[Frank Dunkle] But I want to pick up… actually,
it seems like it's been a while since I've spoken here. And the last time I spoke I gave a sermon
about, I called it “Promises Made, Promises Kept” focusing on the promises that God
made to Abraham. I don't want to go through all of those, but
we could actually find a summary in Genesis 22. If you'll turn with me there, Genesis 22:16,
this is actually concluding the great tests that God gave to Abraham. When He told Abraham, "Now that you have your
only son that you waited for years and years, take him off to this place I'm going to show
you and sacrifice him." We know from hindsight that it was a test,
God never approves of human sacrifice, but He did put Abraham to the test to see if he
would be willing to do what God the Father was willing to do in sacrificing His Son Jesus
Christ. God stopped Abraham before he could plunge
the knife. And then He said in verse 16, "'By Myself
I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your
son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I'll multiply your descendants
as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants
shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all nations of the earth
shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.'" Later on, as God worked with descendants of
Abraham, God made a covenant with them confirming these blessings. And we see in not only this passage but some
others, it seems that God made those promises unconditional. They were going to happen. They were passed on from Abraham to his son,
Isaac, not especially to Ishmael, although Ishmael would be blessed because he was Abraham's
son, then Isaac pass them on to Jacob, but not Esau. Again, Esau did very well, but God had a special
plan that He led through the ages. From Jacob, Jacob passed them on to two of
his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. We know that the peoples of ancient Israel
did enjoy great blessings, reaching a peak under king David and then king Solomon where
they were wealthy. They had peace, they were dominant in their
area, but they didn't obey God. They broke the covenant that God made and
so He allowed foreign nations to come in. After, of course, Solomon's reign, the kingdom
of Israel was divided in half. The northern kingdom that kept the name Israel,
a southern kingdom that took the name Judah. And one by one, they were conquered. The Assyrians took the Israel, the kingdom
of Israel captive, led them away and they became lost to history for the most part. And later, Judah was conquered by Babylon,
taken away captive, but then after 70 years had opportunity to return. But we'd have to say, remember if those promises
were unconditional, we would look for them to be restored. And I don't want to rehash all of the sermon
I gave last time, and I was trying to figure out, was that May, April, February? It doesn't seem that long ago, but one of
the things I summarized is if we look at the promises God made to the descendants of Israel
and then we look through history to see where could such things have been fulfilled, I think
we could identify the children of Israel, who the descendants are today. I brought back one of my favorite props. If you remember, if you are here for that
sermon, I referred to the method to do that as the artillery approach. If God's promises are like a cannon going
off PEW, then you look in the distance and if you see the explosion, you tend to think
one is caused by the other. And when we look in that history, we see among
some peoples that we often today called the English-speaking peoples. We used to use the term the British Commonwealth
or the British Empire in the United States of America. And you could vary the date of when it started,
but if you say in general about the 18th century, there was an explosion of blessings among
those people. A sudden rise to military power, tremendous
wealth, prominence among the nations, and by putting prophecy and a bit of history together,
we could say, "Okay, those nations seem to represent the descendants of Abraham." I don't want to be exclusive and say there
aren't descendants of Abraham elsewhere. Certainly, there are people not descended
from Abraham that live in the British empire and in the United States. But for the most part, we think we know where
we could look for Ephraim and Manasseh and I looked at those blessings and said, "Boy,
it's great. God made promises, God kept them." But we might say, well, what after that, what
next? Because the Bible has a fair bit of prophecy,
has a fair bit of what we call end-time prophecy, focusing on what's going to happen at the
end of this age as we say when Christ is about to return. Since we can identify who the people of Israel
are and their prophecies pertaining to them, we could ask what's next? I'm going to pause because I put it in my
notes that it's important to exercise caution in addressing this. You know, as a church, some in the past we've
sometimes been a little more specific than necessary. We've said, “Oh, within so many years we
think this will happen.” You know, we've wanted to find dates for when
Christ would return. We learned some lessons doing that. We're a little more careful, but I want to
look at some themes of prophecy, some things we can see and what can see that the Bible
tells us about Israel in prophecy? Now before we look at some prophecies directed
specifically to Israel, since we're concerned about the time of Christ's return, it might
be worth considering that outline, what the Bible shows us about that. As I said, I like to use the term end-time
prophecy. I didn't make it up, but I like to use it. A lot of those prophecies, most of them address
the whole world. They don't say, "Just before Christ returns,
Israel will do this, Israel will do that." And we find them grouped in certain areas
of the Bible, as I'm sure you know. In the book of Revelation, there's a lot of
end-time prophecy. I'm going to reference Revelation, but I'd
like you to join me in Matthew 24 if you will. We see what is commonly called the Olivet
prophecy, called so because Christ spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. And the question arose from the disciples
because they were in Jerusalem for Passover season. As we know, this would be Christ's last Passover
with them before He was crucified. But they were excited about being there and
