Defeat of the Russian Alliance - Part B

This we know, there will be supernatural intervention and the result of that intervention is the defeat of those armies that come to defeat Israel.

I'm going to show you that. Helping others like you strengthen your walk with Christ. And we invite you to partner with us by giving a gift to help connect others like you to the life changing power of the gospel. Your generosity helps keep these teachings you love on the air to reach many others as we expand into more major US cities and all across the world. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you.

Okay, ready to get started? Let's turn to Ezekiel 39 and hear what Skip has for us today. Something else to make note of in verse 22, it mentions pestilence, pestilence. Whenever there's death, there's disease.

And this possibly, I'm not saying for certain, but it could involve biological weapons that bring disease, we're not told. But something else, look at verse 22. It talks about flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. I was looking this week on the internet at record storms, hailstorm throughout history. And they showed photographs of hail that was eight inches in diameter, massive chunks of ice falling from the sky, which would kill a person.

Now when I was a kid, I worked at Hugo's Delicatessen. And we had an ice house in the back with these five and 10 pound blocks of ice that you sell customers. This is before we bag ice, but just big ice blocks. So five and 10 pounds of ice. Imagine this, Revelation 16 says that during the tribulation period, hail will fall from heaven weighing a talent. A talent is 100 pounds. It's between 75 and 125 pounds. Let's just call it an even 100 pounds.

So imagine 100 pound blocks of ice careening from the sky. Don't know if that's the same event as described here. I do know this. Do you know what in the Old Testament the punishment for idolatry was? Stoning. Could it be that God will stone the earth, at least in part for its idolatry? This we know, there will be supernatural intervention. And the result of that intervention is the defeat of those armies that come to defeat Israel.

I'm going to show you that. Look down at Ezekiel chapter 39. Ezekiel 39, verse 1. And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, this ruler, and say, Thus says the Lord God.

I always like that interplay. God is against Gog. Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, Tubal. And I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand and cause the arrow to fall out of your right hand. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort, to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Same language, by the way, as in Revelation 19 in that battle. You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. Something I want to bring up.

Maybe you've noticed this. In these chapters, especially 38 and 39, as this battle is talked about, there's the frequent use of terms like horse, sword, bows, arrows. So that makes you think, well, that can't be modern or future warfare. This has to be something that was predicted in ancient times and fulfilled in ancient times.

Problem is, we can find nothing in history that even closely corresponds to what is predicted here. That's number one. Number two, don't let the vocabulary confuse you. The prophets were speaking of the future using a vocabulary they understood and their contemporaries would understand.

So let me dig just a little deeper. The word horse in Hebrew is the word sus. Literally, the word means a leaper, a leaper. It is also translated stork in Jeremiah 8, 7, and it's translated chariot rider in Exodus 14, 9.

Just means a leaper. By the way, did you know there is an Israeli tank called the Merkava tank? Merkava is the Hebrew word for chariot. This is their modern chariot.

They call it by that name. And we still call motorized infantry today the cavalry. The cavalry in modern warfare refers to mobile forces of an army who's a mechanized force. Even though no horses are involved, we still call it the cavalry.

Something else, by the way, has nothing to do with this sermon. This church is not called cavalry chapel or cavalry church. And I often through the years will cry, oh, you go to that cavalry. No, we go to calvary. Calvary is where Jesus died. Cavalry is the army with horses you're thinking of.

Anyway, has nothing to do with this. Had to get that in there. So we have horse. Look at the word sword. A sword becomes a generic term for any weapon.

We talk about he who takes up the sword as an idiom for anybody who goes to a fight. The word arrow literally means piercer. And occasionally it's in the scripture to describe a thunderbolt. And so it could be a missile. The word bow literally means a launcher. It could be simply what launches the het or the Hebrew word for arrow. If you were to translate verse three of Ezekiel 39 today, you could legitimately translate it this way.

I will knock the launchers out of your right hand and the missiles out of your other hand. I say that because I found this quote by Maxwell Coder, who was a linguist. He wrote this in the Moody magazine. The Hebrew words bow, arrow and horse are sufficiently flexible to include modern, sophisticated hardware. So don't let the vocabulary stumble you over that. It legitimately could speak of in ancient terms what is going to be future warfare. Now, a special note about this battle. Of all the battles listed in the Bible, and there's over 100 just in the Old Testament, this one is unique. This is the only battle in the Bible where the Holy Spirit bothers to give us details about the unusual cleanup after the battle. And you were about to read that. Why does he do that? Perhaps to give us a clue as to what type of technology is involved. I want you to see it for yourself.

