And please have your Bibles open to the Old Testament book of Tzpanya chapter 3 and stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Our text for tonight is verses 8 to 10. 8 to 10 of Tzpanya chapter 3. We see that this final chapter, chapter 3, is filled with great hope, great and amazing positive things that God will do in the future. Ironically, it's connected to the greatest tribulation that Israel and the world will experience. So it is based on the amazing things that God will do in the end times. So this is the reading of God's word, Spaniel 3, verse 8. Therefore, wait for me, declares Yahweh, for the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, my judgment is to assemble nations, to gather kingdoms, to pour out on them my indignation. All my burning anger, for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal. For then I will change them to peoples with purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of Yahweh to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, my scattered ones, will bring my offerings. Amen. Please be seated. Now in the previous passage we saw God's justice and the lessons that God wanted Israel to learn through his righteous judgments and we've asked a couple of thought-provoking questions of application for ourselves. Are we committed to the righteousness of God? And we have found that it's difficult to commit to God's righteousness when our own personal desires is to see things happen and occur the way we want, the way we would like it. Sometimes God's standard of righteousness may mean that we need to suffer. It means that we need to wait patiently, that the gratification that we seek will be much delayed. We need to have the faith of Abraham and that God made awesome promises to Abraham. He said, it is through you, it is through you, but it will be through his descendants. And so Abraham saw none of those things actualized in his own personal lifetime, but he knew that through the seed of the promise of his son in his old age through Isaac, that God would work out all of these promises, the awesome promises God made to Abraham. And so in the same way, the Lord Jesus says, you are my people here on earth. I have these glorious plan and purposes for you and through you. This is what I'm going to do to the very end of the ages. You occupy you be watchful, you be faithful until I come. And so as stewards and servants, we're also called to submit to God's purposes of his righteousness, to his timetable, yes, to his perseverance. So our life is not our own, it belongs to the Lord. Israel forgot who she was in her relationship with Yahweh. And what happened when Israel forgot? She thought and lived and look just like the pagan nations. And this was the tragedy of so much of Israel's history. But that wasn't all of Israel. God has always preserved a remnant who would be faithful, even during those tumultuous, even idolatrous times. We asked a second thought-provoking question. We asked the question, are we committed to God's justice? We also asked, are we willing to learn the lessons from the examples God provided? God provided so many lessons for Israel. And the key lesson was by the destruction of the powerful empires. At the same time, God preserved this little nation. So imagine the faithless people of Israel saying, we're just so puny and tiny. How can we stand against these powerful military might of Assyria? Later on, they would say the same thing regarding Babylonia. We don't even live in our own land. We don't even belong in Israel. We have lost our home. What hope do we have? This is a kind of hopelessness that Israel fell into because they couldn't learn from all the wonderful examples that God has set before them. So this was the lesson that God gave through Spaniel. Even while God was destroying these superpowers, they didn't learn their lesson. Even when God was sending them faithful men and faithful prophets, they didn't learn their lesson. And so we ask those two questions as a matter of application for us. In many ways, I think we share similar life patterns with those of the faithful and the faithless in Israel. It's still like that today. Here in this passage, We're going to ask a couple more questions. But the questions are based on hope now. Hope is always about the future because nobody hopes for something he already has or something that is in the past. Hope is always future oriented. So how can the hopeless Israelites find hope in what Yahweh says? Well, this passage answers some of those questions. So we're gonna ask them and we're gonna find the answers in the scriptures. But before we go there, I want us to read a couple of passages in the prophet Yirmiyahu Jeremiah. Let's first go to chapter 27 and then we'll skip over to chapter 29. So go to chapter 27 first of Yirmiyahu Jeremiah chapter 27. And I want us to see clearly God's prophetic word to Israel as they were sacked by Babylon. Alright? This is what God said. I want to read for you beginning with verse 1, so follow along. We're going to read some significant passages so you'll get a really good idea of what's going on at this time. This is shortly before it's Fania prophesied. Sorry, shortly after Tzvanya prophesied. So Tzvanya prophesied first and then Yirmiyahu prophesied a little later. In the beginning of the reign of Tzidkiyahu ben Yoshiyahu melech Yehudah This word came to Yirmiyahu from Yahweh saying... to Melech Ben Amon, to Melech Tzur, and to Melech Tzidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Yerushalayim to Tzidkiyahu Melech Yehudah. And you shall command them to go to their master, saying, Ko Amar Yavitz V'ot, Elohei Yisrael. Thus you shall say to your masters, I have made the earth, the men and animals which are on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm and I will give it to the one who is right in my eyes. So now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, Melek Babel, my servant. Did you hear that? Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, Melek, Babel, My servant and I have given him even the wild beasts of the field to serve him all the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes then many nations and great kings will make him their servant and it will be that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him Nebuchadnezzar, Melek Babel, and will not put his neck under the yoke of Melek Babel, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares Yahweh, until I have brought it to an end by my hand. Now listen very carefully to verse 9, what God says. He warns Israel. But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers who speak to you saying, you will not serve Melek Bavel. For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land and I will banish you and you will perish. Okay, now let's pause here and go to chapter 29. Chapter 29. Let's pick up from verse 4. To all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babel. Now what's going on here? Chapter 27, warning, instruction, command. Chapter 29, verse 4. Those who listen to Yahweh, those who are sent now to exile. Now listen to what God says He will do. Verse 5, build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, do not decrease. Seek the peace, look at verse 7, of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to Yahweh on its behalf for in its peace you will have peace. All right, that's enough I think. You see, why do you think people listen to false prophets? because they wanted to hear what they wanted to hear. They didn't want to hear, we'll go submit to this powerful evil dictator king, follow him into his land, into exile. They didn't want that. They would rather hear the false prophets who say, God will deliver you. As we make an alliance with Egypt, the Egypt's Pharaoh, Pharaoh will come to your rescue. Nebuchadnezzar will not be successful. So here is Yirmiyahu with the message from Yahweh saying he will be successful and everybody who opposes Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar would be put to death. You will not survive. So submit because I have raised him up as my servant to do my will to punish all these nations. That's what the word of God said to God's people through his prophet Yirmiyahu. Did Israel listen? Not all of them. But the people who did and who went into exile, they were comforted saying, okay, you're gonna be there for a while, 70 years to be exact. That's two whole generations, three if you count the way people married early in those days. So we're talking about three generations from children to grandchildren. Settle down, build houses, Get married, have children, continue to live your lives, I will protect you. Since I've put you in cities, in this vast empire, pray for the city, be a good citizen there. And live in peace because Yahweh will protect you there. Only the faithful Israelite who understood that this was part of God's judgment, part of God's chastising discipline, this is part of God's sovereign plan, they submitted to the Lord and His word, even though they did not like it. That's what they did. And they were preserved. They were blessed. They multiplied. And the righteous remnant, the Lord preserved the remnant and brought them back. And that's the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. So they did come back, the faithful remnant. See, God is faithful to his word. What about those who rejected Yirmiyahu? They sided with the evil king Tzitzkiyahu. What about those who murdered the messengers of Nebuchadnezzar and they took the people forcefully into Egypt? Yirmiyahu also. Well, they died. They didn't have a remnant. a righteous remnant. But God was so faithful even there. God is so faithful. So one group had hope because they had hope in Yahweh and his word. The other group, they were hopeless. They said, ah, Yahweh has given up on us. Our nation is gone. Our temple is destroyed. It's just every Israelite for himself. And this is very typical of the mindset of most Jews who have taken their mind off the Lord and they have entrenched into the secular life. Now that sets the background of what we're going to be studying here today. Because God's scathing indictment of Israel's unfaithfulness and sinfulness, that was the previous passage up to verse 7. The good news of hope for Israel is now the topic of God's revelation through Tzvanya from this point on. Verse 8 and on. The glorious future for Israel will only come after God finishes His righteous retribution of His wrathful judgments against the wicked Gentile nations. But Israel still has hope for her future because God says He will do something amazing through these judgments in them. And so their hope is our hope. What is that? That is the future purposes of our good and glorious God. So you and I have the obligation as well as the privilege of reminding our children and young believers of this very fact that we belong to the Lord and God has a glorious purposes for our future. That's our hope. not on what you want to do, not what you would like, not what feels right and comfortable for you, but what God has in store for us. So that's a constant reminder. Israel's hope for their future would sustain them because it would carry them, it would