S E R M O N S

We come now to the fourth and final discourse on Israel and Bible prophecy. I know some of you would like for me to continue this on and on, and I will assure you that from time to time I will add things, but I think it would be appropriate to wrap this up today. We will be looking in a few minutes primarily in Revelation chapter 11. But I've got a number of other passages that we will look at before we get there.

By way of introduction, I've noticed on the news even this week, how people are constantly asking the question, why such global, perennial, antisemitism? What on earth is causing this? And nobody really has an answer. Why are there so many brainwashed fools on Tik Tok siding with Osama bin Laden? How can that possibly be? Why such hatred, of according to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest minority in the world? According to the Pew Research Center, there are 14 million Jews around the world and they represent 0.2% of the global population. Why such hatred of these people? And how did the Jewish Phoenix spread its wings and rise out of the ashes of the Holocaust to become one of the most prosperous and powerful nations on the planet? How can that be, despite overwhelming odds against them? And of course, the big one is, so what's the solution for all of this? Is this really a land dispute? A two-state solution will solve it all? Nobody could be that naive, and yet some are. But to be sure, there is no consensus. There is no compelling explanation or answer.

And then the final question that really nobody's asking, except they will think it in their mind is simply this, what will the future of Israel be? Well, given the last three discourses that came from this pulpit, hopefully you will be able to answer all of those questions from a biblical, theological and prophetic perspective that you will be able to explain in general, where the world is heading, including Israel. The outline that I gave you really has five parts. We look number one it God's choice of Israel. Secondly, Satan's hatred of Israel. Thirdly, God's judgment on Israel. Fourthly, God's protection of Israel. And now today we're going to look at God's salvation, and restoration of Israel.

And of course, all of this is consistent with the promises that God gave to his covenant people Israel, through Abraham, through Isaac, Jacob, through David and certainly the terms of the New Covenant. In fact, God promised their eventual salvation and restoration. To Moses in Deuteronomy four, beginning in verse 30, "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them." And again, through the prophet Ezekiel, God heralds a future spiritual regeneration for Israel when they are gathered from among the nations. Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 24, "'For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people and I will be your God.’” Likewise through the prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 37, beginning in verse 21, "'"Thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.'"'" And then in verse 23, "'They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people and I will be their God.'"

Now, let me take you back to last week. And by the way, if you haven't been with us in the three previous discourses, some of this may be foreign to you. So I would encourage you to go back and to listen to those and that way you will be able to get caught up. But I want to go back to the discussion about God's pre- kingdom judgments, and God's protection of Israel, which is ultimately going to lead to the final point in our little outline that we'll look at today, with respect to God's salvation and restoration of Israel. As I said before, I believe that it's possible that the battle of Gog and Magog could be fought prior to the tribulation. I favor this view, but no one can be certain of its timing. But certainly we know it's going to happen. And this, plus the rapture of the church, will thrust the world into absolute chaos. That will bring in the first Seal Judgment that we read in Revelation six, the Antichrist will arise at that point, and he will make a covenant with Israel, a peace treaty, he will be a leader that will arise out of that vacuum of leadership in the world. And at that point, the Muslim nations will be left virtually without political clout. And this will allow the Jews to rebuild the third temple, something that they're terrified to do now. And what's fascinating, as we think about how God is going to save a very unregenerate Israel, and restore them, what we see is that immediately upon the removal of the saints, in that great snatching away, God is going to raise up two witnesses in Jerusalem, to preach the gospel. And we were going to see this in Revelation 11 in a moment. In fact, Paul tells us in Second Thessalonians, two and verse seven, "he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." "He who now restrains," meaning he who prevents the Antichrist from functioning, will do so until "he," I believe referring to the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way. And may I remind you, that God will always provide for himself a witness somewhere on Earth, even as he did in the days of Noah.

So God will raise up two witnesses in Jerusalem immediately after the rapture of the church, and their preaching will obviously be sound theology, that will be the model for, according to Revelation seven, for the "144,000 seal from every tribe of the sons of Israel." So there's going to be the greatest evangelistic campaign in the history of the world during that time. And all of these 144,000, along with the two witnesses, will be proclaiming the gospel. And they are going to teach obviously the gospel, the finished work of Christ and the absolute necessity of the infinite and eternal efficacy of his shed blood for spiritual salvation. At that time, they will remind the Jews that Moses, and all of the prophets, taught that salvation is always a matter of the heart, and cannot be obtained through the blood of bulls and goats. And they will explain how the New Covenant principles actually existed even before the Old Covenant fulfilled its temporary purpose. But they will also remind them that the new covenant will include, as we read in Scripture, a holy place in Jerusalem. An altar for animal sacrifices; a Zadokian priesthood and a Melchizedekian high priest; you read this in Ezekiel 40, through 48. And so we know that the Jews during the time of the tribulation, the pre kingdom judgments, also known as Daniel's 70th week, will build a Third Temple. And at that point, they will reinstitute legitimate sacrifices on a Jerusalem altar, as a memorial of what Christ has done, as well as an outward corporate purification, a sanctification, ceremonial sanctification, as was the case in the Old Testament Levitical system. But that will not--the temple that they will build that the Antichrist will desecrate--will not be the fourth and final temple, the millennial temple that will be built when the Lord returns.

But the Antichrist now is going to allow all of this as part of the peace covenant with Israel. And according to Daniel 9:27, we read that, "in the middle of the week," that's a week of seven years, "he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering." And he will kill the two witnesses that that are proclaiming the gospel, and he will claim to be God, this is the abomination of desolations, which brings Jesus warning in Matthew 24:16, "'Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.'"

Now more on these two witnesses, and here we come to Revelation 11. And again, this is to help you have a little better understanding of God's promise to save and restore Israel. And I might offer a word of caution here. I mean, whenever we come to the prophetic literature, it's important to have a hermeneutic that honors the authorial intent, and the context and the language of the passage. So therefore, we want to embrace just the normal meaning of language and avoid the temptation to try to reinterpret or redefine or spiritualize the kingdom message. I have a great aversion to those, many that I love and respect, who would say, "Well, I know that's what God said, but that can't be what he meant, so let me tell you what he meant." A literal interpretation, consistent with the original message, and intent of the Old Testament authors will demonstrate that the New Testament does not transform, or somehow transcend the Old Testament storyline, but rather, it is a continuation of it. It all fits together. And we want to be very careful because to somehow reinterpret the plain meaning of an unambiguous text will inevitably do violence to the plain meaning of that text. And so as we approach these passages with that type of a hermeneutic, we will also see that Daniel's 70th week, and the millennial kingdom, is distinctively Jewish, pertaining to Israel, not to the church. Even the many components of the Old Testament Sabbath will be reinstituted. And this will continue into Messiah's reign. You see, the removal of the church will set into motion, the consummation, and the culmination of Israel, not the church. The church has been taken out and the Israelite components of the new covenant will produce the perfect blending of heart regeneration unto eternal life along with the distinctive Israelite theocratic functions that God has promised. And of course, this is going to be very foreign to us. Because when we think of worship, we think of the church and how we do worship here. But it's going to be radically different in the millennial kingdom. So you must bear in mind that what God does with Israel in the theocratic kingdom, will have unique purposes, I should say, within Israel. Moreover, as we will see, this will be God's way of taking the, quote, "natural branches” of Romans 11, referring to Israel, and the ones that were broken off during the church age and grafting them back into the tree of Abrahamic blessing.

So with that background, that introduction, we come to Revelation 11. These two witnesses, I'm going to hit kind of the highlights here, the first two verses, we see that the Jews were measured, or marked off, as belonging to God, and those whom He will preserve and protect during the final 42 months, or three and a half years of the tribulation. While the Gentiles, whom he does not claim, as his own will, quote, "tread underfoot the holy city." And they will do that under the leadership of the Antichrist. But then what we see is God raising up these two preachers with supernatural powers, who will be able to counter the prophetic signs and wonders of the False Prophet. And you can read about those particularly in Revelation 13, verses 11 and following. And the goal of his campaign, obviously, is to deify the Antichrist. Now, since the Antichrist is the final ruler, in the, quote, "times of the Gentiles," he will be ruling over a revived Roman Empire group of European nations. And this whole scene is going to, frankly recapitulate the vile symbiotic relationship between Satan and the ancient Gentile rulers that we've seen down through recorded history, along with their puppet priests and prophets that serve them to accomplish all of their nefarious purposes.

As a footnote, because I know some of you are going to ask, and I won't get into all of it, but I believe there's compelling evidence that the Antichrist will be a Gentile, and the false prophet will be a Jew, not a Gentile. But even as the ancient rulers of Rome, once controlled the masses, both politically and religiously, once again, Satan will continue this strategy under the rule of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. So the Lord raises up these two witnesses, of his saving grace, as well as of his escalating wrath. And these two powerful creatures will become a thorn in the flesh to the Antichrist and the False Prophet. So I want to look at verses three through 14, here under three categories, we're going to see their magnificent ministry, their morbid death, and finally their miraculous resurrection.

So first of all, let's look at their magnificent ministry, verse three, "'And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.'" You know, it is fitting for God to offset the false signs and wonders of the antichrist and the false prophets, so God raises these men up. And you have to remember as well that biblically, a testimony must be validated by two witnesses. And here "witnesses" is the plural of "martys;" we get our English word "martyr" from this. And indeed they will be martyred for their testimony, and we read that, "they will prophesy." Prophesy means "to preach" or "to proclaim, to speak forth." You must understand that New Testament prophesying is forth telling, not foretelling. And these two witnesses will proclaim the gospel, they're going to warn about further judgment coming out upon the earth; they're going to warn about an eternal hell. And they're going to do this, it says, for "1260 days," that's the final three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week. And I must add that this parallels the apostolic witness in the Second Temple, in Acts five and verse 20, where the angel of the Lord, you will recall, opens the gates of the prison, and he commanded them to quote, "Go your way, stand and speak to the people in the temple, the whole message of this Life." So that's going to happen here again.

Now I want you to notice in verse three, they were "clothed in sackcloth." This, of course is coarse cloth made of camel hair, or goat hair, often accompanied with ashes, worn by men, as well as women, in times of great distress. And it was worn by the prophets to call attention to some great wickedness amongst the people in the society, and to call them to repentance. Or sometimes it was to warn them of imminent judgment and punishment, as we saw, for example, in the days of Elijah, or in the days of John the Baptist. And all of this is part of what we see happening here. Plus, this was the proper Jewish response to intense grief. They did this for example, when they mourned the desecration of the temple. And this is going to happen again; they're going to mourn what's going on in the temple; what the Antichrist is doing, his tyranny. And of course, many Jews, as well as many Gentiles, who have come to faith in Christ will be massacred, while others have fled into the wilderness for protection. And remember, once the Antichrist enters into the Holy of Holies of the temple, and blasphemously establishes himself as God, the temple complex, along with the entire land of Israel, will be thrust into a state of ritual defilement. However, restoration and purification can only be accomplished by the Messiah, who will return physically. And at that point, he will defeat the desecrator he will cleanse the land and he will finally rebuild and consecrate the temple.

So verse four, "These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth." Now taken out of context, you wonder what the world is that mean? Well, John would have understood precisely what he was hearing. John would have known the background of this statement, one that Zechariah had prophesied almost 600 years earlier. You read about it and Zechariah four and there the Lord predicted the rebuilding of the Jewish temple, after their long exile, and it would be led by two men, the high priest Joshua, who was the spiritual leader, and Zerubbabel, who was the civil leader. And there we read of the same symbols as here in Revelation 11, " two olive trees and two lampstands." That symbolic of the oil of the Holy Spirit's power that would perpetually fuel the lamps of divine truth pertaining to saving grace. In Zechariah four six we read, "'Not by might nor by power, but my by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." And then Zechariah four, verse 14, we read how Joshua and Zerubbabel are described as, quote, "the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth." But like most prophecies, what we have in that text is both a near and a far fulfillment; as we see here in Revelation 11, for "these are the two olive trees, and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth," which is almost an exact quote of Zechariah four verse 14. The near future fulfillment of that prophecy was when the two witnesses were raised up as the lampstands of God shining for the light of saving truth. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit in those days to bring spiritual revival to Israel and rebuild the post exilic temple. The far future (cough "excuse me"), fulfillment is when these two witnesses are once again raised up in Revelation 11. They will shine forth the light of truth. Men empowered by the Holy Spirit not by demonic spirits; men, who will bring spiritual revival to Israel resulting in national conversion whereupon the Lord himself will establish his earthly kingdom and build his millennial temple.

Now, who are these men? Well, there's lots of speculation; can't be dogmatic. But I believe the most compelling evidence points to Elijah and Moses in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, Moses prophesied that the quote, "'Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your own countrymen, you shall listen to him.'" And then in verse 18, the Lord said, "'I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.’” And to this day, the Jews are convinced the prophet will be Moses himself. Malachi four, verse five, "Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.'" And we know that John the Baptist came, did he not? He came Luke 1:17, he came "'in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready people prepared for the Lord.'" But this does not necessarily preclude Elijah from appearing again. So we know both Moses and Elijah were fearless prophets that boldly confronted the tyrants of their day, preached the Word of God without compromise. And both Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, where you will recall the Lord peeled back his flesh in some miraculous way, and allowed the effulgence of his glorious Shekinah, to burst forth, to blaze forth a preview of Second Coming glory.

And it's also fascinating to note that the miracles performed by the two witnesses during this three and a half years are very similar to the ones performed by God through Moses and Elijah. They will be able to destroy their enemies with fire, we read, and that's what Elijah did, you will recall, he called down fire from heaven. Revelation 11, verse six, "These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying." And we know that in First Kings 17 that's what Elijah did, he pronounced a three-and-a-half-year drought on the land, the same period of time as the two witnesses here in Revelation. Again, verse six, "and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they desire." And likewise, we know that Moses turned the waters of the Nile into blood, he performed numerous plagues against Egypt. And finally, another thing that caused me to think that these two witnesses that God will raise up will be Moses and Elijah, is because these two witnesses will be supernaturally translated into heaven. In similar fashion, as Elijah, for example, who never physically died, but was taken into heaven, in a fiery chariot. And God himself buried Moses, secretly disposing of his body. And likewise, God himself will intervene, we know in some supernatural way with the departure of the two witnesses, even as he did with Moses and Elijah. But again, the text doesn't specifically identify them, so we cannot know for sure we can only speculate.