they, apparently they made a comment to Him, "Look at this temple, how fabulous it is." It had been built, as is described in the
book of Zachariah and Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt and then Herod, the king, refurbished and
added to it, and it was very impressive. But Christ wasn't so impressed. “Don't think anything of this. The time is coming when not even one stone
will stand on another. This is going to pass.” That took them aback. So, if we pick up in Matthew 24:3 says, "Now
as He,” that is Jesus Christ, "sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him
privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things be? You know, when is the temple going to be destroyed? And what will be the sign of Your coming,
and of the end of the age? If this is all going to happen and this world's
going to come to an end, how will we know it's coming?' Jesus answered and said: ‘Take heed that
no one deceives you.'" So His first thought is, it's going to be
easy to be led astray, so keep your head on your shoulders. And then He proceeds to outline significant
events that would cover much of the end of this age of human history. And there are many years in the future. And let's begin in verse 5, He says, "Many
will come in My name saying, ‘I'm Christ,’ and will deceive many." We could say there's going to be false religion
or incorrect religious teaching. Verse 6, "You'll hear of wars and rumors of
wars. See that you're not troubled; all these things
must come to pass, that’s not the end." I'm paraphrasing a little. Verse 7, "Nation will rise against nation,
kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes
in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." We see these as describing what's happened
in human culture and civilization pretty much as long as people have been around. And Christ said, "Just because there's wars,
famines, earthquakes, that doesn't mean it's the end." Now, I don't want to say that doesn't mean
it's not the end. We can see a strong parallel between what
Christ describes here and in the book of Revelation, the visions that the apostle John saw. And he saw a framework that we see in Revelation
where it started with seven seals. There was a scroll that was sealed and one
who we know as Christ is able to open the seals one by one, and the first four seals
correspond with what Christ describes here. The first one he saw a white horse representing
false religion, and then a red horse representing warfare. Let me see if I can get this straight. A black horse representing famine and then
a what's called a pale horse representing disease epidemics. So we see this parallel. If that's not the end, we still think perhaps
those things that are common will become much more intense. Maybe there'll be a great increase in these
things before Christ returns. When the fifth seal is opened in Revelation
6, it matches what Christ says in Matthew 24:9, "Then they'll deliver you up to tribulation
and kill you. You'll be hated by all nations for My name's
sake. Many will be offended, and betray one another…
and many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because of lawlessness will abound, the love
of many will grow cold." This applied to the disciples to whom Christ
spoke. Almost all of them were martyred, perhaps
all of them. But this is also applied to Christians through
the ages. It's been tough being a Christian following
especially the truth when other churches that call themselves Christian might disagree and
actually persecute them. As I said, that corresponds to the fifth seal
in Revelation and then what? Verse 13, "He who endures to the end shall
be saved." That might be referring to he who endures
to the end of the world when Christ returns, but it's not specific just to that generation
that's alive when Christ returns. If you say he who endures to the end, the
question, "The end of what?" arises. For most Christians, it's been the end of
your life. You've got to hold true to God's way and His
truth til the end, and for all of us, Christ return is only as far away as our physical
years on this earth and we want to hold fast. But there's something in verse 14 that seems
to get more specific to the end of the age, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached
in all the world as a witness to all the nations, then the end will come." Now, this is prophecy again is discussing
all world and all nations. Christ hasn't been addressing Israel in particular,
but Israel is part of all the nations in all the world. Certainly, they're not excluded. I think of that when I think of the gospel
being preached. I would say that prophecy has been fulfilled. Now the gospel has been preached in all the
world in a number of ways. I've speculated whether just the Bible being
printed and translated and spread abroad has helped to do this. But in this modern era, going back to when
Herbert Armstrong started broadcasting on the radio and publishing a mass-circulation
magazine, for decades this gospel has been preached. In our era, the internet reaches even far
more people than were ever reached by radio and magazine. The gospel is being preached to all the world Does that relate to Israel in particular? Christ doesn't say that here. I think it interesting though, and I'm just
sort of putting things together where the Scripture doesn't necessarily tie them together,
but when Paul and Barnabas were traveling in Asia and then going into Europe to preach
the gospel, they usually would come into a town and go to the synagogue first, and they
would preach the message to those descendants of Israel. But sometimes they weren't received. I'm not going to turn there, but in Acts 13:45-46
there's a case where the Jews didn't want to hear their message. So Paul and Barnabas said, "Fine. It was necessary for us to preach the word
to you first, but since you won't listen, we're going to the Gentiles." If that's a pattern, and I'm saying if, perhaps
what we see in Matthew 24:14 about the gospel being preached to all the world, maybe we
should look for that to be centered among the descendants of Israel. In some ways, I'm getting it backwards because
if we believe the United States and Britain represent Israel, certainly the gospel message
has been centered in our nations but has gone out to all the world. Let's go back and continue in Matthew 24:15,
