Join us as Pastor John Barnett preaches the seventh in a series of messages entitled, The Miracle of Israel. See the Bible as never before through the lens of prophecy as we look at the Jews, God's chosen people, who are the road map showing us God's plan for the future. When you have children and when you're a father and a mother, something you never grow tired of is the birth pains you feel as each one comes into this earth. Now other people grow tired of that. Have you ever noticed that? Those of you having children, people say things to you like, oh, you know, whatever. And they don't seem to be as in tune with it as you are. You know, in a real sense, that's the metaphor Jesus Christ uses for his second coming. He calls it birth pangs. And the most obvious, visible element of the birth pangs of Christ's return surround the inexorable struggle of the people of God called the Jews. and the city of God called Jerusalem. The reason I say all that is, two weeks ago, one of the folks that's relatively new in the church came up to me and they said, I can't wait for that trip of yours to be over, because I'm so tired of hearing about Israel. They said that to me. And I said, I can tell you're new, because I'm never tired of Israel. They think it's just a current. But you know what? When you read the newspaper, if you do, or the news, every day you'll see something about the birth pangs that Israel is experiencing. You say, what do you mean by that? Did you know that Jesus Christ will not come back to this earth in his second coming until there is not a friend left in the world for Israel, and until the entire world decides it's time to exterminate him? And all the world becomes like Hitler, and they all surround that place, and they try and destroy it. So every time I read about another scud, or another atomic warhead, or another biological warhead, or another howitzer, 155 millimeter factory they're building over there, it's another birth pang as the world surrounds that little enclave of God's people. There are only 18 million of them about left in the world. And about a third of them live in Israel. But something's going to make them all go back there. And something's going to make the whole world surround them. And that something is what we're studying. So it's very relevant. It's very timely. And it's part of what we can use every day in the news. If you have friends that are in the news, you can say, you know what I learned? Let's look at something. Look at Ezekiel chapter 5. And what I'm going to do this evening is just start, and due to our pancake supper, it'll be just a start, to go through the process as we're looking at God's unbreakable promise to Abraham to show you starting in Ezekiel 5, that Jerusalem is a lesson for us every day, every article, every newscast, every single report we get, it's a lesson to us of God's kingship. Because God has placed His name, His honor, His word, and His eternal power upon one group of people, the Jewish people. Now, we're a separate group of people that I'm going to talk about in just a moment, but that is a distinct group that you're going to see in the news. When you're chosen by God, there's no limit to what he can do with you. And when God picked Jerusalem, it was unknown that they were going to end up not being like all the unknown vanished cities across this world. I mean, there are countless cities that have no name, even in Oklahoma that people don't know. I know Bonnie's mother was born in Roxanna. Try and find it. I mean, that's an oil-booming bus town that's out somewhere in West Oklahoma, and nobody even knows where it is. And all that's left is a plaque by the road, and they don't even know where the town is. There are countless cities on this planet just like that, and many far more gone that are just dust today. Why didn't Jerusalem turn out like that? Why didn't that city that is now reaching back over 4,000 years, why is that city still at the center of things? Well, God says, I put my name there. And because I put my name there, it's going to last forever. Look at Ezekiel 5.5 and I'm going to give you some lessons. If you're a Bible writer, the first lesson is that God has said that Jerusalem will be the nerve center of the world geographically. So if you want to know, I don't know if you've ever hit your funny bone or someone has hit a sore spot in your body, but you know that your nerves are very acute to tuning into feeling pain. Well, God says the pain center of the world, the place where the world will feel the most pain, the nerve center, that spot where if you touch it you really you really can feel it is Jerusalem and geographically that's the spot. This is what it says. Thus says the Lord God. Ezekiel 5.5. This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of all the nations and the countries around her. So Jerusalem geographically is the center in God's estimation of the whole world and it happens to be the nerve center. God says you touch Jerusalem you're touching the pupil or the apple of my eye and I'll respond. Very interesting. Secondly, and let's turn to Zechariah 14 and verse 8. Jerusalem, and that's the second to last book as we were reminded this morning in our reading. Chapter 14, second to last book of the Old Testament of Zechariah 14. Jerusalem is not only the nerve center of the world geographically, but prophetically it's the storm center. In other words, that's where the storms, you know how they check out our hurricanes in America by what is going on in the rainfall of Africa. And there's a correspondence there. And if they're having extensive rains in Africa, you know that the next season is going to be a heavier hurricane season on the East Coast and in the Gulf. And so if you want to know about hurricane weather, you watch Africa. But if you want to know about global storms, as far as political and warfare, this is what God says. He says, look at the storm center of the world prophetically. It says in chapter 14 of Zechariah, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. If you want to know the storm center, the touchstone, the tinder that is bone dry that's going to cause a conflagration that's going to make World War I's millions, 20 million that died, and World War II's 50 million that died, make that pale. Watch Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to cause In the final result, more than half of all the people on this planet to die. Half. Tribulation is all about the Jews and God bringing his people back and God saving them at the climactic moment. And in that process, half of all the people on earth will die. Jerusalem is the storm center of the world prophetically. Also, go back to Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2, God says not only is Jerusalem geographically the nerve center of the world, it's the center of all the nations, and not only is it prophetically the storm center of the world, Zechariah 14 tells us that, but ultimately Isaiah 2 verses 1 onwards say it's the glory center. In fact, if you want glory and honor and blessing, Jerusalem is the center of all that. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, listen to what's going to happen. This is the word, Isaiah 2, that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains. You know where the Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock is? God says, I'm going to establish my house there. And it shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it. and many people should come and say come let's go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of God the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his path for out of Zion shall go forth law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem he will judge between the nations he will rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares hey there's something from the United Nations one of the only things the United Nations has gotten right is they put a biblical inscription up there on their building I can't think of anything else that's good coming out of there, but at least they quote that verse. That's a blessing. They don't even know how it's going to happen. They think they're going to do it. They don't realize that the Secretary General of the world has to be Jesus Christ for that to happen, but that's okay. They'll come to that. But they will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. The glory center of the world, ultimately, God has said, will be Jerusalem. From Jerusalem will emanate the glorious presence of the King of Kings during the millennium. But here's the last thing. Look at John chapter 4, verse 22. John 4, in the New Testament, chapter 4, verse 22. Because we need to realize, and one of the reasons why it is so important to study God's Word in perspective is to learn that God has designed it that the church cannot exist apart from its Jewish heritage, and that the Jewish heritage cannot exist apart from God's current working with what He's doing with us, His current people, His people of the church. But we are not independent of one another. We are gloriously distinct from one another. But listen to how Jesus commented on this, because spiritually, Jerusalem is the salvation center of the world. It says this in John 4, 22, and Jesus was speaking these words to the Samaritan woman. He says, you worship what you don't know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. What does that mean? It's through this promise we began looking at last time and are going to continue looking at next time, Lord willing, the promise God made to Abraham. When God walked on that blood path between those carcasses, And when he walked through that smoking furnace and that lamp going back and forth like this, he was saying, may I be having destruction come upon me if anything happens to this covenant I'm making. And can God ever die? Can he ever be destroyed? God is infinite and eternal. Yes, Christ died in our place. But I'm saying, can God ever fail? His word, no. And he said by that, that smoking furnace and that light passing over that blood path. He says, I am making an eternal, unbreakable covenant through Abraham. Will my son, the Lord Jesus, come? And through him and through this covenant people, will everyone on earth be blessed? And that was his promise. 4,100 years ago, God made that promise. And in that promise, he promised in that covenant to Abraham that all the scriptures would unfold around a people, a land, and a future seed, Jesus Christ. Well, I want to just close with explaining to you, and I told my children, I says, this is going to be a history lesson tonight. And so let me just start the history lesson by putting all this in perspective. God has planned that Israel would be central for this world. Not only in the ancient past, but God has planned in modern history that the modern state of Israel wouldn't just happen. But the modern state of Israel, not an accident in history, rather that they would be part of the creative power of the Almighty, their resurgence. Why? Because you have to have a nation in the land of Israel for Jesus Christ to come back in glory, to save. If there was no nation there, He wouldn't come back to rescue them. And just as in ancient times the Lord used human agencies like Egypt and Babylon and Persia and Rome to accomplish His will, in our present times, in fact, in the last two generations, God has used the nations such as Britain and the United States, Europe, the United Nations, and even this movement that was a political movement called Zionism, He's used all that to bring a group of people back to His land. And just as God has allowed Satan to use Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar and Titus to thwart his plans. God has allowed people like Hitler and Brezhnev and Nasser and Arafat. Satan is trying to use them to disrupt God's plans. And just like God stopped Nebuchadnezzar, and just like God stopped Cyrus, and just like God stopped Pharaoh and killed his firstborn, when these modern foes get too close, to their goal of the destruction of God's people, God will stop them. Well, Israel is the center of divine history, and what we see is we who love Christ believe His Word, and we should be aware of the significance of what's going on in front of our very eyes and not look at them as merely political or international developments, but they're all part of the birth pangs. They're all part of that inexorable struggle of Satan knowing that God has staked His name on a little parcel of land. In fact, it's 40 acres. And that 40 acres is where the dome is. And the dome is sitting over Mount Moriah. And Mount Moriah is where God says, my temple will be. And that's where my people will worship me. And he said, so there's going to be a constant tug between Satan and God's plan. And that's what we see in the news. we as the church need to recognize that Israel is truly distinct from the glorious body of Christ. We, the called-out body, are composed of believing Jews and Gentiles during this present time. Since Pentecost, until the glorious coming of Christ for His church, in that period, God has called out a body. And we, the church, are the highest entity that God has ever created. We are superior in all the universe. We are above the angels, we are above the nations, and we are above Israel. But we are distinct from it. We are not the same. Our head, our husband, and our friend is God's Son Himself. We will reign with Christ when He rules the earth. Our twelve founding apostles will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. The angels themselves will spend forever examining us as exhibits of God's mercy and grace. And we will judge the angels, and that's our destiny. I hope none of us would ever want to trade it for any other position of anyone else in the universe. Therefore, we should never be disturbed over what God has promised to the Jewish people. And the tragic truth is that the church throughout the ages, as I mentioned in first service this morning, has done everything they can to erase the Jewishness of our heritage. You can't, because God has forever settled it in heaven in his word. God said through the Jews came His law, His prophets, came His revelation of salvation, and His Son. And we can't erase all that. And so, the church's finest and most distinctive hour is when Israel will be restored nationally and spiritually to the Lord at the second coming. Because we'll return from heaven with Him as His glorious bride. And we will rule Israel and the world. So we shouldn't suffer. from spiritual myopia. We should recognize what God is doing with Israel. We shouldn't shrink from it as though our own interests in America are more important than what He's doing over there. But we should rejoice every time we see a new development, especially in the Middle East, with the full assurance that our own redemption draws ever closer. Why? Because God's mapped out what's going to happen. And let me briefly sketch this. The modern miracle of the restoration of Israel, though mostly still an unbelief, is but the prelude to the climactic events that Israel's return is setting up. And what are those climactic events? Number one, Christ coming to take the church out so he can restore his work with Israel, which is going to be the tribulation. Our leaving to Christ's presence, our blessed hope is 1 Thessalonians 4. That will precipitate What is called in Ezekiel 37 and 38, the war of Gog and Magog, and by the way, that could, it doesn't say in the Bible that has to come after our snatching away to Christ, that could come before. Did you know the Yom Kippur War in 1973 almost mirrored exactly Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 37 and 38? In fact, a lot of Bible scholars believed that they had missed the rapture because it was so eerie that everything Ezekiel said was happening. It doesn't have to be that that event, it is not clear in the scriptures whether Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 37 and 38 happens before or after. are snatching away to Christ's presence. But then the Antichrist will make a contract peace with Israel, Daniel 9 says. Then he will rear himself up to be worshipped as Matthew 24, our Lord Jesus Christ said, in the temple in Jerusalem. Then will come all the horrors of the tribulation, the war of Armageddon in Revelation 16. Then will come at the end of the tribulation the salvation of Israel, the judgment of the nations Jesus describes in Matthew 25. Then Christ will reign in the millennial reign, Revelation 20. The great white throne judgment, the new heaven and new earth. I mean, God's mapped it all out. But the world will continue inexorably going toward the time of judgment and the wrath of God. And it's quite within the realm of reality that the alliance that's currently shaping up against Israel. Last week, Iran and Russia signed a joint $42 billion arms agreement, as if there weren't enough weapons in the Middle East, as it was. $42 billion more worth of sophisticated weaponry is moving from Russia down to Iran. Iraq just bought a great amount of weaponry, equal almost to that. India just signed an agreement to develop weaponry. India with Iran, they're going to start joint ventures. Doesn't that sound like the kings of the East coming? Look what's happening in China right now. Japan's making signals toward China. That would be the ultimate Eastern alliance. You put Japan and China together with India and Iran and have them march east, I mean westward toward Israel. Those things are shaping up and it's within the realm of reality that what Ezekiel described 2,500 years ago could be mobilized quickly in today's world and set the stage for the Antichrist, this peacemaker, to make a false promise to Israel, and the tribulation will start unfolding. Why do I love the news? Why do I love to hear about all the birth pains in Israel? Because it reminds me, just like it reminded me every time one of our children was born, that when those pains came, they would get quicker and closer and stronger, and then you'd have the birth. We're going to see a world with quicker and stronger and more fearful events surrounding the Middle East. And when they come, remember your redemption draweth nigh, because the tribulation hour is for Israel, not for the church.