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. Good evening, welcome to faith-forward Baptist Church on this Wednesday night It's very good to see you all here on this Wednesday night. If you at all, please find your seats and we'll begin with our Congregational singing this evening Let's all take our song books at this time and let's turn to him number 132 tonight number 132 Never alone number 132 we'll start on that first verse together. I've seen the lightning flashing and heard the Thunder roll number 132 132 Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Heavenly father we thank you for allowing us to be here on this Wednesday night We pray that please bless the service and blessing of your people and bless Pastor Anderson as he appreciates your word to us And we thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen back to number 36 Him number 36 Christ the Rose number 36 Let's Sing it nice and loud on that first verse Number 36 you start slow and go faster on the chorus watch me there number 36. Let's sing it out on this first verse Oh Oh Oh Oh Is All right this time we'll go ahead and go through our announcements If you don't have a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high we'll get to you with one on the inside We have our service time Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service Sunday nights at 6 Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study tonight. We're in Ezekiel chapter number 30 We've got the so many times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms across the page are the birthdays and anniversaries for the month on the back Congratulations to the Rogowski family on the birth of baby. Angelie born Saturday, February 26th and so be sure to congratulate them Mexico Monday that ship has already sailed, but it was a big success I believe they had 12 people in the crew and 14 salvations. Somebody. Can I get a witness? Ah, is that what it was? See all right, very good and then That's every month though. We do a Mexico Monday at the beginning of every month So if you want to get involved see brother segura and then below that other upcoming events We got the Spanish night tomorrow night at 7 and then we've got the soul winning marathons happening in different cities across the country Starting this Saturday and it's going to be this Saturday in San Diego, California you can see brother Daniel if you have any questions about that and Then we've also got the Virgin Islands mission strip see brother Raymond if you need any information about that coming up in May That's about it for announcements. Let's go and count up the soul winning for the past few days So going back to Monday anything from Monday got it anything else from Monday gotcha Oh Mexico Monday, of course All right, and then what about Tuesday? Okay, got it. Got it Anything else from Tuesday? Okay, and then I know in the church fan we had six anything outside of the van Anything else outside of the van? Okay Another one anything else? All right, very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's sing our next song All right, take your song books and go to him number 179 179 such love him number 179 that God should love a sinner such as I number 179. Let's sing it on this first verse number 179 Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Amen you're singing well this evening. Let's go up to him number 230 heavenly sunlight him number 230 Oh Let's sing it on that first verse walking in sunlight all of my journey number 230 number 230 Oh Oh Rejoicing I Am rejoicing All right this time we'll pass to offering plates and as the plates go around let's turn our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter number 30 Ezekiel chapter number 30 as we always do we'll read the entire chapter Starting in verse number one follow along silently with brother Hester as he reads Ezekiel chapter 30 starting in verse number one Ezekiel chapter 30 Bible reads The word of the Lord came again unto me saying son of man Prophesy and say thus saith the Lord God how ye whoa worth the day for the day is near even the day of the Lord is near a cloudy day it shall be the time of the heathen and The sword shall come upon Egypt and great pain shall be in Ethiopia When the slain shall fall into Egypt and they shall take away her multitude and her foundation shall be broken down Ethiopia and Libya and Lydia and all the mingled people and cub and the men of the land that is in the league shall fall with them by the sword Thus saith the Lord they also that uphold Egypt shall fall and the pride of her power shall come down from the tower of Saini shall they fall in it by the sword saith the Lord God and They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted and they shall know that I am the Lord when I have set a fire in Egypt and when all her helper helpers shall be destroyed in That day shall messengers go forth from me and ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid and great pain shall come upon them as in the day of Egypt for lo it cometh Thus saith the Lord God I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon He and his people with him the terrible of the nation shall be brought to destroy the land and they shall draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with slain and I will make the rivers dry and sell the land into the hand of the wicked and I will make the land waste and All that is therein by the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it thus saith the Lord God I will also destroy the idols and I will cause their images to cease out of Knopf and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt and I will make pathros desolate and will set fire in zoan and Execute judgments in no and I will pour my fury upon sin the strength of Egypt And I will cut off the multitude of no and I will set fire in Egypt Sin shall have great pain and no shall be rent asunder and Knopf shall have distresses daily the young men of Avon and Pybe's it shall fall by the sword and these cities shall go into captivity At tahafna he's also the day shall be darkened when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt and the pomp of her Strength shall cease in her as for her a cloud shall cover her and her daughters shall go into captivity Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt and they shall know that I am the Lord and it came to pass in the 11th year in the first month in the seventh day of the month that the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt and Hello, it shall not be bound up to be healed to put a roller to bind it to make it strong to hold the sword Therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and I will break his arms the strong and that which was broken and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and will disperse them through The countries and I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand But I will break Pharaoh's arms and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man but I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down and They shall know that I am the Lord When I shall put my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries and they shall know that I am the Lord Amen Father in heaven we thank you for letting us be here tonight We ask that you bless us with safe travels as we all travel to San Diego Friday and Saturday Please bless pastor Anderson and fill in with your Holy Spirit. It's in Jesus's beautiful name. We pray. Amen Man, Ezekiel chapter 30. We're continuing the judgments being pronounced upon Egypt Remember, we're in that part of the book of Ezekiel