Then They Shall Know That I am The Lord

It is really so good to be here with all of you today. We are very happy to be able to be here. We'll be here for just this day. Later on tonight, we'll be headed down to Panama City Beach for the rest of the feast, but it has been such an opportunity and so good to be here with you and meet so many of you. We've heard so many good things about this feast site, and I have to say it's living up to its reputation. Let me thank John and Susan Miller. I know they do an awfully lot of work for this feast site and all of you who have worked to make it everything it is.

Marcus as well met him yesterday. Thank you for all you've done to make this feast site possible, and all of you for being here. It's a tribute to God for you to be here and for us to have this opportunity. Let me also thank the special music, Mr. Packlob. Very well done. Very good to hear that song from Psalm 20. You know, we're here on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and there's a lot of positive things that we can talk about the Feast of Tabernacles. It pictures so many beautiful things that's going to come on the world. We can talk about the time when Jesus Christ is here, and all the world will be living by his standards and his purposes and his way of life. And over the time of that millennium, the world will see a time of peace, of joy, of abundance that they've never experienced before, never can't even imagine before, when the world is living. Everyone is living by God's way. As we even take the time to even think about even one commandment, if just one commandment of God everyone in the world kept, the world would be such a vastly different place than it is today. But in that day, in that time when Christ reigns, that everyone will be living by his way. And we could talk about that endlessly. And we should have that vision, because it is going to occur just as sure as you and I are sitting here today at this Feast of Tabernacles. That's what the world will be. They will learn that God's way of life is the only way that leads to peace, happiness, joy, and everything good in life. It's what God always intended, except man got in the way and decided to follow another way instead of God's way. And so we live in a world today that's far different than the way God wanted it to be and the way it will be in the kingdom.

So let's begin in Isaiah 61 as we're on this first day of Tabernacles. Isaiah 61 is a very just a very encouraging chapter because it talks about the way the world was, talks about Jesus Christ coming to earth, sacrificing his life, making it possible for our sins to be forgiven, and that we would have the hope of that time of the restoration of all things and eternal life. Let's pick it up in verse 2. Well, let's just go ahead and begin in verse 1 of Isaiah 61. There it says, "'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good things, good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.' All those things that mark our world today, Jesus Christ came to undo and to provide that freedom that comes from living his way of life. Verse 2, "'To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.'" And that will occur as we just observed a few days ago at the Feast of Trumpets.

And then comes the restoration, "'To comfort all who mourn.'" And this world is a world of mourning. Christ will come to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty. The kingdom will be marked by beauty, to give them beauty for ashes. And the world, as they see it at that time, when Christ returns, right at the beginning of that millennial reign, as he returns, as Satan is put away, and then the kingdom, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, begins, "'The ashes that are there will be replaced with beauty as mankind learns his way.' The oil of joy for mourning, the joy that will be extant everywhere as man understands and lives by God's way, the garment of praise, genuine and heartfelt and sincere gratitude to God for everything that he does. And all the patience, kindness, and mercy that he has shown you and me and all of mankind and being patient with us as he works out his plan for mankind and brings it to the completion that he desires for it. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." And yes, there's that spirit of heaviness in the world today, even as we look at the things that are going on around us. Even more so, when you see what the world is going to go through, and at the time of Jesus Christ's return, the turmoil that will mark it. He does all this, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

And in that time, when mankind lives his way of life, when they see the beauty of living his way of life, he will be glorified. Your way was right. Our way was not right. Your way leads to everything good. Our way and our thoughts and our ideas lead to nothing but misery, division, hate, discord, and all the things that we dislike in this life. But in that life, everything that promotes everything good and healthy and growing. Down in verse 11 or the same chapter, it says, "...for as the earth brings forth its bud. As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. He causes it. He'll make it happen. And we'll be the benefactors in the world who lives over into that kingdom and experiences all those things in the kingdom and in the white throne judgment as he makes his way known to all of mankind who has ever lived. They'll be the benefactors as you and I are who know God's way of life today. He causes it.

But it's a process. It's a process to get to the joy. It's a process to get to the genuine praise. It's a process to become called trees of righteousness. And as the kingdom comes, as Jesus Christ returns and the millennial reign begins, the world isn't going to be perfect.

It's not going to be perfect. That's the minute that Jesus Christ returns, all of mankind's attitude changes. Just like you and me, when God calls us and we repent and we're baptized, hands laid on us and we receive the Spirit of God, we don't change immediately. We don't become perfect beings. We still have to go through life and go through the process of overcoming sin, overcoming our attitudes, overcoming our faults, becoming aware of those weaknesses, and letting God through the strength of His Holy Spirit and allowing God and using that Spirit to become who He wants us to become.

As we are told, we spend the rest of our lives to become like Jesus Christ. We're not like Him immediately. So the world as it begins, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, won't be the perfect world. It will be in tatters.

It will be torn up. As they look around, they will see what the consequences of their way of life has been. It won't be a beautiful world on day one. It'll be beautiful because of what can be and what will be when mankind follows Him, but it won't be that way.

There's a rebuilding process that takes place. There's a learning process that takes place. There's a teaching process that takes place. And you and I all have a part in that. Jesus Christ is the reason. He's the reason it all happens. He's the one who will make it all happen. He will cause that time of goodness and greatness to spring up in the earth.

But we have that part now. We have that part then. We're learning to be part of that in the future. Let's go back and look at a few verses in Zechariah 14, or forward in Zechariah. Zechariah 14 talks about the coming of Jesus Christ. And of course, it's a time when the world is gathered against Him. They're opposed to everything that He stands for. We see it happening in the world around us today more and more here in the United States and around the world.

It's anti-God, anti-Christ, everything the Bible says can be thrown out. The world has its own ideas, and they are not their ideas. They are under the influence of Satan, and they use those ideas and think, call them good, the exact opposite of what they are. But in Zechariah 14, we find this time when Christ is returning to earth, and He's returning, and you and I are part of that chapter as well.

Let's look at verse 3 of Zechariah 14. Then the eternal will go forth. He will fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. We're talking about that final battle that we talked about on the day of trumpets, the time when the people are gathered at Armageddon, the battle takes place elsewhere, and everyone is defeated immediately by Christ's power.

He will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two. From east to west, making a very large valley, half of the mountain shall move toward the north, half of it toward the south. Verse 5. Then you shall flee through my mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to us all. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

Thus the Lord my God will come, and the key thing there, and all the saints with you. That's you and me. He will return, and all the saints with Him, all those who He has called in this lifetime, who allow Him to build His character in us, who take the time and make the choices in life to deny self and choose Him, to say no to the way we used to do things, no to the thoughts that come into our minds, no to the things that we know are wrong but we are so helpless against if we don't use God's Holy Spirit and ask Him, give us the strength to choose your way.

It may make us farther and farther away from the world. That's okay. We weren't here. We're not called to be part of the world. We're called to be what God wants us to be.

All His saints with Him. That's you and me, and that's where we will be in that day when Jesus Christ returns as that millennial reign begins. We should feel the responsibility of what God has called us to. We should feel the opportunity and the excitement of what God has called us to do.

To be part of something so fantastic and so unbelievably good that a transformation could come to the earth and take away the misery and put in a lifetime of goodness, a lifetime of hope, a lifetime of growth, a lifetime of abundance for not just a few nations in the earth but the entire world is something that you can't compare it to. That should motivate us to remember who we are and that day will come. And one day we will be there with Him if we do what God calls us to do.

If we go back to the book of Revelation, we see the world as it will be at that time.

You know through the trumpet plagues that we talked about just two weeks ago, that the world will be in devastation. God will exact His vengeance on a world that has turned against Him. Before that, mankind will have brought untold destruction upon itself as it brings persecution on the people of God, nations of God, the physical people of God as it exalts self and as Satan works his influence to really bring the world, if he can, to complete destruction.

In Revelation 16, Revelation 16 and verse 19, it talks about when Christ returns. It says, the great city, or when He is about to return, the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Destruction everywhere at the beginning of the kingdom. The cities of the nations fell. And we talk about nuclear possibilities. Talk about Iran having a nuclear weapon, and if they ever have it, they will use it when God allows them to use it.

And all these things that could happen. The Bible talks about cities in modern-day Israel, in America and Britain, being laid waste. That never happened in Israel's time before. It's a time coming in the future when the cities will be laid waste. And this says, the cities of the nations fell. You have all this destruction in the world that has been brought upon itself, and at the time of Christ's return. Great Babylon, it says, was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And then the world will see, verse 20, every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. All these things. And you would think that mankind would realize, as they should have learned back in Revelation 6, I think it is, all these things are of God.

We can't explain them. They don't match any of the astronomers' charts. They're not predicted that the stars are falling. The sun doesn't shine when it should. All these heavenly signs that happen, but even back then, they run and hide. They know it's God, but they don't repent. And here we say this, here's the same thing. After all this has happened, great hail from heaven falling. In verse the last sentence there, man blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail since that plague was exceedingly great. How hardened is man's heart at that time that he won't even acknowledge God after all the things that they have been through? You would think that through all that there's only one place to look and that would be God, but man's heart is so hardened at that time. Even then, even then, they won't honor God. They blaspheme Him. They talk about Him and they will not repent. In the same chapter in chapter 16, we go back to verse 9. And it talks about here as the fourth angel pours out his vial of that seventh Trump. It says, men were scorched with great heat. And what did they do? Turn to God? What are we doing? No, they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues. And they did not repent and give Him glory. More and more, they take a stand against God. We will not give in. We will not yield to Him. Verse 11, following the fifth angel that pours out his bull on the throne of the beast, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. And they did not repent. They did not repent of their deeds. How hardened is man's heart? When Jesus Christ returns, the world will be in a mess.

Cities destroyed. Everything they counted on destroyed. All the armaments, the weapons, the huge armies of millions of men, all decimated. Jesus Christ completely decimates them in an instant and conquers them. And yet they still will not turn to God. And that's the attitude that's there at the time Jesus Christ returns. The world will be in a panic, but they won't turn to God. I should have told you to keep your finger in Zechariah. So let's go back to Zechariah 14 once more.

Zechariah 14 and verse 12.

They're a very dramatic picture of what will happen on Christ's returns and what state the world will be in. An interesting incident that's placed in here in verses 12 to 14 as well. Verse 12, it says, This will be the plague with which the eternal will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

Again, if you're there and you know this is happening or have heard this is happening, wouldn't you turn to God? You would think. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the eternal will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand. They'll battle each other. They'll be mad at each other. They won't turn to God. They're not united. They become even more divisive and more turned against each other as they are confused. They don't know what's going on. They're looking for answers in all the wrong places. Judah, it says in verse 14, Judah also will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together, gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.

And Judah will be there. The wealth of the nation is there. And Judah is there. Judah is there.

And as the millennium begins, we see this picture. And here we are at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, and at the beginning of that time, there's a hope the world doesn't understand yet.

They will, as the thousand years progress. We know that hope. We know what that world will be like. We know what that time will be like. But there will be that time when things grow into that state of well-being, and hope, and beauty, and praise that we read about in Isaiah 61.

Let's go back to Isaiah 61, where we were, and complete a little bit of what we read in that chapter, where we read about the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, beauty for ashes. In verse 4 of Isaiah 61, as it talks about that process, it says, "...they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations." A time of rebuilding. A time of restoration. We read that in Acts 3 verses 19 to 21, where Jesus Christ is in heaven until God sends him back, and then the restoration of all things. It lays in ruins, but now the rebuilding begins. Not in the way that mankind built it.

Not in the way that the cities were built that led to so many of the problems and sins of this world, but in the way God designed it to be, so that all mankind can enjoy the benefits of knowing God and obeying him. So where does the rebuilding begin?

The Bible apparently shows that it begins in Jerusalem. That's where Jesus Christ returns.

That's where we see the battles going on. That's where we see Judah there, the wealth of the nations, and those things beginning, and their gathering of the wealth. That's there. God will bring back his physical people, the physical peoples of Israel, who have been scattered because of their disobedience and disregard to God over the nations. They've been scattered throughout the nations. The house of Israel fell to Assyria. They escaped from Syria, and they were scattered through the nations, and they never came back to the promised land, to the land God gave them. That will occur. That will occur during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. We go to a very prophetic book, the book of Ezekiel, and we read so many things about what will be, how we get to the point that we're at, or will be at at the time of Jesus Christ's return, and so many of the things that will transpire moving forward from that time. Lately, as we've been working with some YouTube stuff, I've been watching some YouTube videos and the things that they call recommended for you, and I see a lot of preachers in the world that come up on my screen talking about Ezekiel 36, 37, and 38, and they're talking about how all those verses apply to the time now with all the conflict going on with Israel and Iran and all the nations of the Middle East. But they have it wrong. They don't know that this occurs after the return of Jesus Christ. They think that the Jews going back to the little land of Israel that we call Israel over there today, that that pictures that time, and indeed, God did allow Judah to go back to that little land, but that's not all the house of Israel.

He gave that land to all of Israel, and his intention is that all of Israel will be brought back to that promised land when Jesus Christ returns. Let's look at Ezekiel 38, and we'll see, these are post-Jesus Christ Returns scriptures. In chapter 38, he is talking to, he tells Ezekiel, talk to these nations. We're going to see who they are in a minute. He talks about Gog and Magog and all these other nations in the first few verses, but let's look at verses 8 through, oh, about 12 here, and look and see. We're going to learn something about what happens with Gog and Magog in that day after the kingdom, after the return of Jesus Christ, but also what about Israel? What about the nation of Israel? We learned something about them in these verses, as well in other places in the Bible as well. In verse 80, speaking to Gog and Magog, he says, after many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back, brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. Brought back, as God talks about in Isaiah, God talks about it in Ezekiel, talks about it in many places, he will bring people back, and now they're living in this land he brought them back to, and they're dwelling safely.

Today, Israel isn't dwelling safely. They're under constant threat of rocket fire from surrounding nations. At any moment they can face an attack that they have no idea what's going on, but in that day, when Jesus Christ is rebuilding and the resettling of the earth occurs, Israel is there, and they are dwelling in safely. In verse 11, you will say, he's again speaking to Gog, but he's talking, and we can learn something about what it will be like in that day, you will say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. Unwalled villages? That's unheard of today. Maybe we don't have walls like Jericho, but we have defense systems. Israel has this anti-missile system, kind of a dome that's over them. That's kind of like our modern-day wall, but in that day, Gog and Magog says, I'll go up against these unwalled villages. They trust in nothing but God.

That's all the security that we need. That's all they will need in that day. I'll go up against the land of unwalled villages. I'll go to a peaceful people who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates. That's not the world we live in today. That is the world when Jesus Christ returns and begins the rebuilding and the restoration of all things and people living by his standards and laws all over the world. It begins there. And notice what it says. You're going to go there to take plunder and to take booty. Oh, there's wealth in Israel. The booty of all the wealth, all the gold and silver that were there at those nations where Judah was there, as Jerusalem was there, to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited. They were laid waste, but now there's people living there again. All those cities that were laid waste, all those areas, now there's people living there and against the people gathered from the nations who acquired livestock and goods who dwell in the midst of the land. That's the restoration that will begin.

That's Israel. They're learning to live and trust in God. They will have learned a bitter lesson, a bitter lesson about how life is living apart from God. When we look at the nation that we have today that God has so richly blessed, you have to think when all of it is taken away and everyone begins to realize, what have we done? How did we take such a great nation that was the most blessed of any, they say, in the history of the earth, and how did we throw it all away? All in the name of what does the government want? All what I want? Putting God out of the picture, discrediting Him, moving people further and further away from the traditional morality, even the traditional morality that they live by, and moving us into a way that is nothing short of the way of life of demons and Satan. What did we do? Ezekiel speaks to that time that will be and what people will think at that time. If we go back to Ezekiel 7. Ezekiel 7.

Let's pick it up in verse 23. Of course, this is a prophecy of disasters coming upon a nation that turns away from God and the warnings that God gives because He says, I am compassionate.

He does send warnings to people in the hope that they will turn back, but we know they don't, and we know that they continue going in the opposite way of God wants. In verse 23, He says, make a chain, for the land is filled with crimes of blood. The city is full of violence. Therefore, I will bring the worst of the Gentiles, and they will possess their houses. I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction comes. They will seek peace, but there will be none. Disaster will come upon disaster, and rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will perish from the priest and counsel from the elders. Verse 27, the king will mourn. What's going on? The prince will be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the common people will tremble. I will do to them, God says, according to their way. They asked for it. They practiced it. Now they will see what the consequences are.

I will do to them according to their way, and according to what they deserve, I will judge them.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord. And that's the title of the sermon today.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord. When Jesus Christ returns, all of mankind will learn He is the Lord. He is the Messiah. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. All the world will know this is the way. Walk you in it. It doesn't come just by telling them, unfortunately.

Sometimes people have to suffer tremendous things before they get to that point, and God says, then they will know. Then they will know. Israel will suffer greatly because of their sins. But then they will know when God brings them back and shows mercy to them. Let's move forward to chapter 12. Chapter 12. And let's pick it up in verse 12. I'm in the wrong chapter. Maybe not 12. Verse 15. I'm sorry. Chapter 12, verse 15.

This phrase, then they shall know that I am the Lord, so is up more times in Ezekiel than in the other book of the Bible. 26 times God says, then they will know that I am the Lord. Only one other time in the Old Testament, but 26 times in the book of Ezekiel. Verse 15. Then they shall know that I am the Lord when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. They will understand. Their minds will be opened. We did this to ourselves by the choices we made.

We didn't listen to the warnings. We didn't listen to what God said. We heard plenty of things.

The church will be part of that in crying aloud and sparing not and telling the people their sins, but there are even people in the world today that warn about what is going on and what is the nation doing, but everyone ignores it and they look the other way. They will, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. We sinned. We should have obeyed God.

We had the answer. We knew who the God of the Bible was. Maybe He hasn't opened their mind to all of the Sabbath and all the holy days and all the things that you and I know, that we're responsible for obeying as we know them, but they knew, but they threw it away.

Then they will know, He says, that I am the Lord. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, drink your water with trembling and anxiety. He's having Ezekiel play out what it will be like, what it will be like to go through this. Say to the people of the land, thus says the Lord God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land of Israel. And remember, remember the house of Israel had already gone into captivity at this time, so these are these are scriptures for the house of Israel at the end time. They will eat their bread with anxiety. They will drink their water with dread so that her land may be emptied of all who are in it because of the violence of all those who dwell in it. Then the cities that are inhabited will be laid waste and the land will become desolate and you shall know, you shall know that I am the Lord.

When these things happen to you and then you realize we did it to ourselves. In Ezekiel 20, I think a notable, notable thing that occurs at least three times in the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 20, verse 34, speaking of Israel being brought back to the land that God promised, in verse 34, he says, I'll bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples and there I will plead my case with you face to face.

Just as I pleaded my case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead my case with you, God says. You will know. You will know why all of this happened. Down in verse 42, then you shall know, then you shall know that I am the Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised my hand in an oath to give your fathers. And there you will remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed.

Then you will know that I am the Lord when I've dealt with you for my name's sake.

Why does God do this? Why does God allow all this suffering and misery to come on mankind?

Because they need to know Him and they need to know He is the only true God. He has all power, all might. What He says, all the other little gods we have in our lives, get rid of them. You only need one God. You only need to serve Him. You need to trust Him only. He provides everything we need and can provide safety in any situation that we find ourselves in.

You and I know that. The world doesn't know it today. And you and I need to be practicing that in our lives now, that we increase our trust in God, our reliance on Him, our dependence on Him.

The world will come to know that. Just like you and I came to know that He is God. He is God. He is the answer. He is the only answer. They will learn it. They will learn it as well. Now, three times in the book of Ezekiel, it says, and they will loathe themselves. Just as you and I came to the point where we really don't like ourselves. If we think of who we are or would be without God, His Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us, I think we would all have to say, boy, am I glad God rescued me and everyone I love from that person. Don't want any of that at all. Don't want that person. And Israel will find that as well. But until we come to repentance and really dislike ourselves and realize the sin that has enveloped us and that we've grown up in, we can't come to repentance.

The world will learn that as well. And it will be a beautiful thing, even though it'll hurt, it'll be a beautiful thing to repent. Just as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7, when that man in 1 Corinthians 5 who had to be put out of the church because of the sin that he was committing, when he repented, when he came to God, and Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 7 about the beauty, the zeal, the excitement of knowing God's way, of understanding the hope and the promise and the purpose of life that God gives us. That's what repentance is and it produces in us that zeal and that desire for God's way, not only for ourselves but for all of mankind. And the world will learn that.

The world will learn that as well. Well, that's Israel, but there's a world outside of Israel that has some things to learn as well. Let's go back to Ezekiel 38.

Ezekiel 38. And we read about this group of Gog and Magog. They're there and they have some wicked thoughts come into their minds. We read a little bit about what God had said about them, but we learned about Israel, the state that they're dwelling in. But there's this group of people that don't know yet what Israel has experienced. They have some things yet to learn. So let's pick it up in verse 1 of Ezekiel 38 and see what God says about them.

So the world will see some things as Jesus Christ returns, but not all the world will be there in Jerusalem to witness those things. And not all the world will readily accept Jesus Christ. They will learn to accept Him as well. Now it goes on in verse 5 to talk about Gog and Magog, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, Gomer, Togarmah, and all these people. And I won't spend a lot of time saying who those people are, but I just will read from the UCG Bible commentary about who those people are. You can go back and look and study that yourself. But just to get an idea of who this group of people God is talking to is. From the Bible commentary, the UCG commentary, it says, so rather than present-day Ethiopia and Libya in Africa, speaking primarily here where it talks about Ethiopia and Libya, so rather than present-day Ethiopia and Libya in Africa, it appears much more likely that Ezekiel 38 v is speaking of the people of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Consider them. The fast hordes of India, China, Indonesia, Russia, Turkestan, and more combined and unimaginable force and staggeringly affordable foe to be sure, but no match at all for almighty God. So you have all these peoples that God is talking to that come from the eastern part of the world, the north and eastern part. You remember in Daniel 11, at the time of the end, you have three world powers. You have the king of the north in Europe, you have the king of the south down in the Middle East, and you have the king of the east, this eastern alliance. And that eastern alliance that we're talking about here from all these parts of Asia, and later on this afternoon you'll see a map of that area so we can you can see it more clearly. All that area of the world has really not ever known Jesus Christ. They have always been steeped in pagan religions. You know, you look at Hindu. They say that Hindu is the oldest religion on earth. 4,000 years ago it began, and over a billion people subscribed to the Hindu religion. They don't know Jesus Christ. You have Buddhism, who's that's just a large part of the of the religion there. 2,500 years ago it was formed. They don't even have a god, but they believe in this philosophy, so they classify it as a religion.

And then you have Islam in parts of those countries, the in the the Pakistan's and Bangladesh's of the world, and even down a little bit in Sri Lanka. You have all these nations that are dead set against God. They don't know Jesus Christ, but they have to learn Jesus Christ, and they have to learn of him as the Savior, and to accept him and realize he is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the one who has the answers. He is the one who will bring peace and the hope to the world that will lead into the time of peace, joy, beauty, that the whole world will experience as the world comes to understand that. And so you have these verses there, and you have this group of people who are looking at Israel and saying, well look at this people. They're living there in unwalled villages. They are an easy target, and you know what? They have all this livestock. They have all these goods. They have witches, and a thought, if we're in verse 10 here of Ezekiel 38, says the Lord God says, on that day it'll come to pass that thoughts will arise into your mind.

Like, oh, you know what? We'll go back to the way we were before. Why aren't we going down and just conquering those people? Why don't we just go and pillage? Why don't we go and plunder them? Why don't we go and conquer them? Just like thoughts come into our minds, and we sometimes wonder where did that thought come into our mind? And we have to say, no, not anymore. We don't want that thought ever coming into our mind, whatever it might be of something from our past. And they have this thought come into our minds. And then God says you'll go into these unwalled villages. You'll do all of these things, or think that you're going to do all these things, because you're thinking the way the old world did. You need to think of the new way. You need to be doing things the way God says. In verse 16, he says, you will come up against my people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against my land. Why?

So that the nations may know me when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.

They will see the strength of God. They will know that this is the way it is. This is the way, this is the way the world will walk. This is the way the world will teach in the world tomorrow. This is the way the world will live. You and I, who are learning that way now, have that responsibility to be living that way so that when we're seeing these things and we're out teaching people things, that we can teach it from our hearts. We know God's way works. We know he protects us through anything he says he will. We know that you can become a different person than you would have otherwise been when you let the Spirit of God dwell in you. When you make the choices in your life that love, joy, peace, meekness all become part of your life rather than the anger, the hate, the division, and the self-exaltation that we wouldn't actually have.

The humility that God wants us to all have that we must have. All those things we will learn. And we are watching the power of God as he unveils these things. And as we'll see here in a few verses how he protects that nation of Israel, we'll know too the power of God.

You and I think we know the power of God, and we do in our lives. He's conquered us, and as we allow him to completely bring us to surrender to him, the more we understand of him and how we want nothing of ourselves but only of what he has, that's an important thing for us to know. He does conquer us. But you know, we haven't seen the physical power of God yet. We haven't felt what ancient Israel did at the base of Mount Sinai when they felt the thunderings and the lightnings, and they heard those trumpets announcing that God was about to appear, and they trembled. They trembled. They had a fear and a reverence for God because they understood and they got the power that he has. You and I haven't seen that yet. We will see it when Jesus Christ returns. We will see it as the nations that are gathered against him or the armies that are gathered against him. As we watch what he does, we will see it, and I think we will fall at our feet in awe of him and recognize the power. As we see God work his plan throughout the world, as Jesus Christ does these things and he says, then they will know, you know what? You and I will more and more know, too. Look at the power he has. Look at the goodness that he has. Look at the purpose that he has. It is all for the good of mankind. Mankind brides upon itself and not him. It's a wonderful thing to be part of and to know that now. If we go on in verse... Let's just read through the rest of chapter 38 here. We are down in verse 16. Let's look at verse 17. Thus says the Lord God, are you he, Gog and Magog, of whom I have spoken in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them? God's prophesied this. This book was written thousands of years ago. It's going to happen as sure as you and I are sitting here. It will come to pass in the same time when God comes up against the land of Israel. Says the Lord God, that my fury will show in my face, for in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. They will know. The mountains will be thrown down. The steep places will fall. Every wall shall fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against God throughout all my mountains, says the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother, and I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him. Flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Why? Because God enjoys seeing the misery of mankind? No. Because he needs to magnify himself, and he must be magnified before man will ever obey him. Thus I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know, then they shall know that I am the Lord.

Then they will know, and you and I will know too. In Ezekiel 39, you can read through some of this on your own. You see in verse 7, the last sentence there, says, then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Surely it's coming, and it shall be done, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken. Verse 11, 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 all his multitude. They will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. They will come as a storm, as a cloud, with all their weapons, whatever those weapons are, and their mighty people, to come and to conquer Israel.

Israel may be looking at their thinking, I'm living in an on-wall village. We're sitting ducks.

You know what? They will see the power of God. He said, I will protect. I will watch over you.

Nothing of these things shall come near you, and they will see the power of God too. And more and more, they will understand this is the God of gods. This is the God we trust. This is the God that will be forever and ever and ever. We can trust in Him. They will learn. We will learn.

Gog will learn. Verse 12, for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. You know when God cleanses things, because He will have a pure people. He talks about us, if we really have this hope in Him. If we really look to the return of Jesus Christ. If we really believe that He is coming. If we really embrace His way of life. If we really are there, what do we do? Do we just kind of go on? We stay in the status quo? Say we're good enough? No. 1 John 3, 3 tells us we purify ourselves. We become more and more like Jesus Christ. If we really believe we are not people of status quo. We're not people who say, I'm good enough. God will accept me the way I am. No, as long as we're living and breathing, there are things that God will teach us. Things that God will cleanse us. He will purify us. And in this life, we will never reach that state of purification. But when we're born into the kingdom of God, when Jesus Christ returns, He knows our hearts. He knows we're dedicated to becoming the pure people He wants us to become. To become like Jesus Christ, He sees that. And then our minds, we will be a cleansed people that can follow Him, and that can worship Him, and that can yield to Him, and follow His every orders, and be happy in whatever position He has us in. Because today, today He is preparing us for whatever it is He wants us to do in that kingdom. God does nothing without a plan. He knows exactly what's going to happen. He's told us in the Bible exactly what's going to happen. How people are going to have to be cleansed. And here He talks about He's going to cleanse the world, because there are these hard hearts that are out there still. But they have to be cleaned early on in the millennium, so that the whole world becomes the people that He wants us to become who are teachable, that we are teaching, and that we with sincere heart, knowing what we've lived in this life, and trusting in God that we can be that way. And He knows exactly what He wants you to do. He knows exactly what He wants me to do. And He's preparing us in this lifetime to be that, because you know when you look at what has to happen, when a world has to be rebuilt spiritually and physically? It takes. It takes a team, a united team, who is completely loyal to God, completely yielded Him, who have allowed themselves to be trained in the way that God wants them to be, because He knows exactly what is needed in order for the world to become converted the way that He wants you and me, that we're converted now, that they need to become, that they can yield to Him. So don't ever discredit or think that God isn't working with you. Ephesians 4.16 is absolutely true in the church today. He provides everything the church needs to get the work done that He wants it done. And in the millennium, He provides everything that is needed. And He knows exactly what's needed in order that that work gets done, and the world can come to the place where there is beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of the mourning, the disarmament of praise apart from the spirit of heaviness. And just like He cleanses us, the world will be cleansed of all those hardened hearts, all those anti-God, anti-Christ, we're better than Him feelings. Everyone will have a chance to yield to God, but unfortunately, if I can use that word, unfortunately, I guess I should say sadly, sadly not everyone will yield. You would hope everyone would just yield and say, yes, God, You're it! You're it! You're the power! We are just helpless, hopeless little human beings on our own. Without You, we are nothing.

And yet, we see that even here, after the return of Jesus Christ, not who knows how many years after Jesus Christ returns, we see even this happening, but God steps in, and He absolutely, and He absolutely protects Israel, and He absolutely makes a strong statement, then they will know, the rest of Gog and Magog, they'll know, they'll know that it's God. They will, we cannot, we cannot beat this God. We must yield to Him. He is the hope. He is the salvation.

He is the future. If we go back for just a second to Zechariah 14, we see that it continues, you know, through there. People, people have to learn God's way of life, just you and I have to learn God's way of life. And as we come in, we may make decisions that are apart from God, but then we realize, I was wrong to do that. I shouldn't have done that. And we repent and purpose in our lives, no, I'm not going to go that way anymore. In Zechariah 14, verse 16, we're here at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we see even after Jesus Christ returns, there's a group of people that just think, yeah, I don't have to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Can't be that important to God. Does He really want us to be at every single day of the Feast of Tabernacles, all seven days and the eighth day? Does He really want us to do that? Does He really want us to go where He puts His name to be? Or can't we just do it anywhere we want? Verse 16 of Zechariah 14, verse 16, the time that speaks to the time that we're observing right now. Verse 16, it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came up, came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. They'll be keeping it then, just as we keep it now. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, on them there will be no rain. You choose not to do what I say? Blessings are withheld. Verse 18, if the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Do it God's way. He says, just do it His way. If He says, do it, do it. Don't wait for Him to make you do it. That's unpleasant. Just do what He says. Follow His principles that it may be well with you. So there is this time of rebuilding. Knowing that should energize us, should motivate us. I hope it does. This isn't a gloom and doom sermon. This is a hope sermon. As the millennium begins, you and I have that part in working under Jesus Christ and God the Father to rebuild the world, to give them hope where there is no hope, to bring them back out of mourning and misery and all the things that they've experienced, and to let them see what the rest of eternity will be like physically in the millennial period, and then for the rest of eternity as everyone knows God is God and yields to Him.

You and I will be there. A part of it. When you read Isaiah 30 and it says, your teachers won't behold anymore. You'll be there, tapping someone else. No, no, no. This isn't the way you walk. This is the way you walk. Walk in it. What you're doing, the direction you're going, is wrong. The thought that comes into your mind, no, no, no. Not that thought. This is what God would have you do. Use His Holy Spirit to make the choice of what He wants you to do. You and I have that opportunity. How gratifying will that be? How wonderful will it be to be doing what God's will is and being part of His team in unity, all believing the same things, all working toward the same things, all in this life, coming together under God, letting Him, letting Him get His people ready. The Feast of Tabernacles. We will go through the next seven days and then the eighth day that talks about the second or the white throne judgment, the second resurrection, and then the time beyond that. Because for all the rest of eternity, it's God's way. A time of joy, peace, absolute abundance, and perfection for everyone. A time that we can't even imagine. And also, a time that we get to be part of that building in that time. I don't know what greater thing there can be to realize that and to know what God wants. Of us and what He will bring about. You know, in that day, in that day, there will come a time when the world may not know immediately God's will. It says in Zechariah 8 verse 3, something you saw on the screen last night, that it says in that day, they'll come up to the Jewish man and say, he's your God. Teach us about him. They'll tug on his. They want to know, what do you know about God? We want to learn about Him. He's our great Father. He's the one we need to follow. Today, we see the opposite happening. Anti-Semitism is on a spiral that's increasing all over the world. But in that day, you know God. The attitude has changed. In that day, Isaiah 2 says, people will go up to the house of the mountain of the Lord. Let us go up there. Let Him teach us His ways. Let us walk in His paths. Let us do those things you and I can have a part in that as God leads us and as we yield to Him. And I would just ask all of us as we go through these days of the Feast of Tabernacles, focus on His kingdom. Focus on what He is letting us do. Work together. As you've heard about all the things that we could be doing at the Feast of the seven days that God has brought us out of this world so that we can be together, so we can learn to love one another, that He can unite us, that we can look into His Word, see what His future is, and we can become the people that He wants us to be. That's the prayer. That's the prayer that we have for everyone around the world that God is calling. Looking forward to that day, I hope that's the prayer that you all have for each other.