Okay. We're continuing our Bible study on the book of Isaiah.
And of course we're in chapter 27 tonight.
Now if you've been following along over the last couple of chapters,
you'll notice that many of these previous chapters are dealing with end times
Bible prophecy. Of course there's immediate fulfillment to what's a lot to what's
being said, but there,
it's also foreshadowing a lot of the end times prophecy of the millennial rain,
the new heaven and the new earth.
And of course we've seen foreshadowings of the fact that hell is going to be
cast into the lake of fire and many of those elements.
Now I do want to remind you as I've done in times past that when reading the
book of Isaiah and other books in the old Testament,
you have to make sure that when you read into passages dealing with end times,
they're not in chronological order all the time,
meaning that the chronology of end times prophecy isn't something that's
necessarily in order in the old Testament.
It just kind of gives us glimpse a glimpse of, of certain events that take place.
If you want chronology, you got to go to the book of revelation. Okay.
As far as when certain events take place, but in the old Testament,
the reason we want to reference the old Testament for end times prophecy is
because sometimes the old Testament will fill in certain gaps, right?
It's like the bonus material that isn't necessarily mentioned in the book of
revelation, but it is explicitly talked about in the old.
And so it makes end times prophecy a little more interesting when you reference
the book of Jeremiah, the book of Isaiah, the book of Daniel,
because it does share some extra details that isn't necessarily being divulged
in the book of revelation. And so chronology is not there,
but the events are the reason that's important is because a lot of these
events kind of overlap millennial rain, new heaven and earth.
Then it talks about the lake of fire. Then it talks about the millennial rain again,
then it talks about the antichrist and it talks about Satan.
And so it's kind of jumps all over the place. There are instances though,
where it kind of does have a little bit of a chronology,
but it's not as strict as we see it in the book of revelation.
Now look at chapter 26, if you would,
and let's look at verse 19 to see where we left off here.
It says in verse 19 of chapter 26,
thy dead men shall live together with my dead body.
Shall they arise awake and seeing you that dwell in the dust for thy do is as
the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead. Now automatically,
you think to yourself, this is obviously referring to the rapture because it's
talking about the dead men living together with my dead body.
Shall they arise?
This is obviously talking about the resurrection where the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we, which are alive and remain,
shall be caught up together with him in the clouds. So this is terminology.
This is wording. It's trying to get us,
help us to associate it with the rapture. Look at verse 21. It says,
for behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her sin.
So after the rapture, you have what?
Three and a half years of God's wrath being poured out.
And that's what we see in verse 21 that the Lord is coming to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
And when you look at those three and a half years of God's wrath,
the trumpets and the vials, yeah,
that's basically God punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their
wickedness. He discloses it with blood. And of course,
we know how that goes in the end of the world. Now going into chapter 27,
we're going to look at the defeat of the Antichrist or should we say the
foreshadowing of the defeat of the Antichrist and of Satan.
Now this is pretty interesting because the first thing that's mentioned here in
the first verse is Leviathan. Okay. Look at verse one. It says,
in that day the Lord with his sword and great and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent.
Now the subject of Leviathan is pretty interesting because of the fact that,
you know, it's scarcely mentioned in the old Testament,
probably only a handful of times you have it being talked about in Job 41.
You have a couple of mentions in the book of Psalms.
And then you have him being mentioned here in the book of Isaiah.
And the reason it's an interesting subject is because, you know,
a lot of people debate whether it's referring to just a mythological creature
that never really existed to begin with is just foreshadowing Satan and the
Antichrist. But I'm of the persuasion that it was an actual creature. Okay.
And when you study what the Bible says about Leviathan,
the actual creature itself, you know,
you walk away thinking this was an actual animal that existed at one point and
was used to foreshadow Satan himself.
Now let me give you the actual description of what Leviathan is, what he is,
what kind of creature he is and why he represents Satan as a spiritual
application. First of all,
it says there that he's going to punch Leviathan the piercing serpent.
And then he calls them the crooked serpent. Now, what does this mean?
It means that Leviathan is a snake of some sort. We would say snake.
The Bible uses serpent. Sometimes it uses the term dragon.
Now people often think of these mythological dragons that are flying in the
air. They have wings and stuff like that. I don't think that's necessary.
What it's referred to because this particular serpent actually swims in the
ocean. But I will say this is that it, according to Joe 41,
Leviathan does breathe out fire. Okay.
And so I can't really say if that's symbolic or not when you, I don't,
and I don't have time to develop a whole sermon on, on Leviathan right now.