Well, we learned more about their magnificent ministry in verse five of the Revelation 11, "And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if anyone would desire to harm them in this manner, he must be killed." So by implication, many will desire to harm them. And, folks, this makes perfect sense. Think how people today hate the bold proclamation of the truth of the gospel. And it's going to be worse during the time of the tribulation because we read from the text that during that time, there's going to be these unimaginable plagues in the trumpet and the bowl judgments. Men and women are going to be crying out for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them, according to Revelation six and verse 16. and hide them "from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of the wrath has come." So they're going to know who is causing all of this. And it's not going to be Satan, it's going to be God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of the Lamb. And isn't it amazing, even at that, they will not repent. So by now the people of the world have rallied behind their new messiah, the Antichrist, they're mindlessly obeying him and worshipping him, and their disdain for anyone that would dare to preach Christ would exceed all other hatred combined. So these preachers will need to be able to protect themselves. Enemies who are going to attack them, and fire from their mouth will devour or consume them. And of course, this will only fuel the world's rage against them.

Verse six, "These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying." That's going to be three and a half years. "And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth and every plague as often as they desire." And what's fascinating here is, remember that in the third trumpet judgment, God is going to poison a third of the world's fresh water supply. So now, on top of that, you have a three-and-a-half-year drought, which will result in just unimaginable catastrophic terror upon the earth; life on the planet will begin to grind to a halt. And the world will know that all of this is because of the wrath of the Lamb. And yet these invincible indefatigable preachers are preaching that very lamb; so they will hate him, they will hate them.

We moved from their magnificent ministry to their morbid death, verse seven. And, "When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss, will make war with them and overcome them and kill them." I might add that this is the first time we are introduced to the beast in the apocalypse. The "beast"-- "therion" in the original language; a term describing a vicious carnivore, a beast of prey like a lion or like a tiger. And so this is referring to an animal with a ravenous appetite that functions basically out of instinct; cruel, violent. And this will be the nature of the Antichrist, who is called the beast I might add, 36 times. More of him in chapter 13 and chapter 17.

And notice it comes up "out of the abyss." This is mentioned seven times in Revelation. And it describes a mysterious subterranean cavern on Earth that extends into the bowels of the earth through some kind of a shaft that God has sealed shut for the purpose of incarcerating the most vile demons. You can read more about this in chapter nine, under the fifth trumpet. Now I might add that this is not Satan who's represented by a dragon but rather, a man empowered by the demonic forces released from the abyss and that's, of course, the Antichrist. So here we learn that after the divinely decreed duration of their ministry, God allows the Antichrist to finally overcome them, and to kill them to the utter jubilation of the world. Verse eight, "And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified." Obviously, this is a reference to Jerusalem, which will be the primary staging area of their ministry, as well as I might add, the headquarters of the Antichrist, as we read in Second Thessalonians two. The city will be so infected with evil by now and wickedness that it is likened to Sodom and the original enemy of Israel, the nation of Egypt. The figurative likeness of these two places underscores just the loathsome depths to which the Holy City has now fallen. And so what we have here is a ghoulish, macabre scene, just kind of beyond anything that we can imagine. However, what we've seen with respect to what Hamas has done to those in Israel, gives us a little glimpse of this.

In verse nine, we read, "Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations," which by the way, is a technical term for the Gentile world, "will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth." My friends, can there be any greater demonstration of rejection than this? Obviously, the world is watching, and we know because of technology, that would be an easy thing to do. At this point, all of the politicians and all of the news anchors and all of the rioters that we see today, they're going to be rejoicing. I mean, this is going to be Christmas and Mardi Gras rolled into one. It's ironic, the whole Gentile world will celebrate the death of those who came to give them eternal life. Apparently great throngs of people are going to assemble to see this barbaric display. You know, within two to three days decomposing corpses will begin to bloat and omit the putrid odors of future fraction. And while this is going on, the wicked are going to be laughing. They're going to be celebrating the prowess of the Antichrist, and in their minds the defeat of Christ. But what they do not know is that the King of kings and the Lord of lords is about to return, in vengeance and in glory.

Notice what happens, thirdly, in the miraculous resurrection, verse 11, and 12. And "after three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them. And they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who are beholding them." That's got to be one of the greatest understatements in all of the Bible. "And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them." Can you imagine what the news anchors are going to say when this happens? Suddenly, these decomposing bodies returned to their original state and they stand up. There's no record that they said or did anything. All they did is respond to the divine summons, "Come up here." And they're caught up in the clouds. It reminds me of First Thessalonians 4:17 where we will be quote, "caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord." Some of us will refer to this as the two-man rapture. You know, you might want to ask the question, Well, I wonder why God didn't allow them, at that point, to start preaching the gospel again? You know, why did he just take them up? I mean, talk about having their undivided attention. The answer, dear friends, is because by this time, their fate has already been judicially sealed. God has sealed them in their unbelief. And it would be useless to present the gospel to them. The day of grace is over, judgment has come.

You know, I might add that, throughout Scripture, we see that it is the convicting work of the Spirit, not signs and wonders, that brings people to a place of genuine saving faith. Jesus said in Luke 16:31, "'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'" Right? Now notice what else happens in verse 13. "And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a 10th of the city fell; 7000 people were killed in the earthquake." 7000 people or could be translated persons, in fact in the Greek it's "onoma anthropon." And it's really means "names of men." And this unusual expression is thought to refer, and again, you can't be dogmatic here, but it probably refers to 7000, prominent men or leaders who served with the Antichrist there in his headquarters. And then we read, "and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." And this is a reference primarily to the Jews that will still be--some of them--will still be inhabiting the eastern part of Jerusalem, in the region of the temple; ones that will be saved at that moment.

You know, whenever I think of these things, a couple of things goes through my mind. One is how this is an amazing picture of God's mercy and grace on me, a sinner, the one that deserves nothing, who rebelled against him and yet by the power of his love, and his mercy and his grace, the Spirit of God wrought new life within me and saved me, even as he will, his covenant people. And then I'm also reminded of God's promise to that end, in Romans 11, beginning in verse one, Paul says, "God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!" And in verse four, we read, "But what is the divine response to him?" He says, "'I have kept for myself 7000 men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal'. In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice." And then in verse 26, we read, "the partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved."

Now, this section was really an interlude between the seventh trumpet in the final bowl judgments that will immediately precede Christ's return and at this point, this interlude ends actually in verse 14, it says, "the second woe is past, the third woe is coming quickly." So just by way of just a quick recap, they build the temple, the Antichrist desecrates the temple, God raises up these witnesses, they are murdered, and all of this is going to be followed by the terror of the Gentiles and devastating earthquake. And all of this points to the coming of Christ and the end, finally, the end of Gentile domination, and the salvation of his covenant people Israel. And you will remember that when the Lord's feet touches the Mount of Olives, the word of God says that it will part; it will divide, even using the same term as the division of the Red Sea. And that will do two things: it will provide an East/West escape route, as we read about in Zechariah, 14 in verse five, through the eastern side of the city, across the Kidron Valley, and through the Mount of Olives toward the Judean Desert. But it will also block the Antichrist--block the enemies of Israel, from escaping to the north or the south, and they will be trapped in the Kidron Valley, also known as the valley of Jehoshaphat, which means "God will judge" and there, even as God judged the Egyptian charioteers that we're pursuing Israel, they too, will be utterly destroyed. And then the Messiah will return and deliver Israel physically, as well as spiritually as we read in Zechariah 12, verses 10 through 14. And at that time, the Lord Jesus will enthrone himself in the millennial temple. Zechariah eight and verse three, "Thus says the Lord, 'I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'" Beloved, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns the next time, no one will miss it. No one will be confused. And the planet as we know it will be radically changed, and all Israel will finally fulfill their destiny. According to Exodus 19, six, as a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." And finally, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the final Adam, will fulfill and reclaim the first Adam's role of dominion over the whole earth. Moreover, at that point, when he returns, He will be coronated in his temple. Zechariah describes the glory of this future ceremony, this coronation ceremony, in Zechariah six, beginning of verse 12. "'Behold a man whose name is Branch.'" By the way that is a messianic title from Zechariah's earlier vision, it's referring to the Messiah. "'Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is;’” In other words, to redeem sinners, to reconcile them to God, "'and He will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus he will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices,'" referring to both Priest and King, which typically were in constant conflict with one another, but he will be both.

Please understand, the current dispensation of the church where Jews and Gentiles are equally integrated into one body under the law of Christ is going to be very different from the dispensation of the Messianic kingdom. In this present age the church is the custodian of divine truth and serves as a spiritual temple, Ephesians 2:20 and following. Today, we present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God, according to Romans 12 and verse two. And today we have access, through Christ, into a heavenly temple, according to Hebrews four. Because of this, we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. But dear friends, this church age is going to end, we will be translated into heaven at the rapture. And then according to Romans 11, verse 26, "all Israel will be saved;" that is when Christ returns, "all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB, THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'"

At that point, the spiritual temple will be replaced by a physical, millennial temple that is described in great detail in Ezekiel chapter 40 through 48. You might say that the church age right now is an eschatological interregnum existing between Israel's failure under the old covenant and her restoration under the new covenant. In our current church age, we are governed indirectly by Christ, the head of the church, through the Spirit. But in the millennium, the earthly kingdom, the theocracy of Israel, will be governed directly by God through the Messiah, who's reigning physically upon the earth; none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The millennium will include Gentiles, but it will be distinctively Jewish. It will function under the theocratic laws of the new covenant, which will include animal sacrifices, it will include a physical temple in which Christ will physically dwell. The sacrifices will include burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, drink offerings. And bear in mind that the sacrifices will not be efficacious any more than the Old Testament sacrifices were; they merely pointed to Christ, they never saved anybody. Instead, they will be tangible memorials of Christ's efficacious, once for all, sacrifice on the cross. And I might add that they will also be essential for outward corporate sanctification, or ceremonial purification, even as they were in the Levitical Old Testament system. In fact, Ezekiel states that these offerings are according to Ezekiel 45:17, "to make atonement for the house of Israel." "Atonement," "kippur" in Hebrew, it means, "to purify, to cleanse from sin, or from the defilement of sin."

And it's hard for us to fathom how radically different corporate worship will be when the ineffable glory of the Shekinah of God will dwell physically in his temple in the midst of the people. In fact, Ezekiel tells us that the millennial city of Jerusalem and the temple will together encompass about a 2500 square mile area. So obviously, topographical changes will occur when the Lord returns. In fact, the dimensions of just the temple courts alone are bigger than the entire ancient city of Jerusalem within its walls. Can you imagine coming to worship, being able to somehow get a glimpse of the Shekinah glory of the Lord that we have loved and served for so long? I think about the term "ichabod"-- it means "no glory." That's going to change to "kabod,"which means "the glory." However, at that point, there will be unglorified human beings in varying states of witting, as well as unwitting, ritual defilement. And therefore, they could pollute the sanctuary and violate the ceremonial standards. Even having young children come to the temple to worship, and therefore, the purification sacrifices will be necessary in order to sustain that corporate sanctity. Again, they have nothing to do with salvation or even inward sanctification. Instead, they will ensure corporate sanctification or ceremonial purification, if you will, to protect the holiness of the divine presence in his theocratic kingdom. This will be how God will bless his people.

It's interesting, as well, to know that there will be feasts in the millennial kingdom recorded in Ezekial 45. It will include the New Year feast, It will include a Passover Feast, unleavened bread, Feast of Booths. And you will recall, Jesus promised to his disciples, remember at the last Passover, and by the way, this is recorded in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Luke 22, verse 18, Jesus said this, "'I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.'" Obviously, this is a reference to the millennial observance. As we read in a Ezekial 45:21, "In the first month, on the 14th day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten." And folks to think, according to Second Timothy two and verse 12, that we will be there in glorified bodies reigning with Christ.

Well, may I challenge you, as you try to absorb so many of these great truths; that you maintain a proper worldview as you see the world kind of coming apart all around you, especially as you see all of the chaos and the wickedness as it relates to Israel. But know this as well, that far greater calamities than what they've experienced will come. Indeed, the great and terrible day of the Lord is coming. But also remember that God's plan is perfect, right? There is nothing that can thwart it, he will accomplish all that he has promised. It has said that there's about 2500 prophecies in the Bible, and about 2000 of them have been fulfilled to the letter: no errors, literally. So with that, we can have every reason to believe that what God has promised is going to come true.

And may I close by reminding you that death awaits each one of us, unless we know Christ and we're snatched away. But if you don't know Christ, death awaits you, and then judgment, for its appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. So I would plead with you that if you've never come to a place of genuine heart felt repentance and place your faith and the grace afforded to us through the shed blood of Christ, your only hope of salvation. I pray that you will do that today before it's too late. Devastating destruction can come upon us, even as it has upon the people in Israel and so many other places around the world down through history. I think especially today, with our borders open and who knows who or what lurks around the corner. So dear friends, please place your faith and trust in Christ. Relax in his sovereign grace. He will accomplish all that he is promised and he will take us home to glory. Amen? Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. May they bear much fruit in our lives to the praise of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

We come now to a time when we have an opportunity to look into the Word of God and hear the truths there. This is the third part in a little series that I'm doing on understanding Israel in Bible prophecy. And if you've been with us thus far, you know that the primary goal here is to give you a biblical, historical, and certainly a prophetic perspective of all that we see happening in the world today. I do not want you to be ignorant of these things. And if you are, I hope it's not because I haven't taught you, but it's rather because you haven't been listening. And certainly, we want to understand, from a truly Christian perspective, the rise of anti-semitism, as well as Israel's war with Iran, through her mercenary forces of Hamas, and Hezbollah, and others. We've all seen the unprecedented number of protesters that are mainly Arab Muslims, along with Marxist revolutionaries. I've been to those places, there in London. It was amazing. I think they said roughly 500,000 people marching in favor of the Palestinians and Hamas. By the way, there's about 500,000, or I should say, I take that back, about 4 million Muslims now living in the United Kingdom, and about the same here in the United States. And of course, we see a lot of the deranged, social justice, woke people; they're always on the hunt for the next victim group, they have to have an oppressed group, so that they can attack the oppressors to fulfill their cultural Marxist agenda. And this results in what a lot of secularists call "mass formation." I've written on this in chapter four of my book, "Warrior Preachers" if you want to go into detail. But there I quote from an author by the name of Matthias Desmet; I believe he is Belgium, and his book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism. And there he defines mass formation, which again, is what we see with all of these protests. He defines it as, quote, "a kind of group hypnosis that destroys individual's ethical self-awareness and robs them of their ability to think critically. This process is insidious in nature. Populations fall prey to it unsuspectingly. The willingness of the individuals to blindly sacrifice their personal interests as a part of this," he went on to say, "they will blindly sacrifice their personal interests in favor of the collective, radical intolerance of dissident voices." He also describes it as, "the curious susceptibility to absurd, pseudo-scientific indoctrination and propaganda; the blind following of narrow logic that transcends all ethical boundaries." End quote.

