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men is equal chapter number 39 tonight we're going to be wrapping up a section in the book of Ezekiel because as I showed you last week chapter 40 verse 1 is a hard break where we start a completely different vision we start out with in the five and 20th year and all that it's a brand new section of Ezekiel so we're wrapping up this little two-parter of Gog and Magog in chapters 38 and 39 and also a bigger section of chapters 35 36 37 38 39 that's all kind of flowed together up to this point now one of the things that I'm constantly repeating as I'm preaching through these things is that when we're reading these Old Testament prophetic books we need to understand that they have a primary primary relevance to the people that he's preaching to at that time about the things that they're going through at that time and then they also have an end times significance so there's often a dual fulfillment of the prophecies in the Bible so like for example we saw in Ezekiel chapter 37 that when we saw the valley of the dry bones and they were really dry and really dead but then the bones started assembling and the flesh came on the bones and they became a great living army the immediate interpretation there was for the children of Israel they're in the Babylonian captivity their nation is dead God's gonna resurrect the nation of Israel back then okay because they're gonna come back from the Babylonian captivity with Ezra and Nehemiah and guys like that but then there's also a future and time significance of an actual physical bodily resurrection of the the millennial reign of Christ where people are going to come up out of the graves and then there's going to be that millennium and so chapter 37 was talking about something relevant to them at that time coming out of captivity but also pointing us to the fact that one day David would reign over them in the promised land that's like my Jesus the son of David he's gonna fulfill all that in the millennium well then when we get into chapters 38 and 39 there is a lot of talk about nations that existed back then at that time and there's this idea of Israel being back in the land and then being attacked and God defending them and so forth but this also has great end times significant significance and and this is the biggest no-brainer in Bible interpretation of all time where to put this because Revelation chapter 20 flat out tells us where this okay now go to Revelation 20 I'm going to show you something different don't worry I'm not repeating my sermon from last week although it might seem like that's the direction I'm going I'm going to show you something completely different and completely new here and we're gonna go through verse by verse chapter 39 and we're going to debunk the Zionist pre-tribulation rapture crowds view and this is the book that I've been using to do that last week I pulled out this book that's written by Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice okay so Tim LaHaye is the co-author of the Left Behind series which obviously millions and millions of evangelical Christians have read that they've seen the movies they've been influenced by that and it's baloney in fact the actor himself Kirk Cameron who was the star of the Left Behind movie has in the past few years come out and said the preacher rapture is not biblical okay so you know even the actor of the movie knows that it's a bunch of baloney but anyway Thomas Ice is this Baptist theologian that has the pre-trib research center so he's just really into the preacher rapture so basically he's full of excrement all right anyway sorry didn't mean to say that but anyway let's let's go ahead and move on here but Revelation chapter 20 let's read the relevant passage again and I'm gonna point out some things okay it says in verse number one I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years now stop for a moment and let me just emphasize to you the most important thing that everybody forgets that everybody ignores unfortunately when we're talking about the millennium is that the millennium we talk about it as the millennial reign of Christ thousand-year reign of Christ but guess what Christ reigns for more than a thousand years what the millennium actually is what actually characterizes the millennium is the fact that the devil is bound for a thousand years what is the thousand years is the thousand years how long Jesus reigns nope the thousand years is how long the devil is bound and if you understand that that'll get rid of a lot of the false teachings and wrong ideas because all of these post-millennialists and all millennials will say well isn't Jesus reigning right now but that's not the relevant question the relevant question is is the devil bound right now and the obvious answer is no he's not obviously the devil is not bound right now the devil has not been bound and so we are pre-millennial okay Jesus Christ will return in the clouds the trumpet will sound all that will happen before the millennium so we believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ Jesus returns and then the devil is bound for a thousand years and then of course the saved rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years but it's not saying that they only reign for a thousand years it's just saying that they reign for a thousand years why the thousand years because that's a special thousand years where the devil is bound that is not a limit to Christ reign in fact let me prove that to you keep your finger there and go back to Daniel chapter 7 and I could show you a whole bunch of verses but I'm just gonna show you one that makes this crystal clear we could look at several others that would teach the exact same thing and it's an important foundation that we need to lay Christ's reign does not last for 1,000 years it lasts for longer than 1,000 years the thousand years is when the devil is bound that is the significance of that number that is not a limiter on Christ's reign okay and I'm gonna prove that to you look at Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 it says I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man who are we talking about came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given him Dominion and glory and a kingdom and all people nations and languages should serve him watch this his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and we could point to many other scriptures that would show that Christ's reign on this earth is eternal it is everlasting the Bible says of course in the famous verse in Revelation 11 the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever now why is this significant why is important we'll look at Revelation chapter 20 the devil is bound for a thousand years so that he can deceive the nations no more but what does the Bible say in verse 7 and when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison now let's stop and talk about the word expired for a moment okay let's say I had some milk and it's expired now what if the date on that milk said May 15th and one of my kids came to me and said this is expired what would I say to them what would I say to them if they came to me and said dad look May 15th this milk's expired what would I say to them I'd say it's not expired because it's only May 11th isn't today the 11th this isn't expired you think money grows on trees we're not throwing out this perfectly good milk and what if it said what if it said best by May 15th and it's May 17th I'd say well it's just not gonna be the best thing but we're probably still gonna do it anyway because it's only a couple days all right that's reality sometimes we don't eat the best but anyway the point is when you say something's expired it's over it's not about to be over it's done the Bible says the thousand years are expired you know everything in the Bible means something so don't just ignore that choice of words he could have just said after a thousand years or something like that and then you could say well he's rounding it's 997 it's 992 no no it says the thousand years are expired meaning that the time has been completely fulfilled that's an important choice of words so when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth now how long is that going to take we don't know that could take a week but that's highly unlikely isn't it because if you're gonna sit there and organize an overthrow of the regime that's been ruling for the last thousand years so so Christ is ruling with the Saints for a thousand years and there's no challenge to him the deception that even leads people to want to overthrow that doesn't even start until the thousand years are completely over and expired that's when the deception even starts and then the devil's got to go out and convince people to do this and then they have to make a plan and then they have to figure out a way to execute that plan I mean this is I think it would be pretty much absurd to think that this is going to take anything less than many years it's gonna take years I mean you think you're gonna do that in a month or even one year I mean the chances are this would take several years many years we don't know but it's gonna take time in order to do that now you say why are you making such a big deal about that Pastor Anderson I'll tell you why because the dispensational lists the Zionist the pre-trippers they've got these cute little charts that just completely ignore what the Bible actually teaches and it just is what they want it to say not only that but they've been cooking the books for years to try to claim that the earth is only 6,000 years old exactly now there is no way to make that math add up with the Bible if you actually look at the Bible and do the math it has to be at least like somewhere around 60 250 years old at a minimum 6,300 years old you know somewhere in that ballpark there's no way to get the number down to 6,000 you can't and if you look at the charts go go on Google right now and Google these charts that show the earth being 6,000 years old and every single one of them shows the children of Israel in Egypt for only 215 years they shave off 200 plus years from the children of Israel sojourn in Egypt in order to cook the books to make it 6,000 you say why would they want to do that because they had this cute teaching that they taught all throughout the 20th century and even into the beginnings of the 21st century but I'm not hearing it anymore that basically that the earth would basically be 6,000 years old exactly when Christ returns and then a thousand year millennium because they said well a day is like a thousand years a thousand years like a day so they taught that it was like a big week and that basically six days of our sinful condition and all the bad things that we have going in this earth and then the the millennial reign of Christ is like a seventh day to this thing so they have it all really clean and nice and tidy where you've got 6,000 years of human history 1,000 year reign of Christ and then what they call the eternal state starts exactly when the thousand years ends well guess what it didn't happen because here we are in 2022 and they've already doctored the numbers as much as they possibly could and everyone has to acknowledge the fact except the Jews their account the Jews calendar says it's like year 5,900 and something because they can't count either but really no serious Bible believing Christian at this point can buy into this because it's just over it's over 6,000 years by anybody's number and if you actually do the real math you're gonna find you're gonna go into at least 62 6300 years if you actually have them in Egypt for 400 years like the Bible actually says they were in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years to the day that's what the Bible actually says in Exodus chapter 12 so you don't have this clean thing of 6,000 years 1,000 years eternal state that is a fiction okay in reality we have no idea when Christ will return he may return in our lifetimes he may not return our lifetimes but it's if it were that easy to calculate he wouldn't sit there and say no man know what the day or the hour and watch and and you don't know folks quit trying to predict when it's gonna happen you can't no one can't and that's why you had people who claimed it was going to be 1996 1997 1998 2000 2010 2012 2015 I mean all these predictions thankfully we're getting out of that zone as we get further away from 2000 but I'm sure it'll ramp up again here pretty soon because they'll say well it's two thousand years after the crucifixion or something you know but at the end of the day we need to just not worry about it and just live our lives watch for the signs of the times but again this is a fiction Christ's reign is not 1,000 years but actually Christ's reigns beyond the 1,000 years because there's time that goes by for the devil to go out and deceive people and create this coalition that's going to come against the land of Israel where Christ is reigning at that time and so every war has a buildup that takes years in reality okay now and we'll talk more about that once we get into the meat of Ezekiel 39 so let's go back to chapter 39 now now we already saw just quick review what we saw in chapter 38 was that at the time that the battle of Gog and Magog takes place which revolution revelation 20 just flat-out says it's after the thousand years will be the battle of Gog and Magog it says Gog and Magog in black and white and we saw that according to chapter 38 it would be a time when Israel is dwelling safely everybody's in safety no bull no bars or locks on the gates and just totally secure totally careless and and yet this guy wants you to think that that's that that Gog and Magog happens before the tribulation