Address—R. Thonney
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In with hymn #170.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This is for tapping people that go to sleep.
170.
We're going to just sing the 1St 3 verses and then we'll sing the last three verses.
Their second meeting.
He comes from heaven, descending once for favor sinners sling thousand thousand Saints attended swim a tray off of his train.
How able? Yeah. Hallelujah.
Jesus comes.
And constrain.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Jesus comes and comes to reign.
She, the Savior, long expected.
Now in solemn bump appear, and his Saints by man rejected.
Always heavenly, glorious.
Save a Son gonna be.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Sing a song of God appeared.
The tokens of his passion.
Though in glory, still he bears cause of endless exaltation.
To his ransom worshippers.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Yeah, Christ, the Lamb of God appears.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Christ, the Lamb of God appears.
I'd like to read a verse to begin with in Revelation chapter 19.
Just kind of preface.
These two meetings.
What is the purpose of prophecy?
Verse 10. Revelation 19.
The apostle John falls at the feet of the Angel that it showed him these things.
And the Angel responds, the middle of verse 10, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God.
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
If you remember that, it helps. It's not just to merely know the future brethren prophecy.
It is.
God's desire and His eternal purpose to bring the Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, into the central position in the future day. You and I understand that it helps to understand the prophetical picture. I'd like to also say as we start these two meetings that I don't mind if I don't explain something real.
Easily or easily to be understood that if you raise your hand and ask questions, I know sometimes I don't make myself as clear as I might and so I appreciate questions. So feel free brethren. This is an address and.
I don't mind interruptions.
00:05:03
This afternoon I'd like to take up more of these three charts that we have here, maybe the second meeting this side, but sometimes people ask where do you get the timing that we're talking about when we talk about prophetical issues and.
First of all, before we talk about times, I'd just like to go to this verse in First Corinthians 10.
And verse 32.
I.
Just to see that God in the scriptures is talking about different peoples.
Notice verse 32. Paul says to the Corinthians give none offence neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Now when you read scripture, all scripture is written for us.
But not all scripture is written to us if you can understand it properly when you read the Old Testament.
You understand that God is speaking majorly to his earthly people, the Jews. Now when I say Jews, I think I need to.
Explain what we mean by the Jews. Because God's earthly people were the descendants of Abraham, and because Jacob had twelve sons, there are 12 tribes of Israel in the New Testament. When God. When we're talking about Jews, we are talking majorly about two tribes.
You remember there were 10 tribes that were carried away captive because of their idolatry.
In Israel they were scattered amongst the earth, and then there were two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, that were carried away captive to Babylon. Of those two tribes there was a restoration in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. They came back to Jerusalem. And those were the two tribes that were present here in this world when the Lord Jesus came and presented Himself the first time, and they rejected Him and.
We're guilty of having him crucified. That's what we call Jews, comes from the word Judah. Jews are Judah and Benjamin, although there are others that are mixed in with them. You remember Anna in Luke chapter 2, who recognized him when he was brought into the temple was of the tribe of Asher. So there were others that were mixed in there. But majorly speaking, we're talking about the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They are the ones.
Guilty of the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. They were the ones that said as we read this morning, his blood be on us and our children and majorly this time of the great tribulation that we talked about these seven years is for them to reduce them to recognize the terrible sin that they committed in rejecting the Lord Jesus.
Then the Gentiles are the other nations of the earth.
We are gentiles. At least I don't think there's any Jews here.
Have a Jewish brother out there in Colorado Springs and there are a few that have been converted. Then we have the Church of God. That's God's heavenly people. God is saving from Jews and Gentiles to form a heavenly people. So when we read the Scriptures, we need to rightly divide it, not mix up the what belongs to the Jews to the church sometimes.
Because of that, people.
Get all confused and that's the problem with what is called covenant theology. They do not make any difference between Jews and and Gentiles in the Church of God. They say that the church in the Old Testament was Israel and we in the New Testament the church is Israel and so they do not distinguish an earthly people and the heavenly people and as such they start.
Losing the hope, the present hope of the Lord's coming, that's very important to distinguish. We are part of the Church of God. We are not of this world. We are in this world, but we're just passing through. So it helps to distinguish those things. Now I'd like to go to the book of Daniel, Chapter 9.
