Now open your Bibles with me
to the book of Ezekiel chapter 38. Ezekiel chapter 38. Now really what I'm going to
preach tonight involves both chapters 38 and chapter 39. But I don't know how far I'll
get into it as time allows us, but I want to cover quite a bit
of ground here the title of the message tonight is actually taken
from the book of 1st John chapter 3 because I believe this verse
in verse 13 of 1st John 3 summarizes what is being prophesied by Ezekiel
in both Ezekiel 38 and Ezekiel 39 and the title of the message
is marvel not if the world hate you In verse 13 of 1 John 3,
I'll just read it to you. That's what the Apostle John
was inspired to write to the church. He says, marvel not my
brethren if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from
death unto life, that's the new birth, because we love the brethren. That love is the loyalty that
we have to one another in the gospel, in the truth of Jesus
Christ. And it says, he that loveth not
his brother abideth in death. So don't marvel, don't be amazed
if the world hate you. Now, back in Ezekiel chapter
38, the prophet Ezekiel, as you know in this section of scripture,
this portion of the word, is prophesying of a great and glorious
hope, the hope of future salvation and a great change. ahead in
the future in which the Lord will gather or regather, as it
were, His redeemed ones, the ones whom He redeems. And the
redemption, as you know, comes by the future promise of Christ. In Ezekiel's day, he looked forward.
The whole Old Testament, as we know, is a prophecy of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the seed of woman, the God-man who would who would
come and obey the law as the surety of his people, our substitute,
and that by his death on the cross he would redeem us, redeemed
how we love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And
so Ezekiel speaks of that in prophecy, how God will regather
his redeemed ones and give them spiritual eternal life. I love
the language of these prophecies of the new covenant of the new
birth. I'll give you a new heart, he
said. I'll put a new spirit within you. I'll cause you to walk in
my statutes. I'll be your God. You'll be my
people. That is beautiful language of
a union with Christ and acceptance before God in him. And this is
all according to the terms of the new covenant. The covenant
of grace, not works. This is not legalism. This is not law covenant. This
is grace that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ. And it's fulfilled in and by
Him alone. Christ alone. We say that. Do we really believe it? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our all. And He is in all. And that's truth, isn't it? That's
a reality for God's people. Don't you believe that? That's
not just something we say or sing. All conditioned on the
coming of the good shepherd and his work of redemption. And Ezekiel,
in these verses, I believe he's prophesying of our day, the day
of the new covenant, the day we're living in now. Now, not
everybody agrees with that. And I believe if you're really
in doubt about that, Or if you're confused about it,
and so many people are. Or if you want to test me, which
I urge you to do. I don't mind. I know a preacher
asked a couple people one time, he says, am I on trial? And they
told him, he said, well, every time you get behind a pulpit.
And that's the truth. I don't mind that, though. You
test me by the word of God. Don't test me by what grandpa
and grandma say. Test me by the word of God, though,
OK? And if you want to test these words, then do it. But you've
got to do some study now. It's going to take some time.
It's not an easy task. And you study the history of
people's different ideas about these things. And if you keep
to what I believe is the only valid way to learn and glean
and interpret the scriptures, which is the scripture leaning
upon scripture and not interpreting by the newscast or popular thought
or looking at circumstances I think you'll find this is true that
Ezekiel's prophesying of the new covenant the new covenant
day in which we live the day in which Christ has already come
and already done his great work the church has been established
the new covenant church that is has been established and it's
going throughout this world preaching the gospel now there are times
when There seems to be great outpourings of the Spirit in
bringing many people to Christ. We saw that in the book of Acts
at the inauguration and the establishment of the church when Peter preached
at Pentecost and so many were converted to Christ by the power
of the Spirit. And they came to a saving knowledge
of Christ. We see it in other times in history
that we can argue at that point whether or not the truth was
really preached. You know a lot of times when you see masses
of people coming to a religious profession you have to wonder
are they hearing the truth or are they just having an emotional
experience and you know I don't want to be a skeptic but you
have to be you have to be today you have to be discerning because
there's so much deception the scripture teaches that Christ
taught his disciples that as the new covenant age progressed
on into its future And the closer that we get to his second coming,
he said that there's going to be more and more deception in
the world. Paul said there's going to be
a great falling away, which literally means an apostasy. And an apostasy
means that which was at one time in its beginning, the truth will
fall away from the truth. And yet when they fall away from
the truth, they try to keep little morsels of the truth. And that's
Satan's deception. Remember Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
11, he said don't marvel not that Satan's ministers transform
themselves into ministers of light. So we have to be careful.