And certainly that is a good description. But it misses the theological description, which I call "mass depravity." As I have written, "Mass depravity is a manifestation of the wrath of divine abandonment, where God has lifted his restraining grace on a mass of depraved human beings who reject Him; allowing them to collectively voice their deceptions in the echo chamber of their rage, and ultimately experience the damning consequences of their iniquities." Frankly, God calls these people and many like them "fools." A fool is one that has no fear of God. And therefore the Scriptures tell us that they despise wisdom and instruction. And again, this is the wrath of divine abandonment as we read in Romans one, where God gives people finally over to a depraved mind because of the rejection of him. And as a result of that people will believe things that are demonstrably false. They will believe things that are idiotic, irrational, immoral, and frankly, insane. And sadly, we have a lot of these people ruling over us in our government. But I might also add that to all of these people, God offers forgiveness. And he offers grace when people come to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant faith, and trust in Him as their only hope of salvation.

By way of quick review, we've looked at number one, God's choice of Israel. Secondly, Satan's hatred of Israel. Third, God's judgment of Israel. And now today, God's protection of Israel, and Lord willing, the next time we're together, I will deal with God's salvation and restoration of Israel. So this morning, I would like to address God's protection of Israel; past, present and future but especially future.

Think about this, despite the numerous pogroms down through history designed to eradicate the Jewish people, they are still here. The Marxist mobs of anti Semites who are overwhelmingly liberal democrats get their news, we know, predominantly from the leftist media organizations, as well as Instagram and primarily Tik Tok. And if you've been on Tik Tok very long, you will quickly see that you will lose brain cells if you stay there. People don't want to hear the facts. For example, people marching today do not realize the fact that Israel was amenable to a second Palestinian state when they were founded in 1948. But the Palestinians would have nothing to do with that. On numerous occasions, Israel offered the olive branch to the Palestinians; peace to the Palestinians, but they would always reject it. And when Israel withdrew from Gaza, I remember it well in 2005, what did the Palestinians do? They elected Hamas to be the ones to lead them. And Hamas had a very clear "anti-Israel" platform and "eliminate the Jews" platform. And the first thing Hamas did was get rid of the Palestinian Authority in a military coup and start firing rockets on Israel and committing acts of terror on Israel. And they've been doing that for 20 years. And I assure you that the people that are foaming at the mouth in these protests have no understanding of any of that; not to mention the other biblical, theological issues pertaining to God's choice of Israel, their disobedience, God's judgment upon them and Satan's hatred of them.

Most of them don't know anything about the Hamas charter. In Article 13, they say quote, "Peace initiatives and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic resistance movement. Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam. There is no solution for the Palestinian problem, except by Jihad initiatives. Proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time and exercise in futility." It also says in Article Seven, "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees and the rocks, and the trees will cry out, oh, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." And people were protesting all over the world to allow these sociopathic demonic monsters the freedom to carry out their goal. May I remind you again, and I know I said this last week, but I think it bears repeating. Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey. 9000 Square miles and has a population of 9.7 3 million people. 75% of them are Jewish. They are surrounded by 22 Arab countries, encompassing 5 million square miles. And those lands are populated by 600 million people; all aligned with the entire Muslim world, consisting of over 1.8 billion people, making up about 24% of the world's population. And virtually all of these Arab Muslim countries are committed to the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jewish people. And yet Israel is the oppressor? Israel is such a threat to civilization, that they must be exterminated? I mean, friends, no rational person could believe anything so ridiculous.

But I also must add, God loves what is perceived to be, insurmountable odds. Well, I've gone to great lengths to explain in my two previous discourses these things. Again, the satanic nature of anti semitism; God's judgment on Israel, his beloved enemy, whom he will continue to preserve and protect, and one day transform and restore, so that eventually, they will be able to do what they're not able to do now--they will be able to fulfill the purpose in which they were chosen for which they were chosen, as God declared through his servant, Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13:11, "That they might be for me a people for renown and praise and for glory." And although today most Jewish people reject Jesus as their Messiah, and remain under divine judgment, one day that will change. He has promised never to violate his covenant promises; never abandon his people. You read about this, for example, in the new covenant promises in Jeremiah 31. And the Apostle Paul has said, in Romans chapter 11, and verse one, "God has not rejected His people has He? May it never be!" And in verse 25, and following, he says, "that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." He goes on to say, then "all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS." But dear friends, until that deliverer comes, as he has promised, until he comes from Zion, to remove the ungodliness from Jacob, he must continue to protect and preserve his people from the onslaught of their enemies.

Again, by way of quick review, last week, we talked about Revelation six, you will recall there, John is standing in the throne room of heaven. He's looking upon the word the Lamb, who has received the scroll containing the pre kingdom judgments from the hand of his Father, as we read about in chapter five. And then he has given this dramatic visual presentation of the contents of each one of those seals. And in Revelation six, we see the breaking of the first seal, which reveals the summoning of the first horse and horsemen of the apocalypse; a reference to the antichrist that is to come; the one who will come and make a peace covenant with Israel, bring a false sense of peace to the world, Daniel 9:27, "He will make a firm covenant with the many"-- referring to Israel, "for one week." The context there, one week is referring to a week of years. This is also referred to as Daniel 70th week--the final seven years of the tribulation. And in that covenant, even Israel will be deceived by a false sense of security that is offered to them by this diabolical ruler. And during this time with this treaty, undoubtedly, they will be allowed to rebuild their temples. Something that they currently cannot do, because of the Muslims. So something dramatic must take place. And the Jewish people are waiting for that even now. Something dramatic must take place to get this highly distrusting nation of Israel to be seduced by this pseudo peace. And I made the case that the battle of Gog and Magog, in Ezekiel 38 and 39 could be the event to set into motion this first seal. That battle that describes a Russian/Arab alliance of predominantly Muslim nations. We talked about that at length. They will come from the north and be supernaturally defeated. And I believe that a good case could be made that this will take place before the actual tribulation begins and set it all into motion. Russia could very well fulfill the role of Gog. Certainly it has six of its former Soviet republics, right to the north of Israel. They are now independent Islamic nations, and they're all calling for Israel's annihilation. Right now, today. Russia has suffered, I read, this week, 122,000 casualties in Ukraine. And almost 200,000 have been injured. They have been humiliated. Their economy is collapsing, crime is skyrocketing. Some of my brothers in Siberia where I have been on several occasions to teach them aren't even able to write to me via email anymore because of the government control. Population is just decreasing. The people are disillusioned, and now they're getting arms from North Korea, from Iran, from China. And they are forming alliances with them along with Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia. But whoever makes up these alliances, or this alliance of nations, that God causes to come upon Israel, they will be destroyed.

Let me remind you of that by reading a passage out of Ezekiel 38. I want to begin with verse 14. "'Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord God, "On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army; and you will come upon come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog." Thus says the Lord God, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? It will come about on that day when Gog comes against the Land of Israel," declares the Lord GOD, "that My fury will mount up in My anger. In My zeal, and in My blazing wrath, I declare that on that day, there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israe. The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood, I will enter into the judgments with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain with hailstones, fire and brimstone. I will Magnify myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.'" Likewise, in Ezekiel 39, some of which, all of which I just read a few minutes ago. Let me take you to verse six through verse eight. "'And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the Lord. My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people, Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is coming, and it shall be done,' declares the Lord GOD. 'That is the day of which I have spoken.'"

Certainly today the nations of the world mock the Lord God, the God of the Bible, the one true God, but that is going to radically change when this occurs. Obviously this will send a shock wave of fear throughout this God mocking world. And Israel will instantly become one of the most feared nations in the world. Sometime around this great battle, which will be either before, during or after, the church will be translated into heaven, adding even further chaos and confusion to the world.

And think what the rapture of the church would do. With the unprecedented carnage on the mountains of Israel, the bewildered Islamic world, and the sudden disappearance of millions of Christians around the world; the world will be instantly set into a tailspin of confusion. Economies will collapse, every government will be in a state of shock. Every leader that has nuclear power will have his finger on the trigger, prepared for further hostilities. And at that point, the world will be absolutely craving for peace. Confused, deceived--what a perfect storm for the first Seal Judgment of Revelation six to be unleashed upon the world. This would be the perfect time for the world to come together under a satanically inspired, charismatic leader, promising all that they ask. The prophet Daniel tells us in Daniel chapter seven, beginning in verse 23, that as the Antichrist arises, he will bring about a one world government. And by the way, isn't that what so many in the world are clamoring for today--a one world government, a one world economy. But according to Daniel's prophecy, this one world government will splinter into 10 governments. A new world alliance will come into being far more powerful than NATO or the even the UN. And this 10-nation confederacy will thrive under the leadership of the Antichrist until the middle of the tribulation.

Now, obviously, I'm leaving out enormous amounts of information. I'm giving you the highlights of eschatology from a biblical perspective. At first, the Antichrist will represent the nations and he will make concessions to Israel, given their astonishing defeat of the Russian Arab Alliance. And then he will unite the rest of the world, primarily the Europeans, in an alliance with Israel, a covenant of protection and commerce and peace. Shall we say the New World Order will finally come into being. But it will be nothing more than a ploy, in preparation for his fiendish, satanically inspired goal of Jewish genocide--as well as exalting himself as God.

Well, by this time, many of the secular Jews who are mostly atheists today, will believe in Yahweh, in some form or another, the God of their fathers. And many will even believe that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, is doing this. But certainly, many will wrongly believe that the war of Gog and Magog will be the final battle for Jerusalem, as prophesied in Zechariah, chapters 12 through 14. In fact, if you look at Jewish eschatology, you will see that that is what they believe. For example, when respected rabbi, Rafael Eisenberg said this, "The miraculous defeat of Gog (Russia) and her satellites in Jerusalem will reveal that it is God who guides the universe punishing the wicked and upholding his promise to his servant Israel."

Now, to be sure, with the elimination of the Islamic political clout, the Orthodox Jews, as I say, could finally rebuild their third temple. Secular Jews will no longer resist it as they do now, because they're afraid of what the Muslims would do. They want peace at all costs. The nations of the world will even support this because they are now bowing to the wishes of this new global leader, the clear front runner of global leaders, namely the Antichrist. But remember this worldwide peace that the Antichrist is going to offer will be short lived according to the second seal that we read about in Revelation six, verses three through four. Violence will quickly arise and escalate into global conflicts--worldwide wars.

Now once again in the beginning of the Tribulation, many Jews will wrongly believe that the victory over Gog and Magog will be the beginning of the Messianic age, it is finally come. After all, the supernatural victory is consistent with the oral prophecies of the Jewish people. The oral Torah is called or the Talmud, which states quote, "Jews will not have to fight a war against the non-Jewish custodians of the Temple Mount in order to take possession of it from them." This is also consistent with the view of Orthodox Jews and the Temple Movement in general, as expressed by Gershon Solomon, the leader of Israel's temple, Mount Faithful. Let me read to you what he wrote in 1998. Quote, "The prophet Ezekiel prophesied that in the end times of the redemption of the people of Israel, a terrible war will break out of the land when Gog and Magog, with many other nations, come to the land of Israel and try to destroy the people and state of Israel (Ezekial 38 and 39)." He went on to ask "Why does the small David armed only with a small rock, again need to fight against giants? We only need to read Ezekiel and Zechariah carefully to gain understanding. The God of Israel will use this means to finally defeat all those many enemies of Israel, who have continually tried to destroy the state and people of Israel and push them into the Mediterranean." He went on to add, "The coming war will be the final war undertaken against Israel by her enemies. In it, God will terribly defeat them. After this war, the new godly era will start. The Third Temple will be the house of God, the only building on the Temple Mount. Moshiach ben David will be the king of Israel and all mankind. By the way, that is a reference to what they believe will be a future Jewish king that comes from the Davidic line, but it's not a reference to Jesus. He went on to say, " We can see how the black clouds are coming closer and closer to Jerusalem, and to the mountains of Israel. The march of Gog and Magog and all their allies has started." He says, "Finally, the time of judgment is close at hand, Israel will survive this war and become the nation which God and all the prophets dreamed about." Again, written in 1998.

So after the Gog and Magog defeat, and the rise of the Antichrist--again, this is a biblical perspective of these things, Israel will be able to build their third temple on the Temple Mount. I might also add that if you want to see the architectural plans for the third holy temple, you can go online and have a virtual reality tour of a mockup. It's put out by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, and they believe that it could be put up in less than a year. I've been to the Temple Institute; I've seen many of the things that they've already prepared for the temple. But then in the midpoint of the Tribulation, we read from scripture that the Antichrist is going to overpower the temple. He's going to drive out the priests; he's going to stop the sacrifices, and he's going to seat himself in the Holy of Holies and demand that the world worship him. Like his forerunner, Antiochus Ephiphanes. We read about this in Daniel's prophecy in Daniel nine verse 27. "'And he,'" referring to the Antichrist, "'will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.'" I might also add that this is pictured as well in Revelation 13 verse one, as well as verse five, as "the beast coming up out of the sea." And he has given quote, "a mouth, speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him." 42 months, let me pause. If you go to Revelation 11 and verse two, we also read that "they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months." That's the last half of the seven-year tribulation.