or at the beginning of the tribulation like how can anybody look at Israel right now and say no walls and it calls it the the land of unwalled cities unwalled villages nobody calls Israel that Israel is filled with giant walls barbed wire turrets machine guns whatever now in chapter 39 we're gonna see even more how absurd this view is that claims that Gog and Magog happens before the millennium when first of all the Bible flat-out said in Revelation 20 it happens after but then again the Bible also flat-out said that the rapture is happening after the tribulation and they move that before the tribulation so you might as well move Gog and Magog before the millennium while you're moving things around but let's get into the chapter Ezekiel 39 therefore thou son of man prophesy against Gog and say thus saith the Lord God behold I am against thee O Gog the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal and I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee and will cause thee to come up from the north parts and I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel thou and all thy bands and the people that is with thee I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured and thou shalt fall upon the open field for I have spoken it saith the Lord God and I will send a fire on Magog and upon them that dwell carelessly in the Isles and they shall know that I'm the Lord now what's significant here in verse 6 is that the people who come to this battle are going to be destroyed by the Lord right and we see that in Revelation 20 fire comes down from heaven and devours them but it also says that he's gonna send fire on the people who are back home basically the people who didn't come but who are also rebellious against the Lord that are dwelling carelessly in the Isles or coasts or just far-flung places is what that means they shall know also because those that are dwelling carelessly God's gonna send a fire on them as well so will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel and I will not let them pollute my holy name anymore and he then shall know that I'm the Lord the Holy One in Israel you say why so much talk about Israel because Ezekiel is preaching to Israel to the people at that time and he's got a message for them in that generation of you're gonna come back from Babylon you're gonna be a nation and God's gonna protect you and God's gonna know that I'm the one who brought you back and so forth but then there's also the foreshadowing of the Battle of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 after the millennium so every single thing in this passage may or may not apply to the end times because some of it could be for back then and so forth so that's why there's so much emphasis on Israel but of course we know that in the end times Jesus is going to be ruling and reigning from Jerusalem and so he's gonna be in Israel and the 12 apostles are gonna be sitting on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel so you know talking about it as Israel makes perfect sense anyway at that time verse 8 behold it is common it is done saith the Lord God this is the day where I have spoken and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the weapons both the shields and the bucklers the bows and the arrows and the hand staves and the Spears and they shall burn them with fire seven years now stop for one moment here and think about this for a moment after this battle is over after the Lord has destroyed the enemies at the Battle of Gog and Magog it says that they will burn the weapons for seven years now think about this what do you think is gonna take longer to produce stockpile prepare the weapons and get them ready and train everybody and get everything ready for this rebellion or cleaning up after it I mean this goes to show that if it's this serious of an attack with this level of weapons then wouldn't that go to show that it's not gonna happen in a week or a month but that rather after the thousand years are expired the devil goes out to deceive them and then they're gonna have obviously done some preparation because they've prepared all these weapons now apparently when the battle is over the attitude is burn the weapons they're unnecessary so they were probably unnecessary before this they were probably created for this attack you see what I'm saying so again that that goes to show that probably the devil going on deceiving the nation's and preparing this battle if it takes seven years to clean it up it's probably gonna take some time to prepare as well so that goes to my point that I made a little bit earlier verse 10 so that they shall take no wood out of the forest neither cut down any out of the forest for they shall burn the weapons with fire and they shall spoil those that spoiled them and robbed those that robbed them say it the Lord God so for seven years they're going to be using wooden weapons as firewood the Bible saying right there or you could say maybe that they're using fuel from weapons or whatever but they're gonna be recycling these weapons for the space of seven years okay does everybody see that it's very clear okay then he's gonna go on to talk about another thing that happens after the battle where it takes them seven months to bury all the dead people okay so let's see what it says verse 11 it shall come to pass in that day that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea and it shall stop the noses of the passengers and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude and they shall call it the valley of Haman Gog and seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them that they may cleanse the land now go if you would keep your finger there go back to Revelation 20 for a moment if you would okay revelation chapter 20 is of course the the Gog and Magog passage in the New Testament and I'm gonna get my Tim LaHaye Thomas Ice charting the end times book on the right page here to show you how wrong it is okay now here's what the Bible says in Revelation verse 7 when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle the number of whom is as the sand of the sea how long is that going to take we don't know but I think it's unreasonable to think that it would take less than a year I think it would take several years many years we don't know how long and they went up on the breadth of the earth verse 9 and compass the camp at the Saints about and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them now the Bible is not giving us very much detail at all here it's just summing up a thousand years and a couple of verses and then summing up Gog and Magog in just a couple verses whereas Ezekiel 38 and 39 gives us two full chapters but look what it says he should go out verse 8 to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog and again the only place in the whole Bible that Gog and Magog are mentioned besides this is