July 15, 2008

• Know the Season by Pastor Don

  Below is the most recent closed captioning that I did.  Remember … means a pause, what is in the brackets [  ] is what the congregation says. This is an incredible study that I really want to share.  This sermon was preached 6/8/08

  Know the Season

  We have an excellent opportunity…to live in a time period where as we examine the events that are occurring in the world, within the context of scripture, we find a very amazing thing.  That you are the generation, more than any other time in history, you can do this: You can turn on your television and understand what is going on in the prophetic.  It’s, a blessed opportunity and I want you to become efficient students of the Word, so that you can observe what is current events and what is also tied to prophetic events.  We’re living in an exciting time. 

  I want to ask you a question today,  and that is:  if you knew how much time you had, how different would your life be?…Let me say that again. If you knew how much time you had, how different would your life be?  We make decisions sometimes based on assumptions. We assume, for example that, things that happen in the Bible are wonderful and they are true, but that their appointed time of being fulfilled or presented to us is somewhere way, way down the road.  That may be the case, but it also may not be the case. 

  It may be that events are unfolding as Jesus said they would, as a pregnant woman.  Now, I’ve been around a lot of pregnant women in my life.  And the reality is, there’s first a hint of an event, then that hint becomes a declaration, and then that declaration becomes an emergency.  And so, what we have to understand, is that is what Jesus has prophesied.  He said that the end times events would begin  with just a birth pang.  And then those birth pangs are going to get closer and closer together in rapid succession…

  So, what we need to focus upon, what our concern should be, our focus should be, is where do I fit in this total global thing here?  What is it going to take for me to realize that the Bible is true and therefore adjust my life according to the reality that pretty soon, events will be, will be coming so fast that it will be too late to plan? 

  Maybe we’re there, but I want to bring to your attention a few things to just consider and look at.  And so, last night when I was preparing to do the Bible study, I thought, well, let’s, let’s go a few places quickly and I don’t think you mind if I talk in an overview, but you need to have a concept of, if the Bible is true, and if prophetic events are true, and if those prophetic events are unfolding on a daily basis on television, then we should be able to do what Jesus said.  He says, you’ll not know the day or the hour, but He said, we should know the season. Come on.  We should know the season, and if we are in that season, then there are a few things we should be conscious of. 

  My purpose is not to scare you.  The only reason you would be scared is because you don’t understand the joy that you should have, in anticipation of the Coming of the Lord.  You should be more happy about that, than the fact that, oh, you mean I might not get a second vacation on the shore?  You will get a vacation on the shore, but it will be under the reigning and ruling of Jesus Christ.  And if you’re not careful, I might be governor over the beach that you want to go on.  [laughter]  We’ll, we’ll have to wait and see on that. 

  So in Luke Chapter 21 we want to follow something that Jesus points out to us. And I’m, I’m not going to do the whole chapter because then I’d have to do all of Matthew 24 and and go to Luke 13.  But, I want to begin in the 20th verse and just show you something a, that’s of interest to you and to me.  So, we’re at Luke 21 beginning at verse 20.  “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.”  “…when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that it’s desolation is near.”  Now that prophesy, of course, will not be fulfilled until the very last moment in time.  But we can see that the stage is set, in that Israel does not have an ally anywhere near them…I said, they don’t have an ally anywhere near them.  They are surrounded by enemies on all sides.  And it only will take an event to bring those enemies into becoming an army.  So that hasn’t happened yet, but we see that the stage is set.  Can we see that? [yes] 

  “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”  So He’s saying, a time will come when the people that are in Judea, in the area of Jerusalem, they’ll be under great pressure.  We go to verse 23 and He talks about the level of distress and then in verse 24 He talks an interesting passage that has great significance.  “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” 

  So, He’s talking here, about the end time destruction, and He is talking though, within the context, we have to get this in it’s correct historical period.  He is talking about the fact that at the end of AD 70, the Jews are going to be carried into other nations, and spread around the globe.  In verse 24, “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.”  Do you see that?  [yes]  That has already happened.  They were led away captive into all the nations.  And then it says, “…And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” 

  Now, to understand this passage,  we’d have to look into the prophesies in Ezekiel, Daniel,  Matthew, and get a picture, but I want to just give you an overview.  God said that He would disperse the Jews to all of these nations and they would be there for a time period.  But He tells us how to count the time.  He says, they will be out of the land until the time of the Gentiles having control of Judea, having control of Jerusalem, until that comes to an end.  Fulfillment means end, doesn’t it?  [yes] 

  So, what is He saying to us?  He says that you can look at the situation of the Jews, they will be taken captive out of the land.  And they will be captives in other places all over the globe.  And you can go everywhere in the planet, and you can find a Jew… There’s a Jewish merchant somewhere everywhere.  And that is because when AD 70 occurred, they put the Jews in chains. They took 900,000 Jews and dispersed them.  Some to Europe, some to China even, some to Japan, I mean not Japan, China, as far as they got.  I think they, they took a rowboat over to Japan.  They went to Europe, to Spain, to North Africa.  The Jews were dispersed everywhere that the Romans had a toe hold in a different nation.  So that’s why the Jews are just about everywhere. 

