Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. The founder and perfector of our faith. God's ways are often mysterious. As nations fight Israel in a coming war, He will guide events to ward His intended conclusion. Bible prophecy opens our eyes to the future in amazing detail.
Ezekiel chapter 38 is the place where we learn about a great war and a surprising ending. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return. We're in Ezekiel thirty-eight, learning lessons from sign number six: war in Israel.
Pastor, I believe lesson number one was this: God is sovereign. You know, Dave, it's so refreshing for you to say that because it's so easy for us to focus on the negative, and we forget. That prophecy is moving toward an appointed end, and if we keep that in mind, if we keep God's sovereignty before us, it gives us hope and helps us to realize that things are not spinning out of control. God is God, and He will show His glory. This is the last day we're making available for you a book entitled "When Jesus Returns." You will recognize some of the authors, such as Jack Hibbs and Graham Lotts.
Think of yourself as attending a prophecy conference: various speakers, various themes, but all centered around the future. And the great hope that we have—that no matter what happens in this life, the life to come for believers is glorious.
Well, today is the last day we're making available for you a book entitled "When Jesus Returns," that I've already referred to. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do: go to rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight. Two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
Now, because this is the last day, and I believe that this book is going to be a great encouragement on your spiritual journey, I'll be giving you this contact info right after this message.
Now, enough of that. The question is, what's going to happen? And the best thing we can do here is pick it up at verse ten. Thus says the Lord God: It will come about on that day that thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan, and you will say, "I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates." To capture the spoil, to seize the plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who have gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.
It's an interesting phrase because ancient maps had Jerusalem as the center of the world, and I guess it is because here Israel, Jerusalem is spoken of as the center of the world. And what happens? Verse fifteen: You will come out from the place, the remote parts of the north. You and many people with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army. And you will come up against my people Israel like a cloud to cover the land.
It will come about in the last days that I shall bring you against my land, in order that the nations may know me when I shall be sanctified through you before their eyes, O God.
Now, first of all, we're struck by the fact that. These ancient methods of warfare are a problem to us. You say, well, surely this has happened because Russia wouldn't be using horses today and shields.
Well, there are two ways to interpret this. One is symbolically. After all, when Ezekiel received this vision from God, he had to have a way to communicate it to his people. He had to be able to speak in terms that the people of those days could understand. He could hardly be expected to talk about tanks and laser weapons and chemical warfare.
So he speaks in the language of the ancients, and maybe that's the way we should interpret it. Other people have looked at it and said, "Well, we need to understand that." Because peace will have been in the land, as we shall see in a moment, that maybe these conventional methods of warfare might work, and maybe there's a reason why Russia today, in its armies, still has a cavalry. Maybe there's the possibility that they will revert back to some of the ancient methods of warfare, particularly if the peace movement gains some strength and weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed. We're not sure. But here is what we need to know: the reason that these nations gang together on Israel is for two different reasons.
Number one, Israel is not expecting an invasion. You'll notice it says, "You will go" (verse eleven) against the land of unwalled villages. And I, he says, will go against those who are at rest, that live securely. All of them living without walls and having no bars or gates. Israel will be in a period of peace.
Well, if you know anything about Israel today, you know that it is not a country of peace. It is armed. When you go into the Tel Aviv airport, there you see guards. When you go outside, there are guards. There are checkpoints along the road.
This Israel today is in a state of readiness, high alert all the time, not knowing when the next attack will come.
So it can't refer to this period of time. What would the period of time be that Israel would have so much peace that its villages would be unarmed? And people would be able to march in.
Well, I'm not being dogmatic on this, but just think about it. Remember, I told you how Antichrist is going to sign a peace treaty with Israel. What if he has so much power as that great European leader? What if he can sign a peace deal? He can bring all of the Arab nations under his authority, and he can believe that he will have achieved peace and he will guarantee the security of Israel, so Israel will not have to worry about.
The problem of war, and it can take all of its resources that are being used for defense today, and take that money and invest it in its economy, and that might mean that Israel would then be in a position to gain a tremendous amount of power, a tremendous amount of wealth, and that also would be now a reason why these nations gang together. Why? Because the text says in verse twelve to capture the spoil, to seize the plunder. To turn your hand against the waste places, and Israel, as we know, in the Dead Sea itself, it is said that there are trillions of dollars worth of minerals, and of course, the Arab nations that are involved in this, they want to exterminate Israel anyway.
So they come up against Israel.
Well. Question is though what happens? This is one of the reasons why we know this has never, never happened in history. Because if you do not know what happens, you're going to be shocked and surprised. Because God is personally going to defend His people, and the Bible tells us exactly how He's going to do it.
You'll notice it says in verse eighteen. It will come about on that day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God. God is speaking, and He says, "My fury will mount up in my anger, and in my zeal, and in my blazing wrath, I declare: On that day, there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the fields, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at my presence. The mountains will be thrown down; the steep pathways will Collapse every wall will fall to the ground, and I will call for a sword against him on all my mountains. Declares the Lord God.
