great day of God Almighty that
will take place at Armageddon.
Now, in your English text, the word is
translated, the battle of that day.
Now, this is not the normal Greek word
which is translated, battle.
A battle is one isolated meeting of two
armies.
This is a different Greek word, and it
is the Greek word which means a campaign,
a number, a successive number of individual battles.
And so, what we read up here is
the campaign of that great day of God
Almighty which takes place at Armageddon.
This is our purpose, briefly this evening, to
try to acquaint you something with the movement
of armies in this campaign called the campaign
of that great day of God Almighty.
Now, if you turn back into the prophecy
of Ezekiel, we read there in Ezekiel chapter
38, the interesting word in verse 9 that
says, Thou shalt ascend and come like a
storm, and thou shalt be a cloud to
cover the land.
Now, I want you to emphasize that phrase,
to cover the land, for this campaign of
Armageddon is a campaign that, before it is
finished, is completely going to sweep over the
whole land of Palestine.
And Ezekiel, 38 times, emphasizes the fact of
the extent of this campaign.
We saw it in Revelation chapter 16 and
verse 16 that it will begin at Armageddon.
Now, Armageddon is translated, or is the Hebrew
word which means the mountain of Megiddo.
The mountain of Megiddo lies between Mount Carmel
and the city of Nazareth, to the northern
part of Palestine.
Here is a great open prairie or plain
that, when Napoleon stood there and looked over
that plain, he said this is the world's
greatest natural battlefield.
He said there is sufficient room here for
the armies of the world to manipulate.
This great extended plain stretches then from the
Mediterranean Sea eastward across the northern part of
Palestine, and when it says that this invasion
is going to envelop Armageddon, it brings before
us this geography of the northern part of
Palestine.
But then, if you will turn to the
prophecy of Joel, chapter 3, we find something
more concerning the geography of this battle.
You're using the Hebrew Bible.
That's on page 933.
Joel isn't very big, but the numbers work.
933.
We read in Joel chapter 3 and verse
2, "...I will also gather all nations, and
will bring them down into the valley of
Jehoshaphat."
Then, dropping down to verse 9, "...proclaim ye
this among the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up
the mighty men, let all the men of
war draw near, let them come up, beat
your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks
into spears.
Let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and
gather yourselves together round about.
Fither cause thy mighty ones to come down,
O Lord.
Let the heathen be awakened, or let the
Gentiles be awakened, and come up to the
valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit
to judge all the Gentiles round about.
Put ye in the sickle for the harvest
is ripe.
Come, get you down for the Passover flow,
for their wickedness is great."
Here is a description of the event for
Gentiles leading up to the return of the
Lord, and this time it is referred to
in verse 2 and verse 12 as the
valley of Jehoshaphat.
Now, the valley of Jehoshaphat was that portion
of Palestine that went from Jerusalem over to
the east, beyond the Jordan, and then northward.
It was the trade route from Jerusalem up
to Assyria on the north, and so here
is the second part of the land of
Palestine that is going to be crossed and
recrossed by these marching armies.
Ezdralon, or Armageddon at the north, and the
valley of Jehoshaphat at the east.
Now, will you turn back to the prophet
Isaiah, and in Isaiah, in chapter 34, we
have another word concerning this same campaign.
Page 742, Isaiah 34, verse 1.
Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken
ye people, let the earth hear and all
that is therein, the world and all things
that come forth of it.
For the indignation of the Lord is upon
all nations, and his fury upon all their
arms.
He hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered
them to their slaughter.
Their spleen also shall be cast out, and
their sin shall come up out of their
carcasses.
And then drop down, will you do, verse
6.
The sword of the Lord is filled with
blood, it is made packed with fatness, and
with the blood of lambs and goats, with
the packs of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Phodra,
and a great slaughter in the land of
Edomia.
And again, in Isaiah, in chapter 63, we
have, in verse 1, who is this that
cometh from Edom with thy garments from Phodra?