We have to be on our guard. We can't go to sleep on this
thing. And we can't be gullible. We
can't just say, well, everybody's a Christian. That's so. Because the scripture won't allow
us to do that. And I know in the eyes of some people that's
being negative or divisive or mean or unloving, but it's just
not true. We've got to go by the word of
God. That's the only standard, the only rule that we've got.
So I believe Ezekiel's prophesying of our day. We're living in the
day he's talking about. Now there are things yet to come.
I'm not saying that everything's been fulfilled that he prophesies
of. There are things yet to come.
There are times that we'll have to face, maybe in our lifetime,
maybe not. I don't know. But we're living
in an age of the new covenant. We're living in an age of apostasy. We're in a great warfare. And
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is under the rule
of Jesus himself, Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Lord of glory,
that's now in place. And we who know Christ, we are
the people of God. We're the people of God. We have,
now listen to him, we have a spiritual connection with Abraham. And
some of us have no physical connection at all to Abraham, but we still
have a spiritual connection to Abraham. Abraham's the root,
you remember that's spoken of in Romans 11? Well, we who are
Gentile believers, we have a spiritual connection with that root. We
were graft in. And the scripture calls us the
people of God. It calls us the children of God.
It calls us the children of the promise because we're under the
redemptive work submitted to the righteousness of Jesus Christ
and we're under his headship and therefore we're, as Galatians
chapter 3 says, we're the true children of Abraham in that sense.
And we're connected with Abraham in this sense. Abraham looked
to Christ. Christ was Abraham's salvation.
Well, He's my salvation. And if you know Him, He's your
salvation. So that connection's there. And
He said it in Ezekiel 36. He said it in Jeremiah 31. You
shall be my people and I'll be your God. And that's a marriage
covenant. That's the covenant of grace. Christ is the husband
and we are His bride. And He bought us lock, stock
and barrel with the price of His blood. And He gave us His
righteous robe upon which we stand before God justified. And
therefore we are married to Him. Now we find in Ezekiel 36 and
37 that Israel is brought back into their land and restored.
He spoke of a regathering. Remember that? Ezekiel 36, I
will bring you back. Remember, that's that regathering
based on redemption that leads to regeneration. And you can't
separate those three. And he talked about cities that
had been ruined, but now they're rebuilt. He talked about cities
that had been left desolate, but now they're re-inhabited.
He talked about a desolate land which is now fruitful. He even
said in Ezekiel 36, It's as fruitful and lush as the Garden of Eden
before the fall. Well, where is that? What is
that speaking of? Now, you say, well, that's got
to be talking about that physical real estate over there in Palestine.
Well, if that's what it's talking about, you and I'd have to agree
that it hadn't happened yet. It hasn't happened yet. But from
what I see as I read these scriptures, Everything that he's talking
about is connected with something that you can't get away from
if you're true to the Scripture. And that is all connected with
the coming of Christ. Now some people say the second
coming. But how could it be when he's talking about redemption?
When he comes the second time, he's not coming to redeem us.
He's already redeemed us by the blood of the cross. He's coming
to claim us. He's coming to gather us up.
But redemption is by the blood of Jesus Christ. And when He
comes the second time, He's not coming to regenerate us. Because
if you're not regenerated, born again by the Spirit at that time,
you never will be. Am I right? What did He say? I'll give you
a new heart. I'll put my Spirit within you. That's regeneration. Christ told Nicodemus, you must
be born again. John 1, as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, which
were born not of the will of the flesh, not of blood, nor
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. That's
the new birth. And as I read these scriptures,
all that's connected here. So I don't see how you can project
that into his second coming. He's talking about the new covenant. He's talking about the people
of God, the true Israel, the remnant That comes, yeah, and
that doesn't exclude the Jewish people. Now listen to me now,
don't let anybody argue with you against this, with this,
sorry Moa, you're just excluding the Jews. Oh no, no. It doesn't
exclude any Jew or any Gentile who comes to Christ begging for
mercy. And in the Jewish, the Jewish
believers, the Jewish ones who come to Him, what are they called
in Romans 11? The remnant according to the election of grace. And what are the Gentiles? They
are the ones who were not under the old covenant, never have
been, but the ones who are brought in and grafted onto the olive
tree. And what is that olive tree?