  Then it says, that the land, Jerusalem, would be trampled upon by the Gentiles.  Well, when you have a country that was fairly flourishing, and then the people that lived there, left, then there were people that moved in… And this is where a good bit of the Palestinian struggle that we have today came, because the Bedouins and the Arabs and different people saw a vacuum, they saw houses and land that, and they moved into those places.  Alright?  Kind of taking up residence, not realizing that God had a tenant agreement with the Jews, which was that they would be returning to the place that He gave them. [amen]  Wow I thought there would get a bigger Amen than that. 

  Nonetheless, whether you are with me or not, I’m going to keep going on.  So, the Jews left the land, spread out, but God determined that in the last days, in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and so forth He’s going to return them to the land, that they’re going to go back to their land.  The difference is, though, when they go back to their land it’s going to be under the control of the Gentiles. 

  Mark Twain went there, how many of you remember Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens? You may know of him. Went there in the mid 1800′s and he said that Israel was a desolate land, that nothing grew there, and there were a few peoples wandering through, Arabs and a few people.  And he said, it was a land that no one would want.  Cause nothing grew there.  The reason nothing was growing there was because God had determined that He would, as a punishment to the Jews, He would take away the two rainy seasons…And so they didn’t have the former rain and the latter rain.  They didn’t have rain in the fall and the spring, as had been typical.  God, when He brought the Jews out of Egypt land, He said, I bring you into a land that you do not have to water with your foot…See, in Egypt land, they had to irrigate the land.  But when God is going to give them Canaan land, it is a land, He said, of rain and it is a land of streams and rivers.  So you won’t have to irrigate the land to grow crops. 

  So Israel, Canaan land was a great prosperous land filled with wondrous growing, two growing seasons.  Can you ladies imagine that?  You have one growing season.  But could you imagine that, after you did it and you harvested in the fall, it would start raining again and you could harvest in the spring?  My goodness, what a country! Huh?  [amen]  Well, we don’t have that but Israel did. 

  And so God says, when I put the Jews back in the land I will return unto them the former and the latter rain.  Those of us who went to Israel, saw a land flourishing, crops growing everywhere.  Flowers all year round.  Beautiful flowers and all because they have the former rain now, and the latter rain because God said, I will return them back into the land.  He says, I will call the Children of Israel from the places that I sent them to and they will begin to return to the land.  A miracle happened, and He said, I will birth the Nation again, but without war. 

  In May 1948 there was a treaty made, established by the League of Nations, to declare… a homeland for the Jews.  So, Israel was born, not a shot was fired.  But that didn’t mean they were going to be able to keep it.  But nonetheless, Israel was born as a nation.  Now they only had a small segment of it.  They didn’t have control, yet, so the time of the Gentiles was not fulfilled.  And the reason it wasn’t was because the Arab nations around, when the Jews by the Belfour treaty received a homeland, the Arab nations that surrounded them, just as we read, hated them, and began to take their displaced indigent peoples and send them with a promise, go kill the Jews and you can have Jerusalem, Judea, and all of the land…This is how the Palestinian problem came about.  They took the people and their nations that had in Saudi Arabia and these other places, they took their people that had no jobs, had no connections, gave them guns, and said, go kill the Jews, and take back the land.  It was in our hands before, but no one wanted it. 

  But when the Jews returned back in the land, an amazing thing happened.  The rains began to come again. Crops began to grow.  The Jews that came back from Europe, brought their money and their resources. And the Jews that came from Asia, brought their money and their resources. And as the land began to flourish, the Arab nations watched this and said, we’ve got to take back this land…  And that’s how the Palestinian issue became.  Those people decided, we’re going to take back the land, and after 1948 they armed themselves, and they attacked the Jews.  And the small handful of Jews that had no support from any other nation, US didn’t help, Britain didn’t help, Canada didn’t help, but these Jews. 