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and
thy garments like him that treadeth in the
wine-vast?
Putting these passages together, we find another area
that is to be included in this campaign
of Armageddon, and it is the land of
Edom.
And Edom is that state which at present
lies south and east from Jerusalem and from
the Dead Sea.
And when you put these together, or first
let us look at Zechariah chapter 2, and
in Zechariah chapter 12, I want to say,
and verse 2.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of
trembling unto all the people round about, when
they shall be in the sea, both against
Judah and against Jerusalem.
And again, in chapter 14 of Zechariah, and
verse 2, I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle, and then a description of
the destruction of Jerusalem.
So, when you put all these together, we
find that this campaign of Armageddon literally covers
the whole land, even as Ezekiel 38 9
says that it begins with a plain of
Megiddo to the north, goes down through the
valley of Jehoshaphat, includes the land of Edom
to the south and the east, and of
course has its center in Judea and in
Jerusalem, the central part of the land of
Palestine.
Then, it is interesting to turn again back
to the book of the revelations in chapter
14, and notice the description of this same
campaign that is given in verse 15 and
following.
Revelation 14 15, Another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to
him that sat in the cloud, thrust in
thy sickle and reaped.
For the time has come for thee to
reap, for the harvest of the earth is
ripe.
And then, verse 19, the angel thrust in
his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into
the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden without the city,
and the blood came out of the winepress,
even under the horses' bridles, by the pace
of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Now, sixteen hundred furlongs is approximately two hundred
miles, and if you will examine a map
of the Maccabear Bible, you will find that
from the northern part of Palestine to the
southern part of Palestine is approximately two hundred
miles.
And that which John is doing in Revelation
14 20, is to gather together all of
these scriptures to which we have just looked,
and has shown us that the land of
Palestine is to be given a flood bath
of unprecedented proportions from Armageddon at the north
that will flow down through the valley of
Jehoshaphat, will cover the land of Edom where
Esau settles, and will wash over the city
of Jerusalem and Judea itself.
John looks at this scene of carnage, and
he describes it as blood flowing to the
depth of the horses' bridles.
It is beyond human description and imagination to
see a race, the vast line that has
been drained from the veins of those who
follow the purpose of prayer and plan of
faith is to try to exterminate the chosen
people to prevent Jesus Christ from coming in
order that he might reign.
Now, another interesting question with which we want
to deal after we have discussed where does
Armageddon take place, is to deal with the
question of who will be in this great
campaign?
What are the movements of army, and what
will be the course of this campaign of
Armageddon?
We have to go back in our thinking
to the beginning of the tribulation period.
You'll remember, if you have been with us
from week to week in this study, that
in the ninth chapter of the prophecy of
Daniel, we have read of a covenant that
the head of the United States of Europe
is going to make with the Jews.
After the church has been translated into the
presence of our Lord, these international diplomats are
going to realize that the crucial question in
world politics is the question of the Arab
-Israeli dispute, and no man can long stay
in power who does not give some settlement
to this Arab-Israeli dispute.
The nations of Europe are going to federate
together because of their fear of the King
of the North, that is, the power of
Russia, and when these nations join together in
this confederacy, the leader of that United States
of Europe is going to publish an edict
in which he gives the land of Palestine
to the Jews for their homeland, and he
pledges all of the power of the federated
states of Europe to protect the integrity of
the nation Israel.
This covenant is described for us in Daniel
chapter 9 and verse 27.
We find the same thing discussed in Revelation
chapter 6 and verse 2, where a rider
on a white horse goes forth to conquer,
and he brings the world into subjection to
himself, not by waging a great campaign, but
he brings the world into subjection by offering
the world a false peace, and the land
of Palestine will accept this head of the
federated states of Europe as their god, as
their messiah, is the one who fulfills with
them the Abrahamic covenant to give them their
land.
