ALMIGHTY God, IRAN & CURRENT Events

now let's go to zekiel 36 and that's really where we were headed tonight and where we'll spend the next few minutes but I want you to see one of the most amazing little stretches of the scripture in fact one of the more hard to understand parts especially is Eco 4248 the temple and all that but the question was what is Ezekiel 36 through 39 describing and actually what they wanted was the chapter 38 and 39 but since they asked about 36 I thought we'd get a running start and what they wanted to know is who are the biblically described players in this event and are Russia and Iran part of them and I wanted to show you how how to meet the accusation people accuse us as believers of reading things into the Bible so I want to show you how you arrived at the geographic and geopolitical players of Ezekiel 38 and 39 but but first of all let's go to chapter 36 if I can go to 36 connection lost Oh their connection unlost good number one it starts with God's promise to restore Israel as a nation look at Ezekiel 36 verses 22 through 24 now this this is God explaining his intentions and this is what he says therefore say to the house of Israel verse 22 thus says the Lord God I do not do this for your sake o house of Israel but for my holy name's sake you see Israel right now is an unwilling partner in this enterprise God says I am NOT protecting I'm not protecting Israel from the whole world against them for Israel's sake I'm doing it from I see see that's what's shaping up in our world there is an entire group of people 1.2 billion of them who at the core of their belief system believe in the the the inferiority the the destruction of and the the resist in every way the Jewish people and that's Islam Islam is focused from its core against Israel and God said I am going to protect Israel not for Israel's sake they are by nature quite proud people they are by nature you know sometimes mistreating people around them because they've been mistreated so much God is not vouching for the righteousness of the nation of Israel when God does his equal 38 and 39 he's not doing it because they are the most good Samaritan you know helpers of the poor in the world he's doing it I don't do this for your sake so house of Israel but for my holy namesake you see when God makes an eternal covenant when he sovereignly elects he doesn't unlike in God sovereignly elected Israel that's the the literal lineage of Abraham not the spiritual descendants of Abraham that's us we are not Israel Israel is Israel and God has a very clear plan for them which you have profaned among the heathen whether you went see the Jews have profaned the name of God among the heathen they are God's chosen people who promise and they denied their king when he came Jesus Christ himself so and I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen which you have profaned in the midst of them and he then shall and this is one of the most repeated in fact it is the most repeated statement in the book of Ezequiel shall know that i am the lord shall know that i am the lord shall know that i am the lord the whole purpose of what God is doing with Israel is to show the world that he's the Lord and really if you want to know what the the conflict is if you remember on Mount Carmel it was is bail the Lord or is it was a conflict between Bale or Jehovah Yahweh and now and you know that's Elijah and the fire came down and all of that and so bail was proven to not be the Lord Jehovah Yahweh was well today the conflict that is coming to a head is again is it Allah and and I don't take a lot to be a generic name for God Allah is defined there 99 titles for Allah and he has his 99 names and many of them that's how Salman Rushdie got in trouble you know the author many of the names of Allah our names that are more associated with Lucifer and not with the Lord God Almighty and so the the great conflict right now in our world is is Allah the true God or Jehovah Yahweh the Creator God the God who eternally exists in three persons a Father Son and Holy Spirit or is it this this kind of what we would call a Unitarian God this this one non Trinitarian God and by the way the Moslems and the Mormons have a lot in common they both are this this Unitarian view of God rather than a Trinitarian view so but the whole thing is shaping up so that the world will know who the Lord is and I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes for I will take you so when it's God saying this he's saying this 2,600 years ago God said through Ezekiel members see I showed you all the charts last week he was in this second you know Daniel went in the first C kill'uh in a second Babylonian captivity so 600 years before Christ God said I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land what countries was Israel in in 600 BC well some apostate northerners from Sumeria were in Assyria but when did Israel get into all countries well it wasn't it and it wasn't in the Babylonian captivity either they didn't go into countries they went into Babylon which swallowed up Assyria so they just did a lateral they went from one land to another when when did Israel need to get gathered out of all countries it wasn't until AD 70 when the Romans banned them from the Land of Israel and killed a million of them and took everyone else they could get and sold them into slavery all over the world and the Jews were banned from the holy land from the holy city especially Hadrian's time onward and were sent all over the world but look at this I will gather you out of all countries so six hundred twenty six hundred years ago 600 BC God said you're gonna get sent to all the world and that took place 600 years later when they were thrown out of Jerusalem and the Holy lamb but he said sometime in the future I'm gonna gather you out of all the countries and we'll bring you into your own land own land Israel from 600 or 586 BC didn't have their own land they were always an occupied nation they never I mean they had a little rebellion in the Maccabee in time but they were still they were still occupied nation they just were fighting off for a while their occupiers but Rome finally came and crushed that rebellion so this what's interesting is this part of what Ezekiel said it's only been since 1948 that Israel got their own land you can put a date right there they didn't have a land that was their own for 2500 plus years almost 2600 years so this is a fascinating if you want something fascinating Ezekiel 36 is God saying I have promised I'm going to restore his role as a nation and he said that as they were being carried off to Babylon secondly God gives us a picture look at chapter 37 I mean if you if you've read it you know what I mean the Lord starts talking about when he does this when he brings see when he brings them back as we just were reading here when he brings him back from among the heathen it doesn't mean they're they're believers it doesn't mean that they're practicing servants and worshippers of the Lord and so chapter 37 shows them in God's sight they were like bones that were all put back it's like a big graveyard and he takes the bones and builds a body out of it but it's still dead it's just it's just in the shape of a body spiritually there's no life and so the restoration of Israel they were brought back to life in the flesh they became a real living nation but they don't have the Spirit of God within them they are trusting in their armaments and their expertise and their patents and their Nobel Prizes and their great riches but the what the Lord is doing is Isaiah talked about - the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people God always is looking for this remnant and