Ezekiel 38 and 39 so the Bible is clearly spelling out and telling us that the Battle of Gog and Magog happens after the thousand years it's right there it's clear but so why doesn't Tim LaHaye and his Zionist pre-trib buddy teach that well let's look in their book and let's see because this is a pretty radical claim to move the Battle of Gog and Magog to before the millennium isn't it it's kind of radical so what's the rationale well they have a section in this book called timing of the Battle of Gog and Magog the first sentence says this one of the major issues that any view of Gog and Magog must address is that seven months are required to bury the dead from battle and seven years or needed to burn the weapons so they're saying you know this is a major issue that you better take into account with the timing in fact then not only is that the first sentence so to them that's the most important thing not one of the major issues we should deal with is the fact that revelation says it's after the millennium no no that's not the major issue the major issue is the seven months to bury the bodies and the seven years to burn the weapons that's what it all comes down to for Thomas Ice and Tim LaHaye in fact not only is that the first sentence but then across the page there's like this big square and it just has that sentence again in giant print one of the major issues that any of you of Gog and Magog must address is that seven months are required to bury the dead from the battle so this is their big reason why they say it can't be when the Bible says it is because the Bible says it's after the millennium but then they say well that would make it spill over into the eternal state and on our chart you know on our chart we have six thousand years of human history thousand year reign of Christ and then boom eternal state you know we Jesus delivers up the kingdom of the Father immediately and so how's that gonna work let me keep reading for you so that's the first sentence here's the next sentence in the second half of the tribulation the Jews are fleeing and being pursued so they can't be burying the dead at that time also any view other than that articulated by Fruchtenbaum places at least some of the burning of the weapons beyond the seven years tribulation and into the millennium or even into the eternal state which makes no sense who says that doesn't make sense your chart which is not biblical for some the burning of the matter of burning weapons the millennium is not an issue but it's seen as corresponding with the people beating their swords and plowshares and Spears into pruning hooks many interpreters opt for a view that places Ezekiel 38 39 at the end of the trip you know why are you just picking where you want to put it why don't we just put it where the Bible says after the millennium it's what the Bible says so then he says you know we need to go with Fruchtenbaum that it's before the tribulation its pre-trib battle of Gog and Magog there are several strong supports for this view first the nation of Israel today is populated by Jews and other peoples from many nations yeah other peoples from many nations you can say that again second the Jews dwell securely even though not always peacefully no they're not unwalled without bolts and bars and gates third this view allows for the seven years and seven months with no difficulty so basically what's their evidence for putting it at the beginning cuz Jews reason number one number two the Jews are just so unwalled and peaceful and without any care in the world yeah that's that's ridiculous and reason number three which is the big reason that they put in bold print first sentence is because of the because the seven months and the seven years seven months to bury that seven years to burn the weapons okay let's talk about this now Thomas ice and Tim will hey why in the world would you be burning weapons during the greatest time of trouble that the world has ever seen I mean does anybody else see how stupid this is this is like the stupidest point and in fact they're like they want to make it the big deal put a big thing because what they what their followers will do their followers aren't even I think about this their followers are just gonna go oh well we can't spill into the eternal state because the chart we can't spell the eternal state with with burning weapons or burying dead so we got to move it up so yeah let's go Fruchtenbaum and put it at the beginning of the tribute I don't know fruit tree is but any Fruchtenbaum he sounds like he might be Jewish though but anywho here's the deal okay what is the tribulation like according to the Bible it's a greatest time of trouble that the world has ever seen if you're going through the greatest time of trouble that the world has ever seen what is it characterized by warfare disease inflation natural disasters are you like we don't need these weapons what do we need these weapons for and we don't need to we don't need to get any trees out of the forest because what is burn all these weapons is I mean what's what good is this stuff folks that's so dumb I don't it's like where do I even begin how dumb that is seven years of burning weapons is the seven years of the tribulation that makes no sense that's what they're teaching in this book and this book is a best-selling book I mean this is popular stuff this is in Christian bookstores all across America this is what the left behind guy believes now think about this even if you had a total wrong view of of what that seven-year period is going to be like because the Bible tells gonna be a time of trouble unlike the world's ever seen that sounds to me like we need to be cleaning our weapons you know and and and basically having weapons on the ready but even let's just enter pre-trib la la land for a minute okay let's pretend we believe in the left behind movie and we're pre-trib and whatever what do they believe is the very first thing that happens at the beginning of this they believe that everybody's good who's saved is gonna disappear right isn't that what they believe where is everybody and planes are crashing cars are crashing and people are disappear disappearances all over the globe right pile of clothes okay well that alone would be a reason to basically you know make sure your weapons are in working order am I right I mean wouldn't that alone the chaos from that supposed scenario that they're laying out which is not a biblical scenario which is not actually going to happen but what they teach that pre-tribulation rapture where everybody's is going along and then boom everybody disappears before the Antichrist before anything well wouldn't that alone create the rioting and pandemonium where you'd want to have your weapons ready you're not gonna be saying well who needs these weapons anymore let's get rid of these weapons what do we do with these weapons I mean look the Gog and Magog