You know, some churches have taken that out of their hymnals because it was too militaristic.
The church that forgets that we're in a spiritual warfare is a church that's lost its purpose.
It's lost direction.
We are in a battle and we can't see our enemy, but we serve a God who can and who gives us
direction and armor and equipment to fight a spiritual warfare.
And we need to be involved in that.
I'd like for us to pray right now.
Lord, I pray that we will sense renewed commitment to the battle.
May we not be ones who would go AWL, but rather we pray that being on the front lines of spiritual
warfare, we will learn how to wield the weapons powerfully that you've given to us and to
stand firm in the faith and to see advance made into the enemy's territory.
I pray that we as a church will be that way, that you will cause this fall to be a new
advance for us, taking new ground, breaking down by your grace the strongholds of the
enemy to the glory of Jesus Christ.
We would pray this together in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament to
the 38th and 39th chapters.
The survival of the Jewish people as a distinct race is a testimony to the faithfulness of
God.
God has promised that despite His judgment and dispersion of that people, He would preserve
them as a nation and restore them to blessing in His time.
The apostle Paul writes about this in Romans 11-25 when he says, a partial hardening has
happened to Israel.
That is a hardening of the heart, he writes about, until the fullness of the Gentiles
has come in.
There he is talking about the completion of the church, which we mentioned this morning,
that body that is being called out in this age.
And then he says, and thus all Israel will be saved.
There is a time coming when God will again deal with His people Israel.
And it says all Israel will be saved.
That does not mean that every Jew who's ever lived will be saved or even that all of them
at that time will be saved, but in contrast to the remnant of the Jews that are a part
of the church, just a remnant, just a small percentage of them believe on Christ in this
age.
In comparison to that he says all Israel will be saved in that coming day.
Ezekiel wrote about the judgment of God.
Chapter 20 of Ezekiel is a chapter that talks about that.
In that chapter he rehearses the iniquities and the sins of the people for the first half
of the chapter, a little more than that.
Again and again he points to the blessing that God had given to them and the rebellion
that was in their hearts.
You know the greater the blessing that God gives, the more serious the rebellion in the
heart.
Rebellion, God says in His word, is like witchcraft.
Rebellion is a terrible thing, whether it be rebellion against God, the supreme authority
or any other authority that He puts over us in our lives.
It is a very serious thing to be rebellious.
And God condemned and He judged the Jewish people because of their rebellion against
Him.
The more blessings that one has in his life, the more serious God looks at the rebellion
that takes place.
In the last part of that chapter God speaks about the restoration of the nation's blessings.
You may remember that Ezekiel was a priest.
He wrote during the exile of the people in Babylon where he himself was taken captive
in Nebuchadnezzar's second deportation of the Jews in 597 B.C.
When we were studying Daniel last spring, you remember that Daniel was taken captive
the first time Nebuchadnezzar came.
The second time he came to Jerusalem, Ezekiel was taken away.
And so we see from that that Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel.
And during Daniel's early ministry at least in Babylon, he had a compatriot in Ezekiel
who prophesied at the same time.
Back over in Palestine, the homeland from where they were taken, Jeremiah, was prophesying
to the people.
So the three of them were living at one time and were ministering to the people of God
in different places.
In chapters 33 through 39 of his book, Ezekiel is led by God to deal at length with this
matter of the future restoration of the people.
And the 37th chapter is this famous vision that he had of the valley of dry bones.
And you remember the bones got connected.
The thigh bone connected to the backbone.
I don't know all the rest of those bones.
I'm not an orthopedic person, I guess.
I need to bone up on those things.
But he saw all these bones come together and then flesh came to them and they came to life.
And that vision symbolized the fact that Israel, though a valley of dry bones in its time of
judgment, would one day be brought back together politically and given new life spiritually.
Now that chapter is followed by two chapters that deal with a coming invasion of Israel.
These two chapters form the climax of this portion of his book that deal with the future.
Here he talks about a future incursion into the land by a large military force.
The question that we must face first is how do we interpret these chapters?
There's only one way, in my opinion, to interpret them and that is to interpret them literally
using what we call the grammatical historical method of interpretation.
Those who choose to interpret it symbolically or allegorically have find no limit to their
imagination as to what these two chapters mean.
The best thing to do with any portion of the Word of God is simply to come to it and in
light of its language, its grammar, and the history of the times, try to understand what
was being said by that writer of Scripture and interpret it that way.
And that's the way we're going to approach these chapters.
What we see basically in these two chapters is that God will honor himself among all the
nations of the world.
Basically these two chapters amplify what the last verse of chapter 37 says, and the
nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst
forever.
Chapters 38 and 39 basically are broken down into two parts.
