Welcome to The Word for Today.
The Word for Today is a continuous study
of the Bible taught by Pastor Chuck Smith
of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old
Testament.
And for those of you following along in
your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah
chapter 13, beginning with verse 1, as we
continue with So
much of Bible prophecy has what we refer
to as a near and a far fulfillment.
Many of the prophecies had an immediate and
addressed immediate situations.
But in a secondary sense, they looked down
the road and there was a secondary prophetic
aspect to what was being said.
And in the prophecies of Isaiah, we find
so often this dual kind of fulfillment of
the prophecy.
That immediate and then that far fulfillment that
would take place.
In the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, we realize
that there was that which was the immediate
or that which was to be fulfilled in
His first coming, but also that which would
be fulfilled in His second coming.
And many times the prophecies as they were
given were not really divided.
So that issues of the first coming as
well as the second coming were just bunched
together.
The 61st chapter of Isaiah is an example
of that.
And Jesus, when He took the Scriptures in
Nazareth, when He began His public ministry, reading
the 61st chapter of Isaiah, stopped at the
portion of the prophecy that dealt with His
first coming.
He did not read on in the portion
that dealt with His second coming.
But stopping at the portion that dealt with
His first coming, He said, this day is
this Scripture fulfilled in your eyes.
And that first part was fulfilled in His
first coming.
That portion of the prophecy that will be
fulfilled at His second coming, He did not
read into that.
He left that because that would be fulfilled
at a future date.
And thus the prophets of the Old Testament
so often just wrote of immediate situations, but
there was a prophetic element that was to
be fulfilled in the yet distant future.
The prophets did not always discern.
In fact, the New Testament tells us that
they did not always understand the things that
they wrote about.
They sort of desired to understand them more
fully.
But writing through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they just wrote down as the Spirit
inspired them, not always understanding themselves the things
that they wrote.
Now, as we are dealing then tonight with
the prophecy of Babylon, we find in chapter
13, it opens with the burden of Babylon,
which Isaiah, the son of Amos, did see.
Now, with the prophecy of Babylon, there was
to be the near fulfillment, and we say
near fulfillment.
However, the prophecies of Babylon when they were
made by Isaiah at this point, Babylon was
not a real power in the world.
Babylon was not the major, it was a
power, but not the major power.
Assyria was the major power in the world
at the time of this writing.
Later on, Assyria was defeated by the Babylonians,
and Babylon became the major power, and Babylon
was the nation that conquered Judah, the southern
kingdom.
So at the time that he wrote this
prophecy, it was at the time of the
death of Ahaz, which puts it at around
726 BC.
This is the time at which the northern
kingdom Israel was falling to Assyria, and was
being carried away by the Assyrians.
However, he goes beyond Assyria, and some a
hundred years later, a hundred and fifty years
later, Babylon is to be destroyed.
So that near fulfillment would be the hundred
and fifty years later in the destruction of
Babylon, but with the dual aspect, the prophecy,
as we will see in its context, really
deals with the end times, and the time
of the great tribulation.
And so there is the dual fulfillment of
this prophecy concerning Babylon.
Lift up a banner upon the high mountain.
Exalt the voice unto them.
Shake the hand that they may go into
the gates of the nobles.
For I have commanded my sanctified ones.
I have also called my mighty ones for
my anger, even them that rejoice in my
highness.
And thus the noise of a multitude in
the mountains, like as of a great people,
a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations
gathered together, for the Lord of hosts is
mustering the host of the battle.
So when Babylon was destroyed, and we will
read prophetically that it was destroyed by the
Medes and the Persians, it was not
destroyed by a confederacy of nations from all
over the world.
So this prophecy that he is speaking here
concerning this destruction of Babylon was not fulfilled
in the overthrow of Babylon by the Medo
-Persian Empire.
But it becomes quite obvious that Isaiah is
talking about another destruction of Babylon, which would
be yet future, which would be accomplished by
an amalgamation of many nations, the host of
the kingdoms that God would gather together for
the purpose of destroying Babylon.
Now, it is important to note that the
ancient Babylon is the modern-day Iraq.
And what we see happening at this very
moment is that there is gathering together in
Saudi Arabia, a vast host from many different
nations, primarily from the United States.