where there are these various oracles Against different nations we talked about Tyre and Zidane and now we're talking about the judgments upon Egypt this continued from chapter 29 It says in verse 1 the word of the Lord came again unto me saying son of man Prophesy and say thus saith the Lord God How will ye woe worth the day for the day is near even the day of the Lord is near a? Cloudy day it shall be the time of the heathen Now when we talk about the day of the Lord, this is a common theme in prophetic books in the Old Testament About something that's about to happen right away some kind of a judgment that's coming so you'll see these statements like the day of the Lord is at hand or talking about some people who are wishing and waiting for the day of the Lord other people that are dreading and Terrified of the day of the Lord and of course in the New Testament There's a lot about the a lot of talk about the day of the Lord as well What we have to understand is that there are lots of little Day of the Lord's throughout the Old Testament and then there's one great big day of the Lord that's coming in the future the mistake that a lot of people make when studying Bible prophecy is to think that these things are fulfilled only once and This is where we have this doctrine of preterism which teaches that everything already happened basically, you know, Jesus Christ already returned and the tribulation already happened the abomination of desolation already happened and It's really absurd in light of the things described in the book of Revelation because nothing like that has ever happened in this world So you'd have to take this really? Loose interpretation of things but this is a failure to understand the most basic teaching of prophecy 101 which is dual fulfillment in Scripture and If you get this wrong, you're not only gonna get all of Bible prophecy wrong You're pretty much gonna get every Bible doctrine wrong I mean, this is just something that you have to understand dual fulfillment Otherwise when you come to a scripture that says, you know behold a virgin shall conceive and be with child You're gonna say like all without that already happened. I was already back then Right with a little in fact, let's let's look at that scripture go if you would to Isaiah chapter 7 We'll come back to Ezekiel 20 but let's let's use this preterist logic and Let's apply this preterist way of reading the Bible and this preterist way of interpreting prophecy. Let's use it on chapter 7 verse 14 of the book of Isaiah Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good the land that thou a poorest Shall be forsaken of both her kings That is clearly talking about events that happened back then Because there's a timeline put in place that this virgin is gonna conceive she's gonna bring forth a sign and before that child knows To choose the good and refuse the evil the land that thou of course shall be forsaken of both her kings Right, and then we could go to chapter 9 verse 6, you know unto us a child is born unto us the Son is given Here's what you have to understand is that these prophecies had an Immediate shadow fulfillment. There was a woman basically who was a virgin When that prophecy was given and then she basically got married slept with her husband had a kid The kids born and by the time that kid that's born Knows the difference between good and evil the land that he appores is gonna be forsaken of both her kings That's a timeline that's being given but there's also a literal fulfillment where an actual virgin conceives without Actually knowing her husband and conceives and brings forth a son and that's about Jesus Okay You could have a guy in the Old Testament who's named Emmanuel whose name means God with us But then you have a later actual fulfillment where a child is born that really is God with us so when prophecies are given in the Bible, there's often an immediate or a Shorter range shadow fulfillment and then there's a great big more literal fulfillment that comes in the future This starts all the way back in Genesis folks When God says that in the day that you eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil you shall surely die In the day that you eat thereof the day that you eat thereof You will die now did they physically die the day that they eat ate thereof? No, but they died spiritually That's the shadow fulfillment. Is that Spiritually, they died. Okay, and That's why they need salvation. They need a resurrection of the Spirit through the quickening of salvation, right but then later there's a literal fulfillment because they actually physically die and that Eating of the forbidden fruit is what set in motion the course of events that ultimately leads to their physical death hundreds of years later Same thing with Babylon, you know, we could say prophecies about Babylon and he talks about how Babylon's gonna be destroyed now It's true that Babylon is sacked by the Persians okay, but the actual complete utter Destruction of Babylon where nobody lives there doesn't happen until hundreds of years later And then even hundreds and hundreds of years after that you have another fulfillment in Revelation 18 with the destruction of Babylon yet again, and this is how all Bible prophecy works I mean you always have these dual and triple fulfillments. So you talk about the abomination of desolation They'll try to say oh that already happened with the Tychus Epiphanes Nope because Jesus is talking about it as a future event. Oh what happened at 70 AD when the Romans That's that is a fulfillment. But the big fulfillment the big abomination of desolation is still Coming and again, this is a sermon all in itself. I've done a whole sermon on this I think I did a sermon called like dual fulfillment in prophecy and I went through and just gave example after example after example after example Because it's pretty easy to fill a whole sermon you could fill a whole series of sermons on this you could fill a year of Sermons on that and so we've got to understand that when the Old Testament says the day of the Lord's at hand It's talking about something that's about to happen. That's at hand. That's about it's it's a it's a shadow fulfillment It's a smaller day of the Lord Because the day of the Lord is like a theme It's like a type of day that happens over and over again in the Old Testament where God brings judgment Where God brings revenge upon the heathen and so forth, but in the New Testament The Bible says, you know the day of Christ is not at hand Because there must come a falling away first and the man of sin needs to be revealed first and The Bible talks about the day of the Lord as happening after the Sun and moon are darkened The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come But when we study Old Testament scriptures on the day of the Lord and New Testament scripts on the day of the Lord there are a lot of common denominators that we're gonna find and a lot of the things in the Old Testament about these smaller day of the Lord's are Pointing us to truths about the day of the Lord that is still coming in the future the New Testament Big day of the Lord where the Sun and moon are literally darkened Jesus Christ comes in the clouds the trumpet sounds the Elector gathered etc So let's think about that a little bit in light of this passage. He says that the day of the Lord is Near and It says a cloudy day It shall be the time of the heathen Now I really do like the song when the role is called up yonder and I don't want to stop singing it But I'm a little bit perplexed by one of the lyrics Where it says on that bright and cloudless