“'Therefore when you see the “abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, standing in the holy place,’ (whoever reads, let him understand).” So, you sort this out. “Then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down
and take anything out. Let him who was in the field not go back to
get his clothes. Woe to those who are pregnant or nursing babies
in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter
or on the Sabbath." Okay. This isn't talking about conditions that have
always been. We're talking about the end. And in verse 21 he says, "Then there will
be such great," oh, let me say it properly. "Then there will be great tribulation, such
as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall
be. Unless those days were shortened, no flesh
would be saved; but for the elect sake they will be shortened." Mankind will be on the brink of extinction. When Christ says the worst time ever, never
has been that bad, never will again. To me, that says something powerful and distinct. How many times can be the worst time ever? Well, one, we'll see some mention in prophecy,
some other prophecies that mentioned that, and it brings them together. It gives us like a post to say, this is about
the end time, and it talks about being scattered and people coming together. As I said, this seems to match up fairly well
with the book of Revelation, and I didn't discover that by the way. If you go in the next room, we have some booklets
that the church provides, and the cameras are on. I feel like I should pick it up and be like,
"Mr. McNeely, Mr. Myers, and Mr. Petty, “Call the number on your screen for the study guide." But if you haven't looked at the material
we have on Revelation and end-time prophecy, the Church has good stuff. We've been explaining this in ways other people
don't understand and most of us are familiar with this framework. In Revelation, there's the seven seals. When that seventh seal is open, we find it's
comprised of seven trumpet plagues, so that's at the end of the age when things get bad. And then the seventh trumpet sounds and the
seven last plagues. Some translations describe it as bowls or
vials being poured out. And that brings a lot of bad things. You see a description in Revelation of a beast,
and then who or what is the prophetic beast of Revelation 13? We believe it's a final revival of the Roman
Empire, a conglomeration of nations that will seize great power, be very wealthy, perhaps
bringing peace, but it'll work in collaboration with mystery Babylon the great, a great false
church. We see these things. We see world crises and epidemics. What I, matter of fact, trying to see if I
skipped over in my notes. In Matthew 24:29, if you're still there, it
says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the
moon won't give its lights, stars will fall from heaven. The powers of heaven will be shaken, and then
the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven." That matches that sixth seal, which we often
refer to as heavenly signs. So, we see these things happening affecting
the whole world, which must include Israel. But curiously, Israel is not mentioned much. You see a mention of this 144,000 that mentions
tribes of Israel, but also a multitude from all nations. This is if you go to Revelation, which I'm
not going there much because we've got the Feast of Trumpets coming up and we've got
some good messages coming on that. But we could question, could it be by the
time those seven trumpets are sounding and when the seven last plagues are unleashed,
could it be that the nations that represent the modern descendants of Israel have ceased
being a factor on the international stage? Could it be that there'll be in consequential
by then? And that question seems all the more significant
if we think, but the promises to Abraham, remember that cannon, the artillery, they
became in the 20th century, the most, I'd better not do that, became the most powerful
significant nations in the world. Could they go that quickly from being so wealthy,
so powerful, so influential to not even being worth a mention? How could that be? I think the Bible does give us some answers
and we can look for it in prophecy. But first, let's talk a little bit about prophecy. And I want to talk about some specific kinds,
but before we even do that, it's worth mentioning why do we study prophecy? What's the point? Other than some people think it's really cool. You know, if you read Revelation, you see
locust coming out of the ground with fiery colors and hurt coming out of their tails. That sounds great. You know, it seems to be cool to be able to
say in advance what will happen. But prophecy is not mostly about that when
it comes down to it. Let me give you some reasons. I've got three reasons. We could have several, but some reasons we
know we have prophecy. If you'll go to Isaiah 46, I think God shows
one of them, and it's basically to demonstrate God's power, what God can do, what He's capable
of. Isaiah 46:9, I love this section of Isaiah
consists of largely of God speaking in first person and telling of His might and His greatness. He says, "Remember the former things of old,
for I am God, there is no other; I am God, there's none like Me, declaring the end from
the beginning, from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall
stand, I will do all My pleasure.’" Only God can tell the end from the beginning,
from ancient times predict what will come. This shows what God is capable of. A matter of fact, it also provides one of
the ways to prove that the Bible is God's Word and that's going down a track that I
don't intend today. Let me briefly mention another reason, is
for God's people to learn lessons about how God works, about what His expectations are. You might jolt down 1 Corinthians 10:11, I'm
not going to turn there, but the apostle Paul is describing the things that happened to
ancient Israel and God's punishment on them and is saving them. And in 1 Corinthians 10:11 and he, Paul says,
"These things happen for our examples, they were written for our admonition." And we can see that about prophecy. What's prophesied, how and why and how it
comes to pass helps us learn. One of the things I like to say is studying
prophecy is a good way to get to know God and get to see how He thinks, what He says. And then that's something I've been most pleased