and tonight nobody asked me about that but the remnant is what you see in Zechariah 12 through 14 as God saves what Paul talks about in Romans 9 through 11 God saves all of Israel all what is all to God all of the remnant all of those who put their faith in Christ all of those who look up and mourn for the one that they pierced and so what's interesting is this the spiritual element is just starting to dawn in fact I have a very dear friend who has spent most of his recent adult life traveling a hundred and some times to Russia and as you know Russia has gorged itself of many Jews and and so that more than half of the population of Israel today is from Russia most people don't even realize that half of Israel is from Russia they have come out of Russia in in all those waves of Aliyah of getting out of Russia and going to Israel in fact if you look at I mean just the facts of it are unbelievable how many of their prime ministers are Russian I mean the only reason in 1948 that Russia voted at the UN for Israel they thought it was going to be a communist place because they had these collective farms and they were living on kibbutz they all were from Russia anyway they were gonna come back to Mother Russia so Russia just voted for him and didn't realize that they were helping God's plan to take place but what has happened so far is just the the unbelieving return and that was been fulfilled in the first half of the 19th century in 1948 in particular so the valley of dry bones has already been fulfilled in the sense of Israel going back to its its land but the Spirit of God has not I mean keep Israel by the way Israel is pretty powerful right now can you imagine when the Spirit of God has breathed into them and in their adair whatever the third or fourth most powerful atomic power in the world undeclared but they are but can you imagine when the Spirit of God starts fighting their battles okay now let's go to chapter 38 because this is the heart of what we're gonna cover for the next 15-20 minutes and I'm just gonna give you a little history lesson because remember my my major work both in undergrad and grad and post-grad was all history church history and general history and history history I love history but but I want to show you how I see history I don't see history from our perspective I like to go back and see how they looked at historical geography so basically some of the the pieces we have if you look in Chapter 38 it says the word Lord came to be saying verse 2 of Ezekiel 38 son of man set your face against GOG of the land of the land of Magog the Prince of rosh just I mean without without any prophetic books without Hal Lindsey's late great planet Earth which is a great book without all that what do the people that lived a long time ago say about this ok Ezekiel was written Ezekiel here's for perspective Ezekiel was written in the 6th century BC the 6th century BC Hesiod wrote in the 8th century BC he was writing 200 years before Ezekiel this Greek teaching didactic means teaching poet equated the May Goggins with the skiff Ian's or Citians now that's the biblical word in the New Testament Paul said for in Christ there's neither barbarian Jew Greek barbarian bond or free and then he throws in Scythian and that's the word that's usually used for barbarian but it's actually the word Scythian and in some versions of the Bible you'll see that actual word in the New Testament also when you get to Christ City that that he ministered in called the Decapolis cities remember Jesus in the Gospels is serving preaching in what is called the Decapolis Piku Poulos one of the cities of the Decapolis and the only one that Jesus ministered in because it was the only one that was on this side of the Jordan River is called sky suppose it's the city of the Citians so this man living 200 years before Ezekiel if you said the May Goggins the people of Magog you don't have to read you don't have to try and read modern you know people say oh you're just pushing the Russians into it no the May Goggins in the 8th century BC where the Citians now Herodotus he's called the father of history just like we have the father of medicine everything else from the the Greek world the father of history now a century after now look where we've gotten to this is a hundred years after Ezekiel Herodotus called the the Citians the ones who were associated with megak so for 300 years they have remained as as being associated and what he does Herodotus tells us where they came from he said they're a 10th century BC warrior group and then we go into other Greek philosophers and Jewish ones Josephus a historian he when Josephus talked about what what we would know as the Great Wall of China he called that area where the wall was built the ramparts of gog and magog that the the Chinese building their Great Wall were building it to hold out and hold back these northerners that were invading them that and they called the Great Wall the ramparts of gog and magog so another interesting little piece and this is from the 1st century now when I used to travel teaching in Bible Institute's and in Russia we always would you know fly through Moscow we'd go to the Kremlin and and just see another part of it if you go through the Kremlin it's like the Smithsonian it's their history of their people of the Russian people in the last time I was in the Kremlin in 1999 I'm sure they've changed it but the first exhibit in the Kremlin was how they showed that their ancestors were the Citians who came from and these are the the Russian words this room nyah and the add/remove oh people that and I'll show you a map of them that were from the uttermost parts of the north so but without coming to our time and pushing something back if you just look through history you'll find that that there has been a consistent description of the people now this is what the world looked like in the time of the Bible this is world geography at the time of the book of Revelation was being widely circulated in fact this is the view we as Westerners have of the world this was the center of the world in the Bible times of course Rome dominated things right here you you all know that the Holy Land right there and you can recognize Egypt down here so where were these where were these Sathya --nz from they were from this part of the world right up here the Sith ian's and that way going to the far north but they were known as the people that were these are the Caucasus Mountains and it's kind of like a little divider here on this this between the Caspian and the Black Sea the the Caucasus Mountains were kind of like a divider and the Scythian were on one side and the Roman Empire was on the other side now here this divider is parthia parthia think of the Parthian x' you can think of the iranians you can think of the kurds you can think of the means that that whole area was never conquered by the the room it was fought over and and a lot of give-and-take but the Parthian region was always kind of beyond the the scope of the full control of the Roman Empire so this is what the world looked like from the Westerners view and for just a minute look in your Bibles so this would have been the math if you'd have gone to school with the Apostle John you know it's a little after him it's Trajan's time but it's very similar so look down at at Ezekiel 38 I want to show you something it says verse 5 from Persia from cush or Ethiopia and from Libya or if you have a version of Bible it could say put you see that in verse 5 if you see those words like Persia Ethiopia or cush and Libya or put say yes you have those ok now if you're going to school back then this is Libya this this region up here on the north part of Africa along