  And, if you’ve never seen the movie  “The Exodus“, you should watch it because it’s really based on a historical truth. The Jews defended themselves, and were able, not only to hold onto the land, but to push the border a little bit.  But they didn’t get as far as the Biblical borders existed.  That didn’t happen until the Arabs that surrounded them, that hated them, once again, in 1967 decided, we’re going to now wipe the Jews off the face of the map.  The plan was to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea and take the land from them.  So when we follow it, it’s called the 67 War because that’s when it happened.  It was a surprise attack against Israel. The Israelis were outnumbered, some 10 to 1, and guess who won?  [Israel] 

  The historical record shows miracle after miracle was done. I’ll just give you one example.  The Egyptians had 100 tanks come up over a ridge. The Israelis had about 10 or 20 tanks coming to take them on in combat.  When they came up over a ridge, they saw this great, huge angel in glowing white.  The Egyptians jumped out of their tanks and ran back to Egypt.  [laughter and applause]  Leaving the tanks running.  So the Israelis left their tanks, got in the Egyptian tanks and drove them back to, to Israel.  [laughter]  These cases like that have been documented and, a make wonderful stories, but it is the hand of God protecting the Jews even then. 

  Now, here’s an interesting point that I would just like to deposit with you.  After the end of the 67 War, the border of Israel was now pushed to Lebanon in the North as it was during the time of Joshua.  It was pushed to the South to Egypt, It was pushed all the way over to what we now know and discuss as the Gaza strip and so forth.  And they went beyond that, and should have held on to it, but with different treaties and all they gave up more of the Eastern portion of the land than they should have.  And they pushed all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. 

  When that happened, the Jews that continued to return, after 1967, we saw what Biblical scholars, you can agree or disagree, but what Biblical scholars call the end of the time of the Gentiles…Everybody got that?  Alright?  So, let’s look at this verse again, and then let’s put this in context and then I want to ask you a question. 

  In verse 24, the second half says, you will “….be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”… Since 1967 the Israeli government, the Knesset and organizations have their own President.  They have had control over this land.  In the north to Lebanon, South, Egypt, so forth.  They have control of the land.  The Gentiles no longer control the land.  [hallelujah] 

  Now in verse 29 He says, “…Look at the fig tree and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is…” what? [now near]  “that summer is now near.”  Well, the fig tree is given us as an example, or a picture of Israel.  When you see Jesus talking about the fig tree,  He’s talking about Israel.  He says that take the fig tree, it’s dying.  He says, dig around the roots, let me tend to it, you know, like a farmer attending. And then, You can come and cut it down and so forth and so on.  That was a picture of Jesus coming to the Jews, watering them with the Word of God, cultivating them, digging around the roots, trying to get them to change, but they didn’t and so, the Father then had to cut it down. 

  And so He says here, “Look at the fig tree,  and all the trees.” Representing His peoples.  He says, “When they are already budding,”  When they are budding, meaning when they’re coming into fruit.  Coming into their  season.  Right now, more Jews are being brought to the Lord than at any other time in the history of the planet.  [amen]  Statisticians say they are coming at the rate, rate of over 70,000 a year.  And when you consider there’s only about,  6 to 7 million Jews in Israel, and the number of Jews worldwide and in other places are dwindling, as more make what they call Aliyah, back. There used to be more Jews in the five boroughs in New York, [laughter].  But now, it’s become unbalanced and there are more Jews now in Israel than there are in New York.  [hallelujah]  Amen!  So they, I would consider that we should be able to say that they are budding. That they’re coming into a beautiful place. 

  And He says in 31, “So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you…” Everybody ready?  [yes] “…this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.“  Now, what generation?  Well it has to be the generation, watch this now, the generation that is alive to see that the time of the Gentiles is over, and it has to be the generation that is seeing Israel bud…  [amen] Let me take that again.  Can I help you with this?  Come on now.  Come on now. Put your thinking caps on. 

  He says, this generation will not pass away.  Meaning the generation of people who see Israel come into its own.  See Israel establish the time of the Gentiles.  See Israel come into budding.  See them become fruitful.  Israel is a phenomenally fruitful land right now.  And, and He says, when you see them coming into their fruit, they’re coming into their fruit spiritually because they are finally hearing the Gospel and receiving the Messiah.  They’re coming into their fruit financially, economically, and militarily because they’re one of the most powerful nations on the earth.  They are coming into their fruit spiritually as well as materially.  And so, He says, the generation that sees that happen, the generation that sees the time of the Gentiles end, He says, that generation will not pass away until [clap] the end times.  [hallelujah]  Alright? 

  Now, let’s figure this out a little bit…I want to just make sure we have time for this.  And then I want to give you the last part of this.  Alright?  Now in 1967, we would have to ask ourselves then, how long is a generation?  How could we figure out the time period of a generation?  Well, we’re talking Bible stuff here, isn’t that right?  We’re talking Bible… Well, we’d have to take what is the Bible say a generation is.  Alright?  The Bible defines a generation as about 52 years…52 years.  You can understand this in that a, if a man has children, and the children come into adulthood in his young 20′s, then by the time he is 52, he has actually seen the end of his generation and the beginning of his grandchildren’s.  And so, the Bible clocks us.  And we can go through the, the time periods of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And we can look at when God says, that was the end of that generation.  And it comes out to be 52 years.  Ok, everybody got that?  How long’s a generation?  [52 years]  Yeah, right, Bible generation. 

