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You know, some churches have taken that out of their hymnals because it was too militaristic.

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The church that forgets that we're in a spiritual warfare is a church that's lost its purpose.

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It's lost direction.

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We are in a battle and we can't see our enemy, but we serve a God who can and who gives us

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direction and armor and equipment to fight a spiritual warfare.

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And we need to be involved in that.

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I'd like for us to pray right now.

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Lord, I pray that we will sense renewed commitment to the battle.

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May we not be ones who would go AWL, but rather we pray that being on the front lines of spiritual

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warfare, we will learn how to wield the weapons powerfully that you've given to us and to

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stand firm in the faith and to see advance made into the enemy's territory.

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I pray that we as a church will be that way, that you will cause this fall to be a new

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advance for us, taking new ground, breaking down by your grace the strongholds of the

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enemy to the glory of Jesus Christ.

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We would pray this together in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament to

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the 38th and 39th chapters.

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The survival of the Jewish people as a distinct race is a testimony to the faithfulness of

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God.

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God has promised that despite His judgment and dispersion of that people, He would preserve

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them as a nation and restore them to blessing in His time.

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The apostle Paul writes about this in Romans 11-25 when he says, a partial hardening has

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happened to Israel.

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That is a hardening of the heart, he writes about, until the fullness of the Gentiles

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has come in.

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There he is talking about the completion of the church, which we mentioned this morning,

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that body that is being called out in this age.

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And then he says, and thus all Israel will be saved.

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There is a time coming when God will again deal with His people Israel.

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And it says all Israel will be saved.

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That does not mean that every Jew who's ever lived will be saved or even that all of them

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at that time will be saved, but in contrast to the remnant of the Jews that are a part

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of the church, just a remnant, just a small percentage of them believe on Christ in this

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age.

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In comparison to that he says all Israel will be saved in that coming day.

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Ezekiel wrote about the judgment of God.

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Chapter 20 of Ezekiel is a chapter that talks about that.

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In that chapter he rehearses the iniquities and the sins of the people for the first half

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of the chapter, a little more than that.

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Again and again he points to the blessing that God had given to them and the rebellion

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that was in their hearts.

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You know the greater the blessing that God gives, the more serious the rebellion in the

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heart.

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Rebellion, God says in His word, is like witchcraft.

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Rebellion is a terrible thing, whether it be rebellion against God, the supreme authority

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or any other authority that He puts over us in our lives.

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It is a very serious thing to be rebellious.

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And God condemned and He judged the Jewish people because of their rebellion against

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Him.

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The more blessings that one has in his life, the more serious God looks at the rebellion

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that takes place.

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In the last part of that chapter God speaks about the restoration of the nation's blessings.

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You may remember that Ezekiel was a priest.

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He wrote during the exile of the people in Babylon where he himself was taken captive

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in Nebuchadnezzar's second deportation of the Jews in 597 B.C.

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When we were studying Daniel last spring, you remember that Daniel was taken captive

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the first time Nebuchadnezzar came.

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The second time he came to Jerusalem, Ezekiel was taken away.

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And so we see from that that Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel.

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And during Daniel's early ministry at least in Babylon, he had a compatriot in Ezekiel

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who prophesied at the same time.

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Back over in Palestine, the homeland from where they were taken, Jeremiah, was prophesying

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to the people.

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So the three of them were living at one time and were ministering to the people of God

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in different places.

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In chapters 33 through 39 of his book, Ezekiel is led by God to deal at length with this

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matter of the future restoration of the people.

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And the 37th chapter is this famous vision that he had of the valley of dry bones.

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And you remember the bones got connected.

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The thigh bone connected to the backbone.

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I don't know all the rest of those bones.

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I'm not an orthopedic person, I guess.

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I need to bone up on those things.

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But he saw all these bones come together and then flesh came to them and they came to life.

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And that vision symbolized the fact that Israel, though a valley of dry bones in its time of

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judgment, would one day be brought back together politically and given new life spiritually.