with the opportunity to teach some of the prophecy classes here. As you read through Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel
and all the minor prophets, you get to know God sort of as a person, someone who has feelings,
who has deep love and passion for His people and a God who in Ezekiel, He says, "When Israel
cheated on him," God says, "I was crushed." I remember the first time I saw that I thought,
"God was crushed?" Yeah. God shows, you know, through the prophesy
how He made us in His image. We have emotions because He has emotions. Prophecies are important for that. A third reason and I think this is a huge
reason, we'll see demonstrated in Jeremiah 18 if you'll turn there. Because I think one of the big reasons God
tell… gives prophecy is not to make something come to pass that no one would've guessed,
but maybe sometimes to try to stop things from coming to pass. Another way to say it is God wants to motivate
people to change. He wants to motivate repentance. Jeremiah 18:7, God says, "The instant I speak
concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck it up, pull down and destroy it,
if I warn I'm going to destroy a nation." He says, "If that nation against whom I've
spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster I thought to bring upon it." Conversely, that's the word I wanted. Verse 8, "If that nation against to whom I've
spoken turns from it's evil, I'll relent of the disaster I thought to bring upon it." Oh, I’m glad I said… verse 9, "The instant I speak concerning the
nation concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it, but if it does evil in My sight
so that it does not obey My voice, I'll relent concerning the good with which I would benefit
it." So it can go both ways, but God doesn't want
to punish. How many of you are parents have told your
children, "I don't want to have to spank you, so don't do that, please"? I've said it that way. Sometimes I've said it backwards, "I wish
I didn't have to do this." Anyways, let's go to Ezekiel 33 to show some
of the feeling God feels. I think Ezekiel 33:11, he says it with great
poignancy. I can find it better when I see, Ezekiel 33:11. But what I read in Jeremiah reminds me of
sometimes I remember it as a rhyme. I say, "When man repents, God will relent." He'll relent of the punishment if we will
repent of our evil doing. Ezekiel 33:11, God tells Ezekiel to tell Israel,
"Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.'" God doesn't enjoy punishing, “but that the
wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, O house of Israel?" That's a powerful reason for prophecy. And the next several verses continue that
theme. But I think this should make it clear. Prophecies not about making some unexpected
prediction and then making it come true. Of course, God can do that. He can tell the end from the beginning, but
I think He cares most about us learning His way and motivating us to live by it. That's why there's that certain category of
prophecy that I've begun calling cause and effect prophecies. There's some cases where God says, "Look,
if you do this, that's what's going to happen, but if you do this other thing, this is what
will happen." In computer programming, I've heard that sometimes
called an “If-then statement” or I'll give Mr. Kennebeck credit this morning. I use that and he said, "It's If-then-else." And he says, "Sometimes the else is implied,
but there's causes. There's results from what you do and it could
go the other way." That's what I see in a couple of chapters
of the Bible that we commonly call blessings and cursings. You find them in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy
28. These are specific to Israel. I'm going to go to Deuteronomy 28. It's written with a bit more beautiful poetry,
but the message of both of these chapters are the same. Leviticus 28, Deuteronomy… no, Leviticus
26, Deuteronomy 28. Now, I'm not going to focus so much on the
blessings even though they're the part we like largely because that sermon that I gave
here, however, many months ago it was, I focused on those, which we see at the beginning of
chapter 28. Moses says with God's inspiration, "Now it
shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe
carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set
you high above the nations of the earth." You obey, God will set you up “And these
blessings will come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord
your God.” It's like blessings are going to run you down
from behind and tackle you and you're going to be blessed. You can't help it. That's a great thing and Israel experience
there. I would say in modern times, the nations that
most of us live in, you know, the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh represented primarily
in Britain and United States, we've been blessed like that. And there are several verses describing them. Sadly, it goes the other way though. In verse 15, "It shall come to pass, if you
do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments
and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake
you.” They all run you down. “Cursed it shall you be in the city, and
cursed it shall you be in the country. Cursed it shall be your basket and your kneading
bowl. Cursed it shall be the fruit of your body
and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle, the offspring of your flocks. You'll be cursed when you come in, and cursed
when you go out." And it goes on from there. Have we begun to experience any of those curses? I think some specifics, later on, would lead
us to say yes. If you look in verse 23, "Your heavens which
are over your head shall be bronze, the earth which is under you shall be iron. And the Lord will change the rain of your
land into powder and dust; from heaven it'll come on till you're destroyed." Droughts have come and gone throughout human
history, seems like it's happening more often. It doesn't seem long ago, I'd turn on the
evening news and reporters would be in California showing an image of a little puddle where
they used to be a great vast reservoir. Now that drought came to an end, we don't
seem to have Christ returning yet, but we see results. Look in verse 25, "The Lord will curse you
to be defeated before your enemies." Not following God will bring defeat militarily. "You'll go out one way against them and flee