  Some of us call a generation 70, but that can’t be because by 70 everybody, you’re going to croak.  So how can that be your generation?  You wouldn’t be in your generation, you’d be past it.  Alright, so let’s stick with Biblical terms.  A generation being approximately 52 years.  So, now, you can do the math.  Have you already?  [yes]  Now, the Bible tells us that there is a thing called, in the book of Daniel, we call it the time periods given of Daniel.  And there he gives us a period of 70 years.  Anybody know what that’s called?….Who said that?  Give my secretary a hand.  [applause]  Cheri’s the second smartest person in this church cause she reads all the stuff I write.  [laughter] 

  So we have 70 prophetic weeks of Daniel but it turns out those weeks are not weeks but they’re actually symbolic for years.   And we get to the 69th week, before the 70th week, and all time stops for the Jews.  And the reason it stops is because at that point, they are out of the land, they are in this thing called the Diaspora, they’re dispersed, and so forth and so time stops at the 69th week.  And I can go into more detail about that.  He says that, that last week of 7 years, the last week of 7 years is a time of trouble. 

  In the book of Jeremiah, God calls it a cup of trembling for the whole nations.  In other words, Israel will be, watch this now, its such a great prophetic thing.  Israel which is a small nation in size, it’s a little bit bigger than Rhode Island…But this small nation will be a cup of trembling.  And what He’s saying is, it’s as if men got together from all the nations, and they’re going to drink a toast, but it concerns Israel,  and their hands are shaking, and they’re trembling.  And, that is because the events of the world, right now, and have been since 1967, have been focused on what’s happening in Israel, because it could tip the scale to World War overnight.  [amen]  It could embroil the whole world. Everything is tied around this little nation. 

  That alone is enough prophesy to believe in God.  [amen]  That right there.  I mean there are other nations, bigger than that, that couldn’t tip the scale…You know, if Uganda went to war tomorrow, we would be concerned about it, but it wouldn’t tip the scale into a world war.  But if a world war breaks out, if war breaks out in Israel, amongst the Arab nations,  the  oil problem gets worse instantly.  Gold and diamond problems get worse instantly.  Just a myriad of problems.  So, anyway, it’s says that it would be a cup of trembling in the last days.  What we see going on in Israel.  We’ll have to watch it all the time.  Nations, leaders from all the nations go there and try and solve problems.  Because everything is tied into this little bitty nation, out in the middle of, of the Mediterranean. 

  So, now, here’s what we get.  We get that at the 69th week, God put a prophetic stop to time.   And He says this, He says that He will bring the people back into the nation, and then at a certain time, that 7 year clock of the last week of Daniel, 7 days in a week, but each day represents a year.  That clock of the last 7 years of all the history of the New Testament coming together, the Old Testament coming together, the book of Revelation talks about it.  It calls it the period of this great tribulation.  The tribulation gets kicked off in part, because at the beginning of the tribulation, we have this event that is called the rapture.  We have this event  of a supernatural catching away of the believers.  [amen]  Alright?  And I could bury you in scripture concerning it. I’ve, I’ve written over five pages and handed it out of scriptures that all point to it.  And maybe, you know, one time, we’ll go back through it again. 

  But anyway, if this event happens at the beginning of the 7 years, then the first group of saints are no longer on the planet.  Those that didn’t believe the Gospel are stuck here.  Those that didn’t believe in the Second Coming of the Lord are stuck here.  Those that went to church, you know the whole church is not going.  The only part of the church that’s going in the rapture are those who have faith for it.  Those who believe it’s coming.  If you don’t believe that Jesus is coming and the rapture, no problem.  My tapes will be sitting out here in the Lobby after I’m gone.  You can get the tapes and figure out what to do, cause you’re stuck here during the worst time period of the history of the world.  Have at it. There’s enough videos and tapes to keep you going. 

  Now, if we take 1967 as the time of the end of the Gentiles, and if we add 52 years, to that, do the math, 67 and 52, we end up at the year 2019.  Meaning that, that generation  will pass away by the year…2019.  But, we have 7 years of the period of the tribulation.  So, if we subtract those 7 years, which will be the time period of the tribulation, what do you, what do you end up with?  [2012] You end up with 2012…  Okay?  How many years is it from now till then?  [4 years] 

  ***

  This was a thought provoking sermon, praying it blessed you.

  Heather

  • 10:30 pm
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