In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing the time and being aware of the nearness of salvation. He urges the church to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, walking honestly and avoiding sinful behaviors. The speaker also encourages the congregation to be equipped for the work of the ministry, offering resources such as evangelism classes and home fellowships. The sermon concludes with a prayer, acknowledging God's omniscience and asking for His guidance in understanding the prophecies of Scripture in relation to current world events.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Ezekiel chapter 37. I'm assuming that some of you, hopefully most of you, keep up with the things that are going on and the current events around the world. It's hard not to these days when you consider all the different websites that have information, all the blogs that are out there and all the news channels that are twenty-four hours playing different things about what's going on in the world and at the top of every list when you consider the world news is what is going on in Israel. This morning, a vote of twenty-four to zero with one abstention, the Israeli Knesset, the governing body of Israel voted to accept the UN ceasefire agreement and so Hezbollah, the leaders of Hezbollah have grudgingly said that they'll abide by it as well, the Lebanese government said that they'll abide by it and so by eight o'clock tomorrow morning there's to be a stand down of military activities in southern Lebanon, Israels to remove their thirty thousand troops as the Lebanese put fifteen thousand of their troops and the UN peacekeeping forces put fifteen thousand of their troops into southern Lebanon to create a buffer zone so that Hezbollah doesn't fire any more rockets into northern Israel. As to this point there's been four thousand rockets that have been fired into northern Israel since July twelfth and when we consider all the things that are going on there we have to consider what the Bible has to say about these days. So let's pray and we'll look into the word. Father we thank you that you have told us the end from the beginning you who are outside of time, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, you have shown us things before they happen it's your divine fingerprint upon your word to prove that this truly is inspired of you and so Lord we ask that you'd speak to us this morning from this passage help us to understand what your spirit would be saying to us the church in these last days for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Ezekiel chapter thirty seven starting at verse one it says the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about and behold there were very many in the open valley and lo they were very dry and he said unto me son of man can these bones live and I answered oh Lord you know again he said unto me prophesy upon these bones and say unto them oh you dry bones hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God unto these bones behold I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live I will lay sinews upon you and will bring flesh up upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord so I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone and when I beheld lo sinews and flesh came upon them and skin covered them above but there was no breath in them then said he unto me prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind thus says the Lord God come from the four winds oh breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live so I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army then he said unto me son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel behold they say our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off from our parts therefore prophesy and say unto them thus says the Lord God behold oh my people I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel and you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves oh my people and brought you up out of your graves and you shall and I shall put my spirit in you you shall live and I shall place you in your own land and you shall know that I the Lord has spoken it and performed it says the Lord this passage is an interesting passage in fact if you were to pick up a commentary written before the nineteen hundreds you would see that just about every commentator as they wrote on this passage would say that this has spiritual application that this prophecy is fulfilled spiritually in the church today that the church has been brought together being dead as Ephesians chapter two says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and yet he quickened us together with Christ and so even if you picked up Matthew Henry's commentary one of the probably the greatest commentators on the bible written around the fifteen hundreds even he applies this to a spiritual context that it speaks spiritually of the church because they couldn't in their minds grasp a literal translation of the nation of Israel which was not a nation at that time becoming a nation again until nineteen forty eight when almost in an instant it seems they became a nation in Matthew chapter twenty four just before Jesus's crucifixion he predicted to his disciples the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in Matthew chapter twenty three Jesus was speaking to all the leaders of Israel and he declared woe to the nation certain judgment to the leadership because they departed from the Lord because they had not recognized their Messiah when he came and in Matthew chapter twenty four verse one it says and Jesus went out and departed from the temple I want you to note that right there in Matthew chapter twenty four verse one because it is the last time that the presence of God was in the temple of God in Jerusalem you remember when Jesus was crucified he cried at the end of that crucifixion to tell us that it is finished and what notable