This means, then, that there is an alliance
formed between Palestine and the King of the
West, or the head of the federated states
of Europe.
Now, you will remember there is another great
political power that we have studied previously that
is called, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the
King of the North.
That is, the Russian Confederacy, which, in our
study of those passages, we saw would include
the Arab states of the Middle East.
There is a third great world power at
that time.
That is what is called, in Daniel 11,
the King of the South.
The King of the South, in the Old
Testament, referred to Egypt, and we shall identify
it in our study this evening.
There was a fourth great coalition of nations
referred to in Revelation chapter 16 and verse
12 as the Kings of the East.
Now, in order to try to get these
movements of nations, I want to try to
outline it a little bit on the board.
I'm sorry that there are some of you
who will not be able to see the
board.
You will have to put on your special
glasses and try to think with me.
Some of you tucked away in the corners
may miss this, but you can see it
afterwards.
I tried to get an artist who is
in our midst to draw a map of
the Mediterranean area.
I couldn't find him before service, so I
went ahead and did it myself.
I asked three or four people to do
it, and they wouldn't do it.
When I got it done, they all wanted
to find it.
I think I did a pretty good job,
don't you?
We're going to number these powers so that
we can try to get them identified.
If you can make this out, we are
here in the Mediterranean Sea, right over here,
where I'm going to put an X, we
have the city of Jerusalem, which is the
center of this whole movement.
Now, for convenience's sake, I'm going to call
the land of Egypt power number one.
I'm going to call Russia power number two.
I'm going to call the European Confederacy, that
has its headquarters over here in Italy, power
number three.
And then, there is a power of the
east off here beyond the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers that I am going to call power
number four.
Now then, if you will turn in your
Bible to Daniel chapter 11, we have this
campaign of Armageddon outlined for us.
We will go through this to try to
trace some of the movements of nations as
we find it here, and then in some
of the other passages.
Now, beginning in Daniel 11 36, we have
a word concerning power number three, or the
Federated States of Europe, and we read in
Daniel 11 36, the king, that is the
king of the Roman Empire, or the head
of the Federated States of Europe, shall do
according to his will.
He doesn't recognize any power other than himself,
and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself
above every god, and shall speak marvelous things
against the god of gods, and shall prosper
till the indignation be passed.
The indignation is what we call the tribulation
period.
Here is an individual whose end has been
determined, and he has three and a half
years yet to to operate from the time
that the events of verse 36 begin to
unfold.
We read in verse 37, he shall not
regard the godly fathers, nor the desire of
women, nor any god, for he shall magnify
himself above all.
In his estate he shall honor the god
of might.
The only god that he recognizes is the
god of war.
The only power to which he bows is
the might and power that there is in
this European Confederation of Nations.
This is the individual, number three, the head
of the Federated States of Europe, who has
entered into the agreement with Jerusalem, and with
all the worldwide Jewry, to protect their interests
and to guarantee their right to the land
of Palestine.
The hearing is off here in Europe, and
the people of the Jews are there in
Palestine.
They have been in the land for several
years now.
They are congratulating themselves that they have entered
into rest and into security, and the reason
that the Jews are willing to worship a
Gentile and accept the Gentile as their messiah
is that their eyes are darkened to the
truth of the word of God, that God's
messiah is the son of David, and when
one comes to give them their land and
to cause their warfare to cease, they're going
to say, what need have we of anyone
else?
This one is good enough for us, but
it isn't good enough for God.
So, we find now, dropping down to verse
40, the beginning of this campaign of Armageddon,
and it says, at the time of the
end.
Now, that phrase, the time of the end,
is significant, because it means the end of
God's program for the Jews.
The end of the time before messiah comes
to set up his kingdom.
What that phrase means is that God is
now getting ready to wind this whole program
up.
So, God says, all right, let things begin
to roll, and go on to their conclusion
so that there can be judgment.
At the time of the end, the king
of the south shall push at him.