morning when the dead and Christ shall rise Folks that is incorrect That will not be a cloudless morning That is doctrinally wrong. Okay, you know I'm not saying we should throw out the whole song because it's not really a serious enough error to necessarily get upset about But we should probably be singing like on that bright and cloudy morning You know try to make more sense to just say cloudy be an easy fix to that song How is it a cloudless morning when the dead and Christ shall rise that is incorrect? Because the day of the Lord is a cloudy day and the Bible says that Jesus Christ cometh with clouds When Jesus ascended to heaven in Acts chapter 1 it says this same Jesus Which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven And it says that a cloud received him out of their sight So Jesus Christ is coming in the clouds in in first Thessalonians chapter 4 You know you have the clouds right and so, you know the famous rapture passage The dead and Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them In the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord Wherefore comfort one another with these words you see the day of clouds is The day that Christ comes at the rapture, but guess what it's the same day as the day of the Lord now Pre-tribbers don't get this they don't comprehend that the day of the Lord is the day when Christ will return at the rapture This is why in first Thessalonians 4 when he gives this Teaching about the dead and Christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord Wherefore comfort one another with these words the next breath in first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 1 is but of the times and seasons Brother 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 Why doesn't? He need to write to them about the times and the seasons of the rapture Because they already know 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 Travel 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 you're all the children of light and the children of the day We are not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others But let us watch and be sober and so we see that it's gonna come upon them as destruction But you brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief now look none of that would make any sense If the day of the Lord and the rapture happened at totally different times How would he be like why don't have to write you about the times of the seasons of the rapture? Because you already know the day of the Lord so comes as a thief the night if those are two different times Okay So we know the timing of the day of the Lord tell us the timing of the rapture Well hold on a second if I if you know the timing of the day of the Lord You know the timing of the rapture and here's what you know about it that it's coming as a thief in the night Upon the unsaved when they say peace and safety sudden destruction comes on them But you on the other hand brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as thief So you are to watch and to be sober You are to see these things come to pass and look up and know that your redemption draws nigh as Opposed to the heathen that will be taken unawares So what we see here in Ezekiel chapter 30 is consistent with the New Testament concept of the day of the Lord being a cloudy day Christ coming with clouds the clouds are a major motif the Sun and Moon being darkened That's constantly mentioned in the Old Testament also the clouds also, it's something to howl about Right then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man Coming with the clouds of heaven and power and great glory behold he cometh with clouds and Every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so amen wailing and howling Pretty much the same thing noises that you make when you're really upset It's what a baby would do when they're very You know adults though reserved that for very serious things for a baby It could be as simple as just taking away a sucker out of their hand But for an adult it takes a little more than losing a sucker to get you to howl and wail. It's really bad Whoa worth the day he says at the end of verse 2 He's saying man You need to really wail and howl to the degree that this day is scary and to terrible And and you know, you need to really howl Because it's that bad. Okay, so it's a cloudy day But then notice this next phrase it shall be the time of the heathen It shall be the time of the heathen Now what you need to understand about this word heathen is that this term heathen is often used interchangeably with like nations or Gentiles right heathen nations Gentiles, these are terms that get used interchangeably throughout Scripture We're talking about people other than The nation of Israel when we talk about the Gentiles we talk about the nation's plural as opposed to The single nation of Israel you got these nations the Gentiles the heathen The time of the heathen. Well, it's interesting that in the New Testament There's talk of a time of the Gentiles, isn't there now go if you were to Luke chapter 21 Luke chapter 21 and again the pre-tribbers Completely just butcher this doctrine and ruin it Because the problem is when you when you when you believe in a pre-trib rapture It ends up goofing up the rest of your interpretation of a lot of other things in the Bible and just for you They don't know when I say pre-trib rapture There are people out there who teach that the rapture comes before the tribulation That the rapture in fact could occur at any moment. They teach that no signs precede the rapture There's no sign to watch for it could happen today. It could happen tonight. They're probably going crazy right now With Russia and Ukraine and just losing their minds like this is it it's about to happen, you know What they don't understand is that there are various things that must come first Okay, and that the rapture happens after the tribulation. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 24, but it's sort of like a guitar You know if one string on the guitar is out of tune You can tune the other five strings to match it and now the guitar will sound good when you play that guitar Until you try to play with someone else Who knows what I'm talking about? All right. We've got a few musicians out there You know, it doesn't matter if my top string is out of tune as long as I tune the other five to match it Hey, it's gonna sound beautiful. It's gonna sound great till the piano starts playing till a trumpet starts But you know and so what happens is people get a wrong doctrine the preacher of rapture and then they just start tuning every other Doctrine to match and then they have this system that all makes sense to them because they've just retuned Everything to match the preacher of rapture But then the problem is when somebody else who actually knows what the Bible says or reads the Bible tries to talk to them It's like oh what? Oh, what do you say? Well, yeah, let's say how good I say Yeah, and then it's like yeah, okay But did you notice how that's not really an A that you're playing it's not actually a C Only in your little world where your guitar is in tune in your own mind But when you actually match it up with reality It doesn't match when you get into other people who are actually on the right program So that's how it is. So what happens is they've got this they've got this doctrine called the time of the Gentiles and For them The time of the Gentiles is right now for them They have this doctrine that says that the when the rapture takes place According to them at the beginning of the tribulation before the