strengthen their faith. Israel's hope for their future is our hope for the future because God will be glorified through his redemptive renewal of a restored nation. as he also saves the Gentiles. When God judges the nation and when God renews his people, a glorious day will arise for all of his righteous ones. This is what Apostle Paul wrote regarding the glorious future hope that we all have. Romans 8 verse 24, this is what Paul said, for in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it." Something about faith and hope that gives us a sense of eagerness in waiting for it, gives us patience and enduring perseverance. People who don't have hope for their future, they live for the moment and they lose sight of who God is. they easily become lost, they quickly forget, but not the one who hopes for what they know to be true by faith and they persevere and they eagerly await for what is to come. So let's ask our first question as we approach this passage. So in reverse engineering, this is the answer. So what's the question? Here's the question. Do you have hope in God's purposes for a righteous retribution as the just God? We've been learning about God's justice and his judgments. Do you believe in what God has planned in the righteous retribution? We're studying the four trumpet judgments in Revelation 8. Here, we see the judgments of God and this points to the end times, the tribulation period. So do we have hope in the purposes of God's retribution? In other words, the future, the glorious future will not come until God finishes His righteous retribution. That's exactly what God said. He said it through the prophets. He reminded Israel. He told through the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus reminded the disciples and Lord Jesus reminded John, Apostle John on Island of Pappas in the book of Revelation again and again and again. We're given greater and greater details of what God has for the future. So the glorious hope that we have for the glorious future that is to come will only come after God's righteous retribution. Let's take a look at verse 8. Therefore, wait for me. What an amazing, amazing command, isn't it? the righteous remnant of Israel must wait for God's purposes for his righteous retributive justice upon the nation before he renews and restores Israel to a glorious age. This is basically what God was saying through Yirmiyahu. Therefore, you wait. You settle down, you build houses, you get married, you live there, because you're going to be there for a while. But you wait for me, wait for my timing, and I will raise up a remnant. I will raise up Cyrus. He will be my servant. He'll let you go back. I will preserve for me a remnant. They will come back and they will fulfill my purposes. God has already declared it. So what do you know about God? The one who knows what's going to happen in the future is because he declared it. He declared it because he is all powerful to cause it to be exactly the way he declared it. He is in control. He's sovereign. So you and I can have hope in the certainty of the future. And what does God say? It's gonna happen. So you patiently wait. The introductory particle here, therefore, in prophetic judgment oracles, introduces formal announcement of punishment. Formal announcement of punishment. The imperative, wait for me, has the masculine plural ending, meaning you all wait for me. And the verb is often used in the Old Testament of many positive events for which God's people are commanded to wait in anticipation. But here God promises his righteous retributive punishment against the Gentile nations. So how is that going to be positive? Once God's wrath is fully poured out against the evil nations, mercy will be available not only to Israel, but to the Gentiles who are converted. So God's going to convert some of the Gentiles through the tribulation period as well. Only a faithful remnant was serving Yahweh. while the majority of the nation were defiled in sin, just like the nations. So the Lord is comforting the faithful remnant to patiently wait for the Lord to execute his purposes. Let me share with you some passages of the four psalm passages. Let me share with you. Psalm 27 verse 14, Hope in Yahweh, be strong and let your heart take courage. Hope in Yahweh. This is what we can say to people who have lost their hope, who's weary, who's constantly pessimistic, negative, because they're not getting what they want. Or they're constantly getting what they don't want. Pain, difficulty, suffering. So we need to remind them, hope in Yahweh. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Hope in Yahweh. Psalm 377, be still in Yahweh and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way, because of the man who carries out schemes of wickedness. Don't look to wicked, evil people and their success and say, why is that guy being successful? And I'm like this. Don't go there. That's what the Word of God is saying. But be still and wait patiently for Him. Remember, our reward is in the future. Please do not become bitter or pessimistic because you're not getting what you want here and now. Or you're getting too much of what you don't want here and now. Psalm 123 verse 2, We need to have a yearning, a great desire to fix our eyes, our thoughts on what is to come from the hand of the Lord in the future. Psalm 130 verse 6, Wow, twice it says watchman for the morning. He's been staying awake all night. He wants to go home and get some rest. He's waiting for time to pass by. That's the eagerness, yearning. Isaiah 30 verse 18, Is waiting easy? Is patience automatic? Is delayed