seven ways." I'll add to that without turning. In Leviticus 26:19 is where God says, "I'll
break the pride of your power." I wonder if there is anything worse than military
defeat. It might be losing the will to even try, and
I wonder how far we've gone that way. Verse 27, "The Lord will strike you with the
boils of Egypt, tumors, the scab, the itch, from what you cannot be healed." We certainly seem to have disease coming more
prevalent. In verse 28, "The Lord will strike you with
madness and blindness and confusion of heart." Especially with the mass shootings that happen,
there's been an emphasis on mental health issues. Certainly, that's become prominent in our
nation. Verse 43, turning the page for me, "The alien
who is among you will rise up higher and higher above you, and you'll come down lower. He'll lend to you, but you won't lend to him;
he’ll be your head, and you shall be the tail." I wouldn't turn this message into a discussion
of immigration. It's been a political football in the United
States lately. Should there be a wall, not a wall, get rid
of immigration and customs enforcement or strengthen it? The fact that it's such a divisive and strong
issue shows that these prophecies are being fulfilled. Our peoples aren't united and the fact that
we're not homogeneous seems to have some effect on that. I've been looking at some of the specifics
we can see happening now. There are other parts of this prophecy that
are also important. They have general application and that's one
of the things I want to show is if we can call these cause and effect, it shows that
they could be fulfilled over and over, more than once. One clearly demonstrates that. I'm still in Deuteronomy 28:49, we're still
in the curses. It says, "The Lord will bring a nation against
you from afar…” and I want to drop down to verse 52, still describing attack from
an enemy nation. It says, "There'll besiege you at all, all
your gates till your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down… They'll besiege you at your gates throughout
all the land which the Lord was given you. You'll eat the fruit of your own body, the
flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege
the desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you." And siege warfare in ancient times worked
out way where city walls were a primary defense. People would close the walls, keep the enemy
out, but no one can go in or out. That means you can't harvest crops. You can't plant. You're relying on just the food you have with
you. And the siege goes long, you start running
out of food. God promised Israel or He predicted that "If
you depart from Me, if you forsake Me, you are going to be in such a bad way. You'll result to cannibalism.” Surely not. No, it's happened. If you'll turn to 2 Kings 6 we'll see an example
of it in Israel's history. This one we know happened because it's described
in Scripture. 2 Kings 6:24, as I said, think this as an
example of cause and effect prophecy. In verse 24, "It happened after this that
Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria; indeed
besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, a fourth of
a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver." I don't know how much a kab of dove dropping
is but eating waste from birds shows they were pretty desperate for food, eating, you
know, a donkey's head. And then it got worse. In verse 26 says, "The king of Israel was
passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him saying, ‘Help, O my lord, my lord
O king!’” Now, he made reference. "Well, God doesn't help you. What can I do?" But in verse 28, "He says, 'What's troubling
you?' She answered, 'This woman,’" and apparently,
her neighbor or friends said, “Give your son, that we may eat him today, we'll eat
my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son and ate him. I said to her the next day, 'Give your son
that we may eat him’; but she's hidden her son." So she's coming to court to sue so that they
can eat the other woman's son. That's pretty horrendous. This is a fulfillment, a direct fulfillment
of a prophecy of Deuteronomy, and I'd like to say it was a one-time event, but it's not. I brought up one of the volumes from my copy
of the works of Josephus if you're familiar, Josephus was a Jewish person that lived in
the Roman era and he turned to support the Romans and he wrote extensively about Jewish
history, his antiquities of the Jews. It could be called a summary of the Old Testament. He wrote on the wars of the Jews, some say
he introduced the Jewish people to Rome and Roman culture and he describes in a book called
The Wars of the Jews some of what happened when they fought, and I skip ahead. This is in Wars of the Jews book seven, no,
book six, chapter three. I know you're pulling out your copy of Josephus
to follow along. But I highlighted some. This is talking about the Roman siege of Jerusalem. It says, "Now of those that perished by famine
in the city, the number was prodigious, the miseries they underwent… a food," oh wait,
"the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; if for a so much of a shadow of any kind of
food did appear, a war commenced." Further down, it says, "Their hunger was so
intolerable that didn't oblige them to chew everything. They gathered such things as the most sorted
animals would not touch and endured to eat them." It said, "They didn't abstain from eating
their girdles and their shoes. The leather from their shields they pulled
off and gnawed." And then he addresses a certain woman whose
name was Mary, her father Eleazar and say she was from a very eminent family, wealthy,
but it fled to Jerusalem and the siege. Dropping down it says, "It was now become
impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her
very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself;
nor did she consult with any thing but with her passion." So it says further down, she says to her son,
“'Come on; be you my food, and be you a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word…
which has come to all not wanting to be complete the calamities of us Jews.’ And as soon as she said this, she slew her
son, and roasted him, and ate one half of him, kept the other half by her concealed.” That's not from Bible. It's a secular historian reading… writing