tribulation that that's when the time of the Gentiles ends You know that like it's all about Israel Israel Israel Israel Israel, but then we're in this little period called the church age which is like God taking a break from Israel and Right now we're in the time of the Gentiles But then the time the Gentile is gonna be over at the rapture and then God's gonna go back to dealing with Israel Okay, this is all Just garbage like it's completely false. It's not taught in Scripture. It's completely wrong The church age lasts forever What does the Bible actually say in Ephesians? It says to him be glory in the church throughout all ages Amen yeah, you guys finish that verse for me Amen, so world without end. Amen, right? But anyway, Luke 21, let's see what the Bible says about this time of the Gentiles. Okay, so Look at Luke 21. It says In verse number Well, yeah, I was gonna start in 20, but yeah, let's jump down to like 24 they shall fall by the edge of the sword Well, we gotta back up to 23 at least sorry but woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people okay, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled Now The first thing I want to point out here is the third person pronouns They shall fall by the edge of the sword. They shall be led away Right wrath shall be upon this people. It's a third person that we're talking about Okay Verses in other parts of the chapter its second person talking to you Like look if you would ever summer 13 and it shall turn to you for a testimony Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer for I will give you a mouth and wisdom Which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say nor resist and ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends and some of you shall they cause to be put to death and Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake and there shall not perish an hair of your head in Your patience possess ye your souls and when ye shall see Jerusalem compass with armies Then know that the desolation thereof is nigh then let them You see the difference Then let them Which are in Judea flee into the mountains let them which are in the midst of it depart out let not them that are in The countries enter therein for these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled And you could say like okay well, but the them that you know, that's just a general then that could also refer to some of the use Okay, fine. All right But it's clear when it says there's gonna be wrath upon this people that he's not talking to believers in that verse is he? You're you you you your your your hey, man, there's gonna be some wrath on this people folks We're not appointed unto wrath, but to abstain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ But there's gonna be some wrath on this people which people is he talking about the Jews Jerusalem Judea the Jews there's gonna be some wrath on this people and they Shall fall by the edge of the story. It's not saying you shall fall by the edges or This people the Jews they shall fall by the edges or and shall be led away captive into all nations That's not our fate. Our fate is not to be led away captive into all nations, but of the Jews it is Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled So the times of the Gentiles according to what the Bible actually says is Talking about a time when Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles During a time of wrath upon the Jewish people am I right? Isn't that what we see here? Okay, let's go to Revelation 11 and let's see that in Revelation Let's cross reference that with the book of Revelation While you get to chapter 11 I'm going to start reading verse number 1 and there was given me a read like unto a rod and the angel stood saying rise And measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship there in but the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not watch this for it is given unto the Gentiles and The holy city shall they trodden to foot 40 in two months. Is that consistent with what we saw in Luke 21? Jerusalem being trodden underfoot of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled During the time of the Gentiles when this happens and I'll give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sacchar Now, let me help you out with a little math here at the end of verse 2 40 and 2 months is the same period of time roughly as a thousand two hundred and three score days Because 42 times 30 if we're talking about 30 day month, which is what the Bible often uses in prophecy It uses the Persian style of calendar where you have 30 day months You have 12 months in the year 360 days in a year and then every six years you would have an extra Leap month if you will to make up for the 30 days that you got out of sync with the Sun and so that's beyond The scope of this sermon, but that's the system that the Bible often uses 30-day months 12 months in a year Except on a leap year. They have 13 months Which called a DAR 2 is the second month or the other that's the second a DAR that they add but anyway, the point is That the 42 months the 1203 score days are the same time period so the point is that the holy city shall they? Tread underfoot 42 months While they're treading the holy city underfoot for 42 months is the time That the two witnesses are prophesying Everybody see that The holy city shall they tread underfoot 42 months and I'll give power to my two witnesses and they shall prophesy 1203 score days clothed in sacra during this time. Okay is clear from the context So What time period is this? What time is this that the two witnesses are prophesying for a thousand two hundred and three score days? Well, here's a little hint later in the chapter their prophecy ends. It Says that basically when they shall have finished verse 7 when they shall finish their testimony The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them So when they finish their 42 months of prophecy Then the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit kills them. So the Antichrist kills them Their bodies lie in the street for three and a half days after three and a half days They're resurrected and the same hour that they're resurrected look at verse 13 The same hour was there a great earthquake and the tenth part of the city fell and in the earthquake were slain of men 7,000 and the remnant were frightened and give glory to the God of heaven the second woe is past and behold the third woe cometh quickly and the seventh angel sound and there were great voices in heaven saying The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever And so the kingdoms of our Lord are become This is talking about something that has just happened Right are become it'd be like if I said joy to the world The Lord is come is come Okay means like he just came he just showed up our become means they just became okay, and so When the seventh trumpet sounds this is when these guys are ending their testimony Everybody see that they end their testimony That's the end of the second woe After they're resurrected and there's an earthquake and these different things seventh trumpet sounds the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and the and he shall reign forever and ever and so on and so forth so this would place the prophecy of the two witnesses in the second half of Daniel's 70th week they begin to prophesy in the midst of the week and They prophesy for the second half because you know we've got the seven-year period When we have like 42 months or a thousand two hundred three score days You know are we talking about the first half are we talking about