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.