And we'll get some.
00:10:00
Some numbers there.
That are very helpful and sometimes people ask where do you get the numbers that there's going to be 7 years of tribulation. Daniel was a man of God.
And it's interesting in the 9th chapter, if you read the whole chapter, you'll find that he is in the major part of the chapter, is confessing the sins of his people, Israel.
And in doing so, he gets into the God's thoughts.
And I think that is such a wonderful thing, brethren, we need not to exonerate ourselves in view of the terrible ruin there has been in the Christian testimony, but simply admit it and confess it to God. And in that way Daniel got into the line of God's thoughts, so that at the end of this Chapter 9 of Daniel, Daniel was given one of the most.
Useful keys to understanding prophecy.
The prophecy of the 70 weeks.
Now the weeks.
In the Hebrew language I understand are not necessarily weeks of days.
There are groups of seven and so when we talk about 70 weeks, we are talking about 70 weeks of years.
Groups of seven years, so 70 * 7 is 490 years. Let's read the prophecy that he got from the Angel Gabriel.
Chapter 9 of Daniel and verse.
2470 weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city Jerusalem, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity.
To bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy into anoint the most Holy, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Know therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore.
And to build Jerusalem, that's what you have in Nehemiah chapter 2. So it's tacked down to a very definite historical event. The command went out to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah. The Prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks.
The street shall be built again in the wall, even in troubles times. Let's pause there. So we have from the commandment that was given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Was to be 7 weeks and 62 weeks.
That date was approximately 455 BC, and so the seven weeks are 49 years, generally considered the time when that city was being rebuilt, and then another 62 weeks, another 434 years until Messiah, the Prince. And those that have done the calculation say that it works out exactly, not to the birth of Christ.
But to the date when he came into Jerusalem in the triumphal procession.
On a donkey Scripture, when you study it out, brethren, is so exact how it confirms the heart and the fact that we have in our hands the very Word of God and God doesn't make mistakes and calculations like we do. Sometimes we don't see it exactly properly. Then we need to stop and to rethink it and to correct our thinking about it.
So there was seven weeks and 62 weeks until Messiah the Prince, and I put a cross there because, you know, when he presented himself, he was not accepted, He was rejected.
Well, 7 and 62 is only 69 of the week, so that means that there is one week that has not been fulfilled yet.
Like somebody has put it, and I think this is a good way to put it, that when Messiah the Prince was rejected and killed, God stopped the prophetic clock. And it's not ticking in this time frame that we live in. And what we don't see in Daniel is that there is an interval that comes in right there when the Lord Jesus was rejected. Let's read that verse there in the 9th chapter verse.
00:15:10
26 And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. That, and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
Now look at this carefully. The people of the Prince that shall come, the Prince that shall come, is the Roman Prince that will have power in Western Europe.
Very probably this Prince is alive today.
But at that time, when the city and the sanctuary were destroyed, as it says there in verse 26, was in 70 AD, approximately 40 years after the Lord Jesus was crucified, God gave us space for repentance to Israel.
When they did not repent, then the armies of the Romans came in, and they totally destroyed that city of Jerusalem.
They killed everybody in it. I understand that General Titus, who was in charge of the operation, gave charge to his soldiers when they went in not to destroy the temple. The Lord Jesus had said before that not one stone would be left upon another, and some disobedient soldier threw a torch through one of the windows of the temple, and it started at a.
Fire inside.
That was so hot that the gold melted and ran in between the stones of the temple.
And in looting the city afterwards, the soldiers were so.
Wanting to get that gold that they knocked down all the stones of the temple.
The Lord Jesus words were literally fulfilled. Not one stone was left on another. So that was an 8070 the the temple was destroyed. Now notice verse 27. Here is a key verse and he now that's talking about the Roman Prince shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.
Notice that there's that week that we're talking about.
That is that seven-year period that will introduce.
The coming of the Lord Jesus at the end of that week. What I want to make clear here, it is not the rapture that starts that seven-year week.
It is a pact that will be signed between the Roman Prince and the people of Israel. It's interesting that the present administration of the United States is not nearly so friendly to Israel as was the previous one.