But when you read Joe 41, which is an entire dissertation on Leviathan,
I mean, it's God speaking of this creation known as Leviathan, you know,
it's a very enormous creature to say the least. And in fact,
in my opinion, it's probably the largest creature of the ocean,
even surpassing the, uh, the,
the size of a blue whale or sperm whale. And in fact, you know,
Joe 41 talks about the fact that, you know,
its face has doors meaning that that's how big its mouth is.
It talks about the fact that its heart is like the Nether stone,
just talking about the size of its actual heart. It talks about the fact that,
you know,
the spears and darts and have Bergians can't do anything to it. You know,
he laughs at the shaking of the spear and you think of like all these tribal
people just like, ah, you know,
trying to like intimidate Leviathan is just Leviathan is just like whatever
about it. It doesn't bother him at all, you know?
And it even says that it breaks it, it, it, uh,
it breaks iron and brass as straw and as rotten wood.
You know, just kind of showing you the capacity of its strength, right?
But it also talks about the fact that, you know,
it's able to breathe fire and it's able to kindle flames by its breath.
I don't believe that's symbolic.
I believe it's referring to the fact that this creature was capable of doing
that, uh, in real life. And then, you know, when you look at job 41,
it seems to indicate that this creature was extremely large.
And the reason I say that is because of the fact that it talks about that it
actually makes, uh, uh, it makes like, uh, the, the image,
I'm forgetting the wording here, but the image is like a boiling pot in the deep.
Okay. And what it's referring to is the wake that it creates when it swims.
You think of a boat that is swimming on the surface, it creates a wake.
Essentially referring to like the tail of that boat, you know,
that white foamy thing that's called the wake there because of the size of the
boat. Well, you know, according to job 41 Leviathan is so large that when it's
swimming in the deep, it creates a wake. You say,
why does that indicate that it's big? Well,
because the deeper you go into the ocean, the less you can see, you know,
the darker it gets. But when it comes to Leviathan though,
when he's in the deep,
you can still see him because of the wake that he creates that, that, um,
that boiling pot, so to speak. And so obviously this is a very large creature.
And you know, about a month ago I preached on the subject of the creation story
and I was talking about the fact that, you know, in, in Genesis chapter one,
you know, the Bible talks about the creation of beasts.
And then it kind of specifically mentions the great whales.
And it seems so specific about that particular kind of animal.
But what I was proposing is that great whale is just classifying all large
sea creatures and that Leviathan would be included in that classification as
being a great whale. Okay. And you know,
people today would obviously disagree with that because to us in 2024,
a whale is a mammal. Okay. Of some sort of, you know, in the, in the ocean.
But when you look at Job for, or not Job, you look at Jonah, for example,
it talks about Jonah, God preparing a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
But then Jesus Christ talks about a great whale, swollen up Jonah,
essentially using those interchangeably great fish, great whale.
It's just referring to a great sea creature.
And I would even propose this and I obviously I couldn't be wrong.
I'm not dogmatic about this,
but I would even propose that Leviathan,
although he could be called a great whale,
he was probably the one that actually swallowed up Jonah. Okay.
The reason I probably believe that is because of the fact that God prepared a
great whale, a great fish to swallow Jonah.
And this is typically what he does when he's punishing a believer.
He's unleashing Satan to essentially devour that person for the destruction of
the flesh. And so, you know,
Satan walketh about seeking whom he may devour and he's obviously trying to
devour Jonah because of his disobedience, because God's allowing it. You know,
I don't think it's a preposterous thing to say that it was probably Leviathan
who swallowed up, uh, Jonah.
Now a lot of people probably disagree with that because we all got this mental
picture that it was just a huge sperm whale or a blue whale that swallowed him
up. But you know, it's possible that it was Leviathan that did that. Okay.
Because he pictures Satan and the descriptions that we see of Leviathan in the
Old Testament is symbolically representing Satan. There's no way around
that. It's obviously referring to that. You know, in Revelation chapter 13,
it talks about, or not 13, Revelation chapter 12,
it talks about Satan, that old serpent, the dragon,
the Bible says. Okay. And so that's important to note.
And here it talks about that he's a piercing serpent.
And I think that's referring to the fact of it's the rapidity by which it cuts
through the waters. Okay. It pierces through the waters.
It's a crooked serpent. Uh, obviously in its most literal sense,
he's kind of, you know, swimming like this.
He isn't necessarily swimming straight forward. He's a crooked serpent,
but it's obviously symbolically representing the fact that Satan is a crooked,
you know, angelic being. Now look what it goes on to say here. Uh,
in verse number one, it says in that day,
the Lord with his sword and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan,
the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent.
And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Now hold your place here and go to Psalm 74, if you would. Psalm 74,
Ulysses, brother Ulysses, you can turn down the AC.
I think it's probably cold enough now. I'll suffer here for you all.
