Address—Don Rule
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Let's begin.
The hour before us by singing together.
#200 and 62160 Lord Jesus, come and take thy rightful place as Son of man of all the theme, Come Lord Jesus to reign or all supreme.
Lord Jesus, come #260.
And we need somebody to start it.
Take my rightful place.
As Son of Man, as full of him.
Oh Lord, terrain or?
Also supreme.
Lord Jesus, come.
Lord Jesus, come.
The Man of Sorrows once.
A man.
Patience waiting now.
So ever thou.
Come, Savior, come.
Where Jesus come.
From with life.
Crucified, the Lamb was swaying.
To wash away sins.
Grandson's name.
Lord Jesus, come.
Lord Jesus.
Come and take my father's gift.
The people.
By thy cross made thy.
Trophy.
Of my love divine.
Lord.
Jesus.
Come.
Lord Jesus, come.
That lost in the our souls.
May bow and worship.
And adore.
And thy blast from the thy blast presence.
Evermore.
Lord Jesus, come.
Lord Jesus, come.
And let thy glory shine.
That quickly.
These change bodies.
May each one reflect?
A living rain.
Lord Jesus, come.
And every knee bow down.
And every.
Tongue.
They confess.
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The Lord of all come forth to bless.
Lord Jesus, come.
Spirit.
And the bride.
With longing voice say come.
Yeah, Lord.
Is early, I will quickly come.
Blaine saw Lord come.
Turn with me to Luke's Gospel Chapter 23.
Thank you.
Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 23.
And verse 33.
And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary.
There they crucified him.
And then down to verse 44.
And then when it was about the 6th hour, there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus.
He gave up the ghost.
Now turn with me back to Deuteronomy chapter 21.
Deuteronomy chapter 21, the verses we're going to read.
Give us one view of what we've just read in Luke's gospel.
It's a very, very serious view.
And perhaps the center of what's in my heart comes from what we're going to read in these 4 verses.
Deuteronomy chapter 21.
And verse 22.
And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death?
Then he shall be put to death, and thou shalt hang him on a tree.
His body shall not remain all night upon the tree.
But thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.
For he that is hanged.
Is a curse.
Of God.
That thy hand be not thy land, be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Or inheritance.
I want you to try to picture as I do.
The sight that you just read, we read together in Luke's gospel.
Of a man.
In God's land.
Who has just been put to death?
Hanging on a tree. The cross.
That man hangs there, cursed.
As stated under the law.
That man hangs there dead.
Because it had been judged.
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That he should die.
Because he had committed a sin worthy of death.
That man was to be taken down.
From that tree.
Before sundown or before 6:00 PM.
That day.
So that the land.
Would have been purged.
And not be defiled.
What did God look upon that and see?
What were the thoughts of God?
As he observed.
What we've just described.
It says if a man.
Have committed a sin worthy of death.
What was that sin?
That he was being put on that cross for.
He was quizzed in the courtroom.
He was examined.
And he was asked the question by the high priest.
Art thou the Son of God?
And he answers. I am.
The judge called that blasphemy.
And that was a sin worthy of death.
Let him be crucified.
And so it was.
He was taken out.
And put to death.
We have our perspective of things.
The real question is.
What was God's perspective?
As he looks upon earth that you and I are sitting on at this moment.
He looks at the whole system of mankind and all the people that were gathered together this day in that land and throughout His creation.
And he looks upon him, hanging dead.
Cursed.
As hanging on a tree.
It's a solemn thing, isn't it?
It's a painful thing to describe it.
It's a serious issue.
With God.
What was the righteousness of the matter?
Turn with me.
To Luke's gospel again.
Chapter 22 again.
MMM.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
And verse one. Now the feast of the unleavened Bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
And the chief priests and scribes thought how they might kill him.
And then?
Also, we'll read verse chapter 23.
And verse one.
And the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate.
And they began to accuse him, saying we found this fellow perverting the nation.
And forbidding to give tribute to Caesar.
Saying that he himself is Christ a king.
Verse 12 And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together.
For before they had been at enmity between themselves.
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These verses that we have read present to us the two main.
Visible.
Sets of people.
That were responsible for what took place that day.
The leaders of the Jewish people.
Who had presented to them this man as their king?
And had said no, we will not have him.
And further, for claiming to be Son of God, we must put him to death.