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Now that chapter is followed by two chapters that deal with a coming invasion of Israel.

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These two chapters form the climax of this portion of his book that deal with the future.

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Here he talks about a future incursion into the land by a large military force.

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The question that we must face first is how do we interpret these chapters?

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There's only one way, in my opinion, to interpret them and that is to interpret them literally

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using what we call the grammatical historical method of interpretation.

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Those who choose to interpret it symbolically or allegorically have find no limit to their

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imagination as to what these two chapters mean.

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The best thing to do with any portion of the Word of God is simply to come to it and in

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light of its language, its grammar, and the history of the times, try to understand what

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was being said by that writer of Scripture and interpret it that way.

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And that's the way we're going to approach these chapters.

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What we see basically in these two chapters is that God will honor himself among all the

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nations of the world.

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Basically these two chapters amplify what the last verse of chapter 37 says, and the

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nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst

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forever.

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Chapters 38 and 39 basically are broken down into two parts.

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The two chapters overlap somewhat.

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The first part of chapter 39 sort of restates chapter 38.

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First of all, there is an attack against the people of Israel.

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The leader of the attack, the identity of the leader is found in verse 2 of chapter

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38.

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Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach,

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and Tubal, and prophesy against him.

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This Gog that is mentioned is best understood just as Ezekiel was given the information

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as a person, the ruler of Magog.

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Magog is identified in those days as a northern power from Israel, probably that region that

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was encompassed in ancient Scythia.

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Rosh is an interesting word.

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The first time I heard a message on Ezekiel 38 and 39, Jadawit Pentecost from Dallas Seminary

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was teaching about these chapters.

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His interpretation was 20 years ago, and I assume still is, that these chapters refer

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to Russia.

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The approach that he takes is an approach that some take, that Rosh is an equivalent

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to Russia, Meshach is Moscow, and Tubal is Tubalsk, one of the Russian cities.

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I don't agree with that interpretation.

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I do not believe these chapters are dealing with Russia, as we know Russia today at least.

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Rosh is a word that literally means the chief or the head of, and it's probably related

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to the word prince.

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Maybe the best way to say this is the prince, even the head, of Meshach and Tubal.

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Meshach is ancient Phrygia, Tubal is ancient Cappadocia.

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You say, where are those?

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Well, those are located in what we call today Turkey, in Asia Minor, particularly the eastern

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part of that.

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Now this leader who's named Gog, who is seen in the vision as over an empire that would

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stretch from the Caspian and Black Seas down into what is today part of Turkey, is a lie

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with other powers that are mentioned in verses five and six.

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Persia, which is modern day Iran, basically.

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Ethiopia, which correlates probably to modern day Ethiopia, a northwest African power.

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Put, which likely refers to Libya, and some translations put it that way.

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Here are mentioned Gomer in verse six, and Beth, or the house of Togarmah.

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Gomer is understood by most Bible scholars as referring to the Germanic peoples, what

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we would call Germany, and Togarmah, the extreme north of Israel, the area of Armenia today.

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If you can picture these places in your minds, you see that there is an alliance of powers,

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something of a circle around Israel in this confederation that stretches all the way from

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the heart of Europe across the southern part of what is today Russia, and then down into

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Asia Minor, and then Africa, and over to the east from Israel, the nation of Iran, or Persia.

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These nations are allied together under Gog, and their plan of attack against Israel is

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actually diverted by God to accomplish his own purposes with this block of nations.

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Verse four says, I will turn you about and put hooks in your jaws, and I will bring you

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out and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company

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with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords.

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You get the picture here of a power that is being brought forth with some unwillingness,

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that there is coercion, that there is a constraint that God puts upon Gog so that he's not doing

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exactly what he wants to do.

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The point is that God seems to sovereignly see to it that this block of nations step

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into a divine trap.

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Satan has been motivating them, influencing them against Israel, but God oversees all

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of that and as it were puts hooks into their jaws and pulls them along in a way they would

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prefer not to go.