Now I think this is actually referring to literally God destroying the actual
serpent Leviathan. Okay. This dragon, the serpent. I think,
I believe that God literally destroyed the actual serpent itself.
And the reason he did this to symbolic represent the fact that he will destroy
Satan also in the end times. Now in Genesis one,
the Bible indicates that we have dominion over all of creation,
all the beasts of the field, you know, the birds of the air, the Marine life,
but it seems to the Bible also seems to indicate that there's kind of like one
creature that we don't have dominion over and that's Leviathan.
Because when you read Job 41, God is telling Job,
like you're not going to be able to handle Leviathan.
You can't pull him out with a fishing rod. You can't pierce him.
He's laughing at you. You know, when he comes out of the water,
people purify themselves when they at the side of him, meaning like,
they get right with God, you know, and he's basically saying like,
let's see if you can handle Leviathan. He's basically saying,
you can't handle this creature.
So man has been able to tame and destroy all manner of
creatures throughout history. But according to the Bible,
according to God's account,
it's almost as if Leviathan is the only one that he cannot tame,
control or destroy. Look at Psalm 74 verse 12. It says,
for God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength.
Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave us him
to be me to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
So the Bible actually states that God is the one who destroys Leviathan. Okay.
He breaks his heads in pieces. And, you know,
I don't know if this is referring to the fact that Leviathan actually has
multiple heads. That's a possibility cause it's kind of mentioning that here,
but it's obviously pretty clear that this Leviathan is that sea
creature that's coming up out of the sea in revelation chapter 13 with many
heads and many crowns upon his head. Okay.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that God is the only one who's
actually able to destroy Leviathan.
And God is the one who actually destroys Satan himself. Now, obviously,
this is important to note spiritually because you know,
you have Christians out there specifically of the Pentecostal realm that think
they can whoop the devil or something like that. And they talk like that,
right? They can slay the devil and I'll kick the devil's, you know what?
And they kind of speak very proudly.
They bring up railing accusations against the devil. But here's the thing,
folks, let me just give you a reality check is that Satan is actually very
powerful. Okay. He's extremely powerful. And in fact he has, listen to me,
he has destroyed Christians ever since this whole thing started. Okay.
He's not only a celestial in a celestial form powerful,
but he's also extremely smart. Okay. And so to have this idea that like, Oh,
he's less than us and he's not going to do anything to us.
And I remember when I first got saved in a fundamental Baptist church,
I was waiting to talk to my pastor and it was after a sermon and this guy came
up to him and it was just like, I just want to let you know,
I'm not afraid of the devil. I'll defeat him. And my father-in-law was like,
you know, I don't think you should talk like that. You know, he's pretty powerful.
He is Satan. You know, he's a lion and he's like, no, I'll,
I'll take him on and just kind of speaking very proudly presumptuously.
And it's no wonder we never saw that guy ever again. You know what I mean?
It's just like, first of all,
how do you expect to defeat Satan if you can't even defeat your own laziness to
get yourself to church, you know?
But here's the thing is that the Bible actually says that we are overcomers,
right?
And we're able to overcome Satan that wicked one by the word of God.
And another way of describing an overcomer according to Romans chapter eight is a
conqueror, right?
And the Bible says that we are more than conquerors through him that love this.
So in order for us to defeat Satan and order for us to overcome the wicked one,
it has to be through Jesus Christ and his word can't be thrown power and might.
Why? Because it's only God who can break the heads of Leviathan.
Understand? And so we see here that I believe that God actually physically,
probably even made Leviathan go extinct by destroying Leviathan.
But it's also picturing the fact that he's also going to destroy Satan in the
end times.
And it's interesting that it says that he breaks the heads of Leviathan in
pieces. And in revelation 13,
it talks about one of the heads of that dragon that comes out of the sea had a
deadly wound to its head, right? Then his deadly wound was healed.
But then obviously three and a half years there thereafter he's cast into the
lake of fire. The, uh, the system,
this dragon Leviathan is taken out of the picture he is destroyed.
And so the point that I'm making here is that it's possible that God actually
wiped out the physical creature Leviathan in order to give meat to the
people inhabiting the wilderness.
But it's also symbolically representing the fact that God is the only one
capable of destroying Satan himself. And let me just make something very clear.
You know, obviously we're living in a world where it's good versus evil,
God versus the devil, but you know,
there's no chance of the devil winning this because he's not powerful,
as powerful as God himself. And in fact, you know,
Satan can only do things with the permission of God.
People often get that mixed up and they think that, you know,
he kind of works autonomously apart from God.
But the fact remains that based upon scriptural evidence,
Satan cannot attack.
