Bramhall, John W: God's Future Program-20 ~ The Nat'l.Resurrection Of Israel

Beloved radio friends, we greet you again in the precious name of our soon coming Savior, giving you a hearty welcome to continue with us in the study of the precious Word of God. 'Tis a deep and a great joy to be considering the history of the future, for thank God we have in His Word an accurate account of history as it shall be, not only as it has been and may be, but as it shall be in the future. Thank God for a divine book of revelation, and we continue our study in relation to the national resurrection of Israel as the Word of God declares it. We have seen some evidences from the Word of God regarding it, but we wish to go further with conclusive proof that the scriptures do teach the national awakening and coming restoration of the nation of Israel for the glory of God. We continue today to consider other scriptures, to state how clearly the word of God prophesies there is to be a national resurrection and restoration for the earthly people of God. We turn to the great prophecy of Jeremiah, reading in chapter fifty, verses four and five, and listen to the words of Jeremiah's prophecy. In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping. They shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Oh my beloved, these are precious words. They should fill the heart of every Jewish person to realize they have not yet been fulfilled, but they will be. For may I point out very carefully, the prophecy is in relation, not only in relation to the children of Israel, but in relation to the children of Judah. You that know and study your Bible carefully will certainly understand this fact of which I now speak, that there was a great division in the nation of Israel following the days of Solomon, when ten tribes separated from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and those ten tribes set up their own kingdom and king and government. They never were reunited. Those ten tribes went into captivity long before the Babylonian captivity of the children of Judah. Those tribes have never been together, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together with the last ten tribes of Israel. You cannot prove, not in the word of God nor outside the word of God, where they have been united together. But the words of this prophecy declare, the children of Israel shall come, specifically and undoubtedly referring to that part of the nation that kept the name of Israel, and then also the children of Judah, that part of the nation that kept its tribal name Judah, both the tribe of Judah and Benjamin together. And we are told in those days, and the days referred to are not past days, neither are they present days, they are future days. They will together be going, and note how, and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God. God willing, in the coming message, we shall certainly know why and how they will be in great mourning as they seek the Lord their God, weeping. Oh, my beloved radio listener, this is the best way to seek the Lord, with repentant tears and confession of failure, and that will be Israel. And then, if you note, they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces in that same direction. They will say to each other, come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. What a happy day that will be for the godly remnant that will so seek the Lord at that time. But let's go further. We have the words of another prophet by the name of Hosea, found in chapter three of his book, verses four and five again, which also foretell this same event. Note these words. The prophet writes, for the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without cherubim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. I want you to know carefully what they would be without. Without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice. Beloved, they've been a long time without a king, they've been a long time without a prince. And you know as well as I do that when the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in the year AD seventy, those sacrifices upon the altar ceased, and they've been without an image. They've not even been worshiping idols. They've been without an ephod representative of the priesthood, and they've been without cheraphim, even anything of any spiritual character to seek the Lord. And for many days, the prophet said they would abide without these. Now note the end of his prophecy. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall hear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Or may I state, there is to be an afterward in national resurrection and an awakening and a restoration for the nation of Israel. But then may I go and read with you the words of the prophet Isaiah. For the prophet Isaiah declares that God will bring this to pass. Listen to God's voice. And it shall come to pass in that day. And oh, may I interject this truth, that wherever, most usually in the scriptures, wherever you read the expression in that day, to every pious Jew, it meant the glorious day of their coming Messiah. It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat up from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Isaiah chapter twenty seven, verses twelve and thirteen. Beloved, the trumpet will sound. You and I sing a hymn when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more in relation to the church's destiny. But oh, here is another trumpet in relation to the destiny of Israel. And they shall come one by one to be gathered, who were ready to perish in the outcast nations where they have been, and they're coming to worship the Lord in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem. This brings us to a prophecy we would like to mention from the book of Zechariah, and in chapter two. for in the prophecy of Zechariah may I state, there is a prominency given to the city of Jerusalem in this great book of the prophet Zechariah. And in chapter two, God tells the prophet of a coming day when Jerusalem will be restored by God, not by man, but by God, in great blessing and great prosperity. In the vision, the prophet sees an angel, and the angel sends another angel to the prophet with this message. And listen to his words as the angel is commissioned. Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for multitude of men and cattle therein. For I said the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. Oh, my beloved, the greatest city in the world, to the heart and in the eyes of the Lord is the city of Jerusalem. And great shall be the prospect of that city in the coming day of the Messiah's reign, the restoration, the resurrection, the awakening of Israel as a nation. And the city of Jerusalem shall be without walls, inhabited for multitudes of men and cattle. And the Lord himself will be a divine protector as a wall of fire round about, and his glory will be in the midst of her. But may I go further in the same chapter? For God again says in the same chapter of Zechariah chapter two: Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord, and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath set me up to thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Now, may I make a qualifying statement? Don't think that today is the day of what we have just read. Not at all. The Lord is not in the midst of Israel yet. Many nations are not yet joined to Israel to seek the Lord, as they will in the coming day. And the Lord has not yet inherited Judah as his portion in the Holy Land. The Lord himself has not yet chosen Jerusalem, but he will. These are the words of the prophetic book of Ze- Zechariah that tell of the coming day when Jerusalem, the city itself, will be restored by God and be under his blessings and under his divine prosperity. My beloved, I cannot help but be convinced of the national resurrection and the awakening and restoration of God's earthly people, Israel, to come. Shall we pray? Father, again we ask thee to sanctify these scriptural truths to the blessing of all in our Savior's name. Amen.