Now, notice, the king of the south is
Egypt.
That nation where Israel was in bondage for
more than 400 years, so that they always
referred to Egypt as the power to the
south, they were sort of in the position
of Yankees looking down on those southerners.
But, we find the king of the south
is going to push at Palestine.
And, it is significant to me that Daniel,
writing more than 500 years before the birth
of Christ, told that the final conflict in
the world history was going to begin when
what was then, and what has since, been
the world's most backward degenerated nation would be
the very nation that was set apart to
the cinder box and start off the campaign
of Armageddon.
If I stood up here 10 years ago,
or five years ago, and preached this, which
I would have done just as strongly as
I've done now, there's some of you who
would have said, you're crazy.
Egypt is too little, and backward, and insignificant
to start anything.
But, we have seen what has happened within
our own days, as Nasser has brought that
nation Egypt to a place of domination in
the affairs of Egypt, and governments of the
world are scared to death as to what
that egotistical man may set out to do,
and the conflagrations which he, in his foolhardiness,
may set off at any time.
But, Daniel the prophet, by inspiration of Scripture,
told us that the campaign of Armageddon would
begin when the king of the south, or
Egypt, would begin to push at Jerusalem, who
is in alliance with the federated states of
Europe.
Then notice something else in verse 40, "...and
the king of the north shall come against
him like a whirlwind."
So, here is power number two, and power
number two and power number one meet at
Jerusalem and completely destroy the city of Jerusalem.
Evidently, what has happened is that Russia, power
number two, has been sitting up there and
wants to get something started.
So, they begin to whisper to the head
of power number one, and have said, you
have a right to the land that those
Jews occupy.
Why, look at them.
They're there in the closet strip, and that
really belongs to you.
Now then, I don't have any pretext for
going down there, but you have a good
reason, and if you will march against the
Jews, we will then reach down from the
north, and we will join you in the
destruction of Jerusalem, and we, in our alliance,
will be able to stand off the whole
world.
And so, we read it in verse 40,
"...at the time of the end the king
of the south shall push it in, and
the king of the north shall come against
him with a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen
and many ships, and he shall enter into
the country and overflow and pass over."
And so, this coalition is going to destroy
the city of Jerusalem.
That is why, in Revelation chapter 14, we
read it a few moments ago, the Jews
have to flee out of Palestine and seek
refuge among the nations of the earth because
of the things that Satan purposes to do
to destroy them by bringing the Egyptian-Russian
alliance, or, if I may use the term,
Russia and the Arab states against the Jews
in Palestine.
Now, before we look further, here in Daniel
11, I want to refer you to what
we saw in our study in Ezekiel 38
and 39, that after these join in this
alliance and have destroyed Jerusalem, they are going
to turn around and they are going back
to the flame of Megiddo, or Armageddon, or
the flame of Ezra.
And, if you will read Ezekiel 38 and
particularly 39, and I can't take the time
to go into all that this evening, but
there you will read that God, as he
has that alliance gathered together in the flame
of Megiddo, is going to pour out fire
upon the Egyptians, a Russian alliance upon the
communist federation, and is going to wipe them
out as he wipes out the wicked and
niquitous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining
fire and prison stone upon them.
And so, if you will trace this movement
of power number one coming to Jerusalem, power
number two joining them in the destruction of
Jerusalem, and then retreating to the flame of
Armageddon where they are wiped out.
Now, that leaves power number three.
As the great world powers, the Russian communist
bloc has been obliterated, I believe, three and
a half years before the Lord Jesus returns.
And so, the head of the Federated States
of Europe begins to move, and I take
it in verse 41, he shall enter also
into the glorious land.
Now, I understand the he of verse 41,
so back to verse 36.
If it had been this Russian-Egyptian alliance,
I believe it would have said they in
verse 41, but it says he.
And so, now we are taking up this
willful king.
This willful king shall enter into the glorious
land.