about one of the most horrible things we could ever consider. And I wrote in my notes, why would I read
you such horrid things? It's because they've happened. God has… it's fulfilled prophecy. God said, "That's what will happen if you
wander from Me." That's the result of the descendants of Israel
disobeying their God. Leads me to wonder, how are we doing now? What direction are we going in? You know our governments, city, state, national
seem to be growing more corrupt. In our public schools, there's contempt for
even teaching that there is a God, much less praying to Him or teaching His ways. Many people in the world, not all, but we
see a growing trend towards people being self-centered, seeking pleasure, physical gratification. It seems that some of the cause and effect
prophecies are being fulfilled. Seems inevitable that others will happen. Now, that leads to the question. Okay, what other ones do we look for? Some Bible scholars say, "Well, yeah, they've
all been fulfilled. The Old Testament sums it up. We're in the New Testament era. Don't worry about it.” But one thing that makes me say no, maybe
we should be aware, is the concept of dual fulfillment of prophecy. Now, if you've been in the Church for very
long, you've heard of the concept of dual prophecy. I grew up with it so much so that I was surprised
when I started studying on a scholarly basis preparing to teach class. I was surprised to learn that some Bible scholars
say “There's no such thing as dual prophecy. That's ridiculous.” And I thought, well, I could see where they
might, well, for one thing, they don't want to see this as applying to us today. And I've heard some claims of some scriptures
being prophecy that a common-sense reading doesn't necessarily imply that I've seen things
written by people inside and outside of the Church saying, "Well, there's going to be
another fulfillment of this." And my thought is, "Okay, what evidence do
you have other than you want it to be so?" That doesn't mean it's not, but how do we
know there's such a thing as dual prophecy? If I'm going to claim a lot of the point of
the sermon on that, I should be able to back it up by Scripture. And of course, since I raised the question,
you might think, yes he can. I want to turn to Matthew 17. Because as it turns out, Jesus Christ made
a strong support for the idea of dual prophecy, dual fulfillment of prophecy. And Matthew 17, the chapter begins with Him
taking Peter, James, and John up to a mountain where they saw Him transfigure. They saw an image of His glory in a vision. And as they came down, He said, "Keep this
private. Don't tell anybody about this vision until
the Son of Man is resurrected." Resurrected, that means when Messiah comes
in power, right? So they had a question, wait a minute before
you can come in power. In verse 10 “His disciples asked Him, saying,
‘Why then do the scribe say that Elijah must come first?’" There's a prophecy that says, "Before Messiah
comes, Elijah will come." Matter of fact, it's one we've quoted many
times in the Church. It's in Malachi 4:5, you can note it. It basically says, "Behold, I'll send you
Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And we sang earlier in the service. “He'll turn the hearts of the children to
their fathers, hearts of the fathers to their children.” That prophecy was only given once. So the disciples say, "Yeah, Christ, before
You do Your work as Messiah, doesn't Elijah have to come?" Matthew 17:11, “Jesus answered and said,
'Indeed, Elijah is coming first. Will restore all things.’" So He's saying in a future tense, this prophecy
will be fulfilled, but now for this kicker, "But I say to you Elijah has come already." Now, it's been fulfilled, it will be fulfilled. Again, dual prophecy is the idea of an early
fulfillment, but then a later, larger, more thorough fulfillment. I think I failed to define my terms earlier. It says, "Elijah has come already, they didn't
know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer
at their hands. Then the disciples understood that He spoke
to them of John the Baptist.” So John the Baptist fulfill that prophecy. But Christ makes it clear it's going to be
fulfilled again later. Luckily, we don't have to decide who's going
to do it. Will it be a man, a culmination, a church? We just see the concept of dual prophecy. Without turning and reading the Scriptures,
I'll mention another one that the New Testament helps us to understand as a prophecy that's
found in Joel 2 where it says, you know, “I'll pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and your
young men will see visions, your old men will prophesy…” This is what happens when I don't turn, you
know, but there's also a prophecy of the sun and moon turning to blood. And it's obviously end-time. In Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit was poured
out on that fateful Pentecost, when God… when Jesus Christ started the church in earnest,
and of course speaking in tongues led passersby to say, "These guys are drunk." Peter said, "They're not drunk. It's only 9:00 o'clock in the morning." This is a fulfillment of what Joel wrote. And he quotes that prophecy, but we would
say, "Was all the prophecy fulfilled?" While for one thing, the moon didn't turn
to blood and the sun dark, the Spirit wasn't poured out yet on all flesh. What happened in 31 AD was a lesser early
fulfillment. But we look forward to a greater fulfillment,
a dual prophecy. And that tells us, okay, there is such a dual
thing, dual prophecy. How do we know which prophecies will have
a second fulfillment and which ones won't? That's the trick. We can't be a hundred percent certain. Unfortunately, they're not printed in red
in our Bible, the Masoretic texts doesn't have them marked. So, in some cases, we can look for what we
might consider cause and effect prophecy. As I said, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28
describe Israel when they turn from God being conquered, and that happened. Read the book of Judges. And they disobeyed, God sends oppressors. They cry out to God, "Save us." He sends a judge, they're delivered. Once they're delivered, they're comfortable,
they turn away from God, sends a nation, oppresses them, "God save us." Then the cycle goes on. Matter of fact, in the book of Nehemiah 9
is a great summary of Israel's history. So I won't turn there, but in Nehemiah 9:26-27