And so we have on the one side, if you will.
The.
Leaders of the land.
The other side, because the land had been conquered by the Gentile powers, and the Gentile power in charge over them at that time was the Romans. And so we have Pilate and Herod, representatives of the Roman Empire, who also were.
There in their responsibility.
Over what took place.
That day.
1/3 Very important.
Person.
That wasn't visible.
But had a serious role in what took place that day was Satan.
And so we have the Jew, the Gentile, and Satan.
United together, man is often in conflict with fellow man.
Herod and Pilot, two different province leaders in the Roman Empire that couldn't get along. They were in political conflict from time to time, but they're united when it comes to this matter.
Of the removal of the Son of God from the earth.
That's part of the picture.
To get another aspect of the same day and the same picture, turn over to Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one.
Verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1St, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. For it is written, the just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth.
In unrighteousness.
Verse 23 concerning man.
Change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.
And verse 25 Who changed the truth of God?
Into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature.
More than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
This gives us an additional.
View.
Understanding of what God saw that day and what God was making known on that day.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
Was it a righteous act?
Was the.
Or sin, perhaps, that ever occurred in the history of man that day.
In spite of what man said and did, from God's perspective it was the crowning sin of mankind, and in fact John records it this way. Now is the judgment of this world.
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That was the last and ultimate hope of God.
That man would or could respond in any way to his love and his goodness.
But he proved himself to be dead indeed unto sin.
And so.
Here he says.
The righteousness of God is revealed.
How?
We had the picture in Deuteronomy.
Thank God it's not the only picture though.
Because other scriptures that we're very familiar with tell us.
But on that day and on that man.
My sins were placed.
On that day, and yours too, as a believer.
On that day and on that man.
He took.
Your place and mine for what we are.
Not only what we've done, but he took our place.
As to what we are.
We've had multiple times this morning and in the weekend. He hath made him to be sin.
For us, that means that He took what we are in our sinful nature and stood before God in that place.
You have within you a sinful nature, and in being made sin, that's what's in view in that word sin.
He was placed before God to bear God's.
Condemnation. There's no redemption of that, but there is condemnation of it. We're redeemed from the consequences of our sins, but being made sin for us caused him to be under condemnation.
And bear it.
And as condemned, he has to die. And he does.
And so.
That reveals.
The righteousness of God.
That shows us something that from that from Adam to that day and to that work that's been explained to us on that day. Until that point, God's fullness of being, his righteous character, had not been fully revealed. Man had seen God at work and doing things righteously and his consequences on man but the full measure of it.
Had never been revealed.
And tell them. And so it's revealed the righteousness.
Of God.
Likewise, as we just read here, it also says.
For the wrath of God.
Is revealed.
What does God think of sin? How serious is it?
What's the consequence of it?
We see the wrath of God against sin.
When that man on the tree goes into those three hours of darkness.
And we see the full payment of the wrath of God revealed, and the seriousness of the consequence.
Of what man is.
And what man has done.
Now turn with me.
To Genesis chapter 12.
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Genesis chapter 12 and verse one.
And the Lord God said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country.
And from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land.
That I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation.
And I will bless thee, and I will make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Now we back up in time and go to a long, long time before the day that we've been talking about South Far.
To a man.
Who lived?
Over 2000 years before the day that on which Christ was.
Put to death.
And he has.
An exchange between himself.
And God.
And God chooses according to His perfect purpose and will.
To this man Abraham, he makes promises.
Without any condition put on them, he didn't say. I'll do this for you if.
You do this and so he simply says, I will make.
A promise he makes from his own choice and heart. To that man, he says, I will make thee.
A great nation.
He did.
Then that promise make him a great nation.
He didn't see it himself.
He was an example that God gives promises that we have to live our lives in view of where the gaining of the promise goes beyond our lifetime.
You sit in this room and you've got to live by faith because in this lifetime that is here on earth, you're not going to see the fulfillment of all the promises that God has made to you. And so the just shall live by faith. And here was a just man who had to live and did live with some weakness the rest of his life.
In faith.
But he's going to see.
And enjoy the fulfillment of this promise that God had made to him.
He then says to him.
In thy seed, in thee all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
On that day, going back to the day of the crucifixion, what was God going to do about this promise?
That he had made Was he going to abandon it?
Did he have any solution to it?
Well, I'm sure we all know the truth.