thing happened in the temple the veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom and it exposed the holy place and the only thing it showed was that the presence of God was no longer in the holy of holies because the presence of God had departed from the temple right here in Matthew chapter twenty four when Jesus left it says Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him to show forth the buildings of the temple he had just declared that the city was going to be destroyed certain destruction is what the word woe means and his disciples come to him and say but look at these great buildings look at this wonderful temple and Jesus said unto them see you not all these things truly I say to you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down he looked at that temple as his disciples said consider this great temple this temple that had taken some forty six years to construct at that point and he says behold this temple I tell you the truth not one stone shall be left upon another they're all going to be torn down and Jesus continued walking out of the temple courts and went up to the Mount of Olives there and I imagine that his disciples stood there gazing at this thing thinking you're crazy that's not possible and so they came to Jesus in verse three as he sat upon the Mount of Olives and the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when shall these things be when is this going to happen Jesus looking at that great temple which was the center of all Jewish life to the Jews if the temple was destroyed then life as they knew it would go away as well and so they asked him when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world in their mind they figured this temple coming down is like the end of the world and so when is this going to happen Lord and he began to talk with them about those things and did you know just a short period of time just a little bit over forty years later in the year A.D. seventy Jesus's words of the destruction of the temple came to pass as the Roman general Titus Flavius came into Jerusalem with four legions of Roman troops and he surrounded the city in April of A.D. seventy and they besieged the city for the next several months until August which when by August the entire city and all the hills that were around it lay bare there were no more trees on the hills because the Romans had cut down every single tree to build their besieging towers and so the city lay as just this naked bare city in the middle of nothing and the Jews that remained in the city that still stayed there to try and hold in and try and fight the Romans back they hold up in the temple and at the end of August in the year A.D. seventy one of the Roman soldiers fired a flaming arrow at the temple and it landed amongst all the timbers in the top of the temple and it started it on fire and that temple was filled with all kinds of gold ornate gold and silver everywhere not only did they have all the gold that they had put on the timbers and on the walls but in the back of the temple was the temple treasury it was considered during that day to be the second largest bank in the entire world the first bank was in Rome it was the largest bank at that time in the the capital of the Roman Empire but the second largest bank was there in the city of Jerusalem gold filled the treasuries of that temple and as it burnt the gold melted and went down into the cracks of the rocks and so the Roman soldiers to get the gold out they tore the temple apart piece by piece now Titus the Roman governor he didn't want to do that to the temple he wanted to keep the temple and he wanted to give it as a gift to the Caesar of Rome at that point in time which ultimately if the temple had stayed there they would have used it as a pagan temple to the Roman Emperor but it was God's grace that he had it torn down he wasn't going to have his house there used and defiled for Roman pagan worship and so it burnt down and the Romans to obtain the gold to get the gold they tore every rock apart to get the gold out just as Jesus had prophesied there in Matthew chapter 24 he told that it would come to pass that you see all these things I say to you truly that not one stone shall be left upon another they all shall be thrown down and his disciples said when is this going to happen they had no idea that it would happen in their own lifetime that they would see that take place but at that moment in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed the Jewish people were dispersed it's called the Diaspora they began to just move out into the rest of the parts of the world as the Roman Romans took over the empire there they took over the city of Jerusalem in the area of Israel they changed all of the maps and they renamed the area it was no longer called Israel from that point in time I believe it was called Avelina Capitolina or something like that that they renamed it and they also named it Philistine country or Palestine they changed every one of the maps but the Jews were dispersed they were pushed up into the north into Europe into Russia and to China all over the world they were removed from that area their language began to die the Hebrew language they were persecuted throughout their time of travels and so when commentators would read the passage of Ezekiel chapter 37 about the nation of Israel these dry bones that were in this valley being gathered together and God breathing life into them and Ezekiel chapter 36 talks about the regathering of the Jewish people into the land they'd say it's not possible it will never happen but then in the late 1800s a man took his family back to the land of Canaan this area called Palestine at that point in time a Jewish man and he began to send letters to his family and friends in other parts of Europe saying come back to the land and they called themselves the Zionists a name you've probably heard in our day if you follow the news at all and so these Zionists