He cannot do anything without God allowing him to. And in fact,
the Bible specifically teaches us in Revelation chapter 12,
that he is the accuser of the brethren,
meaning that he goes before God accusing us to God asking for
permission. And we see a story like that in the Bible, right?
We see in the book of Job, you know,
he comes to give an account to the Lord and the Lord is like,
where have you been? And he's like walking to and fro on all the earth.
And he says how style consider my servant job that there's none like him in all
the earth, a perfect and upright man and one who is true with evil.
And then of course he gives him permission to attack Joe.
So I'm saying that because you know, one day you're going to be attacked by Satan.
And one of the initial thoughts that Christians get when they're being attacked
by Satan is like, where's God in all this, right?
Why isn't God protecting me? Why is God allowing this?
But let me just remind you that God is the one who gave him permission to do so.
And like, why would he do that? Well,
just the same reason why he allowed Job to go through that is because he,
his opinion of Job was very high. He says he's a perfect and upright man,
one who is true with evil, has thou considered him?
You understand what I'm saying? And so when you go through a hard time,
you feel like Satan's attacking you. I know it's hard to kind of remember this,
but you're going to have to. And that is, you know,
God saw you worthy of this trial. He thinks he knows that you can handle it.
He's putting you up against the wiles of Satan because he can see highly
esteems your spiritual life, your spiritual disciplines,
your love for God. Like he knows that. Okay.
And that's why the Bible tells us to rejoice when we are in great trial of
afflictions. When Satan attacks,
we just have to make sure that we resist Satan and that, you know,
we don't give in to his wiles. We don't believe his lies and we fight them off.
The point that I'm making here is that ultimately God is the one who destroys
Leviathan and he's also the one who destroys Satan, whom Leviathan represents.
Now this happens in revelation 13 when he receives a deadly wound to the head,
but it literally happens in revelation chapter 19,
go to revelation 19 if you would revelation chapter 19.
Now in Isaiah 27 it says in that day,
the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword.
Now what is his sore and great and strong sword is referring to the word of
God. And who is the word of God? Jesus Christ. Look at revelation 19 verse 15.
It says here in verse 15 and out of his mouth, whose mouth?
Jesus' mouth go with a sharp sword that with it,
he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with the rod of iron.
And he tried at the wine press of the fierceness of wrath of almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture,
meaning his clothing and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Look at verse 19, if you would.
And I saw the beast and the Kings of the earth and their armies gathered together
to make war against him, that sat on the horse and against his army.
So what's going on here? This is called famously the battle of Armageddon.
Okay. Where the Kings of the East, the Kings, excuse me,
the Kings of the North are coming to fight against Jesus Christ and his army.
This is the antichrist, the false prophet in his army that he has deceived into
thinking, Hey, we're going to defeat Jesus Christ.
And this is probably one of the most incredible battles in the Bible, you know,
not counting the battle of Gog and Magog, because at this point, Jesus Christ,
and all believers at this time who are in heaven will essentially come down,
right from heaven to,
to essentially participate in this particular spiritual battle right here.
And it's not just a spiritual battle. It's like,
it's where spiritual meets physical, right? I mean,
you have to be under really strong delusion.
If you see Jesus Christ coming on a white horse with a bunch of other dudes on
white horses coming, like just breaching through the sky.
And you're thinking like, yeah, we got this. You're crazy. I mean,
just picture that it's never been seen before. Ever.
You have this huge multitude of an,
of a celestial army coming down and keep in mind, you know,
Jesus Christ is not coming on any lowly animal.
What does he come in on a white horse? Meaning he's coming to fight.
He's coming up the battle. He's coming to destroy and he looks very fierce,
but yet they're under this extremely strong delusion that somehow they're going
to win. And don't misunderstand the text here. It's called a battle,
but it's not really a battle because you know,
a battle requires both sides to fight. Doesn't work that way.
Like the Bible literally tells us that, well, let's look,
look what it says in verse 20 and the beast was taken. So, you know,
notice in verse 19, it talks about the beast, the Kings of the earth,
their armies gathered together to ward against him on the saddle,
the horse and against his army. And then it says, and the beast was taken.
So it's like, he didn't even get a throw a punch or anything.
I don't know if he shot a bullet or a missile.
The beast was taken and with him,
the false prophet that wrote miracles before him with which he deceived them
that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image.
These both were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone.
So right off the bat, initially when the war starts,
he comes down and it's just like, we're going to just perhaps them both.
And then just like, shut up, you know,
he just throws them right into the lake of fire. There's no, just lightweight,
you know, lightweight, no reaction,
just grabs them and just throws them in there. And it's just like, that was easy.