got smoked by the Lord and they left all their weapons here what do we do with them well you start passing them out is what you do if you're actually in the greatest time of trouble that the world's ever seen because when things are going nuts everybody's needing a weapon it's so absurd it's so crazy not only that but if all hell is breaking loose during the tribulation would that be a time when you're gonna seek out men of continual employment as the Bible says in verse 14 are you there in Ezekiel 40 Ezekiel 39 look at verse 14 and they shall sever out men of continual employment passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth to cleanse it after the end of seven months shall they search so you got guys whose full-time job is going to be burying people disposing of remains mark putting a little you know finding a body part like marking it so that somebody else can come back later and and properly dispose of that body part okay so this makes absolutely you're not gonna be worried about stuff like that during any part of the tribulation or during God pouring out his wrath on this earth you're gonna have other problems then worrying about matching up you know a body part with you know getting it buried and dealt with and you know sanitized and whatever so what's ironic is that the giant piece of evidence that they are relying on to just ignore what the Bible says about Gog and Magog happening after the millennium and to move it before the millennium is actually the piece of evidence that makes their view the most absurd it actually makes their view even crazy now you say well what about that view that the battle of Gog and Magog takes place at the you know at the beginning of the money folks why do you think it's just optional where to put this thing why do you think it's just optional to just move this thing around revelation 20 said it's after the millennium okay now the the problem that people would have with this is they would say well okay but if it's after the millennium then when do when do you have the seven months to to bury the dead when do you have the seven years to burn the weapons after the millennium so after Gog and Magog you bury the bodies you burn the weapons because all the bad guys are dead you don't need them anymore now look at revelation 20 look at revelation 20 with me which is totally condensed we're talking about a thousand years and in a few verses it's just giving us a few basic things it says in verse 9 and they went up on the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the Saints about and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them verse 10 and the devil that deceived them was cast into lake of fire and brimstone and the beat where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it whose face the earth from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place there's no time frame given there's nothing that says that the great white throne has to happen the second the Battle of Gog and Magog ends there's no reason in the world not to say that it doesn't happen a few months later years later that's one explanation is that it just it just happens and then the white throne comes after that I mean there's no verse in revelation 20 that says that immediately the great white throne judgment happens there are other places of revelation that do make those kind of claims that say the same day this happened or a half hour went by and then this happened you know five months went by and there's no time given it's just this is stuff that happens there's the Battle of Gog and Magog the devil's cast back into hell at the end of that and then there's a great white throne judgment and then there's a new heaven and a new earth and by the way I proved in another sermon beyond a shadow of a doubt that the new heaven and the new earth is basically a renewed heaven and earth it is not a different planet it's not that this planet will be completely destroyed or removed or something and a new one in place folks it's sort of like our new body we're gonna get a new body we're gonna pass away am I right this body will pass away but then I'm gonna get a new body but the new body is actually when God takes the old body and changes it in a moment in a twinkling eye the Bible says that God will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body so the new body is a renewed body it'd be like if I said I'm getting a new kitchen it's not like a crane is gonna come and just like remove the entire room from my house and then just put in a totally different room okay what it would actually be is that basically you would remodel the kitchen and you would change everything out and it would be configured and you'd walk in it would look totally different would be totally reconfigured our new body is gonna be different than our old body but it's actually gonna be just the same body changed does everybody see the difference so just as we will pass away and get a new body but it's basically a changed version of our old body so the earth will pass away and there will be a new having a new earth and the new earth has no sea there's no more sea so like currently the earth is covered mainly in water then the new earth isn't gonna be like that the new earth is going to be more of a dry land thing okay and we don't know exactly what that's gonna be like there's very little information about it there's still gonna be water on the earth obviously it talks about the river of life and different things but it's not gonna be the same as it is now but it's still gonna be this planet and that's why you can find plenty of other verses in the Bible that say what that the earth will be here forever right the Bible says in multiple places the earth abideth forever so on one hand the earth's gonna pass away another hand the earth's gonna buy forever well it's the same as our bodies our bodies are gonna pass away but we're also gonna live forever because our body is gonna get changed into a glorified bike the earth is gonna get changed into a new earth but it's a renewed earth it's not a totally separate X knee hello creation where God creates a new planet it's the same planet is just a new version it's renewed remodeled in that sense everybody see what I'm saying and what's my proof for that well you know I did a whole sermon on it a while back you can look at my sermon on the new heaven and new earth but the main proof is just look up all the verses that say that Earth's gonna be here forever there's the proof the earth abides forever and then other verses say it's gonna pass away that's because it's gonna be changed just like we will pass away but we will live on in a different form so basically this is not a problem this is not an insurmountable problem to say that after the Battle of Gog and Magog there's some cleanup that happens there's some aftermath we aren't revealed everything because God kind of