Back to Revelation 13, beginning in verse seven, "It was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." Now, it's fair to ask the question, "What on earth will this guy do that is so heinous, that will be so abhorrent to God?" Well, as we read the prophetic literature, we get the answer. Once the Antichrist gains power over the temple precincts, he will erect a statue of himself. We read about this in Revelation 13, verses 14 and 15. And that is what is called "the abomination of desolation," which is the act of defiling the temple. And this will fulfill Daniel's prediction in Daniel 11:36. There we read that the antichrist quote, "'will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.'" You get the idea that God is in charge of all this and allowing it to happen to accomplish His glorious purposes; and to put his glory on display, so that the world will know that he is the Lord the God of Israel. Paul speaks of this in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse three. He is described as "the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship." Paul goes on to say, "he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God."

You know, Satan has always wanted to be worshipped. And this is why he is determined to deceive people through false messiahs and false prophets. Second, Thessalonians two again, beginning in verse nine, he is described as, "the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved." I might add that the Greek grammar in that text indicates that this detestable thing--standing in the holy place, will be some kind of a permanent image probably of the Antichrist, that's displayed in the temple. Once again, dear friends, Jerusalem will remain under Gentile domination. As Paul says the times of the Gentiles, or the fullness of the Gentiles, in Romans 11, has not yet been terminated forever. But I might add that this blasphemous desecration will be the final period of Gentile domination over Jerusalem. And we know according to the prophetic literature that the last half of the Tribulation will be unimaginably catastrophic. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble, or Jacob’s distress, as we read about in Jeremiah 30 and verse seven, "Alas, for that day is great, there is none like it, and it is the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it."

In the last half of the Tribulation, we know that God will unleash, not only his seal judgments in the first part, but in the last half, his trumpet judgments, and then his bowl judgments. And then we read of unprecedented, unimaginable, worldwide catastrophic destruction and death. And all the while this is going on, the Jews are going to be persecuted by the forces of the Antichrist, as these forces try to gain control of the city. Again, Zechariah, 12:13 and 14. In that section, it describes the Antichrist, along with his allied nations, coming against the forces, the Jewish forces. And what's fascinating is God, in that time, will greatly strengthen them. Zechariah 12 beginning in verse five, "'Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, 'A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the Lord of the hosts, their God.' In that day, I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood, and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again, dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. The Lord also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. In that day the Lord will defend to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. And in that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.'"

We can also go to Micah's prophecy that shifts from the impending judgment of that day with the Babylonians and foresees the pre kingdom judgments; the near and the far fulfillment of prophecy, Micah four and verse 10, we read, "And now many nations have been assembled against you, who say, 'Let her be polluted and let our eyes gloat over Zion.'" Again, this is referring now, not to the battle of Gog and Magog, but the battle of Armageddon when the Antichrist comes against the Jewish people. "'Let her be polluted and let her eyes gloat over Zion' But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, and they do not understand His purpose; for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, Daughter of Zion, for your horn I will make iron and your hoofs I will make bronze, that you may pulverize many peoples, that you may devote to the Lord their unjust gain and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. Now muster yourself and troops, daughter of troops; they have laid siege against us; with a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.'" Zechariah 14 beginning in verse three, "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day," referring to the second coming now; the battle of Armageddon is going on; Christ and the redeemed saints we will be with Him; He will come down on that day it says, or "In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east." By the way, just so you understand the geography, this is directly across from the Temple Mount, which implies that this may be where a Jewish remnant will be rescued in the moment of their greatest peril. "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will split." It will "split" the Hebrew term "baqa," it means "to divide." It was also used at another great divide--when God divided the Red Sea, and the exodus of Israel. Let me read you that Exodus 14:16. "As for you," talking to Moses, "lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide," there's the term--"and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land."

Beloved, even as God miraculously delivered his chosen people from the Egyptian charioteers--that were pursuing them under the command of Pharaoh, who was a type of the Antichrist--he will do it again when the armies of the Antichrist seek to destroy his chosen people. And they have no place to go. The Antichrist being the antitype of Pharaoh, the one foreshadowed by Pharaoh.

I hope you can see the amazing parallels here. God divided the Red Sea to allow his people safe passage in the Exodus, and then he destroyed Pharaoh's army pursuing them. And what we see is that at the end of the tribulation, that the second coming of Christ, all of the nations will be gathered against his remnant. But they too, will be trapped in the Kidron Valley, where they will be destroyed. But the Lord once again will provide a way of escape for his people.

Back to Zechariah 14, beginning of verse three, "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fights on a day of battle. In that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east... in its middle, from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!" That will be us folks. When the Lord's feet touches the Mount of Olives--when he returns again in all of his glory--it will part like the Red Sea. And two things will be the result of that. It will provide an East/West escape route for his people through the eastern side of the city, across the Kidron Valley and through the Mount of Olives, going out into the Judean Desert. But it also will block their enemies from escaping to the north or the south. And they will be trapped in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which means "God will judge." And like the Egyptian charioteers, they will be utterly destroyed.

The Holy Spirit describes this through his servant Zechariah, Zechariah 14, beginning in verse 12, "Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance." The prophet Joel describes this as well in Joel chapter three, beginning in verse 12, "Let the nations be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine presses is full. The vats overflow for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness. The Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth tremble. But the Lord is a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the sons of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy and strangers will pass through it no more." You can read the same account with other things that is added in Revelation 19, verses 11 and following.

You know, here I am reminded of the Lord's promise back in Matthew 23. His promise to the leaders of Jerusalem, that the temple is going to be left desolate and that they will not see him again until something happens. Until they say according to Matthew 23:39. "'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" And folks, when this happens, they are going to say that. And that's when they will see him again. In fact, when the Messiah King returns to deliver Israel in the hour of their apparent extermination, the Lord will not only deliver them physically, but he will deliver them spiritually. He speaks of this in Zechariah 12, beginning in verse 10. He says, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication."

I want to pause there. In the Hebrew, the words for grace and supplication share the same root, indicating that those who asked for grace will receive it. And in the power of regeneration, they are going to ask for grace because they're going to see Christ for who he is, and he will save them. And so he's going to "'pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced.'" Remember Isaiah 53 and verse five, the Messiah was pierced for the sins of His people, they're gonna look on him, they're gonna know who he is. "'And they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day, there will be great morning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo." By the way that's reaching all the way back into Second Chronicles 35 when their beloved King--godly King Josiah was killed in battle. He goes on to say, "'The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shemeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.'" What he's saying is because of the miracle of regeneration, the whole of Israel will be utterly stricken with grief over their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they will finally embrace him as the Messiah, the Savior of their sins. And at that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will enthrone himself in his millennial temple, Zechariah eight and verse three says, "'Thus says the Lord, 'I will return to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.''"

In fact, what's really fascinating, in Isaiah chapter two and verse two, we read that, "The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it." You see, we know according to Zechariah 14 and verse 10, that the topography of the ground around Jerusalem--that whole area--is going to be radically altered, so that the temple will be elevated above everything else. It will be located according to Ezekiel 48:21, "in the middle of a broad plain." Remember, when the Lord returns again, he is going to renovate the earth, then at the end of the millennial reign, he will recreate the Earth, the heavens and the earth. We also read in Ezekiel 48, verses 10 and following, about the details of the holy city and the allotment for the priests and the Levites, around the sanctuary, where the workers of the holy city are going to dwell and so forth. And it's incredible to imagine that the glory of that day, for both Jews and Gentiles, will be see; a result of his saving grace. Zechariah 14, verse 16, "Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went up against Jerusalem, will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths." You realize what that's saying? That many of the enemies of Jerusalem will be spared, and they will be saved, and they too will worship the Lord. Folks, this will be the greatest of all awakenings in the history of the world. Revelation seven and verse nine, "After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'"

Some of these people today that are the enemies of Israel; perhaps some of these people that are in these protests will be among the redeemed one day. This will include we know of many, many of Israel's former enemies that we'll come to faith in Messiah. Isaiah 66:18 and 19 tells us this. There we read, "the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations." And here he's going to speak of some of those who were a part of the nations that came against Israel with the battle of Gog and Magog, "I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations." Oh dear friends the power of the gospel. So there we see God's protection of Israel.

I want to close by just reminding you that God has ordained in eternity past, a plan of redemption whereby he would ultimately bring glory to himself. And because he is the sovereign God over all his creation, we worship Him--because we are part of that redemptive process, just a small part. Our salvation is only incidental to this whole glorious plan of redemption. But it is part of it and we celebrate that. And we can relax in his sovereign purposes, despite the chaos that we see all around us. And we can rejoice knowing that he will fulfill all that he has promised, amen? Let's bow our heads together.

Father, thank you, for the great truths of your word. While there's so many things we don't understand, you have given us enough that we can get at least the big picture, even some of the great details. And ultimately what we see is that you are God and there is no other. And so we celebrate all that you are. Thank you for all that you have done, are doing and will do in each of our lives. And for those that do not know you, who have never truly come to repentant faith, I plead with you as your servant this day, that you will overwhelm them with such great conviction that they will have no rest until they repent and place their trust in Christ, the only hope of salvation. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

Last week, we began a short series; I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but I know it'll at least go through today and next Sunday, and maybe yet another Sunday or two, but I have entitled this little series "Israel in Bible Prophecy." And I decided to do this because I wanted to bring clarity from a biblical, theological, historical, and prophetic perspective to all of the chaos that's going on, not just in the Middle East, but around the world. By way of review, last week, we looked at the importance of understanding God's choice of Israel. Deuteronomy seven and verse six, we read, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord, your God has chosen you to be people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." And we know According to Exodus chapter 19, and verse six, that God's purpose for Israel is to be, quote, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." We also examined God's unconditional, unilateral, irreversible, covenant promises to Abraham, and to David as well as the New Covenant. All of those covenants are important to understand if you're going to see why Satan and so many people around the world who are obedient to him, perhaps even unwittingly, hate the Jewish people and hate what's happening in Israel. Because those covenants, the Abrahamic, Davidic, and new covenants, are all the basis of the establishment of the millennial kingdom that is yet to come.

We also, secondly, looked at Satan's hatred of Israel, that he is the father of lies, he is the god of this world. We are told, he is the ruler of this world, Jesus said, temporarily. So nonetheless, he is, and people tend to underestimate his power to deceive. And certainly he has deceived many. We see it with the Islamic jihadist, we see it with the Marxist protesters here in our country and around the world, a parade of the deceived and the ignorant. And we know that God predicted the intransigent antisemitism that we see being revealed around the world. He predicted this, when he cursed Satan in Genesis 3:15, and he said, and "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." And I won't get into it again, but unless you understand that passage right there, you will never understand what's going on in Israel.

Later we know, as we studied, God allowed Satan to begin to drive a wedge with the descendants of Abraham; a rivalry between Ishmael, from which came the Arabs and Isaac from which came the Jews. And that extends to this day. Moreover, we examined the reality that because salvation is from the Jews, as Jesus said, in John four in verse 22, the Jewish people have always and will always be one of Satan's primary targets. He must destroy God's covenant people. And he operates through deception, through violence, through intimidation, through godless political ideologies, like liberalism, whether it be political or theological liberalism; it's always a cancer that will destroy people. And he certainly does it through false religious systems, especially Islam. And we studied why Arab Islamic jihadists hate Jewish people; because they believe that God's covenant with Abraham was a promise between Abraham and Ishmael, not Abraham and Isaac. They believe it was Ishmael who was offered on Mount Moriah, not Isaac, and therefore, all of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant should go to them, not to the Jewish people. Therefore, the land of Palestine belongs to them, not to Israel. And of course, the Marxist cult of wokeism, promoted primarily again through liberalism, especially in the Democratic Party, is all committed to hating Jewish people hating Israelis, because they see them as the privileged white class. It's all part of finding some group that they can call the oppressor. Of course, there's no condemnation for the Palestinians and the Hamas people that are committed to Jewish genocide. And these people, of course, want to eradicate all white, Judeo Christian ethics and influence. They hate Western civilization. They hate America, they hate the Constitution, and on and on, it goes down with colonialism, which is really their code word for deconstruction of the West. And it's this kind of indoctrination that we see in our public schools and in our colleges and universities. And sadly, in many apostate and naive churches.

We also examined, thirdly, God's judgment on Israel. And that's a lot of what we're seeing here today. You will recall that God made it abundantly clear in Deuteronomy 28, that he would bless them for their obedience and curse them for their disobedience. And I want to expand on that, just very briefly. We know that in the last seven chapters of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 28, through 34, God has given us frankly, a prophetic summary of Israel's future. There we see the conditions of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience. It speaks of the prediction of coming apostasy, the affliction God would bring upon Israel while still in the land of promise, because of her apostasy. It speaks of Israel being taken captive, it speaks of the enemies of Israel will possess her land for a time, that the land itself will remain desolate, that Israel will be scattered among the nations, that Israel would become few in number, that Israel would not be destroyed if she repents, that Israel will repent in her tribulation and worship God as He intended. And finally, that Israel will be gathered from the nations; brought back to her divinely given land, and eventually he will prosper them abundantly. And we have witnessed in our lifetime, the beginning of this regathering, when the Jewish people have arisen out of the ashes of the Holocaust, to finally have a nation; we saw that in 1948. And this is really a testimony of God's promise that was even reaffirmed to the psalmist. And we read about this in Psalm 105, beginning in verse seven, "He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to 1000 generations, the covenant which He had made with Abraham and His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying to you, 'I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.'" And God will ultimately fulfill this promise when Christ returns and establishes his Messianic kingdom. And it's absolutely astounding to see the most persecuted ethnic religious group on the planet not only survive, but actually thrive. It's amazing to me; a testimony of God's protection, despite their disobedience, despite Satan's hatred of them, and the world's hatred of them.