There's just no effort whatsoever necessary. Okay. And then it says in verse 21,
the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse,
which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fouls were filled with their
flesh. So he takes out the head honchos first,
referring to the Antichrist and his false prophet just immediately just tosses
them into the lake of fire, which by the way,
they get to themselves for a thousand years because no one else goes there
until the thousand years are over. And then the rest of the armies,
he's just destroying them with the sword of his mouth.
Now I don't know how that's going to look.
I'm very curious to know how that's going to look, but it's basically,
he just like, I don't know if it's just like a flame. He's just like, you know,
it just destroys everyone, but you know,
he slays them and leaves corpses all over the battlefield to the point where
the fouls referring to the birds come in,
they feast on the corpses of these Kings. Okay. Pretty vivid imagery here.
Right. And I believe that this is actually what Isaiah 27 is referring to when he
says that in that day, you know,
he's going to basically destroy Leviathan with a sword. Okay.
He's basically taking the sword of his mouth, destroying the antichrist,
which by the way, Leviathan picturing Satan also pictures the antichrist,
but it also pictures what the new world order,
because the beast in revelation 13 is a picture of what that new world order,
that new world order system. And so they are destroyed. They are completely wiped out.
And that's the end of them. Go back to Isaiah 27, if you would, Isaiah 27,
isn't it interesting that it says in the book of Psalms where the Bible talks about God,
breaking the heads of Leviathan and giving it to be meat for the inhabitants of the land.
Well, in like manner, he destroys the antichrist, the false prophet and his armies,
and they become meat for the fouls of the earth. Okay. And so that's why we're completely against
this Buddhist type of funeral where you just lay out the corpse there and wait for the fouls of
the air to come eat beast. I mean, you've ever heard of that. You know, Joe Rogan talks a lot
about that. He's like, I want my funeral to be, you know, just lay my carcass out there and let
vultures come and eat me. That's like not good. You know, you know, that's a way to dishonor a
corpse according to the Bible because that's how God is going to dishonor all the kings of the
earth. Just allow birds to just feast on your flesh. Very important there. Now look at verse
number two here. So that's the end of Leviathan. That's the end of the new world order. That's
the end of the antichrist, the false prophet. And you know, obviously Satan is cast into the bottom
of spit for a thousand years. He's released thereafter. And then he's cast into the lake
of fire permanently. Look what it says in verse two. It says in that day, seeing ye unto her,
a vineyard of red wine, I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it.
And I will keep it night and day. Now what I believe this is referring to is after the battle
of Armageddon, what do you have? You have Jesus Christ ruling and reigning for a thousand years.
And you could essentially say that the world becomes his vineyard. But more specifically,
Israel is his major vineyard because that's where he's going to rule and reign from. Okay.
And what he's saying here, when he talks about in verse number three, that he's going to keep it,
he's going to water it, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. He's basically saying that
I'm going to prevent the vineyard from going sour. He's going to prevent it from having any
evil figs, as Jeremiah puts it. And so when you read the book of Jeremiah and chapter 24,
you see that God often talks about the fact that in the end time, specifically the millennial reign,
he talks about Israel and he says only the good figs will stay there. The evil figs are going to
be removed because they're so evil, they're so sour, they can't be eaten. And what I believe
that's referring to is the fact that only saved Jews will be in the millennial reign. These evil
figs, these unsaved Jews who hate the Lord Jesus Christ will not abide in that vineyard.
You know, God is going to remove them from that. Look at verse number four. He says, "Fury is not
in me. Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them.
I would burn them together." Now, what I believe this is talking about is the fact that there's
going to be zero tolerance in the millennial reign. Okay. You know, he's basically saying,
you know, I'm not furious. I'm not here to fight, but who's going to set the thorns and briar? Who's
going to set a reprobate to come fight against me? He says, "I would go through them and I will burn
them together." You know, right now, reprobates are just allowed to just do all types of wickedness
and just all types of evil. But in the millennial reign, God's like, "It ain't happening. I will go
through and I will burn you." That's why it's important for people to get saved right now.
You know, if you're not saved, get saved today because of the fact that you want to be on the
right side when all this stuff takes place, right? But I like what he says. He's like,
"Who would set briars and thorns against me in battle? Who's dumb enough to fight against me?
I'm going to go through. I'm going to burn them together." Like, zero tolerance.
And Revelation 19 tells us that he's going to rule with a rod of iron. Now, what does that mean,
ruling with the rod of iron? This is referring to how strict God's going to be in that millennial
reign. No tolerance, zero tolerance. There's no warnings. You break God's law. The laws of God
are going to be executed automatically. He's going to be righteous. He's going to be just.