the shore actually it would encompass what what we would call Libya and Algeria and even Tunisia it was at Northshore cush was what the region that was south of Egypt here's where Egypt ended down here was cush in fact you remember Moses had a hot wife cush aiight wife she was not Egyptian shoes from south of Egypt which is called cush do you know what's down there now Sudan do you know what Sudan thinks of Israel not very much so so look back at this list in verse 5 Persia that's this this Parthian area over here that to this day is not very happy about Israel Libya or put which is Algeria and Libya and Tunisia again part of the North African Muslim group of people that are not real excited about Israel's existence cush down here sedan actually is manufacturing missiles for Iran so you can tell where their loyalties are and then it starts naming off in in up here in verse to set your face against gog and magog and the princes of rosh and Meshach and tubal you know basically it's talking about this whole region here which would be modern-day Turkey and the people from beyond the caucuses which are these Sophia's okay so that's just how Western civilization looks at it now this is interesting this is if if you are oriental if you're Chinese and you look at history China was always building you know I don't have room for the Great Wall over that way but this is why they were building it there were these people that were such skilled riders that they could ride at a full gallop with no saddle holding on to the horse and they could turn around in their horse at a full gallop and they could shoot their bow and arrow at the people behind them they were the most feared fighters of the ancient world because and they had these secret nobody knew how they got him silk vests now silk was not bulletproof but when an arrow hit silk it didn't penetrate the silk it just went in and they were able to pull the arrow out and they didn't get infected they only got injured and those silk shirts were which they they had learned how to you know in the in the Chinese guarded the silk secret for centuries but the Sith ian's were these fearsome warriors that would come down from this region up here that's called the steppes it's just gradual higher and higher hills and again you can see the Caucasus Mountains here and so they didn't come down this way because the Parthian kingdom and and some of these you know the the tribal areas that are in modern Afghanistan and all that they would come up this way and would come into the land and come down and would bother all of the Babylonians and Assyrians and they they did make it by the the Scythian z' made it to right there that's where sky thoughtless is that's their furthest south penetration they came from up there into the holy land right there so that's how the Chinese would think about it this is how if you look at the world empires this is basically Alexander the Great remember Alexander's he was from somewhere his father was the King of Macedonia but but he was from somewhere over here I don't know where I've been to his grave but somewhere over there in Greece and and he took his father's Empire and just whirlwind took it all the way to India but again you notice what he didn't do he didn't go past here and he didn't go past here why because that's where these citizens were and they were so powerful that they just kept up there so that's just another view of the empires now this is what's fastening this is a Russian map I love it this is what they had in the Kremlin and see this rib nighas and the and robo's and you can see the colors and these two groups merged into this is talk about just after the time of Abraham those two groups were merging together and became the Scythian s-- but you notice this is Moscow and these are the steppes of Russia so and and this is Siberia so I mean let me ask you like I said last time if I said it's between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and south of you know Lake Superior what would I be talking about well if you say it's from the far north it's the skiff Ian people it's the people that live north of the caucuses the people that live north of the description that that we would have of Turkey without any prophetic writer you can figure out who they're talking about they're talking about these these people from the far north that were such fearsome fighters who became today known as the Russians but back then they had all these other terms so who participates in Ezekiel 38 and 39 well this what the event is and if we had time and we don't tonight to read the whole account it's fascinating God Himself stops an invasion of Israel and who's invading Israel Magog who all the ancient writers associated with these people that live up there beyond the Caucasus Mountains in eastern Anatolia you know the they even broke in so far as eastern Turkey but it's not clear when it happens that's the only thing we're not sure I mean no Bible scholar disputes that it's going to happen it's just we don't know when it's going to happen but who is it well it's I mean look in your Bible will list them off verse 5 has Persia aka Iran the the cush is next which you know your Bible might say Ethiopia but that's really south cush if you want all cush you got to have Sudan to put which is the North Shore I mean the north part of Africa the south shore of the Mediterranean which is Libya Algeria might even be Tunisia Gomer which is and another term for Turkey and then to garma which could easily be all of these what we call the stands you know the the Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and all the stands which are basically today and then Meshach and tubal which are the ancients if Ian's and modern Russians so who participates Wow right now every day if you if you follow Google they are threatening to destroy Israel these people today are making missiles to destroy Israel these people are giving all their armaments now that Muammar Gaddafi is gone to all I mean most of Libya's armaments are now in the hands of the the the antagonists surrounding Israel Turkey you know they keep their part of NATO but they they keep wish washing on us the it's interesting right now the Central Asian Muslims are not really against Israel fact they're letting them base their planes there right now which is fascinating but they all change their mind and of course Russia has warned Israel flatly to leave Syria alone so back to when is Ezekiel 38 and 39 I don't know but whenever it is it's very interesting what happens and what happens is if you read this god Wade's in and stops this group from attacking Israel and it appears if it's before the tribulation if it is here and we're right there on this chart so if it's anytime in the near future then it appears from what it says that Israel suffers so greatly in this battle you know the Lord fights for them they they suffer and they have to surrender some of their it could be that they even give up their atomic weapons which would be the bottom line for Israel you know they have submarines they have missiles and they have airplane delivered atomic bombs if they do that that's when this covenant gets when when they as we saw last time when a ruler of the people that destroyed Jerusalem who destroyed Jerusalem the Romans so when a continuation of the Roman Empire ruler makes a covenant with Israel and what it could look like is that Europe says we will make a a 7-year promise to you that Russia Iran China you name it if they attack you they're attacking us so we will guard you Israel but in order to make the Moslems not be so upset if you'll give up your 250 nuclear thermonuclear weapons we will defend you and it appears that