Zechariah chapter number 14, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils 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.
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, etc.
We'll get into that, but in this passage we're changing gears in the book of Zechariah.
Now we're talking about that most important event known as the day of the Lord,
and this is something that the Bible talks about over and over again.
Many references to this in the New Testament and in the Old Testament,
but when we study the New Testament especially, we are talking about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For example, if you would flip over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we'll come right back to Zechariah 14.
But while you're turning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I will remind you of Acts chapter 2, for example,
where the Bible says,
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, in Acts chapter 2.
One thing that comes up over and over again with the day of the Lord is the sun and moon being darkened.
That's the one thing that comes up over and over again when you look at this,
whether you're in the Old Testament in passages like Isaiah 13 or Joel chapter 2,
or whether in the New Testament, Acts chapter 2, etc.
The sun and moon being darkened is the key event of the day of the Lord.
Now, if you would, look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 1.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you,
for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
Now, first of all, let me point out to you that at the very beginning of this chapter it says,
but of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
Now, that right there should tell us that he just finished talking about something else that relates to this.
So, the word but there is in contrast with something else.
That's a conjunction, right?
Now, we all know what the end of 1 Thessalonians 4 is about.
It's the famous passage about the rapture.
The trumpet's going to sound, Jesus Christ will come in the clouds,
we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with him, so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Look at the last words of the chapter, chapter 4 verse 18, wherefore comfort one another with these words.
He's comforting them about the fact that the dead in Christ shall rise first
and we will see our loved ones again at that event known as the rapture, okay, at the second coming of Christ.
But then in verse 1 of chapter 5 it says, but, but of the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no need that I write unto you.
So, he said in chapter 4 verse 13, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
And then he goes into explaining the resurrection of the dead at the rapture.
And then he says, but of the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Therefore, if we were to just read this as a logical person,
we can obviously tell that the day of the Lord and Christ coming in the clouds at the rapture are the same event.
Because he tells us all about the rapture and then he says,
but I don't need to tell you of the timing of the rapture
because you already know that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
If the day of the Lord were something different, that wouldn't make any sense at all.
Well, I don't need to tell you about the timing of the rapture
because you already know the timing of the day of the Lord.
Oh, by the way, those are two totally different things.
I mean, that wouldn't make any sense, would it?
It's because they are one and the same.
That's why when we look up the day of the Lord in scripture,
we constantly see references to the sun and moon being darkened.
And then when Jesus Christ describes a rapture in Matthew 24,
when he talks about the trumpet sounding and Christ coming in the clouds to gather the elect,
what does it say is going to happen first?
The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light.
Clearly, the day of the Lord and the rapture are both talking about the same day.
Now, why is that?
Well, the day of the Lord is a day of punishment for the unsaved.
This is the day of his great wrath.
And the Bible tells us in Luke 17 that the same day that Lot went out of Sodom and Gomorrah,
it rained fire from heaven and so shall it be also in the day of the coming of the Son of Man.
So, when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and the rapture takes place,
the same day God's going to rain fire and brimstone from the sky.
And I know that that's not what the Kirk Cameron movie told you,
but that's what the Bible actually teaches, okay?
That it's going to be a day of destruction.
And it's not going to be people disappearing,
but rather we're going to be caught up together in the clouds
and every eye shall see Christ in the clouds when he comes and so on and so forth.
So, we see here that the day of the Lord is a day where they say,
look at verse number three of chapter five there,
peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them
as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.
So, the Bible is saying we're going to be around when that day comes,
but it's not going to catch us by surprise.
It's not going to overtake us as a thief.
And people will often quote this about how, you know,
the rapture is coming as a thief in the night.
There's even a whole movie about it called a thief in the night.
But what they fail to mention is that if you're saved,
it's not coming as a thief in the night because you can see it coming
because you see the signs leading up to it that Matthew 24 explains.
So, here he says, sudden destruction cometh upon them,
not sudden destruction on us because, of course,
we are going to be raptured at this time.
But this is after the tribulation.
But before God pours out his wrath, that's what the Bible teaches.
And I don't have time to preach a whole sermon about the rapture and the tribulation.
I'm just trying to help us get our bearings of where we are in the book of Zechariah here
when we talk about the day of the Lord.
Now, this is kind of a heavy sermon tonight because this is kind of a heavy chapter.
So, we got to go into all this information.
Now, it says in chapter 14 of Zechariah, verse number 1, if you want to get back there,
behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
And 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,
then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations,
as when he fought in the day of battle.
Now, what I want to point out here is that the Bible is teaching in Zechariah 14
that leading up to the day of the Lord, that Jerusalem will be taken.
It says that all nations will be gathered against Jerusalem,
Jerusalem shall be taken, and it says the houses are going to be rifled,
and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity.
So, Jerusalem is going to be conquered, okay?
Does everybody see that in the passage here?
And it's going to be a terrible judgment upon Jerusalem.
I mean, when you see people being killed, and half of the city is taken captive,
meaning that they're removed from the city, they're imprisoned,
they're put in a camp or whatever,
and when it talks about how the women are going to be ravished,
I mean, this is a horrible thing to happen to a city, right?
Then it says in verse 3,
Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations,
as when he fought in the day of battle.
Now, what some people will do to twist this passage,
because of their Zionist, pro-Israel view, which is not a scriptural view,
the Bible teaches that we as Christians are God's chosen people,
not the Christ-rejecting Jews, okay?
But what they'll try to do is they'll try to spin this to make their political case,
and say, well, poor Jerusalem, poor Israel,
is this victim that all the nations are going to come against it.
We've got to stand with Israel. We've got to defend Israel.
You know, and then, man, after this bad thing happens to Israel,
God's going to punish all those nations that had the audacity to go against Israel.
Except they're forgetting this one thing.
Look at the beginning of verse 2.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem.
So the part that's kind of going over their head here
is the fact that God is the one who's punishing Jerusalem.
He's the one who's behind the attack.
Now, it's just stop and let that sink in for a minute.
That's what the Bible actually says here.
And they'll turn to these type of passages,
but they'll fail to point out that it's God punishing the Jews.