they came back to the land they started what was called a kibbutz which was basically like a large communal living environment where they had farms in the northern area of what is known as Israel today and they started to grow as a people and they revived the Hebrew language a language that hadn't been really spoken for nearly 2,000 years and they began to speak it completely among themselves the Hebrew language and they kept calling to their brothers to come back to the land of Israel Eretz Israel, the land of Israel. As time went by in the late 1800s and on into the early 1900s the British were controlling that area the British Empire was still alive and well in the early 1900s and they controlled that area that was at one point in time the Ottoman Empire and in 1917 on November 2nd a letter was written back to the British Parliament by a man by the name of Arthur James Balfour and he said I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's government the following declaration of sympathy with the Jewish Zionists aspiration which has been submitted and approved by the cabinet the British government approved that a Zionist Jewish state could be rebuilt there in the area of Palestine well the Arabs in the region didn't really like that and immediately after this letter sent by James Balfour to Lord Rothschild in England when he wrote this letter which is now come to be known as the Balfour Declaration you may have heard of it before it started the ball rolling in the world community to give the Jews a state, a nation once again but the Arabs in the region didn't like that and so they had this big thing called the Arab-English Revolt and they revolted against the British Empire that was still holding that area and the world was largely against the Zionist plight, their desire for a nation of their own until this little event took place in the 1940s something you may have heard of called World War II and after World War II when the world began to see what had taken place in Europe and in the camps of Germany and Austria and Poland when they started to see what had happened to largely the Jews but not only the Jews but largely to the Jewish people in that region six million of them killed as the numbers began to mount more and more for one time in history the world began to have pity upon the Jewish people and there was this newly established governing organization called the United Nations and they got together in November of 1947 and they passed what is called Resolution 181. Resolution 181 called for the nation of Israel, the people of Israel to be given a homeland. November 29th 1947 and then on May 14th 1948 just about six months later in the city of Tel Aviv a group of Zionists gathered together and one of them stood up a man by the name of David Ben-Gurion he stand up and he read this Eretz Israel, the land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people here their spiritual religious and political identity was shaped here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal book of books. After being forcibly exiled from their land the people remained faithful to it and throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom. Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment Jews strove in every successive generation to reestablish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned there in mass pioneers and defenders they made deserts bloom revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself bringing the blessings of progress to the country's inhabitants and aspiring towards independent nationhood. In the year 1897 at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish state Theodor Herzl and his Zionists formed the first Zionist Congress. They convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country. This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2nd of November 1917 and reaffirmed in the mandate of the League of Nations which in particular gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its national home. The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by reestablishing in the land of Israel the Jewish state which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member in the Committee of Nations. Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe as well as Jews from other parts of the world continued to migrate to the land of Israel undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland. In the Second World War the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations. On the 29th of November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. The General Assembly required the inhabitants of the land of Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part of the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their state is irrevocable. This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be the masters of their own fate like all other nations and their own sovereign state. Accordingly we members of the People's Council representatives of the Jewish community of the land of Israel and of the Zionist movement are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British mandate over the land of Israel and by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of that resolution of the United Nations General Assembly hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel to be known as the State May 14, 1948. A nation that was not a nation became a nation in one day and the next day on May 15 ten nations that surrounded them invaded them and sought to destroy them in which has been called the War of Independence May 15, 1948. Every Arabic nation that surrounded them Jordan Lebanon, Syria, Egypt all of them invaded and tried to take them out. It's an amazing thing when you start to read the history of what took place at that point in time. Here was this little group of people and all they had was rifles and Molotov cocktails and a few planes that they had just purchased from