this Antichrist is so winsome and and makes them feel so secure that they make a 7-year promise to let him defend them and that's that's what kicks off what God calls the tribulation the 70th week of Daniel and in the middle is the abomination that causes desolation by the way a temple is rebuilt in here somewhere because there's a temple at the midpoint of the tribulation and that's basically the what Ezekiel 38 and 39 so whoever asked that I don't know when it's going to take place but boy it could take place this week the way things are going I don't know if you notice but the Russians gave the Syrians one of the most powerful surface-to-surface missiles there is it is so hypersonic that even America can't stop it it travels so rapidly it's an unstoppable missile that's just across the border in Syria okay if you look at back at Ezekiel 38 six just one last little clue here what we're talking about 38 6 it says that that they are from the far north so what I've shown you is right here is the Holy Land and so this is north and this is north and this is north and this is north and this is further north and this is further north and this is really far north you understand if if you're orientation is Israel then then that all of these this coming group is from the north even these what we would call the stands that are right across here those with Russia are all what would be in verse now look at verse 15 I mean it's just repeated over and over again are Ezekiel 38 15 then you will come from your place out of the far north you and many people with you and then it says the same thing at the beginning of chapter 39 verse 2 I will turn you around and by the way this is what is fascinating this is God's intervention I chapter 39 verse 1 and use son of man prophesy against GOG by the way GOG is it's kind of like Pharaoh it's not really a name it's a title it's this high up person like a pharaoh and say thus says the Lord God behold I'm against you O God the Prince of Rashmi check and to Baal and I will turn you around and lead you on bringing you up from the far north and bring you against the mountains of Israel now it's interesting there's a variant here if you have a King James that says the sixth part of you and and that textual variant is very interesting it could mean and this is what is fascinating that whatever army comes from the north onto from the north let's say that an army of 60,000 comes down let's say that they get a Iranian you know inner independent states of across here these states and some Russian troops and some Turkish troops and all the rest of them let's say the 60,000 of them come the variant in that second verse that says in the King James a six part actually what it means is that 5/6 don't return so it would be if an army of 60,000 came only 10,000 would survive the attack in Israel and so it in the old King James it's very interesting that whatever happens whatever the Lord does is significant and it defeats them and then if you read verse three he knocks the bow out of their hand they fall on the mountains of Israel and then he starts talking about what he sends the the the pestilence and everything that comes upon them and then what's fascinating is if you look in verse nine and this is just what's very interesting in our terms those who dwell in the cities of Israel go out and set on fire and burn the weapons both the shields and the buckler's the bows and the arrows the javelins and the spears and they will make fires with them for seven years and they will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forest because they will make fires with the weapons that they will plunder those who plundered them and pillage those who pillage them says the Lord that is really interesting what what what weaponry could come from the north that would burn for seven years and it's interesting to think about I mean even how Lindsey brought that up that the half-life of radioactive material is seven years and it's very possible they just pull all the warheads out because the Lord actually sends pestilence and kills all of these soldiers one last thing that's just fascinating to look at verse 11 and will come to pass in that day that i will give GOG a burial place in israel and the valley and those who passed by east of the sea will obstruct travelers because they will bury gog at his multitude and they will call it the valley of Haman gog and for seven months the house of israel will be bearing them in order to cleanse the land and then it talks about there's going to be these people that are going to go out and set up markers look at verse 14 and they will set apart men regularly employed with help of a search party to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground in order to cleanse it and they'll set a marker by it and haul it off to that spot and if we get back to a little enlarged map of israel here what is talking about is it says east of the sea this is the the Dead Sea right here you can't see it it's really small but they want them buried east of the Dead Sea because the people of Israel live here what would you call that you call that isolation you would say that the bodies are contaminated this is exactly if there was any kind of weapons of mass destruction event the cleanup of it from the mountains of Israel would be taken over into that desert area they wouldn't want it near the populace and so it's just I mean you know if if it happens into the future you know maybe we'll get away from atomic weaponry but if it happens any time now and all of these armies come down converging from Russia with their tactical nuclear weapons and God stops them here Israel cleans them up takes the contaminated bodies and that the Lord kills with plagues buries them east downwind of the Dead Sea and takes the radioactive fuel and powers Israel that's just one scenario the other scenario is it's very interesting that in the last few weeks Israel has been found if we export to them our fracking technology that's you know controversy on America Israel will have 250 billion barrels of oil if they can frack Saudi Arabia has 260 billion net interesting I mean that's not prophetic that's from Bloomberg Israel is amazing so okay interesting times ahead let me get to the last slide and it's time to go you guys have been sitting way too long and basically this this the the scene of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is not Armageddon Armageddon is described in the Bible as the Antichrist coming the kings of the south coming the kings of the east coming the kings of the north coming that is completely different than this event right here this may gog invasion which is only from the north so the the events don't confuse Ezekiel 38 and 39 with the final battle in the hill of Megiddo so there we go my goal was before we were snowed in that we'd finish and that's it so next time we're gonna actually have questions from the floor I'm sure I've said more than enough here to confuse everybody and so we'll have our microphones out next time and you can say wait a minute what does this mean and we will try and put the pieces together but let's all stand and the blood flowing and let's thank the Lord tonight that there are no accidents with God everything is being orchestrated by our God of the universe and it's all in his mind centering around Israel he's going to get Israel isolate he's gonna get them so that everybody in the world is against them and and even are gonna be attacked by one of the greatest groups that could possibly oppose them and in that moment he's gonna save them so that all the world will know who's the real God and even after he does that the world doesn't want him and so don't