What does that mean? It means that they're going to be looking elsewhere for support. And I really believe, because that Roman Prince is what is called over here the beast. He is the political head of Western Europe.
Have its seed in Rome.
He will be a beast because he has no reference to God in heaven, only looks at the earth. That's what he's called a beast.
He doesn't want anybody to be looking to God in heaven.
But when that man and he's probably alive in the world today.
Signs that pact with the people of Israel. Then it will be the prophetical clock will begin to tick again. And in seven years after that, the Lord will set his feet down on the Mount of Olives to establish his Kingdom. And you and I are going to be eyewitnesses of that majestic event. Oh, brethren, how it should excite us, how it should awaken us.
To where we are in the prophetical picture. You know, in First Thessalonians 5, we didn't have time to mention it yesterday, but it mentions two things that we need to be careful of. One is sleepiness spiritually we're talking about, and the other is drunkenness. How do we take that sleepiness? What does that mean to be sleepy?
00:20:06
Means you're not alert, right?
That right, Steve? Yeah, that happens to me too. Not picking on you for that, but but it happens to me too in meeting sometimes it's sleepy, but when you're sleepy, you're not alert.
We need to be alert.
Now, talking about physical sleep, you know you need it, but we're talking about being sleepy in a spiritual sense. Sometimes we're all alert as to our own business, as to our own family, but when it comes to the Lord's things, not sure whether I'm going to be able to do that or not.
We're not very alert. The other problem is drunkenness. What does that mean?
It's simply means that you're under the influence and you can get drunk with business, you're drunk with music, you get drunk with sports, anything so that you're not acting as a Christian, not act person. That's drunk. You know, they're drunk by the way they talk and by the way they walk and the same way.
If you are not walking as a Christian, maybe it's because of some influence and you're under the influence. Let's not get under the influence in these days. Way too important, way too glorious. What's ahead of us? We need to be know where we're going and.
What's happening in the world today? We need to compare it to the scriptures.
Well, we're still in this present interval of grace. We're waiting for the rapture. At any moment, the Lord will come to take us home. Ready. Are we ready for that moment? Now? I'd like to take this.
Earthly part here this seven-year period and go to.
Matthew's Gospel. Before we do, let me just read this last verse again. I don't know if I read the whole thing, did I? Verse 27 He said he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week. Notice that it's divided into two parts. In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.
And for the overspreading of abominations, it really means the the protection of abominations. He shall make it desolate even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate, so that this week is divided into two parts. At the middle of the week he's going to cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease, what is generally understood from this and other scriptures.
Is that in the first half of this seven-year period, this first 3 1/2 years, the Jewish people will rebuild their temple. It's necessary because First Second Thessalonians chapter 2 tells us that the Antichrist is going to go into the temple of God, showing himself to be God.
Another man that is probably alive in the world today. Incredible to think about, brethren.
These things are starting to move and.
There is scripture that shows that we will not know who the Antichrist is.
Until he is taken out of the way that now impedes. That's the Holy Spirit of God.
So while we're here, I don't think we will ever know who the Antichrist is. I've heard people try to.
Try to.
Say who they think it is in South America, they think it's Bill Gates.
I suppose it's because he's got a lot of money. I don't know, Funny people say, you know, but you can't go by what people say. You have to go by the scriptures. Scripture says that.
Well, you're talking about Zachariah, and I'm going to have to say that. I don't know what to say to that, so.
I interesting details that we learned a little bit brother, but we don't learn very much that I just give them a little bit what I what I know anyhow, the like to go over to Matthew's Gospel now and Matthew chapter 24.
00:25:02
And the Lord Jesus is speaking to his disciples about these times.
Notice the Lord Jesus is speaking before he was taken to the cross and crucified. And he says in verse 2, Jesus said unto them, it's the disciples, see not all these things, the buildings of the temple, verily I say unto you, there shone.
Not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. That's what we were talking about.
That verse two has already been fulfilled in 8070. Now verse three. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age? It should read the end of the age, the end of this present age, the times of the Gentiles, because.