And so, here is the movement in which
power number three comes across the Mediterranean and
moves into the land of Palestine, and it
tells us that he shall escape out of
his hands, Edom and Moab.
Verse 42, he shall stretch forth his hands
also upon the country, and the land of
Egypt shall not escape.
Now, this one is coming into Palestine, comes
and marches down to capture the land of
Egypt, and then goes back to Jerusalem it
found.
Did you get that?
Verse 41, he enters into the glorious land.
Verse 42, he stretches his hand upon the
country, and the land of Egypt shall not
escape.
He shall have power over the treasures of
gold and silver, and over all the precious
things of Egypt.
The Libyans and Ethiopians shall be at his
beck.
He has conquered that whole area that was
occupied by the Arab faith.
But, then it tells us in verse 44,
hiding out of the east and out of
the north shall trouble him.
Now, here we have number four being brought
into the campaign, and keep your finger in
Daniel 11 because we'll be back to it
in just a moment.
But, turn with me to Revelation chapter 16
and verse 12.
Revelation 16, 12.
The sixth angel poured out his vial upon
the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof
was dried up, that the way of the
kings of the east might be prepared.
Now, here is an alliance of nations that
are not identified, that is not identified for
us except that they come from the east,
beyond the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
If I may censure a suggestion, I believe
that this is a coalition of the Asiatic
nations who, watched as the federated states of
Europe spread its dominion and its power over
all the earth, and it moved into the
vacuum left by the destruction of Russia, and
the federation of the Asiatic peoples say, we
are not going to be dominated by this
European confederacy, and God permits that mighty army
to move, and it begins to move out
of the east into the land of Palestine.
Had we more time, we could show you
in the book of the revelations that this
army of Asiatic peoples, or this eastern confederacy,
when it marches toward Palestine, is going to
be two hundred million men strong.
Now, it is no wonder in Daniel 11,
44, that tidings out of the east and
the north troubling.
Now, if you were a commander, if you
were a commander of military forces in Palestine,
and didn't think that there was an enemy
around, and you were all the way across
the Mediterranean from your supply bases, and you
heard that 200 million people were beginning to
march down towards you, you probably would get
scared too.
And so, it tells us that he goes
forth with great fury to destroy and utterly
make away many, and he shall plant the
tabernacle of his palace between the seas and
the glory of holy mountains.
The glory of holy mountains is the influence
of them.
Between the seas is evidently the Dead Sea
that we have down here in the Mediterranean
Sea, and so this head of the Federated
States of Europe decides that he is going
to meet this 200 million marching army by
setting himself up in the mountains of Judea
where there will be some natural defenses.
Now again, we find Jerusalem being destroyed by
this great invading army that sent its headquarters
there in the region of Jerusalem, and Palestine
is once again ready for another in the
depths of the bloodbath.
But, to get the confirmation of this, will
you turn with me please to the book
of the Revelation, this time chapter 19.
Now, may I summarize a bit far that
Palestine has been, at the beginning of the
tribulation period, in quietness and tranquility because there
is trusting the head of the Federated States
of Europe.
Suddenly, they are invaded by the Egyptian power
from the south, and that power is joined
by the Russian power from the north, and
Palestine is bathed in blood, and the Jews
that survive have to escape.
They watch from a distance as this European
confederacy sets its headquarters up there in Palestine,
and occupies the land of Palestine once again,
and they wait for something to happen, and
there comes this marching army from the east
that goes chasing across the land of Palestine.
But now, in Revelation 19 verse 11, we
have another invasion of Palestine.
This time, not an invasion from the north
or the south or the east or the
west, but this is an invasion from outer
space, if you please.
This is the invasion of heaven and hell.
As we read in verse 11, I saw
heaven open, behold a white horse, and he
that sat upon him was called Faithful and
True, and in righteousness he doth judge and
make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and
he had a name written that no man
knew himself.