I'm reminded of the promise in Amos chapter nine beginning in verse 14, where God says, "'I will restore the captivity of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruins cities and live in them, they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine and make gardens and eat their fruit, I will also plant them on their land. And they will not again be routed out from their land which I have given them,' says the LORD your God." And of course, this is in fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob 4000 years ago; a promise that was even reaffirmed to Moses. And to be sure, the Arab Muslims cannot stand this. And they are going to do everything they can to prevent this. But ultimately, we know that God will not allow them, or any other people, to have that land. But rather he has promised that land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now, that brings us to today and my fourth point in our little outline. And sometime in the near future, I'll get to the fifth point. The fourth point is God's protection of Israel. And then eventually, I'm not sure if it'll be next Sunday or the next, but we're going to look at God's salvation and restoration of Israel. Now with respect to God's protection of Israel, there are a myriad of examples of miraculous ways that God has protected his people. And it's amazing when you think about it, that despite the numerous pogroms that we have seen down through history, designed to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the earth, the Jewish people still exist. Now, why is that? I mean, think about it. Over 4000 years ago, Abraham purchased burial property in Hebron to bury his wife, Sarah. Hebron, by the way, is about 19 miles or so southwest of Jerusalem. Today, it's a Palestinian city in the West Bank. And despite all of the barbaric attempts to cleanse these people from the face of the earth, they still exist. You don't hear anything about the Amalekites. You don't hear anything about the Hittites, or the Jebusites, or the Canaanites. But the Israelites dominate the news, tiny little Israel, about the size of the state of New Jersey; 9000 square miles. They have a population of approximately 9.73 million. About 75% of them are Jewish. And to think they are surrounded by 22 Arab countries, encompassing 5 million square miles, populated by approximately 600 million people who are all entirely aligned with the entire Muslim world that consists of 1.8 billion people, about 24% of the Earth's population. And virtually all of these Arab Muslim countries are committed to the destruction of Israel. And yet, they are the oppressors.

Well, today, I wish to focus on an event yet future. Another event that God has promised, whereby he will protect and preserve and even deliver Israel. And it's a promise that may be developing right before our eyes, as we look at this chaos in Israel. Chaos that really centers around Iran and her allies and proxies. And in a few minutes, I will take you to some of those passages in Ezekiel 38, and 39. But before we do, I want to take you to the book of Revelation in just a moment. Let me give you some background here. I fear this will be the most disjointed, confusing sermon you have ever heard. But I'm going to try to piece this together for you, so you have a grasp of what the Word of God has to say.

According to Ezekiel 38 and 39, we know that an alliance of nations will one day descend upon Israel from the north under the leadership of quote "Gog and Magog," and they will be supernaturally defeated on the mountains of northern Israel. And my goal this morning is to try to answer who, what, where, and why, even when, and bring some clarity and comfort and hopefully conviction to each of you that Christ might be exalted. Now, that's kind of where we're going. But in order to get there, we need to take just a short detour to get some understanding of what God has said, in the book of Revelation, the "Apokalypsis lesou Christo," the revealing of Jesus Christ, the last book in the Bible. Now, I'm going to have to assume some knowledge, on your part, of biblical eschatology. And so I'm not going to be able to get into all of the details, but I'm going to hit the highlights, and hopefully you will be able to fill in the blanks in days to come.

I want to remind you that the first five chapters of the apocalypse, or of the book of Revelation, are all introductory and then in Revelation six, we see the Worthy Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, opening six seals of divine wrath. And all of these are proceeding from the throne of God. And this is going to set into motion a purging that will ultimately kill most of the Earth's population and virtually every living thing and frankly, this is the whole climate cult environmentalist cults worst nightmare. And his purpose for this is to punish those who refuse to worship him. Moreover, according to Daniel nine, and verse 24, the purpose is to quote, "finish the transgression;" the transgression of Israel in the final 70th week of judgment that God revealed to Daniel, and then establish his earthly kingdom. Daniel 9:24 says," to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place."

Now we know that those four seals, the first four seals, are all represented by colored horses being written by four riders; sometimes you've heard people talk about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The first seal describes, and this is very important, a pseudo peace, a false peace that will lull the world, including Israel into a false sense of utopia; a false sense of security. The second seal reveals a worldwide war; the third seal, worldwide famine; the fourth seal, death through the sword, and famine and pestilence and wild beasts. The fifth seal speaks of martyrdom of the newly converted saints--tribulation saints. The sixth seal speaks of unprecedented earthquakes and cosmic disturbances. And then the seventh seal includes kind of a silent contemplation of the staggering judgment that has transpired thus far. And then that will unleash the seventh trumpet judgments, followed by the seven bowl judgments.

Now, the catastrophic consequences of just the first four seals are inconceivable. They will ultimately kill 1/4 of the population of the earth, according to Revelation six and verse eight. And yet, those are only "the beginning of birth pangs," Jesus said, in Matthew 24, verse eight, and by the end, most of the human race will be exterminated. And what we see is that even as labor pains increase in severity and frequency for a mother about to give birth, so too, the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments will increase in severity and frequency, until finally a glorious kingdom will be birthed when the Lord Jesus returns in all of his glory.

Now, please understand just kind of basic chronology as I understand it from Scripture. The church will be caught up in the rapture, First Thessalonians 4:17. The Lord has promised to protect his church, to "keep" his church according to Revelation 310, "from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." And sometime after the Lord snatches away his church and now begins to deal exclusively, once again, with Israel primarily in Daniel's 70th week, these seal judgments will begin to occur, and the first three and a half years of the tribulation. And of course, after the rapture of the church, according to Daniel 9:27, a character comes and his name is the "prince to come"; referring to the Antichrist. And we know that he is going to make a covenant with Israel, which really will begin the 70th week of God's judgment upon them. And at that time, the Jews will finally be able to build their temple on Mount Zion; which the Jewish people have been preparing for a long time; which the Antichrist, we know, will later desecrate in the middle of the week, or in the middle of the tribulation; three and a half years in.

And of course, this is all consistent with Jesus' chronology that he gave some 65 years earlier on the Tuesday before his crucifixion, at what is called the Olivet Discourse. You read about it in Matthew 24, and 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21; sometimes called "the little apocalypse," because it really parallels the events and the chronology of his unveiling here in the book of Revelation.

Now, another important kind of footnote to get your mind in the right place, very briefly, you must understand the profound significance of a third temple that needs to be built. Hasn't been built yet, but it's going to be remember the first temple was desecrated and destroyed in 586 BC with Nebuchadnezzar. And we know that there is a great restoration that is promised according to Malachi three and verse one, as well as the details of that temple are described in Ezekiel 40 through 48. And then the second temple desecration occurred in 186 BC, through Antiochus the fourth, and then it was utterly destroyed by the Romans and AD 70. And now we know that on that place, and I've been in this particular place, Satan has erected the Islamic Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, right there on Mount Zion, in which exists the former resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies. And currently, that sacred temple mount is under the militant control of the Islamic authority. And so the Orthodox Jews are passionate about restoring their temple; somehow getting rid of that temple, without the whole world exploding, right, and building their temple. And we know that that temple has to be built in order for the Antichrist to desecrate that temple in the middle of the tribulation.

Now, mind you, the secular Jews at this point, they couldn't care less about building the temple, all they want is peace. And they know that once you start tinkering with that particular piece of real estate, the whole world is going to blow up. But a third temple, we know, will be built according to Revelation 11, verses one and two, and then it's going to be desecrated in the middle of Daniel 70th week, the middle of the tribulation, according to Daniel 9:27, and Second Thessalonians, two, four.

Then, after the Lord returns, he will build the final millennial temple that is described in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48; all of this is significant now for understanding the first seal. And you'll see why in a moment. Now we go to Revelation, Revelation chapter six. Again, John is standing in the throne room of heaven; he's looking upon the Worthy Lamb who has received the scroll of doom from the hand of the Father. That's all in chapter five. And then he has given a dramatic visual presentation of the contents of each seal.

And we see this first seal, beginning to be described in verse one of revelation six, let me read this to you. "Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.'" So he sees and he hears one of the magnificent angels around the throne summon the first horseman and his horse of judgment. And it's described as, quote, "a voice of thunder." And this is reminiscent, is it not, of the thunder that accompanied the theophany of God on Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the 10 commandments, as we read about in Exodus 20.

Verse two, "And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." And we know that in Scripture, horses were used to symbolize conquest and power and majesty, and war. And certainly in Revelation they are associated with force, with power that brings great disaster upon the earth. And you will notice this is a white horse, which was a symbol of victory for the Romans and for the Persians; and also the symbol of righteousness and holiness in the book of Revelation. So what does this represent? Well, it's important, whenever we look at the prophetic literature, that we do so, especially as we look at symbolism, that we do so through the context of other prophetic passages. And we must interpret the symbolism here, of this white horse and rider, through the lens of many other prophetic passages that give us context as to what happens here in the initial phase of the tribulation, that we await; that the world awaits, I should say. Because again, I believe the church will not be in that particular season of God's wrath.

The beginning of the Tribulation will be characterized by a time of peace. The world's craving peace today, is it not? All over the world people don't know what to do. But according to Bible prophecy, the most diabolically wicked political leader in the history of the world will be the one who will come and offer that peace. And that person will be the Antichrist. And that world peace will center around tiny Israel. And it will happen, in Daniel 9:27, when quote, "he will make a firm covenant with the many," that is Israel, "for one week," that's weeks of years, in other words, seven years--that's why we call this Daniel 70th week; Israel is going to be deceived by a false sense of security provided by this ruler. And this peace will allow them to finally rebuild their temple; something they cannot do now because of the Muslims and their Dome of the Rock. And again, as I say, most Israelis really don't want it. All they want is peace, and they know that that will only bring further war.

According to Daniel 9:27, we read, "in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice is referring to the Antichrist, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes a desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate." And this of course, is consistent with what Jesus said in Matthew 24, in verse 15, referring to "the abomination of desolation." And we know according to Revelation 13, verses 14 and 15, that the antichrist at that point will set up an image of himself in the temple and demand to be worshipped. In First Thessalonians five and verse three, Paul also warned about this peaceful deception he said, "While they are saying, 'Peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape."

So given these facts, the first horse and horseman symbolizes a force of wickedness that will bring about a pseudo peace that's described in other passages as well. Now this person cannot be Christ; he is the one opening the seals. Moreover, this rider is given a "stephanos" crown, in the original language, a victor's wreath. And he carries a bow, whereas we see Christ is crowned with many diadems, that is royal crowns, in chapter 19. And he carries a sword. He doesn't carry a bow. And as we're gonna see, it's a bow without arrows. And he comes at the end of the tribulation, not at the beginning. So I would submit to you this is the White Horse of counterfeit righteousness, of feigned holiness; a person that the world is going to absolutely feign over. And I'm reminded of what the Apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians 11, begin in in first 14, this person will be like, quote, "Satan," who, "disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it's not surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their deeds."

Now, I want you to notice as well, there's no indication that the rider is a specific person like the Antichrist, but rather he represents this impersonal force, this impetus--that of a counterfeit piece; even as the other riders, if you look into it, will represent war, and famine and death. And notice also this rider has a bow, but no arrows, perhaps symbolic of the capability to use force without the determination to do so. So here we see power, and the pretext of peace without malice. And we understand that better in the next phrase of verse two of Revelation six. We see also, "a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering, and to conquer." And this is not a reference to Christ, the eternal Sovereign King, he has no need for anyone to give him a crown. So this horse and rider, again, depicts this false peace that will be secured by the Antichrist, the one who will be given a winner's crown as he seduces the world.

And likewise here in this first seal, there is no hint of a military conquest that comes in the second seal. Yet we have one who goes out quote, "conquering and to conquer." So obviously, this must mean there is some kind of political maneuvering, not a conquering through military force. And this will probably be the force behind what we hear today called the New World Order. Paul describes the power of his deceptive capabilities in Second Thessalonians two, in verse eight, he's described as "the lawless one." So the Antichrist, the lawless one, also in verse nine, and following, "the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perished, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason, God will send upon them a diluting influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness."

And we know that the Antichrist will also have the help of many false teachers, many false messiahs. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 24. At the end of verse four "'See to it that no one mislead you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.'" He will also have as his accomplices, an army of false religions, of ear tickling false shepherds who multiply like fruit flies, in the midst of a crisis, as we see today, like the false shepherds in the days of Jeremiah, who kept preaching "Peace, peace, but there is no peace," Jeremiah six and verse 14. Now that's all introductory to where I want to go.

What kind of events in the prophetic sequence contribute to this kind of mass gullibility? What would cause the world including Israel to be so profoundly duped? Well, I would like to offer you a possible scenario, I can't be dogmatic, you know, when it comes to eschatology, everybody's bucket has holes in it. I just think mine has fewer than the others. I know that sounds hideously arrogant, but you know, you have to have convictions, right? I would like to offer you a possible scenario that emerges from the prophetic literature and I believe that the Prophet Ezekiel gives us much insight into the possible sequence of events that could cause the world to clamor for peace, like never before. There has to be something that will transpire to get the highly distrusting nation, and rightfully so; the highly distrusting nation of Israel to be seduced by this pseudo peace, represented by the first seal at the beginning of Daniel's 70th week. And I believe that a possible explanation for all of this can be found in the events of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and the prophecy of Gog and Magog. Let me give you a thirty second overview of the book of Ezekiel, okay. I don't know, I think I may have this on the overhead.

In Chapters one through 24, there's a description of Israel's removal from their land. Chapters 25 to 32, depicts God's historical judgments on other nations. Chapter 33, there's a historical call to repentance, the fall of Jerusalem. And of course, all of that happened literally, which tells you that the rest of it will all happen literally. And then in chapters 34 through 39, you have prophecies concerning Israel's literal future return to the very same land from which they were driven and dispersed across the globe. In chapters 38 and 39, you have a graphic description of a future invasion of Israel and its aftermath that will occur just prior to Messiah has returned to establish his earthly millennial kingdom. And then chapters 40 through 48, you have a detailed description of the millennial temple and conditions in the kingdom with respect to the boundaries and division of the land and the priests and the tribes and on and on it goes.