Every man's sword will be against his neighbor, and with pestilence and with blood, I shall enter into judgment with him, and I will reign on him and his troops, and on the many people who are with him. A torrent shall rain with hailstones, fire and brimstone. And I shall magnify myself, sanctify myself, and make myself known in the sight of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord God. Takes your breath away. Earthquakes, hail, pestilence, fire, brimstone.
God is going to rain on all of these armies and destroy them. In fact, the destruction is going to be so bad that we read in the next chapter it's going to take Israel seven months to clean up and to bury all the dead people. Can you imagine the stench? Says in thirty nine verse eleven, and it will come about on that day that I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea. That means they're going to take them on the other side of the Jordan River, into what today is known as the land of Moab, and it will block off the passers by, so they will bury Gog there with all of his multitude, and they will call it the Valley of Haman Gog, which is the hordes of the dead for seven.
Seven months, the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land, and that's it. They're gone.
Now, the question is, what does that do to world events? Put yourself in the seat of Antichrist. If our scenario is right. He's sitting in Europe. He has a peace treaty to keep all of the Arab nations and those who are against Israel and Russia in line.
And suddenly, God comes and destroys all of those armies.
Well, that might be the proper time then, when He really does say to Himself, "I am God." You remember how last time I told you how he will enter into the temple of God and proclaim himself to be God. It could well be that these events actually should be reversed in order, and that what happens is he gains so much supremacy because he does not have the pressure any more of these nations. He thinks he can take over the control of the world, and he goes to Jerusalem and proclaims himself to be God. What a story! What I'd like to do today is to give you three reminders of God's attributes that kind of just jump out at us from this passage of Scripture.
First of all, we see the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. God says to Russia, if our identification is correct, God says, "I am going to pull you out of the north, and I am going to judge you." As a matter of fact, it says in verse four, "I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, your horses, your horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords. I am going to drag you out of the north, and I am going to drag you to Israel to destroy you." Boy, if that isn't God being sovereign, what is? I want you to know today that that does not get these people off the hook.
Because if you interviewed these people, they wouldn't say, "Well, you know, we're doing this because God ordained it, and we feel the pressure of a divine decree." No, they're doing it just because they want to do it. They hate Israel. They want Israel's wealth. They're doing what they want to do. But God says, "Back behind your decision is my desire to judge you." God is sovereign.
Now I need to bring this home to where we live. If God is sovereign among the nations, don't you think He's sovereign in your life too? Is there any really good reason why you should resist God's sovereignty and not bow to His authority and to simply give your life to Him and say, "God, whatever it is that you desire, I submit to you." The Book of James tells us, dearly beloved, submit yourselves to God, because nations ultimately cannot control their destiny, and you can't control yours either. You buy a ticket on Amtrak. You say to yourself, "I want to get a good night's sleep," and you're in the sleeper car, and boom!
Suddenly, you arrive in eternity and don't even know what happened to you. You can't control your destiny, and therefore, submission to God is the most logical, the most reasonable, the most decent decision you can ever make because God is God, and we aren't. We aren't. There's a second attribute that I want to emphasize, and that is God's terror. Terror.
You'll notice that the Lord says regarding Russia again, assuming that's our identification. He says in verse three, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog. I'm against you. How would you like to be against God? Why is this nation?" The one that God singles out and says, "I'm against you." God is for the nations, isn't He?
Well, we've talked about its atheism. We've talked about its destructive policy, its persecution of Christians, its hatred of the Jews. And God says, "I'm going to judge you." And what does He do? He sends earthquakes and pestilence and hailstones and fire out of heaven, and He destroys them and consumes them until there are all hundreds of thousands of them lying dead in the hills of Israel. The Bible says.
Doesn't that frighten you a little bit? The fact that God says that it is this way that I will be glorified. We read verse twenty-three a moment ago. Right after all of this judgment, the Lord says, "I shall magnify myself, sanctify myself, and make myself known in the sight of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord." And in another text, He says, "And they will glorify Me." Do you realize that God is glorified through His judgment? I'll tell you, we can't make up conceptions of God to fit our own image and our desires.
The other day, I picked up a book. I did not buy it. I would not want to invest even ten dollars in a book like this. But it was entitled "Conversations with God," which I think is on the bestseller list. I'll tell you, there is more nonsense per square inch.
On the pages of that book, than you can find anywhere. I cannot even believe it, because this man is talking with God, and God is talking back to him, and and God is just giving him all this nonsense that the man wants to hear. Everything, every desire of your heart that you wish God would do and be—that's what this man has. I mean, God is not a God of judgment. He's a God of tolerance.
He's a God of acceptance. He's a God who accepts anybody. He's a God who's in favor of abortion. He's a God who's in favor of this and that and every sexual lifestyle imaginable. Folks, it's all made up.
