Prophecy Update: What Will the Future Hold - Part B

God is a God of signs. He gives indicators when He is about to do something. You know why He does that? Because He wants people to be aware that He's doing something.

Hence the sign, just like you have a road sign. It tells you what is coming ahead. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip examines the signs God has given us to show us what He's going to do in the future. We have just begun a dynamic new series about the biblical last days. We all need to understand the times we live in.

We will dive in shortly. But first, here's a resource that will help deepen your understanding of end time scripture. Here are some of the titles in the End is Near series by Pastor Skip Heitzig. Israel Must Survive, Rapture Ready, and Russia's Coming Invasion. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets. So when God is going to do something, He warns His people.

He sends a sign so His people will know that He's going to do something. Skip Heitzig's teaching series now has a companion study guide available to you. The End is Near guide covers all 26 messages that Skip recently presented. We can just look at the chessboard.

The pieces are all lining up in interesting fashion. The End is Near study guide includes notes, summaries, and questions for group or personal study. We need to understand the times and this study guide will aid in this effort. With your gift of $50 or more to connect with Skip Heitzig, you will receive a copy of the End is Near study guide from Skip's in-depth 26-part series. Your gift will support the production and expansion of the Connect with Skip broadcast. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. Okay, we're going to be in Luke 21 today as we join Skip. Let's get started. The signs that Jesus gives are signs that will take place primarily in a future time period called in the Old Testament the 70th week of Daniel. You got to know Daniel 9 to understand that phrase. The 70th week of Daniel, a seven-year future time period. The New Testament refers to as the tribulation period and more specifically it'll be the last three and a half years of that seven-year period known as the great tribulation period. So those are the signs that he speaks of. We are not in that time period right now. We are not in that future eschatological time of the tribulation but it sure seems like we're getting right up to the edge of it.

Now something else that will be helpful. In the Matthew 24 rendition of the Olivet Discourse, when Jesus gives the signs there's going to be this and this and that and watch for this and that. He says this in Matthew 24 verse 7 or verse 8. These are the beginning of sorrows. Literally birth pains or birth pangs. These are the beginning of birth pains. Now we know something about birth pains.

Women especially know. I mean I have observed them but birth pains happen not at the beginning of pregnancy not in the middle but they happen right before birth hence the term birth pains. So there are contractions that occur but you know that they're important enough to go to the doctor or the hospital or the birthing clinic or the or the midwife when the birth pains are more frequent and more intense.

You can time them. They're regular and they intensify. So Jesus gave signs but he said they're like the birth pains of a woman in labor. You know the baby's going to be born because they're more frequent and more intense. So there's a tension, a pain, and then a relaxation, a reprieve. And so we all have some cataclysm on the earth and then a reprieve. But the closer we get to the very end, the closer we get to that period, the closer and more intense those contractions are going to occur.

So look at verse 28. Now when these things, all the things he's been talking about, when these things begin to happen, begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. So let's consider some things that are beginning to happen. What can we look at in our modern world that would be an indication that these things are beginning to happen? Well let me give you sort of the most obvious one.

We'll start at the broadest one and that is this. Israel is back in their land. That happened May 14th of 1948. That is significant.

Prophetically speaking, this I would consider a mega sign. Israel is back in the land. Now why is that important to us?

Here's why. The context of these chapters, Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, the context of these chapters is Jewish. It's not Baptist. It's not Presbyterian. It's not Calvary Chapel.

It's not American. It's Jewish. Jesus talks about Judea. That's a geographic area in Israel. He talks about Jerusalem. That's a city there. He says inhabitants of Jerusalem and he speaks of the Sabbath day.

Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath. So the context is very, very Jewish. Because of that fact, it necessitates that Israel has to be in their land. So the events he speaks about made sense if they happened then when he spoke them 2,000 years ago before 70 AD.

They didn't, by the way. They're cataclysmic. Or they have to happen after May 14th, 1948, when Israel is in the land and you have inhabitants of Jerusalem who are worried about the Sabbath day. So the Jews being in their homeland is the first prerequisite. This is why biblical scholars, May 14th, 1948, make such a big deal out of that event.

So that's number one. Israel is in their land. Here's something else that I think we're seeing. There is a coalition of nations that is forming right now that has prophetic implications. I'm speaking about three nations in particular. Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Russia, Iran, and Turkey.

So let me just sort of bring you up to speed. You probably already know this if you have looked at the news to any degree. In recent years, Vladimir Putin has made no bones about the fact that he wants to re-enforce the United States of America. He has made no bones about the fact that he wants the reunification of the Soviet Union, the Soviet bloc.

He sort of snuck back into Georgia, the Republic of Georgia, not the state of Georgia. In 2008, he annexed Crimea in 2015, and in March of 2022, he invaded the Ukraine, all according to his grand plan. But did you know he also has an interest in the Middle East? You may not know that Russia has established a permanent naval base in Syria.

