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Going to pick it up from last week concerning these stunning developments in the
Middle East. Specifically as it relates to Israel, Russia, and Iran, and of course
Syria; specifically related to the developments surrounding the Golan
heights. It seems that the situation, in just the last seven days since last
Sunday, has intensified now, to the point where something is going to have to give.
It's almost like we have a case of who's going to blink first; and it's not if, but
when. And when that happens I believe it will have profound prophetic
implications. Now for the benefit of those who were not with us for last
week's update, I'll just real quick
bring you up to speed with what's now happening. The entire world, namely the UN
and with the UN, the US as well, have declared that Israel should give the
Golan Heights back to Syria, now. It's even been rumored that there are some
backroom deals taking place to offer Syria the Golan under the banner of a
peace deal and cease-fire there in Syria; and this explains why it is that Russia
has been very active. Russia is very interested. And it also explains why
Netanyahu met with Putin in Russia a week ago. And this by the way was after
Netanyahu, for the first time, held a cabinet meeting in the Golan and declared
that the Golan
will remain permanently under Israel's control.
Well as you might imagine, this has caused quite a firestorm. This brings us
to last Sunday, when the tensions surrounding the Golan Heights escalated
to the point that, according to The Times of Israel, the Islamic nations called an
emergency meeting on the Golan Heights escalation. Let me quote the times report,
"The world's largest body of Islamic nations has called for an emergency
meeting over statements made last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
that Israel would never relinquish control over the Golan Heights. The
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation", that's an oxymoron, "will meet Tuesday at
it's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to discuss Israeli escalation against"',
get this,
"the occupied Syrian Golan." They don't even call it Israel's. They call it Syria's.
"Joining others in the region to express alarm over Netanyahu's declaration." I was
sharing this morning in our prayer meeting that I was a little envious
because Jack Hibbs and Amir Tsarfati, he's going to be here in August, by the way, were actually
in the Golan as all of this was escalating. And I posted the YouTube
video from Jack Hibbs on my Facebook and Twitter accounts. And I would really
encourage you to watch it. It is very very interesting. In fact I want to
mention something from that video that we just learned, breaking news out of
israel this morning; but I don't want to get ahead of myself yet.
Tuesday, Benny Avni of the New York Post wrote what I think is a must read
op-ed piece titled: "The New
UN Consensus on Syria: Israel Must Pay." Here's what he had to say, very
interesting. The Bashar al-Assad regime is outraged. So angry in fact that on
Tuesday it asked the UN Security Council to do something. And the council,
including America, finally agreed on something regarding Syria. It must get
back the Golan Heights from Israel. Not Raqqa, the capital of the ISIS caliphate,
nor ancient Palmyra. Not northeast Syria owned by the Kurds, nor the Syrian
heartland's controlled by the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front. And not the
enclaves ruled by Druze and various warlords. Nah. After all, what are a
half a million loss Syrian lives compared to Syria's wounded pride over
events of a half-century ago. This month Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
convened his cabinet's weekly meeting on the Golan, a first. The high plateau will
forever remain Israeli, he later declared. That declaration was against all
security council resolutions, Rafael Dario Ramirez, the UN ambassador of
Venezuela told me Tuesday. So, he and his Egyptian colleague called for a special
meeting of the UN body charged with maintaining global", listen, "peace and
security." That's First Thessalonians 5:30, 'While they are saying peace and security,
sudden destruction will come upon them as a woman prevailing in labor.'
I don't know if it's possible to overstate the prophetic significance of
the Golan Heights; and I say that for a number of reasons. One of which is this
Jerusalem Post article from Tuesday in which they report about the concern in
the North being that of ISIS cells using chemical weapons in the Golan. What? How did
chemical weapons wind up in Syria, and for ISIS to use. Oh, well it's believed that,
and this is what Jack Hibbs and Amir Tsarfati talked about; and I
actually heard about this in the early nineties, that one Saddam Hussein moved
all of his weapons of mass destruction out of Iraq. And where did he send them?
He sent them to Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and it's believed that they are under
Damascus. Think about that.
We'll come back to that in just a moment. It seems that ISIS in the southern Golan
and Syria has acquire some of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical
weapons stockpile. According the Jerusalem Post there have been multiple
reports of ISIS using chemical weapons in battle. Last August the Wall Street
Journal reported that ISIS used chemical weapons for the time during an
insurgency in Iraq. Russia similarly reported in January that there is a high
chance that ISIS has been using chemical weapons in combat in Syria. I hate to
say that this is a game changer, as it were, would be a gross understatement;
this is huge; this is huge. Now begs the question of: what will Israel's
response be?