the Austrians to fight against this big old group that came against them. And in ten months they completely fought them back and took land, destroyed the Lebanese tank or the the Syrian tanks with Molotov cocktails. That's a, you know, like a coke bottle with some gasoline put inside and a wick put on top of it. That's how they destroyed them. Now if anybody doesn't see the hand of God and them being able to remain through the War of Independence you're blind. Not only the War of Independence but in June of 1967 some of you were alive during that time when surrounded by Egypt and Jordan and Lebanon as they were encroaching upon the nation of Israel, Israel launched a preemptive attack which was done in six days called the Six Day War and they took land when they were fighting against three other nations on three other fronts and yet by the hand of God they were able to take land. Again they were invaded by Egypt on the 6th of October 1973, the Yom Kippur War on the Day of Atonement and yet they fought the Egyptians back and took land. An interesting thing took place on the 6th of June 1982. The Palestinian Liberation Organization had come into southern Lebanon and they were firing Katyusha rockets into the northern portion of Israel. That doesn't sound very familiar, does it? And so on the 6th of June 1982 the Israeli army led a huge offensive and they went into southern Lebanon to push the Lebanese back to the Latani River and to create a buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel so that these Katyusha rockets could not be fired into northern Israel anymore. It sounds exactly like some of the stuff we're reading out of the news today but it's not the Palestinian Liberation Organization anymore, now it's a group called Hezbollah. Hezbollah has moved into southern Lebanon and they've been firing rockets, Katyusha rockets at northern Israel since July 12th since they invaded Israel and came into a Israeli defense force camp and kidnapped some of their soldiers and so Israel over the last several weeks has had a combined offensive and they've been pushing into southern Lebanon with the desire to push the Lebanese and Hezbollah back to the Latani River to create an 18-mile buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon. Why have these Arabic nations been so set on destroying this little tiny place that's smaller than Rhode Island, you can drive from the northernmost part of Israel to the southernmost part of Israel in one day. Why have they been so desirous of destroying them? The reason I believe that they've been seeking to destroy this little nation is because they are stirred by the enemy of God, Satan. You see God tells us in Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23 that this land is not Israel's land. He says this land is my land for my sake and for my name's sake. It is God's land and He says He Himself will punish anybody who tries to sell the land or divide the land. Leviticus 25 verse 23, this is not your land God says it's my land. But one of the other reasons that I believe that God has held this land and why the enemy has tried by these Arab groups to push the nation of Israel out of the land is found in Matthew chapter 24. Because as I read Matthew chapter 24 in verse 3 when Jesus' disciples came to Him they didn't just ask Him when the destruction of Jerusalem was going to happen, they asked Him three questions. They said tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. Now we don't need to ask the question when shall these things be any longer regarding the destruction of Israel because we look back to AD 70 and we can read in our history books about what took place. But as a church we continue to ask these last two questions regarding the Lord's return. What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus goes on to answer these questions in verse 4 of Matthew 24. You may have been wondering as I was reading you that declaration of independence of Israel what are you reading this for? This has no importance to us we're a world away. It doesn't affect us but it does. It's very important to us and I hope this morning in the remaining time that we have to give you an idea why. Matthew 24 verse 3, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives his disciples came to him privately and they said tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and he said unto them take heed that no man deceive you. Underline that in your Bibles please. Take heed that no man deceive you. There's been a lot of deception in our day regarding these things. In fact the world talks about these prophecies all the time. You know at the end of the year right as we get to change into the next year you always hear these people talking about biblical prophecy or maybe when you're standing in the checkout line at Vaughn's and you see the Inquirer or something else and it says the 10 prophecies the government doesn't want you to know and they always bring this stuff up and you'll read these verses if you ever pick that thing up. I'll never buy it but I always pick it up and flip through it and laugh at it. But notice what he says take heed that no man deceive you. There's lots of deception for many shall come in my name saying I am the Christ and shall deceive many and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you're not be troubled for all these things read this with me out loud all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. You see there's in these magazines or different people they'll publish and they'll say there's wars and rumors of wars the end is coming but notice what Jesus says you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars don't be troubled by that that's not the sign there is a specific sign we're going to get to it but what Jesus is saying here is that from the time that he was speaking until the time that he comes this is going to be the normal thing wars rumors of wars but that's not the sign the