It's wild. Look at verse nine of Ezekiel 39. Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out, set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, javelins and spears, and they will make fires with them for seven years. Then they will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forest because they will make fires with the weapons, and they will plunder those who plundered them and pillage those who pillaged them, says the Lord God. It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will obstruct travelers because there they will bury Gog in his multitude.

Therefore, they will call it the valley of Haman Gog. For seven months, the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. Indeed, all the people of the land will be burying. They will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified, says the Lord God. They will set apart men regularly employed with the help of a search party to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months, they will make a search. The search party will pass through the land, and when anyone sees a man's bone, he shall set up a marker by it until the barriers have buried it in the valley of Haman Gog. The name of the city will also be Hamanah, which means hoard. Thus, they shall cleanse the land. Come on, that's just wild.

You don't find that kind of description of a cleanup anywhere. Older commentaries on the book of Ezekiel have relegated this to just being symbolic. They see this all as symbolic.

They won't tell you what it means because they don't know, but they just say, whatever it means, it's got to be a symbol of something. And the reason they say it's symbolic is because when those commentaries were written, they couldn't fathom that you could burn weapons for seven years. Now, today we smile at that notion because we have the technology required for that to happen. It's called nuclear weaponry. A nuclear weapon has an implosion device. It has a fissionable core. It has explosive charges around it. And a military engineer, a close friend of mine, aerospace military engineer, told me the shelf life of a production Soviet warhead is seven years.

Just interesting. Then after this battle, after these troops are decimated, they will bury them east of the sea, that is the Dead Sea, you might say downwind of the Dead Sea in a designated valley, and they will hire professionals to search and identify and bury the dead for a total of seven months. A cleanup squad will come through, identify a human remain or human bone, place a marker by it. A follow-up team will come behind them, take the remains to that special valley, bury it.

And the cleanup becomes so extensive that this town is established, given this name, Hamona. Probably this town is an aid station to professional workers. So what are we dealing with here?

Can't be certain. But it's an interesting description. In fact, it's the same kind of instructions you would find in a Department of Defense documentation dealing with how to handle nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. And I just bring this up because we have a very contemporary description found in a biblical text.

It's very, very up to date. So in this battle we've been talking about, international observation, supernatural intervention, finally, and this is the best part, there will be a spiritual conversion. Here's what I want you to see in all this.

I'm coming to church hearing about wars and bombs and fission and what's up? God has an end game. God has a goal with all this and I want you to see what it is. Look at chapter 38 of Ezekiel, verse 23. Thus I will magnify myself and sanctify myself and I will be known in the eyes of many nations and they shall know that I am the Lord. Go down to verse 7 of chapter 39. So I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people, Israel, and I will not let them profane my holy name anymore. Then the nation shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Go down to verse 22 of chapter 39. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. Go to verse 29, last verse of the chapter. And I will not hide my face from them anymore, for I shall have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

Now I want you to get the big picture as we bring this to a close. These nations will come down from the north, it says, a coalition of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and these other nations. They will come to Israel to bury Israel. They will be buried in Israel.

They come, their goal is to get the land, what is their goal will become their grave. And this phrase is used over and over again, they will know that I am the Lord. If you read Ezekiel, you know that's a phrase he uses a lot, especially in chapter 36, 37, 38, and 39.

They will know that I am the Lord. This fulfills what Ezekiel predicted back in chapter 36. Remember he said, Israel, at that time dislodged from their land, will come back to their land.

They will regather in their land. But it also promised they'll be regathered to their Lord in the land. He saw a vision of these bones coming together in chapter 37.

But also the breath will come in there, and the breath signified the Spirit of God. Ezekiel predicted that God would make a new covenant with them, that he would take out their old heart and give them a new heart. So God has that goal in mind in this battle, to get their attention, to let nations know, especially and including Israel, that he is the Lord. Now, I am going to share a scripture with you that we've used a few times in this series.