And, you know, false religion is not going to exist. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles,
they're not just going to be allowed to just go rampage. There's not going to be a revolving door
in prison. There's not even going to be prison because in a system where God's laws are being
executed, evil doers are punished swiftly for their crimes. And so zero tolerance. And I think
that's great. And that will create a world where crime will decrease exceedingly and rapidly
overnight. Say why? Well, when you have, I don't know, God in the flesh, just wiping people out
left and right for their crimes, people who are tempted to commit crimes are going to be like,
"You know, I don't think I'm going to do that. I don't think I'm going to murder anybody.
I don't want, you see that sword that came out of his mouth? It's like, he's going to destroy us."
And so, you know, executing punishments speedily reduces crime. And that's how it's going to be in
the millennial reign. Okay. I look at verse number five, it says, "Or let him take hold of my strength
that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me." Now zero tolerance in the millennial
reign, but this is not at the exclusion of his mercy. This is not at the exclusion of his love.
This is not the exclusion of his grace. You know, complete submission is strongly recommended though,
right? It's basically saying like zero tolerance, but you know what? God will be a benevolent
dictator. And yes, a dictator, but a benevolent one. You know, the creator will rule, but he's
saying here, you know, "Make peace with me and I shall make peace and you shall make peace with me."
Basically, he's like, "If you want to reconcile, I'm here to reconcile." You know, God is not
unreasonable, right? In fact, he said at the beginning of the book, "Come, let us reason together."
You know, God wants the world to be reconciled unto him through Jesus Christ,
but it has to be on his terms. He wants the world to be reconciled. He wants peace on earth,
but it has to be on his terms. It's not like, "Well, what do you think we should do?" God is
the source of all knowledge and wisdom. He knows how a perfect society can function, and we can
have peace with God, but it has to be on his terms. You know, for example, if we want peace with God
eternally, it has to be on his terms, and his terms are what? Through Jesus Christ, by faith alone.
It's not by your works. It's not by you being able to repent of your sin or keeping God's
commandments or baptism or attending a church. Those aren't God's terms. The terms and conditions
is that you have to place your faith in Jesus Christ. You have to believe on him for salvation
exclusively and not add anything to that, right? And you can have the peace of God. You can have
peace with God. All it requires is for you to receive the free gift of eternal life through
Jesus Christ. But you know, a lot of people want that peace, but they don't like the conditions.
They say, no, we have to pray a rosary. We got to do the sacraments. We have to be baptized.
We have to make a pilgrimage. We have to go to church. We have to stop drinking. We have to
stop doing all manner of sins in order to be saved. Sorry, those aren't the terms and
conditions that God has laid out and you cannot experience peace without Jesus Christ. And so he's
saying, look, you know, he's not going to be an unreasonable ruler in the millennial reign. He's
saying, if you want peace, you can have it. You just got to get it this way. And it's not like
it's an unreasonable condition either. It's not like just, you know, climb, you know, Mount
Jerusalem or Mount Zion, you know, make a pilgrimage and do all. No, he's just like,
"Believe. Just have me as your King, as your Lord, and you can have peace." People make it so
difficult, right? And, you know, having salvation is easy. That condition is super easy. People who
don't like the condition make it hard. "Oh, what are you saying? All I got to do is believe?" I mean,
isn't that super easy? Why would you want a more difficult condition in turn? Why would you want
to make it harder on yourself? If God is offering a gift that cannot be purchased through Jesus
Christ and it doesn't require your effort, your obedience, why not take it? Pride is what it is.
You know, we went so winning yesterday and I ran into a Catholic and, you know, he said he was
Catholic and, you know, his wife was of a different faith or something and he said, you know, I'm
Catholic and I popped the question and you know what? This guy was super receptive and he got
saved super easy. Probably like 15 minutes tops, I think. Took for the gospel presentation
and then I was like, does everything make sense? He's like, it makes perfect sense. I did not know
that it was a gift that it can never be lost. You know what that guy did? He accepted the terms and
services, terms and conditions of salvation, which is through faith. If someone chooses not to, it's
because they want to provide other terms. They don't want the terms and conditions. They want
the terms and services. They want to be able to do something for salvation, make peace with God on
his terms. Okay. But what it says in verse six, it tells us he shall cause them to come out of Jacob
to take root. Israel shall blossom in bud and fill the face of the whole of, excuse me, of the world
with fruit. And I think what this is just talking about is the fact that saved Jews, Israelites
will inhabit the millennial reign and they will finally be able to be fruitful for once because,
you know, for the last 2000 years, they haven't been because, you know, they've been replaced.
You know, this is why Jesus Christ told them that the kingdom of God should be taken from you
and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So you're not producing fruit.