The northern part of the port city of Tartus is a Russian naval base, a quite substantive Russian naval base. The Russians helped Iran build their second nuclear facility, and today, at present, there are 1,000 or so Russian nuclear scientists working in Iran. So they have this interesting relationship which has, we've never seen it historically. Also, the Mossad chief this week, David Barnea, said that Iran has delivered weapons to Russia the past few months and plans to deliver more weapons to Russia in the future. So Russia and Iran are just interesting to watch, but there's a third player I mentioned, and that is Turkey. Turkey is overseen by its president, Erdogan, who was at one time a moderate Muslim.

Today, he has been moving quite to the extreme end of being Islamic. In 2017, Turkey signed with Russia a 2.5 billion dollar deal for a state-of-the-art anti-ballistic defense system. So you just have this interesting configuration of Russia and Iran and Turkey.

Why is that important? Well, the Bible predicts that in the end of days, there will be a battle fought against Israel by a group of nations who form a coalition. Ezekiel 38 and 39 describe those nations, name those nations.

One group is Magog, Rosh, and Meshech. Any historian will tell you that's Russia. They make a coalition with ancient Persia, which is modern-day Iran, and they also make a coalition with the nation of Gomer, which is modern-day Turkey.

Russia, Iran, Turkey. It says in the text they'll form a coalition and they will come against Israel in the last days. So that presupposes certain conditions. Number one, it presupposes that there will be a nation of Israel May 14, 1948.

Pretty recent. So the precondition is that Israel has to be present in the land, not just present in the land, prosperous in the land. Ezekiel 36, God says, I will multiply you.

I will do better for you than at your beginnings. The whole chapter talks about Israeli prosperity, and if you know anything about the GDP of Israel today, it's one of the strongest nations going. Not just present, not just prosperous, but also peaceful. Have you looked at the Middle East in the last hundred years? It's not a peaceful place.

It's a rough neighborhood. You've got 411 million neighbors who want nothing more than the total elimination of the state of Israel, and yet they exist. So Ezekiel 38 describes Israel right before this battle as a peaceful people dwelling securely, dwelling in safety, which leads me to a third observation of what's going on. Israel is becoming more peaceful.

I should really restate that. The region is becoming more peaceful, and that goes against historic norms. Back in 2020, September 15, to be exact, of 2020, I was there when it happened. I was on the south lawn of the White House when the Abraham Accords were signed.

I know the media just sort of whitewashed that and overlooked it. It is one of the most significant historic things ever to have happened, that Israel and Arab nations made peace. I mean, that's like Anwar Sadat, and that's what happened with Jordan years ago. But that day, foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed a peace accord with Israel. Since then, two more Arab countries have followed—Morocco, Sudan. Also since then, Kosovo, though not Arab but certainly Muslim, has signed on to the Abraham Accords. And most recently, what happened just a few days ago, the prime minister was sworn in. Bibi Netanyahu is now his sixth term as prime minister of the nation of Israel, has stated that he intends to make peace with Saudi Arabia.

Now think of this. Just think of what happened on September 11, 2001, and the whole world was looking at Saudi Arabia because that's where the terrorists came from. And certainly they're not making peace with the world, and most definitely they're not making peace with Israel. A diplomat from Israel said just the other day, their intention is to expand the Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia this coming year.

Now why is that even important? Well, first of all, it's what you've been praying for, haven't you? Psalm 122, for the last couple thousand years, Christians have been praying, as it says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Christians for hundreds of years have been praying that God would bring peace.

He is answering their prayer. But second, it's prophetic because, again, a precondition for this war in the last days of Gog and Magog against Israel is regional stability. Now we know that a leader, a dictator, will come on the scene eventually in this period. We call him the Antichrist, though he's got about 50 different titles. We've just sort of landed on that one. The Antichrist will make an agreement, a peace deal with Israel, a seven-year peace agreement. He'll break it in the middle of that seven-year period. He promises to protect them, but then he'll break it. So we can just look at the chessboard.

The pieces are all lining up in interesting fashion. And there's a fourth thing that I want to look to, a fourth trend, and that is this. The world is being conditioned to government control. The world is being conditioned for government control. Look at verse 11.

He gives a list of signs. There will be great earthquakes in various places. There always has been earthquakes, especially if you live in the West Coast. Famines, pestilences. Ooh, look at that word, pestilences. What was COVID? Would that qualify as a pestilence? If you were to look up in Webster's dictionary the definition of pestilence, it says, quote, a contagion or infectious epidemic that is virulent and devastating. Now, primarily, again, I want to be responsible here, these are signs that deal specifically with the tribulation period, but COVID sure seemed to be in biblical proportion. It just felt apocalyptic. It was worldwide.