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By the way, the reference to the cavalry here is probably best understood in terms of modern

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armaments.

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Now suppose Ezekiel had seen armaments today, what would he call a helicopter?

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What would he call a tank?

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How would he begin to describe that?

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So it seems to me that it's not at all unfriendly to literal interpretation to say that Ezekiel

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was seeing a vision that God gave him in a way he could understand it in his day, but

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we don't need to think that this future invasion will literally be horses.

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It may be, but I don't think we have to be limited to that.

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You say when is this going to take place?

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That is probably the key question that one deals with in these chapters and frankly it

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is a very difficult thing and at best it is a conjecture.

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There are some people who see it happening before the church is taken out.

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There are some people who see it as happening in the middle of the tribulation period trying

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to fit all the details together.

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We have a few hints about it.

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In verse 8 it says, after many days you will be summoned.

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In the latter years you will come into the land that is restored.

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The latter years here is the same thing basically as the last days in verse 16 where God says

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it will come about in the last days that I shall bring you against my land.

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These phrases refer to Messianic times, a time of the culmination of Israel's history.

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Notice that the land is restored.

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There is a national restoration that Ezekiel sees that has already taken place.

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That may be a hint as to where it does not fit.

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It is a time when Israel is dwelling in safety.

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There are no swords.

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There are no walls or fortifications about the land.

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The Jewish people are dwelling in a situation in which they feel secure.

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There is no need for armament.

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Today and for the foreseeable future it is hard to imagine Israel living that way, isn't

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it?

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The most powerful potent army in the mid-east is in Israel.

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It is not a land without fortifications, without sword.

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It is a powerfully armed nation, a well-defended nation.

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It seems to me best to think of the timing of this as sometime beyond the tribulation

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period, perhaps at the very end of it.

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There is at least a partial fulfillment of all of this.

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It may be that what we have in these chapters is something of a double fulfillment.

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There may be some references built in here to what takes place at Armageddon because

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John as he writes about that in Revelation certainly seems to draw upon some of the thoughts

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that are here.

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And yet it is hard to see this fully being fulfilled at that period of time.

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And so there may be a double fulfillment, part of it in Armageddon and the series of

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battles connected with that.

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As you probably know Armageddon isn't just one battle.

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There is a decisive battle, but it is many battles and skirmishes that lead up to the

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decisive one.

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This may be partially fulfilled in some of the lead up battles to that final one when

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Christ comes and destroys the armies of Antichrist.

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And Gog may find partial fulfillment in the beast, the Antichrist.

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But it seems to me that we have probably in the book of Revelation the 20th chapter a

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reference to the final fulfillment of this.

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Let's go back there to Revelation chapter 20 just for a moment as we think about the

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timing of this invasion.

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You can already see that what I'm saying, if I'm right, indicates that we will not see

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this battle take place before the church is taken out in the rapture.

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In Revelation chapter 20 we have a prophecy regarding the binding of Satan and the thousand

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year reign of Jesus Christ.

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Then verse 7 says, When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from

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his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the

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earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war.

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The number of them is like the sand of the seashore.

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They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and

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the beloved city, referring to Jerusalem probably, and fire came down from heaven and devoured

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them.

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It seems to me that probably what we see in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled somewhat

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in the battle of Armageddon when a sort of Gog will be there with the beast.

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And then finally with the arrival of Gog and Magog, when Satan at the end of the millennium

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goes out once more to deceive the nation, and he gathers out of the nation those people

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born during that thousand year period who have only outwardly gone along with the reign

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of Christ but who in their hearts have resisted.

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And this will be their unveiling.

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Satan will go out and gather them together and they will then be judged.

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Well now let's go back to Ezekiel 38 and 39.

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We see in the language here that when this invasion takes place it will be a large smothering

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force that is compared to a storm and a cloud in verse 9.

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It covers the land of Israel.

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Many, many, many soldiers involved here.

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The motivation seems to be to plunder the wealth of Israel, verses 10 through 12.

