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Passage that will make our starting off point is to be found in the Revelation chapter eleven verses one to thirteen. Let us read them together. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and one said, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple, leave without and measure it not, for it has been given unto the nations, unto the Gentiles. And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
And I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies. And if any man shall desire to hurt them in this manner, must he be killed. These have the power to shut up the heaven that it rain not during the days of their prophecy. They have the power over the waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they shall desire.
When they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the bi- abyss shall make war with them and overcome them and kill them. Their dead bodies lie in the street of that great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. They that dwell on the earth rejoice over them and make merry, and they shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.
And after the three days and a half, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which beheld them. They heard a great voice from heaven saying, unto them, come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and there were killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons, and the rest were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
This by general consent, by students of prophecy of whatever shade of opinion they be, is a difficult passage. How then shall we understand it? In the first verses, we are told that someone in the vision was told to rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein, and the court which is without the temple leave out, for it has been given unto the nations and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. We would understand it, we must first of all understand that the phrase or the phrases used are a Jewish way of referring to the temple and their city.
As you all know, the great temple was in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. The temple building itself was surrounded by a large court. But for certain purposes, the Jews of our Lord's time extended the sanctity of that court to include the whole city of Jerusalem. Therefore, it came to be that in Jewish parlance, Jerusalem city itself was referred to on times as the court of the temple. It is that usage which you see here before you, when in the vision someone is told to rise up and measure the temple and them that worship therein and the altar, but to leave out the court and don't measure it because the holy city has been given over to the nations.
They shall tread it under foot forty in two months. You will see that the vision, eh, eh, equates the court of the temple with the city. Thus far then, Jewish parlance and usage as the language of the vision. Now, our task is to interpret it. How are these terms being used? Are they being used figuratively, symbolically, or literally? In other words, shall we take the temple and the court and the holy city to mean literally some literal kind of temple in the literal city of Jerusalem in Palestine or Israel in the Middle East?
Or are we intended to take these terms figuratively and to think of the church as the temple of God. One Corinthians three refers to the church in Corinth as the temple of God. And Ephesians chapter two informs us that we are being built together for an habitation of God in the spirit, to form a great temple, a spiritual temple. Could it be then that here we are meant to interpret this reference to the temple in a spiritual sense as referring to the church?
And similarly with the city, the holy city. Are we to understand this literally or figuratively? In Galatians chapter four, Jerusalem is used in a spiritual sense, is it not? The Jerusalem which is above is free, is the mother of us all. It is talking there of a spiritual Jerusalem. You will not me- need me to tell you that at the end of the Revelation we have the vision of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband.
Certainly including the church, and in my opinion, many more beside. But that be by for the point. It is there a spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem. If we come to Hebrews chapter uh twelve, the writer uses this phrase that we are come unto Mount Zion. And it is immediately evident that he is not talking of the literal city of Jerusalem in Israel, but of the heavenly Jerusalem, because he explicitly says this- says so. Hebrews chapter twelve and verse twenty two: but you are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
So it is the fact that scriptures in the New Testament do use the term Jerusalem symbolically, spiritually, of the church, and of that great spiritual congregation in the day to come that is described as the new Jerusalem. But our question is, is that how we are meant to understand the terms here in chapter eleven of the book of the Revelation? Or are we here meant to understand it in its literal sense?
The only way to find out is to try. Let's try and interpret it spiritually and see what results we get. Chapter eleven, verse one: Rise up and measure the temple of God. Well, we'll interpret it spiritually. Temple of God equals the church. Rise up and measure the church. Verse two: And the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not, for it hath been given unto the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months.
And now we'll try to interpret that spiritually. The holy city is the church, which is being given to the nations, and therefore you're not to measure it. It shall be downtrodden of the nations. So now we'll put the two verses together. Rise up and measure the temple that is the church, but leave out the church. Leave out the court that is the city that is the church. Be a very difficult operation, I submit. It therefore becomes actually impossible to translate it and interpret it spiritually.
You cannot rise up and measure the church and at the same time leave the church out and not measure the church. And therefore, we must choose the only other alternative, and that is to understand that the writer here is using the terms quite literally. He is talking of the literal temple in Jerusalem and the literal court, that is the literal city, precisely as the Jews of our Lord's time would have understood the term. But we have another check upon our exposition.