That's the kingdom of God in Christ. So think about that. I know, that's a lot to think
about. But you know, it's all right here. in the scriptures
this covenant language this is marriage covenant language that's
what it is and so here we find in the prophecy he speaks of
Israel being brought back being being fruitful like the garden
of Eden dwelling in peace and safety that's what he says they're
not he's not talking about Israel under a foreign government but
he's talking about Israel it's in peace and safety but here's
something that's insignificant about this there's no walls there's
no gates you wanna know why? because christ
is our wall christ is our gate and we're in peace with him he's
made peace by the blood of his cross and he's given us plenty
but look what happens after he gives this prophecy of this glorious
future. Wrapped up, remember back here
in chapter 37, in David my servant, verse 24, that's Christ. An everlasting
covenant, that's the covenant of grace. Verse 27, my tabernacle
also shall be with them. That's talking about Christ,
my friend. That's Christ. He's the tabernacle.
He's the dwelling place of God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead body. So what does that mean to me?
Well, you're complete in Him. You're righteous in Him. You're
forgiven in Him. You're secure in Him. That's
what it means. So then after that, here's what
happens in chapter 38 and 39. It's kind of like that old country
song. All right. You're safe. You're
secure. You're fruitful. But I never
promised you a rose garden. It's going to be tough. because
you got enemies and you're going to be attacked. That's what chapter
38 and 39 is about. You're going to be attacked.
It is said that the church in the world has three great enemies.
And you could say this about a Christian individual. We have
Satan as our enemy, Satan the accuser. And he is allowed by
God to accuse and to attack. He, the book of Revelation, in
connection with chapters 38 and 39, is going to be loosed, which
I believe he's already been loosed, but we could argue against, you
know, we could argue that point. I'm not going to get into that
tonight. He's been loosed to deceive the world. Christ said
Satan is sowing his tares. You know what his tares are?
That's false churches raised up under false gospels. That's
what that is. That's Satan's tares. And that's
why he tells his church, he says, now you have no mandate from
me to go out here and try to physically overcome them. You
see, anytime that blood has been shed or physical war has been
declared, in the name of Christianity, you can rest assured it is, was
false Christianity. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. Our battlefield is not the plains of Megiddo or
anything like that. Our battlefield is the heart
and the mind, isn't it? And our sword is not a piece
of steel or a shotgun. Our sword is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And that's how we fight. That's
how we spread this message all through the world. That's why
we pray, Lord, Lord, seek thy sheep. So Satan is our enemy. Now his
accusations don't stick because who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Christ took our charges. That's
imputed sin. That's what that is. Our debt
laid to his charge. He paid the debt. And we have
his righteousness. That's the armor we bear. The
righteous robe that he made. The flesh is our enemy. We're
at a war with ourselves, aren't we? Every day. Our thoughts,
our attitudes, our motives. Dealing with each other. I mean,
it's just a mess, isn't it? Think about what it would be
if we didn't have Christ and the grace of God. Think about
what it would be then. You think it's tough now. It
is, isn't it? The warfare of the flesh and
the spear. And then here's what Ezekiel 38 and 39 talks about. We're in a warfare with the whole
world. And it comes under the emblem
of a person that is titled Gog. G-O-G, not God, but Gog. G-O-G. You've heard that name.
Gog and Magog. Usually when you're studying
Gog and Magog, you're in Revelation 20. We'll go there in just a
moment. But Ezekiel was the first to prophesy of Gog, not and Magog. Look at it, verse 1 of chapter
38. The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
set thy face against Gog. Gog. If you have any scriptural
references in your Bible, it probably throws you forward to
Revelation 28. It has no backward reference
because there is none, first time. Now what that means is
this. We really have no scriptural
testimony that we can turn to, to specifically identify who
this Gog is. you know a lot of times you can
go back in scripture and you can look and you can see how
you only thing we've got is the word itself hold on to that thought
but it says against Gog and it says the land of Magog the land
where Gog dwells and then it calls him the chief prince of
Meshach and Tubal and prophesy against him now in Genesis chapter
10 you do have a list of nations and some of these are listed
But we don't have any reference for Gog. We do have the name
Magog that comes up. But anyway, and there was a man
and this land was apparently named after him. Is it a physical
land? Well, let's go on before we get into that. Here's Gog,
the land of Magog. Verse three, he says, and say,
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I'm against thee, O Gog, Behold,
I'm against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal."