And thankfully, we need look no further than to this Times of Israel report on
Wednesday, in which they quote a senior Israeli official going on record and
stating that any Islamic state affiliates use of chemical weapons will
be
redline. And by the way, when israel says its a red line, it's a red line. It's
a red line. He said and I quote, listen, "The IDF would strike an Islamic state
affiliated group operating near its border with Syria if there were any
indication a jihadist group was testing or using chemical weapons. Now let's maybe
try to connect the dots. if those weapons are under Damascus, and the Islamic state
can get their hands on it, and israel has made it very clear, in no uncertain terms,
that that's a red line; and that they will strike, well, it sounds an awful lot
like Isaiah 17 doesn't it? We'll come back to that as well. Enter Russia, and one
Vladimir Putin, who has also made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he
wants to share in Israel's natural gas. He's been trying for quite some time now.
Quoting this Jerusalem Post article from last Sunday, "The Russian press reported
at the end of last week that Russia was seeking to enter the israeli natural gas
industry, following a meeting in Russia last Thursday, between Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And here's the
breaking news out of Israel just this morning. I usually on Sunday mornings try
to get up about four, so I can prepare, and the first thing I found when i turned
my computer on, was they have discovered an estimated 1.2 billion NIS, which is
the New Israeli Shekel, worth of oil. And by the way, that is a conservative
estimate; and it was found by drilling near the Dead Sea.
Make no mistake about it, Putin knows this, even before they actually
discovered this. Another thing I was sharing in the prayer meeting this
morning, our prayer we do pray, I also do a mini update sometimes, because so much is
happening. But I was sharing about how the many years ago I heard a prophecy
teacher talk about the source of all of the oil in the Persian Gulf. Not that
there was oil in Israel, but the source of all of the oil in the Middle East was
actually in Israel. Now think about that. Everybody laughed at him, I didn't. But
that's very interesting, because if all of the oil supplying Saudi Arabia, Abu
Dhabi, Qatar all of these rich Persian Gulf,
Kuwait, all of these rich Persian Gulf countries that are so oil rich, if the
source for all of their oil, for all of the arabs, my country. I remember when my dad was alive,
I told him, I said you know, he was a teacher; and I said why couldn't I
had been born into Arab oil. He didn't have an answer, but oh well. So but, all of
the arab oil: what if the source of all of their oil is in Israel. Hoo, that would
change the dynamic quite a bit. And again this is why Putin is all over this, for
lack of a better way of saying it.
So what does all this mean, on the grand scale of Bible prophecy? Simply put, every
nation, to a nation, is today, today
positioned at the ready exactly as the Bible says they will be, at the end of
human history. Specifically, Russia, and Iran, and an alliance of nations all in white
on the screen;
they are all poised with the hook in the mouth, according to Ezekiel 38. And
furthermore, and perhaps even more interesting, nations pictured in yellow
like Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and perhaps more importantly Syria, all of whom are not
mentioned in Ezekiel 38: which would indicate that something happens to those
nations to explain their absence from this alliance of Nations in Ezekiel 38.
Some suggest that Isaiah 17 will be fulfilled, the destruction of Damascus, so
that it becomes a ruinous heap, and is uninhabitable. That is a specific detail
concerning Damascus. And were Israel to strike, because the Islamic State is
going to get their hands on those chemical weapons, that are underneath Damascus,
that would certainly explain why it is that Damascus would be uninhabitable.
That is Isaiah 17; it's Jeremiah 49, very detailed. You know, this last week I was thinking to myself:
you know I usually start on the
prophecy updates. It's I'm addicted to Bible prophecy. I usually go home
on Sunday afternoons and I want to see what happened while we were here. And then I
pretty much throughout the week am processing everything that is happening, of
prophetic significance. And I was thinking this past week that, you know, for years
I've been interested in Bible prophecy I've studied Bible prophecy; I've taught
Bible prophecy; and I had to step back from the proverbial tree in order to
sort of get my mind around how incredible this forest of Bible prophecy
really is. This is really happening.