This is God's punishment on Christ-rejecting Israel.
This may happen in our lifetime,
because the second coming of Christ may happen in our lifetime,
and this is something that occurs shortly before Christ comes in the clouds for the rapture.
Now, let's see this taught in the New Testament.
Let's go to Luke chapter 21.
Luke chapter number 21.
We have to understand that when we're studying Bible prophecy,
especially about the end times,
especially about the second coming of Christ,
our primary source for material should be the New Testament,
because the New Testament is more clear,
and we should always interpret the Old Testament through that lens of the New Testament,
where we can see more clearly,
because Jesus explains things more clearly,
and the book of Revelation explains things more clearly,
than they understood it back in the Old Testament,
because they were, you know, thousands of years back,
and they saw through a glass darkly.
Now, look at Luke chapter 21,
and just let me remind you that Luke 21 is a parallel passage with Matthew 24 and Mark 13.
Okay, it goes through the same events, the same sequence,
but it has different details that are not found in Matthew 24,
but it's about the same period of the tribulation.
Now, look what it says in verse 20 of chapter 21.
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,
then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which are in Judea flee the mountains,
and let them which are in the midst of it depart out,
and let not them that are in the countries enter there into,
for these be the days of vengeance,
that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
But woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that give suck in those days,
for they should be great distress in the land.
What's that in the land referring to?
In the land of Israel, in the land,
and wrath upon this people,
talking about the people of Israel.
Now, here's one thing that you notice,
when you're reading the Olivet Discourse,
as this passage is known,
Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21,
he'll say over and over again,
you, ye, you, your, second person, plural, pronoun.
So he'll say, for example, you know,
then shall they deliver you up
to be afflicted and shall kill you.
Talking about Christians being persecuted,
he's talking to Christians, you know,
you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
Or he says a little later in this exact chapter,
when you see all these things begin to confess,
then look up and lift up your heads
for your redemption draweth nigh.
But notice when he talks about Israel,
he doesn't use that you, your, what's he say?
He says them, it's gonna be wrath in the land
and upon this people, them which are in Judea.
Notice it's not the you anymore, it's them.
And yet people will say, oh, this is just,
this chapter's only talking to the Jews.
Well, if he's talking to the Jews,
then how come when he talks about
the people in Israel at that time, he switches to a them.
It's gonna be upon this people, okay?
And they, he doesn't say you,
he says, and they, verse 24,
shall fall by the edge of the sword
and shall be led away captive into all nations.
Does that sound familiar from Zechariah 14?
And Jerusalem shall be trodden down to the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And there shall be signs in the sun
and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth,
distress of nations with perplexity,
the sea in waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear
and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth.
For the powers of heaven shall be shaken
and then shall they see,
does he say, you shall see?
No, because every eye shall see him.
So that's why he uses they there
because they're gonna see him also.
And then shall they see the son of man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory
and when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up and lift up your heads
for your redemption draweth nigh,
speaking to the believer, the reader
or the listener of this preaching.
So what is the timeline in this passage?
We see Jerusalem compassed about with armies.
We see Jerusalem made desolate.
We see the people carried captive into all nations.
Then we see the signs in the sun and moon and stars.
And then we lift up our heads
and our redemption draweth nigh.
Everybody got it?
Which is known as the day of the Lord,
which is known as the rapture in our common vernacular.
Now let's get a little more info here.
Let's go to Revelation chapter 11.
Revelation chapter number 11.
In Revelation chapter number 11, it says in verse one,
and there was given me a reed like unto a rod
and the angel stood saying,
rise and measure the temple of God
and the altar and them that worship therein.
But the court which is without the temple
leave out and measure it not
for it is given unto the Gentiles
and the holy city shall they tread underfoot
40 and two months.
And I will give power unto my two witnesses
and they shall prophesy 1,203 score days
clothed in sackcloth.
Now 1,203 score days, 42 months,
three and a half years, right?
These are all the same measurement of time.
Now the Bible talks about the city being trodden
underfoot of the Gentiles for 40 and two months.
It uses the same language in Luke chapter 21, verse 24,
when it says Jerusalem shall be trodden down
of the Gentiles until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Now, if we study Revelation chapter 11,
the two witnesses, the whole thing,
it's crystal clear that the two witnesses
are prophesying in the second half,
the latter half of Daniel's 70th week.
And this event that happens at the midpoint
of that seven year period
is known as the abomination of desolation,
where Jerusalem's going to be laid desolate at that time.
So what are we saying here?
At the midpoint of the seven year end times period
known as Daniel's 70th week,
at that midpoint is when Jerusalem is attacked
and made desolate and trodden down of the Gentiles, right?
Then after that takes place
is when we have the sun and moon darkened,
and it's actually a few months later
when we have the sun and moon darkened,
and when Christ comes in the clouds at the rapture,
and so on and so forth.
So we wanna make sure we get that timeline of events.
And of course, I created that Daniel's 70th week chart
to help show this in a graphic form,
which is on our website.
Also, we have the Revelation series DVDs back there,
because you can't fit it all into one sermon, folks.
It's a lot of information about the end times.
That's why there's a 22 hour DVD back there
about Revelation.
But anyway, I'm just trying to get you to understand
this one part here,
that at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week
is going to be this event,
the abomination of desolation,
and this is the time when Jerusalem will be destroyed.
It's known as the days of vengeance,
when all the things that have been written are fulfilled,
where Jerusalem basically gets the punishment
that they deserve.
See, the existing city of Jerusalem right now
is a very wicked place.
It's not a godly place.
It's not a place of fearing the Lord
and praying to the Lord.
No, it's a place of rejecting Jesus Christ.
It's a place that is populated by Jews
who blaspheme and reject and hate the Lord Jesus Christ,
and also populated by Muslims,
which deny that he's the son of God,
and also teach blasphemous doctrine
by their false prophet, Mohammed.
It's not a place of Bible-believing Christianity.
It's also a place of great sinfulness.
Israel is one of the most sinful countries in the world,
as far as just sodomy and filth
and all of the just promiscuity and wickedness
that goes on.