vindication pleasant? The answer is a no to all these questions. No, it's not easy. It's not automatic. It's not pleasant. But the righteous knows that he has no other option than to simply wait upon the Lord and his timing and his ways. Because the righteous loves the Lord and knows God's ways are perfect. His timing is perfect. Many times we get impatient and say, well, I don't agree with that. It's too late. This is too much. This is too little. Oftentimes we lose the sight and we begin to judge things and interpret things wrongly by our own standards instead of waiting upon the Lord, instead of trusting in the Lord. And as we grow in patient waiting, we're actually gonna grow in faith and hope. We really will be. So while the righteous man and righteous woman hopes for a better future, he or she grows in patient trust and continues to experience God's faithfulness. God's not gonna leave you alone, defend for yourself, leave you alone to suffer by yourself. No, no, no. God's going to be good to you, gracious to you, but you must not miss it. And so the righteous will always find his hope and the joy in the one who cares for him. And this was the perspective that the righteous remnant, even living in exile, had. This is what Daniel had. He was a young lad when he was taken into Babylon to serve Nebuchadnezzar. But Daniel was a student of the Word of God. Even as a young lad, he probably, because he lived in Jerusalem, he heard the preaching of Yirmiyahu. He knew. That's why his faith and his friend's faith were solidified early on. And his entire life is a testament that he waited upon the Lord. Even while he saw people going back to Israel, he knew that his purposes was to serve his people in a secular land. That was Daniel's mission. It was always serving God by serving others. With the return to repeat the general summary of God's judgment in Spanish chapter 1 verse 2, it says, I will completely end all things from the face of the ground declares Yahweh. I will end man and beast. I will end the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked and I will cut off man from the face of the ground declares Yahweh. That's the general summary of the judgment of the nations. That is the beginning of Spaniel. Now that theme has returned again. Those who have been persecuted by the wicked, only God's righteous retribution will suffice. There is no other option because God said, I will bring about judgment upon the nations. And God will do it while Israel is watching. Israel will go through the times of the tribulation, just as Israel watched and went through and experienced God's judgment upon the Egyptians. They watched, oftentimes in horror, oftentimes in doubt. Are we going to be swept away too? Are we going to suffer too? When God turned Nile River into blood, we didn't have water to drink. We had to really suffer. When the flies came, the frogs came, we had to suffer, sorry, with the frogs. But starting with the flies and gnats, hey, they found relief. But they still got to watch their Egyptian taskmasters and the Egyptian landlords get punished by God. Well, they went through it, and same experience is preserved for the future for them. Remember the tribulational saints who are martyred, who cry out to the Lord. Revelation 6 verse 10, There's only one remedy for such outcry of God's elect, and that is God's righteous retribution upon the wicked. So this is what God has in store. Now the Hebrew here, the Hebrew term here in Hebrew without the vowel points, if you just take all the vowel points out, as was in the original Hebrew, can be read for a witness or for prey, which is more difficult reading for prey, since this would be a unique case. So in Genesis chapter 49 verse 27 says, Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he devours the prey. There is it, ad, eating the prey, right? So using this clarifying meaning, we have a vivid imagery of a ferocious predator that arises from its hiding to pounce on the prey, for the prey. Either reading, whether as a ferocious predator to end the life of the creature, the prey, or an angry judge who stands up from his seat to render severe judgment, because both readings can be possible, the life of the creature or the defendant is over. Now the reason why I tend to lean more toward the vivid imagery of a predatory animal who's rising and pouncing on the prey is because of what comes next. The phrases that describes the vicious judgment. Now take a look at what the scripture says. Indeed, my judgment is to assemble the nation. So he rises up to judge, but first he assembles. See this word assemble? That's a generic word that is often used in harvest. So it's the gathering of the crops, the gathering of the grain, the gathering of the chaff. That's the generic word for gathering. But here it says, the gathering of the nations. So it says, indeed my judgment is to gather the nations together, or assemble the nations, for what? When you assemble, gather the nations, it's for battle. That's when the nations gather together, to go against each other. That's the imagery here. He will gather the Gentile nations. How do we know it's Gentile nations? Because it's goyim. Goyim here, the Gentile nations. This is an international conflict of warfare. That's what's being described here. God's judgment is to assemble the nations in a military array to do something to them. But before we get there, there's these synonyms, synonymous parallelism, to gather kingdoms. You see, to assemble nations and to gather kingdoms. These are two synonyms. The verbs are synonymous and the nouns are synonymous. Nations, usually