That God would not abandon any promise he's ever made, never abandoned one. That He's never failed and will never fail to fulfill any promise that He makes.
To anyone about anything.
He's always consistent and faithful in all such things.
But I bring it up in looking at.
The man hanging on the cross.
Dead.
And in that person who hangs there, these promises are to be fulfilled.
Than him.
All the promises of God are yay, yes and Amen.
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Because the price of redemption. While man did his worst that day, God did the best. And in that very same event.
God, in the immensity of his love, was acting.
To bring about the eternal blessing of you and I and all men and all nations of the earth to be blessed.
Blessing is through death.
There's nothing in this creation that God could use to bring man into the fulfilling of His purposes, because this creation in Adam will die, but in the death of the Lord Jesus.
And the wonderful result that comes three days later?
God couldn't leave him on the cross hanging. God could not leave his. That man in a grave, His glory, His honor, his worth demanded.
That he be brought out of that condition.
And God said come.
Sit at my right hand.
And that man sits this afternoon.
We sang about him as the man of patience in the song, that man that we have before us this afternoon he sits. We no longer view him on the cross.
The Cursed 1.
But we view him now as seated, the right hand of God in heaven, given his place of honor and glory.
Put his place on Earth isn't changed.
He still held here in the same regard by those that put him to death.
He's still regarded by those that were responsible directly for his death.
As the day he was put to death.
I bring up some of these things.
As it were to.
Take us on where we've been in the Reading meetings in the last couple of days.
We've had the Lamb of God.
We have had him in prospect as the one that takes away the sin of the world.
As a man of patience, he sits at the right hand of God this afternoon.
But and when we say Lord Jesus come.
Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing if later this afternoon we got to see him standing?
That is that this afternoon and this hour we were taken home into His presence where he is.
Even if we were, I don't say that this afternoon would be this afternoon in which He stood. God does things over a period of time, and He doesn't say that the moment the rapture takes place is the instant in which the earth will start to be set right.
But we know that that moment, that hour, is coming when we see Him stand as we've had before us in Revelation chapters 4:00 and 5:00.
But in the time that we have, I'd like to just give some thoughts.
As to how things are going to take place.
Not so much necessarily all the details of prophecy, but the number one one in my soul is this.
And prophecy shows how it is going to be, and it's this.
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The world as we see it this afternoon does not look exactly like it did the day that that man was put on that cross and put to death.
But I suggest to you that that's what's going to happen.
That God is doing a work.
And we can see that work in measure taking place.
And what he is doing is he is putting the world back.
Into a state that it was.
On the day that his son was cast out.
Satan won't be seen directly in it. He's at work every day to oppose, but we all know he's there.
God has started that work by placing back into that land and into the identity of that land the people.
That are responsible for having put his son to death.
We know in the details that there are 12 tribes.
The children of Israel.
And that the time came when ten of the tribes.
Were taken in out of the land.
By the Assyrian.
And they'll be there at the end, and the Assyrian will be brought back into a place to have his role when God sets things right.
In addition, there were the two tribes, the tribes of David, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which are the tribes that were there to to whom the Lord Jesus was presented as Messiah.
It's interesting and it's detailed to see that there was a time when they were all put out of the land. So who if he had come back?
And what if there had been no people there to present him? And so God, in his wonderful ways, in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, he brought back after 70 years of exile or discipline out of the land.
He brought some of them back into the land and gave them a place there that they continued to have so that when the Lord Jesus was born, they were there and they were there to have him presented to them as Messiah. And they're the ones that specifically were guilty of casting him out.
And so they're brought back into that place.
And then they.
Were again put out after the Lord's death.
In the days of Titus in 70 AD, they were again cast out of their land and disappeared for.
Almost 202,000 years until the Lord has brought them back now into the land.
That.
He is resetting the stage.
We see as well as Scripture tells us, the Romans that were present.
Will be present again.
Will have the same territory that they had, the same general land that was their land.
On the day the Lord Jesus was cast out.
And then God in righteousness is going to.
Bring about judgment on them. They are going to answer.
To God.
Or what they did that day.
They're going to come under his hand of justice.
God purposed and we don't really have time to turn to each and all the details, but God purposed.
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That there would be a people.
Blessed his family.
And so there they are. But what condition are they in?
What condition were they in when the Lord Jesus was cast out and crucified?