Now I want you to think carefully with me. In Ezekiel 37, you have that magnificent chapter of the vision of the valley of the dry bones depicting a national resurrection of Israel and regathering back into the land, where eventually at His second coming, the Lord promises according to verse 24, "I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your land. And in verse 24, we read that was verse 14 in Ezekiel 37, and then verse 24, we read, "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd." And in verse 26, he promises that, that this will all fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic and New Covenants together as he establishes his kingdom. And he says there, verse 26, "'I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their presence for forever." Now, obviously, that has not happened. But then in Ezekiel 38, he gives a detailed prophecy of a future invasion, before all of this happens, and then in chapter 39, he gives a description of him coming to the aid of Israel, destroying these enemies, and a description of the aftermath and ultimate restoration of Israel into their land during the millennial kingdom. And, of course, all of the detailed descriptions of the millennial temple.

But what's interesting, is sandwiched in between Israel's regathering and promised spiritual restoration in chapter 37 and the temple details in chapters 40 and 48. You have this invasion in chapters 38 and 39. And all of this tells us that this battle is somehow uniquely associated with the last days temple. But let me read you Ezekiel 38, verses two through six. "And the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Son of man, set your face toward God of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army horse, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops--many peoples with you."'" Now, let me stop there. Just real briefly, the meaning of Gog is uncertain. I would estimate that I've spent at least 12 to 15 hours over the years, studying everybody that's ever written on this topic. And I can assure you that nobody really knows what Gog means. And the best we can do is see it as the personified head of the forces of evil which are intent on destroying Israel that we know. And we also know that this comes from the land of Magog and against that's uncertain; most likely a name describing the region that compromises the alliance of nations; the complex of nations that he goes on to mention. But he or it is called the "prince of Rosh," at least in the New American Standard, I think a better translation like you would see in the ESV, or even the Legacy Standard is "the chief prince," because Rosh is really an adjective in the Old Testament meaning chief, and so it's translated like in the ESV, "the chief Prince of Meshech, and Tubal." And of course, we know that these were provinces in Asia Minor in an area associated with the Scythians, kind of in the southern region of Siberia, if you would look at it today. And those people reigned from Central Asia--from China to the northern Black Sea, which is the region now of Turkey, and six Muslim Soviet Socialist Republics: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. An estimated 25 million Muslims live in Russia, and most are living in the immediate proximity. And certainly, these particular republics are in the immediate proximity of Turkey, and Syria, and Lebanon and Iraq, and Iran, and Afghanistan. And we see from the text that God's allies include Meshech and Tubal, we know that they were territories in Turkey. Persia, he mentions, is Iran. Kush and Ethiopia is Sudan and that part of Northern Africa. Put, likewise Libya. Gomer can be identified historically with the Gimmerai of the Assyrians, or the Cimmerians of Greek literature, who originally came from the north of the Black Sea. Beth-togarmah is Turkey, and it may also include Azerbaijan and Armenia. So basically, the geographical area Ezekiel describes would include parts of Iran and Turkey and the southern provinces of Russia. Gog's allies, although they offer no conclusive evidence as to God's identity, and today, all of these nations hate the United States, ultimately, and they certainly hate Israel. And they want to destroy Israel. And of course, the most powerful motivation of all is the Shia Muslim commitment to their goal of not just a regional caliphate, but a worldwide caliphate. I mean, they would ultimately destroy every one of us if they could. And worse yet, mainstream Shiites believe that the return of the Messiah like figure they call the 12 Imam, and his coming was going to be hastened by some kind of an apocalyptic chaos and violence that's perpetrated upon Christians and Jews. And so they love to see all of this chaos because they think it's going to bring in their redeemer, their messiah figure.

But God says that he's going to put hooks into their jaws and bring this alliance down on Israel, according to verse four. According to verse 13, to "plunder, to carry away silver and gold to take away cattle and goods to capture great spoil." Now, when will this happen? Some say, well, it's going to happen during the tribulation. Others say it's the battle of Armageddon. Others say it's really mainly speaking of the end of the millennium. And others will say, as I do, that, I believe this will happen before the tribulation. Even though I can't be dogmatic, I think it's very possible. And I want you to look closely at this. We know that they're going to swoop down on Israel from the north, quote, "the mountains of Israel," 38 in verse eight and other passages, even in chapter 39. It's also going to be a region of, quote, "unwalled villages," according to 38 and verse 11, which is currently true of Northern Israel, I've been there. And this security seems to refer to military confidence rather than their trust in the Lord. And these invaders, according to 38 and verse six and verse 15, are going to come out of "the remote parts of the north." And according to chapter 39, verse four, we know that God will miraculously defeat them, quote, "on the mountains of Israel."

Why is he going to do this? Chapter 39, in verse seven, "'My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people, Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.'" And what's the outcome of the war? Well 39 verse 22, says, "'And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.'"

Now, obviously, this war must take place prior to the millennium, because during the millennium, Israel is not going to be surrounded by murderous enemies. And they will not even enter the kingdom, unless they already know the Lord and are worshipping Him. Moreover, and this is really fascinating, according to Isaiah 66, verses 19 and 20, some of the attackers Ezekial mentions are actually going to come to saving faith in Christ and come and worship the Lord. So I think that, and another a number of other reasons, that would rule out the millennium. So will it take place during the tribulation or at Armageddon? Well, I think not. Let me tell you why. At Armageddon, according to Zechariah 12, verses two and three, it says, quote, "all the nations of the earth will be gathered" against Jerusalem. And they will be allied with the Antichrist to destroy Jerusalem while the people are in a state of imminent peril. In Joel three, verse two, "I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat." Jehoshaphat means "Yahweh judges." "Then I will enter into judgment with them on behalf of my people and my inheritance Israel." But with the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekial 38, it's not all the nations, it's a specific alliance of nations that meet their fate on the mountains of Israel.

Moreover, at Armageddon, we read that the Antichrist will assemble his army in the northern part of Israel, round mountain Megiddo, according to Revelation 16, verses 14 and 16. But the actual battle is going to be in Jerusalem, Zechariah 12, 13, 14. But in the battle of Gog and Magog, there's no mention of the Antichrist, at least any anything that I can see; and the alliance of nations are going to be destroyed on the mountains of Israel, Ezekial 39 and verse four. And Armageddon occurring at the very end of the tribulation, it will occur at the very end of the tribulation, when the world including much of Israel, is going to be utterly destroyed by the seal trumpet in bowl judgments. It's devastating. In Revelation six, verse 16, we read that the people will say to the mountains into the rocks, "'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of the wrath has come and who is able to stand?'" But in the battle of Gog and Magog, we see something very different. The context according to Ezekiel 38, and verse 11, is Israel living quote, "securely." "Betach,” securely; safely, free from anxiety and fear--a term which by the way can refer to peace through military might. And we also see that God will cause their enemies to come upon them and take spoil. Well, my goodness, if that's happening at the end of the end of the Armageddon, they're certainly not going to be living in peace and security. And there won't be any spoil to take.

Now, we know when Christ returns at Armageddon, amazing things are gonna happen to the topography of the earth. In Zechariah 14 beginning in verse three we read, "The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south." And in verse 10, we read, "All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's gate, as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security." Now that describes radical changes to the earth's topography; there is a renovation of the earth that occurs when Jesus returns, returning the earth to a form of Edenic splendor. In fact, John MacArthur says quote, "All the land into a plain," what we just read, "the term plain pictures the Jordan Valley, extending from Mount Hermon, which is an elevation of 9100 feet to the Gulf of Akabah. Here the entire land from Geba, six miles to the north, to Rimmon, in the south, would be leveled to become like the well-watered and fertile lowlands of the Jordan Valley, causing Jerusalem to be exalted above, like a solitaire diamond on a ring. Jerusalem having been rebuilt according to these dimensions will be exalted in both place and purpose; the prominent royal city of Jesus Christ, Ezekiel 40 through 48."

Now, how can you reconcile this kind of supernatural glorious renovation and cleansing of the Earth with the cleanup after the battle of Gog and Magog? Because it says in Ezekiel 39, nine through 16, it will take Israel "seven months," verse 12, to bury the corpses. And the destruction of the weapons will take according to verse nine, "seven years." You see, if this battle were to occur during the tribulation, the Jews would be having to do this during the horrific sealed trumpet and bowl judgment, where they're experiencing unprecedented persecution and judgment and death. We know according to Revelation 12, six, many of them will flee into the wilderness. And we know according to Zechariah 12, verses seven through eight, chapter 13, verse one, chapter 14, verse two, that others are going to remain in Jerusalem. So if this is a battle of Armageddon, this means that in other words, that the battle of Gog and Magog happens at the battle of Armageddon. This means that exposed corpses and military equipment will litter the land that the Lord has just renovated. I cannot fathom that. It's going to happen seven years into the millennium? That makes no sense to me. So that's why I believe that this battle will take place prior to the tribulation. And this will give Israel time to bury the corpses and dispose of the weaponry that will take seven years. In fact, as I look at it, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, there is nothing in those texts that would rule out the conditions of the State of Israel prior to the Hamas attack on October 7.

Is it possible that that attack signals the beginning stages of the battle of Gog and Magog? Maybe not the final one, but certainly we see, I think, the stage being set for all that Ezekial has promised, certainly that shocked Israel. They thought they were secure because of their military might. And it has certainly triggered a second front in the north with Hezbollah, and it's galvanized the entire Islamic nations of the world against Israel. Yay, I would submit to you is galvanizing most of the world against Israel, including the alliance of nations described in Ezekiel 38 verses five and six. I mean, we all watched the Muslim mob storm the airport, in Dagestan. Did you see that in search of the Jews wanting to kill them when they came in on the plane? That Republic of Dagestan is on the southernmost tip of Russia. And it shares border with Azerbaijan and Georgia, northwest of Tehran, and east of Turkey.

Israel's devastating ground operations in Gaza has outraged the world, along with millions of Marxists in the US. We see this with all of the protests. And think about this, we see now Biden losing support from the radical left. Let me present some scenarios to you. And here, we're just we're just thinking out loud, okay? Can't be dogmatic with any of this. What if the US decided to withdraw support from Israel? What if the rapture were to suddenly take place? I mean, Israel would be absolutely vulnerable. Either one of those scenarios, would be an opportunity for the enemy to come down upon them. Could this be the way God fulfills his stated promise in Ezekiel 38 verse four, when he says, "I will turn you about put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out and all your army." The idea to destroy Israel.

Now, imagine the geopolitical implications of such a victory. All of these nations come down upon Israel, and God supernaturally destroys them. And we'll get into that, possibly next week to see what he's going to do. But I mean, he destroys them, not Israel. Suddenly, the Islamic world would lose all of its clout, and Israel would become the most feared nation on the planet. The world's economy would collapse. You add to that the rapture of the church, and the United States would become a toothless tiger. And that would create a global crisis, a leadership vacuum that would need to be filled. Israel would become a force to be reckoned with, requiring a peace treaty. This could pave the way; I believe for the first seal of Revelation six; the horse and the rider that depicts the force of false peace that will be secured by the Antichrist. Moreover, at that point, guess what? The Orthodox Jews would finally be able to rebuild the third temple. And the secular Jews would no longer resist it, for fear of Islamic reprisals because they are basically neutered. And there has to be a third temple in order for it to be defiled. By the way, that temple will ultimately be destroyed and the fourth temple, the final temple, is the one of Ezekiel 40 through 48.

Well, I'll expand upon this more the next time, we're out of time. But at least, maybe we can begin to see that what we're seeing today, possibly, could be the beginning of all of this. Certainly, it's going to include many of the nations and the satanic ideologies that are driving all of the wickedness in the world today. And we don't know exactly when, but we know that it will ultimately happen, because God has promised it and he cannot lie. And to that extent, dear friends, I would encourage you to rejoice in the Lord. Don't be afraid of all this stuff. I mean, the worst that could happen is we die and be with him. Right? Right. And so we can rejoice in this. And I, I'm just thrilled when I look at all of the prophecies that God has fulfilled absolutely literally. And even though we don't know, again, everybody's buckets has holes in them, right? And my bucket's got holes in it. Like I say, I just don't think it has as many as some of the others but, but the point is, I know that ultimately, my God reigns, your God reigns, Christ is coming again, and he's going to establish His Kingdom just as he's promised. And my friend, if you don't know Christ, as your Savior, if you have never trusted in him as the only hope of your eternal salvation, please, I plead with you, do that today before it's too late. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for the glories of your grace, the promises of your word. And I pray that even as we've reflected upon some of the possibilities, and certainly many of the truths of your word, that we will once again be encouraged in who you are, and that we will contemplate even more deeply and celebrate more joyfully, the wonders of your grace; the perfections of your character, that we might serve you and love you. That many might see Christ in us and be saved. To this end we pray for the glory of Christ. Amen.

It is always an immense privilege to be able to stand before you, and minister the word of God to you. And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy 29, where we just were. But I must say I have many passages that we will be going to. This is not going to be a typical exposition. In fact, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with all of these things, but I have much to share with you with respect to what's going on in the world today. In fact, I'm moving away temporarily from our study of the gospel of Mark, to address the issue of Israel in Bible prophecy.

We are all stunned, at least the civilized world is stunned, with what has happened in Israel. I've been in many of those areas; I've never been to Gaza, but I've been to many of those areas. And the savagery that took place there is nothing short of satanic. And we're also stunned to see the massive protests here in the United States; people that are somehow sympathetic with things that they don't understand frankly, and some of them do understand. And many are asking the question, "Why such violent hatred of Jewish people?" "Why such antisemitism, pretty much worldwide?" "Why are the Jews and the Islamic Arabs in a perpetual state of war?" Is it because Israel is oppressing the Palestinians, as many will argue; that somehow they are an oppressive people group? And therefore, the solution to all of this is a political solution. Because ultimately, this is a land dispute. My goal over the next few weeks is to present a biblical, theological, prophetic explanation of what is happening. And I will say from the outset, that the things that I have to say that emerge from the Word of God will be utterly absurd to people who do not know Christ, and do not have a grasp of scripture. But for those of us who, by his grace, know and love him, the Spirit of God will use his word to illuminate our hearts, and bring comfort, and discernment and hope, and strengthen our faith.