So now we're going to alter the covenant, make a new one actually. And this new covenant is
hiring new people of different nationalities to be a part of God's people. And these people are going
to be more fruitful than you are. But in the millennial reign though, you know, it says that
they shall come out of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the world with fruit.
In other words, they can finally be fruitful again because unbelieving Israel is removed.
Okay. Look at verse seven, if you would, we're going to look at God's judgment on Israel.
It says in verse seven, Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him? Or is he slain
according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure, when it shooteth forth,
thou will debate with him. He stayeth his rough win in the day of the east wind. And I think what
this is essentially saying is that, you know, Israel in general has just been punished by God.
When you look at the term the east wind in the Bible, it's often associated with God's judgment.
When he says, Hey, you're taking the east wind. He's basically saying, you're taking my judgment
upon you. And in fact, let me read you from Hosea chapter 12 verse one. It says Ephraim feedeth on
wind and followeth after the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation and they do not,
excuse me. And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt. What is
he saying? You know, it's like Israel wants to be punished or something. They're following after
the east wind. And you know what? All of us, to a certain extent, know some backslidden Christian
that we can say they're following the east wind. It's not enough that the east wind is pursuing
them. It's like you're going to the east wind. You know that God's going to punish you. You know
you're being disciplined by God. You know God's wrath is upon you for your disobedience. And it's
like you're just following the east wind. We want to run away from the east wind. We want the west
wind. We want the south wind. We want the winds of God's blessings. But you know, there's people
out there that are so stubborn Christians that are just so stubborn because they're so backslidden
that you could almost classify them as being people following after that east wind and wanting the
wrath of God to come upon them for whatever reason well that's how Israel was you know think about
it Israel is the nation that God selected in the Old Testament to bear his name and proclaim his
word and yet repeatedly over and over again they're worshiping false gods they're blaspheming the Lord
they're you know they're no longer serving God they're getting involved in all kinds of paganism
it's almost as if they're following the east wind and so he had to smite them he had to punish them
he had to slay them and debate with them look at verse number nine it says by this therefore
shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to and this is all the fruit
to take away his sin when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten and
sunder the groves and images shall not stand up verse 10 yet the defense city shall be desolate in
the inhabited habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness there shall the calf feed and there
shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof so he's basically saying you know a lot of times
in the old testament i mean when you read the story of israel being punished it's essentially
to remove the bad people and keep the good people right you know reprobate silver shall men call
them for the lord hath rejected them and when you look at some of the captivities some people were
kept because they actually believed on the lord others were removed and who are the ones that
removed the unbelieving one who are the ones that kept the ones that kept believing well the same
goes on today and you know what in the millennial reign who are the ones that are going to be
removed unbelieving israel who are the ones going to stay the ones who still believe okay very
important looking for summer 11 when the bows thereof are withered they shall be broken off
the women come and set them on fire for it is a people of no understanding therefore he that made
them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will show them no favor and i think
what this is talking about is the fact that like israel essentially was broken off talk about a bow
that is withered and what happens to a bow that's withered it breaks off of the actual tree itself
it is no longer attached to the root understand well when you look at israel as a whole according
to romans chapter 11 they're described as those who are broken off and we as a wild olive tree
are grafted in it says that they're withered they shall be broken off the women come and set them on
fire why for it is a people of no understanding the bible says and so this is essentially
foreshadowing the fact that israel is going to be replaced they're going to be broken off
so on and so forth now people often wonder like so how is this like a permanent thing that they're
just broken off you know can they ever get saved and the answer is yes they can be saved
okay this is not a jew hating church and you know a lot of times people will go to the extreme
when it comes to replacement theology and just take this position that the jews are just a scum
of the world you know and we hate jews and heil hitler or whatever that's nonsense this is a
baptist church this is a christian church we believe the bible okay and none of that stuff
is biblical none of that stuff is biblical and in fact you know i can prove it to you
that the bible literally says in roman chapter 11 the apostle paul says that they can be grafted in
you know if they don't abide in unbelief showing us that there's jews out there that probably are
getting saved probably not very many though and obviously you know it's not necessarily the most
receptive people group in the world we will probably never do a mission strip to israel not
probably we will never do a mission strip to israel amen we're probably i'm gonna be honest we
probably will never do a soul winning marathon in hollywood or beaverly hills west hollywood
beaverly hills uh you know wherever there's a concentration of jews i didn't say camp i
see the concentration of jews you know it's likely we're not going to go there to go preach the
gospel and not because we don't like jews because we love all nationalities it's because biblical
principle when it comes to the gospel teaches us that we need to go to the receptive people first
and if you were to look at all nations they're at the bottom of the list when it comes to
receptiveness you're like well when are we going to get there probably never because here's the
thing is that we have so many receptive people to go to now this doesn't mean that if we're knocking
door we're going door to door we're running to a jew outdoor knocking of course we're going to
witness to them you know we should never have this attitude like oh man he's coming out with
the yarmulke or something like that and you know i mean obviously i probably would say that in my
in my heart they're like here we go here's my next sermon illustration you know but i would
give them the gospel i've given jews the gospel and you know do i have a lot of faith that they're
going to get saved no that's just probably my sin nature i just end my experience that has shown me
that they're not very receptive in fact most of the time they're very blasphemous towards the lord
jesus christ but you know this is not a jew hating church we do not hate jews so take that crap
somewhere else you know take it to you know hitler baptist church or something like that
if it even exists and if it does it's not a legitimate church okay now do i think that
jews are responsible for a lot of evil and wickedness in this world duh you know uh yeah
you know and do i think that you know they're a cursed nation yeah that's what the bible says
and do i think uh they crucified and killed the lord jesus christ duh of course do i think that's
an anti-semitic thing to say i don't care because it's true you know because people are so sensitive
about like anti-semitic statements or something they're not even willing to say things that are
actually in the bible nonsense you know do i think the jews are responsible for all the pornography
and all the filth and smut that's being promoted by hollywood of course but you know your your
random jew that's just you know if there's any i don't know you know maybe it's too poor for them
you know you know this random jew that's out there you know i wouldn't assume if i ran into them
and so it's important for us to realize that that they can still be saved and i guarantee you there
are jews all around the world that are getting saved even today probably not as much as other
ethnicities or other religious groups or whatever but you know they can be saved okay and look i'm
gonna tell you right now i love jews and let me tell you this i love them because if it wasn't
for certain jews we wouldn't have christianity come to us right the apostle paul is a jew i mean
he's a benjamite whatever but you know he said he was a jew peter was a jew that many of the
disciples were jews these men converted and they kind of just stopped even identifying or some of
the apostles didn't but you know the apostle paul just kind of just like went for the gentiles he
loved gentiles and so i'm thankful for them and you know what we're going to be with them for all
of eternity too many of them who are saved but i don't buy into this whole false narrative that
just because they're a jew they're going to be in heaven or something like that nonsense is stupid
they don't get a free pass no ethnic group or religious group or whatever because they're
blessed of god in the old testament gets a free pass to heaven or something like that let me just
remind you that the jews killed jesus plain and simple and you know what if you want to say that's
anti-semitic then so be it you know i'll i'll admit that it's anti-semitic as long as they
admit that it's that they're anti-jesus they take responsibility for it so it's a biblical thing to
say look at verse 12 here's the last part it says and it shall come to pass in that day that the
lord shall beat off from the channel of the river into the stream of egypt and he shall be gathered
one by one oh you children of israel and it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet
shall be blown they shall come with which were ready to perish in the land of syria and the
outcast in the land of egypt and shall worship the lord in the holy mount at jerusalem so chapter
26 ends with the rapture chapter 27 also ends with a symbolic representation of the rapture as well
because it's saying here that the trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to
perish in the land of assyria and what's interesting about that well when you look at
enzymes bible prophecy the last 75 days prior to the rapture is also referred to as great tribulation
when the trumpet is blown it's basically when believers are ready to perish it's like we're
at our wits end the antichrist is making war with the saints he's killing them and it's just like
lift up your heads for your redemption draw your redemption draweth nigh and so it's just a
beautiful picture of the rapture so what is chapter 27 really telling us here obviously it's talking
about end times and it's telling us that you know satan is not always going to be swimming in the
in the waters of the earth you know satan is not always going to be present to tempt you to fight
against you to attack you to discourage you he has an end and we can't bring his end but you know what
we have god on our side if god before us who can be against us ultimately he's the one who destroys
satan casting him into the lake of fire and we should rest easy on that and then too this just
this chapter basically teaches us that you know we need to be more eternally minded a lot of these
chapters teach that right to look forward to the day where we can have jesus christ as our king here
on this earth and and look forward to a time of great peace let's pray father we thank you so much
for your word we're thankful for chapter 27 lord and i pray that you help us to take these things
to heart and realize that the only way anybody in this world can overcome satan is through
jesus christ you're the only one that can break the heads of leviathan and lord i pray father
god that you'd help to help us as your people to depend on you as we're in spiritual warfare
from time to time that when we look to you look to your word look through prayer lord
and meditate upon these things uh and realize lord that we're insufficient to fight against satan
but if we can't overcome the wicked one by the word of god by the spirit of god and through
jesus christ we're more than conquerors through him we love you lord and we thank you pray this
these things in Jesus name. Amen.