end is not yet. Verse 7 nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places you pick up those publications and you see there's famines there's pestilences earthquakes tsunamis all this the end is coming people have been saying that for the last 2,000 years but that's not the sign the end is not yet you're going to hear of these things nation rising against nation pestilences earthquakes diverse place this is the norm of the day all these things note this verse 8 they are the beginning of sorrows it's just the beginning it's not the end the end is not yet these are the beginning of sorrows and they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and shall be you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another we see that today don't we but we've seen it ever since he spoke these words and many false prophets shall arise and and because the that iniquity shall abound the love of many shall grow cold but he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved and notice what else will characterize this time from the time that Jesus spoke these words until the time of his coming and the end of the age and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then what's it say then shall the end come and now he tells us of the sign which is significant to us in this day verse 15 says when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet standing in the holy place whoever reads let him understand then let him that be in judea flee to the mountains down in verse 21 it says for then shall be great tribulation such as was not seen since the beginning of the world to this time nor ever shall be what is the sign of the end of the age and the second coming of christ he tells us right there in verse 15 when you see the abomination of desolation then it's time daniel chapter 9 i believe right around verse 27 and also in daniel chapter 11 and daniel chapter 12 daniel receives this vision from god and he speaks of this thing calls the called the abomination of desolation or the abomination which makes desolate standing in the holy of holies this abomination is that someone would go into the holy of holies and desolate it bring an abomination and exalt himself as god there it's interesting that jesus speaks of this as a yet future event when he spoke of it because the jews of jesus's day believed that this had already happened because there was a man during the time of judas maccabeus some of you have heard of first and second maccabees during that time there was a man who was a crazy lunatic by the name of antiochus epiphanies he was a leader of i want to say syria and he came into israel and he overtook jerusalem and he went and sacrificed pig pigs on the altar in jerusalem and brought pig blood into the holy of holies and brought an abomination into desolation into jerusalem and so the jews of jesus's day believed that the abomination of desolation that daniel the prophet spoke of they thought that it already happened but jesus says no it is yet a future thing and he says this is the sign of the end of the age and of my second coming the abomination of desolation in fact when you read the scriptures and you look through daniel chapter 9 11 and 12 and you when you read revelation you find that you can calculate from the day of the abomination of desolation exactly three and a half years until the messiah the prince comes his second time that's how specific the prophecies of the scriptures are to the day i think it's like 1283 days but he says the end of the age and the second coming of the messiah will come immediately after the abomination of desolation that is the sign what's that got to do with us well understand this there can be no abomination of desolation if there is no holy of holies there can be no holy of holies if there is no temple in jerusalem there can be no temple in jerusalem if there is no jewish presence in the land of israel and as of may 14 1948 that came to pass we are in those days the time is near now we don't know the exact time of what we call the rapture of the church or the successive abomination of desolation that's going to take place what are we waiting for well one of the things we're waiting for is that there's no temple built in jerusalem yet will we be here to see the temple built in jerusalem i don't know but i will tell you this there is a group called the temple foundation in israel and they have every instrument needed for the temple they have the large huge golden candlestick already built they have the altar of incense constructed they have all of the tools used for carrying the blood and carrying the ashes from the altar to the altar of incense everything is constructed they're just waiting for someone to give them to go to have a piece of land on the temple mount so that they can build their temple and there's going to arise a man who's going to make way for that kind of peace to bring some sort of peace accord it's going to be a seven-year peace treaty the bible tells us and the man that establishes this seven-year peace treaty he's going to be the very man at the three and a half year period of that seven-year peace treaty who's going to go into that temple that's going to be constructed and establish himself as god the jews will think at the start that he's the messiah but they'll come to see that he's the antichrist we're living in these days and the establishment of the nation of israel and on may 14 1948 it is unbelievably significant and all the stuff that's going on there today is important and we need to understand that these are signs of the times that everything is getting in order and things are starting to be built up ezekiel chapter 38 tells us that a coalition of nations is going to invade and try to destroy the nation of israel one of those nations is to be led by one called gog who is the the prince it says there in ezekiel 38 verse 1 and the word of the lord came to me saying the son of man set your face against gog