The two chapters overlap somewhat.
The first part of chapter 39 sort of restates chapter 38.
First of all, there is an attack against the people of Israel.
The leader of the attack, the identity of the leader is found in verse 2 of chapter
38.
Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach,
and Tubal, and prophesy against him.
This Gog that is mentioned is best understood just as Ezekiel was given the information
as a person, the ruler of Magog.
Magog is identified in those days as a northern power from Israel, probably that region that
was encompassed in ancient Scythia.
Rosh is an interesting word.
The first time I heard a message on Ezekiel 38 and 39, Jadawit Pentecost from Dallas Seminary
was teaching about these chapters.
His interpretation was 20 years ago, and I assume still is, that these chapters refer
to Russia.
The approach that he takes is an approach that some take, that Rosh is an equivalent
to Russia, Meshach is Moscow, and Tubal is Tubalsk, one of the Russian cities.
I don't agree with that interpretation.
I do not believe these chapters are dealing with Russia, as we know Russia today at least.
Rosh is a word that literally means the chief or the head of, and it's probably related
to the word prince.
Maybe the best way to say this is the prince, even the head, of Meshach and Tubal.
Meshach is ancient Phrygia, Tubal is ancient Cappadocia.
You say, where are those?
Well, those are located in what we call today Turkey, in Asia Minor, particularly the eastern
part of that.
Now this leader who's named Gog, who is seen in the vision as over an empire that would
stretch from the Caspian and Black Seas down into what is today part of Turkey, is a lie
with other powers that are mentioned in verses five and six.
Persia, which is modern day Iran, basically.
Ethiopia, which correlates probably to modern day Ethiopia, a northwest African power.
Put, which likely refers to Libya, and some translations put it that way.
Here are mentioned Gomer in verse six, and Beth, or the house of Togarmah.
Gomer is understood by most Bible scholars as referring to the Germanic peoples, what
we would call Germany, and Togarmah, the extreme north of Israel, the area of Armenia today.
If you can picture these places in your minds, you see that there is an alliance of powers,
something of a circle around Israel in this confederation that stretches all the way from
the heart of Europe across the southern part of what is today Russia, and then down into
Asia Minor, and then Africa, and over to the east from Israel, the nation of Iran, or Persia.
These nations are allied together under Gog, and their plan of attack against Israel is
actually diverted by God to accomplish his own purposes with this block of nations.
Verse four says, I will turn you about and put hooks in your jaws, and I will bring you
out and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company
with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords.
You get the picture here of a power that is being brought forth with some unwillingness,
that there is coercion, that there is a constraint that God puts upon Gog so that he's not doing
exactly what he wants to do.
The point is that God seems to sovereignly see to it that this block of nations step
into a divine trap.
Satan has been motivating them, influencing them against Israel, but God oversees all
of that and as it were puts hooks into their jaws and pulls them along in a way they would
prefer not to go.
By the way, the reference to the cavalry here is probably best understood in terms of modern
armaments.
Now suppose Ezekiel had seen armaments today, what would he call a helicopter?
What would he call a tank?
How would he begin to describe that?
So it seems to me that it's not at all unfriendly to literal interpretation to say that Ezekiel
was seeing a vision that God gave him in a way he could understand it in his day, but
we don't need to think that this future invasion will literally be horses.
It may be, but I don't think we have to be limited to that.
You say when is this going to take place?
That is probably the key question that one deals with in these chapters and frankly it
is a very difficult thing and at best it is a conjecture.
There are some people who see it happening before the church is taken out.
There are some people who see it as happening in the middle of the tribulation period trying
to fit all the details together.
We have a few hints about it.
In verse 8 it says, after many days you will be summoned.
In the latter years you will come into the land that is restored.
The latter years here is the same thing basically as the last days in verse 16 where God says
it will come about in the last days that I shall bring you against my land.
These phrases refer to Messianic times, a time of the culmination of Israel's history.
Notice that the land is restored.
There is a national restoration that Ezekiel sees that has already taken place.
That may be a hint as to where it does not fit.
It is a time when Israel is dwelling in safety.
There are no swords.
There are no walls or fortifications about the land.
The Jewish people are dwelling in a situation in which they feel secure.
There is no need for armament.
Today and for the foreseeable future it is hard to imagine Israel living that way, isn't
it?
The most powerful potent army in the mid-east is in Israel.
It is not a land without fortifications, without sword.
It is a powerfully armed nation, a well-defended nation.
It seems to me best to think of the timing of this as sometime beyond the tribulation
period, perhaps at the very end of it.
There is at least a partial fulfillment of all of this.
It may be that what we have in these chapters is something of a double fulfillment.
There may be some references built in here to what takes place at Armageddon because
John as he writes about that in Revelation certainly seems to draw upon some of the thoughts
that are here.
And yet it is hard to see this fully being fulfilled at that period of time.
And so there may be a double fulfillment, part of it in Armageddon and the series of
battles connected with that.
As you probably know Armageddon isn't just one battle.
There is a decisive battle, but it is many battles and skirmishes that lead up to the
decisive one.
This may be partially fulfilled in some of the lead up battles to that final one when
Christ comes and destroys the armies of Antichrist.
And Gog may find partial fulfillment in the beast, the Antichrist.
But it seems to me that we have probably in the book of Revelation the 20th chapter a
reference to the final fulfillment of this.
Let's go back there to Revelation chapter 20 just for a moment as we think about the
timing of this invasion.
You can already see that what I'm saying, if I'm right, indicates that we will not see
this battle take place before the church is taken out in the rapture.
In Revelation chapter 20 we have a prophecy regarding the binding of Satan and the thousand
year reign of Jesus Christ.
Then verse 7 says, When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from
his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the
earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war.
The number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and
the beloved city, referring to Jerusalem probably, and fire came down from heaven and devoured
them.
It seems to me that probably what we see in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled somewhat
in the battle of Armageddon when a sort of Gog will be there with the beast.
And then finally with the arrival of Gog and Magog, when Satan at the end of the millennium
goes out once more to deceive the nation, and he gathers out of the nation those people
born during that thousand year period who have only outwardly gone along with the reign
of Christ but who in their hearts have resisted.
And this will be their unveiling.
Satan will go out and gather them together and they will then be judged.
Well now let's go back to Ezekiel 38 and 39.
We see in the language here that when this invasion takes place it will be a large smothering
force that is compared to a storm and a cloud in verse 9.
It covers the land of Israel.
Many, many, many soldiers involved here.
The motivation seems to be to plunder the wealth of Israel, verses 10 through 12.
The leader says we will go up against these unwalled villages, verse 12, to capture, spoil,
and to seize, plunder.
That's why they're coming up.
And it's interesting in verse 12, just as an aside, the last clause of the verse says
those people who live at the center of the world, talking there about the Jewish people,
literally it says who live at the navel of the world.
Rather picturesque, isn't it?
The Jewish nation, Israel, is at the navel of the world.
It is today.
I mean everybody's looking to the Middle East and Israel's right in the heart, right in
the center of it.
And it will be so from here on in until Gog and Magog are finished with.
And so you see this attack coming against Israel, this confederation of nations that
comes down upon the mountains of Israel, and that may well be what is meant by the hooks
in the jaws.
It may be that the armies would rather come in some other way, but God forces them by
some means to come across the mountains and it's there that they are destroyed.
We come now to the second part of this two chapters that deals with the defense of the
nation.
Verses 19 and 20 describe to us a great earthquake in the land of Israel.
This is a supernaturally induced earthquake and it is so great it says the fish of the
sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that
creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at my
presence.
The mountains also will be thrown down.
The steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground.
And so there is this shattering earthquake that begins the defense of Israel by Almighty
God.
People on this day will not need airplanes and helicopters and tanks and missiles because
God himself will step in to defend the nation against this force that has invaded.
The result of this shattering earthquake is a loss of discipline.
I shall call for a sword, verse 21, against him and all my mountains, declares the Lord.
Every man's sword will be against his brother.
So it seems a great confusion overtakes this army and they turn on one another.
That's not the first time that's happened in history, is it?
When God has confounded armies attacking Israel and they destroy each other.
Verse 22 speaks about pestilence, that is a contagious, virulent plague that God will
send upon this army.
And in verse 22 a supernatural storm hits.
I shall rain on him and on his troops and on many peoples who are with him a torrential
rain with hailstones, fire and brimstone.
And so perhaps there's even some kind of volcanic action that God brings forth against this
nation.
The result of it is, or the bottom line rather, the summary is verse 39, and you son of man
prophesy against Gog and say, thus says the Lord God, behold I am against you, O Gog,
prince, even the head of Meshach and Tubal.
My friend, when God says something like that it ought to strike fear into the heart.
This man will be told God is against you and God will demonstrate his anger by what he
does to this army and the army is destroyed.
The result of God's work, verses 2 through 8 talk about the destruction of the armies,
how God dashes their weapons from their hands by all of this, the mountains begin to fall
on them.
God even sends fire upon the homeland of Gog, Magog, and the islands of the sea or the coastlands,
those who are allied with Gog in Magog, verse 6, will be destroyed by supernatural fire
from God.
So great is the destruction and so massive is the loot that is left after the army is
dead, that verses 9 and 10 talk about the weapons providing fuel for the people of Israel
for a period of seven years.
So is that literally seven years?
Why not take it literally?
I see no reason to take it otherwise.
Verses 11 through 16 tells us about the burial of these soldiers.
It seems that the whole house of Israel will be involved in burying the dead soldiers.
There will be a valley that will be given to this purpose and the dead soldiers will
fill up the valley.
We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of graves, perhaps millions of
graves that are dug.
The valley is filled up with dead bodies and there's even a city that is built nearby
there to commemorate this great defeat of Gog in Magog and the victory of God.
The people bury as fast as they can, but God calls the birds of the air and the beasts
of the field to come and to feast.
He calls it even a sacrifice.
They pick the flesh from the bodies and eventually bones are scattered and there are people who
go throughout the land and they mark bones where they find them and others come along
and carry the bones off to the burial place.
All of this will take a period, he says, of seven months.
So you can imagine that this will not be a very pleasant task and were it not for the
fact that the animals assist in removing the decaying flesh, it would be nearly an impossible
task.
But after a period of seven months, the burial is finished and great praise goes to God because
of this victory.
You see, God's good purpose in all of this is that he be glorified.
Verses 21 through 29 speak at length about that.
God talks about restoring the fortunes of Israel and his blessing that will come upon
that nation because of their knowledge of God.
And he says that the nations of the world likewise will have knowledge of God in that
day.
Verse 29 says, then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them
go into exile among the nations and then gathered them again to their own land and I leave none
of them there any longer.
And I will not hide my face from them any longer for I shall have poured out my spirit
on the house of Israel declares the Lord God.
God's objectives in this future invasion of Israel are the same objectives that he has
today and that is that he be honored among the nations of the world.
And though the nations today do not as a whole honor God, there is a day coming when every
knee will bow and every tongue confess.
That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
God desires to save.
God desires to have a relationship with individuals whether they be Jew or Gentile.
Anyone who will repent and believe may have that relationship with him and may pass from
death into life and from judgment into forgiveness from death, eternal death into eternal life
from damnation into salvation.
That includes anyone here tonight who would trust the Savior.
God's great purpose is that his name be glorified and God will not come short of that purpose.
There are many questions that we have about passages like this and we scratch our heads
and we ponder long well what does that mean and how will that be fulfilled and I believe
that it is impossible for us today living now in 1990 to understand fully how these
details will fall out but they will.
They will.
God has not allowed any one of his promises to fail.
Not one jot or tittle of the word of God will pass away.
Everything will come to pass that God has foretold.
God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.
That is the God that we worship.
We worship a God who is the victor, a God who is reigning, a God who is on the throne.
I'd like for us to sing as we close some words that I personally very much enjoy.
342.
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.
William Cooper wrote the words.
Let's sing verses 1, 4, and 5 of 342.
Would you stand together with me as we sing please?
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
Verse 4.
His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweets will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.
God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.
Let's bow together.
God is the interpreter, my friend, of your circumstances tonight too.
You may find yourself in mysterious ways.
Remember God is performing his wonders in those, even though you can't see them.
Blind unbelief, and unbelief is always blind, isn't it?
It's sure to fail, to err.
It looks in vain.
Trust God.
He's his own interpreter.
He'll make it plain to you in time.
Lord Jesus, there are many mysteries in the world, in our own lives personally and in
the way that things happen, things that ultimately you sovereignly allow because you are God.
I thank the Lord of the fourteen-year-old girl that was murdered this week so viciously.
I don't understand that.
I don't understand why that kind of evil takes place upon a fourteen-year-old girl.
Usually we understand that evil occurs in the world because of sin, that it's our own
inheritance because we are sinners.
God, you and your grace preserve us through the mysteries.
And tonight as a church family, we open our hearts to the eye of faith that we might better
see what you're doing.
And wherein you choose yet to hide your ways, increase our faith.
Increase our faith.
As we think about your word and its prophecies for the future and we look to the mid-east
and all of the tension that is there tonight, we don't see a direct parallel to a fulfillment
of the Scripture, but we know you're there yet working.
Sovereignly you are bringing about situations that will ultimately lead to the end of this
age.
God remind us of the brevity of the hour, the importance of being awake as children
of the light despite the darkness.
This week may we walk as children of the light, purely and wholly.
May we walk in faith.
May we walk in love toward those that are outside the family of God.
May we have hearts of compassion reaching out to those in need, seeking that they might
come to the Savior and be spared what we all deserve but by your grace.
May your anointing be upon us as we leave this place after having worshiped together
on this Lord's day.
Thank you for your presence that goes with us and your promise I will never leave you
or forsake you.
Amen.
Good night.