Let us look at verse eight. The witnesses that witness before this temple are eventually destroyed, we are told, and their bodies, verse eight informs us, lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. Ah, the writer tucks in the little word spiritually, because now he doesn't want you to be misled. Their bodies don't lie in a literal Sodom or in a literal Egypt, but they lie in that great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.
But what city is that? It is the city where our Lord was crucified. I wonder, would anybody here know the city where our Lord was crucified? Fancy yes. And that wasn't the church, was it? He is talking about the literal city Jerusalem, where also our Lord was crucified. But now we have another check upon our exposition. It's always as good to have as many checks as you possibly can, isn't it, Walt?
Look, will you please, at the end of verse two. This holy city, Jerusalem, shall at this time, so we are told, be given over to the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. Now here we meet that other element of chronology that I promised you I should deal with in the book of the Revelation. What is this curious piece of time? Forty and two months.
It adds up, as you'll see, to three and a half years, if there are twelve months in a year. It is a period of time that you will meet, uh, more than once in this context in the Revelation. Let us look, for instance, i- in chapter twelve and verse six. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they may there nourish her a thousand, two hundred and threescore days. And again, in that same chapter, in verses thirteen to fourteen: And When the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child, and there were given to her, to the woman, the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time.
A time and times and half a time add up to three and a half times. So do those days, and so do those months, add up to three and a half years. And then we are told in chapter thirteen, verse four, they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast, and who is able to make war with him? And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months.
So here we have a piece of chronology, and it tells us that the beast, from his rise and public manifestation, his appearing, as John was talking about from two Thessalonians two the other day, his actual appearing, the time when he is revealed, as distinct from what he might have been doing before, but from the time he is revealed, the time when he is revealed with all lying wonders and signs, to the end, shall be this period of forty and two months.
That is also the period in which he will persecute, as the instrument of the dragon, he shall persecute the woman of chapter twelve, who gave birth to the man child. Who then is this woman? Who is this man child? The man child is described for us in Revelation twelve and verse five. She was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. I submit to you that the plain straightforward interpretation of the verse is that the man child is our Lord.
I am aware that there are some who say that that is impossible because the revelation is a prophecy. And when the revelation came to be written, the Lord Jesus had already been born years before. And therefore, this child who is born of this woman cannot be the Lord Jesus, but must be someone else. That would be a valid argument. If it were the fact that prophecies and prophets are never allowed to refer to the past. But prophecies do refer to the past.
We've just had one, one small detail, the city where our Lord was crucified. This is, of course, the flashback technique, so well known to viewers of television. Um, by which, in order to understand what is happening now, you suddenly get a flashback to see what happened in the past, so that you understand the significance as what of what is going on now. And in to understand what the dragon is up to now, you must understand, as we shall be considering, God willing, this evening, you must understand his vast attempts all down history to stop the birth of the promised seed of the woman, culminating in his tremendous battle to destroy Jesus our Lord, born of the virgin, born of Israel according to the flesh.
How his dastardly scheme was defeated, and our blessed Lord was caught up to the throne of God. But the woman that gave birth to our Lord was not the church. Oh. Israel, of course, and in particular the Virgin Mary, a Jewess. The dragon at the end time shall persecute both the woman that gave birth to our Lord and the rest of her seed. He shall persecute Israel, the nation that produced the Messiah.
And his persecution shall come to its crescendo with the manifestation of the beast with all powers of lying wonders and signs. It shall last that period of forty two months, a time, a times, and half a time, three and a half years. That is the period, however, which chapter eleven says that Jerusalem city shall be downtrodden by the nations. You will remember in John's talk the other day, he referred you to the Gospel of Luke and one of the signs of our Lord's coming, that Jerusalem should be downtrodden of the nations until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And when those times were fulfilled, said Luke, said our Lord through Luke, the Lord should come, the Son of Man should be perceived coming in the clouds of heaven when the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. But until those times were fulfilled, Jerusalem should be downtrodden by the nations. See the last three and a half years of terrible treading down, because as those three and a half years begin, the beast will be revealed with his lying wonders and signs, and will attempt to crush Jerusalem city.
The beast himself shall do it for three and a half years, though during the course of that three and a half years, he shall for some months be frustrated by two witnesses before that temple who shall miraculously defy him with power given them of God. But in the end, the beast shall overcome even them, and he shall reign for his three and a half years. The end of that time, the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. Lift up your head, says Christ, for your redemption draws nigh. The Lord Jesus shall come, and he shall smite the beast, and he shall deliver Jerusalem city.