goyim, pointing to peoples, but they're usually head by a king and his domain, so it's kingdoms. The synonymous parallelism reinforces the idea of gathering of governments and peoples who will come against Israel in the last days. We've been learning about this climactic World War III called Armageddon, which will be the final global warfare centering around Israel. Political alliances and stockpiling of weaponry by the nation's military industrial complex will all be for the purpose of the final judgment of God. Sure, there will be wars and rumors of wars, But God is preparing the nations for this final judgment of a climactic World War III. And this is the language, to pour out on them my indignation. The wrath of God will be poured out against the nations as we've been studying in Revelation 8. God will expend not some of his wrath, but all of his wrath. All my burning anger, he said. Look at the imagery. His anger is burning. The motivating factor is his holy jealousy to protect and preserve his own people. That's why it says, for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal. Notice the burning anger and notice the imagery of the fire of my zeal. That word kinah points to jealousy or zeal. In both cases, it's emotional energy, emotional energy. And kinah oftentimes is portrayed as jealous anger of God or jealousness of God. God has a holy jealousy, which means that he has tremendous emotional energy to protect and preserve what is rightfully his own, especially his relationship with Israel. That's the imagery of a jealous husband trying to guard his wife against temptation. So the saints throughout the ages all knew that God will one day judge the nations. And what is his emotional motivating energy? That is his zeal for his people, Israel. His zeal. They didn't quite understand how these judgments would both punish and purify not only Israel, but also the Gentile nations. How can God do both? And yet the scriptures clearly, clearly depict God doing both at the same time. They have to simply trust the Lord and his unfailing word that God will somehow bring them to pass. God says he will pour out his fiery anger and that he will devour the earth and the nations by the fire of his zeal. At the same time, he will be protecting. So they didn't know how this was all going to happen, but they believed. Tzvanya was faithful to proclaim the word of God, although the details were not given to him. Only some of the details were given to him, but big general pictures were given to Tzvanya. We know that it was through the Lord Jesus Christ and the details of the final judgments of the purification in both the Olivet Discourses of Matthew 24-25 and the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember our Lord Jesus gave two specific Revelation, one to his disciples, to the Jewish nation, and one that would affect the Gentile world and the tribulational saints of Israel in the latter days, in the great tribulation period of Revelation. And so when we look, man, this is pretty bleak. If this is true, then things are going to get worse and worse and worse, not better and better and better. Do we have a bright future, bright future for the hope of our children and our grandchildren? The scripture continually tells us that the whole world is being prepped and prepared for the outpouring of the wrath of God. There's only one climactic event that the church is waiting for and that's the rapture. And that triggers seven years of tribulation period. And so what kind of hope do you have? Do you want God's righteous retribution to come? Because he says it's coming. Do you know what's going to happen after that, right? Amen. We do. But what would it mean? I know this will bring tremendous anxiety for you who have loving family members who are unsaved. You might have children who do not receive the Lord. You may even have grandchildren that you're deeply concerned for. And yet the Word of God is absolutely clear. In God's way, in God's timing, He will do exactly what He says He will do. and he will bring retribution upon the wicked inhabitants of this world who hate God and who will turn against his people Israel in the end times. The stage is already being set. Do we have hope for a brighter future in Christ? Now praise God if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's your hope. That's my hope. But we're still very much concerned, right? For people, our neighbors, our friends, family members, who still do not know Christ, who reject the Lord, who reject the gospel. Well, we still have hope in God's righteous retribution upon the wicked inhabitants. And even through those difficult times, God's going to do something amazing and wonderful. This is our hope. This is what verse 9 and 10 talk about. So let's ask the right question. Do we have hope in God's redemptive renewal? Not only his righteous retribution, but his plan of redemption and renewal. You see, there is a significant percentage of Israelites who fear the Lord. They believe in the one true God of Israel, but they don't have faith through Jesus Christ. Therefore, they don't have a saving relationship. They have a covenant relationship of sorts, but they're unregenerate. Their only hope is in the Messiah. So the only question is, will they trust in Jesus Christ whom they reject? Today they reject, but tomorrow when that time comes, will they receive? And this is the great hope for Israel, isn't it? God's plan of redemption. And through that redemption, God has a plan to not only renew the nation, but also he's going to save the Gentiles. They're going to believe. So this