So God is going to punish that city of Jerusalem
at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week.
That is their time of vengeance.
That is when they will be punished,
and that is going to happen before the rapture.
That is gonna happen before the day of the Lord comes.
Now let's go back to Zechariah 14
with that basic timeline in mind,
understanding the timeline of events here.
Now let's read this and actually get
what it's teaching here.
In verse two of chapter 14, it says,
for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.
Now why would God gather all nations
against Jerusalem to battle
if supposedly, according to the Zionists today,
Israel is still to this day the apple of his eye,
and those are his chosen people,
and he's gonna defend them.
And supposedly, they have all these stories
about all these miracles where,
oh, the Arabs came and attacked,
and it was just a miracle
that we just defeated them all with God's help.
Why would God help you?
You hate Jesus.
You reject the Lord.
You have a false religion.
But they think, oh, God's on our side, God's with us.
And even today, the American people think
that we have to support Israel to have God with us.
No, you need to support Jesus if you want God with you.
But God is not with Israel.
God is against Israel.
And in fact, God is just treasuring up wrath
against the day of wrath,
and he's going to bring punishment,
a special punishment upon Jerusalem
that even happens before,
that even happens before he comes
and pours out his wrath upon the whole earth.
He actually brings a special punishment upon Jerusalem,
not a supernatural punishment,
but rather, he gathers all nations against Jerusalem,
and he brings them into attack,
which he did throughout Israel's history anyway,
many times.
So he brings them into attack.
He says, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle, verse two there,
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.
Now, does it say half are gonna go into captivity,
and the other half are gonna get saved?
No, it's just that half the people are taken captive,
and the other half stay there, all right?
So let's keep reading.
It says, then shall the Lord go forth
and fight against those nations
as in when he fought in the day of battle.
Now, some people would look at this and say,
well, that doesn't really make sense.
Why would he bring the nations against Israel
and then turn around and punish the nations
for what they just did?
Well, here's why, because this is what God has done
throughout history in the Bible.
There are many examples of this,
where, for example, God brought the Babylonians
to punish the children of Judah,
and then as soon as he was done punishing them,
then he turned around and punished the Babylonians.
Why?
Because he's punishing the whole earth.
He starts out by punishing Jerusalem,
and then he turns around and punishes
all the other nations that attacked Jerusalem,
and he pours out his wrath upon the whole world.
So it actually makes perfect sense
that he then, in verse three,
goes forth and fights against those nations
as when he fought in the day of battle.
Why?
Because those are not righteous nations either.
They are also ungodly nations.
Now, how does he go forth and fight against those nations?
Well, he pours out his wrath
in the form of the trumpet
and vile judgments of revelation.
And if you think about a trumpet,
it often signifies going to battle.
It's like God declaring war upon these wicked nations
when he sounds those seven trumpets
and pours out his wrath.
So that's what we see happening in verse three.
Then in verse four it says,
and his feet shall stand in that day
upon the Mount of Olives,
which is before Jerusalem on the east,
and the Mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof toward the east
and toward the west,
and there shall be a very great valley,
and half of the mountains shall remove toward the north
and half of it toward the south,
and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains,
for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel,
yea, ye shall flee like as ye fled
from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah,
king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come,
and all the saints with thee.
So here he talks about Christ
returning to the Mount of Olives,
which makes perfect sense
because if you remember when Jesus Christ
ascended up to heaven,
he ascended on the Mount of Olives,
and all the disciples are looking up
and they see him go up into a cloud.
And they say, ye men of Galilee,
why ye stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.
So he actually comes in the exact same way
in the sense that he even comes geographically
at that point of the Mount of Olives.
That's where he actually comes down.
And it says here that the mountain is going to cleave,
there's gonna be a great earthquake,
and the mountain's gonna split.
And it talks about people fleeing to the mountains
and so forth.
And of course the ye here is a different ye
because of the fact that we're not reading
Luke chapter 21, we're reading the book of Zechariah,
which is written to the children of Judah
in the Old Testament.
And it says at the end of verse five here,
and the Lord my God shall come
and all the saints with thee.
Now there are so many proofs of the fact
that Jesus Christ is God in the book of Zechariah,
a lot of proofs of Christ's deity.
Because for example, it talked about the Lord,
all capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D,
the Lord being sold for 30 pieces of silver, for example.
It talks about here, the Lord coming back.
The Lord is gonna come.
And who is it that actually will come?
It's Jesus that comes in the clouds.
It's Jesus that went up at the Mount of Olives.
But notice it says here that it's the Lord
that shall go forth in verse three,
and his feet are gonna stand on the Mount of Olives.
So how could you read this passage
and come to any other conclusion
but that Jesus and Jehovah are one and the same?
Because it's saying here Jehovah, Jehovah,
that capital L-O-R-D,
and it's all stuff that Jesus is gonna do,
according to the New Testament.
So this is a great proof that Jesus Christ is God,
that he is the Lord and that he was a deity.
Now it says here,
the Lord shall come and all the saints with thee.
Now there are many passages
that talk about this in the New Testament.
For example, in 1 Thessalonians 3, 13,
it says, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all his saints.
Also in the book of Jude, it says,
behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints
to execute judgment upon all
and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of all their ungodly deeds
and of all their hard speeches
which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
So it talks about Christ coming in the clouds
with 10,000 of saints to bring judgment upon the earth.
Now, some people have said it this way.
They said, well, you know,
at the rapture he comes for his own
and at the, you know, Revelation 19,
what they call the second coming, which is false,
because the second coming is the rapture
because the Bible calls the rapture
in 1 Thessalonians 4, the coming of the Lord.
So unless that's coming 1.5,
you know, that is the second coming.
I mean, if you can just count, right?
He came in Bethlehem, that's one.
1 Thessalonians 4, the coming of the Lord,
that'd be the second coming.
Revelation 19 is not the second coming.
Revelation 19 is Armageddon,
which takes place a few years
after the second coming of Christ at the rapture.
But they'll say, well, he comes with his own
at the rapture and he comes,
I'm sorry, he comes for his own at the rapture
and with his own at Armageddon.