But to see whether we've got the right end of the stick and are interpreting this passage rightly, we better turn to another prophet. We have been saying that in the Revelation eleven, the temple is a literal temple, the city Jerusalem is the literal city Jerusalem that shall be down trodden for these three and a half years. Where do we get this curious three and a half years from, anyway? Why three and a half years? Why not fifteen and a half years or two and a half? Why three and a half? To find the answer to that, we shall have to read the prophecy that John the Apostle read.
The prophecy that the same Holy Spirit who inspired John gave to Daniel. It is Daniel chapter uh nine. The famous prophecy of the seventy sevens. That is the seventy weeks of years, if you like. That famous prophecy of the seventy weeks occurring in Daniel nine was prompted by Daniel's praying.
So we better look at the beginning of chapter nine of Daniel to see what he was praying about. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahadueus of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign. I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem. I needn't pause, need I, to tell you that what Jeremiah was concerned about was not the desolation of the church.
He was talking about the desolation of literal Jerusalem city, and the period that the prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that Jerusalem would be desolate was seventy years. The Jews had been taken away by their conquerors from Jerusalem city, taken down to Babylon, where Jeremiah, in the name of God, had promised them that they should be, while their city Jerusalem was made desolate by old Nebuchadnezzar for these seventy years. And now the time was drawing near when those seventy years were nearly finished.
So Daniel, who believed in prophecy, and incidentally in the chronology of prophecy, took his Bible to God, like all good men should do, and inquired of the Lord, now, now, Lord, you said seventy years, and the seventy years are now nearly coming to an end. Now, Lord, uh, please, um, I'm not suggesting you've gone to sleep, of course, but now, Lord, it would be very interesting to know, uh, you are going to fulfill this prophecy, aren't you? And Jerusalem that has been laying desolate for nearly seventy years is going to be delivered, isn't it, Lord? It's always a good plan to pray about your prophecy.
If it does no other, it will stop you getting angry with your brethren that disagree with you. And God said to, uh, uh, Daniel, yes, Daniel, your city shall be restored. Let's read what he said. Verse twenty four. Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and deserve that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.
It, that is Jerusalem, shall be built again with street and moat, even in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and his end shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war. Desolations are determined. The prophecy was fulfilled. There was a period first of the seven weeks, followed by that period of sixty and two weeks, after which Messiah our Lord was cut off.
You say, what an answer to Daniel's prayer. Lord, is Jerusalem City going to be restored and delivered from its desolations? Yes, Daniel, it will be restored. Because God's pro- word through Jeremiah had said it, and God will fulfill his word, and Je- Jerusalem City was restored under men like Zerubbabel and Joshua and Zechariah the Prophet, but restored in troublous times, not by any means the final restoration. For in spite of that restoration and the rebuilding of the city after the exile, Israel continued in her sin and became more flagrant, and so evil did their sin become that when their very Messiah arrived, it blinded them to his identity, and they cut him off.
And because of his cutting off, desolations are determined, said, said the prophet, said God to the prophet. And right to the end shall there be desolations, even unto the end shall be a war. Desolations are determined. Thus did Jesus Christ our Lord read in his Bible. And thus he taught himself. He came officially as Messiah to that city Jerusalem, riding on a very literal donkey with long ears and cockety cock legs, to a very little literal city.
And when he saw the city, oh, he wept over it. It is not recorded that I know he wept over Nazareth, but he wept over that city. Oh Jerusalem, if only you would know now the things that belong to your peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes. Times come when your enemies shall cast a moat around you and a trench. They shall not leave one stone upon another. Our Lord is reiterating what God said to Daniel, that after the seven and the the threescore score and two weeks, not only would Messiah be cut off, but Jerusalem would come to desolations.
Desolations it came, as we heard yesterday in AD seventy. As we heard yesterday, looking outright to the end of time in a far fuller sense, Jerusalem, downtrodden of the nations, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That leaves us with a week. You say, does that week follow immediately upon the other sixty nine? Apparently not. How do you know, you say? Well, by the simple reasons that I've given you.
Half of that week will be three and a half years. And the Bible itself tells us when those three and a half years are going to happen. It is the period of the manifest reign of the beast, terminated by the coming of the Lord Jesus. It is the period of the final desolation of Jerusalem city, terminated by the coming of the Lord Jesus. What's so special about the three and a half?