is the great hope for the world. Verse 9, For then I will change them to peoples with purified lips. For then, points back to the command, wait for me. How long? until God changes them to peoples with purified lips. By using the imagery of lips, of course the Bible is talking about language, its primary function of lips. That's what it's talking about. So the purification of language points to the fact that the idolatrous people who would confess and swear by false gods have unclean lips their entire life is filled with unclean lips because the nations are full of idolatry but when an Israelite believes and talks and lives just like the gentile nations they have unclean lips Those who would render unclean speech by using the language not to glorify God or make statements of faith and trust in God, but of distrust, of blaming God, of saying that he's unrighteous or complaining to God. They have defiled the words and godless speech. They're called people of unclean lips. which Isaiah had to confess in Isaiah 6, 5. He said, Yeah, I mean, he was indicted. I'm sure he had questions about God's goodness. Maybe he wasn't always thankful and grateful. He didn't use his lips to profess faith in the Lord, to give thanks to the Lord. And he saw others doing it too. But God cleansed his lips, his speech. And God says to the prophet Spaniel, I will change them to peoples with purified lips. So how's that going to happen? Well, it's going to happen supernaturally because God says he will do it. Well, that can only happen if their heart changes. How can they speak words that are glorifying unto the Lord of purified lips when their heart is defiled and full of unbelief and self-righteousness and self-focus? How is that ever gonna happen? Well, this is the great hope for Israel and for the nations that all of them may call on the name of Yahweh. The name there points to his character. They're gonna know God's character. And they're going to call upon the Lord, understanding His character, His holiness, His righteousness, His goodness, His mercies, His divine grace. That's why they're going to say, Yahweh is God. He is good. He has preserved us. We deserved His wrath, but He saved us. This is what they're going to say. He is good. How are they going to say that? It says, all of them may call on the name of Yahweh to serve him shoulder to shoulder. Now the Hebrew is literally one shoulder pointing to unity. Unity. So all the nations, the goyim, are going to be transformed somehow and they're going to, in a united way, along with the redeemed of Israel, serve Yahweh. This is what the Bible is saying. The Gentile nations, represented by kush, Now, during this time, Kush was a region in northern Africa, so it's basically South Egypt, Southern Egypt, right? Because the northern part is always called Mitzrayim. The Kushites, the southern part of Egypt, as well as northern Ethiopia and Sudan, that entire region, produced some of the tallest and the fiercest African warriors. So these men were often trained and hired as bodyguards, as mercenaries, and they were paid soldiers, soldiers of fortune, and they fought many wars all over the Middle East. They were feared because they were tall. And so all of the historical account says that these were the tallest people that people have seen. Their average height was at least six feet tall. Right now I think currently the Scandinavian people over there, Denmark probably has, Sweden, Denmark, that area has probably some of the tallest people. But at this time in history, in Israel's knowledge, these were some of the fiercest, tallest, biggest, baddest warriors they have ever seen. That's Cush. That's why we have this phrase in verse 10, from beyond the rivers of, it says Ethiopia, but the Hebrew is Kush. So it covers that entire region. So don't think modern political boundaries, think biblical region. So this is what the Bible says. Psalm 68 verse 31, Envoys will come out of Mitzrayim, Egypt, Ethiopia. Kush will quickly stretch out her hands to God. Wait, Egypt's going to send envoys to Jerusalem and Ethiopia Kush will stretch out our hands to God in worship, in humility? Isaiah 18.7, at that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh Tzva'ot from a people tall and smooth, even from a people feared far and wide, a powerful and oppressive nation whose land the rivers divide. That's the Nile River, right? To the place, the name Yahweh Tzva'ot, even Har Tzion, Mount Zion. It's amazing prophecy. the most fearful warlike people will come and worship Yahweh? Powerful oppressive people will humble themselves before the Jews? Not only that, the converted Gentiles will bring the Jews scattered and living among them to come with them to worship Yahweh in Yerushalayim. And Prophet Yeshayahu Isaiah portrays this as like a Thanksgiving offering to Yahweh. The Gentile nations will bring the Jews as a Thanksgiving offering and offer them to Yahweh? Let's take a look at Isaiah 66. Verse 20, there's a key phrase here and vocabulary that I want you to pay attention to because we're gonna go to the New Testament and see how does this all relate to what the New Testament says about what will happen. Isaiah 66, that's the last chapter of the book of Isaiah. Verse 20, let's read that. Then they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations. Now who is All the brothers, of course, that's Jews from all the nations. Why? Because they're scattered, right? As a grain offering to Yahweh. Notice, they will bring. They shall bring. Who are the they? They're the Gentiles. They're gonna bring whom? All your brothers, your fellow Jews. From where? From all the nations. Remember these words, this vocabulary. Keep it in your mind. As a grain offering to Yahweh on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels. These are different modes of transportation known to people back in the biblical times. So we have to use our imagination for the future. Land, water, sea, whatever. They're all going to come. To my holy mountain, Yerushalayim. Where? Yerushalayim always means Yerushalayim. Holy mountain means there's a piece of real estate in Israel, the capital city, there. Why are they gonna come there? Says Yahweh, just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of Yahweh. Oh. So the Gentile nations will carefully preciously preserve and protect the Jews and they will bring them as gifts and presents to the Lord in worship as they come to worship. With this understanding in mind let's go to Matthew 25 now. Matthew 25 beginning with verse 31 I want you to follow along. This passage has been misunderstood by so many Christians throughout the ages. It's because they could not connect the two together of the Old Testament prophecy regarding Israel and the Gentiles and their relationship when the Millennial Kingdom is inaugurated. Look at Matthew 25 verse 31. But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, look at Jesus' reference to Himself, and all the angels with Him, that's the supernatural entourage, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Look at what verse 31 says. Then He will sit on His glorious throne. Now what is He? He's been coronated. He's been installed. He is already King. He's now reigning. And now look at verse 32, and all the nations, you see that all the nations there? We're just studying about all the nations, what God says about all the nations. It says all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate them from one another as a shepherd separates sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left." And notice what Jesus refers to himself now because the Son of Man is sitting on the glorious throne therefore he's what? Verse 34, then the King will say, it's the same person, the King will say to those on the right, "'Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you.'" Who is he saying this to? among all the nations, those whom he had separated, those who are gathered to his right. Right? The biblical symbol of the favored side, the favored group. Okay. Come, you are blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you. Prepared for whom? For you. Who is he talking to? All the nations. Who are they? Gentiles. which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Since when? From the foundation of the world. This is God's sovereign, eternal decree and plan. This is according to His purposes and His will that He is working out. This will happen exactly like this in the future. Jesus is just even telling them what He's going to say to them when He sits on His glorious Davidic throne in the Millennial Kingdom. Now let's take a look at verse 35. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous, notice those who are on the right as a shepherd separates sheep and the goats. That's why this is this parable is often called the parable of the sheep and the goats. But these are the righteous people. It says, as a shepherd separates the sheep. And these are not just sheep. These are the righteous among the Gentile nations. Who are called righteous? Only believers are called righteous. So take a look at what Jesus says. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invited you in or naked or clothed you? And when do we see you sick in prison or come to you? Remember how many preachers, how many teachers, how many times we heard this applying to us in the church? This is why we have to do good works, we have to be kind to strangers. Now those are all true, we should be doing that, but that's not what this passage means as we clearly saw. It's an in time scenario. Look at verse 40. Then the king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, by the way, Jesus never calls unbelievers brothers. He calls them, these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Who is he speaking to? He's speaking to believing Gentiles whom he has separated and saying, the way you treated my brothers, my believing Jewish remnant. When? During the tribulation. During the tribulation. This is how the Gentiles come to faith in Christ during their tribulation. That's why they know who the Jewish believers are. That's why they stick their neck out for the Jewish believers. That's whom the king in the Millennial Kingdom as he sits on his Davidic throne, that's why I say to the extent you did it to the least of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me. Or you can read what the rest of the passage, what Jesus says to those on the left, the wicked. Of course he judges them, he separates them. So who goes into the Millennial Kingdom? These nations, these believing Gentiles who prove themselves to be true believers. And Jesus says, the kingdom has been prepared for you. You are the subjects of the kingdom. You are the inheritors of the millennial kingdom. This is for you. Of course, Israel will have a mediatory role in that kingdom, but he's not referring to the mediatory role of Israel. He's talking about the saved remnant out of the Gentile nations through the tribulation. Now look at the language of Tzvanya. My worshippers, my scattered ones. The Hebrew is literally the daughter of my scattered ones. As we see the judgment of God in Deuteronomy 4.27. Why were they scattered? God said it as early