Everything that for many, many years I was talking about, and excited about is
today happening. You know we would talk about Isaiah 17 and then just this last week
I'm looking at Isaiah 17 through the lens of this escalation in the Golan, and
thinking to myself, oh, yeah, I see it now. I see how the...Because there was some debate
about, you know whether or not
Damascus becoming a ruinous heap would even come by Israel's hand. We just know
that it's going to happen. We don't know how, or by whom it will come. Well then all of
a sudden you start looking at everything that's happening today and you think,
wait a minute, that would certainly fit the prophecy, and the details in the
prophecy. Again I mention in the video, they suggest that Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction were transported to Syria, and are today
underground in Damascus; which is why, when we went into iraq, we did not find
any weapons of mass destruction. They were already gone. They were long gone under the guise
of relief and aid. This is the intelligence that has come out of Israel,
by the way. Israel knows it's there, and so does Russia. Russia knows it's there and that's why they're
in Syria. And I assure you Bashar al-Assad knows it's there, because he's the one that got these weapons from his
friend Saddam Hussein at the time. Well I would submit that every puzzle piece of Bible
prophecy is now being put in place, and then next event on God's prophetic clock
is the rapture of the church. And this is how I would like to close on this
communion Sunday before we partake together of the communion table. What if
I told you, would you believe me if I told you, that in the communion we
actually have a picture of the pre tribulation rapture?
Well it's true. I'll take it a step further and say this: if you were to ask
me what I thought was one of the most compelling proofs of the pre tribulation
rapture, it would have to be the typology it's woven into the prophetic
fabric of the ancient Jewish wedding customs in which they would partake
together as a type of the communion. And I'm hoping before we partake together, that
you'll allow me to share with you why this is and how it is that this speaks to
the rapture of the bride of Jesus Christ.
In the Jewish wedding the groom's father makes the match (Shiddukhin) and
chooses the bride, and the groom approves of the choice. With our wedding so to the
Father chooses us the bride and Jesus approved the choice.
the Scriptures will be on the screen. Also, I'm not going to, in the interest of time,
grocery list them so to speak. So one way you can get them is, we upload a PDF file
that has all of the references, and it's basically a chart that I created. It has
the Jewish wedding on one column, and our wedding on the second column, and the third column
has all of the scripture references . And you can actually download a PDF, and
should be available for download no later than tomorrow, sometime. But all of
these scripture references, and all of this typology is listed in that PDF file,
as the prophecy update, by the way; and also the first Corinthians teaching
which today was on the pre-tribulation rapture. This is not exhaustive, by the
way. I have over the years, sort of condensed it. But there are some who have,
and I owe them a great debt of gratitude, have gone into all of the details, and
there are so many. I'm only going to share what I think are the main ones. But there
are so many more than that which I'm going to share today. In the Jewish wedding
a marriage covenant (Ketubah) is made in writing for the bride; and
it's a promise to the bride, a covenant that will be fulfilled. So too with our
wedding. A new covenant is made in the written word of God for us as the bride,
and the old covenant promise is fulfilled. In the Jewish wedding they
would, and this where the communion comes in, they would then break bread, eat from the
same bread; and drink from the same cup. and this would seal the betrothal, the
Kiddushin, of this new covenant. When Jesus is there with his disciples, and He
breaks the bread, and they drink from the cup, this was a picture, a type, a
foreshadow of the bride groom and his betrothal to us his bride, his church. And
the bride with then eat from the bread, drink from the cup; and this was her way
of saying I accept your marriage proposal, and they were officially
engaged. Just like when we break bread, and drink from the cup at the Last
Supper. It's the ceiling of his new covenant in His blood. In the Jewish
wedding the groom pays the price, the Mohar, showing the bride his love for her.
As with our wedding Jesus paid the price in for us on the cross. And this shows us
as His bride, that there's no greater love that any man has, that that he would
lay down his life for another. And this is that love that Paul refers to, to the
Ephesians church, when he says husbands, I always do this whenever I do a wedding,
I have to get permission from the couple first. But I love doing weddings. I love
what weddings represent. And I love what marriage represents, because it's a
microcosm of our marriage to the Lamb. And I always out of Ephesians read, where
three times Paul says to the husband, love your wife. And he only says to the
wife one time, respect your husband. And he doesn't say to the wife respect your
husband even once until after he's told the husband to love his wife three times.
And so I beat the groom up pretty good when I do a wedding. And of
course the bride is over here thanking me up one side and down the other, because if,
you know, I have yet to meet a man that doesn't want his wife to respect him.