Not a good one.
It's not a good one. There were men and women of faith who accepted the Lord.
But the whole of the nation.
Was outwardly religious? Was outwardly acknowledging God, Jehovah?
And had worship of a sort, at least in custom and form and so on.
But what was the real moral condition of the people?
Well, I don't know that we can say exactly, but I will say this scripture makes it clear to us that when.
The Lord deals with those people over a period of seven plus years in the work that is yet to be done before He reigns in righteousness over the earth in that period of time.
Scripture would give us to understand that of the ones that are there of the two tribes.
Over a period of several years.
2/3 of them will die.
They'll die sometimes. They're called the apostate Jew. That is, they're they're in name, but not in reality. And they will. God will put them through the test and part of them will respond properly and repent.
And those who repent will be LED finally, when the Lord presents Himself face to face to them, to recognize that He is the Messiah that they as a nation had rejected, and they will trust Him as their Messiah and be brought into millennial blessing. That's a third of them. But the other 2/3 will lose their lives.
Later on, God will work in that period toward the end of the seven years with the 10 tribes.
And bring them back into the land. And it says that and some of them won't make it, but they'll be called to the land of the 10 tribes. There's a definite thought and scripture that one in 10 will come back and be brought into blessing and the other 90% of them will die.
As not having true faith, but the Lord will have all 10 tribes.
Terrain over in the day of the Millennium.
Just to make a few comments for individual study if interested, we are in chapters four and five of the Revelation, but if you go on to chapter 6.
And 7:00 and 8:00 and 9:00. You will, particularly in those six to nine chapters, see the work of God with the two tribes to bring about repentance by the His hand upon the land.
And so we see in the revelation the work that's given in a rather orderly way really, and he takes up first the two tribes and the work that he's going to do with them to restore them or judge those who will not respond to him.
In chapter 12, he takes up the matter of Satan.
The one that's behind them, the one that stirs the passions of man. And man is no match for Satan's.
Manipulative power over him, and in chapter 12 we see God's hand upon him.
Casting him out of heaven as he does that work and so he takes up.
Something of the devil and finishes that work later in the revelation of casting him into the lake of fire.
In chapter 13 of the Revelation, you have.
What's called the Beast?
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And that is the man who is in charge of.
The Romans.
It's often called the revived Roman Empire because God has it was not, but it will be again.
It will be what we, if you have sense of schooling and geography a little bit, it's generally what we would much of Europe as it is today that was part of the Roman Empire and will be again and will have its place in the land.
Among the people of the land, the Jews that are not of faith, there will be a second. The head of the Roman Empire is called the beast in Romans 13 laid her down. In the same chapter of Romans 13, there's another beast. Beasts are people that represent people that act without reference to God. They act like a beast. The beast acts without reference to God. And so the head of the Roman Empire in that day.
Like a beast because he will act and do his thing without reference to God. There's another man who is also called there a beast when he's introduced, who will be the head of the Jews.
Just like the stage is reset.
As the head of the Jews, he has multiple titles. Maybe you're more familiar.
He takes whether he acts without reference to God, but he does take a title and he gets called the Antichrist.
As well.
Because he takes Christ's place as King.
But he isn't. He's a false. But nonetheless, he takes that place.
The Romans and the Jews really didn't like each other, but because of a common interest in the Lord Jesus, they.
Made agreements together and in fact the same will happen again. God resetting the stage. You'll see the two beasts and those they represent form of an agreement.
Between themselves as they enter that period of time and it's described to us in the revelation of them, particularly in chapter 13, but then in Revelation 14 the Lambs introduced.
Does not he have a stake in it?
Yes, he does.
He's the Lamb that's described to us in chapters 4:00 and 5:00.
And he has to go to war.
To claim what is rightfully his, then he will.
And so he does.
And in fact.
In chapter 17, when you go on in the Revelation, there's war and then your words use there's a war of the Lamb, and that's the way that righteousness can be established by Him.
Revelation adds 1 aspect to the picture of what's called prophecy that you don't see in the Old Testament.
And that has to do with prophecy. Always has to do with the earth. But.
You and I belong to the Church of God and the Church of God.
When the Lord calls us home to heaven at what we call the rapture, the true church will be gone. Does that mean there will be no profession of so-called Christianity on the earth? No, there'll be a false church left.
It'll be here. It'll have its headquarters in Italy, a place called Rome.