be discouraged just be faithful sharing the gospel now this is what is fascinating I could read about the coming reign of Christ in verse 24 but let's get to 38 this is what is so fascinating this these verses were written Ezekiel was written twenty-six twenty-seven hundred years ago and twenty-seven hundred years ago God said now this is 2700 years ago twenty-six hundred and change verse chapter 38 the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man set your face against GOG against may God the princes of rashmi check and to ball and prophesy against him I'm not gonna get into you know what geographic areas are you can read in the Study Bible what I like is verse five 2700 years ago it said that chief among the coalition that comes in verse four against Israel with all of their army horses horsemen and splendidly clothed great company buckler's and shields all of them handling swords verse 5 says persia head of the list do you remember with Daniel who was so resisting Daniel as he prophesied about the future of Israel in Daniel who resisted him the Prince of Persia the Prince of Persia is a demon that is watching over the enmity that Iran still has against Israel there's no country on earth that is more vitriolic and murderously in the press at least I don't think the individual people of Iran the Iranians aren't that way but their leadership currently is currently in the seventies the Shah of Iran was kind of a friend of the West but since the overthrow in the Islamic Revolution Persia leads the pack of the most frequent haters of Israel and they Persia Ethiopia and Libya or all of them with shield and helmet and verse six you can read prepare and be ready your companies are gathered about you verse seven verse eight after many days you'll be visited in the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel so Persia and company are going to march in attack against a the Bible says a regathered Israel there's going to be a regather their own land I read it over and over and over again and that regathered nation is going to in verse eight after many days you will be visited in the latter years you'll come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from the peoples and the mountains of Israel which had long been desolate they were brought out of the nations and now all of them dwell safely you will ascend coming like a storm covering the land like a cloud and you and your troops thus says the Lord verse 10 on that day it shall come to pass that that thoughts will arise in your mind and you will make an evil plan and you will say I will go up against a land of unwalled villages I'll go to a peaceful people I'll dwell safely and on and on it goes and they plan this invasion against a people verse 12 gathered from the nations and they've acquired all this wealth and then it it keeps talking about verse 15 then you will come from your place out of the far north you and many people's with you a riding unhorse is a great company a mighty you'll come up against my people is real like a cloud to cover the land it will be in the latter days that I will bring you against my land so that the nations may know me when I'm hallowed in you O GOG before their eyes and the rest is fascinating to read verse 19 will be a great earthquake and verse 21 I will cause a sword against GOG what happens is the Lord actually protects Israel boy is that a interesting thing wonder how the news will cover that when this happens watch this and I will bring him to judgment with pestilence with bloodshed I will rain down on him and his troops and the many people are with him flooding rain great hailstones fire brimstone thus I will magnify myself and sanctify myself and it will be known the eyes of many nations then they shall know that I am the Lord you know see the last part of verse 23 chapter 37 verse 23 did you know that's the 56th time that little phrase has occurred in this book then they shall know that I am the Lord do you know what the theme of Ezekiel is God says I'm going to intervene in human history so that all the nations will know that I am the Lord Wow and verse 39 I mean chapter 39 I will turn you around verse 2 and lead you and bring you up from the far north and bring you against the mountains of Israel and I will knock verse three of the bow out of your left hand and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand you shall fall in the mountains of Israel you and your troops and verse six then they shall know that I am the Lord verse seven then the nations shall know that I am the Lord the Holy One in Israel and on and on it goes and and I like verse 17 in fact I shared this when I was there did you know that Israel is the is the spot between the three continents where over 30 percent some say 40 some depends on which sign you're reading half some sign say of all the birds on earth migrate over the that that little area of Israel between Africa Asia and Europe and look what it says here verse 17 speak to every sort of birds to every beast of the field Israel is one of the greatest ornithological you know bird-watching places there is and and every sort of burden every kind of beast and they gather to eat horsemen you can read it verse nineteen eat till you're full Wow why verse twenty-two so they'll know that I'm the Lord Wow okay basically this Psalm 102 talks about a suffering psalmist and it seems to have a near and far fulfillment and it talks about a people that are baked and in graves and they are recovered and sent back to a land in Ezekiel 36 onward talks about the land the land the land the land the land to land the land in your own land you're only in your own land and I will bring you back from all the nations and when that's happening 38 and 39 talk about an event that is described in the final passage we're going to go through Zechariah 12 to 14 so let's turn there before we run out of time and zechariah 12 to 14 is absolutely fascinating basically zechariah tells us if that prophet fills in the details and it starts out in zechariah 12 first with god's calling card you know if you're gonna have someone you know like people that are gonna have surgery they they look up the doctor and see i mean i don't know if you drive around very much i see billboards all the time to say that we are the top hospital in whatever and everyone advertises we're the top whatever hospital and so you always check their credentials look at god's credentials chapter 12 of sakurai averse 1 the burden of the word of the lord against israel that says the lord you want to know who i am he says i am the one who stretches out the heavens so he is the one who created the cosmos he is the one and he talks about creationists stretching out the heavens I'm the one that lay is the foundation of the earth so this is not only the universe he's also the architect of the earth and I'm also the one he said that forms the spirit of man within him now what's interesting is if if you read the Septuagint there are interesting words here cosmos Geoff's numa's God said I am the one that began this the universe that laid the foundation of this the earth and that puts the new mas the spirit within man now look what he says verse 2 he said so you should listen to me do anybody else it made the universe and the only one God said it's a verse to behold I will make Jerusalem this is the most mentioned Geographic spot in the Bible 800 plus times Jerusalem's big to God Jerusalem is the city he chose and and it's inhabited by the people he chose and placed his name upon behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding people who lay siege against judah and jerusalem and it shall happen now look at verse 3 because there's a repetition