Now, you've probably read in modern attempts to try to identify
Gog that most people say that Gog is Russia. And the reason
they say that, and there are some translations, I think, if
I'm not mistaken, if anybody's got a new American standard,
down there in verse 2, It says, Son of man, set thy face against
Gog, the land of Magog. And then instead of the chief
prince of Meshach, it says Rosh, R-O-S-H. And so people determine,
well, that means Russia. Well, I don't know how they get
that. The Hebrew name Rosh means chief. That's what it means.
And that's why it's translated in the King James Version, the
chief prince of Meshach. But go on, look at verse four. Now this is the Lord speaking
to the people through Ezekiel. And he says, I'll turn thee back
and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth and
all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all
sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers, shields,
all of them handling swords. And then he mentions nations
all around, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, with them. all them with
shield and helmet, Gomer, that's another nation there, and all
his bands, the house of Togarmah, the north quarters, and all his
bands, and many people with thee. Now, what you've got here is
a listing of faraway nations that span north, south, east,
and west. That's what you have. And so
he says, verse 7, be thou prepared and prepare for thyself thou
and all thy company that are assembled unto thee and be thou
a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be
visited in the latter years. Thou shalt come into the land
that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of
many people against the mountains of Israel. You're going to come
against Israel. That's what he's saying. Which
have always been ways, but it is brought forth out of the nations
of the world. and they shall dwell safely all
of them. What he's simply saying there
is that the world is going to come against Israel who is dwelling
safely. Look at verse 9, thou shalt ascend
and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud. You notice that
all this, you know, when God says I'm going to put a hook
in your jaw, it's not to turn them away, it's to bring them
in to attack. Isn't that interesting? And he says, like a cloud to
cover the land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with
thee, thus saith the Lord God, it shall also come to pass that
at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou
shalt think an evil thought. You're going to think evil thoughts. Over in your concordance it says,
you're going to conceive a mischievous purpose. That's sin. And he says in verse
11, And thou shalt say, now here's their evil thoughts. I will go
up to the land of unwalled villages. Now he's talking about Israel,
no walls. I will go to them that are at
rest. Now rest means sitting confidently. That dwell safely, you see that
word means confidently. All of them dwelling without
walls. and having neither bars nor gates.
Physical defenses are not there. But they're safe. They're secure. They're resting, and here's their
evil thoughts, to take a spool, to take a prey, to turn thine
hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited and upon
the people that are gathered out of the nations which have
gotten cattle and goods that dwell in the midst of the land.
Now you can read more on that. He says, I'm going to put a hook-gog
in the land of Magog and all these other nations that are
in confederacy with you, I'm going to put a hook in your jaws
and I'm going to bring you against Israel. And you can see why some people
project that off into some later millennium. Well, he says all
this is going to happen in the day when Israel is dwelling safely,
verse 14. He says, you're going to come
up against Israel, verse 16. I'm going to bring you against
my land, he says. And he says in verse 16, I'm
going to do it that the heathen may know me when I shall be sanctified
in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. I'm going to use you for
my glory. It's what he says. Verse 17,
thus saith the Lord God, art thou he of whom I've spoken in
old time by my servants, the prophets of Israel? You can think
about that. We could go to a lot of scripture,
we don't have time to go to all of it, but these issues of the
world attacking the people of God have been prophesied for
years and will continue to be so. But this Gog, we don't know
any historical figure called Gog. There was, about 200 years
before Christ, a Greek Old Testament. The Old Testament translated
into Greek. And it used this word Gog as
a translation of the name Agag. You remember Agag? He was the
king of the Amalekites. He was the one that King Saul
was supposed to go down and slay, but Saul didn't do it. But there's
nothing in the scripture that indicates that there's anything
like that. There's also an Og, you remember
in the Bible, there's an Og, the king of Bashan. But here's
what, the only thing that I can determine from the scripture,
and I believe I have so much gospel commentary to back me
up on this, Gog instead of a proper name is like a title. It's a
term for a man who stood as a representative of a god, an idol. who set himself up as God. And like I said, Magog is the
land. But we could go on and on about that. Here's the point. What Ezekiel's prophesying of
is that in the New Covenant age, when all things have been fulfilled
in the redemptive work of Christ, and when God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile, have been brought
to be at rest in Christ, and to dwell safely in Christ, and
to be protected by Christ, not with physical walls, not with
physical gates, the world is going to be on its attack against
you. You're safe, you're secure in
Christ, but that doesn't stop the world from attacking. And
when this speaks of this, it talks about nations from all
directions, north, south, east, west, not just nearby nations
like it had in Ezekiel 25. And this time frame, it speaks
of the latter days. In verse 16, he mentions the
latter days. That this will take place in
the latter days. And in prophecy, the latter days
are the new covenant days. The days of Christ. And so this
speaks of the days of the Messiah. And you think about this. Here
Gog is going to attack. God is going to magnify himself.
Look over at verse 23 of chapter 38. He says, thus will I magnify
myself and sanctify myself. And I will be known in the eyes
of many nations and they shall know that I'm the Lord. What does that indicate to you?
It indicates to you that whatever happens, whatever happens here
in this massive world attack upon the church of the living
God, two things, number one, God is going to be glorified.
Number two, it's going to ultimately be good for his people. Amazing, isn't it? Well, in chapter 39, what does
that speak of? It simply tells you this, Gog
and his confederacy, they're not going to win. they're going
to be defeated look at verse one of chapter thirty nine therefore
thou son of man prophesy against Gog and say thus saith the Lord
God behold I'm against thee O Gog the chief prince of Meshech and
Tubal I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee
now in your concordance there's a better translation in most
of them where it says I'm going to strike you with six plagues and what he's talking about six
being the number of sin is simply this The punishment's gonna fit
the crime. God is just. And he says, I'll
turn you back and leave but the sixth part of thee and will cause
thee to come up from the north parts and will bring thee upon
the mountains of Israel. Incidentally, when we talk about
the world against the church, against the truth, there's no
argument that I'm sure Russia or any other heathen nation will
be a big part of that. I mean, that's no argument. Incidentally, I didn't mention
this, but you know in the Koran, you know what the Koran is, don't
you? That's the Muslim scriptures, the Islam scriptures. Do you
know they have a story of Gog from the land of Magog attacking
them? And you know who they blame the
attack mostly on? Christians. They say Christians
are Gog. Well, we know that's silly. We
know that's heresy. But that gives you an idea how
people go all over the map on this thing. Well, what does the
word of God say? He says in verse 3 of 39, he
says, I'll smite thy bow out of thy left hand and will cause
thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon
the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands and the people
that is with thee, I will give thee unto the ravenous birds
of every sort and to the beast of the field to be devoured.
You're going to be defeated. You're going to be, you're going
to be carrying for, for the birds. Why? Look at verse 7. So will I make my holy name known
in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute
my holy name anymore. So whoever he's talking about
there, they're people of the Lord. They're not going to pollute
his holy name. They're not going to deny Christ. They're going
to be under the headship of Christ. They're resting in Christ. They're
pleading Christ, you see. If you don't plead Christ, you're
profaning God's holy name. Did you know that? There's none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. To fail to rest in Christ,
to believe in Christ, to plead Him, to follow Him is to profane
the name of God. And he says they will not pollute
my holy name anymore. They did before. That's why they
were in Babylon in captivity. But they're not going to do it
now. You know why? I'll give you a new heart. I'll
put my spirit within you. I'll cause you to walk in my
statutes. I'll be your God and you'll be
my people. That's why. Grace. And he says, And the heathen
shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. This
is going to be a testimony to the whole world. Especially when
it comes to the end. Look at verse 11. And it shall
come to pass in that day that I will give unto Gog a place
there of graves in Israel. They wanted Israel. He said,
I'm going to bury them there. the valley of the passengers
on the east of the sea, those who pass through, and it shall
stop the noses of the passengers, the stench of their death will
be so noticeable that it'll stop them. And he says, they bury Gog and
all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Haman Gog,
multitude of God, Gog rather, dead man's world, death valley,
you might say. Now you can read the rest of
this, but look at verse 21 of chapter 39. He said, I will set
my glory among the heathen and all the heathen shall see my
judgment that I've executed and my hand that I have laid upon
them so that the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord
their God from that day and forward. Now that knowledge there is the
knowledge of faith in Christ. That's that intimate knowledge.
And look at verse 25, here's how he concludes it. Now this
is the victory of Christ over the world. He says, therefore
thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity
of Jacob. He's gonna set the captives free.
Have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous
for my holy name. And after that they have borne
their shame, all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed
against me when they dwelt safely in their land. and none made
them afraid." In other words, by nature, we won't repent. When
I have brought them again from the people and gathered them
out of their enemies' lands and am sanctified in them in the
sight of many nations, then shall they know that I am the Lord
their God. Now listen to this. They'll know that I'm the Lord
their God. That's the language of the covenant there. Which
caused them to be led into captivity among the heathens. This is the
work of God's justice. but I've gathered them into unto
their own land and listen listen to this and have left none of
them anymore there all Israel shall be saved in the Lord not
one will be missing there'll be no vacancies here this is
the elect of God and he says neither will I hide my face anymore
from them for I poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel
that's regeneration and conversion saith the Lord God God's going to be defeated. The
world will come against you. Now, you remember over there
what Brother Terry read, John 15. What did Christ tell his
disciples? If the world hates you, verse
18, you know that it hated me before it hated you. What did
John say to the churches, 1 John 3? Marvel not, my brethren, if
the world hates you. You realize there in 1 John 3
when he said, marvel not if the world hates you, the Old Testament
example he used to illustrate that hatred of the world for
the people of God, Cain and Abel. You see, that's the problem.
You know why the world hates our Lord and why the world hates
us? It's because they hate our message. Christ said in John 3, 19, this
is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men
love darkness rather than light, hated the light because their
deeds are evil. Look at Revelation 20 and I'll
close with this. This speaks of the loosing of
Satan Satan who was bound a thousand years, cast into the bottomless
pit, and how he is loosed, loosed
out of his prison. Verse 7, when the thousand years
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. I believe
that's talking about the end of the church age, but I won't
go into all that tonight. Verse 8, he shall go out to deceive
the nations, which are in the fourth quarters of the earth,
north, south, east, west. And then he says Gog and Magog.
Now some people interpret that in Revelation as being two different
people, Gog and one Magog, but I believe from Ezekiel 38 we
can determine this is Gog, and that's a title, in the land of Magog, that's
where they dwell, and it's indicative of what the Bible calls earth
dwellers. Now, here's the thing, you know,
we all live here on this earth, but what did Christ tell his
disciples? He said, we're in the world, but we're not what?
We're not of the world. We're not earth dwellers because
our citizenship is where? In heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem. You see what I'm saying? That's
our land. That's the land that Abraham
was looking for. It's not real estate here on this earth. It's
a heavenly existence. We're citizens of the kingdom
of God. Christ said, my kingdom is not of this world. And it's
a spiritual nation. But now Gog in the land of Magog,
which is representative of all the enemies of Christ, all the
enemies of the truth, all the enemies of the church, they're
earth dwellers. They're tied to this earth. This
earth is their home. It's their love. It's their existence. It's all about now, and what's
right here. And so you have false works religion,
materialism, immorality coming out of all that because it's
get all you can get, be all you can be. And I'm not trying to
diss the army there. I'm talking about our fallen
Adam. And so he says, out of the fourth quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together in battle, The number
of whom is as the sand of the sea. And it says, they went up
on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints
about. Now, who are the saints? Well,
that's the redeemed of the Lord. That's God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. And the beloved city, that's our dwelling place, that's the
heavenly Jerusalem. And fire came down from God out
of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them
was cast. into the lake of fire and brimstone. You see that?
Gog is going to be defeated. Well, I hope that was helpful
to your understanding of those passages. There's a lot more
detail, I know, and I just can't do it in one setting, but come
on up. I hope that this gives you some things to think about
anyway. All right. Good hymn after this message.
Take the world, but give me Jesus. Hymn number 385. 385.