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in
blood, and his name was called the Word
of God.
The army, that is the saints that were
in heaven, followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white in paint, and out
of his mouth doth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations, that
he should rule them with a rod of
iron, and he treaded the winepress of the
wrath of almighty God, and have on his
vesture and on his thigh a name written,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And suddenly, as the western confederacy of the
federated states of Europe is ready to engage
in mortal combat with the invading Asiatic force,
there suddenly appears the sign of the coming
of the Son of Man in heaven, and
the strangest thing happens.
These warring nations suddenly forget their animosity for
each other because of a common animosity against
God and God's purpose, and we read in
verse 19 of that same chapter, I saw
the beasts and the kings of the earth
and their armies gathered together to make war
against him that sat on the horse and
against his army.
And here, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes
from heaven, he comes to meet the mass
forces of 200 million Asiatics, plus unnumbered millions
in the armies of the federated states of
Europe, and yet, by the word of his
mouth, he destroyed and slayed those multiplied millions
that gathered together and shook their fists in
the face of God and said to God,
we forbid you to send your son Jesus
Christ back to the earth to reign, as
though Satan, by amassing all humanity together, could
prevent the purpose of God from coming to
its culmination.
And we read in verse 20, the beast
was taken, and within the false prophets arose
miracles before him with which he deceived them
that had received the they were cast alive
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Now, this portion of the word of God,
to which we have rapidly looked this evening,
has given us something of an outline of
the events which will come to their culmination
after the Lord Jesus Christ has taken believers
to be within sound.
As we, in these days, read our newspapers
and news magazines, and follow the newspapers to
see developments in this international crisis, it certainly
is not such in the imagination to say
that the nations of the earth are so
aligned this very night that this very series
of campaigns could begin.
It does not take realignment of nations.
It does not take great changes in world
politics.
The stage is so set, beloved of God,
that these events could unfold at any time
God gave the signal, and took his hand
off to let these things unroll to their
God-ordained destiny.
I clearly believe that you and I are
living in most precarious days as far as
nations of the earth are concerned, but we
are living in the most glorious days as
far as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
is concerned.
For we have been given this, and this
scripture has been recorded so that we who
live in the last days should be able
to understand the purpose of God, that our
hearts should not give way to fear as
to what a man may do, but we
can live in conscious expectation that before these
events begin to unfold, you and I will
have been translated into his glory, and we
shall look upon the one who loved us,
who gave himself for our redemption, whose eyes
said we might have eternal life.
If you would agree with me in our
study of the scriptures this evening that God
has the same sense, and that these events
could unfold at any time, it makes our
question to you of utmost importance when we
ask what is your personal relationship with Jesus
Christ.
If you do not know him as Savior,
should these events begin to unfold, you would
be swept into this maelstrom from which there
is no extrication, and instead of seeing him
as the conquering king, you would see him
as the judge who would have to depart
from you if it were everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels.
It is not a question of whether you
will meet Jesus Christ or not, it is
only a question as to whether you see
him as Savior or you meet him as
judge.
God has taken us into his confidence concerning
these events that our hearts should be gripped
and controlled by a confident hope, yet there
can be no hope unless you know Jesus
Christ personally, and it would be a privilege
to talk with you when our service is
concluded this evening if we can make the
way of salvation more clear to you, but
we offer you a Savior who is sufficient,
who can remove every sin and translate you
into his presence when God purposes to let
his wrath fall upon this earth.
Our Father in God, we do rejoice in
the all-sufficiency of our Savior.
We thank thee that day shall come when
he hath king of kings, and Lord of
lords will subject all things to his power.
We thank thee that we who know Jesus
Christ shall reign with him when he reigns
in glory upon this transformed earth.
We do pray that if there is one
here who has not accepted Jesus Christ as
a personal Savior, this one tonight for a
simple faith might ask Christ to be Savior
from King.
This is us with the richness of thy
blessing, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.