And we are currently in the process of
sending 220,000 more troops into that area
in order that we might change our forces
from just a defensive force to one that
will be able to launch a military attack
against Iraq to force them to leave Kuwait.
And thus, this scripture accurately describes what is
going on at this very moment in Iraq.
As the nations, kingdoms plural, of nations plural,
are gathering together as the Lord of Hosts
is mustering the host of the battle.
Now, almost everyone is declaring that war in
the Gulf is inevitable.
Margaret Thatcher this week said that Hussein has
two options.
One, to peaceably withdraw his troops and thus
it would be the honorable option of pulling
out of Kuwait peaceably.
If he does not do that, then he
must face the fact that he will be
driven out militarily.
And thus, Baker and Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and
everyone is saying that Hussein cannot remain in
Kuwait.
Hussein says that he will not leave Kuwait
and that they will die rather than leave
Kuwait.
So we've come to an impasse.
And thus, the Lord is mustering the host
for battle.
And they come from a far country.
Now, that could not refer to the Medes
and the Persians because they were adjacent to
Babylon.
They come from a far country from the
end of heaven.
Now, in reality, if you were over there
in the time of Isaiah and you were
writing of troops coming from the United States
into the Gulf region to battle against Iraq
or Babylon, you would say they were coming
from the ends of heaven, the opposite side
of the earth.
From the end of heaven, even the Lord
and the weapons of his indignation.
The word indignation is a word that is
used in the Old Testament for the great
tribulation that God had said was going to
come upon the world in the last days.
The word indignation is used over and over
in the Old Testament.
You can reference that.
And it is used for the period of
the great tribulation to destroy the whole land.
And so how ye for the day of
the Lord is at hand.
Now, the day of the Lord is a
phrase that is constantly used through the scriptures
to describe the day his wrath, the day
of his vengeance, and the day of the
great tribulation.
Now, in the prophecy that God gave to
Daniel, he said that there were 77 that
were determined upon the nation of Israel and
upon the holy city.
And he describes the events that will take
place in that 77 year period or 77
years period or 490 years.
And he said that from the time that
the commandment would go forth to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem, which had been taken, the Jews
had been taken to Babylon in captivity, and
Daniel was writing in Babylon.
From the time the commandment would go forth
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming
of the Messiah, the Prince, would be 69
sevens or 483 years.
And from the time that the commandment was
given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes
to Nehemiah 445 BC, it was 483 years
later that Jesus came, the Messiah, the Prince.
But Daniel predicted that the Prince would be
cut off and that the Jews would be
dispersed.
Jesus we know was crucified.
He did not receive the kingdom and the
Jewish nation was dispersed.
Now that leaves one seven-year period that
is yet to be fulfilled.
That seven-year period is yet future.
It will be a time when God will
be dealing again with Israel and with Jerusalem
and the people, the Jews.
And during this final seven-year period, it
will end, the last three and a half
years of it will be the great day
of the Lord, the day of God's judgment,
and the day of God's wrath that will
be poured out upon the earth.
Daniel says there shall be a time of
trouble such as the world has never seen
before.
Jesus said it will be a time of
great tribulation, greater than the earth has ever
seen at any time or will ever see
again.
In the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter
6 and going through chapter 18, there are
great details given to you of the events
that will be taking place in that three
and a half year period of time.
The day of the Lord, the day of
his indignation, the day of his wrath, and
the time known as the great tribulation.
It will be a period of three and
a half years, but it begins in the
middle of the 77 of Daniel.
And it is all activated by the Antichrist
going to the temple of God that has
been rebuilt in Jerusalem and profaning it as
he stands in the Holy of Holies and
stops the daily worship and sacrifices and proclaims
that he is God and demands to be
worshiped as God.
And this will be the final sacrilege, sort
of the straw that breaks the camel's back,
so to speak.
This will be the final sacrilege of man
that will bring the wrath and the indignation
of God upon the earth.
So this destruction of Babylon is tied together
with the nearness of the day of the
Lord.
How ye for the day of the Lord
is at hand, when at the time that
Babylon or Iraq is destroyed by this army
that has been mustered from all over the
world.
Therefore shall all hands be faint and every
man's heart will melt.