Why that week divided into half? Well, let's read. He, that is the prince of that people that shall come, he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week, and for the half of the week, at the half of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and upon the wing of abominations shall wa- come one that maketh desolate, and even unto the consummation of that determined shall wrath be poured out upon the desolator. He'll make a covenant. And the apostate Jews will gladly make it with him.
In the manner that the Hellenizing Jews under the Seleucids made their covenants with Antiochus Epiphanes, whereas the godly Jews refused such apostasy. So in this time, apostate Israel shall make their covenant, but in the middle of the week, the prince that shall come shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease. The abomination that makes desolate. I think we heard of that too the other day. And there's no, no, no disputing when it happens.
The abomination that makes desolate be set in the temple, said our Lord, when you see that, get out of Jerusalem city. It happens under the beast, when according to two Thessalonians two, that man of sin sets himself in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God and exalting himself above all that is called God, whom our Lord Jesus shall destroy with the sword of his mouth, with the breath of his mouth, at the brightness of his appearing, when he comes in power and great glory to judge him.
For that three and a half weeks, then, the second half of that final, those three and a half years, the second half of that final week, the abomination of desolation shall be installed. That is what Daniel says. That is what Matthew says. Mark says it, Luke says it, and Christ says it, and Paul says it, and John says it. Please, it wasn't first thought up by the early present. Yes, it was though, but not really, unless you're prepared to call Daniel an early brother. Nothing against it that I can see.
We have then been checking up on our exposition. We found it impossible to take these words of a symbolic Jerusalem city and a symbolic temple, namely the church, because it made nonsense. We found we had to take it literally of Jerusalem city and a little temple therein. Then we have now checked it by looking at this chronology in Dan- in Revelation eleven, Referring to the final peace of the times of the Gentiles, three and a half years. And we traced it back to where it can comes from, Daniel chapter 9, and we found Daniel chapter nine was not about the desolations of the church, please.
But about the desolations of Jerusalem city. So they are talking about the same thing, uh, Daniel nine and Revelation eleven. But we could have another check, could we not, perhaps from the exposition. We notice in this vision given to John in Revelation eleven, we have in the city of Jerusalem this temple, and in those days, two special test- testifiers raised up by God, these two witnesses, they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees, two candlesticks, lampstands, standing before the Lord of the earth. That too is a way of talking that finds its first expression in the Old Testament. So let's high ourselves over to that Old Testament passage and, uh, see what we can make of it. It is, of course, the prophecy of Zechariah and chapter uh four. And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen and behold a lampstand all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon.
There are seven pipes to each of the lamps which are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof. And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbavel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And thus, and thus, and thus, verse nine, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, that is this temple. His hands also shall finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you.
Verse eleven. then answered I and said unto him, what are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered a second time and said unto him, what be these two olive branches which beside the two golden spouts empty the gold out of themselves. And he said, knowst thou not what these be? And I said, no, my lord. Then said he unto me, these are the two sons of oil that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. I trust you see immediately the similarity between the figures used and the language used here in Zechariah four and in the Revelation chapter eleven.
In the Revelation, a temple in the city, under pressure and attack from the beast, with these two witnesses that stand before the Lord of the whole earth, two olive trees, two lampstands. In Zechariah four, a visible lampstand and two olive trees, the sons of oil that stand before the Lord of the whole earth. And what's it all about? Well, the one in Zechariah was a message through the prophet to Zerubbabel. Uh, his name, incidentally, as you may be aware, is composed of two Hebrew words. The word Zerub, meaning returned from.
Babel, which is Babel in English, which is Hebrew for Babylon. Babel, Babel, and Babylon, of course, are one and the same thing. There is no difference. The Hebrew for Babylon is Babel. He was are saying it shall not be rebuilt. God shall have a testimony. While we're at Zechariah, let's keep there for a while. He wasn't like Isaiah, nor yet Jeremiah, nor yet Ezekiel, that lived in those days before the Jews were taken away to Babylon, or just after they had been taken away to Babylon. He wasn't even like the prophet Daniel who lived in Babylon all these days, or round about that part.
Zechariah was a prophet who ministered in Israel after the Jews had come back out of the nations into Palestine. Therefore, when he talks about the restoration of Israel to their land in the future, you can't possibly interpret him to mean the return from the exile, for he's already returned. When you hear Ezekiel or Jeremiah talking about the regathering of Israel, it is possible to argue, and some theologians do, that all they are talking about is the regathering of Israel out of Babylon and uh, uh, uh, Medo-Persia, back into their land under people like Haggai, uh, and Ezra and Nehemiah.