Why such hatred of Jewish people? Why Hamas and Hezbollah? Why the violent protests? Well, God answers this very clearly in his word. And I'm going to present this to you very succinctly and then I'm going to spend several weeks elaborating on what I'm about to say. The reason for all of this can be summarized under two simple headings. The hatred of Jewish people and Hamas and all of these things, is number one, the result of Satan's hatred of God's chosen people. Secondly, it's because of God's judgment on his chosen people. Which I might add, will ultimately result in their spiritual salvation and national restoration.

When Christ returns and establishes His kingdom what we see happening in Israel today, dear friends, is nothing more than a manifestation of the ancient battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light; between Satan and God. Satan is doing everything he can to thwart the purposes of God. And Israel is right at the heart of that, as we will see, Christian people. But also, what we see here is the fulfillment of God's promises to judge his people for their disobedience. God made it an abundantly clear, for example, in Deuteronomy 28, that he would bless them if they would obey his law, but also he would curse them if they did not. So frankly, he predicted the bewilderment that many people have today with antisemitism. In fact, as we read just a minute ago in Deuteronomy 29, beginning in verse 24, he predicted this, he said, "All of the nations will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?'" Here's the answer, "Then men will say, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the land, to bring upon it every curse, which is written in this book; and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'" And I will elaborate much more on this in times to come. But what we see today is God allowing Satan, and his demonic and human servants, to persecute His chosen people, that he might eventually bring them to saving faith in Christ

May I remind you of Jesus' profound statement to the Samaritan woman recorded in John 4:22. And this helps under helps us understand the reason for Satan's hatred. Jesus said to her, "'You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.'" Dear friends, the implication of that last phrase is absolutely staggering and it is at the heart of what we see happening in Israel and around the world today. You see, because salvation is from the Jews, God's chosen people, they have always been and will remain, Satan's primary target. Satan and his minions are conducting to this very day, a campaign of deception and violence to prevent God's plan of redemption, by eliminating the very people from which the Savior arose once and will return. God predicted this intransigent Semitism, antisemitism that has dominated history, when he cursed Satan in the Garden of Eden, after Satan tempted Adam and Eve, you will recall in Genesis 3:15. And this is foundational to understanding all that has happened and all that is happening there. In Genesis 3:15, God said, "'And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.'" Friends, I would submit to you that you cannot understand the mystery, the problem of antisemitism and anti-Christianity unless you understand that passage of scripture and it's far-reaching implications recorded in Scripture. What we are watching today is the result of this ancient battle of two opposing spiritual kingdoms. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, combined with God's judgment upon his chosen people for their disobedience. And even to the to this day, most of them remain his beloved enemy.

But I will add this, we also know that God will one day save and restore Israel, when the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ returns and judges the nations and establishes his kingdom. In fact, in Deuteronomy, where we were earlier, beginning, in verse three of chapter 30, we read this, "Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers."

We even read in Jeremiah chapter 30, in verse 24, "The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart. In the latter days, you will understand this." In Jeremiah 32, beginning of verse 37, we also read "'Behold, I will gather them out of all of the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. They shall be My people, and I will be their God.'" Thus saith the Lord.

Well, I have an outline that I made up that I hope to follow, at least at some level, that may give you some categories to hang some of these great truths upon. And unless you're a bit OCD, I would encourage you not to even take notes, because I'm going to be going fast and furious. And all of this is going to be transcribed, and you will have them available to you, okay? But my outline is simply this. Number one, we're going to look at God's choice of Israel. Number two, we're going to look at Satan's hatred of Israel. Number three, God's judgment of Israel; and that's probably as far as we'll get today. And then, fourthly, we're going to look at God's protection of Israel, and finally, God's salvation, and restoration of Israel. And what you will see is there's much overlap in all of these categories.

So first of all, in order to understand what's going on, we need to start from the beginning. We need to understand, number one: God's choice of Israel. Let me give you the big picture overview. We know that God created the heavens and the earth, everything that is in the universe; that he allowed sin to enter into his perfect universe. And as a result of that, he cursed all that he had created with the intent of ultimately bringing blessing and restoration; to bring glory unto himself to an elect group of people. And when God made that curse, he also cursed Satan in the garden. And I read that a moment ago in Genesis 3:15. He predicted a great struggle between Satan's seed, referring to unbelievers, and Eve's offspring, referring to Christ, and all who are in him. And there we read that Satan would bruise Christ's heel, meaning that he would cause him to suffer, but Christ would bruise him on the head, meaning he would ultimately and utterly destroy him. And that happened at the cross. And the ultimate fruition of that will occur, yet future. The cancer of sin, we know from the biblical record and from history, continued to metastasize.

So God judged the entire Earth with a global flood. And after the days of Noah, God chose the descendants of Abraham to be his treasured possession. Deuteronomy seven beginning in verse six, God said, "'For you are a holy people to the LORD.'" In other words, you're separated unto me. "'You are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.'" Let me pause, and also in Deuteronomy nine and verse six, he adds, "'it is not because of your righteousness, that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.'" Back to Deuteronomy seven and verse eight and following. Here's why he set his love upon them. "Because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers,'" referring to the Abrahamic covenant. "'The LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving kindnesses to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.'"

Now, very briefly, we know that in Genesis chapter 12, God introduced a covenant, a promise to Abraham. And then he actually made that in Genesis 15, beginning in verse 18. And then he reaffirmed it later on in Genesis chapter 17. And then we also know that he renewed it with Isaac in chapter 26, and also with Jacob in chapter 28. And this covenant contains essentially four elements; number one, that he would give him a seed-- referring to Christ that would come from his loins. And this was reaffirmed again in Second Samuel seven, that secondly, that he would give Abraham's descendants a land, a specific territory, that would be set apart by God for His people; a place where he would ultimately dwell with them in a holy and an intimate union. And we can see this reaffirmed in Leviticus 26, for example, as well as Deuteronomy 27 and 28. And thirdly, he promised that from Abraham would come a great nation, where Abraham's godly reputation, and his legacy would be displayed materially, spiritually and socially; that the glory of God's grace would be put on display. And then, fourthly, he promised divine blessing and protection upon them. And this is all reaffirmed in the new covenant blessings found in Jeremiah 31. In fact, the writer of Hebrews describes the certainty of God's promise to Abraham and his descendants in chapter six, beginning in verse 13. Here's what the writer says, "For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He had not one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself saying, 'SURELY I WILL BLESS AND MULTIPLY YOU.'" And then later in verse 17, we read when God desired to show more convincingly, "to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath."

Now, God's promise to Abraham included blessings to his descendants that would come through his sons, Ishmael, and Isaac. And it is here, where Satan began to drive a great wedge in that family, in those people. And he did this by implementing a nefarious plan to thwart the purposes of God. So we move from God's choice of Israel; Secondly, to Satan's hatred of Israel. What we see in the biblical record is that here Satan caused a rivalry between Ishmael, whom most will say was the father of the Arabs, and Isaac, through whom came the Jews. And it's important for you to understand that God promised to make Ishmael a great nation, with many progenies and the father of 12 rulers. But God also said in Genesis chapter 16, and verse 12, that, "'He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of all his brothers.'"

Later, in 2005 BC, Isaac's barren wife, conceived and gave birth to twin boys, by the name of Jacob and Esau. Esau being the father of the Edomites, the fierce enemies of Israel. And in Genesis 25, verse 23, we read that, "The LORD said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.'" Dear friends, we're seeing this played out today in Israel. Indeed, only Isaac's descendants would be the inheritors of the racial and the national promises made to Abraham. You read more about this, for example, in Romans chapter nine. And in Genesis 32 and verse 28, we read how God changed Jacob's name to "Israel." And through Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, came the 12 tribes of Israel.

Well Satan's attempt to destroy God's chosen people continued, and obviously I'm leaving out lots of history, I'm giving you the highlights. But we see this when the line of Abraham was almost eliminated by the plot against Jacob's son, Joseph, when God raised him up to be a great ruler in Egypt. And we know that God intervened. We know that he preserved many people, including his own family. We also see that Joseph is a type of Christ revealed in Scripture. And Joseph's own words reveal the glory of God's intervention and all of that. In Genesis chapter 45, verse eight, he said, "'Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.'"

Now we know that the Israelites in Egypt began to prosper greatly. The 12 tribes that came through the loins of Abraham and through Isaac, and finally Jacob, ultimately became a threat to Pharaoh. So he began to afflict them with bitter labor. But as we read in Scripture, the Israelites actually thrived and prospered, despite Satan's attempt to destroy them.

And in that day, God raised up Moses to deliver his people, Israel, from the Egyptians, and bring them into, according to Exodus 3:8, "'a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittites and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.'" It's also interesting, in Genesis 15, verse 13, Abraham was told by God, that his descendants would be aliens, that would be mistreated in a foreign land for 400 years using a figure rounded to hundreds. And as promised, According to Exodus 12:41, quote, "at the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt." And we know that through the ordinates of that first Passover, that pointed to Christ's saving work, God miraculously delivered his chosen people from the Egyptians. And that happened we know in 1446 BC.

And as they wandered in the wilderness, making their way, ultimately to their promised land, we see how God made that family into a nation. And he gave that nation his law through his servant Moses, to demonstrate his righteous standard, and to help them understand their need for a Savior, that would one day come. He promised to bless them for their obedience, to curse them for their disobedience as we have read. And again, this is vividly and solidly described in Deuteronomy 28. And so we know that he brings them finally into the promised land. And it's interesting in Deuteronomy seven, beginning in verse one, we read that God commanded them to, quote, "utterly destroy" the people of Canaan, when they entered the land. Which meant they were to kill every man, every woman and every child. They were to do this as an act of divine retribution for their extreme wickedness, and also to protect Israel, not only from their violence, but to protect them from the corruption of their idolatry and immorality that would ultimately cause them to sin and bring judgment upon Israel. And sadly, they violated God's commands in many different ways. And they succumb to Satan's schemes. They began to intermarry with those people, they began to worship their idols. And they suffered greatly at the hands of their enemies, as God allowed that to happen as part of his judgment upon them.

And this moves us now to the third point in our little outline, and that's God's judgment upon Israel. Again, this is promised in Deuteronomy 28, as a consequence of their disobedience; and there's many examples of how his judgment was manifested. Let me give you a few more. We know that Satan almost eliminated the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, in the potential genocide of the Jews that we read about in Esther chapter three and chapter four. He attempted to destroy the Messianic line itself, in the time of Joash. You read about that in Second Chronicles, 22, and 23. And what's interesting is always, even in the midst of all of those horrible judgments that were occurring, he would always remind them of his faithfulness to his covenant promises. And as God's plan unfolded in history, around 1000 BC, he made another promise to one of Abraham's descendants, to a man named David. The promise of an eternal kingdom, whereby David's throne would ultimately belong to a descendant of David, to a greater son of David, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know that God's judgment continued as God allowed Satan to persecute his people.

In 722 the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. In 605 BC, Judah fell to the Babylonians. And during that time, God raised up a prophet by the name of Daniel. In the prophecies of Daniel chapter seven, which parallel Daniel chapter two, I might add. In that prophecy, Daniel sees four great beasts, according to Daniel seven, verse three. They're coming, "up from the sea, different from one another." And there he describes the empires of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Greece and of Rome, and also a future revived Roman Empire that would be ruled by the most hideous of all rulers that we know to be the Antichrist, that is coming. And there we read of a successive number of Gentile empires that would dominate Jerusalem and God's covenant people until the Messiah would come and establish his kingdom. And we see Satan's role in all of this.

You will also recall in Daniel chapter 10, as well as chapter 12, where Daniel speaks of the Archangel Michael, the great prince, who stands guard over the sons of Israel, Daniel 12, verse one. Remember how, according to chapter 10, and verse 13, that he fought against a demon called the Prince of Persia, whom Satan had dispatched to thwart the purposes of God by opposing Gabriel in heavenly warfare. You may remember that from our study of Daniel.

But once again, because of his great love, and his great faithfulness to his covenant promises, God gave Abraham's descendants, a fourth promise, a new covenant of redemption, that we read about in Jeremiah, chapter 31. A covenant whereby through Israel, God's very Son would purchase their redemption, and the redemption of all who had placed their faith in him; that he would restore them to their land. And this of course, was and is an eternal and unconditional covenant, based upon God's very character. That all who know him and love him would participate in the spiritual blessings of salvation. Promises to be fulfilled and individuals, and to Israel as a nation, when they are reestablished into their land in the millennial kingdom.

Moving ahead in history, we continue to see this battle take place between Satan and Yahweh. Remember when the infant Messiah was born, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew two we read how Satan tried to kill him. He tempted Christ, to get him to abandon his mission in Matthew chapter four, and he incited the Jewish leaders and their followers to crucify the Messiah. He even went so far as to make sure that there were people that were guarding his tomb where he wouldn't rise again as he promised. Since the time of Christ, Satan has tried to exterminate God's chosen people. He has tried to thwart God's kingdom purposes; and God allows it, consistent with his promise to judge them for their disobedience.

In AD 70, the Romans came in and massacred them. And during the next six centuries, conflict grew between Jews and Gentiles. They were scattered all over the globe in the Diaspora. By the fourth century AD, we see how even the church was suddenly getting sucked into this antisemitism. We see it through the influence of Augustine, where the Christian community had become so thoroughly Gentilized, that they began to adopt, frankly, an antisemitic view. But yet they realized that the Old Testament said something different, and they couldn't accept the idea of a future national restoration of Israel, despite how clearly it says differently in the Old Testament. So they embraced the Grecianized hermeneutic of Plato and of Origin in order to expunge God's covenant people from God's plan for mankind; to get rid of them completely. And they created the hermeneutical device of allegorizing Scripture. And from that came, replacement theology, also known as supercessionism, or amillennialism, frankly, Roman Catholic eschatology.

And by the seventh century AD, we know that Satan dispatched a demon to give a series of visions to a man by the name of Muhammad, this demon's name was Gabriel, Muhammad said. And he recorded what the visions were. They are now found in the Islamic scriptures known as the Koran, the book of Islam. Islam means "surrender, or submission," "surrender to the will of Allah." And Islam would then grow to be one of the most violent haters of all people, but especially the Jews of any religion that has ever existed; more on that later.