in the land of magog and the chief prince of meshech and tubal and prophesy against them now gog he's the prince over the land of magog the chief prince of meshech and if you start to chart this out you can go on the internet and start to read some of this stuff just put these names in gog magog and meshech you start to read about it you find that meshech is very likely moscow which if you look at a world map you see that it's directly north almost perfectly north of jerusalem and they're going to be invading the area of israel and so i guarantee you watch russia because russia is going to become more involved in what's going on over there they already are you may not realize it but they are how many of you guys know what the g8 summit is you heard about the g8 summit you know president bush all these different world leaders met together vladimir putin was there it's interesting i believe it was on july 16th just a four days four days after lebanon had kidnapped these soldiers out of northern israel and israel started to move in an offensive towards lebanon vladimir putin said i don't think that the jews are only interested in getting their soldiers back they have higher aspirations and it and he expressed his concern and the nation of russia their concern over what's going on over there why are they concerned about it well an interesting thing's been taking place as israel's been moving into southern lebanon they've been finding out that hezbollah troops have been trained by who by iran who has been trained by russia who has been giving nuclear secrets to iran for the last several years you see the only thing that keeps israel safe at this moment since they're surrounded by enemies billions a billion of them is that they have nuclear superiority in the area but the president of iran maybe you've listened to some of his babblings over the last year he's been saying that the holocaust never happened but that the jews need to be pushed into the mediterranean sea and destroy it and he's been seeking from russia nuclear secrets which russia says are only desired they're only desiring to use them for peaceful ends to make some nuclear power yeah some very hot nuclear power over jerusalem you see the things that are going on there are very interesting when you read on in ezekiel chapter 38 you find that these invading nations involve persia in verse 5 what is modern day persia today iran the bible tells us that these nations are going to come together and they're going to invade the nation of israel but miraculously they're going to be stopped by god destroyed it is going to happen the reason i tell you that it is going to happen is because the bible says it's going to happen and here's the thing god makes his prophecies it's really awesome the way that he does things jesus told his disciples in matthew chapter 24 jerusalem is going to be destroyed and then he told them of a coming abomination of desolation and as proof that the abomination of desolation is going to come as proof that these last days are going to come and his second coming will happen the first prophecy that he gave about the destruction of jerusalem happened you see god always gives these early and latter fulfillments of prophecies the early fulfillment is proof that the latter one will come it's as if i told you i'm going to give you a hundred dollars but i can only give you ten dollars today as proof that i will make good on the hundred dollars i'm going to give you and so here's the ten dollars and you can trust in a couple weeks i'll give you the rest it's like the lord says here's this prophecy this huge prophecy about the end of the age and at the very beginning here's your ten dollar bill jerusalem is going to be destroyed but the rest of it is yet to be fulfilled but he shows us what's going to come to place he shows us how things are kind of kind of organized in the end to make things happen and we're seeing it right now it began on may 14th 1948 when in opposition to all of their neighbors they were established as a nation israel the land of israel the end gathering the regathering but ezekiel chapter 36 and 37 tell us that all of israel is going to be gathered to the land of israel they're not yet we are still in the middle of ezekiel chapter 37 in fact i believe that we're at ezekiel chapter 37 verse 13 because verse 14 has not happened yet ezekiel 37 13 says and you shall know that i am the lord when i have opened the graves of my people and brought you up out of your graves to bring you back to the land we're seeing that but we have not seen this and shall put my spirit in you and you shall live and i shall place you in your own land that you may know that i the lord have spoken it and performed it thus says the lord the nation of israel is largely atheistic today but there's going to come a point in the center portion of the seven-year tribulation when the abomination of desolation happens when the nation of israel when they see that happen they're going to flee from jerusalem and they're going to become these evangelists these 144 000 evangelists named in the book of revelation but we are in the midst of ezekiel chapter 37 today there are six million jews roughly six million jews that are living in the land of israel it is a little ironic that the number of jews killed in the holocaust is pretty much the same as the number of jews there in the land of israel today but do you realize there's 4.5 million jews in new york city and a whole bunch more scattered throughout the united states and a lot of them in hollywood they basically own hollywood that's kind of why they didn't really like mel gibson's movie the passion but see there's all these jews in the united states in new york because they have great financial holdings here there's nothing really to make them look at israel and say hey we should go back to the land of but i guarantee you world opinion of israel is very low i don't know if you've noticed the only