I want to insert it again to help you understand where I think this will happen. This is Romans now, chapter 11, 25 and 26. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. All Israel will be saved. Now remember, Jesus came, presented himself to the nation.

They rejected him. In rejecting Jesus, God set aside Israel temporarily, not permanently, not ultimately. Ultimately, Paul says, and so all Israel will be saved. What does that mean, all Israel will be saved? Does that mean every Jew ever who has ever lived will automatically be saved? No, it doesn't. This phrase is used not diachronically, but synchronically.

Let me explain what I just said. It doesn't mean all the Jews of all times will be saved, but all the Jews at that time will be saved. The battle that they see God give them the victory over, the events that happened during the tribulation and eventually the coming of Christ himself, and they will believe. In the tribulation period, we know how many Jews are saved and sealed.

Anybody know the number? 144,000 mentioned in Revelation chapter 7. Imagine 144,000 Paul the apostles running around Israel and planet Earth doing their evangelism. Not only that, but two witnesses, Revelation chapter 11, will come and preach the gospel in Jerusalem. And the net effect of the war, the earthquake, the hailstones, God intervening on Israel's behalf, all of that will be the salvation of Israel. I want you to see that net effect as I put up these scriptures on the screen. This is Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication.

Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day, there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem. He's writing about how it dawns on the Jewish nation, oh my goodness, Jesus is the Messiah. He was the promised one, and they will mourn for him. It continues, chapter 13 of Zechariah. In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. So in the future time of trouble, the blindness that is over Israel nationally will be lifted. And those who are alive during that time will come to believe in Jesus.

This is what I want you to see. This is God's endgame. The endgame is that people might know him. All of this warfare happens so that people might know him. Now, I know you might be thinking, ah, Skip, isn't there a better way for God to get people to know him than destroying nations?

And here's how I want to answer that. When nations are in full throttle, rebellion, and opposition to God, God has to display his might and power greater than the opposition that is against him. It's like if you hit your head up against a wall, the harder you hit your head against that wall, the more it's going to hurt. The more you fight God, the more it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt you, not God. So when you have a nation or an individual, I don't want God, I hate God, I'm against God, okay, you are setting yourself up for a bad outcome, a bad outcome. So ultimately, it's that they will know that I am the Lord. Now, as these events unfold, and we can see them starting to, whether what we're seeing happens to be the fulfillment of this in particular, I'm not sure.

But it sure seems like it. As these things unfold, rather than being frightened and scared, I'm not coming to that church again, man, they talk about nuclear stuff. It should make you ready. It should make you prepared.

It should make you want to study the Word and get a grasp of it. And you know what, some of you, like in that opening illustration, you actually need a new pilot to fly your plane. You've been flying your own plane for a long time, it has not gotten you anywhere. And you need to come to a place where you surrender your life to Jesus Christ.

Because the real question here is not about Russia or Iran or Turkey, or the United States for that matter, the real question is about you personally. What is your action plan going forward? How are you prepared for whatever the future has for the world?

How are you prepared? Are you saved? Are you sure you're saved? You say, yeah, I'm saved, I've been saved a long time, what do you think I'm here listening to you for? Great, hallelujah, saved person. Let me just say to you, what is God calling you to do as a saved person? You're not saved for no reason, you're saved for a reason. And my encouragement to you is raise the bar in your spiritual walk and take the next step, we like to say, because God has not finished with you yet.

Let me give you a couple suggestions. Suggestion number one, really learn the Bible. For 82% of Christians, the only Bible they get is their pastor saying, turn in your Bibles 2 on Sunday morning.

82% of American Christians. Really understand your Bible, devote yourself to a systematic study of the scripture. I'm going to recommend to you coming on Wednesday nights, because that's where we go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, through the whole book.

Not in one setting, but over years. I invite you to that. Second, get involved in a small group where you can share your heart, share your life. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series, The End is Near. Find the full message as well as books, booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's more about this month's resource to give you a deeper appreciation for scripture's teaching on the end times. 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. We hope you'll join us tomorrow as Skip begins a powerful message about God's promise to bring you home one day. Every command in the Bible comes with a capacity. God would never give you a command unless he gave you the power to follow that command. So the pathway to comfort is to take control of your thoughts and remind yourself of God's promise. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.