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The leader says we will go up against these unwalled villages, verse 12, to capture, spoil,

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and to seize, plunder.

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That's why they're coming up.

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And it's interesting in verse 12, just as an aside, the last clause of the verse says

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those people who live at the center of the world, talking there about the Jewish people,

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literally it says who live at the navel of the world.

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Rather picturesque, isn't it?

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The Jewish nation, Israel, is at the navel of the world.

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It is today.

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I mean everybody's looking to the Middle East and Israel's right in the heart, right in

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the center of it.

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And it will be so from here on in until Gog and Magog are finished with.

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And so you see this attack coming against Israel, this confederation of nations that

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comes down upon the mountains of Israel, and that may well be what is meant by the hooks

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in the jaws.

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It may be that the armies would rather come in some other way, but God forces them by

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some means to come across the mountains and it's there that they are destroyed.

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We come now to the second part of this two chapters that deals with the defense of the

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nation.

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Verses 19 and 20 describe to us a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

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This is a supernaturally induced earthquake and it is so great it says the fish of the

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sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that

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creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at my

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presence.

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The mountains also will be thrown down.

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The steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground.

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And so there is this shattering earthquake that begins the defense of Israel by Almighty

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God.

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People on this day will not need airplanes and helicopters and tanks and missiles because

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God himself will step in to defend the nation against this force that has invaded.

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The result of this shattering earthquake is a loss of discipline.

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I shall call for a sword, verse 21, against him and all my mountains, declares the Lord.

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Every man's sword will be against his brother.

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So it seems a great confusion overtakes this army and they turn on one another.

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That's not the first time that's happened in history, is it?

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When God has confounded armies attacking Israel and they destroy each other.

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Verse 22 speaks about pestilence, that is a contagious, virulent plague that God will

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send upon this army.

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And in verse 22 a supernatural storm hits.

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I shall rain on him and on his troops and on many peoples who are with him a torrential

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rain with hailstones, fire and brimstone.

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And so perhaps there's even some kind of volcanic action that God brings forth against this

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nation.

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The result of it is, or the bottom line rather, the summary is verse 39, and you son of man

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prophesy against Gog and say, thus says the Lord God, behold I am against you, O Gog,

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prince, even the head of Meshach and Tubal.

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My friend, when God says something like that it ought to strike fear into the heart.

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This man will be told God is against you and God will demonstrate his anger by what he

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does to this army and the army is destroyed.

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The result of God's work, verses 2 through 8 talk about the destruction of the armies,

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how God dashes their weapons from their hands by all of this, the mountains begin to fall

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on them.

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God even sends fire upon the homeland of Gog, Magog, and the islands of the sea or the coastlands,

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those who are allied with Gog in Magog, verse 6, will be destroyed by supernatural fire

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from God.

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So great is the destruction and so massive is the loot that is left after the army is

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dead, that verses 9 and 10 talk about the weapons providing fuel for the people of Israel

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for a period of seven years.

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So is that literally seven years?

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Why not take it literally?

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I see no reason to take it otherwise.

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Verses 11 through 16 tells us about the burial of these soldiers.

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It seems that the whole house of Israel will be involved in burying the dead soldiers.

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There will be a valley that will be given to this purpose and the dead soldiers will

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fill up the valley.

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We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of graves, perhaps millions of

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graves that are dug.

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The valley is filled up with dead bodies and there's even a city that is built nearby

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there to commemorate this great defeat of Gog in Magog and the victory of God.

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The people bury as fast as they can, but God calls the birds of the air and the beasts

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of the field to come and to feast.

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He calls it even a sacrifice.

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They pick the flesh from the bodies and eventually bones are scattered and there are people who

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go throughout the land and they mark bones where they find them and others come along

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and carry the bones off to the burial place.

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All of this will take a period, he says, of seven months.

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So you can imagine that this will not be a very pleasant task and were it not for the

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fact that the animals assist in removing the decaying flesh, it would be nearly an impossible

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task.