here that's fascinating starting in verse 3 he talks about a specific time he says in that day and if you notice how I'll note him for you it's all the way through this is one event he's talking about and it shall happen in that day verse 3 that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all the people all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it can you not just for a moment because when we walk down from the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane which is part of almost every holy land trip as you're walking down the Palm Sunday road and all ulam and I know what I'm talking about it's that steep narrow Road four cars are passing you and there's an entire graveyard on one side and olive trees on the other side and you're on this narrow road and you're you're scooting along trying to go down this steep road on the palm sunday road when you go down that road notice what this says though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it one thing you pass on the road on the way down the first thing on the left there's a gate tomb of the prophets that's for Zechariah purportedly as buried can you imagine Zechariah in 600 500 and something BC 600 and something BC the Lord is inspiring him and he's writing down and by the way he's looking at Jerusalem in Jerusalem's burned out blackened the walls are all knocked down temples gone he's looking and the Lord says in verse 3 though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it and Zechariah said all you got me write that down here this is nowhere this is nothing now I know he didn't say that but can you imagine how hard it was for him to write this that Jerusalem is going to be a cause for all peoples God does not exaggerate all want to heave it away all the nations the earth are gathered against it is there any have all the nations of the earth ever gathered against any kinase it E on earth I mean are all the nations the earth against New York no are all of them against Moscow no but all of them are gonna be against Jerusalem it's the only city that gets global coverage now look at verse 4 in that day here it is again verse 6 in that day verse 8 in that day verse 9 it should be in that day look at verse 11 in that day chapter 13 in that day it's the same day this is a big event it shall be verse 2 in that day verse 4 of chapter 13 in that day so we're talking about the day of the Lord which happens to be the second coming of Christ and what we're reading here is what precipitates the second coming of Christ you know it's interesting all the people there was another prediction it was October 7th which didn't happen again they're off but God has planned that day and this is what happens in that day verse 6 I will make the governors of Judah like a fire pan in the woodpile like a fiery torch and the sheaves that means very flammable and the Lord will save verse 7 the tents of Judah in that day verse 8 the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem the feeble among them in that day verse 8 says we'll be like David what is that David David never lost a battle and the Lord said I'm gonna I'm going to settle the score for all the the hatred against Israel verse 9 in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem what by the way is Armageddon Armageddon is the staging area which by the way its first mentioned in Revelation 16 and then it's mentioned again in Revelation 19 and what it is is Armageddon har actually it's har in Hebrew it's har Megiddo it's the hill of Megiddo har is hill Megiddo is a city so the plane around the hill of Megiddo is the staging area for the final assault on Jerusalem and all the armies of the world are gathering there for their final assault on Jerusalem and and the the spearhead is already in Jerusalem and they're already ravaging the city you can read it here in fact it says if you look at chapter 13 it shall come to pass verse 8 in all the land says the Lord the 2/3 in it shall be cut off and die so 2/3 of all the Jews will be wiped out exterminated killed massacred 2/3 they just passed finally this past year Israel has as many people as they had known Jews before the Holocaust they finally reached the same number that they had before 1945 and it was a momentous event when they celebrated how many Jews that they had living in the land and they celebrated when when they crossed that threshold but two-thirds of them shall be cut off and die but look at verse eight but one-third shall be left in it and I will bring the one-third through the fire so God says I'm going to bring one-third of the Jews through this deadly holocaust and that's what we call the remnant and that is what Paul was talking about in Romans 9 through 11 when he says all Israel will be saved they will be a lot of people don't like that they say that's not fair everybody else we have to send them to Billy Graham crusade and they have to walk the aisle or a Southern Baptist Church and they go forward an invitation and how come they get special treatment well I wouldn't say it's very special you you've watched I mean the the the events there they're cut off they're ravished there I mean it says that that they are terribly the women are raped and they're murdered and two-thirds of them are horribly killed but one-third shall be saved now keep keep reading let's go back to chapter 12 I missed verse 10 and I will pour on the house of David zechariah 12:10 and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the house of David the inhabitants of Jerusalem you should see how covenant theologians interpret this the church has never been called the house of David now some charismatic churches might be called the house of David or messianic church might be called the house of David but the church is never in a Bible then called the house of David we certainly don't live in Jerusalem I mean there is a church in Jerusalem there's a Jerusalem assembly but this is talking about people Jews that are descendants of Abraham that that are called the house of David that are living in Jerusalem but look what happens in verse 10 this this is what Paul's talking about in Romans 9 through 11 and the spirit of grace and supplication I will pour out on the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem then they will look on me whom they pierced yes they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieves for him as one who grieves for a firstborn son now did you catch who is talking here it says in verse 10 they will look on me whom they pierced who is the me of zechariah 12:10 will back up who is talking look at verse 9 it shall be in that day I so it's the me as the eye of verse 9 back up to verse 8 and that day of the Lord verse 7 the Lord will save verse 6 I will make the governors of Judah like a fire pan back up to verse 4 and that day says the Lord I who's talking Jehovah Yahweh the me is Yahweh or Jehovah there's no J in Hebrew it's actually a whi sound but Jehovah is Yahweh that's the personal name of God look at verse 3 and it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem who is talking verse 1 the word of the Lord the one who made the cosmos laid the foundations of the G oz and forms the new mosque the spirit that's who's talking but verse 10 says they will look on me when's the only time that Yahweh was pierced how do you pierce God how do you pierce the god of the universe who is a spirit and doesn't have a physical body one place says in 2nd Corinthians 5 God was in Christ reconciling the world Jesus Christ is God the Son and God j hovah was pierced by a roman spear on a cross and when they look on me which is Jesus Christ Christ on the cross look at verse 11 there will be great mourning in Jerusalem