Who's ever heard that before?
Yeah, but here's the thing about that.
It's false, because he comes with his own at the rapture.
Because the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4,
the key rapture passage,
they which are asleep in Jesus
shall God bring with him, okay?
So when Jesus Christ comes in the cloud,
he will bring with him those who are asleep in Jesus.
And you say, well, wait a minute,
I thought the dead in Christ shall rise first.
It's both.
Why?
Because the souls are in heaven
and the bodies are asleep in the dust of the earth.
And so that's why in the same passage,
1 Thessalonians 4, it says,
they which are asleep in Jesus shall God bring with him.
But then it also says the dead in Christ
shall rise first, why?
Because it's only the bodies that are rising.
The souls are being brought with him, okay?
So that's what takes place at the rapture.
So it talks about the fact that the Lord my God
shall come and all the saints with thee.
So let's just review the first five verses here.
What's the order of events here?
We have all nations being gathered against Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is destroyed.
The women are ravished.
The people are taken captive.
It's judgment and wrath upon the land.
Then the Lord is gonna go forth
to fight against those nations.
He comes, he sets his feet on the Mount of Olives.
It splits in half, okay?
It says the Lord my God shall come
and all the saints with thee.
Let's look at verse six.
And it shall come to pass in that day
that the light shall not be clear nor dark,
but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord,
not day nor night, but it should come to pass
that at evening time it shall be light.
And it shall be in that day
that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem,
half of them toward the former sea
and half of them toward the hinders sea.
In summer and in winter shall it be.
And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.
In that day shall there be one Lord and his name one.
Okay, so then after God punishes
and pours out his wrath on this earth,
then at that time there's going to be
the millennial reign of Christ
where Jesus Christ rules and reigns on this earth.
Now the reason everything seems to be happening
in rapid succession in this passage
is that this passage is giving zero detail.
So it's just jumping from one event to another.
Jerusalem's destroyed, God goes forth
to fight against the nations,
comes in the clouds, boom, now we're at the money.
I mean, it's just cause he's not giving any detail.
So don't make this your main passage.
Let revelation be your main passage
where lots of detail is given.
Matthew 24, lots more detail,
long passages that teach this and flesh this out.
But if we look at what's being stated in this passage,
it's all in the same order
that Jesus taught and the revelation taught.
He's just not given any details
so it's happening in rapid succession
where it goes destruction of Jerusalem,
Christ comes in the clouds, the wrath is poured out,
and then we have the millennial reign of Christ.
So let's talk about this millennial reign
of Jesus Christ.
It says in verse number nine,
the Lord shall be king over all the earth
and in that day shall there be one Lord
and his name one.
Now we need to be careful
that we don't get too carried away
with all the in that days
where it says in that day this and that day that.
We don't want you to think that this all happens,
everything's happening in one day
because we know that this is not all happening in one day
because in Revelation it's clear about periods of time,
for example, between Jerusalem being laid desolate
and Christ ruling and reigning,
we know that the Bible says
it'll be trodden underfoot 42 months.
Okay, we don't see that in this passage.
This passage does not give that timeline
because it's giving very little detail.
So when he says in that day,
these aren't all the same that days, okay?
First of all, number one, in that day,
often just means in that period of time.
Like for example, if I said, you know, in my day,
we didn't have urinals in the women's restroom
like they have at ASU now, back in my day.
Now I'm not really referring to a single day, am I?
I'm just saying, you know, back in that time.
Also the in that day is often referring
to what he just talked about,
what he just referred to, he'll refer to some stuff
and then say in that day, okay?
But it's not all the same day, just so you know,
because he used that term in that day, in that day,
in that day, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14,
this is all way too much to happen in one day, okay?
It's referring to at that time, it's a figure of speech.
But the Bible says in verse nine,
and in that, and the Lord shall be King
over all the earth in that day,
meaning in that time period
when Jesus is King over all the earth,
which is gonna be more than one day long,
it's gonna be a thousand years long,
it says that in that day,
there shall be one Lord and his name one.
Now let's talk about this period of the millennium.
If we back up a little bit into verse number eight,
it says it shall be in that day
that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem,
half of them toward the former sea
and half of them toward the hinders sea
in summer and in winter shall be.
Now let's get some more details on this
from Ezekiel chapter 47, flip over to Ezekiel chapter 47.
So the Bible's talking about Jesus Christ
ruling and reigning, being King over the whole earth,
and it says that at that time,
there are gonna be these living waters
going forth from Jerusalem, flowing from Jerusalem.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 47,
this passage has always stood out to me my entire life
because I'm from Sacramento, California.
And in Sacramento, there's a great river
going through Sacramento,
that's why the city is built there.
And there's this water district building
that's right next to the river
and I've seen this building my entire life
and it actually has a Bible verse on the side
or part of a Bible verse on the side of the building.
And it says, everything shall live
whither the river cometh.
You know, because it's a great river there
that Sacramento is based on.
Everything shall live whether the river cometh.
And then it has the reference, it says,
Ezekiel 47, verse number nine.
So let's go ahead and read that passage.
Let's start actually in verse number six.
And he said unto me, son of man hast thou seen this?
Then he brought me and caused me
to return to the brink of the river.
Now when I had returned behold at the bank of the river
were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
Then said he unto me,
these waters issue out toward the east country
and go down into the desert and go into the sea,
which being brought forth into the sea,
the waters shall be healed.
And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth
which moveth whithersoever the rivers shall come
shall live.
And there shall be a very great multitude of fish
because these waters shall come thither
for they shall be healed and everything shall live.
Here's the quote from the building in Sacramento.
Everything shall live whether the river cometh.
Jump down if you would to verse number 12
and by the river upon the bank thereof on this side
and on that side shall grow all trees for meat
whose leaf shall not fade
neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.
It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months
because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary
and the fruit thereof shall be for meat
and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Okay, so basically in this scripture
we see that there's this great river
that's flowing out of the temple.
Now look at verse number one of chapter 47.
Afterward he brought me unto the door of the house
and the house is this great temple
that he's been describing for several chapters now.
Afterward he brought me again under the door of the house
and behold waters issued out from under the threshold
of the house eastward
for the forefront stood toward the east
and the waters came down
from under the right side of the house
at the south side of the altar.
Now this is kind of similar
to a scripture in Revelation 22
where it talks about the river of life
and the trees growing by the side of the river
and they bring forth their fruit every month
and the leaves of the trees
are for the healing of the nations.
But that is actually talking about
during the new heaven and the new earth
where there's gonna be a river of life.
But in the new heaven and the new earth
there is no temple
because God and the lamb are the temple of it, okay?
And basically the Bible says in Revelation 22
that that river of life
is actually gonna flow out from God's throne
because he is the temple
in the new heaven and the new earth.
There's not a physical temple.
But during the millennium
there is a building of a temple.
And during the millennium
there's gonna be a similar phenomenon
where there's going to be this river of life
that flows out of the temple
that brings healing everywhere it goes,
these streams of water.
Now think about how
when God pours out his wrath on this earth
the earth is gonna be so destroyed and polluted
and messed up
from all of the fire and brimstone
and water into blood.
And remember how a third of the fish in the sea
are all dying and all these animals are dead,
plants are dead.
So God is going to bring miraculous healing
during the millennium through this river
that's gonna flow out from Jerusalem,
flow out from the temple of God
and bring life into the oceans
and bring life back into this earth,
this river of life.
Now there's a symbol of this also
in John chapter seven.
Look over at John chapter seven in the New Testament.
John chapter number seven.
Look what the Bible says
in verse 37 of John chapter seven.
In the last day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried saying,
if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me as the scripture has said,
watch this, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water.
Now think about what the Bible says about us.
We're the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in us.
We're not our own, we've been bought with a price.
We are the temple of the Holy Ghost, the Bible says.
So just as in the millennium,
the temple is gonna have this life-giving river
flowing out of it.
And just as in the new heaven and the new earth,
the throne of God will have that life-giving river
flowing out of it, the water of life.
The Bible says that we as Christians spiritually,
not literally, have this river of life flowing out of it.
Did you ever sing that song in Sunday school?
I've got a river of life flowing out of me.
Put up your hand if you've ever sung that song.
Yeah, hands all over the building.
So, you know, I've got a river of life
flowing out of me.
That song is based on this,
because the Bible says that whosoever believeth on Christ.
And I just love whenever the Bible says
whosoever believeth,
because that's what salvation is.
It says out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Then he explains in the next verse,
it says this spake he of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost, the Bible says,
is that river of life that's coming out of us.
So what does that mean?
We basically have the power,
we have the ability to bring life to that which is dead,
spiritually speaking.
So the one who is not saved,
they're dead and they're trespassed and in sins,
they can be quickened through the power of the Holy Ghost,
through that river of life spiritually
that comes out of us.
When we preach to them the gospel
and the word of God is on our lips
and we preach to them the plan of salvation,
we can actually bring to life the dead,
we can raise the dead literally,
not physically, but spiritually,
literally raising the dead
and bringing life to that which is dead.
And that's the symbol here of this river,
but it's also, of course, a literal river
when we're talking about the millennium,
when we're talking about when Christ
is reigning over the whole earth.
So that's what the Bible's referring to.
Let's go back to Zechariah 14.
So it says in Zechariah 14
that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem
and the Lord's gonna be king over all the earth.
So after he destroys and punishes,
then he comes and sets up his kingdom
and that living water brings life
and healing to the land itself.
But the Bible says in verse number 10,
all the land shall be turned as a plain
from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem,
it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place,
from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate,
unto the corner gate and from the tower of Hananiel
unto the king's wine presses.
These are places geographically
that meant more to them back then
than they mean to us today.
We don't really know these places right now.
And men shall dwell in it
and there shall be no more utter destruction
but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
Because right before this there was what?
Utter destruction.
You know, the trumpets and the vials
of God's wrath being poured up.
And this shall be the plague
wherewith the Lord will smite the people
that have fought against Jerusalem.
Their flesh shall consume away
while they stand upon their feet
and their eyes shall consume away in their holes
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
And it shall come to pass in that day
that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them
and they shall lay hold everyone
on the hand of his neighbor
and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor
and Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem
and the wealth of all the heathen round about
shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel
and great abundance and so shall be the plague
of the horse, of the mule, of the camel
and of the ass and of all the beasts
that shall be in these tents as this plague.
That's referring of course to Armageddon, right?
At the beginning of this millennial period,
right before Jesus Christ is ruling over
a totally peaceful earth, there is that final struggle
at Armageddon, the Revelation 19 event
that was referred to earlier.
Am I on verse 16?
And it shall come to pass that everyone
that is left of all the nations
which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year to year
to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts
and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
And it shall be that whoso will not come up
of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem
to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts,
even upon them shall be no rain.
And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not
that have no rain, there shall be the plague
wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen
that come not up to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, what the Bible is teaching here
is that during the millennium, the Feast of Tabernacles
is a holiday that will be celebrated
during the millennial period and that all the nations
will come up and worship the King, worship Jesus Christ
at this Feast of Tabernacles once a year
and if they don't come, they'll be punished and plagued.
Now he says it won't be, it will cause,
he'll cause it not to rain in those places
as a punishment or if it's a place
where it never rains anyway like Egypt
where they aren't expecting a lot of rain,
then he'll send a different plague, the Bible says.
But that's what that's referring to.
Now you say, well, what in the Feast of Tabernacles?
Why the Feast of Tabernacles?
Now, if you think about the feast and holidays
of the Old Testament, the Feast of Tabernacles
is not really the big one that you think of, is it?
What would be kind of the big ones that you think of?
The big holidays, what?
The Passover, right?
That's the big one.
What's another big one that you think of?
Day of Atonement probably, right?
Yom Kippur, you think, okay, the Day of Atonement's
a big one and the Passover's a big one.
You know, the Feast of Tabernacles is one
that a lot of times in the children of Israel's history,
they didn't even celebrate.
I mean, kings had to bring this back centuries later
and say, well, we haven't done this in centuries,
but the Bible says we're supposed to be doing it.
So then they would start doing it.
So it's one of the more obscure
of the Old Testament holidays and feast days
that you wouldn't really think that much about.
So it's kind of odd, isn't it,
that he's not talking about, hey,
they all have to come and celebrate the Passover.
Hey, everybody needs to come and do the Day of Atonement.
No, no, it's only one thing that's mentioned,
just the Feast of Tabernacles.
Isn't that kind of odd?
Well, let me explain to you why,
because the Bible talks about the Feasts of the Lord
and they were divided, if we study Leviticus 23,
they're divided basically into the spring feasts
and the fall feasts.
And the spring feasts consist of, of course,
the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the Feast of the First Fruits, Pentecost,
that is your spring lineup of feasts.
Well, here's the thing.
Christ fulfilled those at his first coming.
He was the Passover lamb.
He was the bread of life.
He was the first fruits of the resurrection.
And of course, the Day of Pentecost
was the fulfillment of that feast of weeks
known as Pentecost.
That was a shadow of things to come
of that Day of Pentecost.
But when Jesus Christ spoke in parables
about his second coming, he said
the harvest represents the end of the world.
OK, so if we think about the fall feast or the harvest
feast, he talked about them being fulfilled basically
at the end of the world.
So his first coming, he fulfilled the spring feast.
At his second coming, he fulfills the fall feast.
Well, if you look at the fall feast,
you have the Feast of Trumpets, which
is the first day of the seventh month.
And then you have the Day of Atonement,
which is also the sounding of a trumpet
in the year of the Jubilee every 50 years.
That's on the 10th day of the seventh month.
Then five days later, you have, of course,
the Feast of Tabernacles later in the month
of the seventh month.
I always want to say July, but it's not July, of course.
It's in the fall.
It's a few months later than that.
So seventh month, you have the Tabernacles.
Now think about it, at the second coming of Christ,
and I've taught this in the Revelation series
and in many other sermons, but that sounding
of the trumpets at the exact midpoint of the year
is symbolic of when the Antichrist basically
declares war on the saints at the exact midpoint
of Daniel's 70th week.
And then the seventh day, or the 10th day
of the seventh month, we have the Day of Atonement
and the sounding of the Jubilee trumpet
proclaiming liberty.
That's a picture of the rapture when the trumpet sounds
and the glorious liberty of the children of God,
as Romans 8 describes that Resurrection Day
at the rapture.
So in the end times, we can clearly
see a fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets
and of the trumpet of the Jubilee
on the Day of Atonement at Christ's second coming.
But what about that other feast?
What about the Feast of Tabernacles?
That's kind of the one that's left, isn't it?
That's the one where you're, okay,
well, what does that represent?
Well, I think that it's clear from this passage
that the Feast of Tabernacles represents the millennium.
And that's why during the millennium,
that final feast will be celebrated.
That'll be the final phase of the second coming of Christ
where they celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Because of the fact it makes perfect sense
because it's Jesus Christ dwelling among us.
And for example, in the new heaven and the new earth,
the phrase is given, the tabernacle of God is with men
and he shall dwell among us.
So that Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes
Jesus Christ coming to this earth
at the end of the world and dwelling among us
and being on this earth physically once again
as he was at his first coming.
So that is what the Feast of Tabernacles represents.
So there's going to be a celebration
of the Feast of Tabernacles once a year
during the millennial reign of Christ
during those thousand years.
Now let's keep reading here.
It says in verse number 20,
in that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses
holiness unto the Lord.
And the pots in the Lord's house
shall be like the bowls before the altar.
Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah
shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts.
And all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them
and see therein.
And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite
in the house of the Lord of hosts.
Now there are some false doctrines
that people take from this verse 21.
So I need to just stop for a moment
and really explain verse 21 here
so that we don't get carried away with false doctrine.
Now keep in mind, we're reading the Old Testament, OK?
The New Testament is much clearer.
And we need to let the New Testament explain
the Old Testament to us and not just get carried away
with our own interpretations of the Old Testament
and just ignore everything that the New Testament teaches.
Now here's the thing.
Right away when we look at this passage,
the thing that should jump out at us in that last verse,
verse 21, is where it says, there
shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord
of hosts.
Now does that really just, right away,
does that sound like the teaching of the New Testament?
Like that a certain nationality
would be excluded from God's house?
I mean, is that what the New Testament teaches?
No, in fact, there are plenty of scriptures
that clearly teach that God's house in the New Testament
is a house of prayer for all nations.
And that would include the Canaanite.
Of course, there aren't any Canaanites left, are there?
I mean, who here tonight's a Canaanite?
There's no such thing as a Canaanite anymore.
That's a nationality that no one identifies with any
longer.
But yet some people would twist this passage and say, yeah,
you know, whoever the Canaanite is, a bunch of brown people
or whatever, you know, not going
to be in the house of God, you know, whoever that is.
And some people will say, oh, the Canaanite
is the Palestinians, or it's black people, or it's Arabs,
or whatever.
But hold on a second.
Is that what the New Testament teaches?
Or are there not scripture upon scripture
upon scripture that teach that in Christ
there is no Jew or Gentile?
There's no Scythian.
There's no barbarian.
There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
It's a house of prayer for all nations.
He's made all kindreds of the earth of one blood.
This isn't about excluding a physical nationality.
Get real, people.
But what does the New Testament teach?
It teaches that sometimes people are spiritually
given a certain nationality.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 16.
Even in the Old Testament, God would do this.
In the Old Testament, God would do things like this.
Look what it says in Ezekiel chapter 16, verse number 1.
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying,
son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination.
So who is he talking to?
Jerusalem.
Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
And say, thus saith the Lord God in Jerusalem,
thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan.
Thy father was an Amorite, and your mama was a Hittite.
No, I'm just kidding.
He said, thy father was an Ammonite,
and thy mother an Hittite.
What's he saying here?
He's saying, look, you that live in Jerusalem, the Jews,
he's saying, you know, I look at you,
and I say, your father's a Hittite,
and your mother's an Amorite.
He's not talking about their physical nationality, is he?
No, no, he's saying, look, even the Jews,
when they're being wicked, are spiritually
a Canaanite at that time.
He's saying, look, if you're wicked,
I'm going to call you an Amorite and a Hittite.
It's like where he says of Jerusalem in Revelation chapter
11 that the city is spiritually
called Sodom in Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
In Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10, he
says to the elders of Jerusalem,
he says, you elders of Sodom?
Why?
Because he says, look, in Romans 2,
he's not a Jew which is one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
but he's a Jew which is one inwardly.
And circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit,
not in the letter, whose praise is not
a member of God.
When he says here in this prophetic passage,
Zechariah 14, verse 21, there
shall be no more the Canaanite in the house
of the Lord of hosts.
He's not saying we're going to exclude
a particular nationality.
He's not saying no Arabs, no blacks, no whatever.
No, you know what he's saying?
He's saying no one who is spiritually a Canaanite.
Because look, he can't be referring to a literal
Canaanite.
There aren't any.
There's not a person on this planet who's a Canaanite.
It's not even a thing anymore, OK?
But are there spiritual Canaanites?
Well, what were the Canaanites like?
You know, the Canaanites are worshipping false gods.
The Canaanites were completely perverted.
And it lists all their perversions.
In Leviticus chapter 18 and Leviticus 20,
it says all these things did these Canaanites
do before you.
All these things did the people of the land do.
All these horrible abominations.
So when he says there's going to be no more the Canaanite,
it's not about race.
It's about a type of person that's a spiritual Canaan,
just as we who believe in Christ are a spiritual Israel,
spiritually Jews on the inside.
We are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
So I just want to point that out right away.
Now those of us who actually believe what the New Testament
teaches about Israel, about the fact
that election is by grace, not election by race,
those of us who actually believe that, that all of us
are equal, red and yellow, black and white,
and that the Jew is not somehow better
than the Gentile, those of us who believe that teaching,
this is what they'll say, oh, you're a replacement theology guy.
Yeah, right, exactly.
Now you're getting it.
I'm glad you're starting to understand the Bible.
You're starting to understand what the Bible teaches.
The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, Israel,
physical Israel, according to the flesh,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
Sounds like you've been replaced.
Physical Israel has been replaced by a spiritual nation
made up of all believers.
That's replacement.
They've been replaced.
And they'll say, oh, well, you know,
those who believe in replacement theology,
they tend to spiritualize things.
Yeah, we do.
You tend to carnalize things.
I'd rather be a little too spiritual than too carnal
in the way I read my Bible.
I mean, they tend to spiritualize things.
Yeah, I'm gonna spiritualize the Canaanite
because I really don't think that the whole course
of human history and the tribulation and the rapture
and God pouring out his wrath
and the whole millennial period
is just so we can get those darn Canaanites
out of the temple.
Dang, Canaanites, get them out.
No, no, because guess what?
That doesn't make any sense
unless you take a spiritual view.
Now, I take the Bible literally, you know,
when it's literal, but sometimes the Bible's not literal.
The Bible's usually literal,
but there are times when it's clearly symbolic.
Like, for example, when Jesus said, you know,
whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst.
Is he saying that you're never gonna be thirsty
for physical water?
No, spiritualize that, okay?
So you gotta use your brain a little bit here.
And I believe that a good rule of thumb
when you're studying the Bible
is that it should be literal
unless it's clearly not literal
because we should assume things are literal
unless it's just obvious that it's not literal,
unless common sense would just clearly show us,
okay, if a woman's standing on the sun
with the moon under her feet, you know,
that's not literal.
Woman clothed in the sun, moon under her feet,
yeah, that's not literal.
But that doesn't really,
you probably didn't need me to tell you that, did you?
The first time you read that,
you probably instantly knew that that was symbolic, okay?
So it's the same thing here.
Clearly, what we're talking about,
and you say, well, no, you're wrong,
it's a literal Canaanite.
Okay, well, let's just throw out
the whole New Testament then
that just keeps telling us over and over again
how God's not a respecter of persons
and how there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek.
I mean, look, if God's so down on Canaanites,
why is one of his disciples called Simon the Canaanite?
Okay, so I guess Simon isn't even gonna be allowed
in this thing.
One of the 12 disciples is gonna get stopped at the door,
excuse me.
No, because in Christ, none of that matters.
It's a spiritual Canaan that we're talking about,
spiritual Canaanite.
Now, another false doctrine
that people will take from this passage
is they'll say that in the millennial reign of Christ,
that the animal sacrifices will be reinstituted.
This is their only passage
because of the fact that it's so clear everywhere else
that the sacrifices are over,
but they'll come to Zechariah 14
and this is their big passage
to show that basically burnt animal offerings
are coming back in the millennium.
Now, that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
You know who wants you to believe that?
Can I tell you who wants you to believe that?
Satan and the Antichrist
because when he comes and impersonates the millennium
and when he claims to be the second coming
of Jesus Christ, guess what's gonna be back?
Animal sacrifices, okay?
So yeah, the Jews, they want animal sacrifices
to come back because they reject the lamb of God
that take away the sin of the world.
So of course, they wanna bring back sacrifices.
So these false teachers will use this passage
to try to twist it and say,
oh, burnt offerings are coming back in the millennium.
Well, let me just spiritualize this for you.
These aren't actual burnt animal sacrifices
that he's talking about, okay?
Now, let's go to the New Testament
and see if God ever uses the term sacrifice
in a spiritual way.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10 first of all
and let me show you that the animal sacrifices are over.
Now, there's a lot of scripture in Hebrews about this
but again, stop and think.
When the Antichrist comes,
we know that initially the temple's gonna be rebuilt
and there is going to be a daily sacrifice of animals,
a morning and evening sacrifice
which is what the Jews today want.
They wanna rebuild their temple
and have their animal sacrifices
in their Christ-rejecting religion.
You see, according to the Bible,
there are all kinds of sacrifices that need to be done.
Individuals bring sacrifices all the time
for all manner of different sin offerings
and trespass offerings but according to Judaism,
they only wanna bring back
just the morning and evening sacrifice and that's it.
Just the morning and evening sacrifice and guess what?
That is what is gonna be in the Antichrist's temple
before the abomination of desolation.
That's what it says, the daily offering,
the morning and evening sacrifice
is what's gonna cease at the abomination.
So I talked to these rabbis
when we were filming Marching to Zion
and they said, oh, by the time Jesus Christ
came on this earth,
you know, the Jews had already stopped
doing the animal sacrifices
except all they did was the morning and evening sacrifice.
That's all they did anymore.
They weren't doing all these other little offerings
because they're already preparing people
for this thing of, oh, the morning and evening's enough.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Well, that's a lie because remember when Jesus was born,
Mary brought down the two turtle doves
for her purification.
That wasn't just the morning and evening.
No, they're bringing it as an individual.
What about when Jesus heals a leper?
Oh, go offer the sacrifice.
So there's no evidence.
That's a lie from these,
that lie about the fact that Jesus is not the Messiah also.
So look at Hebrews chapter 10
and this is what the Jews are missing, of course,
but it says in verse 10,
by the which will we are sanctified,
this is chapter 10 verse 10,
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
And every priest stand daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins.
So he's talking about the Jews
are still offering sacrifices back then
that can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever sat down on the right hand of God.
Now, does that sound like,
oh, we gotta bring back those animal sacrifices?
No way.
He says, look, it's once for all, it's done.
Jesus did it, it's over.
They keep offering it.
Somebody needs to send them the memo
that Jesus has already paid it once for all.
They didn't get that memo.
Oh, you guys didn't get the memo?
Okay, well let me send my army in 70 AD
and destroy your temple and destroy your city
and burn it down, then maybe you'll get the memo.
And they did get the memo
because they haven't done animal sacrifices since.
They're not doing them now.
So he finally got through to them
in a language that they understood.
They don't like to admit
that that's why they quit doing it,
that Jesus was the lamb that was slain once for all.
Okay, but flip over to chapter 13.
So we see the animal sacrifices are done, right?
We saw that in chapter 10.
There's other scripts we could turn to,
but we're almost out of time.
But look what the Bible says in chapter 13, verse 15.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually,
that is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name,
but to do good and to communicate,
forget not, for with such sacrifices,
God is well pleased.
So what's the sacrifice he's looking at?
Sacrifice of praise, sacrifice of giving, right?
Sacrifice of good works.
Now go to 1 Peter chapter two.
And while you're turning there,
I'll quote for you.
Now somebody help me find this verse
because I printed my notes.
I have no notes for this sermon
because I printed my notes and I left them at home.
All right, I confess.
I messed up.
And I had a real important verse in my notes.
Everything else was in my mind except this one reference
where they're talking about
offering up spiritual sacrifices.
It's gotta be in 1 Peter chapter two.
Somebody find it for me.
Help me out here.
I know it's somewhere in 1 Peter chapter two.
It's a great verse.
While you're finding it,
let me quote for you another verse.
The possible, what is it?
Verse five, all right, great, thanks.
That didn't take long.
Who needs notes?
You just involve the crowd a little bit.
But in Philippians chapter three,
or Philippians chapter four, he says,
I am full, Paul said,
I'm full having received of Epaphroditus
the things which were sent from you,
an odor of a sweet smell,
a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.
But my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
So again, giving to the need of the saints,
doing good works, praising God,
these are all known in the New Testament
as spiritual sacrifices.
We don't need an animal sacrifice any longer.
Look at 1 Peter 2 five,
ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house,
unholy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So look, we're talking spiritual sacrifices here.
So this isn't us just spiritualizing,
this is God spiritualizing it
and saying, well, in the New Testament,
we don't offer physical sacrifices
because Jesus was the sacrifice once for all.
In the New Testament,
what kind of sacrifices do we offer?
Spiritual sacrifice.
Now that's not us just spiritualizing things
and making things up, that's what the Bible says,
it's spiritual sacrifices.
So if we're looking at the Old Testament passage here,
where he talks about the fact that all they
that sacrifice unto the Lord shall take and sieve therein.
It's not saying they're gonna do a burnt offering
and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat
because Jesus already put his blood on the mercy seat
and that's the only blood on the mercy seat we need.
It's once for all, it's a done deal.
It's just a giving of offerings, it's a giving of food,
it's a coming together and feasting and rejoicing
and they're bringing food
but it's not a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord.
That's why it doesn't get specific
about any kind of a burnt sacrifice.
Now in the Old Testament,
when they did the Feast of Tabernacles,
there were burnt offerings involved
but obviously in the millennium,
we're gonna be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles
in a new way, in a New Testament kind of way
with spiritual sacrifices
and we're going to be worshiping Jesus
and it's going to be the one holiday
that basically is required to be observed
in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ
when he is ruling and reigning on this earth.
So that concludes the book of Zechariah.
It's a fascinating book, very deep,
a lot of strong meat of the word.
You know, it's one that really,
you have to study hard
and cross-reference a lot of scripture
but I hope that you feel as I do
and I don't know about you but you know,
Zechariah has always been one of the harder books
in my opinion.
I think probably everybody would agree with that statement
that it's a deep book.
I don't know about you though
but after the last 14 weeks studying Zechariah,
I feel like it, you know, it's been laid bare.
I mean, I feel like now this book
is not hard to understand at all.
I, you know, I feel like it's been just demystified
as it were and I hope you feel the same way as I feel
but I, you know, that just shows how
when we come to God's house
with the Holy Spirit as our guide
and we open the Bible
and when we use the New Testament to guide us,
you know, this book makes a lot of sense
and it actually doesn't contradict anything
that's being taught in the New Testament.
Praise God, the word of God is consistent
but there have been plenty of people
who will try to twist this book
for their own political Zionist type of agenda,
be not deceived.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord
and we pray that you would just bless us
as we go about the rest of our week, Lord
and that we would be profitable servants unto you, Lord.
Bring us back safely on Sunday
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.