the second half? Well, we would place this in the second half okay So be in the second half of that period when Jerusalem is trodden down this makes perfect sense because what do we know? Happens at the midpoint of Daniel 70th week the abomination of desolation which involves The Antichrist going into the temple and claiming to be God Okay, and this is when the wrath on the Jewish people really starts, and this is when Jerusalem gets trodden underfoot of the heathen beginning with that event of the abomination of desolation and So the point is that The pre-trippers are claiming all the time of the Gentiles You know that's this period that we're living in right now Before the tribulation even starts before Daniel 70th week even starts before the rapture even happens. That's what they're saying What does the Bible say the time of Gentiles is the Bible says it's a time? That's basically you know deep into things Starting halfway into Daniel 70th week When Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles see they just make up definitions for things They just make things up. They just say they just say oh the rapture is not the second coming of Christ They just make that up like so I guess according to them. It's like coming 1.5 That's what they claim Well the rapture is not the second coming, but hold on a sec What is the Bible call the rapture the Bible calls it the coming of the Lord? Well, yeah, but you know his feet don't all the way touch the ground Okay, so what? So what so it's not the coming anymore is that what the Bible says see we got to use Bible terminology the Bible says in first Thessalonians 4 We which are alive and remain unto the coming unto the coming unto the coming of the Lord if the Bible calls it the coming of the Lord we better just call it the coming of the Lord and By with by the way them which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with him That's why the Bible says behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints Well, and this is what the pre-triples will say on their on their special guitar that doesn't match anyone else's guitar On their special pre-trip guitar. They're like well, you know at the rapture He's coming for his own, but at the second coming he's coming with his own But hold on a second didn't the Bible say in first Thessalonians 4 even so them also which sleep in Jesus Will God bring with him at the rapture will bring with him. He's going to bring with him But they just they don't care They're just like quit playing that piano Quit playing that saxophone because I'm just playing my guitar here and it all makes sense and it all sounds good Just shut up and believe it because I said so I can only I'm the only one you need to listen to Don't listen to anybody else because anybody else is gonna show how out of tune you are You actually listen to someone else who's actually just reading the Bible and taking it to face value The Bible calls it the coming. Oh, yeah, but that's not what it meant Why don't we just call it what the Bible calls it the second coming? Unless you just want to call it the coming of the Lord, but don't come up with this thing up Well, you know Armageddon revelation 19 that's the second coming Folks know that Bible does not call that event the coming of the Lord If it did call that the coming of the Lord then we'd have to call it a third coming But the Bible doesn't call that event the coming of the Lord it call it you could call it Armageddon Call it revelation 19 call it Jesus riding in on a white horse call it whatever you want But don't call it the coming of the Lord because the coming of Christ is the rapture period So the Bible here uses the term the times of the Gentiles to refer to the time that Jerusalem is trodden underfoot So don't come at me with this thing of well the times of the Gentiles is you know between? Pentecost and the rapture you're making that up Okay times of the Gentiles is Referring to Jerusalem being trodden underfoot in the second half of Daniel 70th week It's what the Bible is calling it. That's what the Bible says now Let's see if that's consistent with our shadow in Ezekiel 30 Now look I would never use Ezekiel 30 as my primary text for teaching in times the primary text is revelation The primary text is the New Testament. You know I would say the most important text on end times is revelation That's the clearest most important text the second most important text I would say would be Jesus Christ teaching in the Olivet Discourse and in Luke 17 and The third most and then I would say you know start with revelation make that paramount Then you know Jesus's words in the Olivet Discourse are crystal clear, then I would support with information from the epistles You know and then I would move to the Old Testament after that because we need to make sure that we Put the clearest start with the clear and move to the unclear Everybody get that? Clearest is revelation The rest of the New Testament is also great But obviously revelations the really clear book that's super focused on end times, but yeah, Thessalonians is clear Jesus is clear the Old Testament is more obscure because they're seeing through a glass darkly and A lot of what they're saying in the Old Testament is mixed With short-term events so it's mixing short-term events with distant future events And so you have to be able to unravel that whereas in the New Testament. We know we're only talking about future events When it talks about the future we know its future Whereas Old Testament that can be a little conflated, so that's the way we should interpret So I'm not saying that Ezekiel 30 is the go-to Gotcha Proof text, but I will say this Ezekiel 30 supports what I've just taught you from the New Testament And it's consistent with what I just saw you because it says that the day of the Lord is a cloudy day And I'm teaching that Jesus Christ comes in the clouds, and that's the day of the Lord That's the day of Christ and the day of the Lord Consistent It shall be the time of the heathen I've explained that the time of the Gentiles is referring to a period of time during the second half of Daniel's 70th week when Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles and now When does the rapture take place when does the day of the Lord take place well? We know that the rapture or the day the Lord takes place in the second half of Daniel 70th week During the time that revelation and Luke 21 have identified as what the time of the Gentiles So is this cloudy day day of the Lord in the New Testament is it is it the time of the heathen is? The time of the Gentiles yeah, so so Ezekiel 30 is saying the same thing that revelation is saying Same thing that Luke 21 is saying you know just for fun. Let's go back to Luke 21 Now you say you're not spending a lot of time in Ezekiel 30 Well first of all we we did read the whole chapter before the sermon started number one, so I remind you that but secondly you know it's just that I already preached about the doom and destruction of of Egypt last week in chapter 29 and chapter 30 is just kind of continuing that same theme So that's why I'm spending a little more time on these first few verses because the theme of the chapter Egypt's gonna get smoked by by Babylon didn't we already get that last week though? Okay, so that's why we're talking about this instead a little more so look at look at Luke 21. We talked about how there's kind of a they them about Jerusalem getting destroyed and Jerusalem being trodden down to the Gentiles wrath on this people wrath on the Jews You say doesn't God have an end time plan for the Jews. I mean is