as the Torah. in a future prophetic way. It says, Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, that's the goyim, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh drives you. That's part of the punishment of the unbelieving Jews. And in Deuteronomy 28, verse 64, Yahweh says, moreover, Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. During World War II, the Japanese harbored a whole bunch of Jews. And we know that a whole bunch of Jews ended up in Russia and had to flee. There are a whole bunch of Jews in South America. Never mind Australia, New Zealand, and even as far as the islands. I met Jews in Cambodia. saw them in Taiwan. I haven't seen a Jew yet in the Philippines, but I'm sure if the Lord tarries and I live long, I probably would bump into one of them. They just seem to be everywhere. They're few in number, but they're scattered. But after God's judgments, the Gentiles will be converted along with Israel. This is what we saw in Yirmiyahu chapter 31 verse 34. How is that going to happen? It's going to happen through the tribulation. As God judges the nations, he's going to purge Israel through the same event. And this is what God did. As God judged the Egyptians, God brought faith and fear of Yahweh and brought them out. And notice the final phrase here. These scattered ones, my worshipers, my scattered ones will bring my offerings. That's exactly what the Old Testament teaches and the New Testament specifies. The Gentiles will be intimately involved in the salvific plan of God that he's going to work out which he purposed from the foundation of the world before he sprung the whole thing into existence. And we need to dwell and meditate on that. That we find our being and our relationship with God, and our own salvation, our unity, and our membership in the body of Christ, all in the sovereign, eternal purposes of God, which He flung into action, where He intimately has become involved in creation, even as He is completely separate from creation. He is transcendent, but is also imminent. He is judging the nations, but He's also saving some of them. He is purging Israel, He's preserving them. All for His glorious purposes. And in the end, they will all come and know Yahweh. They will call upon His name, they will know who He is, they will know His character, they will believe in Him. And they will worship Him. along with the Gentiles, shoulder to shoulder, in one unison, in unity of faith. How is God going to do it? He's going to do it through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, where He brought them all together in Him, brought peace, brought a right relationship, and brought salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. Right now the nation of Israel is secular. They're mostly unbelieving. The people who worship the God of the Old Testament are steeped in legalistic works righteousness. That's the way they are now, most of them. But God is preserving and saving a small remnant who call upon Yeshua, the Lord Jesus, as their Messiah. They have a very bold testimony among the people. The Israelites mostly reject them, but one by one, family by family, individual by individual, they're coming to faith in Jesus Christ as he's pouring out his spirit and saving them. As we look at the world, God is opening up more and more countries. and people are coming to know the Lord. Countries that used to be very hard, like the Muslim countries, like Japan, like Buddhist nations, Hindu nations, young people are hungry. They're asking the right questions. They're coming to know the Lord. Exciting things are happening. Now, in grand scheme of things, there are very few in number. But the Lord says that He's going to bring them into His fold, His flock that He's preserving. And yet, through the tribulation period, He's going to purge the entire world. And He's going to bring salvation. And they will worship God in Jerusalem. It will bring all the remnant of the Jewish people whom they protected and preserved. They will all come, they will all show up, and the Lord will judge them, and He will bless them, reward them. This is the message of the prophets. Malachi 1, verse 11, For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, And in every place incense is going to be presented to my name, as well as grain offering that is clean. For my name will be great among the nations, says Yahweh Tzva'ot. And Amen and Amen. It is so. Let's pray. Father, thank you for allowing your great name to be known among the remnant. We who are nobodies and nothings in this world have been so privileged to come to know you through Jesus Christ our Lord whom you gave out of your abundant love towards sinners like us. Father we are so grateful and thankful for our belongingness to you and we also sense a great responsibility to tell others about your awesome name, your character. For you will be great among the nations. But right now, so many people in the nations, they reject you, they disregard you. Their lips are unclean as they worship idols. And so Lord, give us a holy passion to proclaim Christ Help us to live in a way that is pure, that exemplifies Christ's likeness, and so that we will proclaim you among the nations. Thank you for making us a privileged people. Teach us to walk humbly and circumspectively. Help us to continue to trust in your timing and your faithfulness as we grow in patience and endurance in hope And we know that Israel's hope is our hope. It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom come. So Lord, we pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come. In His precious name, Amen.