It affected nearly everyone, and it provided universal government overreach in most every nation where some groups were called essential, some groups, including churches, were called non-essential. The government could now say that. You had to comply with that. And then, as we're getting back to our normal routine, you've got to prove that you've been vaccinated or you will not be able to buy or sell. You will not be able to go into that restaurant and eat.

You won't be able to do that. I want to share a quote from an Israeli historian. He teaches at Hebrew University.

Currently, his name is Yuval Harari. He said, and I quote, COVID is what convinced people to accept and to legitimize total biometric surveillance. What a statement. Total biometric surveillance. He goes on, people could look back in a hundred years and identify the coronavirus epidemic as the moment when a new regime of surveillance took over, especially surveillance under the skin, which I think is maybe the most important development of the 21st century, is the ability to hack human beings, end quote. You know, for the last couple of thousand years, it just didn't seem possible that the whole world would one day be forced to take a mark. But today, it makes a lot more sense. I know this doesn't perfectly qualify as a prophetic sign, but it is a precursor to it.

I certainly now have a better understanding of how the events of the tribulation are going to be able to happen. Because you can motivate entire population bases with one emotion. It's called fear. Get them scared, and you can get them to do anything.

You can move them in any direction. The world is being conditioned to government control. So there will be an end. Jesus will be back, and there will be signs, but I want to end with this. Number four, we will be saved. We will be saved. Doesn't mean that times are not going to get tough. Does not mean that we're not going to experience tribulation in the world.

We will. Jesus promised we will, but the great tribulation is completely different. We will be saved. We already are saved.

I understand that, but I'm talking about saved from something specific. In verse 28, again, let's close with this. When these things begin to happen, here's what you're to do. Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. Go down to verse 36. Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and stand before the Son of Man.

These things are coming, but pray that you can escape these things that are coming. Now, we live in the church age. This is the age of grace.

Currently, God is doing a work around the world in getting His church together, getting His church together, but the church age is going to come to an end. It's going to come to an end suddenly, suddenly. Jesus said, or the Bible says, it's coming like a thief in the night.

Thieves don't text you what time they're arriving, right? They show up suddenly and unexpectedly. So we're living in the church age. The church age will abruptly come to an end. We call it the rapture of the church for a very good reason, by the way.

And by the way, we'll deal with the fact that it is a long-standing belief, not a recent belief. But then after that will be a period of Daniel's 70th week, the tribulation period, seven-year period. If you want to know what that's going to be like, you can read Revelation chapters 4 through 19 in great detail. The events are given of the tribulation period. After that, Jesus will return from heaven with His church. He will quell a rebellion that takes place in the Middle East.

He'll establish His kingdom. And there are signs for when that's going to happen, signs that Jesus speaks about, signs that Paul reiterates. The signs that we're dealing with are signs of that future period, whereas the rapture is a sign-less event, sign-less event. In other words, it can happen at any time. But future events often cast their shadows before them. Future events often cast their shadows before them.

That is, they appear in incipient form, in nascent form, long before they appear in mega form. Here's an example I want to close with. I close with this.

We'll put it up on the screen. It's from John Walvoord. He taught here many years ago.

He's now in heaven. He said, there's all kinds of signs for Christmas. There are lights everywhere, decorations, Christmas trees, music, even Santa in the mall. But Thanksgiving can sneak up on you. There are no signs for Thanksgiving. The second coming of Christ is like Christmas. It will be preceded by many specific signs that the Scripture outlines. The rapture, however, is like Thanksgiving. There are no specific signs for its coming. It's fall, and you begin to see the signs of Christmas everywhere.

And so you realize Thanksgiving is somewhere around the corner, too. We're starting to see the shadows fall that predict the second coming of Christ. And because of that, we know the rapture is closer than some of us expected. It's right around the corner.

It can't be too far away. So, all of this to say, we should not only be ready, we should be excited. I know that these are fearful things, and if you really want to get scared, you can read the book of Revelation. It will tell you the catastrophic events Jesus said, the worst time in human history, will play out on the stage during that last three and a half year time period. But the Bible also says this, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. So, I know Jesus said, men's hearts will be failing, and men's hearts will be failing. So, I know Jesus said, men's hearts will be failing them from fear and the expectation of what is coming on the earth.

But for us, lift up your heads. Your redemption draws near, he said. Pray that you can escape all these things. And so I am looking up, and I do pray and believe that I will escape all these things. We live in some very exciting times.

That's Skip Hyten. With a message from the series, The End is Near, find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now, here's Skip to tell you about a trip to the Holy Land coming up in 2024. We will be touring Israel from May 1 through May 12. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sites like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Garden Tomb, the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st, so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime.

Find full Israel information at connectwithskipp.com. God desires for us to know Him intimately through study of His Word. That's why we share these messages to help you and many others connect to God through His Word and grow in your walk through an intentional relationship with Him.

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