he totally done with Israel Is he done with the Jews? No he's not done kicking their butts Pastor Anderson said he did God's done with Israel. I never said he's done punishing him I Never said he's done chewing him up and spitting him out He's they're just done as being the chosen people of God because we're the chosen ones we're the elect But he says at the end of verse 24 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 and the waves roaring they're gonna be great earthquakes, and of course these lady lead to great tidal waves or tsunamis and It says 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 so notice Men's hearts failing them for fear is again a third-person thing This isn't you saved Christians, man. You guys are gonna be so scared. You're gonna be freaking out He'd know he says they're gonna be freaking out when they see the cosmic signs here of the Sun and Moon being darkened the earthquakes the seismic sea waves and then he says and then Shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud? With power and great glory and and so again every eye shall see him and When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth night now according to the Pre-tribbers we wouldn't even be there for this Right I mean according to the pre-tribbers We're not even there When all these cosmic signs are happening when all this wrath is on the Jews when all these Earthquakes and waves and all of these things all this distress and tribulation that's happening They claim that Christ coming in the cloud When everybody sees him is they claim it's not the rapture folks. I know it's stupid. I feel dumb even saying it Feel stupid even saying it, but they literally say that Behold he cometh with clouds is not the rapture When every eye shall see him and they also shall which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even So amen that's not the rapture according to them Even though in first Thessalonians 4 it says he comes with the clouds He's coming in the clouds will be caught up together with them in the clouds In in Matthew 24 when it says that the Son of Man is gonna come with clouds and gather the elect They say that's not the rapture They say that's not the rapture. That's the glorious appearing Not the rapture. It's a difference of glorious appearing but on a second They claim the glorious appearing is happening years after the rapture and that's totally separate from the rapture But what does the Bible say the Bible says when you see these things come to pass what? Christ coming in the clouds with glory when they see him So when they see him is when we are supposed to look up our heads Because our Redemption draws nigh But according to according to the pre trippers when Jesus Christ comes in the rapture. Nobody's gonna see him It's a secret rapture That's what they call it So they claim Christ is gonna come in the clouds twice and That the first time when he comes Coming 1.5. If you will since he already came in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago They claim that basically when the trumpet sounds gonna be like a doggy whistle we're only saved Christians hear it It's a certain pitch a certain frequency We all they hear it and then basically according to them in the rapture. We're going to disappear and There will be a pile of clothes Sort of like, you know, like like Darth Vader or something, you know, making obi-wan Kenobi disappear, you know Where is this a pile of clothes? That's what they believe my friend and their view is about as scriptural as Star Wars and Okay, and then they've got their own movie about this suit called left behind and in the Left Behind movie Everybody's disappearing as piles of clothes everywhere. Right? Am I right? Isn't there the pile of clothes? I'm sure there is That's not what the Bible the Bible doesn't teach that anywhere. The Bible teaches no such thing Nowhere does anybody disappear in the Bible in the rapture nowhere, is it a doggy whistle that no one hears it's a trumpet and basically every eye sees him at the at the coming of Christ in the clouds and When every eye sees him, well, it's a different event Then why does Luke 21 tell me that when every eye sees him I should look up because my redemption draws nigh Sounds like that's my train out of here is The same train as when every eye sees him and the Bible says that he will send forth his angels to gather the elect From the four winds from one end of heaven to the other so it doesn't say that anybody disappears It says that we are caught up together Which is what the word rapture literally means the word rapture is Latin for caught up A lot of people say that the word rapture isn't biblical it is biblical as long as you're reading the Bible in Latin Okay, but you're not reading the Bible in Latin That's why you don't necessarily think it's biblical but you're reading it in English, but you have it in English It's the words caught up then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up Right that in Latin that would be rapturous, right caught up You know, I I'm not declining that Latin noun or that Latin participle properly But anyway, the point is that's where we get rapture It doesn't it sounds better than using the English ketchup, you know, like we're waiting for the ketchup It doesn't sound right caught up. So it's better to say the rapture and Since 40% of our language is from Latin. Anyway, I think we can use one more Latin word rapture So quit saying it's unbiblical because it's not but it's not a biblical it the Bible says caught up Which is the literal meaning of the word rapture, that's all it means so it is a biblical term and so We are caught up Together with him in the clouds. The Bible says he'll send forth the angels together Like just as a lot was dragged out of Sodom and Gomorrah by the angels The angels took hold of lot and they took hold of lots wife and they took hold of his daughters and they drag them out We will be caught up by the angels into the clouds now What exactly does that look like? You know, I don't know because obviously it hasn't happened yet And I'm I you know, I haven't seen the future or anything like that to be able to tell you what that's gonna look like But I don't I just can't see you know my clothes Falling off in this process. I just I just I'm not seeing it. I Mean are the angels gonna grab me that fast to wear my clothes or just ripped off my body. I mean Most outfits wouldn't even really allow that necessarily, you know So this is all a made-up Hollywood fiction Okay Plus they always show way too many people disappearing because most people are going to hell Sorry to break it to you narrow is the way we see their life. So every planes not gonna crash Because there's a lot. There's a lot of heathen pilots out there. They're just gonna keep on flying. Okay, no issue All right It's like oh every planes coming down it's like I wish that many pilots were saved, you know But let's be a little more realistic, right? And there are a lot of safe people out there. Don't get me wrong Obviously, you know every time I go soul winning for an hour I run into at least one person that was saved including today So that's when you look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws an eye Couldn't be clearer. All right. Now, let's go back to Ezekiel 30 So it's the time of the heathen Chapter 30 verse 4 and The sword shall come upon Egypt and great pain shall be in Ethiopia. Now. We spoke about this recently how Egypt is a picture in Scripture of the world. Egypt is often symbolic of the world That's something I've talked about a lot and shown you a lot in Scripture and here we see the sword shall come upon Egypt But symbolically, you know, the sword is basically coming upon all the heathen all the nations The tribulation is an event that affects the entire world This is another reason why preterism is so stupid because the events that the preterists point to Were local events, you know, the Jewish Roman War was a big deal if you're living in Judea but do you think people in India China or Africa or Western Europe Do you think that they gave a rip about the Jewish Roman War or even knew about or even heard about it? They probably heard about it years later when all the Jewish refugees started showing up But this was not some event that rocked their world whereas the book of Revelation clearly teaches that the events of the end times will be worldwide and How many times does revelation have to say all kindreds tongues nations people before you get that through your head? But yet the preterists will come along and say nope, it's it already happened back then in this little local event and Then also all kindreds nations tongues people shows us that the emphasis of the book of Revelation isn't the Jews The emphasis of the book of Revelation is all kindreds nations tongues and peoples In fact, the word Jew is used twice in the book of Revelation and is both calling them the synagogue Satan both times It's in chapters two and three So In Ezekiel 30 verse 4 The sword shall come on Egypt and great pain shall be in Ethiopia when the slain shall fall in Egypt and they shall take away Her multitude her foundations shall be broken down You know this obviously is talking about local events back then but the future Prophetic nature of this is you know The foundations of the earth are gonna be shaken the whole world is gonna be punished The swords gonna be upon the whole world Ethiopia and Libya and Lydia and all the mingled people and Chub and the men of the land that are that is in league shall fall with them by the sword and this idea of being in league Again is symbolic for the end times because we know that in the end times there's going to be a great league of nations Right. The Bible says the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ The ten great kings of this earth Will agree together and give their power and strength unto the beast the ten of them will agree and give all the power to the Antichrist So there's a league there's a united nations in the end times there's a confederacy there and So we see a league here in verse 5 Thus saith the Lord they also that uphold Egypt shall fall the pride of her power shall come down From the tower of Saini they shall they fall in it by the sword sayeth the Lord God They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate and her cities shall be In the midst of the cities that are wasted of course in the end times book of Revelation We have talked about how the cities of the nations fell, which is one of my favorite statements in the book of Revelation The cities of the nations fell because I read over it for so many years and then one day just clicked with me the cities of the nations fell and you know what it clicked with me that the cities of this world are filled with very tall buildings and When there's an earthquake unlike any earthquake that's ever been on this earth Those buildings are gonna fall down Because even if they're built for earthquake resistant you have a structural engineer in the house Hey, you know we typically when buildings are built for earthquake Okay, I know it was a few months you took the test But you know what kind of an earthquake are they built for like on the Richter scale do they say like it needs to be? to this certain Okay Yeah, they're built to handle certain levels you know because you can have earthquakes you can have a building That's that's all set for the typical earthquake that might occur in Arizona What we'd expect to occur in Arizona you'd probably build that building a little differently in Japan Where you're having a major earthquake every year in Japan you know go on Wikipedia and look at the list of earthquakes in Japan that are above a certain level that are that actually did damage and Where actual like buildings were destroyed and human life was lost and they're literally happening like every year in Japan So if you just really want to experience an earthquake just live in Japan for like a year, and you're gonna experience one Because I mean they have some serious earthquakes over there you can look at that list it's incredible The amount of earthquakes you're gonna build a building differently in Japan Then you're gonna build it in Arizona where earthquakes aren't really a thing here, and if you're in the Bay Area in California You might not be up to Japan levels, but you're gonna be definitely building to a higher level than Kansas as far as your earthquake resistance But God says that in the end times there's gonna be an earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth Well they're not building for that You know they're not building for that level of earthquake and so these skyscrapers will start to come down And it's just like dominoes and then they you know The thing starts caving and the thing just comes down. You know you think about September 11th You know the the controlled demolition of building 7 And You know you think about that building 7 just free-falling into its own footprint You know just imagine that happening all over the world due to large-scale earthquakes Unlike the world has ever seen the cities will be falling and so here. There's a shadow of that talking about cities being wasted Just cities being laid waste Cities that will just be completely desolate because you know that's just that's just three buildings falling on September 11th, not two Okay, you know not how many buildings was it two three buildings all right? Three buildings one that didn't get hit by a plane Building seven right fell into its own footprint It's Never happened in the history of mankind that a steel building has just collapsed due to fire alone because Jet fuel can't melt steel beams But you know if you want to read up more on that go to architects and engineers for 9-eleven truth But that's another story all right, but anyway So The cities are gonna be wasted They shall know that I'm the Lord when I have set a fire in Egypt and when all her helpers Shall be destroyed in that day shall messengers go forth from me and ships and make the careless Ethiopians afraid Again the worldwide nature of this is being emphasized here of course. It's a local event. It's just talking about literally just Egypt in Ethiopia but Ethiopia can also be a symbolic in Scripture because Ethiopia is Seen as the furthest thing south you know in the in kind of the known world Obviously there are other things south of Ethiopia, but you know when the Bible says Ethiopia it basically just means Black people living really far south in in Egypt That's what's referring to because the people in Ethiopia were blacker back then than they are now You know now Ethiopia has been a colony of Italy and different, but you know for a long time Ethiopia has been mingled with Europeans and so forth but in the Bible the Bible you know it talks about the Ethiopians of being very black and So it's really just it's referring to just kind of the the extreme Sort of like when it wants to talk about the extreme West it'll say Tarshish, which is in modern-day Spain right the Iberian Peninsula because that you know they're not talking about America and stuff It's like the known world their world is kind of like okay Tarshish this way Ethiopia this