It's all made up. God is a god of terror. The Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I mean, can you imagine entering eternity without the protection of Jesus Christ and His righteousness, and suddenly being on your own? And then there are those who say, "Well, you know, I want to stand on my own record in the presence of God." You get blown away.
You get incinerated, except that you remain conscious forever and ever and ever. God is a god of terror. That's the second attribute, but there's a third too, and that is God is a God of mercy, and we need to be able to say both. The Apostle Paul talked about both the goodness and the severity of God. God is severe; we just noticed it, but He's also good.
He's also merciful. You say, "Where is mercy in this passage?" Look at the way He's protecting Israel. He could just let those nations go in and wipe the place clean and blow all of those Jews right off the map and simply obliterate the nation and say, "Let them have it and let them tear it apart and let them kill every single living Jewish person." God could have done that, but He doesn't. He protects them. He protects them, even though at this time they are not yet believing in Him as Messiah.
But He knows that they have to. Because the Bible predicts that a day is coming when all Israel, all those Israelites, are going to be saved, and we're going to talk about that in the next message. And so you see, God is saying, "In mercy, I am sparing you to give you an opportunity to trust me." And doesn't He do that in your life?
Some of you are here today who could have died in a hundred different ways. All of us could have died in a hundred different ways. Death is so creative; it comes in so many different ways, so many unexpected ways. Odd diseases, freak accidents, heart attacks, and God spared you and brought you here, even today, so that you might know that the Bible says that His goodness and His patience leads you to repentance, and so I extend to you today the mercy of God. When I was gone this week, I prepared four new messages on the doctrine of God, which I hope to give here sometime in the months ahead.
And so I did some reading, and I was reading Life Magazine, which had a cover story on God several issues, maybe even several years ago. And I was reading about one man who said that his conception of God was changing. But he said that when he was in New York, he sinned so much that he knew after he had lived in New York that God would never possibly accept him, and so he left the church and he left God because God was so mad at him. Anyway, there was no use even trying to deal with him. Maybe there is somebody listening to this message today who feels that way.
You know what? If the truth were really known, if the secrets were revealed. There may be somebody here who's committed some mighty big crimes. You've done some terrible things that you've been covering up. In fact, you're scared to death lest you someday be found out.
And you say, "How can God accept me? Look at what I've done." I want you to know today that the God who is sovereign and the God of terror. Is also the God of mercy, and you can draw near through the blood of Christ. You can come to Him based on what He has done for you, and be accepted even as Jesus is accepted, because Jesus died in your place, and God's mercy is extended to you in the fact that you are here today or you are listening to this message on the radio. God's mercy is revealed rather through Jesus Christ.
I still think the best illustration of the gospel is the one that I like to use from time to time. But it's so good. You remember the man who was speeding in California? The story goes, and he couldn't pay his ticket, and so he was standing before the judge. And we could say that the judge said, "Give me a hundred dollars," and the man did not have a hundred dollars.
But the judge felt pity for this poor guy, so he stood up behind the bench, took off his robe. Hung it up. Walked down the steps, came and stood by the defendant. The judge takes out his own wallet, takes out a hundred dollars from the wallet, lays it on the table, goes back, puts on his robe, takes the hundred dollars, and says to the man, "Thank you." You're acquitted. Your debt is paid.
That's the gospel. It's the gospel. The gospel is that God meets God's requirements for us. What do we do? We bring our sin.
We bring our helplessness. We bring our own frailties. We bring all that, and He supplies everything that He Himself demands, and He's merciful and He's forgiving. Israel. Will someday accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.
Not every last individual Israelite, but but as a nation, they will accept Christ as the Messiah. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't God forgiving? And He's going to keep them alive and preserve the nation until they do that. And that is His mercy and His grace.
And He's brought some of you here so that He can do that today by His power and love. This is Pastor Lutzer. I trust that your faith and your hope is in Jesus Christ alone. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled When Jesus Returns, and this is the last day we're making it available for our listeners. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours.
One of the chapters has to do with apostasy, for example. And then there is a warning from the book of Joel, written by Anne Graham Lotz. In it, I have a chapter entitled "One Minute After You Die." Some chapters are devoted to the rapture, others to what is happening in the world and the whole world new order. Various authors, various themes. It'll be a great encouragement on your spiritual journey.
I urge you to take advantage of this offer right now. It's our thank you for a gift of any amount. Here's what you can do: go to rtwoffer dot com. That's rtwoffer dot com, or you can pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight two one eight. Ninety-three, thirty-seven.
One way to be encouraged, no matter how difficult life is, no matter how chaotic the world, is to look to the future and see how it is going to end, with the glorious return of Jesus Christ. Here's what you can do: go to rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. Remember the title of the book: When Jesus Returns. The subtitle: Living in Expectation of the End Times. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614.
Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Irwin Lutzer concluding War in Israel, sign number six in his series Seven Signs of Christ's Return.
Next time, sign number seven, the world's bloodiest conflict, the event known as Armageddon. Don't miss our next broadcast. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