has us on a need-to-know basis you know God didn't sit Noah down when he got off the ark and say you think this was bad let me tell you about the tribulation buddy you know God didn't sit there and explain to Noah okay let me tell you about the millennial reign of Jesus Christ let me tell you about Gog and Magog Noah because you know God revealed things over time and so in the Old Testament they saw later end times events through a glass darkly God gives us more detail in the New Testament but have you noticed that when you read the book of Revelation the emphasis is on that seven-year period where the tribulation happens and then after the tribulation God pours out his wrath on this earth the emphasis is on those things have you noticed how little time he spends talking about the millennium and relatively little time talking about the new heaven a new earth why because that's not relevant is relevant does because further away so stuff that's closer he gives more detail to it stuff that's further out it's just like okay here's a general skeleton here's an outline there's gonna be a thousand years there's gonna be a battle of Gog and Magog there's gonna be a great white throne there's gonna be a new heaven a new earth it's like he's just cranking through these major events in a couple verses because they're kind of just so far off they don't really apply to us so we don't really need to worry about them you know we should be more focused on learning about the stuff that's actually coming up you know the Antichrist and the tribulation also that stuff makes more sense to talk about because it could be around the corner the details of what's gonna happen at the Battle of Gog and Magog after the Battle of Gog and Magog they're sorry but there's just no clear verse saying that one event immediately rolls into the other and I can pretty much promise you that the thousand years doesn't roll into the eternal state because you have to have time for the devil to go around and deceive everybody and even have this battle in the first place so let's go back to Ezekiel 39 and kind of wrap up with this okay so to me this is a big nothing burger to make a big deal about the seven months and the seven years because another explanation if you don't like my explanation which I like my explanation very much just so you know but if let's say somebody says I don't like your explanation I don't like that I want the Battle of Gog and Magog to roll directly in to the Great White Throne I don't want there to be any event in between or any lag there I want it to just be like and I want Gog and Magog to end and just slide whoa we're at the White Throne now do not pass go do not collect $200 to proceed directly to the straight white so the Great White Throne okay okay then here's another explanation where we don't have to just deny what the Bible clearly says and turn scripture on its head another explanation would be that the prophecy about the seven years in the seven months is about something that already happened back then and that there was some other minor battle that happened back then and there was a period where they were still finding dead people seven months later and and still burning weapons seven years like I don't believe that I don't think that makes a lot of sense but it still makes a lot more sense than just contradicting what the Bible directly tells us that Gog and Magog is after the millennium so I think my explanation makes by far the most sense to just say Gog and Magog is when God says it is and when it's over they bury bodies and burn weapons because it's not just an instant five seconds later we're at the Great White Throne slow down buddy got a thousand years of the devil bound we've had years and years building up to Gog and Magog hey the Battle of Gog and Magog just ended what's your hurry to get to the White Throne buddy why don't you just chill out and help me clean up these bodies chill out let's have a campfire let's sing Kumbaya and roast marshmallows with these weapons that were burning man let's roast some hot dogs and just enjoy you know it's stop and smell the roses buddy we're gonna be in the eternal state for eternal so what's the hurry to get there buddy but again these people it's all about their chart and so they've got a chart where they just go thousand years and it's like eternal state but again that can't happen that can't work because the thousand years are expired before the devil even starts his plan and he doesn't even know what he's been in hell for a thousand years the devil needs a little time to figure out which way is up when he gets out of hell I mean think about you know it's like when you get it's like when guys get out of prison and they have to figure out what an email address is or something I mean some guy's been in prison since the 70s or something and then he gets out he's trying to figure out what you know what's a cell phone what's email he's not just gonna just be like you know the next day organizing his next big heist on a cell phone on his on his smartphone everybody see what I'm saying it's got to get out and figure out what's even going on in the world in 2022 and figure out what life is like on the outside and he's you know he's gonna be calling up some of his old crime bosses and crime connections he's got to figure out the lay of the land well the devil's gonna have been in hell for a thousand years he has to get out and kind of figure out what's going on and get the old crew back together get the posse back together and and make something bad happen ok so is equal 39 so verse 15 and the passengers that pass through the land when any see at the man's bone eventually set up a sign by it like he'll label it for later till the barriers have buried it in the valley of Haman God it's sort of like when you're on a construction site and there's something wrong and you put like a little blue piece of tape on it or something to hey we gotta come back and deal with this later they'll mark the the bones that they find verse 17 and now son of man does say at the Lord God speak unto every feathered fowl and to every beast of the field assemble yourselves and come gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel that you may eat flesh and drink blood you shall eat the flesh of the mighty and we already read all this right before I started preaching but he's just talking about lots of people are gonna die the birds are gonna eat all the dead carcasses I'm destroying these enemies and I will show them that I'm the Lord jump down to the end here it says in verse number 24 according to their uncleanness and according their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them sorry verse 23 let's back up there and the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me now who does that have relevance for that has relevance for the people back in Ezekiel's day so yeah he's talking