you know what collectively the remnant the one-third of Jews that survived the Holocaust the final Holocaust in Jerusalem they will start mourning you know what they're gonna say oh we can't believe we didn't that our forefathers rejected him increased we can't believe that all these centuries we've we've been blinded and rejected him but look at chapter thirteen verse one and that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness how are all Israel saved the same way you and I are saved they will begin mourning for their sins for their rejection for their unbelief and the spirit of grace and supplication how did we get saved the same way the Jews don't get saved any differently than we do I just had a mother telling me the gospel they happen to have all of them massacred and the Lord coming back in the sky but it's very similar the Lord did both of them and that day says the Lord every prophet is going to be ashamed well here's the ending because it's time to go to our reception time look at chapter 14 behold the day of the Lord is coming that's the second coming the day of the Lord it's called the day of the Lord all the way through the prophets your spoil will be divided I will gather all the nations this is kind of like a review chapter 12 13 and 14 just keep flashing back and forth of the same event it's that day but I will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem and that's revelation 16:13 2:16 if you read that it talks in Revelation see the book of Revelation is seeing this event in Zechariah it's filling in the details but all the nations to battle against Jerusalem they're staging up there in Armageddon and the the front end of the Army is coming down and look what they're doing the city shall be taken verse 2 of chapter 14 the houses rifled the women ravished half the city goes into captivity but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city and the Lord will go forth this is the second coming of Christ now in Revelation 19 verse 11 onward the Lord will go forth he will fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle so what happens Armageddon is in the north of Jerusalem up in South the Sea of Galilee and the Lord is on his way to save his people in Jerusalem and in a flyover he destroys all the armies of the world which is a word kills them all and in fact it's it's very gruesome how it happens it says he will fight the battle in verse three as in the day of battle and that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives that's the second coming in jesus promised that that he would return and he comes back actually to the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east and the Mount is split and it goes from east to west and thus look at verse five by the way we're in here aren't you excited we show up the end of verse five it says if you keep reading then you shall flee through my mountain valley in the valley of sherif to özil and you shall flee as in the earthquake in the days of his iicking of jordan thus the Lord my God will come and all the saints with you Wow all the Saints come with Christ in the second coming that's that's why the rapture takes place before it she's got to get the Saints to him and we come in fact I tell a lot of people they say oh I can't afford to go to Israel so don't worry you'll go on a holy land trip on horseback in Revelation 19 it says all the hosts of heaven arrayed in white garments are behind Christ he's at the head the king of kings and Lord of lords and fanning out behind him are all the angels and all the saints did you know Jude records the first biblical prophecy about Second Coming Christ its Enoch and it says behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints in fiery vengeance executing wrath against the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds that's in the book of Jude quoting Enoch about the second coming of Christ and on and on it goes but look at verse 12 I want to end with this this is better than any movie and it says Zechariah 14:12 this is what happens to all the armies that have come in Revelation 16 to Armageddon and they are streaming down and ravaging and raping and pillaging and killing and everything the Jews verse 12 and it shall be this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fight against Jerusalem their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet see God doesn't mess around there's not a shot fired their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths can it sounds like a neutron bomb where it just destroys the people and there's no physical damage to the buildings and it shall come to pass verse 13 and that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them yeah I would say so verse 16 and shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up so there will be survivors but but the game plan is G till we get to verse 35 and then Daniel switches gears and most Bible commentators say that in verse 36 we're looking forward to what we would call the tribulation time in the end Christ now why am I saying all that because what you get from Daniel is Daniel 10 tells us that there is a Persian connection there's something going on with Persia that is specifically pointed out by God now go to Ezekiel I want to show you Ezekiel 38 because we have our second Persian just back up a book Ezekiel actually was captured and went to the land before land of Babylon before Daniel there were three times the Babylonians took prisoners and most likely in the first of the times Ezekiel was taken and the second group another group came and then Daniel went in the final one in 586 but look at chapter 38 and this is what's so interesting now the word Lord came to me I'm in Ezekiel chapter 38 and said son a man set your face against GOG in the land of Magog the Prince of Ross actually Rosh means prince so it's the the prince or rosh of May sheykh and two balls so Ross doesn't seem to be a separate geographic place it's it's a Ross always uses a kind of a title like Pharaoh Pharaoh isn't a name it's a title it's like president and we talk about the president we know who we're talking about but you know in future if we just say the president they don't know which one unless they can date us well this this rosh thing is a prince so it's whoever is the prince in Meshach and to ball so that's great and you know it doesn't really matter but but look at what it says if you keep going down to verse 5 it says there are gonna be all of these who come against Israel and I only want you to see the the first one in verse 5 I mean all of them are significant because I mean just last week the whole Ethiopia and Somalia and the massacre of 147 kids in the Christian University in Kenya I mean the the Moslems came in at gunpoint separated the the Christians from the other Muslims let the Moslems leave and they butchered the Christians I mean this this this whole stirring up of the South the Bible talks about it's interesting to watch it start but verse 5 what I want you to see is in Ezekiel 38 who's at the head of the line that's coming against Israel and verse 5 what's the first word there in your Bible say it out loud Persia so we know that Daniel saw there is the Persian politics we're being deeply behind the scenes influenced by this high ranking principality and power this this demon over a country now there's another demon over Greece he seems to be wasting money right now if you're following you know current world news you know the Greeks are going broke and falling out of the euro but and I'm just teasing about that probably there's some prophetic implication that but what what we see is this Persian deal figures in to zekiel 38 saying that there is going to be a coming invasion of Israel that is headed up by Persia now why is that well if you read the rest why is that important if you look at all those other names in verse 5 purge Ethiopia and Libya and with them and and all the house of Gomer and togarmah and Meshach and to Baal and all that that group never in history has ever done anything together this this is an a historical anomaly looking back never in history has Persia Sudan Libya Algeria Turkey Central Asia never have they all attacked Israel ever this is a coalition coming and Ezekiel says the one that's going to rev it up is Persia if you want to find Persia in the news it's called Iran there is no nation on earth that has threatened Israel more completely for annihilation now Hitler just wanted to kill Jews he didn't care about Israel he's fun to kill Jews the Soviets programmed Jews until a million of them fled and went Israel I mean we know history I mean the the Spanish martyred and killed the Jews and on and on the Crusaders killed the Jews but no country has so frequently publicly categorically even this week said there's no reason for Israel to continue to exist and we will destroy them not just we don't like them we're going to boycott them we're gonna apartheid them and economically ruin them we are going to kill them now last thing because it's time to go there's something that always identifies where Satan is involved he it says in John 44 Satan was a murderer from the beginning Satan Satan is always close to murder and bloodshed and killing it's almost like a fly Satan loves killing that's why I would strongly encourage you if you're a young man and you have any desire to serve the Lord you need to abandon killing videogames because you're honoring the devil they're not neutral Satan came to kill and steal and destroy those are the three themes of most male-dominated videogames killing stealing destroying you know what is it grand auto theft stealing and killing and destroying are all the rest Satan's realm he's a murderer he loves bloodshed he loves destruction he calls his demons abadan destroyer and all that and this is all the videogame stuff Satan is one who comes to kill and steal and destroy when Satan is influencing a nation they only talk about killing and destroying and I'm not talking about the Persian people I think the Iranian people today I mean I baptized several and and I count Iranians as some of my dear friends I'm not talking about the Iranian people I'm talking about the nation of Iran in the hands of its current leaders who are tied too high up principalities have this unhuman it's demonic it's not human it's a demonic passion to destroy God's chosen people of promise the Jewish people and how does it all end and I'll end now because we only have four minutes go to Revelation 12 because what's really interesting is the end of the Bible is all built around all this stuff that Daniel and Ezekiel talk about God kind of wires it all together if you look at the Bible there's prophecies in Genesis in Deuteronomy few in the Psalms a lot in Jeremiah a lot more in Ezekiel and then Daniel and Zechariah those are all kind of streams of prophecies about the last days but all of them are wired into the book of Revelation and that's what makes Revelation so interesting the revelation of Jesus Christ has 404 ver and it has 800 quotations and allusions to there's even some an exodus to all these these Old Testament books are all feeders into you can't really understand revelation without following the the trails back to what it's talking about and look at chapter 12 this is just phenomenal and I think I passed mr. Tibbals question but I'll just read this and then we'll quit and a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun the moon under her feet and on her head was a garland of twelve stars and what on earth would that be well if you go back to Genesis and you look in the life of Joseph Genesis 37 250 bingo you know what that's talking about that's a description of Israel that's a description of the 12 tribes and yet the whole thing that J that Joseph saw when his brothers were you know he saw all of that it's interesting okay so we've got Israel and being with child so Israel has a child that's interesting and them comes this dragon and now it sounds kind of like we're in Lord of the Rings stuff or something I mean it sounds like science fiction and verse 4 the dragon gets 1/3 the stars that's where we get Satan getting 1/3 of all the angels that he got 1/3 of all that they fell with him but look at verse 4 at the ending it was ready to give birth to devour her that's Israel's child as soon as it was born and if you have certain versions the Bible child is capitalized just talking about Christ so the nation of Israel had Christ you know through Mary and you know through the seed of of the woman and we've talked about the virgin birth and everything but it was it was through the line of David and Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes and all that but look what happens verse five she bore the male child who was to rule all nations that's Christ with the rod of iron that's Psalm 2 I mean all this stuff is just wired back to the rest of the Bible and her child was caught up to God now that's the end of the 40 days after the resurrection the Ascension Jesus went up and so the woman fled in the wilderness and God prepared a place for her for three and a half years and war broke out in heaven verse seven and Michael and his angels fought with a dragon and all of a sudden we are seeing in Revelation that Satan has one goal and he's going to use the nations of the world that will be usable but Satan's goal is he has one goal he wants to destroy Israel because God made a sovereign election of Israel and a Satan can destroy them all it ruins God's plan and so the whole book of Revelation is all tying together the promises of God that he has sovereignly made to his people Israel why do you think God parks his throne over Jerusalem if if the church took Israel's place he should park his throne over Rome you know their own Catholic Church or maybe over I don't know Nashville or something I mean why does he park it over Jerusalem because he has sovereignly elected Israel and the whole end of the world is all of these prophecies being revealed in how God defeats the devil and especially when you get to Zechariah Satan gets every nation on earth to march against Israel not Rome and that Washington Jerusalem every nation on earth starts going toward Israel and Zechariah 12 through 14 says that at the last moment God rescues Israel and Israel Jews look up and see the one they pierce and mourn and are gloriously saved so mr. Tibbals thank you for asking that you're not even here tonight but I'll answer it anyway in modern news fascinating is there's a Persian connection to Ezekiel 38 which ties the devil into desiring to destroy Israel and the current nation he's really fomenting his iran and in verse 5 Ezekiel 38 Iran leads the pack against Israel

Channel: undefined

Views: 353,453

Rating: 4.6448998 out of 5

Keywords: peace, hope, love, joy, anxiety, depression, trinity, orthodoxy, dispensationalism, john samuel barnett, dtbm, the bible, jesus god, holy spirit, discover the book, eschatology end times prophecy, demons angels satan devil, expository preaching john macarthur, ww3, iran, WWIII, world war, three, russia, iranian, war, missiles, israel, usa, us, united states, trump, donald, president, reckless, wild, scary, death, soldiers, tanks, fighting, warfare, future, inevitable, coming, 2020, 21st century, prophecy, bible, jesus

Id: ZSZn8YG3RWc

Length: 79min 42sec (4782 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2019