This is talking about the great tribulation period.
And Jesus speaking of it said, men's hearts
will be failing them for fear of the
things that are coming upon the earth.
And thus, as Isaiah said, every man's heart
shall melt, corroborated by Jesus in Matthew 24
as he spoke of the tribulation period.
And they shall be afraid for fear of
things that are coming upon them.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them
and they will be in pain as a
woman that is in travail.
And they shall be amazed at one another
and their faces shall be as flames or
as on fire.
So behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
that is the great tribulation.
It will be cruel with wrath.
In the midst of this time, they will
cry for the rocks in the mountains to
fall on them and to hide them from
the face of the lamb for they declare
the day of his wrath has come and
who shall be able to stand.
A day that is cruel both with wrath
and fierce anger to lay the land desolate.
He will destroy the sinners thereof out of
it.
Now some of the events of the great
tribulation will be cataclysmic, cosmic kind of events.
For he tells us that the stars of
heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light.
The sun shall be darkened in his going
forth and the moon shall not cause her
light to shine.
So great cataclysmic events taking place in the
cosmos.
And the Lord said, I will punish the
world for their evil and the wicked for
their iniquity and I will cause the arrogancy
of the proud to cease and I will
lay low the haughtiness of the awesome.
So the day of God's wrath, the day
of God's judgment against whom?
The evil in the world, a punishment for
them and the wicked being punished for their
iniquity.
This is one of the many reasons why
I believe that the church will not be
here when this event takes place.
That is the pouring out of God's wrath,
indignation, and judgment upon the earth.
Because our iniquities have been forgiven.
Jesus took the punishment for your sin.
And this seven-year period will be the
time in which God's spirit will be poured
out upon the people of Israel, the Jews.
And God will be dealing with them once
again, which precludes the church being here.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit among the
Gentiles in gathering out a bride for Jesus
Christ will have been completed.
And thus the church will have been removed.
And once the church is removed, it opens
the door for the revelation of the Antichrist,
who comes on the scene at the beginning
of this last seven-year cycle, when God
begins to work among the Jews once again.
Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few
closing comments.
But first, I'd like to remind you that
today's message is available in its unedited form
on cassette or CD.
Simply write or call and ask for ordering
details on tape or CD number C-3248.
Again, that's tape or CD number C-3248.
As we come to a close in today's
program, we'd like to introduce a brand new
book written by Pastor Chuck Smith, entitled Six
Vital Questions of Life.
Once again, Pastor Chuck has helped us to
understand the scriptures with the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
In his new book, Pastor Chuck considers six
life-changing questions asked by the Apostle Paul
in the book of Romans, and then expounds
upon the biblical answers that can revolutionize your
Christian walk with God.
After discovering this revelation, the change was so
profound in Pastor Chuck's own life, he says
it was almost like a second conversion, putting
him in the winner's circle.
So if you have any questions concerning your
relationship with God, the book Six Vital Questions
of Life by Pastor Chuck will reassure and
reinforce God's special plan and purpose for your
life.
To order Pastor Chuck's new book, Six Vital
Questions of Life, for yourself or for a
friend, you can call the word for today
at 1-800-272-WORD or write to
us at P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa,
California 92628.
Once again, that number to call is 1
-800-272-9673.
And for those of you that would like
to visit our website, you can do so
at www.twft.com.
Or if you'd like to email us, you
can do so at info at twft.com.
Well coming up next time on the word
for today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his
fascinating study through the book of Isaiah.
That's coming up next time on the word
for today.
And now with a few closing comments, here's
Pastor Chuck.
Again, our Father, we thank you for the
plan that you have announced, your purposes that
you intend to fulfill.
And Lord, we realize that if this indeed
is so, then the day of the Lord
is at hand.
The day of your great judgment upon the
earth, upon the wicked and the evil.
And so Lord, we realize that it is
the day in which we should lay aside
every weight and sin which so easily besets
us.
That we might run with patience this race
that you have set before us as we
look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith.
And so help us, Lord, to live all
out for you in these final days.
We thank you, Lord, that we're children of
the light.
Help us to walk as children of the
light in a way that brings glory and
praise unto you.
In Jesus' name.
This program
is sponsored by the word for today.
The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa,
California.