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But after a period of seven months, the burial is finished and great praise goes to God because

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of this victory.

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You see, God's good purpose in all of this is that he be glorified.

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Verses 21 through 29 speak at length about that.

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God talks about restoring the fortunes of Israel and his blessing that will come upon

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that nation because of their knowledge of God.

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And he says that the nations of the world likewise will have knowledge of God in that

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day.

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Verse 29 says, then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them

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go into exile among the nations and then gathered them again to their own land and I leave none

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of them there any longer.

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And I will not hide my face from them any longer for I shall have poured out my spirit

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on the house of Israel declares the Lord God.

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God's objectives in this future invasion of Israel are the same objectives that he has

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today and that is that he be honored among the nations of the world.

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And though the nations today do not as a whole honor God, there is a day coming when every

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knee will bow and every tongue confess.

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That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

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God desires to save.

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God desires to have a relationship with individuals whether they be Jew or Gentile.

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Anyone who will repent and believe may have that relationship with him and may pass from

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death into life and from judgment into forgiveness from death, eternal death into eternal life

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from damnation into salvation.

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That includes anyone here tonight who would trust the Savior.

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God's great purpose is that his name be glorified and God will not come short of that purpose.

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There are many questions that we have about passages like this and we scratch our heads

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and we ponder long well what does that mean and how will that be fulfilled and I believe

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that it is impossible for us today living now in 1990 to understand fully how these

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details will fall out but they will.

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They will.

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God has not allowed any one of his promises to fail.

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Not one jot or tittle of the word of God will pass away.

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Everything will come to pass that God has foretold.

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God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

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That is the God that we worship.

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We worship a God who is the victor, a God who is reigning, a God who is on the throne.

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I'd like for us to sing as we close some words that I personally very much enjoy.

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342.

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God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.

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William Cooper wrote the words.

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Let's sing verses 1, 4, and 5 of 342.

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Would you stand together with me as we sing please?

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God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.

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He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.

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Verse 4.

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His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.

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The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweets will be the flower.

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Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.

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God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.

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Let's bow together.

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God is the interpreter, my friend, of your circumstances tonight too.

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You may find yourself in mysterious ways.

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Remember God is performing his wonders in those, even though you can't see them.

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Blind unbelief, and unbelief is always blind, isn't it?

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It's sure to fail, to err.

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It looks in vain.

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Trust God.

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He's his own interpreter.

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He'll make it plain to you in time.

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Lord Jesus, there are many mysteries in the world, in our own lives personally and in

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the way that things happen, things that ultimately you sovereignly allow because you are God.

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I thank the Lord of the fourteen-year-old girl that was murdered this week so viciously.

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I don't understand that.

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I don't understand why that kind of evil takes place upon a fourteen-year-old girl.

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Usually we understand that evil occurs in the world because of sin, that it's our own

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inheritance because we are sinners.

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God, you and your grace preserve us through the mysteries.

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And tonight as a church family, we open our hearts to the eye of faith that we might better

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see what you're doing.

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And wherein you choose yet to hide your ways, increase our faith.

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Increase our faith.

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As we think about your word and its prophecies for the future and we look to the mid-east

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and all of the tension that is there tonight, we don't see a direct parallel to a fulfillment

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of the Scripture, but we know you're there yet working.

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Sovereignly you are bringing about situations that will ultimately lead to the end of this

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age.

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God remind us of the brevity of the hour, the importance of being awake as children

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of the light despite the darkness.

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This week may we walk as children of the light, purely and wholly.

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May we walk in faith.

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May we walk in love toward those that are outside the family of God.

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May we have hearts of compassion reaching out to those in need, seeking that they might

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come to the Savior and be spared what we all deserve but by your grace.

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May your anointing be upon us as we leave this place after having worshiped together

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on this Lord's day.

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Thank you for your presence that goes with us and your promise I will never leave you

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or forsake you.

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Amen.

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Good night.