Dave Harrell  

By AD 1096, you have the Crusades, and they attempted genocide of the Jews. In fact, if you read your history, you will see that the medieval church's vicious degradation of the Jews is one of the most heart wrenching periods in world history. The English Magna Carta of 1215 legalized persecution of the Jews. By 1492, when Columbus discovered America, prior to their expulsion by Ferdinand and Isabella, who were patrons of Columbus, the Jews in Spain endured horrible, horrible, hideous torture, even being burned alive during the Roman Catholic Spanish Inquisition. History records how at least 300,000 of them had to either convert to Roman Catholicism, or flee Spain or be killed. And we know that 1000s of them fled to Portugal, to Greece, to Turkey, to the Netherlands and so forth.

Between the years of 1346 and 1353, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death. Remember that? The bubonic plague that caused the deaths of they say anywhere from 78 to 200 million people. And many of the reformers were even vicious anti Semites like Martin Luther of the 15th century, who accused the Jews of poisoning wells and ritual murder. You ought to read his diatribes in his work entitled "The Jews and Their Lies." But by the 19th century, the volcano of antisemitism was erupting in Poland, and in Russia, resulting in many pogroms, that is by the way, "p" "o" "g" "r" "o" "m" "s." In Russian it means it means "massacre." Basically, the Russian Tsar Alexander the First used the infamous protocols of the "Learned Elders of Zion," to distract the Russian people from the political problems that he had caused, that was occurring in Russia. And according to the Shoah Resource Center of Yad Vashem; "shoah" by the way in Hebrew means "Holocaust." And this is referring to the world Holocaust Remembrance center in Jerusalem; I've been there on several occasions, if you've never been there, I hope you can go, you will never be the same when you see what the Nazis did to the Jews. But in the Shoah Resource Center, they speak about the protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. And folks, this is just one example of many, of how Satan uses his lies to deceive millions. They say quote, "It was a forged document that claims to reveal a Jewish plot to take over the world. The protocols were based on a satire of the French regime by Maurice Joly, that had been published in Belgium in 1864. The adaptation was first distributed in Russia. Eventually, the protocols were used by the Nazis," as quote, "proof of the Jews wickedness and greed. Groups still publish the protocols today with the intention of hurting the Jews and denying the Holocaust." They went on to say, "the protocol state that the Jews will use weapons to achieve control over the world. It claims that the Jews brought about the French Revolution, liberalism, socialism, communism, and anarchy, in order to weaken European society." That Jews, "also control the price of gold and have the power to evoke economic crises, rule the media, create religious and tribal feuds and destroy cities if the need arises. Once they gain world power, they would demand total obedience to a Jewish king." Finally, they say, "the Freemasons would act as their collaborators in these conspiracies."

So again, you see Satan at the very core of these things. You see God allowing these things to happen, as he promised, as a judgment on their disobedience. And of course, what I just read led to Hitler's, quote, "final solution" of the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were murdered; an evil that is without parallel, an evil that Satan orchestrated to destroy all Jews and Jewish civilization in Europe.

Now, I have just given you a mere sampling of biblical, theological, historical truths. And of course, after hearing that, you can see that the reason why there is a battle in Israel is because Israel is oppressing Hamas. I mean, folks, if that's what you think, I don't know what else I can say. I mean, that is a level of stupidity and naivety that begs language. And yet, that's what you're hearing by so many; that Israel is oppressing the Arab Muslim Palestinians, because they are occupying their land. And of course, the answer is a two-state solution. You just give them their land, give them what they want, and everybody's gonna get along fine. Staggering stupidity: people that live in a fool's paradise.

You know, Jesus said of Satan in John 8:44, that he is the "father of lies." And folks is a great example of that. He is the "ruler of this world," Jesus said in John 12:31. In Second Corinthians four, four, he describes him as "the god of this world," who "blinds the minds of the unbelieving, so that they won't see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." And this is the blinding that we are seeing happening today in our world, in our country. And this is the blinding that's being perpetuated in our elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools and universities...and in the halls of Congress.

You see Satan causes people to believe things that appeal to their fleshly lusts, to their depraved nature; things that are idiotic; things that are irrational and inconceivably evil. All you have to look at this whole LGBTQ transgender insanity. And you can see that we've got military leaders today that are more concerned about personal pronouns, and soldiers more concerned about makeup kits than protecting our country. Absolute insanity. Beloved, what I have just said to you, what I'm just touching on here, are the great truths of history, and theology, and the Bible, that needs to be taught to our Ivy League students. And when they understand these things, they'll put down their banners and they'll stop foaming at the mouth with all of this hate that they do not understand. Please understand, the brainwashed world of Islamic Jihad and the Marxist revolutionaries of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and university professors; all of this is a result of the father of lies. And that's why they are elated with what Hamas has done. I mean, folks, this is as predictable as a Hallmark movie. All right? Bear in mind liberal, woke, Marxists align themselves with radical jihadist because they all hate Jews. But they do so for different reasons.

Maybe I can explain this briefly. The woke social justice Marxist see them as privileged, white, that are oppressing brown people. And you know, when they look at the worldwide success of Jewish people in every field, and the enormous wealth that the Jewish people have worldwide, that causes them to see them as the oppressor group; the white privileged class. And therefore they must be scorned and censored and eliminated.

And then of course, there's the jealousy factor because of their towering intellect. They are a brilliant, a very highly successful people. You realize that they make up only 0.2% of the 8 billion people that inhabit this globe. And yet, from 1901 to 2023, 22% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews. My friend, David Larsen, who spoke here a number of years ago; he's now with the Lord, he's written, by the way, a book called "Jews, Gentiles and the Church." It's one of the best books I've ever read, you simply must have that, you must read it, you must learn it. But he said this, quote, "Jews are twice as likely to go to college than Gentiles, reflecting the religious obligation of study, and are five times more likely than Gentiles to be admitted to an Ivy League school." Let me pause for a second, he wrote this in 1995, so some of these figures may be a little bit different now. But he went on to say, "Jews are overrepresented in the field of science by 231%, in psychiatry by 47%, in law by 265%, and dentistry by 299%. And in mathematics by 283%. The very terms of their apartness have fostered scholarship and achievement in order to survive, but these have made them susceptible to jealous resentment, and the other prices," of quote, "otherness. Thus, some people have spoken of the Jews as the pariahs of privilege." And my how much greater that is today than it was in 1995.

Additionally, I might add that the appeal of Islam, among many in the black community, is rooted in their shared hatred of white Christianity. But with respect to the Arab Islamic jihadist, they also hate them because they believe God's covenant with Abraham was a promise between Abraham and Ishmael, not Abraham, and Isaac. In fact, the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast commemorates Abraham's offering of Ishmael. They believe it was Ishmael who was to be offered on Mount Moriah, not Isaac. And thus the blessings of the land and all of the promises that God gave to Abraham's descendants through Isaac, really is supposed to be theirs through Ishmael.

They also believe Moses was referring to Muhammad in Deuteronomy 18:15, where we read, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." So you must also understand that the Arab Islamic jihadist also hate Israel because they believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East contradicts the teachings of the Qur’an. Jewish presence in that region is perceived to be a wicked reality that undermines the validity of Islam. Because what it does in their minds is it elevates Yahweh over Allah, the supreme insult. You see, Muhammad hated both Jews and Christians because they refused to accept him as the only prophet. We read about this, for example, in the Qur’an in 586, "you will surely find that the most hostile to the believers are the Jews and the idolaters, while those who have the greatest affection to them are the ones who say 'we are Christians.'" Historically, we know that after Muhammad's death, and who supposedly ascended to heaven from on his horse, from the site known as the Dome of the Rock there in Jerusalem, at his death, the Muslims became a world power, and that spread from northern Spain to India. And during that time, their hatred of Jews and Christians increased, and much of that hatred was justified, in their mind, by the words of the Qur’an in chapter nine, in verse 29. It says, "fight against those who do not believe in God, or in the last day who do not forbid what God and his Prophet have forbidden or practiced the true religion."

Again, David Larsen says, quote, "The influence of the PLO among Arabs living in Israel and the occupied territory, seems to be receding and the influence of the Islamic movement, or Hamas, seems to be growing." Again, this is 1995, okay? "The radicalization of Islam in Israel bodes no good. A recent international conference to support the Islamic Revolution in Palestine held in Tehran included 400 delegates from 60 Islamic countries." The conference called for quote, "the elimination of the Zionist existence and total opposition to any peace process involving Israel." He went on to add, "escalation of the activities of Hezbollah, the Shiite extremist organization, demonstrates the implacable and irrational nature of this hatred for everything Jewish. The history of Islamic terrorism has involved the use of every vicious means and tactic conceivable."

I might also add that both the woke Marxists in our country, and the Islamic jihadist, despise Western civilization. The social justice Marxists like BLM and Antifa, etc. and all of the, you know, the hysterical feminazis that you see spewing out all of their vengeance with all of the protests and so forth and all of the diversity, equity and inclusion people, they all hate Western civilization, and they want to eradicate everything that is white, everything that smacks of Judeo Christian ethics and influence. Down with colonization, which by the way, is their code word for capitalism. The destruction of the West, that's what drives so many of these people. And the Islamic jihadist, which are really nothing more than religious Nazis agree with them, but they have a little different twist with all of the colonization resentment, because you must understand that these people are tribalists. They're from tribalism, not nationalism, they do not want a Jeffersonian democracy. They do not think and act in the best interest of a nation, but only in terms of their tribe. So again, these are some of the symptoms of what's really at the core of all of these problems, at its most fundamental level. I would submit to you that antisemitism is the result of those two things: number one, Satan's hatred of God's chosen people, and his attempt to thwart the kingdom purposes of God; as I have demonstrated. Satan is the temporary god of this world; he is bent on destroying God's covenantal people. And only then can he thwart the covenant promises of a messianic kingdom and retain his own coveted status. So that's what drives him and Satan's hatred of the Jewish people hatred of Israel, is because they were to be, according to Exodus 19, six, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." And when Christ returns that will be fully realized. When according to Zechariah's prophecy and chapter eight and verse three, the Lord says, "'I will return to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'"

Folks, Satan is doing everything he can to prevent that. And that's why the Temple Mount is the most disputed piece of real estate on the planet. But also, this antisemitism is a result, as I say, of Israel's disobedience, God made that so clear in Deuteronomy 28. In fact, I would add that the last seven chapters of Deuteronomy, chapters 28, to 34, really provide a prophetic summary of God's dealing with Israel. It describes her afflictions; it describes God's judgments against them. It describes their salvation, their regathering, her restoration. And frankly, we have witnessed the beginning of this regathering to Israel in our lifetime. Do you realize what a miracle it is for Israel to have its own state, its own land, its own country, after the Holocaust? That which was established by the UN in 1948. Something that Hitler's "final solution" could not prevent. I'm reminded of Amos's prophecy and chapter three, verse two where the Lord says to Israel, "'You only have I chosen among all of the families of the earth.'" "Chosen" by the way is also the word "known." It carries the idea of an intimate, loving relationship. God predetermined that he would know Israel as the intimate object of his love, making them his chosen people. People whom he would never permanently cast away.

But today, God's hand of judgment is on his beloved enemy Israel, even though he continues to protect them. They have been temporarily put aside as we read in Romans 11, verse 25, "a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Then in verse 26, we go on to read, "all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB, THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'"

Well, in conclusion this morning, I know some of you are asking, Okay, so, all right, a lot of history, I see some of this, but prophetically what's going to happen next? Well, a little preview of where we will ultimately be going; we know biblically that God's focus will once again return to Israel after the snatching away of the church in the rapture. And then God will pour out his final judgment on Israel as he promised and Daniel 9:27, Daniel's 70th week--judgment; we're waiting. The 69 weeks has already happened, we're waiting for one more week of years to occur. And that's a distinctly Jewish context pertaining to God's covenants with Israel. It will be the time when according to Jeremiah 30, and verse seven, when Israel enters quote, "the time of Jacob's trouble." And we see the details of that delineated in Revelation chapter six through chapter 19; a period of unprecedented oppression for Israel, but also, the context describes her future and final salvation and restoration, when the Messiah returns in power and great glory to establish His kingdom. And then the focus will remain upon Israel during the millennial reign of Christ when all God's remaining covenant promises will be fulfilled to them literally, including the promises of earthly blessings, and an earthly messianic kingdom that will last for 1000 years. And that millennial kingdom will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state.

In the meantime, Satan is going to continue to do all he can to thwart the purposes of God. But both Jews and Gentiles can take comfort in what God has promised. Zechariah chapter 12, beginning in verse eight, "'In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. And in that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

And finally, I know some of you are saying, "well, what about this Hamas war? Where does all that fit in?" I don't have time to get into it, by any means today, I will next week. But I will simply say that I believe that what we are seeing right now is God establishing, orchestrating, what he promised in Ezekiel 38 and 39. In Ezekiel chapter 38, and 39, we read about a Russian Arab alliance of nations that will descend upon the northern mountains of Israel to try to destroy them, the great battle of Gog and Magog. We know that they will be supernaturally defeated on the mountains of Israel. I believe that that battle is going to occur before the tribulation. I believe that what we're seeing now is God, beginning to set the stage for when that will happen. Don't know when it will happen, but I can tell you this, it is going to happen. And when it does happen, Israel will know that Yahweh is indeed the Lord, the God of Israel. And it will set into motion the final pre kingdom judgments that will lead up to the second coming of our Savior and King.

And I also believe that before that happens, the church is going to be snatched away. So if you do not know and love Christ, I would plead with you as a minister of the gospel, do business with God today before it's too late. And for those of you who know and love Christ, let's celebrate the glory of his person, his faithfulness, and to know that we as Gentiles, have been grafted into the root of the Abrahamic Covenantal blessings. And so our hope is also in Christ, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the glorious truths of your word, for the power of your Spirit. Speak to every heart that cry Christ will be exalted, that your name will be praised. We commit it all to you, in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen..