Transcript
This time in God’s Word today we’ll be continuing a survey of the Bible. Thank you for joining us.
At the height of a political corruption trial the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. He bellowed, ”Isn’t it true that you accepted 25,000 dollars to compromise this case?” The witness stared out the window as though he hadn’t heard the question.
He again says, ”Isn’t it true that you accepted 25,000 dollars to compromise this case?” The witness still didn’t respond.
Finally the judge leaned over and said ”Sir, please answer the question” and the witness was startled and he said ”Oh, sorry, I thought he was talking to you.”
As we come to the book of Judges, the judges in the book of Judges aren’t like the judges within our court systems. The Judges were deliverers. What you find with Judges is a fascinating book of the cycles that mankind often goes through.
Israel is a picture of mankind as a whole. What’s true of Israel is true of all mankind.
There are seven departures from God in Judges where they do what was right in their own eyes. That sounds like our world today!
The cycles in Judges go like this. The people of Israel do what is right in their own eyes, then God allows a foreign power to conquer or oppress Israel as a result.
Then God raises up judges to deliver them out of those situations. Two of the judges are names you probably recognize: Gideon and Samson. Men like them would deliver Israel out of those times. Then Israel would turn back to God for a time.
Then they’d slowly drift back into doing what was right in their own eyes and then that oppression or bondage would come and then there’d be another deliverance.
You see these cycles of a broken people who had a faithful God. God was gracious to Israel throughout all of this. He’s gracious to us in our ups and downs in the Christian life too.
After the book of Judges, in 1 Samuel, the people cry out for a king. They wanted a king to rule over them, like all the other nations of the world.
God uses Samuel to call Israel’s first king and anoint him. Saul was Israel’s first king. Israel’s first 3 kings each reigned for 40 years. Saul reigned for 40 years, David reigned for 40 years, Solomon reigned for 40 years.
There’s an important event in Scripture that takes place in 2 Samuel 7.
King David is sitting in his palace one day and he thinks how it wasn’t right that he should be in a palace when the ark of God and God’s dwelling place was within a tent, or the tabernacle.
So David decides to build a house, or a temple, for the ark of God and His dwelling place.
In response to this, God was pleased, and He makes a covenant with David, and promises him that David’s house, his kingdom, & his throne would be established forever.
In 2 Samuel 7:16, David was promised this, “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
This promise of an everlasting kingdom and throne will be fulfilled through the seed of David, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, when He establishes His everlasting throne and kingdom of heaven on the earth. This is Israel’s hope.
Scripture goes on to tell about David gathering the materials for the temple, and Solomon ultimately building the building and dedicating it.
David’s son Solomon had two sons by the names of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Rehoboam was the king of Israel. Part of Israel complains to Rehoboam about the heavy taxation and forced labor from Solomon his father.
Rehoboam doesn’t listen to the counsel of his older advisers to treat the people kindly and to be a servant to them. Instead he listens to the advice of younger advisors to threaten the people with still heavier demands.
This results in a split between the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
When you read your Old Testament, that’s a crucial thing to know, because you’ll see when you read the Old Testament, it will talk about Israel and Judah.
Israel is the North, Judah is the South. Rehoboam’s brother, Jeroboam, then becomes king of the 10 northern tribes which became known as Israel. Rehoboam remained the king in Judah with two tribes, Judah and Benjamin in the South.
It’s during this time, that Isaiah, Elijah and Hosea come on the scene. These are prophets that prophesy against the ten Northern tribes of Israel, because they immediately started going down the road of idolatry and rebellion against God.
God’s prophets would say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and by the word of the Lord they command Israel to turn away from their idolatry and turn back to the true and living God.
But as a result of their continued disobedience, God allows a foreign power, the nation of Assyria, to come down and take the northern kingdom and tribes of Israel captive.
Assyria conquers Israel in 722 BC and they take them out of the land. They were carried away by the Assyrian captivity at this time.
Then God starts sending prophets to the Southern tribes, because now they started doing the same things the Northern tribes did. They were involved in idolatry, wickedness, rebellion, and marrying wives of other nations.
God calls Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah on the scene, and they start prophesying against the southern kingdom of Judah to turn back to the Lord.
They tell them to remember what happened to the North, and that the same thing was going to happen to them if they didn’t forsake their idolatry and turn back to the Lord.
But like the northern kingdom, Judah doesn’t listen. So God allows the Southern tribes to be taken away captive by the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar.
A doctor once asked a patient if any members of his family suffered from insanity. He replied, “No, we all seem to enjoy it.” The family of Abraham made the same mistakes over and over and they seemed to enjoy the insanity. But Israel is a picture in God’s Word of the whole human race. What’s true of Israel is true of all of us.
Mankind often doesn’t learn from their mistakes, we harden our hearts and turn from God and go our own way, and like Israel, man faces the consequences of sin and disobedience.
Judah is taken captive in three waves: 605 BC, 597 BC, 586 BC. The one in 586 is the final one, where they conquer Jerusalem, and they burn the temple. They plunder the temple vessels and ornaments. They take the people out of Judah. They burn the city.
They carry the people of Judah captive all the way to the far and distant land in the east, into Babylon. They kill people on the way.
This is where you get your books of Daniel and Ezekiel. Daniel was taken in the first wave of captivity in 605 B.C. to Babylon, and Ezekiel was taken captive in the second wave in 597 B.C. That’s how they both end up there.
So if you’ve read Daniel or Ezekiel and you’ve ever wondered, why is he in Babylon? That’s why. They get carried away into Babylon and both Daniel and Ezekiel faithfully ministered there for the Lord as His prophets, and they prophesy to Israel in captivity.
Judah leaves in three waves, and they come back from Babylon in three waves. King Cyrus gives Israel permission and lets them return. Zerubbabel leads the first wave back to Jerusalem. He leads them back to rebuild the temple.
The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesy against the people back in Israel this time because they stop building the temple.
They get to Jerusalem and they start building it. But then they start getting comfortable in their daily lives, and become more concerned about their houses than God’s house, and they leave off working on the temple.
God calls Haggai and Zechariah to tell the Israelites to finish the temple, to see it through.
There are principles in this for us about prioritizing the Lord’s work, and not allowing the temporal to distract us from the eternal, and finishing what we start for the Lord.
Then Ezra comes back leading a 2nd wave of people back to Jerusalem. He comes back calling the people back to God’s law & telling them to not intermarry with the nations.
Then the third wave is led by Nehemiah. He comes back under God’s call to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. He did this to secure it from the other nations that might attack it.
Three waves out, three waves back in. Then comes a 400-year gap between Malachi and Matthew where God doesn’t speak.
God’s Word is in sequence of time from Genesis to Nehemiah. The books of Esther through Malachi all fit back somewhere into the time frame of Genesis to Nehemiah.
Then there’s 400 years of waiting between Nehemiah until the times of the Gospels and John the Baptist coming on the scene.
John the Baptist comes in accord with prophecy. Isa. 40:3 says, “A voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
John comes preparing the way for the king that was coming, the Lord Jesus Christ, preparing Israel to accept him as their King and Messiah.
John the Baptist comes preaching the gospel of the kingdom because that was their hope, a kingdom established on the earth ruled by their Messiah and King.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all a continuation of the O.T. and of Israel’s prophecies and the promises made to her. You see the constant fulfillment of prophecy through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the things that take place in the Gospels.
From Bethlehem to the cross and the resurrection, it all has a flow of fulfillment of prophecy showing Israel that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah and the Seed of David, and thus their King. You have a consistent theme of a kingdom to be established on the earth.
You have teachings concerning the kingdom and the Tribulation period that precedes it, and how Israel is to live and serve God in and through it all.
In the Gospels, we find the Lord’s earthly kingdom teachings including the charter of the Kingdom with the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. And in the Gospels, we see the Lord’s compassion, wisdom, and power. We see that He is 100% man and that He is 100% God.
But the Lord said Himself in Matthew 15:24: “I am not sent [by the Father] but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Christ came to and for Israel.
He came in accordance with the promises and covenants made to Israel and to make that nation a light and a blessing to all the nations of the world.
This goes back to Abraham and the promise God made to him concerning this in Gen. 12.
For that to take place, it had to be through Christ as their King and Messiah. He came to make Israel that bright light and blessing to all the world in accordance with God’s plan.
But Israel rejected Christ. And they had Him crucified. But He rose again, triumphant over sin and death. After His ascension we go into the book of Acts.
Acts is called Acts because it details the acts of the Apostles after the Lord ascended back to heaven. One of the first things to take place is Pentecost, which was a Jewish feast day that takes place 50 days after the feast of Passover.
The Lord had promised in His earthly ministry that He would send “another Comforter,” that the Holy Spirit would come to this world after He departed to heaven. And that’s what takes place in Acts 2, but again, in fulfillment of prophecy.
In Acts 2:16, Peter speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit says, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost did not mark the beginning of the Church, but a continuation of prophecy and God’s plans for Israel.
Take note in Acts 2 who is being addressed and you find Peter addressing: “Ye men of Judea,” “Ye men of Israel.” We are not Israel. We are the Body of Christ.
Israel rejected God the Father in the past in the Old Testament with their idolatry. Israel rejected God the Son in the Gospels when they had Him crucified.
The book of Acts tells you when Israel rejected God the Holy Spirit and His ministry.
In Acts 2-7 we see the Holy Spirit’s ministry among Israel. But Israel again hardened their heart and they reject the Spirit which climaxes in Acts 7 when they kill a man filled with the Holy Spirit. They stone Stephen & they kill him with their own hands.
Acts 7:55-58: “But he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven…And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him.”
The next thing you read after Acts chapter 7 is Acts 8:1 which says “And Saul.” And that’s where God was turning now, to a new man, to a new apostle, to a new program. It is at this point that God’s plans for Israel are temporarily suspended, and Israel is set aside.
In Acts 9, Christ appears from heaven with a bright light and Saul is struck down to the ground. And Christ saves the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.
Acts 9:3,4: “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
This is completely different, completely apart from anything you find in prophecy.
The Book of Acts is a book of transition. It starts with one nation, Israel, and it ends with the nations and the Body of Christ. It starts with Peter; it ends with Paul.
You find a transition in that book, away from Israel’s program under the law to a new program for the Body of Christ today under grace.
For the last 2000 years man has been living in an age of grace. It started with the salvation of the apostle Paul and it will end with the rapture of the Body of Christ.
It began with an appearance of Christ from heaven to save the chief of sinners by grace, and it ends with an appearance of Christ from heaven to catch the Church away to heaven by grace before the Tribulation period begins.
We are not under law, we are under grace today, and we find our grace letters for today in Romans through Philemon which are directly addressed to the church the Body of Christ.
The church the body of Christ is found nowhere else in the Scriptures. Be a Berean about this. You can “search the Scriptures” and you’ll never find the Body of Christ ever mentioned. It is only mentioned by Paul because it was only revealed to the apostle Paul.
The Body of Christ was a new church for a new dispensation which was revealed only to Paul. Today, there are new terms of salvation: the gospel of the grace of God. This gospel says to just trust that Christ died for your sins personally, was buried & rose again.
Placing your faith in this simple gospel message we are saved by grace through faith alone, and we have the sure hope of heaven and eternal life.
In Paul’s epistles, we find a completely different program and a dispensation of grace that was never before revealed in the past.
In Ephesians 3:2,5,9 Paul says, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward…which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men…to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.”
This dispensation, this program of grace, is outside of prophecy. You can’t find this dispensation of grace in prophecy or the Old Testament. And absolutely no prophecy is being fulfilled in this dispensation.
The Tribulation is part of prophecy and it’s foretold in Jeremiah 30:7 that it is “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” It’s a time that Israel must go through. It’s Israel’s time of trouble and suffering before the glory that follows of their Kingdom on the earth.
This dispensation of grace is outside of prophecy and ends with an event that is not found in prophecy: the rapture of the church, the body of Christ.
We will not see one single second of the future tribulation period, because that is prophetic ground, and it’s a part of God’s plans and purposes for Israel, and we are not Israel.
Christ comes at the Rapture to catch the church, the Body of Christ away off the earth to heaven which is our hope.
Then God will usher back in that prophetic program with Israel. And prophecy will be fulfilled again. God will fulfill literally all the promises He has made to Israel.
If God was unfaithful to one promise He made to the nation of Israel, then we have every reason to question whether He will be faithful to the promises He made to us.
The promises made to Israel were literal and will be literally fulfilled in every way. His faithfulness to Israel reassures us that He will be faithful to every promise He has made to us, the Body of Christ.
After we go at the Rapture, the books of Hebrews to Revelation will be used by those during that time. Hebrews through Revelation addresses Israel for that time period.
In the Tribulation, they’ll look back to the Gospels, Daniel, Psalms, they’ll look to Hebrews to Revelation for how they are to live during that time of the trib and in the kingdom.
The antichrist will be revealed during that day. He will burst unto the world scene after the Rapture. The horrific 7-year tribulation, and time of God’s wrath, then takes place.
According to the Seal judgments, peace will be removed from the earth, and human conflict, bloodshed, wholesale slaughter and massacres and wars engulf the earth. There will be famine and the destruction of food supplies, and global hunger.
There will be mega-natural disasters, great convulsions that shake the whole earth, including a cataclysmic earthquake which moves mountains and islands out of place.
Then during the time of the 7 trumpet judgments, fires rage out of control around the world, waters will be contaminated, the sun, moon and star’s light will be reduced.
A plague of demon-possessed locust-like creatures will be released from the pit of hell and they’ll torture people for 5 months. People will desire death as a relief, God won’t allow it.
This is followed by an unstoppable 200 million army of demonic horsemen, an armored calvary of horrific looking horses that makes war with earth’s inhabitants. They’ll destroy all that is in their path with fire, smoke and brimstone, and will kill 1/3 of the population.
Then during the 7 bowl judgments, those who took the mark of the beast will be stricken with painful skin sores, all ocean water and fresh water will be turned to blood.
An angel pours a bowl of God’s wrath on the sun, and the sun’s heat will be increased and people will be scorched and seared with great heat, and then the world will be stricken with an intense, thick darkness.
This is all followed by the single, greatest most powerful earthquake in the history of the world which causes mountains to be leveled and islands to disappear, and this is followed by 75-100 pound hail falling, causing unimaginable devastation and death.
Putting all these together you have: no peace, no rest, no comfort, pain, torment, fear, thirst, fire, darkness, scorching heat. That’s hell. The Trib will be hell on the earth.
You have the false Christ coming at the beginning of the tribulation period. Then you have the true Christ coming at the end of the tribulation period.
Christ at His first coming to Israel came all the way down to this earth. At His 2nd Coming to Israel, He comes all the way down to this earth and stands on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14:4: “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives.”
At His first coming for Israel He came to rescue Israel from their sins. At His Second Coming for Israel He comes to rescue Israel from the Anti-Christ and the Tribulation.
The antichrist comes to do battle against Christ at the battle of Armageddon. Christ then comes at His Second Coming in power and great glory and crushes him and his army.
He roars as He descends and by the power of His Word, people melt away, a supernatural confusion takes place where the army of the Anti-Christ begins killing each other. Israel fights against the Anti-Christ’s army.
All of this results in a river of blood that reaches to the horse’s bridle. And Christ utterly defeats the antichrist, and his satanic one world government.
Satan is then cast into the bottomless pit for 1000 years. And Christ will then establish the millennial kingdom on the earth, the time of heaven on the earth.
After the kingdom, Satan is released from the bottomless pit. He then deceives those who do not trust Christ during the kingdom and raises an army. And they come to do battle with God at the battle of Gog & Magog. That battle is just a blip on the radar screen.
God speaks from heaven and fire comes down from heaven and consumes them all and it’s over. Satan is then cast into the Lake of Fire forever.
Then comes the great white throne, where all the unbelieving will be brought before Christ, and they will be judged according to their sins and cast into the lake of fire. All who appear at that great white throne will be cast into the lake of fire.
Then comes eternity and the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Ephesians 1:10 says, “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven [that’s us, the Body of Christ], and which are on earth [that’s the nation Israel]; even in Him.”
Everything in the end is summed up in the Lord Jesus Christ.