The end of the present age goes right to the end of the tribulation. The end of the interval of grace will be at the rapture. But when he says the end of the age, he's talking about this times of the Gentiles, the times of Gentile domination.
When Nebuchadnezzar came in and took over Jerusalem, it ended Gentile domination or Jewish domination and the Gentiles took it over and therefore major world powers that have been in power since then. One was the Babylonian Empire, then came the Medo Persian Empire, then came the Creation Empire and then the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire Empire has not existed for a long time.
But it is rising right before our eyes.
You know, it's interesting.
That when the Lord Jesus came the first time, it was the Roman Empire under the headship of Herod that tried to kill him as a baby.
Then it was another agent of the Roman Empire, pilot Pontius Pilate, that gave the order to have him crucified. And when Jesus comes the next time, it will be that same Roman power that will try to kill him again. And that's why we have Europe rising up to be a world power right in front of our eyes.
No, brethren, if we can.
We can remain asleep when we see things that are happening in the world today. the US is definitely on the decline. I think we all see that Economically it's teetering.
Can't put our confidence in the United States. Brethren, the Lord has given us reasons to renew our confidence in the Lord. But the US is going to go down. You don't have the US directly mentioned in prophecy.
If it's anywhere it is included in the Western Europe or the Roman Empire. The revived Roman Empire. Forget how many nations are in the West European Union now. Does anybody know it's 27.
But it is a powerhouse.
They can't get their act together very well. They have referendums over there and they vote them down. But I think it's just because the Lord is waiting in his patience. And when the US falls, I really think what's going to knock the US flat is the rapture going to take so many people out of this country. There's no way the US will stand. And I think this is going to be one of the most awful places in the world to have to live.
After the rapture, I'm not planning on being here.
I don't think you are either if you're a real believer. If you're not a real believer, you need to think about it because Americans are pretty well armed. And when food starts lacking, you know where people are going to do. They're going to get their guns out and they're going to go look. It's going to be awful. Anarchy will be the order of the day. Terrible, terrible, terrible times. We've had it so easy over here for so long. God has given so much chance to this country.
To hear the gospel.
And when those times come?
I really believe will be what will force Europe to come to the forefront and this man called the Beast will sign a pact with Israel and then starts the prophetical clock ticking again and we are in this time frame called the Great Tribulation. Sometimes we denominate the whole 7 years as the Great Tribulation.
00:30:21
But properly speaking, the Great Tribulation is the last 3 1/2 years. The 1St 3 1/2 years is, as we will see here in Matthew 24, called the Beginning of Sorrows. Let's read here.
A little bit.
Verse four of Matthew 24 Jesus answered and said unto them.
Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.
And shall deceive many. Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. So we generally put that there over the 1St 3 1/2 years.
The beginning of Sorrows.
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you.
And you shall be heated of all name nations for my namesake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall be shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Notice this is talking about the great tribulation.
It's not talking about the.
Time that we live, sometimes people like to apply that to the present time.
And I really believe a true believer will persevere to the end. He may fall as Peter did.
That he will rise again. But this is talking about the Great Tribulation period.
It'll be awful to have to survive in that time. And he that perseveres to the end will be saved in the sense that he will go into the millennial reign in the blessing, in earthly blessing. That's what it's talking about here. He will be saved to go into the millennial earth.
Under the reign of Christ, notice verse 14. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness, and to all nations, and then shall the end come and stop there, because there we get to the middle of the week.
But when it's talking about the gospel of the Kingdom, it's what's going to be preached all through that great tribulation period, the whole 7 years. The gospel of the Kingdom is not what we preach now. Exactly. It was what John the Baptist preached when he started his ministry and then the Lord Jesus also preached it. It's a very simple message. Straighten out your ways because the King is coming and he's not going to allow you.
To continue to sin like you are, he's going to have his.
Fan in his hand and he's going to thoroughly purge his threshing floor.
I think John the Baptist must have been a very fiery preacher and there were many who came and repented of their ways in view of the coming of the Lord Jesus the first time. So this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached again in the earth and people will respond to that gospel today. The gospel we preach is the gospel of the grace of God. We tell people that they believe in the Lord Jesus. They will have eternal life. They will have the forgiveness of their sins. They will have a home in heaven.