But when you hear of Zechariah talking about Jerusalem in the future, that can't refer to the return from the exile. They've already returned, they've been back some years. For that reason, he's a very interested prophet. What's he interested in? Let's turn to chapter one of Zechariah the prophet. Verse twelve: then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore years and ten. the seventy years of the exile down in Babylon, as Jeremiah had prophesied.
But Lord, says the prophet, we're back in the land, and you don't seem to have eased your hand, and Jerusalem is still a bit desolate. What are you going to do? So the Lord spoke comfortable words in him and said in verse fourteen, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. Verse sixteen, I am returned to Jerusalem, and my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Verse seventeen: and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem. So the temple was rebuilt in Zerubbabel days, and the city was restored in its measure in Zerubbabel's days.
Zechariah was interested in Jerusalem city, not the church. God hadn't had anger against the church for seventy years in the time of Zechariah. You understand that, don't you? He'd been angry against Jerusalem, and Jerusalem city had been desolate, and now they'd come back to rebuild it. But come now to the end of Zechariah, because there too he's interested in Jerusalem. Chapter twelve and verse one. Thus saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about, and upon Judah also shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day, notice that phrase, I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness. Do you see that this is now a prophecy of the far future given through Zechariah?
And in that day, Jerusalem is going to be a burdensome stone. All who try to trouble themselves therewith shall be sore wounded. Is that your picture of the church? All they who burden themselves with the church will be sore wounded? Hardly. Hope not. But Jerusalem city is going to be a burdensome stone, and what home? It tends to be that now, doesn't it? What? What's Zachariah's talking about? The nation's going to be gathered against Jerusalem.
Did you ever hear of a time when all the nations of the world were gathered against the church? I never did yet. It's been through various experiences, but not yet, as far as I know. They shall be gathered against Jerusalem, it shall be a burdensome stro- stone. Verse nine of that chapter twelve: and it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. What day? Well, chapter fourteen. A day of the Lord cometh when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee, for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.
And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Why not? For then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle, and his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east side, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof. Verse eleven: And this is the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem. Great day. When he comes in power and great glory, his feet will stand among Mount Olives, as with his majestic power he destroys those that have come against Jerusalem city.
How would you say Zachariah? Uh, does the revelation know anything about that? Well, of course it does. And for our final, uh, uh, uh, uh, observations, we shall turn now, uh, to the Revelation, and we will consider the subject of this great battle that Zechariah informs us shall be fought. You will find references to that great battle in the prophecy of the Revelation. Let us take the one, for instance, that occurs in the Revelation chapter fifteen, Verse twelve.
and the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sun rising. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs, for they are spirits of demons, working signs, which go forth unto the kings of the whole world to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watchteth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
So the great assembled host of the kings of all the earth, assembled with their contributions to the army there in that great plain, up there in Jezreel, ready for their swooping upon Jerusalem city. How are they brought thither? By demonic lies and deceptions. Oh, through what channels? Aye, through the beast and his false prophet, doing these lies and wonders and signs and marvels, and deceiving the nations. These spirits go forth to bring these nations together unto the war of the great day of God the Almighty, because behind their demonic intention lies the providential government of God, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they believe the lie.
Men's own s- schemes, suggested and promoted by Satan himself, will be used of God to deceive the nations and bring them to their judgment. The battle? Chapter seventeen verse fourteen mentions it. They shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. And its full description is given in verse fifteen onwards of chapter nineteen as our Lord comes out from heaven, the faithful and true rider on the white horse with the armies that are in heaven following him. A sharp sword from his mouth is to smite therewith the nation.
And I tread the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God, and I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice to the birds that fly in midheaven, come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free in bond and small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse and against his army, and the beast was taken. That was the end of his deception. I want to submit to you, John and Paul say the same thing as our Lord.
Of course they do. What would you expect them to do? But I mean that the revelation isn't some little peculiarity that Saint John the Divine got into his head when he was getting a little bit dopey because he was so old. And that therefore, if you come to say an exposition, you mustn't start with John because he'll lead you astray and he will narrow the great conceptions of the Apostle Paul. John says what Christ says, what Daniel says, what Zechariah says. We move to this colossal crisis, climax of our age.