about this end times battle of Gog and Magog but now he's preaching some stuff that has some relevance to them back then because he says the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword folks that's for sure talking about back in Ezekiel's day that's what happened okay so just because Ezekiel deals with some end times prophecy stuff it doesn't mean that everything he says is is primarily directed toward end times because folks who was the first person to read the book of Ezekiel was it a New Testament Christian thinking about Revelation 20 no I mean this book was was already delivered to them and edifying them for centuries before Jesus even came to this earth the first time and so he's talking about them coming back from captivity according to their uncleanness according their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them verse 25 therefore thus saith the Lord God now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy notice now now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob because again he's preaching to people that are in the Babylonian captivity right now and saying I'm gonna bring you back from captivity and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for my holy name after that they've borne their shame and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid when I have brought them again from the people notice when he says when I have brought them because he hasn't done that yet has he because because now we're back in the president with Ezekiel preaching to them and saying hey guys I'm gonna bring you back and when I've brought you back and gathered them out of their enemies lands and I'm sanctified in them in the sight of many nations then shall they know that I'm the Lord their God which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen but I've gathered them into their own land and have let left none of them any more there neither will I hide my face anymore from them for I've poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel say the Lord God you say well that doesn't have any relevance for after the millennium so what that's him preaching to the people back then 500 some odd years before Christ and that's the thing when you're reading these Old Testament books the primary application the primary relevance is always to the audience that they're actually talking to and then there's a foreshadowing of end times overlaid so basically this is relevant to them to preach to them about Gog and Magog is the Battle of Gog and Magog gonna happen in all of its glory in their generation absolutely not but the Battle of Gog and Magog is about enemies coming against Israel and Israel being protected by the Lord from heaven so it's relevant to them symbolically to basically say hey guys you went into captivity because of your sins but I'm gonna bring you back you're gonna dwell securely and when people try to attack you I'm gonna defend you you know but then there's gonna be this great big Battle of Gog and Magog in the end times but you can't lose sight of the primary audience and you know we're about to roll into a new section Ezekiel where we get into this temple that's described right when we get into Ezekiel chapter 40 he describes a temple this grandiose giant temple and he talks about the Levites and animal sacrifices and how they're gonna run things in this temple and how it's gonna go so he prophesied of this temple you don't want to lose sight of the fact that he's preaching during the Babylonian captivity and he's preaching to people about the fact that they're going to come back to the promised land so he's also giving them a vision of a rebuilt temple which makes perfect sense since their temples been destroyed they don't have the temple they're coming back to the land and they're getting a new temple so they're getting a vision of that in Ezekiel 40 and 48 but obviously this description of the temple doesn't match with what they actually built and there are New Testament implications and end times prophecy implications but folks we're gonna interpret Ezekiel 40 through 48 the same way that we interpreted the whole rest of the book of Ezekiel same way we interpret Isaiah and the same way that we interpret Jeremiah or any other Old Testament prophetic book and you know how we're gonna interpret it we're gonna look at the relevance of what it's like for the people that are hearing this preached by Ezekiel while Ezekiel's alive preaching it right what's the primary relevance to the original audience you know just like when we read 1st Corinthians is it relevant to us well we're not in Corinth it's still relevant to us but wouldn't we also think about what primary relevance it would have had to the Church of Corinth alive at that time in that church what is he saying to those people then at that time and then we extrapolate it to our time and hey let's apply it to 2022 but we when we look at the book of Philemon we're gonna think about okay what's he saying to Philemon and then we okay now let's talk about what it means about the gospel and Jesus and what it means to us in 2022 well the same thing in Ezekiel you know we want to keep it in the context of they're in captivity with no temple and he's letting them know there's gonna be a temple again there's gonna be the priesthood doing their job again animal sacrifices it's gonna be cranking once again but remember just like elsewhere when we study Bible prophecy the short-term fulfillment doesn't typically match exactly usually later is when the more literal stuff happens so why would Ezekiel 40 through 48 be any different you know you've got a short-term view of the temple being built in the days of Zerubbabel and so forth and then you also have other foreshadowings of prophecy that we're gonna deal with and here's the thing just because the temple doesn't match exactly well guess what what human beings end up actually doing and what God tells them to do rarely end up matching or God's ideal God's perfect scenario God's just awesome plan and then man fails to achieve that which God has laid out that's called the history of mankind and in fact one very rewarding way to study the Old Testament is to look at the Old Testament as a series of failures where God is trying different things and different systems and they keep failing everything fails because ultimately man is a failure and so Jesus has to come in and be the Savior because without Jesus it's not going to work so we we show the period of the judges doesn't work monarchy doesn't work okay well let's switch out one monarch for another okay it didn't work for Saul how about David doesn't work right okay well let's split the kingdom and kind of have all the trash people up in the northern kingdom and have the good kingdom down south doesn't work okay well you know let's punish Israel put them in captivity in Babylon that'll fix them they come back they're still messed up Ezra and Nehemiah are books about failure how does I how does the book of Ezra end with a major failure everybody's getting divorced everybody's messed up it's a it's it's a fiasco Ezra chapter 9 Ezra chapter 10 is just a huge fiasco so how does the wonderful coming back from Babylon how does it it isn't a fiasco okay what about Nehemiah Nehemiah chapter 13 is where Nehemiah basically figures out that everything he's been trying to achieve didn't work out he left for a little while comes back and everything just all went to to just to dung while he was gone he comes back and it's all falling apart he's like God don't you remember what a good job I did look at what they're doing Ezra ends in failure Nehemiah ends in failure right and these are some of the latter historical books of the of the Old Testament and the end in failure Jesus is the answer you the Old Covenant doesn't work so you can have all these different variations on the Old Covenant none of them work so to say well you know if this is what God is prescribing or if this is what God has in mind you know seems like durable and Ezra Nehemiah failed you know it's like well you got it right it's not that they're bad guys it's just that human beings are flawed and you're not gonna have this idyllic utopia that God's describing in Ezekiel 43 48 you're not gonna have a utopia like that because human beings are human beings and everything's always gonna come short of that now there is going to be a coming utopia in the future with Christ the millennium is somewhat of a utopia and then into the eternal state you know which is just basically after the Great White Throne the new heaven and the new earth yeah that's gonna be the ultimate utopia and so we're gonna look at some foreshadowings and things but again I'm not just gonna change the way that I interpret the Bible just for this one passage you know what I mean I'm just gonna go with the same way that I interpret all Testament prophecies by figuring out okay what's the short-term view and what's the long-term view short-term view doesn't match up exactly well that sounds like every other prophecy in the Old Testament too where it just roughly fulfills it and then the more precise fulfillment comes later okay doesn't really surprise me at all so I just got to say one last thing that's just apropos of nothing here but just this darn this book okay you know which I like to call it's called sharing the end times I like to call it the Antichrist cookbook that's my affectionate name for this book but you know what's you know what's so bad about this book too is that it also in a chart right after this shows that the Ark of the Covenant is in hiding right now and then it's gonna get pulled back out during the millennium the Ark of the Covenant so go if you want to Jeremiah 3 16 we'll close on this because again you might wonder why I'm spending so much time on a Wednesday night talking about Bible prophecy first of all it's because God has commanded me to preach the entire Bible so I'm gonna preach everything including Bible prophecy but folks these people with their with their false doctrine are getting people ready to accept the Antichrist they're teaching Gog and Magog is before the tribulation and the raptures before the tribulation and all this and this thousand-year reign has animal sacrifices and everything this book is teaching it's prepping people for the Antichrist because the Antichrist yeah there are gonna be some animal sacrifices aren't there but not only that I believe the Antichrist can have an Ark of the Covenant because you got all these Christians and Jews getting all excited about the Ark of the Covenant you got this book showing a chart that shows well right now we know the Ark of the Covenant's in hiding okay I saw that movie too but what does the Bible say okay I we all know it's in that warehouse you know the government's got that warehouse you know or whatever where it's in a wooden crate but but the point is though look what the Bible actually says in Jeremiah 3 16 and it should come to pass that when you shall be multiplied and increased in the land in those days sayeth the Lord they shall know more they shall say no more the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind neither shall they remember it neither shall they visit it neither shall that be done anymore at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord and all the nations shall be gathered unto it no no look folks I don't want to be labor this point cuz we're out of time but doesn't the Bible clearly tell us that the Ark of the Covenant's not gonna be a thing during the the millennial reign of Christ it's not nobody's gonna nobody's gonna say oh the argument it's it neither shall that be done and it was just not a thing let me tell you where the Ark of the Covenant is it's gone it's toast it doesn't exist the Ark of the Covenant does not exist on this planet in 2022 and I'm saying that on the authority of Jeremiah 3 16 because when Christ returns it is not going to be a thing anymore so I guarantee you though that the Antichrist can pull out some bogus Ark of the Covenant and it's gonna be great we got the temple we got the sacrifice we got the Ark of the Covenant and this is Jesus and it's so wonderful because all the Jews believe on him finally the Jews have accepted Jesus except it's gonna be the Antichrist and that's why I will fight this doctrine that says that oh that there's gonna be a mass revival in Israel of Jews getting saved folks that the Bible does not teach that and I and even though you know that's like the most hated thing about what I preach by the old IFP and they love to attack me for that but you know what though like I'm not budging on that that doctrine of a mass salvation of Jews in Israel in the end times is total garbage it does not match Scripture and it is the perfect prepping for the Antichrist because then when they all accept the Antichrist move it's a fulfillment of prophecy they're all accepting Jesus they're gonna be accepting the Antichrist as their Messiah and when they pull out some Ark of the Covenant when they find the Ark of the Covenant just mark it down take it to the bank it's not the Ark of the Covenant because the Ark of the Covenant is gone and doesn't exist and it's fake that's my eyes never prayer father we thank you so much for your word Lord and thank you for this section and Bible prophecy Lord bless us next Wednesday as we get into a brand new section talking about something totally different Lord as we look at this vision of a new temple and Lord God I just pray that you bless everyone who came out to church on Wednesday night in the middle of the week stopped everything drove down here filled up the gas tank and and came to be in your house to worship you because they love you Lord bless us all as we go our separate ways in Jesus name we pray amen