That's not the Gospel of the Kingdom. Gospel of the Kingdom is telling about the blessing when the King comes and establishes his reign in the earth.
Now notice verse 15.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolations spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. That's what we read in that last verse of Daniel Chapter 9.
The protection of abominations. And what is that abomination? What we believe it to be is the time, the middle of the week, when the Antichrist. The Antichrist will have his seat in Jerusalem, where the temple is. The beast will have his seat. This is the political head in Rome, where the woman, the religious system is writing the beast.
00:35:13
And.
This Antichrist.
Is going to prohibit the sacrifices any longer to a God in heaven? And this is a word to the Jewish people that will be in Jerusalem at that time. Notice he says then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the House stop, not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child.
To them that gives suck in those days, but pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. See talking to the Jewish people who observe the Sabbath, not to Christians. For then shall be notice great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.
No, nor ever shall be. This will be the most awful period of tribulation that this world.
Has ever, ever seen. It's when man says basically, and it's what is called in other parts of the Scripture, the apostasy. We have apostasy in the world today. Apostasy simply means turning back from Christ to the world.
And there were apostates amongst the Jewish believers who turned back to Judaism from Christianity. We have apostasy. But the apostasy is when the Antichrist in Jerusalem says to those Jewish people who are offering their sacrifices from here on, no more sacrifice to a God in heaven. I'm God, you worship me. And he demands the worship.
Of the world, and that he worshiped the beast and the dragon, which is Satan. And so God opens the windows of heaven, and pours out with increasing fury His judgment on the earth.
Brethren, God strange work is judgment, and he doesn't want to judge.
But when that happens, it has a direct affront to God in heaven, and God will begin to pound this earth with his judgments. Oh, how awful it's going to be.
Should energize us to warn people about what's ahead, just ahead in this world. It's awful, awful, awful times.
But he's talking to these Jewish people, and so when they see this happen in Jerusalem, they're going to get out of Jerusalem.
They're told to get out of there because it's going to be terrible. And he says verse 22, except those days should be shortened.
Shall no flesh be saved? But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and there shall show great signs and wonders in so much. If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. It's not possible to deceive the elect, but if it were possible, it's going to be so terrible.
The deceits that it would deceive even the elect.
This part, rather than that, speaks about lo, here is Christ, lo there. You know, it's amazing how many people have come to the forefront saying they are Christ even in this country. I couldn't believe it. You remember a few years ago there was a man down in Waco, TX. I think they should call that Waco, TX.
Because people, how in the world they ever get the idea that that man David Koresh was?
Christ is is awful. He was an immoral man, and yet they followed him as if he were Christ and they were willing to die with him.
But I remember a radio commentator in Waco, TX.
Was commenting on the fact that he said he was Christ, and he said that's not so surprising to us. What was surprising to us was how many people called in from other parts of the country to say that David Koresh can't be Christ because I'm Christ.
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Isn't this country an educated country? What in the world gets into people's minds? They get hooked on those kind of people. It's incredible. But these things are happening in our world today. We had a man in Bolivia when I lived there that said he was Christ.
His name was Julio. Julio.
And since it has the same first letter as Jesus, he had a great big circle made for an Insignia for himself with a big J in the middle. But people didn't know in general was that that Jade wasn't Jesus, it was Julio and around the side of the circle that said Christ is the answer. Sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? But this guy would stand up in the front of his congregation and he would change the worship hymns and put his name in there.
And let his people sing to him and worship him. I tell you, it was awful when Guy came into our bookstore in Montero, Bolivia one time. That was one of his.
His followers and I said to him, I said.
Man, you better be careful, you're being deceived. Says When the true Christ comes, every eye shall see him. And I haven't laid eyes on this guy you're talking about.
I don't believe it. And he listened to me for a while, and then he shook his head and said, just like the first time that Jesus came.
But nobody accepted him. The more you speak against him, the more I worship him. And he turned and walked out of the store.
There's a spirit to this deceit and it's already working in this world. It's incredible. Brethren, these things are happening, these signs that we talked about in the first part of this, in the Beginning of Sorrows, things that we are seeing everywhere today. Like I said, there's no signs for the Rapture, but there are many signs for the appearing and some of them are starting to show themselves today.