It will have throughout the earth people that identify themselves with it.
Because it's false in the revelation, it gets called the Harlot.
And it is. It's taking a place that is not its own and in fact, in the way that God does things.
You and I won't.
Have our marriage, our heavenly marriage.
It's late in the revelation. Why? Because God does the exhibit orderly way and until the false pride, the so-called church that still takes that place on earth has been judged. During those seven years when it's judged then in heaven, God could say as it were to his Son. Now you can take your bride.
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And the marriage of the lamb takes place in chapter 19, and it's not until after chapter in chapter 19 actually, that we find.
The Lamb coming back, invisible power and glory. He's been at work on earth already, but not in his visible power and glory until he can do so with his pride at his side and take his rightful place.
Make another comment. More of these are to just to give us a sense that the one we love will have his rightful place and God will establish righteousness on the earth in an orderly way.
And that is, we know that we don't have time to trace it, but in Daniels, the Book of Daniel, there's four world empires.
The first one, Babylon that took the children of Israel out of the land. The Medo Persian Empire came next and they're the ones God used to put some of the children of Israel back in the land so they had their place. While low am I was written over the people, that is where God was not and still does not publicly acknowledge them as his own.
Then came the Greek Empire.
And when you trace it out in Daniel eight, I believe it is, you see that in the Greek Empire there was coming from it a group of people called the Assyrians.
And their place will come back, and they will be judged again.
Further from them, from among that set of people, there will be those who occupy what today we call Turkey.
And they're identified in Scripture with what's called in Daniel, the king of the North.
And the king of the north comes down because he wants the land, the king of the South, which is Egypt, he wants the land and behind the king of the north. And this is the point I want to get to in this remark. The king of the North has behind him the power of somebody that in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is called Gog, which is a direct name for Russia.
We might be interested in Russia because of the Russian Ukrainian war.
And behind the King of the North. The King of the North is somewhat on his own originally.
But then he is backed by a greater power, it tells us, and that greater power is GOG.
I don't want to distract unnecessarily.
But when we look at the bigger picture of things from scripture, at least I think we have not much question that.
GOG because of its feet, where it was in its landmass. When the time comes for it to be judged, which is near the end of the seven years of the tribulation, whatever point along happens to Ukraine will be part of GOG.
Further than that, Romania will be part of GOG.
Further than that, Moldova will be part of GOG and so on. We may see things as they appear to us.
1960 places I just mentioned were part of the Russian Empire.
And they will be again. Whether it's now or later, I don't know.
But it will be.
Because God does things different, we only see things out of the short perspective of our our timeframes and we sometimes don't necessarily see things in there. A bigger perspective, but it will be.
And.
One other maybe comment that I'll, I'll read the verse. It's been really helpful to me over the years. So I'm going to actually turn to it and Isaiah.
Chapter 26.
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Isaiah chapter 26.
And verse 9.
While we're worried, verse 8.
Yeah, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee? The desire of our soul is to Thy name and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul I have. Have I desired Thee in the night? Yeah. With my spirit within me, will I seek the early? Here's the phrase I want to comment on. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world.
Will learn righteousness.
The Earth here is what is commonly called sometimes the prophetic Earth.
The prophetic earth is that part of the world that was civilized and connected with when the Lord Jesus was here.
The land, the promised land, the land of Egypt, the Roman Empire, and so on. That is what is referred to very often in Scripture when it uses the word Earth.
Not everybody all over the world is going to be involved in the conflict that is we have in the Revelation, but God is setting things right in righteousness and in this statement when thy judgments are in the earth.
And that's what we have in Revelation, in Jeremiah and Isaiah and Zechariah and so on, that which concentrates on what's the earth.
And the judgments that bring about the millennial right day of righteousness. But in that.
The rest of the world.
The rest of the nations that don't participate directly in it, it says the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness and so that everyone on earth will on planet earth will have their place even in that day of God's working. And some of them will be more spectators than participants.
And as spectators, they will see what God does in to establish righteousness, and then they will submit themselves to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords without conflict, without war, and will willingly recognize who is supreme on the earth, having learned righteousness and the consequences of unrighteousness.
By their observation of the work that is necessary for the Lord to reign, but all those that are directly involved are put down by war.
And in some cases they're completely destroyed and as a world system of things won't exist anymore.