I said final remarks, well, these are final remarks as well, for the tape recorder is persevering through this tribulation. Why shouldn't you scrap Israel? I mean, now that you've got the church, why must she be restored? Well, for sundry reasons, I give you two. Would you look please now at Ezekiel? And to his chapter thirty nine? Thou son of man, oh, verse thirty, chapter thirty nine verse 17, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord, speak unto the birds of every sort and to the beast of the field, assemble yourselves and come, gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat the flesh and drink the blood.
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, and of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan, and thus and thus. Verse twenty: you shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. Why so? I will set my glory among the nations, and the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward, and the nations shall know that Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against me and I hid my face from them.
So I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell, all of them by the sword, according to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I unto them, and I hid my face from them. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and be jealous for my holy name. And they shall bear their shame and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid, when I have brought them again from the peoples and gathered them out of the enemy's land and sanctified them in the sight of many nations. Reason, God will do it to convert Israel and to show them that he is the Lord, and they may know him from that day forward.
He shall do it for reason number two, that the nations have got to be s- taught something. The nations will have to be taught the reason why the, the Israelites, the Jews, were banished from their land. You say, why do the nations need to be taught that reason? Well, you want to find out, I beg you, take your New Testament, your Old Testament rather, and get you to the Kremlin and have a word, if you can, with those that sit therein. And say, kasigan, oh boy. You know, you've got a very funny idea of history.
You don't believe there's a God, do you? You're wrong, old boy, you're wrong. There is a God. Oh, and how do you know? Well, you see, Kasegan, old boy, God chose Israel, didn't he? And, uh, David, you know, fought Goliath. And, uh, God, uh, said that Israel were his special people. They were going to be the firstborn of the earth. And, uh...
He said that Messiah was going to come through David. And God told the Israelites that if they disobeyed him, they would be scattered in the nation. You'll see, so that proves it, doesn't it? There is a God, as he chose Israel. And Kosygin would say, have another glass of vodka too, my boy. Your intelligence needs to be strengthened. Do you know that's all silly old mythology? We've got beyond that. Well, in all those days, people had their gods, and the kings who sat on the throne, they imagined they were sons of gods.
You know, that's a lot of old people, wasn't it? Dope for the people. And it's tanks, not God, that decides it. Oh, says God, is that so? Is that really so? Well, now thank you very much, Kasekin and company. I shall have to teach you a lesson, and I shall have to teach you why Israel was scattered among the nations. For Christianity itself is not built on cunningly devised fables. It is... comes from Christ, who was as the seed of David according to the flesh, and it is in fulfillment of these Old Testament prophecies.
And if these Old Testament prophecies are nonsense, then Christ is a nonsense. It must therefore be proved that Israel was the people of God, and the reason why they were scattered among the nations was because God was chastised for their sin. When the time came, God will restore to prove that the whole thing was of God. And finally, uh, Israel will be restored. Let us read why in Romans chapter eleven, verse twenty nine.
uh And to put it in its context, we'll read verse one of that chapter. Did God cast off his ancient people, his people? God forbid. He's not cast them off. For even at this present time, says Paul, I am an Israelite. They haven't been cut off completely, have they? But there is a remnant of Israel, even now. But one day, all Israel shall be saved. Verse twenty nine: for the gifts that God gave to Israel, he will maintain.
And the callings with which he called them, he will fulfill. For God does not change his mind. What does it mean then, all Israel shall be saved? You needn't turn to it, but to help you see that that is a technical term, all Israel, I read you from one Kings chapter twelve. All Israel is the technical term for the nation as a whole. one Kings twelve one, Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel were come to make him king. All Israel, the whole nation as a whole.
But there is a remnant of the literal Israel at the present time, not very many people like Saul and Peter and John and Philip and Bartholomew and Andrew and others since, the Bernsteins and others of this world, who have found faith in Christ. They are a remnant, not of the spiritual Israel, certainly not, they are a remnant of the literal Israel. But God isn't going to be content with a remnant of the literal Israel. He's going to have the whole literal Israel. All Israel.
So when the fullness of the Gentiles is coming, I'm not saying every man Jack, but all Israel as intended. When all Israel came to make Rehoboam king, I don't suppose every man Jack was there, some had the flu. Multitudes of Israel will perish in God's judgments in the time of the tribulation, ungodly, apostate people. But when the Lord comes, he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, as Zechariah tells us, pour on them a spirit of mourning and supplication, open a fountain for sin and uncleanness. They shall say, we thought, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
This is our God, and we have waited for him. Israel as a whole shall be saved.