I sometimes give the illustration of a storm that's coming. Where does the weather come here in Iowa? Falls come from this direction.
You see a big black cloud out there and Thunder and lightning. You say the storms coming, hasn't gotten here yet, but it's coming and we should be alert and see that things are shaping up for the end. Confrontation, tremendous things that are happening. Let's go on reading here. Bet more.
Verse 25 Behold, I have told you before, Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not forth, Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not. For as this lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even into the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, whenever it uses the title of the Lord Jesus, Son of Man. It's not the rapture that's talking about, it's always the appearing, because he's coming back as a man.
To judge this world and to reign supreme in this world.
Verse 28. Notice this verse for wheresoever the carcass is.
There will the Eagles be gathered together? What's the carcass?
It is the city of Jerusalem. After the godly Jewish remnant are being exposed and they escape from that city, all that is left is a lifeless profession, a corpse, a carcass, and there will the Eagles be gathered together.
Nations of the earth all are interested in this little tiny piece of real estate.
There's a lot of other places that are a lot better looking to me, but they are all interested in that and that's where God is going to bring them for that judgment. When the Lord Jesus establishes His Kingdom in the earth, verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall give, not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken.
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That is the replacement of the present system of government. The sun is a figure of a supreme power, United States of America. The president is the maximum power in this country. He is like the sun. The moon is a derivative power. Stars are lesser powers. All this system of government that we have known is going to fall to the ground. It's going to be replaced with the government.
With the Lord, Jesus is going to put in the earth. Notice verse 31. Now he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet. This is not the rapture.
And they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other. This is those of the 10 tribes that will be gathered again in Israel to form the nation of the of Israel. Only God knows where all those 10 tribes are scattered. It says in the book of Isaiah. These shall come from the land of Sinnam. So some are in the land of.
Israel or in China? Cinema is the old word for China.
Rhetoric. Smith used to think that some of the Inca Indians were part of the lost tribes of Israel. It's interesting because they have certain customs that.
Might make you think that way. One of their customs is when they build a new house down there, they kill a Yamaha, what you call a llama, and they take the blood and they sprinkle it around the door and around on the House. If you ask them why they do that, say, oh that's to protect it from evil spirits.
But it could be that it came back down from the time of the Passover. Those are things that are very interesting to consider. We don't know where they are really.
But God knows where they are, and at this time there will be a great sound of a trumpet. This is not the rapture.
The Church. This is the regathering of Israel, and you have it.
In more detail in Ezekiel chapter 37, it's the prophecy of the.
Valley of Dry Bones.
3 Uniting of the Reforming of the Nation of Israel.
Verse 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This corresponds to the verse we have in Revelation chapter one. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Why are they going to wail?
All their partying is over. They've got to meet Jesus. Tremendous to think of that. That day when the Lord Jesus is going to come back and reign supreme and the nations of the earth are going to see him. Remember the rapture. Only we who are believers, true believers, will hear and see the Lord Jesus, but at the appearing every eye shall see Him.
Verse.
We read verse 31, didn't we? And now verse 32. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is 9. So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. That's what we're talking about. Yesterday. The rebirth of the nation of Israel is the fig tree.
That has put forth their leaves.
Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled, says this generation. It's not necessarily a time period, but it's a moral characteristic. It's the unbelieving Jewish people this generation. What are you going to say, brother?
When Israel expanded in 1967 into Gaza, did that have anything to do with the blooming of the tree?
I don't know. I've always heard it explained that the fig tree blossomed when it became a nation in 1948, but those are certainly significant times when they took back Jerusalem.
Verse 36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
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So here we have the fact of that day. He's not talking about the Rapture there, he's talking about the appearing.
No one knows. I don't think anybody can tell the day of the Rapture either. That's something that is not revealed. There's not even any signs that it might happen. It could happen today. It could happen before this meeting is over.
Verse 37. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two be in the field. The one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.
Some people like to play this to the rapture, and this is not the rapture either. This is when the Lord Jesus establishes His Kingdom and the one that's taken is taken away for judgment. The one that's left is left to go into the millennial day in blessing. Let me show you a verse or two from the Old Testament that gives you to understand clearly that that was the Jewish way of thinking. It is not the rapture that's being talked about. The rapture was something that was revealed to the Apostle Paul after this time.
Proverbs, chapter 2.
And verse.
21.
For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. That's the one that's left.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be.
Rooted out of it.
So the one that's taken is taken away for judgment, cut off. The one that's left is left to go into the millennial Kingdom under the reign of Christ.
I could show you other verses in the Old Testament too, but I want to get along in this chapter a little bit further.
I He talks about the coming in verses 42 and 43 as a thief and what we were mentioning yesterday, brethren, whenever it is is coming as a thief, it is the appearing that he's talking about. Never talks about him coming for us at the rapture as a thief.
He's coming as our heavenly bridegroom to take his home to heaven to the marriage of the Lamb. But when he comes as a thief is at the end of the great tribulation this world that doesn't want him and doesn't wait for him. He will come as a thief. What I want to point out here and has helped me to see brethren that from verse 45 you have a parenthesis that goes through chapter 25 inclusive to.
Verse 30. If you put the end of your parentheses there, it helps to understand.
Now notice verse 31 of chapter 25, and when the Son of Man shall come in his glory.
There it is again that title, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus coming to reign, and all the holy angels with Him. There is another detail that does not appear everywhere. He's going to come with His Saints, and He's going to come with His holy angels. Then shall he sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
So this is what is called the judgment of the living nations.
The judgment of the dead is what Don mentioned yesterday at the end of time.
The Great White Throne will be set in space because heaven and earth are gone. They're burned up. They're dissolved. It was mentioned in our readings.
But this is the judgment of the living nations when the Lord Jesus comes back to establish his Kingdom.
They're going to all be gathered before him, and he's going to divide between them, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats, and the sheep are going to put on his right and be put on his right hand, and the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand.
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Come he blessed of my Father.
You inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Notice that detail how exact scripture is.
Not before the foundation of the world, from the foundation of the world. Why? Because these are people that are going into earthly blessing on the earth under the reign of Christ. The sheep are those nations which are saved, which have accepted the messengers of the Kingdom. The messengers of the Kingdom are going to go preach the gospel of the Kingdom to the whole earth and those that accept that message and show kindness to those messengers of the Kingdom.
Are going to be those sheep, and they will be introduced into the millennial Kingdom on the earth, into that Kingdom that was prepared from the foundation of the world, because their blessing is connected with Earth.
Their Kingdom was prepared when the earth was founded.
When did he choose you and me who belong to the church?
Remember.
Before the foundation of the world because you and I have really no connection with this world. So before there was any world in existence, he had already chosen you and me that believe to me, it's beautiful to see how exact Scripture is. Yeah, this preaching of of the gospel of the Kingdom of death. Would that be the 144,000? I'm sure Christian Jews that will preach the gospel.
They're believing Jews. I would say they're not Christian Jews, exactly, because Christian is what we denominate ourselves today.
But they are believing Jews and I would think that 144,000 is a figurative #2.
But then notice verse 40.
One then shall he say also unto them on his left hand.
Depart from me, he cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
These are the ones who did not receive the message.
Of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and they're going to be cut off.
It says at the end of the chapter verse 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Just one other detail here in verse 41. Notice that God never prepared.
Everlasting fire for man.
In fact, it's interesting to look into the Scriptures. God has no place prepared for human beings that reject the gospel because he wants everybody to be saved. He doesn't want anybody to perish.
And so those that reject that message are going to go to a place prepared not for man, but for the devil and his angels.
Was that rebellious man or that rebellious creature and his angels their salvation for human beings? There is no salvation for fallen angels. That incredible to think about how it should make us so thankful, brethren, for where God has brought us.
So that's how he establishes his Kingdom to reign for those 1000 years on this side. In the next meeting, I want to go into the final confrontation and the different proof peoples that are in the earth that will be involved in what is called inscription, the war of God Almighty. That's the Darby translation. Because what we, you know, our King James says the battle of God Almighty.
A war is a series of battles, and there will be more than one battle fought as the Lord Jesus establishes His Kingdom. So we'll take that up in the next meeting. We just pray to end this meeting.