describes that. And I would say that cycle could be seen as
continuing into the future. When Israel at its height under David and
then Solomon proceeded to turn away and forsake the true God, eventually He allowed the Assyrians
to conquer the northern kingdom, Babylon to conquer the southern kingdom, But according to the promises of God gave
Abraham, I believe that later, centuries later, perhaps about the beginning of the 18th century,
God revive those blessings, and we've been enjoying them. We've been living in a time of wealth, prosperity. But our peoples don't seem to be obeying God
the way we'd like. If you join me in Isaiah 1, I'll read just
a little bit of some conditions that applied in ancient Israel and we might make a case
seem to apply now. Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O heavens, give your ear,
O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I've nourished
and brought up children, but they've rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner the donkey
its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people doesn't consider.’ Alas, a sinful nation, of people laden with
iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors! They've forsaken the Lord, provoked to anger
the Holy One of Israel." I have some others I was going to read, but
I don't want to take the time, but I think we can see in numerous prophecies where God
describes what happened in ancient Israel and the punishment that He said would come. We could debate about whether or not they're
dual prophecies, but we could easily see, well, the bad conditions seem to be here now,
perhaps some of the punishment will be. There are also numerous prophecies that seem
to indicate, and I think pretty clearly indicate therefore the end time. Some of them are not dual, they just haven't
been fulfilled yet. If you're with me in Isaiah 1, turn ahead
to Jeremiah, next book, in chapter 30. I want to go to Jeremiah 30 and we'll break
in, start with chapter 5. Many of Jeremiah's prophecy seem clearly to
be for the end-time, and I believe much of this one is. By end-time I mean when just before Christ
returns, when all the world is going to change. Chapter 5, ‘Thus,” no, sorry, chapter
30 verse 5, "Thus says the Lord, the Eternal: 'We've heard a voice of trembling, a fear,
and not peace. Ask now, and see, does a man ever in labor
with a child?’" No, and I'll answer that, no, men don't give
birth. "But why do I see every man with his hands
on his loins like a woman in labor, all faces turned pale?” Why do they look this way? “Alas! That day is great, so there is none like it,"
remember, what we saw in the Olivet prophesy, no time like it before and never ever will
be again. We'll see another reference. “It's the time of Jacob's trouble,” okay,
so now we see a reference out of the midst of what the Olivet prophecy describes showing,
oh, Israel has a place in this. "It's the time of Jacob's trouble, but he'll
be saved out of it." That's encouraging. “'It'll come to pass in that day,’ says
the Lord of hosts, ‘I'll break his yoke from your neck,’” that is the oppressor's
yolk off the necks of the people of Israel. "I'll burst your bonds; foreigners shall no
more enslave them." Remember that cycle, oppressors come, then
they turn to God, He delivers them. And that cycle is repeated at the end of this
age, it's indicating a foreigners is going to not oppress Israel again after the end
of the age, there must be oppression. Just like the time of… as the time of Jacob's
trouble has him being saved out of it, he's got to first be in it, to be in that time
of trouble. Verse 9, "They shall serve the Lord their
God, and David their king, who I'll raise up." Here's another indication. This is talking about the resurrection of
the saints. That only happens after Christ returns. This is an end-time prophecy. As I said, foreigners, other nations have
enslaved Israelites in the past. Specifically, the Assyrians did it around
720 BC, the Babylonians about 585. I'm saying about, we can discuss years here
or there, but this is speaking of a time such that there is none like it. Daniel says something similar. If you go to Daniel 10:14, now, this is the
case where Daniel is fasting and praying and asking God to give understanding of some visions
and some prophecies he wants to understand and God sends an angel. And the angel speaking to Daniel and he says,
"I've come to make you understand what will happen to your people when in the latter days,
the vision refers to many days yet to come.” And this will proceed into the prophecy that
we see mostly in Daniel 11, the longest, most detailed prophecy in the Bible that spans
centuries. And near the end, it takes a leap to the end-time. And that's where I want to leap all the way
past chapter 11 and all that detail to chapter 12 as it comes to a summary. Daniel 12:1, "At that time," and that's a
phrase that often refers to end-time prophecy. "At that time Michael shall stand up, the
great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time." Again, this pegs where we're at, there's only
one worst time ever. "And at that time your people shall be delivered,
every one who is found written in a book. Many of those who sleep in the dust shall
awake." So we're talking about deliverance for Israel. We're talking about a resurrection. This is the time of the end. Check back with as a Trumpets. We'll talk more about these things. If you will, I want to go back to the major
prophets to remind us. So, some of what we're seeing, I said, could
Israel have stopped being a major player on the world scene before these great plagues? The answer seems to be yes. It seems to be Israel will have turned from
God so much to be punished terribly. I'm going to Isaiah 10. Funny so much that the modern nations of Israel
don't warrant much mention in the Olivet prophecy or in Revelation, but they're not gone and
they're not done yet. Isaiah 10:23… oh, actually Isaiah 10:20. Helps if I put on my glasses, "It shall come
to pass in that day," again, that's a reference that often means end-time prophecy, "that
the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend
on him who defeated them, but will depend on the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the
sand of the sea." Remember what we read at the beginning of
this in Genesis 22, God promised Abraham “his descendants would be like the stars in the
heaven, the sand of the sea,” this references that. I'll say, "Yeah, you were as the sand of the
sea, but a remnant of them will return." A vast majority seem to no longer be alive
by the time Christ returns, but “a remnant will return; the destruction decreed shall
overflow with righteousness." Much of what we know about what happens with
Israel in this end time, we learn from God saying, “I’m not going to bring it to
a complete end. I'm yet going to have mercy. I'm going to bring back the remnant." But that tells us Israel has to get into that
state first. If you will, let's go to a Jeremiah 30. And I'll apologize, I might go a fraction
over here. I thought because of our wonderful team talks
didn't go so long I had extra time, but I got windy. Jeremiah 30:24, "The fierce anger of the Lord
will not return till He's done it, until He's performed the intents of His heart. In the latter days you'll consider it." So we're looking at the last days. "'At that time,' says the Lord, 'I'll be the
God of all the families of Israel, and they'll be My people.' Thus says the Lord: 'The people who survived
the sword,'" referencing perhaps a war that many don't survive, "but the people who survive
found grace in the wilderness— Israel, when I went to give him rest," that's encouraging. Let's go to verse 7, if you will, in the same
chapter. "Thus says the Lord: 'Sing with gladness for
Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord,
save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’ Behold, I'll bring them from the north country,
gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind, the lame, the woman with child
and the one who labors with child together; a great throng will return there." Is the wilderness symbolic? Possibly, or if the children of Israel have
been defeated and scattered, taken away as slaves. I don't want to speculate too much. But this seems to describe the state of Israel
after perhaps being involved in a war, and if so, it seems to be a war that those peoples
don't win. They suffer defeat. That's kind of rough. And we see a lot of prophecies describing
that type of thing. Some of the things we described with prophecies
talk about starvation, city's laid waste, great destruction. It sounds like a sci-fi movie. Matter of fact, I think it's because of modern
movies and the special effects that are possible, that's one of the only ways that I can envision
this. And I think, "Yeah, maybe some things will
happened I wouldn't have envisioned." You know, when I was younger, you know, a
teenager, I thought, "Could Nazis storm and invade America and conquer us? That seemed far-fetched.” But now I think, "Could terrorist ignite in
electromagnetic pulse over one of our cities. If they lose power, all computers go down. How long would our mass cities survive? Would people turn against each other? Could we be subjugated and made, in essence,
slaves without being out of our land?" I asked these as questions not knowing for
sure the answer, but it's something to say. Israel is going to suffer. I think that seems to be the case, but it's
important to know that's not the end of everything that is. You know, if the nations, you know, the English-speaking
peoples represent the descendants of Israel and if the blessings and cursings chapter
is applied to us, as I said, we need to ask, how are we doing? Are we earning blessings? Are we earning curses? What we've read is sobering, but that's not
all there is, and that's why I'm going to go a couple minutes over because we saw some
prophecies of God bringing them back from the north country, from the east country,
of those people having repentance and turning to God. A chapter earlier back in Jeremiah 30:11 one
of my favorites, actually, I have this written and posted in my office so I can read it regularly. God says to Israel, “'I'm with you… I’m with you,' says the Lord, 'to save you;
though I make a full end of all nations where I've scattered you, yet I will not make a
complete end of you. I'll correct you with justice, and will not
let you go altogether unpunished.'" But there is that phrase, I like to call it
“the great yet I” because God’s… that symbolizes God's mercy, His unfailing love. “Yeah, you'll be punished, you will suffer
yet I'm going to redeem you. I'm going to restore you.” Not long after the time of Jacob's trouble
and the world gets a new start. I read many prophecies of bad things, but
what I didn't read as many times after there you read the prophecies that reread during
the Feast of Tabernacles. Wonderful Millennial prophecies of the population
growing, of the harvest, outlasting, you know, the reapers overtaking the sowers or was it
the other way around. And wines on the lees and a Feast of fat things
and every, you know, the street's full of boys and girls playing. And we might need to include in our message
the warning of what happens when people fall away from God and don't obey. Yeah, it's some of the sad things we have
to talk about. But we also, and primarily, we proclaim the
good news of the coming Kingdom of God. And that's a sure thing for Israel and for
all the world. I love the way Darris McNeely says it, "God
has unfinished business with Israel. Israel has a place in these prophecies." And I think it's largely as an instrument
to bring peace and happiness and education to all nations. And we're going to see that happen when the
time of the Millennium comes. I get excited about the fall Holy Days are
coming when we focus on these things. You know, we don't always emphasize some of
these frightening prophecies that are going to… of what's going to befall the modern
descendants of Israel. They're not fun to contemplate. As I said, it has to be part of our message. But also part of our message is that God is
merciful, God is loving. When He says, "My purpose will stand," His
purpose is to redeem, His purpose is to bring the captives back. And many prophecies show that's going to happen. When people repent, God will relent of the
punishment. There's coming a time of great peace and happiness. You know, after the darkness, the better time. So, I'll tell you one of the things when I
read these, I pray and I ask God, "Please make the time of Jacob's trouble pass swiftly. Please let the time of Your mercy also come
swiftly, and please I pray that that will be so."