two friends of the nation of israel today are the united kingdom and the united states but already in the united kingdom there's this undercurrent of disregard for the jews in the nation of israel because see something interesting is happening in europe and especially in the united kingdom and this really came out this week with this whole thing in the news about this terrorist plot and all of these guys that were plotting together to have this mass air assault on these planes they all have british accents but they're all muslim you see the muslim population is growing rapidly in europe and the united kingdom i know the united kingdom is part of europe but they don't like to be called that in the netherlands i believe it's an 11 population of muslims france is 18 percent germany i believe is nine percent all these countries are growing very rapidly with an islamic population you see it a lot when you're over there i lived in germany for a year i know matt probably saw it when he was in germany a lot of turkish muslims in the netherlands there's a popular t-shirt that islamic youth are wearing and it says 2030 and then we take over why do they wear that because in 2030 it's been surmised that their population will reach the point where they can begin to take over some of the parliaments in europe some of the ruling bodies in europe they've realized that they can't really take over with force and so they're taking over with politics and as they're taking over there's a shift in europe regarding the nation of israel and the jews and in the united kingdom today people are starting to say we have to stop siding with the united states and with israel and then they'll stop bombing our trains and then they'll stop wanting to bomb our planes and i guarantee you that shift is going to start in the united states too i wouldn't be surprised if the next administration of our nation has a lot to play in it as well because see the word is from different islamic groups that if you stop supporting israel we'll leave you alone and see that's exactly what satan would have why because he knows that his time is up and if israel is in the land and if the temple is constructed then satan knows the scriptures he knows that jesus said the end is going to come at this abomination of desolation in the temple in the holy of holies in jerusalem so if satan can just get the jews out of jerusalem and get them out of the whole area of israel then maybe he can stop with the inevitable fact he thought that he could do that about 2 000 years ago too right after he killed the messiah he thought yeah i got it but he actually shot himself in the head but we're living in the last days and the enemy wants to try and stop the second coming of our lord because when our lord comes his reign is done turn in your bibles to romans chapter 13 and we'll finish there so we see these things happening in the world we can see it in prophecy it's been spoken of for 2 700 years god's been speaking this to us he told daniel and daniel prophesied of these things right about the 5th century bc he told him that this book would be locked up until the last days when knowledge would be increased we're living in those last days and these books are being opened up to us and we're beginning to understand what it means as we look around and see understand that jesus spoke some things that his disciples didn't understand until they were fulfilled what am i talking about well he told his disciples and he told the men of israel in john chapter 2 destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up and they all said this temple's taken 46 years to construct how are you going to rebuild it in three days but this he spoke of his body which after his resurrection his disciples understood you see after they saw the fulfillment of it they understood the words the same with ezekiel chapter 36 and 37 we are seeing the fulfillment of it we're starting to understand that it's literal and not spiritual but what does it mean for us romans chapter 13 verse 11 and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of your sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed here's the word i believe of the lord to us as the church in america today he says and knowing the times you know us americans we're really good about knowing what time it is we have clocks everywhere we have watches all over the place some of you are looking at your watch right now saying how are you going to finish this in 12 minutes we know the times but do we really know the time paul says know the time it is high time to wake up because salvation is near the night is far spent the day is at hand so what should we do let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envy but put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof what should we as the church in this day be doing as we consider the world events and how they relate to the prophecies of the scripture two things wake up to holiness and to evangelism wake up to holiness he says here put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision of the for the flesh walk in honesty as if you're walking in the day walking in the light john tells us in first john walk in the light as he is in the light we are called to holiness now this is not something that i believe we can accomplish on our own because paul speaks of it in romans chapter seven he says the good that i want to do i do not do and the bad things i don't want to do that i do i find in my flesh dwells no good thing can anybody relate to that oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me from this body of death but then he gives the answer i thank god you see god is able to deliver us from the bondage of darkness in the flesh and deliver us unto holiness how does he do it by the washing of the water by the one by the word how can a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed to the word of god turn not from the right hand or to the left hand from it joshua for in walking in the word you shall be prosperous and have good success hide the word of the lord in your heart that you might not sin against him holiness comes through the word of god and so god says to his church wake up put on the lord jesus christ who john chapter 1 tells us is the word of god he is the word put on the lord jesus and make no provision for the flesh first peter chapter 2 verse 9 says but you are a chosen generation and a royal priesthood a holy nation and a peculiar people why why has god called us the church not just the priests or the pastors of the church but the entire church he has called us all as a chosen generation and a royal priesthood his peculiar or strange people i'm looking around we fit the bill myself included but what has he called us for verse 9 the end of the verse says that you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light god has called us as his people who at one point in time were not a people it says in verse 10 which in times past were not a people but now you are a people you did not obtain mercy in the past but now you have obtained mercy and as those who have received mercy from god and a calling from god we are now to declare his praises the one who's called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light we live in the midst of a dark world and he's called us to stand as lights in this dark world not wrapped up in the darkness of the world but in the light of christ put on the lord jesus christ and shine so that the rest of the world can see now see unfortunately over the years the church has largely just put this over in the hands of the pastors and the leadership of the church and said you shine we'll just listen to you you shine we'll watch you shine but i want you to note what the bible says that the pastors of this church are called to do in ephesians chapter 4 ephesians 4 verse 11 it says that god gave some to be apostles or missionaries those who are sent and some to be prophets those who speak forth the word of god some to be evangelists some those who share the word of god with others who do not know he's given some apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers why for the perfecting or the equipping of the saints that's the church for the working of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ until we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ paul tells the church at ephesus that god has given pastors teachers apostles evangelists prophets for the purpose of equipping the body of christ to do the ministry of declaring the praises of god and the darkness of this world understand that the declaring of the praises showing forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into this marvelous light doesn't really happen in the confines of the walls of this building it happens in your job it happens at your school it happens at von's it happens at chevron it happens in your living room it happens wherever whenever you the church are assembled anywhere and when we consider what's going on in the world it should stir us to realize that the time is short listen satan knows his time is short that's why all these crazy things are going on in the world tsunamis and earthquakes and all that stuff he's the one who governs it every time we say it's an act of god you're calling him god but he's the one who has the rule over this whole world he knows his time is short he's trying to destroy it as much as he can and stop the hand of god that's what rebellion is all about he is trying to stop god from accomplishing his will and yet we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it already is accomplished in heaven and his will will be accomplished here because of his namesake in fact as you read ezekiel 36 and 37 you find that he tells the people the nation of israel he says i'm going to regather you back to the land of israel not for you not for your namesake but for my namesake because it's my land it's my land the land of israel is god's land it's high time that we awake out of our sleepy haze awake towards holiness awake towards righteousness awake towards evangelism you may say i don't know how to evangelize i don't know how to get into the word well i just told you the pastors of this church we've been called by god to equip you if you feel ill equipped for the work come talk to us you want to learn how to evangelize josh has been doing the evangelism class you want to learn what it means to walk in the word of god we've got these home fellowships which are which are a great opportunity for you to be equipped for the work of the ministry because every one of you are called to the ministry of god all of us are called to take forth his word into a dark world let's stand and pray i did it in six minutes not bad let's pray together lord we thank you for the fact that you have shown us the end from the beginning you who are the alpha and the omega the first and the last the beginning and the end who was and is and is to come you know all things and you've revealed them to us in your word teach us to be those who study to show ourselves approved unto you men and women who are workers who rightly divide your word of truth lord we pray your kingdom come your will be done in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters this week lord help us to have our eyes open and see what's going on in the world and make the connection that these aren't just coincidences these aren't just happenstances this is all according to what you said would happen but we know that the end is near your people are in the land a temple will be erected nations will rise up against them lord you already told us it would happen and god we know that there will be no peace in jerusalem no peace in israel even though the un may declare peace there will be no peace until you the prince of peace stands upon the mount of olives and so lord we pray come quickly for we ask it in jesus name