"Respect me woman." Here's the problem guys: we'll let you in on a little secret that took
me many years in my marriage to figure out. I've been married for 28 years, by the
grace of God, but for those early years, I didn't realize that God wired the wife
to respect her husband proportionate to how her husband loves her in turn. In other words, you
show me a wife who respects her husband, I'll show you a husband who really loves
his wife, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her. That's the love, and that's the picture, and that's
type. In the Jewish wedding the groom makes a speech. It's a promise to his
bride that he would come again for her soon. And with our wedding the speech
from Jesus is recorded, and it's a promise to us as His bride that He will
come again for us, and he will come soon. It gets better. After this the groom
leaves, and goes to his father's house and prepares a place for his bride. It's
actually a room addition that he builds on his father's house. And this is what
Jesus meant when he said, Behold I go to prepare a place for you. In My Father's
house are many dwelling places, many mentions, many rooms. If it were not so I
would not have told you. You know what he was saying? I'm going to go build a bridal
chamber, my bride. As your groom now that we're engaged, I'm going to go build a
bridal chamber in my Father's
house. And this was the ancient Jewish wedding custom. Now with the Jewish
wedding the father was the only one who knows the day or the hour of the groom's
return for his bride. This is why Jesus said, no one knows. This was an idiom that
they would have understood by the way. No one knows the day or the hour, only the
Father. And then, the groom gives the bride love gifts, Mattan. And just as
Jesus, our groom, gives us as His bride gifts, the free gift of eternal life, love,
peace. Peace not as the world gives. These are all gifts. And then the father gives the
bride gifts as well, Shiluhim, to equip her for her new life as an
inheritance. And this is with us
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are spiritual gifts from the Father and
their for us in our new life in Him and with Him. Then the bride would take a
purifying bath, a Mikveh, which is the Hebrew word for baptism. And so too are we baptized
in the Holy Spirit who cleanses us and purifies us
as the bride from the inside out. Then the bride's unmarried friends, the
bridesmaids, attended a bride and provide light for the groom who will come as a
thief in the night. Just as we prepare the bride by letting our light shine
with oil in our lamps, so the bride is ready for the groom who will also come
as a thief in the night.
Then when the bridegroom comes, the groomsman run ahead and shout, he is
coming; and they shout with the trumpet. They blow the trumpet to announce he's
coming. And when are bridegroom comes, it will be with the shout of the trumpet of
God, of God. Now for those of you online watching this prophecy update, you really
need to watch the first Corinthians 15:51 through 58 teaching prior, because we
talked about the pre-tribulation rapture and the trumpet. And this is
again the distinction that we have that is for the church at the rapture and not
for Israel. So at this time the groom snatches away, and abducts his bride. Just
as Jesus our groom will rapture us away, as he abducts us as his bride. By
the way, the Rapture has been called the second coming, and the second coming the
third coming. That's not really technically correct, because Jesus doesn't come to the earth,
He catches us up in the air. He abducts us. He doesn't come to the earth. So
technically the Second Coming is still the Second Coming. This is the rapture, it's
seven years before, but He doesn't come to earth, he abducts us from the earth,
takes us out of the earth. Then the groom takes his bride to the chamber and they
consummate (Nissuin), and celebrate for a period, listen, of seven (Shavuah) days. Seven, not
three and a half,
not one, not four, not six, not eight, seven.
Jesus will take us to His bridal chamber, the place He prepared in His
Father's house, where we will consummate and celebrate for a period of Shavuah 7
years. Please,
this is why the Rapture has to happen before the seven year tribulation. If it
doesn't you destroy all of the typology. Ask Moses about how that
worked out for him when he struck the rock twice. Jesus is the rock, and He was
always struck once, and when Moses struck twice he was forbidden entrance into the
Promised Land. Why? Because he ruined the typology. He ruined the typology. One of the
things that I hear often is, you know, well the early church you know had to be
persecuted and martyred. Well what do you think's happening right now? Oh, not in
American, least not ye. Bbut with my people, the Arab people, in the Middle
East, they're being beheaded for their profession of faith and belief in Jesus
Christ. But here's the here's the answer, and again it you'll forgive me if it's
an oversimplification. But why would Jesus want his bride to get beat up
before the wedding. I remember, I counted the days down before my wife and I got married.
I proposed to her in a helicopter. I was such a romantic back then. When I was young and had hair.
And I couldn't wait. We courted for two years and I was counting down
the days. It was interesting because at the time she was living in my
father's house. I kind of got it backwards anyaway. But that's how they do it with
the Arabs, anyway,
maybe, I don't know. But, and I couldn't wait until our wedding. And when Jesus, and
we'll see it when we partake of communion in Luke. It says, I eagerly await to
partake with you when this finds it's fulfillment in My kingdom. He said
that twice by the way. You get the impression that he eagerly awaits for
this to find its fulfillment. He can't wait. He's counting down the days.
And that hour when we get married. And that's how it is, and why it is. And let's move on. The party
waits outside until the groom tells the best man that it is consummated, and then
the guess rejoice for a period of seven days. The bride has not come out of the
bridal chamber for seven days, just like the bride will not come back with Him by
his side until after seven years. During our seven-year celebration, the world
goes through the seven-year tribulation. Again do you see why you can't put the
Rapture anywhere but at the beginning of the seven year tribulation. Then after
the seven days, seven years there's a big feast. It's called the wedding feast. This is
the marriage supper of the Lamb, and its afterwards. The seven-day wedding
celebration, the marriage feast is after the seven days. And we too after the
seven years celebration have the marriage feast of the Lamb. This is why
the post tribulation rapture, one has called it a bungee cord sack lunch. I'll
let you think about that for just a minute. But at the end of the seven years, after
we go through the tribulation. And then were caught up. And then, but wait a minute what about
the seven, what about the celebration, what about the consummation, what about the marriage
feast. It all has to be really quick.
You can't put the rupture anywhere but at the beginning. And then there were three
groups present at the wedding. You had the groom, the bride, and the invited
guests. Now this is very interesting, by the way. There will also be three groups of
people at our marriage of the Lamb. The groom of course is Jesus, the bride of
course is us, and the guests are those saved after the rapture during and at the end
of the seven year tribulation. These are the tribulation saints. They are guests at the
wedding. They are not the bride. They are not a bride. They're at the wedding, but
they're the guests. They're not the bride. In Revelation twenty the bride is seated
with Christ on the throne. Those are saved during the Tribulation are serving
at the throne. Do you see the distinction? Do you see the distinction?
Okay, lastly the new home of the bride was Jerusalem, and it was the bridegroom who
came to the bride to dwell with her; and so too for us it is from the New Jerusalem
that the believers in Jesus Christ, during the messianic age, for the millennium, for the 1000
year reign will be with Jesus Christ seated with Him on the throne. Why don't you all stand? Appreciate
your patience.
At this time going to have the worship team come up and lead us in song. And as they do
I'm going to have you come up. We have three tables in the front, two on the side, one
of the center. And get the elements, and take them back to your seat, and then
take your seat, and then wait, so that we can partake together. So why don't you go
ahead and come on up.
In Luke's gospel the 22nd chapter, verses 14 through 21, we have the account of the Last Supper. And Luke
writes and says, 'When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And
he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with
For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds
fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” I'm hoping that as I read this you're
looking at it through the lens of the rapture and the typology that's behind
it. And this is coming from our bridegroom to us as his bride. After
ttaking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I
tell you I will not', and here it is a second time,
'drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he
took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body
given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ' If you take the elements and peel
back the top part, you'll find the bread there, just hold onto it for a moment.
What we hold our hands a symbol of the body of Jesus Christ that was broken for us
and instead of us. He gave his body for us. And when we partake of this bread,
what we are saying in effect is: I do. I will marry you. I accept you. It is an
acceptance of a proposal for marriage to the Lamb, the Lamb of God. Would you
partake with me?
Lord how can we thank You enough for giving us this in remembrance of you, just as a reminder,
because we need to be reminded of what it is that You did for us in that You
died for us, and paid in full for us with your broken body, and your shed blood. Lord Jesus we
accept, we accept. We do and we too eagerly await for You to come so we can partake
with You, when this is fulfilled in Your kingdom. Thank You Lord. Luke goes on to write, 'In the
same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "this cup is the new covenant
in my blood, which is poured out for you." ' If you take the rest of the packaging
and peel it back, you'll have the cup. And again just hold onto it for a moment. the
The Mohar or the price that Jesus paid, and paid in fall is symbolized in the cup
that we hold in our hands.
The Bible says there is no remission of sin
without the shedding of blood. And so Jesus shed his blood in our stead as the
payment in full for all our sins. And I don't think you can overstate the
importance and the significance of the symbolism of that which were about to
partake of. It's not our blood, it's His blood that was shed; and he said to them
at the Last Supper, this is the blood of the New Covenant. This is the new
covenant,the promise, and the fulfillment of that new covenant, in his blood.
Would you predict with me?
And once you do please stand. Again Lord we find ourselves wholly incapable of
expressing to You adequately our thanks and gratitude for what You did for us,
for Your love for us, that father you so loved the world that You gave your only
begotten Son; that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish in hell
for all eternity; but have everlasting life with You in heaven for all eternity.
So Lord maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
God bless you. Have a great Christ centered week. And Lord willing, we'll see
if not on Thursday for a midweek, we'll see you next Sunday.