way and you know they have their different borders So when they'd want to talk about the king it has you hear us, and how great is his reign is it's like from India to Ethiopia These are like extremes India to Ethiopia so Ethiopia is just symbolic here Not just of literal Ethiopia, but it's just symbolic of the ends of the earth extreme south Ends of the earth that's what we're talking about Because of the you know if ancient people would have sailed around the tip of Africa Which they may have done you know? Herodotus claims that there were people who had sailed around the tip of Africa and so forth you know if they would have sailed Down around the tip of Africa back in those days not really knowing the geography They would have just seen black people in South Africa and just said it's just a great big Ethiopia down here You know it's just the whole thing's Ethiopia. That's what they would have just referred to this so again It's just it's emphasizing the worldwide nature in the end times of the tribulation events And So the careless Ethiopians you know basically that that's a reference to people who are kind of living far away from where the action is in The region of Babylon and Egypt and Israel and this fighting that's going on people that are way far from that They're all the way in Ethiopia this doesn't affect us But he's saying you know it's gonna make the careless Ethiopians afraid like like they're just kind of careless means carefree It doesn't mean that they're like that they don't wear a seat belt or something you know Was it careless means they're carefree like they're living down in Ethiopia and everything's great And we're happy down here, and we don't really care about this war that's going on, but he's saying you know He's gonna make the careless Ethiopians afraid With what's going on? It's sort of like us we could sit that we could kind of look at this Ukraine Russia thing and say hey That's on the other side of the world. That's not my problem. It's not my issue That's them because it's not actually directly affecting us and don't eat and Folks the gas prices are high That's not Russia by friend That's called a hyperinflation from printing trillions of dollars last year. Did you forget about last year? Remember 2020 and 2021 when you're just printing trillions of dollars of stimulus Hyperinflation was already happening before this Russia thing. This is now. It's just convenient. Oh this that's Russia's fault Oh That's no that has nothing to do with all the government spending trillions and trillions of dollars that we didn't have in 2020 just wait what that's what Biden literally said Biden Lewis said all the gas prices who saw that clip where Biden said that I don't even watch anything in the media I don't even read the news, but even I saw this clip that was going around of Biden saying like oh What the gals somebody like yelled out to him or something he's like oh the gas prices Oh, there's not really anything I can do about that. That's that's Russia. That's that's the Russians This is like a 10-second clip that somebody sent me. That's the Russians that did that That's funny because everything was already going up months ago It just keeps going up. I'm sure it's gonna make it worse But you know what having to pay a little more at the gas pump Isn't really a big deal in the scheme of things because at least we go to bed tonight And we don't worry about getting bombed or anything I Mean you know you might have to walk places you might have to ride your bike a little bit You might actually get in shape and maybe you won't be dwelling in verse 5 in the land of chub as much you know See don't hey don't say I'm not preaching the chapter. We're going word by word verse by verse You should be glad I caught glossed over that judgment upon chub You should be glad that I blew past that but you know the thing is You know yeah, you might have to ride your bike a little bit save a little money on gas Stay home and cook food at home because you don't want to be driving all over town You know and and yeah, okay, that's bad But you know it's a lot worse is wondering are you a bomb tonight are gonna be evacuated in the middle Man we should be thanking God every day that we live in land of peace We are careless Compared to people in Europe right now. They're actually dealing with this stuff in their backyard man We are we're the careless Ethiopians tonight and So we're dwelling carefree But what what the what I want to emphasize here is that when the tribulation happens? People Like us that are in extreme parts of the world super far from the Middle East super far from Russia and all these other goings-on We're dwell. We're we're the carefree Ethiopians right now. Okay, but in the tribulation. We'll be affected The whole world's gonna be affected right even the extremes Tarshish, Ethiopia We would be those extremes today because we're so far from everything because we're on the other side of the world and thank God We're on the other side. Well isn't it great to be on the other side of the world from all the junk That's always going on in the Middle East and Europe So great. Thank God for the Atlantic Ocean the Pacific Ocean what a blessing You know Canada and Mexico You know aren't that bad if you think about it, you know They're not the worst neighbors that we could have you know Mexico is a lot cooler than Canada, but anyway, that's just my that's just my view But He said, you know the careless Ethiopians man, they're gonna be afraid great pains to come upon them, you know It's the worldwide nature of the tribulation reaching to the ends of the earth and we'll go ahead and stop there the rest of the chapter is just explaining how God's gonna execute his judgments upon all these different parts of Egypt and by the way, when it says sin and no in verse 15, those are places That's not talking about sin and like no I'm gonna bring judgment on no I'm gonna bring my fury upon sin You know, I wonder if some preacher somewhere just didn't really read the context and he's like man God's furious about sin. Look at his ego 30, you know, he just he did the concordance and didn't really do his due diligence Those are places. Let's buy our heads and have a word of prayer father We thank you so much for your word Lord and thank you that we do dwell careless here Lord in in the United States Lord I pray that you would be with any saved Christians tonight that are over in Ukraine or in Russia or any of these other places Lord That you would bless your people and keep them safe Lord and I know you're bringing some judgments upon a couple of wicked nations over there Lord because We know that Russia and Ukraine are filled with idolatry the super idolatrous Orthodox Church 67 percent divorce rate Super the highest abortion rate if I'm if I remember right in Ukraine and Russia of that whole region Lord you're bringing judgment. You're bringing fury But Lord, please just protect your people save your people Lord and help other people that are not saved to get saved When they get scared about what's happening help them to seek you Lord and help there be some gospel preacher They're ready to give them the the true gospel Lord thank you for letting us be carefree Help us to study to show ourselves approved so that we don't have a bogus view of the end times and in Jesus name We pray men Amen take your song with us, please. Let's go to him number 359 359 thy word have I hidden my heart number 359. Let's sing it on that first verse 359 I Oh So let's be on that first verse my word is the lamb to my feet Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh You